abundance or store enough of Scripture for them to be able inwardly to abound withall and to conferre wisely thereupon with one another nay even to teach themselves if the Priest fail to doe it how to square their actions according to the Word of God the Law of Christ the instinct of the holy Ghost and the rule of his immediate substitutes the Pastours of holy Church whose preaching may be more ample but must not be to other sense than what they find delivered to be the true meaning of the holy Scriptures so shall they be ever in grace singing c. that is in thanks-giving to God for having received thus much of his holy Word expounded to them in their own native tongue and rendring him much more thanks for having left so much more of the Gospell as they have not here expounded full of the same delightfull and solid substance conducing to their Souls salvation and even this thankfulness of their hearts is the singing here mentioned for out of their abundant gratitude they will be alwayes praising God with some discourses of this nature which will sound in the ears of our heavenly Lord as so many Hymnes Psalmes and Canticles of praise unto his Divine Majesty 17. And consequently will beget in us a habit of doing as this last verse exhorteth us to doe namely directing all our words and actions to the honour and glory of God the Father Creating us God the Son Redeeming us and God the holy Ghost Sanctifying us and commanding that we remember our acquaintance with the sacred and undivided Trinity came unto us by the means of the second Person thereof wherefore in recognizance of that infinite obligation to thâ— second Person which was Christ Jesus all our thoughts words and deeds all our prayers and praisings of this great God shall then be most acceptable when they fall from our lips or flow from our hands imbellished with this adorning memory of being said and done in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord which is partly a Precept and partly a Counsell and certainly it is a negative precept that is to say it forbids us now to call upon God in the name of Moses or of his Angels or of his Saints directly as in former times the Jewes did saying Let not our Lord speak to us lest we die no let Moses speak whereas now we are bound to say Let not Moses but Christ speak to us nor let the Angels or Saints be our immediate recourse but be Christ the principall refuge we have and if by Saints or Angels we help our selves be it as they are more in favour to intercede for us than our selves are but so as still by them we aim at Christ for our Assistant for our Redeemer for our Saviour so as by his not by their Merits we hope to be saved though by their intercessions rather than our own we may hope of Christ to be heard And thus from the negative precept as above we come to finde it as well a positive or affirmative command as it is a counsell to direct all our thoughts words and deeds to Christ as to our last end of those Actions which must first in his Grace have beginning This I say is an habituall precept however it may be but an actuall Counsell that is to say in generall all we think say or do must to be meritorious be virtually at least directed to God by the merits of Christ our Lord his Son But we are not under precept bound actually to make this application of all we say or doe for to this we are onely counselled and it is indeed the best counsell we can or give or take if at every thought word or deed we make attend an act of directing it to our last end our souls Salvation through the merits of Christ Jesus which God of his infinite goodnesse grant we may doe by a sweet custome of so doing not by a scrupulous perturbation of minde if we fail therein for nothing so certain as that we shall fail and then to afflict our Souls otherwise than by endeavour to mend next time is so far from Vertue that it is a very dangerous vice of scruple as if it were in our powers not to be failing men or as if God were a Tyrant and would expect under pain of Sin from us that which he onely counsels but commands not so our failings is rather Infirmities than Sins and at such we ought rather with the Apostle to glory in them than to be troubled at them 2 Cor. 12. ver 15 God forbid saith he I should glory but in my own Infirmities that is to see how in the midst of them he was still supported and assisted by the grace of God alwayes enabling him to endeavour at least to doe all things to Gods Glory as the same Apostle exhorted the Corinthians to do in his first Epistle to them chap. 10. ver 31. and as we may laudably endeavour all our life time to doe but must never be afflicted to finde our selves fail of doing it since it is rather a counsell than a precept and so to fail in this is rather infirmity than sin as I said above and which I choose to repeat because I would have it fixed in the memory of all scrupulous Souls for their comforts and their Ghostly Fathers ease whom they often tire with their needless scruples in such trifles as these for want of rightly stating the duty of a Christian to themselves The Application 1. LAst Sundayes service told us of the dangers we were in this points us out our best defence in dangers To body our selves and take up our Mansions in the Bowels of Christ Jesus for so we doe by being our selves mercifull to others as he hath been to us as if the sharpest sword against an enemy were to have pitty or mercy on him 2. Now we are bid above all to love him too for to pardon him is not enough and to be in Peace with him if we expect our selves to be members of the same Mysticall Body whereof he is a member though our enemy and since it is apparent out of this dayes Text that by Peace with one another we are united members to our common Head Christ Jesus we must by this peace exulting in our hearts defend our selves and others from the common enemy 3. Then shall we declare this Peace to be in our Hearts when the Word of God is alwayes in our mouthes when we are singing forth the praises of our Lord to shew we glory in no other Generall than Jesus Christ we need no other weapon than his holy Word no other sheild than his proteâ—ting Grace against our greatest enemies And therefore we pray to Day as bodyed all in one Family c. The Gospel MAT. 13. ver 24. c. 24. ANother Parable he proposed unto them saying The Kingdome of Heaven is resembled to a man that sowed good seed in his field 25. But
those of Grace and Glory for he had before spoken much of Faith Grace Wisdom and Patience all of them seeds planted in the souls of the Faithful purposely to render them the fruits of Glory in the next World To conclude Saint Thomas of Aquin will have the word Datum that is the thing given to mean the gift of Glory in the next world as who should say all God gives here is to make us good all he gives in Heaven is to make us perfect others and they not unproperly say by the best and most perfect gift here mentioned is meant our Saviour Jesus Christ himself who is indeed all goodness all perfection and so it is well said that when God gave us his onely Son how is it possible he must not with him have given us all things but we may also conceive the Apostle here gives all Christians a general rule to ask of God nothing but what is good and perfect because he can give nothing else being himself all goodness and all perfection And since Christ was the best pledge of this goodness and of this perfection that ever man was witness off he coming from his heavenly Father it is by consequence true that all the good we can hope for must come from the same Fountain the same heavenly Father who is therefore called the Father of Light because he is the Fountain of in accessible Light and indeed by the Father of Light is here understood the whole sacred Trinity First because God is ad intra as Divines speak meaning in himself Majesty Glory and Light inaccessible as was said above again as in this Trinity there are three Divine Persons so every one of them is properly called a light as of the Son we are told by the Nicene Council that he is Light of light or the Light of the eternal Father and consequently the holy Ghost is Light of lights proceeding both from the Father and from the Son whence holy Church calls the holy Ghost lumen cordium the Light of hearts and St. Dennis explicates the mystery of the sacred Trinity by light in which are three Properties Light Splendor and Heat for as light without its own loss produceth the other two so the Father without his own loss begets his Son who is called Splendor patris the Splendor of the Father and from them proceed the holy Ghost called Love which is not onely a Heat but a Fire of Charity burning eternally bright between the three sacred Persons Father Son and holy Ghost Secondly because God ad extra that is to say without himself is the Origen of light as he created Angels the chief of whom being for his excessive brightness called Lucifer and the rest having power each Superiour of them to illuminate his Inferiour Angel Also as he created man endowed with the excellent light of reason by which he was able to enlighten the souls of those that are ignorant in the knowledge of Truth Thirdly as he created the Sun Moon and Stars all gallant lights useful to creatures in this world Fourthly as he is the Author of all Supernatural lights namely of Faith Hope and Charity Wisdom Understanding Counsel and all other Vertues whatsoever and Graces that are the lights guiding our souls to eternal Bliss amidst the mysty darkness of death and sin Fifthly as he is the Author of all prophetical Spirits foreseeing by the light of Revelation things to come Lastly as he is the Author of the light of Glory a creature so perfect that St. Thomas saith God cannot make it perfecter his reason is because it is the medium to shew us perfection it self his own sacred Deity and without the help of this Glory elevating the powers of Angels and blessed Souls of men neither of them could behold this inaccessible light which is God himself but whether this light of Glory may not be answerable to the more or less Grace in Saints or Angels and consequently an accident more or less intense or perfect accord to the exigence of every individual subject in which it is we shall rather leave to Schools to dispute with St. Thom. then presume here to determine with whom that is with which Father of Light with which sacred Trinity there is no Transmutation no going from place to place as all other lights do especially the Sun from East to West nor no vicissitude of over-shadowing no Eclypse or Darkness by the Interposition of any thing between God and his creatures or by his recess from them as the Sun goes from us and so makes night called vicissitudinal darkness and comes to us and so makes day called vicissitudinal light because it comes and goes by fits by turns by changes by alterations whereas in God there is none of these to be found for his light doth not come and go he is not now Author of Grace now of sin but all that comes from him is Grace and if sin interpose it is from us that interposition comes nor doth his Glory to the Blessed fade at any time grow dark or dim but keeps still the same fulness of lustre it hath at first but God is so far from mutability that he is from five remarkable Heads immutable First by nature Immortal Secondly by quality as we call it Vnalterable Thirdly by place Immoveable because immense and filling all place Fourthly by Will constant ever the same in Resolution Lastly by Operation ever here with Grace ever in Heaven with Glory working upon his Creatures and all these four last flow as from their origin out of his Immortal and Eternal Nature nay that which is most remarkable is to think how in all the vicissitudes and changes that Christ Jesus felt in himself for us as man he was not the least altered as he was God but therefore became man that he might incourage us to beare patiently the changings and turnings of corrupted nature when he that was God exposed himselfe to the like lest we should despaire of ever coming to an unalterable eternity of bliss from amidst so great a privation of rest as this perpetually altering world produced in us 18. This verse proves God is not the Author of temptation or sin in us since he hath freely begotten us to be his children children of his own inaccessible light and this generation also is that best and perfect gift which in the verse above we heard came from God but this word voluntarily is of deep sense and alludes to the difference wherewith God begot his own naturall and eternall Son namely naturally and necessarily so that he could not choose but beget him from all eternity coequall to himselfe but our generation was gratuit free voluntary whereby we were in time begotten and so as God might have chosen whether he would or not have gotten us to be his children of grace and not of nature infinitely inferiour no wayes coequall to him againe by voluntarily is understood not only gratis but also by designe as
For as the Act of separated souls is necessarily unalterable like those of Angels so the last Act they had when they were united to their bodies remains eternally and is not unproperly said to be the same Act continued for all eternity and therefore free for ever because at first freely produced when the soul was in state of a viatour and out of that issued into the better state of an impatriated spirit nay though Purgatory intervene yet that remora alters not the nature or freedome of the Act because soules there retain their love to God wherewith they dyed however they suffer for former infirmities of their life past The Application 1. WHat may be to our special and present use in this Gospel is to observe that Holy Church culls it out as the most proper to the now flowing Feast of Pentecost though spoken by our Saviour to his Disciples before his Passion as appears ver 29. above but with intention they should then make memory and use thereof when they had received the holy Ghost as consequently we must do at the celebrating this Festivity The main scope of this Gospel is exhorting us to believe and love and telling us the sign of true love is to keep the word of God and that the effect of this love will be to draw down into our soules the Holy Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost as delighting to live in the hearts of those who love the Son of God and shew their love by keeping his holy word 2. But here is a special stile observable in this Gospel very profitable to be reflected on which is that our Saviour seems here only to relate or speak as v. 25. 