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
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
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
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
from thee and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth But St. Paul doth not use to obscure plain Doctrin with strange Poetical Phrases and Estius hath requited Beza with another place out of the Psalms to confirm my Doctrin Psal lxiii 9. Those that seek my Soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth that is the enemies of the innocent should go into the place of the damned The other Testimony of Scripture for I will press no more is Psal xvi 10. and rehearsed by St. Peter in this Chapter Thou shalt not leave my Soul in hell c. What pains some men have taken to no fruitful end that I know to make these words bear any sense rather than that which is literal no man that marks their diligence must deny but the Soul in divers Authors is taken for the Body and Hell for the Grave and so they patch it up Thou wilt not leave my life in the Sepulcher but why should literal Scripture be so eluded St. Austins rule is that when the literal sense of the Text sounds somewhat that is sinful or impossible then discreet and learned Interpretations must mollifie the letter but it is not to be suffered where good divinity is conteined in the letter as there is in this the meaning is as no flesh in the Sepulcher was ever free from corruption but only Christs so no Soul in Hell was ever supported and assisted by God and not forsaken but only Christs So Fulgentius most divinely anima immunis à peccato non erat subdenda supplicio carnem sine peccato non debuit vitiare corruptio Christs Soul knowing no sin went not to Hell to pay any debt of punishment for an innocent could not be obnoxious to those flames and torments and his Body never executing any evil act could not be tainted with corruption and putrefaction Is it not therefore consonant to reason to stick to the letter of Scripture when it bears an Orthodox exposition of faith and whether we say that Christ being free among the dead to walk whither he would his Soul being separated in death first shewed it self to the Saints in Joy to their exceeding comfort then to the Unbelievers in Hell to their woe and confusion or whether we say He descended that such as believed may never be thrust into that infernal Prison or rather that He brought his triumph over death with him before the face of Hell and brought those unruly spirits under his yoke entred upon the strong mans house and spoiled his house as it is in the Parable Matth. xii All these ways are agreeable to Gods word and to be admitted without contention Thus far upon Scripture attended by reason Indeed Stapleton says that two Articles of the Creed are not to be found in Scripture this of Christs descent in to Hell the other of the Catholick Church I confess in his sense they are not to be found in Scripture but in ours they are But last of all attend what light the very Creed it self will give to the confirmation of this Doctrin The ground that a learned Father of our own Church lays I take to be most rational Thus take these words properly and not figuratively as it is fit in a short abstract of faith next let them have a sense different in matter from all other Articles or else they were a superfluous repetition then let every Article keep a true consequent order of time one after another or else it would make a strange confusion and all other Expositions will give place Some of the Romish and some of our own part have taught that when Christ was crucified he susteined the pains of Hell but observe against them how this Article should come in most preposterously after his death and burial which was in time before Others make this sense of it that he was dead and deteined in death others to be no more but that he was buried but according to these opinions there shall neither be property of phrase nor difference of matter in this Article from them that went before To be dead and buried are as plain speeches as be in all the Creed and should these be explained by an enigmatical Phrase to descend into Hell rather to obscure than to explain the former Observe how our Church of England hath differenced it from death and burial art 3. As Christ died for us and was buried so also it is believed mark that 's another point that He went down into Hell And the thirtieth Article of the Church of Ireland doth not satisfie me that this line is in one comma I know not whether by the negligence of the Printer He was buried and descended into Hell I cannot come to the third part of my Text and I have done as much as the time will permit upon the second only let me add let weak capacities be no ways discomforted though they cannot explicitly understand the meaning of this controverted Article of the Creed Christs descending into Hell they must believe that Christ vanquished the Devil for our sakes that 's necessary both for their comfort and salvation And all Articles of Faith are not equally necessary and fundamental Gregory Valenza and many others I think not imprudently hold that the main and necessary points for unlearned simple people to believe are the great works of God remembred in the principal Feasts of the year Christs Nativity his Passion Resurrection Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Ghost And though this Article of the Descent into Hell contein an excellent mystery of Faith yet it comes not near the excellent knowledg and use of the former Suarez the Jesuit writes confidently that if by an Article of Faith we understand a Truth which all faithful people are bound explicitly to believe so he did not think it necessary to reckon it among the Articles of Faith The Nicene Creed in our Common-prayer Book hath left it out Ruffinus says that after 400 years it came into the Latin Church and like enough for St. Austin expounds the Creed five times and Chrysologus of Ravenna ann 440. six times and never glance it For that Creed called the Apostles was not so drawn up by the Apostles for ought we can find in good antiquity but called so because it conteins the sum of all Apostolical Doctrin one part of it was laid too after another and this I believe was the last addition of all Therefore it is a main arm of faith that Christ loosed the sorrows of death and a Truth it is no doubt though not of such prime consequence that He descended into Hell to loose those sorrows for our liberty but the main Pillar of Faith is the first Comma of my Text that God raised up Jesus from death and it was impossible He should be holden of it AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN xi 43. And when he had thus spoken he cried with a
