Man if they pass through an even and an indifferent life towards the issues of an ordinary and necessary course they are little and within command but if they pass upon an end or aim of difficulty or ambition they duplicate and grow to a 〈◊〉 and we have seen the even and temperate lives of indifferent persons continue in many degrees of Innocence but the Temptation of busie designs is too great even for the best of dispositions 7. But these Temptations are crasse and material and soon discernible it will require some greater observation to arm against such as are more spiritual and immaterial For he hath Apples to cousen Children and Gold for Men the Kingdoms of the World for the Ambition of Princes and the Vanities of the World for the Intemperate he hath Discourses and fair-spoken Principles to abuse the pretenders to Reason and he hath common Prejudices for the more vulgar understandings Amongst these I chuse to consider such as are by way of Principle or Proposition 8. The first great Principle of Temptation I shall note is a general mistake which excuses very many of our crimes upon pretence of Infirmity calling all those sins to which by natural disposition we are inclined though by carelesness and evil customs they are heightned to a habit by the name of Sins of infirmity to which men suppose they have reason and title to pretend If when they have committed a crime their Conscience checks them and they are troubled and during the interval and abatement of the heats of desire resolve against it and commit it readily at the next opportunity then they cry out against the weakness of their Nature and think as long as this body of death is about them it must be thus and that this condition may stand with the state of Grace And then the Sins shall return periodically like the revolutions of a Quartan Ague well and ill for ever till Death surprizes the mistaker This is a Patron of sins and makes the Temptation prevalent by an authentick instrument and they pretend the words of S. Paul For the good that I would that I do not but the evil that I would not that I do For there is a law in my members 〈◊〉 against the law of my mind bringing me into captivity to the law of Sin And thus the 〈◊〉 of Sin is mistaken for a state of Grace and the imperfections of the Law are miscalled the affections and necessities of Nature that they might seem to be incurable and the persons apt for an excuse therefore because for Nature there is no absolute cure But that these words of S. Paul may not become a 〈◊〉 of death and instruments of a temptation to us it is observable that the Apostle by a siction of person as is usual with him speaks of himself not as in the state of Regeneration under the Gospel but under the 〈◊〉 obscurities insufficiencies and imperfections of the Law which indeed he there contends to have been a Rule good and holy apt to remonstrate our misery because by its prohibitions and limits given to natural desires it made actions before indifferent now to be sins it added many curses to the breakers of it and by an 〈◊〉 of contrariety it made us more desirous of what was now unlawful but it was a Covenant in which our Nature was restrained but not helped it was provoked but not sweetly assisted our Understandings were instructed but our Wills not sanctified and there were no suppletories of Repentance every greater sin was like the fall of an Angel irreparable by any mystery or express recorded or enjoyned Now of a man under this Govenant he describes the condition to be such that he understands his Duty but by the infirmities of Nature he is certain to fall and by the helps of the Law not strengthened against it nor restored after it and therefore he calls himself under that notion a miserable man sold under sin not doing according to the rules of the Law or the dictates of his Reason but by the unaltered misery of his Nature certain to prevaricate But the person described here is not S. Paul is not any justified person not so much as a Christian but one who is under a state of direct opposition to the state of Grace as will manifestly appear if we observe the antithesis from S. Paul's own characters For the Man here named is such as in whom sin wrought all concupiscence in whom sin lived and slew him so that he was dead in trespasses and sins and although he did delight in the Law after his inwardman that is his understanding had intellectual complacencies and satisfactions which afterwards he calls serving the Law of God with his mind that is in the first dispositions and preparations of his spirit yet he could act nothing for the law in his members did inslave him and brought him into captivity to the law of sin so that this person was full of actual and effective lusts he was a slave to sin and dead in trespasses But the state of a regenerate person is such as to have 〈◊〉 the flesh with the affections and lusts in whom sin did not reign not only in the mind but even also not in the mortal body over whom sin had no dominion in whom the old man was crucified and the body of sin was destroyed and sin not at all served And to make the antithesis yet clearer in the very beginning of the next Chapter the Apostle saith that the spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made him free from the law of sin and death under which law he complained immediately before he was sold and killed to shew the person was not the same in these so different and contradictory representments No man in the state of Grace can say The evil that I would not that I do if by evil he means any evil that is habitual or in its own nature deadly 9. So that now let no man pretend an inevitable necessity to sin for if ever it comes to a custom or to a great violation though but in a single act it is a condition of Carnality not of spiritual life and those are not the infirmities of Nature but the weaknesses of Grace that make us sin so frequently which the Apostle truly affirms to the same purpose The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot or that ye do not do the things that ye would This disability proceeds from the strength of the flesh and weakness of the spirit For he adds But if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law saying plainly that the state of such a combate and disability of doing good is a state of a man under the Law or in the flesh which he accounts all one but every man that is sanctified
under the Gospel is led by the Spirit and walks in the Spirit and brings forth the fruits of the Spirit It is not our excuse but the aggravation of our sin that we fall again in despite of so many resolutions to the contrary And let us not flatter our selves into a confidence of sin by supposing the state of Grace can stand with the Custom of any sin for it is the state either of an animalis homo as the Apostle calls him that is a man in pure naturals without the clarity of divine Revelations who cannot perceive or understand the things of God or else of the carnal man that is a person who though in his mind he is convinced yet he is not yet freed from the dominion of sin but only hath his eyes opened but not his bonds loosed For by the perpetual analogy and frequent expresses in Scripture the spiritual person or the man redeemed by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is free from the Law and the Dominion and the Kingdom and the Power of all sin For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace 10. But sins of Infirmity in true sence of Scripture signifie nothing but the sins of an unholy and an unsanctified nature when they are taken for actions done against the strength of resolution out of the strength of natural appetite and violence of desire and therefore in Scripture the state of Sin and the state of Infirmity is all one For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly saith the Apostle the condition in which we were when Christ became a sacrifice for us was certainly a condition of sin and enmity with God and yet this he calls a being without strength or in a state of weakness and infirmity which we who believe all our strength to be derived from Christ's death and the assistance of the holy Spirit the fruit of his Ascension may soon apprehend to be the true meaning of the word And in this sence is that saying of our Blessed Saviour The whole have no need of a Physician but they that are weak for therefore Christ came into the world to save sinners those are the persons of Christ's Infirmary whose restitution and reduction to a state of life and health was his great design So that whoever sin habitually that is constantly periodically at the revolution of a temptation or frequently or easily are persons who still remain in the state of sin and death and their intervals of Piety are but preparations to a state of Grace which they may then be when they are not used to countenance or excuse the sin or to flatter the person But if the intermediate resolutions of emendation though they never run beyond the next assault of passion or desire be taken for a state of Grace blended with infirmities of Nature they become destructive of all those purposes through our mistake which they might have promoted if they had been rightly understood observed and cherished Sometimes indeed the greatness of a Temptation may become an instrument to excuse some degrees of the sin and make the man pitiable whose ruine seems almost certain because of the greatness and violence of the enemy meeting with a natural aptness but then the question will be whither and to what actions that strong Temptation carries him whether to a work of a mortal nature or only to a small irregularity that is whether to death or to a wound for whatever the principle be if the effect be death the man's case was therefore to be pitied because his ruine was the more inevitable not so pitied as to excuse him from the state of death For let the Temptation be never so strong every Christian man hath assistances sufficient to support him so as that without his own yielding no Temptation is stronger than that grace which God offers him for if it were it were not so much as a sin of infirmity it were no sin at all This therefore must be certain to us When the violence of our Passions or desires overcomes our resolutions and fairer purposes against the dictate of our Reason that indeed is a state of Infirmity but it is also of sin and death a state of Immortification because the offices of Grace are to crucifie the Old man that is our former aud impurer conversation to subdue the petulancy of our Passions to reduce them to reason and to restore Empire and dominion to the superiour Faculties So that this condition in proper speaking is not so good as the Infirmity of Grace but it is no Grace at all for whoever are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts those other imperfect ineffective resolutions are but the first approaches of the Kingdom of Christ nothing but the clarities of lightning dark as 〈◊〉 as light and they therefore cannot be excuses to us because the contrary weaknesses as we call them do not make the sin involuntary but chosen and pursued and in true speaking is the strength of the Lust not the infirmity of a state of Grace 11. But yet there is a condition of Grace which is a state of little and imperfect ones such as are called in Scripture Smoaking flax and bruised reeds which is a state of the first dawning of the Sun of Righteousness when the lights of Grace new rise upon our eyes and then indeed they are weak and have a more dangerous neighbourhood of Temptations and desires but they are not subdued by them they sin not by direct election their actions criminal are but like the slime of Nilus leaving rats half formed they sin but seldom and when they do it is in small instances and then also by surprise by inadvertency and then also they interrupt their own acts and lessen them perpetually and never do an act of sinfulness but the principle is such as makes it to be involuntary in many degrees For when the Understanding is clear and the dictate of Reason undisturbed and determinate whatsoever then produces an irregular action excuses not because the action is not made the less voluntary by it for the action is not made involuntary from any other principle but from some defect of Understanding either in act or habit or faculty For where there is no such defect there is a full deliberation according to the capacity of the man and then the act of election that follows is clear and full and is that proper disposition which makes him truly capable of punishment or reward respectively Now although in the first beginnings of Grace there is not a direct Ignorance to excuse totally yet because a sudden surprise or an inadvertency is not always in our power to prevent these things do lessen the election and freedom of the action and then because they are but seldom and never proceed to any length of time or any great instances of
Ascension of JESUS p. 419. Considerations upon the Accidents happening in the interval after the Death of the Holy JESUS until his Resurrection p. 423. THE PREFACE 1. CHRISTIAN Religion hath so many exterior advantages to its Reputation and Advancement from the Author and from the Ministers from the fountain of its Origination and the chanels of Conveyance GOD being the Author the Word incarnate being the great Doctor and Preacher of it his Life and Death being its Consignation the Holy Spirit being the great Argument and demonstration of it and the Apostles the Organs and Conduits of its dissemination that it were glorious beyond all opposition and disparagement though we should not consider the Excellency of its Matter and the Certainty of its Probation and the Efficacy of its Power and the Perfection and rare accomplishment of its Design But I consider that Christianity is therefore very little understood because it is reproached upon that pretence which its very being and design does infinitely confute It is esteemed to be a Religion contrary in its Principles or in its Precepts to that wisdom whereby the World is governed and Common-wealths increase and Greatness is acquired and Kings go to war and our ends of Interest are served and promoted and that it is an Institution so wholly in order to another World that it does not at all communicate with this neither in its End nor in its Discourses neither in the Policy nor in the Philosophy and therefore as the Doctrine of the Cross was entertained at first in scorn by the Greeks in offence and indignation by the Jews so is the whole Systeme and collective Body of Christian Philosophy esteemed imprudent by the Politicks of the world and flat and irrational by some men of excellent wit and submile discourse who because the permissions and dictates of natural true and essential Reason are at no hand to be contradicted by any superinduced Discipline think that whatsoever seems contrary to their Reason is also violent to our Nature and offers indeed a good to us but by ways unnatural and unreasonable And I think they are very great strangers to the present affairs and perswasions of the World who know not that Christianity is very much undervalued upon this principle men insensibly becoming unchristian because they are perswaded that much of the Greatness of the World is contradicted by the Religion But certainly no mistake can be greater For the Holy Jesus by his Doctrine did instruct the Understandings of men made their Appetites more obedient their Reason better principled and argumentative with less deception their Wills apter for noble choices their Governments more prudent their present Felicities greater their hopes more excellent and that duration which was intended to them by their Creator he made manifest to be a state of glory and all this was to be done and obtained respectively by the ways of Reason and Nature such as God gave to Man then when at first he designed him to a noble and an immortal condition the Christian Law being for the substance of it nothing but the restitution and perfection of the Law of Nature And this I shall represent in all the parts of its natural progression and I intend it not only as a Preface to the following Books but for an Introduction and Invitation to the whole Religion 2. For God when he made the first emanations of his eternal Being and created Man as the End of all his productions here below designed him to an End such as himself was pleased to chuse for him and gave him abilities proportionable to attain that End God gave Man a reasonable and an intelligent nature And to this noble Nature he designed as noble an End he intended Man should live well and happily in proportion to his appetites and in the reasonable doing and enjoying those good things which God made him naturally to desire For since God gave him proper and peculiar Appetites with proportion to their own objects and gave him Reason and abilities not only to perceive the sapidness and relish of those objects but also to make reflex acts upon such perceptions and to perceive that he did perceive which was a rare instrument of pleasure and pain respectively it is but reasonable to think that God who created him in mercy did not only proportion a Being to his nature but did also provide satisfaction for all those Appetites and desires which himself had created and put into him For if he had not then the Being of a man had been nothing but a state of perpetual Affliction and the creation of men had been the greatest Unmercifulness in the world disproportionate objects being mere instances of affliction and those unsatisfied appetites nothing else but instruments of torment 3. Therefore that this intendment of God and Nature should be effected that is that Man should become happy it is naturally necessary that all his regular appetites should have an object appointed them in the fruition of which Felicity must consist Because nothing is Felicity but when what was reasonably or orderly desired is possessed for the having what is not desired or the wanting of what we desired or the desiring what we should not are the several constituent parts of Infelicity and it can have no other constitution 4. Now the first Appetite Man had in order to his great End was to be as perfect as he could that is to be as like the best thing he knew as his nature and condition would permit And although by Adam's sancy and affection to his Wife and by God's appointing fruit for him we see the lower Appetites were first provided for yet the first Appetite which Man had as he distinguishes from lower creatures was to be like God for by that the Devil tempted him and in order to that he had naturally sufficient instruments and abilities For although by being abused with the Devil's sophistry he chose an incompetent instrument yet because it is naturally certain that Love is the greatest assimilation of the object and the faculty Adam by loving God might very well approach nearer him according as he could And it was natural to Adam to love God who was his Father his Creator the fountain of all good to him and of excellency in himself and whatsoever is understood to be such it is as natural for us to love and we do it for the same reasons for which we love any thing else and we cannot love for any other reason but for one or both these in their proportion apprehended 5. But because God is not only excellent and good but by being supreme Lord hath power to give us what Laws he pleases Obedience to his Laws therefore becomes naturally but consequently necessary when God decrees them because he does make himself an enemy to all Rebels and disobedient sons by affixing penalties to the transgressors And therefore Disobedience is naturally inconsistent not only with love to our selves
God at first designed to us And therefore as our Baptism is a separation of us from unbelieving people so the descent of the Holy Spirit upon us in our Baptism is a consigning or marking us for God as the Sheep of his pasture as the Souldiers of his Army as the Servants of his houshold we are so separated from the world that we are appropriated to God so that God expects of us Duty and Obedience and all Sins are acts of Rebellion and Undutifulness Of this nature was the sanctification of Jeremy and John the Baptist from their mothers womb that is God took them to his own service by an early designation and his Spirit marked them to a holy Ministery To this also relates that of S. Paul whom God by a decree separated from his mother's womb to the Ministery of the Gospel the 〈◊〉 did antedate the act of the Spirit which did not descend upon him until the day of his Baptism What these persons were in order to exteriour Ministeries that all the faithful are in order to Faith and Obedience consigned in Baptism by the Spirit of God to a perpetual relation to God in a continual service and title to his Promises And in this sence the Spirit of God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Seal In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Water washes the body and the Spirit seals the Soul viz. to a participation of those Promises which he hath made and to which we receive a title by our Baptism 22. Secondly The second effect of the Spirit is Light or Illumination that is the holy Spirit becomes unto us the Author of holy thoughts and firm perswasions and sets to his seal that the Word of God is true into the belief of which we are then baptized and makes Faith to be a Grace and the Understanding resigned and the Will confident and the Assent stronger than the premises and the Propositions to be believed because they are beloved and we are taught the ways of Godliness after a new manner that is we are made to perceive the Secrets of the Kingdom and to love Religion and to long for Heaven and heavenly things and to despise the World and to have new resolutions and new perceptions and new delicacies in order to the establishment of Faith and its increments and perseverance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God sits in the Soul when it is illuminated in 〈◊〉 as if he sate in his Throne that is he rules by a firm perswasion and intire principles of Obedience And therefore Baptism is called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illuminated Call to mind the former days in which you were illuminated and the same phrase is in the 6. to the Hebrews where the parallel places expound each other For that which S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illuminated he calls after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a receiving the knowledge of the truth and that you may perceive this to be wholly meant of Baptism the 〈◊〉 expresses it still by Synonyma's Tasting of the heavenly gift and made partakers of the Holy Ghost sprinkled in our hearts from an evil conscience and washed in our bodies with pure water all which also are a syllabus or collection of the several effects of the graces bestowed in Baptism But we are now instancing in that which relates most properly to the Understanding in which respect the Holy Spirit also is called Anointing or Unction and the mystery is explicated by S. John The Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things 23. Thirdly The Holy Spirit descends upon us in Baptism to become the principle of a new life to become a holy seed springing up to Holiness and is called by S. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of God and the purpose of it we are taught by him Whosoever is 〈◊〉 of God that is he that is regenerated and entred into this New birth doth not 〈◊〉 sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God The Spirit of God is the Spirit of life and now that he by the Spirit is born anew he hath in him that principle which if it be cherished will grow up to life to life eternal And this is the Spirit of Sanctification the victory over the World the deletery of Concupiscence the life of the Soul and the perpetual principle of Grace sown in our spirits in the day of our Adoption to be the sons of God and members of Christ's body But take this Mystery in the words of S. Basil. There are two Ends proposed in Baptism to wit to abolish the body of Sin that we may no more bring forth fruit unto death and to live in the Spirit and to have our fruit to Sanctification The Water represents the image of death receiving the body in its bosom as in a Sepulchre but the quickning Spirit sends upon us a vigorous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power or 〈◊〉 even from the beginning renewing our Souls from the death of sin unto life For as our Mortification is 〈◊〉 in the water so the Spirit works life in us To this purpose is the discourse of S. Paul having largely discoursed of our being baptized into the death of 〈◊〉 he adds this as the Corollary of all He that is dead is freed from sin that is being mortified and buried in the waters of Baptism we have a new life of Righteousness put into us we are quitted from the dominion of Sin and are planted together in the likeness of Christ's Resurrection that henceforth we should not serve sin 24. Fourthly But all these intermedial Blessings tend to a glorious Conclusion for Baptism does also consign us to a holy Resurrection It takes the sting of death from us by burying us together with Christ and takes 〈◊〉 Sin which is the sting of death and then we shall be partakers of a blessed Resurrection This we are taught by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection That declares the real event in its due season But because Baptism consigns it and admits us to a title to it we are said with S. Paul to be risen with Christ in Baptism Buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God which hath raised him from the dead Which expression I desire to be remembred that by it we may better understand those other
our Redemption he adds Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Who gave himself for us to this very purpose that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Purifying a people peculiar to himself is cleansing it in the Laver of Regeneration and appropriating it to himself in the rites of Admission and Profession Which plainly designs the first consignation of our Redemption to be in Baptism and that Christ there cleansing his Church from every spot or wrinkle made a Covenant with us that we should renounce all our sins and he should cleanse them all and then that we should abide in that state Which is also very explicitely set down by the same Apostle in that divine and mysterious Epistle to the Romans How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Well what then Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life That 's the end and mysteriousness of Baptism it is a consignation into the Death of Christ and we die with him that once that is die to sin that we may for ever after live the life of righteousness Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin that is from the day of our Baptism to the day of our death And therefore God who knows the weaknesses on our part and yet the strictness and necessity of conserving Baptismal grace by the Covenant Evangelical hath appointed the auxiliaries of the Holy Spirit to be ministred to all baptized people in the holy Rite of Confirmation that it might be made possible to be done by Divine aids which is necessary to be done by the Divine Commandments 10. And this might not be improperly said to be the meaning of those words of our Blessed Saviour He that speaks a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him but he that speaks a word against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him That is those sins which were committed in Infidelity before we became Disciples of the Holy Jesus are to be remitted in Baptism and our first profession of the Religion but the sins committed after Baptism and Confirmation in which we receive the Holy Ghost and by which the Holy Spirit is grieved are to be accounted for with more severity And therefore the Primitive Church understanding our obligations according to this discourse admitted not any to holy Orders who had lapsed and fallen into any sin of which she could take cognisance that is such who had not kept the integrity of their Baptism but sins committed before Baptism were no impediments to the susception of Orders because they were absolutely extinguished in Baptism This is the nature of the Covenant we made in Baptism that 's the grace of the Gospel and the effect of Faith and Repentance and it is expected we should so remain For it is nowhere expressed to be the mercy and intention of the Covenant Evangelical that this Redemption should be any more than once or that Repentance which is in order to it can be renewed to the same or so great purposes and present effects 11. But after we are once reconciled in Baptism and put intirely into God's favour when we have once been redeemed if we then fall away into sin we must expect God's dealing with us in another manner and to other purposes Never must we expect to be so again justified and upon such terms as formerly the best days of our Repentance are interrupted not that God will never forgive them that sin after Baptism and recover by Repentance but that Restitution by repentance after Baptism is another thing than the first Redemption No such intire clear and integral determinate and presential effects of Repentance but an imperfect little growing uncertain and hazardous Reconciliation a Repentance that is always in production a Renovation by parts a Pardon that is revocable a Salvation to be wrought by fear and trembling all our remanent life must be in bitterness our hopes allayed with fears our meat attempered with Coloquintida and death is in the pot as our best actions are imperfect so our greatest Graces are but possibilities and aptnesses to a Reconcilement and all our life we are working our selves into that condition we had in Baptism and lost by our relapse As the habit lessens so does the guilt as our Vertues are imperfect so is the Pardon and because our Piety may be interrupted our state is uncertain till our possibilities of sin are ceased till our fight is finished and the victory therefore made sure because there is no more fight And it is remarkable that S. Peter gives counsel to live holily in pursuance of our redemption of our calling and of our escaping from that corruption that is in the world through Lust lest we lose the benefit of our purgation to which by way of antithesis he opposes this Wherefore the rather give diligence to make your calling and election sure And if ye do these things ye shall never fall Meaning by the perpetuating our state of Baptism and first Repentance we shall never fall but be in a sure estate our calling and election shall be sure But not if we fall if we forget we were purged from our old sins if we forfeit our calling we have also made our election unsure movable and disputable 12. So that now the hopes of lapsed sinners relie upon another bottom And as in Moses's Law there was no revelation of Repentance but yet the Jews had hopes in God and were taught the succours of Repentance by the Homilies of the Prophets and other accessory notices So in the Gospel the Covenant was established upon Faith and Repentance but it was consigned in Baptism and was verifiable onely in the integrity of a following holy life according to the measures of a man not perfect but sincere not faultless but heartily endeavoured but yet the mercies of God in pardoning sinners lapsed after Baptism was declared to us by collateral and indirect occasions by the Sermons of the Apostles and the Commentaries of Apostolical persons who understood the meaning of the Spirit and the purposes of the Divine mercy and those other significations of his will which the blessed Jesus left upon record in other parts of his Testament as in Codicills annexed besides the precise Testament it self And it is certain if in the Covenant of Grace there be the same involution of an after-Repentance as there is of present Pardon upon past Repentance and future Sanctity it is impossible to
was a Law of Works that is especially and in its first intention But this being less perfect the Holy Jesus inverted the order 1. For very little of Christianity stands upon the outward action Christ having appointed but two Sacraments immediately and 2. a greater restraint is laid upon the passions desires and first motions of the spirit than under the severity of Moses and 3. they are threatned with the same curses of a sad eternity with the acts proceeding from them and 4. because the obedience of the spirit does in many things excuse the want of the outward act God always requiring at our hands what he hath put in our power and no more and 5. lastly because the spirit is the principle of all actions moral and spiritual and certainly productive of them when they are not impeded from without therefore the Holy Jesus hath secured the fountain as knowing that the current must needs be healthful and pure if it proceeds through pure chanels from a limpid and unpolluted principle 4. And certainly it is much for the glory of God to worship him with a Religion whose very design looks upon God as the searcher of our hearts and Lord of our spirits who judges the purposes as a God and does not only take his estimate from the outward action as a man And it is also a great reputation to the Institution it self that it purifies the Soul and secures the secret cogitations of the mind It punishes Covetouiness as it judges Rapine it condemns a Sacrilegious heart as soon as an Irreligious hand it detests hating of our Brother by the same aversation which it expresses against doing him 〈◊〉 He that curses in his heart shall die the death of an explicite and bold Blasphemer murmur and repining is against the Laws of Christianity but either by the remissness of Moses's Law or the gentler execution of it or the innovating or lessening glosses of the Pharisees he was esteemed innocent whose actions were according to the letter not whose spirit was conformed to the intention and more secret Sanctity of the Law So that our Righteousness must therefore exceed the Pharisaical standard because our spirits must be pure as our hands and the heart as regular as the action our purposes must be sanctified and our thoughts holy we must love our Neighbour as well as relieve him and chuse Justice with adhesion of the mind as well as carry her upon the palms of our hands And therefore the Prophets foretelling the Kingdom of the Gospel and the state of this Religion call it a writing the Laws of God in our hearts And S. Paul distinguishes the Gospel from the Law by this only measure We are all Israelites of the seed of Abraham heirs of the same inheritance only now we are not to be accounted Jews for the outward consormity to the Law but for the inward consent and obedience to those purities which were secretly signified by the types of Moses They of the Law were Jews outwardly their Circumcision was outward in the flesh their praise was of men We are Jews inwardly our Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter and our praise is of God that is we are not judged by the outward act but by the mind and the intention and though the acts must sollow in all instances where we can and where they are required yet it is the less principal and rather significative than by its own strength and energy operative and accepted 5. S. Clemens of Alexandria saith the Pharisees righteousness consisted in the not doing evil and that Christ superadded this also that we must do the contrary good and so exceed the Pharisaical measure They would not wrong a Jew nor many times relieve him they reckoned their innocence by not giving offence by walking blameless by not being accused before the Judges sitting in the gates of their Cities But the balance in which the Judge of quick and dead weighs Christians is not only the avoiding evil but doing good the following peace with all men and holiness the proceeding from faith to faith the adding vertue to vertue the persevering in all holy conversation and godliness And therefore S. Paul commending the grace of universal Charity says that Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law implying that the prime intention of the Law was that every man's right be secured that no man receive wrong And indeed all the Decalogue consisting of Prohibitions rather than Precepts saving that each Table hath one positive Commandment does not obscurely verifie the doctrine of S. Clement's interpretation Now because the Christian Charity abstains from doing all injury therefore it is the fulfilling of the Law but because it is also patient and liberal that it suffers long and is kind therefore the Charity commanded in Christ's Law exceeds that Charity which the Scribes and Pharisees reckoned as part of their Righteousness But Jesus himself does with great care in the particulars instance in what he would have the Disciples to be eminent above the most strict Sect of the Jewish Religion 1. in practising the moral Precepts of the Decalogue with a stricter interpretation 2. and in quitting the Permissions and licences which for the hardness of their heart Moses gave them as indulgences to their persons and securities against the contempt of too severe Laws 6. The severity of exposition was added but to three Commandments and in three indulgences the permission was taken away But because our great Law-giver repeated also other parts of the Decalogue in his after-Sermons I will represent in this one view all that he made to be Christian by adoption 7. The first Commandment Christ often repeated and enforced as being the basis of all Religion and the first endearment of all that relation whereby we are capable of being the sons of God as being the great Commandment of the Law and comprehensive of all that duty we owe to God in the relations of the vertue of Religion Hear O Israel the Lord thy God is one Lord and Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength This is the first Commandment that is this comprehends all that which is moral and eternal in the first Table of the 〈◊〉 8. The Duties of this Commandment are 1. To worship God alone with actions proper to him and 2. to love and 3. obey him with all our faculties 1. Concerning Worship The actions proper to the Honour of God are to offer Sacrifice Incense and Oblations making Vows to him Swearing by his Name as the instrument of secret testimony confessing his incommunicable Attributes and Praying to him for those Graces which are essentially annexed to his dispensation as Remission of sins Gifts of the Spirit and the grace of 〈◊〉 and Life
himself to his house who received him with gladness and repentance of his crimes purging his Conscience and filling his heart and house with joy and sanctity for immediately upon the arrival of the Master at his house he offered restitution to all persons whom he had injured and satisfaction and half of his remanent estate he gave to the poor and so gave the fairest entertainment to Jesus who brought along with him Salvation to his house There it was that he spake the Parable of the King who concredited divers talents to his servants and having at his return exacted an account rewarded them who had improved their bank and been faithful in their trust with rewards proportionable to their capacity and improvement but the negligent servant who had not meliorated his stock was punished with ablegation and 〈◊〉 to outer darkness And from hence sprang up that dogmatical proposition which is mysterious and 〈◊〉 in Christianity To him that hath shall be given and from him that hath not shall be taken away even what he hath After this going forth of Jericho he cured two blind men upon the way 5. Six days before Easter Jesus came to Bethany where he was feasted by Martha and Mary and accompanied by Lazarus who sate at the table with Jesus But Mary brought a pound of Nard Pistick and as formerly she had done again anoints the feet of Jesus and fills the house with the odour till God himself smelt thence a savour of a sweet-smelling sacrifice But Judas Iscariot the Thief and the Traitor repined at the vanity of the expence as he pretended because it might have been sold for three hundred pence and have been given to the poor But Jesus in his reply taught us that there is an opportunity for actions of Religion as well as of Charity Mary did this against the Burial of Jesus and her Religion was accepted by him to whose honours the holocaust of love and the oblations of alms-deeds are in their proper seasons direct actions of worship and duty But at this meeting there came many Jews to see Lazarus who was raised from death as well as to see Jesus and because by occasion of his Resurrection many of them believed on Jesus therefore the Pharisees deliberated about putting him to death But God in his glorious providence was pleased to preserve him as a trumpet of his glories and a testimony of the Miracle thirty years after the death of Jesus 6. The next day being the fifth day before the Passeover Jesus came to the foot of the mount of Olives and sent his Disciples to Bethphage a village in the neighbourhood commanding them to unloose an asse and a colt and bring them to him and to tell the owners it was done for the Master's use and they did so and when they brought the Asse to Jesus he rides on him to Jerusalem and the People having notice of his approach took branches of Palm-trees and went out to meet him strewing branches and garments in the way crying out Hosanna to the son of David Which was a form of exclamation used to the honour of God and in great Solemnities and signifies Adoration to the Son of David by the rite of carrying branches which when they used in procession about their Altars they used to pray Lord save us Lord prosper us which hath occasioned the reddition of Hoschiannah to be amongst some that Prayer which they repeated at the carrying of the Hoschiannah as if it self did signifie Lord save us But this honour was so great and unusual to be done even to Kings that the Pharisees knowing this to be an appropriate manner of address to God said one to another by way of wonder Hear ye what these men say For they were troubled to hear the People revere him as a God 7. When Jesus from the mount of Olives beheld Jerusalem he wept over it and foretold great sadnesses and infelicities futurely contingent to it which not only happened in the sequel of the story according to the main issues and significations of this Prophecy but even to minutes and circumstances it was verified For in the mount of Olives where Jesus shed tears over perishing Jerusalem the Romans first pitched their Tents when they came to its final overthrow From thence descending to the City he went into the Temple and still the acclamations followed him till the Pharisees were ready to burst with the noises abroad and the tumults of envy and scorn within and by observing that all their endeavours to suppress his glories were but like clapping their hands to veil the Sun and that in despight of all their stratagems the whole Nation was become Disciple to the glorious Nazarene And there 〈◊〉 cured certain persons that were blind and lame 8. But whilest he abode at Jerusalem certain Greeks who came to the Feast to worship made their address to Philip that they might be brought to Jesus Philip tells Andrew and they both tell Jesus who having admitted them discoursed many things concerning his Passion and then prayed a petition which is the end of his own Sufferings and of all humane actions and the purpose of the whole Creation Father glorifie thy Name To which he was answered by a voice from Heaven I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again But this nor the whole series of Miracles that he did the Mercies the Cures nor the divine Discourses could gain the Faith of all the Jews who were determined by their humane interest for many of the Rulers who believed on him durst not confess him because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God Then Jesus again exhorted all men to believe on him that so they might in the same act believe on God that they might approach unto the light and not abide in darkness that they might obey the commandments of the Father whose express charge it was that Jesus should preach this Gospel and that they might not be judged at the last Day by the Word which they have rejected which Word to all its observers is everlasting life After which Sermon retiring to Bethany he abode there all Night 9. On the morrow returning to Jerusalem on the way being hungry he passed by a Fig-tree where expecting fruit he found none and cursed the Fig-tree which by the next day was dried up and withered Upon occasion of which preternatural event Jesus discoursed of the power of Faith and its power to produce Miracles But upon this occasion others the Disciples of Jesus in after-Ages have pleased themselves with phancies and imperfect descants as that he cursed this Tree in mystery and secret intendment it having been the tree in the eating whose fruit Adam prevaricating the Divine Law made an inlet to sin which brought in death and the sadnesses of Jesus's Passion But Jesus having entred the City came into the Temple and preached the Gospel and the chief Priests and
served their present design and his own great intendment The Devil never fails to promote every evil purpose and except where God's restaining grace does intervene and interrupt the opportunity by interposition of different and cross accidents to serve other ends of Providence no man easily is fond of wickedness but he shall receive enough to ruine him Indeed Nero and Julian both witty men and powerfull desired to have been Magicians and could not and although possibly the Devil would have corresponded with them who yet were already his own in all degrees of security yet God permitted not that lest they might have understood new ways of doing despight to Martyrs and 〈◊〉 Christians And it concerns us not to tempt God or invite a forward enemy for as we are sure the Devil is ready to promote all vicious desires and bring them out to execution so we are not sure that God will not permit him and he that desires to be undone and cares not to be prevented by God's restraining grace shall finde his ruine in the folly of his own desires and become wretched by his own election Judas hearing of this Congregation of the Priests went and offered to betray his Lord and made a Covenant the Price of which was Thirty Pieces of Silver and he returned 11. It is not intimated in the History of the Life of Jesus that Judas had any Malice against the Person of Christ for when afterwards he saw the matter was to end in the death of his Lord he repented but a base and unworthy spirit of Covetousness possessed him and the reliques of 〈◊〉 for missing the Price of the Ointment which the holy Magdalen had poured upon his feet burnt in his bowels with a secret dark melancholick 〈◊〉 and made an eruption into an act which all ages of the world could never parallel They appointed him for hire thirty pieces and some say that every piece did in value equal ten ordinary current Deniers and so Judas was satisfied by receiving the worth of the three hundred pence at which he valued the Nard pistick But hereafter let no Christian be ashamed to be despised and undervalued for he will hardly meet so great a reproach as to have so disproportioned a price set upon his life as was upon the Holy Jesus S. Mary 〈◊〉 thought it not good enough to aneal his sacred feet Judas thought it a sufficient price for his head for Covetousness aims at base and low purchaces whilest holy Love is great and comprehensive as the bosome of Heaven and aims at nothing that is less than infinite The love of God is a holy fountain limpid and pure sweet and salutary lasting and eternal the love of Mony is a vertiginous pool sucking all into it to destroy it it is troubled and uneven giddy and unsafe serving no end but its own and that also in a restless and uneasie motion The love of God spends it self upon him to receive again the reflexions of grace and benediction the love of Money spends all its desires upon it sell to purchase nothing but unsatisfying instruments of exchange or supernumerary provisions and ends in dissatisfaction and emptiness of spirit and a bitter curse S. Mary Magdalen was defended by her Lord against calumny and rewarded with an honourable mention to all Ages of the Church besides the unction from above which she shortly after received to consign her to crowns and sceptres but Judas was described in the Scripture the Book of life with the black character of death he was disgraced to eternal Ages and presently after acted his own tragedy with a sad and ignoble death 12. Now all things being fitted our Blessed Lord sends two Disciples to prepare the Passeover that he might fulfill the Law of Moses and pass from thence to institutions Evangelical and then fulfill his Sufferings Christ gave them a sign to guide them to the house a man bearing a pitcher of water by which some that delight in mystical significations say was typified the Sacrament of Baptism meaning that although by occasion of the Paschal solemnity the holy Eucharist was first instituted yet it was afterwards to be applied to practice according to the sence of this accident only baptized persons were apt suscipients of the other more perfective Rite as the taking nutriment supposes persons born into the world and within the common conditions of humane nature But in the letter it was an instance of the Divine omniscience who could pronounce concerning accidents at distance as if they were present and yet also like the provision of the Colt to ride on it was an instance of Providence and security of all God's sons for their portion of temporals Jesus had not a Lamb of his own and possibly no money in the bags to buy one and yet Providence was his guide and the charity of a good man was his Proveditore and he found excellent conveniences in the entertainments of a hospitable good man as if he had dwelt in Ahab's Ivory-house and had had the riches of Solomon and the meat of his houshold The PRAYER O Holy King of Sion Eternal Jesus who with great Humility and infinite Love didst enter into the Holy City riding upon an Asse that thou mightest verisie the Predictions of the Prophets and give example of Meekness and of the gentle and paternal government which the eternal Father laid upon thy shoulders be pleased deares̄t Lord to enter into my Soul with triumph trampling over all thine enemies and give me grace to entertain thee with joy and adoration with abjection of my own desires with lopping off all my supersluous branches of a temporal condition and spending them in the offices of Charity and Religion and devesting my self of all my desires laying them at thy holy feet that I may bear the yoke and burthen of the Lord with alacrity with love and the wonders of a satisfied and triumphant spirit Lord enter in and take possession and thou to whose honour the very stones would give testimony make my stony heart an instrument of thy praises let me strew thy way with flowers of Vertue and the holy Rosary of Christian Graces and by thy aid and example let us also triumph over all our infirmities and hostilities and then lay our victories at thy feet and at last follow thee into thy heavenly Jerusalem with palms in our hands and joy in our hearts and eternal acclamations on our lips rejoycing in thee and singing Hallelujahs in a happy Eternity to thee O holy King of Sion eternal Jesus Amen 2. O Blessed and dear Lord who wert pleased to permit thy self to be sold to the assemblies of evil persons for a vile price by one of thy own servants for whom thou hadst done so great favours and hadst designed a crown and a throne to him and he turned himself into a sooty coal and entred into the portion of evil Angels teach us to value thee above all the joys of men to prize
