Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
death_n truth_n zeal_n zealous_a 20 3 8.8436 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A00593 Clavis mystica a key opening divers difficult and mysterious texts of Holy Scripture; handled in seventy sermons, preached at solemn and most celebrious assemblies, upon speciall occasions, in England and France. By Daniel Featley, D.D. Featley, Daniel, 1582-1645. 1636 (1636) STC 10730; ESTC S121363 1,100,105 949

There are 16 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

ordinary Priests and Chemarims who were a peculiar order differing from the rest by their blacke habit so the Romish Clergie is evidently divided into ordinary Priests and Monks and Jesuites whose coat is of the same colour with Baals Chemarims 6. As the Priests of Baal used vaine repetitions of the name of their God in their prayers crying O Baal heare us Baal heare us c. so doe Papists in their Jesus and Ladies Psalters much more often repeat the name of Jesus and our Lady and which I never read of the Baalites they put a kind of religion in the number For yee shall reade in the Churches as yee passe by many hundred nay thousand yeeres of pardons liberally offered to all that devoutly say over so many Pater nosters or Ave Maries before such an Altar or Picture 7. As the Priests of Baal used many strange gestures at their Altars mentioned ver 26. so doe these at theirs and some more ridiculous than those of the Baalites 8. As the Priests of Baal cut themselves with knives and launcers till the bloud gushed out in great abundance so these at their solemne processions whip themselves till they are all bloudy These things being so is it possible that there should be any that have given their names to Christ and partake with us in the mysteries of salvation and seed at our Lords board should yet bow the knee to the Romish Baal and so fall within the stroake of Elijahs reproofe How long halt yee between two opinions Should wee not much wrong our reformed Church to surmise there should be any of her members subject to the infirmity or rather deformity of the Israelites here taxed by the Prophet Had they no meanes this sixty yeeres to strengthen the sinewes of their faith and cure their halting Are there any that follow Baalim or to speake more properly insist in the steps of Balaam and for the wages of unrighteousnesse will as much as in them lyeth curse those whom God hath blessed Are there any that lispe in the language of Canaan and speake plaine in the language of Ashdod frame and maintaine such opinions and tenets as like the ancient Tragedian Buskin which served indifferently for either foot left as well as right so these as passable in Rome as Geneva If there be any such I need not apply to them this reprehension of my Prophet How long halt yee between two opinions The dumbe beast and used to the yoke hath long agoe reproved the madnesse of such Prophets But I would that this larum of Elijah still rung in the eare of some of our great Statists About this time Doctor Carier who came over Chaplaine with the Lord Wotton preached a scandalous Sermon in Paris at Luxenburg house and not long after reconciled himselfe to the Romish Church and miscarrying first in his religion after in his hope of great preferments by the Cardinall Perons meanes in great discontent ended his wretched dayes who in the height of their policy over-reach their Religion and keep it so in awe that it shall not quatch against any of their projects for the raising their fortunes or put them to any trouble danger or inconvenience For as the Heliotropium turneth alwayes to the Sunne so they their opinions and practice in matter of Religion to the prevalent faction in State As the cunning Artizan in Macrobius about the time of the civill warre between Anthony and Augustus Caesar had two Crowes and with great labour and industry he taught one of them to say Salve Antoni Imperator God save Emperour Anthony and the other Salve Auguste Imperator All haile my Liege Augustus and thereby howsoever the world went he had a bird for the Conquerour so these if the reformed Religion prevaile their birds note is Ave Christe spes unica but if Popery be like to get the upper hand they have a bird then that can sing Ave Maria. Strange it is ●hat in the cleare light of the Gospel wee should see so many Batts flying which a man cannot tell what to make of whether birds or mice They are Zoophytes plant-animals like the wonderfull sheep in Muscovie Epicens amphibia animalia creatures that sometimes live in the water and sometimes on the land monsters bred of unlawfull conjunctions which should not see light If the image of this vice be so horrid and odious in nature what shall wee judge of the vice it selfe in religion I am sure God can better away with any sort of sinners than these for these he threatneth to spew out of his mouth To close up all My Beloved as yee tender the salvation of body and soule take heed of this Laodicean temper in religion if ye ever looke to be saved by your religion yee must save and preserve it entire and unmixed Take heed how ye familiarly converse with the Priests and Chemarims of Baal lest they draw you away from the living God to dumb dead Idols By no meanes bee brought to bow the knee to Baal or give any shew or countenance to idolatrous worship for God is a jealous God and will not give any part of his glory to graven Images Now the Lord who of his infinite mercy hath vouchsafed unto us the liberty of the Gospel and free preaching of his Word give a speciall blessing to that portion which hath been delivered to us at this present plant hee the true Religion in our hearts and daily water it both by hearing and reading his Word and meditating thereupon that it may bring forth plentifull fruit of righteousnesse in us all strengthen he the sinewes of our faith that we never halt between two opinions enflame he our zeale that we be never cold or lukewarme in the truth but in our understanding being rightly enformed and fully resolved of the orthodoxe faith we may in the whole course of our life be conformed to it reformed by it zealous for it and constant in it to death and so receive the crowne of life through Jesus Christ Cui cum Patre Spiritu sancto c. Amen Ambodexters Ambosinisters Or One God one true Religion THE LIX SERMON 1 KIN. 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him Right Honourable c. NOt to suspect your memorie or wrong your patience by any needlesse repetition of what hath beene formerly observed out of the whole text joyntly or the parts severally considered the drift of the Prophet Elijah in this sprightly reproofe is to excite the King Nobles and Commons of Israel to resolution and zeale in the true and only worship of the true and only God and agreeably to this his maine scope and end hee bendeth all his strength and forces against those vices that bid battaile as it were to the former vertues These are two 1. Wavering unsettlednesse opposite to resolution 2. Timorous luke-warmnesse the sworne enemie to zeale To displace and utterly overthrow them and establish the contrarie
ad rustic Eloquentiae torcularia non verborum pampinis sed sensuum quasi uvarum expressionibus redundarent For in these the presses of eloquence abound with leaves of words and luxuriant stemmes of extravagant wit but in it with spirituall senses and divine sentences as it were the juice and bloud of the ripest grapes of the Vine of Engeddi It is a point of wisedome in man who hath but little to make it goe as farre as he can and so thriftily instill it in his workes as Nature doth her influences in simples a great quantity whereof is often distilled to extract one drop of pure quintessence whereas on the contrary no plant of Paradise no branch of a plant no flower of a branch no leafe of a flower but affordeth great plenty of the water of life more precious than any quintessence that Art can force out of Nature The finers of gold Chrysost tom 5. homil 37. as golden mouth St. Chrysostome teacheth us deale not only with wedges ingots and massie pieces of gold but with the smallest portions thereof And the Apothecaries make singular use in divers confections even of the dust of gold When Alexander the great managed his affaires in Judea those whom he imployed to gather the most precious oyle of a Plin. l. 12. nat hist c. 25. Succus è plaga manat quem Opobalsamum vocant suavitatis eximiae sed tenui gutta Alexandro magnores ibi gerente toto dic aestivo unam concham impleri justum erat Opobalsamum thought a whole Summers day well spent in filling a small shell taking it as it fell drop by drop from the twigge And if a skilfull Jeweller will not grind out a small spot or cloud out of a rich stone though it somewhat dimme the bright lustre thereof because the substance is so precious shall we lose or sleightly passe by any Iota or tittle of the Booke of God which shall out-last the large volumes of the heavens for * Mat. 5.18 heaven earth shall passe away but no one Iota or tittle of the Word of God shall passe The Jewish Rabines say that great mountaines hang upon the smallest Jods in the Bible And St. b Chrys in Gen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome will not endure a devout Christian to let goe any syllable in the Scripture no nor pricke or point without observation Surely if God so carefully preserve the smallest parcels of Scripture he would have us religiously observe them Else if wee content our selves with a generall handling of the Word of life how shall wee satisfie the Apostles precept of rightly dividing the Word of God * 2. Tim. 2.15 Shew thy self a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth The word in the originall is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dichotomizing the Apostle tyeth no man to a precise Ramisticall method yet is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly cutting or dividing the Word of truth which cannot be done if any sensible part be omitted be it but a conjunctive particle as this Till in my Text which standeth like an hinge in the midst of the sentence turning the meaning divers wayes If it hath reference to the death and resurrection of our Saviour as Cajetan Avendanus conceive it hath in which he brought forth judgement unto victory by condemning the world conquering both death hell then the meaning of the whole is this He shall not strive nor cry c. he shall not offer any violence to his enemies by word or deed although he could as easily destroy them as a man may breake a reed already bruised or tread out the smoaking week of a light ready to goe out of it selfe yet he will not use this power but contrariwise carry himselfe most meekly towards them and by his mildnesse and patience both condemn their fury and conquer their obstinacy If it looke farther forward to the destruction of the City and Temple and the overthrow of the whole Jewish Nation as Theophylact and Musculus imagine expounding Till hee bring forth judgement unto victory till he execute judgement upon them that judged him and fully be revenged of them by the sword of the Romans then the meaning of the whole is Hee shall not breake the bruised reed of the Jewish Nation till by the victory of the Romans he shall execute judgement upon that Nation nor shall he quench the smoaking flaxe of the Aaronicall Priesthood till forty veeres after his death the City of Jerusalem shall bee sacked and the Temple burned downe to the ground and by the propagation of the Gospel and prevailing thereof in all places the dimme light of the Ceremoniall Law be quite extinguished But if the word Untill carry us so farre as the last Judgement to which St. Jerome St. Hilary c Guilliand comment in Mat. Qui diebus carnis suae visus est humilis benignus doctor aderit aliquando Jude● utetur potentiá absolutâ damnavit hostes suos Guilliandus and many other learned Expositors referre it then the whole beareth this tune See you Jesus now in the forme of a servant how humble and meeke he is so farre from killing and subduing his bloud-thirsty enemies by forcible meanes that hee will not strive with them so farre from lifting up his hand against them that hee will not lift up his voice Hee will not cry nor shall his voice bee heard in the streets complaining against them so farre from wounding the spirit Cic. Catil prim Quos ferro vulnerare oportebat nondum voce vulnerat or hurting the bodies of any men that hee will not breake a bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flaxe The time shall come when you shall see this meek Lambe turned into a fierce Lion He who cryed not upon earth shall thunder from heaven He who came now to suffer in meeknesse shall hereafter come in power to conquer Hee who came in humility to bee judged shall come in Majesty to judge both quicke and dead Hee who came by water and bloud by water to wash our sinnes and by bloud to quench the fire of his Fathers wrath shall one day come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all that beleeve not the Gospel He who in all his life never brake a bruised reed a Beza in Mat. c. 12. Tum rebellia corda confringet non jam clemens humilis sed severus majestate verendus shall after his death and resurrection when he commeth to Judgement if not before rule the Nations with a rod of Iron and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell Hee who here never quenched the smoaking flaxe hee shall hereafter put out the greater lights of the world He shall darken the Sunne and turne the Moone into bloud and shake the powers of heaven and foundations of the earth and the hearts of men and behold he commeth with the clouds and all eyes shall see
