timbrels how shall we think those Angelical Spirits triumphed in meeting of the great Conqueror of Hell and Death How did they sing Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Surely as he shall come so he went and behold he shall come with thousands of his Holy Ones thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him From all whom methinks I hear that blessed applause Worthy is the Lamb that was killed to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and praise Praise and honour and glory and power be to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore And why dost not thou O my Soul help to bear thy part with that happy Quire of Heaven Why art not thou rapt out of my bosome with an extasie of joy to see this Humane nature of ours exalted above all the Powers of Heaven adored of Angels Archangels Cherubin Seraphim and all those mighty and glorious Spirits and sitting there crowned with infinite Glory and Majesty Although little would it avail thee that our Nature is thus honoured if the benefit of this Ascension did not reflect upon thee How many are miserable enough in themselves notwithstanding the Glory of their humane nature in Christ None but those that are found in him are the happier by him who but the Members are the better for the glory of the Head O Saviour how should our weakness have ever hoped to climb into Heaven if thou hadst not gone before and made way for us It is for us that thou the Fore-runner art entred in Now thy Church hath her wish Draw me and I shall run after thee Even so O Blessed Jesu how ambitiously should we follow thee with the paces of Love and Faith and aspire towards thy Glory Thou that art the way hast made the way to thy self and us Thou didst humble thy self and becamest obedient to the death even to the death of the Cross Therefore hath God also highly exalted thee and upon the same terms will not fail to advance us we see thy track before us of Humility and Obedience Oh teach me to follow thee in the roughest waies of Obedience in the bloody paths of Death that I may at last overtake thee in those high steps of Immortality Amongst those millions of Angels that attended this triumphant Ascension of thine O Saviour some are appointed to this lower station to comfort thine astonished Disciples in the certain assurance of thy no-less glorious Return Two men stood by them in white apparel They stood by them they were not of them they seemed Men they were Angels Men for their familiarity two for more certainty of testimony in white for the joy of thine Ascension The Angels formerly celebrated thy Nativity with Songs but we do not finde they then appeared in white thou wert then to undergoe much sorrow many conflicts it was the vale of tears into which thou wert come down So soon as thou wert risen the women saw an Angel in the form of a young man cloathed in white and now so soon as thou art ascended Two men cloathed in white stand by thy Disciples thy task was now done thy victory atchieved and nothing remained but a Crown which was now set upon thy head Justly therefore were those blessed Angels suited with the robes of light and joy And why should our garments be of any other colour why should oile be wanting to our heads when the eyes of our Faith see thee thus ascended It is for us O Saviour that thou art gone to prepare a place in those celestial Mansions it is for us that thou sittest at the right hand of Majesty It is a piece of thy Divine Prayer to thy Father that those whom he hath given thee may be with thee To every bleeding Soul thou saiest still as thou didst to Peter Whither I goe thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me hereafter In assured hope of this Glory why do I not rejoyce and beforehand walk in white with thine Angels that at the last I may walk with thee in white Little would the presence of these Angels have availed if they had not been heard as well as seen They stand not silent therefore but directing their speech to the amazed beholders say Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven What a question was this Could any of those two hundred and forty eyes have power to turn themselves off to any other Object then that Cloud and that point of Heaven where they left their ascended Saviour Surely every one of them were so fixed that had not the speech of these Angels called them off there they had set up their rest till the darkness of night had interposed Pardon me O ye Blessed Angels had I been there with them I should also have been unwilling to have had mine eyes pull'd off from that dear prospect and diverted unto you Never could they have gazed so happily as now If but some Great man be advanced to Honour over our heads how apt we are to stand at a gaze and to eye him as some strange meteor Let the Sun but shine a little upon these Dials how are they look'd at by all passengers Yet alas what can earthly advancement make us other then we are dust and ashes which the higher it is blown the more it is scattered Oh how worthy is the King of Glory to command our eyes now in the highest pitch of his Heavenly exaltation Lord I can never look enough at the place where thou art but what eye could be satisfied with seeing the way that thou wentest It was not the purpose of these Angels to check the long looks of these faithfull Disciples after their ascended Master it was onely a change of eyes that they intended of Carnal for Spiritual of the eye of Sense for the eye of Faith This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him goe into Heaven Look not after him O ye weak Disciples as so departed that ye shall see him no more if he be gone yet he is not lost those Heavens that received him shall restore him neither can those Blessed Mansions decrease his Glory Ye have seen him ascend upon the Chariot of a bright Cloud and in the clouds of Heaven ye shall see him descend again to his last Judgement He is gone can it trouble you to know you have an Advocate in Heaven Strive not now so much to exercise your bodily eyes in looking after him as the eyes of your Souls in looking for him Ye cannot O ye Blessed Spirits wish other then well to mankind How happy a diversion of eyes and thoughts is this that you advise If it be our sorrow to part with our Saviour yet to part with him into Heaven it is our comfort
is up the whole City is moved Neither is it otherwise in the private oeconomy of the Soul O Saviour whiles thou dost as it were hide thy self and lye still in the heart and takest all termes contentedly from us we entertain thee with no other then a friendly welcome but when thou once beginnest to ruffle with our Corruptions and to exercise thy Spiritual power in the subjugation of our vile Affections now all is in a secret uprore all the angles of the heart are moved Although doubtless this commotion was not so much of tumult as of wonder As when some uncouth sight presents it self in a populous street men run and gaze and throng and inquire the feet the tongue the eyes walk one spectator draws on another one asks and presses another the noise increases with the concourse each helps to stir up others exspectation such was this of Jerusalem What meanes this strangeness Was not Jerusalem the Spouse of Christ Had he not chosen her out of all the earth Had he not begotten many children of her as the pledges of their love How justly maiest thou now O Saviour complain with that mirrour of Patience My breath was grown strange to my own wife though I intreated her for the childrens sake of my own body Even of thee is that fulfilled which thy chosen Vessel said of thy Ministers Thou art made a gazing-stock to the world to Angels and to men As all the world was bound to thee for thy Incarnation and residence upon the face of the earth so especially Judaea to whose limits thou confinedst thy self and therein above all the rest three Cities Nazaret Capernaum Jerusalem on whom thou bestowedst the most time and cost of preaching and miraculous works Yet in all three thou receivedst not strange Entertainment only but hostile In Nazaret they would have cast thee down headlong from the mount In Capernaum they would have bound thee In Jerusalem they crucified thee at last and now are amazed at thy presence Those places and persons that have the greatest helps and priviledges afforded to them are not alwaies the most answerable in the return of their thankfulness Christs being amongst us doth not make us happy but his welcome Every day may we hear him in our streets and yet be as new to seek as these Citizens of Jerusalem Who is this Was it a question of applause or of contempt or of ignorance Applause of his abettors contempt of the Scribes and Pharisees ignorance of the multitude Surely his abettors had not been moved at this sight the Scribes and Pharisees had rather envied then contemned The multitude doubtless inquired seriously out of a desire of information Not that the citizens of Jerusalem knew not Christ who was so ordinary a guest so noted a Prophet amongst them Questionless this question was asked of that part of the train which went before this Triumph whiles our Saviour was not yet in sight which ere long his presence had resolved It had been their duty to have known to have attended Christ yea to have published him to others since this is not done it is well yet that they spend their breath in an inquiry No doubt there were many that would not so much as leave their shop-board and step to their doors or their windows to say Who is this as not thinking it could concern them who passed by whiles they might sit still Those Greeks were in some way to good that could say to Philip We would see Jesus O Saviour thou hast been so long amongst us that it is our just shame if we know thee not If we have been slack hitherto let our zealous inquiry make amends for our neglect Let outward pomp and worldly glory draw the hearts and tongues of carnal men after them Oh let it be my care and happiness to ask after nothing but thee The attending Disciples could not be to seek for an answer which of the Prophets have not put it into their mouths Who is this Ask Moses and he shall tell you The seed of the Woman that shall break the Serpents head Ask our Father Jacob and he shall tell you The Shiloh of the tribe of Judah Ask David and he shall tell you The King of glory Ask Esay he shall tell you Immanuel Wonderful Counsellor The mighty God The everlasting Father The Prince of peace Ask Jeremy and he shall tell you The righteous Branch Ask Daniel he shall tell you The Messiah Ask John the Baptist he shall tell you The Lamb of God If ye ask the God of the Prophets he hath told you This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Yea if all these be too good for you to consult with the Devils themselves have been forced to say I know who thou art even that Holy One of God On no side hath Christ left himself without a testimony and accordingly the Multitude here have their answer ready This is Jesus the Prophet of Nazaret in Galilee Ye undervalue your Master O ye well-meaning Followers of Christ A Prophet yea more then a Prophet John Baptist was so yet was but the harbinger of this Messiah This was that God by whom the Prophets were both sent and inspired Of Nazaret say you ye mistake him Bethleem was the place of his Birth the proof of his Tribe the evidence of his Messiahship If Nazareth were honored by his preaching there was no reason he should be dishonoured by Nazareth No doubt he whom you confessed pardoned the errour of your confession Ye spake but according to the common style the two Disciples in their walk to Emmaus after the Death and Resurrection of Christ give him no other title This belief passed current with the people and thus high even the vulgar thoughts could then rise and no doubt even thus much was for that time very acceptable to the Father of Mercies If we make profession of the Truth according to our knowledg though there be much imperfection in our apprehension and delivery the mercy of our good God takes it well not judging us for what we have not but accepting us in what we have Shouldst thou O God stand strictly upon the punctuall degrees of knowledg how wide would it goe with millions of Souls for besides much errour in many there is more ignorance But herein do we justly magnifie and adore thy Goodness that where thou findest diligent endeavour of better information matched with an honest simplicity of heart thou passest by our unwilling defects and crownest our well-meant confessions But oh the wonderful hand of God in the carriage of this whole business The people proclaimed Christ first a King and now they proclaim him a Prophet Why did not the Roman bands run into armes upon the one why did not the Scribes and Pharisees and the envious Priesthood mutiny upon the other They had made Decrees against him they had laid wait for him yet now he passes in state through their streets acclamed both
