be insensible of so great an evil Where death hath once seized who can but doubt he will keep his hold No lesse hard was it not to grieve for the losse of an only Childe then not to fear the continuance of the cause of that grief In a perfect Faith there is no Fear by how much more we fear by so much lesse we believe Well are these two then coupled Fear not believe only O Saviour if thou didst not command us somewhat beyond Nature it were no thank to us to obey thee While the childe was alive to believe that it might recover it was no hard task but now that she was fully dead to believe she should live again was a work not easie for Jairus to apprehend though easie for thee to effect yet must that be believed else there is no capacity of so great a Mercy As Love so Faith is stronger then death making those bonds no other then as Sampson did his withes like threds of tow How much naturall impossibility is there in the return of these Bodies from the dust of their earth into which through many degrees of corruption they are at the last mouldred Fear not O my Soul believe onely it must it shall be done The sum of Jairus his first suit was for the Health not for the Resuscitation of his Daughter now that she was dead he would if he durst have been glad to have asked her Life And now behold our Saviour bids him expect both her Life and her Health Thy daughter shall be made whole alive from her death whole from her disease Thou didst not O Jairus thou daredst not ask so much as thou receivest How glad wouldest thou have been since this last news to have had thy Daughter alive though weak and sickly Now thou shalt receive her not living only but sound and vigorous Thou dost not O Saviour measure thy gifts by our petitions but by our wants and thine own mercies This work might have been as easily done by an absent command the Power of Christ was there whiles himself was away but he will goe personally to the place that he might be confessed the Author of so great a Miracle O Saviour thou lovest to goe to the house of mourning thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted What a confusion there is in worldly sorrow The mother shreeks the servants crie out the people make lamentation the minstrels howl and strike dolefully so as the eare might question whether the Ditty or the Instrument were more heavy If ever expressions of sorrow sound well it is when Death leads the quire Soon doth our Saviour charm this noise and turns these unseasonable mourners whether formal or serious out of doors Not that he dislikes Musick whether to condole or comfort but that he had life in his eye and would have them know that he held these Funeral ceremonies to be too early and long before their time Give place for the maid is not dead but sleepeth Had she been dead she had but slept now she was not dead but asleep because he meant this nap of death should be so short and her awakening so speedy Death and Sleep are alike to him who can cast whom he will into the sleep of Death and awake when and whom he pleaseth out of that deadly sleep Before the people and domesticks of Jairus held Jesus for a Prophet now they took him for a Dreamer Not dead but asleep They that came to mourn cannot now forbear to laugh Have we piped at so many Funerals and seen and lamented so many Corpses and cannot we distinguish betwixt Sleep and Death The eyes are set the breath is gone the limmes are stiffe and cold Who ever died if she do but sleep How easily may our Reason or Sense befool us in Divine matters Those that are competent Judges in natural things are ready to laugh God to scorn when he speaks beyond their compasse and are by him justly laughed to scorn for their unbelief Vain and faithlesse men as if that unlimited power of the Almighty could not make good his own word and turn either Sleep into Death or Death into Sleep at pleasure Ere many minutes they shall be ashamed of their errour and incredulity There were witnesses enough of her death there shall not be many of her restoring Three choice Disciples and the two Parents are only admitted to the view and testimony of this miraculous work The eyes of those incredulous scoffers were not worthy of this honour Our infidelity makes us incapable of the secret favours and the highest counsels of the Almighty What did these scorners think and say when they saw him putting the minstrels and people out of doors Doubtlesse the maid is but asleep the man fears lest the noise shall awake her we must speak and tread softly that we disquiet her not What will he and his Disciples doe the while Is it not to be feared they will startle her out of her rest Those that are shut out from the participation of God's counsels think all his words and projects no better then foolishnesse But art thou O Saviour ever the more discouraged by the derision and censure of these scornfull unbelievers Because fools jear thee dost thou forbear thy work Surely I do not perceive that thou heedest them save for contempt or carest more for their words then their silence It is enough that thine act shall soon honour thee and convince them He took her by the hand and called saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she arose straightway How could that touch that Call be other then effectual He who made that hand touched it and he who shall once say Arise ye dead said now Maid arise Death cannot but obey him who is the Lord of life The Soul is ever equally in his hand who is the God of Spirits it cannot but goe and come at his command When he saies Maid arise the now-dissolved spirit knows his office his place and instantly reassumes that room which by his appointment it had left O Saviour if thou do but bid my Soul to arise from the death of Sin it cannot lie still if thou bid my Body to arise from the grave my Soul cannot but glance down from her Heaven and animate it In vain shall my sin or my grave offer to withhold me from thee The Maid revives not now to languish for a time upon her sick-bed and by some faint degrees to gather an insensible strength but at once she arises from her death and from her couch at once she puts off her fever with her dissolution she findes her life and her feet at once at once she findes her feet and her stomack He commanded to give her meat Omnipotency doth not use to goe the pace of Nature All God's immediate works are like himself perfect He that raised her supernaturally could have so fed her It was never the purpose of his Power to put ordinary
the Judge of hearts taxes him for little Faith Our mountains are but moats to God Would my heart have served me to dare the doing of this that Peter did Durst I have set my foot where he did O Saviour if thou foundest cause to censure the weaknesse and poverty of his Faith what maist thou well say to mine They mistake that think thou wilt take up with any thing Thou lookest for firmitude and vigour in those Graces which thou wilt allow in thy best Disciples no lesse then truth The first steps were confident there was fear in the next Oh the sudden alteration of our affections of our dispositions One pace varies our spiritual condition What hold is there of so fickle creatures if we be left never so little to our selves As this lower world wherein we are is the region of mutability so are we the living pieces of it subject to a perpetual change It is for the blessed Saints and Angels above to be fixed in good Whiles we are here there can be no constancy expected from us but in variablenesse As well as our Saviour loves Peter yet he chides him It is the fruit of his favour and mercy that we escape judgment not that we escape reproof Had not Peter found grace with his Master he had been suffered to sink in silence now he is saved with a check There may be more love in frowns then in smiles whom he loves he chastises What is chiding but a verbal castigation and what is chastisement but a reall chiding Correct me O Lord yet in thy judgment not in thy fury Oh let the righteous God smite me when I offend with his gracious reproofs these shall be a precious oyle that shall not break my head The bloody Issue healed THE time was O Saviour when a worthy woman offered to touch thee and was forbidden now a meaner touches thee with approbation and incouragement Yet as there was much difference in that Body of thine which was the Object of that touch being now mortal and passible then impassible and immortal so there was in the Agents this a stranger that a familiar this obscure that famous The same actions vary with time and other circumstances and accordingly receive their dislike or allowance Doubtless thou hadst herein no small respect to the faith of Jairus unto whose house thou wert going That good man had but one onely Daughter which lay sick in the beginning of his suit ere the end lay dead Whiles she lived his hope lived her death disheartned it It was a great work that thou meantest to doe for him it was a great word that thou saidst to him Fear not believe and she shall be made whole To make this good by the touch of the verge of thy garment thou revivedst one from the verge of death How must Jairus needs now think He who by the virtue of his garment can pull this woman out of the paws of death which hath been twelve years dying can as well by the power of his word pull my daughter who hath been twelve years living out of the jaws of death which hath newly seised on her It was fit the good Ruler should be raised up with this handsel of thy Divine power whom he came to solicit That thou mightest lose no time thou curedst in thy passage The Sun stands not still to give his influences but diffuses them in his ordinary motion How shall we imitate thee if we suffer our hands to be out of ure with good Our life goes away with our time we lose that which we improve not The Patient laboured of an Issue of blood a Disease that had not more pain then shame nor more natural infirmity then Legal impurity Time added to her grief twelve long years had she languished under this wofull complaint Besides the tediousness diseases must needs get head by continuance and so much more both weaken Nature and strengthen themselves by how much longer they afflict us So it is in the Soul so in the State Vices which are the Sicknesses of both when they grow inveterate have a strong plea for their abode and uncontrollablenesse Yet more to mend the matter Poverty which is another disease was superadded to her sicknesse She had spent all she had upon Physicians Whiles she had wherewith to make much of her self and to procure good tendance choice diet and all the succours of a distressed languishment she could not but finde some mitigation of her sorrow but now want began to pinch her no lesse then her distemper and helpt to make her perfectly miserable Yet could she have parted from her substance with ease her complaint had been the lesse Could the Physicians have given her if not health yet relaxation and painlesnesse her means had not been mis-bestowed but now she suffered many things from them many an unpleasing potion many tormenting incisions and divulsions did she endure from their hands the Remedy was equal in trouble to the Disease Yet had the cost and pain been never so great could she have hereby purchased health the match had been happy all the world were no price for this commodity but alas her estate was the worse her body not the better her money was wasted not her disease Art could give her neither cure nor hope It were injurious to blame that noble Science for that it alwaies speeds not Notwithstanding all those soveraign remedies men must in their times sicken and die Even the miraculous Gifts of Healing could not preserve the owners from disease and dissolution It were pity but that this woman should have been thus sick the nature the durablenesse cost pain incurablenesse of her disease both sent her to seek Christ and moved Christ to her cure Our extremities drive us to our Saviour his love draws him to be most present and helpfull to our extremities When we are forsaken of all succours and hopes we are fittest for his redresse Never are we nearer to help then when we despair of help There is no fear no danger but in our own insensiblenesse This woman was a stranger to Christ it seems she had never seen him The report of his Miracles had lifted her up to such a confidence of his power and mercy as that she said in her self If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be whole The shame of her disease stopt her mouth from any verbal suit Had she been acknown of her infirmity she had been shunned and abhorred and disdainfully put back of all the beholders as doubtlesse where she was known the Law forced her to live apart Now she conceals both her grief and her desire and her faith and only speaks where she may be bold within her self If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be whole I seek not mysteries in the virtue of the hem rather then of the garment Indeed it was God's command to Israel that they should be marked not only in their
