the eternal Word is incarnated in us and we become as much his Mothers in the Spirit as the Blessed Virgin was in the Flesh. And herein was it that the Mother of God was in the best and most advantageous sense Blessed as one in whom the Word was twice Incarnated her Lord and his Gospel much more Blessed in sucking the sincere Milk of the Word from her Sons Paps those golden ones Revel 1. 13. than in affording him her own 'T was her glory and her chiefest happiness that she kept all her Sons sayings and pondered them in her heart an Eulogy given her no less than twice in one Chapter of St. Luke ch 2. v. 19 51. This sacred Ark had the two Tables of the Law and the better Manna laid up in it which she continually treasur'd up in her heart feeding upon it in her private thoughts and digesting it in her practice being as well a Daughter as a Mother of God and her Soul more fruitfull than her Womb. So that this Mary too chose the better part It was I say her Choice this whereas to be the Mother of God but her Privilege In this latter capacity she only furnisht her Son with a humane Nature but in the former she procur'd her self a participation of his divine one There Christ was made her Son and here her Saviour and 't is upon the account of her Faith Elizabeth blesseth her Luke 1. 45. and so does St. Augustine pronounce her more happy Percipiendo fidem Christi quà m concipiendo carnem Christi nay he plainly tells us that this latter Conception had done her no good at all without the former Nihil Mariae profuisset says he nisi feliciùs Christum corde quam corpore gestâsset To bear Christ in her Womb was little to the having the Holy Ghost in her Soul and to conceive of him little to the bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit Faith Humility Patience Love and the like Graces whereof she was a sacred Repository like the Ark overlaid and in-laid with Gold adorn'd with outward Privileges and inward Graces nay like that King's daughter Psal. 45. 14. more glorious within than without This Spouse of God shining out radiis Mariti cloath'd with that Woman Revel 12. 1. with the Son of Righteousness who deckt her with his light as with a garment And how could it be otherwise How was it possible that He on whom the Spirit rested and abode should not impart of it to her in whom he so long dwelt and in greater measures than to any mortal He who himself received not the Spirit by measure If in him were hid all the Treasures of Wisedom and Knowledge surely the Blessed Virgin must needs have been highly enricht by them and while he sanctify'd the Baptist in his Mother's womb did he not think we much more sanctifie that Womb wherein with himself the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily where the whole Blessed Trinity met the Father being with her the Son in her and the Holy Ghost over-shaddowing her Surely being so near the Fountain of Grace and Glory nay having it in her Soul those single Perfections which singly meet in others all concenter'd in this great Saint Among which give me leave to propose some of the more eminent ones to your imitation as 1. Her Faith in crediting the Message of the Angel 2. Her entire Resignation of her self to the Will of God Ecce Ancilla Domini 3. Her Modesty in being troubled at the presence of a Man and those Praises he bestow'd on her being it seems unacquainted with such guests or addresses a thing which now-a-days would perhaps be constru'd ill breeding 4. Her Prudence in examining a Message which at first blush seem'd to look like a Temptation casting in her mind what manner of Salutation that should be so jealous was she of her honour that she durst not trust the divine Messenger with so choice a Jewel till she saw it should be safe till he could find out a way to reconcile her being a Mother with her Purity otherwise to her even an Angel of light had been but an Angel of darkness This was not Unbelief in her as 't was in Zachary but Caution He indeed requir'd a Sign for that which was within the ordinary course of nature She none at all though in a business far above nature not in the least questioning the thing its self but desirous only to be inform'd of the manner of it since she knew not a man 5. Add we to this her Devotion in constantly visiting God's Temple where after our Lord's Ascension we find her assembled with the Apostles and other Saints of God Acts 1. 14. as in the frequent exercise of the Acts thereof Meditation and Prayer It being a general Tradition that when the Angel delivered her his message he found her on her knees and if we may credit St. Bernard but how warrantably I know not at that very instant begging earnestly for the Salvation of the World and the Revelation of the Messiah 6. Lastly To crown all her profound Humility that heavenly Ladder whereby God descended to her and she mounted up to him and that even in the midst of far higher Ecstasies and Revelations than the great Apostle was afraid of And yet no pretence of Merit no assuming to her self any portion of that glory which belonged unto God and she wholly ascribes to him in these words He that is Mighty hath magnified me and Holy is his Name Which clearly shews how inconsistent with nay how diametrically opposite to her Modesty and Humility those praises are which Popish flatterers so frequently bestow upon the Blessed Virgin and how impossible 't is to excuse their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as they are pleas'd to explain it not so high a kind of worship as belongs unto God and yet higher than what is due to any other Creature besides her self A strange middle sort of Adoration that has no ground or foot-step in Scripture and no better than flat Idolatry Prayer and Invocation are the Almighty's Prerogative This Incense must not smoak but on his Altar and the calves of the lips are a sacrifice which must be offered to none but to a God that heareth prayer Psal. 65. 