Joh. 6.10 11 12 13. multiplyed the loaves and fishes hee gave this sensible and undeniable proofe of the truth of this miracle both by saturitie in the stomacks of the people and by substantiall remnants thereof in the baskets When they were filled saith the Evangelist hee said to his disciples Gather the fragments that remaine that nothing be lost Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above to them that had eaten Cloven tongues The holy Ghost which now first appeared in the likenesse of tongues moved the tongues of all the Prophets that have spoken since the world began For the l 2 Pet. 1.21 prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Of all the parts of the body God especially requireth two the heart the tongue the heart whereby m Rom. 10.10 man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and the tongue whereby he maketh confession unto salvation the heart to love God the tongue to praise him Out of which consideration the Heathen as Plutarch observeth dedicated the Peach-tree to the Deitie because the fruit thereof resembleth the heart of man and the leafe his tongue And to teach us that the principall use of our tongue is to sound out the praises of our maker the Hebrew calleth the tongue Cobod that is glory as My heart was glad n Psal 16.9 30.13 57.9 Buxtorph Epit radic and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my tongue also Hebrew my glory also rejoyceth They who glorifie not God with their tongue may be truly said to have no tongue in the Hebrew language and verily they deserve no tongues who make them not silver trumpets to sound out the glory of God And if such forfeit their tongues how much more doe they who whet them against God and his truth whose mouths are full of cursing and bitternesse direfull imprecations and blasphemous oathes These have fierie tongues but not kindled from heaven but rather as S. o Chap. 3.6 James speaketh set on fire of hell and their tongues also are cloven by schisme faction and contention not as these in my text for a mysticall signification Cloven Some by cloven understand linguas bifidas two-forked tongues and they will have them to be an embleme of discretion and serpentine wisdome others linguas dissectas slit tongues like the tongues of such birds as are taught to speake and these conceive them to have beene an embleme of eloquence For such kinde of tongues p Hieroglyph l. 33. Pierius affirmeth that the Heathen offered in sacrifice to Mercurie their god of eloquence and they made them after a sort fierie by casting them into the fire ad expurgandas perperam dictorum labes to purge out the drosse of vain discourses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tongues parted at the top but joyned at the roote and they represented saith q In Act. Quia in proximo debebant dividi in omnes terras Gorrhan the dispersion of the Apostles which after ensued into all countries These tongues were not of fire but As it were of fire The matter of which these tongues consisted was not grosse and earthly but aeriall or rather heavenly like the fire which r Exod. 3.2 Moses saw in the bush for as that so this had the light but not the burning heat of fire It is not said of fires in the plurall but of fire in the singular number because as the silver trumpets were made all of one piece so these twelve tongues were made of one fierie matter to illustrate the diversitie of gifts proceeding from the same spirit And it sate Sitting in the proper sense is a bodily gesture and agreeth not to tongues or fire yet because it is a gesture of permanencie or continuance the word is generally used in the originall for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ſ Chrys in Act. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to abide or reside and so it may expresse unto us the continuance of these gifts of the Spirit in the Apostles and may put us in minde of our dutie which is to sit to our preaching and continue in the labours of the ministrie Give t 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15. attendance saith the Apostle to reading to exhortation to doctrine Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecie with the laying on of the hands of the presbyterie Meditate upon these things give thy selfe wholly to them that thy profiting may appeare to all Upon each of them Whether these tongues entred into the mouths of the Apostles as Amphilochius writeth of S. Basil or rested upon their heads as S. Cyril imagined whence some derive the custome of u Lorinus in Act. c. 2. imposition of hands upon the heads of those who are consecrated Bishops or ordained Priests it is not evident out of the text but this is certaine and evident that it sate upon each of them It sate not upon Peter onely but upon the rest as well as him S. Chrysostome saith upon the * Chrys in act c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hundred and twentie that were assembled in that upper roome those who say least affirme that it rested upon all the Apostles For howsoever the Papists take all occasions to advance S. Peter above the rest of the Apostles that the Roman See might be advanced through him as Hortensius the Oratour extolled eloquence to the skies that hee might bee lifted up thither with her yet the Scripture giveth him no preheminence here or elsewhere for Christ delivereth the keyes of heaven with the power of binding and loosing into all x Matt. 18.18 Whatsoever ye binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever yee loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven of their hands he breathes vpon them all John 20.21 22. and sendeth them with as full commission as his Father sent him All their names shine in the y Apoc. 21.14 foundation and gates of the heavenly Jerusalem and here in my text fierie cloven tongues sate upon each of them And there appeared unto them c. As in the Sacrament of Christs body so in these symbols of the spirit we are to consider two things 1. The signes or outward elements 2. The thing signified by them Of the signes yee have heard heretofore hold out I beseech you your religious attention to the remainder of the time and yee shall heare in briefe of the thing signified by them Miracles for the most part in holy Scripture are significant the cloudie pillar signified the obscure knowledge of Christ under the Law the pillar of fire the brighter knowledge of him in the Gospell the renting of the veile at the death of our Saviour the opening of the way to the Sanctum Sanctorum into which our high
not to make satisfaction so long as he held the sterne right and guided it by the compasse in like maner though our actions and good intentions miscarrie in the event we are not to be blamed if we steered our course by the compasse of Gods word though the barke be cast away as St. Pauls was the lives of all in it shall be safe and our temporall losses shall alway turne to our spirituall and eternall advantage Yea but God is in heaven we are upon earth how may we come to have speech with him or open our case to him or receive answer from him The Jewes had two meanes to receive answer from him either by the mouth of the Prophets when the spirit was on them or from the Priests when they had put on the breast-plate of judgement we have no such meanes now to enquire the will of God neither are visions nor dreames by which men in former times understood the pleasure of God now either frequent or undoubted oracles of truth yet have we still meanes to advise with God both by prayer and consulting the holy Scriptures Of the former St. James speaketh Å¿ Jam. 1.5 If any man lacke wisedome that is counsell and direction in his affaires let his aske it of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shal be given him But let him aske in faith nothing wavering c. Of the second the Prophet David t Psal 119.24 Thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellers in the Hebrew men of my counsell Having now composed the presse what remains but to clap it to the sheets and labour by a word of exhortation to print some of these rules in your harts Be wise now c. Be wise 1. In the choice of your wisdome 2. Be instructed in the means of your instruction make choice of the wisdome that commeth from above from the Father of lights not that which commeth from beneath from the Prince of darkness receive instruction from the spirit not from the flesh from God not from the world so shall you be wise unto salvation and instructed to eternal life Be your selves clients and sutors to God before your clients and sutors have accesse unto you ask counsel of him before you give counsell to them and content not your selves with the waters of the brooke or rivelet but have recourse to the u Cic. de orat l. 2. Tardâ— est ingeniâ— rivulos consectari fontes rerum non videre fountain Now the fountaine of all law is the wisedome of God as the wisest of the heathen Law-givers in effect acknowledged it Zamolxis ascribing the lawes he delivered to the people to Vesta Zoroaster to Hormasis Trismegistus to Mercurie Lycurgus to Apollo Solon to Minerva Numa to the Nymph Aegeria Minos to Jupiter If time be well spent in searching records of Courts and evidences of conveyances and titles of lands how much better in searching the holy Scriptures which are the records of heaven the deeds of Almighty God and evidences of our salvation Who would not search where he may be sure to find treasure In Scriptures you may be sure to finde it wherein all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge are hid the treasures of naturall Philosophy in Genesis of morall Philosophy in Exodus Deuteronomie and Ecclesiastes of the Politickes in the Judicials of Moses and the Proverbes of Solomon of Poetry in the Psalmes of History in the bookes of Chronicles Judges and Kings of the Mathematickes in the dimensions of the Arke and Temple of the Metaphysickes in the bookes of the Prophets and the Apocalyps Doe you desire that the tree of your knowledge in the Law should spread farre and neere and that all men should shade themselves under your boughes Water the root of the tree which beareth up your lawes and sendeth sap and life to all the branches thereof and that is true religion for x Psal 111.10 the feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisedome and a good understanding and care have all they that follow after it First to look to the maine chance and provide for their eternall estate in another world next to learne certainly that they are in state of grace here thirdly to observe where they are weakest and there to strengthen themselves against the assaults of the enemie fourthly to make use of the historie of the world and comment upon the speciall workes of Gods providence lastly to entertaine God his Prophets and Apostles for their learned counsell to direct them in all their suits in the Court of heaven and managing all their weightiest affaires on earth so shall they be sure to attain that which David so earnestly sought of God by prayer saying y Psal 73.24 Guide me by thy counsell and after that receive me to thy glory To whom c. THE JUDGES CHARGE A Sermon preached at the Readers Feast in LINCOLNES Inne THE NINTH SERMON PSAL. 2.10 Be instructed or learned yee Judges of the earth Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. AT the siege of Tarentum a Aelian de Var. hist l. 5. when the Citizens were driven by extremitie of famine to the point of yeelding themselves into the hands of the Romans they were strangely relieved by the charity of their neighbours at Rhegium who every tenth day fasted themselves and sent in their provision for that day to the Tarentines In memory of which reliefe they kept ever after a feast which they called Jejunium oâ— Festum jejunii the Fasts feast or a feast grounded on a fast Such is the Feast bid at this time in this place gained by a long prescription out of the Lent Fast It may rightly be called Festum Jejunii the Feast of the Fast a Feast of the Law beside if not contrarie to the Law of Feasts appointed by the Church Wherein yet I conceive according to the right meaning of the first founders of this exercise and Feast the Ecclesiasticall cannons of the Church and locall statutes of these houses doe not harshly clash one against the other but rather like strings tuned alike and dexterously touched make a perfect chord and strike full unisons both intending Festum Jejunii the one a spirituall the other a scholasticall the one an Evangelicall the other a Legall Feast in the time of Fast For the Church appointeth more frequent exercises of pietie and devotion Prayers Lectures and Sermons which are the soules dainties at this time than any other season of the yeere And agreeable hereunto in the Universities which are the Nurseries of Religion and Arts and in these noble Seminaries of justice and knowledge in the lawes the most solemne and profitable exercises for the proficiencie of students whether readings disputations or determinations have beene time out of minde and are yet performed in the Lent wherein the eye of the soule is the more apt and single for the contemplation of divine and humane knowledge by how much it is