Not Heaven but Earth not Soveraignty but Service not the Gentile but the Jew and do they say Not him but Barabbas Do ye thus requite the Lord O ye foolish people and unjust Thus were thine ears and thine eyes first crucified and through them was thy Soul wounded even to death before thy death whiles thou sawest their rage and heardst their noise of Crucifie crucifie Pilate would have chastised thee Even that had been a cruell mercy from him for what evil hadst thou done But that cruelty had been true mercy to this of the Jews whom no blood would satisfie but that of thy heart He calls for thy Fault they call for thy Punishment as proclaiming thy Crucifixion is not intended to satisfie Justice but Malice They cried the more Crucifie him Crucifie him As their clamour grew so the Presidents Justice declined Those Graces that lie loose and ungrounded are easily washt away with the first tide of Popularity Thrice had that man proclaimed the Innocence of him whom he now inclines to condemn willing to content the people Oh the foolish aimes of Ambition Not God not his Conscience come into any regard but the People What a base Idol doth the proud man adore even the Vulgar which a base man despiseth What is their applause but an idle winde what is their anger but a painted fire O Pilate where now is thy self and thy people whereas a good conscience would have stuck by thee for ever and have given thee boldness before the face of that God which thou and thy people shall never have the Happiness to behold The Jews have plaid their first part the Gentiles must now act theirs Cruell Pilate who knew Jesus was delivered for envie accused falsly maliciously pursued hath turned his profered chastisement into scourging Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him Woe is me dear Saviour I feel thy lashes I shrink under thy painfull whippings thy nakedness covers me with shame and confusion That tender and precious body of thine is galled and torn with cords Thou that didst of late water the garden of Gethsemani with the drops of thy bloody sweat dost now bedew the pavement of Pilate's Hall with the showrs of thy blood How fully hast thou made good thy word I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting How can I be enough sensible of my own stripes these blows are mine both my sins have given them and they give remedies to my sins He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes are we healed O blessed Jesu why should I think strange to be scourged with tongue or hand when I see thee bleeding what lashes can I fear either from Heaven or earth since thy scourges have been born for me and have sanctified them to me Now dear Jesu what a world of insolent reproaches indignities tortures art thou entring into To an ingenuous and tender disposition scorns are torment enough but here pain helps to perfect thy misery their despight Who should be actors in this whole bloody execution but grim and barbarous Souldiers men inured to cruelty in whose faces were written the characters of Murder whose very trade was killing and whose looks were enough to prevent their hands These for the greater terrour of their concourse are called together and whether by the connivence or the command of their wicked Governour or by the instigation of the malicious Jews conspire to anticipate his death with scorns which they will after inflict with violence O my Blessed Saviour was it not enough that thy Sacred body was stripped of thy garments and waled with bloody stripes but that thy Person must be made the mocking-stock of thine insulting enemies thy Back disguised with purple robes thy Temples wounded with a thornie Crown thy Face spate upon thy Cheeks buffeted thy Head smitten thy Hand sceptred with a reed thy self derided with wrie mouths bended knees scoffing acclamations Insolent Souldiers whence is all this jeering and sport but to flout Majesty All these are the ornaments and ceremonies of a Royal Inauguration which now in scorn ye cast upon my despised Saviour Goe on make your selves merry with this jolly pastime Alas long agoe ye now feel whom ye scorned Is he a King think you whom ye thus plai'd upon Look upon him with gnashing and horrour whom ye look'd at with mockage and insultation Was not that Head fit for your Thorns which you now see crowned with Glory and Majesty Was not that Hand fit for a Reed whose iron Scepter crushes you to death Was not that Face fit to be spate upon from the dreadfull aspect whereof ye are ready to desire the mountains to cover you In the mean time whither O whither dost thou stoop O thou coeternal Son of thine eternal Father whither dost thou abase thy self for me I have sinned and thou art punished I have exalted my self and thou art dejected I have clad my self with shame and thou art stripped I have made my self naked and thou art clothed with robes of dishonour my head hath devised evil and thine is pierced with thorns I have smitten thee and thou art smitten for me I have dishonoured thee and thou for my sake art scorned Thou art made the sport of men for me that have deserved to be insulted on by Devils Thus disguised thus bleeding thus mangled thus deformed art thou brought forth whether for compassion or for a more universal derision to the furious multitude with an Ecce homo Behold the man look upon him O ye mercilesse Jews see him in his shame in his wounds and blood and now see whether ye think him miserable enough Ye see his Face blew and black with buffeting his Eyes swoln his Cheeks beslabbered with spittle his Skin torn with scourges his whole Body bathed in blood and would ye yet have more Behold the man the man whom ye envied for his greatnesse whom ye feared for his usurpation Doth he not look like a King is he not royally dressed See whether his magnificence do not command reverence from you Would ye wish a Finer King Are ye not afraid he will wrest the Scepter out of Caesar's hand Behold the man Yea and behold him well O thou proud Pilate O ye cruel Souldiers O ye insatiable Jews Ye see him base whom ye shall see glorious the time shall surely come wherein ye shall see him in another dresse he shall shine whom ye now see to bleed his Crown cannot be now so ignominious and painfull as it shall be once majestical and precious ye who now bend your knees to him in scorn shall see all knees both in Heaven and in earth and under the earth to bow before him in an awfull adoration ye that now see him with contempt shall behold him with horrour What an inward war do I yet finde in
religion tyed to thy foolish and wicked Oath thou onely goest away with this mitigation that thou art a scrupulous Murderer In the mean while if an Herod made such conscience of keeping an unlawful Oath how shall he in the day of judgement condemn those Christians which make no conscience of Oaths lawful just necessary Wo is me one sels an oath for a bribe another lends an oath for favour another casts it away for malice I fear to think it may be a question whether there be more oaths broken or kept O God I marvel not if being implored as a witness as an avenger of falshood thou hold him not guiltless that thus dares take thy Name in vain Next to his Oath is the respect to his Honour His guests heard his deep engagement and now he cannot fall off with reputation It would argue levity and rashness to say and not to doe and what would the world say The misconceits of the points of Honour have cost millions of Souls As many a one doth good onely to be seen of men so many a one doth evil onely to satisfie the humour and opinion of others It is a damnable plausibility so to regard the vain approbation or censure of the beholders as in the mean time to neglect the allowance or judgement of God But how ill guests were these how well worthy of an Herod's table Had they had but common civility finding Herod perplexed they had acquitted him by their disswasions and would have disclaimed the exspectation of so bloody a performance but they rather to gratifie Herodias make way for so slight and easie a condescent Even godly Princes have complained of the iniquity of their heels how much more must they needs be ill attended that give incouragements and examples of leudness Neither was it the least motive that he was loath to displease his Mistress The Damsel had pleased him in her dance he would not discontent her in breaking his word He saw Herodias in Salome the suit he knew was the mothers though in the daughters lips both would be displeased in falling off both would be gratified in yielding Oh vain and wicked Herod He cares not to offend God to offend his Conscience he cares to offend a wanton Mistress This is one means to fill Hell loathness to displease A good heart will rather fall out with all the world then with God then with his Conscience The misgrounded sorrow of worldly hearts doth not withhold them from their intended sins It is enough to vex not enough to restrain them Herod was sorry but he sends the executioner for John's head One act hath made Herod a Tyrant and John a Martyr Herod a Tyrant in that without all legal proceedings without so much as false witnesses he takes off the head of a man of a Propher It was Lust that carried Herod into Murder The proceedings of sin are more hardly avoided then the entrance Whoso gives himself leave to be wicked knows not where he shall stay John a Martyr in dying for bearing witness to the Truth Truth in Life in Judgement in Doctrine It was the holy purpose of God that he which had baptized with water should now be baptized with blood Never did God mean that his best Children should dwell alwayes upon earth should they stay here wherefore hath he provided Glory above Now would God have John delivered from a double prison of his own of Herod's and placed in the glorious liberty of his sons His head shall be taken off that it may be crowned with glory Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Oh happy birth-day not of Herod but of the Baptist Now doth John enter into his joy and in this name is this day ever celebrated of the Church This blessed Fore-runner of Christ said of himself I must decrease He is decreased indeed and now grown shorter by the head but he is not so much decreased in stature as increased in glory For one minutes pain he is possessed of endless joy and as he came before his Saviour into the world so is he gone before him into Heaven The head is brought in a Charger What a dish was here for a Feast How prodigiously insatiable is the cruelty of a wicked heart O blessed service fit for the table of Heaven It is not for thee O wicked Herod nor for thee malicious and wanton Herodias it is a dish precious and pleasing to the God of Heaven to the blessed Angels who lookt upon that head with more delight in his constant fidelity then the beholders saw it with horror and Herodias with contentment of revenge It is brought to Salome as the reward of her dance she presents it to her Mother as the dainty she had longed for Methinks I see how that chast and holy countenance was tossed by impure and filthy hands that true and faithful tongue those sacred lips those pure eyes those mortified cheeks are now insultingly handled by an incestuous Harlot and made a scorn to the drunken eyes of Herod's guests Oh the wondrous judgements and incomprehensible dispositions of the holy wise Almighty God! He that was sanctified in the womb born and conceived with so much note and miracle what manner of childâ— shall this be lived with so much reverence and observation is now at midnight obscurely murthered in a close prison and his head brought forth to the insultation and irrision of Harlots and Ruffians O God thou knowest what thou hast to doe with thine own Thus thou sufferest thine to be misused and slaughtered here below that thou maist crown them above It should not be thus if thou didst not mean that their glory should be answerable to their depression The five Loaves and two Fishes WHat flocking there was after Christ which way soever he went How did the Kingdome of Heaven suffer an holy violence in these his followers Their importunity drave him from the land to the sea When he was upon the sea of Tiberias they followed him with their eyes and when they saw which way he bent they followed him so fast on foot that they prevented his landing Whether it were that our Saviour stai'd somewhile upon the water as that which yielded him more quietness and freedom of respiration or whether the foot-passage as it oft falls out were the shorter cut by reason of the compasses of the water and the many elbows of the land I enquire not sure I am the wind did not so swiftly drive on the ship as desire and zeal drave on these eager clients Well did Christ see them all the way well did he know their steps and guided them and now he purposely goes to meet them whom he seemed to flee Nothing can please God more then our importunity in seeking him when he withdraws himself it is that he may be more earnestly inquired for Now then he comes to finde them whom he made shew to decline and seeing a great multitude he
without them The very heathen Poet could say A Jove principium and which of those verse-mongers ever durst write a ballad without imploring of some Deity which of the heathens durst attempt any great enterprise insalutato numine without invocation and sacrifice Saul himself would play the Priest and offer a burnt-offering to the Lord rather then the Philistins should fight with him unsupplicated as thinking any devotion better then none and thinking it more safe to sacrifice without a Priest then to fight without Prayers Ungirt unblest was the old word as not ready till they were girded so not till they had prayed And how dare we rush into the affaires of God or the State how dare we thrust our selves into actions either perilous or important without ever lifting up our eyes and hearts unto the God of Heaven Except we would say as the devilish malice of Surius slanders that zealous Luther Nec propter Deum haec res coepta est nec propter Deum finietur c. This business was neither begun for God nor shall be ended for him How can God bless us if we implore him not how can we prosper if he bless us not How can we hope ever to be transfigured from a lump of corrupt flesh if we do not ascend and pray As the Samaritane woman said weakly we may seriously The well of mercies is deep if thou hast nothing to draw with never look to taste of the waters of life I fear the worst of men Turks and the worst Turks the Moores shall rise up in Judgement against many Christians with whom it is a just exception against any witness by their Law that he hath not prayed six times in each natural day Before the day break they pray for day when it is day they give God thanks for day at noon they thank God for half the day past after that they pray for a good Sun-set after that they thank God for the day passed and lastly pray for a good night after their day And we Christians suffer so many Suns and Moons to rise and set upon our heads and never lift up our hearts to their Creatour and ours either to ask his blessing or to acknowledg it Of all men under Heaven none had so much need to pray as Courtiers That which was done but once to Christ is alwaies done to them They are set upon the hill and see the glory of the Kingdomes of the earth But I fear it is seen of them as it is with some of the mariners the more need the less devotion Ye have seen the Place see the Attendants He would not have many because he would not have it yet know to all hence was his intermination and sealing up their mouths with a Nemini dicite Tell no man Not none because he would not have it altogether unknown and afterwards would have it known to all Three were a legal number in ore duorum aut trium in the mouth of two or three witnesses He had eternally possessed the glory of his Father without any witnesses in time the Angels were blessed with that sight and after that two bodily yet Heavenly witnesses were allowed Enoch and Elias Now in his humanity he was invested with glory he takes but three witnesses and those earthly and weak Peter James John And why these We may be too curious Peter because the eldest John because the dearest James because next Peter the zealousest Peter because he loved Christ most John because Christ most loved him James because next to both he loved and was loved most I had rather to have no reason but quia complacuit because it so pleased him Why may we not as well ask why he chose these twelve from others as why he chose these three out of the twelve If any Romanists will raise from hence any priviledge to Peter which we could be well content to yield if that would make them ever the honester men they must remember that they must take company with them which these Pompeian spirits cannot abide As good no privilege as any partners And withall they must see him more taxed for his errour in this act then honored by his presence at the act whereas the Beloved Disciple saw and erred not These same three which were witnesses of his Transfiguration in the mount were witnesses of his Agonie in the garden all three and these three alone were present at both but both times sleeping These were arietes gregis the Bell-wethers of the flock as Austin calls them Oh weak devotion of three great Disciples These were Paul's three pillars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2. 