26. and to leave it to the Holy Ghost to suggest and teach the true meaning of what he said as if it were a speech too profound for his Disciples to dive into without the help of the holy Ghost If then our B. Lord the wisdome of his eternal Father and consequently the best spokes-man in the world would not what ere he could speak so plain to his Apostles themselves as to be understood by them before the coming of the holy Ghost to explicate his meaning how absurdly shall it be done in those that are ignorant Lay-men to dare to understand or interpret holy writ 3. Hence we must infer that we are bound in the first place to believe the holy Ghost to be coequal God with the Father and the Son who sent him since none but God can be of Gods counsel and tell men the meaning of Gods holy word Again we must infer that it is the love of God who now must teach â—s the meaning of Gods holy word and that they are our Wills our Hearts which now must be instructed more then our understandings for these the wisdome of God our Saviour taught by the sight of Faith those the love of God the holy Ghost now teacheth by the fire of charity so that however Faith Rectifies yet it is charity must saintifie the soul how ever Christ Redeemed us yet he was pleased to send the holy Ghost to save us by his sayntifying grace and alas what had it availed us once to have been by God the Father Created once to have been by God the Son Redeemed if we were not more then once by God the holy Ghost sayntified as oft indeed as by sin we are made uncapable of the benefits of our Creation or Redemption Come therefore Holy Ghost come teaching come inamouring come comforting come sayntifying come saving Spirit into the open hearts thou hast of Christians ready to receive thee ready to be inkindled with the flames of thy most holy Love And Praying to day as above most fitly to the sense of this Holy Text. On Trinity Sunday THis Sunday is both the Octave of Pentecost and also the First Sunday after it therefore this week we have the Epistles Gospels and Prayers of two Sundayes for our entertainment and these both if I mistake not the most delightfull of any in the whole year The Antiphon Matth. 28. v. 19. THee God the Father unbegotten thee onely begotten Son thee Holy Ghost Comforter thee holy and undivided Trinity with all our heart and mouth we Confesse we Praise thee we Blesse thee to thee be Glory world without end Vers Blessed art thou O Lord in the firmament of heaven Resp Both praise-worthy and glorious for ever The Prayer ALmighty Everlasting God who hast granted to thy servants in confession of the true Faith to acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity and in the power of Majesty to adore unity we beseech thee heartily that in the firmnesse of the same Faith we may ever be defended from all adversity The Illustration NOw the mysteries of our Redemption are compleat by the contribution of all the Three divine persons of the Blessed Trinity thereunto as of the Father sending his only Son to dye for us of the Son coming and actually dying for our sins and of the holy Ghost descending and sanctifying us with his holy grace to make us sin no more it is most necessary we should close up the said mysteries with a peculiar feast of the same Blessed Trinity and so put a glorious crown upon the work of our Redemption while we begin to work out our salvation from the first root thereof which is our Faith in the most Blessed and undivided Trinity a mystery so unheard of before Christ had taught it to the world that even to this day it is the hardest thing which can be told to men and the thing which the blessed Angels that behold it do not comprehend how the Divine Nature can be personally Trine which neverthelesse is essentially but One. In admiration whereof St. Paul in this dayes Epistle breaks out into a Triple Trinity of his expressing this Triunity saying O depth of the Riches of the wisdome and of the knowledge of God! Loe the first Who ever knew the sense of our Lord or who was ever of his Counsel or who gave first unto him and it shall be restored again Loe the second For of God by God and in God are all things Loe the last of his Triple expressions alluding all of them to the Blessed Trinity as by the Expositours of this Epistle we shall find and consequently must acknowledge it to be included in the Prayer above As also the Gospel is expressing how our B. Lord sent his mission of Apostles with commission to Baptize and teach all the world the mystery of this Blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost So we have this day the best of harmonies in the mystical musick of this book while we find all three parts of holy Churches service to day so neatly woven into one the Epistle Gospel and Prayer all singing forth the praises of the most Blessed and undivided Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost three Divine Persons and one onely God Hitherto the mysteries of our Redemption were all upon
calls upon the Abysse in fine this is a reason above all reason but that which being increate it self creates the reasons of men and Angels as short of it self as finite things are short of infinite as creatures are short of their Creatour The Apostle ends this verse with an extatical admiration of Gods incomprehensible Judgments and investigable wayes that is to say the counsels means works and reasons of his providence who alone can cull Good out of evil as he doth convincing all Nations of incredulity that thence he may make one the motive for his mercy towards the other as was said above 34. How are we lost in our judgments when we see the wicked prosper and the just afflicted when we value humane abilities which in sight of God are follies because we do not know the sense the mind of God in these his permissions nor how contemptible a thing the wisest man under the cope of heaven is in the sight of God of whom Zeno said well that the pastime or sport of God was man as if God made but a Tennis ball of man or of the wisdome of men tossing him up and down at pleasure to the wonderment of us poor mortalls Whence the Abysse of humane misery calls upon the Abysse of Divine mercy and as S. Augustine saith the Abyss of humane ignorance calls upon the Abyss of the Divine knowledge or science How well then doth the Apostle say who knowes the mind of God or who was ever of his Counsel that is as Isaias said Chap. 40. v. 13. who ever gave him counsel or who did he ever make acquainted with such counsel as he gave himself in all internall and external operations whence no man must dare to ask why leaving the Jewes he turned to the Gentiles or the like 35. This place is remarkable for it is not asked who ever gave God any thing but who hath first given him any thing which before he had not received from him that so he might be able to make God his debtour truly no man and for this reason S. Paul sayes well what have you that you have not received and if you have received it why do you glory as if it had not been received by you but were your own Yet such is God Almighty his mercy to mankind that even this impossibility in man to make God his debtour by giving him any thing that was not his own before doth not hinder man of the honour to have God a debtour to him But then we must understand this saying safely and take heed we make not God our debtour for any gift or loan of ours to him but meerly for his own promises to us and those his promises though he were graciously pleased to make them voluntarily unto us yet he binds himself by vertue of his own promise to be our debtour for the performance of his words unto us to which purpose St. Augustine spake home in these words upon this place of the Apostle Serm. 16. Pay unto us what thou doest owe us because we have done what thou hast bid us to do though even what we have done were thy deed too because thou didst help us to do it 36. And for further proof of this doctrine the Apostle proceeds saying of him by him in him are all things that is to say not onely the essence or beeing of every thing but also the operations thereof since the operations of creatures are likewise creatures too as well as the things themselves that do operate and so both have equal dependance on Almighty God so that all things are of him as of their first maker by him as by their directour disposer and perfectour in him as in vertue of his assistance they are made do operate and are conserved But St. Augustine and with him the torrent of Fathers observe that what is said to be of God is appropriated to the Father what by God is attributed to the Son and what in God is reporting to the holy Ghost that so to the whole sacred and undivided Trinity we may refer the honour and glory of all beeing and operation of creatures insomuch that even from the Apostles time the close of prayer was made in this sort Glory be to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and by the Councill of Nice was added thereunto as it was in the beginning and now and ever world without end Amen For though here be ground of distinguishing Persons yet there is none of dividing essences or natures and therefore the Apostle telling us here of our obligation to the Blessed Trinity concludes saying not to them but to him be glory for ever that is to the one only undivided God who is neverthelesse distinguished into three several Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost A very apt close for the Epistle on Trinity Sunday The Application 1. WE have hinted in the Illustration above at the deep design of holy Church in closing up the grand work of humane Redemption and the Octave of the holy Ghost with a Feast made sacred to the B. Trinity wherein our Faith seems to be chiefly and wholly exercised because there is nothing so hard in Christian doctrine as to believe the Trinity of the sacred Triunity Now we may presume to affirm further that albeit from Pentecost to Advent the main aym of Christian duty be the exercise of charity in producing frequent acts thereof neverthelesse it was fitting to begin the practice of charity with an act of Faith to shew the difference between our love of God on Earth and our love of him in Heaven for there Faith shall cease that Love may increase and be alone the Totall duty of the Blessed but here Faith must increase least Love decrease in us Hence it was not onely fit that this our first act of charity to day should be to God but that it should be also accompanied with the strongest act of Faith imaginable which is this we now produce in making profession we believe God to be Trine and One. 2. Now not to break the order of the service that I mean of charity the main imploy of every Christian between this and the holy time of Advent see how by way of commemoration at least of the first Sunday after Pentecost we have regard to such another Prayer and such another Gospel whereunto I have added here the Epistle also though not read in open service as do mainly point at charity so shall we see in their perusal anon when these proper to the day are done 3. And lastly least this Act of Charity we are now to exercise should be defective being an act of love to God alone without relation to our neighbour see how we are taught to perfect it as well with an act of hope as with an act of Faith since the main scope of holy Churches prayer to day is to declare so strong a Hope in her believing and in her loving God that she puts it as a hopeful
up sitting at this feast into the great presence-chamber of the sacred Trinity the Empyreall heaven and after his Ascension his servants the Apostles went round about the world to invite more and to tell them the great supper of glory was now ready for all that would go to it such way as thâ—se inviters would lead them namely in the high rode of professing and observing the faith and law of Christ 18. By all excusing themselves is here literally understood the Jewish nation whose eye was no further bent upon religion then as they expected a Messias that should make them all rich so grosly they understood the heavenly riches promised by the Messias as they believed them to be temporall estates And therefore here the first excuse is made by plea of necessity to looke after worldly wealth represented by the purchased village which was said to be newly bought by him that was content to sell the kingdom of heaven for a patch of earth But Saint Gregory hom 36. in Evang. notes the ill manners of this civility when the excusant sayes I pray thee have me excused for he calls it pride in the action though it seems humility in the voyce because he disdained heaven and preferred earth 19. The second excuse insists upon an other notable addiction of the Jewes to worldly wealth namely their huge great stocks they gloried in upon their grounds which we read Abraham Isaack Jacob and Job abounded in and which were looked on as the greatest blessings God could give so in regard of earthly stocks of Cattle they contemned the greater stock of Glory in the next world But St. Gregory in the place last cited will have these five yoak of oxen allude to our five senses distracting us from all heavenly objects 20. St. Gregory cited as above understands this place of carnall sinne the greatest impediment between a soul and glory of all others for here the excuser askes no pardon but boldly sayes he cannot come it seems he that could not wish he were able was wholly unable as well as he was absolutely unwilling while he did not say he would come another time as the former excuses might import but absolutely professed he could not come he had sure as little will as power and therefore he might have added he neither could nor would Though others more favourably say this place alludes onely to the excessive use of the lawfull marriage-bed which then is used in excesse when it is made a pretence to hinder us from the service of Almighty God And S. Ambrose expresseth much to this sense in few words saying The love of earthly things is like a birdlime upon the spirituall wings of our souls hindring her flight up to heaven But S. Augustine applies these three excuses to the three things that include all sorts of worldly pelf concupiscence of the flesh concupiscence of the eye and pride of life The first excuse reports to the pride that man had to see himself Lord of a Mannour The second to concupiscence of the eye to see a rich stock of cattell cover his grounds The third to concupiscence of the flesh that made this his excuse from going to heaven as if he did not hope for greater pleasure there and indeed riches and pleasure are the chief impediments mortalls have between them and eternall blisse 21. This place of the Parable alludes to Christ speaking of himself as servant to his heavenly Father and telling him the Rich men of the Jewes were all so transported with the love of the world as they gave no ear to the invitation of the eternal word calling them to everlasting rest and glory and that then his Father bid him apply himself to the poorer sort of Jewes which to effect was done when S. Matthew Chap. 21. 31. sayes to the Pharisees Scribes Doctours and high Priests rejecting Christ The Publicanes and whores shall go before you in the Kingdome of God as also the last shall be first and the first the last Others think this verified in the choyce Christ made of Fisher-men for his Apostles and of other poor Mechanicks rather then of Scribes and Pharisees as 1 Cor. 1.27 God chose the infirm things of this world to confound all the strength thereof and fooles to confound wise men and this to encourage the most contemptible creatures on the earth to aym at as great riches as heaven can afford if they live according to the rule and law of Christ 22. And here our Saviour urgeth his heavenly Father since all the poor people amongst the Jewes are not able to fill up the Court of heaven that as yet there may be more invited and then he went aside from the Jewes to the Samaritans and Gentiles converting them and so inviting of them to his heavenly Glory which is the Supper here spoken of 23. But we are here to note that Christ looked upon these Gentiles in respect of his beloved people the Jewes as he would do upon men that have no poor beeings in Townes or Villages but are forced to shelter themselves under the banks on high wayes and to covet the loane of hedges for their shelter from winds and weather and therefore being himself after his resurrection to ascend to heaven he sent his Apostles over all the world to find out such poor Gentiles as these who in respect of the Jewes were not held worthy in Gods sight to be esteemed as Masters of Townes Villages or houses but were like vagabonds yet these not filling heaven neither see how he makes provision for relapsed Christians also as men equally miserable with such vagabonds and those he will have by Ecclesiastical censures nay by penal lawes to be even compelled or forced to return to their belief again which yet is not a course used to any but revolted Christians such as once were in the lap of the true Church by holy Baptisme and they indeed as having once been children and Subjects of the mother Church of Christ may upon revolt be compelled back again whereas Pagans Jewes or Infidels cannot be thus forced by penal lawes but must in a sweet way be gained to a right belief through perswasion not compulsion 24. This verse is onely the excluding those from eternal glory who being invited to it will not leave temporal riches and pleasures to purchase the Kingdome of heaven but willingly wallow in the mire of worldly wealth rather then they will leave that to enjoy eternal felicity and glory The Application 1. AS this Gospel in the sense of the Expositours alludes to the Blessed Sacrament whose Feast is now flowing so is it fit we should observe therein such lessons as we are bound to learn and put in execution for our more worthy receiving which we may for brevity sake reduce to two the one a reverential awe or holy fear of unworthinesse the other a fervent act of love and charity because in this Sacrament is not onely the body and bloud of