putteth his trust in him shall glory in these his victories But the mouth of all Jewes and Gentiles Turkes and Infidels Atheists and Idolaters that belch out blasphemies against him shal be stopped when he shall come in the glory of his Father with his elect Angels and sit in judgement upon quicke and dead u Hieron epist ad Heliod Tunc quod vocem inbae pavebit terra cum populis tu gaudebis Judicaturo Domino lugubrè mundus immugiet tribus ad tribum pectora ferient Potentissimi quo●dam reges nudo latere pulpitabunt exhibebitur cum prole sua vere tunc ignitus Jupiter adducetur cum suis stultus Plato discipulis Aristotelis argumenta non proderunt Tunc tu rusticanus pauper exultabis ridebis dices ecce crucifixus Deus meus ecce Judex qui obvolutus pannis in praesepio vagiit hic est ille operarii quaestuariae filius hic qui matris gestatus sinu hominem Deus fugit in Egyptum hic vestitus coccino hic sentibus coronatus cerne manus Judae e quas fixeras cerne latus Romane quod foderas Then at the sound of the last trumpe the earth shall tremble with the inhabitants but thou O Christian shalt rejoyce When thy Lord comes to judge the world shall roare hideously all the kindreds of the earth shall smite their breasts the most puissant Kings shall appeare without their guard panting for feare Jupiter himselfe the chiefe Idoll of all the heathen with all his off-spring shall be seene all in true fire foolish Plato shall be brought with his disciples Aristotles sophistry shall stand him in no stead Then thou poore and simple countrey swaine shalt leap for joy and say Behold my God who was crucified behold the Judge who sometimes wrapt in swadling clothes cryed in a manger this is the Carpenters sonne this is he who borne in his mothers armes being God fled from man into Aegypt this he who was clad in purple and crowned with thornes see O Jew the hands which thou nailedst view O Roman the side which thou diggedst with thy speare behold O Jew the head which thou prickedst with thornes now compassed with radiant beames behold the face thou defiledst with spittle shining brighter than the Sun behold the hands thou woundedst with Iron nailes holding a rod of Iron and bruising his enemies like a potters vessell behold O Roman the naked side which thou piercedst with a speare now guarded with a troupe of Angels with their polaxes behold the body thou strippedst starke naked cloathed with light as with a garment In a word behold him whom thou esteemedst the scorne of the earth made now the glory of the heavens in a triumphant march with millions of Saints and Angels riding on bright clouds as it were fiery chariots through the aire to execute speedie vengeance upon all his enemies and to take up all the elect with him into heaven x Apoc. 22.20 Etiam sic veni Domine Jesu Even so come Lord Jesu come quickly You have heard how sweet and heavenly the musicke is if you take the highest cliffe from Christ if you take the middle from David thus the notes follow They that seeke my soule to destroy it that is my bloud-thirsty enemies shall goe into the lowest parts of the earth that is either enter into their graves or hide themselves in caves of the earth they shall make him to run out like water that is cause Saul my capitall and mortall enemie to spill his owne bloud by falling upon his owne sword And they shall be a portion for foxes This clause of the prophecie was not fulfilled in Saul his person nor his sonnes for y 1 Sam. 31.12.13 their flesh was burnt and their bones buried under a tree at Jabesh but in his servants and souldiers which mortally wounded on the mounts of Gilboa and being not able to helpe themselves nor having any to burie them after they had breathed out their last gasp fell to the foxes share and therefore David purposely altereth the number saying not they shall cast him downe and he shall bee a portion for foxes but they shall be a portion for foxes as in the truth of the story afterwards they fell to the foxes commons Now after the death first of Saul and the discomfiture of his royall armie and the overthrow afterwards of the Philistims and destruction of all his enemies round about King David sitting safely and quietly in his throne full of joy and comfort breaketh forth into a Psalme of thanks-giving to God for his wonderfull victories and strange deliverances and all the loyall subjects of Judah and Israel beare a part with him in it whereat all those that before had falsely traduced his person or impugned his right to his crowne were put to silence and shame Thus have I set the tune in my text to the middle key also and as you heare the musicke is sweet if you will have the patience to heare it once more set to the lowest key you will all perceive that every note in it conforteth not onely with our voices but our thoughts and affections at this present I have shewed you how this prophecy in my text was fulfilled in Christ Davids Lord and secondly in David the Lords Christ may it please you out of your love to him to whose honour you have dedicated this feast to stretch out your patience to the length of the houre and I shall briefly exemplifie the same in our Israels David To resume then the words of this Scripture and by the parts of it to draw the lineaments of that narration which shall serve for my conclusion First I will relate unto you the attempt of the conspirators the Earle Gowrie and Alexander Ruthen his brother and their complices by the occasion of these words They that seek my soule to destroy it Secondly the event by occasion of the words following shall goe to the lowest parts of the earth c. They that seeke my soule to destroy it Were there ever any such or are there any at this day Doth hee breathe that would goe about to stop the z Sen. de clem l. 1. c. 4. Ille est vinculum per quod respublica coheret ille est spiritus vitalis quem tot millia trahunt breath which so many thousands draw Doth the Sun give light to any that would go about to quench the light of Israel can the earth bear any such an ungratefull and gracelesse varlet whose conscience is burthened with so heavie and heinous a sin as Parricide in the highest degree laying violent hands upon the Father of his countrey whom for his clemencie and wisedome the world at this day cannot parallel Yes beloved this hath beene the lot of the best Princes that ever ware corruptible Crownes a Suet. in vita Tui Titus sirnamed Delitiae humani generis The darling of mankinde drew this lot and b
eleven Apostles or to more than five hundred brethren that saw him all at one time nay what to more than five millions of Confessors and Martyrs signing the truth of it with their blood and shewing the power of it as well by the wonders which they wrought in his name as the invincible patience wherewith they endured all sorts of torments and death it selfe for his name I might produce the testimony of Josephus the learned Jew and tell you of Paschasinus his holy Well that fils of his owne accord every Easter day and the annuall rising of certaine bodies of Martyrs in the sands of Egypt and likewise of a Phoenix in the dayes of Tyberius much about the time of our Lords resurrection rising out of her owne ashes m Lactant. in Poem Ipsa sibi proles suus pater suus haeres Nutrix ipsa sui semper alumna sibi Ipsa quidem sed non eadem quia ipsa nec ipsa Eternam vitam mortis adepta bono But because the authours of these relations and observations are not beyond exception I will rather conclude this point with an argument of Saint n De civit Dei l. 22. c. 5. Haec duo incredibilia scil resurrectionem nostri corporis rem ●am incredibilem mundum esse crediturum idem dominus antequam vel unum horū fieret ambo futura esse praedixit unum duorum incredibilium jam factum videmus ut quod erat incredibile crede●et mundus curid quod reliquum est desperatur Austines to which our owne undoubted experience gives much strength The same Spirit of God saith hee which foretold the resurrection of Christ foretold also that the doctrine thereof should bee publickly professed and believed in the world and the one was altogether as unlikely as the other But the latter wee see in all ages since Christs death and at this day accomplished in the celebration of this feast why then should any man doubt of the former The Apostles saw the head living but not the mysticall body the Catholike Church of all places and ages We have read in the histories of all ages since Christ and at this day see the Catholike Church spread over the whole face of the earth which is Christs body how can wee then but believe the head to bee living which conveigheth life to all the members I have set before you the glasse of the resurrection in the figures of predictions of the Old Testament and the face it selfe in the history of the New may it please you now to cast a glance of your eye upon the Image or picture thereof in our rising from the death of sinne to the life of grace All Christs actions and passions as they are meritorious for us so they are some way exemplary unto us and as none can bee assured of the benefit of Christs birth unlesse hee bee borne againe by water and the Spirit nor of his death unlesse hee bee dead to sinne nor of his buriall unlesse hee have buried his old Adam so neither of his resurrection unlesse hee bee risen from dead workes and continually walketh in newnesse of life See you how the materiall colours in a glasse window when the sun-beames passe through it produce the like colours but lesse materiall and therefore called by the Philosophers intentionales spiritales on the next wall no otherwise doth the corporall resurrection of Christ produce in all true believers a representation thereof in their spirituall which Saint John calleth o Apoc. 20.5 the first resurrection Saint Paul p Heb. 6.1 repentance from dead workes Sinnes especially heinous and grievous proceeding from an evill habit are called dead workes and such sinners dead men because they are deprived of the life of God have no sense of true Religion they see not Gods workes they heare not his Word they savour not the things of God they feele no pricke of conscience they breath not out holy prayers to God nor move towards heaven in their desires but lye rotting in their owne filthinesse and corruption The causes which moved the Jewes so much to abhorre dead corpses ought to be more prevalent with us carefully to shunne and avoid those that are spiritually dead in sinnes and transgressions they were foure 1 Pollution 2 Horrour 3 Stench 4 Haunting with evill spirits 1 Pollution That which touched a dead corpse was by the law uncleane neither can any come nigh these men much lesse embrace them in their bosome without morall pollution and taking infection in their soules from them 2 Horrour Nothing so ghastly as the sight of a dead corpse the representation whereof oft-times in the Theater appalleth not onely the spectatours but also the actours and yet this sight is not so dreadfull to the carnall man as the sight of those that are spiritually dead I speake of foule notorious and scandalous offenders to them that feare God Saint John would not stay in the same bath with Cerinthus and certainely 't is a most fearefull thing to bee under the same roofe with blasphemous heretickes and profane persons who have no feare of God before their eyes 3 Stench The smell of a carkasse is not so offensive to the nostrils as the stench of gluttony drunkennesse and uncleannesse in which wicked men wallow is loathsome to God and all good men 4 Haunting with evil spirits We read in scriptures that the men that were possest of the divel came q Mat. 8.28 out of the tombs and graves and we find by dayly experience the like of these rather carkasses than men that the devill hankereth about them and entereth into their heart as he did into Judas filling them with all wickednesse and uncleannesse After they have exhausted their bodies with incontinency their estate with riotous living and have lost first their conscience and after their credit they fall into the deepest melancholy upon which Sathan works and puts them into desperate courses r Psal 73.19 O how suddenly doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Me thinkes I heare some say wee heard of places haunted by evill spirits in time of popery are there now any such not such as then were solitary houses ruined pallaces or Churches in which fearefull noyses are said to have beene heard and walking spirits to have beene met For at the thunder of the Gospell Sathan fell like lightning from heaven and hath left those his old holds but places of a contrary condition such where is the greatest concourse of people I meane profane Theaters disorderly Tavernes Ale-houses places of gaming and lewdnesse yea prisons also which were intended for the restraint of wickednesse and punishment of vice are made refuges of Malefactors and schooles of all impiety and wickednesse Quis custodes custodiet ipsos As in the hot sands of Africa where wilde beasts of divers sorts meet to drinke strange monsters are begotten which gave occasion to that proverbe ſ Eras