or of a Disciple Give me leave O Saviour to borrow thine own words Verily I have not found so great faith no not in all Israel He saw thee hanging miserably by him and yet styles thee Lord he saw thee dying yet talks of thy Kingdome he felt himself dying yet talks of a future remembrance O Faith stronger then death that can look beyond the Crosse at a Crown beyond dissolution at a remembrance of Life and Glory Which of thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to thee in these thy last pangs After thy Resurrection and knowledge of thine impassible condition it was not strange for them to talk of thy Kingdome but in the midst of thy shamefull death for a dying malefactor to speak of thy reigning and to implore thy remembrance of himself in thy Kingdome it is such an improvement of Faith as ravisheth my Soul with admiration O blessed Thief that hast thus happily stolne Heaven How worthy hath thy Saviour made thee to be a partner of his sufferings a pattern of undauntable belief a spectacle of unspeakable mercy This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Before I wondred at thy Faith now I envy at thy Felicity Thou cravedst a remembrance thy Saviour speaks of a present possession This day thou suedst for remembrance as a favour to the absent thy Saviour speaks of thy presence with him thou spakest of a Kingdome thy Saviour of Paradise As no Disciple could be more faithfull so no Saint could be happier O Saviour what a precedent is this of thy free and powerfull grace Where thou wilt give what unworthinesse can barre us from Mercy when thou wilt give what time can prejudice our vocation who can despair of thy goodnesse when he that in the morning was posting towards Hell is in the evening with thee in Paradise Lord he could not have spoken this to thee but by thee and from thee What possibility was there for a thief to think of thy Kingdome without thy Spirit That good Spirit of thine breathed upon this man breathed not upon his fellow their trade was alike their sin was alike their state alike their crosse alike only thy Mercy makes them unlike One is taken the other is refused Blessed be thy Mercy in taking one blessed be thy Justice in leaving the other Who can despair of that Mercy who cannot but tremble at that Justice Now O ye cruell Priests and Elders of the Jews ye have full leisure to feed your eyes with the sight ye so much longed for there is the blood ye purchased and is not your malice yet glutted Is not all this enough without your taunts and scoffs and sports at so exquisite a misery The people the passengers are taught to insult where they should pity Every man hath a scorn ready to cast at a dying innocent A generous nature is more wounded with the tongue then with the hand O Saviour thine eare was more painfully pierced then thy brows or hands or feet It could not but goe deep into thy Soul to hear these bitter and girding reproaches from them thou camest to save But alas what sleabitings were these in comparison of those inward torments which thy Soul felt in the sense and apprehension of thy Fathers wrath for the sins of the whole world which now lay heavy upon thee for satisfaction This oh this was it that pressed thy Soul as it were to the nethermost hell Whiles thine eternall Father lookt lovingly upon thee what didst thou what neededst thou to care for the frowns of men or Devils but when he once turn'd his face from thee or bent his brows upon thee this this was worse then death It is no marvel now if darkness were upon the face of the whole earth when thy Fathers face was eclipsed from thee by the interposition of our sins How should there be light in the world without when the God of the world the Father of lights complains of the want of light within That word of thine O Saviour was enough to fetch the Sun down out of Heaven and to dissolve the whole frame of Nature when thou criedst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh what pangs were these dear Jesu that drew from thee this complaint Thou well knewest nothing could be more cordial to thine enemies then to hear this sad language from thee they could see but the outside of thy sufferings never could they have conceived so deep an anguish of thy Soul if thy own lips had not expressed it Yet as not regarding their triumph thou thus powrest out thy sorrow and when so much is uttered who can conceive what is felt How is it then with thee O Saviour that thou thus astonishest men and Angels with so woful a quiritation Had thy God left thee Thou not long since saidst I and my Father are One Are ye now severed Let this thought be as farre from my Soul as my Soul from Hell No more can thy Blessed Father be separated from thee then from his own Essence His Union with thee is eternal his Vision was intercepted He could not withdraw his Presence he would withdraw the influence of his comfort Thou the Second Adam stoodst for mankind upon this Tree of the Cross as the First Adam stood and fell for mankind under the Tree of Offence Thou barest our sins thy Father saw us in thee and would punish us in thee thee for us how could he but withhold comfort where he intended chastisement Herein therefore he seems to forsake thee for the present in that he would not deliver thee from that bitter Passion which thou wouldst undergoe for us O Saviour hadst thou not been thus forsaken we had perished thy dereliction is our safety and however our narrow Souls are not capable of the conceit of thy pain and horror yet we know there can be no danger in the forsaking whiles thou canst say My God He is so thy God as he cannot be ours all our right is by Adoption thine by Nature thou art one with him in eternal Essence we come in by Grace and merciful election yet whiles thou shalt inable me to say My God I shall hope never to sink under thy desertions But whiles I am transported with the sense of thy Sufferings O Saviour let me not forget to admire those sweet Mercies of thine which thou powredst out upon thy Persecutors They rejoyce in thy death and triumph in thy misery and scoff at thee in both In stead of calling down fire from Heaven upon them thou heapest coals of fire upon their heads Father forgive them for they know not what they doe They blaspheme thee thou prayest for them they scorn thou pitiest they sin aganst thee thou prayest for their forgiveness they profess their malice thou pleadest their ignorance O compassion without example without measure fit for the Son of God the Saviour of men Wicked and foolish Jewes ye would be miserable he will not
miserable and not feel it to feel and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealment doth not remedy but aggravate sorrow That with the counsel of not weeping therefore she might see cause of not weeping his Hand seconds his Tongue He arrests the Coffin and frees the Prisoner Young man I say unto thee Arise The Lord of life and death speaks with command No finite power could have said so without presumption or with success That is the voice that shall one day call up our vanished bodies from those Elements into which they are resolved and raise them out of their dust Neither sea nor death nor hell can offer to detain their dead when he charges them to be delivered Incredulous nature what dost thou shrink at the possibility of a Resurrection when the God of Nature undertakes it It is no more hard for that almighty Word which gave being unto all things to say Let them be repaired then Let them be made I do not see our Saviour stretching himself upon the dead corps as Elias and Elisha upon the sons of the Sunamite and Sareptan nor kneeling down and praying by the Bier as Peter did to Dorcas but I hear him so speaking to the dead as if he were alive and so speaking to the dead that by the word he makes him alive I say unto thee Arise Death hath no power to bid that man lye still whom the Son of God bids Arise Immediatly he that was dead sate up So at the sound of the last Trumpet by the power of the same voice we shall arise out of the dust and stand up glorious This mortall shall put on immortality this corruptible incorruption This body shall not be buried but sown and at our day shall therefore spring up with a plentiful increase of glory How comfortless how desperate should be our lying down if it were not for this assurance of rising And now behold lest our weak faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficulty he hath already by what he hath done given us tastes of what he will do The power that can raise one man can raise a thousand a million a world no power can raise one man but that which is infinite and that which is infinite admits of no limitation Under the Old Testament God raised one by Elias another by Elisha living a third by Elisha dead By the hand of the Mediator of the New Testament he raised here the son of the Widow the daughter of Jairus Lazarus and in attendance of his own Resurrection he made a gaol-delivery of holy prisoners at Jerusalem He raises the daughter of Jairus from her bed this Widows son from his Coffin Lazarus from his grave the dead Saints of Jerusalem from their rottenness that it might appear no degree of death can hinder the efficacie of his overruling command He that keeps the keys of Death cannot onely make way for himself through the common Hall and outer-rooms but through the inwardest and most reserved closets of darkness Methinks I see this young man who was thus miraculously awaked from his deadly sleep wiping and rubbing those eyes that had been shut up in death and descending from the Bier wrapping his winding-sheet about his loyns cast himself down in a passionate thankfulness at the feet of his Almighty restorer adoring that Divine power which had commanded his Soul back again to her forsaken lodging and though I hear not what he said yet I dare say they were words of praise and wonder which his returned Soul first uttered It was the mother whom our Saviour pittied in this act not the son who now forced from his quiet rest must twice pass through the gates of death As for her sake therefore he was raised so to her hands was he delivered that she might acknowledge that soul given to her not to the possessor Who cannot feel the amazement and ecstasie of joy that was in this revived mother when her son now salutes her from out of another world and both receives and gives gratulations of his new life How suddenly were all the tears of that mournful train dried up with a joyful astonishment How soon is that funeral banquet turned into a new Birth-day feast What striving was here to salute the late carcase of their returned neighbour What awful and admiring looks were cast upon that Lord of life who seeming homely was approved Omnipotent How gladly did every tongue celebrate both the work and the Author A great Prophet is raised up amongst us and God hath visited his people A Prophet was the highest name they could find for him whom they saw like themselves in shape above themselves in power They were not yet acquainted with God manifested in the flesh This Miracle might well have assured them of more then a Prophet but he that raised the dead man from the Bier would not suddenly raise these dead hearts from the grave of Infidelity They shall see reason enough to know that the Prophet who was raised up to them was the God that now visited them and at last should doe as much for them as he had done for the young man raise them from death to life from dust to glory The Rulers Son cured THe bounty of God so exceedeth man's that there is a contrarietie in the exercise of it We shut our hands because we opened them God therefore opens his because he hath opened them God's mercies are as comfortable in their issue as in themselves Seldom ever do blessings go alone where our Saviour supplied the Bridegroom's wine there he heals the Rulers son He had not in all these coasts of Galilee done any Miracle but here To him that hath shall be given We do not finde Christ oft attended with Nobilitie here he is It was some great Peer or some noted Courtier that was now a suitor to him for his dying son Earthly Greatness is no defence against Afflictions We men forbear the Mightie Disease and Death know no faces of Lords or Monarchs Could these be bribed they would be too rich Why should we grudge not to be privileged when we see there is no spare of the greatest This Noble Ruler listens after Christ's return into Galilee The most eminent amongst men will be glad to hearken after Christ in their necessity Happy was it for him that his son was sick he had not else been acquainted with his Saviour his Soul had continued sick of ignorance and unbelief Why else doth our good God send us pain losses opposition but that he may be sought to Are we afflicted whither should we goe but to Cana to seek Christ whither but to the Cana of Heaven where our water of sorrow is turned to the wine of gladness to that omnipotent Physician who healeth all our infirmities that we may once say It is good for me that I was afflicted It was about a dayes journey from Capernaum to Cana Thence hither did this Courtier come for