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
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
them he gave them to speak with other Tongues with other Tongues which is simply and without any Periphrasis termed the speaking with Tongues For when Peter preached to the Gentiles of Cornelius house Acts. x. 46. the Holy Ghost fell on them and the Jews heard them speak with Tongues and magnified God In St. Mark our Saviour promised his Disciples that they should speak with new tongues Mar. xvi 17. not with tongues such as were never heard before for that were direct canting as we call it and it would turn to no profit of edification but they were such tongues as were new to them that spake them and they had the faculty to utter them in a new manner by a sudden inspiration and for a new work which was not begun before to call all the Gentiles unto the knowledge of salvation that there may be one Shepherd and one Sheepfold over all the world And then was verified that of the Prophet David There was neither speech nor language but their voices were heard among them their sound is gone out into all Lands and their words unto the ends of the world Psal xix The miracle is stupendious the end of it much more admirable than the miracle It is a glorious remonstrance of the infinite power above that from one Tongue and Dialect these holy men should be expert of a sudden to talk with all Nations whom they encountred The suddenness was wonderful to get such a volubility so as Mithridates had never the like without all study or premeditation Says Leo upon that circumstance Quà m velox est sermo sapientiae Et ubi Deus est Magister quà m cito discitur quod docetur The Word of Wisdom runs forth very swiftly and where God is the Instructer how soon doth he learn us that which he is pleased to teach us The multiplicity of that which they were able to utter was most ineffable their voice did come distinct and intelligible to all people that they might say Amen with an understanding heart when the name of Jesus is blessed in the Congregation Quot linguas quis callet totidem viris aequipollet as the old saying goes A man stands for so many men as he can speak Languages and therefore look how many Tongues one of them could speak in effect and sufficiency he was so many Apostles You see this well enough I will stand no more upon it the Miracle was one of the greatest that ever was brought to pass Even as those Jews that resisted the Holy Ghost were convinced in heart to think so their astonishment is expressed in three several terms ver 6. and 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the multitude was confounded they were all amazed and marvelled But they did not see the end of it that it was the opening of the door to bring the Gentiles into the Church and our induction to be admitted into the number of the people of God How could our stony hearts be mollified during so many Generations during the long time of ignorance that no man preacht in our Confines to make us understand him we were Barbarians to him that spake unto us and he that should speak was a Barbarian to us The Prophets of the Old Testament that had the will of the Lord revealed to them in all kind of Mysteries were tongue-tied that they could not express themselves to the Nations that sate in darkness And as one says very elegantly Religion before was as the Musick of a Monochord now the Harp of the Apostles was not only ten stringed but even ten times ten stringed to make a chearful noise to the God of Jacob. The Tongue which was confined before to the little corner of the world in Palestina and there only to bless the Creator that made us is now set at liberty that in all Languages it may glorifie the Saviour that redeemed us And as the Fathers do all hit upon it this is a plain reversing of the curse of Babel by the blessing that came out of Sion For as God pulled down that proud Tower which those insolent builders intended by the confusion of tongues so he built up the new Jerusalem in an instant by the gift of many Tongues And as diversity of Tongues was a punishment to scatter Infidels for their pride so diversity of Tongues was made the only means to reduce Infidels that had not heard of the Word of God into the unity of the faith And they that advanced themselves against heaven says Gregory lost the communion of that one Tongue they had but they that submitted themselves to the good will and pleasure of Christ obtained the communion of all Tongues which they had not Sic humilitas unitatem meruit superbia confusionem And all this was visibly done upon this day that we may believe the Church shall never want Gods invisible grace though not in this kind yet in some other benefit For in this kind the Lord did not assist his Church any long time surely after the first hundred of years it was scarce conferred upon any although Prophesies and gifts of healing did continue among some eminent persons afterward for a great space Irenaeus seems to speak as if some few had the gift of Tongues in his time Lib. 5. c. 7. which was about one hundred and fifty years after Christs Ascension But after him I find no Author touch upon it and perhaps Irenaeus speaks of the time when he was very young and knew Polycarpus and the Scholars of the Apostles I make no reckoning of Antoninus the Plorentine nor of any reports which he and his Pew-fellows make concerning some of their Friers whom they say God did inspire with all sort of Languages They have whetted their tongues I am sure with sharp lies and in that respect they have one tongue more than a good Christian should have They that are the common minters of miracles dare not urge or pretend this faculty of all kind of Languages in our days because they would quickly be descried when they came to parley with learned men For though nothing be more expedient for the setling of the Gospel in an unknown world such as America was within one hundred and forty years than the gift of Tongues to be able to speak to those Savages to their own understanding yet the Jesuites do not arrogate that any of their Order who have visited those parts could speak new Languages by inspiration Only Turcellinus a man of no forehead or modesty says that the Jesuit Xaverius spake but his Mother Tongue to the Indians of Goa and that all those heathenish people did understand him as if it had been their native Dialect An impudent forgery testified unto by none but himself disavowed by Josephus Acosta of his own Order who was long in those parts and quite contrary to the nature of a Miracle that Infidels and Pagans who perhaps never believed should be inspired to understand and the Christian that converted
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
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