Adag Semper Africa aliquid apportat novi c. so in the places of moist meetings monstrous sinnes are begotten monstrous oaths monstrous blasphemies monstrous murders monstrous uncleannesse here Popery is familiarly broacht nay Atheisme freely vented Gods creatures abused his Sabbath profaned the actions of the State censured the watchfull Magigistrates and the zealous Ministers of the Gospell and all that make profession of Religion nick-named jeared and made a parable of reproach here prophane Musicke and impure Songs are played and sung even in time of divine Service here 's no difference of dayes holy or common nay no difference of day or night I had almost sayd nay nor of Sexes If the hands of the religious Magistrates be not strengthened and their zeale stirred up to take some course to abate the incredible number and reforme the unsufferable abuses of these sinks of all impurity especially about the skirts and suburbs of the city we have cause to feare a worse fire than that which lately affrighted us falling in that place where it might bee as a dreadfull beacon to warne both City Borough and Suburbs I meane such a fire as fell upon Sodome and Gomorrha t Caus in Polyhist symb Polycritus writeth of a Lake of troubled water in Sicily quam si quis ingrediatur in latum extenditur into which the deeper a man wadeth the larger it doth extend it selfe Such a lake my discourse is fallen into the water is foule and troubled and the deeper I sinke into it the more it enlargeth it selfe and lest it should overflow the bankes of the allotted time I will suddenly leape out of it into my second part which is Christs prerogative whereby he is become the first fruits of them that slept Wee have surveyed the ground let us now take a sample of the fruits in the spreading whereof abroad I must handle two things 1 The reference 2 The inference 1 The reference is to Leviticus 23.10 When you reape the harvest you shall bring in a sheafe of the first fruits of the harvest unto the Priest ver 7. and he shall wave it And to Exod. 34.22 You shall observe the feast of weeks the feast of the first fruits of wheat harvest Now let us set the truth to the type As the first fruits were reapt in the harvest when the corne was ripe so Christ was cut off by death in his ripe age 2 As the sheafe that was offered was shaken before so there was an u Mat. 28.2 earthquake at Christs lifting out of the grave 3 As the sheafe was offered the morrow after the Sabbath so Christ the first day of the week after the Sabbath was presented alive to his Father at his resurrection Lastly as there was a distance of time between the first fruits which were offered on Easter day those that were offered at the day of Pentecost so there is a distance of time between Christs rising from the dead which was 1600. yeers ago ours which shall be at the last day Thus much for the reference now to the inference which is twofold 1 Christs prerogative in that he is the first fruits 2 The Saints communion with him in that they are of the heape 1 Christs prerogative * Joh. 3.31 Hee that is in heaven is above all for x Mat. 28.18 to him is given all power in heaven and earth and y Phil. 2.9 a name above all names z Eph. 1.22 he is the head of the Church and a Eph. 5.23 Saviour of the body he is the first b Heb. 1 6. begotten of the Father c Mat. 1.25 first borne of his Mother the first d Col. 1.18 Rev. 1.5 begotten of the dead e Col. 1.15 first borne of every creature Therefore as Quiros strongly concludes in every order both of creation and regeneration of nature and grace of things visible and invisible hee hath the preheminence among all let him have the precedency in our love and affections let us not set any thing above him on earth who hath the first place in heaven If hee bee the head of men and Angels let the knees of all in heaven in earth under the earth bow to him if hee bee the bright morning starre let the eye of our faith bee earely upon him if hee bee f Apoc. 22.16 Alpha and Omega the First and the Last let him bee first in our thoughts and last in our memory g Apoc. 1.8 let us begin our prayers in his name and end them in his merits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primâ dicta mihi summâ dicende Camenâ If he be the first fruits Reshith bicorre the first fruits of the first fruits let all the sheaves do homage to him let us sanctifie him in our minds let us offer him the first fruits of our hearts the first fruits of our lips the first fruits of our hands the first fruits of the earth the first fruits of our thoughts the first fruits of our desires the first fruits of our prayers the first fruits of our labours the first fruits of our substance so will he esteem us h Jam. 1.18 the first fruits of his creatures and we shall receive the i Rom. 8.23 first fruits of the spirit here in our regeneration and the whole harvest hereafter in our glorification as our holy brethren that are fallen asleep in soule have received already who rest from their labours and their workes follow them and here you may see them I may say of them as Isaac said of Jacob Gen. 27. The smell of my sonne is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed And behold here as in a corne field Allude to the Hosp tall children in blew coates blew flowers intermingled Here the Preacher read the Catalogue printed of all the poore relieved in the Hospitals of the City which followeth Children kept and maintained at this present at the charges of Christs Hospitall in the said house in divers places of this city and suburbs and with sundry nurses in the country 905 Which is a farre greater number than hath hitherto beene since the foundation The names of all which are registred in the books kept in Christs Hospitall there to bee seene from what parishes and by what meanes they have beene from time to time admitted Children put forth apprentices discharged and dead this yeere 69 There hath beene cured this yeere last past at the charges of Saint Bartholomews Hospitall of souldiers and other diseased people to the number of 832 All which were relieved with money and other necessaries at their departure Buried this yeere after much charges in their sicknesse 121 Remaining under cure at this present at the charge of the said Hospitall 262 There hath beene cured this yeere last past at the charges of Saint Thomas Hospitall of souldiers and other diseased people 731 All which were relieved with money and other necessaries at their
the flames of fire are the conquerers c Pareus in Apoc Corporaliter victi sunt spiritualitèr vicerunt dum in verá Christi fide ad mortem us● perstiterunt Paraeus expoundeth this riddle The servants of Christ who seale the truth with their blood are in their bodies mastered but in their soules undaunted and much more unconquered whilest notwithstanding all the tortures and torments which the malice of man or devill can put them to they persist in the profession of the true faith unto death For this is the d 1 Joh. 5.4 victory of the world even our faith In that famous battell at Leuctrum where the Thebans got a signall victory but their Captaine Epaminondas his deaths wound Plutarch writeth of him that he demanded whether his buckler had beene taken by the enemy and when hee understood that it was safe and that they had not laid hands on it hee died most willingly and cheerefully Such is the resolution of a valiant souldier of Christ Jesus when hee is wounded even unto death hee hath an eye to his shield of faith and finding that out of the enemies danger his soule marcheth out of this world singing Saint Pauls triumphant ditty e 2 Tim. 4.7.8 I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is layd up for me a crowne of righteousnesse To cleare the summe which I have beene all this while in casting Christian victory is a prerogative of the regenerate purchased unto them by Christs death and resurrection whereby in all conflicts and temptations they hold out to the end and in the end overcome on earth and after triumph in heaven First it is a prerogative of the regenerate for none but those that are f 1 Joh. 5.4 borne of God overcome the world Secondly this prerogative is purchased unto them by Christ and therefore the Apostle ascribeth the glory of it to his grace g 1 Cor. 15.57 Thankes bee unto God who giveth us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thirdly this victory is not in one kinde of fight but in all whether Satan the world or the Devill assault us whether they lay at our understanding by sophisticall arguments or at our will by sinfull perswasions or at our senses by unlawfull delights whether our profession bee oppugned by heresie or our unity by schisme or our zeale by worldly policy or our temperance by abundance or our confidence in God by wants or our constancy by persecution or our watchfulnesse by carnall security or our perseverance by continuall batteries of temptations in all wee are more than conquerours through him that loved us h Rom. 8.35.36.37 What or who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword as it is written For thy sake wee are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more than conquerours c. Obser 6 None can overcome who fighteth not valiantly none can fight valiantly unlesse they be trained up in Martiall affaires and provided of good and fit armour both for offence and defence this spirituall armour is got by instant and constant prayer and reading and meditating on Gods word and wee put it on by due application of what wee read and heare and wee use it by the exercise of those divine vertues above mentioned from whence the severall pieces of our armour take their names Moreover that a man may conquer his enemie three things are most requisite 1 Exasperation 2 Courage 3 Constancy Exasperation setteth him on Courage giveth him strength and Constancy holdeth out to the end Exasperation is necessary because anger as Aristotle teacheth is the goad or spurre of fortitude neither indeed can any man maintaine a hot fight in cold blood And this is the cause why wee are so often put to the worst in our spirituall conflicts because wee fight like her in the Poet Tanquam quae vincere nollet wee fight not in earnest against our corruptions but either in shew onely dallying or faintly without any earnest desire of revenge Saint i Aug. confess l. 8. c. 7. In exordio adolescentiae petieram chastitatem sed timebam ne me nimis citò audiret citò sanaret à morbo concupiscentiae quem malebam expleri quam extingui Austine before his thorough conversion prayed against fleshly lusts but as he confesseth with great anguish sorrow of heart for his insincerity so aukwardly against his will that secretly hee desired that his lust should rather be accomplished than extinguished As it was then with him so it is with too many that take upon them the profession of Christians and would thinke it foule scorne to bee taken for other than true converts When the voluptuous person offereth a formall prayer to God to extinguish the impure flame of lust rising out of the cindars of originall sinne Satan setteth before his fancy the picture of his beautifull Mistresse and as the Calor ambiens or outward heat in a body disposed to putrefaction draweth out the naturall heat so this impure heat of lust draweth out all the spirituall heat of devotion and so his faint prayer against sinne is turned into sinne In like manner while the covetous man prayeth against that base affection in his soule which ever desireth that wherewith it is never k Aristophan in Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sen. ep 15. Si quid in his esset solidi aliquando implerent nunc haurientium sitim concitant Horat. carm l. 2. od 2. Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops nec sitim pellit nisi causa morbi fugerit venis aquosus albocorpore languor satisfied Mammon representeth unto him the rising up of his heapes and swelling of his bagges by his use-mony whereby his heart is tickled and so his prayer also turneth into sinne Thus all sinners that are not brought to a perfect hatred and detestation of their bosome sinne even whilest they pray against the forbidden fruit hold it under their tongue and their carnall delights suffocate their godly sorrow Spirituall courage is most necessary that is confidence in God and in the power of his might This confidence is the immediate effect of a lively faith which S. John calleth l 1 Joh. 5 4. the victory of the world When Christ bad Peter come to him walking on the sea upon the rising of a storme Peters faith began to faile and no sooner his heart sanke in his body but his feete also sanke in the water even so when any storme of persecution ariseth for the word when wee see our selves encompassed on every side with dangers and terrours and our faith faileth wee presently sinke in despaire if Christ stretch not out his hand presently to support us and establish our heart in his promises 3 Thirdly constant perseverance is most needfull for though all vertues runne in