in the Sea Where do we ever else finde any compulsion offered by Christ to his Disciples He was like the good Centurion he said to one Go and he goeth When he did but call them from their nets they came and when he sent them by paires into the Cities and Country of Juâ—aea to preach the Gospel they went There was never errand whereon they went unwillingly only now he constrained them to depart We may easily conceive how loth they were to leave him whether out of love or of common civility Peter's tongue did but when it was speak the heart of the rest Master thou knowest that I love thee Who could chuse but be in love with such a Master and who can willingly part from what he loves But had the respects been only common and ordinary how unfit might it seem to leave a Master now towards night in a wild place amongst strangers unprovided of the means of his passage Where otherwise therefore he needed but to bid now he constrains O Saviour it was ever thy manner to call all men unto thee Come to me all that labour and are heavy laden When didst thou ever drive any one from thee Neither had it been so now but to draw them closer unto thee whom thou seemedst for the time to abdicate In the mean while I know not whether more to excuse their unwillingness or to applaud their obedience As it shall be fully above so it was proportionally here below In thy presence O Saviour is the fulness of joy Once when thou askedst these thy Domesticks whether they also would depart it was answered thee by one tongue for all Master whither should we goe from thee thou hast the words of eternal life What a death was it then to them to be compelled to leave thee Sometimes it pleaseth the Divine goodness to lay upon his servants such commands as savour of harshness and discomfort which yet both in his intention and in the event are no other then gracious and soveraign The more difficulty was in the charge the more praise was in the obedience I do not hear them stand upon the terms of capitulation with their Master nor pleading importunately for their stay but instantly upon the command they yield and goe We are never perfect Disciples till we can depart from our reason from our will yea O Saviour when thou biddest us from thy self Neither will the multitude be gone without a dismission They had followed him whiles they were hungry they will not leave him now they are fed Fain would they put that honour upon him which to avoid he is fain to avoid them gladly would they pay a Kingdome to him as their shot for their late banquet he shuns both it and them O Saviour when the hour of thy Passion was now come thou couldst offer thy self readily to thine apprehenders and now when the glory of the world presses upon thee thou runnest away from a Crown Was it to teach us that there is less danger in suffering then in outward prosperity What do we dote upon that worldly honour which thou heldest worthy of avoidance and contempt Besides this reservedness it was devotion that drew Jesus aside He went alone up to the mountain to pray Lo thou to whom the greatest throng was a solitude in respect of the fruition of thy Father thou who wert uncapable of distraction from him with whom thou wert one wouldst yet so much act man as to retire for the opportunity of prayer to teach us who are nothing but wilde thoughts and giddy distractedness to goe aside when we would speak with God How happy is it for us that thou prayedst O Saviour thou prayedst for us who have not Grace enough to pray for our selves not worth enough to be accepted when we do pray Thy prayers which were most perfect and impetrative are they by which our weak and unworthy prayers receive both life and favour And now how assiduous should we be in our supplications who are empty of grace full of wants when thou who wert a God of all power praiedst for that which thou couldst command Therefore do we pray because thou praiedst therefore do we exspect to be graciously answered in our prayers because thou didst pray for us here on earth and now intercedest for us in Heaven The evening was come the Disciples look'd long for their Master and loath they were to have stirred without him but his command is more then the strongest wind to fill their sailes and they are now gone Their expectation made not the evening seem so long as our Saviours devotion made it seem short to him He is on the mount they on the sea yet whiles he was in the mount praying and lifting up his eyes to his Father he failes not to cast them about upon his Disciples tossed on the waves Those all-seeing eyes admit of no limits At once he sees the highest Heavens and the midst of the sea the glory of his Father and the misery of his Disciples Whatever prospects present themselves to his view the distress of his Followers is ever most noted How much more dost thou now O Saviour from the height of thy glorious advancement behold us thy wretched servants tossed on the unquiet sea of this World and beaten with the troublesome and threatning billows of Affliction Thou foresawest their toil and danger are thou dismissedst them and purposedly sendest them away that they might be tossed Thou that couldest prevent our sufferings by thy power wilt permit them in thy wisdome that thou maist glorifie thy mercy in our deliverance and confirm our Faith by the issue of our distresses How do all things now seem to conspire to the vexing of thy poor Disciples The night was sullen and dark their Master was absent the sea was boistrous the windes were high and contrary Had their Master been with them howsoever the elements had raged they had been secure Had their Master been away yet if the sea had been quiet or the winds fair the passage might have been indured Now both season and sea and winde and their Master's desertion had agreed to render them perfectly miserable Sometimes the Providence of God hath thought good so to order it that to his best servants there appeareth no glimpse of comfort but so absolute vexation as if Heaven and earth had plotted their full affliction Yea O Saviour what a dead night what a fearful tempest what an astonishing dereliction was that wherein thou thy self cryedst out in the bitterness of thine anguished Soul My God my God why hast thou for saken me Yet in all these extremities of misery our gracious God intends nothing but his greater glory and ours the Triumph of our Faith the crown of our Victory All that longsome and tempestuous night must the Disciples wear out in danger and horror as given over to the windes and waves but in the fourth watch of the night when they were wearied out with toils
this abashed Patient I may come in and confesse my errour and implore thy mercy It is no unusall thing for kindnesse to look sternly for the time that it may indear it self more when it lists to be discovered With a severe countenance did our Saviour look about him and ask Who touched me When the woman comes in trembling and confessing both her act and successe he clears up his brows and speaks comfortably to her Daughter be of good chear thy faith hath made thee whole goe in peace O sweet and seasonable word fit for those mercifull and Divine lips able to secure any heart to dispell any fears Still O Saviour thou doest thus to us when we fall down before thee in an awfull dejectednesse thou rearest us up with a chearfull and compassionate incouragement when thou findest us bold and presumptuous thou lovest to take us down when humbled it is enough to have prostrated us Like as that Lion of Bethel worries the disobedient Prophet guards the poor Asse that stood quaking before him Or like some mighty winde that bears over a tall Elme or Cedar with the same breath that it raiseth a stooping Reed Or like some good Physician who finding the body obstructed and surcharged with ill humors evacuates it and when it is sufficiently pulled down raises it up with soveraign Cordials And still doe thou so to my Soul if at any time thou perceivest me stiffe and rebellious ready to face out my sin against thee spare me not let me smart till I relent But a broken and contrite heart thou wilt not O Lord O Lord do not reject It is only thy Word which gives what it requires comfort and confidence Had any other shaken her by the shoulder and cheared her up against those oppressive passions it had been but wast winde No voice but his who hath power to remit sin can secure the heart from the conscience of sin from the pangs of Conscience In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts O Lord thy comforts only have power to refresh my soul Her cure was Christs act yet he gives the praise of it to her Thy faith hath made thee whole He had said before Virtue is gone out from me now he acknowledges a virtue inherent in her It was his virtue that cured her yet he graciously casts this work upon her Faith Not that her Faith did it by way of merit by way of efficiency but by way of impetration So much did our Saviour regard that Faith which he had wrought in her that he will honour it with the successe of her Cure Such and the same is still the remedy of our spirituall diseases our sins By faith we are justified by faith we are saved Thou only O Saviour canst heal us thou wilt not heal us but by our Faith not as it issues from us but as it appropriates thee The sicknesse is ours the remedy is ours the sicknesse is our own by nature the remedy ours by thy grace both working and accepting it Our Faith is no lesse from thee then thy Cure is from our Faith Oh happy dismission Goe in peace How unquiet had this poor soul formerly been She had no outward peace with her Neighbours they shunned and abhorred her presence in this condition yea they must doe so She had no peace in Body that was pained and vexed with so long and foul a disease Much lesse had she peace in her Minde which was grievously disquieted with sorrow for her sicknesse with anger and discontentment at her torturing Physicians with fear of the continuance of so bad a guest Her Soul for the present had no peace from the sense of her guiltinesse in the carriage of this businesse from the conceived displeasure of him to whom she came for comfort and redresse At once now doth our Saviour calm all these storms and in one word and act restores to her peace with her Neighbours peace in her Self peace in Body in Minde in Soul Goe in peace Even so Lord it was for thee only who art the Prince of Peace to bestow thy peace where thou pleasest Our body minde Soul estate is thine whether to afflict or ease It is a wonder if all of us doe not aile somewhat In vain shall we speak peace to our selves in vain shall the world speak peace to us except thou say to us as thou didst to this distressed soul Goe in peace JAIRUS and his Daughter HOw troublesome did the peoples importunity seem to Jairus That great man came to sue unto Jesus for his dying Daughter the throng of the multitude intercepted him Every man is most sensible of his own necessity It is no straining courtesie in the challenge of our interest in Christ there is no unmannerlinesse in our strife for the greatest share in his presence and benediction That only Childe of this Ruler lay a dying when he came to solicite Christs aide and was dead whiles he solicited it There was hope in her sicknesse in her extremity there was fear in her death despair and impossibility as they thought of help Thy daughter is dead trouble not the Master When we have to doe with a mere finite power this word were but just He was a Prophet no lesse then a King that said Whiles the childe was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the childe may live But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall goe to him but he shall not return to me But since thou hast to doe with an Omnipotent agent know now O thou faithlesse messenger that death can be no bar to his power How well would it have become thee to have said Thy daughter is dead but who can tell whether thy God and Saviour will not be gracious to thee that the childe may revive Cannot he in whose hands are the issues of death bring her back again Here were more Manners then Faith Trouble not the Master Infidelity is all for ease and thinks every good work tedious That which Nature accounts troublesome is pleasing and delightfull to Grace Is it any pain for an hungry man to eate O Saviour it was thy meat and drink to doe thy Fathers will and his will was that thou shouldest bear our griefs and take away our sorrows It cannot be thy trouble which is our happinesse that we may still sue to thee The messenger could not so whisper his ill news but Jesus heard it Jairus hears that he feared and was now heartlesse with so sad tidings He that resolved not to trouble the Master meant to take so much more trouble to himself and would now yield to a hopelesse sorrow He whose work it is to comfort the afflicted rouzeth up the dejected heart of that pensive father Fear not believe only and she shall be made whole The word was not more chearfull then difficult Fear not Who can
our Souls may be cured and through all the degrees of Grace may be carried to the full height of their Glory The first Part of the Meditations upon the Transfiguration of Christ In a Sermon preacht at Havering-Bower before K. James of Blessed memory THere is not in all Divinity an higher speculation then this of Christ transfigured Suffer me therefore to lead you up by the hand into Mount Tabor for nearer to Heaven ye cannot come while ye are upon earth that you may see him glorious upon earth the Region of his shame and abasement who is now glorious in Heaven the throne of his Majestie He that would not have his Transfiguration spoken of till he were raised would have it spoken of all the world over now that he is raised and ascended that by this momentany glory we may judge of the eternal The circumstances shall be to us as the skirts of the Hill which we will climb up lightly the Time place Attendants Company The Time after six dayes the Place an high hill apart the Attendants Peter James John the Company Moses and Elias which when we have passed on the top of the hill shall appear to us that sight which shall once make us glorious and in the mean time happy All three Evangelists accord in the Terminus à quo that it was immediately after those words There be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death till they have seen the Son of Man come in his Kingdome Wherein methinks the act comments upon the words Peter James and John were these some they tasted not of death till they saw this Heavenly image of the Royalty of Christ glorified But the Terminus quò disagrees a little Matthew and Mark say after six Luke post ferè octo which as they are easily reconciled by the usual distinction of inclusivè and exclusivè necessary for all computations and Luke's about eight so methinks seem to intimate God's seventh day the Sabbath why should there be else so precise mention of six dayes after and about eight but to imply that day which was betwixt the sixth and eighth God's day was fittest for so Divine a work and well might that day which imported God's rest and mans glory be used for the clear representation of the rest and glory of God and man But in this conjecture for ought I know I goe alone I dare not be too resolute Certainly it was the seventh whether it were that seventh the seventh after the promise of the glory of his Kingdome exhibited and this perhaps not without a mystery God teacheth both by words and acts saith Hilary that after