2. and can alone grant our requests This he challenges as his peculiar right Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the time of trouble so will I hear thee and thou shalt praise me And to him the Saints of God have always address'd their Petitions David for one who Psal. 5. 2 3. professes that unto him he would direct his Prayer And therefore 't is observable that the Angel here salutes the Holy Virgin but does not pray to her and her self says that all generations shall call her Blessed not invocate her for Blessings as the Papists doe and not only so but in other respects too equal her to God as by freeing her from
all sin both original and actual whereas her self by calling Christ her Saviour professes her need of him so especially by making her a vast and inexhaustible Ocean of all perfection the property of him alone in whom all fulness dwells and of whose fulness we all the Virgin Mary not excepted have received and all this upon a plain mistake of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies not any infus'd qualities or inherent gifts but God's meer gratious acceptation of her And yet as great an affront as this is to the divine Majesty there is yet one thing more intollerable that these Men not content to allow the Virgin equal to her Son will needs give her a kind of Command and Authority over him as if now in Heaven he were to be subject to her as once on Earth and she were a Queen Regent to govern and comptroll him as it were in his Minority Witness those expressions Monstra te esse Matrem and Jussu Matris impera salvatori words which I dare not English and which their Rosaries and Litanies are stufft with Nor does their Practice bely their Expressions their Addresses being more to the Mother than to the Son and her Temples having almost swallow'd up his which are now become Shops of lying Miracles one of them especially that of Loretto all Wainscoted within with them and its self the greatest of all as having been carried if we will believe them from Bethlehem by Angels and by them plac'd where now it stands I shall not trouble you with a description of all their fopperies their superstitious bowings cringings and lighting of Candles to our Ladies Images their ridiculous dressing and undressing them their vows offerings and presents to these dumb Idols so like the Cakes offered up to the Queen of Heaven Jer. 7. and the like which if they do not out-doe at least they bid fair for Heathenish Idolatry if this be not to worship the Creature more than the Creator 't is at least to doe service to her who by Nature is no God and who can no more endure it than St. Paul could a sacrifice Act. 14. or the Angel in the Revelations chap. 19. 10. divine Worship or to come a little more home than St. Peter to be styl'd Universal Bishop of God's Church a Title they will needs force upon him though himself expresly disclaims it 1 Pet. 5. 3. No let us honour the Blessed Virgin as becomes the Mother of God not as a Goddess she is but a Creature how glorious soever and we are not to make her an Idol neither to invoke her Name nor adore her Person we allow her God's Mother but not his Rival place her we may as near his Throne as Religion will suffer us not in it in the Throne God will be greater than any style her Queen of Saints while Christ remains the Sovereign King of them and 't is honour enough for this Queen to be solo Deo minor to be blessed even above the Angel that proclaim'd her so yea if they will have it above all Saints and Angels too but still below her Son who is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. In a word Our endeavour should be to copy out those Perfections which were so eminent in this Blessed Mother of our Lord Her Faith by our ready assent to God's Word Her Devotion by frequently meditating on it a book which like Ezekiel's rowl must be eaten and well digested Her Purity by keeping our selves unspotted from the World and hating even the garment spotted by the flesh always remembring that they who follow the Lamb are Virgins Her Prudence by trying the Spirits by proving all things but holding fast that which is good suspecting even an Angel from Heaven could he propose any thing to us that should seem to cross a Precept of Christ and dreading not only every little stain but the very suspition of it Her Obedience by an entire submission to God's revealed Will and which is the crown and perfection of all grace her Humility These are the Copies we are to transcribe the best Gifts to be coveted such as will adorn and perfect us make us holy and glorious other may have more pomp and lustre in themselves these most use and benefit to us and therefore let our aim be to be pure as the Mother of God we who are commanded to strive to be perfect even as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect And if we hear the Word of God and keep it as she did the Lord will as certainly be with us as He was with her and we at last be with him where she now is eternally Blessed in the fruition of the most Blessed Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost To whom let us ascribe as is most due everlasting glory c. Amen A SERMON Preached on Christmas-day TITUS II. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works THE greatest blessing God could bestow upon us or we receive took its rise from Man's sin The sin of the first Adam was the cause or at least the occasion of the Incarnation of the second Had the former still continued in Paradise the latter had not come down from Heaven Innocence was to be lost before it could be recovered nor was the Physician but for the sick nor the Redeemer but for the captive But as the first Man did not therefore sin or was ordained to sin that the Son of God might be incarnated so his Goodness who can fetch light out of darkness took advantage by that sin to manifest its self in its expiation and his Wisedom contriv'd a way to make that very sin instrumental to a greater good than Man had forfeited which gave occasion to a Father to style Adam's first Transgression Foelicem culpam a happy crime that procur'd him such a Redeemer as could doe him more good than 't was in his own or Satan's power to doe him hurt and so well repair his Ruine as to make it more advantageous to him than his Innocence He is now a gainer by his loss his falling so low has but rais'd him up the higher being made more happy by his very unhappiness so that where Man's sin did abound God's grace has much more abounded And never sure did it more abound than at this time when the Son of God took our humane nature upon him that he might unite it to his divine one Visited us from on high to this end that he might redeem us was born only to dye for us cloathed with our flesh to be in a capacity to suffer in it and by his own suffering to advance us to glory in Heaven And next to that his transcendent Mercy of giving us Heaven is this That He prepares us for it That He is pleased to refine as well as to exalt us We may now
remembrance again Joh. 14. 26. He admonisheth and directeth us his Clients how to order and solicit our own business what Evidences to produce how to manage and plead them making up our failings by his Wisdom and not only so but as the word Paraclete here imports he intercedeth also with God for us not in such a manner as Christ is said to doe whom St. John also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1. For as much as that Bloud which He shed for us on the Cross speaks for us better things than that of Abel and continually pleads our Pardon before the Tribunal of God but the Holy Ghost is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered because he stirreth us up to Prayer prompting and teaching us also how to pray as we ought to doe in all our Necessities So that as Christ is the first Advocate by working our Reconciliation with God so is the Spirit our other or second one by testifying and applying the same unto our Souls 2dly He is our Advocate not only in respect of God but of Men too by maintaining our Cause against the World against Tyrants and Persecutors 1. Against the World as oft as it accuseth us by false and slanderous Calumniators laying to our charge things we never did The Spirit in this case maketh us not only plead our Innocency but rejoyce in the Reproaches of Christ count our selves happy in this that it is not such low marks as we are which the malice of the World aimeth at but the Spirit of glory and of God which resteth upon us who is on their part evil spoken of 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2dly Against Tyrants and Persecutors Whence it is that our Saviour Mat. 10. 19. bids his Disciples not be concern'd what they should speak when they should be delivered up to Men because it should be given them in that same hour what they should speak And he adds vers 20. It is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you And we know how that God in all Ages did by the mouths of Infants maintain his Truths to the shame and confusion of Tyrants who endeavour'd to suppress them But here it may be objected Was not the Holy Ghost given to the Jewish Church before the coming of Christ Did He not comfort and support them under a long and tedious expectation of his appearance Was He not then a Teacher of the Faithfull and when that Cloud of Witnesses suffered for the Cause of the God of Jacob when they were sawn in pieces and stoned was not the Holy Ghost their Advocate as well as the Martyrs under the Gospel Did He not speak by the Mouth of Daniel when cast to the Lions and of the three Children who chanted out the Praises of God in the midst of the flames of the firey furnace How then does our Lord say here If I go not away the Comforter will not come to you since so many Ages before He was come and as a Comforter too For Resolution hereof we are to observe That although the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity be equally the Principles of all those Acts they produce without according to the received Maxim of the Schools yet with a considerable difference in relation to those three distinct Oeconomies or Dispensations towards the Church That of the Father lasted till the Coming of Christ in the Flesh yet so as that in that space of time 't is generally believed that the Son of God did sometimes appear as to Abraham Jacob and Joshua being a kind of Essay or Prelude to his Incarnation and the Holy Ghost did then also impart some degree of Efficacy to the Faithfull However This is properly to be reckoned the Oeconomy of the Father The second was That of the Son from his Incarnation to his Ascension yet so as that the Father made his voice to be heard at Jordan and Mount Tabor This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear ye Him As at another time in the Audience of the People Joh. 12. 