and godly in this present world Againe if any Spirit tell thee that thou art rich in spirituall graces and lackest nothing when thine owne Spirit testifieth within thee that thou art blinde and naked and miserable and poore beleeve not that Spirit For the Spirit of God is a contest with our spirit q Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee beareth witnesse with our spirit that wee are the sonnes of God and when they both sweetly accord we may without presumption conclude with Saint r Tract 22. in Joh Veritas pollicetur qui credit habet vitam aeternam ego audivi verba Domini credidit infidelis cum essem factus sum fidelis sicut ipse monuit transii de morte ad vitam in judicium non venio non praesumptione meâ sed promissione ipsius Austine The truth promiseth whosoever beleeveth in mee hath eternall life I have heard the words of the Lord I have beleeved whereas I was before an Infidell I am now made faithfull and according to his promise have passed from death to life and shall come into no condemnation It is no presumption to ground assured confidence upon Christs promise Hereunto let us adde the testimony of the effects of saving grace As the testimony of the Spirit confirmeth the testimony of the Word so the effects of saving grace confirme both unto us These Saint Bernard reckoneth to bee Hatred of sinne Contempt of the world Desire of heaven Hatred of our unregenerate estate past contempt of present vanities desire of future felicity And doubtlesse if our hatred of sinne bee universall our contempt of worldly vanities constant and our desire of heavenly joyes fervent wee may build upon them a strong perswasion that we are in the favour of God because we hate all evill that we are espoused to Christ because wee are divorced from the world and that heaven belongeth unto us because wee long for it Howbeit these seeme to bee rather characters of christian perfection than common workes of an effectuall vocation Though wee arrive not to so high a degree of Angelicall rather than humane perfection yet through Gods mercy wee may bee assured of our election by other more easie and common workes of the Spirit in us I meane true faith sincere love of goodnesse in our selves and others hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse striving against our fleshly corruptions godly sorrow filiall feare comfortable patience and continuall growth in grace and godlinesse Tully writeth of l Cic. Verr. 5. Syracuse That there is no day through the whole yeere so stormy and tempestuous in which they have not some glympse of the sunne neither undoubtedly after the travels of our new birth are past is there any day so overcast with the clouds of temptation in the soule of a Christian in which the Sunne of righteousnesse doth not shine upon him and some of these graces appeare in him For if hee decay in one grace hee may increase in another if hee finde not in himselfe sensible growing in any grace hee may feele in himselfe an unfained desire of such growth and godly sorrow for want of it and though hee conquer not all sinne yet hee alloweth not himselfe in any sinne and though he may have lost the sense yet not the essence of faith and though hee bee not assured in his owne apprehension of remission of sinnes yet hee may bee sure of his adhesion to God and relying upon him for the forgivenesse of them with a resolution like that of Job Though he kill me yet will I put my trust in him And this is the summe and effect of what our Christian casuists answere to the second question Quid sit what is the white stone whereby as a certaine pledge grace and glory are secured unto us The third question yet remains Propter quid sit to what end this white stone is given In the maine point of difference betweene the reformed and the Romane Church concerning assurance of salvation that wee bee not mis-led wee must distinguish of a double certainty The one of the subject or of The person The other of the object or of The thing it selfe The certainty of the one never varieth because it dependeth upon Gods election the certainty of the other often varieth because it dependeth upon the vivacity of our faith Even as the apple in the eye of many creatures waxeth and waineth with the Moone and as t Solin Poly-hist c. 56. Uniones quoties excipiunt matutini aeris semen fit clarius margaritum quoties vespertini fit obscurius Solinus writeth that the Margarite is clearer or duskier according to the temper of the aire and face of the skie in which the shell-fish openeth it selfe so this latter assurance waxeth and waineth with our faith and is more evident or more obscure as our conscience is more or lesse purged from dead workes If our faith be lively our assurance is strong if our faith faile our assurance flagges and in some fearfull temptation is so farre lost that wee are brought to the very brinke of despaire partly to chasten us for our former presumption partly to abate our spirituall pride and humble us before God and in our owne spirits but especially to improve the value of this jewell of assurance and stirre us up to more diligence in using all possible meanes to regaine it and keep it more carefully after we have recovered it By the causes of Gods taking away of this white stone from us or at the least hiding it out of our sight for a while wee may ghesse at the reasons why hee imparteth it unto us 1. First to endeare his love unto us and enflame ours to him For how can wee but infinitely and eternally love him who hath assured us of infinite joyes eternall salvation an indefeizable inheritance everlasting habitations and an incorruptible crowne 2. Secondly to incourage us to finish our christian race through many afflictions and persecutions for the Gospels sake which we could never do if this crowne of glory were not hung out from heaven and manifestly exhibited to the eye of our faith with assurance to winne it by our patience 3. Thirdly but especially to kindle in us a most ardent desire and continuall longing to arrive at our heavenly countrey where wee shall possesse that inheritance of a kingdome which is as surely conveighed unto us by the Word and Sacraments as if Almighty God should presently cause a speciall deed to bee made or patent to bee drawne for it and set his hand and seale to it in our sight To knit up all that hath beene delivered that it may take up lesse roome in your memory and bee more easily borne away let mee entreat you to set before your eyes the custome of the Romanes in the entertainment of any great personage whom after they had feasted with rare dainties served in covered dishes at the end of the banquet they gave unto him an Apophoreton or
should dye Mori infirmitatis est sic mori virtutis infinitae There wanted not other meanes to redeeme man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was meet that by the death of the Sonne of God wee should bee redeemed Sanguine quaerendi reditus animâque litandum No escaping the stroake of the Angel but by sprinkling the Lambes life bloud no meanes to returne from exile till the death of the high Priest Must hee dye then and are the Scriptures so strait in this point O death how bitter is thy remembrance witnesse our Saviour Si fieri potest transeat hic calix but sith for the reasons before named that was neither possible nor expedient sith dye hee must what death doth the Holy Ghost thinke to bee most expedient If hee may not yeeld to nature as a ripe apple falleth from the tree but must be plucked thence there are deaths no lesse honourable than violent shall he dye an honourable death No hee must bee reckoned among the malefactors and dye a shamefull death In shamefull deaths there is a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rid him quickly out of his paine Misericordiae genus est citò occidere No that was not expedient Feri ut se sentiat mori it was expedient that hee should dye a tedious and most painfull death wherein a tract of lingering misery and lasting torment was to bee endured What death is that I need not amplifie even by the testimony of the Holy Ghost the death of the Crosse was for the torture most grievous for the shame most infamous He humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death Could his humility goe on one step further Yes one step even to the death of the Crosse that is a death beyond death the utmost and highest of all punishments saith Ulpian Having in it the extent of torture saith Apuleius The quintessence of cruelty saith the Roman Oratour It is not amisse to know the manner of the execution of this death First after sentence given the prisoner was whipped then forced to carry his Crosse to the place of execution there in the most tender and sinewie parts of the body nailed to the Crosse then lifted up into the ayre there with cruell mercy for a long while preserved alive after all this when cruelty was satisfied with bloud for the close of all his joynts were broken and his soule beat out of his body This was part of his paine I say part I cannot expresse the whole the shame was much more Infoelix Lignum saith Seneca truly and unhappy for untill this time the curse of God was upon him that was hanged It is a trespasse to bind 't is wickednes to beat it is murder to kill Quid dicam in crucem tollere Look we to the originall it was first devised by Tarquinius as the most infamous punishment of all against such as laid violent hands upon themselves Look we to the use of it they accounted it a slaves nay a dogs death for in memory that the Dogge slept when the Geese defended the Capitoll every yeer in great solemnity they carried a Goose in triumph softly laid upon a rich carpet and a Dogge hanging upon a crosse Looke wee to the concomitancy Non solent suspensi lugeri saith the Civilian no teare was wont to be shed for such as were crucified And was it expedient that our Saviour should dye this death It was expedient that the prophesie of Esay might be verified We saw him made as the basest of men and of David A scorne of men and the out-cast of the people and of himselfe They shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock scourge and crucifie him These were prophesies that it should be so yet we want a prophesie that saith It is expedient That we doe not Oportet filium hominis exaltari ut Moses extulit Serpentem for that Serpent lifted up to cure all that looked upon it was an embleme of Christ Thus himselfe who was a high Priest for ever did prophesie of himselfe being now both priest and sacrifice It was expedient that he should dye thus dye to be forsaken of his friends falsly accused by his enemies to be sold like a slave mocked like a foole spit upon like a made man whipt like a theefe crucified like a traitour make up a misery that the sun shamed the earth trembled to behold it yet it was expedient it must be done God hath said it Mee thinkes I heare our Saviour say in this baptisme of bloud as he said in his baptisme of water Thus it becommeth us to fulfill all righteousnes and thus it became him for whom by whom are all things to consecrate the Prince of our salvation through afflictions The prophesies had said it it should be so and it was expedient that he to whom they pointed should fulfill them that so in fulness of truth he might take his leave of the crosse and say Consummatum est those things which were written of mee have an end All this while we see not the reason why he should be thus tormented Goe to Pilate his answer will be I am innocent of the bloud of this man Enquire you of the Scribes and Pharisees their answer will be We have a law and by this law he must dye because he made himselfe the Son of God This was no fault he was so and therefore without robbery or blasphemy might both think and declare himselfe to be so Goe wee further from popular Pilate and the cruell Jewes to God himselfe and though we be but dust and ashes for the knowledge of this truth presume we to aske Cur fecisti filio sic How may it stand with thy justice that he should dye in whom there was found no fault worthy death nay no fault at all the unswer is Expedit mori pro populo yet O Lord wilt thou slay the righteous with the wicked nay which is more wilt thou slay the righteous and spare the wicked nay which is yet more wilt thou slay the righteous for the wicked shall not the Judge of all the world doe right God cannot chuse but do right the wages of sin is death though he have not sinned the people have If the principall debtour cannot pay the surety must if the prisoner dare not appeare the baile must Christ was the surety the baile of the people and so God might permit his justice against sin to take hold on him and hee must dye for the people if he will not have the people dye It being knowne that he dyed for the people it is worth the while to know who these people were for whom he dyed Caiphas had respect to the Jewes only and their temporall good but the Holy Ghost intended the spirituall good of the Jewes primarily though not of them alone but of the people also through the world But is it possible that of all people he should dye for the Jewes Ab ipsis pro ipsis these were they