little irregularities and so many great imperfections that it will appear the more necessary to repair the breaches and lesser ruines by such acts of Piety and Religion because every Communication is intended to be a nearer approach to God a 〈◊〉 step in Grace a progress towards glory and an instrument of perfection and therefore upon the stock of our spiritual interests for the purchase of a greater hope and the advantages of a growing Charity ought to be frequently received I end with the words of a pious and learned person It is a vain fear and an imprudent 〈◊〉 that procrastinates and desers going to the Lord that calls them they deny to go to the fire pretending they are cold and refuse Physick because they need it The PRAYER O Blessed and Eternal Jesus who gavest thy self a Sacrifice for our sins thy Body for our spiritual food thy 〈◊〉 to nourish our spirits and to quench the flames of Hell and Lust who didst so love us who were thine enemies that thou desiredst to reconcile us to thee and becamest all one with us that we may live the same life think the same thoughts love the same love and be partakers of thy Resurrection and Immortality open every window of my Soul that I may be full of light and may see the excellency of thy Love the merits of thy Sacrifice the bitterness of thy Passion the glories and virtues of the mysterious Sacrament Lord let me ever hunger and thirst after this instrument of Righteousness let me have no gust or relish of the unsatisfying delights of things below but let my Soul dwell in thee let me for ever receive thee spiritually and very frequently communicate with thee sacramentally and imitate thy Vertues pionsly and strictly and dwell in the pleasures of thy house eternally Lord thou hast prepared a table for me against them that trouble me let that holy Sacrament of the Eucharist be to me a defence and shield a nourishment and medicine life and health a means of sanctification and spiritual growth that I receiving the body of my dearest Lord may be one with his mystical body and of the same spirit united with indissoluble bonds of a strong Faith and a holy Hope and a never-failing Charity that from this veil I may pass into the visions of eternal clarity from eating thy Body to beholding thy face in the glories of thy everlasting Kingdom O Blessed and Eternal Jesus Amen Considerations upon the Accidents happening on the Vespers of the Passion The Prayer in the Garden Luk 22. 41. And he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast kneeled down prayed 42 Saying Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done 43 And there appeared an Angel from heaven strengthening him Iudas betrayeth Christ Mat 26. 47. And while he yet spake Lo. Iudas one of the twelue came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief Preists Elders of the people 48. Now he that be trayed him gave them a sign saying whomsoever I shall kiss that same is he hold him fast 49. And forthwith he came to Iesus and said Haile Master and kissed him 1. WHen Jesus had supped and sang a Hymn and prayed and exhorted and comforted his Disciples with a Farewell-Sermon in which he repeated 〈◊〉 of his former Precepts which were now apposite to the present condition and re-inforced them with proper and pertinent arguments he went over the brook Cedron and entred into a Garden and into the prologue of his Passion chusing that place for his Agony and satisfactory pains in which the first scene of humane misery was represented and where he might best attend the offices of Devotion preparatory to his Death Besides this he therefore departed from the house that he might give opportunity to his Enemies surprise and yet not incommodate the good man by whose hospitality they had eaten the Paschal Lamb so that he went like a Lamb to the slaughter to the Garden as to a prison as if by an agreement with his persecutors he had expected their arrest and stayed there to prevent their farther enquiry For so great was his desire to pay our Ransom that himself did assist by a forward patience and active opportunity towards the persecution teaching us that by an active zeal and a ready spirit we assist the designs of God's glory though in our own sufferings and secular infelicities 2. When he entred the Garden he left his Disciples at the entrance of it calling with him only Peter James and John he withdrew himself from the rest about a stone 's cast and began to be exceeding heavy He was not sad till he had called them for his sorrow began when he pleased which sorrow he also chose to represent to those three who had seen his Transfiguration the earnest of his future Glory that they might see of how great glory for our sakes he disrobed himself and that they also might by the confronting those contradictory accidents observe that God uses to dispense his comforts the irradiations and emissions of his glory to be preparatives to those sorrows with which our life must be allayed and seasoned that none should refuse to partake of the sufferings of Christ if either they have already felt his comforts or hope hereafter to wear his crown And it is not ill observed that S. Peter being the chief of the Apostles and Doctor of the Circumcision S. John being a Virgin and S. James the first of the Apostles that was martyred were admitted to Christ's greatest retirements and mysterious secrecies as being persons of so singular and eminent dispositions to whom according to the pious opinion of the Church especially Coronets are prepared in Heaven besides the great Crown of rightcousness which in common shall beautifie the heads of all the Saints meaning this that Doctors Virgins and Martyrs shall receive even for their very state of life and accidental Graces more eminent degrees of accidental Glory like as the Sun reflecting upon a limpid fountain receives its rays doubled without any increment of its proper and natural light 3. Jesus began to be exceeding sorrowful to be sore amazed and sad even to death And because he was now to suffer the pains of our sins there began his Passion whence our sins spring From an evil heart and a prevaricating spirit all our sins arise and in the spirit of Christ began his sorrow where he truly felt the full value and demerit of Sin which we think not worthy of a tear or a hearty sigh but he groaned and fell under the burthen But therefore he took upon him this sadness that our imperfect sorrow and contrition might be heightned in his example and accepted in its union and consederacy with his And Jesus still designed a farther mercy for us for he sanctified the passion of Fear and hallowed natural sadnesses that we might not
he bearing them upon his tender body with an even and excellent and dispassionate spirit offered up these beginnings of sufferings to his Father to obtain pardon even for them that injured him and for all the World 6. Judas now seeing that this matter went farther than he intended it repented of his fact For although evil persons are in the progress of their iniquity invited on by new arguments and supported by confidence and a careless spirit yet when iniquity is come to the height or so great a proportion that it is apt to produce Despair or an intolerable condition then the Devil suffers the Conscience to thaw and grow tender but it is the tenderness of a Bile it is soreness rather and a new disease and either it comes when the time of Repentance is past or leads to some act which shall make the pardon to be impossible and so it happened here For Judas either impatient of the shame or of the sting was thrust on to despair of pardon with a violence as hasty and as great as were his needs And Despair is very often used like the bolts and bars of Hell-gates it 〈◊〉 upon them that had entred into the suburbs of eternal death by an habitual sin and it secures them against all retreat And the Devil is forward enough to bring a man to Repentance provided it be too late and Esau wept bitterly and repented him and the five foolish Virgins lift up their voice aloud when the gates were shut and in Hell men shall repent to all eternity But I consider the very great folly and infelicity of Judas it was at midnight he received his money in the house of Annas betimes in that morning he repented his bargain he threw the money back again but his sin stuck close and it is thought to a 〈◊〉 eternity Such is the purchace of Treason and the reward of Covetousness it is cheap in its offers momentany in its possession unsatisfying in the fruition uncertain in the stay sudden in its 〈◊〉 horrid in the remembrance and a ruine a certain and miserable ruine is in the event When Judas came in that sad condition and told his miserable story to them that set him on work they 〈◊〉 him go away unpitied he had served their ends in betraying his Lord and those that hire such servants use to leave them in the disaster to shame and to sorrow and so did the Priests but took the money and 〈◊〉 to put it into the treasury because it was the price of bloud but they made no scruple to take it from the treasury to buy that bloud Any thing seems lawful that serves the ends of ambitious and bloudy persons and then they are scrupulous in their cases of Conscience when nothing of Interest does intervene for evil men make Religion the servant of Interest and sometimes weak men think that it is the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Religion and suspect that all of it is a design because many great Politicks make it so The end of the Tragedy was that Judas died with an ignoble death marked with the circumstances of a horrid Judgment and perished by the most infamous hands in the world that is by his own Which if it be confronted against the excellent spirit of S. Peter who did an act as contradictory to his honour and the grace of God as could be easily imagined yet taking sanctuary in the arms of his Lord he lodged in his heart for ever and became an example to all the world of the excellency of the Divine Mercy and the efficacy of a holy Hope and a hearty timely and an operative Repentance 7. 〈◊〉 now all things were ready for the purpose the High Priest and all his Council go along with the Holy Jesus to the house of Pilate hoping he would verifie their Sentence and bring it to execution that they might 〈◊〉 be rid of their fears and enjoy their sin and their reputation quietly S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the High Priest caused the Holy Jesus to be led with a cord about his neck and in memory of that the Priests for many Ages 〈◊〉 a stole about theirs But the Jews did it according to the custom of the Nation to signifie he was condemned to death they desired Pilate that he would crucifie him they having 〈◊〉 him worthy And when Pilate enquired into the particulars they gave him a general and an indefinite answer If he were not guilty we would not have brought him 〈◊〉 thee they intended not to make Pilate Judge of the cause but 〈◊〉 of their cruelty But Pilate had not learned to be guided by an implicite faith of such persons which he knew to be malicious and violent and therefore still called for instances and arguments of their Accusation And that all the world might see with how great unworthiness they prosecuted the 〈◊〉 they chiefly there accused him of such crimes upon which themselves condemned him not and which they knew to be false but yet likely to move Pilate if he had been passionate or inconsiderate in his sentences He offered to make himself a King This 〈◊〉 happened at the entry of the Praetorium for the 〈◊〉 who made no conscience of killing the King of Heaven made a conscience of the external customs and ceremonies of their Law which had in them no interiour sanctity which were apt to separate them 〈◊〉 the Nations and remark them with characters of Religion and abstraction it would defile them to go to a Roman Forum 〈◊〉 a capital action was to be judged and yet the effusion of the best bloud in the world was not esteemed against their 〈◊〉 so violent and blind is the spirit of malice which turns humanity into 〈◊〉 wisdom into craft diligence into subornation and Religion into Superstition 8. Two other articles they alledged against him but the first concerned not Pilate and the second was involved in the third and therefore he chose to examine him upon this only of his being a King To which the Holy Jesus answered that it is true he was 〈◊〉 King indeed but not of this world his Throne is Heaven the Angels are his Courtiers and the 〈◊〉 Creation are his Subjects His Regiment is spiritual his 〈◊〉 are the Courts of Conscience and Church-tribunals and at Dooms-day the Clouds The Tribute which he demands are conformity to his Laws Faith 〈◊〉 and Charity no other Gabels but the duties of a holy Spirit and the expresses of a religious Worship and obedient Will and a consenting Understanding And in all this Pilate thought the interest of 〈◊〉 was not invaded For certain it is the Discipline of Jesus confirmed it much and supported it by the strongest pillars And here Pilate saw how impertinent and malicious their Accusation was And we who declaim against the unjust proceedings of the Jews against our dearest Lord should do well to take care that we in accusing any of our Brethren either with malicious purpose or with
with purple and crowned him with thorns and put a cane in his hand for a scepter and bowed their knees before him and saluted him with mockery with a Hail King of the Jews and 〈◊〉 beat him and spate upon him and then Pilate brought him forth and shewed this sad spectacle to the people hoping this might move them to compassion who never loved to see a man prosperous and are always troubled to see the same man in misery But the Earth which was cursed for Adam's sake and was sowed with thorns and thistles produced the full harvest of them and the Second Adam gathered them all and made garlands of them as ensigns of his Victory which he was now in pursuit of against Sin the Grave and Hell And we also may make our thorns which are in themselves 〈◊〉 and dolorous to be a Crown if we bear 〈◊〉 patiently and unite them to Christ's Passion and offer them to his honour and bear them in his cause and rejoyce in them for his sake And indeed after such a grove of 〈◊〉 growing upon the head of our Lord to see one of Christ's members soft delicate and effeminate is a great indecency next to this of seeing the Jews use the King of glory with the greatest reproach and infamy 12. But nothing prevailing nor the Innocence of Jesus nor his immunity from the sentence of Herod nor the industry and diligence of Pilate nor the misery nor the sight of the afflicted Lamb of God at last for so God decreed to permit it and Christ to 〈◊〉 it Pilate gave sentence of death upon him having first washed his hands of which God served his end to declare the Innocence of his Son of which in this whole process he was most curious and suffered not the least probability to adhere to him yet Pilate served no end of his nor preserved any thing of his innocence He that 〈◊〉 upon a Prince and cries Saving your honour you are a Tyrant and he that strikes a man upon the face and cries him mercy and undoes him and says it was in jest does just like that person that sins against God and thinks to be excused by saying it was against his Conscience that is washing our hands when they are stained in bloud as if a ceremony of purification were enough to cleanse a soul from the stains of a spiritual impurity So some refuse not to take any Oath in times of Persecution and say it obliges not because it was forced and done against their wills as if the doing of it were washed off by protesting against it whereas the protesting against it declares me criminal if I rather chuse not death than that which I profess to be a sin But all the persons which cooperated in this death were in this life consigned to a fearful judgment after it The Jews took the bloud which Pilate seemed to wash off upon themselves and their children and the bloud of this Paschal Lamb stuck upon their forehead and marked them not to escape but to fall under the sword of the destroying Angel and they perished either by a more hasty death or shortly after in the extirpation and miserable ruine of their Nation And Pilate who had a less share in the crime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a black character of a secular Judgment for not long after he was by Vitellius the President of Syria sent to Rome to answer to the crimes objected against him by the Jews whom to please he had done so much violence to his Conscience and by 〈◊〉 sentence he was banished to Vienna deprived of all his honours where he lived ingloriously till by impatience of his calamity he killed himself with his own hand And thus the bloud of Jesus shed for the Salvation of the world became to them a Curse and that which purifies the Saints stuck to them that shed it and mingled it not with the tears of Repentance to be a leprosie loathsome and incurable So Manna turns to worms and the wine of Angels to Vineger and Lees when it is received into impure vessels or tasted by wanton palats and the Sun himself produces Rats and Serpents when it reflects upon the dirt of Nilus The PRAYER O Holy and immaculate Lamb of God who wert pleased to 〈◊〉 shame and sorrow to be brought before tribunals to be accused maliciously betrayed treacherously condemned unjustly and scourged most 〈◊〉 suffering the most severe and most unhandsome inflictions which could be procured by potent subtle and extremest malice and didst 〈◊〉 this out of love greater than the love of Mothers more affectionate than the tears of joy and pity dropt from the eyes of most passionate women by these fontinels of bloud issuing forth life and health and pardon upon all thine enemies teach me to apprehend the baseness of Sin in proportion to the greatest of those calamities which my sin made it necessary for thee to susfer that I may hate the cause of thy 〈◊〉 and adore thy mercy and imitate thy charity and copy 〈◊〉 thy patience à nd humility and love thy person to the uttermost extent and degrees of my affections Lord what am I that the eternal Son of God should 〈◊〉 one stripe for me But thy Love is infinite and how great a misery is it to provoke by sin so great a mercy and despise so miraculous a goodness and to do fresh despite to the Son of God But our sins are innumerable and our infirmities are mighty Dearest Jesu pity me for I am accused by my own Conscience and am found guilty I am stripped naked of my Innocence and bound fast by Lust and tormented with stripes and wounds of enraged Appetites But let thy Innocence excuse me the robes of thy Righteousness cloath me thy Bondage set me free and thy Stripes heal me that thou being my Advocate my Physician my Patron and my Lord I may be adopted into the union of thy Merits and partake of the efficacy of thy Sufferings and be crowned as thou art having my sins changed to vertues and my thorns to rays of glory under thee our Head in the participations of Eternity O Holy and immaculate Lamb of God Amen DISCOURSE XX. Of Death and the due manner of Preparation to it 1. THE Holy Spirit of God hath in Scripture revealed to us but one way of preparing to Death and that is by a holy life and there is nothing in all the Book of Life concerning this exercise of address to Death but such advices which suppose the dying person in a state of Grace S. James indeed counsels that in sickness we should send for the Ministers Ecclesiastical and that they pray over us and that we confess our sins and they shall be forgiven that is those prayers are of great efficacy for the removing the sickness and taking off that punishment of sin and healing them in a certain degree according to the efficacy of the ministery and the dispositions or capacities of the sick person But
though less perfectly it ought not to be denied and they less ought to neglect it 25. But as every man must put himself so also he must put his house in order make his Will if he have an Estate to dispose of and in that he must be careful to do Justice to every man and Charity to the poor according as God hath enabled him and though Charity is then very late if it begins not earlier yet if this be but an act of an ancient habit it is still more perfect as it succeeds in time and superadds to the former stock And among other acts of Duty let it be remembred that it is excellent Charity to leave our Will and desires clear plain and determinate that contention and Law-suits may be prevented by the explicate declaration of the Legacies At last and in all instances and periods of our following days let the former good acts be renewed let God be praised for all his Graces and Blessings of our life let him be intreated for Pardon of our sins let acts of Love and Contrition of Hope of Joy of Humility be the work of every day which God still permits us always remembring to ask remission for those sins we remember not And if the condition of our sickness permits it let our last breath expire with an act of Love that it may begin the Charities of Eternity and like a Taper burnt to its lowest base it may go out with a great emission of light leaving a sweet smell behind us to perfume our Coffin and that these lights newly made brighter or trimmed up in our sickness may shine about our Herse that they may become arguments of a pious sadness to our friends as the charitable Coats which Dorcas made were to the widows and exemplar to all those who observed or shall hear of our holy life and religious death But if it shall happen that the disease be productive of evil accidents as a disturbed phancy a weakned understanding wild discoursings or any deprivation of the use of Reason it concerns the sick persons in the happy intervalls of a quiet untroubled spirit to pray earnestly to God that nothing may pass from him in the rages of a Fever or worse distemper which may less become his duty or give scandal or cause trouble to the persons in attendance and if he shall also renounce and disclaim all such evil words which his disease may speak not himself he shall do the duty of a Christian and a prudent person And after these 〈◊〉 he may with Piety and confidence resign his Soul into the hands of God to be deposited in holy receptacles till the day of restitution of all things and in the mean time with a quiet spirit descend into that state which is the lot of Caesars and where all Kings and Conquerours have laid aside their glories The PRAYER O Eternal and Holy Jesus who by Death hast overcome Death and by thy Passion hast taken out its sting and made it to become one of the gates of Heaven and an entrance to Felicity have mercy upon me now and at the hour of my death let thy Grace accompany me all the days of my life that I may by a holy Conversation and an habitual performance of my Duty wait for the coming of our Lord and be ready to enter with thee at whatsoever hour thou shalt come Lord let not my death be in any sence unprovided nor untimely nor hasty but after the common manner of men having in it nothing extraordinary but an extraordinary Piety and the manifestation of a great and miraculous Mercy Let my Senses and Understanding be preserved intire till the last of my days and grant that I may die the death of the righteous having first discharged all my obligations of justice leaving none miserable and unprovided in my departure but be thou the portion of all my friends and relatives and let thy blessing descend upon their heads and abide there till they shall meet me in the bosom of our Lord. Preserve me ever in the communion and peace of the Church and bless my Death bed with the opportunity of a holy and a spiritual Guide with the assistence and guard of Angels with the perception of the holy Sacrament with Patience and dereliction of my own 〈◊〉 with a strong Faith and a firm and humble Hope with just measures of Repentance and great treasures of Charity to thee my God and to all the world that my Soul in the arms of the Holy Jesus may be deposited with safety and joy there to expect the revelation of thy Day and then to partake the glories of thy Kingdom O Eternal and Holy Jesus Amen Considerations upon the Crucifixion of the Holy JESUS He beareth his Cross Ioh 19. 16. 17. And they took Iesus and lead him away 17. And he bearing his Cross went forth into a place called the place of a Scult which is called in y e Hebrew Golgotha They Erect the Crucifixe Ioh 3. 14. 15. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in y e wilderness even so must y e Son of man be lifted up 15. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but haue eternall life 1. WHen the Sentence of Death pronounced against the Lord was to be put in execution the Souldiers pulled off the Robe of mockery the scarlet Mantle which in jest they put upon him and put on his own garments But as Origen observes the Evangelist mentioned not that they took off the Crown of thorns what might serve their interest they pursue but nothing of remission or mercy to the afflicted Son of man but so it became the King of Sufferings not to lay aside his Imperial thorns till they were changed into Diadems of Glory But now Abel is led forth by his brother to be slain A gay spectacle to satisfie impious eyes who would not stay behind but attended and waited upon the hangman to see the Catastrophe of this bloudy Tragedy But when Piety looks on she beholds a glorious mystery Sin laughed to see the King of Heaven and Earth and the great lover of Souls in stead of the Scepter of his Kingdom to bear a Tree of 〈◊〉 and shame But Plety wept tears of pity and knew they would melt into joy when she should behold that Cross which loaded the shoulders of her Lord afterward sit upon the Scepters and be engraved and signed upon the Foreheads of Kings 2. It cannot be thought but the Ministers of Jewish malice used all the circumstances of affliction which in any case were accustomed towards malefactors and persons to be crucified and therefore it was that in some old Figures we see our Blessed Lord described with a Table appendent to the fringe of his garment set full of nails and pointed iron for so sometimes they afflicted persons condemned to that kind of Death and S. Cyprian affirms that Christ did stick to the wood that he carried being
Christ and took them as testimonies of that truth for the affirmation of which the High Priest had condemned our dearest Lord and although the heart of the Priest rent not even then when rocks did tear in pieces yet the people who saw the Passion 〈◊〉 their breasts and returned and confessed Christ. 3. The graves of the dead were opened at the Death but the dead boies of the Saints that slept arose not till the Resurrection of our Lord for he was the first fruits and they followed him as instant witnesses to publish the Resurrection of their Head which it is possible they declared to those to whom they appeared in the Holy City And amongst these the curiosity or pious credulity of some have supposed Adam and Eve Abraham Isaac and Jacob who therefore were 〈◊〉 to be buried in the Land of Promise as having some intimation or hope that they might be partakers of the earliest glories of the Messias in whose 〈◊〉 and distant expectation they lived and died And this calling up of company from their graves did publish to all the world not only that the Lord himself was risen according to his so 〈◊〉 and repeated predictions but that he meant to raise up all his servants and that all who believe in him should be partakers of the Resurrection 4. When the souldiers observed that Jesus was dead out of spite and impotent ineffective malice one of them pierced his holy side with a spear and the rock being smitten it gushed out with water and 〈◊〉 streaming forth two Sacraments to refresh the Church and opening a gate that all his brethren might enter in and dwell in the heart of God And so great a love had our Lord that he suffered his heart to be opened to shew as Eve was formed from the side of Adam so was the Church to be from the side of her Lord receiving from thence life and spiritual nutriment which he ministred in so great abundance and suffered himself to be pierced that all his bloud did stream over us until he made the fountain dry and reserved nothing of that by which he knew his Church was to live and move and have her being Thus the stream of Bloud issued out to become a fountain for the Sacrament of the Chalice and Water gushed out to fill the Fonts of Baptism and Repentance The Bloud being the testimony of the Divine Love calls upon us to die for his love when he requires it and the noise of the Water calls upon us to 〈◊〉 our spirits and present our Conscience to Christ holy and pure without spot or wrinkle The Bloud running upon us makes us to be of the cognation and family of God and the Water quenches the flames of Hell and the fires of Concupiscence 5. The friends and Disciples of the Holy Jesus having devoutly composed his Body to Burial anointed it washed it and condited it with spices and perfumes laid it in a Sepulchre hewen from a rock in a Garden which saith 〈◊〉 was therefore done to represent that we were by this death returned to Paradise and the Gardens of pleasures and Divine favours from whence by the prevarication of Adam man was expelled Here he finished the work of his Passion as he had begun it in a Garden and the place of sepulchre being a Rock serves the ends of pious succeeding Ages for the place remains in all Changes of government of Wars of Earthquakes and ruder accidents to this day as a 〈◊〉 of the Sepulchre of our dearest Lord as a sensible and proper confirmation of the perswasions of some persons and as an entertainment of their pious phancy and religious affections 6. But now it was that in the dark and undiscerned mansions there was a scene of the greatest joy and the 〈◊〉 horrour represented which yet was known since the first falling of the morning stars Those holy souls whom the Prophet Zechary calls prisoners of hope 〈◊〉 in the lake where there is no water that is no constant stream of joy to refresh their present condition yet supported with certain showers and gracious visitations from God and illuminations of their hope now that they saw their Redeemer come to change their condition and to improve it into the neighbourhoods of glory and clearer revelations must needs have the joy of intelligent and beatified understandings of redeemed captives of men forgiven after the sentence of death of men satisfied after a tedious expectation enjoying and seeing their Lord whom for so many Ages they had expected But the accursed spirits seeing the darkness of their prison shine with a new light and their Empire invaded and their retirements of horrour discovered wondered how a man durst venture thither or if he were a GOD how he should come to die But the Holy Jesus was like that body of light receiving into himself the reflexion of all the lesser rays of joy which the Patriarchs felt and being united to his 〈◊〉 of felicity apprehended it yet more glorious He now felt the effects of his bitter Passion to return upon him in Comforts every hour of which was abundant recompence for three hours Passion upon the Cross and became to us a great precedent to invite us to a toleration of the acts of Repentance Mortification and Martyrdom and that in times of suffering we live upon the stock and expence of Faith as remembring that 〈◊〉 few moments of infelicity are infinitely paid with every minute of glory and yet that the glory which is certainly consequent is so lasting and perpetual that it were enough in a lower joy to make amends by its continuation of eternity And let us but call to mind what thoughts we shall have when we die or are dead how we shall then without prejudice consider that if we had done our duty the trouble and the affliction would now be past and nothing remain but pleasures and felicities eternal and how infinitely happy we shall then be if we have done our duty and how miserable if not all the pleasures of sin disappearing and nothing surviving but a certain and everlasting torment Let us carry alway the same thoughts with us which must certainly then intervene and we shall meet the Holy Jesus and partake of his joys which over-flowed his holy Soul when he first entred into the possession of those excellent fruits and effects of his Passion 7. When the third day was come the Soul of Jesus returned from Paradise and the visitation of separate spirits and re-entred into his holy Body which he by his Divine power did redintegrate filling his veins with bloud healing all the wounds excepting those five of his hands feet and side which he reserved as Trophies of his victory and argument of his Passion And as he had comforted the Souls of the Fathers with the presence of his Spirit so now he saw it to be time to bring comfort to his Holy Mother to re-establish the tottering Faith of
the Opinions of Men about him were various and different that some took him for John the Baptist lately risen from the dead between whose Doctrine Discipline and way of life in the main there was so great a Correspondence That others thought he was Elias probably judging so from the gravity of his Person freedom of his Preaching the fame and reputation of his Miracles especially since the Scriptures assured them he was not dead but taken up into Heaven and had so expresly foretold that he should return back again That others look'd upon him as the Prophet Jeremiah alive again of whose return the Jewes had great expectations in so much that some of them thought the Soul of Jeremias was re-inspired into 〈◊〉 Or if not thus at least that he was one of the more eminent of the ancient Prophets or that the Souls of some of these Persons had been breathed into him The Doctrine of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration of Souls first broached and propagated by Pythagoras being at this time current amongst the Jews and owned by the Pharisees as one of their prime Notions and Principles 2. THIS Account not 〈◊〉 our Lord comes closer and nearer to them tells them It was no wonder if the common People were divided into these wild thoughts concerning him but since they had been always with him had been hearers of his Sermons and Spectators of his Miracles he enquired what they themselves thought of him Peter ever forward to return an Answer and therefore by the Fathers frequently stiled The Mouth of the Apostles told him in the name of the rest That he was the Messiah The Son of the living God promised of old in the Law and the Prophets heartily desired and looked for by all good men anointed and set apart by God to be the King Priest and Prophet of his People To this excellent and comprehensive confession of Peter's Our Lord returns this great Eulogie and Commendation Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven That is this Faith which thou hast now confessed is not humane contrived by Man's wit or built upon his testimony but upon those Notions and Principles which I was sent by God to reveal to the World and those mighty and solemn attestations which he has given from Heaven to the truth both of my Person and my Doctrine And because thou hast so freely made this Confession therefore I also say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it That is that as thy Name signifies a Stone or Rock such shalt thou thy self be firm solid and immoveable in building of the Church which shall be so orderly erected by thy care and diligence and so firmly founded upon that faith which thou hast now confessed that all the assaults and attempts which the powers of Hell can make against it shall not be able to overturn it Moreover I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven That is thou shalt have that spiritual authority and power within the Church whereby as with Keys thou shalt be able to shut and lock out obstinate and impenitent sinners and upon their repentance to unlock the door and take them in again And what thou shalt thus regularly do shall be own'd in the Court above and ratified by God in Heaven 3. UPON these several passages the Champions of the Church of Rome mainly build the unlimited Supremacy and Infallibility of the Bishops of that See with how much truth and how little reason it is not my present purpose to discuss It may suffice here to remark that though this place does very much tend to exalt the honour of Saint Peter yet is there nothing herein personal and peculiar to him alone as distinct from and preserred above the rest of the Apostles Does he here make confession of Christ's being the Son of God Yet besides that herein he spake but the sence of all the rest this was no more than what others had said as well as he yea besore he was so much as call'd to be a Disciple Thus Nathanael at his first coming to Christ expresly told him Rabbi thou art the Son of God Thou art the King of Israel Does our Lord here stile him a Rock All the Apostles are elsewhere equally called Foundations yea said to be the Twelve Foundations upon which the Wall of the new Jerusalem that is the Evangelical Church is 〈◊〉 and sometimes others of them besides Peter are called Pillars as they have relation to the Church already built Does Christ here promise the Keys to Peter that is Power of Governing and of exercising Church-censures and of absolving penitent sinners The very same is elsewhere promised to all the Apostles and almost in the very same termes and words If thine offending Brother prove obstinate tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And elsewhere when ready to leave the World he tells them As my Father hath sent me even so send I you whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained By all which it is evident that our Lord did not here give any personal prerogative to S. Peter as Universal Pastor and Head of the Christian Church much less to those who were to be his Successors in the See of Rome But that as he made this Confession in the name of the rest of the Apostles so what was here promised unto him was equally intended unto all Nor did the more considering and judicious part of the Fathers however giving a mighty reverence to S. Peter ever understand it in any other sence Sure I am that Origen tells us that every true Christian that makes this confession with the same Spirit and Integrity which S. Peter did shall have the same blessing and commendation from Christ conferr'd upon him 4. THE Holy Jesus knowing the time of his Passion to draw on began to prepare the minds of his Apostles against that fatal Hour telling them what hard and bitter things he should suffer at Jerusalem what affronts and indignities he must undergo and be at last put to death with all the arts of torture and disgrace by the Decree of the Jewish Sanhedrim Peter whom our Lord had infinitely incouraged and indeared to him by the great things which he had lately said concerning him so that his spirits were now afloat and his
justified upon terms of perfect and intire obedience there is now no other way but this That the promise by the Faith of Christ be given to all them that believe i. e. this Evangelical method of justifying sincere believers Besides the Jewish Oeconomy was deficient in pardoning sin and procuring the grace and favour of God it could only awaken the knowledge of sin not remove the guilt of it It was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin all the 〈◊〉 of the Mosaick Law were no further available for the pardon of sin than merely as they were founded in and had respect to that great sacrifice and expiation which was to be made for the sins of mankind by the death of the Son of God The Priests though they daily ministred and oftentimes offered the same sacrifices yet could they never take away sins No that was reserved for a better and a higher sacrifice even that of our Lord himself who after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God having completed that which the repeated sacrifices of the Law could never effect So that all men being under guilt and no justification where there was no remission the Jewish Oeconomy being in it self unable to pardon was incapable to justifie This S. Paul elsewhere declared in an open Assembly before Jews and Gentiles Be it known unto you men and brethren that through this man Christ Jesus is preached unto you forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses 13. FOURTHLY He proves that Justification by the Mosaick Law could not stand with the death of Christ the necessity of whose death and sufferings it did plainly evacuate and take away For if righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain If the Mosaical performances be still necessary to our Justification then certainly it was to very little purpose and altogether unbecoming the wisdom and goodness of God to send his own Son into the World to do so much for us and to suffer such exquisite pains and tortures Nay he tells them that while they persisted in this fond obstinate opinion all that Christ had done and suffered could be of no advantage to them Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not again intangled in the yoke of bondage the bondage and servitude of the Mosaick rites Behold 〈◊〉 Paul solemnly say unto you That if you be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing For I testifie again to every man that is Circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law Christ is become of none effect to you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace The summ of which argument is That whoever lay the stress of their Justification upon Circumcision and the observances of the Law do thereby declare themselves to be under an obligation of perfect obedience to all that the Law requires of them and accordingly supersede the vertue and efficacy of Christ's death and disclaim all right and title to the grace and favour of the Gospel For since Christ's death is abundantly sufficient to attain its ends whoever takes in another plainly renounces that and rests upon that of his own chusing By these ways of reasoning 't is evident what the Apostle drives at in all his discourses about this matter More might have been observed had I not thought that these are sufficient to render his design especially to the unprejudiced and impartial obvious and plain enough 14. LASTLY That S. Paul's discourses about Justification and Salvation do immediately refer to the controversie between the Orthodox and Judaizing Christians appears hence that there was no other controversie then on foot but concerning the way of Justification whether it was by the observation of the Law of Moses or only of the Gospel and the Law of Christ. For we must needs suppose that the Apostle wrote with a primary respect to the present state of things and so as they whom he had to deal with might and could not but understand him Which yet would have been impossible for them to have done had he intended them for the controversies which have since been bandied with so much zeal and fierceness and to give countenance to those many nice and subtil propositions those curious and elaborate schemes which some men in these later Ages have drawn of these matters 15. FROM the whole discourse two Consectaries especially plainly follow I. Consect That works of Evangelical obedience are not opposed to Faith in Justification By works of Evangelical obedience I mean such Christian duties as are the fruits not of our own power and strength but God's Spirit done by the assistance of his grace And that these are not opposed to Faith is undeniably evident in that as we observed before Faith as including the new nature and the keeping God's commands is made the usual condition of Justification Nor can it be otherwise when other graces and vertues of the Christian life are made the terms of pardon and acceptance with Heaven and of our title to the merits of Christ's death and the great promise of eternal life Thus Repentance which is not so much a single Act as a complex body of Christian duties Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out So Charity and forgiveness of others Forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father also will forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive yours Sometimes Evangelical obedience in general God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him If we walk in the light as God is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin What priviledge then has Faith above other graces in this matter are we justified by Faith We are pardoned and accepted with God upon our repentance charity and other acts of Evangelical obedience Is Faith opposed to the works of the Mosaick Law in Justification so are works of Evangelical obedience Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Does Faith give glory to God and set the crown upon his head Works of Evangelical obedience are equally the effects of Divine grace both preventing and assisting of us and indeed are not so much our works as his So that the glory of all must needs be intirely resolved into the grace of God nor can any
to John the Baptist. Hence reputed our Lord's Brother in the same sence that he was reputed the Son of Joseph Indeed we find several spoken of in the History of the Gospel who were Christ's Brethren but in what sence was controverted of old S. Hierom Chrysostom and some others will have them so called because the Sons of Mary Cousin-german or according to the custome of the Hebrew Language Sister to the Virgin Mary But Eusebius Epiphanius and the far greater part of the Ancients from whom especially in matters of fact we are not rashly to depart make them the Children of Joseph by a former Wife And this seems most genuine and natural the Evangelists seeming very express and accurate in the account which they give of them Is not this the Carpenter's Son Is not his Mother called Mary and his Brethren James and Joses and Simon and Jude and his Sisters whose Names says the foresaid Hippolytus were Esther and Thamar are they not all with us whence then hath this man these things By which it is plain that the Jews understood these Persons not to be Christ's Kinsmen only but his Brothers the same Carpenter's Sons having the same relation to him that Christ himself had though indeed they had more Christ being but his reputed they his natural Sons Upon this account the Blessed Virgin is sometimes called the Mother of James and Joses for so amongst the Women that attended at our Lord's Crucifixion we find three eminently taken notice of Mary Magdalen Mary the Mother of James and Joses and the Mother of Zebedees Children Where by Mary the Mother of James and Joses no other can be meant than the Virgin Mary it not being reasonable to suppose that the Evangelists should omit the Blessed Virgin who was certainly there and therefore S. John reckoning up the same Persons expresly stiles her the Mother of Jesus And though it is true she was but S. James his mother-in-Mother-in-law yet the Evangelists might chuse so to stile her because commonly so called after Joseph's death and probably as Gregory of Nyssa thinks known by that Name all along chusing that Title that the Son of God whom as a Virgin she had brought forth might be better concealed and less exposed to the malice of the envious Jews nor is it any more wonder that she should be esteemed and called the Mother of James than that Joseph should be stiled and accounted the Father of Jesus To which add that Josephus eminently skilful in matters of Genealogy and descent expresly says that our S. James was the Brother of Jesus Christ. One thing there is that may seem to lye against it that he is called the Son of Alphaeus But this may probably mean no more than either that Joseph was so called by another Name it being frequent yea almost constant among the Jews for the same Person to have two Names Quis unquam prohibuerit duobus vel tribus nominibus hominem 〈◊〉 vocari as S. Augustin speaks in a parallel case or as a learned Man conjectures it may relate to his being a Disciple of some particular Sect or Synagogue among the Jews called Alphaeans from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting a Family or Society of devout and learned Men of somewhat more eminency than the rest there being as he tells us many such at this time among the Jews and in this probably S. James had entred himself the great reputation of his Piety and strictness his Wisdom Parts and Learning rendring the conjecture above the censure of being trifling and contemptible 3. OF the place of his Birth the Sacred story makes no mention The Jewes in their Talmud for doubtless they intend the same Person stile him more than once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of the Town of Sechania though where that was I am not able to conjecture What was his particular way and course of life before his being called to the Discipleship and Apostolate we find no intimations of in the History of the Gospel nor any distinct account concerning him during our Saviour's life After the Resurrection he was honoured with a particular Appearance of our Lord to him which though silently passed over by the Evangelists is recorded by S. Paul next to the manifesting himself to the Five Hundred Brethren at once he was seen of James which is by all understood of our Apostle S. Hierom out of the Hebrew Gospel of the Nazarens wherein many passages are set down omitted by the Evangelical Historians gives us a fuller relation of it viz. that S. James had solemnly sworn that from the time that he had drank of the Cup at the Institution of the Supper he would eat Bread no more till he saw the Lord risen from the dead Our Lord therefore being returned from the Grave came and appeared to him commanded Bread to be set before him which he took blessed and brake and gave to S. James saying Eat thy Bread my Brother for the Son of Man is truly risen from among them that sleep After Christ's Ascension though I will not venture to determine the precise time he was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem preferred before all the rest for his near relation unto Christ for this we find to have been the reason why they chose Symeon to be his immediate Successor in that See because he was after him our Lord's next Kinsman A consideration that made Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee though they had been peculiarly honoured by our Saviour not to contend for this high and honourable Place but freely chuse James the Just to be Bishop of it This dignity is by some of the Ancients said to have been conferred on him by Christ himself constituting him Bishop at the time of his appearing to him But it 's safest with others to understand it of its being done by the Apostles or possibly by some particular intimation concerning it which our Lord might leave behind him 4. TO him we find S. Paul making his Address after his Conversion by whom he was honoured with the right hand of fellowship to him Peter sent the news of his miraculous deliverance out of Prison Go shew these things unto James and to the Brethren that is to the whole Church and especially S. James the Bishop and Pastor of it But he was principally active in the Synod at Jerusalem in the great controversie about the Mosaick Rites for the case being opened by Peter and further debated by Paul and Barnabas at last stood up S. James to pass the final and decretory sentence that the Gentile-Converts were not to be troubled with the bondage of the Jewish Yoke only that for a present accommodation some few indifferent Rites should be observed ushering in the expedient with this positive conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I thus judge or decide the matter this is my sentence and determination
a Fancy and put the body of your Piety into fermentation by presenting you with the circumstances and parts of such Meditations which are symbolical to those of your daily Office and which are the passe-temps of your severest hours My Lord I am not so vain to think that in the matter of Devotion and the rules of Justice and Religion which is the business of your life I can add any thing to your heap of excellent things but I have known and felt comfort by reading or hearing from other persons what I knew my self and it was unactive upon my spirit till it was made vigorous and effective from without And in this sence I thought I might not be useless and impertinent My Lord I designed to be instrumental to the Salvation of all persons that shall read my Book But unless because Souls are equal in their substance and equally redeemed we are obliged to wish the Salvation of all men with the greatest that is with equal desires I did intend in the highest manner I could to express how much I am to pay to you by doing the offices of that Duty which although you less need yet I was most bound to pay even the duties and charities of Religion having this design that when posterity for certainly they will learn to distinguish things and persons shall see your Honoured Name imployed to separate and rescue these Papers from contempt they may with the more confidence expect in them something fit to be offered to such a Personage My Lord I have my end if I serve God and You and the needs and interests of Souls but shall think my return full of reward if you shall give me pardon and put me into your Litanies and account me in the number of your Relatives and Servants for indeed my Lord I am most heartily Your Lordship's most affectionate and most obliged Servant JER TAYLOR THE CONTENTS THE PREFACE fol. I. An Exhortation to the Imitation of the Life of CHRIST fol. i SECT I. The History of the Conception of JESUS pag. 1. Considerations upon the Annunciation of the Blessed MARY and the Conception of the Holy Jesus p. 3. SECT II. The Bearing of JESUS in the 〈◊〉 of the Blessed 〈◊〉 p. 7. Considerations concerning the circumstances of the Interval between the Conception and Nativity p. 8. SECT III. The Nativity of our Blessed Saviour JESUS p. 13. Considerations upon the Birth of our Blessed Saviour JESUS p. 15. Discourse 1. Of Nursing Children in imitation of the Blessed Virgin-Mother p. 18. SECT IV. Of the great and glorious Accidents happening about the Birth of JESUS p. 25. Considerations upon the Apparition of the Angels to the Shepherds p. 28. Considerations upon the Epiphany of the Blessed JESUS by a Star and the Adoration of JESUS by the Eastern Magi. p. 31. SECT V. Of the Circumcision of JESUS and his Presentation in the Temple p. 35. Considerations upon the Circumcision of the Holy Child JESUS p. 36. Discourse 2. Of the Vertue of Obedience p. 40. Considerations upon the Presentation of JESUS in the Temple p. 51. Discourse 3. Of Meditation p. 54. SECT VI. Of the Death of the Holy Innocents or the Babes of Bethlehem and the Flight of JESUS into Egypt p. 65. Considerations upon the Death of the Innocents and the Flight of the Holy JESUS into Egypt p. 67. SECT VII Of the younger years of JESUS and his Disputation with the Doctors in the Temple p. 73. Considerations upon the Disputation of JESUS with the Doctors in the Temple p. 74. SECT VIII Of the Preaching of John the Baptist preparative to the Manifestation of JESUS p. 77. Considerations upon the Preaching of John the Baptist. p. 78. Discourse 4. Of Mortification and corporal Austerities p. 82. SECT IX Of JESUS being Baptized and going into the Wilderness to be tempted p. 93. Considerations upon the Baptizing Fasting and Temptation of the Holy JESUS by the Devil p. 95. Discourse 5. Of Temptation p. 102. Discourse 6. Of Baptism p. 116. Of Baptizing Infants p. 127. SECT X. Of the first Manifestation of JESUS by the Testimony of John and a Miracle p. 151. Considerations touching the Vocation of five Disciples and of the first Miracle of JESUS done at Cana in Galilee p. 155. Discourse 7. Of Faith p. 159. SECT XI Of CHRIST's going to Jerusalem to the Passeover the first time after his Manifestation and what followed till the expiration of the Office of John the Baptist. p. 167. Considerations upon the first Journey of the Holy JESUS to Jerusalem when he whipt the Merchants out of the Temple p. 169. Discourse 8. Of the Religion of Holy Places p. 171. SECT XII Of JESUS's departure into Galilee his manner of Life Miracles and Preaching his calling of Disciples and what happened until the second Passeover p. 181. Considerations upon the Entercourse happening between the Holy JESUS and the Woman of Samaria p. 187. Considerations upon CHRIST's first Preaching and the Accidents happening about that time p. 193. Discourse 9. Of Repentance p. 197. Upon CHRIST's Sermon on the Mount and of the Eight Beatitudes p. 221. Discourse 10. Upon that part of the Decalogue which the Holy JESUS adopted into the Institution and obligation of Christianity p. 231. Of the three additional Precepts which CHRIST super induced and made parts of the Christian Law Discourse 11. Of CHARITY with its parts Forgiving Giving not Judging p. 232. Of Alms. p. 258. Discourse 12. Of the second additional Precept of CHRIST viz. Of PRAYER p. 261. Discourse 13. Of the third additional Precept of CHRIST viz. of the manner of FASTING p. 272. Discourse 14. Of the Miracles which JESUS wrought for confirmation of his Doctrine during the whole time of his Preaching p. 277. SECT XIII Of the Second Year of the Preaching of JESUS p. 289. Discourse 15. Of the Excellency 〈◊〉 Reasonableness and Advantages of bearing CHRIST's Yoke and living according to his Institution p. 295. Discourse 16. Of Certainty of 〈◊〉 p. 313. SECT XIV Of the Third Year of the Preaching of JESUS p. 319. Discourse 17. Of Scandal or Giving and taking Offence p. 328. Discourse 18. Of the Causes and Manner of the Divine Judgments p. 335. SECT XV. Of the Accidents happening from the Death of Lazarus until the Death and Burial of JESUS p. 345. Considerations of some preparatory Accidents before the entrance of JESUS into his Passion p. 357. Considerations upon the Washing of the Disciples feet by JESUS and his Sermon of 〈◊〉 p. 363. Discourse 19. Of the Institution and Reception of the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper p. 369. Considerations upon the Accidents happening on the Vespers of the Passion p. 383. Considerations upon the Scourging and other Accidents happening from the Apprehension till the Crucifixion of JESUS p. 389. Discourse 20. Of Death and the due manner of Preparation to it p. 397. Considerations upon the Crucifixion of the Holy JESUS p. 411. SECT XVI Of the Resurrection and