28. I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again Then also did the Holy Ghost appear in the form of a Dove yet still this is to be accounted the Oeconomy of the Son That of the Holy Spirit commenced from his Descent upon the Apostles and shall last unto the end of all things Differing herein from the other two That in the two first Dispensations Men's senses were usually affected with some extraordinary miraculous and sensible Objects God the Father shewing himself in a Cloud and Pillar of Fire giving out his Oracles from between the Cherubins consuming the burnt-offerings with Fire from Heaven and filling the Sanctuary with his Glory And the Son of God conversing so familiarly with Men that it made St. John say That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life declare we unto you Whereas I say All was as it were visible and palpable here 'T was far otherwise in the Dispensation of the Spirit The Heavens were not seen to part nor was God's terrible Voice heard in the Air no Shechinah no Glory or sensible Mark of the Presence of the living God in his Temple For which reason the third Person in the Trinity has the Special Name of Spirit given Him For as He is styled Holy in respect of that Sanctification he worketh in us though that same Title belongs also to the other two Persons as having the same Spiritual Essence yet the Holy Ghost bears the name of Spirit in regard of his altogether Spiritual Dispensation and those Graces he imparts to each faithfull Soul which are Heavenly and Spiritual such as are the Knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven and his inward Vertues and Consolations As for Knowledge it was so weak and imperfect under the Ancient Oeconomy that in respect of that our Lord preferrs the least in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. the meanest Christian to all the Prophets not excepting the Baptist himself Nor can it be deny'd but that the very first Principles and Rudiments of Christianity do far surpass the highest Attainments of the Law The Jews were under a Cloud and the Doctrine of the Prophets was but as a light shining in a dark place All was then Shadow or rather Night and Moses his Veil was over the Eyes of the whole Nation God made himself known to the Jews as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom They had a very wrong Notion looking upon him as the Conqueror of the World such was the very Apostle's fancy of him and that even after his Resurrection Act. 1. The ineffable Mystery of the Trinity that of Godliness which without controversie is great God manifested
two things when I shall have briefly spoken to I shall then in the close endeavour 1. To shew you how the Holy Virgin was in this latter respect Blessed above all her Sex anointed like her Son with the Oyl of Gladness above her fellows in being as much the Mother of God and as properly in a Spiritual as ever she was in a Carnal sense 2. And secondly to stir you up to an imitation of those her Vertues and Perfections which as they entitled her to this more divine and blessed Relation will us too proportionably as they shall be found in every one of us The first thing that offers its self here is the Woman's Testimony allow'd by Christ That she that bare him was Blessed and for that very reason too In the time of the Law 't was accounted a great Blessing to be a Mother in Israel Barrenness being then as infamous as Fruitfulness was honourable To have still preserv'd their Virginity was in most people's conceit as bad as to have betray'd it insomuch that some have more bitterly lamented that than their untimely death or which is more their sins The reason which the Jewish Doctors give us of this strange passion was Because the Messiah being to come every one that was not barren might hope to be that person that should have the honour to bring him into the World And as all the Daughters of Israel were most ambitious of it so about the time Christ came in the flesh the expectation of the Messiah's Revelation was very high and pregnant Whether this Woman in the Text took our Lord for the true Messiah that great Prophet that should come into the World which yet 't is not improbable she might guess him to be by the visible power of his Miracles and which was as admirable the force of his persuasions is altogether uncertain But this is certain that she lookt upon him as an extraordinary person sent from God and as such one that might justly ennoble his Parents and Relations This as it was a great Truth so 't was not all and our Saviour did not only here allow this Woman's Testimony for good but farther improve it by expresly revealing Himself to be the Messiah which is called Christ Joh. 4. 25 the Holy One of Israel and the glory of its People a Monarch but a spiritual one to whose Sceptre all Nations and Souls should bow such a King as had Heaven for his Throne and the Earth for his Footstool That the Desire of Nations was now come so long before promised by God foretold by the Prophets expected by the Patriarchs infinitely wisht by all just Men with a desire equal to their necessities And to be the Mother of such a Prince as this to inclose Him in her bowels whom the Heaven of Heavens could not encircle to be the Mother of God Deipara A Title bestow'd on the Blessed Virgin by a General Council and which we may safely allow her This was more than to have descended from the Loins of the Kings of Judah or the most glorious Monarchs of the Earth An honour which the greatest Queens thereof would willingly have purchas'd even with the loss of their temporal Diadems A thing which never happened but once and can never any more unless a Saviour could again be born so that there can never any more be such a Mother because never again such a Son We reade Gen. 5. 