in Lambeth Chappell A.D. 1622. March 23. THE TENTH SERMON JOHN 20.22 And when hee had said this hee breathed on them and saith unto them receive yee the holy Ghost Most Reverend Right Honourable Right Reverend Right Worshipfull c. A Diamond is not cut but by the point of a Diamond nor the sunne-beame discerned but by the light of the beame nor the understanding faculty of the soule apprehended but by the faculty of understanding nor can the receiving of the holy Ghost bee conceived or delivered without receiving in some a Aug tract 16. in Joh. Adsit ipse spiritus ut sic eloqui possimus degree that holiest Spirit b Ciâ— de mat Qui eloquentiam laudat debet illam ipsam adhibere quam lâ—â—dat Hee that will blazon the armes of the Queen of affections Eloquence must borrow her own pencill and colours nor may any undertake to expound this text and declare the power of this gift here mentioned but by the gift of this power Wherefore as in the interpretation of other inspired Scriptures wee are humbly to intreat the assistance of the Inspirer so more especially in the explication and application of this which is not onely effectivè à spiritu but also objectivè de spiritu not onely indited and penned as all other by the spirit but also of the spirit This of all other is a most mysterious text which being rightly understood and pressed home will not only remove the weaker fence betweene us and the Greeke Church touching the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Sonne but also beat downe and demolish the strong and high partition wall betweene the reformed and the Romane Church built upon S. Peters supremacy For if Christ therefore used the Ceremony of breathing upon his Apostles with this forme of words Receive yee the Holy Ghost as it were of set purpose visibly to represent the proceeding of the holy Spirit from himselfe why should not the Greeke Church acknowledge with us the eternall emanation of the holy Ghost from the Sonne as well as the Father and acknowledging it joyne with us in the fellowship of the same spirit Our difference and contestation with the Church of Rome in point of S. Peters primacy is far greater I confesse For the head of all controversies between us and them is the controversie concerning the head of the Church Yet even this how involved soever they make it may be resolved by this text alone For if Christ sent all his Apostles as his Father sent him if he breathed indifferently upon all if he gave his spirit and with it full power of remittting and retaining sinnes to them all then is there no ground here for S. Peters jurisdiction over the rest much lesse the Popes and if none here none elsewhere as the sequell will shew For howsoever Cajetan and Hart and some few Papists by jingling Saint Peters c Mat. 16.19 Keyes and distinguishing of a key 1 Of knowledge 2 Of power and this 1 Of order 2 Of jurisdiction and that 1 In foro exteriori the outward court 2 Foro interiori the inward court of conscience goe about to confound the harmony of the Evangelists who set all the same tune but to a different key yet this is confessed on all sides by the Fathers Hilary Jerome Austine Anselme and by the Schoole-men Lumbard Aquinas Allensis and Scotus alledged by Cardinall d Bellar. de Rom. pont l. 1. c. 12. Bellarmine that what Christ promised to Peter e Mat. 16. he performed and made good to him here but here the whole f Hieronymus adver Lucifer Cuncti claves accipiunt super omnes ex aequô ecclesiae fortitudo solidatur bunch of keyes is offered to all the Apostles and all of them receive them all are joyned with S. Peter as well in the mission as my Father sent mee so I send you as in the Commission Lastly as this text containes a soveraigne Antidote against the infection of later heresies so also against the poyson of the more ancient and farther spread impieties of Arrius and Macedonius whereof the one denyed the divinity and eternity of the Sonne the other of the holy Ghost both whose damnable assertions are confuted by consequence from this text For if Christ by breathing giveth the holy Ghost and by giving the holy Ghost power of remitting sinne then must Christ needs bee God for who but God can give or send a divine person The holy Ghost also from hence is proved to be God for who can g Mar. 2.7 or Esay 43.25 forgive sinnes but God alone So much is our faith indebted to this Scripture yet our calling is much more for what can bee spoken more honourably of the sacred function of Bishops and Priests than that the investiture and admittance into it is the receiving of the holy Ghost * Primum in unoquoque genere est mensura regula caeterorum The first action in every kind of this nature is a president to all the rest as all the furniture of the Ceremoniall law was made according to the first patterne in the Mount such is this consecration in my text the originall and patterne of all other wherein these particulars invite your religious attention 1 The person consecrating Christ the chiefe Bishop of our soules 2 The persons consecrated The Apostles the prime Pastours of the Church 3 The holy action it selfe set forth 1 With a mysterious rite he breathed on them 2 A sanctified forme of words receive ye the holy Ghost 1 First for the person consecrating All Bishops are consecrated by him originally to whom they are consecrated all Priests are ordained by him to whom they are ordained Priests the power which they are to employ for him they receive from him to whom h Matth. 28.18 all power is given both in heaven and in earth By vertue of which deed of gift he maketh i Matth. 10.2 choice of his ministers and hee sendeth them with authority k Jâ—h 20.21 as my Father sent me so I send you And hee furnisheth them with gifts saying receive yee the holy Ghost and enableth them with a double power of order to l Matth. 28.19 Teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 11.24 This do in the remembrance of me preach and administer both the sacraments and of jurisdiction also Matth. 18.18 Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall bee bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And that this sacred order is to continue in the Church and this spirituall power in this order even till Christ resigneth up his keyes and kingdome to God his Father S. Paul assureth us Eph. 4.10.11.12 Hee that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things and he gave some
eâ—antutique caeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis Cyprian makes an inference from these words for which the Popes have looked awry upon him ever since The inference is this Christ after his resurrection gave all his Apostles equall power saying as my father sent me so I send you receive ye the holy Ghost whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted Here lest any addicted to the Papacy might thrust upon the Martyrs words this meaning that Christ gave all the Apostles equall authority among themselves but not equall to Peter their head he addeth the rest of the Apostles were the same that Peter was admitted into an equall fellowship both of honour and power Marke I beseech you the Martyr speakes here not of a priviledge or singularitie but a society consortio not a superiority but a parity pari and this parity both in honour honoris and of power also potestatis where there is a parity in honour there can be no preheminencie where there is a parity in power there can be no supremacy Where then will our Adversaries fasten Upon those words of Christ u Mat. 16.18 Thou art Peter and upon this rocke will I build my Church St. Austin beats them off this hold expounding the rocke of Christ not of Peter thus Upon me I x August in haec verba Super me aedificabo te non super te aedificabo me will build thee not me upon thee Yet if we should leave it them the building upon Peter or laying him in the foundation of the Church will no more make him the supreme head of the Church than the rest of the Apostles for we read of y Apoc. 21.14 And the wall of the Citie had 12. foundations and in them the names of the 12. Apostles of the Lambe twelve foundations upon which the heavenly Jerusalem is built on which the names of the twelve Apostles were engraven and of more also now therefore saith he ye are no more strangers and forreiners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and z Eâ—hes 2. â—0 Of more Prophets From whence Saint a Jer adver Lucifer Super omnes ex aequo Ecclesiae fortitudo solidatur Jerome inferreth that the strength of the Church is solidly founded and equally built upon all the Apostles Will they fasten upon the promise made to Peter Mat. 16.19 whatsoever thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heaven these words might carry some shew of a priviledge granted to S. Peter if S. Matthew and the other Apostles were not joyned in Patent with him z Mat. 18.18 whatsoever yee shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and * Joh. 20.23 whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them The last refuge to which our adversaries flye is that text a Joh. 21.15 Feede my lambs feede my sheep Which charge of our Saviours makes nothing for Peters supremacy Peter himselfe being Interpreter for what Christ gives him he gives all Elders in charge b Pet. 5.2 Feed the flocke of God which is among you If feede my sheepe make Peter an oecumenicall Pastor then feede the flocke of Christ spoken in like manner to all Elders makes them oecumenicall Pastors If the word pasce when it is spoken to Peter signifies rule as a Monarch then pascite feede yee spoken by S. Peter to Elders must likewise bee interpreted rule yee over the Flocke of God and Church of Christ as Monarchs For as c Cic. orat pro Cecinna Nunquam obtinebis ubi tu volueris verba interdicti valere oportere ubi tu nolueris non oportere Tully spake