the Apostle says He that is in Christ walks as he also walked But thus the actions of our life relate to him by way of Worship and Religion but the use is admirable and effectual when our actions refer to him as to our Copy and we transcribe the Original to the life He that considers with what affections and lancinations of spirit with what effusions of love Jesus prayed what fervors and assiduity what innocency of wish what modesty of posture what subordination to his Father and conformity to the Divine Pleasure were in all his Devotions is taught and excited to holy and religious Prayer The rare sweetness of his deportment in all Temptations and violences of his Passion his Charity to his enemies his sharp Reprehensions to the Scribes and Pharisees his Ingenuity toward all men are living and effectual Sermons to teach us Patience and Humility and Zeal and candid Simplicity and Justice in all our actions I add no more instances because all the following Discourses will be prosecutions of this intendment And the Life of Jesus is not described to be like a Picture in a chamber of Pleasure only for beauty and entertainment of the eye but like the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks whose every feature is a Precept and the Images converse with men by sense and signification of excellent 〈◊〉 16. It was not without great reason advised that every man should propound the example of a wise and vertuous personage as Cato or Socrates or Brutus and by a fiction of imagination to suppose him present as a witness and really to take his life as the direction of all our actions The best and most excellent of the old Law-givers and Philosophers among the Greeks had an allay of Viciousness and could not be exemplary all over Some were noted for Flatterers as Plato and Aristippus some for Incontinency as Aristotle Epicurus Zeno Theognis Plato and Aristippus again and Socrates whom their Oracle affirmed to be the wisest and most perfect man yet was by Porphyry noted for extreme intemperance of Anger both in words and actions And those Romans who were offered to them for Examples although they were great in reputation yet they had also great Vices Brutus dipt his hand in the bloud of Caesar his Prince and his Father by love endearments and adoption and Cato was but a wise man all day at night he was used to drink too liberally and both he and Socrates did give their Wives unto their friends the Philosopher and the Censor were procurers of their Wives Unchastity and yet these were the best among the Gentiles But how happy and richly furnished are Christians with precedents of Saints whose Faith and Revelations have been productive of more spiritual Graces and greater degrees of moral perfections And this I call the priviledge of a very great assistance that I might advance the reputation and account of the Life of the Glorious Jesu which is not abated by the imperfections of humane Nature as they were but receives great heightnings and perfection from the Divinity of his Person of which they were never capable 17. Let us therefore press after Jesus as 〈◊〉 did after his Master with an inseparable prosecution even whithersoever he goes that according to the reasonableness and proportion expressed in S. Paul's advice As we have born the image of the earthly we may also bear the image of the heavenly For in vain are we called Christians if we live not according to the example and discipline of Christ the Father of the Institution When S. Laurence was in the midst of the torments of the Grid-iron he made this to be the matter of his joy and Eucharist that he was admitted to the Gates through which Jesus had entred and therefore thrice happy are they who walk in his Courts all their days And it is yet a nearer union and vicinity to imprint his Life in our Souls and express it in our exterior converse and this is done by him only who as S. Prosper describes the duty despises all those gilded vanities which he despised that fears none of those sadnesses which he suffered that practises or also teaches those Doctrines which he taught and hopes for the accomplishment of all his Promises And this is truest Religion and the most solemn Adoration The PRAYER OEternal Holy and most glorious Jesu who hast united two Natures of distance infinite descending to the lownesses of Humane nature that thou mightest exalt Humane nature to a participation of the Divinity we thy people that sate in darkness and in the shadows of death have seen great light to entertain our Understandings and enlighten our Souls with its excellent influences for the excellency of thy Sanctity shining gloriously in every part of thy Life is like thy Angel the Pillar of Fire which called thy children from the darknesses of Egypt Lord open mine eyes and give me power to behold thy righteous Glories and let my Soul be so entertained with affections and holy ardours that I may never look back upon the flames of 〈◊〉 but may follow thy Light which recreates and enlightens and guides us to the mountains of Safety and Sanctuaries of Holiness Holy Jesu since thy 〈◊〉 is imprinted on our Nature by Creation let me also express thy Image by all the parts of a holy life 〈◊〉 my Will and Affections to thy holy Precepts submitting my Understanding to thy Dictates and Lessons of perfection imitating thy sweetnesses and Excellencies of Society thy Devotion in Prayer thy Conformity to God thy Zeal tempered with Meekness thy Patience heightned with Charity that Heart and Hands and Eyes and all my Faculties may grow up with the increase of God till I come to the full measure of the 〈◊〉 of Christ even to be a perfect man in Christ Jesus that at last in thy light I may see light and reap the fruits of Glory from the seeds of Sanctity in the 〈◊〉 of thy holy Life O Blessed and Holy Saviour Jesus Amen THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF THE HOLY JESUS BEGINNING At the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin MARY until his Baptism and Temptation inclusively WITH CONSIDERATIONS and DISCOURSES upon the several parts of the Story And PRAYERS fitted to the several MYSTERIES THE FIRST PART Qui sequitur me non ambulat in Tenebris LONDON Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston 1675. THE LIFE Of our Blessed Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST The Evangelical Prophet Behold a Virgin shall conceive beare a son and shall call his name Immanuel Isa 7 14. Mat 1 22 23 The Annunciation S. LUKE 1. 28 Haile thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women SECT I. The History of the Conception of JESVS 1. WHen the fulness of time was come after the frequent repetition of Promises the expectation of the Jewish Nation the longings and tedious waitings of all holy persons the departure of the
is indeed presumed so but it was instituted to be a Seal of a Covenant between God and Abraham and Abraham's posterity a seal of the righteousness of Faith and therefore was not improper for him to suffer who was the child of Abraham and who was the Prince of the Covenant and the author and finisher of that Faith which was consigned to 〈◊〉 in Circumcision But so mysterious were all the actions of Jesus that this one served many ends For 1. It gave demonstration of the verity of Humane nature 2. So he began to fulfil the Law 3. And took from himself the scandal of Uncircumcision which would eternally have prejudiced the Jews against his entertainment and communion 4. And then he took upon him that Name which declared him to be the Saviour of the World which as it was consummate in the bloud of the Cross so was it inaugurated in the bloud of Circumcision For when the eight days were accomplished for circumcising of the Child his name was called JESUS 3. But this holy Family who had laid up their joys in the eyes and heart of God longed till they might be permitted an address to the Temple that there they might present the Holy Babe unto his Father and indeed that he who had no other might be brought to his own house For although while he was a child he did differ nothing from a servant yet he was the Lord of the place It was his Father's house and he was the Lord of all and therefore when the days of the Purification were accomplished they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord to whom he was holy as being the first-born the first-born of his Mother the only-begotten son of his Father and the first-born of every creature And they did with him according to the Law of Moses offering a pair of Turtle-doves for his redemption 4. But there was no publick act about this Holy Child but it was attended by something miraculous and extraordinary And at this instant the Spirit of God directed a holy person into the Temple that he might feel the fulfilling of a Prophecy made to himself that he might before his death behold the Lord 's CHRIST and imbrace the glory and consolation of Israel and the light of the Gentiles in his arms for old Simeon came by the Spirit into the Temple and when the Parents brought in the Child Jesus then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and prophesied and spake glorious things of that Child and things sad and glorious concerning his Mother that the Child was set for the rising and falling of many in Israel for a sign that should be spoken against and the bitterness of that contradiction should pierce the heart of the holy Virgin-Mother like a Sword that her joy at the present accidents might be attempered with present revelation of her future trouble and the excellent favour of being the Mother of God might be crowned with the reward of Martyrdom and a Mother's love be raised up to an excellency great enough to make her suffer the bitterness of being transfixed with his love and sorrow as with a Sword 5. But old Anna the Prophetess came also in full of years and joy and found the reward of her long prayers and fasting in the Temple the long-looked-for redemption of Israel was now in the Temple and she saw with her eyes the Light of the World the Heir of Heaven the long-looked-for Messias whom the Nations had desired and expected till their hearts were faint and their eyes dim with looking farther and apprehending greater distances She also prophesied and gave thanks unto the Lord. But Joseph and his Mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him Ad SECT V. Considerations upon the Circumcision of the Holy Child JESVS 1. WHen eight days were come the Holy Jesus was circumcised and shed the first-fruits of his Bloud offering them to God like the prelibation of a Sacrifice and earnest of the great seas of effusion designed for his Passion not for the expiation of any stain himself had contracted for he was spotless as the face of the Sun and had contracted no wrinkle from the aged and polluted brow of Adam but it was an act of Obedience and yet of Choice and voluntary susception to which no obligation had passed upon him in the condition of his own person For as he was included in the vierge of Abraham's posterity and had put on the common outside of his Nation his Parents had intimation enough to pass upon him the Sacrament of the National Covenant and it became an act of excellent Obedience but because he was a person extraordinary and exempt from the reasons of Circumcision and himself in person was to give period to the Rite therefore it was an act of Choice in him and in both the capacities becomes a precedent of Duty to us in the first of Obedience in the second of Humility 2. But it is considerable that the Holy Jesus who might have pleaded his exemption especially in a matter of pain and dishonour yet chose that way which was more severe and regular so teaching us to be strict in our duties and sparing in the rights of priviledge and dispensation We pretend every indisposition of body to excuse us from penal duties from Fasting From going to Church and instantly we satisfie our selves with saying God will have mercy and not sacrifice so making our selves Judges of our own privileges in which commonly we are parties against God and therefore likely to pass unequal sentence It is not an easie argument that will bring us to the severities and rigours of Duty but we snatch at occasions of dispensation and therefore possibly may mistake the justice of the opportunities by the importunities of our desires However if this too much easiness be in any case excusable from sin yet in all cases it is an argument of infirmity and the regular observation of the Commandment is the surer way to Perfection For not every inconvenience of body is fit to be pleaded against the inconvenience of losing spiritual advantages but only such which upon prudent account does intrench upon the Laws of Charity or such whose consequent is likely to be impediment of a duty in a greater degree of loss than the present omission For the Spirit being in many perfections more eminent than the Body all spiritual improvements have the same proportions so that if we were just estimators of things it ought not to be less than a great incommodity to the Body which we mean to prevent by the loss of a spiritual benefit or the omission of a Duty he were very improvident who would lose a Finger for the good husbandry of saving a Ducat and it would be an unhandsome excuse from the duties of Repentance to pretend care of the Body The proportions and degrees of this are so nice and of so difficult determination that men are more apt to
acceptance to all Graces But I shall reduce this to particular and more minute considerations 5. First We shall best know that our Will is in the obedience by our prompt undertaking by our chearful managing by our swift execution for all degrees of delay are degrees of immorigerousness and unwillingness And since time is extrinsecal to the act and alike to every part of it nothing determines an action but the Opportunity without and the desires and Willingress within And therefore he who deliberates beyond his first opportunity and exteriour determination and appointment of the act brings fire and wood but wants a Lamb for the sacrifice and unless he offer up his Isaac his beloved Will he hath no ministery prepared for God's acceptance He that does not repent to day puts it to the Question whether he will repent at all or no. He that defers Restitution when all the Circumstances are fitted is not yet resolved upon the duty And when he does it if he does it against his will he does but do honorary Penance with a Paper upon his hat a Taper in his hand it may satisfie the Law but not satisfie his Conscience it neither pleases himself and less pleases God A Sacrifice without a Heart was a sad and ominous presage in the superstition of the Roman Augurs and so it is in the service of God for what the exhibition of the work is to man that the presentation of the Will is to God It is but a cold Charity to a naked begger to say God help thee and do nothing give him clothes and he feels your Charity But God who is the searcher of the heart his apprehension of actions relative to him is of the inward motions and addresses of the Will and without this our exteriour services are like the paying of a piece of mony in which we have defaced the image it is not currant 6. Secondly But besides the Willingness to do the acts of express command the readiness to do the Intimations and tacite significations of God's pleasure is the best testimony in the world that our Will is in the obedience Thus did the Holy Jesus undertake a Nature of infirmity and suffer a Death of shame and sorrow and became obedient from the Circumcision even unto the death of the Cross not staying for a Command but because it was his Father's pleasure Mankind should be redeemed For before the susception of it he was not a person subjicible to a Command It was enough that he understood the inclinations and designs of his Father's Mercies And therefore God hath furnished us with instances of uncommanded Piety to be a touchstone of our Obedience He that does but his endeavour about the express commands hath a bridle in his mouth and is restrained by violence but a willing spirit is like a greedy eye devours all it sees and hopes to make some proportionable returns and compensations of duty for his infirmity by taking in the intimations of God's pleasure When God commands Chastity he that undertakes a holy Coelibate hath great obedience to the command of Chastity God bids us give Alms of our increase he obeys this with great facility that sells all his goods and gives them to the poor And provided our hastiness to snatch at too much does not make us let go our duty like the indiscreet loads of too forward persons too big or too inconvenient and uncombin'd there is not in the world a greater probation of our prompt Obedience than when we look farther than the precise Duty swallowing that and more with our ready and hopeful purposes nothing being so able to do miracles as Love and yet nothing being so certainly accepted as Love though it could do nothing in productions and exteriour ministeries 7. Thirdly but God requires that our Obedience should have another excellency to make it a becoming present to the Divine acceptance our Understanding must be sacrificed too and become an ingredient of our Obedience We must also believe that whatsoever God commands is most fitting to be commanded is most excellent in it self and the best for us to do The first gives our Affections and desires to God and this also gives our Reason and is a perfection of Obedience not communicable to the duties we owe to Man For God only is Lord of this faculty and being the fountain of all wisdom therefore commands our Understanding because he alone can satisfie it We are bound to obey humane Laws but not bound to think the Laws we live under are the most prudent Constitutions in the World But God's Commandments are not only a lantern to our feet and a light unto our paths but a rule to our Reason and satisfaction to our Understandings as being the instruments of our address to God and conveyances of his Grace and manuductions to Eternity And therefore St. John Climacus defines Obedience to be An unexamined and unquestioned motion a voluntary death and sepulture of the Will a life without curiosity a laying aside our own discretion in the midst of the riches of the most excellent understandings 8. And certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations than is deposited in an obedient Understanding because that only can regulary produce the same affections it admits of fewer degrees and an infrequent alteration But the actions proceeding from the Appetite as it is determined by any other principle than a satisfied Understanding have their heightnings and their declensions and their changes and mutations according to a thousand accidents Reason is more lasting than Desire and with fewer means to be tempted but Affections and motions of appetite as they are procured by any thing so may they expire by as great variety of causes And therefore to serve God by way of Understanding is surer and in it self unless it be by the accidental increase of degrees greater than to serve him upon the motion and principle of passions and desires though this be fuller of comfort and pleasure than the other When Lot lived amongst the impure 〈◊〉 where his righteous Soul was in a continual agony he had few exteriour incentives to a pious life nothing to enkindle the sensible flame of burning desires toward Piety but in the midst of all the discouragements of the world nothing was left him but the way and precedency of a truly-informed Reason and Conscience Just so is the way of those wise souls who live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation where Piety is out of countenance where Austerity is ridiculous 〈◊〉 under persecution no Examples to lead us on there the Understanding is left to be the guide and it does the work the surest for this makes the duty of many to be certain regular and chosen constant integral and perpetual but this way is like the life of an unmarried or a retired person less of grief in it and less of joy But the way of serving God with the
these impurities and vanities Jesus hath redeemed all his Disciples and not only thrown out of his Temples all the impure rites of Flora and Cybele but also the trifling and unprofitable ceremonies of the more sober Deities not only Vices but useless and unprofitable Speculations and hath consecrated our Head into a Temple our Understanding to Spirit our Reason to Religion our Study to Meditation and this is the first part of the Sanctification of our Spirit 6. And this was the cause Holy Scripture commands the duty of Meditation in proportion still to the excellencies of Piety and a holy life to which it is highly and aptly instrumental Blessed is the man that meditates in the Law of the Lord day and night And the reason of the Proposition and the use of the Duty is expressed to this purpose Thy words have I hid in my heart that I should not sin against thee The placing and fixing those divine Considerations in our understandings and hiding them there are designs of high Christian prudence that they with advantage may come forth in the expresses of a holy life For what in the world is more apt and natural to produce Humility than to meditate upon the low stoopings and descents of the Holy Jesus to the nature of a Man to the weaknesses of a Child to the poverties of a Stable to the ignobleness of a Servant to the shame of the Cross to the pains of Cruelty to the dust of Death to the title of a Sinner and to the wrath of God By this instance Poverty is made honourable and Humility is sanctified and made noble and the contradictions of nature are amiable and 〈◊〉 for a wise election Thus hatred of sin shame of our selves confusion at the sense of humane misery the love of God confidence in his Promises desires of Heaven holy resolutions resignation of our own appetites 〈◊〉 to Divine will oblations of our selves Repentance and mortification are the proper emanations from Meditation of the sordidness of sin our proneness to it our daily miseries as issues of Divine vengeance the glories of God his infinite unalterable Veracity the satisfactions in the vision of God the rewards of Piety the rectitude of the Laws of God and perfection of his Sanctions God's supreme and paternal Dominion and his certain malediction of sinners and when any one of these Considerations is taken to pieces and so placed in the rooms of application that a piece of duty is conjoyned to a piece of the mystery and the whole office to the purchase of a grace or the extermination of a vice it is like opening our windows to let in the Sun and the Wind and Holiness is as proportioned an effect to this practice as Glory is to a persevering Holiness by way of reward and moral causality 7. For all the Affections that are in Man are either natural or by chance or by the incitation of Reason and discourse Our natural affections are not worthy the entertainments of a Christian they must be supernatural and divine that put us into the hopes of Perfection and Felicities and these other that are good unless they come by Meditation they are but accidental and set with the evening Sun But if they be produced upon the strengths of pious Meditation they are as perpetual as they are reasonable and excellent in proportion to the Piety of the principle A Garden that is watered with short and sudden showrs is more uncertain in its fruits and beauties than if a Rivulet waters it with a perpetual distilling and constant humectation And just such are the short emissions and unpremeditated resolutions of Piety begotten by a dash of holy rain from Heaven whereby God sometimes uses to call the careless but to taste what excellencies of Piety they neglect but if they be not produced by the Reason of Religion and the Philosophy of Meditation they have but the life of a Fly or a tall Gourd they come into the World only to say they had a Being you could scarce know their length but by measuring the ground they cover in their fall 8. For since we are more moved by material and sensible objects than by things merely speculative and intellectual and generals even in spiritual things are less perceived and less motive than particulars Meditation frames the understanding part of Religion to the proportions of our nature and our weakness by making some things more circumstantiate and material and the more spiritual to be particular and therefore the more applicable and the mystery is made like the Gospel to the Apostles Our eyes do see and our ears do hear and our hands do handle thus much of the word of life as is prepared for us in the Meditation 9. First And therefore every wise person that intends to furnish himself with affections of Religion or detestation against a Vice or glorifications of a Mystery still will proportion the Mystery and fit it with such circumstances of fancy and application as by observation of himself he knows aptest to make impression It was a wise design of Mark Antony when he would stir up the people to revenge the death of Caesar he brought his body to the pleading-place he shewed his wounds held up the rent mantle and shewed them the garment that he put on that night in which he beat the Nervii that is in which he won a victory for which his memory was dear to them he shewed them that wound which pierced his heart in which they were placed by so dear a love that he made them his heirs and left to their publick use places of delight and pleasure and then it was natural when he had made those things present to them which had once moved their love and his honour that grief at the loss of so honourable and so lov'd a person should succeed and then they were Lords of all their sorrow and revenge seldom slept in two beds And thus holy Meditation produces the passions and desires it intends it makes the object present and almost sensible it renews the first passions by a fiction of imagination it passes from the Paschal Parlour to Cedron it tells the drops of sweat and measures them and finds them as big as drops of bloud and then conjectures at the greatness of our sins it fears in the midst of Christ's Agonies it hears his groans it spies Judas his Lantern afar off it follows Jesus to Gabbatha and wonders at his innocence and their malice and feels the strokes of the Whip and shrinks the head when the Crown of Thorns is thrust hard upon his holy brows and at last goes step by step with Jesus and carries part of the Cross and is nailed fast with sorrow and compassion and dies with love For if the Soul be principle of its own actions it can produce the same effects by reflex acts of the Understanding when it is assisted by the Imaginative part as when it sees the thing
to be quitted But it is S. Chrysostom's Simile As a Lamb sucking the breast of its dam and Mother moves the head from one part to another till it hath found a distilling fontinel and then it fixes till it be satisfied or the 〈◊〉 cease dropping so should we in Meditation reject such materials as are barren like the tops of hills and six upon such thoughts which nourish and refresh and there dwell till the nourishment be drawn forth or so much of it as we can then temperately digest 14. Fifthly In Meditation strive rather for Graces than for Gifts for affections in the way of Vertue more than the overslowings of sensible Devotion and therefore if thou findest any thing by which thou mayest be better though thy spirit do not actually rejoyce or find any gust or relish in the manducation yet chuse it greedily For although the chief end of Meditation be Affection and not Determinations intellectual yet there is choice to be had of the Affections and care must be taken that the affections be desires of Vertue or repudiations and aversions from something criminal not joys and transportations spiritual comforts and complacencies for they are no part of our duty sometimes they are encouragements and sometimes rewards sometimes they depend upon habitude and disposition of body and seem great matters when they have little in them and are more bodily than spiritual like the gift of tears and yerning of the bowels and sometimes they are illusions and temptations at which if the Soul stoops and be greedy after they may prove like Hippomenes's golden Apples to Atalanta retard our course and possibly do some hazard to the whole race And this will be nearer reduced to practice if we consider the variety of matter which is fitted to the Meditation in several states of men travelling towards Heaven 15. For the first beginners in Religion are imployed in the mastering of their first Appetites casting out their Devils exterminating all evil customs lessening the proclivity of habits and countermanding the too-great forwardness of vicious inclinations and this which Divines call the Purgative way is wholly spent in actions of Repentance Mortification and Self-denial and therefore if a penitent person snatches at Comforts or the tastes of sensible Devotion his Repentance is too delicate it is but a rod of Roses and Jessamine If God sees the spirit broken all in pieces and that it needs a little of the oyl of gladness for its support and restitution to the capacities of its duty he will give it but this is not to be designed nor snatched at in the Meditation Tears of joy are not good expressions nor instruments of Repentance we must not gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles no refreshments to be looked for here but such only as are necessary for support and when God sees they are let not us trouble our selves he will provide them But the Meditations which are prompt to this Purgative way and practice of first beginners are not apt to produce delicacies but in the sequel and consequent of it Afterwards it brings forth the pleasant fruit of righteousness but for the present it hath no joy in it no joy of sense though much satisfaction to Reason And such are Meditations of the Fall of Angels and Man the Ejection of them from Heaven of our Parents from Paradise the Horrour and obliquity of Sin the Wrath of God the severity of his Anger Mortification of our body and spirit Self-denial the Cross of Christ Death and Hell and Judgment the terrours of an evil Conscience the insecurities of a Sinner the unreasonableness of Sin the troubles of Repentance the Worm and sting of a burthened spirit the difficulties of rooting out evil Habits and the utter abolition of Sin if these nettles bear honey we may fill our selves but such sweetnesses spoil the operations of these bitter potions Here therefore let your addresses to God and your mental prayers be affectionate desires of Pardon humble considerations of our selves thoughts of revenge against our Crimes designs of Mortification indefatigable solicitations for Mercy expresses of shame and confusion of face and he meditates best in the purgative way that makes these affections most operative and high 16. After our first step is taken and the punitive part of Repentance is resolved on and begun and put forward into good degrees of progress we then enter into the Illuminative way of Religion and set upon the acquist of Vertues and the purchase of spiritual Graces and therefore our Meditations are to be proportioned to the design of that imployment such as are considerations of the Life of Jesus Examples of Saints reasons of Vertue means of acquiring them designations of proper exercises to every pious habit the Eight Beatitudes the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost the Promises of the Gospel the Attributes of God as they are revealed to represent God to be infinite and to make us Religious the Rewards of Heaven excellent and select Sentences of holy persons to be as incentives of Piety These are the proper matter for Proficients in Religion But then the affections producible from these are love of vertue desires to imitate the Holy Jesus affections to Saints and holy persons conformity of choice subordination to God's will election of the ways of Vertue satisfaction of the Understanding in the ways of Religion and resolutions to pursue them in the midst of all discomforts and persecutions and our mental prayers or entercourse with God which are the present emanations of our Meditations must be in order to these affections and productions from those and in all these yet there is safety and piety and no seeking of our selves but designs of Vertue in just reason and duty to God and for his sake that is for his commandment And in all these particulars if there be such a sterility of spirit that there be no end served but of spiritual profit we are never the worse all that God requires of us is that we will live well and repent in just measure and right manner and he that doth so hath meditated well 17. From hence if a pious Soul passes to affections of greater sublimity and intimate and more immediate abstracted and immaterial love it is well only remember that the love God requires of us is an operative material and communicative love If ye love me keep my Commandments so that still a good life is the effect of the sublimest Meditation and if we make our duty sure behind us ascend up as high into the Mountain as you can so your ascent may consist with the securities of your person the condition of infirmity and the interests of your duty According to the saying of 〈◊〉 Our empty saying of 〈◊〉 and reciting verses in honour of his Name please not God so well as the imitation of him does advantage to us and a devout 〈◊〉 pleases the Spouse better than an idle Panegyrick Let your work
contagious 9. Thirdly And yet there is a degree of Mortification of spirit beyond this for the condition of our security may require that we not only deny to act our temptations or to please our natural desires but also to seek opportunities of doing displeasure to our affections and violence to our inclinations and not only to be indifferent but to chuse a contradiction and a denial to our strongest appetites to rejoyce in a trouble and this was the spirit of S. Paul I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations and We glory in it Which joy consists not in any sensitive pleasure any man can take in asflictions and adverse accidents but in a despising the present inconveniences and looking through the cloud unto those great felicities and graces and consignations to glory which are the effects of the Cross Knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed that was the incentive of S. Paul's joy And therefore as it may consist with any degree of Mortification to pray for the taking away of the Cross upon condition it may consist with God's glory and our ghostly profit so it is properly an act of this vertue to pray for the Cross or to meet it if we understand it may be for the interest of the spirit And thus S. Basil prayed to God to remove his violent pains of Head-ach but when God heard him and took away his pain and Lust came in the place of it he prayed to God to restore him his Head-ach again that cross was gain and joy when the removal of it was so full of danger and temptation And this the Masters of spiritual life call being crucified with Christ because as Christ chose the death and desired it by the appetites of the spirit though his flesh smarted under it and groaned and died with the burthen so do all that are thus mortified they place misfortunes and sadnesses amongst things eligible and set them before the eyes of their desire although the flesh and the desires of sense are factious and bold against such sufferings 10. Of these three degrees of interiour or spiritual Mortification the first is Duty the second is Counsel and the third is Perfection We sin if we have not the first we are in danger without the second but without the third we cannot be perfect as our heavenly Father is but shall have more of humane infirmities to be ashamed of than can be excused by the accrescencies and condition of our nature The first is only of absolute necessity the second is prudent and of greatest convenience but the third is excellent and perfect And it was the consideration of a wise man that the Saints in Heaven who understand the excellent glories and vast differences of state and capacities amongst beatified persons although they have no envy nor sorrows yet if they were upon earth with the same notion and apprehensions they have in Heaven would not for all the world lose any degree of Glory but mortifie to the greatest 〈◊〉 that their Glory may be a derivation of the greatest ray of light every degree being of compensation glorious and disproportionably beyond the inconsiderable troubles of the greatest Self-denial God's purpose is that we abstain from sin there is no more in the Commandment and therefore we must deny our selves so as not to admit a sin under pain of a certain and eternal curse but the other degrees of Mortification are by accident so many degrees of Vertue not being enjoyned or counselled for themselves but for the preventing of crimes and for securities of good life and therefore are parts and offices of Christian prudence which whosoever shall positively reject is neither much in love with Vertue nor careful of his own safety 11. Secondly But Mortification hath also some designs upon the Body For the Body is the Shop and Forge of the Soul in which all her designs which are transient upon external objects are framed and it is a good servant as long as it is kept in obedience and under discipline but he that breeds his servant delicately will find him contumacious and troublesome bold and confident as his son and therefore S. Paul's practice as himself gives account of it was to keep his body under and bring it into subjection lest he should become a 〈◊〉 away for the desires of the Body are in the same things in which themselves are satisfied so many injuries to the Soul because upon every one of the appetites a restraint is made and a law placed sor Sentinel that if we transgress the bounds fixt by the divine 〈◊〉 it becomes a sin now it is hard for us to keep them within compass because they are little more than agents merely natural and therefore cannot interrupt their act but covet and desire as much as they can without suspension or coercion but what comes from without which is therefore the more troublesome because all such restraints are against nature and without sensual pleasure And therefore this is that that S. Paul said When we were in the flesh the 〈◊〉 of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto Death For these pleasures of the body draw us as loadstones draw iron not for love but for prey and nutriment it feeds upon the iron as the bodily pleasures upon the life of the spirit which is lessened and impaired according as the gusts of the flesh grow high and sapid 12. He that seeds a Lion must obey him unless he make his den to be his prison Our Lusts are as wild and as cruel Beasts and unless they feel the load of fetters and of Laws will grow unruly and troublesome and increase upon us as we give them food and satisfaction He that is used to drink high Wines is sick if he hath not his proportion to what degree soever his custom hath brought his appetite and to some men Temperance becomes certain death because the inordination of their desires hath introduced a custom and custom hath increased those appetites and made them almost natural in their degree but he that hath been used to hard diet and the pure stream his 〈◊〉 are much within the limits of Temperance and his desires as moderate as his diet S. Jerom affirms that to be continent in the state of Widowhood is barder than to keep our Firgin pure and there is reason that then the Appetite should be harder to be restrained when it hath not been accustomed to be denied but satisfied in its freer solicitations When a fontinel is once opened all the symbolical humours run thither and issue out and it is not to be stopped without danger unless the humour be purged or diverted So is the satisfaction of an impure desire it opens the issue and makes way for the emanation of all impurity and unless the desire be mortified
of Religion And beside that the Presence of God serves to all this it hath also especial influence in the disimprovement of Temptations because it hath in it many things contrariant to the nature and efficacy of Temptations such as are Consideration Reverence Spiritual thoughts and the Fear of God for where-ever this consideration is actual there either God is highly despised or certainly feared In this case we are made to declare for our purposes are concealed only in an incuriousness and inconsideration but whoever considers God as present will in all reason be as religious as in a Temple the Reverence of which place Custom or Religion hath imprinted in the spirits of most men so that as Ahasuerus said of Haman Will he ravish the Queen in my own house aggravating the crime by the incivility of the circumstance God may well say to us whose Religion compells us to believe God every-where present since the Divine Presence hath made all places holy and every place hath a Numen in it even the Eternal God we unhallow the place and desecrate the ground whereon we stand supported by the arm of God placed in his heart and enlightned by his eye when we sin in so sacred a Presence 34. The second great instrument against Temptation is Meditation of Death Raderus reports that a certain Virgin to restrain the inordination of intemperate desires which were like thorns in her flesh and disturbed her spiritual peace shut her self up in a Sepulchre and for twelve years dwelt in that Scene of death It were good we did so too making Tombs and Coffins presential to us by frequent meditation For God hath given us all a definitive arrest in Adam and from it there lies no appeal but it is infallibly and unalterably 〈◊〉 for all men once to die or to be changed to pass from hence to a condition of Eternity good or bad Now because this law is certain and the time and the manner of its execution is uncertain and from this moment Eternity depends and that after this life the final sentence is irrevocable that all the pleasures here are sudden transient and unsatisfying and vain he must needs be a 〈◊〉 that knows not to distinguish moments from Eternity and since it is a condition of necessity established by Divine decrees and fixt by the indispensable Laws of Nature that we shall after a very little duration pass on to a condition strange not understood then unalterable and yet of great mutation from this even of greater distance from 〈◊〉 in which we are here than this is from the state of Beasts this when it is considered must in all reason make the same impression upon our understandings and affections which naturally all strange things and all great considerations are apt to do that is create resolutions and results passing through the heart of man such as are reasonable and prudent in order to our own 〈◊〉 that we neglect the vanities of the present Temptation and secure our future condition which will till Eternity it self expires remain such as we make it to be by our deportment in this short transition and passage through the World 35. And that this Discourse is reasonable I am therefore confirmed because I find it to be to the same purpose used by the Spirit of God and the wisest personages in the world My soul is always in my hand therefore do I keep thy Commandments said David he looked upon himself as a dying person and that restrained all his inordinations and so he prayed Lord teach me to number my days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom And therefore the AEgyptians used to serve up a Skeleton to their Feasts that the dissolutions and vapours of wine might be restrained with that bunch of myrrh and the vanities of their eyes chastised by that sad object for they thought it unlikely a man should be transported far with any thing low or vicious that looked long and often into the hollow eye-pits of a Death's head or dwelt in a Charnel-house And such considerations make all the importunity and violence of sensual desires to disband For when a man stands perpetually at the door of Eternity and as did John the Almoner every day is building of his Sepulchre and every night one day of our life is gone and passed into the possession of death it will concern us to take care that the door leading to Hell do not open upon us that we be not crusht to ruine by the stones of our grave and that our death become not a consignation to us to a sad Eternity For all the pleasures of the whole world and in all its duration cannot make recompence for one hour's torment in Hell and yet if wicked persons were to 〈◊〉 in Hell for ever without any change of posture or variety of torment beyond that session it were unsufferable beyond the indurance of nature and therefore where little less than infinite misery in an infinite duration shall punish the pleasures of sudden and transient crimes the gain of pleasure and the exchange of banks here for a condition of eternal and miserable death is a permutation 〈◊〉 to be made by none but fools and desperate persons who made no use of a reasonable Soul but that they in their perishing might be convinced of unreasonableness and die by their own fault 36. The use that wise men have made when they reduced this consideration to practice is to believe every day to be the last of their life for so it may be and for ought we know it will and then think what you would avoid or what you would do if you were dying or were to day to suffer death by sentence and conviction and that in all reason and in proportion to the strength of your consideration you will do every day For that is the sublimity of Wisdom to do those things living which are to be desired and chosen by dying persons An alarm of death every day renewed and pressed earnestly will watch a man so tame and soft that the precepts of Religion will dwell deep in his spirit But they that make a covenant with the grave and put the 〈◊〉 day far 〈◊〉 them they are the men that eat spiders and toads for meat greedily and a Temptation to them is as welcome as joy and they seldom dispute the point in behalf of Piety or Mortification for they that look upon Death at distance apprehend it not but in such general lines and great representments that describe it only as future and possible but nothing of its terrors or 〈◊〉 or circumstances of advantage are discernible by such an eye that disturbs its 〈◊〉 and discomposes the posture that the object may seem another thing than what it is truly and really S. Austin with his Mother Monica was led one day by a Roman Prator to 〈◊〉 the tomb of Caesar. Himself thus describes the Corps
natural nor gracious neither original nor derivative And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning whom if we neglect what is regularly prescribed to all that enter Heaven without any difference expressed or case reserved we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children but may weep as they that have no hope We may hope when our neglect was not the hinderance because God hath wholly taken the matter into his own hand and then it cannot miscarry and though we know nothing of the Children yet we know much of God's goodness but when God hath permitted it to us that is offered and permitted Children to our ministery what-ever happens to the Innocents we may well fear 〈◊〉 God will require the Souls at our hands and we cannot be otherwise secure but that it will be said concerning our children which S. Ambrose used in a case like this Anima illa potuit salva fieri si habuisset purgationem This Soul might have gone to God if it had been purified and washed We know God is good infinitely good but we know it is not at all good to tempt his goodness and he tempts him that leaves the usual way and pretends it is not made for him and yet hopes to be at his journey's end or expects to meet his Child in Heaven when himself shuts the door against him which for ought he knows is the only one that stands open S. Austin was severe in this Question against unbaptized Infants therefore he is called durus Pater Infantum though I know not why the original of that Opinion should be attributed to him since S. Ambrose said the same before him as appears in his words before quoted in the margent 25. And now that I have enumerated the Blessings which are consequent to Baptism and have also made apparent that Infants can receive these Blessings I suppose I need not use any other perswasions to bring Children to Baptism If it be certain they may receive these good things by it it is certain they are not to be hindred of them without the greatest impiety and sacriledge and uncharitableness in the world Nay if it be only probable that they receive these Blessings or if it be but possible they may nay unless it be impossible they should and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty Innocents to let their crying be unpitied and their natural misery eternally irremediable and their sorrows without remedy and their Souls no more capable of relief than their bodies of Physick and their death left with the sting in and their Souls without Spirits to go to God and no Angel-guardian to be assigned them in the Assemblies of the faithful and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God and God's Church All these are sad stories 26. There are in Scripture very many other probabilities to perswade the Baptism of Infants but because the places admit of divers interpretations the Arguments have so many diminutions and the certainty that is in them is too fine for 〈◊〉 understandings I have chosen to build the ancient Doctrines upon such principles which are more easie and certain and have not been yet sullied and rifled with the contentions of an adversary This only I shall observe That the words of our Blessed Lord Unless a man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be expounded to the exclusion of Children but the same expositions will also make Baptism not necessary for men for if they be both necessary ingredients Water and the Spirit then let us provide water and God will provide the Spirit if we bring wood to the Sacrifice he will provide a Lamb. And if they signifie distinctly one is ordinarily as necessary as the other and then Infants must be baptized or not be saved But if one be exegetical and explicative of the other and by Water and the Spirit is meant only the purification of the Spirit then where is the necessity of Baptism 〈◊〉 men It will be as the other Sacrament at most but highly convenient not simply necessary and all the other places will easily be answered if this be avoided But however these words being spoken in so 〈◊〉 a manner are to be used with fear and reverence and we must be infallibly sure by some certain infallible arguments that 〈◊〉 ought not to be baptized or we ought to fear concerning the 〈◊〉 of these decretery words I shall only add two things by way of Corollary to this Discourse 27. That the Church of God ever since her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath for very many Ages consisted almost wholly of Assemblies of them who have been 〈◊〉 in their Infancy and although in the 〈◊〉 callings of the Gentiles the chiefest and most frequent Baptisms were of converted and 〈◊〉 persons and believers yet from the beginning also the Church hath baptized the Infants of Christian Parents according to the Prophecy of Isaiah Behold I will list up my hands to the Gentiles and set up a standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders Concerning which I shall not only bring the testimonies of the matter of 〈◊〉 but either a report of an Apostolical Tradition or some Argument from the Fathers which will make their testimony more effectual in all that shall relate to the Question 28. The Author of the Book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy attributed to S. Denis the 〈◊〉 takes notice that certain unholy persons and enemies to the Christian Religion think it a ridiculous thing that Infants who as yet cannot understand the Divine Mysteries should be partakers of the Sacraments and that Professions and Abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names He answers that Holy men Governours of Churches have so taught having received a Tradition from their Fathers and Elders in Christ. By which answer of his as it appears that he himself was later than the Areopagite so it is so early by him affirmed that even then there was an ancient Tradition for the Baptism of Infants and the use of Godfathers in the ministery of the Sacrament Concerning which it having been so ancient a Constitution of the Church it were well if men would rather humbly and modestly observe than like scorners deride it in which they shew their own folly as well as immodesty For what 〈◊〉 or incongruity is it that our Parents natural or spiritual should stipulate for us when it is agreeable to the practice of all the laws and transactions of the world an effect of the Communion of Saints and of Christian Oeconomy For why may not Infants be stipulated for as well as we All were included in the stipulation made with Adam he made a losing bargain for himself and we smarted for his folly and if the