9. Christ takes them up twice once to be witnesses of his greatest Glory once of his greatest extremity they sleep both times The other was in the night more tolerable this by day yea in a light above day Chrysostome would fain excuse it to be an amazedness not a sleep not considering that they slept both at that Glory and after in the Agonie To see that Master praying one would have thought should have fetcht them on their knees especially to see those Heavenly affections look out at his Eyes to see his Soul lifted up in his Hands in that transported fashion to Heaven But now the hill hath wearied their â—ims their body clogs their Soul and they fall asleep Whiles Christ saw Divine visions they dreamed dreams whiles he was in another world ravished with the sight of his Fathers Glory yea of his own they were in another world a world of fancies surprized with the cozen of death sleep Besides so Gracious an example their own necessity Bernard's reason might have moved them to pray rather then their Master and behold in stead of fixing their eyes upon Heaven they shut them in stead of lifting up their hearts their heads fall down upon their shoulders and shortly here was snorting in stead of sighs and prayers This was not Abraham's or Elihu's ecstatical sleep Job 33. not the sleep of the Church a waking sleep but the plain sleep of the eyes and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slumbring sleep which David denies to himself Psal 132. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sound sleep which Salomon forbids Prov. 6. 4. yea rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead sleep of Adam or Jonas and as Bernard had wont to say when he heard a Monk snort they did carnaliter seu seculariter dormire Prayer is an ordinary receit for sleep How prone are we to it when we should minde Divine things Adam slept in Paradise and lost a Rib but this sleep was of God's giving and this Rib was of God's taking The good husband slept and found tares Eutychus slept and fell While Satan lulls us asleep as he doth always rock the cradle when we sleep in our Devotions he ever takes some good from us or puts some evil in us or indangers us a deadly fall Away with this spiritual Lethargie Bernard had wont to
Abraham answers they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them Behold here is both Moses and the Prophets and these too come from the dead how can we now but be perswaded of the happy state of another world unless we will make our selves worse then the damned See and consider that the Saints of God are not lost but departed gone into a far countrey with their Master to return again richer and better then they went Lest we should think this the condition of Elias onely that was rapt into Heaven see here Moses matched with him that died and was buried And is this the state of these two Saints alone Shall none be seen with him in the Tabor of Heaven but those which have seen him in Horeb and Carmel O thou weak Christian was onely one or two lims of Christs body glorious in the Transfiguration or the whole He is the Head we are the Members If Moses and Elias were more excellent parts Tongue or Hand let us be but Heels or Toes his body is not perfect in glory without ours When Christ which is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Colos 3. 4. How truely may we say to death Rejoyce not mine enemy though I fall yet shall I rise yea I shall rise in falling We shall not all sleep we shall be changed saith Saint Paul to his Thessalonians Elias was changed Moses slept both appeared to teach us that neither our sleep nor change can keep us from appearing with him When therefore thou shalt receive the sentence of death on Mount Nebo or when the fiery Chariot shall come and sweep thee from this vale of mortality remember thy glorious re-apparition with thy Saviour and thou canst not but be comforted and chearfully triumph over that last Enemie out-facing those terrors with the assurance of a blessed Resurrection to Glory To the which c. The second Part of the Meditations upon the Transfiguration of Christ In a Sermon preacht at White-Hall before K. James of Blessed memory IT fals out with this Discourse as with Mount Tabor it self that it is more easily climbed with the eye then with the foot If we may not rather say of it as Josephus did of Sinai that it doth not onely ascensus hominum but aspectus fatigare wearie not onely the steps but the very sight of men We had thought not to spend many breaths in the skirts of the hill the Circumstances and it hath cost us one hours journey already and we were glad to rest us ere we can have left them below us One pause more I hope will overcome them and set us on the top No Circumstance remains undiscussed but this one What Moses and Elias did with Christ in their apparition For they were not as some sleepie attendants like the three Disciples in the beginning to be there and see nothing nor as some silent spectators mute witnesses to see and say nothing but as if their Glory had no whit changed their profession they are Prophets still and foretold his departure as S. Luke tels us Foretold not to him which knew it before yea which told it them they could not have known it but from him he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word of his Father they told but that which he before had told his Disciples and now these Heavenly witnesses tell it over again for confirmation Like as John Baptist knew Christ before he was Vox clamantis the voice of a cryer the other Verbum Patris the Word of his Father there is great affinity betwixt vox and verbum yea this voice had uttered it self clearly Ecce agnus Dei Behold the Lamb of God yet he sends his Disciples with an Art thou he that he might confirm to them by him that which he both knew and had said of him So our Saviour follows his Fore-runner in this that what he knew and had told his Disciples the other Elias the typical John Baptist and Moses must make good to their belief This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 departure of Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word both hard and harsh hard to believe and harsh in believing The Disciples thought of nothing but a Kingdom a Kingdom restored magnificently interminably and two of these three witnesses had so swallowed this hope that they had put in for places in the State to be his chief Peers How could they think of a parting The throne of David did so fill their eyes that they could not see his Cross and if they must let down this Pill how bitter must it needs be His presence was their joy and life it was their death to think of his loss Now therefore that they might see that his Sufferings and Death were not of any sudden impotence but predetermined in Heaven and revealed to the Saints two of the most noted Saints in Heaven shall second the news of his departure and that in the midst of his Transfiguration that they could not chuse but think He that can be thus happy needs not be miserable that Passion which he will undergo is not out of weakness but out of Love It is wittily noted by that sweet Chrysostom◠that Christ never lightly spake of his Passion but immediately before and after he did some great Miracle And here answerably in the midst of his miraculous Transfiguration the two Saints speak of his Passion A strange opportunity In his highest Exaltation to speak of his Sufferings to talk of Calvary in Tabor when his Head shone with glory to tell him how it must bleed with thorns when his Face shone like the Sun to tell him it must be blubbered and spat upon when his Garments glistered with that celestial brightness to tell him they must be stripped and divided when he was adored by the Saints of Heaven to tell him how he must be scorned by the basest of men when he was seen between two Saints to tell him how he must be seen between two Malefactors in a word in the midst of his Divine Majesty to tell him of his shame and whilst he was Transfigured in the Mount to tell him how he must be disfigured upon the Cross Yet these two Heavenly Prophets found this the fittest time for this discourse rather chusing to speak of his Sufferings in the height of his Glory then of his Glory after his Sufferings It is most seasonable in our best to think of our worst estate for both that thought will be best digested when we are well and that change will be best prepared for when we are the furthest from it You would perhaps think it unseasonable for me in the midst of all your Court-jollity to tell you of the days of mourning and with that great King to serve in a Death's head amongst your Royal dishes to shew your Coffins in the midst of your Triumphs yet these precedents above exception shew me that no time is so fit as this Let me
had been witnesses of this man's want of eyes He sate begging at one of the Temple gates not only all the City but all the Country must needs know him thrice a year did they come up to Jerusalem neither could they come to the Temple and not see him His very blindness made him noted Deformities and infirmities of body do more easily both draw and fix the eye then an ordinary symmetry of parts Besides his Blindness his Trade made him remarkable the importunity of his begging drew the eyes of the passengers But of all other the Place most notified him Had he sate in some obscure village of Judaea or in some blinde lane of Jerusalem perhaps he had not been heeded of many but now that he took up his seat in the heart in the head of the chief City whither all resorted from all parts what Jew can there be that knows not the blinde begger at the Temple gate Purposely did our Saviour make choice of such a Subject for his Miracle a man so poor so publick the glory of the work could not have reach'd so far if it had been done to the wealthiest Citizen of Jerusalem Neither was it for nothing that the act and the man is doubted of and inquired into by the beholders Is not this he that sat begging Some said It is he others said It is like him No truths have received so full proofs as those that have been questioned The want or the suddain presence of an eye much more of both must needs make a great change in the face those little balls of light which no doubt were more clear then Nature could have made them could not but give a new life to the countenance I marvell not it the neighbours which had wont to see this dark visage led by a guide and guided by a staffe seeing him now walking confidently alone out of his own inward light and looking them chearfully in the face doubted whether this were he The miraculous cures of God work a sensible alteration in men not more in their own apprehension then in the judgment of others Thus in the redresse of the Spiritual blindnesse the whole habit of the man is changed Where before his Face looked dull and earthly now there is a sprightful chearfulness in it through the comfortable knowledge of God and Heavenly things Whereas before his Heart was set upon worldly things now he uses them but injoyes them not and that use is because he must not because he would Where before his fears and griefs were only for pains of body or losse of estate or reputation now they are only spent upon the displeasure of his God and the peril of his Soul So as now the neighbours can say Is this the man others It is like him it is not he The late-blinde man hears and now sees himself questioned and soon resolves the doubt I am he He that now saw the light of the Sun would not hide the light of Truth from others It is an unthankfull silence to smother the works of God in an affected secrecy To make God a loser by his bounty to us were a shamefull injustice We our selves abide not those sponges that suck up good turns unknown O God we are not worthy of our spiritual eye-sight if we do not publish thy mercies on the house top and praise thee in the great congregation Man is naturally inquisitive we search studiously into the secret works of Nature we pry into the reasons of the witty inventions of Art but if there be any thing that transcends Art and Nature the more high and abstruse it is the more busie we are to seek into it This thirst after hidden yea forbidden Knowledge did once cost us dear but where it is good and lawful to know inquiry is commendable as here in these Jews How were thine eyes opened The first improvement of humane Reason is inquisition the next is information and resolution and if the meanest events passe us not without a question how much lesse those that carry in them wonder and advantage He that was so ready to professe himself the Subject of the Cure is no niggard of proclaiming the Author of it A man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and sent me to Siloam to wash and now I see The blinde man knew no more then he said and he said what he apprehended A man He heard Jesus speak he felt his hand as yet he could look no further upon his next meeting he saw God in this man In matter of Knowledge we must be content to creep ere we can goe As that other recovered blinde man saw first men walk like trees after like men so no marvel if this man saw first this God only as man after this man as God also Onwards he thinks him a wonderfull man a mighty Prophet In vain shall we either exspect a suddain perfection in the understanding of Divine matters or censure those that want it How did this man know what Jesus did He was then stone-blinde what distinction could he yet make of persons of actions True but yet the blinde man never wanted the assistance of others eyes their relation hath assured him of the manner of his Cure besides the contribution of his other Senses his Eare might perceive the spittle to fall and hear the injoined command his Feeling perceived the cold moist clay upon his lids All these conjoined gave sufficient warrant thus to believe thus to report Our eare is our best guide to a full apprehension of the works of Christ The works of God the Father his Creation and Government are best known by the Eye The works of God the Son his Redemption and Mediation are best known by the Eare. O Saviour we cannot personally see what thou hast done here What are the monuments of thine Apostles and Evangelists but the relations of the blinde man's guide what and how thou hast wrought for us On these we strongly relie these we do no lesse confidently believe then if our very eyes had been witnesses of what thou didst and sufferedst upon earth There were no place for Faith if the Eare were not worthy of as much credit as the Eye How could the neighbours doe lesse then ask where he was that had done so strange a cure I doubt yet with what minde I fear not out of favour Had they been but indifferent they could not but have been full of silent wonder and inclined to believe in so Omnipotent an Agent Now as prejudiced to Christ and partial to the Pharisees they bring the late-blinde man before those professed enemies unto Christ It is the preposterous Religion of the Vulgar sort to claw and adore those which have tyrannically usurped upon their Souls though with neglect yea with contempt of God in his word in his works Even unjust authority will never want soothing up in whatsoever courses though with disgrace and opposition to the Truth Base mindes