six Ages of the world should be Christs glorious appearance and our transfiguration with him But I know what our Saviours farewel was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not for us to know But if we may not know we may conjecture yet not above that we ought faith S. Paul we may not super sapere as Tertullian's phrase is For the Place tradition hath taken it still for Tabor I list not to cross it without warrant This was an high Hill indeed thirty furlongs high saith Josephus mirâ rotundiâ—ate sublimis saith Hierome and so steep that some of our English travellers that have desired to climbit of late have been glad to give it up in the mid-way and to measure the rest with their eyes Doubtless this Hill was a Symbol of Heaven being near it as in situation in resemblance Heaven is expressed usually by the name of God's hill and Nature or this appellation taught the Heathens to figure it by their Olympus All Divine affairs of any magnificence were done on Hils On the hill of Sinai was the Law delivered on the hill of Moriah was Isaac to be sacrificed whence Abraham's posie is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in monte providebitur on the hill of Rephidim stood Moses with the rod of God in his stretched hand and figured him crucified upon the hill whom Joshua figured victorious in the valley on the hils of Ebal and Gerizim were the Blessings and Curses on Carmel was Eliah's sacrifice The Phrontisteria Schools or Universities of the Prophets were still Ramah and Gibeah excelsa High places Who knows not that on the hill of Sion stood the Temple I have looked up to the hils saith the Psalmist And Idolatry in imitation had their hill-altars On the Mount of Olives was Christ wont to send up his Prayers and sent up himself And here Luke saith he went up to an high hill to pray not for that God makes difference of places to whose immensity Heaven it self is a valley It was an heathenish conceit of those Aramites that God is Deus montium the God of the mountains but because we are commonly more disposed to good by either the freedom of our scope to Heaven or the awfulness or solitary silence of places which as one saith strikes a kinde of adoration into us or by our local removal from this attractive body of the earth howsoever when the body sees it self above the earth the eye of the Minde is more easily raised to her Heaven It is good to take all advantage of place setting aside superstition to further our Devotion Aaron and Hur were in the mountain with Moses and held up his hands Aaron say some Allegorists is mountainous Hur fiery Heavenly Meditation and the fire of Charity must lift up our prayers to God As Satan carried up Christ to an high hill to tempt him so he carries up himself to be freed from temptation and distraction If ever we would be transfigured in our disposition we must leave the earth below and abandon all worldly thoughts Venite ascendamus Oh come let us climb up to the hill where God sees or is seen saith devout Bernard O all ye cares distractions thoughtfulness labours pains servitudes stay me here with this ass my body till I with the boy that is my Reason and Understanding shall worship and return saith the same Father wittily alluding to the journey of Abraham for his sacrifice Wherefore then did Christ climb up this high hill Not to look about him but saith S. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray not for prospect but for devotion that his thoughts might climb up yet nearer to Heaven Behold how Christ entred upon all his great works with Prayers in his mouth When he was to enter into that great work of his Humiliation in his Passion he went into the Garden to pray when he is to enter into this great work of his Exaltation in his Transfiguring he went up into the mountain to pray he was taken up from his knees to both O noble example of Piety and Devotion to us He was God that prayed the God that he prayed to he might have commanded yet he prayed that we men might learn of him to pray to him What should we men dare to doe without prayers when he that was God would doe nothing
Disciples stood compassed in that bright Cloud exspecting some miraculous event of so Heavenly a Vision when suddenly they might hear a voice sounding out of that Cloud saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him They need not be told whose that voice was the place the matter evinced it No Angel in Heaven could or durst have said so How gladly doth Peter afterwards recount it For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son c. It was onely the eare that was here taught not the eye As of Horeb so of Sinai so of Tabor might God say Ye saw no shape nor image in that day that the Lord spake unto you He that knows our proneness to idolatry avoids those occasions which we might take to abuse our own fansies Twice hath God spoken these words to his own Son from Heaven once in his Baptisme and now again in his Transfiguration Here not without some oppositive comparison not Moses not Elias but This. Moses and Elias were Servants this a Son Moses and Elias were sons but of grace and choice this is that Son the Son by nature Other sons are beloved as of favour and free election this is The Beloved as in the unitie of his essence Others are so beloved that he is pleased with themselves this so beloved that in and for him he is pleased with mankinde As the relation betwixt the Father and the Son is infinite so is the Love We measure the intention of Love by the extention the love that rests in the person affected alone is but streight true Love descends like Aaron's Ointment from the head to the skirts to children friends allyes O incomprehensible large love of God the Father to the Son that for his sake he is pleased with the World O perfect and happy complacence Out of Christ there is nothing but enmity betwixt God and the Soul in him there can be nothing but peace When the beams are met in one center they do not only heat but burn Our weak love is diffused to many God hath some the world more and therein wives children friends but this infinite love of God hath all the beams of it united in one onely Object the Son of his Love Neither doth he love any thing but in the participation of his Love in the derivation from it O God let me be found in Christ and how canst thou but be pleased with me This one voice proclaimes Christ at once the Son of God the Reconciler of the world the Doctor and Law-giver of his Church As the Son of God he is essentially interessed in his Love as he is the Reconciler of the world in whom God is well pleased he doth most justly challenge our love and adherence as he is the Doctor and Law-giver he doth justly challenge our audience our obedience Even so Lord teach us to hear and obey thee as our Teacher to love thee and believe in thee as our Reconciler and as the eternal Son of thy Father to adore thee The light caused wonder in the Disciples but the voice astonishment They are all falne down upon their faces Who can blame a mortal man to be thus affected with the voice of his Maker Yet this word was but plausible and hortatory O God how shall flesh and blood be other then swallowed up with the horror of thy dreadful sentence of death The Lion shall roar who shall not be afraid How shall those that have slighted the sweet voice of thine invitations call to the rocks to hide them from the terror of thy Judgments The God of mercies pities our infirmities I do not hear our Saviour say Ye lay sleeping one while upon the earth now ye lye astonished Ye could neither wake to see nor stand to hear now lye still and tremble But he graciously touches and comforts them Arise fear not That voice which shall once raise them up out of the earth might well raise them up from it That hand which by the least touch restored sight lims life might well restore the spirits of the dismaied O Saviour let that soveraign hand of thine touch us when we lye in the trances of our griefs in the bed of our securities in the grave of our sins and we shall arise They looking up saw no man save Jesus alone and that doubtless in his wonted form All was now gone Moses Elias the Cloud the Voice the Glory Tabor it self cannot be long blessed with that Divine light and those shining guests Heaven will not allow to earth any long continuance of Glory Only above is constant happiness to be look'd for and injoyed where we shall ever see our Saviour in his unchangeable brightness where the light shall never be either clouded or varied Moses and Elias are gone only Christ is left The glory of the Law and the Prophets was but temporary yea momentany that onely Christ may remain to us intire and conspicuous They came but to give testimony to Christ when that is done they are vanished Neither could these raised Disciples finde any miss of Moses and Elias when they had Christ still with them Had Jesus been gone and left either Moses or Elias or both in the Mount with his Disciples that presence though glorious could not have comforted them Now that they are gone and he is left they cannot be capable of discomfort O Saviour it matters not who is away whiles thou art with us Thou art God all-sufficient what can we want when we want not thee Thy presence shall make Tabor it self an Heaven yea Hell it self cannot make us miserable with the fruition of thee The Woman taken in Adultery WHat a busie life was this of Christs He spent the night in the mount of Olives the day in the Temple whereas the night is for a retired repose the day for company His retiredness was for prayer his companiableness was for preaching All night he watches in the Mount all the morning he preaches in the Temple It was not for pleasure that he was here upon earth his whole time was penal and toilsome How do we resemble him if his life were all pain and labour ours all pastime He found no such fair success the day before The multitude was divided in their opinion of him messengers were sent and suborned to apprehend him yet he returns to the Temple It is for the sluggard or the coward to plead a Lion in the way upon the calling of God we must overlook and contemn all the spight and opposition of men Even after an ill harvest we must sow and after denials we must woe for God This Sun of Righteousness prevents that other and shines early with wholesome doctrines upon the Soules of his hearers The Auditory is both thronged and attentive Yet not all with the same intentions If the people came to learn the Scribes and
supplied by a rich joynture it is some allay to the grief that the hand is left full though the bed be empty This woman was not more desolate then needy Yet this poor widow gives And what gives she An offering like her self two mites or in our language two half-farthing-tokens Alas good woman who was poorer then thy self wherefore was that Corban but for the relief of such as thou who should receive if such give Thy mites were something to thee nothing to the Treasury How ill is that gift bestowed which dis-furnisheth thee and addes nothing to the common stock Some thrifty neighbour might perhaps have suggested this probable discouragement Jesus publishes and applauds her bounty He called his Disciples and said unto them Verily I say unto you this woman hath cast in more then they all Whiles the rich put in their offering I see no Disciples called it was enough that Christ noted their gifts alone but when the Widow comes with her two mites now the domesticks of Christ are summoned to assemble and taught to admire this munificence a solemn preface makes way to her praise and her Mites are made more precious then the others Talents She gave more then they all More not only in respect of the Minde of the giver but of the proportion of the gift as hers A mite to her was more then pounds to them Pounds were little to them two mites were all to her They gave out of their abundance she out of her necessity That which they gave left the heap lesse yet an heap still she gives all at once and leaves her self nothing So as she gave not more then any but more then they all God doth not so much regard what is taken out as what is left O Father of mercies thou lookest at once into the bottome of her heart and the bottome of her purse and esteemest her gift according to both As thou seest not as man so thou valuest not as man Man judgeth by the worth of the gift thou judgest by the minde of the giver and the proportion of the remainder It were wide with us if thou shouldst goe by quantities Alas what have we but mites and those of thine own lending It is the comfort of our meannesse that our affections are valued and not our presents neither hast thou said God loves a liberal giver but a chearfull If I had more O God thou shouldst have it had I lesse thou wouldst not despise it who acceptest the gift according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not Yea Lord what have I but two mites a Soul and a Body mere mites yea not so much to thine Infiniteness Oh that I could perfectly offer them up unto thee according to thine own right in them and not according to mine How graciously wouldst thou be sure to accept them how happy shall I be in thine acceptation The ambition of the two Sons of Zebedee HE who had his own time and ours in his hand foreknew and foretold the approach of his dissolution When men are near their end and ready to make their Will then is it seasonable to sue for Legacies Thus did the Mother of the two Zebedees therein well approving both her Wisedome and her Faith Wisedome in the fit choice of her opportunity Faith in taking such an opportunity The suit is half obtained that is seasonably made To have made this motion at the entry into their attendance had been absurd and had justly seemed to challenge a denial It was at the parting of the Angel that Jacob would be blessed The double spirit of Elijah is not sued for till his