powers to reject any proposition and to believe well is an effect of a singular predestination and is a Gift in order to a Grace as that Grace is in order to Salvation But the insufficiency of an argument or disability to prove our Religion is so far from disabling the goodness of an ignorant man's Faith that as it may be as strong as the Faith of the greatest Scholar so it hath full as much excellency not of nature but in order to Divine acceptance For as he who believes upon the only stock of Education made no election of his Faith so he who believes what is demonstrably proved is forced by the demonstration to his choice Neither of them did 〈◊〉 and both of them may equally love the Article 3. So that since a 〈◊〉 Argument in a weak understanding does the same work that a strong Argument in a more 〈◊〉 and learned that is it convinces and makes Faith and yet neither of them is matter of choice if the thing believed be good and matter of 〈◊〉 or necessity the Faith is not rejected by God upon the weakness of the first nor accepted upon the strength of the latter principles when we are once in it will not be enquired by what entrance we passed thither whether God leads us or drives us in whether we come by Discourse or by Inspiration by the guide of an Angel or the conduct of Moses whether we be born or made Christians it is indifferent so we be there where we should be for this is but the gate of Duty and the entrance to Felicity For thus far Faith is but an act of the Understanding which is a natural Faculty serving indeed as an instrument to Godliness but of it self no part of it and it is just like fire producing its act inevitably and burning as long as it can without power to interrupt or suspend its action and therefore we cannot be more pleasing to God for understanding rightly than the fire is for burning clearly which puts us evidently upon this consideration that Christian Faith that glorious Duty which gives to Christians a great degree of approximation to God by Jesus Christ must have a great proportion of that ingredient which makes actions good or bad that is of choice and effect 4. For the Faith of a Christian hath more in it of the Will than of the Understanding Faith is that great mark of distinction which separates and gives formality to the Covenant of the Gospel which is a Law of Faith The Faith of a Christian is his Religion that is it is that whole conformity to the Institution or Discipline of Jesus Christ which distinguishes him from the believers of false Religions And to be one of the faithful signifies the same with being a Disciple and that contains Obedience as well as believing For to the same sense are all those appellatives in Scripture the Faithful Brethren Believers the Saints Disciples all representing the duty of a Christian A Believer and a Saint or a holy person is the same thing Brethren signifies Charity and Believers Faith in the intellectual sence the Faithful and Disciples signifie both for besides the consent to the Proposition the first of them is also used for Perseverance and Sanctity and the greatest of Charity mixt with a confident Faith up to the height of Martyrdom Be faithful unto the death said the Holy Spirit and I will give thee the Crown of life And when the Apostles by way of abbreviation express all the body of Christian Religion they call it Faith working by Love which also S. Paul in a parallel place calls a New Creature it is a keeping of the Commandments of God that is the Faith of a Christian into whose desinition Charity is ingredient whose sence is the same with keeping of God's Commandments so that if we desine Faith we must first distinguish it The faith of a natural person or the saith of Devils is a 〈◊〉 believing a certain number of Propositions upon conviction of the Understanding But the Faith of a Christian the Faith that justifies and saves him is Faith working by Charity or Faith keeping the Commandments of God They are distinct Faiths in order to different ends and therefore of different constitution and the instrument of distinction is Charity or Obedience 5. And this great Truth is clear in the perpetual testimony of Holy Scripture For Abraham is called the Father of the Faithful and yet our Blessed Saviour told the Jews that if they had been the sons of Abraham they would have done the works of Abraham and therefore Good works are by the Apostle called the sootsteps of the Faith of our Father Abraham For Faith in every of its stages at its first beginning at its increment at its greatest perfection is a Duty made up of the concurrence of the Will and the Understanding when it pretends to the Divine acceptance Faith and Repentance begin the Christian course Repent and believe the Gospel was the summ of the Apostles Sermons and all the way after it is Faith working by Love Repentance puts the first spirit and life into Faith and Charity preserves it and gives it nourishment and increase it self also growing by a mutual supply of spirits and nutriment from Faith Whoever does heartily believe a Resurrection and Life eternal upon certain Conditions will certainly endeavour to acquire the Promises by the Purchase of Obedience and observation of the Conditions For it is not in the nature or power of man directly to despise and reject so 〈◊〉 a good So that Faith supplies Charity with argument and maintenance and Charity supplies Faith with life and motion Faith makes Charity reasonable and Charity makes Faith living and effectual And therefore the old Greeks called Faith and Charity a miraculous Chariot or Yoke they bear the burthen of the Lord with an equal consederation these are like 〈◊〉 twins they live and die together Indeed Faith is the first-born of the twins but they must come both at a birth or else they die being strangled at the gates of the womb But if Charity like Jacob lays hold upon his elder brother's heel it makes a timely and a prosperous birth and gives certain title to the eternal Promises For let us give the right of primogeniture to Faith yet the Blessing yea and the Inheritance too will at last fall to Charity Not that Faith is disinherited but that Charity only enters into the possession The nature of Faith passes into the excellency of Charity before they can be rewarded and that both may have their estimate that which justifies and saves us keeps the name of Faith but doth not do the deed till it hath the nature of Charity For to think well or to have a good opinion or an excellent or a fortunate understanding entitles us not to the love of God and the consequent inheritance but to chuse the ways of the Spirit and
desertions and anguish of spirit expecting all should work together for the best according to the promise if you can strengthen your selves in God when you are weakest believe when you see no hope and entertain no jealousies or suspicions of God though you see nothing to make you confident then and then only you have Faith which in conjunction with its other parts is able to save your Souls For in this precise duty of trusting God there are the rays of hope and great proportions of Charity and Resignation 17. The summ is that pious and most Christian sentence of the Author of the ordinary Gloss To believe in God through Jesus Christ is by believing to love him to adhere to him to be united to him by Charity and Obedience and to be incorporated into Christ ' s mystical body in the Communion of Saints I conclude this with a collation of certain excellent words of S. Paul highly to the present purpose Examine your selves Brethren whether ye be in the Faith prove your own selves Well but how Know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates There 's the touchstone of Faith If Jesus Christ dwells in us then we are true Believers if he does not we are Reprobates we have no Faith But how shall we know whether Christ be in us or no Saint Paul tells us that too If Christ be in you the body is dead by reason of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That 's the Christian's mark and the Characteristick of a true Believer A death unto sin and a living unto righteousness a mortified body and a quickned spirit This is plain enough and by this we see what we must trust to A man of a wicked life does in vain hope to be saved by his Faith for indeed his Faith is but equivocal and dead which as to his purpose is just none at all and therefore let him no more deceive himself For that I may still use the words of S. Paul This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works For such and such only in the great scrutiny for Faith in the day of Doom shall have their portion in the bosom of faithful Abraham The PRAYER I. O Eternal GOD 〈◊〉 of all Truth and Holiness in whom to believe is life eternal let thy Grace descend with a mighty power into my Soul beating down every strong hold and vainer imagination and bringing every proud thought and my confident and ignorant understanding into the obedience of Jesus Take from me all disobdience and refractoriness of spirit all ambition and private and baser interests remove from me all prejudice and weakness of perswasion that I may wholly resign my Understanding to the perswasions of Christianity acknowledging Thee to be the principle of Truth and thy Word the measure of Knowledge and thy Laws the rule of my life and thy Promises the satisfaction of my hopes and an union with thee to be the consummation of Charity in the fruition of Glory Amen II. HOly JESUS make me to acknowledge thee to be my Lord and Master and my self a Servant and Disciple of thy holy Discipline and Institution let me love to sit at thy feet and suck in with my ears and heart the sweetness of thy holy Sermons Let my Soul be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace with a peaceable and docile disposition Give me great boldness in the publick Confession of thy Name and the Truth of thy Gospel in despite of all hostilities and temptations And grant I may always remember that thy Name is called upon me and I may so behave my self that I neither give scandal to others nor cause disreputation to the honour of Religion but that thou mayest be glorified in me and I by thy mercies after a strict observance of all the holy Laws of Christianity Amen III. O Holy and ever-Blessed SPIRIT let thy gracious influences be the perpetual guide of my rational Faculties Inspire me with Wisdom and Knowledge spiritual Understanding and a holy Faith and sanctifie my Faith that it may arise up to the confidence of Hope and the adherencies of Charity and be fruitful in a holy Conversation Mortifie in me all peevishness and pride of spirit all heretical dispositions and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine that when the eternal Son of God the Author and Finisher of our Faith shall come to make scrutiny and an inquest for Faith I may receive the Promises laid up for them that believe in the Lord Jesus and wait for his coming in holiness and purity to whom with the Father and thee O Blessed Spirit be all honour and eternal adoration payed with all sanctity and joy and Eucharist now and for ever Amen SECT XI Of CHRIST's going to Jerusalem to the Passeover the first time after his Manifestation and what followed till the expiration of the Office of John the Baptist. The Visitation of the Temple Marke 11. 15. And Iesus went into y e Temple began to cast out them that sold bought in y e Temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers 16. And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the Temple The Conference with Nicodemus Iohn 3. 9. Nicodemus answered said unto him How can these things be 10. Iesus answered and sayd unto him Art thou a Master of Israel and knowest not these things 1. IMmediately after this Miracle Jesus abode a few days in Capernaum but because of the approach of the great Feast of Passeover he ascended to Jerusalem and the first publick act of record that he did was an act of holy Zeal and Religion in behalf of the honour of the Temple For divers Merchants and Exchangers of money made the Temple to be the Market and the Bank and brought Beasts thither to be sold for sacrifice against the great Paschal Solemnity At the sight of which Jesus being moved with zeal and indignation made a whip of cords and drave the Beasts out of the Temple overthrew the accounting Tables and commanded them that sold the Doves to take them from thence For his anger was holy and he would mingle no injury with it and therefore the Doves which if let loose would be detrimental to the owners he caused to be fairly removed and published the Religion of Holy places establishing their Sacredness for ever by his first Gospel-Sermon that he made at Jerusalem Take these things hence Make not my Father's House a house of merchandise for it shall be called a house of Prayer to all Nations And being required to give a sign of his Vocation for this being an action like the Religion of the Zelots among the Jews if it was not attested by something extraordinary might be abused into an excess of liberty he only foretold the
he heavy to sleep rested on a pillow and slept soundly as weariness meekness and innocence could make him insomuch that a violent storm the chiding of the winds and waters which then happened could not awake him till the ship being almost covered with broken billows and the impetuous dashings of the waters the men already sunk in their spirits and the ship like enough to sink too the Disciples awaked him and called for help Master carest thou not that we perish Jesus arising reproved their infidelity commanded the wind to be still and the seas peaceable and immediately there was a great calm and they presently arrived in the land of the Gergesenes or Gerasenes 15. In the land of Gergesites or Gergesenes which was the remaining name of an extinct people being one of the Nations whom the sons of Jacob drave from their inheritance there were two Cities Gadara from the tribe of Gad to whom it fell by lot in the Division of the Land which having been destroyed by the Jews was rebuilt by Pompey at the request of Demetrius Gadarensis Pompey's freed man and near to it was Gerasa as Josephus reports which diversity of Towns and names is the cause of the various recitation of this story by the Evangelists Near the City of Gadara there were many sepulchres in the hollownesses of rocks where the dead were buried and where many superstitious persons used Memphitick and Thessalick rites invocating evil spirits insomuch that at the instant of our Saviour's arrival in the Countrey there met him two possessed with Devils from these tombs exceeding fierce and so had been long insomuch that no man durst pass that way 16. Jesus commanded the Devils out of the possessed persons but there were certain men feeding swine which though extremely abominated by the Jewish Religion yet for the use of the Roman armies and quarterings of souldiers they were permitted and divers priviledges granted to the Masters of such herds and because Gadara was a Greek City and the company mingled of Greeks Syrians and Jews these last in all likelihood not making the greatest number the Devils therefore besought Jesus he would not send them into the abysse but permit them to enter into the Swine He gave them leave and the swine ran violently down a steep place into the hot baths which were at the foot of the hill on which Gadara was built which smaller congregation of waters the Jews used to call Sea or else as others think into the Lake of Genesareth and perished in the waters But this accident so troubled the inhabitants that they came and intreated Jesus to depart out of their coasts And he did so leaving Galilee of the Gentiles he came to the lesser Galilee and so again to the City of Capernaum 17. But when he was come thither he was met by divers Scribes and Pharisees who came from Jerusalem and Doctors of the Law from Galilee and while they were sitting in a house which was encompassed with multitudes that no business or necessity could be admitted to the door a poor Paralytick was brought to be cured and they were fain to uncover the tiles of the house and let him down in his bed with cords in the midst before Jesus sitting in conference with the Doctors When Jesus saw their Faith he said Man thy sins be forgiven thee At which saying the Pharisees being troubled thinking it to be blasphemy and that none but God could forgive sins Jesus was put to 〈◊〉 his absolution which he did in a just satisfaction and proportion to their understandings For the Jews did believe that all afflictions were punishments 〈◊〉 sin Who sinned this man or his Father that he was born blind and that removing of the punishment was forgiving of the sin And therefore Jesus to prove that his sins were forgiven removed that which they supposed to be the effect of his sin and by curing the Palsie prevented their farther murmur about the Pardon That ye might know the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins he saith to the sick of the Palsie Arise take up thy bed and walk And the man arose was healed and glorified God 18. A while after Jesus went again toward the Sea and on his way seeing Matthew the Publican sitting at the receit of custom he bad him follow him Matthew first feasted Jesus and then became his Disciple But the Pharisees that were with him began to be troubled that he ate with Publicans and sinners For the office of Publican though amongst the Romans it was honest and of great account and the flower of the Roman Knights the ornament of the City the security of the Commonwealth was accounted to consist in the society of Publicans yet amongst both the Jews and Greeks the name was odious and the persons were accursed not only because they were strangers that were the chief of them who took in to them some of the Nation where they were imployed but because the Jews especially stood upon the Charter of their Nation and the priviledge of their Religion that none of them should pay tribute and also because they exercised great injustices and oppressions having a power unlimited and a covetousness wide as hell and greedy as the fire or the grave But Jesus gave so fair an account concerning his converse with these persons that the Objection turned to be his Apology for therefore he conversed with them because they were sinners and it was as if a Physician should be reproved for having so much to do with sick persons for therefore was he sent not to call the righteous but sinners to Repentance to advance the reputation of Mercy above the rites of Sacrifice 19. But as the little bubbling and gentle murmurs of the water are presages of a Storm and are more troublesome in their prediction than their violence so were the arguings of the Pharisees symptoms of a secret displeasure and an ensuing war though at first represented in the civilities of Question and scholastical 〈◊〉 yet they did but fore-run vigorous objections and bold calumnies which were the fruits of the next Summer But as yet they discoursed fairly asking him why John's Disciples fasted often but the Disciples of Jesus did not fast Jesus told them it was because these were the days in which the Bridëgroom was come in person to espouse the Church unto himself and therefore for the children of the bride-chamber to fast then was like the bringing of a dead corps to the joys of a Bride or the pomps of Coronation the days should come that the Bridegroom should retire into his chamber and draw the curtains and then they should fast in those days 20. While Jesus was discoursing with the Pharisees Jairus a Ruler of the Synagogue came to him desiring he would help his Daughter who lay in the confines of death ready to depart Whither as he was going a woman met him who had been diseased
with an issue of bloud twelve years without hope of remedy from art or nature and therefore she runs to Jesus thinking without precedent upon the confident perswasions of a holy Faith that if she did but touch the hem of his garment she should be whole She came trembling and full of hope and reverence and touched his garment and immediately the 〈◊〉 of her unnatural emanation was stopped and reverted to its natural course and offices S. Ambrose says that this woman was Martha But it is not likely that she was a Jewess but a Gentile because of that return which she made in memory of her cure and honour of Jesus according to the Gentile rites For Eusebius reports that himself saw at Caesarea Philippi a Statue of 〈◊〉 representing a woman kneeling at the feet of a goodly personage who held his hand out to her in a posture of granting her request and doing favour to her and the inhabitants said it was erected by the care and cost of this woman adding whether out of truth or easiness is not certain that at the pedestal of this Statue an usual plant did grow which when it was come up to that maturity and height as to arrive at the fringes of the brass monument it was medicinal in many dangerous diseases So far Eusebius Concerning which story I shall make no censure but this that since S. Mark and S. Luke affirm that this woman before her cure had spent all her substance upon Physicians it is not easily imaginable how she should become able to dispend so great a summ of money as would purchase two so great Statues of brass and if she could yet it is still more unlikely that the Gentile Princes and Proconsuls who searched all places publick and private and were curiously diligent to destroy all honorary monuments of Christianity should let this alone and that this should escape not only the diligence of the Persecutors but the fury of such Wars and changes as happened in Palestine and that for three hundred years together it should stand up in defiance of all violences and changeable fate of all things However it be it is certain that the Book against Images published by the command of Charles the Great 850 years ago gave no credit to the story and if it had been true it it more than probable that Justin Martyr who was born and bred in Palestine and Origen who lived many years in Tyre in the neighbourhood of the place where the Statue is said to stand and were highly diligent to heap together all things of advantage and reputation to the Christian cause would not have omitted so notable an instance It is therefore likely that the Statues which Eusebius saw and concerning which he heard such stories were first placed there upon the stock of a heathen story or Ceremony and in process of time for the likeness of the figures and its capacity to be translated to the Christian story was by the Christians in after-Ages attributed by a fiction of fancy and afterwards by credulity confidently applied to the present Narrative 21. When Jesus was come to the Ruler's house he found the minstrels making their funeral noises for the death of Jairus's daughter and his servants had met him and acquainted him of the death of the child yet Jesus turned out the minstrels and entred with the parents of the child into her chamber and taking her by the hand called her and awakened her from her sleep of death and commanded them to give her to eat and enjoyned them not to publish the Miracle But as 〈◊〉 suppressed by violent detentions break out and rage with a more impetuous and rapid motion so it happened to Jesus who endeavouring to make the noises and reports of him less popular made them to be 〈◊〉 for not only we do that most greedily from which we are most restrained but a great merit enamell'd with humility and restrained with modesty grows more beautious and florid up to the heights of wonder and glories 22. As he came from Jairus's house he cured two blind men upon their petition and confession that they did believe in him and cast out a dumb Devil so much to the wonder and amazement of the people that the Pharisees could hold no longer being ready to burst with envy but said he cast out Devils by help of the Devils Their malice being as usually it is contradictory to its own design by its being unreasonable nothing being more sottish than for the Devil to divide his kingdom upon a plot to ruine his certainties upon hopes future and contingent But this was but the first eruption of their malice all the year last past which was the first year of Jesus's Preaching all was quiet neither the Jews nor the Samaritans nor the Galileans did malign his Doctrine or Person but he preached with much peace on all hands for this was the year which the Prophet Isaiah called in his prediction the acceptable year of the Lord. Ad SECT XII Considerations upon the Entercourse happening between the Holy Jesus and the Woman of Samaria The Woman of Samaria Iohn 4 7. There cemeth a woman of Samaria to draw water Iesus saith unto her giue me to drink 9. Then saith the Woman of Samaria unto him How is it that thou being a Iew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria The great draught of Fishes Luk. 5. 4. 5. etc. He said unto Simon Let down your nets for a draught And they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and when Simon Peter saw it he fell down att Jesus knees for he was astonished all that were with him at the draught of the fishes And Jesus said to Simon Fear not from henceforth thou shalt catch men 1. WHen the Holy Jesus perceiving it unsafe to be at Jerusálem returned to Galilee where the largest scene of his Prophetical Office was to be represented he journeyed on foot through Samaria and being weary and faint hungry and thirsty he sate down by a Well and begged water of a Samaritan woman that was a Sinner who at first refused him with some incivility of language But he in stead of returning anger and passion to her rudeness which was commenced upon the interest of a mistaken Religion preached the coming of the Messias to her unlock'd the secrets of her heart and let in his Grace and made a fountain of living water to spring up in her Soul to extinguish the impure flames of Lust which had set her on fire burning like Hell ever since the death of her fifth Husband she then becoming a Concubine to the sixth Thus Jesus transplanted Nature into Grace his hunger and thirst into religious appetites the darkness of the Samaritan into a clear revelation her Sin into Repentance and Charity and so quenched his own thirst by relieving her needs and as it was meat to him to do his Father's will so it was drink to
Souls let them have the diligence and the craft of Fishers the watchfulness and care of Shepherds the prudence of Politicks the tenderness of Parents the spirit of Government the wariness of Observation great knowledge of the dispositions of their people and experience of such advantages by means of which they may serve the ends of God and of Salvation upon their Souls 7. When Peter had received the fruits of a rich Miracle in the prodigious and prosperous draught of fishes he instantly falls down at the feet of Jesus and confesses himself a sinner and unworthy of the presence of Christ. In which confession I not only consider the conviction of his Understanding by the testimony of the Miracle but the modesty of his spirit who in his exaltation and the joy of a sudden and happy success retired into Humility and consideration of his own unworthiness lest as it happens in sudden joys the lavishness of his spirit should transport him to intemperance to looser affections to vanity and garishness less becoming the severity and government of a Disciple of so great a Master For in such great and sudden accidents men usually are dissolved and melted into joy and inconsideration and let fly all their severe principles and discipline of manners till as Peter here did though to another purpose they say to Christ Depart from me O Lord as if such excellencies of joys like the lesser Stars did disappear at the presence of him who is the fountain of all joys regular and just When the spirits of the Body have been bound up by the cold Winter air the warmth of the Spring makes so great an aperture of the passages and by consequence such dissolution of spirits in the presence of the Sun that it becomes the occasion of Fevers and violent diseases Just such a thing is a sudden Joy in which the spirits leap out from their cells of austerity and sobriety and are warmed into Fevers and wildnesses and forfeiture of all Judgment and vigorous understanding In these accidents the best advice is to temper and allay our joys with some instant consideration of the vilest of our sins the shamefulness of our disgraces the most dolorous accidents of our lives the worst of our fears with meditation of Death or the terrours of Dooms-day or the unimaginable miseries of damned and accursed spirits For such considerations as these are good instruments of Sobriety and are correctives to the malignity of excessive Joys or temporal prosperities which like Minerals unless allayed by art prey upon the spirits and become the union of a contradiction being turned into mortal medicines 8. At this time Jesus preached to the people from the Ship which in the fancies and tropical discoursings of the old Doctors signifies the Church and declares that the Homilies of order and authority must be delivered from the Oracle they that preach must be sent and God hath appointed Tutors and Instructors of our Consciences by special designation and peculiar appointment if they that preach do not make their Sermons from the Ship their discourses either are the false murmurs of Hereticks and false Shepherds or else of Thieves and invaders of Authority or corrupters of Discipline and Order For God that loves to hear us in special places will also be heard himself by special persons and since he sent his Angels Ministers to convey his purposes of old then when the Law was ordained by Angels as by the hands of a Mediatour now also he will send his servants the sons of men since the new Law was ordained by the Son of man who is the Mediatour between God and man in the New Covenant And therefore in the Ship Jesus preach'd but he had first caused it to put off from land to represent to us that the Ship in which we preach must be put off from the vulgar communities of men separate from the people by the designation of special appointment and of special Holiness that is they neither must be common men nor of common lives but consecrated by order and hallowed by holy living lest the person want authority in destitution of a Divine Character and his Doctrine lose its energy and power when the life is vulgar and hath nothing in it holy and extraordinary 9. The Holy Jesus in the choice of his Apostles was resolute and determined to make election of persons bold and confident for so the Galilaeans were observed naturally to be and Peter was the boldest of the Twelve and a good Sword-man till the spirit of his Master had fastened his sword within the scabbard and charmed his spirit into quietness but he never chose any of the Scribes and Pharisees none of the Doctors of the Law but persons ignorant and unlearned which in design and institutions whose divinity is not demonstrated from other Arguments would seem an art of concealment and distrust But in this which derives its raies from the fountain of wisdom most openly and infallibly it is a contestation against the powers of the world upon the interests of God that he who does all the work might have all the glory and in the productions in which he is fain to make the instruments themselves and give them capacity and activity every part of the operation and causality and effect may give to God the same honour he had from the Creation for his being the only workman with the addition of those degrees of excellency which in the work of Redemption of Man are beyond that of his Creation and first being The PRAYER O Eternal Jesu Lord of the Creatures and Prince of the Catholick Church to whom all Creatures obey in acknowledgment of thy supreme Dominion and all according to thy disposition cooperate to the advancement of thy Kingdom be pleased to order the affairs and accidents of the world that all things in their capacity may do the work of the Gospel and cooperate to the good of the Elect and retrench the growth of Vice and advance the interests of Vertue Make all the states and orders of men Disciples of thy holy Institution Let Princes worship thee and defend Religion let thy Clergy do thee honour by personal zeal and vigilancy over their Flocks let all the world submit to thy Scepter and praise thy Righteousness and adore thy Judgments and revere thy Laws and in the multitudes of thy people within the enclosure of thy Nets let me also communicate in the offices of a strict and religious duty that I may know thy voice and obey thy call and entertain thy Holy Spirit and improve my talents that I may also communicate in the blessings of the Church and when the Nets shall be drawn to the shore and the Angels shall make separation of the good Fishes from the bad I may not be rejected or thrown into those Seas of fire which shall afflict the enemies of thy Kingdom but be admitted into the societies of Saints and the everlasting communion of
represented in ceremony by the Immersion appointed to be the Rite of that Sacrament And then it is that God pours forth together with the Sacramental waters a salutary and holy fountain of Grace to wash the Soul from all its stains and impure adherences And therefore this first access to Christ is in the style of Scripture called Regeneration the New Birth Redemption Renovation Expiation or Atonement with God and Justification And these words in the New Testament relate principally and properly to the abolition of sins committed before Baptism For we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation to declare his Rightcousness for the remission of sins that are past To declare I say at this time his righteousness And this is that which S. Paul calls Justification by Faith that boasting might be excluded and the grace of God by Jesus made exceeding glorious For this being the proper work of Christ the first entertainment of a Disciple and manifestation of that state which is first given him as a favour and next intended as a duty is a total abolition of the precedent guilt of sin and leaves nothing remaining that can condemn we then freely receive the intire and perfect effect of that Atonement which Christ made for us we are put into a condition of innocence and favour And this I say is done regularly in Baptism and S. Paul expresses it to this sense after he had enumerated a series of Vices subjected in many he adds and such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified There is nothing of the old guilt remanent when ye were washed ye were sanctified or as the Scripture calls it in another place Ye were redeemed from your vain conversation 5. For this Grace was the formality of the Covenant Repent and believe the Gospel Repent and be converted so it is in S. Peter's Sermon and your sins shall be done away that was the Covenant But that Christ chose Baptism for its signature appears in the Parallel Repent and be baptized and wash away your sins For Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish The Sanctification is integral the Pardon is universal and immediate 6. But here the process is short no more at first but this Repent and be baptized and wash away your sins which Baptism because it was speedily administred and yet not without the preparatives of Faith and Repentance it is certain those predispositions were but instruments of reception actions of great facility of small employment and such as supposing the person not unapt did confess the infiniteness of the Divine mercy and fulness of the redemption is called by the Apostle a being justified freely 7. Upon this ground it is that by the Doctrine of the Church heathen persons strangers from the 〈◊〉 of grace were invited to a confession of Faith and dereliction of false Religions with a promise that at the very first resignation of their persons to the service of Jesus they should obtain full pardon It was S. Cyprian's counsel to old Demetrianus Now in the evening of thy days when thy Soul'is almost expiring repent of thy sins believe in Jesus and turn Christian and although thou art almost in the embraces of death yet thou shalt be comprehended of immortality Baptizatus ad horam securus bine exit saith S. Austin A baptized person dying immediately shall live eternally and gloriously And this was the case of the Thief upon the Cross he confessed Christ and repented of his sins and begged pardon and did acts enough to facilitate his first access to Christ and but to remove the hindrances of God's favour then he was redeemed and reconciled to God by the death of Jesus that is he was pardoned with a full instantaneous integral and clear Pardon with such a pardon which declared the glory of God's mercies and the infiniteness of Christ's merits and such as required a more reception and entertainment on man's part 8. But then we having received so great a favour enter into Covenant to correspond with a proportionable endeavour the benefit of absolute Pardon that is Salvation of our Souls being not to be received till the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord all the intervall we have promised to live a holy life in obedience to the whole Discipline of Jesus That 's the condition on our part And if we prevaricate that the mercy shewn to the blessed Thief is no argument of hope to us because he was saved by the mercies of the first access which corresponds to the Remission of sins we receive in Baptism and we shall perish by breaking our own promises and obligations which Christ passed upon us when he made with us the Covenant of an intire and gracious Pardon 9. For in the precise Covenant there is nothing else described but Pardon so given and ascertained upon an Obedience persevering to the end And this is clear in all those places of Scripture which express a holy and innocent life to have been the purpose and design of Christ's death for us and redemption of us from the former estate Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead unto sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed Exinde from our being healed from our dying unto sin from our being buried with Christ from our being baptized into his death the end of Christ's dying for us is that we should live unto righteousness Which was also highly and prophetically expressed by S. Zachary in his divine Ecstasie This was the oath which he sware to our Fore-father Abraham That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies might serve him without fear In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life And S. Paul discourses to this purpose pertinently and largely For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts Hi sunt Angeli quibus in lavacro renunciavimus saith Tertullian Those are the evil Angels the Devil and his works which we deny or renounce in Baptism we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world that is lead a whole life in the pursuit of universal holiness Sobriety Justice and Godlinèss being the proper language to signifie our Religion and respects to God to our neighbours and to our selves And that this was the very end of our dying in Baptism and the design of Christ's manifestation of
nature and manner of the present communication Only this last because it is more malicious and a declension from a greater grace is something like the fall of Angels And of this the Emperour Julian was a sad example 19. But as these are degrees immediately next and a little less so the hopes of pardon are the more visible Simon Magiss spake a word or at least thought against the Holy Ghost he thought he was to be bought with mony Concerning him S. Peter pronounced Thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Yet repent pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee Here the matter was of great difficulty but yet there was a possibility 〈◊〉 at least no impossibility of recovery declared And therefore S. Jude bids us of some to have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire meaning that their condition is only not desperate And still in descent retaining the same proportion every lesser sin is easier pardoned as better consisting with the state of Grace the whole Spirit is not destroyed and the body of sin is not introduced Christ is not quite ejected out of possession but like an oppressed Prince still continues his claim and such is his mercy that he will still do so till all be lost or that he is provoked by too much violence or that Antichrist is put in substitution and sin reigns in 〈◊〉 mortal body So that I may use the words of Saint John These things I write unto you that ' you sin not But if any man sin we have an Advocate with the 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ the Righteous And he is a propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world That is plainly Although the design of the Gospel be that we should erect a Throne for Christ to reign in our spirits and this doctrine of Innocence be therefore preached that ye sin not yet if one be overtaken in a fault despair not Christ is our Advocate and he is the Propitiation he did propitiate the Father by his death and the benefit of that we receive at our first access to him but then he is our Advocate too and prays perpetually for our perseverance or restitution respectively But his purpose is and he is able so to do to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his Glory 20. This consideration I intend should relate to all Christians of the world And although by the present custom of the Church we are baptized in our infancy and do not actually reap that fruit of present Pardon which persons of a mature age in the primitive Church did for we yet need it not as we shall when we have past the calentures of Youth which was the time in which the wisest of our Fathers in Christ chose for their Baptism as appears in the instance of S. Ambrose S. Austin and divers others yet we must remember that there is a Baptism of the Spirit as well as of water and when-ever this happens whether it be together with that Baptism of water as usually it was when only men and women of years of discretion were baptized or whether it be ministred in the rite of Confirmation which is an admirable suppletory of an early Baptism and intended by the Holy Ghost for a corroborative of Baptismal grace and a defensative against danger or that lastly it be performed by an internal and merely spiritual Ministery when we by acts of our own election verifie the promise made in Baptism and so bring back the Rite by receiving the effect of Baptism that is when-ever the filth of our flesh is washt away and that we have the answer of a pure conscience towards God which S. Peter affirms to be the true Baptism and which by the purpose and design of God it is expected we should not defer longer than a great reason or a great necessity enforces when our sins are first explated and the sacrifice and death of Christ is made ours and we made God's by a more immediate title which at some time or other happens to all Christians that pretend to any hopes of Heaven then let us look to our standing and take heed lest we fall When we once have tasted of the heavenly gift and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come that is when we are redeemed by an actual mercy and presential application which every Christian that belongs to God is at some time or other of his life then a fall into a deadly crime is highly dangerous but a relapse into a contrary estate is next to desperate 21. I represent this sad but most true Doctrine in the words of S. Peter If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them So that a relapse after a state of Grace into a state of sin into confirmed habits is to us a great sign and possibly in it self it is more than a sign even a state of reprobation and final abscission 22. The summ of all is this There are two states of like opposite terms First Christ redeems us from our vain conversation and reconciles us to God putting us into an intire condition of Pardon Favour Innocence and Acceptance and becomes our Lord and King his Spirit dwelling and reigning in us The opposite state to this is that which in Scripture is called a crucifying the Lord of Life a doing despite to the Spirit of grace a being entangled in the pollutions of the world the Apostasie or falling away an impotency or disability to do good viz. of such who cannot cease from sin who are slaves of sin and in whom sin reigns in their bodies This condition is a full and integral deletery of the first it is such a condition which as it hath no Holiness or remanent affections to Vertue so it hath no hope or revelation of a mercy because all that benefit is lost which they received by the death of Christ and the first being lost there remains no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful expectation of Judgment But between these two states stand all those imperfections and single delinquencies those slips and falls those parts of recession and apostasie those grievings of the Spirit and so long as any thing of the first state is left so long we are within the Covenant of grace so long we are within the ordinary limits of mercy and the Divine compassion we are in possibilities of
fight when we contend earnestly against them and resist them unto bloud if need be that 's being pure as he is pure But besides this positive rejection of all evil and perpetually contesting against sin we must pursue the interests of Vertue and an active Religion 27. And besides this saith S. Peter giving all diligence add to your Faith Vertue to your Vertue Knowlege and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity All this is an evident prosecution of the first design the holiness and righteousness of a whole life the being clear from all spots and blemishes a being pure and so presented unto Christ for upon this the Covenant being founded to this all industries must endeavour and arrive in their proportions For if these things be in you and abound they shall make that you be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and hath forgotten he was purged from his old sins that is he hath lost his Baptismal grace and is put from the first state of his Redemption towards that state which is contradictory and destructive of it 28. Now because all these things are in latitude distance and divisibility and only injoyn a sedulity and great endeavour all that we can dwell upon is this That he who endeavours most is most secure and every degree of negligence is a degree of danger and although in the intermedial condition between the two states of Christianity and a full impiety there is a state of recovery and possibility yet there is danger in every part of it and it increases according as the deflection and irregularity comes to its height position state and finality So that we must give all diligence to work out our Salvation and it would ever be with fear and trembling with fear that we do not lose our innocence and with trembling if we have lost it for fear we never recover or never be accepted But Holiness of life and uninterrupted Sanctity being the condition of our Salvation the ingredient of the Covenant we must proportion our degrees of hope and confidence of Heaven according as we have obtained degrees of Innocence or Perseverance or Restitution Only this As it is certain he is in a state of reprobation who lives unto sin that is whose actions are habitually criminal who gives more of his consent to wickedness than to Vertue so it is also certain he is not in the state of God's favour and Sanctification unless he lives unto righteousness that is whose desires and purposes and endeavours and actions and customs are spiritual holy sanctified and obedient When sin is dead and the spirit is life when the Lusts of the flesh are mortified and the heart is purged from an evil conscience and we abound in a whole Systeme of Christian Vertues when our hearts are right to God and with our affections and our wills we love God and keep his Commandments when we do not only cry Lord Lord but also do his will then Christ dwells in us and we in Christ. Now let all this be taken in the lowest sence that can be imagined all I say which out of Scripture I have transcribed casting away every weight laying aside all malice mortifying the deeds of the flesh crucifying the old man with all his affections and lusts and then having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust besides this adding vertue to vertue till all righteousness be fulfilled in us walking in the light putting on the Lord Jesus purifying our selves as God is pure following peace with all men and holiness resisting unto bloud living in the Spirit being holy in all manner of conversation as he is holy being careful and excellent in all conversation and godliness all this being a pursuit of the first design of Christ's death and our reconcilement can mean no less but that 1. We should have in us no affection to a sin of which we can best judge when we never chuse it and never fall under it but by surprise and never lie under it at all but instantly recover judging our selves severely and 2. That we should chuse Vertue with great freedom of spirit and alacrity and pursue it earnestly integrally and make it the business of our lives and that 3. The effect of this be that sin be crucified in us and the desires to it dead flat and useless and that our desires of serving Christ be quick-spirited active and effective inquisitive for opportunities apprehensive of the offer chearful in the action and persevering in the employment 29. Now let a prudent person imagine what infirmities and over-sights can consist with a state thus described and all that does no violence to the Covenant God pities us and calls us not to an account for what morally cannot or certainly will not with great industry be prevented But whatsoever is inconsistent with this condition is an abatement from our hopes as it is a retiring from our duty and is with greater or less difficulty cured as are the degrees of its distance from that condition which Christ stipulated with us when we became his Disciples For we are just so restored to our state of grace and favour as we are restored to our state of purity and holiness Now this redintegration or renewing of us into the first condition is also called Repentance and is permitted to all persons who still remain within the powers and possibilities of the Covenant that is who are not in a state contradictory to the state and portion of Grace but with a difficulty increased by all circumstances and incidences of the crime and person And this I shall best represent in repeating these considerations 1. Some sins are past hopes of Pardon in this life 2. All that are pardoned are pardoned by parts revocably and imperfectly during this life not quickly nor yet manifestly 3. Repentance contains in it many operations parts and imployments its terms and purpose being to redintegrate our lost condition that is in a second and less perfect sence but as much as in such circumstances we can to verifie our first obligations of innocence and holiness in all manner of conversation and godliness 30. Concerning the first it is too sad a consideration to be too dogmatical and conclusive in it and therefore I shall only recall those expresses of Scripture which may without envy decree the article such as are those of S. Paul that there is a certain sort of men whom he twice describes whom it is impossible to renew again unto Repentance or those of S. Peter such whose latter end is worse than the beginning because after they once had escaped the pollutions of the world they are intangled therein such who as our Blessed Saviour threatens shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come
the same Saint When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord but if we would judge our selves we should not be judged where he expounds judged by chastened if we were severer to our selves God would be gentle and 〈◊〉 And there are only these two cautions to be annexed and then the direction is sufficient 1. That when promise of Pardon is annexed to any of these or another Grace or any good action it is not to be understood as if alone it were effectual either to the abolition or pardon of sins but the promise is made to it as to a member of the whole body of Piety In the coadunation and conjunction of parts the title is firm but not at all in distinction and separation For it is certain if we fail in one we are guilty of all and therefore cannot be repaired by any one Grace or one action or one habit And therefore Charity hides a multitude of sins with men and God too Alms deliver from death 〈◊〉 pierceth the clouds and will not depart before its answer be gracious and Hope purifieth and makes not ashamed and Patience and Faith and Piety to parents and Prayer and the eight Beatitudes have promises of this life and of that which is to come respectively and yet nothing will obtain these promises but the harmony and uniting of these Graces in a holy and habitual confederation And when we consider the Promise as singularly relating to that one Grace it is to be understood comparatively that is such persons are happy if compared with those who have contrary dispositions For such a capacity does its portion of the work towards complete Felicity from which the contrary quality does estrange and disintitle us 2. The special and minute actions and instances of these three preparatives of Repentance are not under any command in the particulars but are to be disposed of by Christian prudence in order to those ends to which they are most aptly instrumental and designed such as are Fasting and corporal severities in Satisfaction or the punitive parts of Repentance they are either vindictive of what is past and so are proper acts or effects of Contrition and godly sorrow or else they relate to the present and future estate and are intended for correction or emendation and so are of good use as they are medicinal and in that proportion not to be omitted And so is Confession to a Spiritual person an excellent instrument of Discipline a bridle of intemperate Passions an opportunity of Restitution Ye which are spiritual 〈◊〉 such a person overtaken in a fault saith the Apostle it is the application of a remedy the consulting with a guide and the best security to a weak or lapsed or an ignorant person in all which cases he is 〈◊〉 to judge his own questions and in these he is also committed to the care and conduct of another But these special instances of Repentance are capable of suppletories and are like the corporal works of Mercy necessary only in time and place and in accidental obligations He that relieves the poor or visits the sick chusing it for the instance of his Charity though he do not redeem captives is charitable and hath done his Alms. And he that cures his sin by any instruments by external or interiour and spiritual remedies is penitent though his diet be not 〈◊〉 and afflictive or his lodging hard or his sorrow bursting out into tears or his expressions passionate and dolorous I only add this that acts of publick Repentance must be by using the instruments of the Church such as she hath appointed of private such as by experience or by reason or by the counsel we can get we shall learn to be most effective of our penitential purposes And yet it is a great argument that the exteriour expressions of corporal severities are of good benefit because in all Ages wise men and severe Penitents have chosen them for their instruments The PRAYER O Eternal God who wert pleased in mercy to look upon us when we were in our 〈◊〉 to reconcile us when we were enemies to forgive us in the midst of our provocations of thy infinite and eternal Majesty finding out a remedy for us which man-kind could never ask even making an atonement for us by the death of thy Son sanctifying us by the bloud of the everlasting Covenant and thy all-hallowing and Divinest Spirit let thy 〈◊〉 so perpetually assist and encourage my endeavours conduct my will and fortifie my intentions that 〈◊〉 may persevere in that holy condition which thou hast put me in by the grace of the Covenant and the mercies of the Holy Jesus O let me never fall into those sins and retire to that vain conversation from which the eternal and merciful Saviour of the World hath redeemed me but let me grow in Grace adding Vertue to vertue reducing my purposes to act and increasing my acts till they grow into habits and my habits till they be confirmed and still confirming them till they be consummate in a blessed and holy perseverance Let thy Preventing grace dash all Temptations in their approach let thy Concomitant grace enable me to resist them in the assault and overcome them in the fight that my hopes be never discomposed nor my Faith weakned nor my confidence made remiss or my title and portion in the Covenant be lessened Or if thou permittest me at any time to 〈◊〉 which Holy Jesu avert for thy mercy and compession sake yet let me not sleep in sin but recall me instantly by the clamours of a nice and tender Conscience and the quickning Sermons of the Spirit that I may never pass from sin to sin from one degree to another lest sin should get the dominion over me lest thou be angry with me and reject me from the Covenant and I perish Purifie me from all 〈◊〉 sanctifie my spirit that I may be holy as thou art and let me never provoke thy jealousie nor presume upon thy goodness nor distrust thy mercies nor 〈◊〉 my Repentance nor rely upon vain confidences but that I may by a constant sedulous and timely endeavour make my calling and election sure living to thee and dying to thee that having sowed to the Spirit I may from thy mercies reap in the Spirit bliss and eternal sanctity and everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Saviour our hope and our mighty and ever-glorious Redeemer Amen Vpon Christ ' s Sermon on the Mount and of the Eight Beatitudes Moses delivers the Law Joh. 1. 17. The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Iesus Christ. These words the Lord spake unto all the Assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire with a great voice he wrote them in two Tables of stone delivered them unto me Deut. 5. 22. Christ preaches in the Mount He went up into a mountain opened his mouth taught them saying Blessed are the poor in
of Christ's servants the Apostles and the Primitive Christians had no other verification of this Promise but this that rejoycing in tribulation and knowing how to want as well as how to abound through many tribulations they entered into the Kingdom of Heaven For that is the Countrey in which they are co-heirs with Jesus But if we will certainly understand what this reward is we may best know it by understanding the duty and this we may best learn from him that gave it in commandment Learn of me for I am meek said the Holy Jesus and to him was promised that the uttermost ends of the earth should be his inheritance and yet he died first and went to Heaven before it was verified to him in any sense but only of content and desire and joy in suffering and in all variety of accident And thus also if we be meek we may receive the inheritance of the Earth 10. The acts of this Grace are 1. To submit to all the instances of Divine Providence not repining at any accident which God hath chosen for us and given us as part of our lot or a punishment of our deserving or an instrument of vertue not envying the gifts graces or prosperities of our neighbours 2. To pursue the interest and imployment of our calling in which we are placed not despising the meanness of any work though never so disproportionable to our abilities 3. To correct all malice wrath evil-speaking and inordinations of anger whether in respect of the object or the degree 4. At no hand to entertain any thoughts of revenge or retaliation of evil 5. To be affable and courteous in our deportment towards all persons of our society and entercourse 6. Not to censure or reproach the weakness of our neighbour but support his burthen cover and cure his infirmities 7. To excuse what may be excused lessening severity and being gentle in reprehension 8. To be patient in afflictions and thankful under the Cross. 9. To endure reproof with shame at our selves for deserving it and thankfulness to the charitable Physician that offers the remedy 10. To be modest and fairly-mannered toward our Superiours obeying reverencing speaking honourably of and doing honour to aged persons and all whom God hath set over us according to their several capacities 11. To be ashamed and very apprehensive of the unworthiness of a crime at no hand losing our fear of the invisible God and our reverence to visible societies or single persons 12. To be humble in our exteriour addresses and behaviour in Churches and all Holy places 13. To be temperate in government not imperious unreasonable insolent or oppressive lest we provoke to wrath those whose interest of person of Religion we are to defend or promote 14. To do our endeavour to expiate any injury we did by confessing the fact offering satisfaction asking forgiveness 11. Fourthly Blessed are they that Hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled This Grace is the greatest indication of spiritual health when our appetite is right strong and regular when we are desirous of spiritual nourishment when we long for Manna and follow Christ for loaves not of a low and terrestrial gust but of that bread which came down from heaven Now there are two sorts of holy repast which are the proper objects of our desires The bread of Heaven which is proportioned to our hunger that is all those immediate emanations from Christ's pardon of our sins and redemption from our former conversation holy Laws and Commandments To this Food there is also a spiritual Beverage to quench our thirst and this is the effects of the Holy Spirit who first moved upon the waters of Baptism and afterwards became to us the breath of life giving us holy inspirations and assistences refreshing our wearinesses cooling our fevers and allaying all our intemperate passions making us holy humble resigned and pure according to the pattern in the mount even as our Father is pure So that the first Redemption and Pardon of us by Christ's Merits is the Bread of Life for which we must hunger and the refreshments and daily emanations of the Spirit who is the spring of comforts and purity is that drink which we must thirst after A being first reconciled to God by Jesus and a being sanctisied and preserved in purity by the Holy Spirit is the adequate object of our desires Some to hunger and thirst best fancy the analogy and proportion of the two Sacraments the Waters of Baptism and the Food of the Eucharist some the Bread of the Patin and the Wine of the Chalice But it is certain they signifie one desire expressed by the most impatient and necessary of our appetites hungring and thirsting And the object is whatsoever is the principle or the effect the beginning or the way or the end of righteousness that is the Mercies of God the Pardon of Jesus the Graces of the Spirit a holy life and a holy death and a blessed Eternity 12. The blessing and reward of this Grace is fulness or satisfaction which relates immediately to Heaven because nothing here below can satisfie us The Grace of God is our Viaticum and entertains us by the way its nature is to increase not to satisfie the appetites not because the Grace is empty and unprofitable as are the things of the world but because it is excellent but yet in order to a greater perfection it invites the appetite by its present goodness but it leaves it unsatisfied because it is not yet arrived at glory and yet the present imperfection in respect of all the good of this World's possession is rest and satisfaction and is imperfect only in respect of its own future complement and perfection and our hunger continues and our needs return because all we have is but an antepast But the glories of Eternity are also the proper object of our desires that 's the reward of God's Grace this is the crown of righteousness As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness and when I awake up after thy likeness I shall be satisfied with it The acts of this Vertue are multiplied according to its object for they are only 1. to desire and 2. pray for and 3. labour for all that which is Righteousness in any sense 1. For the Pardon of our sins 2. for the Graces and Sanctification of the Spirit 3. for the advancement of Christ's Kingdome 4. for the reception of the holy Sacrament and all the instruments ordinances and ministeries of Grace 5. for the grace of Perseverance 6. and finally for the crown of Righteousness 13. Fisthly Blessed are the Merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mercy is the greatest mark and token of the 〈◊〉 elect and predestinate persons in the world Put ye on my beloved as the elect of God the bowels of mercy holy and precious For Mercy is an attribute in the manifestation of which
and therefore less likely to deceive for which reason it is said that he shall deceive if it were possible the very elect that is therefore not possible because that by which he insinuates himself to others is by the elect the Church and chosen of God understood to be his sign and mark of discovery and a warning And therefore as the Prophecies of Jesus were an infinite verification of his Miracles so also this Prophecy of Christ concerning Antichrist disgraces the reputation and faith of the Miracles he shall act The old Prophets foretold of the Messias and of his Miracles of power and mercy to prepare for his reception and entertainment Christ alone and his Apostles from him foretold of Antichrist and that he should come in all Miracles of deception and lying that is with true or false Miracles to perswade a lie and this was to prejudice his being accepted according to the Law of Moses So that as all that spake of Christ bade us believe him for the Miracles so all that foretold of Antichrist bade us disbelieve him the rather for his and the reason of both is the same because the mighty and surer word of Prophecy as S. Peter calls it being the greatest testimony in the world of a Divine principle gives authority or reprobates with the same power They who are the predestinate of God and they that are the praesciti the foreknown and marked people must needs stand or fall to the Divine sentence and such must this be acknowledged for no enemy of the Cross not the Devil himself ever foretold such a contingency or so rare so personal so voluntary so unnatural an event as this of the great Antichrist 12. And thus the Holy Jesus having shewed forth the treasures of his Father's Wisdom in Revelations and holy Precepts and upon the stock of his Father's greatness having dispended and demonstrated great power in Miracles and these being instanced in acts of Mercy he mingled the glories of Heaven to transmit them to earth to raise us up to the participations of Heaven he was pleased by healing the bodies of infirm persons to invite their spirits to his Discipline and by his power to convey healing and by that mercy to lead us into the treasures of revelation that both Bodies and Souls our Wills and Understandings by Divine instruments might be brought to Divine perfections in the participations of a Divine nature It was a miraculous mercy that God should look upon us in our bloud and a miraculous condescension that his Son should take our nature and even this favour we could not believe without many Miracles and so contrary was our condition to all possibilities of happiness that if Salvation had not marched to us all the way in Miracle we had perished in the ruines of a sad eternity And now it would be but reasonable that since God for our sakes hath rescinded so many laws of natural establishment we also for his and for our own would be content to do violence to those natural inclinations which are also criminal when they derive into action Every man living in the state of Grace is a perpetual Miracle and his Passions are made reasonable as his Reason is turned to Faith and his Soul to Spirit and his Body to a Temple and Earth to Heaven and less than this will not dispose us to such glories which being the portion of Saints and Angels and the nearest communications with God are infinitely above what we see or hear or understand The PRAYER O Eternal Jesu who didst receive great power that by it thou mightest convey thy Father's mercies to us impotent and wretched people give me grace to believe that heavenly Doctrine which thou didst ratifie with arguments from above that I may fully assent to all those mysterious Truths which integrate that Doctrine and Discipline in which the obligations of my duty and the hopes of my felicity are deposited And to all those glorious verifications of thy Goodness and thy Power add also this Miracle that I who am stained with Leprosie of sin may be cleansed and my eyes may be opened that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law and raise thou me up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness that I may for ever walk in the land of the living abhorring the works of death and darkness that as I am by thy miraculous mercy partaker of the first so also I may be accounted worthy of the second Resurrection and as by Faith Hope Charity and Obedience I receive the fruit of thy Miracles in this life so in the other I may partake of thy Glories which is a mercy above all Miracles Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Lord I believe help mine unbelief and grant that no 〈◊〉 or incapacity of mine may hinder the wonderful operations of thy Grace but let it be thy first Miracle to turn my water into wine my barrenness into fruitfulness my aversations from thee into unions and intimate adhesions to thy infinity which is the fountain of mercy and power Grant this for thy mercie 's sake and for the honour of those glorious Attributes in which thou hast revealed thy self and thy Father's excellencies to the world O Holy and Eternal Jesu Amen The End of the Second Part. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF THE HOLY JESUS BEGINNING At the Second Year of his PREACHING until his ASCENSION WITH CONSIDERATIONS and DISCOURSES upon the several parts of the Story And PRAYERS fitted to the several MYSTERIES THE THIRD PART Seneca apud Lactant. lib. 6. c. 17. Hic est ille homo qui sive toto corpore tormenta patienda sunt sive flamma ore recipienda est sive extendenda per patibulum manus non quaerit quid patiatur sed quà m bene LONDON Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston 1675 TO The Right Honourable and Vertuous Lady The LADY FRANCES Countess of CARBERY MADAM SInce the Divine Providence hath been pleased to bind up the great breaches of my little fortune by your Charity and Nobleness of a religious tenderness I account it an excellent circumstance and handsomeness of condition that I have the fortune of S. Athanasius to have my Persecution relieved and comforted by an Honourable and Excellent Lady and I have nothing to return for this honour done to me but to do as the poor Paralyticks and infirm people in the Gospel did when our Blessed Saviour cured them they went and told it to all the Countrey and made the Vicinage full of the report as themselves were of health and joy And although I know the modesty of your person and Religion had rather do favours than own them yet give me leave to draw aside the curtain and retirement of your Charity for I had rather your vertue should blush than my unthankfulness make me ashamed Madam I intended by this Address not onely to return you spirituals for
that is to come That is plain And although Christ revealed his Father's mercies to us in new expresses and great abundance yet he took nothing from the world which ever did in any sense invite Piety or indear Obedience or cooperate towards Felicity And 〈◊〉 the Promises which were made of old are also presupposed in the new and mentioned by intimation and implication within the greater When our Blessed Saviour in seven of the Eight Beatitudes had instanced in new Promises and Rewards as Heaven Seeing of God Life eternal in one of them to which Heaven is as certainly consequent as to any of the rest he did chuse to instance in a temporal blessing and in the very words of the Old Testament to shew that that part of the old Covenant which concerns Morality and the rewards of Obedience remains firm and included within the conditions of the Gospel 16. To this purpose is that saying of our Blessed Saviour Man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God meaning that besides natural means ordained for the preservation of our lives there are means supernatural and divine God's Blessing does as much as bread nay it is Every word proceeding out of the 〈◊〉 of God that is every Precept and Commandment of God is so for our good that it is intended as food and Physick to us a means to make us live long And therefore God hath done in this as in other graces and issues Evangelical which he purposed to continue in his Church for ever He first gave it in miraculous and extraordinary manner and then gave it by way of perpetual ministery The Holy Ghost appeared at first like a prodigy and with Miracle he descended in visible representments expressing himself in revelations and powers extraordinary but it being a Promise intended to descend upon all Ages of the Church there was appointed a perpetual ministery for its conveyance and still though without a sign or miraculous representment it is ministred in Confirmation by imposition of the Bishop's hands And thus also health and long life which by way of ordinary benediction is consequent to Piety Faith and Obedience Evangelical was at first given in a miraculous manner that so the ordinary effects being at first confirmed by miraculous and extraordinary instances and manners of operation might for ever after be confidently expected without any dubitation since it was in the same manner consigned by which all the whole Religion was by a voice from Heaven and a verification of Miracles and extraordinary supernatural effects That the gift of healing and preservation and restitution of life was at first miraculous needs no particular probation All the story of the Gospel is one entire argument to prove it and amongst the fruits of the Spirit S. Paul reckons gifts of healing and government and helps or exteriour assistences and advantages to represent that it was intended the life of Christian people should be happy and healthful for ever Now that this grace also descended afterwards in an ordinary ministery is recorded by S. James Is any man sick amongst you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord that was then the ceremony and the blessing and effect is still for the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up For it is observable that the blessing of healing and recovery is not appendent to the Anealing but to the Prayer of the Church to manifest that the ceremony went with the first miraculous and extraordinary manner yet that there was an ordinary ministery appointed for the daily conveyance of the blessing the faithful prayers offices of holy Priests shall obtain life and health to such persons who are receptive of it and in spiritual and apt dispositions And when we see by a continual flux of extraordinary benediction that even some Christian Princes are instruments of the Spirit not only in the government but in the gifts of healing too as a reward for their promoting the just interests of Christianity we may acknowledge our selves convinced that a holy life in the faith and obedience of Jesus Christ may be of great advantage for our health and life by that instance to entertain our present desires and to establish our hopes of life eternal 17. For I consider that the fear of God is therefore the best antidote in the World against sickness and death because it is the direct enemy to sin which brought in sickness and death and besides this that God by spiritual means should produce alterations natural is not hard to be understood by a Christian Philosopher take him in either of the two capacities 2. For there is a rule of proportion and analogy of effects that if sin destroys not only the Soul but the Body also then may Piety preserve both and that much rather for if sin that is the effects and consequents of sin hath abounded then shall grace superabound that is Christ hath done us more benefit than the Fall of Adam hath done us injury and therefore the effects of sin are not greater upon the body than either are to be restored or prevented by a pious life 3. There is so near a conjunction between Soul and Body that it is no wonder if God meaning to glorifie both by the means of a spiritual life suffers spirit and matter to communicate in effects and mutual impresses Thus the waters of Baptism purifie the Soul and the Holy Eucharist not the symbolical but the mysterious and spiritual part of it makes the Body also partaker of the death 〈◊〉 Christ and a holy union The flames of Hell whatsoever they are torment accursed Souls and the stings of Conscience vex and disquiet the Body 4. And if we consider that in the glories of Heaven when we shall live a life purely spiritual our Bodies also are so clarified and made spiritual that they also become immortal that state of Glory being nothing else but a perfection of the state of Grace it is not unimaginable but that the Soul may have some proportion of the same operation upon the Body as to conduce to its prolongation as to an antepast of immortality 5. For since the Body hath all its life from its conjunction with the Soul why not also the perfection of life according to its present capacity that is health and duration from the perfection of the Soul I mean from the ornaments of Grace And as the blessedness of the Soul saith the Philosopher consists in the speculation of honest and just things so the perfection of the Body and of the whole Man consists in the practick the exercise and operations of Vertue 18. But this Problem in Christian Philosophy is yet more intelligible and will be reduced to certain experience if we consider good life in union and concretion with particular
in good time our calling and 〈◊〉 may be assured when we first according to the precept of the Apostle use all diligence S. Paul when he writ his first Epistle to the Corinthians was more fearful of being reprobate and therefore he used exteriour arts of mortification But when he writ to the Romans which was a good while after we find him more confident of his final condition perswaded that neither height nor depth Angel nor principality nor power could separate him from the love of God in Jesus Christ and when he grew to his latter end when he wrote to S. Timothy he was more confident yet and declared that now a crown of rightcousness was certainly laid up for him for now he had sought the fight and finished his course the time of his departure was at hand Henceforth he knew no more fear his love was perfect as this state would permit and that cast out all fear According to this precedent if we reckon our securities we are not likely to be reproved by any words of Scripture or by the condition of humane infirmity But when the confidence out-runs our growth in Grace it is it self a sin though when the confidence is equal with the Grace it is of it self no regular and universal duty but a blessing and a reward indulged by special dispensation and in order to personal necessities or accidental purposes For only so much hope is simply necessary as excludes despair and encourages our duty and glorifies God and entertains his mercy but that the hope should be without fear is not given but to the highest Faith and the most excellent Charity and to habitual ratified and confirmed Christians and to them also with some variety The summ is this All that are in the state of beginners and imperfection have a conditional Certainty changeable and fallible in respect of us for we meddle not with what it is in God's secret purposes changeable I say as their wills and resolutions They that are grown towards perfection have more reason to be confident and many times are so but still although the strength of the habits of Grace adds degrees of moral certainty to their expectation yet it is but as their condition is hopeful and promising and of a moral determination But to those few to whom God hath given confirmation in Grace he hath also given a certainty of condition and therefore if that be revealed to them their perswasions are certain and infallible If it be not revealed to them their condition is in it self certain but their perswasion is not so but in the highest kind of Hope an anchor of the Soul sure and stedfast The PRAYER O Eternal God whose counsels are in the great deep and thy ways past finding out thou hast built our Faith upon thy Promises our Hopes upon thy Goodness and hast described our paths between the waters of comfort and the dry barren land of our own duties and affections we acknowledge that all our comforts derive from thee and to our selves we owe all our shame and confusions and degrees of desperation Give us the assistances of the Holy Ghost to help us in performing our duty and give us those comforts and visitations of the Holy Ghost which thou in thy 〈◊〉 and eternal wisdom knowest most apt and expedient to encourage our duties to entertain our hopes to alleviate our sadnesses to refresh our spirits and to endure our abode and constant endeavours in the strictnesses of Religion and Sanctity Lead us dearest God from Grace to Grace from imperfection to strength from acts to habits from habits to confirmation in Grace that we may also pass into the regions of comfort receiving the earnest of the Spirit and the adoption of Sons till by such a signature we be consigned to glory and enter into the possession of the inheritance which we expect in the Kingdom of thy Son and in the fruition of the felicities of thee O gracious Father God Eternal Amen SECT XIV Of the Third Year of the Preaching of JESUS Five loaves satisfy so many Thousands Mat 14. 19. And he took the five loaves and the two fishes and looking up to Heaven he blessed and brake and gave the loaves to his Disciples and the Disciples to the Multitude 20. And they did all eat and were filled and they took up the fragments that remayned twelve baskets 21. And they that had eaten were about five Thousand men beside women and Children Lazarus at the rich glutton's gate Luk 16. 19. There was a certain rich man which was Clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously everey day 20. And there was a certain Begger named Lazarus which was layd at his gate full of sores 25. And in Hell he lift up his eyes being in Torments and seeth Abraham a far off and Lazarus in his Bosome 1. BUT Jesus knowing of the death of the Baptist Herod's jealousie and the envy of the Pharisees retired into a desert place beyond the Lake together with his Apostles For the people pressed so upon them they had not leisure to eat But neither there could he be hid but great multitudes flocked thither also to whom he preached many things And afterwards because there were no villages in the neighbourhood lest they should faint in their return to their houses he caused them to sit down upon the grass and with five loaves of barley and two small fishes he satisfied five thousand men besides women and children and caused the Disciples to gather up the fragments which being amassed together filled twelve baskets Which Miracles had so much proportion to the understanding and met so happily with the affections of the people that they were convinced that this was the 〈◊〉 who was to come into the world and had a purpose to have taken him by force and made him a King 2. But he that left his Father's Kingdom to take upon him the miseries and infelicities of the world fled from the offers of a Kingdom and their tumultuary election as from an enemy and therefore sending his Disciples to the ship before towards Bethsaida he ran into the mountains to hide himself till the multitude should scatter to their several habitations he in the mean time taking the opportunity of that retirement for the advantage of his Prayers But when the Apostles were far engaged in the Deep a great tempest arose with which they were pressed to the extremity of danger and the last refuges labouring in sadness and hopelesness till the fourth watch of the night when in the midst of their fears and labours Jesus comes walking on the sea and appeared to them which turned their fears into affrightments for they supposed it had been a spirit but he appeased their fears with his presence and manifestation who he was which yet they desired to have proved to them by a sign For Simon Peter said unto him Master if it be thou command me to come to thee
Hypocrisie and vanities of the one and the Heresie of the other For Herod's leven was the pretence that he was the Messias which the Sect of the 〈◊〉 did earnestly and spitefully promote And after this 〈◊〉 of themselves by the way they came together to Bethsaida where Jesus cured a blind man with a collyrium of spittle salutary as Balsam or the purest Eyebright when his divine benediction once had hallowed it But Jesus staid not there but departing thence into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi out of Herod's power for it was in Philip's jurisdiction after he had prayed with his Disciples he enquired what opinion the world had of him and whom they reported him to be They answered Some say thou art John the Baptist some that thou art Elias or Jeremias or one of the Prophets for in 〈◊〉 especially the Sect of the Pharisees was mightily disseminated whose opinion it was that the Souls of dead men according to their several merits did transmigrate into other bodies of very perfect and excellent persons And therefore in all this variety none hit upon the right or fansied him to be a distinct person from the ancients but although they differed in the assignation of his name yet generally they agreed it was the Soul of a departed Prophet which had passed into another Body But Jesus asked the Apostles their opinion and Peter in the name of all the rest made an open and confident Confession Thou art CHRIST the Son of the living God 9. This Confession Jesus not only confirmed as true but as revealed by God and of fundamental necessity for after the blessing of Peter's person upon allusion of Peter's name Jesus said that upon this Rock the article of Peter's Confession he would build his Church promising to it assistances even to perpetuity insomuch that the gates of hell that is persecution and death and the grave should never prevail against it adding withall a promise to Peter in behalf of all the rest as he had made a Confession for them all that he would give unto him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven so that whatsoever he should bind on earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he should loose on earth should be loosed in Heaven a power which he never communicated before or since but to their successors greater than the large Charter of Nature and the donative of Creation in which all the creatures under Heaven were made subject to Man's Empire but till now Heaven it self was never subordinate to humane ministration 10. And now the days from hence forward to the Death of Jesus we must reckon to be like the Vigils or Eves of his Passion for now he began and often did ingeminate those sad predictions of his unhandsome usage he should shortly find that he 〈◊〉 be rejected of the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes and suffer many things at Jerusalem and be killed and be raised up the third day But Peter hearing that sad discourse so contrary to his hopes which he had blended with temporal expectances for he had learned the Doctrine of Christ's Advent but not the mystery of the Cross in great and mistaken civility took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee But Jesus full of zeal against so soft and humane admonition that savoured nothing of God or of abstracted immaterial considerations chid Peter bitterly Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me And calling his Disciples to him told them a second part of a sad doctrine that not only himself but all they also must suffer For when the Head was to be crowned with thorns if the Members were wrapped in softnesses it was an unhansome undecency and a disunion too near an antipathy and therefore who ever will be the Disciple of Jesus must take up his Cross deny himself and his own fonder appetites and trace his Master's foot-steps marked out with bloud that he shed for our Redemption and restitution And that there be no escape from the participation of Christ's suffering Jesus added this Dilemma He that will save his life shall lose it and he that will lose it shall save it to eternity Which part soever we chuse there is a life to be lost but as the first are foolish to the extremest misery that will lose their Souls to gain the World so they are most wise and fortunate that will give their lives for him because when the Son of Man shall come in his own glory and his Father's and of his Angels he shall reward every man according to his works This discourse Jesus concluded with a Prophecy that some standing in that presence should not die till they saw the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom 11. Of the greater glories of which in due time to be revealed Jesus after eight days gave a bright and excellent probation For taking with him Peter and James and John he went up into the mountain Tabor to pray and while he prayed he was transfigured before them and his face did shine like the Sun and his garments were white and 〈◊〉 And there appeared talking with him Moses and Elias gloriously speaking of the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem which glory these Apostles after they had awaked from sleep did behold And the Interlocutors with Jesus having finished their embassy of death which they delivered in forms of glory representing the excellencies of the reward together with the sharpness of the passage and interval departed leaving the Apostles full of fear and wonder and 〈◊〉 insomuch that Peter talked he knew not what but nothing amiss something Prophetical saying Master it is good to be here 〈◊〉 us build three tabernacles And some devout persons in memory of the mystery did 〈◊〉 three Churches in the same place in after-Ages But after the departure of those attendent Saints a cloud incircled Jesus and the Disciples and a voice came from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son hear him The cloud quickly disappeared and freed the Disciples from the fear it had put them in So they attended Jesus and descended from the mountain being commanded silence which they observed till the Resurrection 12. The next day came to Jesus a man praying in behalf of his son Lunatick and sore troubled with a Devil who sought oft to destroy him in fire and water that Jesus would be pleased to deliver him For his Apostles tried and could not by reason of the want of Faith for this Grace if it be true though in a less degree is of power to remove mountains to pluck up trees by the roots and to give them solid foundation in the waters And Jesus rebuked the Devil and 〈◊〉 departed out of him from that very hour Thence Jesus departed privately into Galilee and in his journey repeated those sadnesses of his approaching Passion Which so afflicted the spirits of the Disciples that they durst
spirit when Rebellion and Pride when secular Interest or ease and Licenciousness set men up against the Laws the Laws then are upon the defensive and ought not to give place It is ill to cure particular Disobedience by removing a Constitution decreed by publick wisdom for a general good When the evil occasioned by the Law is greater than the good designed or than the good which will come by it in the present constitution of things and the evil can by no other remedy be healed it concerns the Law-giver's charity to take off such positive Constitutions which in the authority are merely humane and in the matter indifferent and evil in the event The summ of this whole duty I shall chuse to represent in the words of an excellent person S. Jerome We must for the avoiding of Scandal quit everything which may be omitted without prejudice to the threefold truth of Life of Justice and Doctrine meaning that what is not expresly commanded by God or our Superiours or what is not expresly commended as an act of Piety and Perfection or what is not an obligation of Justice that is in which the interest of a third person or else our own Christian liberty is not totally concerned all that is to be given in sacrifice to Mercy and to be made matter of Edification and Charity but not of Scandal that is of danger and sin and falling to our neighbour The PRAYER O Eternal Jesus who art made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption give us of thy abundant Charity that we may love the eternal benefit of our 〈◊〉 Soul with a true diligent and affectionate care and tenderness Give us a fellow-feeling of one another's calamities a readiness to bear each others burthens aptness to forbear wisdom to advise counsel to direct and a spirit of meekness and modesty trembling at our 〈◊〉 fearful in our Brother's dangers and joyful in his restitution and securities Lord let all our actions be pious and prudent our selves wise as Serpents and innocent as Doves and our whole life exemplar and just and charitable that we may like Lamps shining in thy Temple serve thee and enlighten others and guide them to thy Sanctuary and that shining clearly and burning zealously when the Bridegroom shall come to bind up his Jewels and beautifie his Spouse and gather his Saints together we and all thy Christian people knit in a holy fellowship may enter into the joy of our Lord and partake of the eternal refreshments of the Kingdom of Light and Glory where thou O Holy and Eternal Jesu livest and reignest in the excellencies of a Kingdom and the infinite durations of Eternity Amen DISCOURSE XVIII Of the Causes and Manner of the Divine Judgments 1. GOD's Judgments are like the Writing upon the wall which was a missive of anger from God upon Belshazzar it came upon an errand of Revenge and yet was writ in so dark characters that none could read it but a Prophet When-ever God speaks from Heaven he would have us to understand his meaning and if he declares not his sence in particular signification yet we understand his meaning well enough if every voice of God lead us to Repentance Every sad accident is directed against sin either to prevent it or to cure it to glorifie God or to humble us to make us go forth of our selves and to rest upon the centre of all Felicities that we may derive help from the same hand that smote us Sin and Punishment are so near relatives that when God hath marked any person with a sadness or unhandsome accident men think it warrant enough for their uncharitable censures and condemn the man whom God hath smitten making God the executioner of our uncertain or ungentle sentences Whether sinned this man or his parents that 〈◊〉 was born blind said the Pharisees to our blessed LORD Neither this man nor his parents was the answer meaning that God had other ends in that accident to serve and it was not an effect of wrath but a design of mercy both directly and collaterally God's glory must be seen clearly by occasion of the curing the blind man But in the present case the answer was something different Pilate slew the Galileans when they were sacrificing in their Conventicles apart from the Jews For they first had separated from Obedience and paying Tribute to Caesar and then from the Church who disavowed their mutinous and discontented Doctrines The cause of the one and the other are linked in mutual complications and endearment and he who despises the one will quickly disobey the other Presently upon the report of this sad accident the people run to the Judgment-seat and every man was ready to be accuser and witness and judge upon these poor destroyed people But Jesus allays their heat and though he would by no means acquit these persons from deserving death for their denying tribute to Caesar yet he alters the face of the tribunal and makes those persons who were so apt to be accusers and judges to act another part even of guilty persons too that since they will needs be judging they might judge themselves for Think not these were greater sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish meaning that although there was great probability to believe such persons 〈◊〉 I mean and Rebels to be the greatest sinners of the world yet themselves who had designs to destroy the Son of God had deserved as great damnation And yet it is observable that the Holy Jesus only compared the sins of them that suffered with the estate of the other Galileans who suffered not and that also applies it to the persons present who told the news to consign this Truth unto us That when persons consederate in the same crimes are spared from a present Judgment falling upon others of their own society it is indeed a strong alarm to all to secure themselves by Repentance against the hostilities and eruptions of sin but yet it is no exemption or security to them that escape to believe themselves persons less sinful for God sometimes decimates or tithes delinquent persons and they die for a common crime according as God hath cast their lot in the decrees of Predestination and either they that remain are sealed up to a worse calamity or left within the reserves and mercies of Repentance for in this there is some variety of determination and undiscerned Providence 2. The purpose of our Blessed Saviour is of great use to us in all the traverses and changes and especially the sad and calamitous accidents of the world But in the misfortune of others we are to make other discourses concerning Divine Judgments than when the case is of nearer concernment to our selves For first when we see a person come to an unfortunate and untimely death we must not conclude such a man perishing
a great calamity within a little while after the Spirit of God had sent them two Epistles by the ministery of S. Paul their Cities were buried in an Earthquake and yet we have reason to think they were Churches beloved of God and Congregations of holy People The PRAYER OEternal and powerful God thou just and righteous Governour of the world who callest all orders of men by Precepts Promises and Threatnings by Mercies and by Judgments teach us to admire and adore all the Wisdome the effects and infinite varieties of thy Providence and make us to dispose our selves so by Obedience by Repentance by all the manners of Holy living that we may never provoke thee to jealousie much less to wrath and indignation against us Keep far from us the Sword of the destroying Angel and let us never perish in the publick expresses of thy wrath in diseases Epidemical with the furies of War with calamitous sudden and horrid Accidents with unusual Diseases unless that our so strange fall be more for thy glory and our eternal benefit and then thy will be done We beg thy grace that we may chearfully conform to thy holy will and pleasure Lord open our understandings that we may know the meaning of thy voice and the signification of thy language when thou speakest 〈◊〉 Heaven in signs and Judgments and let a holy fear so soften our spirits and an intense love so 〈◊〉 and sanctifie our desires that we may apprehend every intimation of thy pleasure at its first and remotest and most obscure representment that so we may with Repentance go out to meet thee and prevent the expresses of thine anger Let thy restraining grace and the observation of the issues of thy Justice so allay our spirits that we be not severe and forward in condemning others nor backward in passing sentence upon our selves Make us to obey thy voice described in holy Scripture to tremble at thy voice expressed in wonders and great effects of Providence to condemn none but our selves nor to enter into the recesses of thy Sanctuary and search the forbidden records of Predestination but that we may read our duty in the pages of Revelation not in the labels of accidental effects that thy Judgments may confirm thy Word and thy Word teach us our Duty and we by such excellent instruments may enter in and grow up in the ways of Godliness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen SECT XV. Of the Accidents happening from the Death of Lazarus untill the Death and Burial of JESVS Bartimeus healed of blindnesse Mark 10. 46. And as he went out of Iericho with his Disciples and a great number of people blind Bartimeus sate by the high way begging 47. And when he heard that it was Iesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and say Iesus thou son of David have mercy on me Lazarus raysed from death Ioh. 11. 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with gravecloths and his face was bound about with a napkin Iesus saith unto them Loose him and let him go 45. Then Many of the Iewes which came to Mary and had seen the things which Iesus did believed on him 1. VVHile Jesus was in Galilee messengers came to him from Martha and her Sister Mary that he would hasten into Judaea to Bethany to relieve the sickness and imminent dangers of their Brother Lazarus But he deferred his going till Lazarus was dead purposing to give a great probation of his Divinity Power and Mission by a glorious Miracle and to give God glory and to receive reflexions of the glory upon himself For after he had stayed two days he called his Disciples to go with him into Judaea telling them that Lazarus was dead but he would raise him out of that sleep of death But by that time Jesus was arrived at Bethany he found that Lazarus had been dead four days and now near to putrefaction But when Martha and Mary met him weeping their pious tears for their dead Brother Jesus suffered the passions of piety and humanity and wept distilling that precious liquor into the grave of Lazarus watering the dead plant that it might spring into a new life and raise his head above the ground 2. When Jesus had by his words of comfort and institution strengthened the Faith of the two mourning Sisters and commanded the stone to be removed from the grave he made an address of Adoration and Eucharist to his Father confessing his perpetual propensity to hear him and then cried out Lazarus come forth And he that was dead came forth from his bed of darkness with his night-cloaths on him whom when the Apostles had unloosed at the command of Jesus he went to Bethany and many that were present believed on him but others wondring and malicious went and told the Pharisees the story of the Miracle who upon that advice called their great Council whose great and solemn cognisance was of the greater causes of Prophets of Kings and of the holy Law At this great Assembly it was that Caiaphas the High Priest prophesied that it was expedient one should die for the people And thence they determined the death of Jesus But he knowing they had passed a decretory sentence against him retired to the City 〈◊〉 in the Tribe of Judah near the desart where he stayed a few days till the approximation of the Feast of Easter 3. Against which Feast when Jesus with his Disciples was going to Jerusalem he told them the event of the journey would be that the Jews should deliver him to the Gentiles that they should scourge him and mock him and crucifie him and the third day he should rise again After which discourse the Mother of 〈◊〉 's Children begg'd of Jesus for her two Sons that one of them might sit at his right hand the other at the left in his Kingdom For no discourses of his Passion or intimations of the mysteriousness of his Kingdom could yet put them into right understandings of their condition But Jesus whose heart and thoughts were full of phancy and apprehensions of the neighbour Passion gave them answer in proportion to his present conceptions and their future condition For if they desired the honours of his Kingdom such as they were they should have them unless themselves did decline them they should drink of his Cup and dip in his Lavatory and be washed with his baptism and sit in his Kingdom if the heavenly Father had prepared it for them but the donation of that immediately was an issue of Divine election and predestination and was only competent to them who by holy living and patient suffering put themselves into a disposition of becoming vessels of Election 4. But as Jesus in this journey came near Jericho he cures a blind man who sate begging by the way-side and espying Zaccheus the chief of the Publicans upon a tree that he being low of stature might upon that advantage of station see Jesus passing by he invited
after when he heard the cock crow he wept remembring the old instrument of his Conversion and his own unworthiness for which he never ceased to do actions of sorrow and sharp Repentance 24. On the morning the Council was to assemble and whilest Jesus was detained in expectation of it the servants mocked him and did all actions of affront and ignoble despite to his Sacred head and because the question was whether he were a Prophet they covered his eyes and smote him in derision calling on him to prophesie who smote him But in the morning when the high Priests and rulers of the people were assembled they sought false witness against Jesus but found none to purpose they railed boldly and could prove nothing they accused vehemently and the allegations were of such things as were no crimes and the greatest article which the united diligence of all their malice could pretend was that he said he would destroy the Temple and in three days build it up again But Jesus neither answered this nor any other of their vainer allegations for the witnesses destroyed each others testimony by their disagreeing till at last Caiaphas who to verifie his Prophecy and to satisfie his Ambition and to bait his Envy was furiously determined Jesus should die adjures him by the living God to say whether he were the CHRIST the Son of the living God Jesus knew his design to be an inquisition of death not of Piety or curiosity yet because his hour was now come openly affirmed it without any expedient to elude the high Priest's malice or to decline the question 25. When Caiaphas heard the saying he accused Jesus of Blasphemy and pretended an apprehension so tragical that he over-acted his wonder and feigned 〈◊〉 for he rent his garments which was the interjection of the Countrey and custom of the Nation but forbidden to the High Priest and called presently to sentence and as it was agreed before-hand they all condemned him as guilty of death and as far as they had power inflicted it for they beat him with their fists smote him with the palms of their hands spit upon him and abused him beyond the licence of enraged 〈◊〉 When Judas heard that they had passed the final and decretory sentence of death upon his Lord he who thought not it would have gone so far repented him to have been an instrument of so damnable a machination and came and brought the silver which they gave him for hire threw it in amongst them and said I have sinned in betraying the innocent 〈◊〉 But they incurious of those Hell-torments Judas felt within him because their own fires burnt not yet dismissed him and upon consultation bought with the money a field to bury strangers in And Judas went and hanged himself and the Judgment was made more notorious and eminent by an unusual accident at such deaths for he so swelled that he burst and his bowels gushed out But the Greek Scholiast and some others report out of Papias S. John's Scholar that Judas fell from the Fig-tree on which he hanged before he was quite dead and survived his attempt some while being so sad a spectacle of deformity and pain and a prodigious tumour that his plague was deplorable and highly miserable till at last he burst in the very substance of his Trunk as being extended beyond the possibilities and capacities of nature 26. But the High Priests had given Jesus over to the secular power and carried him to Pilate to be put to death by his sentence and military power but coming thither they would not enter into the Judgment-hall because of the Feast but Pilate met them and willing to decline the business bid them judge him according to their own Law They replied it was not lawful for them to put any man to death meaning during the seven days of unlevened bread as appears in the instance of Herod who detained Peter in prison intending after Easter to bring him out to the people And their malice was restless till the Sentence they had passed were put in execution Others thinking that all the right of inflicting capital punishments was taken from the Nation by the Romans and Josephus writes that when Ananias their High Priest had by a Council of the Jews condemned S. James the Brother of our Lord and put him to death without the consent of the Roman President he was deprived of his Priesthood But because Pilate who either by common right or at that time was the Judge of capital inflictions was averse from intermedling in the condemnation of an innocent person they attempted him with excellent craft for knowing that Pilate was a great servant of the Roman Greatness and a hater of the Sect of the Galileans the High Priest accused Jesus that he was of that Sect that he denied paying tribute to 〈◊〉 that he called himself King Concerning which when Pilate interrogated Jesus he answered that his Kingdom was not of this world and Pilate thinking he had nothing to do with the other came forth again and gave testimony that he found nothing worthy of death in Jesus But hearing that he was a Galilean and of Herod's jurisdiction Pilate sent him to Herod who was at Jerusalem at the Feast And Herod was glad because he had heard much of him and since his return from Rome had desired to see him but could not by reason of his own avocations and the ambulatory life of Christ and now he hoped to see a Miracle done by him of whom he had heard so many But the event of this was that Jesus did there no Miracle Herod's souldiers set him at nought and mocked him And that day Herod was reconciled to Pilate And Jesus was sent back arrayed in a white and splendid garment which though possibly it might be intended for derision yet was a symbol of Innocence condemned persons usually being arrayed in blacks And when Pilate had again examined him Jesus meek as a lamb and as a sheep before the shearers opened not his mouth insomuch that Pilate wondred perceiving the greatest Innocence of the man by not offering to excuse or lessen any thing for though Pilate had power to release him or crucifie him yet his contempt of death was in just proportion to his Innocence which also Pilate concealed not but published Jesus's Innocence by Herod's and his own sentence to the great regret of the Rulers who like ravening wolves thirsted for a draught of bloud and to devour the morning prey 27. But Pilate hoped to prevail upon the Rulers by making it a favour from them to Jesus and an indulgence from him to the Nation to set him free for oftentimes even Malice it self is driven out by the Devil of Self-love and so we may be acknowledged the authors of a safety we are content to rescue a man even from our own selves Pilate therefore offered that according to the custom of the Nation Jesus should be released for the
