exercise the works of Charity to cure the sick to heal the impotent The Donatists penn'd up the Church of Christ within the limits of Affrica for in the Song of Solomon God says to the Spouse mystically Vbi pascis Vbi cubas sub meridie Cant. i. 7. Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon As if the true Church therefore were limited to those Southern parts or Meridian Is it not as wonderful to fetch the Cardinalitian dignity of the Church of Rome from this Text 1 Sam. ii 8. Domini sunt cardines terrae The Pillars of the earth are the Lords and he hath set the world upon them Or Adoration of Images from this Text that Jacob worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff Heb. xi 21. And is not a Lay Presbytery screwed in to govern the Church instead of the most ancient Hierarchy of Bishops from this quite mistaken Citation 1 Tim. v. 17. Let the Presbytery the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour especially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine I will not put my self to the task to go any further in this reckoning for all Schisms and Heresies and almost all sins will shroud under the Patronage of the Word of God Yet such is the pureness of that Fountain that it is not pudled though dirty Swine do wallow in it nay though the Devil himself run headlong into it as he did into the Sea Here he tumbles about in this Psalm to cast dirt upon it yet the Psalm is no whit less sacred and venerable than it was before Et malè quod recitas incipit esse tuum as he did use it most blasphemously it was not Scripture but rather Magick and Incantation For first according to St. Hierom the Psalm pertains not to Christ but to his Members they have the promise that they shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and the Arrians who did mainly contend against the Orthodox that David made the Hymn upon Christ and not upon pious men do but follow the Exposition of the Devil But of this hereafter 2. He did quite abuse the meaning of the Prophet The Angels are appointed by God to keep the faithful in safety against their enemies but the promise extends not to him that will throw himself into danger and be his own greatest enemy 3. He curtalled the holy Scripture and left out these most emphatical words In omnibus viis tuis that God shall keep thee in all thy ways Surely he was ashamed to mention these words for it can be none of a mans ways to cast himself down from a Pinacle of the Temple Diaboli est truncare autoritates this is a devillish craft which God abhors to lop off somewhat of the Scripture that the remainder may do hurt If any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this Prophesie God shall take away his part out of the book of life God is most highly abused when his sayings are mangled and misreported How much more when a whole Commandment and of principal consequence against worshipping of Images is omitted in many Missals I know not upon what pretence of brevity Even among men 't is taken for the sign of a most contumelious affection to report one Sentence or one Comma of a mans speech without the supplement of all Circumstances As Serapion served Severianus If thou diest a good Christian says Severianus and not an arrant Reneigo Christ was never made man Serapion brings him to his answer for this Heresie that he maintained Christ was never made man Thus the Devil had what he pleased and made use of what he lust in the Psalm and so like a broken glass it was for no service Fourthly says St. Ambrose why did he not go on to the end of the Psalm at least why did he not take in the very next verse Psal xci 13. Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet Quare siles super Aspidem Basiliscum nisi quia tu es Leo Basiliscus Satan is the Lion and the Adder whom not only Christ but every good member of his flock should tred under his feet these were his own names therefore he durst not recite them And yet the time was I can tell you when the Devil made as good use of that verse as he did of the precedent verse when he tempted Christ it seems he loves to be tempting with this Psalm but thus it was Pope Alexander the third persecuted the Emperour Frederick Barbarossa by Arms and Excommunications till he brought him upon his knees and lower than his knees in all servile and base submission and Alexander setting his foot upon the Emperours neck a scorn which Alexander the Great never put upon Darius insulted over him with that verse which next follows the Devils quotation in my Text Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder and shalt trample the Dragon under thy feet Nothing makes worse corruption than that which is best of all wnen it is marred and spoyled and nothing makes worse sense than the Oracles of God when they are perverted And as Samson having his Locks cut off wherein consisted the spirit of Fortitude was weak as another man so the Scripture mutilated and mangled having not the native and wholsom interpretation wherein the efficacy of the Spirit consists is of no force or validity The Devil himself was not afraid of the name of Jesus when it was not rightly used Acts xix The holy Incense was to be offered up in the Lords Censors so the Scripture hath a right savour in it when it is offered up with the meaning of the Holy Ghost Delaiah brought a false Prophesie to Nehemiah to hide himself from his enemies in the Temple but Nehemiah would not hear him Chap. vi 10. 'T is a grace of God which every one of us should beg often upon our knees that he would open the true meaning of the Scripture unto us Who hath the key of David that openeth and no man shutteth that we may not distort those good Lessons to our perdition and by our own ill digestion convert the most sincere milk of the Word into the rankest poyson These two cautions shall be the conjunct uses of this Point First that ignorant men be not removed from the truth by misconceiving such doubtful places of Scripture which are fittest to be argued by them that sit in Moses Chair It is a laudable conjecture of a modern Author that the Devil knew our Saviour was not brought up in the Schools of knowledge all the Jews could descant upon it Whence hath this man learning Is not this the Carpenters Son And therefore he mis-scited the Scripture unto Christ as unto an illiterate person that could not discover him Every man is not an Apollos mighty in the Scripture some
Apostolical Bishops from others according to the old Story of Austin the Monk who came into England in the time of King Ethelred 600 years after Christ and prest the West Britains of this Island to receive him as their Master and Governour because he was sent by the Bishop of Rome A learned Abbot of Bangor having no fancy to his Message consulted with an Hermit what they should think of this man and his Message from Rome hearken says the Hermit the next time you and your Brethren meet to attend this Austin in Synod observe if he shew any reverence or carry himself humbly when he comes before you but if he salute not and bear himself disdainfully receive him not for he is no Apostle of Christ At the next Synod the jolly Prelat entred among the Monks with a braving courage never stoopt nor vail'd his head but usurped the highest place in the Congregation as the Roman Legate at this the Britains disliked his Arrogancy and would not receive his Message Yet our good Bishop's humility appeared not only in his outward demeanour and verbal salutation which he knew were often forced and more then was required and that Rivers were not deepest where they overflow but in their own Channels but in paying all due respect to the deserts of others without reflecting upon his own perfections therefore it was not his fashion to undervalue other mens learning or magnify his own Upon frequent occasions he would confess his want of Eastern Languages but in such studies wherein he was conversant would by private letters give great help to many writers of books who have confessed in their returns to him that the books were not theirs but his and thereupon would have had him to have own'd them or at least to have suffered an honorable mention of himself in those books which he would in no sort permit that as Camerarius said of Melanchton he was like a Nightingale that with his singing sweetly affected all others but would not endure to hear of it himself Notwithstanding this great civility and sweetness of temper towards all people generally we must acknowledg a vanity and defect in all humane accomplishments and perfections it being not possible that almost 80 years should be spent in this Age of humane infirmity and that any mans actions should be all fine flour without mixture of coarser Meal and Bran to say so were not to commend but to flatter not truly to represent but to dawb our Bishop would often severely censure himself and said he best knew his own heart to be of sinners the chief most unthankful to God for many Divine Talents confer'd upon Him and most wanting especially in many grains of meekness and forbearance to his Neighbours Indeed he was by nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most great wits are irritable and subject to great eruptions of anger oftentimes especially if he had met with bold and arrogant but slow parts St. Hierom acknowledges the like harsh disposition in himself and compares himself to an angry horn'd Beast and says that all the strict Discipline of Bethlehem and Watchings of Arabia could not mortifie this indecent passion in him God Almighty permitting these most holy and learned men sometimes to betray themselves in such palpable weaknesses does sufficiently convince us that humane infirmity cleaves to humane nature and absolute perfection belongs only to the Divine Yet I will add that as he was very irritable and apt to be offended so he was exceeding placable and ready to be appeased too generous he was to be vindicative and therefore though he would chide earnestly yet he ever censur'd mildly like the Apostles who had fiery tongues but gentle hands besides it was his judgment that if any man asked unreasonable things it was much better to chide him away from his house for his fault than give him good words and afterwards not do it minus negatur qui negatur celeriter and would alwayes advise other people if any thing troubled them to speak it out and never to retain a dry discontent and for the most part made his passion subservient to virtuous ends by his great natural inclination to anger becoming far more active and zealous in the carrying on his great projectments for piety and charity For any other censures of being illiberal and covetous which are so frequently and unduely cast upon Divines examin his life and few men will appear more incontaminat and free In bad times when he had lost his best Incoms and like the Widow of Sarepta had but an handful of Meal and a Cruze of Oyl left for himself and his Family yet he then thought Elias was worthy of one Cake out of it and accordingly has given a distressed friend twenty pounds at a time and would always argue that Times of persecution were the most proper seasons of charity and that charity was oftentimes the happy means to preserve us from suffering for Tyrants more commonly oppress the rich than their inopious Enemies as the Historian observed in the days of Nero Alium Thermae alium Horti trucidarunt many men might have fared better but for delicious Gardens and sweet Baths no man was safe that had a sumptuous Building or an envied Possession and therefore he believed it a prudent as well as a religious act in the Primitive Church at Jerusalem to surrender their Estates to the holy Apostles for pious uses rather than to leave them to a violent extension of prophane persons in a short time afterwards When he was made a Bishop no man was less lucripetous he desired to hold nothing in Commendam he renewed all his Leases for years and not for lives and upon very moderate Fines and spent a very considerable share thereof upon the repairs of his Cathedral often applying to the Church what the Orator said of the Common-wealth Non minori mihi est curae qualis futura sit Respublica quam qualis est hodie while he lived besides his constant charity to the poor of Lichfield City he enquired out distressed Cavaliers in his Diocess and lent them 50 or 100 l. for a year or two upon their own Bill or Bond and afterwards frequently gave it to them And thus he did sometimes to persons of a differing Religion with whom he held no Christian Communion but in this one thing of giving and never looking to receive again He reckoned that charitable Expences left to the power and managment of Executors were more theirs than the Founders and therefore was resolved to dispense his own in his life time and not be like the Whale that affords no Oyl till she die and must disgorge it To several Colledges in Cambridge he gave liberal summs of money to Clare-Hall fifty pounds to St. John's fifty pounds to Trinity Colledge he added a peculiar building call'd Bishops Hostle which cost him 1200 l. and appointed that with the yearly Rents of those Chambers Books should be
best harmony with our best chearfulness from the example of Angels especially at this time for the Birth of our blessed Lord and Saviour c. THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE ii 14. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men O Sing unto the Lord a new Song for he hath done marvelous things I will begin the New year from that portion of Davids Canticle Marvelous things they were you will all confess that the powerful God should be made a feeble Infant that a woman should bear him in her womb who supports the world and all the Creatures that are contained in it that the Eternal should be born who had no beginning never was the like heard or seen before therefore whatsoever was said of old will not agree to set it forth it must be a new Song of praise and thanksgiving to our God So is the Text which I have read before you It cometh to pass by the providence of God that St. Lukes Gospel is more chearful than all the rest and full of Musick So that he is well called by one not only the Evangelist but the Psalmist of the New Testament The Song of Zachary the Song of Maries Magnificat the Song of Simeon this Song of the Angels the Church is beholding to him for reciting them and to no other Penman of the holy Word St. Paul calls him Luke the Physician some of the Roman Church to serve their own Imagery delights out of some Histories unallowed call him Luke the Painter there is no conjecture for that out of the book of Scripture which cannot lye But I have more conjecture for my own opinion that he was Luke the Musician a man of divers gifts and qualities for the Prophets and Evangelists wrote the Scriptures by divine revelation yet always with a sweet tincture of their own abilities The stately eloquence of Isaiah shews his breeding St. Pauls Logical Arguments shew his Scholarship St. Peters facile Exhortations shew his zeal and plain Education Finally if I be not deceiv'd the repeating of so many celestial Hymns in St. Luke shew his musical art and affection Now the Spirit of the Church hath been ever so directed by God to take in all the Songs of the New Testament into its publick Service and Liturgie the Magnificat the Benedictus the Nunc Dimittis Thus it is not only with us but was so most anciently in all flourishing and well established Churches Neither is this Versicle of the Angels I mean my Text left out but it is referred to the chief part of our serving of God in the celebration of the holy Communion before we part from the Table of the Lord our Rubrique commands us to sing or say Glory be to God on high Indeed that Prayer as we have it is enlarged with many other pithy strains of devotion We praise thee we bless thee we worship thee we glorifie thee c. And such as have wrote of ancient Ceremonies say that Pope Telesphorus made up that excellent prayer of Laud and Thanksgiving beginning with my Text. Very ancient it is I am sure because I meet with it for the most part in those pieces which are called the Constitutions of Clemens and St. James his Liturgy But for the words which I handle I have great cause to judge that they were the most acceptable Prayer of the Primitive Church for St. Paul begins his Epistles with grace and peace be multiplied as much as to say peace on earth and good will towards men and the end of many clauses in his Epistles is that Doxology to God To whom be glory for evermore Amen I wonder that the words themselves are bended in and out with such curious divisions by many Divines for the Angel hath parted them into three several rests and I will not go about to mend his work and whereas Points are raised out of Grammatical constructions of the Verb whether they should be the Indicative or the Optative Mood it shall be all one to that way in which I will handle the parts for I will handle every of the three members three ways First As a Congratulation or thanksgiving Secondly By way of Prayer or Petition Thirdly By way of Doctrine and Instruction Thanksgiving unto God that his glory on high appeareth that peace doth flourish on earth and that he is pleased with men or make it a Prayer or Postulation that all glory may be given to God all safety to the earth and that an happy reconciliation may be begun with men Otherwise if it be a Sermon or Exhortation the sum is that God be magnified peace preserved a friendship with God endeavoured thus nothing shall be lost of this divine musical Embassage Glory be to God in the highest c. Now we cannot be to seek what is the sum of the first member Glory to God in the highest it must be thus the Angels glorifie God for sending Christ in the flesh to redeem mankind and they wish and pray that men may glorifie God in Christ and they teach us that Gods glory is to be sought before all things and so I proceed to explicate it before you If the Disciples be silent at what time it is fit to praise God the stones shall speak says our Saviour that 's ultimum refugium the last shift and refuge that the very dross of the earth if need were should not want a tongue to magnifie its Creator But it stirs up emulation and provokes us more when those that are far above us discharge the duty which we ought to execute rather than when those things which are much beneath us should give us example So my Text lets you see that if men be silent and set not forth the praise of the Lord the Angels will speak and give him glory It were a great shame for the Commons to be rude and irrespectful towards their King when the Nobles and Princes of the people are most dutiful and obsequious so when the Cherubins devote their Songs to extol the most High it were a beastly neglect in man a worm in respect of a Cherubin not to bear a part in that humble piety But to speak after the method of reason had it not been more proper for the Angels at this time to have proclaimed Christs Poverty than his Power his Infancy than his Majesty his Humility in the lowest rather than his glory in the highest If there wereany glory coming out of this work of the Incarnation it may seem we had it rather than our Saviour and he lost it But the piercing eye of those celestial Spirits could see abundant honour compassing Christ about where ignorant man could espy nothing but vileness and misery For first they celebrate the glory of Gods justice in sending his Son made of a woman and made under the Law to suffer for us that had sinned against the Law because that Justice would not receive man into favour
But for brethren to dwell together in a good amity and as much as in us lies to have peace with all men it makes heaven upon earth Malignities and disagreements are things whereof the Angels have no experience in heaven but because the earth is full of mischief and debate and there must be seditious truce-breakers at all times that peace-makers may be more approved Therefore the Angels do not only congratulate the Church but they pray for it that it may abound with peace and they preach unto it that it may seek peace and ensue it We know not so well as the Angels do what an Hell it is to be an enmity with God we perceive not so well as they what a black sin it is to be at strife and division among our selves Hear and attend what they wish for our sakes and will not we wish the same benefit as heartily to our selves wish and labour for it for they that will not do their part to effect that they pray for they did but dream and not pray The Angels in these words gave our Church a pattern to repeat the collect for peace every day in our morning Devotion O God which art the author of peace and lover of concord And that which we pray for daily compose we our charity to practice daily especially while it is called to day when we come to the Table of the Lord The Angels Song is perswasive but the Body and Blood of Christ doth more effectually commend unto us this middle strein of my Text Peace on earth Now I come to the last part of the three and as the close of a Song is best composed when it hath a soft and a gentle cadence so it fails not here in the last note of all and good will towards men And good will c. so our old English Translation reads it with the conjunction copulative and perhaps upon the authority of some Greek Copies but for my own part I never saw or heard of any that had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet Beza commends the Syrian Paraphrase for adding it to the clearing of the sense and so do I. And this is gained by it that the author of that Syrian gloss goes against the common reading of the Latin Church that make but two portions of this Angelical Ditty Glory be to God on high and on earth peace to men of good will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make that noun the Genitive case as they do and the whole order is inverted It is not to be denied unto them but that such a reading is in some ancient Fathers but the most and the best concur with our Translation Howsoever let the words have the right interpretation and that shall make no disagreement The Latin Expositors are divided in it for some say it is peace of good will towards men others say it is towards men of good will peace So Beda Non est pax impiis sed hominibus bonae voluntatis This peace on earth belongs not to all promiscuously good and bad elect and reprobate but to such as are well affected to Gods glory And Leo inclines most that way In terra pax conceditur quae facit homines bona voluntatis such a peace is come down on earth as makes men willing and ready to serve the Lord. Surely this is an inforced sense and must rightly be understood of Gods good will towards men and not of mans good will towards God for it is the praise of God and not of man it is but a colour therefore of some learned Romanists to say that as it is specified in the first section to whom glory is given to God in the highest so it is fitly specified in the second section to whom peace is bequeathed to men of good will For the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good will is mostly referred to God and not to man and surely it refers it self to God and his good pleasure not to men or to any good will of theirs I know it and ever preach that consolation to you that where there is a diligent and a studious endeavour God will accept of our good will though the action be offensive Vt si sit actionis infirmitas at sit voluntatis integritas and the Lord will speak peace unto their souls that are men of good will but Christ came not to save us because any of us all were men of good will and took delight in him nay he came unto his own and his own received him not and when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. v. 10. They make far better use of the Latin reading that expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of good will are men whom God hath respected from on high in his good will and pleasure such as belong to his beneplacitum to his election and purpose before the beginning of the world and are the children of it So Tolet most ingeniously on earth peace of good will towards men Hoc est ex Dei beneplacito gratuita voluntate non ex eorum meritis in the Jewish salutation peace was as much as health and salvation and God grants peace and salvation of good will to men out of his free love and the eternal counsel of his own will and out of no merits of ours Sponte gratis nullis praecedentibus meritis voluit mundum salvare says Nyssen upon it Of his own accord of his gratuitous goodness Christ came to save mankind and for no preceding good works or good will of ours And then the most common reading of the Greek Church is coincident with that true Orthodox sense and good will towards men that is and Gods free grace and kind acceptation towards them with whom he was offended So St. Chrysost conceives it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and reconciliation to men So the Syrian Paraphrast Et bonum nuntium or Evangelium hominibus and good tidings towards men a happy chearful message to all that will believe in the name of the Lord Jesus for Christ is our glorifier in heaven our pacifier on earth and our reconciler to God Indeed as there is no difference in the Text between earth and men so there is as little between peace and good will peace were rather a captious advantage than a true peace unless benevolence and good will did follow it Let God the Father have his glory to himself alone and to no other then God the Son will be our peace our peace that shall have no end Isa ix 7. and God the Holy Ghost who is the essential love of the Godhead will seal a pledge and earnest of the Divine Love unto our hearts and will breath into us the Spirit of love and good will one to another Amen THE NINTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE xi 27 28. A certain woman of the company lift up her voice and said unto him
David That little nest had hatcht many famous rulers Ibzan that ruled all Israel most righteously and prudently a true Ephrathite as fruitful in his loins as the Country was of all store He had thirty sons and thirty daughters Judg. xii 8. beside him Elimelech and Obed and Isai and David and all his valiant brethren Bethlehem had been an happy Seminary of renowned persons nunc aliquid supra heroas after all the former progeny it brought forth at last one of more heroical virtue even Christ the Lord. And see how many businesses are secretly and unawares administred for divine purposes Caesar Augustus taxeth all the world for acknowledgement of homage and to fill his Exchequer but God did drive it to a greater end that Mary might come with Joseph to the City of David and not be delivered of her Babe out of his own Country Coegit Deus imperatoris edictum prophetiae veritati servire God caused the Emperours Laws and Edicts to make way to the fulfilling of sacred Prophesies Pharaoh allotted the Children of Israel to the land of Goshen to attend his heards and flocks God had another more principal intention to advance his own glory by their abode in Egypt Pilate transmitted our Saviour to Herod and Herod to Pilate again Ad captandam benevolentiam to make themselves as good friends as great men use to be but the judge that sits above all made them both serve for this end that neither this nor that nor any other unrighteous ruler should be able to find any thing but innocency in him who was a â—aâ—b without blemish Gods ends are the magisterial and great ends that set even heathen Princes awork to bring them to pass so the commands of the Roman Caesar did instrumentally serve for this that Christ was born in Bethlehem I proceed to the next circumstance of this Nativity the time set down according to the Kings Reign wherein it fell out in the days of Herod the King To reckon mens Nativities from the years of Consuls or from the Reigns of Kings is a most usual computation their lives are marks of remembrance upon many casualties past to all succeeding ages So certain it is that the worst of Princes as well as the best shall never be forgotten Therefore it is a good advice which the Historian gives that Kings and Rulers have all things at their pleasure and live not in want of any thing while their breath lasts Sed unum insatiabiliter parandum prospera sui memoria but one thing must be studied with all providence that they leave a prosperous memory behind them The two and twenty years of Jeroboams reign the days of Herods reign were dismal times and happier for them to have been buried in silence But as a sulphurous light that smells ill will be seen as well as the sweetest because it is a light so the age of a wicked Prince is a perpetual mark of remembrance as well as better times The mention of Herod will come about though he have no fame but infamy though death gnaweth upon him yet he lives in this Text that Christ was born in the days of Herod the King But I pray you is this all no more but the time simply set down in such a reign when the Nativity fell out Majus opus moveo there goes much more to it than so and if one reason be not enough you shall have two to explicate it First To denote what calamities were in that wretched state of the Jews when Christ came into the world for Herod is remembred at his Birth as Pilate is brought into the Creed to fill up the Article of his Passion He could never have been born under a worse Tyrant than Herod nor likely have suffered under a more unjust Magistrate than Pilate The days of Herod the King those were evil days days of affliction days of taxes days of captivity their children were slain their glory was departed Juda's Scepter clean broken When their case was so pittiful then cometh the Redeemer when it was so dark then riseth the Star As his Birth fell out in the sharpest time of the year in the depth of Winter so it was every where thereabout the very depth of discontent and misery and this had lasted very long Hard affliction and long continuance what can be more intollerable Some Postillers shew their wit upon these words that they are called the days of Herod the King Obbrevitatem temporis in quo reges dominantur for the period of their reign comes quickly about and after a few days are over their glory departs with them and then dust to dust 'T is only God that reigns without computation of days for ever and ever This is a specious conceit but no comfort to Judah for Herod had crusht them under thraldom and slavery almost 30 years before Christ came to comfort them and yet they are called the days of Herod To make you a brief of a long story thus stood the case The Jews had rather have died than be driven from the letter of their Law especially in Ceremonies or judicious statutes Now one of their republick Laws and the very chief was this Deut. xvii 15. That their King must be chosen from among their brethren thou mayst not set a stranger over thee which is not thy Brother And they were so happy that their rulers were of their own stock from Moses to this man that then usurpt upon them But how was it then alter'd certain rulers called Hasamonei were Princes of that Commonwealth a hundred years together after the captivity Of that race one Hircanus at last a sluggish man being their Prince Antipater the Father of this Herod dispatcht many businesses for him and was employed in several Embassies from Jerusalem to Rome In a word Antipater and his Sons did all Hircanus dying Herod was constituted King of the whole land which belonged to all the tribes of Israel first by the gift of M. Antonie then by the power of Augustus and lastly by the confirmation of the whole Senate but the Jews strugled against Herods yoke almost 30 years to shake it off Much effusion of blood it caused and when it could not be remedied they endured it without hope ever to have it helpt So in the height of this sadness and desperation loe Christ was born in the days of Herod the King When all assistance of this world fails then God is nearest When the Seas work tempestuously then Christ is walking upon the waves When the Apostles labour'd hard and could get nothing to sustain them then God fills their nets with store that they are ready to break and when calamities are very bitter and the enemies of the Church in the heighth of their pride then what remains but to say nay to sing it with David The time is come that thou have mercy upon Sion yea O Lord the time is come One of our own Prelates lighted upon a most pithy observation that
so notorious that all heathen Histories which toucht upon those times would have spoken of it Secondly At the ninth verse of this Chapter we read Lo the Star which they saw in the East not low the Star which ushered them through all their journey And thirdly When they came to Judea they took in at Jerusalem to seek Christ there but what probability is there that the light of God could carry them to a wrong place Thus far upon one opinion You shall now hair what some say and almost all of the best antiquity for the other conclusion Namely that the Star was their constant companion all their journey and that it rested over all places where they rested till they came to Jerusalem First As the manner of the Fathers is to illustrate the New Testament with the Old they consider that the Pillar of the cloud went along with the Children of Israel wheresoever they removed and rested in the place where they pitched their Camps but this Star attended the Gospel as thaâ— Cloud attended the Law and God was as constant in his favour to the one as to the other And some go further that an Angel of the Lord did always remove the Cloud with his motion when the Israelites marched away mine Angel shall go before thee and bring thee into the Land of the Amorites and Hittites Exod. xxiii So an Angel did move this Star from the East to Jerusalem for says St. Austin Mark how that light vanisht not away till they took in at Jerusalem Hoc non cogit motus sideris sed virtus plena rationis I will never say an inanimate Star could so guide it self but by Angelical vertue No bright Star did shine upon that City where the Scribes and stiff-necked Jews were congregated for their hearts were blind and their understanding did not see the Nativity of Christ So at his Passion there was thick darkness over all the Land of Judah for they resisted the truth and would neither know the mysteries of his Death nor of his Incarnation If this were portended it was an intelligent Star that went with the Magi all the way till they were housed in Jerusalem as the Cloud passed on before the Tribes of Israel from Mount Sinah till they came to Canaan Thus far upon collation between the Old Testament and New there are other reasons assayed to be drawn out of the Text that the Star kept way with them to their journeys end as at the ninth verse of this Chapter Loe the Star which they saw in the East went before them till it came and stood over where the Child was If it marshall'd them which way to go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem why not also from their own Country to Jerusalem At the next verse When they saw the Star they rejoyced with exceeding great joy The Scribes had told them where they should find Christ why then should they rejoyce so much to see the Star again but because it was a new thing to have it vanish Moreover the Star vanishing when they went into Jerusalem they suspected Christ might be there and askt for him but if their Leader had forsaken them as soon as ever it first shined they would have askt in many other places And by what art could they collect that a Star glaring in their eyes in the East and wagging no further should notifie unto them the Land of Judea rather than any other neighbouring Country And what skills it that all Histories are silent and take no notice that there was such a wonder in the World Though many holy things were common in those days and well known yet the Lord chose not the heathen to be witnesses of his glory and so they over-pass'd them Or perhaps the Star was visible to these Wise-men and the eyes of others were held that they should not see it John Baptist saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove upon Christ He saw it says the Text Mat. iii. 16. it is uncertain if any beside did see it Paul heard a voice from heaven but they that were with him heard it not Acts xxii 9. Or be it so that many others might behold this Star yet they knew not to what end it was sent but made some constructions of humane reason upon it wide mistakes upon heavenly tokens as when God answered Christs Prayer from heaven that He had both glorified his name and would glorifie it the people said it thundred Not to be long in this point because faith is bound to neither opinion this is sure the Star hid it self away for a time but they recovered sight of it again before their journeys end so the Spirit may draw back his comfort and illumination for a time from those that are graciously called to come to Christ their sins deserve it and God will make them more careful to stand sure because they have stumbled but at last before their journey be done before they end their days the light shall be renewed again to guide their feet into the land of the living The third question of enquiry is what aptitude there was in such a sign or miracle to bring the Wise men unto Christ Outward aptitude is not always discerned in the means of a mans Conversion nay sometimes the means used seem most repugnant to bring that end to pass Who would have imagined that the way to make a Publican a Disciple had been to call him from the receipt of Custom and quite to give over his traffique yet this wrought well with St. Matthew or that the Woman of Samaria would the sooner have believed Christ to be the Messias because she was upbraided to be a Concubine He whom thou now hast is not thy Husband yet this way did take with her These are courses to pose natural reason in the work of Regeneration But with sundry other persons the Lord did descend in a familiar way to their capacity and drew them to heaven by things that were obvious to their notion Baptism or washing often was a thing most ordinary with the Jews the more ordinary the sooner did Christ use it to be the initial Sacrament that should bring them unto life Fishermen were put into admiration of Christs power by a mighty draught of fish and the Text whereupon St. Paul preach'd to the Athenians was their own Altar of the unknown God So the Eastern Philosophers who were skilful in the Sphere and in the course of the Stars are attracted by a wonderful Star to the first taste of Christianity Vt per Christum materia erroris fieret occasiâ— salutis says St. Austin That contemplation of Stars which lead them out of the way of truth doth now bring them to him who is the way the truth and the life You see what aptitude there was in a Star to be an instrument of the conversion of these Wise-men There are other apt proportions in it which Piety and good Meditation hath framed First to shew that God