ascending But oh the admirable Faith of this good woman When she heard the discourse of Christs Sufferings and Death she talks of his Glory when she hears of his Crosse she speaks of his Crown If she had seen Herod come and tender his Scepter unto Christ or the Elders of the Jews come upon their knees with a submissive profer of their allegeance she might have had some reason to entertain the thoughts of a Kingdome but now whiles the sound of betraying suffering dying was in her eare to make account of and suit for a room in his Kingdome it argues a belief able to triumph over all discouragements It was nothing for the Disciples when they saw him after his conquest of death and rising from the grave to ask him Master wilt thou now restore the kingdome unto Israel but for a silly woman to look through his future Death and Passion at his Resurrection and Glory it is no lesse worthy of wonder then praise To hear a man in his best health and vigor to talk of his confidence in God and assurance of Divine favour cannot be much worth but if in extremities we can believe above hope against hope our Faith is so much more noble as our difficulties are greater Never sweeter persume arose from any altar then that which ascended from Job's dung-hill I know that my Redeemer liveth What a strange style is this that is given to this woman It had been as easie to have said the wife of Zebedee or the sister of Mary or of Joseph or as her name was plain Salome but now by an unusuall description she is styled The mother of Zebedee's children Zebedee was an obscure man she as his wife was no better the greatest honour she ever had or could have was to have two such sons as James and John these give a title to both their Parents Honour ascends as well as descends Holy Children dignifie the loyns and womb from whence they proceed no lesse then their Parents traduce honour unto them Salome might be a good wife a good huswife a good woman a good neighbour all these cannot ennoble her so much as the mother of Zebedee's children What a world of pain toyl care cost there is in the birth and education of children Their good proof requites all with advantage Next to happiness in our selves is to be happy in a gracious Issue The suit was the sons but by the mouth of their mother it was their best policy to speak by her lips Even these Fishermen had already learned craftily to fish for promotion Ambition was not so bold in them as to shew her own face the envy of the suit shall thus be avoided which could not but follow upon their personall request If it were granted they had what they would if not it was but the repulse of a womans motion which must needs be so much more pardonable because it was of a mother for her sons It is not discommendable in parents to seek the preferment of their children Why may not Abraham sue for an Ismael So it be by lawfull means in a moderate measure in due order this endeavour cannot be amisse It is the neglect of circumstances that makes these desires sinfull Oh the madnesse of those Parents that care not which way they raise an house that
be the inculcation of Gods merciful promises of their relief and supportation O God if thou hast said it I dare believe I dare cast my Soul upon the belief of every word of thine Faithfull art thou which hast promised who wilt also doe it In spight of all the unjust discouragements of Nature we must obey Christ's command Whatever Martha suggests they remove the stone and may now see and smell him dead whom they shall soon see revived The sent of the corps is not so unpleasing to them as the perfume of their obedience is sweet to Christ And now when all impediments are removed and all hearts ready for the work our Saviour addresses to the Miracle His eyes begin they are lift up to Heaven It was the malicious mis-suggestion of his enemies that he lookt down to Beelzebub the beholders shall now see whence he exspects and derives his power and shall by him learn whence to exspect and hope for all success The heart and the eye must goe together he that would have ought to doe with God must be sequestred and lifted up from earth His Tongue seconds his Eye Father Nothing more stuck in the stomack of the Jews then that Christ called himself the Son of God this was imputed to him for a Blasphemy worthy of stones How seasonably is this word spoken in the hearing of these Jews in whose sight he will be presently approved so How can ye now O ye cavillers except at that title which ye shall see irrefragably justified Well may he call God Father that can raise the dead out of the grave In vain shall ye snarle at the style when ye are convinced of the effect I hear of no Prayer but a Thanks for hearing Whiles thou saidst nothing O Saviour how doth thy Father hear thee Was it not with thy Father and thee as it was with thee and Moses Thou saidst Let me alone Moses when he spake not Thy will was thy Prayer Words express our hearts to men Thoughts to God Well didst thou know out of the self-fameness of thy will with thy Fathers that if thou didst but think in thine heart that Lazarus should rise he was now raised It was not for thee to pray vocally and audibly lest those captious hearers should say thou didst all by intreaty nothing by power Thy thanks overtake thy desires ours require time and distance our thanks arise from the Echo of our prayers resounding from Heaven to our hearts Thou because thou art at once in earth and Heaven and knowst the grant to be of equal paces with the request most justly thankest in praying Now ye cavilling Jews are thinking straight Is there such distance betwixt the Father and the Son is it so rare a thing for the Son to be heard that he pours out his thanks for it as a blessing unusual Do ye not now see that he who made your heart knows it and anticipates your fond thoughts with the same breath I knew that thou hearest me alwaies but I said this for their sakes that they might believe Merciful Saviour how can we enough admire thy goodness who makest our belief the scope and drift of thy doctrine and actions Alas what wert thou the better if they believed thee sent from God what wert thou the worse if they believed it not Thy perfection and glory stands not upon the slippery terms of our approbation or dislike but is real in thy self and that infinite without possibility of our increase or diminution We we onely are they that have either the gain or loss in thy receit or rejection yet so dost thou affect our belief as if it were more thine advantage then ours O Saviour whiles thou spak'st to thy Father thou liftedst up thine eyes now thou art to speak unto dead Lazarus thou liftedst up thy voice and criedst aloud Lazarus come forth Was it that the strength of the voice might answer to the strength of the affection since we faintly require what we care not to obtain and vehemently utter what we earnestly desire Was it that the greatness of the voice might answer to the greatness of the work Was it that the hearers might be witnesses of what words were used in so miraculous an act no magical incantations but authoritative and Divine commands Was it to signifie that Lazarus his Soule was called from farre the speech must be loud that shall be heard in another world Was it in relation to the estate of the body of Lazarus whom thou hadst reported to sleep since those that are in a deep and dead sleep cannot be awaked without a loud call Or was it in a representation of that loud voice of the last Trumpet which shall sound into all graves and raise all flesh from their dust Even so still Lord when thou wouldst raise a Soul from the death of sin and grave of corruption no easie voice will serve Thy strongest commands thy loudest denunciations of Judgements the shrillest and sweetest promulgations of thy Mercies are but enough How familiar a word is this Lazarus come forth no other then he was wont to use whiles they lived together Neither doth he say Lazarus revive but as if he supposed him already living Lazarus come forth To let them know that those who are dead to us are to and with him alive yea in a more entire and feeling society then whiles they carried their clay about them Why do I fear that separation which shall more unite me to my Saviour Neither was the word more familiar then commanding Lazarus come forth Here is no suit to his Father no adjuration to the deceased but a flat and absolute injunction Come forth O Saviour that is the voice that I shall once hear sounding into the bottome of my grave and raising me up out of my dust that is the voice that shall pierce the rocks and divide the mountains and fetch up the dead out of the lowest deeps Thy word made all thy word shall repair all Hence all ye diffident fears he whom I trust is Omnipotent It was the Jewish fashion to enwrap the corps in linen to tye the hands and feet and to cover the face of the dead The Fall of man besides weakness brought shame upon him ever since even whiles he lives the whole Body is covered but the Face because some sparks of that extinct Majesty remain there is wont to be left open In death all those poor remainders being gone and leaving deformity and gastliness in the room of them the Face is covered also There lies Lazarus bound in double fetters One Almighty word hath loosed both and now he that was bound came forth He whose power could not be hindred by the chains of death cannot be hindred by linen bonds He that gave life gave motion gave direction He that guided the Soul of Lazarus into the body guided the body of Lazarus without his eyes moved the feet without the full liberty of his regular paces no doubt
should all see his comfortable Divine Magnanimity wherewith he entred into those sad lists only Three of them shall be allowed to be the witnesses of his Agonie only those three that had been the witnesses of his glorious Transfiguration That sight had well fore-arm'd and prepared them for this how could they be dismai'd to see his trouble who there saw his Majesty how could they be dismai'd to see his body now sweat which they had then seen to shine how could they be daunted to see him now accosted with Judas and his train whom they then saw attended with Moses and Elias how could they be discouraged to hear the reproaches of base men when they had heard the voice of God to him from that excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Now before these eyes this Sun begins to be over-cast with clouds He began to be sorrowfull and very heavy Many sad thoughts for mankinde had he secretly hatched and yet smothered in his own breast now his grief is too great to keep in My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death O Saviour what must thou needs feel when thou saidst so Feeble mindes are apt to bemone themselves upon light occasions the grief must needs be violent that causeth a strong heart to break forth into a passionate complaint Woe is me what a word is this for the Son of God Where is that Comforter which thou promisedst to send to others where is that thy Father of all mercies and God of all comfort in whose presence is the fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore where are those constant and chearfull resolutions of a fearlesse walking through the valley of the shadow of death Alas if that face were not hid from thee whose essence could not be disunited these pangs could not have been The Sun was withdrawn awhile that there might be a cool though not a dark night as in the world so in thy breast withdrawn in respect of sight not of being It was the hardest piece of thy sufferings that thou must be disconsolate But to whom dost thou make this moan O thou Saviour of men Hard is that man driven that is fain to complain to his inferiours Had Peter or James or John thus bewailed himself to thee there had been ease to their Soul in venting it self thou hadst been both apt to pity them and able to relieve them but now in that thou lamentest thy case to them alas what issue couldst thou exspect They might be astonish'd with thy grief but there is neither power in their hands to free thee from those sorrows nor power in their compassion to mitigate them Nay in this condition what could all the Angels of Heaven as of themselves doe to succour thee What strength could they have but from thee What creature can help when thou complainest It must be only the stronger that can aid the weak Old and holy Simeon could fore-say to thy Blessed Mother that a sword should pierce through her Soul but alas how many swords at once pierce thine Every one of these words is both sharp and edged My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death What humane Soul is capable of the conceit of the least of those sorrows that oppressed thine It was not thy body that suffered now the pain of body is but as the body of pain the anguish of the Soul is as the Soul of anguish That and in that thou sufferedst where are they that dare so far disparage thy Sorrow as to say thy Soul suffered only in sympathy with thy body not immediately but by participation not in its self but in its partner Thou best knewest what thou feltest and thou that feltest thine own pain canst crie out of thy Soul Neither didst thou say My Soul is troubled so it often was even to tears but My Soul is sorrowfull as if it had been before assaulted now possessed with grief Nor yet this in any tolerable moderation changes of Passion are incident to every humane Soul but Exceeding sorrowfull Yet there are degrees in the very extremities of evils those that are most vehement may yet be capable of a remedy at least a relaxation thine was past these hopes Exceeding sorrowfull unto death What was it what could it be O Saviour that lay thus heavy upon thy Divine Soul Was it the fear of Death was it the fore-felt pain shame torment of thine ensuing Crucifixion Oh poor and base thoughts of the narrow hearts of cowardly