knowing it to be the faith and patience of the Saints Fiducia Christianorum resurrectio mortuorum saith Tertullian If our hope were in this life onely wee were of all men most miserable saith Saint Paul And the rather doth the Spirit ascertaine this doctrine because it hath many enemies Atheists Libertines and sundry sorts of Heretickes besides The Atheist thinketh there is no resurrection because hee seeth no reason for it to whom though it were sufficient to answer with Gregory Fides non habet meritum ubi ratio humana praebet experimentum and with Saint Ambrose Credimus piscatoribus non dialecticis yet to reason a little with these unreasonable men in the words of Saint Paul Acts 26.8 Why seemeth it incredible unto you that Christ should raise the dead Is it not as easie to restore life as to give it at the first to raise man out of ashes as to create him at first out of the dust Considera autorem tolle dubitationem saith Saint Austine The Libertine would have no resurrection that hee might still enjoy the pleasures of sinne and sacrifice to his belly but for him there is first a Text of counsell 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to live righteously and if that will not serve a Text of judgement Phil. 3.19 Whose end is damnation whose god is their belly Of Heretickes that professedly oppugned the doctrine of the resurrection some taught that there is no resurrection at all as the Saduces some that the resurrection was already past as Hymineus and Philetus Satan is a subtle Serpent and turneth divers wayes to get in his head Before Christs death hee worked powerfully in the children of disobedience in Judas to betray him in the Pharisees to accuse him in Pilate to condemne him but after knowing that the time was come that the Prince of the world was to bee cast out by the death of Christ hee was much troubled and laboured by all meanes to hinder Christs Passion Utinam ne in nemore Pelio hee wisheth there were no wood in all the world to make a Crosse of hee workes remorse in Judas giveth him a halter to hang himselfe hee employes Pilates wife to send to her husband to have nothing to doe with him When hee was fast nailed to the Crosse hee setteth the Jewes upon him to see whether they could perswade him to descend from thence After this hee spreads abroad a rumour that Simon Cyreneus was crucified for him or if hee were crucified that it was but in appearance onely and that hee was falsâ pendens in cruce Laureolus and when his resurrection was so palpable that it needed no other argument than the amazement of the watch and Pilates letter to the Emperour hee suborned a desperate rout to sweare that his Disciples stole him away by night After all this hee stirred up certaine Heretickes who taught that albeit Christ were indeed risen yet that wee were not to expect any future resurrection because the resurrection was past already But all these shall find that there is a resurrection for them to wit Resurrectio ad condemnationem John 5.29 Use 1 Is it so that Christ our head is risen then shall wee his members rise also For hee is primogenitus mortuorum primitiae dormientium the first fruits are carried already into the celestiall barne and the whole crop shall follow And this may bee a staffe of comfort to all drouping and fainting soules ut tali exemplo animati sub ictu passionis as Cyprian speaketh non retrahant pedem that they draw not backe but courageously goe on forward to make a good profession as being secure Christi milites non perimi sed coronari bonam mortem esse quae vitam non perimit sed adimit ad tempus restituendam in tempore duraturam sine tempore This was Jobs comfort I know my Redeemer liveth and of other distressed ones who would not bee delivered that they might bee partakers of a better resurrection An ancient father giveth these words for a Christians Motto Fero taceo spero Fero meam crucem ut ille suam taceo quia tu Domine fecisti spero quia utique fructus erit justo Use 2 Is Christ risen from the dead then wee that are his are risen with him at least in the first resurrection if therefore yee are risen with Christ seeke the things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of his Father This indeed ought to bee so but wee finde it otherwise never more preaching of the resurrection and never lesse fruit For all seeke their owne and none the things that are Jesus Christs So that Bernards observation fitteth our time Vides omnem Ecclesiasticum zelum fervere pro solâ dignitate tuendâ honori totum datur sanctitati nihil and againe all men learned and unlearned presse to Ecclesiasticall cures Tanquam sine curis quique victuri sint cùm ad curas pervenerint The Apostle telleth us Qui Episcopatum desiderat bonum opus desiderat non dignitatem saith Saint Jerome sed laborem non delicias sed solicitudinem non crescere fastidiis sed decrescere humilitate Nay not onely opus but onus also in Saint Bernards judgement though perhaps some Atlas's may thinke they never have load enough But are the Laity more excusable who buy and sell the poore for shooes and gay apparrell and strong drinke to whom mee thinkes I heare the poore cry Et vos vanitate peritis nos spoliis perimitis How many are there of them who ingrosse the Lords portion and bestow hallowed things upon worse than vanity Wee have a saying against them also out of the same Saint Bernard De patrimonio crucis Christi non facitis codices in Ecclesiâ sed pascitis pellices in thalamis adornatis equos phalerantes pectora capita deaurantes Is this our resurrection from sinne Saint Paul giveth this lesson with a memento Remember saith hee O Timothy that Christ is raised from the dead It is a truth as stable as the poles of Heaven that wee shall have no part of the second resurrection to the life of glory if wee have not a good part in the first to the life of grace And I have the keyes of Death and of Hell They are well called keyes of Hell because there are Inferorum portae mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of Saint Matthew Matth. 16.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are many opinions about these keyes some will have them to bee two Clavis cognitionis and Clavis authoritatis but Allensis and the Schoolemen denie knowledge to bee a key except in an improper speech Quia requiritur ad usum clavis and they doe well to denie it for what key of knowledge had that Priest of whom the Master of the Sentences maketh mention who baptized in nomine Patria Filia Spiritua sancta Bonaventure ingenuously confesseth Quidam in Ecclesiâ habent clavem quidam claviculam quidam nullam
and rested themselves these three Lords dayes it beareth fruit and that in great variety not only upon the branches but upon the maine stocke which yeeldeth us this fruitfull observation That the sense and taste of the bitternesse of sinnes past and remorse of conscience for them are most forcible motives and meanes to restraine the desires and weane the affections of Gods children from them This fruit we gathered heretofore and since plucked to us the first branch of the Text which affordeth this most wholsome observation That sinne is altogether unfruitfull As no meditation is more serious than upon the vanity of the world no contemplation more pleasant to a regenerate Christian than of the unpleasantnesse of impure delights so no observation is more fruitfull than of the unfruitfulnesse of sinne Who cannot copiously declaime against sinne against which it is a sinne not to declaime Who cannot easily recount all the evils which sinne hath brought into the world which are summarily all that are in the world insomuch that all sciences arts and professions have a blow at sinne The Metaphysicke Philosopher demonstrateth that sinne is non ens naught and therefore to be set at naught The Naturalist sheweth that it destroyeth nature and therefore ought to be exterminated out of nature The Moralists muster all the forces of vertue against it as being the chiefest enemy of mans chiefe good which they define to be actio virtutis in vitâ perfectâ the continuall practice of vertue in a happy life The Physicians observe that the greater part of the diseases of the body arise from sins which are the diseases of the soule Plures gulâ quàm gladio more come to their end by gluttony drunkennesse and incontinency than by the halter or the sword The Grammarians condemne sinne as incongruous the Logicians as illogicall that is unreasonable and all other arts and sciences as irregular but Divinity alone knocketh it downe and battereth it to pieces with the hammer of the Word There is more weight of argument in this one Verse of the Apostle than in all the Oratours declamations and Poets satyres and the Philosophers invectives against vice that ever were published to the world What fruit had yee in those things whereof yee are now ashamed for the end of those things is death As the same metall running upon divers moulds is cast into divers formes so the words of this Text admit of divers divisions according to severall moulds and frames of art It shall suffice to give you your choice of three 1. The Rhetoricall which breaketh them into 1. A poignant interrogation What fruit had yee 2. A forcible reason For the end of those things is death 2. The Logicall which observeth in them 1. The persons Yee 2. The object Those things 3. The attributes which are three 1. Losse What fruit had yee 2. Confusion Whereof yee are now ashamed 3. Perill For the end of those things is death 3. The Theologicall which considereth sinne in a three-fold relation 1. To the time past and so it is unfruitfull What fruit 2. To the time present and so it is shamefull Whereof c. 3. To the time to come and so it is dreadfull or deadly For the end of those things is death First of sinne considered in a relation to the time past What fruit had yee Xerxes as Herodotus reporteth bare a strange affection to the Plane tree which hee hung about with chaines and deckt with jewells of greatest price A fond and foolish affection as being to a tree and such a tree as is good for nothing but to shade us out of the Sunne This folly of so great a Monarch very well resembleth the humour of all those who are not guided by the Spirit of God into the wayes of truth and life but are led by the spirit of errour or the errour of their owne spirit to ungodly and sinfull courses the very beaten paths to hell and death The tree they are in love with adorne and spend so much cost upon is the forbidden tree of sinne altogether as unfruitfull as that of Xerxes it hath neither faire blossomes nor sweet fruit on it onely it is well growne and hath large armes and broad boughes and casteth a good shade or to speake more properly a shadow of good For the shade it selfe of this tree is like the shade of the Cyprus tree gravis umbra a noysome or pestilent shade making the ground barren and killing the best plants of vertues by depriving them of the Sun-shine of Gods grace Yet as divers Nations in the dayes of b Nat. hist l. 12. Tributum pro umbrâ pendunt Pliny paid tribute to the Romanes for the shade of these trees so doe these men pay for the seeming pleasure and delight of sinne being indeed but a shadow of vanity to the Divell the greatest tribute that can be payd the tribute of their soules To reprove this folly to bee bewailed with bloudy teares I have heretofore produced divers passages of holy Scripture the point of doctrine I beat upon and laboured especially to fasten in your hearts was the unprofitablenesse and the unfruitfulnesse of sinne which was proved 1. By the three names of sinne imposed by the Holy Ghost folly vanitie and a lye The reason whereof was because all sinne maketh a shew of and as it were promiseth to the sinner either pleasure or profit or honour or some good whereas indeed it bringeth not any thing to him but shame nor him to any thing but death 2. By divers lively comparisons and resemblances in holy Scripture of sinfull labours and travells as the running in a ring or circle whereby hee that moveth and tireth himselfe getteth no ground impii ambulant in circuitu the weaving of the Spiders web which maketh no garment the sowing of wind whereof nothing can be reaped but the whirlewind stormes and tempests of conscience 3. By the judgements of God falling upon them who seem to drive the most gainfull trade with Sathan For either they themselves are taken away in the midst of their prosperity and as soone as they have gotten the wealth of the world are constrained to leave a world of wealth c Luk. 12.20 O foole this night they shall take away thy soule Stulte hac nocte eripient tibi animam tuam or God bloweth upon their ill gotten goods and they are suddenly consumed or passe the same way that they came as the fogges that are raised by the Sunne when they come to their height are dispelled by his beames Or they prove like the horse of Sejanus or the gold of Tolous or the vessels and treasures of the Temple at Jerusalem which became the bane and ruine of all that laid hands on them Or if they long enjoy their wealth yet they joy not in it at all For howsoever none lay claime to their unrighteous Mammon yet they can never perswade themselves that it is their owne and between