to Ebutius so may I say to Bellarmine you shall never perswade any man of understanding that words must signifie what you will have them and conclude nothing but what you will inferre from them that the word pasce or feede when it serveth your purpose must be taken for to beare rule over the whole Church and when it serveth not then it must signifie nothing but teach as every Pastor doth Had the Apostles so understood the words of our Saviour to Saint Peter Upon this rocke will I build my house and To thee I will give the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven as the Church of Rome at this day doth viz. I will appoint thee Head of all the Apostles and visible Monarch of the Church and infallible Judge of all controversies they would never have contended as they did afterwards d Luk. 20.24 which of them should bee counted greatest they would never have taken upon them to send him e Act. 8.14 Now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent unto them Peter and John with John It is not the manner of Subjects to send their Soveraignes in Embassages or messages much lesse joyne any other of their Subjects in equall commission with them as the Apostles doe John with Peter Had the Church in the Apostles time understood that our Saviour by that charge Pasce oves meas Feed my sheep made Peter universall Pastor of the whole world and by his prayer for him that his Faith might not faile priviledged him from all possibility of errour they would have rested upon his resolution in the first f Act. 15.11 Synode Saint James would never have presumed to speake after him in the great point which was then in controversie nor have added a distinct Head or Canon of his owne That the Gentiles should abstaine from pollution of Idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from bloud The Apostolicall letter should have beene indorsed not as it was The Apostles and Elders and Brethren but Peter Christs Vicar and Monarch of the Church and the Apostles his Counsellours or after the like manner Had Saint Paul beleeved Saint Peter to be Head of the Church he would never have g Gal. 2.11 withstood him to the face as hee did at Antioch much lesse have stood upon even tearmes with him as he doth saying h 2 Cor. 12.11 In nothing am I behinde the very chiefest Apostles and i Gal. 2.6 they who seemed to be pillars added nothing to mee and ver 7. the Gospell of the uncircumcision was committed to mee as the Gospell of the circumcision was to Peter If any mans eyes are so dazeled with the lustre of the Popes triple Crowne that hee cannot see Pauls equality to Peter in the letter of the text yet hee cannot but see it in the Fathers Commentaries k Ambros in comment 2 Cor. 12. Hoc dicit quia non est minor neque in praedicatione neque in signis faciendis nec dignitate sed tempore Chry. in 2 Cor. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle speaketh on this wise saith Saint Ambrose that or because he is not
grant at the suite and for the merit of Jesus Christ and him crucified to whom with the Father and blessed Spirit bee rendered all glory praise and thanksgiving now and for ever Amen THE TREE OF LIFE SPRINGING OUT OF THE GRAVE OR Primitiae Sepulchri A Spitall Sermon preached on Munday in Easter weeke April 22. THE THIRTEENTH SERMON 1 COR. 15.20 But now Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept Right Honourable c. Plin. in panegyr Aegyptus gloriata est se nihil imbribus coeloque debere Siquidem proprio semper amne perfusa tantis segetibus induebatur ut cum feracissimis terris quasi nunquam cessura certaret PLiny the younger writeth of Egypt that she was wont to boast how shee owed nothing to the clouds or any forreine streames for her fertility being abundantly watered by the sole inundation of her owne river Nylus A like or greater priviledge it must bee confessed this renowned City hath for a long time enjoyed in that she hath not beene indebted to any wandering clouds nor needeth shee to fetch the water of life from any forreine river or neighbour spring being richly stored by the overflowing industry and learning of her most able and painefull Preachers within her selfe filling not onely the lesser cisternes of private congregations but the greater also of these most celebrious and solemne assemblies And for mine owne part so let the life blasts of the spirit refresh me in the sweat of my holy labours and the dew of heavenly benediction fall upon your religious eares as I never sought this place nor am come hither to make ostentation of any so much as conceived gifts in mee nor to broach any new opinions of mine or any other nor to set before you any forbidden fruit though never so sweet and to a well conditioned stomacke wholesome nor to smooth or levell the uneven wayes of any who plow in the Lords field with an oxe and an asse much lesse to gaine vulgar applause or spring an hidden veyne of unknowne contribution by traducing the publicke proceedings in the State or Church but onely in obedience to the call of lawfull authority to build you in your most holy faith and elevate your devotion to the due celebration of this high feast of our Lords resurrection and by crying as loud as I am able to awake those that sleepe in sinfull security that they may stand up from the dead and Christ may give them and us all light of knowledge joy and comfort Which that I may bee enabled to performe I humbly entreat the concurrence of your patience with your prayers to God for his assistance in opening the scripture now read in your eares But now Christ is risen c. This is no sterill or barren text you heare of fruits in it and although the harvest thereof hath beene reaped by many Labourers before mee yet there remaine good gleanings for mee also and those that shall leaze after me even till the Angels shall thrust their sickle into the large field of the ripe world and reape the reapers themselves The fruit is of two sorts 1 Christs prerogative 2 The deceased Saints priviledge who in their degree participate with him Hee is above them yet with them hee is the first-fruits and they are the rest of the heape and a Rom. 11.16 if the first fruits bee holy the whole heape is holy The ground which beareth this fruit Occasio scopus is the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead which the Apostle like a provident husbandman first fenceth and maketh sure and after breaketh and layeth it downe Hee fenceth it from the beginning of this chapter to the 35. verse by invincible arguments confirming the truth of the resurrection afterwards to the end of the chapter he layeth it downe by apt and lively similitudes declaring the manner thereof And this hee doth with much vehemency and contention of arguments his zeale being kindled through blasts of contradiction by some in the Church of Corinth who directly denyed the former verse 12. and obliquely carped at the latter verse 35. Neither did these alone at Corinth as much as in them lay subvert this maine article of our faith b 2 Tim. 2.18 but Hymeneus and Philetus with others at Ephesus perverted the sense of it saying that the resurrection was past already Obser 1 Whence I first observe against Bellarmine Parsons and other Papists that the Divell tyed not himselfe as they have surmized to any rule of method ex occas in laying his batteries against the articles of the Creed in order For the resurrection of the flesh is the last article save one yet hereticall impiety as you have heard first ventured on it Howbeit the Cardinal that he might more conveniently tye all whom hee supposeth Heretickes in one chaine and thrust us into the lowest place c Bellar. orat habit in Gymnas Roâ— anno 1576. Hâ—manigeneris ostis eâ—itotus alioqui perversus ordinis perturbator esse soleat tamen non sine aliquo ordine catholicae ecclesiae veritatem oppugnate volâ—â—t c. beareth his Reader in hand that the enemy of mankinde albeit in other things hee bee a disturber of order yet in impeaching the Apostles creed hath kept a kind of order 1 For within 200. yeeres after Christ hee assaulted the first article concerning God the Father almighty maker of heaven and earth by the Simonians Menandrians Basilidians Valentinians Marcionites Manichees and severall kinde of Gnostickes 2 After 200. yeeres hee set upon the second article concerning the divine nature of Christ by the Praxeans Noetians Sabellians and Samosetanians 3 In the next age he opposed the divine person of our Saviour by the Photineans Arrians and Eunomians 4 From 400. to 800. he impugned the third fourth fifth sixth and seventh concerning the incarnation passion resurrection ascension of our Lord and his comming to judgement by the Nestorians Theodorians Eutychians Acephali Sergians and Paulians 5 From the yeere 800. to 1000. hee bid battell to the eighth article concerning the holy Ghost by the schisme and heresie of the Graecians 6 Lastly from the 1000. yeere to this present age hee hath oppugned the ninth and tenth articles concerning the catholicke Church and remission of sinnes by the Berengarians Petrobrusians Waldenses Albigenses Wicklefists Hussites Lutherans Zuinglians Confessionists Hugonites and Anabaptists Refut Were these calculations exact and observations true the Cardinall deserved to bee made Master of ceremonies amongst heretickes for so well ranking them But upon examination of particulars it will appeare that his skill in history is no better than his divinity To begin where hee endeth First hee most falsly and wrongfully chargeth the worthy standard-bearers of the reformed religion before Luther with the impeaching the ninth and tenth articles of the creede They impeach neither of them nor any other nay they will sooner part with the best limbe of
where divers candles or torches in a roome concurre to enlighten the place the light of them remaineth impermixt as the Optickes demonstrate by their severall shadowes so all the divine graces conjoyne their lustre and vertue to adorne and beautifie the inward man yet their nature remaines distinct as their speciall effects make it evident to a single and sharp-sighted eye God was in the bush that burned and consumed not yet God was not the bush The holy Ghost was in the fiery cloven tongues yet the holy Ghost was not the tongues The spirits runne along in the arteries with the purer and refined blood yet the spirits are not the blood The fire insinuateth it selfe into all the parts of melted metall and to the eye nothing appeareth but a torrent of fire yet the fire is not the metall in like manner zeale shineth and flameth in devotion love godly jealousie indignation and other sanctified desires and affections it enflameth them as fire doth metall it stirreth and quickeneth them as the spirits doe the blood yet zeale is not those passions neither are all or any of them zeale howsoever the schooles rather out of zeale of knowledge than knowledge of zeale have determined the contrary 2 Secondly zeale is defined to bee not a morall vertue but a divine gift or grace of the Spirit the Spirit of God is the efficient cause and the Spirit of man is the subject which the Apostle intimates in that phrase i Rom. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being fervent or zealous in Spirit This fire like that of the Vestals is kindled from heaven by the beames of the Sunne of righteousnesse not from any kitchen on earth much lesse from hell They therefore qui irae suae stimulum zelum putant they who imagine the flashes of naturall choler are flames of spirituall zeale toto coelo errant are as farre from the marke as heaven is distant from the earth No naturall or morall temper much lesse any unnaturall and vitious distemper can commend us or our best actions to God and men as zeale doth The fire of zeale like the fire that consumed Solomons sacrifice commeth downe from heaven and true zealots are not those Salamanders or Pyrausts that alwayes live in the fire of hatred and contention but Seraphims burning with the spirituall fire of divine love who as Saint Bernard well noteth kept their ranke and station in heaven when the other Angels of Lucifers band that have their names from light fell from theirs Lucifer cecidit Seraphim stant to teach us that zeale is a more excellent grace than knowledge even in Angels that excell in both Howbeit though zeale as farre surpasse knowledge as the sunne-beame doth a glow-worme yet zeale must not be without knowledge Wherefore God commandeth the Priest when hee k Exod. 30.8 lighteth the lamps to burne incense though the fire bee quicke and the incense sweet yet God accepteth not of the burning it to him in the darke The Jewes had a zeale as the l Rom. 10.2 Apostle acknowledgeth and the Apostle himselfe before his conversion yet because it wanted knowledge it did them and the Church of God great hurt No man can bee ignorant of the direfull effects of blind zeale when an unskilfull Phaeton takes upon him to drive the chariot of the sunne hee sets the whole world in a combustion What a mettled horse is without a bridle or a hot-spurred rider without an eye or a ship in a high winde and swelling saile without a rudder that is zeale without knowledge which is like the eye in the rider to choose the way or like the bridle in the hand to moderate the pace or like the rudder in the ship to steere safely the course thereof Saint m Inser 22. in Cant. Bernard hits full on this point Discretion without zeale is slow paced and zeale without discretion is heady let therefore zeale spurre on discretion and discretion reyne zeale fervor discretionem erigat discretio fervorem regat Discretion must guide zeale as it is guided by spirituall wisedome not worldly policy and therefore Thirdly I adde in the definition of zeale that it quickeneth and enflameth all our holy desires and affections according to the direction of spirituall wisdome For wisdome must prescribe zeale when and where and how far and in what order to proceede in reforming all abuses in Church and State and performing all duties of religious piety and eminent charity What Isocrates spake sometime of valour or strength is as true of zeale viz. n Isoc ad Dem. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that zeale and resolution with wisedome doth much good but without it doth much mischiefe to our selves and others like granadoes and other fire-works which if they be not well looked to and ordered when they breake do more hurt to them that cast them than to the enemie Yet that we be not deceived in mistaking worldly policy for wisdome I adde spirituall to difference it from carnall morall or civill wisedome for they are too great coolers they will never let zeale exceed the middle temper of that * Vibius Statesman in Tiberius Court who was noted to bee a wise and grave Counseller of a faire carriage and untainted reputation but hee would o Juven sat 4. Ille igitur nunquam direxit brachia contra torrentem never strike a stroake against the streame hee would never owne any mans quarrell hee would bee sure to save one Such is the worldly wise man hee will move no stone though never so needfull to bee removed if hee apprehend the least feare that any part of the wall will fall upon himselfe The p Cic. de orat l. 1. Tempus omne post consulatum objecimus iis fluctibus qui per nos à communi peste depulsi in nosmetipsos redundarunt Romane Consul and incomparable Oratour shall bee no president for him who imployed all his force and strength to keepe off those waves from the great vessel of the State which rebounded backe againe and had neere drowned the cocke-boate of his private fortune Hee will never ingage himselfe so farre in any hot service no not though Gods honour and the safety of the Church lye at stake but that he will be sure to come off without hazzard of his life or estate Hee hath his conscience in that awe that it shall not clamour against him for not stickling in any businesse that may peradventure reflect upon his state honour or security In a word peradventure he may bee brought with much adoe to doe something for God but never to suffer any thing for him This luke-warme Laodicean disposition the lesse offensive it is to men the more odious it is to God who is a jealous God and affecteth none but those that are zealous for his glory he loveth none but those that will bee content to expose themselves to the hatred of all men for his names sake Hee q
blessed Virgin the babe a Luke 1.41 sprang in the wombe of Elizabeth so I doubt not but that at the reading of this text in your eares the fruits of your devotion which are your religious thoughts and zealous affections leap and spring for joy in the wombe of your soule for now is the accepted time the time of grace now is the day of salvation the day of our Lords Incarnation As the golden tongued Father spake of a Martyr Martyrem dixisse laudâsse est to name a man a Martyr is to commend him sufficiently so it may be said of this text to rehearse it is to apply it I need not fit it to the time for the time falleth upon this time and the day upon this day now if ever is this Now in season If any time in all the yeere be more acceptable than other it is the holy time we now celebrate now is the accepted time on Gods part by accepting us to favour now is the day of salvation by exhibiting to us a Saviour in our flesh let us make it so on our parts also by accepting the grace offered unto us and by laying hands on our Saviour by faith and embracing him by love and by joy dilating our hearts to entertain him with all his glorious attendants a troupe of heavenly Souldiers singing b Luke 2.14 Glory be to God on high on earth peace and good will towards men c Esay 49.13 Sing O heavens and be joyfull O earth and breake forth into shouting O ye mountaines for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon the afflicted Keepe this holy day above others because chosen by God to manifest himselfe in the flesh bid by an Angell and by him furnished both with a lesson and with an Anthem also Well might the Angell as on this day sing glory in excelsis Deo c. for on this day the Son of God out of his good will towards men became man and thereby set peace on earth and brought infinite glory to God in the highest heavens Well may this be called by the Apostle d Gal. 4.4 The fulnesse of time or a time of fulnesse which filled heaven with glory the earth with blessings of peace and men with graces flowing from Gods good will The heavens which till this time were as clasped boxes now not able longer to containe in them the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind burst open and he whose name is e Cant. 1.3 an ointment poured forth was plentifully shed upon the earth to revive the decayed spirits and heale the festered sores of wounded mankind Lift up then your heavie lookes and heavier hearts yee that are in the midst of danger and in the sight nay within the claspes of eternall death you have a Saviour borne to rescue you Cheare up your drouping and fainting spirits all ye that feele the smart and anguish of a bruised conscience and broken heart to you Christ is borne to annoint your wounds bruises and sores Exult and triumph ye gally slaves of Satan and captives of Hell fast bound with the chaine of your sinnes to you a Redeemer is borne to ransome you from spirituall thraldome Two reasons are assigned why festivities are religiously to be kept 1. The speciall benefits of God conferred upon his Church at such times which by the anniversary celebration of the dayes are refreshed in our memories and visibly declared to all succeeding ages 2 The expresse command of God which adjoyned to the former reason maketh the exercises of devotion performed at these solemnities duties of obedience It cannot be denied that in this latter consideration those feasts which are set downe in the booke of God have some prerogative above those that are found wrtiten onely in the Calendar of the Church But in the former respect no day may challenge a precedencie of this no not the Sabbath it selfe which the more to honour him whose birth we now celebrate resigned both his name place and rites to the f Athanas hom de semenie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords day and if we impartially compare them the worke wrought on this day was farre more difficult and the benefit received upon it greater than that to the memory whereof the Sabbath was at the first dedicated It was a greater miracle that God should be made a creature than that he should make all creatures and the redemption of the world so farre exceeds the creation as the means by which it was wrought were more difficult and the time larger the one was finished in sixe dayes by the commandement of God the other not in lesse than foure and thirty yeeres by the obedience of Christ the one was but a word with God the breath of his mouth gave life to all creatures the other cost him much labour sweat and bloud and what comparison is there betweene an earthly and an heavenly Paradise Nay if wee will judge by the event the benefit of our creation had beene none without our redemption For by it we received an immortall spirit with excellent faculties as it were sharpe and strong weapons wherewith wee mortally wounded our selves and had everlastingly laid weltring in our own blood had not our Saviour healed our wounds by his wounds and death and raised us up againe by the power of his resurrection To which point Saint Austine speaking feelingly saith Si natus non fuisset bonum fuisset si homo natus non fuisset If hee had not beene borne it had beene good for man never to have beene borne if this accepted time had not come all men had beene rejected if this day of salvation had not appeared wee had all perished in the night of eternall perdition Behold now is the accepted time In this Scripture as in a Dyall wee may observe 1 The Index 2 The Circles Certaine Behold Different 1 The larger 2 The narrower The accepted time The day of salvation To man in generall it is an accepted time to every beleever in particular it is a day of salvation Lynx cum cessat intueri cessat recordari Because we are like the Lynx which mindeth nothing no longer than her eye is upon it the Spirit every where calleth upon us to looke or behold Behold not alwayes or at any time but now not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not time simply but season the flower of time not barely accepted but according to the originall well accepted or most acceptable not the day of helpe or grace but a day of salvation As in the bodies which consist of similar parts the forme of the whole and the forme of every part is all one for example the whole ocean is but water and yet every drop thereof is water the whole land is but earth and yet every clod thereof is earth the