and impotent mortality How many thousands of thy blessed Martyrs have welcomed no lesse tortures with smiles and gratulations and have made a sport of those exquisite cruelties which their very Tyrants thought unsufferable Whence had they this strength but from thee If their weakness were thus undaunted and prevalent what was thy power No no It was the sad weight of the sin of mankinde it was the heavy burden of thy Fathers wrath for our sin that thus pressed thy Soul and wrung from thee these bitter expressions What can it avail thee O Saviour to tell thy grief to men who can ease thee but he of whom thou saidst My Father is greater then I Lo to him thou turnest O Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me Was not this that prayer O dear Christ which in the daies of thy flesh thou offeredst up with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save thee from death Surely this was it Never was crie so strong never was God thus solicited How could Heaven chuse but shake at such a Prayer from the Power that made it How can my heart but tremble to hear this suit from the Captain of our Salvation O thou that saidst I and my Father are one dost thou suffer ought from thy Father but what thou wouldst what thou determinedst was this Cup of thine either casual or forced wouldst thou wish for what thou knewest thou wouldst not have possible Far far be these mis-raised thoughts of our ignorance and frailty Thou camest to suffer and thou wouldst doe what thou camest for yet since thou wouldst be a man thou wouldst take all of man save sin it is but humane and not sinfull to be loath to suffer what we may avoid In this velleity of thine thou wouldst shew what that Nature of ours which thou hadst assumed could incline to wish but in thy resolution thou wouldst shew us what thy victorious thoughts raised and assisted by thy Divine power had determinately pitched upon Neverthelesse not as I will but as thou wilt As man thou hadst a Will of thine own no humane Soul can be perfect without that main faculty That will which naturally could be content to incline towards an exemption from miseries gladly vails to that Divine will whereby thou art designed to the chastisements of our peace Those pains which in themselves were grievous thou embracest as decreed so as thy fear hath given
avoidedst it renouncedst it professedst to come to serve Oh the forehead of Malice Goe ye shamelesse traducers and swear that Truth is guilty of all Falshood Justice of all Wrong and that the Sun is the only cause of Darknesse Fire of Cold. Now Pilate startles at the Charge The name of Tribute the name of Caesar is in mention These potent spells can fetch him back to the common Hall and call Jesus to the Bar. There O Saviour standst thou meekly to be judged who shalt once come to judge the quick and the dead Then shall he before whom thou stoodst guiltlesse and dejected stand before thy dreadfull Majesty guilty and trembling The name of a King of Caesar is justly tender and awfull the least whisper of an Usurpation or disturbance is entertained with a jealous care Pilate takes this intimation at the first bound Art thou then the King of the Jews He felt his own free-hold now touched it was time for him to stir Daniel's Weeks were now famously known to be near expiring Many arrogant and busie spirits as Judas of Galilee Theudas and that Egyptian Seducer taking that advantage had raised several Conspiracies set up new titles to the Crown gathered Forces to maintain their false claims Perhaps Pilate supposed some such businesse now on foot and therefore asks so curiously Art thou the King of the Jewes He that was no lesse Wisdome then Truth thought it not best either to affirm or deny at once Sometimes it may be extremely prejudicial to speak all truths To disclaim that Title suddenly which had been of old given him by the Prophets at his Birth by the Eastern Sages and now lately at his Procession by the acclaming multitude had been injurious to himself to professe and challenge it absolutely had been unsafe and needlesly provoking By wise and just degrees therefore doth he so affirm this truth that he both satisfies the inquirer and takes off all perill and prejudice from his assertion Pilate shall know him a King but such a King as no King needs to fear as all Kings ought to acknowledge and adore My Kingdome is not of this world It is your mistaking O ye earthly Potentates that is guilty of your fears Herod hears of a King born and is troubled Pilate hears of a King of the Jews and is incensed Were ye not ignorant ye could not be jealous Had ye learned to distinguish of Kingdomes these suspicions would vanish There are Secular Kingdomes there are Spirituall neither of these trenches upon other your Kingdome is Secular Christs is Spirituall both may both must stand together His Laws are Divine yours civil His Reign is eternall yours temporall the glory of his Rule is inward and stands in the Graces of Sanctification Love Peace Righteousness Joy in the Holy Ghost yours in outward pomp riches magnificence His Enemies are the Devil the World the Flesh yours are bodily usurpers and externall peace-breakers His Sword is the power of the Word and Spirit yours materiall His rule is over the Conscience yours over bodies and lives He punishes with Hell ye with temporal death or torture Yea so far is he from opposing your Government that by him ye Kings reign your Scepters are his but to maintain not to wield not to resist O the unjust fears of vain men He takes not away your earthly Kingdomes who gives you Heavenly he discrowns not the Body who crowns the Soul his intention is not to make you lesse great but more happy The charge is so fully answered that Pilate acquits the prisoner The Jewish Masters stand still without their very malice dares not venture their pollution in going in to prosecute their accusation Pilate hath examined him within and now comes forth to these eager complainants with a cold answer to their over-hot expectation I finde in him no fault at all O noble testimony of Christ's Innocence from that mouth which afterwards doomed him to death What a difference there is betwixt a man as he is himself and as he is the servant of others wills It is Pilate's tongue that saies I finde in him no fault at all It is the Jews tongue in Pilate's mouth that saies Let him be crucified That cruell sentence cannot blot him whom this attestation cleareth Neither doth he say I finde him not guilty in that whereof he is accused but gives an universal acquittance of the whole carriage of Christ I finde in him no fault at all In spight of Malice Innocence shall finde abettors Rather then Christ shall want witnesses the mouth of Pilate shall be opened to his justification How did these Jewish blood-suckers stand thunder-stricken with so unexspected a word His absolution was their death his acquital their conviction No fault when we have found Crimes no fault at all when we have condemned him for capital offences How palpably doth Pilate give us the lie How shamefully doth he affront our authority and disparage our justice So ingenuous a testimony doubtlesse exasperated the fury of these Jews the fire of their indignation was seven-fold more intended with the sense of their repulse I tremble to think how just Pilate as yet was and how soon after depraved yea how mercifull together with that Justice How sain would he have freed Jesus whom he found faultlesse Corrupt custome in memory of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage allowed to gratifie the Jews with the free delivery of some one prisoner Tradition would be incroaching the Paschal Lamb was monument enough of that happy rescue men affect to have something of their own Pilate was willing to take this advantage of dismissing Jesus That he might be the more likely to prevail he proposeth him with the choice and nomination of so notorious a Malefactor as he might justly think uncapable of all mercy Barabbas a Thief a Murderer a Seditionary infamous for all odious to all Had he propounded some other innocent prisoner he might have feared the election would be doubtfull he cannot misdoubt the competition of so prodigious a Malefactor Then they all cried again Not him but Barabbas O Malice beyond all example shamelesse and bloody Who can but blush to think that an Heathen should see Jews so impetuously unjust so savagely cruell He knew there was no fault to be found in Jesus he knew there was no Crime that was not to be found in Barabbas yet he hears and blushes to hear them say Not him but Barabbas Was not this think we out of similitude of condition Every thing affects the like to it self every thing affects the preservation of that it liketh What wonder is it then if ye Jews who prosesse your selves the murderers of that Just One favour a Barabbas O Saviour what a killing indignity was this for thee to hear from thine own Nation Hast thou refused all Glory to put on shame and misery for their sakes Hast thou disregarded thy Blessed self to save them and do they refuse thee for Barabbas Hast thou said
His eyes look to the Gentiles c. saith the Psalmist As Christ therefore on his Cross looked towards us sinners of the Gentiles so let us look up to him Let our eyes be lift up to this Brazen Serpent for the cure of the deadly stings of that old Serpent See him O all ye beholders see him hanging upon the Tree of shame of curse to rescue you from curse and confusion and to feoâ—â—e you in everlasting Blessednesse See him stretching out his arms to receive and embrace you hanging down his head to take view of your misery opening his precious side to receive you into his bosome opening his very heart to take you in thither pouring out thence water to wash you and blood to redeem you O all ye Nazarites that passe by out of this dead Lion seek and finde the true honey of unspeakable and endlesse comfort And ye great Masters of Israel whose lips professe to preserve knowledge leave all curious and needlesie disquisitions and with that Divine and extatical Doctor of the Gentiles care only to know to preach Christ and him crucified But this though the sum of the Gospel is not the main drift of my Text I may not dwell in it though I am loth to part with so sweet a meditation From Christ crucified turn your eyes to Paul crucified you have read him dying by the Sword hear him dying by the Cross and see his moral spiritual living Crucifixion Our Apostle is two men Saul and Paul the old man and the new in respect of the Old man he is crucified and dead to the law of sin so as that sin is dead in him neither is it otherwise with every regenerate Sin hath a body as well as the man hath Who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. 24. a body that hath lims and parts Mortifie your earthly members saith our Apostle Colos 3. 5. Not the lims of our humane body which are made of earth so should we be hosles naturae as Bernard but the sinfull lims that are made of corruption Fornication uncleanness inordinate affection c. The 〈◊〉 of sin is wicked devices the heart of sin wicked desires the hands and 〈◊〉 wicked executions the tongue of sin wicked words the eyes of sin 〈◊〉 apprehensions the forehead of sin impudent profession of evil the back of sin a strong supportation and maintenance of evil all this body of sin is not only put to death but to shame too so as it is dead with disgrace I am crucified S. Paul speaks not this singularly of himself but in the person of the Renewed sin doth not cannot live a vital and vigorous life in the Regenerate Wherefore then say you was the Apostles complaint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Mark I beseech you it was the body of sin not the life of sin a body of death not the life of that body or if this body had yet some life it was such a life as is left in the lims when the head is struck off some dying quiverings rather as the remainders of a life that was then any act of a life that is or if a further life such a one as in swowns and fits of Epilepsie which yields breath but not sense or if some kinde of sense yet no motion or if it have some kinde of motion in us yet no manner of dominion over us What power motion sense relicks of life are in a fully-crucified man Such a one may waft up and down with the winde but cannot move out of any internal principle Sin and Grace cannot more stand together in their strength then life and death In remisse degrees all contraries may be lodged together under one roof S. Paul swears that he dies daily yet he lives so the best man sins hourly even whiles he obeys but the powerfull and over-ruling sway of sin is incompatible with the truth of Regeneration Every Esau would be carrying away a Blessing no man is willing to sit out Ye shall have strong drinkers as Esay calls them Esay 5. 22. neighing stallions of lust as Jeremy calls them Jer. 5. 8. mighty hunters in oppression as Nimrod Gen. 10. 9. rotten talkers Ephes 4. 29. which yet will be challenging as deep a share in Grace as the conscionablest Alas how many millions do miserably delude themselves with a mere pretence of Christianity Aliter vivunt aliter loquuntur as he said of the Philosophers Vain Hypocrites they must know that every Christian is a crucified man How are they dead to their fins that walk in their sins how are their sins dead in them in whom they stir reign flourish Who doth not smile to hear of a dead man that walks Who derides not the solecism of that Actor which exprest himself fully dead by saying so What a mockery is this eyes full of lust itching ears scurrilous tongues bloody hands hearts full of wickedness and yet dead Deceive not your Souls dear Christians if ye love them This false death is the way to the true eternal incomprehensibly-wofull death of body and Soul If ye will needs doe so walk on ye falsly-dead in the waies of your old sins be sure these paths shall lead you down to the chambers of everlasting death If this be the hanging up of your corruptions fear to hang in hell Away with this hateful simulation God is not mocked Ye must either kill or die Kill your sins or else they will be sure to kill your Souls apprehend arraign condemn them fasten them to the tree of shame and if they be not dead already break their legs and arms disable them to all offensive actions as was done to the Thieves in the Gospel so shall you say with our Blessed Apostle I am crucified Neither is it thus onely in matter of notorious crime and grosse wickednesse but thus it must be in the universal carriage of our lives and the whole habitual frame of our dispositions in both these we are we must be crucified Be not deceived my Brethren it is a sad and austere thing to be a Christian This work is not frolick jovial plausible there is a certain thing call'd true Mortification required to this businesse and whoever heard but there was pain in death but among all deaths in crucifying What a torture must there needs be in this act of violence what a distention of the body whose weight is rack enough to it self what straining of the joynts what nailing of hands and feet Never make account to be Christians without the hard tasks of Penitence It will cost you tears sighs watchings self-restraints self-struglings self-denials This word is not more harsh then true Ye delicate Hypocrites what do you talk of Christian profession when ye will not abate a dish from your belly nor spare an hours sleep from your eyes nor cast off an offensive rag from your backs for your