me yet they are not so uncharitable to bid Anathema to any in so disputable a point I am sure St. Austin having disputed on both sides concludes he would not strive eagerly with him that should say sins were remitted in the Baptism of John meaning it did not essentially differ from the Baptism of Christ yet I will end with this third observation that in some less principal respects the Baptism of Christ doth exceed the Baptism of John I will name five distinctions 1. In formâ verborum John baptized in the name of the Messias that came after him Acts xix 4. and it was more advantage to teach it to every of the Jews as he baptized them one by one than to proclaim it to the whole multitude But Christ bade his Disciples choose another form and for that he would not take all honour to himself it must be in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 2. They differ in amplitudine nationum John medled with none but such as were within the Regions of Judea Christ bad his Disciples to except no people but to wash all Nations from their sins 3. Christs Baptism transcends Johns in varietate personarum for it sounds not to likelihood that John baptized Infants they could not confess their sins nor learn the doctrine of Repentance nor be taught the coming of the Messias such only came to him But Christs Baptism pertains to little ones and his spirit was poured out upon all flesh your Sons and Daughters shall Prophesie and your young men see visions 4. Christs Baptism hath the upper hand in gradibus efficaciae the Spirit is more operative in Baptism since Christ did go to his Father to send us the Comforter than ever it was before 5. It is greater than Johns baptism in modo necessitatis The Sacraments of the New Testament had the seeds of life in them from the first institution and they were good to the receiver but they were not imposed by necessary commandment till the old Law was quite abolished and that was at the Resurrection says Leo or at the farthest in other mens opinions at the feast of Pentecost So Johns baptism was always good never necessary Christs baptism is always good is and ever will be necessary unto the end of the world These are less principal differences the substance of both being the same for one thing yet remains to be proposed that the Baptism of John opened the gate unto everlasting life as some have shewed by an Allegorical reason taken from the place where John did baptize Christ in Jordan says this Text not a private dipping in a Chamber and of all other places of Jordan it was Bethabara Joh. i. 28. which is being interpreted Domus transitus the house of passing over even in all likelihood where Joshuah divided Jordan and passed over into the Land of Promise this is the circumstance of place which I propounded the fortunate seat where this work was done to betoken that as Joshuah brought the twelve Tribes at that very standing through the River into that pleasant Land which was promised to Abraham so Jesus will bring us through the sprinkling of water into the Kingdom of heaven AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 14. But John forbad him saying I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me IN which Text you may see that ancient Sentence verified how an ambitious man is afraid left too little honour be cast upon him and an humble man is afraid of too much Our blessed Saviour saw multitudes of Penitents coming to John to be baptized and to confess their sins Among these people whose iniquities stood in need of cleansing he steps in for one into the River Jordan not to receive Sanctification unto himself but to sanctifie the waters unto others O exceeding dignity far above all honour that ever was vouchsafed to any Prophet for to which of them was it said at any time Dip thine hand in water and anoint the head of my Son And therefore Christ was pleased to give this Character of John that he was more than a Prophet More than a Prophet not only in the Office which he sustained to be the immediate fore-runner of the Messias but more than any Prophet or Patriarch in the expression of his humility Jacob wrestled with God but it was to get a blessing from his Angel he would not be denied John the Baptist wrestles with the Son of God to decline the blessing which was brought before him and fain he would be denied His hand shrunk up and durst not attempt to pour water upon his head who is the immortal head of the Church visible and invisible both of men and Angels He thought it no sin to disobey when he was required to such a work which in his eyes appeared far too excellent for any creature Therefore conceive him modestly starting back and making this reply to our Saviour Lord why dost thou tempt thy servant Why wouldst thou put the Potter into the hand of the Clay What is it to thee to be dipt in water Whose precious Bloud shall wash away all sins and mine in the reckoning among the rest Behold this exact humility more than any Prophet exprest how John forbad him to be baptized saying I have need to be baptized c. The matter of the Text may be handled in these three several Points 1. The Baptist did declare how jealous he was of Gods honour therefore the Text says he forbad Christ to come under the Ministry of a Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he would fain have put him by thinking it ignoble for the Lord of all Lords to descend so low 2. He disables himself and makes profession of his own vileness and infirmity I have need to be baptized of thee 3. He ends with the admiration of his Saviours humility And comest thou to me Yet again I will consider him in the exercise of the three spiritual vertues Faith Hope and Charity 1. He believed this was the Christ as soon as ever he saw him and that made him interpose to forbid him stoop so low as to be baptized there was his faith 2. He confesseth that he relies upon him to be baptised with his Spirit and to be saved through his merits there is his hope Lastly he breaks out into an extasie of admiration as soon as ever he saw him like old Simeon that sung a Canticle for joy Comest thou to me O thou expectation of the World O thou desire of our eyes There was his ardent love these are his Faith his Hope his Love and remember that every tittle of his praise is the rule of your practise Set your attentions now upon the first part of the Text that John was jealous of our Saviours honour and forbad him to be baptized The interpretation of the word certainly is not so harsh as it may be thought to
to favour the weakness of Infants we cast no more than a dew of water upon their face yet when young men converted from heathen Idolatry required the Baptism of the Church their whole body waded into the River even as they that came to John stood up to the neck in Jordan yea and in hotter countries Infants were dipt into the bottom of the Font this the Fathers called a resemblance that the old Adam was buried in the waters St. Paul makes it a mystery that we are buried with Christ therefore I find that some were wont especially to baptize on the Satterday wherein Christ lay in the Grave and a threefold immersion of the Child into the water was an usual Ceremony because Christ lay buried three days in the Sepulchre After the representation of burial in the outward Element the good use of that Sacrament tells us we should die unto sin I say first buried and then die for the end of being buried with Christ is that we should die daily unto sin This order is no hard thing to conceive for suppose a man by mischance sunk into the bottom of the water before he loseth his life and dies it is true to say that he is buried in the stream which is gone over his head therefore upon this burial-resembling baptism it behoves you to die unto the world and to mortifie your members upon earth The death of sin is thus to be conceived not an utter privation of all evil but a beating down of concupiscence it is a death to your Adversary the Devil when he cannot reign in your mortal body Weeds which are cut down perhaps will grow no more but their savour still stinks upon your dunghil So you may sheare down the viciousness of your life like an unprofitable weed lay it dead and let it grow no more but it will ever leave a noisom smell in our nature While we live in this world flesh is but a dunghil of corruption it made St. Paul have a great desire to be dissolved that he might be a sweet savour in Christ As we are buried and die with Christ in Baptism so we must rise with him through the faith of the operation of God Col. ii 12. For when Christ is given to us to be our life to what end should we die as it were with him in the Laver of new birth unless it be to rise up in a new life This meditation cannot choose but stick by you if you will always carry the remembrance of those words before your eyes Abrenuntio Satanae I renounce the Devil and all his works They are a part of your Indenture that you made with God and how will you answer the violating of your Covenant St. Ambrose declames thus upon it Tenetur vox tua non in tumulo mortuorum sed in libro viventium Praesentibus Angelis locutus es non est fallere non est mentiri This word is recorded not among the dead but in the book of the living The Angels were present in the Church when the Sureties in your name gave their faith to God therefore hold you to your word you must not falter you must not lie unto the Lord. Walk in newness of life that Phrase hath somewhat in it that is not said barely in a new life In novis vivendi formis let there be no kind of likeness and conformity to thy self as once thou wert a neglecter of Prayer a Traducer a Fornicator a Drunkard an Oppressor Here is a Temple built up new unto the Holy Ghost which once was a den of uncleanness that which is to come of my life is altogether consecrated to the glory of my Saviour look not therefore before me now but get thee behind me Satan You have now heard all the five Reasons upon the second part of the Text why Christ was baptized I said in the third place it was but a preparatory to greater matters which should follow therefore he went up straightway out of the water The Text says straightway as who should say he staid not long upon that Circumstance no more will we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did ascend out of Jordan and very presently both these are the crums of the Text and they must not be lost Literally it imports that Christ stood not upon the shore having a few drops of water cast upon him but he went with his whole body into the River to intimate that if God should not help the deep waters of our sins would take us up to the neck and the stream had gone over our soul So Philip and the Eunuch went down into the waters Acts viii 38. That great Courtier of Queen Candace stript himself of all his cloaths before his servants that he might wash from head to foot What was it to him to be naked in the sight of divers men He was so ashamed of his sins that he forgot all other shamefac'dness Thus he press'd close to the example of our Saviour who went down into the stream of Jordan and it being not the time of harvest when that River used to fill his banks he went up and ascended from the Pool St. Austin allegorizeth Confestim ascendit ut ostendat quà m gravi onere in baptismo liberamur He went up nimbly to the banks to shew that by Baptism we are lightned of the great burden of our sins and fit to ascend unto our Father Others fasten this observation upon it that Christ went straightway out of the water For his Baptism was done with more speed and expedition than the common peoples the reason is this Among the multitude every one was baptized confessing their sins that took up some time to detain them before they parted Christ staid for no more than the sprinkling of the River who had no sins to confess and straightway went out of the water St. Luke affords a pious conjecture Luk. iii. 21. being baptized he prayed Therefore to teach us with what reverence these great mysteries are to be entertained he made hast incontinently to the shore to fall upon his knees and pray unto his Father Adoremus coram creatore says the Psalmist O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our maker If we are to worship him even as low as with the most humble prostration of our face upon the earth because he created us and gave us the life of nature then what knee can be so refractory as not to worship and fall down when we celebrate his infinite goodness in either of the Sacraments that he hath redeemed us from eternal death called us to the participation of grace and given us assurance in those blessed Seals of his Covenant that we shall enjoy the life of glory Remember what I said in the beginning beware of obstinacy Lastly He went up out of the waters to shew us every good deed is a step into another Do but enter into the practice of one good action and
do all that God bids Give me a contented heart ready to endure all that God imposeth and then as thou shalt be an heir with Christ in the inheritance of heaven so thou shalt share with him in his sweetest title upon earth Thou art my beloved Son c. The last part of the Testimony comes now to my hand to be be dispatch'd that Christ is Filius complacentiae in whom and through whom the Father is well pleased O delicious words fit to be uttered by a voice from heaven and at the appearance of the Holy Gbost Partem aliquam venti Divum referatis ad aures We have delighted our hearts in the former Treatises to consider that from Servants we are become Sons from a People justly hated we are become beloved but to whom do we owe all this Surely as Mary and Martha said to Christ If thou hadst been here my brother Lazarus had not died So may we turn it and say if thou hadst not been here we had all died in our sins Therefore the voice points upon him that we may take notice how he is worth the knowing Hic est quem quaerimus hic est This is he that hath turned anger into reconciliation and enmity into peace As who should say I was once pleased at the making of the first Adam and I said all was very good for he was endued with original righteousness that he might have done all things well How much better am I pleased with the second Adam who hath done all things well and though it repented me afterward that I made man my Son yet now I am pleased with all that repent for my Sons sake Therefore thou art he for whose sake I will give heaven to them who have deserved the nethermost Hell thou art he by whom I have ordained to execute my pleasure to save the world To whom therefore do we owe our Salvation Or what moved our Father which is in heaven to elect us to the fruition of his glory If you will have an answer both clear according to Scripture and befitting our own humility it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good pleasure of the Father whose will is the true and only cause that can be given for the happiness of all things that shall enjoy him who hath predestinated us to himself unto the adoption of Sons by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. i. 6. To ascribe our Election to any thing discerned in our selves as I apprehend it shakes the foundation of the Gospel which in every passage makes Salvation the free gift of God by grace in Christ But Christ is both the exemplary the final and the meritorious cause of our Salvation The exemplary for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son Rom. viii 23. From whence Aquinas fetcheth it that Christ is the true Pattern by which we are predestinated respecting the manner by which we obtain that infinite good which is by mere grace For as the humane nature was united to the Godhead by no precedent merits so by his mere good pleasure without any thing precedent in us to attract him we shall be united to his glory 2. He is the final cause of our Election for to what end are we beloved To what end pluckt out of the jaws of Hell like a brand out of the fire But that he might be glorified among his Brethren God ordained his Son to be head of the Church and then he gave unto him a portion to be members of his body Wherefore the Church most aptly is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulness of him that filleth all in all Eph. i. ult As if Christ had not esteemed his own glory to be full and perfect without us But 3. He must also be acknowledged the meritorious cause of our Salvation For God so loved the good of his Creature that he did not forget to see his own justice satisfied by the obedience and death of Christ which satisfaction the Father lookt upon as the meritorious cause that we should be ordained to adoption of Sons God lookt upon the ransom of this Sacrifice when he did predestinate us to Salvation which surely is the sense of this voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Therefore this clause of my Text was St. Pauls warrant for so much as he wrote to the Colossians Chap. i. 20. It pleased the Father to reconcile all things unto himself by him by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven The self-same three things which are considerable in my Text and not yet opened are here likewise in their proper notions 1. That peculiarly above other Persons of Trinity the Father is said to be pleased with us and the Father reconciled 2. That it is assigned to the Office of the Son by it self to please and reconcile 3. That the Father is pleased in all things both in heaven and earth by the reconciliation of the Son cursorily of each For the first still the Scripture speaks that the Sacrifice placatory was offered up to the Father that he might draw us to himself who were aliens and castaways When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. v. 10. Believe it that every sin is committed against the whole divine Majesty and as every person in Trinity was dishonoured in the offence so we have need of pacification with all in the reconcilement But that the Scripture makes us rather take notice how the Father is reconciled unto us there are two reasons One that the Father is the Fountain of all Divinity the first person in order against whom we sin yet we sin against all So the first Person in order that is reconciled unto us yet we are reconciled to all 2. Though every work belonging to the Church be the conjunct act of the Trinity yet there are proper Offices belonging to several Persons to make our conceit more methodical So we know it by the phrase of Scripture that it is proper to the Father to receive us into grace proper to the Son to pay the price of our redemption and proper to the Holy Ghost to seal it to our hearts and to beget assurance in us It follows secondly that it belongs to the Office of the Son to make us pleasing and to reconcile us to God There is no other name under heaven but his in which Salvation can be hoped for Acts iv 12. for should the Angels or should men be appointed to such an Office to knit us into amity again with God and to reduce us to that eternal concord who were become open enemies It could not be For Angels and men owe as much obedience for their own part as they could perform Neither ought it to be for it was not fit that man should owe his Redemption to any other than to whom he owed his Creation
good effects Then the will of man according to that free liberty it hath which is helped toward good works not taken away doth all things with that indifferency that it may cast away this initial grace or embrace it work fruitfully with it or unfruitfully This is that qualification and condition of grace which some wicked ones are said to resist this is that Spirit which other sensual men are said to grieve They will not understand they will not be gathered together they will not follow their Leader through the servile liberty of their own concupiscence It is this first pittance and portion of a good life that many are said to begin in the Spirit and to end in the flesh In the work of conversion though a man hath power to resist it being founded in the natural liberty of the will yet no man doth actually resist the grace of conversion yet this grace of preparation many do resist out of the pravity of their will in which respect they are said to quench the Spirit I cannot speak so much as I might in this subject but because the understanding of Gods favour and justice and the provocations of our own duty depend much upon it therefore I will give you some short rules and corollaries to bear away 1. I do not say all men but as many as are invited by the preaching of the Word are made partakers of some preparatory grace for as a Vein and Artery run together in the body natural to convey bloud wherein the life consists so the Word preacht and some measure of supernatural grace go hand in hand in the mystical Therefore St. Paul says We are Ministers not of the Letter but of the Spirit It is told to no man in vain that Christ died for him the possibility of apprehending the benefit of that sacrifice is offered him if he do not hinder the work of God 2. In this previous grace and for the good use of it we apply unto you the exhortations comminations invitations of all the Prophets and Apostles giving you truly to wit that God hath given you the means to be saved if you do not reject them The last end at which we drive in all our Sermons is your conversion and regeneration that is the Crown of all diligence in this world but the immediate and next end that we labour is that men and women do their diligence to make good use of this preparatory grace 3. This grace of preparation before convertion is shorter in some than in others God did presently hasten the conversion of Paul of Lydia of the Jaylor Why may he not do what he will with his own And give a Peny to them that have laboured one hour as soon as to them that have laboured ten But usually there is large trial and with some this preparatory grace continues alone till anon before they end their life 4. God forsaketh no wicked man within the Church till he hath quenched this grace and interrupted the chain of those means which were prepared for his conversion Prius quam deseratur neminem deserit multos desertores saepe convertit says Prosper which is in part thus Englished 2 Chron. xxiv 20. Because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you Solomon was an excellent Divine as well as a Philosopher Prov. i. 24. Because I have called and ye refused ye have set at nought my counsel they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord therefore I will mock at their calamity but though he forsakes none untill they forsake him yet he forsakes not all that forsake him So said Prosper Multos desertores saepe convertit Peter and Judas both did reject this grace of preparation and fall from it yet the one hath efficatious grace given to convert him the other hath not This inequality is from the pure pleasure of God and no man can sound the depth 5. Some are much more largely watered with this heavenly dew of preparatory grace all may drink their fill but some have their cup brim full some are endued with more patience proved with fewer tentations Yet none can justly grudge why hath he five talents and I but three Why doth God stand longer at the door to knock for him than he will for me God is not bound to follow men with all manner of grace 6. If these works of preparation be not hindred if this grace be not quenched God will follow the soul with saving grace Not that any man in the world did ever use this precedaneus help so well but that it deserved to be taken from him How many sins do we incur How stubborn how disobedient is the heart of every man Here we might be for ever forsaken according to our misdeeds but the Lord will accept of small endeavours as great accomplishments In a word the good use that we can make of this gift of God is no way meritorious to salvation the ill use of it in those that perish is demeritorious and makes them justly undeserving to be called to salvation This I am perswaded is the true doctrine of this Point to stop the mouth of them that are lost and to shew the plenteous riches of Gods mercy in the vessels of Election Fourthly I labour for the easiest notions I can invent to make these intricate things plain the fourth Point will require an intelligent Auditor with what great and mighty power the Spirit doth lead the children of God in converting grace I have spoke of the first preparation of grace and the will prepared so I must speak distinctly of the act of renovation and the will renewed and the nature of renovation or conversion is best conceived in these six heads 1. What this converting grace adds above that preparatory help 2. God doth work it alone and the will doth passively receive it 3. It doth infallibly attain its effect 4. It is no violent compulsion upon the will 5. It is more than a moral perswasion 6. This is not repugnant to the Promises to the comminations or to the exhortations of God First It adds this above preventing initial grace that it doth but dispose a man to life but after this act we may say justly this man is born of God That is common to them that are lost who quench the first beginnings of divine assistance by their own evil will this is only given to the elect servants of Christ God works by several quantities and doses of Sanctification 1. That they can resist if they will as in Adam before his Fall 2. In others that they will not though they can as in those in whom he doth conserve his preparatory grace 3. In others that they will not nor cannot in the introduction of that act as in them whom he doth actually convert 4. In others that shall never can nor will as in the Angels and Saints of heaven God foresaw if he should only give this grace of preparation all
such excellent things which we cannot attain to perform that we may be excited to pray unto him for succour with a vehement and a flagrant devotion 4. He commands and he fulfils and he rewards crowning his own gifts and no works of ours that glory may be ascribed to his name for evermore The Synodal Epistle of all the Affrican Bishops St. Austin being one of the Society encourages me that these answers are far more reasonable than the objection Jubet Deus homini ut velit sed Dominus in homine operatur velle jubet ut facias sed operatur facere He hath charged us to will that which is good but he effecteth that willingness in man he says Do and thou shalt live his grace enables thee to do and thou shalt live for ever Let this suffice to teach you how we are led by the Holy Spirit in converting grace and I think it most comfortable to put our hope in God and not in our selves Cursed is every one that putteth his trust in man Jer. xvii 5. To dispach all I will be brief in the fifth Point how we are led by subsequent grace and sanctification which co-operates and assists us after our conversion this is that truth wherein all dissensious parts conjoyn and accord That Voluntas liberata concurrit ad bonum opus eliciendum cum gratiâ divinâ the will of man having conquered the dominion of sin by converting grace is made free and then it freely conjoyns it self with Gods grace to produce a good effect Then it lies upon our own diligence never wanting the directing vertue of the Spirit to increase the good gifts of Sanctification by acts of often doing well then we do further and promote those holy inspirations to a plentiful or unplentiful increase This is not passively to be led by the Spirit but to walk in the Spirit as it is Gal. v. 16. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh In a word this distinction reacheth over all which can be said upon this matter There are some actions which principally concern the well being of a justified man without which regeneration cannot consist these are they the turning of the heart to God a true belief a faithful conclusion of our life in the fear of God and the peace of a good conscience justifying grace doth so attend the production of these actions that the Lord in his own good time makes us able for these things willing to do and actually to perfect those necessary parts of salvation Other works of obedience as to do this or that good to shun this or that evil all these especilly and particularly considered do not concur to our saving health as to the very making or marring of it In the practice of all these particular good instances the motions and conduct of the Spirit are never wanting to them that are regenerate more or less but sufficient to have kept them blameless in every particular but in many of these we sin often and are wanting to the co-operation of grace through our own stubbornness in the will and sensuality in the affections I will conclude You see how diversly we are led by the Spirit how many sundry ways we are assoiled from Sin and Satan by the direction and efficacy of grace The natural man is able of himself to bring forth no spiritual good work The Lord doth totally and with no assistance of vitiated nature bring forth the first good preparatory grace in the will From thenceforth unto conversion this previous preparatory grace is made effectual or uneffectual by mans free-will In the act of conversion and renovation wherein all the controversie about free-will is moved the Lord doth turn our heart unto himself the will for the act being the passive subject and at the same instant it is the cause of a good action in turning it self to God in subsequent grace unto the end of our life the will being made free from the dominion of sin works together with the motions of celestial inspiration This is the sum of all If any thing be delivered too briefly impute it to the compass of the time If any thing be hard to be conceived impute it to the deep discourse of the matter If any thing be defective in the discourse give Gods grace the glory of all and impute it to my infirmity THE FOURTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1 2. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungry MAny things were rightly applied by him that compared the success of the Children of Israel upon their entrance into the Land of Canaan with the circumstances of this combate between Christ and Satan 1. the Israelites were miraculously brought through the Red Sea so the first glorious Apparition of our Saviour which went immediately before this business was the Baptism which he received of John in Jordan 2. The Israelites pass from the Red Sea into a great and solitary Wilderness So our Saviour was led after his Baptism into the greatest Wilderness of Judaea a place uninhabited by man for he was with the wild beasts Mar. i. 13. Then the Israelites were in great distress for foot hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them And Christ had nothing to eat in that place he fasted forty days and forty nights and was afterward an hungry 4. As the Israelites were pined with hunger so they had bloudy Wars with all the Nations of Canaan many a time have they fought against me might Israel then say So many a time did the Legions of Hell attempt me might our Lord and Saviour say yea many times did the powers of darkness compass me about but they have not prevailed against me On the one side here was first the Red Sea then a journey into the Wilderness then scarcity of Food then War and fighting So on the other side here was first a Baptism then a sequestring into the Wilderness then a long Fast and then a long conflict with the Prince of Devils Moreover the men of Israel did appear in that forlorn and despicable fashion before the Canaanites that they were much scorn'd and vilified so God provided we seemed in their sight but as Grashoppers said Caleb and Josuah this drew the Kings of Canaan forth to beat them back and so were overwhelmed in their own pride and cruelty Thus in all points did our Saviour deal with Satan the Eternal wisdom against the wisdom of the Serpent He flies into the Wilderness as one abandoned of the World there he continues in great necessity as one whom none would succour not a morsel of food supplied him by God or man Adversarium non virtutis jactatione sed infirmitatis ostentione provocat thus he provokes and draws Satan out against himself not by a boasting challenge but by the appearance of