let you ye would fain pull upon your selves the guilt of his blood he deprecates it ye kill he sues for your remission and life His tongue cries louder then his blood Father forgive them O Saviour thou couldst not but be heard Those who out of ignorance and simplicity thus persecuted thee find the happy issue of thine intercession Now I see whence it was that three thousand souls were converted soon after at one Sermon It was not Peter's speech it was thy prayer that was thus effectual Now they have grace to know and confess whence they have both forgiveness and salvation and can recompence their blasphemies with thanksgiving What sin is there Lord whereof I can despair of the remission or what offence can I be unwilling to remit when thou prayest for the forgiveness of thy murderers and blasphemers There is no day so long but hath his evening At last O blessed Saviour thou art drawing to an end of these painful sufferings when spent with toil and torment thou criest out I thirst How shouldst thou do other O dear Jesu how shouldst thou do other then thirst The night thou hadst spent in watching in prayer in agony in thy conveyance from the Garden to Jerusalem from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilate in thy restless answers in buffetings and stripes the day in arraignments in haling from place to place in scourgings in stripping in robing and disrobing in bleeding in tugging under thy Cross in woundings and distension in pain and passion No marvel if thou thirstedst Although there was more in this drought then thy need It was no less requisite thou shouldst thirst then that thou shouldst dye Both were upon the same predetermination both upon the same prediction How else should that word be verified Psal 22. 14 15. All my bones are out of joynt my heart is like waxe it is melted in the midst of my bowels My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jawes and thou hast brought me into the dust of death Had it not been to make up that word whereof one jot cannot pass though thou hadst felt this thirst yet thou hadst not bewrayed it Alas what could it avail to bemoan thy wants to insulting enemies whose sport was thy misery How should they pity thy thirst that pitied not thy bloodshed It was not their favour that thou expectedst herein but their conviction O Saviour how can we thy sinful servants think much to be exercised with hunger and thirst when we hear thee thus complain Thou that not long since proclaimedst in the Temple If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters now thy self thirstest Thou in whom we believe complainest to want some drops thou hadst the command of all the waters both above the firmament and below it yet thou wouldst thirst Even so Lord thou that wouldst dye for us wouldst thirst for us O give me to thirst after those waters which thou promisest whatever become of those waters which thou wouldst want The time was when craving water of the Samaritan thou gavest better then that thou askedst Oh give me to thirst after that more precious Water and so do thou give me of that water of life that I may never thirst again Blessed God how marvelously dost thou contrive thine own affaires Thine enemies whiles they would despight thee shall unwittingly justifie thee and convince themselves As thou fore saidst In thy thirst they gave thee vineger to drink Had they given thee Wine thou hadst not taken it the night before thou hadst taken leave of that comfortable liquor resolving to drink no more of that sweet juice till thou shouldst drink it new with them in thy Fathers Kingdome Had they given thee Water they had not fulfilled that prediction whereby they were self-condemned I know not now O dear Jesu whether this last draught of thine were more pleasing to thee or more distastful Distastful in it self for what liquor could be equally harsh pleasing in that it made up those Sufferings thou wert to indure and those Prophesies thou wert to fulfil Now there is no more to doe thy full consummation of all predictions of all types and ceremonies of all sufferings of all satisfactions is happily both effected and proclaimed nothing now remains but a voluntary sweet and Heavenly resignation of thy Blessed Soul into the hands of thine eternal Father and a bowing of thine head for the change of a better Crown and a peaceable obdormition in thy bed of ease and honour and an instant entrance into rest triumph Glory And now O blessed Jesu how easily have carnal eyes all this while mistaken the passages and intentions of this thy last and most glorious work Our weakness could hitherto see nothing here but pain and ignominy now my better-inlightned eyes see in this elevation of thine both honour and happiness Lo thou that art the Mediator betwixt God and man the reconciler of Heaven and earth art lift up betwixt earth and Heaven that thou mightest accord both Thou that art the great Captain of our Salvation the conquerour of all the adverse powers of death and hell art exalted upon this Triumphal chariot of the Cross that thou mightest trample upon death and drag all those Infernal Principalities manicled after thee Those arms which thine enemies meant violently to extend are stretched forth for the imbracing of all mankind that shall come in for the benefit of thine all-sufficient redemption Even whiles thou sufferest thou reignest Oh the impotent madness of silly men They think to disgrace thee with wrie faces with tongues put out with bitter scoffs with poor wretched indignities when in the mean time the Heavens declare thy righteousness O Lord and the earth shews forth thy power The Sun pulls in his light as not abiding to see the sufferings of his Creator the Earth trembles under the sense of the wrong done to her Maker the Rocks renâ— the veile of the Temple teares from the top to the bottome shortly all the frame of the world acknowledges the dominion of that Son of God whom man despised Earth and Hell have done their worst O Saviour thou art in thy Paradise and triumphest over the malice of men and Devils The remainders of thy Sacred person are not yet free The Souldiers have parted thy garments and cast lots upon thy seamless coat those poor spoils cannot so much inrich them as glorifie thee whose Scriptures are fulfilled by their barbarous sortitions The Jews sue to have thy bones divided but they sue in vain No more could thy garments be whole then thy body could be broken One inviolable Decree over-rules both Foolish executioners ye look up at that crucified Body as if it were altogether in your power and mercy nothing appears to you but impotence and death little do ye know what an irresistible guard there is upon that Sacred
desire to save the labour of Transcriptions I found it not unfit the World should see what Preparative was given for so stirring a Potion neither can there be so much need in these languishing times of any discourse as that which serves to quicken our Mortification wherein I so much rejoyce to have so happily met with those Reverend Bishops who led the way and followed me in this Holy Service The God of Heaven make all our endeavours effectuall to the saving of the Souls of his people Amen A SERMON PREACHED To his Majestie on the Sunday before the Fast being March 30. at White-hall In way of preparation for that holy Exercise By the B. of EXCESTER Galat. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live c. HE that was once tossed in the confluence of two Seas Acts 27. 41. was once no lesse streightned in his resolutions betwixt life and death Phil. 1. 23. Neither doth my Text argue him in any other case here As there he knew not whether he should chuse so here he knew not whether he had I am crucified there he is dead yet I live there he is alive again yet not I there he lives not but Christ in me there he more then lives This holy correction makes my Text full of wonders full of sacred riddles 1. The living God is dead upon the Crosse Christ crucified 2. S. Paul who died by the sword dies on the Cross 3. S. Paul who was not Paul till after Christ's death is yet crucified with Christ 4. S. Paul thus crucified yet lives 5. S. Paul lives not himself whiles he lives 6. Christ who is crucified lives in Paul who was crucified with him See then here both a Lent and an Easter A Lent of Mortification I am crucified with Christ an Easter of Resurrection and life I live yet not I but Christ lives in me The Lent of my Text will be sufficient as proper for this season wherein my speech shall passe through three long stages of discourse Christ crucified S. Paul crucified S. Paul crucified with Christ In all which your Honourable and Christian patience shall as much shorten my way as my care shall shorten the way to your patience Christ's Cross is the first lesson of our infancy worthy to be our last and all The great Doctor of the Gentiles affected not to flie any higher pitch Grande crucis Sacramentum as Ambrose This is the greatest wonder that ever earth or heaven yielded God incarnate was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but God suffering and dying was so much more as Death is more penal then Birth The God-head of man and the blood of God are two such Miracles as the Angels of Heaven can never enough look into never admire enough Ruffin tells us that among the Sacred Characters of the Egyptians the Cross was antiently one which was said to signifie eternal life hence their Learneder sort were converted to and confirmed in the Faith Surely we know that in God's Hieroglyphicks Eternal Life is both represented and exhibited to us by the Crosse That the Crosse of Christ was made of the Tree of Life a slip whereof the Angels gave to Adam's son out of Paradise is but a Jewish Legend Galatine may believe it not we but that it is made the Tree of Life to all believers we are sure This is the only scale of Heaven never man ascended thither but by it By this Christ himself climb'd up to his own glory Dominus regnavit à ligno as Tertullian translates that of the Psalm Father glorifie thy name that is saith he Duc me ad crucem Lift me up to the tree not of my shame but of my triumph Behold we preach Christ crucified saith Saint Paul to the Jews a stumbling-block to the Greeks foolishnesse but to them which are called Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1. 23. Foolish men that stumble at power and deride wisdome Upbraid us now ye fond Jews and Pagans with a Crucified Saviour It is our glory it is our happinesse which ye make our reproach Had not our Saviour died he could have been no Saviour for us had not our Saviour died we could not have lived See now the flag of our dear Redeemer this Cross shining eminently in loco pudoris in our foreheads and if we had any place more high more conspicuous more honourable there we would advance it O blessed Jesu when thou art thus lifted up on thy Cross thou drawest all hearts unto thee there thou leadest captivity captive and givest gifts unto men Ye are deceived O ye blinde Jews and Painims ye are deceived it is not a Gibbet it is a Throne of Honour to which our Saviour is raised a Throne of such Honour as to which Heaven and earth and hell do and must vail The Sun hides his awfull head the earth trembles the rocks rend the graves open and all the frame of Nature doth homage to their Lord in this secret but Divine pomp of Crucifixion And whiles ye think his feet and hands despicably fixed behold he is powerfully trampling upon Hell and Death and setting up trophees of his most glorious Victory and scattering everlasting Crowns and Scepters unto all Believers O Saviour I do rather more adore thee on the Calvary of thy Passion then on the Tabor of thy Transsiguration or the Olivet of thine Ascension and cannot so effectuously blesse thee for Pater clarifica Father glorifie me as for My God my God why hast thou forsaken me sith it is no news for God to be great and glorious but for the Eternal and ever-living God to be abased to be abased unto death to the death of the Cross is that which could not but amaze the Angels and confound Devils and so much more magnifies thine infinite Mercy by how much an infinite person would become more ignominious All Hosannas of men all Allellujahs of Saints and Angels come short of this Majestick humiliation Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Revel 5. 13. And ye Honourable and beloved as ever ye hope to make musick in Heaven learn to tune your harps to the note and ditty of these Heavenly Elders Rejoice in this and rejoice in nothing but this Cross not in your transitory Honours Titles Treasures which will at the last leave you inconsolately sorrowfull but in this Cross of Christ whereby the world is crucified to you and you to the world Oh clip and embrace this pretious Cross with both your arms and say with that blessed Martyr Amor meus crucifixus est My Love is crucified Those that have searched into the monuments of Jerusalem write that our Saviour was crucified with his face to the West which howsoever spightfully meant of the Jews as not allowing him worthy to look on the Holy City and Temple yet was not without a mysterie Oculi ejus super Gentes respiciunt