even as a good Carpenter in stead of a rotten groundsill layes a sound The same trust then must we give to God which we must not give to riches him must we esteeme above all things looke up to him in all things depend upon him for all things This is to trust in God which the Psalmist in his sweet dittie saith is a good thing good in respect of God for our trust in him is one of the best pieces of his glorie Joseph holds Potiphars trust a great honour 2. For us for what safety what unspeakable comfort is therein trusting to God Our Saviour in his farewell Sermon John 16. perswading to confidence saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word signifying boldnesse and what is there in all the world that can worke the heart to so comfortable and unconquerable resolution as our reposall upon God The Lord is my trust whom then can I feare They that put their trust in the Lord are as mount Sion that cannot be moved Oh cast your selves therefore into those almighty hands seeke him in whom you shall finde true rest and happinesse honour him with your substance that hath honoured you with it trust not in riches but trust in God Riches are but for this world the true God is Lord of the other therefore trust in him riches are uncertaine the true God is Amen ever like himselfe ergo trust in him riches are meere passive they cannot bestow so much as themselves much lesse ought besides themselves the true God gives you all things to enjoy riches are but a livelesse and senselesse metall God is The living God Life is an ancient and usuall title of God he for the most part sweares by it When Moses asked his name he described himselfe by I am He is he liveth and nothing is and nothing lives absolutely but he all other things by participation from him In all other things their life and they are two but God is his owne life and therefore as Aquinas acutely disputeth against the Gentiles must needs be eternall because beeing cannot be severed from it self Howbeit not only the life he hath in himselfe but the life which he giveth to his creatures challengeth a part in this title A glympse whereof the heathen had when they called Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those creatures which have life we esteem beyond those that have it not how noble soever other waies those things be Therfore he that hath the perfectest life must needs be the best God therefore who is life it self fountain of all that life which is in the world is most worthy of all the adoration joy love and confidence of our hearts and the best improvement of that life which he hath given us Trust therefore in the living God not in riches that is idolatrie yea madnesse What greater madnesse can there be than to bestow that life which we have from God upon a creature that hath no life in it selfe nor price but from men Let me then perswade every soule that heares me this day as Jacob did his houshold Put away the strange gods that are among you or as St. Paul did his Lystrians O turne away from these vanities to the living God who gives us richly All things to enjoy Every word would require not a severall houre but a life to meditate upon and the tongues not of men but of Angels to expresse it God not onely hath all in himselfe but he gives to us and gives us not somewhat but all things and not a little of all but richly and all this not to looke on but to enjoy Here the Preacher said it should content him to top the sheaves onely because he could not stand to thresh them out it shall content me with the Apostles to rub some few eares because I cannot stand to top the sheaves Whither can you turne your eyes to looke besides the bounty of God If you looke upwards his mercie reacheth to the heavens if downewards the earth is full of his goodnesse and so is the broad sea if you looke about you what is it that he hath not given us aire to breathe in fire to warme us water to coole us cloathes to cover us food to nourish us fruits to refresh us yea delicates to please us beasts to serve us Angels to attend us heaven to receive us and which is above all his sonne to redeeme us Lastly if we looke into our selves hath he not given us a soule rarely furnished with the faculties of understanding will memorie and judgement a body wonderfully accommodated to execute the charge of the soule and an estate that yeelds due conveniencies for both moreover seasonable times peace competencie if not plentie of all commodities good lawes religious wise just Governours happie and flourishing dayes and above all the liberty of the Gospell More particularly cast up your Bookes O yee Citizens and summe up your receits I am deceived if he that hath least shall not confesse his obligation to be infinite There are three things especially wherein yee are beyond others and must acknowledge your selves deeper in the bookes of God than the rest of the world First for your deliverance from that wofull judgement ef the Pestilence O remember those sorrowfull times when every moneth swept away thousands from among you when a man could not set forth his foot but into the jawes of death when piles of carcasses were carried to their pits as dung to the fields when it was crueltie in the sicke to admit visitation and love was little better than murderous Secondly for your wonderfull plentie of all provisions spirituall and bodily Yee are like the Sea all the Rivers of the land runne into you nay sea and land conspire to enrich you Thirdly for the priviledge of your governement your charters as they are large and strong so your forme of administration is excellent and the execution of justice exemplarie For all these you have reason to aske with David Quid retribuam and to trust in God who hath beene so gracious unto you And thus from the duty we owe to God in our confidence and his beneficence to us we descend to the beneficence which we owe to men expressed in the varietie of foure epithetes to one sense To doe good to be rich in good workes ready to distribute willing to communicate all is but beneficence This heape of words shewes the vehement intention of his desire of good workes and the important necessitie of the performance and the manner of this expression enforceth no lesse Charge the rich c. Hearken then yee rich men of the world it is not left arbitrarie to you that you may doe good if you will but it is layd upon you as your charge and dutie the same necessity there is of trusting in God is of doing good to men Let me fling this stone at the brasen forehead of our Romish Adversaries whom their shamelesse challenges
it be unlawfull to make an image of God what suppose you is it to make a god of an Image by adoring it in Gods stead Was not Phoedra an adulteresse when shee lay with Hipolytus because shee protested that shee embraced Theseus in him whom he so neere resembled Were the Jewes that worshipped the Calfe or they that worshipped the brasen Serpent or the image of Baal free from idolatry They dare not say it because the Spirit of God condemneth them for Idolaters yet they might plead for themselves as Papists doe that they worshipped God in the Calfe and Christ to come in the Serpent and him that dwelleth in a light that cunnot bee approached unto in the image of Baal or the Sunne For they were not such Calves as to fixe their devotion on a Calfe of their owne making they were not so deceived by the old Serpent as to attribute divine power to a Serpent of brasse their eyes were not so dazled with the beames of the Sunne that they mistooke the Sunne for God No the words of q Exod. 32.5 Aaron To morrow is a feast Jehovae to the Lord and those of God himselfe Thou r Hos 2.16 shalt call me no more Baal for I will take away the names of Baalim out of their mouth make it a cleare case that they made but a stale of the Image who bowed downe before it intending the honour to God himselfe as Å¿ Joseph antiq Jud. Jeroboam instituit ut in vitulis Deus coleretur Josephus testifieth of Jeroboam Jeroboam saith hee appointed that God should bee worshipped in those Calves which he set up in Dan and Bethel And what shall we say if Papists are indebted to the Heathen for this answer who set this varnish upon their idolatrous practice as you may see in t Lact. divin institut l. 2. c. 2. Non simulacra colimus sed eos ad quorum imaginem sunt facta Lactantius u Tyr. ser 38. Dicunt se maximum Deum in simulacris colere Tyrius and * Clem. constit Apostol lib. 1. cap. 6 7. Aiunt nos ad honorem invisibilis Dei visibilâ—s Imagines adoramus Clemens Romanus Saint Paul also testifieth as much of the Heathen in generall Rom. 1.23 They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and to foure footed beasts and to creeping things And of the Athenians in particular Acts 17.23 Whom therefore yee ignorantly worship him declare I unto you The greatest God as Tyrius speaketh the invisible God as Clemens the incorruptible God as the Apostle the God whom Paul preached the Lord Jehovah is the true God that made heaven and earth yet the Jewes and Gentiles who worshipped him by an image or according to their own imaginations in Scripture stand charged with Idolatry and for ought appeares to the contrary as deeply as if their devotion had pitched and settled upon the image of the Calfe the Serpent the Sunne the starre Rempham the similitudes of men birds or creeping things and not glaunced by them to their Maker Yee heare that the Papists plea take it at the best is no better than the idolatrous Jewes plea the Priests of Baals plea the Gentiles plea and what if the learnedest of their owne side debarre them of this plea also what if their great Doctors teach that the image is to be worshipped for it selfe and not only in relation to the prototypon as they speake what if they curse all those who make any scruple of the veneration of Images Certainly Cardinall x Lib. 2. de Imag Sanc. c. 21. Imagines Christi Sanctorum venerandae sunt non solum per accidens impropriè sed etiam per se propriè ita ut ipsae terminent venerationem ut in se considerantur non solùm ut vicem gerunt exemplaris Bellarmine his words are plaine enough The Images of Christ and Saints are to be worshipped not only by accident and improperly but also by or for themselves and properly in such sort that they bounded termined the worship as they are considered in themselvs and not only as they stand for the samplar that is the person or thing they represent This his assertion he there endeavoureth to prove out of the second Councell of Nice and the late Conventicle at Trent which who so readeth cannot but see that speech of the Prophet David verified in the Patrons thereof They that make Images are like unto them and so are all they that put their trust in them To which text Clemens Alexandrinus as it seemeth to mee had an eye in that his pleasant allusion whereby hee representeth the folly of Idolaters As saith hee the naturall birds were beguiled by the counterfeit and flew to the Pigeons that were drawne in the Painters shop so naturall stockes flye to artificiall senslesse men to senslesse Idols How wardeth the Cardinall off this blow after this manner Wee have no recourse unto nor performe any religious service to any Idoll though wee both teach and practice Image-worship Why what is the difference between an Image and an Idoll An Image saith he is the representation of something which really subsisteth as of God Angel or man but an Idoll is the semblance of a thing feigned or imaginary that hath no beeing at all but in the fancy of the deviser God in the Law forbiddeth us to worship the later sorts of similitudes not the former Let us try this new coined distinction by the touch-stone of Gods Word How is it written y Exod. 20.4 Thou shalt not make to thy selfe Pesell that is any thing that is carved or graven as not only the interlineary Vatablus Tremelius z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sculptile and the Septuagint but the vulgar Latine also corrected by Sixtus a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sculpsit dolavit Buxtorf Epit. rad and revised by Clemens render the Hebrew Admit that the word Pesel signifieth not an Image as Justin Martyr translateth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but an Idoll say these first words of the commandement meet with the worshippers of Idols not of Images yet certainly the clause following nor the likenesse of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth reacheth home to all Images For all Images are likenesses of something in heaven earth or under the earth The Idoll of Baal was the likenesse of something in heaven the Calfe of something on earth Dagon of something in the waters under the earth For the first was the representation and similitude of the Sunne the second of a Beast the third of a Fish yet the Scripture calleth these images Idols and their worshippers Idolaters therefore the Papists are in the same damnation with them and contradict themselves in terminis in saying they worship Images not Idols For every Image worshipped is an Idoll True say