resignation as a meanes to our exaltation in the time of visitation which is to be understood when God shall think fit to look upon us with the eye of mercy 7. It were an injury to Gods goodnesse for us to cast about for that which God himself takes care for that is our soules good the care of that is his and our rule of that is by him laid unto us so in that affayre we have rather to do what is commanded already then to be solicitous about it as if it were not done And to be solicitous of Temporals is an unchristian care and therefore often forbidden in point of perfection however tolerated in regard of humane infirmity but moderate care is alwayes allowed Christians in order to Temporals when anxious solicitude is forbidden them by many texts of holy writ 8. Sobriety is the best companion of watchfulnesse and therefore both are recommended And because our watchfulnesse is to be perpetual therefore our sobriety must be so too but especially towards night when our hearts onely are to keep the watch whilest our senses are asleep and this because the devil is then most busie in temptations when men are least able to resist having as it were but their wish awake and their will asleep hence all spiritual men recommend temperance towards bed-time both in meat and drink hence the Completory begins alwayes with this very verse to put us in mind with what purity we ought to go to bed having our profest enemy alwayes awake and ready to devour us if he find us off our sober guard 9. Happy we that by the least resistance are sure of victory against this ravenous devil for maugre all his malice and all his power he cannot hurt us unlesse we yeeld our consents to his Temptations Here is added that we must stoutly resist him and believing too because so we get compleat victory for by resistance we overcome him by fortitude we bind him captive by Faith we take away all his armes and power that is by firm stout and constant Faith And again our resistance will have the more force because of what followes in this verse we never are left alone but have alwayes our fellow Souldiers to help us in this Fight against our enemy who never tempts us alone but all other good men at the same time and we have share in their greater resistance by adding what our weaknesse is able to do 10. This next verse comes yet more home to our comfort and assistance telling us besides the help of our fellow creatures we have the help of our omnipotent Creatour against this enemy of mankind the God of all grace who having called us to everlasting glory will not if we help our selves permit the devill to snatch us away into his kingdom of darknesse so that being designed for glory we cannot fear the want of grace for that is the seed and glory the fruit of Gods goodnesse in us O who seeing how much Christ suffered to purchase us patience would not gladly suffer this little we are told must be indured if we will hope for victory Let us therefore with the same zeal begin to suffer as we would desire the happy end of it which is assured victory and glory 11. This last verse minds us that the victory is Gods and the honour of it his though the reward by his mercy be our eternall glory too The Application WE have had hitherto the holy Ghost the sacred Trinity and the blessed Sacrament to help us on in our long journey between Pentecost and Advent which we are to march all upon the feet of Charity but now we must expect no more such speciall helps suffice it we have had last Sunday the corroborating repast whereof Elias his refreshment under the Tree in the desert was but a type or figure when yet he was told that little bread should inable him to his journeyes end although he had a great wâ—y to go after that before he came to the mount Horeb so beloved must our charity from this day forward march upon the late refreshment of the blessed Sacrament till we come in our annuall journey to the mount of Advent the mount of expectation the mount that leaves us on the top of the highest mystery of our redemption the Incarnation of our Lord God where his first stoop to earth was our first step to heaven 2. Now for as much as we shall in this march find charity sometimes handed on by other vertues as last Sunday most properly by holy fear sutable to her in so long a journey and through the many dangers which she was to meet withall in the desert of this world and because at other times she will be in a manner out of sight and carried on with the crowd of other vertues thronging about her to secure themselves by her and to be her guard as they are bound she being sovereign to them all we must not therefore think our design is ill laid and that our obligation ceaseth as to the practise of charity when in the holy Text other vertues are more visible then she for there want not good Divines who grounded on S. Paul his definition or description at least of this majestick vertue affirm there is indeed no other vertue but charity both because God himself is called charity and because in heaven all other vertues are refunded into her so that in these Divines opinions even Faith Hope Humility Patience Obedience and all other vertues whatsoever are but charity believing hoping submitting suffering obeying or the like as one and the self same man by the severall faculties of his soul by his severall senses and members of his body is doing those exercises that such faculties such senses and such members are necessary for Be these Divines right or wrong it boots not to our purpose more then thus to let us see all our actions are good or bad according as they partake or want of charity to give them life or to declare them dead 3. This premised see how humility resignation to Gods holy will sobriety vigilance and a strong faith bring charity along this first-dayes journey after the repast she had last Sunday as above And though the Text tell her she is to carry us through the ravenous Lions walk yet we see the close of this Epistle is that the God of all Grace the God of charity will secure us through these dangers for his own glory if we but love him and will cast our cares on him and will rely upon his multiplied mercies whereof we have dayly and hourely huge experience if we will make him our Ruler him our Guide and if we do not loose our charity to him our Creatour by wasting it away upon creatures unworthy of our love because we cannot grasp temporall felicities without hazard of loosing eternall happinesse Yes yes assuredly this ought to be our duty now Whilest to this very purpose holy Church prayes to day
the Old than to the New Law Thirdly because in that state they were in they did want the fruit of Adoption because when they dyed Just yet they could not partake of Heaven the now immediate reward of such blessed Soules as they were in regard Christ had not opened the gates thereof to mortalls by his first entring into Heaven as was fit he should since all others were to follow upon his Title not upon their own Lastly because Christ by exempting us from the servitude of the Old Law gave us the right of claime to the Spirit of Adoption which was that of the New Law taught by Christ and affirmed by the holy Ghost 6. This Verse clearly shewes the truth of the Doctrine above delivered since to declare we were partakers of the Divine Filiation God sent us the Spirit of his Son Divine the holy Ghost as who should say it is a true signe we are partakers of the Divine Nature because we have the Divine Spirit in us though this Spirit doth rather shew we are the Sons of God than make us such as the Signe shews the thing to be there where the Signe of the thing is for indeed we are the Children of God by the merits of Christ his passion since the true Adoptive cause the root of our filiation is the Son of God his Incarnation for thence we become God because God became Man so the grace of the holy Ghost or his Spirit abounding in us is rather the signe than the cause of our Adoption or filiation since our adoption is by Christ and the proof thereof is by his holy Spirit abiding in us not that this spirit of the holy Ghost is an empty signe but that besides the signe it is of our filiation to God it is also the same God with the Father and the Son really and truly sanctifying of us and uniting himself unto us by his holy Grace as well as he unites us to the actuall participation of our Saviours Passion at the same instant when he gives us his Grace and thereby teacheth us to cry Abba Father that is to say O Heavenly Father look upon us as thy Children being made so by the passion of thy Son and declared to be so by the coming of the holy Ghost amongst us into our hearts inabling them with a loud pious affection though sometimes their lips move not to cry unto thee in that filiall voice which ever opens the ears of thy mercy towards us and makes thee often ask us as thou didst silent Moses thus internally and silently crying to thee What doe you cry unto me for Exod. 14. ver 15. my dearest Children what doe you want it is but ask and have 7. Here is a Graecisme or Greek transition from the Second person to the Third as who should say what I speak of you O Galatians adopted as above the like I say of all third Persons even any Gentile so adopted that be he of what Nation he will if he can truly cry Abba Father he is not a Servant but a Sonne of God and if a Sonne he is an Heir also by God that is by Christ who is the Son of God O happy Children of this Heavenly Father who makes all his issue equall Heires and leaves not younger children to the mercy of their Elder brothers for their Patrimony but gives all his whole estate in Heavenly Glory and by that himself for their Patrimony whence Saint Austine sayes well Thou hast created us O Lord to and for thy self and our heart is at no rest untill it have the happinesse to rest in thee nothing lesse than thy self can satiate us and this satiety we enjoy when thy glory appears in us and placeth us in thee The Application 1. LEarn all ye Monarchs of the Times to know this Text forbids you Lord it here as if you were not under Age. The Kingdomes you command you then usurp when you deny obedience to the Church Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords he is the Father of all Christians who hath made no servant Tutour to command us but his Sacred Spouse the holy Church so long as here we live 2. Learn all ye proudest men to stoop to the degree of little ones again now you behold your ancient God become a Child of Man to make you Men children of Almighty God 3. Learn ye that glory to write man to Nature to be but Babes yet to Grace let not Christ remain alone an Infant be every Christian at the least an Innocent to keep him company while holy Church recounts his Cradle-dayes And Prayes that as children unable to doe manly acts our selves we may be directed in the pleasure of our Heavenly Father by doing nothing but in the Name of his onely Sonne who knowes best what will please him and make us deserve well at his Holy Hands by abounding in good Works The Gospel LUKE 2. ver 33. c. 33. ANd his Father and Mother were marvelling upon those things which were spoken concerning him 34. And Simeon blessed him and said to Mary his Mother Behold this is set unto the ruine and unto the resurrection of many in Israel and for a signe which shall be contradicted 35. And thine own soul shall a sword pierce that out of many hearts cogitations may be revealed 36. And there was Anne a prophetesse the daughter of Phanuel of the Tribe of Aser she was far stricken in dayes and had lived with a Husband seven years from her Virginity 37. And she was a widdow untill eighty and four years who departed not from the Temple by fasting and prayers serving night and day 38. And she at the same hour suddenly coming in Confessed to our Lord and spake of him to all that expected the redemption of Israel 39. And after they had wholly done all things according to the Law of our Lord they returned into Galilee into their City Nazareth 40. And the Child grew and waxed strong full of wisdom and the grace of God was in him The Explication 33. NOte here Saint Ioseph is not called Christ his Father as Nurses husbands are called Foster-fathers to the children whom their wives give suck unto though they never did beget those children but further and yet more really because Jesus was the true and naturall Child of the Blessed Virgin Mary being joyned in reall Wedlock with Saint Ioseph though she never did accompany her husband in the Marriage bed so his paternity was more than nutritious and yet less than naturall because Jesus was onely the Son of Ioseph marryed to the Virgin Mary but never having knowledge of her Body and therefore he is called the putative or esteemed Father of Christ for all he never did beget him meerly because his wife did truly bear him and was his naturall Mother though by a meanes supernaturall to wit the over-shadowing of the holy Ghost These his Parents are here said to be marvelling not that they were perhaps