he did and the expresses of his power saying He saved others himself he cannot save others saying Let him come down from the Cross if he be the King of the Jews and we will believe in him and others according as their Malice was determined by phancy and occasion added weight and scorn to his pains and of the two Malefactors that were crucified with him one reviled him saying If thou be the CHRIST save thy self and us And thus far the Devil prevailed undoing himself in riddle provoking men to do despite to Christ and to heighten his Passion out of hatred to him and yet doing and promoting that which was the ruine of all his own Kingdom and potent mischiefs like the Jew who in indignation against Mercury threw stones at his Image and yet was by his Superiour judged idolatrous that being the manner of doing honour to the Idol among the Gentiles But then Christ who had upon the Cross prayed for his enemies and was heard of God in all that he desired felt now the beginnings of success For the other Thief whom the present pains and circumstances of Jesus's Passion had softned and made believing reproved his fellow for not fearing God confessed that this death happened to them deservedly but to Jesus causelesly and then prayed to Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom Which combination of pious acts and miraculous Conversion Jesus entertained with a speedy promise of a very great felicity promising that upon that very day he should be with him in Paradise 33. Now there were standing by the Cross the Mother of Jesus and her Sister and Mary Magdalen and John And Jesus being upon his Death-bed although he had no temporal estate to bestow yet he would make provision for his Mother who being a Widow and now childless was likely to be exposed to necessity and want and therefore he did arrogate John the beloved Disciple into Marie's kindred making him to be her adopted Son and her to be his Mother by fiction of Law Woman behold thy son and Man behold thy Mother And from that time forward John took her home to his own house which he had near mount Sion after he had sold his inheritance in Galilee to the High Priest 34. While these things were doing the whole frame of Nature seemed to be dissolved and out of order while their LORD and Creator suffered For the Sun was so darkened that the Stars appeared and the Eclipse was prodigious in the manner as well as in degree because the Moon was not then in Conjunction but full and it was noted by Phlegon the freed man of the Emperor Hadrian by Lucian out of the Acts of the Gauls and Dionysius while he was yet a Heathen excellent Scholars all great Historians and Philosophers who also noted the day of the week and hour of the day agreeing with the circumstances of the Cross. For the Sun hid his head from beholding such a prodigy of sin and sadness and provided a veil for the nakedness of Jesus that the women might be present and himself die with modesty 35. The Eclipse and the Passion began at the sixth hour and endured till the ninth about which time Jesus being tormented with the unsufferable load of his Father's wrath due for our sins and wearied with pains and heaviness cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and as it is thought repeated the whole two and twentieth Psalm which is an admirable Narrative of the Passion full of Prayer and sadness and description of his pains at first and of Eucharist and joy and prophecy at the last But these first words which it is certain and recorded that he spake were in a language of it self or else by reason of distance not understood for they thought he had called for Elias to take him down from the Cross. Then Jesus being in the agonies of a high Fever said I thirst And one ran and filled a spunge with vinegar wrapping it with hyssop and put it on a reed that he might drink The Vinegar and the Spunge were in Executions of condemned persons set to stop the too violent issues of bloud and to prolong the death but were exhibited to him in scorn mingled with gall to make the mixture more horrid and ungentle But Jesus tasted it only and refused the draught And now knowing that the Prophecies were fulfilled his Father's wrath appeased and his torments satisfactory he said It is finished and crying with a loud voice Father into thy hands I commend my spirit he bowed his head and yielded up his spirit into the hands of God and died hastning to his Father's glories Thus did this glorious Sun set in a sad and clouded West running speedily to shine in the other world 36. Then was the veil of the Temple which separated the secret Mosaick Rites from the eyes of the people rent in the midst from the top to the bottom and the Angels Presidents of the Temple called to each other to depart from their seats and so great an Earthquake happened that the rocks did rend the mountains trembled the graves opened and the bodies of dead persons arose walking from their coemeteries to the Holy City and appeared unto many and so great apprehensions and amazements happened to them all that stood by that they departed smiting their breasts with sorrow and fear and the Centurion that ministred at the execution said Certainly this was the Son of God and he became a Disciple renouncing his military imployment and died a Martyr 37. But because the next day was the Jews Sabbath and a Paschal Festival besides the Jews hastened that the bodies should be taken from the Cross and therefore sent to 〈◊〉 to hasten their death by breaking their legs that before Sun-set they might be taken away according to the Commandment and be buried The souldiers therefore came and brake the legs of the two Thieves but espying and wondring that Jesus was already dead they brake not his legs for the Scripture foretold that a bone of him should not be broken but a souldier with his lance pierced his side and immediately there streamed out two rivulets of Water and Bloud But the Holy Virgin-Mother whose Soul during this whole passion was pierced with a sword and sharper sorrows though she was supported by the comforts of Faith and those holy Predictions of his Resurrection and future glories which Mary had laid up in store against this great day of expence now that she saw her Holy Son had suffered all that our necessities and their malice could require or inflict caused certain ministers with whom she joyned to take her dead Son from the Cross whose Body when she once got free from the nails she kissed and embraced with entertainments of the nearest vicinity that could be expressed by a person that was holy and sad and a Mother weeping for her dead Son 38. But she was highly
satisfied with her own meditations that now that great Mystery determined by Divine Predestination before the beginning of all Ages was fulfilled in her Son and the Passion that must needs be was accomplished she therefore first bathes his cold body with her warm tears and makes clean the surface of the wounds and delivering a winding napkin to Joseph of Arimathaea gave to him in charge to enwrap the Body and embalm it to compose it to the grave and do it all the rites of Funeral having first exhorted him to a publick confession of what he was privately till now and he obeyed the counsel of so excellent a person and ventured upon the displeasure of the Jewish Rulers and went confidently to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus And Pilate gave him the power of it 39. Joseph therefore takes the body binds his face with a napkin washes the body anoints it with ointment enwraps it in a composition of myrrh and aloes and puts it into a new tomb which he for himself had hewen out of a rock it not being lawful among the Jews to interr a condemned person in the common coemeteries for all these circumstances were in the Jews manner of burying But when the Sun was set the chief Priests and Pharisees went to Pilate telling him that Jesus whilest he was living foretold 〈◊〉 own resurrection upon the third day and lest his Disciples should come and steal the body and say he was risen from the dead desired that the sepulchre might be secured against the danger of any such imposture Pilate gave them leave to do their pleasure even to the satisfaction of their smallest scruples They therefore sealed the grave rolled a great stone at the mouth of it and as an ancient Tradition says bound it about with labels of iron and set a watch of souldiers as if they had intended to have made it surer than the decrees of Fate or the never-failing laws of Nature Ad SECT XV. Considerations of some preparatory Accidents before the entrance of JESVS into his Passion Christ riding in triumph Matth. 21. 7. And they brought y e Ass. put on their clothes set him thereon and a very great multitude spread their garments others cut down branches from y e trees strawed them in y e way And the multitude y t went before and y t followed after cried Hosannah etc. Mary pouring ointment on Christ's head Mark 14. 3. As he sat at meat in the house of Simon y e leper there came a woman having an Alabaster-box of ointment very pretious poured it on his head And Jesus said let hir alone she is come aforehand to anoint my body to y e burying 1. HE that hath observed the Story of the Life of Jesus cannot but see it all the way to be strewed with thorns and sharp-pointed stones and although by the kisses of his feet they became precious and salutary yet they procured to him sorrow and disease it was meat and drink to him to do his Father's will but it was bread of affliction and rivers of tears to drink and for these he thirsted like the earth after the cool stream For so great was his Perfection so exact the conformity of his Will so absolute the subordination of his inferiour Faculties to the infinite love of God which sate Regent in the Court of his Will and Understanding that in this election of accidents he never considered the taste but the goodness never distinguished sweet from bitter but Duty and Piety always prepared his table And therefore now knowing that his time determined by the Father was nigh he hastened up to Jerusalem he went before his Disciples saith S. Mark and they followed him trembling and amazed and yet before that even then when his brethren observed he had a design of publication of himself he suffered them to go before him and went up as it were in secret For so we are invited to Martyrdom and suffering in a Christian cause by so great an example the Holy Jesus is gone before us and it were a holy contention to strive whose zeal were forwardest in the designs of Humiliation and Self-denial but it were also well if in doing our selves secular advantage and promoting our worldly interest we should follow him who was ever more distant from receiving honours than from receiving a painful death Those affections which dwell in sadness and are married to grief and lie at the foot of the Cross and trace the sad steps of Jesus have the wisdom of recollection the tempers of sobriety and are the best imitations of Jesus and securities against the levity of a dispersed and a vain spirit This was intimated by many of the Disciples of Jesus in the days of the Spirit and when they had tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come for then we find many ambitious of Martyrdom and that have laid stratagems and designs by unusual deaths to get a Crown The Soul of S. Laurence was so scorched with ardent desires of dying for his Lord that he accounted the coals of his Gridiron but as a Julip or the aspersion of cold water to refresh his Soul they were chill as the Alpine snows in respect of the heats of his diviner flames And if these lesser Stars shine so brightly and burn so warmly what heat of love may we suppose to have been in the Sun of Righteousness If they went fast toward the Crown of Martyrdom yet we know that the Holy Jesus went before them all no wonder that he cometh forth as a Eridegroom from his chamber and rejoyceth as a giant to run his course 2. When the Disciples had overtaken Jesus he begins to them a sad Homily upon the old Text of Suffering which he had well nigh for a year together preached upon but because it was an unpleasing Lesson so contradictory to those interests upon the hopes of which they had entertained themselves and spent all their desires they could by no means understand it for an understanding prepossessed with a fancy or an unhandsome principle construes all other notions to the sence of the first and whatsoever contradicts it we think it an objection and that we are bound to answer it But now that it concerned Christ to speak so plainly that his Disciples by what was to happen within five or six days might not be scandalized or believe it happened to Jesus without his knowledge and voluntary entertainment he tells them of his Sufferings to be accomplished in this journey to Jerusalem And here the Disciples shewed themselves to be but men full of passion and indiscreet affection and the bold Galilean S. Peter took the boldness to dehort his Master from so great an infelicity and met with a reprehension so great that neither the Scribes nor the Pharisees nor Herod himself ever met with its parallel Jesus called him Satan meaning that no greater contradiction can be offered to the
our life and he dwells in the body and the spirit of every one that eats Christ's flesh and drinks his bloud Happy is that man that sits at the Table of Angels that puts his hand into the dish with the King of all the Creatures and feeds upon the eternal Son of God joyning things below with things above Heaven with Earth Life with Death that mortality might be swallowed up of life and Sin be destroyed by the inhabitation of its greatest Conqueror And now I need not enumerate any particulars since the Spirit of God hath ascertained us that Christ enters into our hearts and takes possession and abides there that we are made Temples and celestial mansions that we are all one with our Judge and with our Redeemer that our Creator is bound unto his Creature with bonds of charity which nothing can dissolve unless our own hands break them that Man is united with God and our weakness is fortified by his strength and our miseries wrapped up in the golden leaves of glory 2. Hence it follows that the Sacrament is an instrument of reconciling us to God and taking off the remanent guilt and stain and obligations of our sins This is the 〈◊〉 that was shed for you for the remission of sins For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus And such are all they who worthily eat the flesh of Christ by receiving him they more and more receive remission of sins redemption sanctification wisdom and certain hopes of glory 〈◊〉 as the Soul touching and united to the flesh of Adam contracts the stain of original misery and imperfection so much the 〈◊〉 shall the Soul united to the flesh of Christ receive pardon and purity and all those blessed emanations from our union with the Second Adam But this is not to be understood as if the first beginnings of our pardon were in the holy Communion for then a man might come with his impurities along with him and lay them on the holy Table to stain and pollute so bright a presence No first Repentance must 〈◊〉 the ways of the Lord and in this holy Rite those words of our Lord are verified He that is justified let him be justified 〈◊〉 that is here he may receive the increase of Grace and as it grows so sin dies and we are reconciled by nearer unions and approximations to God 9. Thirdly The holy Sacrament is the pledge of Glory and the earnest of Immortality for when we have received him who hath overcome Death and henceforth dies no more he becomes to us like the Tree of life in Paradise and the consecrated Symbols are like the seeds of an eternal duration springing up in us to eternal life nourishing our spirits with Grace which is but the prologue and the infancy of Glory and differs from it only as a Child from a Man But God first raised up his Son to life and by giving him to us hath also consigned us to the same state for our life is hid with Christ in God When we lay down and cast aside the impurer robes of flesh they are then but preparing for glory and if by the only touch of Christ bodies were redintegrate and restored to natural perfections how shall not we live for ever who eat his flesh and drink his bloud It is the discourse of S. Cyril Whatsoever the Spirit can convey to the body of the Church we may expect 〈◊〉 this Sacrament for as the Spirit is the instrument of life and action so the bloud of Christ is the conveyance of his Spirit And let all the mysterious places of holy Scripture concerning the effects of Christ communicated in the blessed Sacrament be drawn together in one Scheme we cannot but observe that although they are so expressed as 〈◊〉 their meaning may seem intricate and involved yet they cannot be drawn to any meaning at all but it is as glorious in its sense as it is mysterious in the expression and the more intricate they are the greater is their purpose no words being apt and proportionate to signifie this spiritual secret and excellent effects of the Spirit A veil is drawn before all these testimonies because the people were not able to behold the glory which they cover with their curtain and Christ dwelling in us and giving us his flesh to 〈◊〉 and his bloud to drink and the hiding of our life with God and the communication of the body of Christ and Christ being our life are such secret glories that as the fruition of them is the portion of the other world so also is the full perception and understanding of them for therefore God appears to us in a cloud and his glories in a veil that we understanding more of it by its concealment than we can by its open face which is too bright 〈◊〉 our weak eyes may with more piety also entertain the greatness by these indefinite and mysterious significations than we can by plain and direct intuitions which like the Sun in a direct ray enlightens the object but confounds the organ 10. I should but in other words describe the same glories if I should add That this holy Sacrament does enlighten the spirit of Man and clarifie it with spiritual discernings and as he was to the two Disciples at 〈◊〉 so also to other faithful people Christ is known in the breaking of bread That it is a great defence against the hostilities of our ghostly enemies this Holy Bread being like the Cake in 〈◊〉 's Camp overturning the tents of 〈◊〉 That it is the relief of our sorrows the antidote and preservative of Souls the viand of our journey the guard and passe-port of our death the wine of Angels That it is more healthful than Rhubarb more pleasant than Cassia That the Betele and 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 the Moly or Nepenthe of Pliny the Lirinon of the 〈◊〉 the Balsam of 〈◊〉 the Manna of Israel the Honey of Jonathan are but weak expressions to tell us that this is excellent above Art and Nature and that nothing is good enough in Philosophy to become its 〈◊〉 All these must needs fall very short of those plain words of Christ This is my Body The other may become the ecstasies of Piety the transportation of joy and wonder and are like the discourse of S. 〈◊〉 upon mount Tabor he was resolved to say some great thing but he knew not what but when we remember that the Body of our Lord and his Bloud is communicated to us in the Bread and the Chalice of blessing we must sit down and rest our selves for this is the mountain of the Lord and we can go no farther 11. In the next place it will 〈◊〉 our enquiry to consider how we are to prepare our selves For at the gate of life a man may meet with death and although this holy Sacrament be like Manna in which the obedient find the relishes of Obedience the chaste of
and tyranny over Consciences 14. The duty of Preparation that I here discourse of is such a Preparation as is a disposition to life it is not a matter of convenience or advantage to repent of our sins before the Communion but it is of absolute necessity we perish if we neglect it for we cat 〈◊〉 and Satan enters into us not Christ. And this Preparation is not the act of a day or a week but it is a new state of life no man that is an habitual sinner must come to this Feast till he hath wholly changed his course of life And then according as the actions of infirmity have made 〈◊〉 or greater invasion upon his peace and health so are the acts of Repentance to be proportioned in which the greatness of the prevarications their neighbourhood to death or their frequent repetition and the conduct of a Spiritual man are to give us counsel and determination When a ravening and hungry Wolf is destitute of prey he 〈◊〉 the turf and loads his stomach with the glebe he treads on but as soon as he finds better food he vomits up his first load Our secular and sensual affections are loads of earth upon the Conscience and when we approach to the Table of the Lord to eat the bread of the elect and to drink the wine of Angels we must reject such impure adhesions that holy persons being nourished with holy Symbols may be sanctified and receive the eternal reward of Holiness 15. But as none must come hither but they that are in the state of Grace or Charity and the love of God and their Neighbours and that the abolition of the state of sin is the necessary preparation and is the action of years and was not accepted as sufficient till the expiration of divers years by the Primitive Discipline and in some cases not till the approach of Death so there is another Preparation which is of less necessity which supposes the state of Grace and that oil is burning in our lamps but yet it is a preparation of ornament a trimming up the Soul a dressing the spirit with degrees and instances of Piety and progresses of perfection and it consists in setting apart some portion of our time before the Communion that it be spent in Prayer in Meditations in renewing the vows of holy Obedience in Examining our Consciences in Mortifying our lesser irregularities in Devotions and actions of precise Religion in acts of Faith of Hope of Charity of Zeal and holy desires in acts of Eucharist or Thanksgiving of Joy at the approach of so blessed opportunity and all the acts of Vertue whatsoever which have indefinite relation to this and to other mysteries but yet are specially to be exercised upon this occasion because this is the most perfect of external 〈◊〉 and the most mysterious instrument of sanctification and perfection There is no time or degree to be determined in this Preparation but they to whom much is forgiven will love much and they who 〈◊〉 the excellence and holiness of the Mystery the glory of the Guest that comes to inhabit and the undecency of the closet of their Hearts by reason of the adherencies of impurity the infinite benefit then designed and the increase of degrees by the excellence of these previous acts of Holiness will not be too inquisitive into the necessity of circumstances and measures but do it heartily and devoutly and reverently and as much as they can ever esteeming it necessary that the actions of so great solemnity should by some actions of Piety attending like handmaids be distinguished from common imployments and remarked for the principal and most solemn of religious actions The Primitive Church gave the holy Sacrament to Infants immediately after Baptism and by that act transmitted this Proposition That nothing was of absolute necessity but Innocency and purity from sin and a being in the state of Grace other actions of Religion are excellent addition to the dignity of the person and honour of the mystery but they were such of which Infants were not capable The summ is this After the greatest consociation of religious duties for Preparation no man can be sufficiently worthy to communicate let us take care that we be not unworthy by bringing a guilt with us or the remanent affection to a sin Est gloriosus sanè convictus Die Sed illi qui invitatur non qui invisus est 16. When the happy hour is come in which the Lord vouchsafes to enter into us and dwell with us and be united with his servants we must then do the same acts over again with greater 〈◊〉 intension confess the glories of God and thy own unworthiness praise his mercy with ecstasie of thanksgiving and joy make oblation of thy self of all thy faculties and capacities pray and read and meditate and worship And that thou mayest more opportunely do all this rise early to meet the Bridegroom pray for special assistance enter into the assembly of faithful people chearfully attend there diligently demean thy self reverently and before any other meat or drink receive the Body of thy Saviour with pure hands with holy intention with a heart full of joy and faith and hope and wonder and Eucharist These things I therefore set down irregularly and without method because in these actions no rule can be given to all persons and only such a love and such a Religion in general is to be recommended which will over-run the banks and not 〈◊〉 stand confined within the margent of rules and artificial prescriptions Love and Religion are boundless and all acts of grace relating to the present Mystery are sit and proportioned entertainments of our Lord. This only remember that we are by the Mystery of one bread confederated into one body and the communion of Saints and that the 〈◊〉 which we then commemorate was designed by our Lord for the benefit of all his Church Let us be sure to draw all faithful people into the society of the present Blessing joyning with the holy Man that ministers in prayers and offerings of that Mystery for the 〈◊〉 of all sorts of men of Christ's Catholick Church And it were also an excellent act of Christian communion and agreeable to the practice of the Church in all Ages to make an Oblation to God for the poor that as we are 〈◊〉 by Christ's body so we also should 〈◊〉 Christ's body making such returns as we can a grain of Frankincense in exchange for a Province an act of duty and Christian Charity as Eucharistical for the present Grace that all the body may rejoyce and glory in the Salvation of the Lord. 17. After thou hast received that pledge of immortality and antepast of glory even the Lord's Body in a mystery leave not thy Saviour there alone but attend him with holy thoughts and colloquies of Prayer and Eucharist It was sometime counted infamous for a woman to entertain a second love till the body of her
dead Husband was dissolved into ashes and disappeared in the form of a body And it were well that so long as the consecrated Symbols remain within us according to common estimate we should keep the flame bright and the perfume of an actual Devotion burning that our Communion be not a transient act but a permanent and lasting intercourse with our Lord. But in this every man best knows his own opportunities and necessities of diversion I only commend earnestly to practice that every Receiver should make a recollection of himself and the actions of the day that he improve it to the best advantage that he shew unto our Lord all the defects of his house all his poverty and weaknesses and this let every man do by such actions and Devotions which he can best attend and himself by the advice of a Spiritual man finds of best advantage I would not make the practice of Religion especially in such irregular instances to be an art or a burthen or a snare to scrupulous persons What S. Paul said in the 〈◊〉 of Charity I say also in this He that sows plentifully shall reap plentifully and he that 〈◊〉 sparingly shall gather at the same rate let every man do as himself purposeth in his heart Only it were well in this Sacrament of Love we had some correspondency and proportionable returns of Charity and religious affections 18. Some religious persons have moved a Question Whether it were better to communicate often or seldom some thinking it more reverence to those holy Mysteries to come but seldom while others say it is greater Religion or Charity to come frequently But I suppose this Question does not differ much from a dispute Whether is better to pray often or to pray seldom For whatsoever is commonly pretended against a frequent Communion may in its proportion object against a solemn Prayer 〈◊〉 affection to a sin enmity with neighbours secular avocations to the height of care and trouble for these either are great undecencies in order to a holy Prayer or else are direct irregularities and unhallow the Prayer And the celebration of the holy Sacrament is in it self and its own formality a sacred solemn and ritual Prayer in which we invocate God by the Merits of Christ expressing that adjuration not only in words but in actual representment and commemoration of his Passion And if the necessities of the Church were well considered we should find that a daily Sacrifice of Prayer and a daily Prayer of Sacrifice were no more but what her condition requires and I would to God the Governours of Churches would take care that the necessities of Kings and Kingdoms of Churches and States were represented to God by the most solemn and 〈◊〉 intercessions and Christ hath taught us none greater than the praying in the virtue and 〈◊〉 of his Sacrifice And this is the counsel that the Church received from Ignatius Haslen frequently to approach the 〈◊〉 the glory of God For when this is daily celebrated we break the powers of Satan who turns all his actions into 〈◊〉 and darts of fire But this concerns the Ministers of Religion who living in Communities and Colledges must make Religion the business of their lives and support Kingdoms and serve the interest of Kings by the prayer of a daily sacrifice And yet in this ministery the Clergy may serve their own necessary affairs if the ministration be divided into courses as it was by the oeconomy and wisdom of Solomon for the Temple 19. But concerning the Communion of Secular and lay persons the consideration is something different S. Austin gave this answer to it To receive the Sacrament every day I neither praise nor reprove at least let them receive it every Lord's day And this he spake to Husbandmen and Merchants At the first commencement of Christianity while the fervors Apostolical and the calentures of infant Christendom did last the whole assembly of faithsul people communicated every day and this lasted in Rome and Spain until the time of S. Jerome concerning which diligence he gives the same 〈◊〉 which I now recited from S. Austin for it suffered inconvenience by reason of a declining Piety and the intervening of secular interests But then it came to once a week and yet that was not every-where strictly observed But that it be received once every fortnight S. 〈◊〉 counsels very strongly to Eustochium a holy Virgin Let the 〈◊〉 confess their sins twice every month or 〈◊〉 and being fortified with the communion of the Lord's Body let them manfully fight against the Devil's forces and attempts A while 〈◊〉 it came to once a month then once a year then it fell from that too till all the Christians in the West were commanded to communicate every Easter by the Decree of a great Council above 500 years since But the Church of England finding that too little hath commanded all her Children to receive thrice every year at least intending that they should come oftner but of this she demands an account For it hath fared with this Sacrament as with other actions of Religion which have descended 〈◊〉 flames to still fires from fires to sparks from sparks to embers from embers to smoke from smoke to nothing And although the publick 〈◊〉 of Piety is such that in this present conjuncture of things it is impossible men should be reduced to a daily Communion yet that they are to communicate frequently is so a Duty that as no excuse but impossibility can make the omission innocent so the loss and consequent want is infinite and invaluable 20. For the holy Communion being a remembrance and sacramental repetition of Christ's Passion and the application of his Sacrifice to us and the whole Catholick Church as they who seldom communicate delight not to remember the Passion of our Lord and sin against his very purpose and one of the designs of institution so he cares not to receive the benefits of the Sacrifice who so neglects their application and reducing them to actual profit and 〈◊〉 Whence came the sanctimony of the primitive Christians whence came their strict observation of the Divine Commandments whence was it that they persevered in holy actions with hope and an unweary diligence from whence did their despising worldly things come and living with common possession and the distributions of an universal Charity Whence came these and many other excellencies but from a constant Prayer and a daily Eucharist They who every day represented the death of Christ every day were ready to die for Christ. It was the discourse of an ancient and excellent person And if we consider this Sacrament is intended to unite the spirits and affections of the world and that it is diffusive and powerful to this purpose for we are one body saith S. Paul because we partake of one bread possibly we may have reason to say that the wars of Kingdoms the animosity of Families the infinite
this instance there was a rare mixture of effects as there was in Christ of Natures the voice of a Man and the power of God For it is observed by the Doctors of the Primitive Ages that from the Nativity of our Lord to the day of his Death the Divinity and Humanity did so communicate in effects that no great action passed but it was like the Sun shining through a cloud or a beauty with a thin veil drawn over it they gave illustration and testimony to each other The Holy Jesus was born a tender and a crying Infant but is adored by the Magi as a King by the Angels as their GOD. He is circumcised as a Man but a name is given him to signifie him to be the SAVIOUR of the World He flies into Egypt like a distressed Child under the conduct of his helpless Parents but as soon as he enters the Country the Idols fall down and confess his true Divinity He is presented in the Temple as the Son of man but by Simeon and Anna he is celebrated with divine praises for the MESSIAS the SON OF GOD. He is baptized in Jordan as a Sinner but the Holy Ghost descending upon him proclaimed him to be the well-beloved of God He is hungry in the Desart as a Man but sustained his body without meat and drink for forty days together by the power of his Divinity There he is tempted of Satan as a weak Man and the Angels of light minister unto him as their supreme Lord. And now a little before his death when he was to take upon him all the affronts miseries and exinanitions of the most miserable he receives testimonies from above which are most wonderful For he was tranfigured upon Mount Tabor entred triumphantly into Jerusalem had the acclamations of the people when he was dying he darkned the Sun when he was dead he opened the sepulchres when he was fast nailed to the Cross he made the earth to tremble now when he suffers himself to be apprehended by a guard of Souldiers he strikes them all to the ground only by replying to their answer that the words of the Prophet might be verified Therefore my people shall know my Name therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak behold it is I. 10. The Souldiers and servants of the Jews having recovered from their fall and risen by the permission of Jesus still persisted in their enquiry after him who was present ready and desirous to be sacrificed He therefore permitted himself to be taken but not his Disciples for he it was that set them their bounds and he secured his Apostles to be witnesses of his suffering and his glories and this work was the Redemption of the world in which no man could have an active share he alone was to tread the wine-press and time enough they should be called to a fellowship of sufferings But Jesus went to them and they bound him with cords and so began our liberty and redemption from slavery and sin and cursings and death But he was bound faster by bands of his own his Father's Will and Mercy Pity of the world Prophecies and Mysteries and Love held him fast and these cords were as strong as death and the cords which the Souldiers malice put upon his holy hands were but symbols and figures his own compassion and affection were the morals But yet he undertook this short restraint and condition of a prisoner that all sorts of persecution and exteriour calamities might be hallowed by his susception and these pungent sorrows should like bees sting him and leave their sting behind that all the sweetness should remain for us Some melancholick Devotions have from uncertain stories added sad circumstances of the first violence done to our Lord That they bound him with three cords and that with so much violence that they caused bloud to start from his tender hands That they 〈◊〉 then also upon him with a violence and incivility like that which their Fathers had used towards Hur the brother of Aaron whom they choaked with impure spittings into his throat because he refused to consent to the making a golden Calf These particulars are not transmitted by certain Records Certain it is they wanted no malice and now no power for the Lord had given himself into their hands 11. S. Peter seeing his Master thus ill used asked Master shall we strike with the sword and before he had his answer cut off the ear of Malchus Two swords there were in Christ's family and S. Peter bore one either because he was to kill the Paschal Lamb or according to the custom of the Country to secure them against beasts of prey which in that region were frequent and dangerous in the night But now he used it in an unlawful war he had no competent authority it was against the Ministers of his lawful Prince and against our Prince we must not draw a sword for Christ himself himself having forbidden us as his kingdom is not of this world so neither were his defences secular he could have called for many legions of Angels for his guard if he had so pleased and we read that one Angel slew 185000 armed men in one night and therefore it was a vast power which was at the command of our Lord and he needs not such low auxiliaries as an army of Rebels or a navy of Pirates to 〈◊〉 his cause he first lays the foundation of our happiness in his sufferings and hath ever since supported Religion by patience and suffering and in poverty and all the circumstances and conjunctures of improbable causes Fighting for Religion is certain to destroy Charity but not certain to support Faith S. Peter therefore may use his keys but he is commanded to put up his sword and he did so and presently he and all his fellows fairly ran away and yet that course was much the more Christian for though it had in it much infirmity yet it had no malice In the mean time the Lord was pleased to touch the ear of Malchus and he cured it adding to the first instance of power in throwing them to the ground an act of miraculous mercy curing the wounds of an enemy made by a friend But neither did this pierce their callous and obdurate spirits but they led him in uncouth ways and through the brook Cedron in which it is said the ruder souldiers plunged him and passed upon him all the affronts and rudenesses which an insolent and cruel multitude could think of to signifie their contempt and their rage And such is the nature of evil men who when they are not softned by the instruments and arguments of Grace are much hardned by them such being the purpose of God that either Grace shall cure sin or accidentally increase it that it shall either pardon it or bring it to greater punishment for so I have seen healthful medicines abused by the incapacities of a
him honours the Emperour Conrade the Second when he triumphed after the conquest of Italy had a joy bigger than their heart and their phancy swelled it till they burst and died Death can enter in at any door 〈◊〉 of Nice died with excessive laughter so did the Poet Philemon being provoked to it only by seeing an Asse eat sigs And the number of persons who have been found suddenly dead in their beds is so great that as it ingages many to a more certain and regular devotion for their Compline so it were well it were pursued to the utmost intention of God that is that all the parts of Religion should with zeal and assiduity be entertained and finished that as it becomes wise men we never be surprised with that we are sure will sometime or other happen A great General in Italy at the sudden death of Alsonsus of Ferrara and Lodovico 〈◊〉 at the sight of the sad accident upon Henry II. of France now mentioned turned religious and they did what God intended in those deaths It concerns us to be curious of single actions because even in those shorter periods we may expire and 〈◊〉 our Graves But if the state of life be contradictory to our hopes of Heaven it is like affronting of a Cannon 〈◊〉 a beleaguer'd Town a month together it is a contempt of safety and a rendring all Reason useless and unprofitable but he only is wise who having made Death familiar to him by expectation and daily apprehension does at all instants go forth to meet it The wise Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom for they were ready Excellent therefore is the counsel of the Son of Sirach Use Physick or ever thou be sick 〈◊〉 Judgment examine thy self and in the day of visitation thou shalt finde mercy Humble thy self before then be sick and in the time of sins shew Repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy 〈◊〉 in due time and defer not until death to be justified 5. Secondly I consider that it osten happens that in those few days of our last visitation which many Men design for their Preparation and Repentance God hath expressed by an exteriour accident that those persons have deceived themselves and neglected their own Salvation S. Gregory reports of Chrysaurius a Gentleman in the Province of 〈◊〉 rich vicious and witty lascivious covetous and proud that being cast upon his Death-bed he phansied he saw evil spirits coming to arrest him and drag him to Hell He fell into great agony and trouble shrieked out called for his son who was a very religious person flattered him as willing to have been rescued by any thing but perceiving his danger increase and grown desperate he called loud with repeated clamours Give me respite but till the morrow and with those words he died there being no place left 〈◊〉 his Repentance though he sought it carefully with tears and groans The same was the case of a drunken Monk whom Venerable Bede mentions Upon his Death bed he seemed to see Hell opened and a place assigned him near to Caiaphas and those who crucified our dearest Lord. The religious persons that stood about his Bed called on him to repent of his sins to implore the mercies of God and to trust in Christ But he answered with reason enough This is no time to change my life the sentence is passed upon me and it is too late And it is very considerable and sad which Petrus Damianus tells of Gunizo a sactious and ambitious person to whom it is said the Tempter gave notice of his approaching death but when any Man preached Repentance to him out of a strange incuriousness or the spirit of reprobation he seemed like a dead and unconcerned person in all other discourses he was awake and apt to answer For God had shut up the gates of Mercy that no streams should issue forth to quench the flames of Hell or else had shut up the gates of reception and entertainment that it should not enter either God denies to give them pardon when they call or denies to them a power to call they either cannot pray or God will not answer Now since these stories are related by Men learned pious and eminent in their generations and because they served no design but the ends of Piety and have in them nothing dissonant from revelation or the frequent events of Providence we may upon their stock consider that God's Judgements and visible marks being set upon a state of Life although they happen but seldom in the instances yet they are of universal purpose and signfication Upon all Murtherers God hath not thrown a thunder-bolt nor broke all sacrilegious persons upon the wheel of an inconstant and ebbing estate nor spoken to every Oppressor from Heaven in a voice of thunder nor cut off all Rebels in the first attempts of insurrection But because he hath done so to some we are to look upon those Judgments as Divine accents and voices of God threatning all the same crimes with the like events and with the ruines of eternity For though God does not always make the same prologues to death yet by these few accidents happening to single persons we are to understand his purposes concerning all in the same condition it was not the person so much as the estate which God then remarked with so visible characters of his displeasure 6. And it seems to me a wonder that since from all the records of Scripture urging the uncertainty of the day of death the horrour of the day of Judgment the severity of God the dissolution of the world the certainty of our account still from all these premisses the Spirit of God makes no other inference but that we watch and stand in a readiness that we live in all holy conversation and godliness and that there is no one word concerning any other manner of an essentially-necessary Preparation none but this yet that there are Doctrines commenced and Rules prescribed and Offices set down and Suppletories invented by Curates of Souls how to prepare a vicious person and upon his Death-bed to reconcile him to the hopes and promises of Heaven Concerning which I desire that every person would but enquire where any one promise is recorded in Scripture concerning such addresses and what Articles CHRIST hath drawn up between his Father and us concerning a Preparation begun upon our Death-bed and if he shall find none as most certainly from Genesis to the Revelation there is not a word concerning it but very much against it let him first build his hopes upon this proposition that A holy life is the onely Preparation to a happy death and then we can without danger proceed to some other Considerations 7. When a good man or a person concerning whom it is not certain he hath lived in habitual Vices comes to die there are but two general ways of entercourse with him the one to keep him from
their friends and consider not that their friends are bound to accept the trouble as themselves to accept the sickness that to tend the sick is at that time allotted for the portion of their work and that Charity receives it as a duty and makes that duty to be a pleasure And however if our friends account us a burthen let us also accept that circumstance of affliction to our selves with the same resignation and indifferency as we entertain its occasion the Sickness it self and pray to God to enkindle a flame of Charity in their breasts and to make them compensation for the charge and trouble we put them to and then the care is at an end But others excuse their discontent with a more religious colour and call the disease their trouble and affliction because it impedes their other parts of Duty they cannot preach or study or do exteriour assistences of Charity and Alms or acts of Repentance and Mortification But it were well if we could let God proportion out our work and set our task let him chuse what vertues we shall specially exercise and when the will of God determines us it is more excellent to endure afflictions with patience equanimity and thankfulness than to do actions of the most pompous Religion and laborious or expensive Charity not only because there is a deliciousness in actions of Religion and choice which is more agreeable to our spirit than the toleration of sickness can be which hath great reward but no present pleasure but also because our suffering and our imployment is consecrated to us when God chuses it and there is then no mixture of imperfection or secular interest as there may be in other actions even of an excellent Religion when our selves are the chusers And let us also remember that God hath not so much need of thy works as thou hast of Patience Humility and Resignation S. Paul was far a more considerable person than thou canst be and yet it pleased God to shut him in prison for two years and in that intervall God secured and promoted the work of the Gospel and although 〈◊〉 was an excellent Minister yet God laid a sickness upon him and even in his disease gave him work enough to do though not of his own chusing And therefore fear it not but the ends of Religion or Duty will well enough proceed without thy health and thy own eternal interest when God so pleases shall better be served by Sickness and the Vertues which it occasions than by the opportunities of Health and an ambulatory active Charity 18. When thou art resigned to God use fair and appointed means for thy Recovery trust not in thy spirit upon any instrument of health as thou art willing to be disposed by God so look 〈◊〉 for any event upon the stock of any other cause or principle be ruled by the Physician and the people appointed to tend thee that thou neither become troublesome to them nor give any sign of impatience or a peevish spirit But this advice only means that thou do not disobey them out of any evil principle and yet if Reason be thy guide to chuse any other aid or sollow any other counsel use it temperately prudently and charitably It is not intended for a Duty that thou shouldst drink Oil in stead of Wine if thy Minister reach it to thee as did Saint Bernard nor that thou shouldst accept a Cake tempered with Linseed-oil in stead of Oil of Olives as did F. Stephen mentioned by 〈◊〉 but that thou tolerate the defects of thy servants and accept the evil accidents of thy disease or the unsuccessfulness of thy Physician 's care as descending on thee from the hands of God Asa was noted in Scripture that in his sickness he sought not to the Lord but to the Physicians Lewis the XI of France was then the miserablest person in his Kingdom when he made himself their servant courting them with great pensions and rewards attending to their Rules as Oracles and from their mouths waited for the sentence of life or death We are in these great accidents especially to look upon God as the disposer of the events which he very often disposes contrary to the expectation we may have of probable causes and sometimes without Physick we recover and with Physick and excellent applications we grow worse and worse and God it is that makes the remedies unprosperous In all these and all other accidents if we take care that the sickness of the Body derive not it self into the Soul nor the pains of one procure impatience of the other we shall alleviate the burthen and make it supportable and profitable And certain it is if men knew well to bear their sicknesses humbly towards God charitably towards our Ministers and chearfully in themselves there were no greater advantage in the world to be received than upon a sick bed and that alone hath in it the benefits of a Church of a religious Assembly of the works of Charity and labour And since our Soul 's eternal well-being depends upon the Charities and Providence and Veracity of God and we have nothing to show for it but his word and Goodness and that is infinitely enough it is but reason we be not more nice and scrupulous about the usage and accommodation of our Body if we accept at God's hand sadness and driness of affection and spiritual desertion patiently and with indifferency it is unhandsome to express our selves less satisfied in the accidents about our body 19. But if the Sickness proceed to Death it is a new charge upon our spirits and God calls for a final and intire Resignation into his hands And to a person who was of humble affections and in his life-time of a mortified spirit accustomed to bear the yoke of the Lord this is easie because he looks upon Death not only as the certain condition of Nature but as a necessary transition to a state of Blessedness as the determination of his sickness the period of humane inselicities the last change of condition the beginning of a new strange and excellent life a security against sin a freedom from the importunities of a Tempter from the tyranny of an imperious Lust from the rebellion of Concupiscence from the disturbances and tempests of the Irascible faculty and from the fondness and childishness of the Concupiscible and S. Ambrose says well the trouble of this life and the dangers are so many that in respect of them Death is a remedy and a fair proper object of desires And we finde that many Saints have prayed for death that they might not see the Persecutions and great miseries incumbent upon the Church and if the desire be not out of Impatience but of Charity and with resignation there is no reason to reprove it Elias prayed that God would take his life that he might not see the evils of Ahab and Jezebel and their vexatious intendments against the