deadly condition As ye love your Souls give no sleep to your eyes nor peace to your hearts till ye find the sensible effects of the Death and Passion of Christ your Saviour within you mortifying all your corrupt affections and sinful actions that ye may truly say with S. Paul I am crucified with Christ Six several times do we find that Christ shed blood in his Circumcision in his Agonie in his Crowning in his Scourging in his Affixion in his Transfixion The instrument of the first was the Knife of the second vehemence of Passion of the third the Thorns of the fourth the Whips of the fifth the Nails of the last the Spear In all these we are we must be Partners with our Saviour In his Circumcision when we draw blood of our selves by cutting off the foreskin of our filthy if pleasing Corruptions Col. 2. 11. In his Agony when we are deeply affected with the sense of God's displeasure for sin and terrified with the frowns of an angry Father In his Crowning with thorns when we smart and bleed with reproches for the name of Christ when that which the world counts Honour is a pain to us for his sake when our guilty thoughts punish us and wound our restless heads with the sad remembrance of our sins In his Scourging when we tame our wanton and rebellious flesh with wise rigor and holy severity In his Affixion when all the powers of our Souls and parts of our body are strictly hampered and unremovably fastened upon the Royal Commandements of our Maker and Redeemer In his Transfixion when our hearts are wounded with Divine love with the Spouse in the Canticles or our Consciences with deep sorrow In all these we bleed with Christ and all these save the first onely belong to his Crucifying Surely as it was in the Old Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without bloodshed there was no remission Heb. 9. 22. so it is still and ever in the New If Christ had not thus bled for us no remission if we do not thus bleed with Christ no remission There is no benefit where is no partnership If Christ therefore bled with his Agony with his Thorns with his Whips with his Nails with his Spear in so many thousand passages as Tradition is bold to define and we never bleed either with the Agony of our sorrow for sin or the Thorns of holy cares for displeasure or the Scourges of severe Christian rigour or the Nails of holy constraint or the Spear of deep remorse how do we how can we for shame say we are crucified with Christ Divine S. Austin in his Epistle or Book rather to Honoratus gives us all the dimensions of the Cross of Christ The Latitude he makes in the transverse this saith he pertains to good Works because on this his hands were stretched The Length was from the ground to the transverse this is attributed to his longanimity and persistance for on that his Body was stayed and fixed The Height was in the head of the Cross above the transverse signifying the exspectation of supernal things The Depth of it was in that part which was pitcht below within the earth importing the profoundness of his free Grace which is the ground of all his beneficence In all these must we have our part with Christ In the Transverse of his Cross by the ready extension of our hands to all good Works of Piety Justice Charity in the Arrectary or beam of his Cross by continuance and uninterrupted perseverance in good in the Head of his Cross by an high elevated hope and looking for of Glory in the Foot of his Cross by a lively and firm Faith fastening our Souls upon the affiance of his free Grace and Mercy And thus shall we be crucified with Christ upon his own Cross Yet lastly we must goe further then this from his Cross to his Person So did S. Paul and every Believer die with Christ that he died in Christ For as in the first Adam we all lived and sinned so in the second all Believers died that they might live The first Adam brought in death to all mankind but at last actually died for none but himself the second Adam died for mankind and brought life to all Believers Seest thou thy Saviour therefore hanging upon the Cross all mankind hangs there with him as a Knight or Burgess of Parliament voices his whole Burrough or Country What speak I of this The arms and legs take the same lot with the head Every Believer is a lim of that body how can he therefore but die with him and in him That real union then which is betwixt Christ and us makes the Cross and Passion of Christ ours so as the thorns pierced our heads the scourages blooded our backs the nails wounded our hands and feet and the spear gored our sides and hearts by virtue whereof we receive justification from our sins and true mortification of our corruptions Every Believer therefore is dead already for his sins in his Saviour he needs not fear that he shall die again God is too just to punish twice for one fault to recover the summe both of the surety principal All the score of our arrerages is fully struck off by the infinite satisfaction of our Blessed Redeemer Comfort thy self therefore thou penitent and faithful Soul in the confidence of thy safety thou shalt not die but live since thou art already crucified with thy Saviour he died for thee thou diedst in him Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifies Who shall condemn It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and lives gloriously at the right hand of God making intercession for us To thee O Blessed Jesu together with thy Coeternal Father and Holy Spirit three Persons in one infinite and incomprehensible Deity be all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen ONE OF THE SERMONS Preached to the LORDS OF THE High Court of Parliament In their solemn Fast held on Ashwednesday Feb. 18. And by their Appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Acts 2. 37 38 40. 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 38. Then said Peter unto them Repent and be baptized c. 40. And with many other words did he testifie and exhort them saying Save your selves from this untoward generation WHO knows not that Simon Peter was a Fisher That was his trade both by Sea and Land if we may not rather say that as Simon he was a Fisher-man but as Peter he was a Fisher of men he that call'd him so made him so And surely his first draught of Fishes which as Simon he made at our Saviours Command might well be a trade Type of the first draught of men which as Peter he made in this place for as then the nets were ready to
heart of flesh Ezec. 11. 19. Are there any of us weary of carrying our old Adam about us a grievous burden I confess and that which is able to weigh us down to Hell do we groan under the load and long to be eased none but the Almighty hand can doe it by the power of Godliness creating us anew to the likeness of that second Adam which is from heaven heavenly without which there is no possibility of Salvation for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God In a word would we have this earth of ours translated to Heaven it is only the power of godliness can doe it And as this power of Godliness is great so no less beneficial beneficial every way both here and hereafter Here it frees us from evil it feoffes us in good Godliness is an Antidote against all mischief and misery yea such is the power of it that it not onely keeps us from evil but turns that evil to good All things work together to the best to them that love and fear God saith the Apostle Lo all things Crosses Sins Crosses are blessings Sins are advantages Saint Paul's Viper befriended him Saint Martin's Ellebore nourished him Saluti fuere pestifera as Seneca speaks And what can hurt him that is blessed by Crosses and is bettered by Sins It feoffes us in good Wealth Honour Contentment The Apostle puts two of them together Godliness is great gain with contentment 1 Tim. 6. 6. Here are no ifs or ands but gain great gain and gain with self-sufficiencie or contentment Wickedness may yield a gain such as it is for a time but it will be gravel in the throat gain farre from contentment Length of dayes are in the right hand of true wisedome and in her left hand riches and honour Prov. 3. 16. Lo honour and wealth are but gifts of the left hand common and mean favours length yea eternity of dayes is for the right that is the height of bounty Godliness hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come saith the Apostle the promise that is enough Gods promises are his performances with men to promise and to pay are two things they are one with God To them that by patient continuing in well-doing seek glory and honour and immortality eternal life Rom. 2. 7. Briefly for I could dwell here alwaies it is Godliness that onely can give us the beatifical sight of God The sight yea the fruition of him yea the union with him not by apposition not by adhesion but by a blessed participation of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. I can goe no higher no the Angels and Arch-angels cannot look higher then this To summe up all then Godliness can give wisedome to the fool eyes to the blind life to the dead it can eject Devils change the course of Nature create us anew free us from evil feoffe us in good honour wealth contentment everlasting happiness O the wonderful O the beneficial power of Godliness And now what is the desire of my Soul but that all this could make you in love with Godliness that in stead of the ambitions of Honour the tradings for Wealth the pursuit of Pleasure your hearts could be set on fire with the zealous affectation of true Godliness Alas the least overture of any of these makes us mad of the world if but the shadow of a little Honour Wealth Promotion Pleasure be cast before us how eagerly do we prosecute it to the eternal hazard of our Souls Behold the substance of them all put together offers it self in Godliness How zealously should we embrace them and never give rest to our Souls till we have laid up those true grounds of Happiness which shall continue with us when all our Riches and earthly Glory shall lye down with us in the dust Alas Noble and Christian hearers ye may be outwardly great and inwardly miserable it was a great Caesar that said I have been all things and am never the better It is not your Bags ye wealthy Citizens that can keep the Gout from your joints or Care from your hearts It is not a Coronet ye great Peers that can keep your heads from aching all this earthly pomp and magnificence cannot keep out either death or conscience Our Prosperity presents us as goodly Lilies which whiles they are whole look fair and smell sweet but if once bruised a little as nasty both in sight and sent It is only Godliness that can hold up our heads in the evil day that can bid us make a mock at all the blustering storms of the world that can protect us from all miseries which if they kill yet they cannot hurt us that can improve our sufferings and invest us with true and eternal Glory O then be covetous be ambitious of this blessed estate of the Soul and as Simon Macchabaeus with three yeares labour took down the top of mount Acra in Jerusalem that no hill might stand in competition of height with the Temple of God so let us humble and prostrate all other desires to this one that true Godliness may have the sway in us Neither is this consideration more fit to be a whetstone to our zeal then a touchstone to our condition Godliness why it is an herb that grows in every soil As Platina observes that for 900 yeares and upwards none of those Popes to whom Sanctity is ascribed in the abstract were yet held Saints after their death except Celestine the 5 which gave up the Pontifical Chair after six Moneths weary sitting in it so on the contrary we may live Ages ere we heare a man profess himself God-less whiles he is abominably such He is too bad that will not be thought Godly as it is a brazen-fac'd Curtezan that would not be held honest That which Lactantius said of the Heathen Philosophers that they had many Scholars few followers I cannot say of the Divine we have enough to learn enough to imitate but few to act Be not deceived Godliness is not impotent whereever Godliness is there is power Hath it then prevailed to open our eyes to see the great things of our peace hath it raised us up from the grave of our sins ejected our hellish corruptions changed our wicked natures new created our hearts well may we applaud our selves in the confidence of our Godliness But if we be still old still corrupt still blind still dead still devilish away vain Hypocrites ye have nothing to doe with Godliness because Godliness hath had no power on you Are ye godly that care to know any thing rather then God and spiritual things Are ye godly that have neither ability nor will to serve that God whom ye fashionably pretend to know Are ye godly which have no inward awe of that God whom ye pretend to serve no government of your Passions no Conscience of your Actions no care of your Lives False Hypocrites ye do but abuse and profane that name which ye unjustly
