Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A46817
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The life & death of S. Luke delivered in a sermon on S. Lukes day, before the University at Great S. Maries in Cambridge / by David Jenner ...
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Jenner, David, d. 1691.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing J660; ESTC R1625
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10,725
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44
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Mark before his Ordination Nor secondly may we without injury to his pious memory pass by his uncessant pains-taking and diligence in the Ministery For after once his clouds of fear were dissipated his doubts resolved and his spirit animated and steeled with courage he enters the list he fights the Lords Battles more Romano undauntedly and overlooking all worldly concerns as of less moment he makes the Preaching of the Gospel to be his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his chiefest concernment And thirdly most remarkable is his constancy Neither the frowns of adversity nor the smiles of fortune nor any Syrenical charms or allurements of prosperity could ever draw or court him off from his duty He is not like Lots Wife that he should look back nor to Demas that he should through an inordinate love of the World forsake Paul whose Son he was in the Faith No though all had forsaken him yet not Luke for Only Luke is with me In the Verses antecedent to the Text is laid down the apostasie and back-sliding of some who professed Christianity and in particular of Demas who had forsaken Paul being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 More a lover of Money than of God And as for Titus the necessitous affairs of the Church had caused him to hoise Sail and steer his Course unto Dalmatia The like Summons had Crescens into Galatia or rather Gallia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius supposeth So that only Luke is Pauls constant associate and companion forsaking all others he adheres close to Paul Omnia postponens Apostolum semper secutus est saith S. Ambrose And the Translator of Saint Jerome into Greek affirms That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke attended Paul in all his voyages until they both safely arrived at Rome the then Metropolis of the World and whilest Paul sojourned at Rome being detained there as a prisoner it is very probable as may be gathered out of Epiphanius that S. Luke left him there for a while and travelled with Crescens into France where our Author says he did make his chief residence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there Preached the Gospel But Gregory Nazianzen allotting unto every Apostle and Evangelist his several and proper Diocess gives unto Luke Achaia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But these things are disputable and therefore let us return back to Rome where whilest S. Luke was resident he spends part of his time in Writing for being commanded either by Peter or Paul or rather as Chemnitius believes by both he compiles the History of our Saviour which is called The Gospel of Luke and another Book intituled The Acts of the Holy Apostles Both he wrote in opposition unto those two grand Hereticks and Forgers of Falsities scil Merinthus and Cerinthus which latter held Christs Kingdom to be Earthly and full of carnal pleasures consisting in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meats Drinks and the like after the mode of the Turkish and Mahometan Terrestrial Kingdom yea he was so notoriously wicked as that S. John seeing him come into the Bath when he was bathing hastily ran out fearing lest he should tempt Providence to cause the Roof to fall down upon him or the Earth to open and swallow him up in case he should presume to stay and be in the same place with such an Heretick and Blasphemer as then Cerinthus was accounted Against these two Cerinthus and Merinthus it is said that Saint Luke wrote that so the Gospel in its purity and verity might be transmitted down to posterity whereas had Saint Luke lived in silence the Christian World would have been imposed upon and a false Gospel ushered in by these Hereticks instead of the true one as appears by a story S. Jerome quotes out of Tertullian in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastick Writers which is too long to be repeated here Moreover it is worth our noting that if S. Luke had desisted from writing then many excellent truths necessary to be known would have been concealed such as Peters miraculous Releasment out of Prison by the assistance of an Angel As also the Generation of John the Baptist the Angels Advent unto the Virgin Mary Elizabeths and Saint Maries Hymns the Angels appearing to the Shepherds the Doxology of the Heavenly Host Anna and Symeons Testimony of Christ the Parable of Dives and Lazarus of the Publican Zacheus the Crooked Woman of the Ten Lepers As also of the Pharisee and Publican going up to pray and of the unjust Judge who feared neither God nor Man Et alia multa sunt quae inveniri possunt à solo Lucâ dieta esse c. Irenaeus adversus Haereses Nor is this the only commendation of S. Luke That he hath thus communicated more to Posterity than the rest of the Evangelists but also we may add one Flower more to the Garland of his praise to wit this That he hath not only done all well but also all so excellently as that Res gestas non narrare quà m suis coloribus depictas omnium oculis praeponere videtur he hath so exactly delineated and as it were to the life painted out the History of our Saviour and the Acts of the Apostles as that Apud multos Pictoris nomen obtinuit by many he was called The Painter From whence some did phancy that the Images of our Blessed Saviour and of the Virgin Mary were by S. Luke first Limned and Painted out the which two said Images some superstitious persons pretend to have kept unto the days of Irenaeus Hitherto we have beheld this Bright Planet running his race thorough the Christian Orb illuminating the dark corners of the Heathen World with those Beams of Evangelical Light which he had borrowed from the great Luminary of Heaven and Earth even from Jesus Christ the Fountain of Light Hitherto we have seen him shine gloriously even as the Sun in his full Meridian But now to show the mutability of all created Beings this shining Planet is at length totally eclipsed by the interposition of the Opace Dark Body of Death And no wonder for when a Man hath labored hard all day and finished his work it is but reasonable that at night he should go to rest And this leads us to speak a word of his Death which was 1. Timely 2. Natural 1. Timely for when the Sun had run his Annual course Fourscore and four times over his hoary-head as S. Jerome reports he then and not before is mowed down by the impartial Sythe of Death and as a Sheaf of Corn fully ripened richly laden he is carried by the Harvest-Men the Good Angels into Christs Barn 2. Secondly As his Death was timely in good old age so it was kindly and natural not violent Nothing but the multitude of years a burden too heavy for spent and fainting Nature bows down his aged head He is not carried up to Heaven in the Fiery Chariot of Martyrdom but rather the old cracked Vessel of his Body springing a Leak suffers Shipwrack and is lost in the midst of an Ocean of Humors incident unto Old Age where as his ever Blessed Soul the Passenger within swims safe through the Waves and Billows of this troublesome VVorld unto the happy Land of Canaan and is lodged in Abrahams bosome for evermore And what now remains but that we attend the Corps of this deceased Saint unto his Grave which is in Ephesus for there he was buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact informs us But S. Jerome makes Achaia and Isidorus Bythinia to be the Stage on which Death acted this Tragedy and cut asunder the Thred of his Life Whether this or that opinion be truest we will no longer dispute only in this we are assured that they all agree to wit That S. Luke was twice Interred and had two honorable Funerals The first was immediately after his Death the second was in the time of Constantine who in the twentieth year of His Reign did out of honor to S. Luke take up his Bones together with the Bones of the Apostle S. Andrew and Timothy and caused them to be carried as were Josephs unto Canaan so theirs unto Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Where 〈…〉 nobly Interred them and then left them to rest until the last Trumpet shall sound and summon all Flesh to appear at Gods Tribunal where shall be rendred unto every Man according unto the works of his own hands And now that we may be healed of all our Spiritual Diseases and so live on Earth as that we may hereafter live in Glory and there with S. Luke and the whole Quire of Heaven sing forth to all Eternity the Hallelujahs and Praises of our Creator let us devoutly pray in the words of our Church and say Almighty God! who calledst S. Luke the Physitian whose praise is in the Gospel to be a Physitian of the Soul May it please Thee by the wholesome Medicines of his Doctriâ—◠〈…〉 of our Souls through thâ—… 〈…〉 Christ our Lord. Amen Gloria Deo FINIS