2. that the Sons of God joined themselves to the Daughters of Men but that God himself should vouchsafe a poor Virgin that honour he is pleas'd to bestow upon his Church to call her his Spouse the great Creator He by whom all things were made and do consist not disdain to be made the Son of his own Creature and own himself as it were beholding to that Creature for something which he that has all things had not a garment of flesh such a garment as he can no more put off now than He can his Godhead for quod semel assampsit nunquam dimisit This I say was a strange Condescension in the Almighty and a peculiar honour done to the Holy Virgin who was cull'd out for this purpose from the rest of Women and may therefore very well be styl'd Blessed among yea and above them the top and glory of her Sex as in whom the whole Trinity now met to consult not as at the Creation to make Man but Deum-Hominem to unite God and Man in one Person of the Word so that as the Father bespeaks the Son Psal. 2. 7. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Blessed Virgin might to her immortal honour say too This day have I conceived thee Nor was this all To be such a Mother was indeed a high Privilege but to be a Mother and yet still a Virgin wonderfull as that Son she brings forth This had the Prophet Esay long before foretold ch 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive But the Prophet Jeremy not content with that gives it out for a strange and unheard-of thing and so indeed it was more strange than Christ's coming into the house the doors being shut Joh. 20. 26. The Lord says he ch 31. 22. hath created a new thing in the Earth a Woman shall compass a Man i. e. A Virgin still continuing such otherwise sure it were no new thing shall in her Womb inclose a Man child and such a Man as the same Prophet styles Immanuel God with us chap. 8. 8. and chap. 9. 6. The mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace enough to silence the incredulous blaspheming Jew so that these two Glories like the two Luminaries of Heaven met in the Mother of our Lord which never happened to any before nor shall ever hereafter that of a Mother and of a Virgin the Fruitfulness of the one and the Purity of the other But these things as they were the Holy Virgin 's Privileges and in some sort her Happiness too so there was something that render'd her yet more blessed by being a Blessing to us in conveying to us the greatest good that ever could happen to Men. For as her Son is the Fountain of those living streams which refresh the Sons of Men so was this Mother the golden Pipe to derive them to them 'T is of his fulness we all receive but by her The promise of our Redemption as it was as old as our Fall Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's head so was it literally fulfilled in this Woman of whom St. Paul says Christ was made Gal. 4. 4. i. e. from whom He took the matter of that Body wherein He wrought out our Redemption the full import of St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and St. John's too Joh. 1. 14. For however the Anabaptist dream of a Body fram'd in Heaven which pass'd through the Holy Virgin as water through a Conduit-pipe yet cannot this fancy possibly consist with
Omnipotent God a power able to break in pieces the chains even of death its self strong ones indeed to hold all others but weak to hold him who was as well God as Man Whom God hath raised up c. From which words Four things are to be gather'd 1. The Certainty of Christ's Resurrection set down here as matter of fact Hath raised up 2. The principal Agent or rather the sole efficient Cause of Christ's Resurrection God Whom God hath c. 3. The Manner how 't was done Removendo impedimentum by taking away whatsoever might obstruct it the rowling away the stone as it were from the door of the Sepulchre the untying of a hard knot Having loosed the pains of Death 4. And lastly the Necessity of all this a most convincing and irresistible Argument and therefore brought up in the rear to make all sure Because it was not possible he should be holden of it Of these in their order and of such practical Inferences as doe arise out of them And first of the first Particular the Certainty of Christ's Resurrection in these words Hath raised up 1. There is not any truth in Scripture which God has been so carefull or as I may so say curious to secure as that of his Son's Resurrection Which he did as by taking away all grounds of doubting of it so by making use of all manner of proofs to ascertain it For first whereas Sceptical Men might have questioned whether Christ died truly or no or if so whether his disciples did not come by night and steal him away These two grounds of suspition God took care to remove The first by that Evidence the Centurion gave in to Pilate of his real dying besides that of so many Spectators who beheld that stream of bloud wherein he poured forth his Soul unto death And the second by the exact care of the High Priest who caused a vast stone to be rowled before the door of the Sepulchre adding his Seal and Souldiers of his own chusing to guard it from the attempts of the Disciples who had they had a will had neither power nor courage to break open a Sepulchre hewen out of a new entire Rock or force such a strong guard as kept it much less Money to bribe their silence as the High Priests and Scribes did And to say that his Disciples stole him away while the stout Watch-men slept was surely no better than a Dream or rather not a Dream but a studied Lie and