when men were asleep his enemy came and over-sowed cockle among the wheat and went his way 26. And when the blade was shot up and had brought forth fruit then appeared also the Cockle 27. And the servants of the good man of the house coming said to him Sir didst not thou sow good seed in the field whence then hath it Cockle 28. And he said to them The Enemy-man hath done this And the servants said to him wilt thou we goe and gather it up 29. And he said No lest perhaps gathering up the cockle you may root up the wheat also together with it 30. Suffer both to grow untill the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers Gather up first the Cockle and binde it into bundles to burn but the Wheat gather ye into my barn The Application 24 THis thirteenth Chapter is wholly parabolicall and this other is the second parable insisting wholly upon cockle by stealth sowed over the Wheat after the husbandman had sowed his field with good seed where note the whole Parable alludes to the whole thing done not to the particular doer since if so the kingdome of heaven must not have bin likened to the man sowing but to the King of heaven which Kingdom in this place seems to be the Church of Christ as if by the sanctity thereof he did reign in continuall glory and here Christ makes himself the man sowing in his field that is to say in this world which is all one field of God the seed is the word of the eternall Father to his children the Church of Christ and therefore this Word is called good seed because it fructifies both to grace in this life and to glory in the next 25. By the men being asleep are here meant the Pastours of Gods Church being out of the Pulpit or out of sight of their people and parishioners or else our own remissness in vertue which is a kinde of sleep in that school where waking is alwayâ—s necessary insomuch that even when we sleep our hearts or soules must wake lest we be surprized by the never sleeping enemy who lyes at watch perpetually to devour us And the enemy mentioned in this place is indeed the common enemy to God and man the Devill whose Cockle over-sowed amongst the wheat of Christian doctrine is either Heresie of Doctrine or errours of life The first he sows when hee makes us wrest Scriptures to our private sense contrary to the Churches exposition The second when he tempts us to doe contrary to the rule of our actions set down by the Word of God and by his Preachers of that word unto us And his going away when this is done is his leaving us corrupted both in doctrine and manners as if wee had not received our taints in both from him but were by our selves forsooth assured we were in the right Note by cockle or zizania as the Scriptures call it is understood here heresie or infidelity in respect of true Faith as also vice and sin in respect of true vertue so that under cockle is meant all impure grain or weeds that mix with corn and choak it in the growth or growing with it make it unsavoury and by the ill mixture thereof intoxicate the brain with a vertiginous dizziness as heresie and sin doe the soul of man and indeed Christ in this place alludes to the Scribes and Pharisees corrupting with their false Doctrine those to whom hee had taught the truth perswading them he was a drunkard because he went to a wedding and turned water into Wine and a blasphemer because he abrogated the Law of Moses and made himself more than Abraham namely the Son of God 26. The reason why this Cockle was not to be distinguished from the wheat till both were grown up ready to pullulate into their severall fruits was because all plants in their first blade are green alike and most grains of corn are of like blade at least if they differ in blade they are not therefore weeds but may be good corn though thus differing yet when they come to fructifie then they are discerned and seen to be good or bad according to that of our Saviour Matth. 7.16 By their fruits yee shall know them who are good men and who bad 27. This Verse alludes to the Pastours of Gods Church complaining that whilst they sow his seed of truth in the pulpits they finde more cockle than corn when they come to reap their harvest that is to say if not more Hereticks than Catholikes at least more sinners than Saints but here it may not be amiss for these Pastors to reflect whether they doe indeed sow the same seed as Christ their master sowed whether they doe preach the same holy and saving doctrine or admit they doe this yet by a further disquisition they must see whether or no they have sown the seed of example or holy manners as well as of true doctrine for if not they wiâ—l be answereâ— not to have sown good seed since exemplarity of life is equally expected to fall from the hand of the Churcheâ— seeds-man as well as solidity of doctrine 28 The enemy man here imports the devill and by this answer there is a wâ—rd of comfort given to the Pastours while our Saviour sayes there may be weeds or cockle in the field of holy Church though there were never so good seed sown both of doctrine and of life by the Husbandmen the Preachers thereof and this by the Devil alwayes ploughing up a nâ—w some parcels of this field by temptations or fluctuations in mens mindes or by scattering his â—oul seed of sin over the ground newly sown with doctrine and vertue since it is not in the Pastors powers to prevent all evill though they themselves be never so good or shall never so well comply with their duties both in doctrine and manners as also he tels them they are not presently to pluck up ill weeds as soon as they appear but 29. As in this Verse appears Let them grow up both together corn and weeds lest whilest you pluck up the weeds you loosen the root of the corn growing neer un-unto it and so make it die for want of setled rooting since there is not so much malice in bad men but there is more grace in the good or at least a little good is able to overcome a great deal of bad because it proceeds from a more pâ—werful agent grace exceeding nature in activity and this was well observed by S. Augustine saying upon the first verse of the 54. Psalm Doe not thinke that evill men are gratis permitted in this world and that God cannot work good out of them since every wicked man therefore liveth that either himself may be corrected or that by him the good man may be exercised either in patience if the sinner disturbe him or in giving him example of vertue to follow To the like purpose speaks S. Gregory Hom. 35.
claime of God in respect of his own merits but in respect of the merits of Christ elevating mans workes to a height of value more then in themselves they have or can have or to speake more plainly not that man workes his own Salvation by his owne power but that God workes that in man which man alone cannot work in himselfe and which yet by cooperation with Gods holy Grace he may claime not as absolutely due to him but as due to Christ working in him The Application 1. WHilest St. Paul brings us in the very front of this Epistle our Blessed Saviour himselfe the High Priest officiating to day no marvell that the Church erects the Altar of the bloody Crosse for Christ to celebrate upon and this Passion Sunday when the ensigne of the Passion is display'd alone the holy and the bloody Crosse of Christ 2. As little marvel 't is we are to day depriv'd of all the suffrages of Saints in Publick Office of the Priest such as we formerly made open intercession to beseeching their assistance in the close of Lawds and Even-song because we now are to suppose that time is flowing when there were no Saints at all nor any Angels able to relieve us since we see the Saint of Saints the Son of God begins to suffer more decreed to dye hence are the usuall Ornaments removed to day the Churches left with naked wals in Catholike Countries where Rights and Ceremonies are observed the Pictures of the Saints pull'd downe and nothing left us but the bloody Crosse to minde us that Almighty God nev'r look't propitiously on us but when he frown'd upon his Sacred Son and made his Passion our Propitiation 3 Say then beloved what 's our duty now is it to wave the Holy Fast or no is it to seek for dispensations by corrupting our Physitians by deluding Ghostly fathers by flattering indeed by cheating of our selves under pretext of sicknesse or infirmity fie no where these are reall there 's no Fast commanded where they are not dispensation's Null because the Fast obligeth maugre dispensation Cease then O Christians cease to pamper sinners while God suffers for our sinnes looke for no favor but from Christ himselfe take no reliefe but what his sparing hand gives to your bodies now reserving greater graces for your soules as in the Illustration we have heard Adde rather frequent Tears unto your Fast for the accomplishment thereof adde your Compassion to our Saviours Passion because there is no company acceptable to our bleeding Christ but a weeping Christian Thus may we hope for the Propitious look we begge to day when he beholds us the relenting the resigned soules we ought to be whilest holy Church prayes as above The Gospell Io. 8. v. 46 c. 46 Which of you shall argue me of sinne If I say the veritie why do you not beleeve me 47 He that is of God heareth the words of God Therefore you heare not because you are not of God 48 The Iewes therefore answered and said to him do not we say well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a devill 49 Iesus answered I have no devil but I doe honour my Father and you have dishonoured me 50 But I seeke not my own glory There is that seeketh and judgeth 51 Amen Amen I say to you If any man keepe my word he shall not see death for ever 52 The Iewes therefore said now we have known that thou hast a devill Abraham is dead and the Prophets and thou sayest if any man keepe my word he shall not taste death for ever 53 Why art thou greater then our Father Abraham who is dead and the Prophets are dead whom doest thou make thy selfe 54 Iesus answered If I doe glorifie my selfe my glory is nothing it is my Father that glorifieth me whom you say that he is your God 55 And you have not known him but I know him and if I shall say that I know him not I shall be like to you a lyer But I doe know him and doe keep his word 56 Abraham your Father rejoyced that he might sete my day and he saw and was glad 57 The Iewes therefore said to him thou hast not yet fifty yeeres and hast thou seen Abraham 58 Iesus said to them Amen Amen I say to you before that Abraham was made I am 59 They tooke stones therefore to cast at him but Jesus hid himselfe and went out of the Temple The Explication 46. IT was in the presence of the High Priest as well as of divers Doctors and Pharisees that Jesus used this art of proving he might uncontrouleably reprove the people because he knew they could not answer him by recrimination nor put him to the blush of turpitude in a doctor reprehending others who is himselfe faulty in the same kind so Christ here reprehending the abominable sins of the Jews takes the priâ—iledge he cannot be denied of urging them to tax him if they can with sinne and yet lest his immunity from sinne might not suffice in their esteeme which yet was rooted both in his beatificall vision and hypostaticall union making God and man but one person he futher tels them it is pure verity that he preacheth to them so by these two titles of his veracity and sanctity he claimes beliefe of his doctrine and authority of rebuking their sinnes and he doth not here meane onely a naked delivery of truth but a demonstration of all hee tels them to be undoubted and absolute verity rooted in his owne divine veracity and so not to be any wayes disputed but exacting their firme and constant beliefe whence with great reason he sayes here why doe you not believe me 47. It is here to be noted that the Manichaean Heresie was ill grounded from this place as if there had been some men born of a good and others of a bad Spirit and so they of necessity not of choice were either good or bad since here Christ alludes not to the natural but to the supernatural man Hence when he says he that is of God his meaning is he that is inspired by the Grace of God and of his Spirit such it is that hears the word of God and therefore they heard it not because they followed the inspiration of the evil and not of the good Spirit Now that he meant this as to them ill at that time inspired not ill created or naturally made ill it is evident for diverse of them were afterwards by his death and by his Apostles preaching converted and doubtless saved too whence it follows that as they naturally were not made so bad as no good could come of them so they were by supernatural and not by natural means made the good people which afterwards they became and thus those once good become bad again when leaving the inspiration of the good Spirit they follow the dictamens of the bad one 48. It seems by this manner of speech they were used frequently to call him Samaritane
so now they think they have reason and do well in so reproaching of him because first they had observed he did frequently converse with Samaritanes next that he was bred up in Nazareth a City in Galilee neer to Samaria whence the Jews of that place were esteemed to be much like the Samaritanes Lastly and most literally that the Religion of the Samaritanes was mixed partly with Judaism partly with Gentilism since they did worship the god of the Assyrians from whom they were descended as well as keep the Rights of the Synagogue and for this cause the Jews held them Schismaticks and so detested their Sacrifices that to call Christ a Samaritane was to shew they did detest him too which appeared by their adding he was also possâ—ssed by some Devil and spake as mad men do that are in diabolical frenzies But the truth is they did really believe he was some Devil himself because he laid claim to be the Messias and to be the Son of God which they looked upon him for as if he had been Lucifer himself and Christ understood their meaning to be thus when in the next Verse he tells them 49. He neither is nor hath in him any Devil because in telling them he is the Son of God he doth not boast his own descent so much as that he gives the honour and glory of all he doth unto his heavenly Father and for this Act of his they seek to disgrace and to dishonour indeed to revile him O unparalleld meekness and deep reply in one word to both their calumnies for though he mention not Samaritane in this Reply yet by saying he hath no Devil in him he includes the other since the Schism of the Samaritanes made them slaves of the Devil wherefore he replies onely to the Slander cast upon his Father by calling him Devil to shew he regards not much the abuse they committed against himself as he was man but as he was the Son of God whence he must needs vindicate his Fathers if not his own cause 50. How well might he say this who had professed he came hither by command of his Father that he preached his Fathers not his own Doctrine and the like I do therefore said he not seek my own but my Fathers honour and glory it sufficeth me that I know when the hour of his holy Pleasure is come he will clarifie glorifie me as afterwards he did when Christ said unto him before his Transfiguration the hour is come clarifie thy Son Joh. cap. 17. v. 1. and as then he did honour him by manifesting his glory and avouching him to be his Son so the other part of this Verse will be verified when he shall judge as God and punish those that revile his said Son not that in this place Christ reflected on the general Iudgement which is referred to himself but unto the private Judgement that God makes either by punishing temporally the sins of the people as he did in the destruction of the Jews by Titus and the Romans for having crucified Christ or eternally if he reserve their punishment till the hour of their death for Christ is not properly said to come as Iudge to every Soul dying but to all Souls at the latter day So our private Iudgements are the Sentences of God rather then of Christ upon us yet not to the exclusion of Christ neither 51. Whereupon turning to his own veracity rather then regarding their falsehood he says Amen Amen Truly Truly or since I am God and cannot lye be mens opinions what they will yet really and truly be it so that whosoever shall hear and keep my Word shall never dye eternally for so he would taste eternal death but though he dye temporally through the separation of his Body from his Soul yet he shall not dy eternally that is he shall not sin mortally which can onely cause eternal death and even that death of the body I shall take away too when at the general Resurrection I shall give both corporal and spiritual life everlasting to those Blessed who have inviolably kept and observed my word by living as I have given Law unto them 52 53. By this Reply we may see they understood not the true Sence of Christs meaning when they think to obtrude the lye and the Devil upon him by shewing he hath asserted a manifest lye in saying who believe in him should never dye for say they though thou were God yet would it not follow to hear thy word and keep it were enough to render one immortal since Abraham and the Prophets did hear and keep Gods Word and yet are dead whereas he never meant they should not dye temporally but that they should not dye eternally or which is all one dye in deadly sin nor can indeed the other Sence be rationally inferred out of the Letter of the Text which alludes onely to eternal death No marvel they should wonder at his pretending to be greater then Abraham whom they were content to make Head of the Synagogue by reason he was the First Believer for this proceeded not onely out of their affected but indeed out of their reall ignorance that Christ was God as well as Man and so they held it absurd he should pretend to an immunity not granted to the best of them as then they to argue against him were content to admit Abraham to be he being indeed the Father of all Beliefe the first Believer of all the Synagogue for they went not to Adam nor to the Faithful under the Law of Nature though indeed Moses was the first Member of the Synagogue framed into a Body for Abrahams Beliefe was Personal onely Moses his was Legal 54. The beginning of this Verse is his Answer to the close of the last as who should say he did not make nor boast himself to be much though he might with modesty and truth enough have done it so he doth not desire any other or more glory then what his Father gives him and says if he desire more it proves null alluding to the Judgements of Courts that never take the Testimony of any Party in his own Cause and so now that he is in contrast with them he pretends not to his own Testimony of himself but remits all to his Father whom they did confess to be their God and consequently beyond all exception to be believed 55. Observe he tells them they do not know his Father though they confess him to be their God when they heard him speak and profess Christ was onely his beloved Son and bid them hear that is believe him for then they did not or would not take notice this voyce came from heaven from God the Father as it did indeed But the literal sence of this place is that though they knew there was but one God and did believe in him yet they did not know that God who was one in Essence was Trine in Persons and consequently did beget the word his eternal
any legall servitude imposed on man as punishment of his sins against God for this servitude tooke hold on the Individuals of humane nature not of the nature it selâ—e and since our Saviours Individuall person was one with that of God the second person of the Blessed Trinity he was not a Servant by any legall servitude falling on his person and so even his humane nature though servile as a creature was not yet servile as a sinfull man because he had not the least guilt of sinne in him and thus we see in captives humane nature is no slave though the man that is taken be made so when then we say humane nature was corrupted in Adam we doe mean every childe of Adam received a contagion or corruption from him and yet humane nature in the line of a creature to God was not corrupted so as to be a less perfect creature then it was before for that had been to corrupt the Essence not the Persons of mankinde whereas sin onely corrupted his State and not his Essence the Persons contracting Humane Nature and not the Nature of man it self for if so Christ being man made of that Humane Nature must have been corrupted in that nature at least which yet he was not By the Similitude of man in this verse we are to understand literally the external shape of man not the accidental or phantastical as the Hereticks said but the substantial and real shape though St. Augustine takes it here as for the predicament of habit which consists in Garments or Clothing and likens Christs Humanity to be as a Garment covering his Divinity or as Iron is made fiery or as Gold is made a Statue and even in that Sence the thing is as true as it is ingeniously expressed by St. Augustine By being made as man is not to say onely like man and not to be truly such but like here signifies to be so like as it is the very same as if a Statue should from a dead Stone be made move as a man moveth eat as a man eateth speak as a man speaketh why still by every one of these gradations the Statue becomes more like a man then it was before and when at last it had all the Faculties of a man it became as man indeed that is to say not onely like but really and truly man In this Sence our Saviour was said to be as man as if we said though he were truly God yet he did not appear to be so but appeared onely to be as man which truly he was as well as he was God 8. This humility was not an Act of God the Son to God the Father for so there is no commanding Power in the one over the other but of his Humanity both to his own Divine Person and to his heavenly Father too by dying on the Cross in vertue of this command Christ did humble himself as low as could be in regard no death was so vile and contemptible as that on the Cross was in the esteem of man in those days though since even for reverence no man is executed in that kinde so Christs Humility made this contempt become reverentiall 9. For the which Act of Humility and Obedience God hath exalted him his Humanity for his Deity could not be exalted and given him a name Here we are to note Calvins pervisity who took such a hatred against the Church for the Doctrine of merit that he hence denied Christ the honour of meriting this Exaltation by his Humiliation but says that for which is to be taken consecutively or consequently not causally as who should say after his Humility God rewarded him by exalting of him but not for his Humility or for the merit thereof which yet is an abominable Impiety and Heresie whereas we allow Christ by his Death not onely to have merited for mankind redemption whereof himself had no need who was from his first Conception Blessed by his Hypostatical Union but even for himself the Glory of his Body and the endowments of a glorious Body the highest place in Heaven above Saints and Angels nay the very setting at the right hand of God the Power to Judge all the world and the dominion over Heaven and Earth which were not onely due to him as united to his Deity but as merited by his Passion further he merited to have a name that is above all names and such a name it was when Christ was called God and the Son of God the name of the Messias so famous in this world lastly the name of Jesus and Redeemer of all mankinde which name though it were given him in circumcision yet it was not divulged to all the world till he was crucified so then he was truly said to have merited that name of Saviour and many times names are given to foretell what such men will merit before they dye thus was the Blessed Name of Jesus given to Christ foretelling how richly he would deserve to be called Saviour of the world 10 In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow because this name is greater then ever any other was for Jehovah which signified God creating and was the greatest that ever had before been heard of is not so great as God redeeming and that is meant by the name of Jesus whence the Church boldly says it had nothing availed us to be born unless to have been redeemed had made our birth availing to us So it is a greater abuse to blaspheme the name of Jesus then the name of God because God gave us more Grace and Benefit by our Redemption then he did by our Creation and Jesus includes both God and Saviour which God alone doth not whence the very Angels who were not redeemed bow their knees to the name of Iesus as convertible with that of God and therefore all mankinde hath much more reason so to do for the Devils they would refrain to honour it perhaps if they could but as it is they cannot since if no otherwise they must adore Man in the Person of God ever since Iesus took Humane Nature upon him 11. And every tongue not onely all Nations upon the Earth first or last shall confess that our Lord Iesus is in the Glory of his Father but every tongue of Angels and Devils as well as of Men and by saying he is in the glory of God the Father is understood more then that he sâ—tteth at his right hand namely that he is equal in Glory to God the Father since Iesus is not onely Man but joyntly God withal So that the summity or highest pitch of Iesus his praise is indeed this that the Man Iesus being God as well as Man is though as man much inferiour yet as God even equal to the Heavenly Father in Glory Power Majesty Goodness and all the other Attributes Divine which are given to Almighty God The Application 1. MOrtification Prayer and Alms-Deeds Perseverance in good Purposes The Fear of God and Holy Poverty were
yet by thy mercy soon enough believe that thou art risen and that thou art indeed my Lord my God who didst upon the Cross receive these wounds for mine and all mankindes redemption and though the Apostle knew Christ dyed for all yet he calls him here Emphatically his Lord his God as who should say this grace and favour was to him alone to have so convincing a Proof made unto him of that Truth he onely among all the Apostles then doubted of 29. And lest the Apostle should Glory that by this he might seem more in favour then the rest Christ tells him plainly no That others who without the help of Sense believed were more happy then those who for Sense-sake onely gave consent unto Faith Besides formally Saint Thomas did Believe more then he did see or feel that is he believed Christ to be God by feeling him to be man and not a Phantasm So if we shall allow him to have had onely humane Faith of the resurrection by this sight yet he had thence Divine Faith of all the rest of his Doctrines and especially of his Deity whereunto he Attributed the Power of his resurrection 30. The reason why Saint John writ no more on purpose to confirm this Doctrine of the Resurrection was because he thought the other Evangelists had been large enough in that point and because this was so pregnant a Proof as it alone was sufficient so what he adds in his last Chapter is rather to shew the effect thereof by the multitude that were converted by it then for any other reason 31. Here the Evangelist tells his Reason why he writ this viz. to render Christ received and believed to be the Messias that was promised and so God as well as man and when he says we shall have life by believing in his name he means in his Person in his merits in his Passion so that first we are to believe him to be our Saviour Secondly the Messias Thirdly God and the onely Son of his eternal Father And lastly that he will give to all that thus believe and do as he hath commanded life everlasting eternal happiness The Application 1. THe whole designe of this Gospel being onely to prove the Resurrection and by the reality thereof the Truth of Jesus Christ his being God as well as Man we have hence to gather that the exercise of our Faith is here chiefly required and that so often as we reade this Gospel each one cry out with the convinc't Apostle my Lord my God confirm in me that happiest Act of Faith which believes without the help of touch or eyes that thou art my Leige Lord as thou art Man and hast all Power given thee both in Heaven and Earth That thou art my God who hast created me out of nothing and redeemed me from worse then nothing my grievous sinful state to make me more then all things under Heaven a saved soul 2. Yet lest we should pay the duty of such a Faith without our reason leading thereunto see here apparent Proofs of the same real Body risen which was dead and buried while the wounds are just the same that were received on the Cross see that this humane Person is withall Divine whilest he gives power to pardon sins and to retain them if occasion be see how he proves what the Epistle taught that by our Faith we overcame the world when himself brings to his believers the Fruit and End of Victory a happy Peace and gives it his Apostles as a Testimony that it is the same Gods gift now rising from the dead who brought it with him hither at his Birth onely the Angels then delivered it and now we have it from his mouth Divine who well may give it us now he hath vanquish't all our Enemies the World the Flesh the Devil Sin and Death and gives this Peace both as Recompence and Fruit of Faith 3. O happy Faith that brings forth such a Peace as sets us right to God our neighbors and our selves for if with any of the Three we be at odds we can have peace with neither of the other O happy Faith again that works in us by Charity and brings forth all the twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost with all the other Vertues that accomplish Christianity and integrate the Paschal Feast in us which now we Celebrate And consequently pray as above with holy Church that we may keep these Vertues in our Lives and Manners On the second Sunday after Easter The Antiphon Joh. 10. v. 11. I Am a good Shepherd who do feed my sheep and for my sheep yield my life Alleluja Vers Tarry with us O Lord Alleluja Resp For night draweth on Alleluja The Prayer O God who by the humble abasement of thine own Son hast raised up the prostrate world grant we beseech thee unto thy Faithful people everlasting Joy that they whom thou hast taken out of the danger of Eternal Death may enjoy perpetual Felicity The Illustration AS we finde in this Prayer the streame of the resurrection run strongly down the Channell of the Church her service thus humbly praying so we are minded that the Paschall Feast which we must retaine in our manners and lives is here commemorated in one of the chiefe accomplishments thereof the death of Christ since it was by his abasement unto death that we are raised up to life and are imboldened to begge our joy may be perpetuall who by his temporall resurrection are taken out of the danger of eternall death to the end we may not onely joy therein for ever but even injoy perpetuall felicity thereby But stay beloved why doe we now eclipse the glory of this Festivall by mixing with it the memory of our Blessed Lords inglorious death because the Holy Ghost will have it so first to shew us that it was an abasement for the Son of God to remaine one minute out of the Kingdome of his eternall Father though he were never so much triumphant over death upon death as also to indeer us the more unto Almighty God who was content to give us glory by the infamy of his Sacred Sonne but was not satisfied to give us being out of the nothing we were before he shewed his omnipotency by creating us unless he had made his own Son by death as it were not to be that so he might give us a second being in grace better then our first in nature and unless our Saviours temporall death might give us life eternall free from all danger and injoying perpetuall felicity yes yes the little Prayer above imports all this and infinitely more then all we can imagine who are not able to reach the depth of sence that lies under the dictates of the holy Ghost and such we know are holy Churches Prayers nor is there want of admirable sweet connexion between this Prayer and the Epistle and Gospel of the day for what doth all the former say but that our Saviours abasement was our