to God and even holy purposes are good actions of the Spirit and Principles of Religion and though alone they cannot do the work of Grace or change the state when they are ineffectual that is when either we will not bring them into act or that God will not let us yet to a Man already in the state of Grace they are the additions of something good and are like blowing of coals which although it can put no life into a dead coal yet it makes a live coal shine brighter and burn clearer and adds to it some accidental degrees of heat 23. Having thus disposed himself to the peace of God let him make peace with all those in whom he knows or suspects any minutes of anger or malice or displeasure towards him submitting himself to them with humility whom he unworthily hath displeased asking pardon of them who say they are displeased and offering pardon to them that have displeased him and then let him crave the peace of Holy Church For it is all this while to be supposed that he hath used the assistence and prayers the counsel and the advices of a spiritual man and that to this purpose he hath opened to him the state of his whole life and made him to understand what emendations of his faults he hath made what acts of Repentance he hath done how lived after his fall and reparation and that he hath submitted all that he did or undid to the discerning of a holy man whose office it is to guide his Soul in this agony and last offices All men cannot have the blessing of a wise and learned Minister and some die where they can have none at all yet it were a safer course to do as much of this as we can and to a competent person if we can if we cannot then to the best we have according as we judge it to be of spiritual advantage to us for in this conjuncture of accidents it concerns us to be sure if we may and not to be deceived where we can avoid it because we shall never return to life to do this work again And if after this entercourse with a Spiritual guide we be reconciled by the solemn prayer of the Church the prayer of Absolution it will be of great advantage to us we depart with our Father's blessing we die in the actual Communion of the Church we hear the sentence of God applied after the manner of men and the promise of Pardon made circumstantiate material present and operative upon our spirits and have our portion of the promise which is recorded by S. James that if the Elders of the Church pray over a sick person fervently and effectually add solemnly his sins shall be forgiven him that is supposing him to be in a capacity to receive it because such prayers of such a man are very prevalent 24. All this is in a spiritual sense washing the hands in innocency and then let him go to the altar let him not for any excuse less than impossibility omit to receive the holy Sacrament which the Father 's assembled in the great Nicene Council have taught all the Christian world to call the most necessary provisions for our last journey which is the memory of that Death by which we hope for life which is the seed of Immortality and Resurrection of our bodies which unites our spirit to Christ which is a great defensative against the hostilities of the Devil which is the most solemn Prayer of the Church united and made acceptable by the Sacrifice of Christ which is then represented and exhibited to God which is the great instrument of spiritual increase and the growth of Grace which is duty and reward food and Physick health and pleasure deletery and cordial prayer and thanksgiving an union of mysteries the marriage of the Soul and the perfection of all the Rites of Christianity dying with the holy Sacrament in us is a going to God with Christ in our arms and interposing him between us and his angry sentence But then we must be sure that we have done all the duty without which we cannot communicate worthily For else Satan comes in the place of Christ and it is a horrour not less than infinite to appear before God's Tribunal possessed in our Souls with the spirit of darkness True it is that by many Laws of the Church the Bishop and the Minister are bound to give the holy Eucharist to every person who in the article or apparent danger of death desires it provided that he hath submitted himself to the imposition and counsels of the Bishop or Guide of his Soul that in case he recovers he may be brought to the peace of God and his Church by such steps and degrees of Repentance by which other publick sinners are reconciled But to this gentleness of Discipline and easiness of Administration those excellent persons who made the Canons thought themselves compelled by the rigour of the 〈◊〉 and because they admitted not lapsed persons to the peace of the Church upon any terms though never so great so publick or so penal a Repentance therefore these not onely remitted them to the exercise and station of Penitents but also to the Communion But the Fathers of the Council of Eliberis denied this favour to persons who after Baptism were Idolaters either intending this as a great argument to affright persons from so great a crime or else believing that it was unpardonable after Baptism a contradiction to that state which we entred into by Baptism and the Covenant Evangelical However I desire all learned persons to observe it and the less learned also to make use of it that those more ancient Councils of the Church which commanded the holy Communion to be given to dying persons meant only such which according to the custome of the Church were under the conditions of Repentance that is such to whom punishment and Discipline of divers years were injoyned and if it happened they died in the intervall before the expiration of their time of reconciliation then they admitted them to the Communion Which describes to us the doctrine of those Ages when Religion was purer and Discipline more severe and holy life secured by rules of excellent Government that those only were fit to come to that Feast who before their last sickness had finished the Repentance of many years or at least had undertaken it I cannot say it was so always and in all Churches for as the Disciples grew slack or mens perswasions had variety so they were more ready to grant Repentance as well as Absolution to dying persons but it was otherwise in the best times and with severer Prelates And certainly it were great charity to deny the Communion to persons who have lived viciously till their death provided it be by competent authority and done sincerely prudently and without temporal interest to other persons who have lived good lives or repented of their bad
galled with the iron at his heels and nailed even before his Crucifixion But this and the other accidents of his journey and their malice so crushed his wounded tender and virginal body that they were forced to lay the load upon a Cyrenian fearing that he should die with less shame and smart than they intended him But so he was pleased to take man unto his aid not only to represent his own need and the dolorousness of his Passion but to consign the duty unto man that we must enter into a 〈◊〉 of Christ's sufferings taking up the Cross of Martyrdom when God requires us enduring affronts being patient under affliction loving them that hate us and being benefactors to our enemies abstaining from sensual and intemperate delight forbidding to our selves lawful festivities and recreations of our weariness when we have an end of the spirit to serve upon the ruines of the bodie 's strength mortifying our desires breaking our own will not seeking our selves being entirely resigned to God These are the Cross and the Nails and the Spear and the Whip and all the instruments of a Christian's Passion And we may consider that every man in this world shall in some sence or other bear a Cross few men escape it and it is not well with them that do but they only bear it well that 〈◊〉 Christ and tread in his steps and bear it for his sake and walk as he walked and he that follows his own desires when he meets with a cross there as it is certain enough he will bears the cross of his Concupiscence and that hath no fellowship with the Cross of Christ. By the Precept of bearing the Cross we are not tied to pull evil upon our selves that we may imitate our Lord in nothing but in being afflicted or to personate the punitive exercises of Mortification and severe Abstinencies which were eminent in some Saints and to which they had special assistances as others had the gift of Chastity and for which they had special reason and as they apprehended some great necessities but it is required that we bear our own Cross so said our dearest Lord. For when the Cross of Christ is laid upon us and we are called to Martyrdom then it is our own because God made it to be our portion and when by the necessities of our spirit and the rebellion of our body we need exteriour mortifications and acts of self-denial then also it is our own cross because our needs have made it so and so it is when God sends us sickness or any other calamity what-ever is either an effect of our ghostly needs or the condition of our temporal estate it calls for our sufferance and patience and equanimity for therefore Christ hath suffered for us saith S. Peter leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who bore his Cross as long as he could and when he could no longer he murmured not but sank under it and then he was content to receive such aid not which he chose himself but such as was assigned him 3. Jesus was led out of the gates of Jerusalem that he might become the sacrifice for persons without the pale even for all the world And the daughters of Jerusalem followed him with pious tears till they came to Calvary a place difficult in the ascent eminent and apt for the publication of shame a hill of death and dead bones polluted and impure and there beheld him stript naked who cloaths the field with flowers and all the world with robes and the whole globe with the canopy of Heaven and so dress'd that now every circumstance was a triumph By his Disgrace he trampled upon our Pride by his Poverty and nakedness he triumphed over our Covetousness and love of riches and by his Pains chastised the Delicacies of our flesh and broke in pieces the fetters of Concupiscence For as soon as Adam was clothed he quitted Paradise and Jesus was made naked that he might bring us in again And we also must be despoil'd of all our exteriour adherencies that we may pass through the regions of duty and divine love to a society of blessed spirits and a clarified immortal and beatified estate 4. There they nailed Jesus with four nails fixed his Cross in the ground which with its fall into the place of its station gave infinite torture by so violent a concussion of the body of our Lord which rested upon nothing but four great wounds where he was designed to suffer a long and lingring torment For Crucifixion as it was an excellent pain sharp and passionate so it was not of quick effect towards taking away the life S. Andrew was two whole days upon the Cross and some Martyrs have upon the Cross been rather starved and devoured with birds than killed with the proper torment of the tree But Jesus took all his Passion with a voluntary susception God heightning it to the great degrees of torment supernaturally and he laid down his life voluntarily when his Father's wrath was totally appeased towards mankind 5. Some have phansied that Christ was pleased to take something from every condition of which Man ever was or shall be possessed taking Immunity from sin from Adam's state of Innocence Punishment and misery from the state of Adam fallen the fulness of Grace from the state of Renovation and perfect Contemplation of the Divinity and beatifick joys from the state of Comprehension and the blessedness of Heaven meaning that the Humanity of our Blessed Saviour did in the sharpest agony of his Passion behold the face of God and communicate in glory But I consider that although the two Natures of Christ were knit by a mysterious union into one Person yet the Natures still retain their incommunicable properties Christ as God is not subject to sufferings as a man he is the subject of miseries as God he is eternal as man mortal and commensurable by time as God the supreme Law-giver as man most humble and obedient to the Law and therefore that the Humane nature was united to the Divine it does not infer that it must in all instances partake of the Divine felicities which in God are essential to man communicated without necessity and by an arbitrary dispensation Add to this that some vertues and excellencies were in the Soul of Christ which could not consist with the state of glorified and beatified persons such as are Humility Poverty of spirit Hope Holy desires all which having their seat in the Soul suppose even in the supremest 〈◊〉 a state of pilgrimage that is a condition which is imperfect and in order to something beyond its present For therefore Christ ought to suffer saith our Blessed Lord himself and so enter into his glory And S. Paul affirms that we see Jesus made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of death 〈◊〉 with glory and honour And again Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto
of prepared torments he died a natural death in a good old age 5. After this Jesus having appointed a solemn meeting for all the Brethren that could be collected from the dispersion and named a certain mountain in 〈◊〉 appeared to five hundred Brethren at once and this was his most publick and solemn manifestation and while some doubted Jesus came according to the designation and spake to the eleven sent them to preach to all the world Repentance and Remission of sins in his Name promising to be with them to the end of the world He appeared also unto James but at what time is uncertain save that there is something concerning it in the Gospel of S. Matthew which the Nazarens of 〈◊〉 used and which it is likely themselves added out of report for there is nothing of it in our Greek Copies The words are these When the Lord had given the linen in which he was wrapped to the servant of the High Priest he went and appeared unto James For James had vowed after he received the Lord's Supper that he would eat no bread till he saw the Lord risen from the grave Then the Lord called for bread he blessed it and brake it and gave it to James the Just and said My Brother eat bread for the Son of man is risen from the sleep of death So that by this it should seem to be done upon the day of the Resurrection But the relation of it by S. Paul puts it between the appearance which he made to the five hundred and that last to the Apostles when he was to ascend into Heaven Last of all when the Apostles were at dinner he appeared to them upbraiding their incredulity and then he opened their understanding that they might discern the sence of Scripture and again commanded them to preach the Gospel to all the world giving them power to do Miracles to cast out Devils to cure 〈◊〉 and instituted the Sacrament of Baptism which he commanded should together with the Sermons of the Gospel be administred to all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Then he led them into Judaea and they came to Bethany and from thence to the mount Olivet and he commanded them to stay in Jerusalem till the Holy Ghost the promise of the Father should descend upon them which should be accomplished in few days and then they should know the times and the seasons and all things necessary for their ministration and service and propagation of the Gospel And while he discoursed many things concerning the Kingdom behold a Cloud came and parted Jesus from them and carried him in their sight up into Heaven where he sits at the right hand of God blessed for ever Amen 6. While his Apostles stood gazing up to Heaven two Angels appeared to them and told them that Jesus should come in like manner as he was taken away viz. with glory and majesty and in the clouds and with the ministry of Angels Amen Come Lord JESUS come quickly Ad SECT XVI Considerations upon the Accidents happening in the intervall after the Death of the Holy JESUS untill his Resurrection Jesus and Mary in the Garden Joh. 20. 14. 15. 16. Mary turning about saw Jesus standing knew not y t it was Jesus Jesus saith woman whom seekest thou Shee supposing him to be the garidner saith sir if thou have born him hence tell me etc. Jesus saith unto her Mary she turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is Master Jesus saith unto her touch me not for etc. Mary Magdalen came and told the desciples that she had seen the Lord. Our Lords Ascension Acts. 1. 9. And when he had spoken these things while they beheld he was taken up a Cloud received him out of their sight 10. And while they stedfastly looked toward heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparell 11. Which also said this same Iesus shall so come as you have seen him go into heaven 1. THE Holy Jesus promised to the blessed Thief that he should that day be with him in Paradise which therefore was certainly a place or state of Blessedness because it was a promise and in the society of Jesus whose penal and afflictive part of his work of Redemption was finished upon the Cross. Our Blessed Lord did not promise he should that day be with him in his Kingdom for that day it was not opened and the everlasting doors of those interiour recesses were to be shut till after the Resurrection that himself was to ascend thither and make way for all his servants to enter in the same method in which he went before us Our Blessed Lord descended into Hell saith the Creed of the Apostles from the Sermon of Saint Peter as he from the words of David that is into the state of Separation and common receptacle of Spirits according to the style of Scripture But the name of Hell is no-where in Scripture an appellative of the Kingdom of Christ of the place of final and supreme Glory But concerning the verification of our Lord's promise to the beatified Thief and his own state of Separation we must take what light we can from Scripture and what we can from the Doctrine of the Primitive Church S. Paul had two great Revelations he was rapt up into Paradise and he was rapt up into the third Heaven and these he calls visions revelations not one but divers for Paradise is distinguished from the Heaven of the blessed being it self a receptacle of holy Souls made illustrious with visitation of Angels and happy by being a repository for such spirits who at the day of Judgment shall go forth into eternal glory In the interim Christ hath trod all the paths before us and this also we must pass through to arrive at the Courts of Heaven Justin Martyr said it was the doctrine of heretical persons to say that the Souls of the Blessed instantly upon the separation from their Bodies enter into the highest Heaven And Irenaeus makes Heaven and the intermediate receptacle of Souls to be distinct places both blessed but hugely differing in degrees Tertullian is dogmatical in the assertion that till the voice of the great Archangel be heard and as long as Christ sits at the right hand of his Father making intercession for the Church so long blessed Souls must expect the assembling of their brethren the great Congregation of the Church that they may all pass from their outer courts into the inward tabernacle the Holy of Holies to the Throne of God And as it is certain that no Soul could enter into glory before our Lord 〈◊〉 by whom we hope to have access so it is most agreeable to the proportion 〈◊〉 the mysteries of our Redemption that we believe the entrance into Glory to have been made by our Lord at his glorious Ascension and that his Soul went not thither before 〈◊〉 to come back again
his Disciples to verifie his Promise to make demonstration of his Divinity to lay some superstructures of his Church upon the foundation of his former Sermons to instruct them in the mysteries of his Kingdom to prepare them for the reception of the Holy Ghost and as he had in his state of Separation triumphed over Hell so in his Resurrection he set his foot upon Death and brought it under his dominion so that although it was not yet destroyed yet it is made his subject it hath as yet the condition of the Gibeonites who were not banished out of the land but they were made drawers of water and bewers of wood so is Death made instrumental to Christ's Kingdom but it abides still and shall till the day of Judgment but shall serve the ends of our Lord and promote the interests of Eternity and do benefit to the Church 8. And it is considerable that our Blessed Lord having told them that after three days he would rise again yet he shortened the time as much as was possible that he might verifie his own prediction and yet make his absence the less troublesome he rises early in the morning the first day of the week for so our dearest Lord abbreviates the days of our sorrow and lengthens the years of our consolation for he knows that a day of sorrow seems a year and a year of joy passes like a day and therefore God lessens the one and 〈◊〉 the other to make this perceived and that supportable Now the Temple which the Jews destroyed God raised up in six and thirty hours but this second Temple was more glorious than the first for now it was clothed with robes of glory with clarity agility and immortality and though like Moses descending from the mount he wore a veil that the greatness of his splendor might not render him unapt for conversation with his servants yet the holy Scripture affirms that he was now no more to see corruption meaning that now he was separate from the passibility and affections of humane bodies and could suffer S. Thomas to thrust his hand into the wound of his side and his singer into the holes of his hands without any grief or smart 9. But although the graciousness and care of the Lord had prevented all diligence and satisfied all desires returning to life before the most forward faith could expect him yet there were three Maries went to the grave so early that they prevented the rising of the Sun and though with great obedience they stayed till the end of the Sabbath yet as soon as that was done they had other parts of duty and affection which called with greatest importunity to be speedily satisfied And if Obedience had not bound the feet of Love they had gone the day before but they became to us admirable patterns of Obedience to the Divine Commandments For though Love were stronger than death yet Obedience was stronger than Love and made a rare dispute in the spirits of those holy Women in which the flesh and the spirit were not the litigants but the spirit and the spirit and they resisted each other as the Angel-guardian of the Jews resisted the tutelar Angel of Persia each striving who should with most love and zeal perform their charge and God determined And so he did here too For the Law of the Sabbath was then a Divine Commandment and although piety to the dead and to such a dead was ready to force their choice to do violence to their will bearing them up on wings of desire to the grave of the LORD yet at last they reconciled Love with Obedience For they had been taught that Love is best expressed in keeping of the Divine Commandments But now they were at liberty and sure enough they made use of its first minute and going so early to seek Christ they were sure they should find him 10. The Angels descended Guardians of the Sepulchre for God sent his guards too and they affrighted the Watch appointed by Pilate and the Priests but when the women came they spake like comforters full of sweetness and consolation laying aside their affrighting glories as knowing it is the will of their Lord that they should minister good to them that love him But a conversation with Angels could not satisfie them who came to look for the Lord of the Angels and found him not and when the Lord was pleased to appear to Mary Magdalen she was so swallowed up with love and sorrow that she entred into her joy and perceived it not she saw the Lord and knew him not For so from the closets of darkness they that immediately stare upon the Sun perceive not the beauties of the light and feel nothing but amazement But the voice of the Lord opened her eyes and she knew him and worshipped him but was denied to touch him and commanded to tell the Apostles for therefore God ministers to us comforts and revelations not that we may dwell in the sensible fruition of them our selves alone but that we communicate the grace to others But when the other women were returned and saw the Lord then they were all together admitted to the embracement and to kiss the feet of Jesus For God hath his opportunities and periods which at another time he denies and we must then rejoyce in it when he vouchsafes it and submit to his Divine will when he denies it 11. These good women had the first fruits of the apparition for their forward love and the passion of their Religion made greater haste to entertain a Grace and was a greater endearment of their persons to our Lord than a more sober reserved and less active spirit This is more safe but that is religious this goes to God by the way of understanding that by the will this is supported by discourse that by passions this is the sobriety of the Apostles the other was the zeal of the holy women and because a strong fancy and an earnest passion sixed upon holy objects are the most active and forward instruments of Devotion as Devotion is of Love therefore we find God hath made great expressions of his acceptance of such dispositions And women and less knowing persons and tender dispositions and pliant natures will make up a greater number in Heaven than the severe and wary and enquiring people who sometimes love because they believe and believe because they can demonstrate but never believe because they love When a great Understanding and a great Affection meet together it makes a Saint great like an Apostle but they do not well who make abatement of their religious passions by the severity of their Understanding It is no matter by which we are brought to Christ so we love him and obey him but if the production admit of 〈◊〉 that instrument is the most excellent which produces the greatest love and 〈◊〉 discourse and a sober spirit be in it self the best yet we do not always suffer that to be a
helped by none comforted by none and he makes himself a companion of Devils to everlasting ages but in the judgment of Repentance and Tribunal of the Church the penitent sinner is prayed for by a whole army of militant Saints and causes joy to all the Church triumphant And to establish this Tribunal in the Church and to transmit pardon to penitent sinners and a salutary judgment upon the person and the crime and to appoint Physicians and Guardians of the Soul was one of the designs and mercies of the Resurrection of Jesus And let not any Christian man either by false opinion or an unbelieving spirit or an incurious apprehension undervalue or neglect this ministery which Christ hath so sacredly and solemnly established Happy is he that dashes his sins against the rock upon which the Church is built that the Church gathering up the planks and fragments of the shipwreck and the shivers of the broken heart may re-unite them pouring Oil into the wounds made by the blows of sin and restoring with meekness gentleness care counsel and authority persons overtaken in a fault For that act of Ministery is not ineffectual which God hath promised shall be ratified in Heaven and that Authority is not contemptible which the Holy Jesus conveyed by breathing upon his Church the Holy Ghost But Christ intended that those whom he had made Guides of our Souls and Judges of our Consciences in order to counsel and ministerial pardon should also be used by us in all cases of our Souls and that we go to Heaven the way he hath appointed that is by offices and ministeries Ecclesiastical 17. When our Blessed Lord had so confirmed the Faith of the Church and appointed an Ecclesiastical Ministery he had but one work more to do upon earth and that was the Institution of the holy Sacrament of Baptism which he ordained as a solemn Initiation and mysterious Profession of the Faith upon which the Church is built making it a solemn Publication of our Profession the rite of Stipulation or entring Covenant with our Lord the solemnity of the Paction Evangelical in which we undertake to be Disciples to the Holy Jesus that is to believe his Doctrine to fear his Threatnings to rely upon his Promises and to obey his Commandments all the days of our life and he for his part actually performs much and promises more he takes off all the guilt of our preceding days purging our Souls and making them clean as in the day of innocence promising withall that if we perform our undertaking and remain in the state in which he now puts us he will continually assist us with his Spirit prevent and attend us with his Grace he will deliver us from the power of the Devil he will keep our Souls in merciful joyful and safe custody till the great Day of the Lord he will then raise our Bodies from the Grave he will make them to be spiritual and immortal he will re-unite them to our Souls and beatifie both Bodies and Souls in his own Kingdom admitting them into eternal and unspeakable glories All which that he might verifie and prepare respectively in the presence of his Disciples he ascended into the bosome of God and the eternal comprehensions of celestial Glory The PRAYER O Holy and Eternal Jesus who hast overcome Death and triumphed over all the powers of Hell Darkness Sin and the Grave manifesting the truth of thy Promises the power of thy Divinity the majesty of thy Person the rewards of thy Glory and the mercies and excellent designs of thy Evangelical Kingdom by thy glorious and powerful Resurrection preserve my Soul from eternal death and make me to rise from the death of Sin and to live the life of Grace loving thy Perfections adoring thy Mercy pursuing the interest of thy Kingdom being united to the Church under thee our Head conforming to thy holy Laws established in Faith entertained and confirmed with a modest humble and certain Hope and sanctified by Charity that I engraving thee in my heart and submitting to thee in my spirit and imitating thee in thy glorious example may be partaker of thy Resurrection which is my hope and my desire the support of my Faith the object of my Joy and the strength of my Confidence In thee Holy Jesus do I trust I confess thy Faith I believe all that thou hast taught I desire to perform all thy injunctions and my own undertaking my Soul is in thy hand do thou support and guide it and pity my infirmities and when thou shalt reveal thy great Day shew to me the mercies and effects of thy Advocation and Intercession and Redemption Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God for in thee have I trusted let me never be confounded Thou art just thou 〈◊〉 merciful thou art gracious and compassionate thou hast done miracles and prodigies of favour to me and all the world Let not those great actions and sufferings be ineffective but make me capable and receptive of thy Mercies and then I am certain to receive them I am thine O save me thou art mine O Holy Jesus O dwell with me for ever and let me dwell with thee adoring and praising the eternal glories of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen THE END 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE TABLE OF The Life of CHRIST Where are more Numbers than one the first Number denotes the Page the latter the Number of the Section A. ABsolution of dying Persons of what benefit 407. 23. Whether to be given to all that desire it 408. 24. Acceptable Year of the Lord what it means 186. 22. Actions of Jesus confuted his Accusers 390. 2. Acts of Vertue to be done by sick and dying Persons 405 406. 19 20. Accusation of Criminals not to be aggravated odiously 393. 8. It ought to be onely for purposes of Charity ibid. Accusation of innocent persons ought to be born patiently by the innocent 393. 9. Accusation of Jesus 352. 24. Adam buried in Golgotha 354. 31. Adoption of Sons 316. 7. Advent of our Lord must be entertained with joy 156. 3. Adultery made more criminal under the Gospel than under the Law 249. 37 c. Adultery of the eyes 250. 36. Adrian the Emperour built a Temple to Venus and Adonis in the place of Christ's Birth 14. 6. Agony of Jesus in the Garden 350. 20. Agesilaus was more commended for his modesty and obedience than for his prosperous good Conduct 50. 25. Albes or white garments wore by the Church and why 393. 9 10. Alms intended for a defensative against Covetousness 258. 1. Ordinarily to be according to our ability ibid. Sometimes beyond in what cases ibid. Necessities of all indigent people are the object of our Alms 259. 3. Manner of Alms an office of Christian prudence ibid. The two Altars in Solomon's Temple what they did represent 83. 4. Ambitious seeking Ecclesiastical Dignities very criminal 96. 2. Ambition is
no Miracles before 30 years of age 154. 6 8. He entertains five Disciples ibid. He is to be sought for in his Ordinances 156. 4. He ejected the Merchants out of the Temple 169. 2. He mingled no Injury with his Zeal 170. 4. He Baptized Peter onely 181. 1. He ends the Samaritan's Qu. about the place of Worship 182. 4. He made a Covenant of Faith and Repentance 200. 9. This Covenant is consigned in Baptism ibid. His Miracles were greater than any man did before him 277. 2. His Passion cured our Miseries 411. 2. He was viator not comprehensor in his Passion 413. 5. His Prayer for his Enemies was effectual 416. 10. He first ascended into Heaven 419. 1. His side streamed forth two Sacraments 426. 4. He raised the Widow's son to life 291. 7. He shewed the power of a God with the infirmities of a Man 387. 9. Crowned with thorns 395. 11. His Commission to Peter 419. 4. 420. 4. He is our Advocate for actions relative to him 360. 8 9. A King 28. 13. A Star was his evidence ibid. Christians ought to be exemplary in their Lives 231. 1. Their Righteousness to exceed the Pharisaical 232 233. Christian prudence 157. 6. Christian simplicity 157. 6. They for the most part chuse not their Religion 160. 1. They are to be like Children 325. 15. Christian Liberty not to be betrayed 331. 8. Christianity an easie Yoak 295. 1. More pleasant than Sin ibid. More natural ibid. vide Praes Not so troublesome as sin 297. It is the way of peace 299. 7. Of Content ibid. 300. Of Riches and of long life 302. 13 14. seq Of Health ibid. Of Wisdom 308. 27. Children of God exposed to Temptations 98. 7 8. Church deserves great Revenues but needs them not 70. 8 9. Her endowments are of advantage to the People ibid. Dangerous for the Church to be Rich in Temporal possessions ibid. Church ought to be more apt to remit of Temporal rights than others ibid. Church-Tribunal to be of great mercy 430. 16. Compared with God's Tribunal ibid. It is impregnable against Hell-gates 321. 9. Built upon the Confession of Peter ibid. Churches built upon Mount Tabor 322. 11. They are Holy Places to what sence and to what purposes 172. How to be used 176. 11. Church in Paradise called the presence of God 175. 7. The residence of Angels ibid. 8. Their best ornament is the holiness of worshippers 178. 14. They are desecrated by Vice ibid. Circumcision an earnest of the Passion 36. 1. Not declared to be remissive of original sin ibid. Circumcision of Christ served many purposes 37. 2. It was an act of Obedience ibid. Complying with customes of civility sometimes a Temptation 108. 16. Company-keeping to be avoided as it can ibid. Communion of Saints profitable and pleasant 75. Comforts more necessary to 〈◊〉 Converts 33. 9. Clergie's duty under the Parable of a Steward 326. 26. Covetousness its fruits 361. 10. 390. Confession to a Minister of Religion 218. 51. Contrition alone not sufficient for Pardon ibid. Consecration of the Eucharist mysterious 369. 2. Cure of Souls a dangerous and grave Imployment 96. 2. D. DEscription of Jesus by way of Meditation and Mystery 16. 5 6. Decalogue expounded 231. Death happening untimely doth not always consign to Damnation 336. Preparation to Death 397. seq It comes by all accidents ibid. Deaths sudden and rare ibid. Death-bed Repentance too late 339. 5. Vide Repentance It is desirable 405. 19. How far it may be prayed against ibid. To be submitted to in all cases ibid. Death of Man sanctified and conquered by Christ's Death 426. 7. 405. 19. Dying persons how to be treated and assisted 400. 6. Devils confessed Christ 290. 4. That the Devil had the managing of the Roman Empire was the Opinion of some Wise-men 100. 14. One deaf and dumb ejected 321. 7. He furnishes evil persons with apt instruments 361. 10. How they did appear to Jesus in the Desart 95. 7. They are impotent in their malice 100. Can hurt no Soul without its consent ibid. 13. The Tribute of the Didrachm 322. 13. Diligence in our Calling accepted though our Calling be mean 32. Dispensations not to be accepted too freely 37. Disobedience to God in great and small instances compared 44. 12 13. Disobedience to GOD and Man compared 46. A deliberate choice of the smallest disobedience in its formality is destructive though in the matter it be otherwise pardonable 44. 12. Defence of our selves permitted 252. 2. Not against our Prince ibid. Defence of our innocence in Judgment permitted 252. Dove descending on Christ was mysterious 97. 5. Doubting the issue of our Prayers in what sense lawful 267. 15. Duels unlawful 253. 5. seq Doubting in an Article how to be cured 400. 8. Despair how to be cured 401. 10. E. EGyptian Idols fell to the Ground at Christ's coming thither 67. 9. In AEgypt Christ dwelt in a Garden of Balsam ibid. Egyptians worshipped an Infant in a Cradle and a Virgin in a Bed ibid. Envy reproved by the example of Angels 29. 2. Envy spiritual 360. 9. Eat for necessity not delight 87. 15. Eli's Family short-lived 308. 24. Cured by Repentance ibid. Election what it signifies in Scripture 313. 2. It depends upon Duty 314. uncertain to us ibid. Ecclesiastical Regiment how differing from Secular 323. 14. Ecclesiastical power verified in Heaven 323. 16. Ecclesiastical persons bound to communicate often 379. 18. Ecclesiastical Persons are to imitate Christ in Meekness Innocence Suffering 393. 8 9. Ecclesiastical Judicatories compared with the Divine 430. Earnest of the Spirit what it signifies 316. 7. Eclipse of the Sun at the Passion was miraculous 355. 34. Enemies occasion to us of much good 386. 8. Erring persons how to be treated 188. 2. 10. 7. Evil counsels come to nought 85. 2. Though they succeed it is not Prosperity ibid. Elizabeth carried her Son the Baptist into the Wilderness 77. 1. She died after 40 days ibid. Example of Preachers is the best Sermon 78. 5. 364. 4. Examples of Divine Judgments 338. 5. Esau's Repentance 391. 7. Excuses from frequent communion not valid 379. 20. Evenness and moderation of a religious state most necessary for young beginners and safest for all men 407 408. Expences unnecessary to be cut off and spent in Alms. 252. 2. F. FAlse witness highly criminal 250. 40. Familiarity with God what it should signifie 33. 26. Faith described 160. 2. Charity is part of its constitution ibid. However it be produced whether it be proved or not it is sufficient 157. 7. 162. 1. Pref. 28. Faith of ignorant and knowing men compared 160. 1 2. Faith of Christians how it differs from that of Devils 163. 7. Excellencies and effects of Faith 163. 9. seq The marks of a truly Christian Faith ibid. Vide Disc. of Faith per tot Fasting before the Sacrament 272. 1. Degrees Manner and Rules of Fasting 274. 275. It is no duty of
it self but in order to certain ends 272. 1. Why Jesus fasted Forty Dayes 128. 9. Vide Disc. of Fasting per tot Fear hallowed by Christ's fear 384. 3. It is the first of Graces 171. 5. Farewell-Sermon made by Jesus 350. 19. Flaminius condemned to Death for wanton Cruelty 168. 5. Fornication against the Law of God in all Ages 249. 37. Permitted to Strangers among the Jews ibid. Forgiving Injuries a Christian duty 252. G. GAdara built by Pompey 184. 15. Full of Sepulchres and Witches ibid. Gabriel ministers to the exaltation of his inferiours 3. 4. Galilaeans why slain by Pilate and what they were 326. 27. Garden why chosen for the place of the Agony 364. 383. 2. Gentleness a duty of Christians 323. 16. Giacchetus of Geneva his Death in the midst of his Lust 338. 5. God his Gifts effects of Predestination 156. 5. Those Gifts how to be prayed for 261 264. Consideration of his Presence a good remedy against Temptations 112. 29. The Vision of God preserveth the Blessed Souls from Sin ibid. 30. GOD's method in bringing us to him and treating us after 32. 4. He gives his Servants more than they look for 155. He gives more Grace to them that use the first well ibid. 32. 6. He rejoyces in his own works of mercy 187. 1. And in ours 227. 13. He requires not always the greatest degree of Vertue 234. 11. He is never wanting in necessaries to us 32. He changeth his purpose of the death of a Man for several reasons 308. 24. He works his ends by unlikely means 427. GOD certainly supports those in their necessities who are doing his work 68. 3. Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe what signification they had in the gift of the Magi 34. 11. 28. 12. Grace it helps our Faculties but creates no new ones 31. 2. It works severally at several times 32. Being refused it hardens our Hearts 387. 369. Government supported by Christianity 68. 7. Gospel and the Law how they differ 193. 3. 296. 232. 3. H. HAsty persons and actions always unreasonable sometimes criminal 15. 1. Herod mock'd by the Magi 65. 1. 84. 1. His stratagem to surprize all the male children 66. The cause why he slew Zecharias 66. 5. Caesar's saying concerning him 66. 3. He felt the Divine vengeance 67. 6. His Malice near his Death defeated 67. 7. He pretended Religion to his secret design 68. 1. He slew 14000 Infants 66. 4. Fear of the Child Jesus proceeded from his mistake 70. 7. The Tetrarch overthrown by the King of Arabia 169. 6. His reception of Christ 352. 26. Is careless of inquiring after Christ 393. 9. Herodians what they were 290. 3. Herodias Daughter beheaded with Ice 169. 6. She and Herod banished ibid. Heron the Monk abused with an illusion 61. 23. Herminigilda refused to communicate with an Arian Bishop 188. 2. Hereticks served their ends of Heresie upon Women upon whom also they served their Lust 189. 5. Heroical actions of Repentance at our Death-bed more prevalent than any other hope then left 217. 49. Health promised and consigned in the Gospel by Miracles and by an ordinary Ministery 304. 15 16. There were two High-Priests the one President of the Rites of the Temple the other of the great Council 351. 23. Honour done to us to be returned to God 9. 6. It is due to what the Supreme power separates from common usages 172. 3. How it is to be estimated 253. 5. Honourable and Sacred all one 173. S. Hilarion a great Faster 273. 2. S. Hierom's advice concerning Fasting ibid. Holy Ghost descending upon Jesus at his Baptism 94. 3. Holiness of Religious places 172. It is a great preservative of Life 302. 13. Hope of Salvation encreases according to degrees of holy walking 315. Necessary in our Prayers 267. House of John Mark consecrated into a Church 174. 5. Hosanna what it signifies 347. 6. Onely sung to God ibid. Humane Nature by the Incarnation exalted above the Angels 3. Humane infirmity to be pitied not to be upbraided 384. Humility of Jesus 14. The surest way to Heaven 37. Of the Baptist 68. It makes good men more honourable 186. Its excellencies 302. 11 12. 367. Its Properties and Acts 364. seq Humility of the young Mar. of Castilion 367. 9. Hunger after Righteousness 373. 11. Hunger and Thirst spiritual how they differ ibid. Its Acts and Reward ibid. Husbands converted by their Wives 189. 3. J. JAirus begs help of Jesus for his Daughter 185. 20. His Daughter restored to Life 186. 21. Jesus discoursing wonderfully with the Doctors 75. 1. He wrought in the Carpenter's Trade before and after Joseph's death 76. 6. Baptized by John 93. 1. Attended by good Angels in the Wilderness 95. Was angry when the Devil tempted him to dishonour God 95. 8. 101. 15. He slept in a Storm 184. 14. Preached the first Year in peace 186. 22. Appeared several times after his Resurrection 419. He was known in the breaking of Bread ibid. He had but two days of Triumph all his Life 359. 5. And they both allayed with Sorrow ibid. 360. He was used inhospitably at Jerusalem ibid. Infinitely loving 360. He received all his Disciples with a Kiss 386. 8. Civil to his Enemies and beneficial to his Friends ibid. He was stripp'd naked and why 394. 10. He came eating and drinking and why 291. He invites all to him ibid. The Pharisees report him mad 291. He refused to be made a King 319. 1. Transfigured 322. 13. He shamed the Accusers of the Adulteress 324. 20. He teaches his Disciples to pray the second time 326. 26. Refuses to judge a Title of Land ibid. Blesseth 〈◊〉 327. 30. The Price of him 349. 14. All his great Actions in his Life had a mixture of Divinity and Humanity 387. 9. He was not compelled to bear the transverse Beam of the Cross 354. 30. He wept for Lazarus 345. And over Jerusalem 347. 7. Answered the Pharisees concerning Tribute to Caesar 347. 10. Prayed against the bitter Cup 450. 20. Smitten upon the Face 351. Accused of Blasphemy before the High-Priest ibid. Of Treason bëfore Pilate 352. 26. Nailed with Four Nails 354. 31. Provided for his Mother after his Death 355. 33. Recited the two and twentieth Psalm or part of it upon the Cross ibid. He felt the first Recompence of his Sorrows in the state of Separation 426. At the Resurrection he did redintegrate all his Body but the five Wounds ibid. He arose with a glorified Body 427. But veil'd with a Cloud of common Appearance ibid. Jewish Women hoped to be the Mother of the Messias 2. 5. Jews looked to be justified by external Innocence 243. 26. They were scrupulous in Rites careless of Moral Duties 392. 7. Could not put any Man to Death at Easter 352. 26. They eat not till the Solemnities of their Festival is over 272. 1. Jezabel pretended Religion to her design of Murther and Theft 68. 1. Illusions come often in likeness
of Visions 61. 23. Sins of Infirmity explicated 105. 10. seq Intentions though good excuse not evil Actions 107. 13. Incontinence destroys the Spirit of Government 189. 5. Instruments weak and unlikely used by GOD to great purposes 197. Incarnation of Jesus instrumental to God's Glory and our Peace 31. Inevitable Infirmities consistent with a state of Grace 207. Injuries great and little to be forgiven 252. Intention of Spirit how necessary in our Prayers 267. 17. Images their Lawfulness or unlawfulness considered 237. 16. Admitted into the Church with difficulty and by degrees 237. 16. Images of Jupiter and Diana Cyndias did ridiculous and weak Miracles 279. 7. Imprisonment sanctified by the binding of Jesus 387. Ingratitude of Judas 360. 9. John the Baptist his Life and Death 66. 5. 77. 78. and 79. 93. 292. 18. His Baptism 93. Whether the form of it were in the Name of Christ to come ibid. Joyes spiritual increase by communication 156. 3. Joyes of Eternity recompense all our Sorrowes in every instant of their fruition 426. Joyes sudden and violent are to be allayed by reflexion on the vilest of our Sins 196. 7. John Patriarch of Alexandria appeased the anger of Patricius 245. 30. Innocence is security against evil Actions 10. Justice of GOD in punishing Jesus cleared 415. 7 8. Several degrees of Justification answerable to several degrees of Faith 162. 7. Judgment of Life and Death is to be only by the supreme Power or his Deputy 253. A Jew condemned of Idolatry for throwing stones though in detestation at the Idol of Mercury 354. 32. Judging our Brother how far prohibited 260. 5. Judas's name written in Heaven and blotted 〈◊〉 again 313. 1. His manner of death 352. 25. Ingrateful 360. 8. He valued the Ointment at the same rate he sold his Lord 361. 11. He enjoyed his Money not Ten Hours 386. 7. Julian desired but could not be a Magician 361. 10. Judgment of GOD upon Sinners their causes and manner 336. 1. seq Judgments National 340. 8. Not easily understood by Men 339. 5. Joseph of Arimath embalmed the Body of Jesus 356. 38. Whether Judas received the Holy Sacrament 375. 13. K. KIng and Church have the same Friends and Enemies 336. Kingdom of Christ not of this World 352. What it is 392. 8. Kingdom of God what 263. 5. Kingdom of Grace and Glory ibid. A King came to Jesus in behalf of his Son 182. 6. Kings specially to be prayed for 365. 13. King's Enemies how to be prayed against ibid. To Kill the assaulting Person in what cases lawful 253. 3. L. LAws evil make a National Sin 341. 10. Law of Nature Vide Pref. per tot 20. 7. Laws of Man to be obeyed but not always to be thought most reasonable 42. 7. 48. 21. Laws of God and Man in respect of the greatness of the subject matter compared 46. 49. Laws of Men bind not to Death or an insufferable Calamity rather than not to break them 48. 21. Laws of Superiours not to be too freely disputed by Subjects 49. 23. Laws of order to be observed even when the first reason ceases 52. 1. It is not safe to do all that is lawful 45. 15 16. Law and Gospel how differ 194. 3. 232. 3. 295. S. Paul often by a Fiction of Person speaks of himself not as in the state of Regeneration under the Gospel but as under the imperfections of the Law 104. 8. Law of Nature perfected by Christianity Pref. Law of Moses a Law of Works how 232. Law of Jesus a Law of the Spirit and not of Works in what sence ibid. Law-Suits to be managed charitably 256. When lawful to be undertaken ibid. Lazarus restored to Life 345. 2. Leonigildus kill'd his Daughter for not communicating with the Arians 188. 2. Leven of Herod what 321. 8. Lepers cured 324. 18. Sent to the Priest ibid. Unthankful ibid. The Levantine Churches afflicted the cause uncertain 338. 4. S. Laurence his Gridiron less hot than his Love 358. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 17. Life of Man cut off for Sin 303. 305. It hath several periods ibid. 274. Good life necessary to make our Prayers acceptable 266. 13. A comparison between a Life in Solitude and in Society 80. 5. Lord's Supper the greatest of Christian Rites 369. It manifests God's Power 371. 4. His Wisdome and his Charity 371. 5 6. It is a Sacrament of Union 371. 5 6. A Sacrament and a Sacrifice in what sence 372. 7. As it is an act of the Ecclesiastical Officer of what efficacy 373. 8. It is expressed in mysterious words when the value is recited 373. Not to be administred to vicious persons 374. 12. Whether persons vicious under suspicion only are to be deprived of it 376. 13. How to be received 377. 15. What deportment to be used after it 378. 17. To be received by dying Persons 407. 23. Of what benefit it is to them ibid. Love and Obedience Duties of the first Commandment 234. 8. Love and Obedience reconciled 427. 9. Love of God its extension 234. 9. It s intension ibid. n. 11. Love the fulfilling of the Law explicated 233. 5. It consists in latitude 236. 13. It must exclude all affection to sin ibid. 14. Signs of true love to God 236. 14. Love to God with all our hearts possible and in what sence ibid. Love of God and love of money compared 361. 11. Lord's Day by what authority to be observed 244. 24. And how ibid. Lucian's Cynick an Hypocrite 366. 7. Likeness to God being desired at first ruined us now restores us 364. 3. Lying in that degree is criminal as it is injurious 250. 40. M. MArriage honoured by Christ's presence and the first Miracle 154. Hallowed to a Mystery 158. 8. Marriage-breakers are more criminal now than under Moses's Law 158. The smaller undecencies must be prevented or deprecated Of Martyrdom 229. 18. Magi at the sight of Christ's Poverty renounce the World and retire into Philosophy 28. 13. Mary a Virgin alwayes 14. 2. An excellent Personage 2 3. 8. She conceived Jesus without Sin and brought him forth without Pain 13. Her joy at the Prophecies concerning her Son attempered with Predictions of his Passion 30. 4. Full of Fears when she lost Jesus 73. 1. She went to the Temple to pray and there found him ibid. Full of Piety in Her countenance and deportment 113. 32. She converted many to thoughts of Chastity by her countenance and aspect ibid. Mary Magdalen's Story 377. 9. 360. 5. 391. 9. 346. 5. 349. 13. Mary's Choice preferred 326. 26. Mark for sook Jesus upon a Scandal taken but was reduced by S. Peter 320. 3. Malchus an Idumaean Slave smote Jesus on the Face 389. 1. Meditation described 54. It turns the understanding into spirit 55. Its Parts Actions manner of Exercise Fruits and Effects Disc. 3. per tot 54. Men ought not to run into the Ministery till they are called 99. 3.