yet not willing to bee put to an infamous cruell and accursed death he became obedient to death even the death of the crosse The repeating the word death seemeth to argue an ingemination of the punishment a suffering death upon death It was wonderfull that hee which was highest in glory should humble himselfe yet it is more to bee obedient than to humble himselfe more to suffer death willingly or upon the command of another than to be obedient more to bee crucified than simply to die Hee was so humble that hee became obedient so obedient that hee yeelded to die so yeelded to die as to bee crucified his love wonderfully shewed it selfe in humbling himselfe to exalt us his humility in his obedience his obedience in his patience his patience in the death of the crosse His humility was a kinde of excesse of his love his obedience of his humility his death of his obedience his crosse of his death He humbled himselfe According to which nature divine or humane In some sort according to both according to his divine by assuming our nature according to his humane by taking upon him our miseries And became obedient It is not said hee made himselfe obedient because obedience presupposeth anothers command wee may indeed of our selves offer service to another but wee cannot performe obedience where there is no command of a Superiour parere and imperare are relatives To whom then became hee obedient To God saith Calvin to Herod and Pilate saith Zanchius the truth is to both to God as supreme Judge according to whose eternall decree to Pilate by whose immediate sentence hee was to suffer such things of sinners for sinners To death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether inclusivè or exclusivè whether is the meaning hee was obedient all his life even to his last gaspe or hee was so farre obedient that hee yeelded himselfe to the wrath of God to the scorn of men the power of darknesse the infamy of all punishments the shame of all disgraces the cruelty of all torments the death of the crosse The difference betweene these is in this that the former maketh death the limit and bound the latter an act of his obedience to which interpretation I rather subscribe because it is certaine that Christ was not onely obedient unto the houre of his death but in his death also and after his death lying three dayes and three nights in the grave Here then we have the sum of the whole Gospel the life and death of our Lord and Saviour his birth and life in the former words He humbled himselfe his death passion in the latter and became obedient unto death even the death of the crosse He humbled that is took on him our nature infirmities became obedient that is fulfilled the law for us by his active satisfied God for our transgressions by his passive obedience Obedience most shews it selfe in doing or suffering such things as are most crosse repugnant to our wil natural desires as to part with that which is most dear pretious to us and to entertain a liking of that which we otherwise most abhor Now the strongest bent of all mens desires is to life honor nothing men fear more than death especially a lingring painful death they are confounded at nothing more than open shame whereby our Saviours obedience appeares a non pareil who passed not for his life nor refused the torments of a cruel nor the shame of an ignominious death that he might fulfill his fathers will in laying down a sufficient ransom for all mankinde Even the death of the crosse As the sphere of the Sun or Saturn c. is named from the Planet which is the most eminent part of it so is the passion of Christ from his crosse the crosse was as the center in which all the bloody lines met He sweat in his agony bled in his scourging was pricked in his crowning with thornes scorned and derided in the judgement hall but all this and much more hee endured on the crosse Whence we may observe more particularly 1 The root 2 Branches 3 Fruit. Or 1 The cause 2 The parts 3 The end of all his sufferings on it 1 Of the cause S. a Aug. l. 3. de Civ Dei c. 15. Regularis defectio non nisi in lunae fine contingit Austin demonstrateth that the Eclipse of the sun at the death of our Saviour was miraculous because then the Moon was at the full Had it bin a regular Eclipse the Moon should have lost her light and not the Sun so in the regular course of justice the Church which is compared to the Moon in b Cant. 6.10 Scripture should have been eclipsed of the light of Gods countenance and not Christ who is by the Prophet Malachy stiled c Mal. 4.2 Sol justitiae the Sun of righteousnesse But as then the Sun was eclipsed in stead of the Moon so was Christ obscured in his passion for the Church he became a surety for us therfore God laid all our debts upon him to the uttermost farthing The Prophet Esay assureth us hereof d Esa 53.4 5. He bare our infirmities carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him by his stripes we are all healed O the wonderfull wisdom justice of God! the just is reputed unjust that the unjust might be reputed just the innocent is condemned that the condemned might be found innocent the Conquerer is in bonds to loose the captive the Creditor in prison to satisfie for the debtour the Physitian taketh the bitter potion to cure the patient the Judge is executed to acquit the prisoner What did the welbeloved of his Father deserve that he should drink the dregs of the vials of wrath why should the immaculate Lamb be put to such torture in the end be slain but for a sacrifice why should the bread of life hunger but for our gluttony the fountain of grace thirst but for our intemperancy the word of God be speechlesse but for our crying sin truth it self be accused but for our errors innocency condemned but for our transgressions why should the King of glory endure such ignominy shame but for our shameful lives why should the Lord of life be put to death but for our hainous and most deadly sins what spots had he to be washed what lust to bee crucified what ulcers to bee pricked what sores to bee launced Doubtlesse none at all our corrupt blood was drawn out of his wounds our swellings pricked with his thornes our sores launced with his speare our lusts crucified on his crosse our staines washed away with his blood It was the weight of our sins that made his soule heavie unto death it was the unsupportable burden of our punishment that put him into a bloody sweat all our blood was corrupt all our flesh as it were in
were the greatest pilgrims both in life and death for they spent all their life in wearisome and dangerous peregrinations and after their death their bodies went as it were in pilgrimage and there visited first Sechem and then Machpelah where they tooke up their rest It is the usuall wish and proverbiall speech of men Though I toile and moile here yet I hope one day I shall rest in my grave No man can promise himselfe so much for not only the bodies of men accursed of God have been digged out of their graves to teach us that there is no sanctuary for a wicked person living or dying but even Gods servants have been oftentimes removed out of their earthly beds some in honour to them and others out of malice again●●●em to dishonour and disgrace them The bodies of Gervasius and Protasius Martyrs were translated from a blind and obscure place in Millaine where they lay to a more celebrious and illustrous Church to doe them the greater honour on the contrary Eusebius writeth that divers Martyrs in France were by the Gentiles plucked out of their graves and burnt to ashes and their ashes cast into the river Roan and the Papists as if they would make it knowne to the world that no Painims or Gentiles should out-do them in wreaking their malice against the professors of the truth both digged up Wickliffes and Peter Martyrs wives and Paulus Fagius their bones after they had been long interred Nec livor post fata quievit The Tombe-stone is said to be the bound of malice and death a supersedeas for envie and all uncharitable proceedings yet blind zeale in persecuting the members of Christ Jesus exceeds these bounds and all termes of common humanity O unheard of cruelty saith the blessed Martyr Saint h Cyp. de laps Saevitum est in plagas jam in servis Dei non torquebantur membra sed vulnera Cyprian Their rage falleth upon the stripes of Gods servants and they now torture not so much their members as their wounds We may goe on further because Popish cruelty hath gone on further and say Saevitum est in cadavera saevitum est in ossa saevitum est in cineres saevitum est in manes the rage and malice of Papists against Protestants is not satisfied with their bloud nor expireth with their life they fall like savage Jackals upon their carkasses they digge up their graves they rifle their coffins they burne their bones they persecute their ghosts and this is their charity which they so much bragge of But I leave them and come to the sepulchre which Abraham bought where the Patriarchs were laid And were laid in the sepulchre Though it little import the soules of Gods Saints in heaven what becommeth of their dead corpse on earth no more than it concerneth a newly elected King when hee hath his Princely robes on him what becomes of his old cast suits of apparrell in which regard Saint i Aug. confes l. 9. c. 11. Nihil longé est à Deo nec timendum mihi ille ne agnoscat in fine saeculi unde resuscitet Monica told her sonne at her death that shee tooke no care where shee was interred yeelding this for a reason It is nothing to mee saith shee whether I lye farre from home or from any Church I am sure nothing is farre from God neither doe I feare but that hee will find mee at the last day and raise up my corpse wheresoever it lies Yet because the bodies of Gods Saints were temples of the holy Ghost and served as instruments in the performance of all duties of piety and charity our piety and charity in some respect extendeth to them piety I say not to worship them for that is idolatrie not to pray to them for that at the best is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will-worship and unwarrantable devotion not to pray for them for that is superstition but to give God thankes for them and to expect their and our joyfull resurrection charity to preserve their good name alive and to bury their dead corpses although I grant with Saint k Lib. 1. de civit Dei c. 12. Omnia ista curatio funeris conditio sepultu●ae pompa exequia●um m●gis sun● solatia vivorum quàm subsidia mortuorum Et c. 13. Si enim paterna vestis annulus tantò charior est posteris quantò erga parentes major est affectus nullo modo spernanda sunt corpora quae utique multo familiarius atque conjunctius quàm quaelibet indumenta gestamus Austine that the care of funeralls and pompe of herses and rites of buriall are rather comforts of the living than helpes of the dead yet with the same Austine I cannot but acknowledge that the bodies of our parents or friends may challenge more affection and respect to them than the apparrell ring or jewell they wore which yet wee make great account of and carefully keep for their sake Doth not Nature her selfe teach us this worke of mercy to the dead Doe not some birds that are loving to man if they spy a dead corpse in the wood cover it over with leaves Doth the young Phenix as l Annal. l. 10. Phoenici cura primo sepeliendi patris sublato myrrhae pondere subit patrium corpus in Solis templum perfert Tacitus writeth as soone as ever it hath life take care of burying the parent carrying his corpse with a quantity of Myrrhe and laying it in the Temple of the Sunne and shall not men endued with reason and understanding doe the like not onely to their parents and friends but even to strangers and their very enemies especially if there bee worth in them Alexander the great opening Cyrus Tombe set a crowne upon his Herse and carefully shut it againe Hannibal gave Marcellus the Romane Consull an honourable buriall put his ashes in a silver pot and crowned it with a crowne of gold and sent it to his sonne to interre it To speake nothing of Cannibals man-eaters and other savages all civill people in the world bury their dead though in a different manner and with severall rites The Jewes washed the Egyptians embalmed the corpse the Romanes burnt them with sweet perfumes and kept the ashes in an urne or pot the Ethiopians curiously paint them and lay them in a glazed coffin the most common and most agreeable to Scripture is interring the corpse Moses alludeth to it m Gen 3.19 Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou returne and Solomon n Eccles 12.7 Then shall the dust returne to the earth as it was and David o Psal 30.9 What profit is there then in my bloud when I goe downe to the pit shall the dust praise thee or shall it declare thy truth The Greekes for the most part and other Nations also excepting those above named interred their dead and therefore p Plin nat hist l. 2. c. 63. Haec nascentes excipit natos alit novissimè