days and three nights in the belly of the Whale so shall also the Son of man be in the lower parts of the earth as if Christ had been studious or rather would teach us to be studious to keep the pattern as near as we can of the good Generations that went before us I would be sorry such ignorance should be in any here to make a question whether Christ could have continued to fast not only for the space of so many days but all his life without the corruptible aliments of meats and drinks But if he had produced his abstinence from all food longer than Moses and Elias for the space of many months or many years it would have been incredible to many that he had been perfect man of the substance of his Mother and Heresies would have had strong grounds for delusions that he had not a fleshly but a celestial body How much better did his humility condescend to the likeness of his own Prophets And because he came but in the shape of a servant he would not exceed all example or outgo the miraculous fast of his fellow-servants he would have the world take knowledge of him to be a mighty Prophet at least no ways inferiour to the best that ever lived therefore he fasted forty days and forty nights like Moses and Elias But in this the one is as divers from the other and as much excels the other as can be imagined Moses and Elias were preserved by Gods mighty arm that their natural complexion might subsist without sustenance but Christs vertue was in himself and of himself absolute independent they were kept safe by an external power Christ by his own Godhead and by no derivative vertue Such glorious miracles are rather to be adored with admiration than to be followed with imperfect imitation And because a large field of controversie lies before me in this Point touching the observation of our Lenten temperance for forty days whether that ordinance were regulated by the example of Christ I will lay down three several heads of opinions in their order and bring you by degrees I hope to the truth of the controversie 1. I will enquire whether Christ did intend to ordain a prefixt time of abstinence in the Church for forty days by his example 2. If that be not so sound to hold yet whether it were an Apostolical Tradition 3. If that can neither be proved yet whether it be a laudable Ecclesiastical Constitution To the question of the first enquiry many of the greatest Doctors in the Church of Rome answer that the observance of the Quadragesimal Fast binds all Christians from our Saviours example So Cardinal Bellarmine Non verbis praescripsit hoc jejunium Christus sed exemplo praecepit we have no such ordinance in express words throughout all the Scripture to say do thus but it is an ordinance from Christs example And Maldonat the Jesuit though Lent be not founded upon Christs Commandment yet it is founded upon his Example and that is enough to say it leans upon divine Authority Beloved it behoves not us to lay burdens upon mens shoulders which God himself hath not imposed Whatsoever is commended to us for decorum and order sake we do it for conscience sake but whatsoever is no more but indifferent in it self and is obtruded upon us sub opinione necessitatis as necessary and irrefragable from divine Authority when it is not so we reject it Stand fast in the liberty wherewith God hath made you free says St. Paul Gal. v. 1. So St. Cyprian in the like case opposing them that invented traditions of their own and called them Gods Ordinances Periculosum est in divinis rebus ut quis cedat jure suo It is of a dangerous consequent to yield any thing to be a divine injunction which is not Therefore advising upon these rules I give a flat Negative upon the first question the Quadragesimal Fast is not necessarily to be observed from Christs example The old rule of divinity is a sure one Imitamur in moralibus admiramur in miraculosis in miraculous works we adore Christ with admiration in Moral Institutions we will follow him with imitation He anointed the eyes of the blind man with spittle and clay contraries to the cure according to nature and therefore we magnifie him is it not a most Heterogeneal Mimick from hence to make a mixture of spittle and oyl to an Infant baptized as if the Apostles had wanted ceremony to the Sacrament when they baptized with nothing but water If any man love me he will keep my sayings says our Lord but he never added If any man love me he will tie himself to my example where I never prescribed him to follow me For my part that which hapned to St. Peter works exceedingly upon my understanding in this case when he saw his Master walk upon the Sea as upon a solid Pavement he desired he might do the like and to let him know such miracles are to be lookt upon with the veneration of faith he sunk into the waters and was in peril of his life To stop every cranny of objection that can be made I read that the examples of Christs mighty works are sometimes pressed upon us to be drawn into an Analogical imitation 1 Pet. ii 21. Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps How is that Being reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not and as he died for us so we should offer our selves up to him as spiritual Sacrifices and as he died and rose again the third day so we should die unto sin and rise again unto newness of life From hence says Maldonat this is right our case for we take not upon us to eat nothing for forty days as Christ did but we keep a canonical temperance for forty days Imitamur quia sequimur quamvis non assequimur This is no more than the Analogical imitation Those other imitations of some similitude have a precept in the Book of God and this hath none Therefore let them teach that their imitation being not Scripture proof is but a voluntary and a diaphorous Constitution of the Church and the Church of England will never be their adversary For so it is frequent in the Writings of good Antiquitie to alledge Christs example for their observance of the forty days fast not according to the Roman Tenet at this day that Christ established it necessarily in all places from that time forth unto the end of the world but they alledged Christs example to countenance their voluntary and Ecclesiastical Sanctions What can be more direct on my side than St. Chrysostome Homil. 47. in Mat. Christ did not say as I fasted forty days so do ye follow me in fasting but learn of me because I am meek and lowly and ye shall find rest for your souls Surely if he had given any particular order for fasting in the New Testament the
thy self down Let me discover another property of the Tempters out of these words that it is his art to bring a man up by little and little to some high place that so he may send him at once with his head downward as the Eagle carried the shell-fish aloft into the air to let it fall upon a Rock and crack in pieces First He made Herods Flatterers canonize him like some Deity It is the voice of God and not of man immediately he see him abased so low as to be eaten up of worms First he lifts up Adam with a conceit to be made like unto a God knowing good and evil to the very top of perfection to the intent he may be made like unto the beasts that perish First Nebuchadonosor admires his own greatness and excellency Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my Power and for the honour of my Majesty Presently he was driven from men into the Wilderness to eat grass like an Oxe All Tyrants and Usurpers that have held their dignity by ill means and lost it with great shame are the amplification of this matter many of them set up for so short a time and so hastily pulled out that it may appear to all men Satan meant that nothing but their ruin should be remembred Dionysius the Tyrant fell very far from the height of the Pinacle upon which he stood his Princely condition being altered into the life of a poor School-Master but for Heathen Examples Valerian the Emperour is sufficient to stand for all a Monarch at the height of the Roman Empire his name venerable at home and terrible abroad so accounted of for some good parts Vt puderet virum altius extollere says the Historian that modesty would not permit to extol any man more Well the great Enemy of the Church had raised him thus high to persecute the poor Christians very furiously for all his good qualities and then he gave him up into the hands of Sopores the Persian to be his Vassal his footstool and at last the subject of the extremest cruelty If the meditation hereof will not prick the Conscience of them that get advancement by Bribery by flattery by offering themselves to be instruments of base designs I know not what will terrifie them It is an easie matter to get the Devil lend you his hand to help you up but take heed he will pluck you back with a mischief The Edomites pretended good will to the Israelites but in the day of their calamity they cried Down with them down with them unto the ground This is the Lords manner when he means to exalt a man he will first humble him and cast him down the Devils method is quite contrary first exalt the man whom he means to cast down first mount them up to the clouds that he may swing them off to the bottom of the nethermost Pit As it is happy to have been miserable since the Lord will recompence the low estate of them that feared him so it is miserable to have been happy by wicked means for Satan will bring those to shame that have been promoted by him It was but a small descent for Christ to come down from a Pinacle of the Temple into the outward Court in respect of that great abasement which he did undergo for out Redemption he stept from the highest Heaven from the glory of the Godhead to be inclosed in a Virgins womb he humbled himself to the death even to the death of the Cross but did his Father leave him there No therefore he was highly exalted therefore he had a name given him above all names And all those that are conformable to his Ignominy and Passion shall be conformable to his Glorification If you find Joseph in the Prison read on and you shall find him the chief Ruler over all the Officers of Pharaoh Job was not left upon the dunghil but raised up again to be the mightiest of all the Inhabitants of the East The latter end of David was not to follow the Ewes great with young but to be advanced above all the house of Israel Or if this World do not make the righteous amends for their humiliation trust unto him that cannot lie how for a momentary affliction they shall have a far abundant exceeding weight of glory This is Gods liberality many that are last shall be first But this is the inconstancy of the Devils favours many that are first shall be last The root of a tree the longer it grows it shoots deeper and deeper to the Center of the earth so misfortune puts a period quickly to the prosperity of all those that are the Sons of Belial the longer they stand the more they are in declension the faster they fall down But the righteous are like the young Plants the longer they grow the more they shoot up their branches toward Heaven Behold my Beloved here is a double fortune to be run and the election is yours Will you begin from the lowest foundation of humility and so rise up by the hand of God Or will you hoist up to the Battlements of the Temple to a Pinacle of Presumption Quando quis estimaverit se consistere in sanctimoniae summitate positus est super pinnam templi says Aquinas He that thinks he is as holy as holiness can make him he is on the top of all the Temple I beseech you make a wise choice No man can fall from humility to do himself hurt Non habet unde cadat A man may fall from a Pinacle of vain opinion and be dash'd in pieces This Point cannot be left before one Observation more close it up beware of leaping from the top of the Temple to the bottom go down by steps and fair degrees remember I pray that it is Satans motion Desilire non descendere to skip down from the Pinacle to the ground and not to come down by even paces in order God hath ordained means to bring every good end to pass he that thinks to jump into the end without using the leasure and use of the means flies upon the Devils wings he goes not in that line which the Word of God directs him The Apostle speaks of some that make hast to be rich they will not expect to thrive by honest labour and by competent gains but it must be had presently by any Art or Device This is quite to skip that course which Justice and a good Conscience prescribes The holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper is many times made ready for us but there are many preparations required that you should make your selves ready for it There must go before a due examination both of your Sins and your Repentance a remembrance of Christs Passion and a good spirit to apply his bloudshedding to your own benefit a charitable reconciliation of your self to God and man Now if you will take one of the Devils strides he will bid you pass over
Such another example is scarce to be found as that of David whose Cup was filled brim-full God magnifies his bounty towards him by the mouth of Nathan I gave thee thy Masters house and the house of Israel and Judah 2 Sam. xii 8. yet these were but the narrow Territories of the Land of Canaan far from this insatiable Possession All these things will I give thee The prodigal Child in the Parable though a most rank consumer yet this evil Spirit had not entred into him for he desired no more of his Father than the portion of goods which fell unto him But the Devil cuts out no portions for his Minions he disciplines every one of them to aim at all that can be gotten to be like a rouling Snow-ball ever gathering and growing bigger and bigger Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari There is no such bridle as shame and modesty in the heart of him that makes haste to be rich I say he wants the bridle of shame I do not recal my word Either cruel Usury or pestilent Couzenage or base Corruption or sordid Penuriousness or unchristian slackness in Charity some of these must concur to raise up a mountain of Wealth from a mean beginning When Sylla that powerful Roman made very witty Apologies for those evil courses he took to oppress the Commonwealth one choak'd him with an unanswerable Objection that he could not be througly good that had scrap'd so great wealth together and was born to nothing God will bless and reward industry with gainful success that is to be presupposed and granted for the encouragement of those that are diligent in an honest Calling but these boundless gatherers that would know no end of getting have their Bank in the Devils Mart for it is he that bids them carry more and more that they shall never have load enough All these things will I give thee St. Austin very truly lays the crime of Covetousness not upon that abundance which a good rich man hath but upon the corruption of his will and upon that which he would have Avaritia est esse velle divitem non jam esse divitem It is no breach of Gods Commandment to be rich but to long and thirst for more They that will be rich says St. Paul fall into temptations and snares and many hurtful desires Dives qui fieri vult citò vult fieri Let fortune come in quickly though the Devil lead it by the hand Beware of these swelling purchasing imaginations that are ever reckoning upon more confine your heart to moderate contentation if you will live in peace Nay St. Chrysostome says the less you desire and want the less you shall live like a mortal man and the more like an immortal Angel Quanto paucioribus indigemus tanto magis Angelis appropinquamus But above all remember that God directs the soul to be contented with a little the evil Spirit would have you ingross the whole earth and perhaps he could suggest devices how a luxurious man might be able to spend all the wealth in the world if he had it but immense Projections for riches come from the motion of the evil one All these things will I give thee In the next place let us declare against these words of Satan that his gift is not more spacious than it is unjust He presents before Christ the whole earth and the fulness thereof and our Saviour look'd upon all those things not with the eye of concupiscence but as a Physician looks upon a disease without any passion of infirmity But Satan would be his very gracious Benefactor and put all into his hands Would he undertake it But what should become of that portion and possession in which every man was estated The poor man that had but one Ewe Lamb should he lose that Naboth that had but one field of his Fathers Inheritance should he be turned out of that Should the very Nervs of all Justice be crackt in sunder Meum and tuum be banish'd out of the world to make up this Donative This is like the condition which Saul required of David he would make David his Son-in-Law if he would give him two hundred fore-skins of the Philistins David must not only provide him that which was none of his own but be the destruction of two hundred men to give Saul a Present So Satan would rob the whole world to make up an excessive liberality A Legerdemain which he devised from the beginning to give that which was none of his own as when he gave Eve the forbidden fruit which God had both planted and reserved And this is the most tyrannical and unconscionable injustice in the world to wring and extort from one and to cast it away as wastefully and profusely upon another This was the familiar sport which the ancient Comaedians made it was sport with them that knew not God for a lustful young man to cozen his own Father and lavish it all upon some sumptuous Harlot This is the most remorseless prodigality of our own times to steal with one hand and to scatter it away most excessively with the other How many ungodly borrowers take up upon credit that which they can never restore and leave the Lender in the lurch to his utter undoing and this wicked shift is made not through necessity to satisfie nature but to be bountiful to such Ravens as pick from him upon his Creditors cost An incloser of Commons that draws out his sin the longer by depopulating the whole Village turns forth a swarm of poor People to the mercy of the wide world by whose ruins he advanceth his own Posterity Aristotle says that a Prodigal that gives away nothing but his own and draws himself dry by such neglectful spending is rather a fool than a vicious person but that Prodigal abounds as much with viciousness as the other doth with folly that cares not from whom he takes that he may be giving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is vicious indeed for 't is the Devils vein of giving saies my Text he considers not this mans right or that mans in his goods and chattels or what belongs to the Widow or Orphan absolutely all these things will I give thee Ina and Offa and some other Saxon Kings that reigned in this Island but they especially were the greatest Patrons to this Church of England that ever it enjoyed either before or since their dayes perhaps it would pose any Histories in the world to shew the like Yet I must tell you that the Bishop of Rome hath been a great giver to Religious Maintenances in this Kingdom and which is very strange it cost him nothing he was never the poorer For he gave away the greatest part of the Tythes in the Kingdom from the Parsonages and preaching Ministry to maintain contemplative men as they call'd them in Abbeys and Monasteries This was the first spawn of Impropriations now this is giving
that is which Thieves may break in and steal breaks out that a covetous man so defrauded may cry out as Laban did Who hath stoln away my Gods Tales sunt Dii tui ut quis eos furari queat Are your Gods such trash that they cannot keep themselves from stealing Then let him be your God alone who is the watchman of Israel that keepeth all in safety I alledge St Hierom next and no man interprets St. Paul more literally that Covetousness is Idolatry Imaginem sive sculpturam nummi colit His eye is taken with the very Picture and Stamp upon the Coin and he shews it more reverence than becoms a Christian to do to a corruptible thing St. Austins suffrage is of moment with the best Fruitur nummo utitur Deo quoniam non nummum propter Deum impendit sed Deum propter nummum colit A covetous man makes use of God to set his stay upon his unrighteous Mammon for he doth not bestow his riches for Gods sake but he loves God for his riches sake I had rather troul over the rest than be tedious Gregory distinguisheth that the Covetous is an Idolater Non exhibitione ceremoniarum sed oblatione concupiscentiarum Which is thus worded in one of the School-men Non ex compacto sed obsequio Not by an outward ceremonious Adoration for which St. Hierom in some part accuseth him but by offering up his heart And perhaps Aquinas would be so understood in his distinction that the love of money is Idolatry Non secundum speciem sed similitudinem Not that it hath the very Essence of Idolatry but a great likeness and similitude As a Lover may be said to Idolize a Mistress to whom he is too obsequious So a man may be said to Idolize his Substance when he puts himself upon all servile baseness to obtain it And so Theophylact concludes it or rather inverts it from the words of David David says that the Idols of the Heathen are Silver and Gold Theophylact turns it that Silver and Gold are the Idols of those Christians that put their trust in uncertain riches I have almost panelled a Jury upon this Point yet if that will not serve he that is wiser than the wisest of men hath spoken enough to bewray that Covetousness is Idolatry Mat. vi 24. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon He serveth Mammon as he serveth God and parts stakes between them and that is gross Idolatry Or if it be true that Plutarch says Malice will teach a man more sometimes for nothing than a sweet Friend with all his good counsel learn it from our Adversary from the Devil that he makes one of these sins reach unto the other and to clasp fast in one he begins in Covetousness and ends in Idolatry All these c. I promised you two observations out of St. Ambrose upon the Point this makes the second that Satan indents to raise up our Saviour to all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them upon these Premises that he must fall down and worship Now this must make him bold to demand it that Pride will undergo any servile Office to win Promotion Ambitio ut dominetur servit curvatur obsequio ut honore donetur Machiavel may write his pleasure that Christian humility dejects the spirits and embaseth a good courage I cross his opinion utterly and say that the truly humble Christian hath the most generous and lofty stomach of all others which defies Flattery and fawning and Court-crowching and stands upon resolute terms to be beholding to none but to God and integrity for exaltation Is not his Spirit more dull and narrow that makes his Fortune out of bowing and scraping legs and diseasing themselves to be the shadows of great men to attend them at all times and hours Certainly so What bondman could put up more than Aristippus did He wiped off the spittle very patiently which a great man had thrown in his face and excused it that a Fisherman would endure to be wet all over to catch a few Smelts why not he then suffer so little moysture to catch a Whale Such scorns the Ambitious must suffer that are high Projectors Serviet aeternum qui parvo nesciet uti says the wise Poet. No servant shall drudge more or endure more than he that will not be contented with a little They that bear the proudest head you may perceive that they study to follow new observancies and new Vassallage throwing themselves down beneath the feet of them that will raise them up Their vote and suffrage must go with them of whom they have their dependencies be the matter never so imprudent and unequal as if they had chang'd not their consciences for there is nothing cheaper with them than that but even reason which makes a man that they may be in the rank of great and glorious yet baseness becomes them best 't is pitty their fortune should be mended Absolon when he aimed at no less than a Kingdom by treachery could perswade himself to complement to the ground with every Peasant to win the hearts of the people They that look to be advanced by Jezebel did stoop to Baal You see such as hunt for honour take it in good part to be thrown to the ground like Balls that they may rebound the higher Sixtus Quintus was the most crowching Frier in all his Cloyster the most yielding observant Cardinal in all the Conclave but the most imperious haughty Pope that ever governed The heat of the Sun lifts up a vapour from the Dunghil and in time it becomes Thunder This is enough to shew that the dignity which the ambitious attains unto is mixt with much baseness and servitude Satan did presuppose it when he called for so much homage and bowing down before he would part with all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them I will conclude it with this deduction from it Can you endure the waitings the comes again Superba fastidia the commands the disdains which a great man puts upon you in hope of his liberality at last O then take up the Cross of Christ suffer affliction for a season sit down a little in the lowest room worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord your Maker that he may say unto thee Friend sit up higher in the Kingdom of heaven I have handled before you the shameless lying of Satan that challenged unto himself power to give all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and then his horrid Blasphemy demanding that Christ would fall down and worship him Now follows our Saviours justice the repulse which he gave the Tempter and the vengeance which he took of his enemy Then saith Jesus unto him Get thee hence Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of anger and imprecation often in that language as you would say Abi in malam rem Get you gone with a mischief St. Luke puts more to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
ended really and in truth his word was consummatum est all was finisht and at that stop he bowed his head and gave up the Ghost Inclinavit caput as if he had said I have held out thus long against the fury of man now I willingly die I will hold out no longer against the truth of God Very wittily the Author of the Questions to Antiochus whom I cited before all enemies were come about our Saviour on the Cross and had the foil only death hovered aloof and durst not approach ideo Christus inclinato capite vocavit eam antequam inclinaret caput propiùs accedere verebatur therefore when all things were accomplisht Christ nodded with his head and called death unto him which durst not approach unseasonably before He bowed down his head How sweet it is to sleep in death when we have accomplisht all things that are acceptable to God even so Christ did not decease till he had finisht all things which were due to his Father and then this world could not claim him a minute longer but woe and bitterness shall be in that mans end who hath been troubled about many things in this but in no one thing that is good can shew a dispatch much more how far is He from saying with St. Paul I have finished my course hence forth is laid up for me a Crown of life Sow your Seed ripen your Harvest that it may be gathered into the Barn Let not your conscience begin to lament about the last hour and say I have promised repentance to the Lord I have promised works of mercy to the poor I have promised reconciliation to my Brother these fruitless words will come in judgment against me for I have accomplished nothing This second general part sticks only at the last word the Place where Christ should suffer is designed by Moses and Elias they spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Jerusalem indeed was grown to be the Scaffold upon which the best blood on earth had been spilt for many ages It cannot be that a Prophet should perish out of Jerusalem Luke xiii 13. and Christ did them no wrong when he taxt them with that officious cruelty that they laboured to draw the execution of all the Prophets to themselves Nor yet is the meaning so universal that all the Martyrs had perisht within their Walls The greater part did and enow to dishonour all the daily Sacrifices which they offered up in the Temple when they polluted themselves with the Sacrifices of the Saints True indeed that Jeremy the Prophet as Epiphanius relates suffered in Egypt Ezechiel in Chaldaea Jezebel in her time put to death many excellent men in Samaria and Herod as Josephus says cut off John Baptists head at the Castle of Macheranta in the utmost confines of Galilee But Jerusalem was become the Gulf which had swallowed more holy blood than all other places And I mark it in St. Paul when Agabus told St. Paul by the spirit that he should be bound in chains and shortly after die for the confession of the faith as yet God had not revealed that he must go to Rome and testifie his name there but Paul makes haste to Jerusalem as if he would meet death in the face in that great Metropolis which was so infamous for many Martyrdoms Well this is that City which had so incurr'd the anger of the Lord that he suffered it to fill up the measure of all iniquity and be odious to all Generations for crucifying the Lord of Life Yet the Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have fitly translated at Jerusalem For Christ did not suffer within the City but without the Gates I will take my thread from St. Paul to lead me in this way from the 11. to the end of the 13. verse The bodies of those Beasts whose blood is brought into the Sanctuary by the High Priest for sin are burnt without the Camp Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his own blood suffered without the Gate Let us go forth thereforce unto him without the Camp bearing his reproach Of those Beasts with whose blood the Sanctuary was expiated and their flesh burnt without the Camp you may read Levit. xvi 27. They that serv'd at the Tabernacle had no portion in this Sacrifice So Christ was carried out of the City to suffer and they that still retain the yoke of Ceremonies upon their neck have no part in him He suffered near to Jerusalem he came unto his own but they cast him forth He suffered not in the Temple for says Leo Crux Christi mundi est ara non templi Christs Cross was an Altar of which the whole world should partake and not that Temple only Nay to go further He was crucified out of the Privileges of that Jewish City to betoken that the blessing of his Passion would light upon the Gentiles The use which the Apostle makes is as he went forth of Jerusalem so let us go forth of the Camp to God Extra urbem extra mundum sequamur Christum let us leave our Pleasures our Riches our Country our Life and this whole World when it is requisite to do God honour by those means Quid est egredi ad eum videlicet communicemus cum eo passiones sayes St. Chrysostom What is it to go out to him but to follow the example of his patience humility and sufferings then we shall go out from our sins and come into his glory And so much briefly for every part of that Communication which Moses and Elias had in the Mount They spake of his decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem There is a whole verse yet remaining to be excussed which I read unto you I would not be prevented but to speak of that which follows entirely by it self yet I will so handle this with a short Paraphrase that I may not be tedious But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep This is right man and his regardlesness God shines in his works the Law and the Prophets preach daily and yet men sleep No nor the strong out-cries and exclamations of our Saviour in prayer could keep them awake Lord if thou shouldst not make intercession for us with strong cries and groans unutterable when we slumber and regard not our own misery what endless woe would fall upon us but here 's the difference between Moses and Elias immortalized in their body they talk divinely and between the best men Peter and the Apostles in their corruptible nature they are but drowsie lumps of flesh So it ought to be to impress this humility into our heart quod Apostoli dormiunt ignaviae est quid ipsis contigit spectaculum felicitatis Dei gratiae It is our own idleness that makes us sleep and when we slept in death it was Gods mere mercy no merit of ours that sent us happiness and glory it is not our vigilancy or our
is one entire Body one Tabernacle and no more Satan wisheth it were ten that there might be strifes among us I am of Christ and I for Moses and I for Elias even as among the Corinthians I am of Paul and I of Cephas and I of Christ This emulation and Schism comes of it to make more Tabernacles than one faciamus tria c. From the Builders and the Fabrick I proceed thirdly to the Possessors one for Thee one for Moses and one for Elias little Cottages yet Peter considered they would be somewhat for them that had nothing before Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head ipse faber domum non habuit he had not an house to lodg in though they call'd him the Carpenters Son Moses was thrust into an Ark of bulrushes Elias was turn'd out into the vast Wilderness Marmoreo tumulo Licinus jacet Cato parvo Pompeius nullo The mighty men of the World took up all the room from Christ and the Prophets all that the Apostle could make them were little Canopies of boughs and glad he had that for them that they might not want an Habitation What a narrow thing is mans wit though our will and desires are infinite he would confine him that is unconfined put all the light of the Sun into a Nutshel take up the vast waters of the Sea into a spoon that is comprize all the glory of Christ in a wicker Tabernacle How shall they praise his name from one end of the world unto the other How shall he ascend up on high with Majesty and honour Be thou exalted O God above the heavens let thy glory be above all the earth Psal lvii 11. Christs Kingdom is more communicable than to be thrust into a corner If they shall say unto you Behold he is in the desart go not forth behold he is in the secret Chambers believe it not Mat. xxiv 26. In like manner if they shall say unto you he is in Mount Tabor or in a Tabernacle do not regard them Numen ubique est he is in heaven and in earth and in all deep places Yet in this unadvised ejaculation it is true he that will make any fabrick for a sanctified end and out of a religious respect Faciamus tibi Let us make it for thee O God was very right if he had gone no further Churches are only consecrated and dedicated to the Almighty our English name is proof to go no further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greeks the Lords house from thence we say Kyrk or Church by adding words of aspiration At the erection of the Tabernacle Exod. xl 31. At the consecration of the Temple 2 Kings viii 11. It pleased God to give a manifest sign from heaven that he possessed both And because the Lord did so solemnly shew his honor in those excellent places therefore it is fit they should be appropriated to him by us with a most solemn dedication both to make them publick for sacred offices and that the builders may surrender their right and make God the owner for ever and to make it awful to every man that they be not polluted with prophane abuse What says St. Paul have ye not houses to eat and to drink in Where you see even before Churches were erected he gave an admonition Prophetically that these two are things for several places to eat and to drink customarily and to pray and preach Christs Tabernacle indeed must be for our duty belonging to Christ and for no other service And though Peter thought not himself and his fellow Disciples worthy of a Tabernacle he thought perhaps they should be quartered with Christ to be his Ministers there yet he propounds as much for Moses and Elias as he did for our Lord one for Moses and one for Elias T is is the fond and offensive love of superstition to dishonour the Saints when they would heap immoderate honour upon them He spake far too much when he would exalt them to equal honour with their Maker and yet he spake it much to their injury when he would deprive them of the beatifical Vision and sweet Society of Christ For to confine them to their own Tabernacles was to make them want the joy of their eyes which the Angels desire to behold and to see his sweetness these two great Prophets came down from heaven I am glad Salmeron the Jesuite fell in with me in this Point says he they do all fall upon this rock on which Peter did who are so addicted to some peculiar Saint that they will equallize him with Christ himself This is to advance them to equality with God to make Tabernacles and Churches to them as unto God St. Austin liked not that and therefore that none might mistake he distinguisheth Nos Martyribus nostris non templa sicut Diis sed memorias sicut hominibus mortuis fabricamus We do not erect To the Martys as unto God but Tombs of remembrance as unto men whose spirits live with God for ever And in another place we allow them Monuments of honor but not Altars of divine Service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Basil Divine Worship is due to God an honourable memory to the Martyrs Herod the Great was at great charge about the Temple of Jerusalem the work was good but his end was vain glorious and popular So men of liberal zeal but erroneous superstition built some Sacred Houses and did impatronize some Saints to be the Tutelary powers of those Churches and Oratories the work is good but the end is corrupt not that the sacred buildings are called by the names of Martyrs and Apostles as this is by St. Andrew we use those names by way of mere distinction to know one sacred place from another which perchance they imposed upon superstition Distinction of names is for variety sake and to take away confusion Sometimes by one Saint sometimes by all the Saints sometimes known only by the name of the Founder sometimes some famous work denominates them as Anastasia or the Resurrection and St. Sophia or Wisdom anciently the two most goodly Churches in the world and both in Constantinople Usually they are entituled by some renowned Martyr whose acts are worthy to be had in remembrance Nay sometime for mere distinction sake the buildings retain the names of fabulous Saints as Pope Gelasius himself condemned the Legend of St. George for Apocryphal they may add St. Christopher and divers more Yet the holy Oratories are no more dishonoured by those names than the Days of the Week by the Idol Planets Gods than the Ship which carried St. Paul by the sign of Castor and Pollux than Daniel who was called Bellishazzar from the Idol Belli Names of distinction are arbitrary and inoffensive to the judicious but Sacraries or Churches though they carry divers names are only to be built to God and consecrated to his