darkness 4. HERE it was that the Blessed Jesus laboured under the bitterest Agony that could fall upon humane Nature which the holy Story describes by words sufficiently expressive of the higest grief and sorrow he was afraid sorrowful and very heavy yea his Soul was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding sorrowful and that even unto death he was fore amazed and very heavy he was troubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Soul was shaken with a vehement commotion yea he was in an Agony a word by which the Greeks are wont to represent the greatest conflicts and anxieties The effect of all which was that he prayed more earnestly offering up prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears as the Apostle expounds it and sweat as it were great drops of bloud falling to the ground What this bloudy sweat was and how far natural or extraordinary I am not now concerned to enquire Certain it is it was a plain evidence of the most intense grief and sadness for if an extreme fear or trouble will many times cast us into a cold sweat how great must be the commotion and conflict of our Saviour's mind which could force open the pores of his body lock'd up by the coldness of the night and make not drops of sweat but great drops or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies clods of bloud to issue from them While our Lord was thus contending with these Ante-Passions the three Apostles whom he had left at some distance from him being tired out with watching and disposed by the silence of the Night were fallen fast asleep Our Lord who had made three several addresses unto Heaven that if it might consist with his Father's will this bitter Cup might pass from him expressing herein the harmless and innocent desires of humane Nature which always studies its own preservation between each of them came to visit the Apostles and calling to Peter asked him Whether they could not watch with him one hour advising them to watch and pray that they enter'd not into temptation adding this Argument That the spirit indeed was willing but that the flesh was weak and that therefore there was the more need that they should stand upon their guard Observe here the incomparable sweetness the generous candor of our blessed Saviour to pass so charitable a censure upon an action from whence malice and ill-nature might have drawn monsters and prodigies and have represented it black as the shades of darkness The request which our Lord made to these Apostles was infinitely reasonable to watch with him in this bitter Agony their company at least being some refreshment to one under such sad fatal circumstances and this but for a little time one hour it would soon be over and then they might freely consult their own ease and safety 'T was their dear Lord and Master whom they now were to attend upon ready to lay down his life for them sweating already under the first skirmishes of his sufferings and expecting every moment when all the powers of darkness would fall upon him But all these considerations were drown'd in a profound security the men were fast asleep and though often awakened and told of it regarded it not as if nothing but ease and softness had been then to be dream'd of An action that look'd like the most prodigious ingratitude and the highest unconcernedness for their Lord and Master and which one would have thought had argued a very great coldness and indifferency of affection towards him But he would not set it upon the Tenters nor stretch it to what it might easily have been drawn to he imputes it not to their unthankfulness or want of affection nor to their carelesness of what became of him but merely to their infirmity and the weakness of their bodily temper himself making the excuse when they could make none for themselves the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak Hereby teaching us to put the most candid and favourable construction upon those actions of others which are capable of various interpretations and rather with the Bee to suck honey than with the Spider to draw poison from them His last Prayer being ended he came to them and told them with a gentle rebuke That now they might sleep on if they pleased that the hour was at hand that he should be betrayed and delivered into the hands of men 5. WHILE he was thus discoursing to them a Band of Souldiers sent from the High Priests with the Traitor Judas to conduct and direct them rush'd into the Garden and seised upon him which when the Apostles saw they asked him whether they should attempt his rescue Peter whose ungovernable zeal put him upon all dangerous undertakings without staying for an answer drew his Sword and espying one more busie than the rest in laying hold upon our Saviour which was Malchus who though carrying Kingship in his name was but Servant to the High Priest struck at him with an intention to dispatch him but God over-ruling the stroak it only cut off his right Ear. Our Lord liked not this wild and unwarrantable zeal and therefore intreated their patience whilest he miraculously healed the Wound And turning to Peter bad him put up his Sword again told him that they who unwarrantably use the Sword should themselves perish by it that there was no need of these violent and extravagant courses that if he had a mind to be rid of his Keepers he could ask his Father who would presently send more than twelve Legions of Angels to his rescue and deliverance But he must drink the Cup which his Father had put into his hand for how else should the Scriptures be fulfilled which had expresly foretold That these things must be Whereupon all the Apostles forsook him and fled from him and they who before in their promises were as bold as Lions now it came to it like fearful and timorous Hares ran away from him Peter and John though staying last with him yet followed the same way with the rest preferring their own safety before the concernments of their Master 6. NO sooner was he apprehended by the Souldiers and brought out of the Garden but he was immediately posted from one Tribunal to another brought first to Annas then carried to Caiaphas where the Jewish Sanhedrim met together in order to his Trial and Condemnation Peter having a little recovered himself and gotten loose from his fears probably encouraged by his Companion S. John returns back to seek his Master And finding them leading him to the High Priest's Hall followed afar off to see what would be the event and issue But coming to the Door could get no admittance till one of the Disciples who was acquainted there went out and perswaded the Servant who kept the Door to let him in Being let into the Hall where the Servants and Officers stood round the Fire Peter also came thither to warm himself where being espied by the
was given him in Heaven and in Earth by vertue whereof they should go teach and baptize all Nations and preach the Gospel to every Creature That they should feed God's slock Rule well inspect and watch ever those over whom they had the Authority and the Rule Words of as large and more express signification than those which were here spoken to S. Peter 5. OUR Lord having thus engaged Peter to a chearful compliance with the dangers that might attend the discharge and execution of his Office now particularly intimates to him what that fate was that should attend him telling him that though when he was young he girt himself lived at his own pleasure and went whither he pleased yet when he was old he should stretch forth his hands and another should gird and bind him and lead him whither he had no mind to go intimating as the Evangelist tells us by what death he should glorifie God that is by Crucifixion the Martyrdom which he afterward underwent And then rising up commanded him to follow him by this bodily attendance mystically implying his conformity to the death of Christ that he should follow him in dying for the truth and testimony of the Gospel It was not long after that our Lord appeared to them to take his last farewell of them when leading them out unto Bethany a little Village upon the Mount of Olives he briefly told them That they were the persons whom he had chosen to be the witnesses both of his Death and Resurrection a testimony which they should bear to him in all parts of the World In order to which he would after his Ascension pour out his Spirit upon them in larger measures than they had hitherto received that they might be the better fortified to grapple with that violent rage and sury wherewith both Men and Devils would endeavour to oppose them and that in the mean time they should return to Jerusalem and stay till these miraculous powers were from on high conferred upon them His discourse being ended laying his hands upon them he gave them his solemn blessing which done he was immediately taken from them and being attended with a glorious guard and train of Angels was received up into Heaven Antiquity tells us that in the place where he last trod upon the rock the impression of his feet did remain which could never afterwards be fill'd up or impaired over which Helena mother of the Great Constantine afterwards built a little Chappel called the Chappel of the Ascension in the floor whereof upon a whitish kind of stone modern Travellers tell us that the impression of his Foot is shewed at this day but 't is that of his right foot only the other being taken away by the Turks and as 't is said kept in the Temple at Jerusalem Our Lord being thus taken from them the Apostles were filled with a greater sense of his glory and majesty than while he was wont familiarly to converse with them and having performed their solemn adorations to him returned back to Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Holy Ghost which was shortly after conferred upon them They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy They who lately were overwhelmed with sorrow at the very mention of their Lord's departure from them entertained it now with joy and triumph being fully satisfied of his glorious advancement at God's right hand and of that particular care and providence which they were sure he would exercise towards them in pursuance of those great trusts he had committed to them SECT VII S. Peter's Acts from our Lord's Ascension till the Dispersion of the Church The Apostles return to Jerusalem The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-room where they assembled what Peter declares the necessity of a new Apostles being chosen in the room of Judas The promise of the Holy Ghost made good upon the day of Pentecost The Spirit descended in the likeness of siery cloven tongues and why The greatness of the Miracle Peter's vindication of the Apostles from the standers of the Jews and proving Christ to be the promised Messiah Great numbers converted by his Sermon His going up to the Temple What their stated hours of Prayer His curing the impotent Cripple there and discourse to the Jews upon it What numbers converted by him Peter and John seised and cast into Prison Brought before the Sanhedrim and their resolute carriage there Their refusing to obey when commanded not to preach Christ. The great security the Christian Religion provides sor subjection to Magistrates in all lawful instances of Obedience The great severity used by Peter towards Ananias and Saphira The great Miracles wrought by him Again cast into Prison and delivered by an Angel Their appearing before the Sanhedrim and deliverance by the prudent counsels of Gamaliel 1. THE Holy Jesus being gone to Heaven the Apostles began to act according to the Power and Commission he had left with them In order whereunto the first thing they did after his Ascension was to fill up the vacancy in their Colledge lately made by the unhappy fall and Apostasie of Judas To which end no sooner were they returned to Jerusalem but they went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into an upper-room Where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was whether in the house of S. John or of Mary John-Mark's mother or in some of the out-rooms belonging to the Temple for the Temple had over the Cloisters several Chambers for the service of the Priests and Levites and as Repositories where the consecrated Vessels and Utensils of the Temple were laid up though it be not probable that the Jews and especially the Priests would suffer the Apostles and their company to be so near the Temple I stand not to enquire 'T is certain that the Jews usually had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 private Oratories in the upper parts of their houses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the more private exercises of their devotions Thus Daniel had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his upper-Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXX render it whither he was wont to retire to pray to his God and Benjamin the Jew tells us that in his time Ann. Chr. 1172. the Jews at Babylon were wont to pray both in their Synagogues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in that ancient upper-room of Daniel which the Prophet himself built Such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-Chamber was that wherein S. Paul preached at Troas and such probably this where the Apostles were now met together and in all likelihood the same where our Lord had lately kept the Passeover where the Apostles and the Church were assembled on the day of Pentecost and which was then the usual place of their Religious Assemblies as we have elsewhere observed more at large Here the Church being met to the number of about CXX Peter as President of the Assembly put them in mind that Judas one of
being written by Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem exploded A concurrence of circumstances to entitle S. Peter to it 〈◊〉 things in it referred to which he had preached at Rome particularly the destruction of Jerusalem Written but a little before his death The spurious Writings attributed to him mentioned by the Ancients His Acts. Gospel Petri Praedicatio His Apocalypse Judicium Petri Peter's married relation His Wife the companion of his Travels Her Martyrdom His Daughter 〈◊〉 1. HAVING run through the current History of S. Peter's Life it may not be amiss in the next place to survey a little his Person and Temper His Body if we may believe the description given of him by Nicephorus was somewhat slender of a middle size but rather inclining to tallness his complexion very pale and almost white The hair of his Head and Beard curl'd and thick but withall short though S. Hierom tells us out of Clemens his Periods that he was Bald which probably might be in his declining age his Eyes black but speckt with red which Baronius will have to proceed from his frequent weeping his Eye-brows thin or none at all his Nose long but rather broad and flat than sharp such was the Case and out-side Let us next look inwards and view the Jewel that was within Take him as a Man and there seems to have been a natural eagerness predominant in his Temper which as a Whetstone sharpned his Soul for all bold and generous undertakings It was this in a great measure that made him so forward to speak and to return answers sometimes before he had well considered them It was this made him expose his person to the most eminent danger promise those great things in behalf of his Master and resolutely draw his Sword in his quarrel against a whole Band of Souldiers and wound the High-Priests Servant and possibly he had attempted greater matters had not our Lord restrained and taken him off by that seasonable check that he gave him 2. THIS Temper he owed in a great measure to the Genius and nature of his Country of which Josephus gives this true character That it naturally bred in men a certain fierceness and animosity whereby they were fearlesly carried out upon any action and in all things shew'd a great strength and courage both of mind and body The Galileans says he being 〈◊〉 from their childhood the men being as seldom overtaken with cowardize as their Country with want of men And yet notwithstanding this his fervor and fierceness had its intervals there being some times when the Paroxysms of his heat and courage did intermit and the man was surprised and betrayed by his own fears Witness his passionate crying out when he was upon the Sea in danger of his life and his fearful deserting his Master in the Garden but especially his carriage in the High-Priests Hall when the confident charge of a sorry Maid made him sink so far beneath himself and not withstanding his great and resolute promises so shamefully deny his Master and that with curses and imprecations But he was in danger and passion prevailed over his understanding and fear betrayed the succours which reason offered and being intent upon nothing but the present safety of his life he heeded not what he did when he 〈◊〉 his Master to save himself so dangerous is it to be left to our selves and to have our natural passions let loose upon us 3. CONSIDER him as a Disciple and a Christian and we shall find him exemplary in the great instances of Religion Singular his Humility and the lowliness of mind With what a passionate earnestness upon the conviction of a Miracle did he beg of our Saviour to depart from him accounting himself not worthy that the Son of God should come near so vile a sinner When our Lord by that wonderful condescension stoopt to wash his Apostles feet he could by no means be perswaded to admit it not thinking it sit that so great a person should submit himself to so servile an office towards so mean a person as himself nor could he be induced to accept it till our Lord was in a manner forced to threaten him into obedience When Cornelius heightned in his apprehensions of him by an immediate command from God concerning him would have entertained him with expressions of more than ordinary honour and veneration so far was he from complying with it that he plainly told him he was no other than such a man as himself With how much candor and modesty does he treat the inferiour Rulers and Ministers of the Church He upon whom Antiquity heaps so many honourable titles stiling himself no other than their fellow-Presbyter Admirable his love to and zeal for his Master which he thought he could never express at too high a rate for his sake venturing on the greatest dangers and exposing himself to the most imminent hazards of his life 'T was in his quarrel that he drew his Sword against a Band of Souldiers and an armed multitude and 't was love to his Master drew him into that imprudent advice that he should seek to save himself and avoid those sufferings that were coming upon him that made him promise and engage so deep to suffer and die with him Great was his forwardness in owning Christ to be the Messiah and Son of God which drew from our Lord that honourable Encomium Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah But greater his courage and constancy in confessing Christ before his most inveterate enemies especially after he had recovered himself of his fall With how much plainness did he tell the Jews at every turn to their very faces that they were the Murderers and Crucifiers of the Lord of Glory Nay with what an undaunted courage with what an Heroick greatness of mind did he tell that very Sanhedrim that had sentenced and condemned him that they were guilty of his murder and that they could never be saved any other way than by this very Jesus whom they had crucified and put to death 4. LASTLY let us reflect upon him as an Apostle as a Pastor and Guide of Souls And so we find him faithful and diligent in his office with an infinite zeal endeavouring to instruct the ignorant reduce the erroneous to strengthen the weak and confirm the strong to reclaim the vicious and turn Souls to righteousness We find him taking all opportunities of preaching to the people converting many thousands at once How many voiages and travels did he undergo with how unconquerable a patience did he endure all conflicts and trials and surmount all difficulties and oppositions that he might plant and propagate the Christian Faith Not thinking much to lay down his own life to promote and further it Nor did he only do his duty himself but as one of the prime Superintendents of the Church and as one that was sensible of the value and the worth of Souls he was careful to put others in mind of
〈◊〉 compares him to a Bird in the Air that in a few years flew round the World Isidore the Pelusiot to a winged husbandman that flew from place to place to cultivate the World with the most excellent rules and institutions of life And while the other Apostles did as 't were chuse this or that particular Province as the main sphere of their ministry S. Paul over-ran the whole World to its utmost bounds and corners planting all places where he came with the Divine doctrines of the Gospel Nor in this course was he tired out with the dangers and difficulties that he met with the troubles and oppositions that were raised against him All which did but reflect the greater lustre upon his patience whereof indeed as Clement observes he became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most eminent pattern and exemplar enduring the biggest troubles and persecutions with a patience triumphant and unconquerable As will easily appear if we take but a survey of what trials and sufferings he underwent some part whereof are briefly summed up by himself In labours abundant in stripes above measure in prisons frequent in deaths oft thrice beaten with rods once stoned thrice suffered shipwrack a night and a day in the deep In journeyings often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by his own Country-men in perils by the Heathen in perils in the City in perils in the Wilderness in perils in the Sea in perils among false Brethren in weariness in painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness And besides these things that were without that which daily came upon him the care of all the Churches An account though very great yet far short of what he endured and wherein as 〈◊〉 observes he does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 modestly keep himself within his measures for had he taken the liberty fully to have enlarged himself he might have filled hundreds of Martyrologies with his sufferings A thousand times was his life at stake in every suffering he was a Martyr and what fell but in parcels upon others came all upon him while they skirmished only with single parties he had the whole Army of sufferings to contend with All which he generously underwent with a Soul as calm and serene as the morning-Sun no spite or rage no fury or storms could ruffle and discompose his spirit Nay those sufferings which would have broken the back of an ordinary patience did but make him rise up with the greater eagerness and resolution for the doing of his duty 7. HIS patience will yet further appear from the consideration of another the last of those vertues we shall take notice of in him his constancy and fidelity in the discharge of his place and in the profession of Religion Could the powers and policies of Men and Devils spite and oppositions torments and threatnings have been able to baffle him out of that Religion wherein he had engaged himself he must have sunk under them and left his station But his Soul was steel'd with a courage and resolution that was impenetrable and which no temptation either from hopes or fears could make any more impression upon than an arrow can that 's shot against a wall of marble He wanted not solicitation on either hand both from Jews and Gentiles and questionless might in some degree have made his own terms would he have been false to his trust and have quitted that way that was then every-where spoken against But alas these things weighed little with our Apostle who counted not 〈◊〉 life to be dear unto him so that he might finish his course with joy and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus And therefore when under the sentence of death in his own apprehension could triumphingly say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith and so indeed he did kept it inviolably undauntedly to the last minute of his life The summ is He was a man in whom the Divine life did eminently manifest and display it self he lived piously and devoutly soberly and temperately justly and righteously carefull alway to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and Men. This he tells us was his support under suffering this the foundation of his confidence towards God and his firm hopes of happiness in another World This is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the World 8. IT is not the least instance of his care and fidelity in his office that he did not only preach and plant Christianity in all places whither he came but what he could not personally do he supplied by writing XIV Epistles he 〈◊〉 upon record by which he was not only instrumental in propagating Christian Religion at first but has been useful to the World ever since in all Ages of the Church We have all along in the History of his life taken particular notice of them in their due place and order We shall here only make some general observations and remarks upon them and that as to the stile and way wherein they are written their Order and the Subscriptions that are added to them For the Apostle's stile and manner of writing it is plain and simple and though not set off with the elaborate artifices and affected additionals of humane eloquence yet grave and majestical and that by the confession of his very enemies his Letters say they are weighty and powerful Nor are there wanting in them some strains of Rhetorick which sufficiently testifie his ability that way had he made it any part of his study and design Indeed S. Hierom is sometimes too rude and bold in his censures of S. Paul's stile and character He tells us that being an Hebrew of the Hebrews and admirably skill'd in the Language of his Nation he was greatly defective in the Greek Tongue though a late great Critick is of another mind affirming him to have been as well or better skill'd in Greek than in Hebrew or in Syriac wherein he could not sufficiently express his conceptions in a way becoming the majesty of his sence and the matter he delivered nor transmit the elegancy of his Native Tongue into another Language that hence he became obscure and intricate in his expressions guilty many times of solecisms and scarce tolerable syntax and that therefore 't was not his humility but the truth of the thing that made him say that he came not with the excellency of speech but in the power of God A censure from any other than S. Hierom that would have been justly wondred at but we know the liberty that he takes to censure any though the reverence due to so great an Apostle might one would think have challenged a more modest censure at his hands However elsewhere he cries him up as a great Master of composition
these more special acts of favour than the rest is not easie to determine though surely our Lord who governed all his actions by Principles of the highest prudence and reason did it for wise and proper ends whether it was that he designed these three to be more solemn and peculiar witnesses of some particular passages of his life than the other Apostles or that they would be more eminently useful and serviceable in some parts of the Apostolick Office or that hereby he would the better prepare and encourage them against suffering as intending them for some more eminent kinds of Martyrdom or suffering than the rest were to undergo 4. NOR was it the least instance of that particular honour which our Lord conferr'd upon these three Apostles that at his calling them to the Apostolat he gave them the addition of a new Name and Title A thing not unusual of old for God to impose a new Name upon Persons when designing them for some great and peculiar services and employments thus he did to Abraham and Jacob. Nay the thing was customary among the Gentiles as had we no other instances might appear from those which the Scripture gives us of Pharaoh's giving a new name to Joseph when advancing him to be Vice-Roy of Egypt 〈◊〉 to Daniel c. Thus did our Lord in the Election of these three Apostles Simon he sirnamed Peter James the Son of Zebedee and John his Brother he sirnamed Boanerges which is the Sons of Thunder What our Lord particularly intended in this Title is easier to conjecture than certainly to determine some think it was given them upon the account of their being present in the Mount when a voice came out of the Cloud and said This is my beloved Son c. The like whereto when the People heard at another time they cried out that it Thundred But besides that this account is in it self very slender and inconsiderable if so then the title must equally have belonged to Peter who was then present with them Others think it was upon the account of their loud bold and resolute preaching Christianity to the World fearing no threatnings daunted with no oppositions but going on to thunder in the Ears of the secure sleepy World rouzing and awakening the consciences of Men with the earnestness and vehemency of their Preaching as Thunder which is called God's Voice powerfully shakes the natural World and breaks in pieces the 〈◊〉 of Lebanon Or if it relate to the Doctrines they delivered it may signifie their teaching the great mysteries and speculations of the Gospel in a profounder strain than the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact notes which how true it might be of our S. James the Scripture is wholly silent but was certainly verified of his Brother John whose Gospel is so full of the more sublime notions and mysteries of the Gospel concerning Christ's Deity eternal prae-existence c. that he is generally affirmed by the Ancients not so much to speak as thunder Probably the expression may denote no more than that in general they were to be prime and eminent Ministers in this new scene and state of things the introducing of the Gospel or Evangelical dispensation being called a Voice shaking the Heavens and the Earth and so is exactly correspondent to the native importance of the Word signifying an Earth-quake or a vehement commotion that makes a noise like to Thunder 5. HOWEVER it was our Lord I doubt not herein had respect to the furious and resolute disposition of those two Brothers who seem to have been of a more fierce and fiery temper than the rest of the Apostles whereof we have this memorable instance Our Lord being resolved upon his Journy to Jerusalem sent some of his Disciples as Harbingers to prepare his way who coming to a Village of Samaria were uncivilly rejected and refused entertainment probably because of that old and inveterate quarrel that was between the Samaritans and the Jews and more especially at this time because our Saviour seemed to slight Mount Gerizim where was their staple and solemn place of worship by passing it by to go worship at Jerusalem the reason in all likelihood why they denied him those common courtesies and conveniences due to all Travellers This piece of rudeness and inhumanity was presently so deeply resented by S. James and his Brother that they came to their Master to know whether as Elias did of old they might not pray down Fire from Heaven to consume these barbarous and inhospitable People So apt are Men for every trifle to call upon Heaven to Minister to the extravagancies of their own impotent and unreasonable passions But our Lord rebukes their zeal tells them they quite mistook the case that this was not the frame and temper of his Disciples and Followers the nature and design of that Evangelical dispensation that he was come to set on foot in the World which was a more pure and perfect a more mild and gentle Institution than what was under the Old Testament in the times of Moses and Elias The Son of Man being come not to destroy mens lives but to save them 6. THE Holy Jesus not long after set forwards in his Journy to Jerusalem in order to his crucifixion and the better to prepare the minds of his Apostles for his death and departure from them he told them what he was to suffer and yet that after all he should rise again They whose minds were yet big with expectations of a temporal power and monarchy understood not well the meaning of his discourses to them However S. James and his Brother supposing the Resurrection that he spoke of would be the time when his Power and Greatness would commence prompted their Mother Salome to put up a Petition for them She presuming probably on her relation to Christ and knowing that our Saviour had promised his Apostles that when he was come into his Kingdom they should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel and that he had already honoured her two Sons with an intimate familiarity after leave modestly asked for her address begg'd of him that when he took possession of his Kingdom her two Sons James and John might have the principal places of honour and dignity next his own Person the one sitting on his right hand and the other on his left as the Heads of Judah and Joseph had the first places among the Rulers of the Tribes in the Jewish Nation Our Lord directing his discourse to the two Apostles at whose suggestion he knew their Mother had made this address told them they quite mistook the nature of his Kingdom which consisted not in external grandeur and soveraignty but in an inward life and power wherein the highest place would be to take the greatest pains and to undergo the heaviest troubles and sufferings that they should do well to consider whether they were able to endure what
suddenly stopt and went no further The Apostle being dead his body was taken down by S. Bartholomew his fellow-sufferer though not finally executed and Mariamne S. Philip's Sister who is said to have been the constant companion of his travels and decently buried after which having confirmed the people in the Faith of Christ they departed from them 6. THAT S. Philip was married is generally affirmed by the Antients Clemens of Alexandria reckons him one of the married Apostles and that he had Daughters whom he disposed in marriage Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus tell us that Philip one of the Twelve Apostles died at 〈◊〉 with two of his Daughters who persevered in their Virginity and that he had a third which died at 〈◊〉 The truth is the not careful distinguishing between Philip the Deacon who lived at Caesarea and of whose four Virgin-daughters we read in the History of the Apostles Acts and our Apostle has bred some confusion among the Ancients in this matter But the account concerning them is greatly different sor as they differed in their Persons and Offices the one a Deacon the other an Apostle so also in the number of their Children four Daughters being ascribed to the one while three only are attributed to the other He was one of the Apostles who left no Sacred writings behind him the greater part of the Apostles as Ensebius observes having little leisure to write Books being imployed in ministeries more immediately useful and subservient to the happiness of mankind Though Epiphanius tells us that the Gnosticks were wont to produce a Gospel forged under S. Philip's name which they abused to the patronage of their horrible principles and more brutish practises The End of S. Philip's Life THE LIFE OF S. BARTHOLOMEW S. BARTHOLOMEW He was flea'd aliue by the command of a Barbarous King Place this to the Collect for St. Bartholomews day St. Bartholomew's Martyrdom Rom. 8. 36 37. For thy sake we are killed all the daylong we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter But in all these things we are more then Conquerours The silence concerning this Apostle in the History of the Gospel That he is the same with Nathanael proved by many probable arguments His title of Bar-Tholmai whence The School of the Tholmaeans An objection against his being Nathanael answered His descent and way of life His first coming to Christ and converse with him In what parts of the world he planted the Christian Faith His preaching in India and leaving S. Matthew's Gospel there His return to Hierapolis and deliverance there from Crucifixion His removal to Albanopolis in Armenia and suffering Martyrdom there for the Faith of Christ. His being first flead alive and then crucified The fabulous Gospel attributed to him 1. THAT S. Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles the Evangelical History is most express and clear though it seems to take no further notice of him than the bare mention of his name Which doubtless gave the first occasion to many both anciently and of later time not without reason to suppose that he lies concealed under some other name and that this can be no other than Nathanael one of the first Disciples that came to Christ. Accordingly we may observe that as S. John never mentions Bartholomew in the number of the Apostles so the other Evangelists never take notice of Nathanael probably because the same person under two several names And as in John Philip and Nathanael are joyned together in their coming to Christ so in the rest of the Evangelists Philip and Bartholomew are constantly put together without the least variation for no other reason I conceive than because as they were joyntly called to the Discipleship so they are joyntly referred in the Apostolick Catalogue as afterwards we find them joynt-companions in the writings of the Church But that which renders the thing most specious and probable is that we find Nathanael particularly reckoned up with the other Apostles to whom our Lord appeared at the Sea of Tiberias after his Resurrection where there were together Simon Peter and Thomas and Nathanael of Gana in Galilee and the two sons of Zebedee and two other of his Disciples who probably were Andrew and Philip. That by Disciples is here meant Apostles is evident partly from the names of those that are reckoned up partly because it is said that this was the third time that Jesus appeared to his Disciples it being plain that the two foregoing appearances were made to none but the Apostles 2. HAD he been no more than an ordinary Disciple I think no tolerable reason can be given why in filling up the vacancy made by the death of Judas he being so eminently qualified for the place should not have been propounded as well as either Barsabas or Matthias but that he was one of the Twelve already Nor indeed is it reasonable to suppose that Bartholomew should be his proper name any more than Bar-Jona the proper name of Peter importing no more than his relative capacity either as a Son or a Scholar As a Son it notes no more than his being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the son of Tholmai a name not uncommon amongst the Jews it being customary among them for the son thus to derive his name so Bar-Jona Bartimeus the son of Timeus c. and to be usually called rather by this relative than his own proper name thus Joseph was called Barsabas thus Barnabas constantly so stiled though his right name was Joses Or else it may relate to him as a Disciple of some particular Sect and Institution among the Jews it being a custom for Scholars out of a great reverence for their Masters or first Institutors of that way to adopt their names as Ben-Ezra Benuziel c. And this will be much more evident if the observation which one makes be true which yet I will not contend for that as several Sects in the Jewish Church denominated themselves from some famous person of that Nation the Essenes from Enosh the Sadduces from Sadock so there were others that called themselves Tholmaeans from Thalmai Scholar to Heber the ancient Master of the Hebrews who was of the race or institution of the Enakim who flourished in Debir and Hebron with whom Abraham was confederate that is joyned himself to their society And of this Order and Institution he tells us Nathanael seems to have been hence called Bartholomew the Son or Scholar of the Tholmaeans hence said to be an Israelite indeed that is one of the ancient race of the Schools and Societies of Israel This if so would give us an account of his skill and ability in the Jewish Law wherein he is generally supposed to have been a Doctor or Teacher But which soever of these two accounts of his denomination shall find most favour with the Reader either of them will serve my purpose and reconcile the difference that seems to be between S. John and the other
his daily Devotions his knees were become as hard and brawny as a Camels And he who has told us that the effectual servent prayer of a righteous man availeth much himself found it true by his own experience Heaven lending a more immediate Ear to his Petitions so that when in a time of great drought he prayed for Rain the Heavens presently melted into fruitful showres Nor was his Charity towards Men less than his Piety towards God he did good to all watched over Men's souls and studied to advance thelr eternal interests his daily errand into the Temple was to pray for the happiness of the People and that God would not severely reckon with them he could forgive his fiercest enemies and overcome evil with good when thrown from the top of the Temple he made use of all the breath he had left in him only to send up this Petition to Heaven for the pardon of his Murderers I beseech thee O Lord God Heavenly Father forgive them for they know not what they do 7. HE was of a most meek humble temper honouring what was excellent in others concealing what was valuable in himself the eminency of his relation and the dignity of his place did not exalt him in lofty thoughts above the measures of his Brethren industriously hiding whatever might set him up above the rest Though he was our Lora's Brother yet in the Inscription of his Epistle he stiles himself but the Servant of the Lord Jesus not so much as giving himself the Title of an Apostle His temperance was admirable he wholly abstained from Flesh and drank neither Wine nor strong Drink nor ever used the Bath His holy and mortified mind was content with the meanest accommodations he went bare-foot and never wore other than Linnen-garments Indeed he lived after the strictest rules of the Nazarite-Order and as the Miter or Sacerdotal Plate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ancients call it which he wore upon his Head evinced his Priesthood which was rather after Melchisedeck's or the Priesthood of the first-born than the Aaronical Order so his never shaving his Head nor using Unguents his Habit and Diet and the great severity of his Life shewed him to appertain to the NaZarite-Institution to which he was holy says Hegesippus or consecrated from his Mother 's Womb. A Man of that Divine temper that he was the love and wonder of his Age and for the reputation of his holy and religious Life was universally stiled 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Indced the safety and happiness of the Nation was reckoned to depend upon his Prayers and interest in Heaven which gained him the honourable Title of Oblias or 〈◊〉 the defence and fortress of the People as if when he was gone their Garrisons would be dismantled and their strength laid level with the ground And so we find it was when some few Years after his Death the Roman Army broke in upon them and turned all into bloud and ruine As what wonder if the judgments of God like a Flood come rowling in upon a Nation when the Sluces are plucked up and the Moses taken away that before stood in the Gap to keep them out Elisha died and a Band of the Moabites invaded the Land In short he was the delight of all good Men in so much favour and estimation with the People that they used to flock after him and strive who should touch though it were but the hem of his Garment his very Episcopal Chair wherein he used to sit being as Eusebius informs us carefully preserved and having a kind of veneration paid to it even unto his time loved and honoured not by his friends only but by his enemies the Jews in their Talmud mentioning James as a worker of Miracles in the Name of Jesus his Master yea the wisest of them looked upon his Martyrdom as the inlet to all those miseries and calamities that soon after flowed in upon them Sure I am that Josephus particularly reckons the Death of this S. James as that which more immediately alarm'd the Divine vengeance and hastned the universal ruine and destruction of that Nation 8. HE wrote only one Epistle probably not long before his Martyrdom as appears by some passages in it relating to the near approaching ruine of the Jewish Nation He directed it to the Jewish Converts dispersed up and down those Eastern Countries to comfort them under sufferings and confirm them against Error He saw a great degeneracy and declension of manners coming on and that the purity of the Christian Faith began to be undermined by the loose doctrines and practices of the Gnosticks who under a pretence of zeal for the legal rites generally mixed themselves with the Jews he beheld Libertinism marching on a-pace and the way to Heaven made soft and easie Men declaiming against good works as useless and unnecessary and asserted a naked belief of the Christian doctrine to be sufficient to salvation Against these the Apostle opposes himself presses Purity Patience and Charity and all the Vertues of a good Life and by undeniable Arguments evinces that that faith only that carries along with it obedience and an holy life can justifie us before God and intitle us to eternal Life Besides this Epistle there is a kind of preparatory Gospel ascribed to him published under the Name of 〈◊〉 still extant at this Day containing the descent birth and first Originals of Christ and the Virgin Mary at the end whereof the Author pretends to have written it at a time when Herod having raised a great tumult in Jerusalem he was forced to retire into the Wilderness But though in many things consistent enough with the History of the Gospels yet has it ever been rejected as spurious and Apochryphal forged in that licentious Age when Men took the boldness to stamp any Writing with the Name of an Apostle The End of the Life of S. James the Less THE LIFE OF S. SIMON the Zealot S SIMON S. Simon Zelotes preached in AEgypt Africa and Britaine and at length was crucified Nicâ—ph l. 2. c. 40. Baron Oct. 28. St. Simon 's Martyrdom Mauh 10. 16. Behold I send you forth as sheep in y e midst of wolâ—es 1. Cor. 4. 9. God hath set forth US y e Apostles last as it were men appointed to death For we are made a spectacle to the world and to Angels and to men His kindred Whence stiled the Cananite and the Zealot An enquiry into the nature and temper and original of the Sect of the Zealots among the Jews An account of their wild and licentious practises This no reflection upon our Apostle In what parts of the World he Preached the Gospel His planting Christianity in Africk His removal into the West and Preaching in Britain His Martyrdom there By whom said to have preached and suffered in Persia. The difference between him and Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem 1. SAINT Simon the Apostle was as some think
repentance Guilt is naturally troublesome and uneasie it disturbs the peace and serenity of the mind and fills the Soul with storms and thunder Did ever any harden himself against God and prosper And indeed how should he when God has such a powerful and invisible executioner in his own bosom Whoever rebels against the Laws of his duty and plainly affronts the dictates of his Conscience does that moment bid adieu to all true repose and quiet and expose himself to the severe resentments of a self-tormenting mind And though by secret arts of wickedness he may be able possibly to drown and stifle the voice of it for a while yet every little affliction or petty accident will be apt to awaken it into horror and to let in terror like an armed man upon him A torment infinitely beyond what the most ingenious Tyrants could ever contrive Nothing so effectually invades our ease as the reproaches of our own minds The wrath of man may be endured but the irruptions of Conscience are irresistible it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom very elegantly stiles it to be choaked or strangled with an evil Conscience which oft reduces the man to such distresses as to make him chuse death rather than life A sad instance of all which we have in this unhappy man who being wearied with furious and melancholy reflexions upon what was past threw back the wages of iniquity in open Court and dispatched himself by a violent death Vainly hoping to take sanctuary in the Grave and that he should meet with that ease in another World which he could not find in this He departed and went and hanged himself and falling down burst asunder and his bowels gushed out Leaving a memorable warning to all treacherous and ingrateful to all greedy and covetous persons not to let the World insinuate it self too far into them and indeed to all to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation Our present state is slippery and insecure Let him that thinketh he 〈◊〉 take heed lest he fall What priviledges can be a sufficient fence a foundation firm enough to rely upon when the Miracles Sermons favours and familiar converses of Christ himself could not secure one of the Apostles from so fatal an Apostasie 3. A VACANCY being thus made in the Colledge of Apostles the first thing they did after their return from Mount Olivet where our Lord took his leave of them to S. John's house in Mount Sion the place if we may believe Nicephorus where the Church met together was to fill up their number with a fit proper person To which purpose Peter acqualnted them that Judas according to the prophetical prediction being fallen from his ministry it was necessary that another should be substituted in his room one that had been a constant companion and disciple of the holy Jesus and consequently capable of bearing witness to his life death and resurrection Two were propounded in order to the choice Joseph called Barsabas and Justus whom some make the same with Joses one of the brothers of our Lord and Matthias both duly qualified for the place The way of election was by Lots a way frequently used both among Jews and Gentiles for the determination of doubtful and difficult cases and especially the chusing Judges and Magistrates And this course the Apostles the rather took because the Holy Ghost was not yet given by whose immediate dictates and inspirations they were chiefly guided afterwards And that the business might proceed with the greater regularity and success they first solemnly make their address to Heaven that the Omniscient Being that governed the World and perfectly understood the tempers and dispositions of men would immediately guide and direct the choice and shew which of these two he would appoint to take that part of the Apostolick charge from which Judas was so lately fallen The Lots being put into the Urn Matthias his name was drawn out and thereby the Apostolate devolved upon him 4. NOT long after the promised powers of the Holy Ghost were conferred upon the Apostles to fit them for that great and difficult imployment upon which they were sent And among the rest S. Matthias betook himself to his Charge and Province The first-fruits of his Ministry he spent in 〈◊〉 where having reaped a considerable harvest he betook himself to other Provinces An Author I confess of no great credit in these matters tells us that he preached the Gospel in Macedonia where the Gentiles to make an experiment of his Faith and Integrity gave him a poisonous and intoxicating potion which he chearfully drunk off in the name of Christ without the least prejudice to himself and that when the same potion had deprived above two hundred and fifty of their sight he laying his hands upon them restored them to their sight with a great deal more of the same stamp which I have neither faith enough to believe nor leisure enough to relate The Greeks with more probability report him to have travelled Eastward he came says Nicephorus into the first says Sophronius into the second AEthiopia and in both I believe it is a mistake either of the Authors or Transcribers for Cappadocia his residence being principally near the irruption of the River Apsarus and the Haven Hyssus both places in Cappadocia Nor is there any AEthiopia nearer those places than that conterminous to Chaldaea whereof before And as for those that tell us that he might well enough preach both in the Asian and African AEthiopia and that both might be comprehended under that general name as the Eastern and Western parts of the World were heretofore contained under the general title of the India's it's a fancy without any other ground to stand on 〈◊〉 their own bare conjecture The place whither he came was very barbarous and his usage was accordingly For here meeting with a people of a fierce and intractable temper he was treated by them with great rudeness and inhumanity from whom after all his labours and sufferings and a numerous conversion of men to Christianity he obtained at last the crown of Martyrdom Ann. Chr. LXI or as others LXIV Little certainty can be retrieved concerning the manner of his death Dorotheus will have him to die at Sebastople and to be buried there near the Temple of the Sun An ancient Martyrologic reports him to have been seised by the Jews and as a blasphemer to have been first stoned and then beheaded But the Greek Offices seconded herein by several ancient Breviaries tell us that he was crucified and that as Judas was hanged upon a Tree so Matthias suffered upon a Cross. His Body is said to have been kept a long time at Jerusalem thence thought by Helen the Mother of the Great Constantine to have been translated to Rome where some parts of it are shewed with great veneration at this day Though others with as great eagerness and probably as much truth