yet such a Lie too as does most clearly confirm the truth of our Lord's Resurrection But then secondly As God took away all cause of doubt so did he draw Arguments from all Topicks to prove this great Truth Heaven and Earth here gave in their Evidence For not only the Souls of Holy Men were fetcht thence to be united to their Bodies for proof of that Resurrection by which themselves were raised but the Blessed Inhabitants of Heaven the Angels came down on purpose to publish it to the Women as these did to the Apostles to whom Christ shewed himself alive too after his Passion by many infallible proofs and expos'd himself to their very Senses who did not only see and hear but converse and eat with him after he was risen from the dead that they might not mistake his Body as once they did for a Phantasm or Christ for a Spirit having flesh and bones as they found he had and retaining still the marks and prints of the nails and spear to shew the Identity as well as Reality of that Body which arose The very Infidelity of an Apostle being not the least confirmation of our Faith too in this particular Not to mention other instances the Earthquake the empty grave the stone rowled away the linnen cloths curiously wrapt up together as dead Witnesses when there were so many living ones Angels and Men and among these such as were ready to seal this Truth with their dearest Bloud of such credit and honesty too as might highly recommend their Testimony to our belief of such Prudence Experience and Holiness withall as neither could betray them to Error nor suffer them to abuse the credit of others Such were the Holy Apostles who with great power gave witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and whose principal office it was to doe so as appears upon the Election of St. Matthias into the place of Judas grounded upon this necessity Act. 1. 21 22. To whom we may add no less than five hundred Brethren at once all agreeing in the same story Nemo omnes neminem omnes fefellerunt which made their Evidence rise to such a strong demonstration as was sufficient to stop the mouths of Christ's most contradicting Enemies and open ours to confess with the Disciples and Primitive Christians The Lord is risen indeed Luk. 24. 34. Thus we see how exact the Holy Ghost was as in removing all such Doubts as might in the least obstruct our Faith so in using all manner of Arguments to confirm and establish the undoubted Truth of Christ's Resurrection not only to show the possibility of a Resurrection in general by so pregnant and visible an Example but the importance of it in regard of ours whereof our Lord 's was the Fountain and Pledge 1. I say the clearing of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection was absolutely necessary in regard of the slowness and indisposition of most Men and in all times to admit of the possibility of a Resurrection The Philosopher we see could not digest it To the Stoicks and Epicureans it became matter of laughter who took it for some new Goddess Act. 17. 18 32. Nay some of the Disciples themselves lookt upon it as a Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 24. 11. A considerable Sect too among the Jews the Sadducees utterly deny'd it Act. 23. 8. Simon Magus and the Gnosticks were of the same persuasion and so was Marcion as Tertullian informs me who deny'd the truth of Christ's flesh and consequently his Nativity and Resurrection as Valentinus's Disciple did the Resurrection of that Flesh he convers'd in Some there were who affirm'd 't was already past as Hymenaeus and Philetus Others turn'd it into a meer Allegory a Renovation Matth. 19. 28. A state of the Gospel call'd a New Heaven and a new Earth 2 Pet. 3. 13. And the World to come Heb. 2. 5. And lastly how doe all loose Christians decry it as a thing utterly inconsistent with their interest It was requisite then that this foundation should be laid very deep in men's Hearts which the Holy Ghost fore-saw so many would endeavour to over-throw 2. 'T was absolutely necessary to clear this Truth in regard of the importance of it to Christ's glory and the happiness of all true Christians 1. To Christ's glory which in the esteem of Men being much eclipsed by his Death was to shine out brighter by his Resurrection for nothing but this could take
that pull'd out by thy powerfull Redeemer how can it now hurt thee It may possibly hiss at but it cannot bite thee Look upon the Serpent lifted up for thee on the Cross and this Serpent's sting if it has any to wound it can have none to kill thee If thy Saviour has not quite destroy'd this thine enemy at least he has brought it under and made it subject like the Gibeonites if not banished 't is enslaved and made now instrumental to Christ's Kingdom Loose thou then the bands of thine iniquity and those of death which Christ has broken shall no more be able to hold thee than they could doe him Death in its most affrighting shapes to thee is but a scare-crow 't is but the shadow of death while God is with thee Nay 't is but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a going out a departing in peace to a Holy Simeon 'T was no more between God and Moses but go up and dye as 't was said to another Prophet up and eat Ever since our Lord has swallow'd death up in victory our Tombs become Death's Graves more than ours Sepulchrum non jam mortuum sed mortem devorat says a Father Our Bodies are not lost in the Earth but laid up to be improved like Porcellane-dishes which the ground does not consume but refine In the Transfiguration that body of Moses which was hid in the valley of Moab appeared glorious in the Mount of Tabor And though we appear now like Aaron's dry rod yet that dry rod shall at last bud and bring forth fruit unto glory The Israelites garments indeed in the Wilderness waxed not worse for wearing but though our Bodies which are the garments of our Souls doe so and are rent and torn by afflictions and death yet God can and will mend them Nay when these Temples of the Holy Ghost we carry about us are dissolved he will so build them up that as it was said of the first and second Jewish Temples Haggai 2. 