glory Put thy fear into us all that we do not crucifie our Lord anew by Blasphemies by Vncharitableness by an Impenitent heart lest we be brought into the bondage of sin lest our heart wax gross and want understanding lest we lose thy favour as thine own Israel did upon earth lest we lose the light of thy countenance in heaven for ever O Lord hear us and be merciful to us for his sake who died upon the Cross c. THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE PASSION JOHN xix 34. But one of the Souldiers with a Spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out Bloud and Water WE cannot meddle with any part of our Saviours Body this day but we shall touch a wound and the greatest of them all without controversie is this in my Text. Thomas might put a finger in where the nails had entred but where the Spear had opened his side Christ bad him thrust in his hand Of Evils be sure to choose the least as David did but of Blessings such were all the wounds of Christs Passion wisdom without art will lead our meditations to the greatest And as Lot chose the Plain of Jordan to dwell there before all the Land of Canaan besides because it had variety of Springs of waters so this wound was the moistest and had the most plentiful issue of all the five it gushed out into two streams of blood and water I have not found such a passage in the Meditations of the Ancients that they came to drink at the hands or feet of Christ although the bloud trickled down from them also But it is usual with them in their Allegories to speak unto their Soul as if they laid their mouth unto the side of our Lord and did draw at it for the Fountain of everlasting life Did they suppose said I that they laid their lips there Nay Bernard could not satisfie his desire till he found a way to lay his heart upon the place and at length thus he hit upon it he believed as he had received that this Souldiers Spear entred at the right side of our Saviour Now says he that Elisha stretcht his living Body upon the dead Corps of the Child to raise it again to life it is a figure that Christ should apply his Body to our body which is dead in sin that it might live unto God his mouth which bled with buffeting upon our mouth that hath been full of deceit and bitterness his brows enameld with the pricks of thorns upon our heads which have contrived mischief and malice his hands which were riveted with nails upon ours that they may be washt in innocency his feet upon ours that have trod in the crooked ways of the Serpent then the Orifice of this Wound laying his right side to our left shall ly directly upon our heart and cure that part which disperseth iniquity to all the body The other three Evangelists exact in most circumstances of the Passion have all omitted this violence done to the dead Body of Christ surely had they wrote like meer men you might have thought the long story of these sufferings to be so lamentable that they could not for very compassion draw it quite out to an end John says in the next verse that he saw it done and that he knows he speaks the truth Amatus amans vulnera Domini the beloved Disciple that loved the wounds of his Master and would not let one of them be unrecorded this is the last wound that the Son of God received and therefore it is recorded by the last Evangelist The whole Story is comprized in this one verse and it will yield us these two points the malice of the living and the blessing that came from the dead The malicious action conteins four circumstances 1. Who was that evil person who did offer ignominy to the Body of Christ one of the Souldiers 2. What was the violence he offered he pierced him with a spear 3. Upon what part of his Body this fury did light upon his side 4. When he smote him you shall find by the thirtieth verse when he had given up the ghost In the second general branch which is the blessing that came from the dead there is the mystical opening of the Fountain of life wherein I consider first the two streams severally Bloud and Water 2. Their Conjunction Bloud and Water together 3. Their Order first Bloud and then Water 4. The Readiness of the Fountain that gushed out the stream could not be stopped no not for a minute forthwith there came out Bloud and Water Of these in their order Vnus militum one of the Souldiers did a despiteful fact upon the Body of Christ The Romans having the whole Nation of the Jews under their subjection at this time did gratifie them notwithstanding in many things to prevent rebellion and to satisfie their Law which forbids their dead to hang upon a tree after Sun-set lest the Land should be defiled Pilate gave them leave to take away the Bodies this day crucified from the Cross Wherefore to dispatch the Malefactors that they might be taken down two Thieves had their legs broken in whom there was life remaining It seems the chief Centurion would not be more rigid than the Law to do any further despite to Christ when he was dead already yet the cracking of his bones to splinters was the chief thing the Jews intended but one of the Souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certainly says the Father for a fee to please the people thrust a spear into his side I doubt me that those who delighted in war bore no good will unto our Saviour His birth was destinated by providence unto the days of peace his Name was the Prince of Peace his Doctrin was utterly against the Sword qui gladium sumpserit gladio ferietur now see what comes of it when he is faln into the hands of Souldiers Joab and the mighty men of the Camp were all for Adoniah and all against Solomon Adoniah was like to live in the field as his Father David had done but Solomon's hand must spill no blood that it may build up a Temple The Emperor Probus let a word of meekness slip from him equus nascetur ad pacem he hoped to have horses brought up to do service in peace and not in war and the Captains of the Host cut short his dayes and so it far'd with the great Preacher of Peace Christ had as good be guarded by one of the Pharisees as by one of the Souldiers As Aristotle said of Bees and Swallows Nec feri sunt generis nec mansueti they were neither reckoned among those creatures that were wild nor those that were tame but of a middle sort Such was the condition of these Spear-men somewhat ruder than civil men somewhat tamer than Savages but violent in their disposition as they are pleased or provoked Yet I am not of Tertullian's mind to
fall out with the whole Profession of Chivalry for one Miscreants sake that pierced my Saviours side or for four at the most as some say that scourged him Quis requiescet super lonco quo perfossum est Christi latus for by that reason we should fall out with the Priests and High-Priests too who were deeper interested in the business than the Souldiers The Sons of Aaron were his first Enemies as you would say Hereticks and corrupt Teachers that sow Tares among the Wheat were the first Adversaries against the Church of Christ The Military men were his last Enemies they that wounded him in my Text and belyed the truth of his Resurrection afterward watching at the Sepulcher So the Battels of usurping Princes put on pestilently to be the last ruin of the Church Caesaris milites Caesar's Souldiers such as these were his Souldiers that would be an Universal Monarch the Caesar over all the Princes of the earth Some Expositors out of their respects to the honour of a Martial life would have this person to be ne unus militum no Souldier at all rightly called but by abuse and usurpation and I think you will say they speak reason when I tell you why When Hannibal was Master of the field against the Romans a People of Italy called Brutiani revolted to the Conquerors side But fortune turn'd and the time came that the Romans had clear'd the Coast of the Carthaginians and could take revenge of their Enemies at home then they neither would let those Brutiani live so happily as in Peace nor so honourably as to bear Arms in War but took them along with their Camp and made them Lictores Lorarii that is base Instruments for correction and execution of Malefactors so that by good conjecture this was but unus è Brutianis an Executioner and not a Souldier but as he lived in the Camp Now where villany was bred in the bone and the condition of the man was to be like Satanas emissus ad vexandum orbem appointed to vex all that came into his hands what could be expected but that he should thrust his Spear into the bowels of an Innocent As it was said of Maximinus the Tyrant who was born a Barbarian both by Father and Mother in quo fuit conscientia degeneris animi he did not apply himself to good because his conscience always told him that his original was base and degenerous Let him be as bad as we would have him or as good as the Text calls him he was as we are in one thing a Gentile and not a Jew a Gentile that did malice Christ The divisions of both those two great Houses did concur to these cruel and dolorous sufferings that both in their Posterity to the worlds end might think themselves indebted to expiate so great an offence both had an interest in these bloody passions prosecuting our Saviours death ut qui pro persecutoribus oraret Gentiles non excluderet says Origen That since he prayed for his Persecutors the Gentiles who were at one end of his Persecutions might be partakers of his Prayers And the counterfet Gospel of Nicodemus tells us what success this Gentile had upon our Saviours most potent Intercession and Prayer for his Enemies For this Longinus that name his new Godfathers have given him having lost the use of one eye long before a little sprinkling of this bloud did light upon it and restore it again The miracles and the grace of God made him a Christian and finally a constant profession of him that was crucified made him a glorious Martyr Whether the Story be true or false I dispute not this Author knew that there was a possibility we might believe it For 't is true that St. Hierom said upon the conversion of many Publicans and Harlots Christus est succinum ad congregandas sibi stipulas paleas many who had copious vices were drawn unto Christ as the Coral and the Jet draw chaff and straws and things of the least moment about them Men and Brethren to this day Christ is crucified to this day Armed men and Souldiers bend their fury against the Church of Christ are about his Cross For as the Philosopher said that an ill man was the worst of all Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he was arm'd with wit and reason to do injustice So every sinner is not so strong as a Souldier to hurt nor furnisht with ability to be so bad as he would be he wants a spear to thrust Christ into the side as Isaiah said of the Army of Senacharib which threatned sore against the Temple of the Lord but fell short of their purpose The Children are come to the birth and are not able to bring forth But when I see Power and Authority make the worst use of it to oppress when I see a pregnant Wit set it self to scoff and libel when I hear Eloquence whet her tongue to plead against the innocent alas say I this is robusta iniquitas this impiety is armed with a Spear the weapons of malice are girt about it my Saviour and his poor Members are sure to smart for it Says the Prophet Ezekiel chap. xxxii they shall go down to Hell with their Weapons of War that is with their violent and powerful sins Transgressors we may be Souldiers that fight against Heaven I hope we will never be Cast away the weapons of Satan and put on the armour of light I have done with the Person I come to the Violence offered lanceâ fodit he pierced him with a Spear The hand of Jereboam which was stretched out against the man of God dried up and withered the hand of the Emperor Valens shook with an extreme Palsie and could not subscribe to the Banishment of Basil the Great says Theodoret but the hand of the Persecutor which aimed at the Body of Christ himself that was stedfast no infirmity in it no sinew shrunk Let these go their way says Christ of his Disciples when they were all taken together in the Garden let not these be apprehended the Shepherd rather than the Sheep the Master than the Servants In me convertite ferrum whosoever escapes his own flesh shall never flinch at torment St. Austin asks why his dearest flesh was pierced and despitefully mangled but according to the Scriptures not a bone of him was broken quia ossa sunt electi eorum virtutes his flesh was the Sacrifice which must be offered upon the Altar of the Cross but his Elect and their Virtues are understood by his bones and whatsoever betides himself yet his Elect that is his bones must not be broken In the Similitude of the Vine whereunto our Saviour is compared more than once Bernard hath thus continued the Allegory that in Circumcision he was vitis praecisa a Vine that was pruned and though a little cut yet no substantial part was wounded In the captious questions of the Pharisees when
one belonging to the Temple but publick blessing to the whole world That is the reason that he suffered not within Jerusalem but without it to the end that all men that purifie their hearts by faith may claim a property in his Oblation Jesus that he might sanctifie the people with his own bloud suffered without the Gate Heb. xiii 11. Therefore let us go forth unto him without the Camp bearing his reproach First Let us go forth unto him and seek him out as stranger that have no abiding City but as Travellers that live in Tabernacles and are passing to our own Country through a Wilderness They that have set their rest upon earth and say here will I dwell for I have a delight therein they shall never find out the comfort of the Cross but use this World as a Pilgrim that would make haste with good speed out of it and you shall find your Saviour by the way He is not in the secret Chamber or in the Closet or in the Palace in none of these permanent and enduring habitations but in the trac of the wayfaring men that is in the Wilderness And then the Cross of Christ stands upon such ground where there is neither gain nor pleasure no more than is to be look'd for in a Wilderness Therefore St. Paul makes this further use of it let us go forth unto him without the Camp bearing his reproaching Extra castra extra mundum ejusque splendida exeamus says Theophylact Leave the pomp and beauty and jingling of these vain things if you stick to them you must perish with them for they all shall perish If you will remain in Sodom you must be destroyed in Sodom Is it not better to go into a Desart where there is nothing to eat than to live among belly-gods where there is nothing but Gluttony Is it not better to repent in Sackcloth than to be profane in Purple Is it not better to want and seek God than to abound and forget him Serpens sitis ardor arenae dulcia virtuti A well disciplined Christian praiseth God for all imcumbrances of adversity for the Serpents that fly about him with the stings of malice and infamy for sickness and languor for pain and weariness he did not look for kinder or more placid entertainment in a Wilderness But he that looks stedfastly to the Serpent that is lifted up in the Wilderness to Christ Jesus that suffered for the mitigation of our sorrows for the cure of our wounds for the accomplishment of our joyes for our victory over death and for our entrance into life everlasting AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE PASSION ACTS ii 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain CHrist was crucified between two Thieves the one a Blasphemer the other a Penitent an unfit place for Jesus the righteous very incongruous to sort him among Thieves though both had been penitent But lo St. Peter exhibits him in my Text in another posture on the one hand he sets before the Jews the demonstration of all his holy ways while He lived in humility on the other hand his victorious resurrection when he began to step into glory The verse before my Text is the sum of his admirable innocent and best deserving conversation before he was betrayed into the hands of men Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by Miracles Wonders and Signs which God did by him in the midst of you the verse behind my Text is the blazoning of his eternal life after He had destroyed death whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it In the first He lets them see their malice that they kill'd an Innocent in the second He lets them know the impotency and weakness of their malice that He was revived again and exalted into Glory the goodness and miracles which were conspicuous in him should have bred him reverence from his friends and that the hand of violence should not touch him but his loosening the pains of death and breaking the bars of Hell asunder must obtein him homage and worship from those that were his enemies By the former description that He was so approved so well known for doing signs and wonders their conscience would confess that He was a man sent from God by the latter description that he shook off the sleep of death as Samson shook off his fetters after he awoke their faith ought to confess that He was God that came down to man Thus stands my Text supported between the double honour of our Saviour on the one side his Noble Acts how He lived in righteousness among men on the other side or on the reverse his Resurrection how He lives again in Power and great Majesty above the Angels This is the right way to consider his Death and Passion and then you shall have no scandal at his Cross have you not seen him pictur'd hanging on the Tree with his Mother on the right hand and the Disciple whom he loved on the left if you have that figure in mind you cannot forget the order which St. Peter observes in these three verses the Breviary of the whole Gospel whereof my Text is the Center behold the sufferance of Christ that 's the middle the love knot the band of all then the same of him that went before his death like Mary that bore him in her womb and the fame that went after his death like John the Evangelist who was the faithful Witness of his Resurrection And so I have told you how the Text stands among its neighbour verses but in it self and in its own contents it is the most proper work of that Meditation which is due to this time of Lent it is a calling of sins to remembrance a provocation to repentance and both these through the consideration of the bloody Passion of our Lord and Saviour Now that shedding of the bloud of Christ which both accuseth us of sin and cleanseth us from all our sins is referred here to two causes that brought it to pass two most several causes and out of most divers ends to God and to man First He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God it did not happen as a mischief that could not be avoided by the sudden exclamation of the people or by the inconstancy of Pilate no the Council of the Holy Trinity had sat upon it and concluded it before all time Secondly as the ordination of his death was to a good end and from God so the execution came from the Devil and his Instruments out of most malignant respects that is ye Jews that brought him to the Judgment-hall and urged against him and did not leave till ye had murder'd him your hands were wicked that took him and crucified him and slew the Lord of Life Begin we with that
Cause which was a Cause before all time and then with that Cause which was a Cause in time Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God What is this determinate counsel what is this foreknowledg how was Christ delivered through those means these are the first Doctrins to be opened Counsel or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle is to canvass and to consider doubts discreetly and providently before some action is to be effected and to conclude out of those doubts well weighed what is best to be done that is it which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or understanding 't is very true this is the way and progress of mans wit to run through uncertain objections and at last to come to clear determinations and counsel among us is a rational remedy against rash and precipitate proceedings beware to think that these rules do conclude Almighty God there is counsel in God not by way of deliberation and discourse but because his infinite wisdom hath decreed all things both which way they shall tend and the bounds which they shall not pass and that 's the event of counsel Concilium dicitur non propter inquisitionem sed propter certitudinem cognitionis says Aquinas that is counsel is attributed to God not because He doth advise and demur much less because He doth require the suffrages and opinions of others but forasmuch as He hath established all things how they should be effected in the fulness of time therefore that Order and Decree which is the upshot of counsel among men is called to help the infirmness of our capacity counsel in the Most High Damascen was so scrupulous in this that he chose words on purpose to destinguish between God and Man In Deo est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resolution as you would say not a consultation for all things are manifest to him at once both of things that are and things that shall be nay of things that are only possible in themselves and never shall be But St. Paul prevented Damascen and avoids that distinction by putting those words together to make up one sense Ephes 1.11 Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will and Counsel are united in the operations of God when you hear of his counsel conceive the wonderful and mysterious wisdom of God when you hear his will is joyned unto it observe his free power and authority it was of old the description of a Tyrant that his will was law sic volo sic jubeo he managed all things according to the decree of his will but if you lookt for counsel you should find nothing but rashness and for the most part injustice but in all the Statutes and Ordinances of God there is counsel in his will summa ratio verity and judgment in all things that he hath appointed yet summa libertas nothing impels God to any Decree but his own free will and election tempering all things with wisdom and justice God doth decree both the means and the end of all things and hath set them a Law as David says that they shall not pass In the next place some light must be given to this other term in the Text the Foreknowledg of God to foresee a thing before it be actually effected comes to pass in a threefold manner either by the insight of natural causes So Artists can foretel at what day and hour Eclipses of the Sun and Moon will happen or by rational sagacity as a prudent man can espy how affairs will succeed when a good foundation is laid or by Divine inspiration when the Lord from above doth give a spirit to his Prophets to behold things to come as if they were present before their eyes These three are thus laid down after the measure of our own understanding but when we speak of Gods foreknowledg it is of another fadom for first all things that were that are that shall be are present to him at one instant those successions of time past present and to come which are differences to us are none at all to God his knowledg which is eternal reacheth with one simple act even to the producing of effects in time without all variation and therefore is called Prescience very improperly and with much dissimilitude from humane ways of prescience 2. Our foresight is bare foreknowledg not able to put forward a good event and as unable to prevent a calamity Abraham could truly presage that Israel should come out of Egyptian bondage but he could not hasten the time of their return Isaiah could foretel that Judah should be led away into captivity but he could not mitigate their bondage but Gods foreknowledg hath his hand and power always annexed unto it for whereas my Text says Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God St. Peter says Acts iv 28. that Herod and Pilate and the Gentils were gathered together against Christ to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done He doth not only foresee good how like it is unto himself and evil per dissimilitudinem sui how unlike it is unto himself but his providence intervenes and manageth that evil which he foresees will arise out of the corrupt and depraved will of the creature to his own glory It were an Epicuraean dream to imagin there is such a dull barren knowledg of things to come in God as should not interpose but leave all things to their own course and swing therefore Stapleton had no such just cause to declaim against Beza for rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place not Praescience but Providence God did not provide that is decree it antecedently that Judas should sin and betray Christ but since the Creature will decline from good consequently the Lord decrees the evil man shall not be restrained but shall be suffered to heap vengeance upon his own head Let Stapleton chafe at Estius a great Doctor of their own that says Prescience in this place stands for Predestination him being delivered by the determinate counsel and praedestination of God Now Providence is the ordaining of all things to a good end but Predestination is the ordaining of Gods chosen Portion to a blessed end I am sure Tremelius for Foreknowledg doth translate it Providence out of the Syrian Paraphrast and do but mark the scope of this place and you will find that Prescience here is annext with Providence For whereas the Jews thought that Christ had faln into their hands through unability of defending himself from his Enemies St. Peter beats down that error that Gods determinate Counsel and Providence was in the fact but that had been a very weak Apology to say that God foresaw it long before And so much concerning these simple terms to wit the determinate counsel and
betray me by the warning of the sop by rebuke and confusion Judas betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss though the treachery was permitted yet these were impediments though not such as would take place with a Reprobate Secondly God is no idle Spectator upon the actions of men whether good or bad where he permits the Devil to draw us into temptation his hand is not quite taken off from our sins but that he moderates our offences and that many ways as stopping our sins at such a quantity and excess that they shall go no further they that had power given them to kill Christ had not power to break his legs a bone of him could not be broken and the Lord sets other moments of time than the sinner casts about for himself as no man could lay hands on Christ yet the Pharisees fingers itcht at him because his hour was not yet come Therefore thirdly it must hang together with that which goes before that God disappoints a wicked man of that which he intends in his naughtiness and brings it about to his own glorious ends As Joseph said to his Brethren Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good Gen. l. 20. Deus cogitavit id ipsum in bonum convertere Junius adds that unto it God did provide to convert it unto good Neither is our faith endangered hereupon to suspect God as the cause of sin because he draws his own ends out of evil that He may do and yet be no Author of sin but abhor it because He is Lord of those Creatures that sin and rebel against him and the Creature can no more exempt it self from his dominion because it is sinful then because it is sinful it will escape his Law or dissolve it self to nothing So then the antecedent Doctrin is summ'd up into this Thesis If you ask in these terms what was the cause of Christs death the answer is it was Gods Decree and eternal Statute for as much as He loved us with an everlasting love and would not spare his own Son to pull us out of destruction Again if you ask who was the cause that Christ was buffeted spot upon crowned with thorns crucified the answer is the Devil and his Instruments but when the Lord foresaw how their cruelty and blasphemy would abound his Counsel did direct moderate confine their sin and his loving kindness towards us that He might shew us plenteous redemption did permit it The ancient Fathers of the Church thought this the truest and most inoffensive conclusion to refer the injurious slaughter of Christ not to Gods ordination but to his permission You heard Leo's judgment before to whom St. Austin agrees The Jews enacted a sin which the righteous Lord did not compel them to do for no sin doth please him sed facturos esse praevidit quem nihil latuit but this was foreseen of him to whom nothing is concealed Yet St. Chrysostom more clearly that the scope of this part of St. Peters Sermon to the Jews is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was not their rage and violence which could have prevailed against Christ if God had not permitted it for as He did not command the evil Spirit to seduce Ahab and his flattering Prophets but the Devil offering himself and being most desirous to do that mischief God gave him leave and would not inhibit him so the Jews were not authorized or ordained or stirred up from God to shew that prodigious hatred to his Son but He yielded him up to their fury and did not deliver him therefore Christ did not say Father why hast thou given me up into their hands but my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Surely this is the scope of my Text and I believe they shoot wide from the mark that collect from hence that St. Peters meaning was either to excuse their heinous trespass or else to comfort their wounded conscience because Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God no all the comfort which was administred is vers 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins There is no comfort under the Sun no balm in the world for a miserable sinner but repent and believe that there is abundant mercy in the satisfaction of Christ Jesus and for excuse that little extenuation of their fact which could be made is chap. iii. ver 17. Ye desired a Murtherer and killed the Prince of Life but I wote that through ignorance you did it as did also your Rulers these are plain and divine Allegations and there is no colour to help the greatness of their sin either from the determinate counsel or from the foreknowledg of God not from the determinate counsel for they had not an eye in the crucifying of Christ to comply with Gods counsel but to satiate their own spleen and hatred for impious men may execute that which God is content should come to pass and yet they do nothing less than obey God for obedience is not grounded upon the thing done but upon the readiness and duty of the will in doing beside was there any Law that commanded the High-Priests to crucifie our Saviour for God doth ever reveal his will in some Law No such Law I am sure therefore no obedience in this bloudy work of the Jews For no man can be said to obey that doth not know the will of the Lord neither doth direct his actions by the Rule of any Commandment And what had they to do with Gods secret counsel They had not the least glimpse of it Therefore my Text chargeth them home Ye have taken him and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him It is an error to amaze a man that reads it in the Popes Canon Law that because it was the counsel of the holy Trinity and the obedience of Christ to humble himself unto death even unto the death of the Cross therefore the Jews had sinned deadly if they had not crucified him It was well rejoyn'd by one that he wondred how the dumb and dead Paper did not stand up refusing to take that ink wherewith such an abominable blasphemy should be printed whereby the immaculate Lamb of God in whom there was no sin is affirmed to be justly and worthily condemned But will the fore-knowledge of God and that permission which followed it plead any part of their pardon Nothing less his fore-knowledge compels no man into the way of perdition God fore-sees iniquity in us because we will be evil but we are not made evil because he foresees it There have been always some in the world whom the Devil hath blinded with pernicious error making them dream of inevitable Fate and Destiny chiefly knitting this fallacy to fool themselves that Gods fore-sight cannot be deceived therefore such sins as he foresaw they would fall into are not to be declined St. Austin reprehended one of his Colledge
or religious house for this saying Qualiscunque nunc sim talis ero qualem me Deus praescivit Whatsoever I am now at last I shall be no other than just as God foresaw I should be Whereas says the holy Father his saying had been better on this wise God foresaw I should be such a one either as I would make my self by sin or by his grace and piety If I can I will clear that which makes the Objection seem to be difficult No man can be condemned for actual sins unless he do commit them through his own wilfulness But nothing is wilfully done which is inevitably and necessarily done and freedom is quite taken away unless you take away all kind of necessity But Gods prevision from all eternity infers a necessity through the supposition of it that nothig can alter from the way wherein before all time he saw all things lie naked and open before him This is the Objection and the Answer is most solid and punctual though not so clear and easie to common understandings as the Objection But thus That which God foresees shall be but presupposing that God saw the effect in its causes that it would be Therefore it is all one to say that God sees it that it is and it is impossible but whatsoever is when it â—s must be even so as it is Yet a little nearer to perspicuity you may consider an action either in the putting forth and the doing or when it is past and done In the doing God foresaw man had power either to do or not to do and therein foresaw he was left to his freedom and the liberty of his own counsel thus God saw from all eternity that man was not put upon evil or destruction necessarily then consider that action as foreseen of God to be done and committed so it is necessary But no otherwise than as we know it was necessary that Lot was drunken because that which is past and gone cannot be recalled You see an Archer drawing his Bow you see he may choose whether he will let the Arrow fly from him or not but when it is gone out of the Bow it is not in his will and power to resume it So God did foresee the thoughts of the Jews and when they were shooting out their Arrows even bitter words yet after the liberty of their own will they might have stopped and refrained then he saw that they took to the worst and chose death rather than life so he let them walk in their own inventions which made them stumble and fall Perhaps you will yet plead against God and say the Lord knew the ways of wicked men and he is Almighty and could have stinted their iniquity that such hellish effects should never have been wrought I sweep away this cavil with a word God was not wanting to put impediments and very great ones in the ways of Christs enemies that they might have desisted and been wise but if these were made unsufficient know that he is not bound to use Omnipotent means to repress impiety It is his great pleasure to put his Creature to the trial of obedience therefore it had not stood with his wisdom either to have made such a Law as man could not break or to endue him with such abilities as he could not transgress He will hedge in the way of sin to some on whom he casts his best good liking he will remove the objects and occasions of lewdness far from them they shall not come within the grasp of fearful tentations He would not let Paul kick against the pricks nor hale men and women that acknowledge Christ before unrighteous Judges but all men are not Pauls in God's dearest love and purpose Some are given over as these Jews were to a reprobate sense but according to their own wish their bloud be upon their own heads for God was innocent Now it is time to draw this Point into a Conclusion and in this form and use Let no calamities or malignities of this world offend us though the Church of Saints goes by the worst oftentimes let it not provoke our soul to say in its bitterness is there any Providence above Is there any knowledge in the most High Quis putat esse Deos He that will cut a man off when he begins to narrate a matter and not hear his tale out will quite misconceive him and lose the sense of his Narration So it happens to them that look rashly upon some miserable events in the world and search no further the uppermost part of those things which they see is Satan reigning Sin increasing Justice declining Religion mourning But the bottom and the nethermost part of this tragical spectacle is Profundum justitiae sapientiae eternal Justice revenging these injuries coelestial and inscrutable wisdom drawing peace out of contention repentance out of sins content out of poverty and an innumerous increase of faithful men and women out of bonds and captivities and persecutions They have not the patience to hear God tell out his tale they will not lend their eyes so long to see him bring his work to consummation that do not discern into his holy counsels that at last he will wind up all those things that appear most disproportionable to his honour to the high advancement of his glory Was ever the name of God defied in any thing so much as in the shameful death of Christ Ah thou that buildest the Temple in three days come down from the Cross and save thy self And again He trusted in God let him deliver him if he will have him And yet this that seemed such a blur to Gods renown was converted into such a good use that all the blessings that ever we received in this world were not so fruitful so beneficial to us as the death of Jesus Look not upon the superficies of his sufferings as some do and no more a Picture in a glass-window will read you that Lesson but look into the inward sanctuary into the bosom of this mystery that he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God You have hitherto attended to the first part of my Text that the ordination of Christs death was from God and to a good end and purpose the latter part which I will but snatch at and away is that the execution of his death came from the Devil and his Instruments out of most malignant respects Him ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain Ye have taken this is no backbiting no defiance at a distance where the Jews did not hear him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 withstanding them to their face as St. Paul calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome O how boldly the man of God speaks being compassed about with those murderers Some are faln in our days into a most ridiculous way of reproof and exhortation if it be compared with this They will discourse very earnestly what obedience