lately celebrated with a fit antheme Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivitie captive the later may supply this present thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits even the God of our salvation for on this day Christ received gifts for his Church the gifts of faith hope and charitie the gift of prayer and supplication the gift of healing and miracles the gift of prophecie the gift of tongues and the interpretation thereof Verily so many and so great are the benefits which the anniversary returne of this day presenteth to us that as if all the tongues upon the earth had not beene sufficient to utter them a supply of new tongues was sent from heaven to declare them in all languages The new Testament was drawne before and signed with Christs bloud on good Friday but c Ephes 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed to the day of redemption sealed first on this day by the holy spirit of God Christ made his last Will upon the crosse and thereby bequeathed unto us many faire legacies but this Will was not d 1 Cor. 12.4 5 8. There are differences of administrations but the same Lord and diversitie of gifts but the same spirit For to one is given by the same spirit the word of wisdome unto another the word of knowledge by the same spirit administred till this day for the e And 2 Cor. 3.8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious ministration is of the spirit Yea but had not the Apostles the spirit before this day did not our Lord breathe on them John 20.22 the day he rose at evening being the first day of the weeke saying Receive yee the holy Ghost The learned answer that they had indeed the spirit before but not in such a measure the holy Ghost was given before according to some ghostly power and invisible grace but was never sent before in a visible manner before they received him in breath now in fire before hee was f Calv. in Act Anteà respersi erant nunc plenè imbuti sprinkled but now powred on them before they received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before authority to discharge their function but now power to worke wonders before they had the smell now the substance g Aug. hom de Pent. Nunc ipsa substantia sacri defluxit unguenti cujus fragrantia totius orbis latitudo impleretur iterum adfuit hoc die fidelibus non per gratiam visitationis operationis sed per praesentiam majestatis of the celestiall oyntment was shed on them they heard of him before but now they saw and felt him 1. In their minds by infallible direction 2. In their tongues by the multiplicity of languages 3. In their hands by miraculous cures S. Austine truly observeth that before the Apostles on this day were indued with power from above they never strove for the Christian faith unto bloud when Satan winnowed them at Christs passion they all flew away like chaffe And though S. Peters faith failed not because it was supported by our Lords prayer Luke 22.32 yet his courage failed him in such sort that he was foyled by a silly damsell but after the holy Ghost descended upon him and the rest of the Apostles in the sound of a mightie rushing wind and in the likenesse of fierie cloven tongues they were filled with grace and enflamed with zeale and they mightily opposed all the enemies of the truth and made an open and noble profession thereof before the greatest Potentates of the world and sealed it with their bloud all of them save S. John who had that priviledge that hee should stay till Christ came glorifying the Lord of life by their valiant suffering of death for his names sake In regard of which manifold and powerfull eff●cts of sending the spirit on this day which were no lesse seene in the flames of the Martyrs than in the fiery tongues that lighted on the Apostles the Church of Christ even from the beginning celebrated this festivity in most solemne manner and not so onely but within 300. yeares after Christs death the Fathers in the Councels of h Concil Elib c. 43. Cuncti diem Pentecostes celebrent qui non fecerit quasi novam heresem induxerit pumatur Eliberis mounted a canon thundring out the paine of heresie to all such as religiously kept it not If the Jewes celebrated an high feast in memory of the Law on this day first proclaimed on mount Sinai ought not we much more to solemnize it in memory of the Gospel now promulgated on mount Sion by new tongues sent from heaven If we dedi●●● peculiar festivals to God the Father the Creatour and God the Sonne the Redeemer why should not God the holy Ghost the Sanctifier have a peculiar interest in our devotion S. i Serm. in die Pent. Si celebramus sanctorum solennia quanto magis ejus à quo habuerunt ut sancti essent quotquot fuerunt sancti si veneramur sanctificatos quanto magis sanctificatorem Bernard addeth another twist to this cord If we deservedly honour Saints with festivals how much more ought wee to honour him who maketh them Saints especially having so good a ground for it as is laid downe in this chapter and verse And when the day of Pentecost was come As a prologue to an act or an eeve to an holy day or the Parascheve to the Passeover or the beautifull gate to the Temple so is this preface to the ensuing narration it presenteth to our religious thoughts a three-fold concurrence 1. Of time 2. Of place 3. Of affections Upon one and the selfe same day when all the Apostles were met in one place and were of one minde the spirit of unity and love descendeth upon them Complementum legis Christus Evangelii spiritus As the descending of the Sonne was the complement of the Law so the sending of the spirit is the complement of the Gospel and as God sent his Sonne in the fulnesse of time so he sent the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the fulnesse of the fiftieth day When the Apostles number was full and their desire and expectations full then the spirit came downe and filled their hearts with joy and their tongues with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnifica Dei facta the wonderfull works of God vers 11. That your thoughts rove not at uncertainties may it please you to pitch them upon foure circumstances 1. The time when 2. The persons who They. 3. The affection or disposition were with one accord 4. The place in one place 1. The time was solemne the day of Pentecost 2. The persons eminent the Apostles 3. Their disposition agreeable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The place convenient in an
and crucifying the lusts of the flesh than in verbo or signo After these three wayes we must all shew forth the Lords death Till he come To wit either to each particular man at the houre of his death or to all men and the whole Church on earth at the day of judgement This Sacrament is called by the auncient Fathers viaticum morientium the dying mans provision for the long journey he is to take Every faithfull Christian therefore is to communicate as long as he is able and can worthily prepare himselfe even to the day of his dissolution and all congregations professing the Christian religion must continue the celebration of this holy Sacrament till the day of the worlds consummation As often The seldomer we come to the table of some men the welcomer we are but on the contrary wee are the better welcome the oftener wee come to the Lords Table with due preparation There are two reasons especially why wee ought oft to eate of this bread and drinke of this cup the first is drawne from God and his glory the second from our selves and our benefit The oftener we partake of these holy mysteries being qualified thereunto the more we illustrate Gods glory and confirme our faith If any demand further how oft ye ought to communicate I answer 1. In generall as oft as yee need it and are fit for it The x Cypr. ep 54. Quomodo provocamus eos in confessione nominis Christi sanguinem suum fundere si iis militaturis Christi sanguinem denegamus aut quomodo ad Martyrii poculum idoneos facimus si non eos prius ad bibendum in Ecclesiâ poculum jure communicationis admittimus Martyrs in the Primitive Church received every day because looking every houre to be called to signe the truth of their religion with their bloud they held it needfull by communicating to arme themselves against the feare of death Others in the time of peace received either daily or at least every Lords day The former Saint Austine neither liketh nor disliketh the latter he exhorteth all unto 2. I answer in particular out of Fabianus the Synod of Agatha and the Rubrick of our Communion booke that every one at least ought to communicate thrice a yeere at Christmas Easter and Whitsontide howbeit we are not so much to regard the season of the yeere as the disposition of our mind in going forward or drawing backe from this holy Table The sacrament is fit for us at all times but wee are not fit for it y Gratian. de consecrat distinct 2. Quotidié Eucharistiam dominicam accipere nec laudo nec vitupero omnibus tamen dominicis communicandum hortor Ibid. Qui in natali Domini Paschate Pentecoste non communicaverint catholici non credantur nec inter catholicos habeantur wherefore let every man examine his owne conscience how hee standeth in favour with God and peace with men how it is with him in his spirituall estate whether he groweth or decayeth in grace whether the Flesh get the hand of the Spirit or the Spirt of the Flesh whether our ghostly strength against all temptations be increased or diminished and accordingly as the Spirit of God shall incline our hearts let us either out of sense of our owne unworthinesse and reverence to this most holy ordinance forbeare or with due preparation and renewed faith and repentance approach to this Table either to receive a supply of those graces we want or an increase of those we have and when we come let us Eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. For as both eyes are requisite to the perfection of sight so both Elements to the perfection of the Sacrament This the Schooles roundly confesse Two things saith z Part. 3. q. 63. art 1. Ideò ad Sacramenti hujus integritatem duo concurrunt scilicet spiritualis cibus potus Et q. 80. art 12. Ex parte ipsius Sacramenti convenit quod utrumque sumatur corpus scilicet sanguis quia in utroque consistit perfectio Sacramenti Aquinas concurre to the integrity of the Sacrament viz. spirituall meate and drinke and againe It is requisite in regard of the Sacrament that we receive both kindes the body and the bloud because in both consisteth the perfection of the Sacrament And * Bonavent in 4. sent dist 11. part 2. art 1. Perfecta refectio non est in parte tantùm sed in utroque ideò non in uno tantùm perfectè signatur Christus ut reficiens sed in utroque Bonaventure A perfect refection or repast is not in bread only but in bread and drinke therefore Christ is not perfectly signified as feeding our soules in one kind but in both And a Soto in 12. distinct q. 1. art 12. Sacramentum non nisi in utrâque specie quantum ad integram signification em perficitur Soto The Sacrament as concerning the entire signification thereof is not perfect but in both kindes Doubtlesse if the Sacrament be a banquet or a supper there must be drinke in it as well as meate The Popish communion be it what it may be to the Laity cannot be a supper in which the Laity sup nothing neither can they fulfill the precept of the Apostle of shewing forth the Lords death for the effusion of the wine representeth the shedding of Christs bloud out of the veines and the parting of his soule from his body If we should grant unto our adversaries which they can never evict that the bloud of Christ might be received in the bread yet by such receiving Christs death by the effusion of his bloud for us could in no wise bee represented or shewen forth which the Apostle here teacheth to be the principall end of receiving this Sacrament As oft saith he as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup Yee shew forth Christs death In Christs death all Christianity is briefly summed for in it we may observe the justice of God satisfied the love of Christ manifested the power of Sathan vanquished the liberty of man from the slavery of sinne and death purchased all figures of the Old Testament verified all promises of the New ratified all prophecies fulfilled all debts discharged all things requisite for the redemption of mankind and to the worlds restoration accomplished Therein we have a patterne of obedience to the last breath of humility descending as low as hell of meeknesse putting up insufferable wrongs of patience enduring mercilesse torments compassion weeping and praying for bloudy persecuters constancy holding out to the end to which vertues of his person if ye lay the benefits of his passion redounding to his Church which hee hath comforted by his agony quit by his taking justified by his condemnation healed by his stripes cleansed by his bloud quickened by his death and crowned by his crosse if you take a full sight of all the vertues wherewith his crosse is beset as with so