9. the glory of our latter houses shall be greater than that of the former Diruta stante Major Troja fuit God will bless us as he did Job more at our latter end than at our beginning and Exalt us as he did Christ by our Sufferings If with him we drink of the brook in the way tast of his Cup he will lift up our heads too We shall be like him as now He is A golden Head and Members of Clay suit not well together This is our great comfort that Christ is risen for if the Head be above water the Body is safe Joseph is alive said Jacob and that news revived the drooping Patriarch So when we hear that Christ our elder Brother the first-begotten from the dead is alive too let us take courage go and find him out seek him not in the Grave He is not there he is risen and why should we seek the living among the dead but in Heaven where he now is and set our affections on things above and not on things below It befits us not to lye in our Beds of ease and pleasure to lye sleeping there when Christ is up such a spiritual Lethargy does not suit with a Resurrection How are we conformable to Him if when He is risen up we remain still in the Grave of our Corruptions How are we Limbs of his Body if while He hath perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over us if while he is alive and glorious we lye rotting in the dust of death O let us then rouse our selves up this day with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Let this be our Resurrection-day too and that it may be so let it be our Passion-day also as it is our Lord's For as he rose this day for us so does he now this day dye for us too And although St. Paul tells us Rom. 6. 9. That Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more and that death hath no more dominion over him or to speak in the Language of the Text that he be not holden of it yet in regard of the constant vertue and benefit of his Death and Passion he may be said to dye daily for us who receive him worthily in the Blessed Sacrament Let me then bespeak you in the words of St. Thomas utter'd upon another occasion Joh. 11. 16. Let us also go and dye with him Dye with him unto sin that we may live unto God through him Rom. 6. 9 10. Let us feed on him by Faith flock like true Eagles to his Holy Carcass and eat thereof that we may live This is the way to be raised to glory Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath Eternal life is even now in possession of it and I will raise him up at the last day says Christ himself Joh. 6. 54. The very touch of the Prophet Elias's bones Ecclesiasticus 48. 5. could raise up a dead Man to a Temporal and shall not the sense and application of Christ crucified be able to quicken us who are dead in trespasses and sins to a spiritual and immortal Life O let us then be planted with him in the likeness of his Death that we may be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6. 5. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the bloud of the Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to doe his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom with the Father c. Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on Whit-sunday JOHN XVI 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you WE find the Disciples here in a very sad and disconsolate Condition Christ had told them that He was going his way to Him that sent Him V. 5. and thereupon Sorrow had filled their hearts V. 6. And no marvel for they were to be separated from one who hitherto had been their only comfort and support Had we been under the same circumstances we should no doubt have equally resented that loss They had had the happy advantage of beholding his glorious Miracles wrought by his All-powerfull Voice in the cure of Diseases in the confusion of Devils and the raising of the Dead They had heard those his ravishing Discourses which forc'd his most implacable Enemies in spight of all their prejudice against Him to confess That never Man spake as He did They had been Eye-witnesses of that Eminent Holiness that pure and unspotted Innocence which gave beauty and lustre to all his actions and of that glory too which discovered Him to be the only Son of God full of Grace and Truth And now unless we can suppose them void of all natural affection and