bond can you deny that Is not this Lazarus See but what infirmity Christ pretended in the beginning of this work and how powerfully it ended Jesus wept in the 35 verse as if it were a pitiful case indeed but he could not help it He asked where they had laid him Lord dost thou ask for the grave which was hard by and yet knowst thine own self no man told thee being two days journey from Bethany that Lazarus was dead Then he ask'd for help to take away the stone Debile initium miraculi a weak beginning God knows how should we expect that he should open the gates of Hell that with a word doth not command the Sepulchers to open Doth this offend you What and if you see not only a dead man after four days raised to life but also to walk before you when his feet and hands were bound As if he moved like an Angel rather by the will of his own Spirit than by bodily instruments This was the conclusion of the Miracle and whatsoever the beginning was the end was admirable As Samson went away with the Pin and the Web Judg. xvi 14. which were tied to his hair whatsoever Delilah bound him with still he walked So Lazarus went away with his bonds as if he had triumphed over death and carried the Ensigns away that is the grave-cloaths with him Peters Chains fell off from his hands and so he avoided the imprisonment of Herod Peter thought so strangely of this to walk when his fetters were off that a great while he wist not it was true that was done but thought he saw a vision What did Peter think of Lazarus then For he was one that stood by His eyes were blindfold that he could not see his way the hands are the blind mans Candle and serve to feel out the way and they had Manicles The feet had Shackles that should tread the way Yet as if he had flown out of the Grave rather than walked Lazarus came forth he was in the Sepulchre shortly to be brought forth as if he had been hatching in his mothers womb rather than in a Cave of interred men He was says St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a babe new born wrapt in swadling clouts rather than like one in a winding sheet But when he walk'd without the use of feet or hands he was like Paul wrapt up into the third heavens whether in the body or out of the body he knew not It is a great comfort unto us says Irenaeus that Lazarus came forth cap-a-pe the same man that he was laid in the Grave nothing altered about him Igitur eâdem animâ eodem corpore sumus resurrecturi it shall be our own body it shall be our own soul in the Resurrection no substances newly created Lazarus could best speak for the soul that it must be his own because his former fancy and remembrance still remained And his Sisters could speak for the body they knew what they had foulded up and what they found when they had unfoulded it And therefore some think that it was unto Martha and Mary that Christ spake in the end of this verse Loose him and let him go When Elias raised up the Son of the Widow of Sarepta to life he gave him to his Mother when Elisha restored the Shunamites Child to life he gave him to his Mother when Christ raised up Lazarus from the Grave he puts him into the hands of his Sisters that they may unty what they had bound before nay when he rose from death himself he appeared first to Mary Magdalen What is the reason that at every turn the women had the Resurrection first declared unto them Because they did first occasion death therefore to shew that by faith they were excusable of the fault they had the first news of the life of them that rose again Lord says Martha if thou hadst been here my brother had not died She put all the fault upon the absence of Christ Nay woman says Chrysologus Nisi tu fuisses in paradiso If thou hadst not been in Paradise thy brother had not died But Lazarus is bound that you may unty him and give him breath who first did stop his breath by eating the forbidden fruit Exiit ligatus he came forth bound Lazarus was not glorified in body by this Miracle as the Saints shall be yet here you shall see one of the properties of a glorified body and they are reckoned up to be four by the Schoolmen Claritas incorruptibilitas spiritualitas motus agilitas 1. There shall be an exceeding brightness in those bodies as our Saviours body shined so white at the Transfiguration that no Fuller could make a thing so white 2. They shall be incorruptible Summer and Winter Fire and Sword could do them no violence as Christ said unto Mary Touch me not 3. They shall not be gross like our bodies and sustained with meat It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body 4. It shall be nimble in motion like an Angel flying as Philip did from Gaza in the Desart to Azotus suddenly gliding upon the wings of the wind not depending upon feet as we do and to prefigure this property in a glorified body hereafter Lazarus came forth bound The vulgar Translation puts in a word to make the Miracle more strange Statim exiit that Lazarus came instantly forth without delay though his feet and hands were bound and his face with a Napkin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nonnus he came not out like one that was shackled and halted because of his impediments he ran swiftly before them all For Christ useth not to do his work lamely and by halves St. Chrysostome makes this comparison As a horse and his Rider listen at the Race when the word shall be given and take it at the first syllable to be gone So says he as soon as Christ had but said Lazarus come forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he started out like the horse at his game and came on with speed and chearfulness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like one that watch'd the Sepulcher rather than the Corps Chrysologus brings in the Devil who is the Jaylor of death wonderfully amazed that our Saviour called for a dead Corps and makes him to speak thus Let him have the man he calls for let him have him bound hand and foot if he will let us not stay so long as to unty the knots make no delay Ne dum tardius unum referimus omnes cogeremur afferre lest while we prolong the time to restore one dead man he should call unto the Graves to restore them all As Luther called upon the Pope at first to have but one error amended concerning indulgences and while he trifled and hung off to do that Luther cried so loud that he caused divers Churches most happily to mend twenty more So death hastned away Lazarus being bound lest if he staid more would follow him As the
Resurrection assists a work which was most noble and therefore at all points Visage and Garment he is exceeding glorious the Angels that appeared before Abraham and Lot had no eminent note of honour in their outward shape and so passed for mere men but Angels at this opportunity would be known to be Angels and therefore this spiritual Embassadour is not diminished in his Majesty by appearing in the figure of man for his Countenance was like lightning c. God could and can send forth his Angels in what form and disguise he pleaseth and this Messenger is strangely appointed terrible in the aspect else all over amiable there is dreadfulness in his face and gladness in his garment And this diversity refers us to seek out that there were two different effects to be brought to pass In terrorem reprobis in blandimentum bonis says Gregory here were unbelieving Souldiers to be dismayed and such a countenance would make the proudest of them all to stoop and here were faithful women to be comforted therefore the raiment was like a Bridegroom that came to call these women like the five wise Virgins into his Chamber This is the more notable in the observation because you never read that the women did see this flash of lightning in the visage of the Angel they saw a young man sitting in white in a long white Robe St. Mark St. Luke and St. John have not one word in their context that these good souls saw any thing but amiable consolation But that lightning which sate upon his countenance was an object to daunt the wicked and was presented only to the Keepers that watcht the Sepulcher In a great passion of anger the eye will look like a forge of wrath as Tully said of Verres Ardebant oculi toto ex ore ejus crudelitas emicabat and so the Poet of his Alecto Flammea torquens lumina indignation did sparkle out of their eyes like fire Even so this Apparitor that came from heaven did personate vengeance and destruction which a man may read in this visible evidence His countenance was like lightning Consider and make this use of it if one Angel was so dreadful at the Resurrection of Christ what fear and astonishment will come upon the wicked at the general day of the Resurrection when they shall see the Father sit upon his Throne and thousand thousands of Angels ready to execute vengeance round about him Alas a flash of lightning is quickly gone and past but thunder will follow this lightning to cleave the hearts of Infidels in pieces that workt wickedness and will not believe St. Hierom says that this was the Trumpet which kept him waking that he slept not in death for by the grace of God this meditation sounded always in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead out of your graves and come to judgment Think what a day that will be when all flesh shall come to answer in their own person before that Bar what they have done in their body whether good or evil The Prophet Amos speaks of some that were dispisers of all justice and charity and yet thought the disquisition of that day would go so well with them that they long'd for the trial Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light Amos v. 18. Every good Angel will be an affrighting spectacle to the ungodly for they shall be known to be the mowers that have the charge to take the Tares and to burn them in unquenchable fire and if their presence be unsufferable to the guilty the Majesty of God which they have so much dishonoured will infinitely increase their perplexity The face of Moses who was but a Minister of the Law was not to be look'd upon by the Israelites until he had cast a veil before his skin Who then will be able to endure him who is the Judge of the Law unless he speak for us to the Father who is the propitiation for our sins Adulterers Extorsioners prophane persons live so securely as if they distrusted no such matter as a dreadful reckoning at the second coming of Christ Apollodorus gave a commonitory supplication to C. Caesar not to be present in the Senate that day when his life was sought by a strong conspiracy which had he read the danger had been prevented but he shuffled the Paper into his bosome and never regarded it which cost him his life So the sacred Scripture is put into the hands of the ungodly let them read it if they will and understand that vengeance abides those that continue in any grievous crime the countenance of Gods Angels is like terrible lightning and is set against them to divide them in twain In Rev. iv 8. the four beasts which is by many expounded the four Evangelists cease not to cry day and night Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is qui venturus est and which is to come all this the impenitent shuffle off till at last destruction shall take them unawares Again the Angels countenance was like lightning not only to portend that there shall be great terrour at the general day of the Resurrection especially among accursed Reprobates such as these were that kept the Sepulcher but beside lightning is a sudden unexpected glance to note that the last day of the Lord will come very suddenly and give no warning But this is warning enough to a provident man that Christ says he will come very suddenly and give no warning Our Saviours resolutions in all other points of Divinity are very copious direct and punctual yet touching the coming of the Son of man to judge the world whensoever his Disciples or any others askt him that question all that he did ever reply in the Gospel was most unsatisfactory as I may say and full of ambiguity Vt Magister aliquid docuit ut Magister aliquid non docuit says St. Austin that which was fit to be known he taught them like a Master and that which was fit to be hid like a Master he concealed it And he would have that day concealed that it might come unexpectedly like a flash of lightning for many reasons For there are some evil servants in the Gospel that if you perswade them the Lord will delay his coming will waste and mar all and beat their fellow-servants there are others as St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians that will be shaken in mind and troubled if you say that the day of the Lord is at hand To prevent that neither the one shall be secure nor the other troubled we know not when his Apparition in the clouds shall be but with great suddenness it shall be as when lightning breaks out of a cloud and glides from the East unto the West whereof no man was aware before he saw it This is one of the priviledges of
inward man must exceed all natural similitudes lavabis me dealbabor supra nivem thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter than the snow We come into the world odious and defiled therefore we wash in the Sacrament of Baptism that we may be cleansed yet again we grow obscene and wallow in the mire of this world therefore we do often crave the bloud of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to cleanse and purifie our conscience and after all this he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled he that useth this world shall be contaminated therefore repentance which sometimes I hope brings tears with it must stand us often in stead to purge out the spots of uncleanness and this is our pureness before God that we sorrow for our impurity But remember I beseech you to keep your vessel chaste and undefiled for as this Angel appeared white as snow when Christ rose from the dead so let us go to our Graves as white as Doves in innocency and simplicity of heart that 's the colour of hope and purity belongs to all those that have hope of a glorious resurrection Secondly this snowy resplendent Vesture in the Angel is the Ensign of great joy for joy had never so good reason to break out heartily and redundantly as that Christ was risen from the dead The Sun and Moon in the Firmament do set every day and rise again no great joy to see those bright Lamps again because we certainly expect them but all that retein'd upon Christ thought when he was crucified such was their little faith that he was lost for ever and therefore when he came unto them and shewed them his feet and hands they believed not for joy and wondred Luke xxiv 41. and afterward being throughly perswaded of it they returned to Jerusalem with great joy v. 52. O Lord who is able to express what triumphs there were in Heaven when the Souls of the Saints perceived that Death was overcome that Hell had lost the victory and that they should be cloathed with their bodies for ever on Good Friday the Heaven and the Earth mourned the Eclipse put all in black on Easter day the colour is changed Heaven and Angels are all in white From this great Festival to the end of the next Lords day they that were baptized went all in white for the ancient Church took a delight to be ceremonious in these things and therefore the next day called Low Sunday by us the Low Sunday in respect of this the highest day in all the year with them was known by this name Dominica in albis the Sunday for wearing of white Garments and this colour was so constantly observ'd for the figurative signification of exceeding joy When Israel came out of Egypt and the House of Jacob from a strange language the Mountains skipped like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep Psal cxiv And why is that one of the proper Psalms appointed to be read on this day because if the joy could not be expressed but by such strange Hyperboles when the People of God came out of the Bondage of Egypt then what unutterable gladness it is that the Son of God broke the bondage of death asunder and by his own victory brought us all out of the captivity of the Grave for ever It was a Proverb in their Heathen Entertainments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a sign of good welcom when the Porter which lets you in is chearful the Cherubins are the Porters of Paradise in former times holding an Instrument of minacy in their hands to keep us back now they appear gladsom and will conduct us with joy to Christ I told you before that in all the other Evangelists the pious women that came with spices to the Sepulcher to embalm Christs Body did not see the afrightful rutilancy in the Angels face but only this fair gladsome Robe he lookt like a Priest to preach Christs Resurrection pur âque in veste Sacerdos a good decorum in the Heathen Poets verse although some are so foolish now-a-days that they had as live see lightning as a white Garment upon his back that supplies the place of the Angel But the Angel himself were not able to satisfie all such quarrelsom consciences therefore I let it pass The use of his coming was to stir us up to joy to rejoyce in God In the world we shall have tribulation but this is a blessing of which neither fire nor water nor any tyranny can prevent us we shall have a joyful resurrection And as the Jews had the Law written in the Fringe of their Garments so we may read this observation likewise in the long Robe of the Angel which was white as snow that it was idaea gloriae the Idaea of that triumphant glory which shall be in the bodies of the Elect when they are raised up in immortality Indeed if no such reason should be assigned it would be hard to answer this objection Quid facit indumentum ubi tegendi necessitas non habitat What should a Garment do where there is no need of covering neither heat nor cold Summer nor Winter Whether they that rise from the dead shall be naked in their bodies is a captious question to be propounded Nakedness had no shame in it I am sure in the days of innocency before Adam fell and then indubitably it will have less cause to blush in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the opinion of the Greek Fathers and therefore the white Robe of this Celestial Messenger was rather figurative of the brightness of our glory than a description of our Vestiments And the Scripture is constant to that phrase to make us constant in our expectation Those few names in Sarda which had not defiled their Garments shall walk with me in white Revel iii. 4. and the President of all Patterns our blessed Saviour at his Transfiguration in which he shewed what manner of Citizens we should be in the Heavenly Jerusalem the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering The Pharisees required a sign and Christ told them they should have no sign but that of the Prophet Jonas for Jonas rose as it were out of the Whales belly to preach destruction against Nineveh so all that the Souldiers knew by Christs rising should be lightning to burn them up but the godly women that saw this Angel over and above the sign of the Prophet Jonas saw this glorious Apparel to betoken the dainty and delicate part of the resurrection In these our evil days our Soul is full of rebellious concupiscence and therefore our Body is made miserable hereafter the Soul will be enlightned with all kind of grace and the Body shall be changed to be incorruptible Equal or like to the Angels the Elect shall be Christ hath so promised and in a mutual assurance these Angels that came in white were made like to us Like to us I say but
not pity them that may foresee this and yet will be other mens instruments to facilitate their damnable projects I do not pity these Souldiers that would attend the High Priests service against the Lord and against his Christ and now are weary of their service they shook for fear and became as dead men Lastly to end all the wicked have fair warnings these fears and quiverings are good Tutors and admonitions when the house gives a crack before it falls the Inhabitants may shift for their lives and he that will not mend by terror and minacy let his end be misery A standing water that is never troubled hath no commotion in it must needs corrupt so an even fortune that is not acquainted with frowns and afrightments is most incommodious for a Christian but he that will make good use of fear though he shake and cannot stand he shall fall into the arms of mercy But these impious Watchmen were no longer mortified than the Angel lookt upon them There was no serious affection of sorrow in them Sicut mente alienati expavescunt ad momentum simul tamen obliviscuntur se timuisse As a phrentique is awed for a while with his Keeper but flies out into wild fits as soon as he turns his back so this Roman Garrison who may represent the whole condition of Reprobates a little terrified but never amended they had a qualm of guiltiness came over them but they did not search into the true cause and original and as soon as ever they had communicated with the High-Priests and Elders their impudence was encouraged their hands bribed and their tongues bought at a price to publish abroad the most wrongful the most sinful the most senseless forgery that ever was invented therefore since they were no better for that terror which a good Angel struck into them it is to be much presum'd that the Lord did turn them over to evil Angels to be tormented for ever Dearly beloved that which stands before us this day is not an Angel of the ordinary Hierarchy but the Angel of the Covenant Christ our Lord in the Sacrament of his blessed Body not cloathed gorgeously but in the poor Elements of Bread and Wine And let us come to these with joy and not with terror not as dead men unless it be unto sin and living unto God and yet bring store of fear and reverence with you The Greek Fathers call this Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mysteries of dreadfulness lest we should not receive them in a clean vessel and with all due preparation O I beseech you remember you come to receive Christ who is risen and sitteth at the right hand of God wherefore come out of the Grave of your sins from your long accustomed crimes wherein you have been buried not four days with Lazarus but many years and then we shall encompass Christ in his glory with Troops of Angels for evermore AMEN THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MARK xvi 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the Week he appeared first to Mary Magdalen out of whom he had cast seven Devils ALL that concerns this most Christian Festival may be referred to two words Christus resurrexit apparuit that Christ rose from the dead and that he appeared after he was risen That he rose from the dead on this day there were good tokens of it the earth trembled the Stone was rolled away the Monument was opened the Souldiers that kept watch upon the place were dismayed and fled away the body was not to be found in the Sepulcher and Angels of light heavenly Spirits that would consent to no fraud or sin ministred in the Grave where the body had lain Who were the Witnesses that could testifie to all this that it was very true A Catalogue of people some of one condition some of another The whole Corps du Guard of the Souldiers though they were corrupted to tell a lie the Women that brought sweet Odours and Spices to embalm him and lastly two of his own Disciples Peter and John who saw what God had done and returned from the Monument with some little faith but with great extasies of wonder and joy indeed with a concurrence of all these passions that no man can well tell what to call it See my Beloved here was the grand Article of Faith come now to the birth yet all this that was passed was not able to bring it forth It put Christ therefore I will not say to the trouble but to the exercise of five several Apparitions upon this day 1. He was seen of Mary Magdalen 2. Of Peter although we meet not with the manner how Peter saw him but the Apostle Paul says he was seen of Cephas then of the Twelve it was his happiness by himself alone to behold him alive again upon this day Luk. xxiv 34. The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared unto Simon 3. He manifested himself to the cluster of those Women that came to anoint his body 4. He discovered himself to those two that were going to Emmaus 5. He came in the presence of all the Disciples at Evening when the doors were shut These were the Cinque Ports I may say of his sweet manifestation at this season And it falls out very well to my purpose that my Text says the first that saw him after his victory over death was Mary Magdalen For this will make even with Eve upon whose disobedience I have preach'd so often I have shewed unto you divers times how by a Woman came the first vengeance of death now I shall shew you if God please how by a woman came the first notice of the Resurrection from the dead and both hapned in a Garden In a Garden life was forfeited unto death And in a Garden life was recovered from death But death was threatned to Eve towards the darkness of the Evening he that conquered death made shew of his victory openly to this holy Woman early in the Morning And this is Davids Song accomplished Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the Morning The Text offers much to be spoken of I cannot reach at all but I will select so much only as will serve for the continuance of an hour First here are circumstances of time which shew a coherence between the Resurrection and Apparition of our Lord. The Apparition as well as the Resurrection was upon the same day On the first day of the Week and much about the same time of the day very early in the Morning Secondly The Apparition it self was made to Mary Magdalen who is described that she had the first fruits of Christs love for the present he appeared first c. And 2. she that was the object of his great mercy for the time past for it was she out of whom Christ had cast seven devils Unto these particulars are required your Attentiveness and my labour To begin then These great marvels hapned on
resistency be never taken away in this life but is ever smothered and couchant in the bitter root of our corruption yet according to the efficacious and sweet motion of grace God disposeth that it shall not come out into act It is not therefore the power to resist which is taken away for then the will were violenced and nature quite transformed whereas grace is the perfection not the abolition or destruction of nature It is only the actual resistency which is stopt Most excellently Prosper Hanc abundantiorem gratiam ita credimus potentem ut negemus violentam There is a special abundant grace which is the Lot of that remnant which shall be saved and this we believe that it hath powerful success upon the will but makes no violent that is irresistible entrance But it carries all the affections with it with a most urgent undeniable perswasive force it ravisheth a man from himself he feels himself as it were compelled in spight of Tyrants in spight of death to confess the truth We cannot but speak the things which we have heard and seen Acts iv 20. Nihil imperiosius side The Spirit of God hath a most imperious authority over the soul where it will dwell a smooth tongue in an eloquent man will win much upon his hearers and draw them far but the Spirit of God is a commanding principle a rushing mighty wind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Oecumenius this is a sign of abundance of vehemence it is the breath of God whose might is invincible But thirdly there is another way that some conjecture at the vehemency of the Wind and that was to strike terrour Into whom you will say In some sort says Calvin into the Disciples themselves that received the Holy Ghost Thus he most judiciously Nunquam ad recipiendam Dei gratiam ritè sumus comparati nisi domitâ priùs carnis confidentiâ That is we are never fitly disposed to receive the grace of God untill our carnal pride and security be beaten down and humbled Some roaring terrible wind of judgment and the expectation of hell fire if we repent not must shake us soundly Or else we will fall asleep in our sins and wallow in wantonness with the slumbering soft noise of mercy As the Spring of the year wherein all things grow begins roughly with March and ends sweetly with May so Renovation and New-birth it begins austerely with the angry Pedagogie and Discipline of the Law with consternation in a troubled Spirit then begin the fruits of the Spirit to spring up but it proceeds to gladness and rejoycing and to peace in Christ First the strong Wind passed by Elias that rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces then an Earthquake and a fire and after the fire a still small voice The Angels coming to the Blessed Virgin had first fear and astonishment in it then greeting and salutation So the Wind that came at the Feast of Whitsontide did first roar and terrifie them that were gathered together afterwards it was as Oyl that comforted and as new Wine that maketh glad the heart So says Bernard upon the conclusion of it Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia quietum aspicere quiescere est God is peace and sets all at peace and to behold him in whom our soul rests is to rest for ever But others say for all the mightiness of the Wind it is not expressed that any fear did fall upon the Apostles the vehemency of the sound was to corroberate the Apostles and to let them know there were blasts in store to cast down their enemies Such as repelled the Darts of Maximinus the Tirant into his own face when he gave battel to the Christians Such as hath dispersed the invincible Navies of our Enemies Et conjurati veniunt in classica venti Christ descended gently as the rain into the Fleece of Wool in the days of his exinanition He shall not cry nor cause his voice to be heard in the street Isa xlii 2. But now he is exalted into glory and hath the rule put into his hand he will thunder and break forth in strong violence against his enemies Thus far you have heard that the Holy Ghost came sensibly and audibly to the Ear like a sound the similitude of that sound was the noise of the Wind the Attributes of it two sudden and mighty and yet these two Points are undispatcht the terminus à quo it came from heaven and the terminus ad quem it filled the house where they were sitting But briefly The first of these moves much to one thing that is handled before that there is vehement strength in the grace of God because it comes from heaven says the great Counsellor Gamaliel If this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it The Winds naturally arise out of the Caves of the earth they steame from beneath and blow laterally from one Coast to another So are worldly graceless devices all unsanctified counsels they blow from beneath from the Forge of Satan the principles are drawn from Ambition Hatred Emulation Treachery and have an oblique collateral motion which is profound dissimulation But the root of grace is above in heaven and grows down to the earth it fetcheth all its drifts from Peace from Religion from Charity from the Sanctuary from the Glory of God Strip all your politick projects from their fair pretences and see the ground and foundation upon which they rest and you will find them to be hollow and putrified vapours Again slight not the harmless ways and simplicity of good men for if you could discover their conscience as God doth you would find their scope and aim to be celestial And nothing comes from heaven but with this purpose to convert our earthly inclinations into heavenly directions And let this superficial inspection satisfie for the term and place whence the sound came it came from heaven The end of our work is the consideration of the place where it staid and lighted It filled all the house where they were sitting If you expect to have it treated of how the blast of the Spirit did fill the house I must put you off to the fourth verse of this Chapter where it is recorded of the Apostles that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and better speak of it touching men than touching the Room of an house that Christ is the fulness of him that filleth all in all Moreover if you look for any touch upon the House it self remember I told you such Traditions for it last year as I found in Antiquity but with this modest conclusion that the Point was not material and all humane Records are uncertain This we may and must build upon that it was an upper Room of some dwelling in Jerusalem Acts i. 13. and of large capacity we are sure to contain at least one hundred and twenty persons ver 15. Perhaps also of