happened the Apostles should not say he had cheated them by his vocation or calling them to be his Disciples and had not told them what would follow so some wil have these things now report to our Saviours prediction of his Disciples persecution but indeed they refer to what followes as is cleer by his saying he told them not those things at first whereas he had long before told them of their persecutions as we read Matth. 10.17 Luc. 12. v. 12. But now he meanes these things that follow namely his leaving them and his resolving to send them in his roome the Holy Ghost which he did not so particularly tell them of as now he doth being he is to part with them and so had need leave them the comfort of another comforter to come to them in his place for at first meaning as long as himself was with them they had comfort enough but now that he goes he tels them these things which shall be comforts to them though persecutions when he is gone and the following verses will cleer it to be thus meant of these things c. though this may also be understood partly of their persecutions and partly of their comforts because he now at parting added some particulars of their troubles which before his presence took from them as namely their being cast out of the Synagogue and that their persecutors should thinke they did God good service by ill offices to them for these while Christ was with them fell all upon him so it was needless then to tell them of it Thus others not unaptly upon these things And now J goe to him that sent me by now is understood shortly I shall goe for these words were spoken a little before Christs passion so he speakes as if that were over when he sayes now that I have suffered for you I goe by the way of that death of my resurrection and ascension to him that sent me to my heavenly Father and none of you are inquisitive or curiously diligent enough to aske me questions about the place I goe to about heaven and eternal glory which is the end of all mine and your pains see here our Saviour seemes to chide them that they doe not interrogate him something more particularly about the Court of heaven and the endless joyes thereof since he knew this would be of huge concerne unto them and give them exceeding comfort in their present afflictions For Saint Thomas had in the fourteenth Chapter v. 5. Glanced at some such questions but not it seemes enough so here Christ tels them they do not ask him meaning they ask him not zealously enough as who should say wee must not huddle over good things to halfes for that is as not done towards God and our salvation which is not done enough to purchase them unto us 6. But instead of asking me what may comfort you yet to hear you are sad for what you have already heard that I am to leave you 7. Be sad as you will I tell you the truth it is fit I goe nay it is fit for you as well as for me thus some but others better who say be not sad since it is truth that my going which you make the cause of your sorrow is and shall be the greatest cause of your comfort for unless J goe the comforter the Holy Ghost who is Consolator optimus the best comforter shall not come unto you whereas if I goe I will send him you and the very truth was the Apostles were so carryed away with an affection to the humanity of Christ that though they did after his resurrection beleeve and love his Deity yet it was with too much dotage upon his humanity an excellent lesson therefore was his abstracting the presence of his own person from them that their loves might be righter set namely upon his Sacred Spirit rather then upon his blessed body and by this let fondlings leave to doate too much upon the persons of their Ghostly Fathers lest they love them better then they should rather let them bear a mind of indifferency to the person of the Priest and love him more for his spirituall power then for his humane person since we see Christ weaned the Apostles from their humane affections to his outward person Againe it was expedient for them that he went to send them the Holy Ghost that so they might see the third person of the blessed Trinity was perfect God though not God and man as Christ was and this proofe was made by his own comforting them even more then Christ had done because without mixture of creature Lastly the reall distinction of the three divine persons was by this mission proved for mission in God imports as much as generation and procession so the Sons mission as to us was the notion of his generation by his heavenly Father and the mission of the Holy Ghost was to us the notion of his procession from them both namely from the Father and from the Sonne all which as it was expedient indeed necessary for us to know so for these reasons was it necessary for Christ to go necessary I mean towards the accomplisht comfort of the Apostles 8. By the world in this place is understood properly the Jewes and unconverted Gentiles for these shall be particularly accused by the Holy Ghost telling them while they refuse to become Christians and true beleevers they shall have the guilt of conscience here to gnaw them in peeces as it were and to render them divide from themselves while their reason shall be convinced by the works of the holy Ghost in good men that they ought to beleeve as the right beleevers doe and teach though their obstinate will resists this reason and makes them either pertinacious in Judaisme or peremptory in heresie and choice of their religions rather according to their own dictamens then to the Doctrine of the Church assisted in the delivery of truth by the Holy Ghost so far that hell Gates shall never prevaile against it Matt. c. 16. v. 18. 9. See here how Judaisme Infidelity or Heresie are called sinne by speciall title to that ougly name as who should say these are the sinnes of sinnes these are the sinnes which the Holy Ghost shall fitst and chiefely lay to the charge of all consciences into which he comes while the Text saith he shall argue them of sinne for nor beleeving aright in Jesus Christ which shall be exteriourly by the Apostles and their successors Preachings and Miracles interiourly by the Sanctity of life in good Christians so evidently proved as it shall be without all excuse laid to them for a huge sin not to beleeve all that the Church teacheth of our Blessed Saviour not to beleeve indeed what Saint Peter said as we read Actor 4. v. 12. There is no other name under heaven given unto men in which wee ought to be saved but that of Jesus Christ no sinne therefore like that of infidelity as
that interim between our Saviour Ascending and the coming of the Holy Ghost namely a strong Hope in the coming of that Holy spirit and in all the promises made by our Saviour of the Heavenly fruits he should bring with him when he comes Now since Regation weeke imports as much as Aske and Have and since we never Aske but what we Hope to obtaine therefore it was necessary to fasten this day the first linke of Hope unto the last linke of our Faith that which tels us how to perfect our beliefe in good and saving workes as above 2. The following verse of this Epistle tels us the first work of our Faith is Religion and lest the Lay men should thinke themselves Masters in point of Religion see how presently Saint James prevents that mischiefe by bridling up their tongues as who should say Religion ought to be such as Faith begets and Faith being a thing the Lay-men must heare and learne not teach consequently in point of Religion Lay people must be silent hearers and no Preachers least Heresie seducing their hearts their Religion prove vaine for want of Rectitude according to the Rule of Faith so that it is not every believer who can lay claime to the True Relâ—gion but such onely as believing Right make profession of the true and right Religion which is onely that of the Catholick Church 3. The last verse of this Epistle gives us two summary markes of that which is the true Religion and consequently of those that are the right believers Such as are charitable to their Neighbor and unspotted in their own lives no way contaminated with the ordure of this sinful world not that sinne makes men therefore of a false religion but that Sainctity declares they are of the true one O happy Christianity that is accomplished in Sanctity See then how the Prayer above keepes a due regard to all these three divisions of Saint James his Epistle To Hope linck't unto operative Faith believing all the good wee pray for comes from God To Religion regulated by Faith when we begge we may not thinke erroneously much lesse profess an error but that we may have God our Sanctifying Governor in our Faith and Religion who was our caller thereunto by his Holy Inspiration The Gospel John 16. v. 23 c. 23 And in that day me shall you not aske any thing Amen Amen J say to you if you aske the Father any thing in my name he will give it you 24 Vntill now you have not asked any thing in my name Aske and you shall receive that your joy may be full 25 These things in Proverbs I have spoken to you the houre cometh when in Proverbs J will no more speake to you but plainely of the Father I wil shew you 26 In that day you shall aske in my name and I say not to you that I will aske the Father for you 27 For the Father himselfe loveth you because you have loved me and have beleeved that I came forth from God 28 I came forth from the Father and came into the world againe I leave the world and goe to the Father 29 His Disciples say to him behold now thou speakest plainly and sayest no Proverb 30 Now we know that thou knowest all things and thou needest not that any man aske thee in this wee beleeve that thou camest forth from God The Explication 23. WHat that day is may be doubted for some understand it to be the day of resurrection or of Pentecost others the day of glory those that are of the former sense take asking here for interrogating by way of doubt as those did that asked him Lord whither goest thou Io. c. 13. v. 35. or of Prayer to him as when hee said to them whatever you aske my Father in my name he will give it you but those of the latter opinion concerning the day say it shal then be needless to ask any thing when they abound in glory and in this sense Saint Augustine understands these words But in the words following it is cleere the Apostle meanes Prayer by asking and brings in Christ comforting his Apostles against the horror of his departure by telling them it shal be no loss to them that he leaves them Since whatsoever they shall aske his Father in his name shal be given unto them and elsewhere he sayes whatsoever you aske praying beleeve you shal receive it to shew it is not his meaning they shal be satisfied to all curious interrogations but to all supplicatory Prayers Saint Augustine wil have this reduplicative Amen to import as much as an oath in our Saviour as if he had not onely promised but sworne they should have whatsoever they asked his Father in his name but every word in this verse is worthy of a speciall remarke so that first his promise of this was to the Apostles persons to whom he then spake as who should say be ye of good comfort for I esteeme so deerly of you above all others that whatsoever you aske shal be given you though with this primary promise to them may stand a Secondary promise to all good Christians that they also asking so shall obtain as much Againe the word any thing or whatsoever imports first that it must be honourable for God saving to them and that it must be something for they must not aske nothing in his name who is all things and whatsoever is not honourable to God nor conducing to their salvation is as nothing in Gods sight who regards not any thing else then our asking or praying must be first humbly next reverently then confidently besides ardently and last of all constantly that is with perseverance And he bids this be done to his Father to shew us the hope we may have to speed asking his Father in his name who can deny his beloved Sonne nothing at all and so for his if not for our sake he will grant us all we aske in his Sonnes name And here indeed needs most explanation what is meant by asking the Father in Christs name first the power of his sole name in his Fathers eares as who should say what need you my person longer with you I leave you my name to supply my presence take therefore this name into your mouthes use it reverently upon all good accasions to my Father it shall availe you as much as if I were with you to intercede for you next by his name we may understand his merits his death his passion as if putting them before his Fathers eyes we need not the comfort of his presence in our own sight or wee may understand by his name he meanes his mediatorship for as he is God he joyntly gives with his Father and the Holy Ghost all that we can receive but as he is our Mediator so he joyntly askes with us whilest we aske the Father in the name of his mediating Sonne we also may be said to ask in his name while we demand any