Church cannot abide either Conventicles of Separation or pluralities of professions or appropriations of Catholicism Catholick Romane is an absurd Donatian Solecism This is to seek Orbem in urbe as that Council said well Happy were it for that Church if it were a sound lim though but the little toe of that mighty and precious body wherein no believing Jew or Indian may not challenge to be jointed Neither difference of time nor distance of place nor rigor of unjust censure nor any unessential errour can barre our interest in this blessed Unity As this flourishing Church of great Britain after all the spightfull calumniations of malicious men is one of the most conspicuous members of the Catholick upon earth so we in her Communion do make up one body with the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and faithfull Christians of all ages and times We succeed in their Faith we glory in their Succession we triumph in this Glory Whither go ye then ye weak ignorant seduced souls that run to seek this Dove in a forein cote She is here if she have any nest under Heaven Let me never have part in her or in Heaven if any Church in the world have more part in the Universal Why do we wrong our selves with the contradistinction of Protestant and Catholick We do only protest this that we are perfect Catholicks Let the pretensed look to themselves we are sure we are as Catholick as true Faith can make us as much one as the same Catholick Faith can make us and in this undoubted right we claim and injoy the sweet and inseparable communion with all the blessed members of that mystical body both in earth and Heaven and by virtue thereof with the glorious Head of that dear and happy body Jesus Christ the righteous the Husband to this one Wife the Mate to this one Dove to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one God be given all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen THE FASHIONS OF THE WORLD Laid forth in a SERMON at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By J. H. Rom. 12. 2. Fashion not your selves like to this World but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde c. THAT which was wont to be upbraided as a scorn to the English may be here conceived the Embleme of a Man whom ye may imagine standing naked before you with a paire of sheers in his hand ready to cut out his own fashion In this deliberation the World offers it self to him with many a gay misshapen fantasticall dresse God offers himself to him with one onely fashion but a new one but a good one The Apostle like a friendly monitor adviseth him where to pitch his choice Fashion not your selves like to this world but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde How much Christianity crosses Nature we need no other proof then my Text. There is nothing that Nature affects so much as the Fashion and no fashion so much as the worlds for our usuall word is Doe as the most And behold that is it which is here forbidden us Fashion not your selves like to this world All fashions are either in Device or Imitation There are vain heads that think it an honour to be the founders of Fashions there are servile fools that seek onely to follow the Fashion once devised In the first rank is the World which is nothing but a mint of Fashions yet which is strange all as old as mis-beseeming We are forbidden to be in the second If the World will be so vain as to mis-shape it self we may not be so foolish as to follow it Let us look a little if you please at the Pattern here damn'd in my Text The world As in extent so in expression the World hath a large scope yea there are more Worlds then one There is a world of creatures and within that there is a world of men and yet within that a world of believers and yet within all these a world of corruptions More plainly there is a good world an evil world an indifferent A good world as of the creatures in regard of their first birth so of men in regard of their second a world of renewed Souls in the first act of their renovation believing Joh. 17. 20. upon their belief reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 19. upon their reconcilement saved Joh. 3. 16. An evil world yea set in evil 1 Joh. 5. 19. a world of corrupt unregeneration that hates Christ and his Joh. 15. 18. that is hated of Christ Jam. 4. 4. An indifferent world that is good or evil as it is used whereof St. Paul Let those that use the world be as not abusing it 1 Cor. 7. 31. This indifferent world is a world of commodities affections improvement of the creature which if we will be wise Christians we must fashion to us framing it to our own bent whether in want or abundance The good world is a world of Saints whose Souls are purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. To this world we may be fashioned The evil world is a world of mere men and their vicious conditions God hath made us the lords of the indifferent world himself is the Lord of the good Satan is lord of the evil Princeps hujus Seculi And that is most properly the world because it contains the most as it is but a chaffe-heap wherein some grains of wheat are scattered To this evil world then we may not fashion our selves in those things which are proper to it as such in natural in civil actions we may we must follow the world singularity in these things is justly odious herein the World is the true master of Ceremonies whom not to follow is no better then a Cynicall irregularity in things positively or morally evil we may not There is no material thing that hath not his form the outward form is the fashion the fashion of outward things is variable with the times so as every external thing cloaths building plate stuffe gesture is now in now out of fashion but the fashions of Morality whether in good or evil are fixed and perpetual The world passeth and the fashion of it but the evil of the fashions of the world is too constant and permanent and must be ever the matter of our detestation Fashion not your selves like to this world But because evils are infinite as wise Solomon hath observed it will be requisite to call them to their heads and to reduce these forbidden fashions to the several parts whereto they belong I cannot dream with Tertullian that the Soul hath a Body but I may well say that the Soul follows the body and as it hath parts ascribed to it according to the outward proportion so are these parts suited with severall fashions Let your patient attention follow me through them all Begin with the Head a part not more eminent in place then in power What is the
Horseleach that cry still Give give Prov. 30. 15. Give is for Christians but Give give is for worldlings as it was the doubling of the stroke upon the Rock that offended If we be Christians we are richer then the world can make us Having therefore food and raiment let us be therewith content 1 Tim. 6. 8. But if thou wilt needs inlarge thy boundlesse desires take this with thee there is somewhat as unsatiable as thine eye The grave and hell never say It is enough Prov. 30. 16. Thus fashion not your eye to the Covetousnesse of the world The next is the Proud looks There is a generation O how lofty are their eyes and their eye-lids are lifted up Prov. 30. 13. There is nay where is there any other The world is all such admiring it self scorning all others And if ever now is that of the Prophet verified The childe shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honourable Esa 3. 5. One prides himself in his bags another in his gay coat one in his titles another in his fame one in agility another in skill one in strength another in beauty Every one hath something to look big upon Oh fools either ignorant or forgetfull of what ye are of what ye shall be goe on to wonder at your poor miserable glory and greatness ye are but lift up for a fall your height is not so sure as your ruine ruine to the dust yea to hell Him that hath a proud heart will I not suffer faith God Psal 101. 5. Fashion not your eye therefore to the Pride of the world The last is the Envious eye by an eminence called Oculus nequam an evil eye Is thine eye evil because I am good saith the Housholder Mat. 20. 15. As if Envy had ingrossed all malignity into her own hands This cast of the eye the World learned of the Devil who when himself was fallen could not abide that man should stand Far be it from us to learn it of the World As happy is this vice is executioner enough to it self Putredo ossium invidentia Envy is the rotting of the bones Prov. 14. 30. And where other earthly torments die with men this follows them into Hell and shall there torture them eternally The wicked shall see it and shall be grieved frendens contabescet and shall gnash and pine Psal 112. 10. Fashion not your eye therefore to the Envy of the world We have done with the Eye in the Uncleanness Covetousness Pride Envy of it we might have taken the Forehead in our way that is the seat of Impudency it is frons aerea a brow of brasse Esa 48. 4. yea meretricia an whores forehead that refuses to be ashamed Jer. 3. 4. yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giant-like confronting Heaven which Ecclesiasticus prayes to be delivered from Ecclus. 2. 3. 5. that can boldly bear out a sin committed either out-facing the fact as Gehezi or the fault as Saul This is the fashion of the world by lyes imprecations perjuries to outbrave the most just reproof A wicked man hardneth his face Prov. 21. 29. This fashion is not for us Christians If we cannot be guiltlesse we cannot be shamelesse at least we can blush at our sins The dye of our Repentance strives with the crimson of our Offence and we can out of the true remorse of our Souls say with the Prophet We lie down in our shame and our confusion covereth us for we have sinned against the Lord our God Jer. 3. 25. Thus fashion not your Forehead to the Impudence of the world We passe to the Eare wherein there is a double fashion to be avoided First there is a Deaf eare shut up against all instruction like the Adder's against the charm Psal 58. 5. How shut up A filme or fore-skin is grown over it which hinders the way of the voice Jer. 6. 10. Behold their eare is uncircumcised and they cannot hearken Hence it is that we preach in vain we labour in vain to what purpose do we tear our throats and spend our lungs and force our sides in suing to a deaf world Who hath believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed If ever we will hear the voice of the Son of God and live we must therefore have our eares opened this our fore-skin must be pierced Aurem perforasti mihi Thou hast digged my eare as the word originally sounds Psal 40. 6. The finger of our Omnipotent Saviour must doe it and his Ephphatha Mar. 7. 34. Let the deaf world perish in their infidelity and disobedience but for us let us say with Samuel Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth Secondly there is an Itching eare 2 Tim. 4. 3. that out of a wanton curiosity affects change of doctrine How commonly do we see a kinde of Epicurisme in the eare which when it hath fed well of many good dishes longs to surfeit of a strange composition Yea there is an appetitus caninus that passing by wholsome viands falls upon unmeet and foul-feeding morsels We have heard Sermons enough Oh now for a Masse We have heard our owne Divines Oh for a Jesuite at a Vespers Oh foolish Israelites who hath bewitched you that loathing the Manna of Angels your mouth should hang towards the Egyptian garlick God hath a medicine in store for this itch if we prevent him not Tinnient aures saith he Jer. 19. 3. If our eares itch after strange doctrine others ears shall tingle at our strange Judgements The God of Mercy prevent it and since we accurse our selves if we speak any other words then our Masters say you to Christ speaking by us Master whither shall we goe from thee thou hast the words of eternall life Thus fashion not your Eare to the deafnesse to the inconstancy of the world The ill fashions of the Tongue call me to them whereof the variety is no lesse infinite then of words forbidden and offensive The Eye and the Eare are receivers but the Tongue is a spender and it layes out according to the store of the heart For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh saith our Saviour No words can expresse the choice of ill words I will limit my speech to three ill fashions of the Tongue Falshood Maliciousnesse Obscenity 1. The world hath a False tongue in his head false every way in broaching of errours in sophistry of their maintenance in deceits and cozenages of contracts in lies whether assertory which breed misreports or promissory which cause disappointments in perjuries in equivocations in flatteries and humouring of men or times What a world of untruth offers it self here to us Lord whom can a man speak with that he dares believe whom dares he believe that deceives him not How is that of the Psalm verified Diminutae sunt veritates Truth is minished from the children of men Yea let it be from the children of men it is a shame it should be thus
more to the enemy of God of whom we say commonly As proud as the Devil For that once-glorious Angel looking upon his own excellency wherewith he was invested in his creation began to be lift up in himself made himself his own Alpha and Omega acknowledging no essential dependance upon God as his beginning no necessary reference to God as his end and therefore was tumbled down into that bottomless dungeon and reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgement of the great day This is it which some think Saint Paul alludes to when he charges that a Bishop should not be a novice left he should be puffed up and fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. Now there are so many kinds of Pride as there are imaginary causes of self-exaltation and there are so many causes imagined hereof as there are things reputed more precious and excellent in the eyes of the world I might send you to Hugo's Chariot of Pride drawn with four horses that Age knew no more and the four wheels of it if I listed to mount Pride curiously but I will shew you her on foot To speak plainly therefore These five things are wont commonly to be the matter of our Pride Honour Riches Beauty Strength Knowledge Every of them shall have a word Those that are tainted with the first are State-proud Bladders puft up with the wind of Honour Thus Ninive Behold I sit as a Queen I am and there is none else Thus the insolent officer of Sennacherib Who art thou that thou despisest the least of my Masters servants Vicina potentibus superbia as that Father said Pride is an usual neighbour to greatness How hard is it for eminent Persons when they see all heads bare all knees bowed to them not to be raised up in their conceits not to applaud their own glory and to look overly upon the ignoble multitude as those which are Terrae filii mushroms worthy of nothing but contempt Hence it is that proud ones are incompatible with each other Look upon other Vices ye shall see one Drunkard hug another one debauch'd Wanton love another one Swearer one Profane beast delight in another but one Proud man cannot abide another as one twig cannot bear two Red-breasts Both would be best Caesar will not indure an equal nor Pompey a superiour The second are Purse-proud Vermis divitiarum superbia as St. Austin wittily Pride is in the Purse as the worm in the Apple Thus Nabal because he hath money in his bags and stock on his ground sends a scornful message to poor David though a better man then himself Many servants run away from their Masters now adaies How many examples meet us every where of this kind of them which having scrap'd together a little money more then their neighbours look big upon it and scorn the need of the better deserving and bluster like a tempest and think to bear down even good causes before them Secundas fortunas decent superbiae as the Comedian Pride becomes the wealthy Thus Solomon notes in his time that the rich speaks with commands the words weigh according to the Purse The third are the Skin-proud for Beauty goes no deeper such as with Jezebel lick themselves and with Narcissus dote upon their own Faces thinking it a wrong in any that sees them and admires them not spending all their thoughts and their time in fashions and complexion as if their Soul lay in their hide despising the ordinary forms of vulgar persons yea of the most beneficial nature Elatus erat animus tuus propter pulcritudinem Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty saith Ezekiel 28. 