for God will be mild as a Dove toward us if we will be hot as fire against our selves That he may spare us with his mercy let us be angry at our selves with godly revenge And so they that made no bones of lies and fictions have renowned St. Dunstan in his Legend that a Dove descended from heaven upon him Et remigia alarum scintillantis ignis splendorem prae se ferebant says Capgrave And the wings of it when they were stretcht out did sparkle like fire Their meaning is in this Fable as I call it to set him forth as most full of the Holy Ghost upon whom both the Dove and fire descended Fourthly says St. Austin where God causeth the Tongue to speak the truth fire that is sorrow and trouble will follow Ignis portendit tribulationem quam propter linguas erunt perpessuri The fire imports that tribulation which the Apostles must undergo by preaching the Gospel The Devil did rage against those that were the Pillars of the Church and of true Doctrine and blew the coals of many a fire to consume them Fifthly and to shut up that Point the Tongue being left to it self is full of much corruption as I have amplified already and it had need of a purging fire to cleanse it and refine it In all the old Sacrifices of the Grecians Homer says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they threw the tongue of the beast into the fire whereupon says Coelius Rhodoginus Comburendo linguas perperam dictorum labes expurgabant They made expiation thereby in the flames of fire for all words that had been spoken offensively St. James says the Tongue is a fire Chap. iii. 6. meaning a fire of discord and mischief and that fire had need to be corrected by another fire from heaven or else the torments of hell-fire would be the end of it And now we will rest at last in that Point which is the resting and setling of these Tongues There appeared unto them c. and it sate upon each of them It sate Why we spoke of Tongues in the Plural number before What Enallage is this Cajetan and the most Divines interpret it that the fire sate upon each of them Calvin by a Metonimy of signi pro re signatâ that the Spirit sate upon each of them The Syrian Paraphrast refers it directly to the Tongues and puts it in the Plural number sederunt they sate upon each of them Indeed to refer it to many Tongues and yet to make the Verb of the Singular number is the best exposition of all it sate to shew that it is one Holy Ghost in the administration of divers gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I said before one root and many stalks There are diversity of operations but it is the same Lord that worketh all in all 1 Cor. xii 6. But upon whom did they descend and sit For now I make haste Upon every one of the hundred and twenty that were gathered together Or upon the Apostles only Somewhat is in it that when all are named to whom this fire appeared all to be filled with the Holy Ghost yet the Tongues are said to sit upon each of them In two ancient Copies some of our Criticks say that the Text runs they sate upon each of the Apostles and I think that a very probable gloss The Reasons are First the Spirit in some particular manner was promised to them only Acts i. 7. Secondly when some Scoffers said they were full of new wine that had the gift of Tongues St. Peter makes his apology for himself and the Eleven only Thirdly it is said hereupon that they all spake or preacht the mighty things of God This befits the Apostles and not those one hundred and twenty among whom was the Blessed Virgin and other women whose office it was not to preach Fourthly the standers by said Are not all these of Galilee that speak with divers tongues which was true in the Apostles now Judas was taken away but very improbable to agree to all the rest Howsoever let there be no discord about this it is not worth the while no more is the next quere upon what part of them the Cloven Tongues did sit That is not exprest but in all likelihood it was their head for thereunto all Expositors do give their suffrage The Spirit must be in summo loco we must give it and the inspiration thereof the pre-eminence in all things These Tongues says Gregory did encircle about their head Vt novae coronae spirituales capiti eorum imponerentur as if the King of heaven had crowned them with spiritual Crowns from heaven They are ridiculous among the Pontifician Writers that would fetch it from hence that Christ did ordain the Apostles Bishops at this time and used this Ceremony to touch their head from heaven for Consecratio Episcoporum est in capite as they urge it out of Clemens Constitution For another while they confess that the Episcopal character and all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and authority was given them in those words As my Father sent me so do I send you These things being thus put out of the way the main Doctrine agreed on all hands is that the sitting of the Tongues did betoken the constant abiding of the Spirit he is no flitter he doth not come with a lick and away but his gifts are without repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Chrysostome and his true follower Oecumenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both agree that the Spirit was setled upon them not to depart away It is a fire like that on the Altar permanent and never going out according to our Saviours Promise Joh. xiv 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever Some of the Schoolmen find a knot in this plain Doctrine whether the Apostles and all upon whom the Spirit did now abide were confirmed in grace Certain Ecclesiastical Historians trouble them in their conclusions who say that Nicholas the Deacon from whom the Nicolaitans were derived and many other ring-leaders of Hereticks were present at this time and although the Spirit descended upon them yet they forsook their first faith The answer is if these stories be Authentical these gifts were gratiae gratis datae not gratum facientes Gifts which God did graciously give not gifts which made them gracious to God that received them And the continuance and residency of these tongues is established in these words that the Comforter whom Christ would send should abide with them for ever that is it should abide in the Church that is in them and in their Successors unto the ends of the world till Christ should come again in glory as I will open upon the next verse AMEN THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them
Eve were first placed in Paradice he may have a Society of holy Servants without the Word taught and proclamed by the organ of a Tongue as the Angels are illuminated to know his will by immediate inspiration but with reverence let me speak it I cannot see which way the Lord can have a Church without the Gift of the Holy Spirit God may be known by his wonderful works and effects without his special grace but can he be present in the soul of man and make it blessed by knowing his Divine will to please him without his special grace Praesens est in quantum praesentem facit beatitudinem if he make all his good to pass before us it must be by these means I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious Exod. xxxiii 19. Those creatures that seek no higher perfection nor greater good than a temporal being and that which is found within the compass of their own nature they may attein thereunto by the strength of nature without any other help but Men and Angels that seek an infinite and Divine good that is everlasting happiness which consisteth in the vision of God they cannot attain their wished end which is so much removed from them and so far above them unless they be lifted up unto it by a supernatural force of grace Eternal felicity is the Haven to which they sail and it is no ordinary wind but the stiff gale of the Holy Spirit that must bring them to the Port of endless glory that is they cannot ascend of themselves they may be lifted up to the Vision of God especially Man since his woful fall they are the words of the tenth Article of our Church can have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing him that he may have a good will and without the same grace working with him when he hath a good will Natural habilities and inclinations at the best reach no further than to dispose all things well for the honor and preservation of the natural being but when we are put to it and become content yea and rejoyce to lay down our life for Christs sake which is the abolition of the natural being this vigor and strength must come from a supernatural influence that is from the fire of the Spirit which is predominant above the breath of nature This hath given you satisfaction I suppose that it did more import the Church to receive the Spirit than any other benefit I draw forward to a more distinct inspection of it and the first scruple about which I find a difference is this Whether the very Person of the Holy Ghost be meant in this place or only certain impressions of his Gifts and Graces I will streighten my self to a short answer both the Person of the Holy Ghost was here and the virtue of the Holy Ghost that which sat upon the head of each of them in cloven tongues as it were was the infinite Majesty of the third Person of Trinity in that apt and visible similitude but that which filled them was not the very essence but the operation of the Spirit Implet non seipso formaliter sed dono quod producit say the Schoolmen he that filleth all things with his presence cannot be said formally to fill one thing more than another but he that blows where he listeth with his inspiration is said to fill those whom he sanctifies not with his essence but with that inspiration The Founder of School Divinity is noted for one error above the rest that he makes the Grace of God to be no effect of the Holy Spirit but the essence of the very Spirit to purifie the thoughts and mind He stuck too litterally to St. Austin and so wandred from the right way For thus that Father preaching upon my Text Christ was present with his faithful Servants this day not by his Visiting Grace but by his Personal Majesty atque in vasa non jam odor balsami sed ipsa suba sacri defluxit unguenti their vessels were not only perfumed with the odour of the sweet Ointment but that fragrant Balsam the very Unction it self did flow abundantly into them To this it is most proper to rejoyn that St. Austin meant it of the extraordinary Apparition of the Holy Ghost upon this day not of his ordinary inspiration For in the same Sermon he says that the immortal Spirit is vicarius successor redemptoris the Deputy to succeed our Saviour in the Church now he is gone away on high But how is he Christs Deputy not as if by his personal communication he wrought his gifts in us but thus quod Salvator inchoavit peculiari virtute Spiritus Sanctus consummat the faith which Christ did begin in his Apostles by teaching them daily the Holy Ghost did perfect by the special virtue of sanctification No Text doth more evidently convince that the infinite and increated essence of the Spirit is to be distinguisht from the finite and created qualities which he infuseth then those words Jo. vii 39. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those are all the words in the Text for the Holy Ghost was not yet we make it up for the Holy Ghost was not yet given But stand we to the words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost was not yet This will never hold without differencing the third Person of Trinity from his sanctifying effects the Person was before and had no beginning but nondum erat manifesti muneris efficacitate says Theophylact as yet he was not revealed in his plentiful efficacity The close of the Point is thus the very Person of the Holy Ghost came down into the place where they were gathered in an external visible form and his effects or efficacy was breathed into them in wonderful gifts But concerning those gifts wherewith they were filled there 's another scruple whether they were saving graces such as are collated upon them that are the Elect of God or whether they were only miraculous assistances as Prophecies Gifts of Tongues Gifts of Healing and the like which are impressions indeed of the Holy Ghost not that they sanctifie him which hath them but they are given to men for the confirmation of the holy Faith That which brings this into doubt is a Tradition that hath no good founder that some Apostates and Revolters as Nicolas the Deacon from whom the Nicolaitans are derived were some of this Assembly that are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost and it is not to be contradicted but that gratiae gratis datae habilities to work miracles may be in those that make shipwrack of a good conscience Yet that Exception though it may hold in others yet it is not to be applied to
necessary Imperative Law Sometimes it binds as when we find them frequently joyn Fasting with Prayer and where we meet with their strict Discipline that they delivered up obstinate offenders to Satan and cast them out of the Church but elsewhere their practice draws on no absolute necessity but leaves us to our prudent liberty and ties no harder as appears by their Colledges of Widows to wash the Saints feet by their Feasts of Charity c. For whereas St. Paul says That which you have heard and seen in me that do Phil. iv 9. It is a Commission that they may imitate him in any thing he did for he did nothing but things lawful yet it infers it not to be necessary to do all things as he did As a Physician may say to his Patient eat whatsoever you see me eat which is spoken by way of warrant not of necessary observation Well then since the practice of the Apostles sometimes leaves us at liberty to follow them sometimes presseth the duty upon us and we must do as they did how shall we know the one from the other In my small reading I could never find it cleared yet but you shall have my opinion of it It is a rule in St. Austin Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec Conciliis institutum sed semper retentumest c. Whatsoever is not defined by any General Council and yet is practised by the whole Church it hath been delivered from hand to hand by the Apostles Here I take the hint that some things were delivered by the Apostles for order and decency sake which were but temporary agreed only to some times and some places and every Church receiv'd them freely with their own liking but whatsoever is derived from their Exemple and is dispread over the whole Church and hath continued in all Ages so hath the observation of the Lords day that was at first grounded in the practice of the Apostles not to be received indifferently but to be admitted as a Divine Institution Now I sum up the Orthodox Truth as I take it by what right and tenure we keep the Lords day holy 1. Not by virtue of the Letter of the fourth Commandment but by the natural equity and moral contents of it and reasonable consequences deduced out of it 2. The glorious act of Christs rising from the dead did not constitute the first day of the week to be a day of perpetual sanctification but upon good congruity the Church took occasion from thence to celebrate this day unto the Lord. 3. There are no express imperative words in the New Testament immediately to command it but in general principles that we are to obey our Rulers in all things 4. and lastly It is establisht in the practice of the Apostles and so uniformly received in all Ages that it is most probable they purposed it not for an Ecclesiastical Sanction which is alterable but for a Divine Institution which is perpetual and unalterable This labour which is past hath been spent about this Day in reference to Gods making that which follows is upon the same Subject in reference to our own rejoycing we will rejoyce and be glad in it that is God hath sanctified the day and we will sanctifie it that is God hath sanctified it by ordeining it to sacred use and we must sanctify it with an holy gladness imploying it chiefly in religious conversation We must separate it from profane uses to divine we must meet in holy places we must come together about holy purposes hearken to holy things and this must be our chief delight that we keep Holy-day to the Lord. Attend the time therefore with all chearfulness and diligence which summons us to appear in the House of God 't is religionis discendae introducendae medium the only and most available means to keep Religion in life and being Our sins are very grievous I confess and there is much unjust communication in the world we do not deal usually as between Brother and Brother but as between faithless Infidels and utter Adversaries but to what extremity would our sins wax if we did not pray to the Lord in his good day to guide us with a good conscience all the week after Mark therefore that the fourth Commandment is set in the midst of the Decalogue in the end of the first Table and before the beginning of the second as if it were the common nerve of Religion take away this and we shall neither know the duties of the one Table or of the other either to God or our Neighbour It is very meet therefore and our bounden duty that we should every one set forth a large share of this Day to the honour of God in Publick Assemblies not for a spurt of time and then apply our selves to other affairs as Christ bid us go every day into our secret Chamber to praise the Lord but according to the appointment both of God and the Church the best part of the day must be surrendred up to the use of Prayer and Preaching that God may have both his Morning and his Evening Sacrifice to declare his truth in the morning and his faithfulness in the night season as David says And therefore I have noted it to my self how in every Age for at least 600 years after Christ Godly Bishops did lengthen out Service by little and little to keep us the longer at Church At first there was but an Epistle and Gospel read and the Lords Prayer said and then they went to the Communion then the reading of the Psalms was added then certain Lessons out of the Old and New Testament then came in the Litany then the Confession with divers Collects of Prayers And our own Church above all others draws out the Service with the Ten Commandments Some there are that complain we spend not the Lords day totally or sufficiently in the House of Sanctification and yet with the same breath they will complain of long Prayers and will of purpose decline Cathedral Churches and never come at them because Divine Service is continued there an hour longer at least than in Parochial Congregations But how can time be better spent than in this Holy Temple that commands all time The Sabbath was made for man under the Law and the Lords day is made for man under the Gospel yet it is called the Lords day and not mans it is made for man that is for the instruction of the Soul and the refreshing of his Body but it is his day to whose honor it is set apart for the spiritual worship of Christians in all days much more in this is terminated to God And I speak it with gladness that it is a good sign that the fire of Religion burns within our breasts when we devote our selves so much to pious Exercises on Sunday that a great number are loth to hear of external joy and gladness The more observant we are of this time the more we please God
and new travails by borrowing light of the Sun and thus much the poor Friars beat out by their own brains that never came near the Court nor Promotion Appetere gloriam propter proximum charitatis est propter seipsum inanis gloriae Charity incites us to get honours for the good of others and vain ostentation to have it for our selves So did Mordecai preach unto Queen Esther or rather prophesie that God meant well to the whole Nation of the Jews in her Royalty What knowest thou whether thou art come unto the Kingdom for such a time as this that is to prevent Haman and his conspiracy against the people O Says wild Esau what is this Birthright to me He knew not how to use the honour that God had given him indeed what is Promotion to them that stain it it belongs as well to the Lion and the Leopard to the Image of the Beast in their Coat of Arms as well as unto them that do not fear the Lord. You Great ones of the Earth says Synesius fortune hath befriended you suppose that I speak it to the best dignified and the most wealthy of this Assembly Now the World is envious and calls her blind unreasonable Goddess that none but fortune would have bestowed her Larges so untowardly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let her not be reviled for your sakes let her not be ashamed of what she hath done in heaping up such store upon you Let your deserts your liberality and your charity be her defence I hope there is not one among you that is so well conceited of his own righteousness not such a Pharisee in the Tribe that thinks God gave him ten thousands and more for his sake and for his Posterity alas no what is there more in him for religion and holiness than in a meaner man no beloved give them their natural passage derive them to the common use and do not appropriate so great an encrease Omnes slavii decurrunt in mare says Solomon all Rivers run into the Sea 1. There is Mare aquarum the Sea of waters into which all Rivers cast themselves so it is true in Philosophy 2. There is Mare politicum and so we pay tribute to the King that 's the Sea which the Rivers sometime replenish as need requires 3. There is Mare divinum Gods Glory is a Sea into which all praise and devotion must flow 4. There is Mare pauperum a turbulent Sea indeed the great wants of the poor into which charity must not fall like a drop from a Penthouse but it must empty it self from all hands as Rivers gush into the main Sea The wealth of this City is not so great but the indigency and distress of the poor is as great The Rivers may be very full and swell but the Ocean cannot be too full And I pray learn this one lesson the Poor are not superfluous helps of the State they are not such as can be wanted and spared The honourable person stands as much in need of the drudgery of the labouring man as the labouring man stands in need of the reward of the rich The state of him that sits upon the Bench is maintained by his own abundance but his necessities to which he must set his own finger without the servitude of Vassals is supplyed by the hard bondage of the poor As for similitude The Elm-tree is green at the top with the beauty of his own boughs and leaves but it is green at the bottom by the Ivy that clasps and leans upon it I give the top and chief beauty in this similitude to your own abundance but then there is beauty in it indeed when it is a shadow to refresh the low Shrubs beneath it the Blew Coat wherewith you cloath the fatherless is more precious in Gods sight than your own Scarlet Your Halls for several Companies set out with all magnificence and cost are not such stately buildings in Gods eyes as are your Hospitals and Bethlems and such pious Houses for the crasie and diseased Blessed are those Benefactors before God and their names shall be honourable on earth that have enlarged the Revenues of those charitable places and their faithfulness likewise shall be rewarded into their bosom that are put in trust with the custody of that portion and discharge it with a good conscience which will not be afraid to give an account to God For this cause God hath put you in authority in utilitatem publicam for the publick good I have insisted long upon this the next end why God gives honour in this life is not only to return benefit unto others but to reflect humility upon their own Soul A thing which the Princes of the Earth are not aware of but we should appear the more vile in our own eyes as God exalteth us alas what are Titles what 's Birth and Nobility Natalibus distinguimur dum sumus noble bloud runs in mens veins no longer than they run the short race of their life When death picks us out vale inquit ambitio it cashiers that ambition and in the next world we shall all meet as if we were letters in the Alphabet A. ante B. without distinction of pomp and greatness The figure of a Pyramid is a fit similitude before his eyes that is rising higher and higher in the advancements of the world for the bottom is broad and spacious but as you rear it up more and more so it grows less towards the top to teach earthly Potentates to think more humbly of their own greatness as they thrive in exaltation It was Pompey his fault to burst at the last Quia sibi uni parum magnus videbatur he was Pompey the Great in other mens eyes but never great enough in his own He that riseth so high in the fancy of his own pride is like a man that climbs up upon the great boughs of a tree without danger but aspiring to rest upon the smallest boughs above his head they would not bear him and so he tumbled to the ground Honour and Dominion is never safe but when the foundation is humility There is a memorable story of a Cardinal of Sicily a good man as it happens sometimes he was called to the Election of a new Pope and esteeming it a most divine honour lookt for nothing but Prayers and Devotions yea and Revelations from Heaven to pick out a man for so great a place He found it quite otherwise ambition managed the business there were nothing but threatnings and banding and base offers Sic fiunt Pontifices Romani says this Cardinal of Sicily Do you make Popes on this sort and so took his leave of Rome for ever O when I call to mind Ezekiels Vision that the further he lookt into the Temple the greater abominations were to be seen then I think if this good man had cast his eyes from the making of Popes by faction to the unmaking them again by treachery and poison it would have
made him cry out These men came not in by Gods honorabo and therefore they went out with a mischief infelicity was the end of that honour which was not begun in humility Let my speech sink into the heart of all those whom God hath advanced to the rule of his People let the meanest find favour in their eyes as well as the greatest mercy and justice love and charity you owe them alike to all the world to Caius and Titius alike to Neighbour and Stranger An elegant Minstril if his Musick be delicious a sporting Stage-player and the like shall be admitted into the noblest Assemblies and I am sure it is better than sport and musick to a worthy Magistrate to hear a man oppressed with wrong relate his grievances and redress them Pudeat aspernari fratrem quem Deus non aspernatur filium says St. Austin Do not despise him for thy Brother whom God hath accepted for his Son This I have spoken for the first share of honour which God giveth in this life and that for these two ends in utilitatem humilitatem First to promote the publick good Secondly to be depress'd in humility But alas what do we speak of Promotions in great places this is small comfort to the poor man although it came from God A poor Philosopher told a rich man that invited him He was set at the lower end of the Table ut ultimum locum cohonestaret to bring the lowest room in credit So divers and very rare Personages are but underlings in this life ut ultimum locum cohonestarent but these may partake of honours in the second life from the voice of fame for the memorial of the just shall be blessed saith the Lord. Very briefly of this You have known loving Fathers bequeath somewhat to their Posthumi to their Babes which should be born after their decease in whom they could never take joy nor comfort so divers at the last gasp of their life have bequeathed Monuments and places of liberality to charitable uses to reap that glory after their decease which they should never hear of A question may be asked in this place if it be lawful to call Colleges or Free-Schools or Hospitals after the Founders names that posterity may know them and testifie their pious affection I must mollify the answer propter duritiam cordis vestri because of the hardness of mens hearts for I had rather allow it as good and give some indulgence to human infirmity which itcheth after praise than Structures of Charity should fail and the hands of the liberal should quite be dried up But this is truth without yielding one whit to mans frailty good works offend not because they are seen but when their upshot and scope is to be seen that their praise may be divulged Si times spectatores non habebis imitatores says Gregory as who should say it is good to have our light shine that men may behold and imitate it not that they may behold and applaud it as the Schoolmen express it ad profectum aliorum non ad ostentationem sui not for our own reputation but for our Brothers edification 'T is a sign of a generous and noble spirit to do good things among other scopes and intentions to purchase a good name contemptu famae contemnuntur virtutes Certainly the propagation of a good name when it is not ambitiously coveted and affected it is a leaf of Gods own Chronicle and a blessing of many days wrought by his power who is the Ancient of days He that compared glory unto vertue as the shadow unto the body hit of a good similitude sometimes the shadow is cast before the body as when our glory is reported in our own ears Sometimes the shadow is cast behind the body as when the memory of our good deeds remains after us and this is from the Lord. Oblivion cast upon some is like the Plague of darkness cast upon Egypt Three Kings of Judah sprung from a wicked Race of whom our Saviour came touching the flesh are quite omitted in his Pedigree Mat. i. as if they had never been and who they were it shall not be named for me since the Holy Ghost despised to reckon them Tola judged Israel twenty three years and all that he did is not so much remembred as that Paul left his Cloak at Troas Joabs valour is forgotten among the Worthies of David because of his cruelty It is Alexander Hales his observation that the Scripture doth spend some Chapters to relate the Fall of Adam because Man recovered himself by the Promise made in Christ But not a word is spoken concerning the Fall of Lucifer and the Evil Angels neither in Moses nor the Prophets except it be under Parables and since it was their sin to rise against God they could not procure such an instance of their memory in Gods Books as to have the story of their Fall But a good name is a precious ointment an Ointment which is consecrated and made holy by the blessing of God Well let us proceed to the third and last portion of Gods Honour in tertio seculo aeterno in the life everlasting and here is comfort in the end For let the worst be made of the good mans fortune his calling is not honourable but private and his infamy perchance not private but publick Naboth dies for Cursing and Stephen for Blaspheming and both were innocent Now where is Honorabo What is become of the Honour that God promised And yet who deserved it better than such a man Nemo virtutem Sanctius coluit quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet No man loves Vertue more than he that had rather die with an ill name than with an ill conscience Where is such a mans Honour Where the Philosophers Country was when he pointed up to heaven Blessed are you says our Saviour when men revile you and speak all manner of evil falsly on you for my Names sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven There no Julian is an Emperour no Sanballat a Magistrate nor Caiphas an High Priest Si Honor diligitur illic quaeratur ubi nemo indignus honoratur says St. Austin Double my portion there O Lord and as Mephibosheth said Let Ziba take all and surely this Honour is best agreeable to the Text Honorabo I will honour him It is a blessing in future at such a time I may say when time shall be no more Not as the Gloss hath it Qui benè utitur dignitate conservabo eum in statu dignitatis suae He that manageth any promotion of Honour justly and faithfully I will keep him in it and not cast him down Nay admit that faithfulness and just dealing be an occasion to cast him down the sooner as it befel Aristides still Honorabo is a good promise when greatness is eclipsed upon Earth heaven stands sure and there the condition of this promise
is best fulfilled O could we but see the revelation of that glory with Stephen the Martyr though every Devil in hell stood round about threatning a Milstone to cast at your head you would not so much as turn your eyes for a moment from that heavenly Vision to save your life It were endless to fall upon this discourse As a stone cast into a fountain multiplies Circles in the water and the last is the greatest So every Circle of Heaven would give a new Apparition of glory but the last is greater than my tongue can utter Let it suffice us to know that in the greatest scorn of the faithful and when envy reproacheth their good name that there is a blessing laid up that we may believe against hope this Promise in my Text Them that Honour me I will Honour And now I am come to the third general Member which is the Covenant or Composition God must be Honoured I began there man would be Honoured I ended there but reason good if Man would have a free gift that God should have his due Honor propter Deum Honour for honour it is the highest step in my Text and an eternal Covenant Now you shall see every bone come to his bone every part of my Text come to his part which will in some sort revive that which hath been spoken First I told you God had a Name to be sanctified and so the Children of Men desire the blessing of a good name in their memory there is one pair to kiss each other Secondly God hath his Magistrates and Vicegerents to be obeyed and such Honour as they have it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of a civil life says Aristotle there is another couple if ye can joyn them luckily Thirdly God hath instituted holy and religious Sacraments the Seals of his Kingdom of grace and use them well for the Seales of the Kingdom of Grace are our Patents for the Kingdom of Glory Thus you see in every point the glory of God doth reflect glory upon Man Let them meet and clap their hands together There are some that would part stakes and give God some Honour but keep back a portion to themselves So the Pharisees were as cleanly in committing sin as in washing their hands often and God should have long Prayers so themselves might be praised for praying this is to divide with Ananias and Saphira but beware of the portion of Hypocrites Some are so intent to their own Honour that they quite forget God Let us get us a name say they that builded Babel Nobis non Domino a name for our selves and not for God and then we see what follows their Language was so confounded that no man could call another by his name and so they parted Thus it was Herods death to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eaten up of Worms but his first ruine was to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eaten up of Flatterers those that shouted in applause of his Eloquence when he made his own funeral Oration and gave not God the glory Bernard says that glory in this life is like the word of Christ spoke to Mary Magdalen Noli me tangere Touch me not as yet I am not ascended to my Father when I am translated into that Kingdom to see my Father then shall I also abound with Glory But Glory what art thou to me in this life Touch me not I am not ascended to my Father If the Devil tempt us to usurp upon that Honour which is due unto God answer as Joseph did to the Tentation of his Mistris Gen. 39. Behold my Master my good God hath put all things into my hand there is nothing that he hath not committed and delivered unto me beside thee that art his glory How shall I do this evil then to take thee unto my self I mean his glory which art as it were the Wife in his bosom When David in Psalm cxiv had described the manner of Gods deliverance of the Children of Israel from Captivity that the Mountains skipt like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep In the beginning of Psalm cxv he sings this Song Non nobis Domine non nobis Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy name give the glory Not unto us not unto us Why is it twice repeated That is says one neither to Jew nor Gentile neither to the Jew that observes the Law nor to the Gentile that believes the Gospel Whether you be a doer of the Law or a repentant sinner Not unto us Lord not unto us Nay it is strange which follows but unto thy name give the glory What should he give glory unto himself Or should we do it No he did not say I will give glory unto thy Name that had been an arrogancy as if his free will could have done it but unto thy name give the glory Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis Give me grace to glorifie thee and then unto thy name I will give the glory Now then if Gods grace do enable us to give him Honour the Honour which he repaies again is a reward of mercy and not of justice Propter promissum non propter debitum out of the promise of his goodness not out of the valour and merit of our goodness You know in temporal estates every man that Honours the King must not expect honour again but peace and justice under his protection It is true But this is the royalty of our Christian calling Honour is requited with Honour Ask and it shall be given you says Christ It What shall be given you Says St. Austin Non dicit quid dabitur quia est nomen super omne nomen desiderare nostrum non est terminus bonitatis Dei It is a gift far greater than we can ask or think and yet shall we have Honour for Honour But suppose we could pick out in all our life a deed of Charity a penitent Tear or a Prayer which we could call good Recte facti fecisse merces est A good deed is rewarded in that our conscience can say we did it and yet shall we have Honour for Honour But alas what is our righteousness As vile as the most polluted cloath that is dipt in bloud One said of the Infants of Bethlem that Martyrdom was a great Crown to be put upon so small an head as an Infants was Remondus ridet in parvâ magna corona comâ But if the malice and treachery of our heads were considered they are more unfit to were the Crown of life than the head of an Infant and yet to doubt it no more we shall have Honour for Honour But you will say wherewith shall we honour God With the heart by desiring him with the mouth by confessing him with the hand with the plenty of your Substance by enriching Gods portion You are faln upon an Age where there is more large occasion to Honour God with your ability than in