in their mouths and they cannot freely powre out their soules into the bosome of their Redeemer but they looke not into the cause of it they have not got a stocke of heavenly knowledge and sanctified formes of words their hearts are not filled with the holy spirit for were they full they would easily vent themselves They cannot freely bring forth because they have laid up nothing in the treasurie of their hearts To Peter and the rest of the Apostles As those that were wounded with the darts of Achilles could no otherwise bee cured than by his salves and plaisters so the Jewes who were wounded by S. Peters sharp reprehension could be by no other meanes cured than by his owne salves and receipts which he prescribeth afterwards Here our o Lorin comment in Act. c. 2. Aliàs notatum est quoties Petri cum aliis Apostolis mentio fit Petrum primo loco poni tanquam ducem ideoque nunc Judaei omnes ad illum se convertunt in c. 1. v. 13. Facit ad Petri primatum non mediocriter quod tum Lucas in isto capite sicut in Evangelio texens Apostolorum catalogum ut etiam Matthaeus Marcus primum ante omnes nominant adversaries who will not let the least tittle fall to the ground that may serve any way to advance the title and dignity of the Bishop of Rome will have us take speciall notice that here and elsewhere Peter is named before the rest of the Apostles and that yee may know that all is fish that comes to Peters net Bellarmine will tell you that the Popes monarchy is proclaimed in those words in the Acts Rise up Peter kill and eat Acts 11.7 I know not with what perspective the Cardinall readeth the Scriptures but sure I am hee seeth more in this vision than any of the ancient or later Commentators ever discerned yet Baronius seeth more than he Those were healed saith hee who came but within the shadow of Peter Acts 5.15 They brought forth the sicke into the streets and laid them on beds or couches that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might over-shadow them The same vertue is given to the shadow of Peter which is given to his body that we might know that such store of grace was given to Peter that God would have the same gifts derived to his successours who represent his person Thus as yee see the Papists as men in danger of drowning catch at every rotten stake to support their faith in the Popes supremacy Lorinus catcheth at the placing of a word Bellarmine at a mysticall apparition and p Baron ad an 34. p. 303. Eadem virtus umbrae corporis Petri tradita quae corpori ut cognoscamus tantam gratiarū copiā Petro collatam ut eadem dona in successoribus qui referunt personam Petri propagari Deus voluerit Baronius at a shadow What serveth this shadow to illustrate or confirme the Popes or Peters supremacie It pleased God for the manifestation of his power and the performance of Christs promise to his disciples that they in his name should worke greater miracles than some of those that he had done to heale the sick by Pauls handkerchiefes and Peters shadow Ergo Peter was chiefe of all the Apostles and the Pope the Monarch of the visible Church Neither is there any clearer evidence in that vision which S. Peter saw of a sheet let downe from heaven in which there were foure-footed beasts of the earth and wilde beasts and creeping things and fowles of the aire And hee heard a voyce saying unto him Arise Peter slay and eat At manducare est capitis saith the Cardinall but it is the head that eateth the Pope therefore is the head Hee should better have concluded the Popes are the teeth for S. Peter himselfe made no other interpretation of this vision than that the Gentiles whose hearts God had purified by faith were not to bee accounted uncleane and therefore he alledgeth this apparition in his apologie for going unto the uncircumcised and eating with them As little maketh the setting of Peters name before the rest for his authority over them For here was a speciall reason why the Jewes directed their speech to Peter in the first place because it was he who charged them so deepe he put them in this perplexity and therefore to him they addressed themselves for counsell and comfort Elsewhere where there is not the like occasion others are named before him as q Gal. 2.9 James Cephas and John who seemed pillars James and ſ Marke 16.7 Tell the disciples and Peter Andrew and the r John 4.2 the citie of Andrew and Peter Disciples Here I demand of Lorinus doth the naming of Andrew before Peter or of James or the Disciples prove that any of these were superiours to Peter If they were what becomes of Peters supremacie If they were not what maketh the naming him before them for it Without all question if the setting of Peter after the rest of the Apostles Disciples in the texts above alledged maketh not against the setting him here before them maketh not for his supremacy Men and brethren what shall we doe Seneca saith Levis dolor est qui consilium capit It is a light griefe which admitteth of consultation but wee may say more truly Sanus dolor est qui consilium capit It is an healthfull malady and an happie griefe which drives us to our spirituall Physitian and exciteth us to a carefull use of the meanes of salvation S. t 2 Cor. 7.9 11. Paul rejoyced at this symptome in his patients at Corinth Now I rejoyce not that yee were made sorrie but that yee sorrowed to repentance for behold this selfe same thing that yee sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulnesse it wrought in you c. What shall we doe to satisfie the Father for the death of his Sonne to ease our burthened consciences to wash away the guilt of the effusion of innocent bloud Behold here the effects of soule-ravishing eloquence attention compunction and a sollicitous enquiry after the meanes of everlasting salvation or if yee like better of an allegoricall partition see here 1. The weapon wherewith they were wounded the Word preached when they heard c. 2. The wound which was a pricke at the heart 3. The cure not words but deeds they said what shall we doe Here yee have a patterne both of a faithfull teacher and religious hearers a faithfull teacher tickleth not the eares but pricketh the heart his words are not like bodkins to curle the haire but like goads and nailes that pricke the heart though the goads goe not so deepe that pierce but the skin the nailes goe farther for they are driven to the very heart of the auditors up to the head The religious hearer when he is reproved for his sin spurneth not at the Minister of God but receiving the words with meeknesse communeth with his owne
him Apoc. 1.7 even they that nailed him to the Crosse and pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him Yea and Amen then he shall bring or send forth judgement unto victory He brought forth judgement in his life by preaching the Gospel in his owne person and he sent it forth after his death by the ministery of his Apostles and doth still by propagating the Church but hee bringeth not forth judgement unto victory in the Evangelists phrase because this his judgement is much oppressed the light of his truth smoothered the pure doctrine of the Gospel suppressed the greater part of the Kings of the earth and Potentates of this world refusing to submit their scepter to his Crosse and saying as it is in St. Lukes Gospel Luke 17.14 Wee will not have this man to reigne over us but when the sonne of man shall display his banner in the clouds and the winds shall have breathed out their last gaspes and the sea and the waters shall roare when heaven and earth shall make one great bonefire when the stage of this world shall be removed and all the actors in it shall put off their feigned persons and guises and appeare in their owne likenesse when the man of sinne 2 Thes 2.3 8. that exalteth himselfe above all that is called God shall be fully revealed and after consumed with the spirit of Christs mouth and be destroyed by the brightnesse of his comming then he shall suddenly confound the rest of his enemies Atheists Hypocrites Jewes Turkes Idolatrous Gentiles and Heretikes and breake the neckes of all that stubbornly resist him and then the truth shall universally prevaile and victoriously triumph All this variety of descant which you heare is but upon two notes a higher and a lower the humility and the majesty the infirmity and the power the obscurity and the glory the mildnesse and the severity of our Lord and Saviour his humility upon earth his majesty in heaven his infirmities in the dayes of his flesh and his power since hee sitteth at the right hand of his Father the obscurity and privacy of his first comming and solemnity of his second his mildnesse and clemency during the time of grace and mercy and his wrath and severity at the day of Judgement and Vengeance Ecce tibiâ cecinimus vobis Behold out of this Scripture I have piped unto you recording the pleasing notes of our Redeemers mildnesse and mercy who never brake the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flaxe now I am to mourne unto you sounding out the dolefull notes of his justice and severity which shall one day bring forth judgement unto victory But before I set to the sad tune pricked before mee in the rules of my Text I am to entreat you to listen a while till I shall have declared unto you the harmony of the Prophet Esay and the Evangelist S. Matthew the rather because there seemeth some dissonancy and jarre between them For in Esay we reade Esay 42.3 Hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth that is give sentence according to truth but in St. Matthew He shall send forth judgement unto victory which importeth somewhat more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. that the judgement he shall send forth viam inveniet aut faciet shall either finde way or force it take place or make place no man or divell being able to withstand it Besides this discord in their notes there is a sweet straine in the Prophet he shall not faile Verse 4. nor bee discouraged till hee have set judgement on the earth left out in the Evangelist To the first exception the Jesuit Maldonat saith that the Syriack word signifieth both truth and victory and that Saint Matthew wrote not in pure