thing in our own names that is as good Christians for that name we take of Christ nor doe we aske otherwise then in his name if we goe to our Prayers and tell the heavenly Father we come as from his Sacred Sonne to prefer such a request as he bid us make much like the Embassage that is made by the Embassadors person but understood to be the business of the King that sends him so by this way of asking we can desire nothing but what Christ himselfe doth wish we had and consequently we aske it very properly in his name it being answerable to his will But the most genuine of all these is the second way by that of Christ his merits for what we aske thus is not given to us onely by way of grace but it is granted by way of Justice since it was merited unto us by Christ dying for us and wishing it unto us and for this reason we end all our Prayers with the close through our Lord Iesus Christ Amen The last remark we are to make is upon those words he shall grant unto you that is to say what e're we ask as above shall be granted how comes it then to pass we ask so often and so many things and goe without them for all this asking the reason is that affirmative promises are commonly conditionall so if we aske without performing the conditions required on our part we cannot wonder that we faile and the conditions requisite to Prayer on our part must be those five above enumerated humility reverence confidence fervour and perseverance whereunto if we adde resignation we doe but secure our Petition the more by making Gods will ours when ours is his where these are exactly performed and the name of Christ rightly used there we cannot feare to faile while it is said he shall give you what ere you thus ask imports as well he shall give it a third person for whom you ask it as if you did ask it for your selfe and indeed if the defect be not on the third persons part we shall sooner obtaine what we aske for others then what we aske for our selves because it is a greater charity to pray for others and especially for our enemies then for our selves since they may want our help but we can never lose our owne reward by helping them 24. Because hitherto you have relyed wholly upon me and have not asked any thing of my Father in my name and indeed having asked of me â—ather as of man then of God you have in a manner asked nothing because you asked not of him who was all things but when I am gone ask as above and you shall receive what ere you so do ask and ask that your joy may be compleat As who should say you will begin to be glad when I shall be risen but if you ask my Father any thing in my name after I am gone then you shall receive all things that you want and have your joys compleated here by Grace and in Heaven by Glory both which I have purchased for you 25. This Verse shews what he spake now was before his Passion and so it was Proverbial Parabolical or Enigmatical unto them but the time would come after his resurrection when he for fourty days together would speak plainly what now they heard of but obscurely and that when he was Ascended the Holy Ghost should come and by a purer language by the tongues of fire should speak all Love all Light all Clarity all Truth unto them and then they should be capable of much more then now they are yet there want not who think Christ by this place alludes to his displaying of his Fathers Glory in the kingdom of Heaven where they shall see all things cleerly as they are even God himself and shall therefore become like God because they shall see him face to face as he is 26. The day he means here is when he shall be gone from them and ascended up to Heaven and then saith he I do not tell you that I will pray to my Father in your behalf first because the holy Ghost shall come and by his Inspirations and holy Grace you shall make your own petitions so effectually in my name that I shall need no more to intercede for you or because I shall not need ask as I did when I was upon the Earth by way of suffering for you but by way of exhibition of what I have suffered Thus one of the Fathers will have it that Christ did onely pray for us on Earth and that now in Heaven he prays no more but onely shews his sacred Wounds to his heavenly Father though Cornelius a Lapide here concludes the better opinion is that really and truly he doth there pray for us as was explicated Rom. 8. v. 34. by the said Cornelius but after another manner then here he did where he both prayed and suffered too and there he praies without suffering So the true Sence of this place is that he doth not tell them he will pray for them though he means to do it and actually doth it too as often as desired but that if he did not pray they should not need his prayer both because he had sufficiently purchased to them the love of his heavenly Father for his voluntary vouchsafing towards them and because the holy Gbost was to finish the remainder of our salvation by his Supplies and Magazines of Holy Graces and in truth what Christ once obtained for us by his Passion we losing the benefit of it by our sin are to attribute the recovery thereof to the special act of the holy Ghost not coming once onely down as to the Apostles to confirm them in grace but millions of times descending upon us by the influence of his holy Gifts and so as often saving us by the recovery of grace as we make our selves guilty of damnation by relapse of sinne 27 See how this Verse in terms tells them his Father needs not now be prayed unto by him for them since he hath already purchased unto them abundantly his Fathers love and so made him soft to all they can desire by their own prayer and the reason why he so loves them is because they loved Jesus Christ and believed he was his heavenly Fathers Son and come out from him to them but if any ask why God loving us as here it is said he doth for his Sons sake doth not give us all we want without our asking but requires our humble and frequent Prayer The Reasons are many first because it is suitable to the Majesty of God that all his Creatures do adore him and Prayer is the best kinde of adoration next because it acknowledgeth our totall and necessary dependance on him and our Indigence and his Liberality Thirdly the Dignity of the things we ask requires on our parts a frequent expression of our esteem thereof namely Grace and Glory not so cheap as to be given gratis
Fishermen knowing and learned Doctours Teachers in fine to all the World convincers and confounders of all humane Learning that stood in opposition to their doctrine Divine and all this in an instant without learning any other Lesson then to dilate to open the affections of their Hearts unto the Holy Ghost where by the Illustration of his holy Grace he reads unto them in a moment all Divinity by onely teaching them the Art of Divine Love by onely giving them indeed the grace to love God only and what is lovely in the eyes of his heavenly Majesty Stay beloved if this be all why may not we hope once a year at least to learn as good a lesson 'T is but renewing every year as on this blessed Day the solemn vowes we made in Holy Baptisme 't is but reiterating now those good purposes we make some times of the amendment of our lives 't is but dilating and opening our hearts to this holy Spirit and begging of him that he will there work in us what we cannot work our selves the new creation of a new Will in us by our renunciation of the old and this by the Illustration of his holy Grace which alone is able to light and lead us up to heaven which alone is able to teach us all Truth and afford us all the comfort that our Hearts can wish The Holy Church would otherwise surely pray to day for some thing else which yet she doth not in the Prayer above The Gospel JOHN 14. v. 23 c. 23 Jesus answered and said unto them If any love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make abode with him 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my words And the word which you heard is not mine but his that sent me the Fathers 25 These things have I spoken to you abiding with you 26 But the Paraclete the holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and suggest unto you all things whatsoever I shall say unto you 27 Peace I leave to you my peace I give to you not as the world giveth do I give to you Let not your heart be troubled nor fear 28 You have heard that I said to you I go and I come to you If you loved me you would be glad verily that I go to the Father because the Father is greater then I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to passe that when it shall come to passe you may believe 30 Now I will not speak many things to you For the Prince of this world cometh and in me he hath not any thing 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father hath given me commandement so do I. Arise let us go hence The Explication 23. THis answer of our Saviour was to the interrogatory of the Apostle Judas Thaddaeus the brother to St. James the lesser demanding ver 22. why Christ was pleased to manifest himself to the Apostles onely and not to the whole world because he said to them The world doth not see me but ye see me which though spoken in the present tense was meant in the future alluding to what the Apostles did after see in him namely his Passion Death Resurrection and Ascension And the reason why he did manifest himself to them and not to the world was as St. Austin observes because they did love him but the world did not so and this I premise to shew that what followes here alludes to this as to the effects which the love of God procures in those that do truly love him as this Gospel begins to day with an effect of love keeping Gods commandements which taken as here it lyes in this Gospel is rather an absolute assertion then a relative answer to a question and yet in truth it was the answer that Christ gave to the question of St. Jude as above in the immediate verse before whereunto Jesus answers saying If any love me he will keep my word as who should say as I loving my Father keep his command of coming into this world to manifest his glory to you that love him and by you to all the world though not immediately to them all as I mean to do to you So do not think that after my Resurrection when the Holy Ghost shall come down and inflame the hearts of many Infidels and Gentiles with the love of God that then I shall onely manifest my self to you alone that are my Apostles and now are onely those that love me no no then I shall be so manifested to others that they will love me as you do and this shall be the testimony that I give you thereof that their love shall be such as by vertue thereof they will keep my Commands my words will be to them dear as now they are to you and as you receiving the holy Ghost receive with him both my Self and my Father for we three are all one inseparable Substance or Essence however distinct and several Persons just so shall the whole Blessed and undivided Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost enter into the hearts of all that love me and keep my Commandments or my word and consequently to them as well as to you shall I be then manifested And in this sense you see this verse is an exact answer to the question of S. Jude which otherwise seems a meer disparate or an incongruous reply to that interrogatory And from hence we may perceive how hard it is to understand the true sense of almost any part of holy Writ unlesse we see clearly the connexion it hath to precedent or consequent parts thereof so what S. Jude meant of his personal or visible manifestation to these few onely that were eye-witnesses of his Actions he means of his spiritual or invisible beeing made known to all the world by his Faith and doctrine received and embraced amongst them through the preaching of the Apostles and their Successours But we must note that coming or going of God who is at all times in all places by reason of his immensity is not to be understood as if he did come or go from one place to another but he therefore is said to come or go because he operates or operates not at all times or in all places alike for his operation is his coming and so every new inspiration of grace we have is as if God made a new visite unto us within the temple of our soules where he delights to be and though he be never separated from us locally since he fills all place yet he is said to come a new into our hearts every time we produce or exercise a new act of love unto him and if we continue one Act all our lives then he doth all that time operate within us and so consequently is said not only to come unto us but even to live with us to
person 28. You have heard I say to you I go when I dye and come when I rise again and when I am so come back to take away your grief for my departure by death if then you did love me you would rejoyce at my leaving you again because I then am to go not to dye any more but to live eternally with my Father in glory and to share out part of that glory to you also But he gives another and a deeper reason why they should if they did love him rejoyce at his going to his Father namely because his Father is greater then he can protect him and his friends from all those persecutions which the Jews raised against him and them not but that he could have protected them himself from these but this he sayes as accommodating his speech to them to make it an argument which they themselves should yeeld unto as convincing to those that did love him And though from these very words the Arrian heresie took fastest root denying the Deity of Christ because he said his Father is greater then he yet without all reason for no such thing followes since his meaning was in this place that his Father as God was greater then he as man for so he was even lesse then Angels being it was onely as man that he went to his Father who as God was never from him nor could be And so Christ as God was greater then himself as man much more then was his Father greater then he in that true sense he spake this in though according to humane sense and reason the Father as God is also greater then the Son as God because he is the origin of the Son or his beginning how ever the Son be equall to him in essence and power so it is a majority in our understanding at least though not in the thing understood But the Arrian heresie was grounded on a mistake of the Analogy between divine and humane generation for though amongst men the Father is many wayes better and greater then the Son as for example because he is older then the Son and was in beeing before him again because he a tall Father begetteth at first a little son besides his Son is a thing numerically nay substantially distinct from the father lastly because the Father had liberty and could have chosen whether or no he would have begotten a Son yet in God all is quite otherwise for there is no priority nor posteriority no majority nor minority no numerical nor substantial difference in Deity between the Father and the Son though there be a numerical difference in their personalities neither is there any liberty but an absolute necessity of the Sons generation and of his being coaeval coequal and abâ—olutely one and the same essential numerical and necessary God with his eternal Father 29. The belief he here ayms to gain is that of his Deity and of his voluntary not coacted or inforced death for the sins of the people so that which he foretold here was his Death his Resurrection his Ascension and his sending the holy Ghost unto them after he was ascended that when they see all things happen as he had told them they might undoubtedly believe he was the Messias the God-man that came to redeem and save the world 30. So after he had thus prepared them for all events he told them he would not say much more unto them because the devil whom he calls the prince of this world cometh was at hand in his ministers the Jews to persecute him to death and he therefore calls him prince of the world because by sin the world inslaves it self unto him he is come to take me and yet he hath no power in me because I have no sin to give him the least right over me but I freely give my self up to his tyranny over me that I may redeem the world from his usurpation and Tyranny over them nay the very injustice he doth to me shall confiscate all the right he hath over others 31. That is to shew the world that I love my Father and do as he commanded me therefore I dye and give my self into the hands of my enemies Hence it is asked how it can be true which is said of him by Isaias 53. he was offered for sin because himself was so pleased since it was not by his choice