there But Christ himselfe assureth us to the contrary not every one that saith Lord Lord z Mat. 7.21 shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but hee that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Doing and life working and salvation running and obtaining winning and wearing overcomming and reigning in holy Scripture follow one the other Wherefore the young man puts the question to our Saviour What a Mark 10.17 thing shall I doe that I may attaine evelasting life and the people likewise and the Publicans and the Souldiers to b Luk 3.10.12.14 S. John and the keepers of the prison to c Act. 16.30 Saint Paul and the Jewes in my text to Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles What shall wee doe not What shall wee say or What shall wee beleeve but What shall wee doe This is the tenour of the Law Doe this and thou shalt live Whosoever doth these things shall never fall And the Gospel also carryeth the same tune full d Mat. 7.24 If ye know these things happie are yee of yee doe them Hee that heareth and doeth buildeth upon a rocke Not the hearers but the doers of the e James 1.22 Ezek. 1.8 Law shall bee justified Why are the Cherubims described with the hands of a man under their wings but to teach us that none shall see God who under the wings of faith and hope whereby they fl●e to heaven have not the hand of charity to doe good workes As Darius used the Macedonian souldiers whom hee tooke prisoners so the divell doth those over whom hee hath any power hee cutts off their hands that they may be able to do no service The heathen Philosopher observed that of three of the best things in the world through the wickednesse of men three of the worst things proceeded and grew 1 Of vertue envie 2 Of truth hatred 3 Of familiarity contempt Wee Christians may adde a fourth viz. of the doctrine of free justification carnall liberty The catholike doctrine of justification by faith alone is the true Nectar of the soule so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it keepeth from death yet this sweetest Wine in the Spouses Flagons proves no better than Vinegar or rather poyson in their stomackes who turne grace into wantonnesse and liberty into licence fit Nectar acetum Et vaticam perfida vappa cadi But let no man adulterate the truth nor impose upon Christs mercy what it will not beare nor endeavour to sever faith from good workes lest hee sever his soule from life For though faith justifie our workes before God yet our workes justifie our faith before men though the just shall g Habac. 2.4 Rom. 1.17 live by his faith yet this his faith must live by h James 2.20 charity as never man any dyed with a living faith so never any man lived by a dead faith I grant when we have all done wee may nay wee must say i Luk. 17.10 Wee are unprofitable servants yet while we have time k Gal. 6.10 we must doe good unto all especially to those of the houshold of faith None may trust in their owne righteousnesse but on the contrary all ought to pray that they may be found in Christ l Phil. 3.9 not having their owne righteousnesse yet their righteousnesse must exceed the m Mat. 5.20 righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees or else they shall never enter into the kingdome of heaven It is evident unto all except they be blinde that the eye alone seeth in the body yet the eye which seeth is not alone in the body without the other senses the forefinger alone pointeth yet that finger is not alone on the hand the hammer alone striketh the bell yet the hammer which striketh is not alone in the clocke the heate alone in the fire burneth and not the light yet that heate is not alone without light the helme alone guideth the ship and not the tackling yet the helme is not alone nor without the tackling in a compound electuarie Rubarb alone purgeth choler yet the Rubarb is not alone there without other ingredients Thus wee are to conceive that though faith alone doth justifie yet that faith which justifieth is not alone but joyned with charity and good workes Many please themselves with a resemblance of Castor and Pollux two lights appearing on shippes sometimes severally sometimes joyntly If either appeareth by it selfe it presageth a storme if both together a suddaine calme yet with their good leave be it spoken this their simile is dissimile For those lights may be severed actually are often but justifying faith cannot be severed from charity nor charity from it Thus farre onely it holdeth that unlesse we have a sense and feeling of both in our soules we may well feare a storme S. Bernards distinction of via regni and causa regnandi cleareth the truth in this point Though good workes are not the cause why God crowneth us yet we must take them in our way to heaven or else we shall never come there It is as impious to deny the necessity as to maintaine the merit of good workes sed Cynthius aurem Vellit The time calleth mee off and therefore that it may not exclude mee I will conclude with it In this holy time of Lent three duties are required Prayer Fasting and Almes prayer is the bird of Paradise fasting and almes are her two wings the lighter is fasting but the stronger is almes use both to carry your prayers to heaven that you may bring from thence a blessing upon you through the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ Cui c. THE LAST OFFER OF PEACE A Sermon preached at a publike Fast THE LXX SERMON LUK 19.41 42. 41. And when he was come neere he beheld the City and wept over it 42. Saying If thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes WHen the Romans fought a pitched field after the rankes of their prime Leaders and chiefe Souldiers which they called Principes had charged valiantly if the enemy still kept his ground the Triarii containing the whole shock of the army put on and upon their prowesse and valour depended the fortune of the day and chance if I may so speake of the bloudy die of war Whereupon it grew to be a proverb a Eras chil Res rediit ad Triarios it now stands upon the Triarii as if you would say it is now put to the last plunge And is it not so now my Christian brethren We have taken to us the proper weapons of Christians fasting prayers and teares to fight against the fearfull combinations of powerfull vigilant enemies The rank of our Principes the King himself the Princes Nobles and Peeres have already watered this field with their teares and put on with all their force of zealous praiers how far they have prevailed
to an account to consider how deeply thou hast engaged Gods justice to poure down the vialls of his vengeance upon thee for thy rebellion against his ordinances thy corporall and spirituall fornication thy resisting the spirit of grace thy peremptory refusing of the meanes of salvation thy persecuting the truth even to the death and imbruing thy hands in the bloud of Gods dearest servants sent to thee early and late for thy peace Jerusalem had a day and every City every Nation every Church every congregation every man hath a day of grace if he have grace to take notice of it hath an accepted time if he accept of it and he may find God if he seek him in time It was day at Jerusalem in Christs time at Ephesus in S. Johns time at Corinth Philippi c. in S. Pauls time at Creet in Titus time at Alexandria in S. Markes time at Smyrna in Polycarps time at Pergamus in Antipas time at Antiochia in Evodius and Ignatius time at Constantinople in S. Andrew and Chrysostomes time at Hippo in Saint Austines time now in most of these it is night it is yet day with us O let us worke out our n Phil. 2.12 salvation with feare and trembling whilest it is o Heb. 3.7 13. called to day if the Sun of righteousnesse goe downe upon us we must looke for nothing but perpetuall darknesse and the shadow of death Although Ninevehs day lasted forty daies and Jerusalems forty yeers and the old worlds 120. yeers and although God should prolong our daies to many hundred yeeres yet we should find our day short enough to finish our intricate accounts That day in the language of the holy Ghost is called our day wherein wee either doe our own will and pleasure or which God giveth us of speciall grace to cleare our accounts and make our peace with him but that is called the Lords day either which he challengeth to himselfe for his speciall service or which he hath appointed for all men to appeare before his Tribunall to give an account of their own workes A wicked man maketh Gods day his owne by following his owne pleasures and doing his own will upon it and living wholly to himselfe and not to God but the godly maketh his owne daies Gods daies by imploying them in Gods service and devoting them as farre as his necessary occasion will permit wholly to him Wherefore it is just with God to take away from the wicked part of his owne daies by shortening his life upon earth and to give to the godly part of his day which is eternity in heaven I noted before a flaw and breach in the sentence as it were a bracke in a rich cloth of Tissu If thou knewest in this thy day what then thou wouldst weep saith S. p Homil. in Evang Gregory thou wouldest not neglect so great salvation saith q Comment in Eva●g Euthyrtius it would bee better with thee saith Titus Bostrensis thou wouldst repent in sackcloth and ashes saith r Brug in Evang Brugensis But I will not presume to adde a line to a draugh● from which such a workman hath taken off his pensill and for the print I should make after the pattern in my Text and now in the application lay it close to your devout affections I may spare my farther labour and your trouble for it is made by authority which hath commanded us to take notice of those things that belong to our peace viz. to walke humbly with our God by fasting and prayer wherefore jungamus fletibus fletus lachrymas lachrymis misceamus let us conspire in our sighes let us accord in our groanes let us mingle our teares let us send up our joynt praiers as a vollie of shot to batter the walls of heaven let all our hearts consort with our tongues and our soules with our bodies what wee doe or suffer in our humiliation let it be willingly and not by constrant let our praiers and strong cries in publike be ecchoed by the voice of our weeping in private who knoweth whether God may not send us an issue out of our present troubles by meanes unexpected who knoweth not whether he may not have calicem benedictionis a cup of blessing in store for those his servants beyond the sea who have drank deep of the cup of trembling Christ his bowells are not streightened but our sins are enlarged else it would be otherwise with them and with us I have given you a generall prescription will ye yet have more particular recipe's take then an electuary of foure simples The first I gather from our Saviours garden Let your ſ Luke 12.35 loines be girt and your lamps in your hands Let your loines be girt that is your lusts be curbed restrained and your lamps burning that is your devotions enflamed Gird up your loines by mortification discipline and have your lamps burning both the light of faith in your hearts and of good workes in your hands The second I gather from S. John Baptists garden t Matth. 3.8 Bring forth fruits meet for repentance or worthy amendment of life let your sorrowes be * Cyp de laps Quam grandia peccavimus tam granditer defleamus answerable to your sinfull joyes let the fruit of your repentance equall if not exceed the forbidden fruit of your sin wherein ye have most displeased God seek most to please him Have ye offended him in your tongue by oathes please him now by lauding and praising his dreadfull name and reproving swearing in others Have ye offended in your eies by beholding vanity and casting lascivious glances upon fading beauty enticing to folly make a covenant from henceforth with your eies that they cast not a look upon the world or the flesh's baits imploy them especially from henceforth in reading holy Scriptures and weeping for your sins Have ye offended in thought sanctifie now all your meditations unto him Have ye offended in your sports let now your delight be u Psal 1.2 in the Law of God let the Scriptures bee your * Aug. l. 11. confes c. 2 Sint deliciae meae Scripturae tuae nec fallar in iis nec fallam ex iis delicacies with S. Austine meditate upon them day and night make the Lords holy-day your delight Esay 58.15 and honour him thereon not following your owne waies nor finding your owne pleasure nor speaking your owne words The third I gather from S. James his garden x Jam. 4.10 Cast down your selves before the Lord and he will lift you up The Lion contenteth himselfe with casting downe a man if he couch under him and make no resistance he offereth no more violence Corpora magnanimo satis est prostrâsse Leoni It is most true if we speake of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah for hee will not break a bruised reed much lesse grind to powder a contrite heart If Ahabs outward humiliation who notwithstanding had sold himselfe