Hebrew but in the Hebrew then currant which was somewhat alloyed and embased with other languages which if it were granted unto him as it is not by those who defend that the Greeke in the New Testament is the originall yet the breach is not fully made up For still the originall Hebrew in Esay and the Greeke in Saint Matthew which hath been ever held authenticall are at odds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew signifying truth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke signifying victory and not truth I grant the truth of Christ is most victorious and hath subdued all the false gods of the Heathen as the Arke laid Dagon on his face and the rod of Aaron devoured all the rods of the Magicians yet truth and victory are not all one A weake Judge may bring forth judgement unto truth yet not unto victory as on the contrary a potent and corrupt Judge may bring forth judgement unto victory yet not unto truth Tully in a bad cause prevailed against Oppianicus by casting dust in the Judges eyes And Aeschines prevailed not against Ctesiphon in a good cause Right is often overcome by might and sometimes by the sleight of a cunning Advocate for the false part To the second objection Beza answereth that these words that hee will not faile nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement on the earth were anciently in St. Matthew but of late through the carelesnesse of some transcriber from whose copy ours were drawne are left out But sith this Verse is wanting in all the copies of Saint Matthew now extant neither can Beza bring good proofe of any one in which this Verse was ever found it is not safe to lay any such imputation upon the first transcribers of St. Matthewes Gospel whereby a gap may be opened to Infidels and Heretickes to cavell at the impeachable authority of the holy Scriptures in the originall languages A safe and easie way to winde out of these perplexed difficulties is to acknowledge that the Evangelist who wrote by the same spirit wherewith the Prophet Esay was inspired tyed nor himselfe precisely to the Prophets words but fitteth the Prophets sense to his owne purpose and what the Prophet delivered in two Verses he contracteth into one For what is hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth and he shall not faint nor be discouraged till hee hath done it but that he shall doe it effectually and powerfully and what is that but he shall send forth judgement unto victory Hee shall send forth Cal. in Mat. 1. Hoc verbum educere quo utitur Propheta significat officium Christi esse Regnum Dei quod tum inclusum erat in angulo Judeae propagare in totum orbem This phrase reacheth forth unto us a twofold observation the first touching the extent the second touching the freedome of this judgement here spoken of By judgement is here meant the Kingdome of Christ which must not bee confined to Jury nor bounded within the pale of Palaestine but hee sent forth that is propagated and spread over the whole world according to the prophecy of the Psalmist a Psal 110.2 The Lord shall send a rod of thy strength out
the justification of King Davids lesson read in my text to Princes and Judges a quo tandem aequius est doceri Reges quam a Rege erudiri Judices quam a Judice Who so proper to tutour Kings as a King who might better give Judges their charge than the chiefe Judge and Soveraigne Justice in his Kingdome Not onely nature and bloud but arts also and professions make a kinde of brotherhood and an admonition that commeth from a man in place to another in like place and office that is spoken by authority to authority carrieth a double authority and cannot but be entertained with due respect and carefull regard Therefore God in his wisedome instructed the Prophet David by b 2. Sam. 7.3.5 Nathan a Prophet reproved the Apostle Saint c Gal. 2.14 Peter by Paul an Apostle informed John the d Apoc. 7.14 Elder by an Elder and here adviseth Kings by a King Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be learned yee Judges of the earth In this verse we have 1. A lesson applied Of wisedome to Kings Of instruction to Judges 2. A reason implied in the words of the earth that is Either Kings and Judges made of earth Or made Kings and Judges of earth Kings and Judges are but men of earth earthly and therefore in subjection to the God of heaven and they are made Kings and Judges onely of the earth that is earthly and humane affaires and therefore in subordination to divine and heavenly Lawes For the order first King David commendeth wisedome to Kings and then instruction or learning viz. in the Lawes to Judges Kings are above Judges and wisedome the glorie of a Prince above learning the honour of a Judge Kings make Judges and wisdome makes learned as the power of Kings is the source of the authoritie of Judges so wisedome is the fountaine of all lawes and consequently of all instruction and learning in them First therefore be wise O ye Kings to make good Lawes and then be learned O ye Judges in these Lawes and found Yee your wisedome Yee your learning in humility for it is earth not onely upon which your consistory stands but also of which you your selves consist As the tongue is moved partly by a muscle in it selfe partly by an artery from the heart so besides the motive to these vertues in this verse it selfe there is a reason drawne by the spirit to enforce these duties from the heart of this Psalme ver 6. which is like an artery conveying spirit and life to this admonition here Yet have I set my King c. as if the Prophet had said Behold O Kings a throne above yours set in the starres behold O Judges of the earth a tribunall or judgement seat above yours established in the clouds There is a King of heaven by whom all earthly Kings reigne and a Judge of quicke and dead to whom all Judges of the earth are accountable e Horat. od car l. 3. od 1. Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis Kings are dreadfull to their subjects God to Kings Judges call other men to the barre but Christ Jesus shall summon all Judges one day to his tribunall f Cyp. de mortal justissimè judicaturus a quibus est injustissimè judicatus most justly to judge Judges by whom both in himselfe and in his members he hath beene most unjustly judged O Kings The more excellent the office the more eminent the qualitie ought to be no vertue so befits a Prince as religious wisedome the Queen of all vertues be wise therefore O yee Kings excell in the grace which excelleth all others crowne your royall dignitie with all Princely vertues and chaine them all together in prudence with the linkes following Serve the Lord with feare feare him with joy rejoyce in him with love and love him with confidence First serve him not carelesly but sollicitously fearing to displease him Secondly feare him not servilely but filially with joy Thirdly rejoyce in him not presumptuously but awfully with trembling Fourthly Tremble before him not desperately but hopefully so feare him in his judgements that ye embrace him in his mercies and kisse him in the face of Jesus Christ Though he frowne on you in his anger yet still seeke to please him yea though he smite you in his wrath and kill you all the day long yet put your trust in him and you shall be happie Be wise Wisedome is the mindes g Arist Eth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye by which she pryeth into all the secrets of nature and mysteries of State and discerneth betweene good and evill and prudently guideth all the affaires of life as the helme doth a ship No good can be done without her direction nor evill bee avoyded but by her forecast She is the chiefe of the foure cardinall vertues and may rightly be stiled Cardinalium cardo the hinge that turnes them all about They advance not till she strikes an alarum nor retire till she sound a retreat What the Apostle speakes of the three heavenly graces now there h 1 Cor. 13.13 remaine these three faith hope and charity but the greatest of these is charitie may be in like manner affirmed concerning the preheminence of wisedome in respect of the other cardinall vertues now there remaine these foure 1. Wisedome to direct 2. Justice to correct 3. Temperance to abstaine 4. Fortitude to sustaine but the greatest of these is wisedome For wisedome informeth justice moderateth temperance and leadeth fortitude Wisedome giveth rules to justice setteth bounds to temperance putteth reines on fortitude Without wisedome justice hurteth others temperance our selves i Horat. od car l. fortitude both our selves and others k Isoc ad Demon. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vis consili expers mole ruit sua Saint l Bernard ser 85. in cant Sapientia a sapore dicta est quia virtuti velut condimentum accedens sapidam reddit Bernard deriveth sapientia a sapore sapience from sapour because wisedome giveth a good rellish to vertue Discretion is the salt of all our actions without which nothing that is done or spoken is savourie What doth pregnancie of wit or maturitie of judgement or felicitie of memorie or varietie of reading or multiplicitie of observation or gracefulnesse of deliverie steed a man that wanteth wisedome and discretion to use them In these respects and many more Solomon the wisest King that ever wore corruptible Crowne in his prayer to God preferreth wisedome to all other gifts whatsoever And indeed so admirable a vertue so rare a perfection so inestimable a treasure it is that the heathen who had but a glimpse of it discover it to be a beame of that light which no man can approach unto m Cic. Tus quaest haec est una hominis sapientia non arbitrarite scire quod nescias this is the chiefest point of mans wisedome saith Tully out of Socrates his mouth to
eleven Apostles or to more than five hundred brethren that saw him all at one time nay what to more than five millions of Confessors and Martyrs signing the truth of it with their blood and shewing the power of it as well by the wonders which they wrought in his name as the invincible patience wherewith they endured all sorts of torments and death it selfe for his name I might produce the testimony of Josephus the learned Jew and tell you of Paschasinus his holy Well that fils of his owne accord every Easter day and the annuall rising of certaine bodies of Martyrs in the sands of Egypt and likewise of a Phoenix in the dayes of Tyberius much about the time of our Lords resurrection rising out of her owne ashes m Lactant. in Poem Ipsa sibi proles suus pater suus haeres Nutrix ipsa sui semper alumna sibi Ipsa quidem sed non eadem quia ipsa nec ipsa Eternam vitam mortis adepta bono But because the authours of these relations and observations are not beyond exception I will rather conclude this point with an argument of Saint n De civit Dei l. 22. c. 5. Haec duo incredibilia scil resurrectionem nostri corporis rem â—am incredibilem mundum esse crediturum idem dominus antequam vel unum horuÌ„ fieret ambo futura esse praedixit unum duorum incredibilium jam factum videmus ut quod erat incredibile credeâ—et mundus curid quod reliquum est desperatur Austines to which our owne undoubted experience gives much strength The same Spirit of God saith hee which foretold the resurrection of Christ foretold also that the doctrine thereof should bee publickly professed and believed in the world and the one was altogether as unlikely as the other But the latter wee see in all ages since Christs death and at this day accomplished in the celebration of this feast why then should