17. The fourth are the Sinew-proud which presume upon their own Strength and vigor Elatum cor robore saies the same Ezekiel 28. 5. As Goliah who dares in the confidence of his own arm challenge the whole hoast of God and scorns the dwarfs and shrimps of Israel The fifth is the Skill-proud puffed up with the conceit of Knowledge as Knowledge is indeed of a swelling nature There is much affinity betwixt Knowledge and Pride both came out of one Country for Pride is also natione coelestis as Hierom well and since she cannot climbe up thither again she will be mounting as high as she can towards it Every smatterer thinks all the Circle of Arts confined to the closet of his breast and as Job speaks of his haughty friends that all wisdome lives in him and dyes with him Hence is that curiosity of knowing vain querks of speculation hence singularity of opinion hating to go in the common track hence impatience of contradiction hence contempt of the mediocrity of others Out of this impatience Zidkijah could smite Michaiah on the eare and as buffeting him double say Which way went the Spirit of God from me to thee Out of this contempt the Scribes and Pharisees could say Turba haec this Laity that knows not the Law is accursed But besides these five a man may be proud of any thing yea of nothing yea of worse then nothing Evil. There may be as much Pride in rags as in tissues Diogenes tramples upon Plato's pride but with another pride And we commonly observe that none are so proud as the foulest In what kind soever it be the more a man reflects upon himself by seeking loving admiring the more proud he is the more damnable is his Pride But as in all other cases Pride is odious to God so most of all in point of Religion and in those matters wherein we have to doe with God A proud face or a proud back or a proud arm or a proud purse are hateful things but a proud Religion is so much worse as the subject should be better Let this then be the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of true or false Religion That which teacheth us to exalt God most and most to depress our selves is the true that which doth most pranck up our selves and detract from God is the false It was the rule of Bonaventure whom the Romanists honour for a Saint Hoc piarum mentium est c. This is the part of pious Souls to ascribe nothing to themselves all to the Grace of God So as how much soever a man attributes to the Grace of God he shall not swerve from Piety in detracting from Nature but if he substract never so little from the Grace of God and give it to Nature he indangers himself and offends In the safety of this proof our Doctrine triumphs over the Romish in all those Points wherein it opposeth ours Ours stands ever on Gods side exalting his free Grace and mere Mercy as the causes of our Salvation theirs dividing this great work betwixt God and themselves Gods Grace and mans Free-will and ascribing that to Merit which we to Mercy Herein Popery is pure Pharisaisme and comes within the verge of Spiritual Pride Solomon's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insolent men
these self-humiliations are thankless and faulty It will be long enough ere the Superstitious Servile Hypocritical Brutish Humility shall advance us other then to the scaffold of our execution The True Humility is when a man is modestly lowly in his own eyes and sincerely abased in his heart and carriage before God And this self-humiliation is either in respect of Temporal or Spiritual things Of Temporal when a man thinks any condition good enough for him and therefore doth not unduly intrude himself into the preferments of the world whether in Church or Commonwealth When he thinks meanly of his own parts and actions highly and reverently of others and therefore in giving honour goes before others in taking it behind them Of Spiritual when he is vile in himself especially in respect of his sins and therefore abhors himself in sackcloth and ashes when the Grace that he hath he can acknowledge but not over-rate yea he takes it so low as he may do without wrong to the giver when for all Blessings he can awfully look up to his Creator and Redeemer ascribing all to him referring all to him depending for all upon him so much more magnifying the Mercy of God as he is more sensible of his own Unworthiness This is the true though short character of Humility A plain Grace ye see but lovely From which let it please you to turn your eyes to the Blessing allotted to it which is so expressed in the Original that it may either run The humble in spirit shall enjoy honour as in the former Translation or Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit as in the latter In both Honour is the portion of the humble for the raising of him in the one for the preserving of him in the other Honour from whom From God from men Even the good man of the house will say Friend sit up higher For though with vain men he is most set by that can most set our himself yet with the wiser the more a man dejects himself the more he is honoured It cannot stand with the justice of the truly-vertuous to suffer a man to be a loser by his Humility Much less will God abide it A broken heart O God thou wilt not despise saith the Psalmist and Pullati extolluntur salute The mourners are exalted with safety saith Eliphaz in Job 5. 11. The Lord lifteth up the meek saith David out of good proof and needs must he rise whom God lifteth What should we need any other precedent of this Vertue or other example of this Reward then our Blessed Saviour himself all other are worthy of forgetfulness in comparison Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equall with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant c. and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross O God what an incomprehensible dejection was here that the living God should descend from the highest Glory of Heaven and put upon him the rags of our Humanity and take on him not the man onely but the servant yea the malefactor abasing himself to our infirmities to our indignities to be reviled spat upon scourged wounded crucified yea all these are easie tasks to that which follows to be made a mark of his Fathers wrath in our stead so as in the bitterness of his Soul he is forced to cry out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me What heart of man yea what apprehension of Angels can be capable of fadoming the depth of this Humiliation Answerable to thy dejection O Saviour was thine exaltation as the conduit-water rises at least as high as it falls Now is thy name above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should how of things in Heaven in earth under the earth Neither meanest thou to be our Saviour onely but our pattern too I do not hear thee say Learn of me for I am Almighty I am Omniscient but Learn of me that I am meek If we can go down the steps of thine Humiliation we shall rise up the stairs of thy Glory Why do we not then say I will be yet more vile for the Lord Oh cast down your crowns with the twenty four Elders Apoc. 4. 10. before the Throne of God Humble your seves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Jam. 4. 10. Indeed there is none of us but hath just cause to be humbled whether we consider the wretchedness of our Nature or of our Estate What is the best flesh and blood but a pack of dust made up together into a stirring heap which in the dissolution molders to dust again When I consider the Heavens and see the Sun the Moon and the Stars as they stand in their order Lord what is man that thou regardest him what a Worm what an Ant what a nothing who besides his homeliness is still falling asunder for even of the greatest and best-composed is that of the Psalm verified Universa vanitas omnis homo Every man is all vanity Alas then what is it we should be proud of Is it Wealth What is the richest metal but red and white earth And that whereof too we may say as the Sons of the Prophets of their hatchet Alas Master it was but lent What speak I of this when our very breath is not our own The best praise of Coin is that it is current it runs from us yea it is volatile as wise Solomon Riches have wings and if they leave not us we must them We brought nothing hither and according to the proclamation of that great King we must carry nothing with us but our winding-sheet yea rather that must carry us Is it our Land How long is that ours That shall be fixed when we are gone and shall change as it hath done many Masters But withall where is it I remember what is reported of Socrates and Alcibiades Aelian tells the story Socrates saw Alcibiades proud of his spacious fields and wide inheritance he calls for a Map looks for Greece and finding it asks Alcibiades where his lands lay When he answered they were not laid forth in the Map Why said Socrates art thou proud of that which is no part of the earth What a poor spot is the dominion of the greatest King but what a nothing is the possession of a Subject A small parcel of a Shire not worthy the name of a Chorographer And had we with Licinius as much as a Kite could fly over yea if all the whole Globe were ours six or seven foot will serve us at the last Is it our Honour Alas that is none of ours for Honour is in him that gives it not in him that receives it And if the Plebeians will be stubborn or uncivil and respectless where is Honour and when we have it what a poor puffe is this how windy how unsatisfying Insomuch
it be possible it may rise up no more Why do not we spend the whole quiver of Gods threatned vengeance upon wilful sinners And thus must we bait the beast Is it a Drunken beast we are committed with Wo to them that rise up early to follow strong drink Esa 5. 11. Wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink to make him drunk Abac. 2. 15. The cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned to that man vomitus ignominiosus ad gloriam verse 16. Oh it is a bitter cup this of the Lords right hand whereof he shall wring out the dregs unto that soul so as in stead of quaffing the excessive healths of others he shall drink up his own death and eternal confusion Is it a Gluttonous beast Wo to him his God is his belly his glory shall be in his shame and his end damnation Phil. 3. 19. Whiles the flesh is yet between his teeth ere it be chewed the wrath of the Lord is kindled against him Numb 11. 33. Yea but it goes down sweetly Oh fool the meat in thy belly shall be turned into the gall of Asps within thee Job 20. 14. Vae saturis Wo be to the full for they shall hunger they shall famish to death and dye famishing and live dying and have enough of nothing but fire and brimstone Is it a Ravenous beast a Covetous oppressour His tooth like a mad dogs envenomes and emphrensies so saith Solomon that knew the nature of all beasts Oppression makes a wise man mad Eccles. 7. 7. Tabifici sunt Ps 79. 7. Wo be to you that joyn house to house Es 5. 8. Wo be to the mighty sins of them whose treadings are upon the poor that afflict the just that take bribes and turn away the poor in the gates Amos 5. 11 12. Therefore the Lord the God of Hoasts saith thus Wailing shall be in all their streets and they shall say in all high-waies Alas alas verse 16. They have robbed their poor Tenants and oppressed the afflicted in the gate therefore the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them Is it an Unclean beast Whoso committeth adultery with a woman destroyeth his own soul Prov. 6. 32. A fornicator in the body of his flesh will never cease till he have kindled a fire Ecclus. 23. 16. His fire of lust flames up into a fire of disease and burns down into the fire of Hell Is it a Foul-mouth'd beast that bellows out Blasphemies and bloody Oaths There is a word that is cloathed about with death God grant it be not found in the heritage of Jacob Ecclus. 23. 12. A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house verse 11. Thus must we lay about us spiritu or is yea gladio spiritûs and let drive at the Beast of what kind soever But if we shall still find that which blind Homer saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the worse hath the better and that this spiritual edge shall either turn again or through our weak wieldance not enter the stubborn and thick hide of obdured hearts give me leave most Gracious Soveraign and ye honorable Peers to whom is committed the sword of either supreme or subordinate Justice to say that both God and the world expects that this Beast of sin should be baited by you in another fashion It is not for nothing that God hath set you so conspicuously in this great Amphitheatre where the eyes of Angels and men are bent upon you and that he hath given into your hands the powerful instruments of death If this pernicious beast dare contest with our weakness and oft-times leave us gasping and bleeding on this pavement yet we know that it cannot but fall under the power of your mercy yea your vengeance Oh let it please you to rouze up your brave and Princely spirits and to give the fatal blow to presumptuous wickedness If that monster of impious Sacriledge of atheous Profaneness of outragious Inordinateness dares lift up his hated head in the sight of this Sun let him be straight crushed with the weight of that Royal Scepter let him be hewn in pieces with the sharp sword of your Sacred Authority As we abound with wholesome Laws for the repressing of vice so let it please you in an holy zeal to revive their hearty and effectual execution that the precious Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we profess may not be either shamed or braved by insolent wickedness that Justice and Peace may flourish in our Land and that your Crown may long and happily flourish upon that Royal head until it shall receive a late and blessed exchange for a Crown of Glory and Immortality in the highest Heavens Amen THE OLD RELIGION A TREATISE Wherein Is laid down the true State of the difference betwixt the REFORMED and ROMANE CHURCH and the blame of this Schism is cast upon the true Authors Serving for the Vindication of our Innocence for the setling of wavering mindes for a Preservative against Popish Insinuations With an ADVERTISEMENT for such Readers as formerly stumbled at some passages in the Book By JOS. HALL B. of Exon. LONDON Printed by James Flesher in the year M DC LXI TO My new and dearly-affected CHARGE the Diocese of EXCESTER All Grace and Benediction THE truth of my heart gives me boldness to profess before him who onely knows it that the same God who hath called me to the over-sight of your Souls hath wrought in me a zealous desire of your Salvation This desire cannot but incite me to a careful prevention of those dangers which might threaten the disappointment of so happy an end Those Dangers are either Sins of Practice or Errours of Doctrine Against both these I have faithfully vowed my utmost endeavours I shall labour against the first by Preaching Example Censures wherein it shall be your choice to expect either the Rod or the Spirit of meekness Against the latter my Pen hath risen up in this early assault It hath been assured me that in this time of late Vacancie false Teachers catching the fore-lock of Occasion have been busie in scattering the tares of Errours amongst you I easily believe it since I know it is not in the power of the greatest vigilancie to hinder their attempts of evil Even a full See is no sufficient barre to crafty Seducers their Suggestions we cannot prevent their Success we may This I have here assay'd to doe bending my style against Popish Doctrine with such Christian moderation as may argue zeal without malice desire to win Souls no will to gall them And since the commonest of all the grounds of Romish deceit is the pretence of their Age and our Novelty and nothing doth more dazle the eyes of the simple then the name of our Fore-fathers and the challenge of a particular recital of our Professours before Luther's revolt I have I hope fully cleared this coast so