but by his Fathers command that he did suffer insomuch that if he had not suffered he had sinned in an act of disobedience and though pure man may choose to do or not to do as he is bid and so truly doth either yet Christ who was God as well as man could not choose and so seems inforced for if man in him had sinned by reason his two Natures made but one Person and actions are of persons not of natures then God had sinned as well as man because God and man were in Christ but one person But we must conceive in one person of Christ there were two states or conditions the one of a viatour or passenger the other of a comprehensour of one impatriated or in glory that is to say the one of a traveller of a man banished from home or in his journey homewards the other of one possessed of his own restored from banishment arrived at his journies end and beeing at his rest So Christ as a viatour or traveller had liberty of choise to suffer or not to suffer though as he was by his hypostatical union to the word and by his Beatifical Vision consequent to that union rendring him in glory in the state of those who are finally blessed he had no choyce but did all things as necessarily as the Blessed do in heaven who cannot choose to do otherwise then love and obey God in all things that they do and yet even so they may be said to love God freely too because they are understanding creatures and free will is radicated in the understanding for nothing that hath not reason hath will and the root of willing is the understanding therefore though the will be necessitated upon supposition that the soul is at home or in glory and cannot choose but love God as long as she sees him yet that love is radically free because it was a free act of the soul departing from the state of a viatour and so retains the nature of freedome as being rather a continued then a new act of free-will And in this sense Christ even as in his state of blisse might be said here freely to suffer because as he was at the same time a viatour he did suffer freely and uncoacted for the necessary continuation is rather a reward of the former act then any new act at all besides this necessity is rather extrinsecal to the act as being radicated in the immutability of the object and of the glory representing to the sight that object then intrinsecal thereunto otherwise then as continuation of an act is intrinsecal unto it self
eternall glory and by our cooperating with him give us the rewards of his own operations in us whom he makes labour in his vineyard here a while that he may set us in eternall rest at his own heavenly table where though he be pleased to delight in us yet we shall be the onely gainers by enjoying him for he gets nothing but to be content that we get all by being but willing to present our selves to him as the humane subjects wherein he is pleas'd to produce the divine work of our salvations while he is satisfi'd to call us his fruit that he may be our food for all eternity Thus we are taught in the prayer above and may saying it with the same spirit that made it saint our selves as is desir'd we should by the holy Ghost who gave us this sainting prayer for that holy purpose FINIS On VVhitsunday The first Prayer O God who on this day hast taught the hearts of the Faithful by the Illumination of the holy Ghost grant unto us in the same spirit to relish those things that are right and ever to rejoyce in his Consolation The Secret SAyntifie we beseech thee O Lord our offered gifts and mundifie our hearts by the Illustration of the Holy Ghost The post-Communion LEt the infusion of the Holy Ghost O Lord purifie our hearts and fertilize them by the inward aspersion of his heavenly dew On Trinity Sunday The first Prayer ALmighty everlasting God who hast granted to thy servants in confession of the true Faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of Majestie to adore unity we beseech thee heartily that in the firmnesse of the same Faith we may ever be defended from all adversity The Secret SAyntifie we beseech thee our Lord God by the invocation of thy holy name the Hoste of this oblation and render us thereby unto thy self an eternal present The post-Communion GRant O Lord God that the receiving of this Sacrament and the confession of the sempiternal Holy Trinity and of the undivided unity thereof may avail us to the health both of our body and soul On the first Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God the strength of those that trust in thee be mercifully present to our prayers and because without thee mortal infirmity is of no ability grant the assistance of thy grace that in doing what thou dost command we may please thee both in word and will The Secret VOuchsafe appeased we pray thee to accept of these our offerings dedicated to thee O Lord and grant that unto us they may afford perpetual help The post-Communion BEing filled with so great gifts grant O Lord we beseech thee that while we receive these wholsome boones we may never cease from praising thee On Sunday within the Octaves of Corpus Christi being the second after Pentecost The first Prayer MAke us O Lord equally to have both a continual fear and love of thy holy name because thou dost never leave them destitute of thy government whom thou doest instruct in the solidity of thy Love The Secret MAy this oblation sacred to thy name purifie us O Lord we beseech thee and from day to day carry us to such actions as conduce unto our heavenly life The post-Communion NOw that we have received thy sacred gifts we beseech thee O Lord that together with frequenting this mysterie the effect of our salvation may increase On the third Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God who art the Protectour of those that hope in thee without whom nothing is valid nothing is holy multiply we beseech thee over us thy mercy that thou being our ruler thou our guide we may so passe by the temporal goods of this world as not to loose the eternal of the next The Secret LOok we beseech thee O Lord upon the offerings of thy suppliant Church and grant that what we are to receive may by perpetual sanctification prove unto the health of thy believing people The post-Communion MAy thy holy things O Lord received quicken us and prepare us being expiated for thy everlasting mercy On the fourth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee that by thy order our course in this world may be peaceably directed and that thy Church may enjoy a quiet devotion The Secret BE pacified O Lord we beseech thee having received our oblations and propitiously compell unto thee our even rebellious wills The post-Communion MAy the received mysteries O Lord purifie us and by their bounty defend us On the fifth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God who hast prepared invisible good things for those that love thee infuse into our hearts the desire of thy love that loving thee in all things and above them all we may attain unto thy promises which surpasse even all our desires The Secret BE O Lord propitious upon our supplications and take unto thee benignely these offerings of thy servants of both sexes that what every one hath presented in honour of thy name may profit all of us to our salvation The post-Communion WHom thou O Lord hast filled with thy heavenly gifts grant we beseech thee that we may be cleansed from our hidden sinnes and delivered from the snares of our enemies On the sixth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God of powers to whom all belongs that is best ingraft in our breasts the love of thy holy name and grant in us the increase of Religion that thou mayest nourish those things which are good and being so nourished maintain them by the practise of pietie The Secret TAke unto thee O Lord benignely these oblations of thy people and be propitious upon our supplications and that no ones desires be frustrate no ones request in vain grant we beseech thee that what we ask faithfully we may obtain efficaciously The post-Communion WE are O Lord full with thy gifts we beseech thee grant that we may be cleansed by their effect and defended by their help On the seventh Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God whose providence is so disposed as it never can be frustrated remove we humbly beseech thee all things that are hurtfull and grant whatsoever may be beneficiall unto us The Secret O God who hast concluded the diversity of the legall hosts under the perfection of one sacrifice receive the same from thy devout people and sanctifie it as thou diddest the offerings of Abel that what every one tenders thee in honour of thy Majesty may avail to the health of us all The post-Communion MAy thy medicinall operation clemently free us from our perversities and bring us to those things that are right On the eighth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee propitiously the spirit of thinking and doing what is right that as we cannot be without thee so we may live unto thee The Secret REceive O Lord we beseech thee what of thy
be reall and not verball onely to be operative not idle or lazy for here the tongue is opposed to truth as dissimulation to sincerity and the word to the work as empty air to a purse full of money or as froth is to beer or wine To conclude hence we are taught further that we must not onely be effectually charitable but also we are bound to be affectionately so for it little avails to give alms unlesse we also love the poor whom we relieve and therefore love them because we relieve Christ in them and unlesse we give thus we sell our selves for popular applause by giving away our substance to purchase the empty air the shadows of vain commends and so lose a divine blessing as to the children of God to get a morall one as to be esteemed humane fathers of the world The Application 1. HItherto it hath appeared how exactly holy Church recommends unto us the practise of charity and truely this dayes Epistle confirms us in the same practise while it runnes wholly upon the subject of love so high that it seems to exceed even the last sundayes act of charity commanding then to love our enemies because now it exhorts us to do more then love them when v. 16. it invites to die for them also if need be which yet a true love of enemies involves as our Saviour did for us to shew his love unto us 2. And least we should pretend to love and not do it really see how the master of this Art S. John Evangelist in the last verse of this Epistle bids us take heed we do not feign the part we ought to act in earnest for he tells us 't is not enough to say we love unlesse we do it too no he obligeth us to love in deed to love in truth lest we seem to mock Almighty God by giving out we mean to act the best part of his sacred sonne his loving unto death those he pretended once to love according to that of the Evangelist Christ when he loved his people he loved them to his end that is he died for love of them 3. Hence we may safely say those are unworthy of the gift of love who have not in their hearts and eyes the holy fear of God as truely those can never have who dare to mock his sacred sonne by their dissembling love that is not reall No Christians no we are not yet in heaven where we cannot erre here we must carry fear before our eyes lest losing it we lose our labours too for without this holy fear we cannot work out our salvation nor can we hope to please his heavenly majesty unlesse we fear his power who is as well our Governour as our God and as we must love his Deity so we must fear his Government Whence it is holy Church most properly prayes to day as above The Gospel Luke 14. v. 16. c. 16. But he said to him A certain man made a great supper and called many 17. And he sent his servant at the houre of supper to say to the invited That they should come because now all things are ready 18. And they began all at once to make excuse The first said to him I have bought a farm and I must needâ— go forth and see it I pray thee hold me excused 19. And another said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee hold me excused 20. And another said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come 21. And the servant returning told these things unto his Lord. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant Go forth quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and the poor and feeble and blind and lame bring in hither 22. And the servant said Lord it is done as thou didst command and yet there is place 23. And the Lord said to the servant Go forth into the wayes and hedges and compell them to enter that my house may be filled 24. But I say to you that none of those men that were called shall taste of my supper The Explication 16. THis parable is almost the same that was mentioned Mat. 22.2 only there in a different way time and place as under the name of a dinner and here it is brought in under the name of a supper And there are divers senses made upon this supper Some call it a parable of the Incarnation life and death of Christ and thus S. Matthew seems to take it calling it a dinner as to the Church militant and a supper to the Church triumphant Others apply this parable unto the Blessed Sacrament and those make God the Father master of this feast his sacred Sonne the feast it self made of his blessed body and bloud and in favour of this opinion the holy Church at this time reads this Gospel as alluding to the flowing feast of Corpus Christi But yet for all that the literall sense of this Gospel alludes to the last supper of heavenly glory for that is the true supper which ends the laborious day time and begins eternall rest that never shall have end so though many may be cast out of doors after the dinner of the Church militant yet none can be cast out after they once enter to this triumphant supper And for that cause the most genuine sense of this place alludes as S. Gregory saith hom 36. to the society of eternall sweetnesse and glory Where note that great signifies here all the degrees of greatnesse such a supper as none could be greater either for the rarity of the dainties and banquets thereof or for the splendour and duration of it whereof S. Paul 1. Cor. 2. v. 9. sayes Eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard neither hath it ascended into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him And to this supper he called many by many are here understood no lesse then even all the Jews who were the true Church and people of God and were called by the Patriarchs and Prophets by John the Baptist by Christ himself while he lived amongst them 17. But by his servants whom he sent are properly meant the Apostles left by him to convert these Jews as well as other nations And by the bower of supper here mentioned is understood the resurrection of our Saviour for then and not till then were all things ready for this great supper of glory because then he brought with him from his grave a multitude of blessed souls who therefore were in Paradise as he promised the thief to be that very day he died because they were in his impassible presence that is to say when he was pleased to allow his body the benefit of all the gifts due to glorious bodies so though they were not in the finall place of eternall rest untill they did ascend with him to heaven yet they were set at the table of glory with him and were carried