any man doubt of the former The Apostles saw the head living but not the mysticall body the Catholike Church of all places and ages We have read in the histories of all ages since Christ and at this day see the Catholike Church spread over the whole face of the earth which is Christs body how can wee then but believe the head to bee living which conveigheth life to all the members I have set before you the glasse of the resurrection in the figures of predictions of the Old Testament and the face it selfe in the history of the New may it please you now to cast a glance of your eye upon the Image or picture thereof in our rising from the death of sinne to the life of grace All Christs actions and passions as they are meritorious for us so they are some way exemplary unto us and as none can bee assured of the benefit of Christs birth unlesse hee bee borne againe by water and the Spirit nor of his death unlesse hee bee dead to sinne nor of his buriall unlesse hee have buried his old Adam so neither of his resurrection unlesse hee bee risen from dead workes and continually walketh in newnesse of life See you how the materiall colours in a glasse window when the sun-beames passe through it produce the like colours but lesse materiall and therefore called by the Philosophers intentionales spiritales on the next wall no otherwise doth the corporall resurrection of Christ produce in all true believers a representation thereof in their spirituall which Saint John calleth o Apoc. 20.5 the first resurrection Saint Paul p Heb. 6.1 repentance from dead workes Sinnes especially heinous and grievous proceeding from an evill habit are called dead workes and such sinners dead men because they are deprived of the life of God have no sense of true Religion they see not Gods workes they heare not his Word they savour not the things of God they feele no pricke of conscience they breath not out holy prayers to God nor move towards heaven in their desires but lye rotting in their owne filthinesse and corruption The causes which moved the Jewes so much to abhorre dead corpses ought to be more prevalent with us carefully to shunne and avoid those that are spiritually dead in sinnes and transgressions they were foure 1 Pollution 2 Horrour 3 Stench 4 Haunting with evill spirits 1 Pollution That which touched a dead corpse was by the law uncleane neither can any come nigh these men much lesse embrace them in their bosome without morall pollution and taking infection in their soules from them 2 Horrour Nothing so ghastly as the sight of a dead corpse the representation whereof oft-times in the Theater appalleth not onely the spectatours but also the actours and yet this sight is not so dreadfull to the carnall man as the sight of those that are spiritually dead I speake of foule notorious and scandalous offenders to them that feare God Saint John would not stay in the same bath with Cerinthus and certainely 't is a most fearefull thing to bee under the same roofe with blasphemous heretickes and profane persons who have no feare of God before their eyes 3 Stench The smell of a carkasse is not so offensive to the nostrils as the stench of gluttony drunkennesse and uncleannesse in which wicked men wallow is loathsome to God and all good men 4 Haunting with evil spirits We read in scriptures that the men that were possest of the divel came q Mat. 8.28 out of the tombs and graves and we find by dayly experience the like of these rather carkasses than men that the devill hankereth about them and entereth into their heart as he did into Judas filling them with all wickednesse and uncleannesse After they have exhausted their bodies with incontinency their estate with riotous living and have lost first their conscience and after their credit they fall into the deepest melancholy upon which Sathan works and puts them into desperate courses r Psal 73.19 O how suddenly doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Me thinkes I heare some say wee heard of places haunted by evill spirits in time of popery are there now any such not such as then were solitary houses ruined pallaces or Churches in which fearefull noyses are said to have beene heard and walking spirits to have beene met For at the thunder of the Gospell Sathan fell like lightning from heaven and hath left those his old holds but places of a contrary condition such where is the greatest concourse of people I meane profane Theaters disorderly Tavernes Ale-houses places of gaming and lewdnesse yea prisons also which were intended for the restraint of wickednesse and punishment of vice are made refuges of Malefactors and schooles of all impiety and wickednesse Quis custodes custodiet ipsos As in the hot sands of Africa where wilde beasts of divers sorts meet to drinke strange monsters are begotten which gave occasion to that proverbe Å¿ Eras
for then they will cease to be blessings unto you nay they are already become curses because they withdraw you from God which is a kind of death of the soule How then may we know that they are undoubtedly blessings of God unto us that we may rejoyce and take comfort in them By this If we over-joy not in them if they diminish not but contrariwise increase our love of God if they serve as instruments and encouragements of vertue not nourishments of vices if our expence on the poore be some way answerable to our receits from God if we love them only for his sake that gave them and for his sake are willing to part with them x Lib. de mirab cuscuit Aristotle writeth of a parcell of ground in Sicilie that sendeth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers to all the fields and leazes there-about that no Hound can hunt there the sent is so confounded with the sweet smell of those flowers Consider I beseech you this seriously with your selves whether the sweet pleasures of the world have not produced a like effect in your soules whether they have not taken away all sent and sense too of heavenly joyes whether they hinder you not in your spirituall chase if not ye may take the greater joy and comfort in them because it is an argument of rare happinesse not to be overcome of earthly delights not to be corrupted with temporall happinesse But if ye find that these transitory delights and sensuall pleasures have distempered your taste in such sort that ye cannot rellish heavenly comforts if they have made your hearts fat as the Prophet speaketh so that the spirits of your devotion are dull and grosse and ye are altogether insensible of Gods judgements then re-call your minds from those pleasant objects and represent to your conceits the loathsome deformity of your sins the fearfull ends of those that are rich and not in God the vanity of earthly comforts and the heavie judgements which ye have deserved by being not made better but worse by Gods benefits These very thoughts will be as rebukes and inward chastenings which if they worke in you godly sorrow and unfained humiliation God will spare further to afflict you who are already wounded at the heart or humble you whom he finds already humbled Now for those that are under Gods hand afflicting them outwardly with any scourge the Spirit layeth forth this exhortation It is God that rebuketh you justifie therefore not your selves acknowledge your sins that he y Psal 51.4 may be justified in his sayings and cleare when he is judged it is he that chasteneth you resist not but submit and amend hee rebuketh and chasteneth you in love repine not at it but be thankfull What folly is it to resist Gods will I. What profit to be nurtured chasten What honour to be admitted into Christs Schoole and ranked with Gods dearest children as many What comfort to be assured of Gods love as I love The wheat is purged by the flaile the gold tryed by the fire the vine pruned by the knife the diamonds valued by the stroake of the hammer the palm groweth up higher by pressing it downe the pomander becomes more fragrant by chasing If your afflictions be many and very grievous know that God maketh not choice of a weake champion be assured that he will lay no more upon you than he will enable you to beare Souldiers glory in their wounds which they receive in warre for their King and Country have not we much more cause to glory in them which we endure for the love of God What joy will it be at that day when the Son of man commeth with the clouds and layeth open his scarres before all the world to have in our bodies store of his sufferings and to be able to shew like stripes and wounds to his Possesse your soules therefore in patience for a while and on the sudden all prisons shall be opened all chaines loosened all stripes healed all wrongs revenged all your sufferings acknowledged all your miseries ended and your endlesse happinesse consummated I end in the phrase of the Psalmist Though in the great heat of affliction and persecution yee look as if yee had lien among the pots yet ye shall be as a z Psal 68.13 As a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold dove whose feathers are silver and wings of pure gold wherewith your soules shall flye into heaven and there abide and nest with Cherubins and Seraphins for ever Deo Pâ—â—â— Filio Spiritui sancto sit laus c. THE PATTERN OF OBEDIENCE THE LI. SERMON PHIL. 2.8 Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Right Honourable c. OPposita juxta se posita magis elucescunt contraries are illustrated by their contraries the darke shadow maketh the picture shew more lightsome the blacke vaile the face more beautifull a gloomy cloud the beames of the sunne breaking out of it more bright and conspicuous sicknesse health more gratefull paine pleasure more delightfull affliction and misery prosperity and happinesse more desirable in like manner the obscurity and infamy of Christs passion setteth off the glory of his resurrection Neither doth it illustrate it only but demonstrateth it also à priori for his humiliation was the meritorious cause of his exaltation his obedience of his rule his crosse of his crowne so saith the Apostle in the next verse therefore hath God highly exalted him As wee cannot certainly know how high the surface of the sea is above the earth but by sounding the depth with a plummet or diving to the bottome thereof so neither can wee take the height of our Lords exaltation but by measuring from the ground of his humiliation The crosse is the Jacobs staffe whereby to take the elevation of this morning starre and as Ezekiah was assured that fifteene yeeres were added forward to his life by the going backe of the sunne ten degrees in the Diall of Ahaz so wee know that 1500. yeares nay eternity of life and glory is added to our Saviour by the going backe so many degrees in the Dyall of his passion in the which the finger pointeth to these foure 1 Humility 2 Obedience 3 Death 4 Crosse These selfe same steps and staires by which hee descended in his passion he ascended in his exaltation upon these therefore my discourse shall run humility and the manner of his humilitie obedience his death and the manner of his death his crosse How low must the descent needs be where humility and lowlinesse it selfe is the uppermost greece Beneath it lyeth obedience for a man may bee humble in himselfe and yet not voluntarily bow his necke to another mans yoake Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient Obedient a man may bee and yet not ready to lay downe his life at his Masters pleasure hee became obedient unto death Obedient to death a man may bee and