me thus imperfectly happy before my time that when my time shall be no more I may be perfectly happy with thee in all Eternity XCII Upon the sight of an Harlot carted WIth what noise and tumult and zeal of solemn Justice is this sin punished The Streets are not more full of beholders then clamors Every one strives to expresse his detestation of the fact by some token of revenge one casts Mire another Water another rotten Egges upon the miserable offender neither indeed is she worthy of lesse but in the mean time no man looks home to himself It is no uncharity to say that too many insult in this just Punishment who have deserved more Alas we men value sins by the outward Scandall but the Wise and Holy God against whom onely our sins are done esteems them according to the intrinsecal Iniquity of them and according to the secret violation of his Will and Justice thus those Sins which are slight to us are to him hainous We ignorants would have rung David's Adultery with Basons but as for his numbring of the people we should have past it over as venial the wise Justice of the Almighty found more wickedness in this which we should scarce have accused Doubtlesse there is more mischief in a secret Infidelity which the World either cannot know or cares not to censure then in the foulest Adultery Publick sins have more Shame private may have more Guilt If the world cannot charge me of those it is enough that I can charge my Soul of worse Let others rejoice in these publick Executions let me pity the sins of others and be humbled under the sense of my own XCIII Upon the smell of a Rose SMelling is one of the meanest and least usefull of the Senses yet there is none of the Five that receives or gives so exquisite a contentment as it Methinks there is no earthly thing that yields so perfect a pleasure to any Sense as the odour of the first Rose doth to the Sent. It is the Wisdome and Bounty of the Creator so to order it that those Senses which have more affinity with the body and with that earth whereof it is made should receive their delight and contentation by those things which are bred of the earth but those which are more sprightfull and have more affinity with the Soul should be reserved for the perfection of their pleasure to another world There and then only shall my Sight make my Soul eternally blessed XCIV Upon a cancelled Bond. WHiles this Obligation was in force I was in servitude to my parchment my Bond was double to a Payment to a Penalty now that is discharged what is it better then a wast scroll regarded for nothing but the witness of its own voidance and nullity No otherwise is it with the severe Law of my Creator Out of Christ it stands in full force and bindes me over either to perfect Obedience which I cannot possibly perform or to exquisite torment and eternall Death which I am never able to indure but now that my Saviour hath fastened it cancelled to his Cross in respect of the rigour and malediction of it I look upon it as the monument of my past danger and bondage I know by it how much was owed by me how much was payed for me The direction of it is everlasting the obligation by it unto death is frustrate I am free from Curse who never can be free from Obedience O Saviour take thou Glory and give me Peace XCV Upon the report of a great losse by Sea THe Earth and the Water are both of them great givers and both great takers As they give matter and sustentation to all Sublunary creatures so they take all back again insatiably devouring at last the fruits of their own wombs Yet of the two the Earth is both more beneficial and lesse cruell for as that yields us the most generall maintenance and wealth and supportation so it doth not lightly take ought from us but that which we resign over to it and which naturally falls back unto it Whereas the Water as it affords but a small part of our livelihood and some few knacks of ornament so it is apt violently to snatch away both us and ours and to bereave that which it never gave it yields us no precious Metalls and yet in an instant fetches away millions And yet notwithstanding all the hard measure we receive from it how many do we daily see that might have firm ground under them who yet will be trusting to the mercy of the Sea Yea how many that have hardly crawled out from a desperate shipwrack will yet be trying the fidelity of that unsure and untrusty Element O God how venturous we are where we have reason to distrust how incredulously fearfull where we have cause to be confident Who ever relied upon thy gracious Providence and sure Promises O Lord and hath miscarried Yet here we pull in our Faith and make excuses for our Diffidence And if Peter have tried those waves to be no other then solid pavement under his feet whiles his Soul trod confidently yet when a billow and a winde agree to threaten him his Faith flags and he begins to sink O Lord teach me to doubt where I am sure to finde nothing but uncertainty and to be assuredly confident where there can be no possibility of any cause of doubting XCVI Upon sight of a bright Skie full of Stars I Cannot blame Empedocles if he professed a desire to live upon earth only that he might behold the face of the Heavens surely if there were no other this were a sufficient errand for a mans being here below to see and observe these goodly Spangles of Light above our heads their places their quantities their motions But the employment of a Christian is far more noble and excellent Heaven is open to him and he can look beyond the veil and see further above those Stars then it is thither and there discern those Glories that may answer so rich a pavement Upon the clear sight whereof I cannot but wonder if the chosen Vessel desired to leave the earth in so happy an exchange O God I blesse thine Infiniteness for what I see with these bodily eyes but if thou shalt but draw the curtain and let me by the eye of Faith see the inside of that thy Glorious frame I shall need no other Happiness here My Soul cannot be capable of more favour then Sight here and Fruition hereafter XCVII Upon the rumours of Wars GOod Lord what a shambles is Christendome become of late How are men killed like flies and blood poured out like water Surely the cruelty and ambition of the Great have an heavy reckoning to make for so many thousand Souls I condemn not just Arms those are as necessary as the unjust are hatefull even Michael and his Angels fight and the style of God is the Lord of Hoasts But wo be to the man by whom the offence
to thee both in Heaven and in Earth and under the earth Thou hadst an everlasting right to that Heaven that should be an undoubted possession of it ever since it was yea even whiles thou didst cry and spraul in the Cratch whiles thou didst hang upon the Cross whiles thou wert sealed up in thy Grave but thine Humane nature had not taken actual possession of it till now Like as it was in thy true Type David he had right to the Kingdome of Israel immediately upon his anointing but yet many an hard brunt did he pass ere he had the full possession of it in his ascent to Hebron I see now O Blessed Jesu I see where thou art even farre above all Heavens at the right hand of thy Father's Glory This is the farre countrey into which the Nobleman went to receive for himself a Kingdom farre off to us to thee near yea intrinsecal Oh do thou raise up my Heart thither to thee place thou my Affections upon thee above and teach me therefore to love Heaven because thou art there How then O Blessed Saviour how didst thou ascend Whiles they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight So wast thou taken up as that the act was thine own the power of the act none but thine Thou that descendedst wast the same that ascendedst as in thy descent there was no use of any power or will but thine own no more was there in thine ascent Still and ever wert thou the Master of thine own acts Thou laidst down thy own life no man took it from thee Thou raisedst up thy self from death no hand did or could help thee Thou carriedst up thine own glorified flesh and placedst it in Heaven The Angels did attend thee they did not aid thee whence had they their strength but from thee Elias ascended to Heaven but he was fetcht up in a Chariot of fire that it might appear hence that man had need of other helps who else could not of himself so much as lift up himself to the Aiery Heaven much less to the Empyreal But thou our Redeemer neededst no Chariot no carriage of Angels thou art the Author of life and motion they move in and from thee As thou therefore didst move thy self upward so by the same Divine power thou wilt raise us up to the participation of thy Glory These vile bodies shall be made like to thy glorious body according to the working whereby thou art able to subdue all things unto thy self Elias had but one witness of his rapture into Heaven S. Paul had none no not himself for whether in the body or out of the body he knew not Thou O Blessed Jesu wouldst neither have all eyes witnesses of thine Ascension nor yet too few As after thy Resurrection thou didst not set thy self upon the pinnacle of the Temple nor yet publickly shew thy self within it as making thy presence too cheap but madest choice of those eyes whom thou wouldst bless with the sight of thee thou wert seen indeed of five hundred at once but they were Brethren So in thine Ascension thou didst not carry all Jerusalem promiscuously forth with thee to see thy glorious departure but onely that selected company of thy Disciples which had attended thee in thy life Those who immediately upon thine ascending returned to Jerusalem were an hundred and twenty persons a competent number of witnesses to verifie that thy miraculous and triumphant passage into thy Glory Lo those onely were thought worthy to behold thy Majestical Ascent which had been partners with thee in thy Humiliation Still thou wilt have it thus with us O Saviour and we embrace the condition if we will converse with thee in thy lowly estate here upon earth wading with thee through contempt and manifold afflictions we shall be made happy with the sight and communion of thy Glory above O my Soul be thou now if ever ravished with the contemplation of this comfortable and blessed farewel of thy Saviour What a sight was this how full of joyful assurance of spiritual consolation Methinks I see it still with their eyes how thou my glorious Saviour didst leisurely and insensibly rise up from thine Olivet taking leave of thine acclaming Disciples now left below thee with gracious eyes with Heavenly Benedictions Methinks I see how they followed thee with eager and longing eyes with arms lifted up as if they had wished them winged to have soared up after thee And if Eliah gave assurance to his servant Elisha that if he should behold him in that rapture his Masters Spirit should be doubled upon him what an accession of the Spirit of joy and confidence must needs be to thy happy Disciples in seeing thee thus gradually rising up to thy Heaven Oh how unwillingly did their intentive eyes let goe so Blessed an Object How unwelcome was that Cloud that interposed it self betwixt thee and them and closing up it self left only a glorious splendour behind it as the bright track of thine Ascension Of old here below the Glory of the Lord appeared in the Cloud now afarre off in the sky the Cloud intercepted this Heavenly Glory if distance did not rather doe it then that bright meteor Their eyes attended thee on thy way so farre as their beams would reach when they could goe no further the Cloud received thee Lo yet even that very screen whereby thou wert taken off from all earthly view was no other then glorious how much rather do all the beholders fix their sight upon that Cloud then upon the best piece of the Firmament Never was the Sun it self gazed on with so much intention With what long looks with what astonished acclamations did these transported beholders follow thee their ascending Saviour as if they would have lookt through that Cloud and that Heaven that hid thee from them But oh what tongue of the highest Archangel of Heaven can express the welcome of thee the King of Glory into those Blessed Regions of Immortality Surely the Empyreal Heaven never resounded with so much joy God ascended with jubilation and the Lord with the sound of the Trumpet It is not for us weak and finite creatures to wish to conceive those incomprehensible spiritual Divine gratulations that the Glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now-glorified Humane nature Certainly if when he brought his onely-begotten Son into the world he said Let all the Angels worship him much more now that he ascends on high and hath led captivity captive hath he given him a Name above all Names that at the name of JESUS all knees should bow And if the Holy Angels did so caroll at his Birth in the very entrance into that estate of Humiliation and in firmity with what triumph did they receive him now returning from the perfect atchievement of man's Redemption And if when his Type had vanquished Goliah and carried the head into Jerusalem the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and