Cardinal his Exposition is thus Si descendero in infernum hoc est si profundum malorum confiteri nolo If I keep close in my breast the secret of my sin yet God will reveal it to my confusion Si ascendero in coelum si de justitiâ meâ superbiero Though I extoll my own works as high as my Saviours merit yet my righteousness shall be found an abomination The Chaldee Paraphrase leads us to this interpretation when the Army of the King of Babylon shall come though you hide your selves in Vaults and Caves yet your flight shall be in vain Quamvis ad aras fugitis though you clime up to the Altar as Joab did yet the Sword of Benaiah shall cut you short Lyra's opinion is the third and divers from the others Si recurrerint ad consulendum Daemones pro suâ evasione sicut Saul fecit Though they dig into Hell and consult with Witches and Sorcerers as Saul did yet all shall come to nought and then Si ascenderint in coelum sanctos invocando though they call upon all the Saints in heaven yet shall not that superstition help their cause But had Lyra or Hugo lived in these our days or for eighteen years past had any wrote upon Amos but a Jesuit one interpretation beyond all these must needs have met them in the face they could not shun it For to dig into Hell and to climbe up into heaven they are all in all both root and branches of that most execrable Powder-plot Wherefore you may conceive as if the Prophet Amos had thus spoken Though they dig into Hell or though they undermine our Kingdom with vaults and Sellarage their impious labour shall come to nothing but to their own utter shame Yea though they climb up into Heaven though they canonize the enemies of God and the King and make Saints and Martyrs of them whom justice did execute yet their sin shall be revealed in this world and remembred to their condemnation in the world to come If thy body were equal to thy mind says one to Alexander Alterâ manu orientem alterâ occidentem tetigisses A short reach and nothing to this stratagem Never was any work composed of such contrarieties that had the Devil at one end and the Saints at the other Hell at the bottom and Heaven at the top They mount up to heaven they go down again to the deep says David Psa cvii. And in the next verse he concludes that Mariners upon such giddy motions stagger like drunken men and are at their wits end What Shall I not much more be bold to say of these men that dive into Hell and would be inthroned in Heaven are not they at their wits end Are they not drunk with the cup of abominations You see then I have two ways to seek out these Powder Conspiratours toward Hell and thither you may trace them by their digging toward Heaven but they never came thither for all their climbing Were there no more Garnets upon earth nay no more well-wishers to such treasons in this our Realm than there are in Heaven it were a blessing that would deserve the solemnity of another Holy-day wherefore I will turn me to the left hand only and seek them out where I am sure I shall not miss that is in the first part of the verse Though they dig c. Who they were whom the Prophet Amos speaks of it bears no great sway in our present occasion Who indeed but the Children of Israel Being now in Gods sight as Ethiopians in the seventh verse of this Chapter Idolaters that swore by the God of Dan and Beersheba and by the sin of Samaria in the latter verse of the former Chapter And you know now-adays who are like unto them that were once an elected Church and the Israel of God but now have almost overtaken the Heathen in a kind of mimical Idolatry But let them pass with that fault and God amend them it is not pertinent to the work of this day My provision upon these words shall be laid out in this rank and order 1. Here is the negotiation of the wicked that they dig there wants no pains there wants no secresie 2. Here is the object of their imployment and that is Hell 3. There is a twofold end implied why they undertake such a business either for their own refuge as I told you out of Hugo and the Chaldee Paraphrase Or rather to undermine others which is more agreeing to Lyra. 4. Here is the frustrating and the defeating of their work Thence my hand will take them out snatch them from their thievish corners and take his Chosen out of all their trouble Beloved to what toil iniquity puts men to 1. They dig and labour 2. To what secresie What dread of conscience They dig into Hell 3. How unprofitable is the event For when all is done they are apprehended by the hand of God not unlike St. Peters fishing Luk. v. 5. Master says he we have toyled hard and all the night and caught nothing Which is like St. Pauls gradation who calls them works unfruitful works and works of darkness Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness I begin with the Action wherein two things are to be observed the labour and the Secresie Digging it imports labour sin it self it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and most burdensom it is to them who are servants to obey it Whatsoever we do as we are men it is an action under one of these three heads For it is either an action of Phansie and prevents the concurrence of the will and is neither good nor bad Or secondly it is an action of the will but rash and sudden and prevents advice and deliberation which impeacheth both the value of a good deed and diminisheth the malice of a bad for as touching sudden passions and temptations that take us unawares there hath always been some mitigation in the Laws of Man and pardon no question before the judgment of God Or lastly the will hath dwelt some time upon her object and consulted and delighted in it and then if the work be amiss this is that which as St. Paul says makes sin exceeding sinful And now beloved this is that which our great Adversary desires in us to make us lay the Cockatrice Egg and hatch it and bring it up to put us to fodere to dig and take pains to be sinful To make the Prodigal Son bind himself Prentice and feed Swine a strange homage and a most base attendance to plow up iniquity as the Prophet speaks and to reap ungodliness Egypt was the Type and Figure the very platform of Satans Kingdom There is nothing but gathering stubble and groaning under task-masters making brick and more brick if we flinch under the burden And the heathen when they would make us believe that they had peep'd into Hell and seen all make no relation but of toil and hard
Creature rather than a worshiping of the Creator that he esteemed it was granted the Ceremonial Church because it could not be shifted For since it was to be feared that the Israelites had cast their eye upon those fond customs of the Gentiles and did affect to imitate them rather than they should sacrifice to false Gods God did permit they should sacrifice to his name to prevent Idolatry But I answer The most ancient and primitive use of sacrificing such as Noahs was in my Text is not so to be slighted For a bad thing by a toleration is not made half a vertue nay after toleration it still remains more than half a Vice Moses did allow a Bill of divorce for the hardness of mens hearts but that which is allowed for the hardness of the heart is yet a sin after the allowance the connivance of the Law cannot make any fashions of pride excusable and the farming out of Stews for Pensions cannot make Fornication venial But I pray you what Idolatry was suspicious in Abels time or at this time when Noah came new out of the Ark And yet even then Sacrifice was and was a sweet savour And the ground of the objection is mistaken for who can ever prove that the Children of Israel had learnt the formes of sacrificing in the Land of Egypt It is impossible For the Egyptians hated sacrificing and killing of Cattel wherefore Moses would not consent to Pharaoh to sacrifice to God in that Land Says he Shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us And the Egyptians continued such long after Christ when the Satyrist fell thus upon them Nefas illic foetum jugulare capellae carnibus humanis vesci licet c. This hath declared that the Ordinance of Sacrificing from the beginning was not a bare toleration to divert men from laying their Offering upon the Altars of their Idols But to make all perspicuous we are to harken to the judgment of Irenaeus and St. Hierom that Sacrificing was an holy Worship which God did like and allow from the beginning of the world and for many Ages there was no prescription for the manner all holy men had their freedom for quantùm and quomodo for how much for when it should be done but when the seed of Abraham proved recreants and fell in love with the superstition and worse than superstition then and not before was the Levitical Law drawn out at large to command all the true Worshipers of God to follow that written prescription in all their Sacrifices That is when the Molten Calf was set up by Aaron and the People to provoke God when they offered burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings unto it the Lord saw it was time no more to leave them to themselves to offer indefinitely and indeterminately how they list but after that he bound them to those Levitical rules whereof Moses made an entire book Says God ye shall break down the Altars and Groves of the Gods of the heathen but the Lord will chuse a place for you and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings ye shall not do after all things that we do here this day every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes That is their ancient liberty in sacrificing after what manner they pleased was restrained after the adoration of the Calf for fear of further Idolatry Sacrifice therefore was not barely a toleration for avoidance of Idolatry in the first institution but properly had many parts of Religious Worship in it which are these First the mind of him that brought the offering was bent to honour God that he was the giver of all things and the end to which all things were to be referred Which reason the Schoolmen very well put into this Proposition Emanant ex fide sacrificia quae amplissimè de Deo sentit The Religion of Sacrificing proceeds out of Faith which esteems most devotionately of Gods excellent greatness and in the act of Sacrificing it is carried up to worship God in his invisible glory And surely some Litany or Collects of Prayers were said at the same time with such like Ejaculations in them as these We lay this gift on thy Altar O Lord to acknowledge that every living thing is thine this is a Testimony that thine is the Power and the Dominion over all things let every thing do thee service for thou art the Saviour both of Man and Beast the life of every thing upon earth is in thy hand but thou alone art immortal thou art the same and endurest for ever or such a form of supplication as came from Davids mouth when he offered for the building of the Temple Who am I and what is my people that we shall be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own hand have we given thee Now the rudeness of the old World I may say did require these lessons to be taught and repeated often in visible figures in lessons that might be felt as well as heard which were fit to be written not in ink alone but even in the bloud of Sheep and of Goats A visible sign is a fair mark of remembrance for them that are slow to learn They that distrust their memory will wear a gimmal ring nay a thread or a rush about the finger to bring business into mind which might have been forgotten And God distrusting mans memory put him into the way of sacrificing a good shore or support for such a use so by that object which did incur into all the senses the Divine honour was kept in an everlasting remembrance Well then in this very service wherein they brought somewhat unto the Altar yet it was the Lords purpose to give and not to take Nothing is left to him in an whole Burnt-offering no more than a Prince gets when his Subjects make Bonfires at or upon the memory of his Inauguration Julian the Emperor scoffing at all the Royal Cesars that had been before him gives Antoninus Pius the praise before them all for this saying He being askt by Silenus what was the end of his life and of all his actions he answered to imitate the Gods And wherein consists that imitation says Silenus Antoninus rejoyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stand in need of little and to be beneficial to many that 's the true blazon indeed of the Divine dignity to want nothing and to do good to all Gods honour was recognized in sacrifice that was the end of it but our Goods and Oblations were nothing to him and therefore the elementary part of their gratitude was consum'd to nothing It was a Law not to be broken for the bloud of every Sacrifice to be spilt before the Altar and the fat to be burnt in the fire the bloud stood for the life which we breath the fat for the abundance of all increase which we enjoy now we ought to
as his sins let him look upon this Pillar and mark that it is a Monument erected against a relapsing convert against one that was turning from the vain pomp of the World and did not persevere For she that fled from Sodom and lookt back perished as well as they that never came out And he that will consider what an heinous crime it is to be invited unto mercy and abuse it let him taste of this salt and feel what a strange judgment remains in this example to cast away that which God would have saved All this is tacitly included in the words which I have read unto you and as the Prophets of old uttered their Prophetical spirit many times by deeds and gestures as well as by word and speech So God doth teach his Church as well by fact as by precept Those Exhortations I premised were not doctrinally delivered at the castigation of Lot's Wife but miraculously exhibited in a visible work objectivè non praeceptivè they are not passed over in a line or two by the Pen of a ready Writer but built up for all posterity to look upon in a durable Monument And when judgment advanceth it self in a Trophy in a standing Pillar every man will conceive that it is meant it should be a monitory to all succession rather than if it were a fluxive a transitory penalty that left no print behind it The Idol Calf which the Israelites worshipped was beaten to powder the dust of it blown away before the wind and drunk up in the River The Sea which had given back on either side for the passage of Gods Host met together and overwhelmed Pharaoh and his Army in the bottom that they were no more seen The Earth clave and opened it self to swallow up Korah Dathan and Abiram and it closed again so that no appearance of them remained Nothing was found of Jezebel eaten up of dogs but her skull her feet and the palms of her hands So it pleased him who sits on high that all visible memorial of these sinners should be rid out of the way But He made brine of Lot's Wife and congealed it into a Statue where it stood longafter nay I cannot convince those reporters who have written that the reliques of it are to be seen to this day that passengers might shake their heads at it and say Ah thou that wert pluckt out of Sodom like a brand out of the fire and yet didst loiter by the way and couldst not refrain to cast back a wishing and a voluptuous eye upon those filthy habitations Ingenious fancies have taken scope to riddle upon this judgment Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver sepulchrum tamen cadaver intus that she was a dead corps that had no sepulcher and that she was a sepulcher that had no dead corps and yet it was both corps and sepulcher This gives me the hint to divide my Text into an Epitaph and a Tomb the Epitaph His wife looked back from behind him the Tomb which that Epitaph respects is that she became a pillar of salt If you will have it in Logical terms which come all to one pass thus here are two principal heads to which all the matter is to be referred qua fecit quae passa est first what she did and that 's the summary Enditement of her sin secondly what she suffered and that 's the sentence of her punishment I bind my self to the first part only at this time in which there is cumulus salis as many corns of salt as will lie upon a knifs point so in these few words she looked back from behind him many Commandments are broken 1. She was inobsequens she looked back being expresly forbidden there 's disobedience 2. Excors here 's blindness of heart she might have saved her self by going streight on and looking forward yet she violated those easie conditions 3. Iâ—docilis she looked back from behind him Lot was a good example that went before her and she would go her own ways 4. Incredula she doubted whether those Cities should be destroyed as God had sent word or she thought it would not be the worse for her though she stood still and gazed upon Sodom 5. Recidiva she fainted in well doing and had a desire growing upon her to live again among those filthy sinners whom she had escaped 6. Misericordiae contemtrix she was slow to save her self and did not fly away upon the wings of mercy 7. Beneficii pertaesa she rather valued what she had lost than what she had saved her Habitation her Estate and Riches were consumed for her lifes preservation she set little by that and so loathed the benefit The Angel speaks in the 17. verse of this Chapter Escape for thy life look not behind thee neither stay thou in all the Plain yet she would not hearken no not to such a Monitor as an Angel but she looked back from behind him and so stands guilty of disobedience For disobedience is a sin by it self alone Cum crimen potius contra prohibitionem quà m contra rem ipsam fiat says the School when the fact it self were innocent but that the prohibition of the Lawgiver makes it nocent There are some Commandments of Gods which lean not so much upon apparent reason as upon absolute authority For though there be weighty causes which moved the most wise God to appoint it so yet when those reasons are not emergent out of the seeds of nature nor any way exprest and revealed as the Angel expresseth none in this place then the Command is said to come from absolute and uncontradicted dominion to try obedience There is a natural Law which lighteth every man that cometh into the World to choose the good in sundry cases of honesty and to refuse the evil this light is not a pure elementary fire but ignis culinaris as we say in Philosophy an impure smoaky flame which makes it apparent to the understanding what 's filthy to the soul as well as what 's noxious to the body And in those things where God is little known or at least little thought of humanity it self doth suggest the performance But because we rest not in the good of nature only as beasts do but aspire to a supernatural end and felicity therefore there is a supernatural Law to bring us to it Repent and believe and thou shalt be saved this is the Covenant of mercy and forgiveness which is made in Christ and the grace of God doth work in us a good will to those Divine duties that we do not frustrate our salvation Then thirdly the Sacraments of the New Testament are the Seals of the righteousness of faith as Sacraments they are Ceremonial Ordinances and are solemnly kept upon submission to the absolute Command of the Divine Authority but as faith is necessarily now knit unto them so they are a limb of the supernatural Law and are carefully observed not as Canons
them That the Nazarites had any dwelling in the Temple Maldonat is mistaken no more had these Shepherds who lived in Tabernacles Again some constrain themselves to the observation of a Vow but for a time for never any but Samson that we read of was a perpetual Nazarite some oblige the Votary for ever such was this which I treat of in Tabernacles they must live for ever Fourthly Some stand upon conditions like that of Anna if she had a Son she would give him to the Lord. Some are absolute like the Vow of Baptism wherein there is no capitulation But were it a Vow in any rank of these which I have named yet the complexion of the matter must have these four conditions according to the Schoolmen We will take that which is sound and refuse that which is corrupt Esto say they res adiaphora possibilis licita faciens ad cultum Dei 1. The thing vowed must be indifferent and free from necessity 2. An atchievment possible and not out of the reach of humane frailty 3. Unless it be lawful we offer our service unto Devils 4. That which we vow unto God must not be every idle fancy of our own brain it must bear weight and moment if we promise it unto the Lord. To begin with the first A thing not commanded but indifferent to be done or not done is the first condition of a Vow says Aquinas Stay there a while Shall I believe Aquinas or the Patriarch Jacob For I learn that the first ground of making a Vow is in Jacobs example Gen. xxviii by the light of nature before the Law and he vows both res praeceptas that God should be his God and res adiaphoras where the Stone was set to build up an house to God Beloved be not deceived with the leaven of the Jesuits this is Diana of the Ephesians and their credit lies upon it Indeed such Commandments as literally forbid sin are negative and obligant ad semper the yoke of them is never off from our conscience and so it is easie to acknowledge that they are Commandments But whereas inclusively there are duties to be done quae non obligant ad semper which bind us but at times and seasons therein we may meet with many parts of Divine Worship which seem superfluous and as it were given into the bargain Especially we want a good inspection to make a difference between these three things 1. There is the end of a Christian life 2. The next and immediate means to that end 3. The remoter means and further off The end is Gods glory and we cannot oversee that point but that it is the first injunction which lies upon our Soul The next and the proper end to that means are the strict words of the Commandments and those we cannot gainsay it are a necessary part of Christianity But as for the remote means which are further of there we boast that we do pay that which we did never owe but supererogate with God O deluded Conscience hearken and consider purity of body and soul is the scope of the seventh Commandment The next means to avoid Adultery is in some men Marriage in some the shunning of lascivious talk and lewd Company there are means more distant to subdue the wantonness of the body by strict Fastings by Canonical hours of Prayer to shun the very Country where bewitching Beauties tempt our affections Should you tell me in this case that your Prayers your Fastings your Pilgrimages were more than measure and above the Commandment I would tell you you did lie against God and your Conscience against God who hath commanded all that you can perform by might and strength and against Conscience for whatsoever my heart tells me will give me advantage to serve the Lord conscientia in iis est regula faciendorum and it is sin to omit it I appeal to a Jury of the Schoolmen Why did Christ and his Angels vow no vow because they are the most perfect Creatures of reasonable essence full of the noblest speculation yet they keep the Law of God and observe it Down then with that blasphemy that the observation of the Law is but Milk for Babes and Vows are left to try the vertues of an excellent and heroick spirits greater Tasks for the Champions of the Militant Church The Law is like the Passover which must be eaten Devotions of indifferency when conscience doth prescribe them are like the sower herbs to be eaten with it If you think the Sawce better than the Meat the Herbs more costly than the Lamb they are fermentum in Paschate and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees You will say was not this res adiaphora was it not in the power of the Rechabites to drink wine or refrain yes but when conscience had set it down before them as an excellent disposition to serve the Lord conscience hath made that which was indifferent in it self necessary unto them and their Task in this very thing to please the Lord. If this Chapter be not strong enough to convince our Adversaries though they glory in the Example of the Rechabites let them take the Cause For although they restrained themselves to the poorest life of keeping sheep and dwelt in Pavillions and drank no wine yet it came not from these observations that they were acceptable to God no God himself reduceth their good service to the fifth Commandment in the last verses of this Chapter because they have obeyed their Father Jonadab in all things therefore there shall not want a man of that Race to stand before him for ever And so much for the first condition of this Vow the observations in themselves are of indifferency and liberty but yet media remota ad praeceptum they are reducible to the fifth Commandment In the second condition I concur with the Schoolmen that a Vow must be possible to accompass lest they that pass by shake their heads and say this man laid a foundation and was not able to build it up non est votum sed ostentatio it is no Vow but plain boasting and ostentation They deal as certain of the Sect called Druides among the Gauls that took much upon trust in this life to pay their Creditors in the Resurrection When St. Peter would trust his feet to walk upon the Seas to Christ the waves surged and had well nigh drowned an Apostle A good Emblem for those who finding their affections calm and even say to morrow will be as yesterday and vow for the years to come but in time our heart loatheth this Manna and what are we but Bankrupts unto God and Peter sinketh A true Votary says Anselm gives unto God the whole tree with the fruit root and branches the works of the will and the power of the will for ever But if the Thistle should vow and threaten to bring forth grapes would it not be trodden down by the Beasts of the field as it is in the
sands of bondage and slavery Vbi desinit Pharisaeus ibi incipit Monachus the Pharisees if they took an oath upon the Altar not to relieve their Parents thought it enough to say I know you not to the Grey head which gave them education and to the paps which gave them suck Philo the Jew had it from hence when he concluded doctrinally that a man was bound to provide sustenance for his Parents unless he had vowed the contrary Not one jot more charitable are those shaven Crowns who afford their Parents no remembrance of their Birth but to repent that they bore Children Moreover what obligements did lie upon the Rechabites but such as were calculated for common frailty A Shepherds life the drink of an abstemious man the Estate of a Foreiner to have neither Lands nor Possession this doth neither press nor overload Obedience But Sulpitius tells another tale for Monastical duty nullum unquam recusaturus quamvis indignum toleratu imperium to be commanded to sow the wind and to reap folly this is to abuse our Creation which gave us bodies to do something not to be set on work to lose good hours and do nothing to please a Superior Besides thus the Rechabites continued their life to follow the Statutes of Jonadab that they might be accepted for their harmlesness and innocency as Strangers and Pilgrims in Israel Are the Jesuits so those undertakers of State affairs who endenison themselves in every Kingdom whose eyes as one said very well are like Burning-glasses which fire all things upon which they look But this is their practice to entitle the Worthies of the Scripture by the name of their own Orders to whose conversation their life was nothing agreeable Baronius makes the Mother of our Lord to live a cloistred Virgin in the Sanctum Sanctorum until she was betrothed to Joseph and there was fed familiarly with Angels Do you not believe it when she trembled to hear one bring that good salutation Ave Maria In Nyssens time this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a report that knew not the Author and out of doubt a Fable John the Baptist is tossed about in the Schools for the example of a contemplative Anchorite because he lived in the Wilderness But to be abroad in the Desert did no more make him an Hermite than it made Nebuchadonosor who was mad seven years among the wild beasts They presume also that Philip the Evangelists Daughters were Nuns and had entred into some Covenant of Virginity whereas in the third Book of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History and the thirtieth chapter the story is upon record that they were all happily married St. Chrysostom conjoyns an Eremite and Elias in some similitude but to what purpose I would our Adversaries would heed it better that although an Eremite were as devout as Elias in the Wilderness yet he would prefer a Bishop before him who in the Cities of God taught the Word and dispensed the Sacraments St. Hierom I find calls the Rechabites Monks in the 13. Epist ad Paulinum not as if the causes or institution of both their lives were alike but because they concurred in some points of austerity If there be such sutableness between our Predecessors in the Law and the Religious Orders of Rome now adayes methinks Balaam should carry these marks of a Jesuit First Balaam died in Arms Jos 13. and Loiola was a Souldier in the Field Balaam was a great complotter with the King of Moab they are busy and factious in all Kingdoms of Europe Balaam was ready to curse Gods Inheritance for a reward this pernicious Fatherhood have laid their heads together to root out our reformed Israel Balaam had the good gifts of Prophesie but wanted grace and so confer the Writings of the Jesuits and their practice and you will say as Isaac did to his Father Here 's a pile of wood but where is the Sacrifice In like manner we may say here 's a Volume of Divinity in our works learned Fathers but in your lives not an ABC of Religion To conclude this point Howsoever they bear the World in hand that Vows of Monastical perfection are expressed in the Word of God yet the alleged Examples are either such as never did vow I mean the Virgin Mary John Baptist Elias and Ananias says Cardinal Cajetan or such as vowed rashly out of precipitant zeal like Saul and Jephta or such as made no such Vow as they contrive by the Pattern I mean the Nazarites the Rechabites and St. Pauls Widows Who kept a College to entertain Disciples and to tend the Funeral of Christians like those Widows who washt the Body of Tabatha Acts 9. If you will needs know from what Quiver they draw their Shafts sift the Pythagoraeans and their captive obedience sift the Vestal Maids and their Devoted Virginity sift the Pagan Philosophers and their Obstinate Poverty is not the very Name to be found that Cloister Lubbers were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Heathen appellations Search the Scriptures and search Pagan Education and the case will appear on our side that the Romish Votaries enter into Orders not by the Door of the good Shepherd but by the dark Entry of Philosophers And so much I have spoken to shew that the Patrons of Monastical Perfection are much mistaken though we praise the Rechabites The end and last part of all is this That forasmuch as God was well pleased with these abstemious People that would drink no Wine therefore promise unto the Lord and do the deed for that is my final conclusion that a Vow justly conceived is to be solemnly performed When we have breathed out nunquam bibemus a resolved Protestation before God it is like the hour we spake it in past and gone and can never be recalled Effudi animam says David I have poured out my soul in prayer as if upon his supplication it were no longer his but Gods for ever Surely if our Soul be gone from us in our Prayers then much more in our Vows they are flown up to Heaven like Lazarus to the Bosom of Abraham they cannot they should not return to earth again He that changed his Sex in the Fable is not so great a wonder as he that changeth any Covenant which is drawn between God and his Conscience He that hath consecrated himself to God doth as it were carry Heaven upon his shoulders Support your burdens in Gods name lest if you shrink the wrath of God press you down to the nethermost pit I admonish the Friers of Italy to look to this they cast a colour upon their Vow of Lenten fasting but they lie unto the Holy Ghost whereas their Vow is not to eat bread till toward the Evening as if God knew not how the day went but by the Church Saints-Bell they read Even-song before twelve a clock at Noon that the Clergie may go to Supper Right Judas quicquid facis fac citò he had his sop