let thine enemies perish O Lord. These Bulls are seconded with their own brood the Calves of the people Who are they but those which follow and make up the herd the credulous seduced multitude which not out of choice but example join in opposition to God Silly calves they go whither their dams lead them to the field or to the slaughter-house Blinde obedience is their best guide Are they bidden to adore a God which they know the baker made they fall down upon their knees and thump their breasts as beating the heart that will not enough believe in that pastry-Deity Are they bidden to goe on pilgrimage to a Chappel that is a greater pilgrim then themselves that hath four several times removed it self and changed stations as Turselline considently they must goe and adore those wandring walls Are they bidden to forswear their Allegiance and to take armes against their Lawful and native Soveraign they rush into the battel without either fear or wit though for the aide of a sure enemy which would make them all as he threatned in Eighty eight alike good Protestants Very calves of the people whose simplicity were a fitter subject for pity then their fury can be of malice were it not that their power is wont to be imployed to the no small prejudice of the cause of God And would it boot ought to spend time in perswading these Calves that they are such to lay before them the shame of their ignorance and stupidity Hear now this O foolish people and without understanding which have eyes and see not which have eares and hear not Jer. 5. 20. How long will ye suffer your selves to be befooled and beslaved with the tyranny of Superstition God hath made you men why will ye abide men to make you vitulos populorum the calves of the people We must leave you as ye are but we will not leave praying for your happy change that God would consecrate you to himself as the calves of his altar that ye may be offered up to him an holy lively reasonable acceptable sacrifice in your blessed Conversion Amen The last and worst title of these enemies is The people that delight in warre Warre is to the State as Ignis and Ferrum the Knife and the Searing-iron to the body the last and most desperate remedy alwaies evill if sometimes necessary it is not for pleasure it is for need It must needs be a cruel heart that delights in warre He that well considers the fearful effects of warre the direption of goods the vastation of Countries the sacking and burning of Cities the murdering of men ravishing of women weltring of the horse and rider in their mingled blood the shrieks and horror of the dying the ghastly rage of the killing the hellish and tumultuous confusion of all things and shall see the streets and fields strewed with carkasses the chanels running with streams of blood the houses and Churches flaming and in a word all the woful tyrannies of death will think the heathen Poets had reason to devise Warre sent up from Hell ushered and heralded by the most pestilent of all the Furies every of whose haires were so many snakes and adders to affright and sting the world withall Little pleasure can there be in such a spectacle It is a true observation of St. Chrysostome that warre to any Nation is as a tempest to the Sea tossing and clashing of the waves together And fain would I hear of that Mariner that takes delight in a Storm The executioners of peaceable Justice are wont to be hateful no man abides to consort with a publick Headsman and what metal then shall we think those men made of who delight in cutting of throats and joy to be the furious executioners of a martial vengeance where besides the horror of the act the event is doubtful The dice of Warre run still upon hazard David could send this message to Joab The sword devoures at randome so and such 2 Sam. 11. 25. Victory is not more sweet then uncertain And what man can love to perish It is true that Warre is a thing that should not but must be neither is it other then an unavoidable act of vindicative Justice an useful enemy an harsh friend such an enemy as we cannot want such a friend as we entertain upon force not upon choice because we must not because we would It challenges admittance if it be just and it is never just but where it is necessary if it must it ought to be Where those three things which Aquinas requires to a lawful warre are met Supreme Authority a warrantable Cause a just Intention a Supreme Authority in commanding it a warrantable Cause in undertaking it a just Intention in executing it it is no other then Bellum Domini Gods warre God made it God owns it God blesses it What talk I of the good Centurion the very Angels of God are thus Heavenly souldiers The wise Lacedamonians had no other statues of their Deities but armed Yea what speak I of these Puppets the true God rejoyces in no title more then of the Lord of Hoasts In these cases say now Blessed be the Lord who teaches my hands to warre and my fingers to fight But if Ambition of enlarging the bounds of dominion Covetousness of rich booties emulation of a rival Greatness shall unsheath our swords now every blow is Murder Wo to those hands that are thus imbrued in blood Wo to those Tyrants that are the authors of this lavish effusion every drop whereof shall once be required of their guilty Souls God thinks he cannot give a worse Epithet to those whom he would brand for death then Wicked and blood-thirsty men David might not be allowed to build God an House because he had a bloody hand the cause was holy yet the colour offends How hateful must those needs be to the God of Mercies that delight in Blood the true brood of him that is the man-slayer from the beginning There are strange diets of men as of other creatures whereof there are some that naturally feed on poison and fatten with it and it may be there are Cannibals that finde mans blood sweet yet I think it would be hard to finde a man that will profess to place his felicity in a cruel hazard So doth he that delights in warre and if no man for shame will be known to doe simply and directly so yet in effect men bewray this disposition if they be first osores pacis haters of peace as the Psalmist calls them Ps 120. 7. stubbornly repelling the fair motions and meet conditions thereof if secondly they take up slight and unjust causes of warre as it is noted by Suetonius of Julius Caesar which this Iland had experience of that he would refrain from no occasion of warre if never so unjust contrary to the better temper and resolution of wiser Romans then himself who would rather save one Subject then kill a thousand Enemies if thirdly they
it be possible it may rise up no more Why do not we spend the whole quiver of Gods threatned vengeance upon wilful sinners And thus must we bait the beast Is it a Drunken beast we are committed with Wo to them that rise up early to follow strong drink Esa 5. 11. Wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink to make him drunk Abac. 2. 15. The cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned to that man vomitus ignominiosus ad gloriam verse 16. Oh it is a bitter cup this of the Lords right hand whereof he shall wring out the dregs unto that soul so as in stead of quaffing the excessive healths of others he shall drink up his own death and eternal confusion Is it a Gluttonous beast Wo to him his God is his belly his glory shall be in his shame and his end damnation Phil. 3. 19. Whiles the flesh is yet between his teeth ere it be chewed the wrath of the Lord is kindled against him Numb 11. 33. Yea but it goes down sweetly Oh fool the meat in thy belly shall be turned into the gall of Asps within thee Job 20. 14. Vae saturis Wo be to the full for they shall hunger they shall famish to death and dye famishing and live dying and have enough of nothing but fire and brimstone Is it a Ravenous beast a Covetous oppressour His tooth like a mad dogs envenomes and emphrensies so saith Solomon that knew the nature of all beasts Oppression makes a wise man mad Eccles. 7. 7. Tabifici sunt Ps 79. 7. Wo be to you that joyn house to house Es 5. 8. Wo be to the mighty sins of them whose treadings are upon the poor that afflict the just that take bribes and turn away the poor in the gates Amos 5. 11 12. Therefore the Lord the God of Hoasts saith thus Wailing shall be in all their streets and they shall say in all high-waies Alas alas verse 16. They have robbed their poor Tenants and oppressed the afflicted in the gate therefore the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them Is it an Unclean beast Whoso committeth adultery with a woman destroyeth his own soul Prov. 6. 32. A fornicator in the body of his flesh will never cease till he have kindled a fire Ecclus. 23. 16. His fire of lust flames up into a fire of disease and burns down into the fire of Hell Is it a Foul-mouth'd beast that bellows out Blasphemies and bloody Oaths There is a word that is cloathed about with death God grant it be not found in the heritage of Jacob Ecclus. 23. 12. A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house verse 11. Thus must we lay about us spiritu or is yea gladio spiritûs and let drive at the Beast of what kind soever But if we shall still find that which blind Homer saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the worse hath the better and that this spiritual edge shall either turn again or through our weak wieldance not enter the stubborn and thick hide of obdured hearts give me leave most Gracious Soveraign and ye honorable Peers to whom is committed the sword of either supreme or subordinate Justice to say that both God and the world expects that this Beast of sin should be baited by you in another fashion It is not for nothing that God hath set you so conspicuously in this great Amphitheatre where the eyes of Angels and men are bent upon you and that he hath given into your hands the powerful instruments of death If this pernicious beast dare contest with our weakness and oft-times leave us gasping and bleeding on this pavement yet we know that it cannot but fall under the power of your mercy yea your vengeance Oh let it please you to rouze up your brave and Princely spirits and to give the fatal blow to presumptuous wickedness If that monster of impious Sacriledge of atheous Profaneness of outragious Inordinateness dares lift up his hated head in the sight of this Sun let him be straight crushed with the weight of that Royal Scepter let him be hewn in pieces with the sharp sword of your Sacred Authority As we abound with wholesome Laws for the repressing of vice so let it please you in an holy zeal to revive their hearty and effectual execution that the precious Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we profess may not be either shamed or braved by insolent wickedness that Justice and Peace may flourish in our Land and that your Crown may long and happily flourish upon that Royal head until it shall receive a late and blessed exchange for a Crown of Glory and Immortality in the highest Heavens Amen THE OLD RELIGION A TREATISE Wherein Is laid down the true State of the difference betwixt the REFORMED and ROMANE CHURCH and the blame of this Schism is cast upon the true Authors Serving for the Vindication of our Innocence for the setling of wavering mindes for a Preservative against Popish Insinuations With an ADVERTISEMENT for such Readers as formerly stumbled at some passages in the Book By JOS. HALL B. of Exon. LONDON Printed by James Flesher in the year M DC LXI TO My new and dearly-affected CHARGE the Diocese of EXCESTER All Grace and Benediction THE truth of my heart gives me boldness to profess before him who onely knows it that the same God who hath called me to the over-sight of your Souls hath wrought in me a zealous desire of your Salvation This desire cannot but incite me to a careful prevention of those dangers which might threaten the disappointment of so happy an end Those Dangers are either Sins of Practice or Errours of Doctrine Against both these I have faithfully vowed my utmost endeavours I shall labour against the first by Preaching Example Censures wherein it shall be your choice to expect either the Rod or the Spirit of meekness Against the latter my Pen hath risen up in this early assault It hath been assured me that in this time of late Vacancie false Teachers catching the fore-lock of Occasion have been busie in scattering the tares of Errours amongst you I easily believe it since I know it is not in the power of the greatest vigilancie to hinder their attempts of evil Even a full See is no sufficient barre to crafty Seducers their Suggestions we cannot prevent their Success we may This I have here assay'd to doe bending my style against Popish Doctrine with such Christian moderation as may argue zeal without malice desire to win Souls no will to gall them And since the commonest of all the grounds of Romish deceit is the pretence of their Age and our Novelty and nothing doth more dazle the eyes of the simple then the name of our Fore-fathers and the challenge of a particular recital of our Professours before Luther's revolt I have I hope fully cleared this coast so