the Way to this as the End 2 Pet. 1. 3. 2. But besides this divine Operation we need divine Acceptation also whereby we may be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God our Inheritance 2 Thess. 1. 5. For all our works and graces here being imperfect can never capacitate us for it without God's gratious Acceptance And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysost. here 'T is God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his dignifying of us not our own dignity that renders us worthy And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He makes us accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1. 6. And when the Saints of God are said to be worthy to walk with Christ in white Rev. 3. 4. 't is because He casts his garment of Righteousness about them and if their good Works which yet are but God's own gifts weigh down 't is because He puts his grains of Allowance into the Scale But what need all this either Divine Operation or Acceptation to make us meet partakers of the Inheritance in light may the Enemies of God's Grace here say What need we go farther than our selves and our own Nature for it For Pelagius will tell us That we are in as good a condition now as Adam himself was before his Fall Our Faculties the same as strong and as able as ever Our Understandings as clear to discern and our Wills as free to chuse good and evil That all the harm our first Parent did us was but to give us a bad Example which 't is our fault if we will follow and since our Happiness depends on our selves that we are to blame our selves if we miss of it And although some have thought this too gross to make Man the sole Author of his own Fate yet they have very little mended the matter by so parting stakes between God and him that they still allow the latter the better share in the work of his Salvation For they deny all preventing Grace the proper mark of a Semi-Pelagian although they are pleased to grant a concurrent and subsequent one on God's part to enable him to doe his work with more ease and sureness which otherwise would cost him more pains and hazard However they so far agree with Pelagius as to place this meetness for the Inheritance in Man himself putting it into his own power to dispose himself to his Conversion by an Act of his own Free-will antecedent to God's Grace A piece of Heathen Divinity borrowed from Seneca and Tully For Seneca in a Stoical brag could say That we live is from God but that we live well is from our selves And This is the Judgment of all Mankind says Tully That Prosperity is to be sought of God but Wisdom to be taken up from our selves On which Saying of his St. Augustine passes this Judgment That by making Men free he made them sacrilegious For what greater Sacriledge than to rob God of his Power to convert us or at least to let him go but as a sharer with as therein When as to the first Act of our Conversion we are as purely passive as to that of our Creation or Resurrection We cannot create our selves and being dead in trespasses and sins no more raise up our selves to a spiritual than to a natural life No God must convert us that we may be converted Turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned says the Prophet Jeremy Lament 5. 21. Jer. 31. 18. Nay The very preparations of the heart in Man are from the Lord says Solomon Prov. 16. 1. And It is God who worketh in us both to will and to doe says St. Paul Phil. 2. 13. We cannot come to Christ except the Father draw us Joh. 6. 44. Nor when we are drawn to Him doe any thing without Him Himself plainly telling us so Joh. 15. 5. Without me ye can doe nothing He does not say a little but nothing God must prevent and follow us with his Grace plant good inclinations in us and nurse them up too He hath chosen us in Christ before the Foundation of the World that we should be Holy Ephes. 1. 4. not that we were so before he chose us He chose us first too Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you Joh. 16. 15. 1 Joh. 4. 10. He chose us also out of his own love and then loved us for his choice and made us Holy by his very chusing us No Prevision of our Faith or Good Works but his own free Goodness and Mercy determined his choice He found us not meet to partake of the Inheritance but made us so says the Text Could we make our selves meet we might thank our selves and not the Father as the Apostle here exhorts the Corinthians and us to do in the last place Giving thanks to the Father or as some Translations have it To God the Father God is content we should have the Benefit upon this easie and pleasant condition that we give Him the glory of his Blessings And surely he that grudgeth Him so little for so much deserves not the continuance much less the increase of any of them Still to partake of the streams of the divine Bounty and never to bless not so much as to mind the Fountain still to be receiving and never returning argues an ingratitude as void of all Ingenuity as of Piety Rivers pay their Tribute to that Ocean from whence they flow unto the place from whence they come thither they return Eccles. 1. 7. Nature teaching us to make our Returns thither from whence we derive our Benefits Praise and Thanksgivings are the Reflection of God's glory upon Himself the constant employment of Saints in Heaven and most becoming those on Earth who hope to share with them in their Inheritance so that of all others it becometh most the Just to be thankfull Psal. 33. 1. And indeed it is not only a becoming thing a piece of Decency this but of Justice For Thanks are a Debt we must always be paying to God A Rent our great Landlord requires and indents for the omission whereof will forfeit our Tenure Offer unto God thanksgiving and call upon me in the time of trouble so will I hear thee and thou shalt praise me Psal. 50. 14 15. But then let us be sure to be thankfull to Him and to none besides Him since He is the only Author of all our Good For to misplace our Thanks here would be as bad as to deny them Nay to pay this our Rent to a wrong Landlord worse than not to pay it at all to the right one God will by no means give this his Glory to another nor suffer any to share with Him in our Thanks since from Him alone we receive All those Thanks are due for We must then give them to God alone and to God the Father as some Translations have it not excluding the other Persons in the Trinity but chiefly directing our Thanks to Him