may observe they were high attempts when the Son of God did use this Ceremony to look up to heaven It came from a good principle it tended to a good end and very good use is to be made of it The first good principle or impulsive cause is mercy He saw a great Multitude in want and destitute of sustenance and that was the provocation to make him fix his eyes upon the heavens to call down relief Our Evangelist in the fifth verse of this Chapter notes that he lift up his eyes meaning that he did affectionately behold a multitude of People all bescanted of food and that was the preparative to make him look higher to look up to heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is his own word in St. Mark My bowels yearn to provide for this people in their extremity of hunger These entrals of compassion make us bold to look up to God compassion is that Optique Nerve that draws up the eye lid and encourageth us to seek for grace because our eyes send forth the visual rays of Charity Better it is to want Eyes and Legs and Arms than to lack these entrals of Pity You may carve the proportion of a man in Stone or cast it in Brass a fair Figure it shall be but it hath no Bowels So he is no better than a Lump of Brass or Stone that hath not the Affections of Clemency an Idol that hath Ears and hears not that hath Eyes and sees not but he that hath the tender heart-strings of mercy in his bosom he may have confidence to look up to heaven Secondly It is Devotion which draws up our looks to God It is a sign that the interiour contemplation is directed thither when the exteriour glances fly aloft The Eye cannot refrain to fix it self upon that object which the mind doth passionately desire Therefore it is become an act of Latria or religious veneration to advance the eyes to heaven in the fervour of Prayer Vnto thee lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens Psal cxxiii And to look up to Idols is all one as to worship Idols in the Phrase of Ezekiel Cast your eyes therefore to the Throne of God when you address your self to Prayer that Love and Zeal may be struck out of the fire of the Eye I do not press it as inseparable Ceremony for the humble Publican did well when he thought so abjectly of himself that he durst not lift up his eyes to heaven says St. Chrysostom like an Orator lest he should find the Catalogue of his sins written in the Firmament to accuse him Yet a perpetual affectation of winking or covering the face in Prayer seems not to me so laudable for why should we debar our selves to praise God with our most heavenly sense Next of all it carries us along with it to know what end Christ had in working this Miracle The root of all was above and he work'd downward he set his Fathers glory before his eyes and he directed this and all his actions to the propagation of it To feed such a scattered Rout so liberally so unexpectedly you may be sure it would spread his renown far and wide they would cry him up for a bountiful Lord in all places This was the fashion of the rising men in Rome about the time that Christ lived to fill the People with congiaries and Feasts and win their applause by cramming their belly But our Saviours conceit was above this earth he had none but coelestial intentions And therefore when the People out of admiration would have prosecuted it to a most honourable issue and have made him a King he shifted away into a Mountain that he might not be found at the fifteenth verse of this Chapter He neither began this work for temporal glory nor would let it end in temporal glory for he looked up to heaven Whether it be in sustaining the poor or in any other Christian work that flows from charity do it that ye may have honour of God and beware of the leaven of Ambition that you have no flat sinister thoughts in it or humane policies Popularity is like a thief in a Candle it makes it blaze much but it quickly wastes it He that doth good and looks up stedfastly to heaven makes God his Debtor he that looks asquint to the praise of men shall be paid with ignominy You know now out of what Principles Christ did this you are sure for what end he did it From both we have this Lesson Let our eyes look unto the eyes of our Master When he looks upward let not us look downward but let us mind heavenly things The frame of our bodies heaves us thither Erectos ad sidera tollere vultus it bids us look to God and that way should our soul turn it came from thence and thither it should draw again The composition of Nature therefore would not have us to be Moales rooting into the earth but grace goes further and would have us to be Eagles flying above the Clouds Aquila nidum sibi in arduis construit Job xxxix 27. The Eagle builds his nest on high It is the Emblem of a Christian whose Spirit is so transported with the meditation of a better life that he walks as it were among the Stars The soul is not where it lives but where it loves Therefore St. Paul said that his whole Negotiation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conversation which was in heaven Here is hunger and thirst there is indeficient satiety Here are Envyings and Seditions there are sweet Hymns and Halelujah's Here are Worms and Corruption there are Angels and Immortality And what a joyous thing is it to have a pledge of this happiness by looking towards it before the time be come about that we should possess it Most willingly therefore will I send up mine eyes as Harbingers before me to make room for the whole man both soul and body Laertius says of Empedocles that he answered one that asked him what was the end of his life Vt coelum aspiciam to view the heavens What could be the meaning of this Philosopher To pore upon it like a Star-gazer I cannot but imagine more acuteness in him that he discerned the felicity of man was laid up in those supernal places God is every where We circumscribe him not in heaven when we look up thither It is not the Throne of his Presence but of his Glory But because we should have narrow and gross cogitations if we sought him only in these fading things Therefore for our Hope sake for our Consolation sake especially for the elevation of our mind we turn our eyes towards him in that place where there is no mixture of mutability Exalt your Spirit that you live as fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. ii 19. Ascend up on high as belonging to that Church which hath the Moon under her feet Rev. xii 1. Fix your nest in
viluerunt Lesser things are admired which happen rarely the greater works of God because they are frequent are heeded carelesly Say not now but ye see cause enough why Christ did actuate this Miracle of the loaves no oftner than twice he would not stretch his Creatures beyond their natural size to please their idle curiosity And yet I will tell you of a miraculous multiplication but I do not wish you to believe that is done toties quoties as they think fit that have the Relique in their custody It is the Cross on which our Saviour was crucified you must not question the Story but that Helen found it in an heap of rubbish at Jerusalem many did desire Chips of it out of their devotion and though innumerous slices of it were cut away yet it kept its just magnitude and never varied The thing was divulged by some but none of the famous Doctors one thousand three hundred years ago One of them that is said to write extemporary Catechisms when he was a young man compares the Cross which wasted not for all the shivers that were borrowed from it to these Loaves and Fishes Another says out of his credulous good meaning that it got this solidity because the bloud of him was spilt upon it who saw no corruption And to this hour say such as get their living by this craft this holy wood is not consumed though it be abundantly imparted Is this credible that Christ did dispense this power unto any to work a Miracle when they would as if there were an Office erected to do signs and wonders Qui Bavtum non odit he that hath so strong a stomach to disgest this let him swallow such an other that out of three or four nails that pierced our Saviours hands and feet the Friers can direct you to Churches and Religious Houses where an hundred instead of four are exposed to adoration What though the Beam of the Cross did not diminish for the portions cut away yet which way did the Nails increase Did one Nail spawn another as big as it self None is so frontless to defend it But to cut off further process upon the matter It is best to bind the Legend how the Cross and the Nails have multiplied into volumes and believe them together But the sure way is not to parallel the glorious works of our Master with such Apocryphal fictions There is a great difference between Juggling and Miracles Hitherto touching the Act of his power in producing this admired work go onward to the next Point and we shall encounter his goodness Our Saviour did not use to do tricks to shew his skill but that some might be the better for him therefore his power was joyned with Beneficence Vt potestas non terreat sed amorem excitet says St. Austin That he might not astonish them with his greatness but endear them with his liberality Leaf gold is drawn out a great way and then it is fit for nothing but Ostentation So the multiplying of the Loaves and Fishes had served barely for the pomp of the eye but that the wonderful encrease thereof concluded in a benefit And first I note though the love of Christ to mankind was excessive strong unto death yet going in the Tract of reason they had little cause to look for this at his hands Alas he had no home to entertain them no Revenues wherewith to feast them no Olive yards or Vineyards to bestow upon them Could five thousand look for a Supper of his bestowing For our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might become rich that is says Nazianzen he put on the poverty of my wretched flesh that I might gain the riches of his glorious Divinity They that followed him had not their wages in Meats and Drinks in Silver and Gold but in Sanctity and Justification in peace of Conscience and in the earnest of the Spirit to be heirs of Salvation And he whose Profession it was to open the Treasures of Heaven to his Disciples and to possess naught of Earth no not so much as to set his foot upon doth he strain himself to give entertainment to so many in the Wilderness What was this but to yield as it were to the time to be beneficial to the Jews in a temporal way that by all means he might win their love He had fed their Spirit with the Word of life and satiated them one would think with the promise of eternal Joy and Immortality if they believed in his name but he knoweth whereof we are made he considereth the Worm in our corruptible appetite which is always craving He remembred that a little in hand goes a great way with them that cannot abide to have all their state in reversion therefore he distributed unto the necessity of their body though his Errand for which he came into the world was to be the Saver of Souls as you would say he stept a little out of his own way to bring them into the right way I cannot but revolve it in my fancy that the Jews were more transported with this curtesie of our Saviours than with all that had preceded Hereupon they cry out This is the Messias this is he that should come into the world Let us take him up and make him a King How ignorantly and unequally doth flesh and bloud set a price upon the works of God I durst almost say that this was one of the least good turns that ever he did them When a Miracle came off graciously indeed it had such a tang at the end of it as Son thy sins be forgiven thee or This day is Salvation come to thine house This had no such heavenly adjunct but was a frank Feast among a promiscuous company as his rain falls upon the just and unjust Well though the grudgings of this disease are become natural to us all to like the heavenly offices of the Gospel the better if Christ befriend us a little with these corruptible things yet carnal Companions are most odious to apprice things momentary before coelestial How much better doth Solomon distinguish Length of days meaning endless days are in his right hand and in his left hand riches and honour Wherefore David describes evil affected men that value earth before heaven that their right hand is a right hand of iniquity because they grasp transitory things in their right hand fixing their chiefest complacency in them which are favours of much later digress and to be received in the left And the same Metaphor is prosecuted in another sacred Song Cant. ii 6. His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me Sinistra capiti non praeponitur sed supponitur says Bernard The left hand which bestows Loaves and Fishes must be under our head not above it as if it were the top of our desires but the right hand should compass us about at the very heart To this Point but a word more Christ produced
is a semplar how such as have great heaps should disperse them It had been a churlish and an envious act in the Disciples if when lump upon lump succeeded in their clutch they had piled it all up in their own baskets and reserved it for their own belly most ridiculous you will say they could never consume it Believe it their Parsimony is no less odious that gather and purchase and fill their Treasures without all Christian communication nay without remorse of humanity to them that are oppressed If the poor are hungry and naked it is not Gods fault the Rich have enough for all and if it stick in the Misers hands as the Stone stops the passage of the Urine in the bladder let him take heed of the torments to come by that similitude It is worthy to be attentively heeded that it being our Saviours purpose to give his Apostles exact breeding in all works of Piety he did steale into them this wholsom Lesson while their minds were exalted in doing Miracles to do good and to impart out of all the substance that was poured upon them It hath all the conditions of a good Alms so absolute as it were in a figure as it may well sway with the conscience as much as any Precept It was performed chearfully without excuse without grudging Judas was not so bad at this time to oppose it with Quorsum perditio haec To what end is this waste 2. It was distributed with a frank and a generous hand till every one had as much as they would 3. It came before it was ask'd Non expectat petentem sed praeoccupat 4. They were not such as did distrust that their store did spend too fast for it was verified in them that their left hand knew not what their right hand did 5. It came to pass that they had a gracious reward in eodem genere for when they had dispatched their Dole and had left to give they had more remaining than when they began to give that is the use that our Church hath collected out of this Miracle in the Collect before the Gospel That we plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works may be plenteously rewarded Gaudeat indigens de dato tuo ut gaudias de dato Dei it is St. Austin Let the needy be comforted with that which you give and you shall be more comforted with that which God gives The Lord did bless all the store of his people Israel and put much into their hands that they might send to the poor Deut. xv 9. The abundance of Corinth is endebted to help the want of Macedonia 2 Cor. viii The Christians of Antioch no sooner heard that there would be a great famine in the days of Claudius but presently they sent aid to the Brethren in Judea among whom says Orosius most memorable was the bounty of Helena Queen of the Adiabeni Nay the very Ravens what God did put into their mouths they brought it to Elias if the Prophet had lived among the Rooks and Ravens of these days they would rather have taken all away than have brought him any thing But the Instruments which obey God not only rational but sensible insensible are all for distribution as for the proper use of their creation He made the Sun to give light the Fire to give heat the Water to quench thirst the Sea to give fish the Earth to give fodder the Cattel to give milk and wool and surely think you that he hath made any man so un-uniform to all his Creatures that he should take and gather and give nothing Artaxerxes Longimanus plaid upon his own infirmity that he was born with the right hand longer than the left that his right hand which was fair and large might give magnificently and that his left hand which was short and shrunk up might receive but sparingly What he inferred out of the infirmity of his natural birth may better be applied to every of us out of the sanctity of our regeneration But Artaxerxes though an Heathen yet he had moral justice in him What say you to Julian the most profligate of Idolators yet you shall hear as good a passage from him he was desirous to transplant-some of the best and most plausible Vertues of the Christians into the stock of the Pagans and he wrote a Letter to one Arsacius the chief Pontif of the Superstition of the Gentiles to borrow three things from the practice of the Christians 1. To sing sweet Hymns and Psalms when they assembled together as we did 2. To appoint some Canonical Penances for Delinquents as we had 3. To provide for the sick the decayed and such as were in misery in Hospitals and Mansions of charity for says he I blush that they should provide for their own Poor and for ours and we are not compassionate to help our own Well might Julian smell the sweet odour of the Christians charity but he and his could never imitate it It is not Philosophy on which he doated but Faith which he had renounced that teacheth us to love God and our Neighbour with our own detriment which instructs us to wash away our sins with tears to wipe them with alms and to dry them up with fasting Julian and his Sectaries had the Vein seared up which should open to give alms because they did not believe in the reward to come The reversion of an hundred fold for that which is given in this life is that which visits Prisoners redeems Captives For if the Heathen as Pliny says canonized Tyrants that were bountiful and made them Gods will not the Lord do glorious things for his Servants in that Title and make them Denisons with the Angels But would you drink of the Brook in the way and not await so long for the futurition of a recompence Why look into the business we have in hand Quantò plura dederis tantò plura largius confluent the more the Disciples distributed to them that were set down the more they had to distribute they spent so well that they fared the better and abounded Avaro semper aliquid deest a pinching sordid wretch is always whining and somewhat he wants that he would have for the Soul is of that capaciousness that it is made to receive God and not this World capacem Dei quicquid Deo minus est non implebit says Bernard very well nothing which is infinitely less than God can fill that which is capable of God Therefore a griping Chremes must needs be indigent whereas he that is merciful and free-handed shall have sufficient to content him for the present and a portion to spare for the time to come Some Monks that are good at telling Tales have jobb'd in an odd Story upon the occasion of my Text that Pope Hadrian the Second brought out forty pieces of silver to give to so many poor that were at his Gate and when he had dealt to every one to a penny there
apt to be separated I suppose an Epicure may lose his conscience in a mist for a little while and dispute it like a Galenist that the soul is nothing else but the temperature of the first qualities and so in death extinguished but can you imagine that the Spirit it self doth not often give him the lie and say within his breast you do me wrong I am immortal Verily I believe that they that put it off doubtingly and would be uncontrouled in their voluptuousness it may be it is not so are often tormented with the other part of the opinion it may be it is so If you will hear this truth upheld out of holy Scripture there is no resistance or cavillation against it Because I will not tie my self to every Text which chimes that way I will choose compendiously where others have made choice before me The Sadduces being stiff opposers against the separated existence of the Spirit and yet commending themselves in the Holy Patriarchs from whose Loyns they descended our Saviour selected that Scripture above all other to convict them which would catch them in their own net I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living How was God the God of Abraham unless he lived And in what did Abraham live but in his soul which was divorced from the body Irenaeus admires that any one should doubt of the souls perseverance after death since the enarration is so â—lear that the rich man saw Lazarus in joys when himself was tormented St. Hierom sets his rest upon those words Mat. x. 22. Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill the soul St. Austin recommends the words of Stephen to nick the Point without all contradiction Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Si animus moriturus esset causae nihil foret cur animum potiùs quà m corpus commendaret Aquinas against the Gentiles lays his strength upon that place of St. Paul 2 Cor. v. 8. We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with God One quotation were enough then how forcible are all these together He must be a beast in understanding that knows not that the souls of good men are Angels in reversion There are others that profess so much faith that the soul hath a state of happiness in reversion to those that die in the favour of God But that it comes not to any gust of this happiness till the end of the World For the soul say they falls asleep when the body perisheth that is it dies together with the body and when the flesh shall be quickned again and gathered out of the dust then the soul shall live again when both it and the body shall be exalted in the Resurrection I do not create Monsters to fight with all St. Austin found such Hereticks in his days he calls them Arabians who taught it every where that the Soul had no being after death till in the consummation of the World they both obtained together a joyful Resurrection Nay these Tares were sown long before St. Austin lived Irenaeus took the pains to root them up in his Age and he confutes them out of my Text says he how did St. John see the souls of the Martyrs who had been slain for the Testimony of Christ if the Soul should cease to be till the final Resurrection And if a Caviller shall say it doth not cease to be but it lies quiet and senseless in a trance Irenaeus blunts the point of that objection because in the next verse they desire vengeance for their bloud that was shed but principally because in the eleventh verse they are clad in white garments which are cognizances of their joy and glory and doubtless they wear them not sleeping but waking And do not think that I rake in the ashes of ancient Heresies that are quite forgotten For the Anabaptists in their Theses Printed at Cracovia Anno 1568 have this position We deny that any Soul hath a separated being after death that was a devise invented by the Papists to maintain Invocation of Saints and Purgatory this is Popery trimly reformed and according to that Proverb of the Jews they cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils And even at this day a new Generation of Vipers risen up at Racovia in Polonia do pledge the Anabaptists in the same cup namely that there is a futurition of glory for the soul when the whole Fabrick of man shall be redintegrated again in the Resurrection but they profess they cannot tell whether in the mean time there be any such thing extant as a separated soul yet St. Paul says he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ And yet Christ told the good Thief that day he should be with him in Paradise And yet the Souls of just men departed do follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Rev. xiv 4. These instances are more perswasive I am sure than that which they pretend that the Just do rest from their labours What rest in Gods name do they dream of They are not in a profound trance without motion or action as Adam was cast into a deep sleep when Eve was taken out of his side but it is a rest when the Spirit doth acquiesce in the Vision of God as David said Turn again unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath rewarded thee There are some that I must afford a little Patronage who are accused to lean to the Anabaptists in their opinion that do nothing less It was allowed for 1400 years as a Problem wherein Christians without breach of charity might have Latitude to dissent granting that the soul after the dissolution from the body was received into the joys of heaven whether it be not sequestred in some distance from the highest heaven where the invisible God doth chiefly reign in Power and Majesty till the whole Body of the Saints be accomplished It is well known what way St. Bernard took Nec sancti sine plebe nec spiritus sine carne That such as die before us shall not see the Beatifical Vision of the holy Trinity without us nor without their own body and that an integral Beatitude is not given but to an integral person And Calvin hath taken his freedom to be of the same mind says he Christ himself only is entred into the supreme Sanctuary of Heaven Et solus populi eminus in atrio residentis vota ad Deum defert and he alone commends the Petitions of the Saints to his Father whose Spirits attend in the outward Courts Those over-awing Fathers of the Florentine and Tridentine Councils have defined it indeed as an irrefragable Article of Faith that the Saints enjoy the most perfect Vision of God immediately after death What is that to us who will not lose our moderation in indifferent points for their
their avengers It cannot utterly be gainsaid therefore but that the Grammatical words will bear this sense that the Souls under the Altar pray for deliverance rather than revenge For the deliverance of their Brethren that suffer not for the confusion of those Malefactors that spill their bloud I confess if you take Revenge in the usual way for a cankered desire to see the hurt of another this construction were the safer And for Analogy of Faith it agrees well with that that the holy Ones in the sight of God pray that their Brethren may be pluckt out of the jaws of their Tormentors and fill up their Society in Heaven So St. Cyprian Illic copiosa turba nos desiderat de suâ immortalitate secura adhuc de nostra solicita An innumerous company of holy ones in Heaven desire our coming resting secure in their own peace and glory but solicitous for ours And Bernard very vehemently Vnde tibi hoc ô caro foetida How comes this to pass O filthy and sinful flesh of man that they in whom Gods Image is repaired should long for thy fellowship in whom it is defaced That they who are made white with the bloud of the Lamb should wish for thee that art polluted So I leave this Point with a probable assent but no more that the Saints desire not the vengeance of the ungodly but the deliverance of the righteous It is drawn up more solidly in the fourth Conclusion That vengeance indeed is no part of their Petition in Heaven it was their love and forgiveness of their Enemies which God accepted when he exalted them thither and surely their Charity is increased and not diminished But how then will St. Johns Vision and their Charity hold together Well enough directly they pray for that which is fit for the voice of Saints but because no good thing is good to them that hate the Church obliquely it brings vengeance upon them Cajetan is the great abettor of this Interpretation I shall find another Author for it they are our Saviours words Luk. xviii 7. Shall not God avenge his own Elect that cry day and night unto him Says he The assiduous cry of the Elect tends formally to this that the Kingdom of God would come and that he would accomplish all things but forasmuch as when this Kingdom is come and the Elect are gathered together from the four Winds the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the people that imagined evil against his Sanctuary therefore virtually and indirectly they invocate God that his Foes may be swept away with the Beesom of destruction Affectu orant pro persecutoribus effectu pro vindictâ Their affections are sweet and tender that all Infidels who defie the Gospel of Christ may be converted but the effect which follows their Prayers shall not be their Salvation but their Subversion for ever The Casuists express this after a pretty manner that the Will of any man is Mother to some effects and Grandmother to other some Such things as it wisheth for expresly it is the Mother of those desires when many things fall out consequently upon these desires and quite beside the intention of the wish they are not the Children of our own Will but our Daughters Daughters as it were and our Will is but Grandmother unto them I desire fair weather meerly for mine own delight my fancy covets nothing else but this may hinder the Seeds-man in the Field or burn up his Flowers that hath planted a Garden those effects are not begot by my Will their relation is that they came to pass out of that which I desired they are my Childrens Children and so remotely they are mine Or as a Ward wisheth that he were come to Age and had sued out his Livery his aim is to be seized of his own Inheritance yet that desire cannot be accomplished in some instances without wringing his Estate out of the hand of his Guardian and leaving him poor and succourless So says Gregory the Great to this case in my Text Sancti petunt mundi consummationem atque indui corporibus These blessed Souls call for the consummation of the World for a joyful Resurrection and to be cloathed with their bodies But woe unto violent men that have insulted upon the Righteous when that shall come to pass then shall their cruelty begin to be requited The Saints do praise God day and night and the Incense of their Prayers is lifted up unto him for a greater amplification of their triumph yet since their honour must be the ruine of many this must necessarily be derived out of their Petitions that the Lord would judge and avenge their bloud on them that dwell on the Earth But you will say I have not yet made it to appear that the primary and direct Petition of the Saints is that God will reveal his utmost glory in the end of all things and in the Resurrection of their bodies I refer you for that to the verse which follows my Text for why had each of them his white Robe given Or why is it said That they should rest for a little season and till all were fulfilled This is no answer to the words of my Text but an answer to their uncessant Prayer for the future Resurrection that the pittance of glory which they had must satisfie them and in due time when the whole body was gathered together there should be an accomplishment of their blessedness I do not say That the time deferred is irksom to them for their heart is so devoted to every thing that God pleaseth to have done that it is sweeter to them since the Lord will have it so to have the time adjourned when they shall be cloathed with their house which is from Heaven than if it were now at hand Yet the Spirit hath such a thirst to resume the Flesh again that it spends their affections in part upon the object which otherwise would freely and intirely without deducting any share be consecrated to the praise of the Eternal Majesty To dispatch this Conclusion now if I look right upon it it is sound and hath no flaw namely that the proper ingredients of the prayer of the Saints departed are for the hastening of Christs Kingdom and for a speedy Resurrection but to the terror of them that are destructive and unmerciful that heavenly supplication devoves them by consequent to the nethermost Hell There is but one Conclusion more behind the fifth and last which stands upon this firm Basis that if any man will be contentious that revenge is every way to be exploded out of the Prayers of holy Martyrs though his conscience receive scandal unjustly where none is given yet there is one interpretation left which is obnoxious to no exception namely that these words are not Oratio personae sed rei the Martyrs themselves do not utter such a Prayer in the ears of God but the wrongs and injuries which they sustained
rogat negare docet A saint Petitioner addresseth himself as if he meant to be denied But when you find a robustiousness in your Spirit that you are set to wrestle with God to cry out and not to give over it is an enlightning that you shall prevail but all the while that you are sluggish in asking it is an ill Presage that the time of mercy is not come Yet secondly Though the Lord be but modestly or rather remissly called upon for pardons and blessins out of his indulgence he will meet with our desires and crown them Two of Johns Disciples said unto our Saviour no more but this Rabbi where dwellest thou They did scarce knock at door and yet Christ invited them into his Train he bad them come and see But his sufferance and patience is so great that yellings and clamours must awake him before He be stirred up to vengeance He forgives one injury connives at another bears with a third and fourth it may be a year runs on perhaps seven perhaps an Age and Oppressors slide away without a check at last when their insolencies make a noise over all the Earth and roar like Bulls of Basan then the Avenger awakes out of sleep like a Giant that is refresht with Wine Thirdly Oppression and tyrannizing over the poor and helpless make the loudest clamours of any sins in the ears of God they will follow the unjust Rulers of the world like an heard of Wolves howling and yelling and tear up their Carkasses out of their very Graves There are but four sins that are said to cry in all the Scripture the bloud of Abel Gen. iv and that was for Oppression The bondage of the Israelites in Egypt and that was for Oppression The hire of the Labourer kept back by fraud Jam. v. 4. And that was for Oppression And the licenciousness of the Sodomites Gen. xviii who among their other crimes did most injuriously insult over Lot because he was a stranger and so you see that even their exorbitancy was not without Oppression Do not the tears run down the Widows cheeks And is not her cry against him that causeth them to fall Eccl. xxxv 15. You see that pious Author ascribes a crying and a clamour to the tears of the Widow and that also is for Oppression therefore I am sure it will be the Oppressors own turn to cry at the last in the place where there is nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth Cast your eye back now to the two former Points which I have handled to bring on the next the Souls of the righteous that have shed their bloud for the Testimony of Christ make Prayers that their slaughter may be revenged Fatal tidings to their Murderers the Martyrs cry out vehemently to have their Petition sign'd with a Fiat ut petitur a dismal exclamation to their Persecutors Nor is it one shreek and away but cry upon cry followed with instance and importunity They will never give over till vengeance light at last on their Enemies Witness this Vsque quo How long Lord The Author of the Second Book of Esdras Chap. iv 35. alludes to these words on this manner Did not the Souls of the righteous ask questions of these things in their Chambers Saying How long shall I hope in this fashion When cometh the fruit of out reward Surely he meant that the Saints begg'd continually for the augmentation of their triumph by the Resurrection of the body Others suppose it to be a vehement efflagitation that God would collect his Church into one body in Heaven and reveal his glory and that nothing doth hinder this but the destroying the man of sin and his adherents who have crush'd the Servants of God with a rod of Iron therefore they press it passionately that those that let the second appearance of Christ in glory may be taken out of the way St. Austin in one place exhorts his Auditors to holiness of life with this perswasion that the Saints in Heaven are hindred of their desires by our remissness in Piety We must accomplish the number of our good works before the end of all things come Et dum nos retardamus sanguis martyrum inultus est While we dispatch not apace to do our tasque the wicked flourish in their pomp and power and the bloud of the Martyrs is unrevenged All that draw this Line you may note it they apprehend that the words of my Text are the personal complaint of the Souls under the Altar and not the interpellation of their injuries I quarrel not the opinion for it is modest and rational But I will help it out of the briars of one scruple No man is so censorious to impute it to the Society of the Blessed as if they contended with Gods Justice that he delayed them they are cleared from all such impatiency or expostulation because they call him holy and true But we may ask what they mean to solicite him with Vsque quo's For they know that his Decrees are fix'd and that one minute of that time which he hath set shall not be broken though all the Angels made intercession The answer is to this and such case Preces fidelium antecedenter se habent ad Dei decretum non consequenter The Servants of God pray for Mercies or Judgments to be hastened abstracting from the Divine Decrees for though the Decrees cannot be refixed yet we are encouraged to beg for that which is conducible to our own necessities But the readiest way to put off all objections is to hold to my Fifth Conclusion that not the Martyrs themselves but the wrongs which they endured exclaim against their Enemies the atrocity of them doth seem to plead that the Lord should send his swift thunderbolts against cruel men they seem to cry out a day is too much to let them breath any longer they deserve not to be reprieved a minute till they go down to Hell O well is it for them that have been nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers of the Church They are secure among these vociferations for vengeance O how happy will it be for Moses and Samuel and Daniel that they have hurt no man that they have oppressed no man O what quiet of conscience have they that are clear from the bloud of all men for it is but a little season and the pride of Tyrants shall have a fall God tells the Martyrs so in the next verse Quod petendo esuriunt praesciendo satiantur They spake thirstingly to see the doom of their Enemies and here they are satiated with this Prediction that it will be after a little season but a little season indeed in respect of Eternity for Christ shall reign for ever Neither is God slack as men count slackness for that which is done in a fit ordination at the right minute that is fruit taken in its season and there is no tardiness at all Let Sion rejoyce let the desolate be comforted the