future Errours in blowing up the very grounds of these humane devices The First and main ground of both is the remainders of some temporal punishments to be pay'd after the guilt and eternal punishment remitted the driblets of Venial sins to be reckon'd for when the Mortal are defraied Hear what God saith I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Loe can the Letter be read that is blotted out Can there be a back-reckoning for that which shall not be remembred I have done away thy transgressions as a Cloud What sins can be lesse then transgressions What can be more clearly dispersed then a Cloud Wash me and I shall be whiter then snow Who can tell where the spot was when the skin is rinsed If we confesse our sins he is faithfull to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Loe he cleanseth us from the guilt and forgives the punishment What are our sins but debts What is the infliction of punishment but an exaction of payment What is our remission but a striking off that score And when the score is struck off what remains to pay Remitte debita Forgive our debts is our daily Prayer Our Saviour tells the Paralitick Thy sins are forgiven thee in the same words implying the removing of his Disease If the sin be gone the punishment cannot stay behinde We may smart by way of chastisement after the freest remission not by way of revenge for our amendment not for God's satisfaction The Second ground is a middle condition betwixt the state of eternal life and death of no lesse torment for the time then Hell it self whose flames may burn off the rust of our remaining sins the issues wherefrom are in the power of the great Pastor of the Church How did this escape the notice of our Saviour Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and comes not into judgment as the Vulgar it self terms it but is passed from death unto life Behold a present possession and immediate passage no judgement intervening no torment How was this hid from the great Doctor of the Gentiles who putting himself into the common case of the believing Corinthians professes We know that if once our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God not made with hands eternall in the Heavens The dissolution of the one is the possession of the other here is no interposition of time of estate The Wise man of old could say The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them Upon their very going from us they are in peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. John heard from the heavenly voice From their very dying in the Lord is their blessedness Sect. 3. Indulgences against Reason IT is absurd in Reason to think that God should forgive our Talents and arrest us for the odde Farthings Neither is it lesse absurd to think that any living soul can have superfluities of Satisfaction whenas all that man is capable to suffer cannot be sufficient for one and that the least sin of his own the wages whereof is eternall death or that those superfluities of humane satisfaction should piece up the infinite and perfectly-meritorious superabundance of the Son of God or that this supposed treasure of Divine and humane satisfactions should be kept under the key of some one sinfull man or that this one man who cannot deliver his own Soul from Purgatory no not from Hell it self should have power to free what others he pleaseth from those fearfull flames to the full Gaol-delivery of that direfull prison which though his great power can doe yet his no lesse charity will not doth not or that the same Pardon which cannot acquit a man from one hours tooth-ach should be of force to give his Soul ease from the temporary pains of another world Lastly Guilt and Punishment are Relatives and can no more be severed then a perfect forgivenesse and a remaining compensation can stand together This Doctrine therefore of Papal Indulgences as it led the way to the further discovery of the corruptions of the degenerated Church of Rome so it still continues justly branded with Noveltie and Errour and may not be admitted into our belief and we for rejecting it are unjustly refused CHAP. XII The Newness of Divine Service in an unknown tongue THat Prayers and other Divine offices should be done in a known tongue understood of the people is not more available to edification as their Cajetan liberally confesseth then consonant to the practice of all Antiquity insomuch as Lyranus freely In the Primitive Church blessings and all other services were done in the vulgar tongue What need we look back so far when even the Lateran Council which was but in the year 1215. under Innocent the third makes this Decree Quoniam in plerisque Because in many parts within the same City and Diocese people are mixed of divers languages having under one Faith divers Rites and fashions we strictly command that the Bishops of the said Cities or Dioceses provide fit and able men who according to the diversities of their Rites and Languages may celebrate Divine Services and administer the Sacraments of the Church to them instructing them both in word and example Cardinall Bellarmine's evasion is very grosse That in that place Innocentius and the Council speak only of the Greek and Latine tongue For then saith he Constantinople was newly taken by the Romanes by reason whereof there was in Greece a mixture of Greeks and Latines insomuch as they desired that in such places of frequence two Bishops might be allowed for the ordering of those several Nations Whereupon it was concluded that since it were no other then monstrous to appoint two Bishops unto one See it should be the charge of that one Bishop to provide such under him as should administer all holy things to the Grecians in Greek and in Latine to the Latines For who sees not that the Constitution is general Plerisque partibus for very many parts of the Christian world and Populi diversarum linguarum People of sundry languages not as Bellarmine cunningly diversae linguae of a diverse language And if these two only Languages had been meant why had it not been as easie to specifie them as to intimate them by so large a circumlocution The Synod is said to be universal comprehending all the Patriarchs seventy seven Metropolitans and the most eminent Divines of both East and West Churches to the number of at least 2212 persons or as some others 2285. besides the Embassadors of all Christian Princes of several Languages Now shall we think that there were in all their Territories and Jurisdictions no mixtures of inhabitants but only of Grecians and Romans or
cometh Usurpation of others Rights violation of Oaths and Contracts and lastly erroneous Zeal are guilty of all these publick Murders Private mens injuries are washt off with tears but wrongs done to Princes and publick States are hardly wip'd off but with blood Doubtlesse that fearfull Comet did not more certainly portend these Wars then these Wars presage the approach of the end of the World The earth was never without some broils since it was peopled but with three men but so universal a combustion was never in the Christian world since it was O Saviour what can I think of this but that as thou wouldst have a generall Peace upon thy first coming into the World so upon thy second coming thou meanest there shall be a no lesse generall War upon earth That Peace made way for thy meek appearance this War for thy dreadfull and terrible XCVIII Upon a Childe crying IT was upon great reason that the Apostle charges us not to be children in Understanding What fools we all once are Even at first we crie and smile we know not wherefore we have not wit enough to make signs what hurts us or where we complain we can wry the mouth but not seek the breast and if we want help we can only lament and sprawl and die After when some months have taught us to distinguish a little betwixt things and persons we crie for every toy even that which may most hurt us and when there is no other cause we crie only to hear our own noise and are straight stilled with a greater and if it be but upon the breeding of a tooth we are so wayward that nothing will please us and if some formerly-liked knack be given to quiet us we cast away that which we have if we have not what we would seem to like We fear neither fire nor water nothing scares us but either a rod or a feigned bug-bear we mis-know our Parents not acknowledging any friend but the Taylor that brings us a fine Coat or the Nurse that dresses us gay The more that our riper years resemble these dispositions the more childish we are and more worthy both of our own and others censure But again it was upon no lesse reason that the Apostle charges us to be children in Maliciousness Those little Innocents bear no grudge they are sooner pleased then angry and if any man have wronged them let them but have given a stroke unto the Nurse to beat the offender it is enough at the same instant they put forth their hand for reconcilement and offer themselves unto those arms that trespassed And when they are most froward they are stilled with a pleasant Song The old word is that An old man is twice a childe but I say happy is he that is thus a childe alwaies It is a great imperfection to want Knowledge but of the two it is better to be a childe in Understanding then a man in Maliciousness XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sickness IT was my own fault if I look'd not for this All things must undergoe their changes I have enjoyed many fair daies there was no reason I should not at last make account of clouds and storms Could I have done well without any mixtures of sin I might have hoped for entire Health But since I have interspersed my Obedience with many sinfull failings and enormities why do I think much to interchange Health with Sickness What I now feel I know I am not worthy to know what I must feel As my times so my measures are in the hands of a wise and good God My comfort is he that sends these evils proportions them If they be sharp I am sure they are just the most that I am capable to endure is the least part of what I have deserved to suffer Nature would fain be at ease but Lord whatever become of this carkasse thou hast reason to have respect to thine own Glory I have sinned and must smart It is the glory of thy Mercy to beat my Body for the safety of my Soul The worst of Sickness is Pain and the worst of pain is but Death As for Pain if it be extreme it cannot be long and if it be long such is the difference of earthly and Hellish torments it cannot be extreme As for Death it is both unavoidable and beneficial there ends my Misery and begins my Glory a few groans are well bestowed for a preface to an immortal joy Howsoever O God thy messenger is worthy to be welcome It is the Lord let him doe whatsoever he will C. Upon the challenge of a Promise IT is true an Honest mans word must be his master when I have promised I am indebted and debts may be claimed must be payed but yet there is a great deal of difference in our ingagements some things we promise because they are due some things are onely due because they are promised These latter which are but the mere ingagements of Curtesie cannot so absolutely binde us that notwithstanding any intervention of unworthiness or misbehaviour in the person exspectant we are tied to make our word good though to the cutting of our own throats All favourable promises presuppose a capacity in the receiver where that palpably faileth common Equity sets us free I promised to send a fair Sword to my friend he is since that time turn'd frantick must I send it or be charged with unfaithfulness if I send it not O God thy Title is the God of Truth thou canst no more cease to be faithfull then to be How oft hast thou promised that no good thing shall be wanting to thine and yet we know thy dearest children have complained of want Is thy word therefore challengeable Far far be this wicked presumption from our thoughts No These thy promises of outward Favours are never but with a subintelligence of a condition of our capableness of our expedience Thou seest that Plenty or Ease would be our bane thy Love forbears to satisfie us with an harmfull Blessing We are worthy to be plagued with prejudicial kindnesses if we do not acknowledge thy Wisdome and care in our want It is enough for us that thy best Mercies are our dues because thy Promises we cannot too much claim that which thou hast absolutely ingaged thy self to give and in giving shalt make us eternally happy CI. Upon the sight of Flies WHen I look upon these Flies and gnats and worms I have reason to think What am I to my infinite Creator more then these And if these had my Reason why might they not expostulate with their Maker why they are but such why they live to so little purpose and die without either notice or use And if I had no more Reason then they I should be as they content with any condition That Reason which I have is not of my owne giving he that hath given me Reason might as well have given it to them or have made me as reason-lesse as