eternall glory and by our cooperating with him give us the rewards of his own operations in us whom he makes labour in his vineyard here a while that he may set us in eternall rest at his own heavenly table where though he be pleased to delight in us yet we shall be the onely gainers by enjoying him for he gets nothing but to be content that we get all by being but willing to present our selves to him as the humane subjects wherein he is pleas'd to produce the divine work of our salvations while he is satisfi'd to call us his fruit that he may be our food for all eternity Thus we are taught in the prayer above and may saying it with the same spirit that made it saint our selves as is desir'd we should by the holy Ghost who gave us this sainting prayer for that holy purpose FINIS On VVhitsunday The first Prayer O God who on this day hast taught the hearts of the Faithful by the Illumination of the holy Ghost grant unto us in the same spirit to relish those things that are right and ever to rejoyce in his Consolation The Secret SAyntifie we beseech thee O Lord our offered gifts and mundifie our hearts by the Illustration of the Holy Ghost The post-Communion LEt the infusion of the Holy Ghost O Lord purifie our hearts and fertilize them by the inward aspersion of his heavenly dew On Trinity Sunday The first Prayer ALmighty everlasting God who hast granted to thy servants in confession of the true Faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of Majestie to adore unity we beseech thee heartily that in the firmnesse of the same Faith we may ever be defended from all adversity The Secret SAyntifie we beseech thee our Lord God by the invocation of thy holy name the Hoste of this oblation and render us thereby unto thy self an eternal present The post-Communion GRant O Lord God that the receiving of this Sacrament and the confession of the sempiternal Holy Trinity and of the undivided unity thereof may avail us to the health both of our body and soul On the first Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God the strength of those that trust in thee be mercifully present to our prayers and because without thee mortal infirmity is of no ability grant the assistance of thy grace that in doing what thou dost command we may please thee both in word and will The Secret VOuchsafe appeased we pray thee to accept of these our offerings dedicated to thee O Lord and grant that unto us they may afford perpetual help The post-Communion BEing filled with so great gifts grant O Lord we beseech thee that while we receive these wholsome boones we may never cease from praising thee On Sunday within the Octaves of Corpus Christi being the second after Pentecost The first Prayer MAke us O Lord equally to have both a continual fear and love of thy holy name because thou dost never leave them destitute of thy government whom thou doest instruct in the solidity of thy Love The Secret MAy this oblation sacred to thy name purifie us O Lord we beseech thee and from day to day carry us to such actions as conduce unto our heavenly life The post-Communion NOw that we have received thy sacred gifts we beseech thee O Lord that together with frequenting this mysterie the effect of our salvation may increase On the third Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God who art the Protectour of those that hope in thee without whom nothing is valid nothing is holy multiply we beseech thee over us thy mercy that thou being our ruler thou our guide we may so passe by the temporal goods of this world as not to loose the eternal of the next The Secret LOok we beseech thee O Lord upon the offerings of thy suppliant Church and grant that what we are to receive may by perpetual sanctification prove unto the health of thy believing people The post-Communion MAy thy holy things O Lord received quicken us and prepare us being expiated for thy everlasting mercy On the fourth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee that by thy order our course in this world may be peaceably directed and that thy Church may enjoy a quiet devotion The Secret BE pacified O Lord we beseech thee having received our oblations and propitiously compell unto thee our even rebellious wills The post-Communion MAy the received mysteries O Lord purifie us and by their bounty defend us On the fifth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God who hast prepared invisible good things for those that love thee infuse into our hearts the desire of thy love that loving thee in all things and above them all we may attain unto thy promises which surpasse even all our desires The Secret BE O Lord propitious upon our supplications and take unto thee benignely these offerings of thy servants of both sexes that what every one hath presented in honour of thy name may profit all of us to our salvation The post-Communion WHom thou O Lord hast filled with thy heavenly gifts grant we beseech thee that we may be cleansed from our hidden sinnes and delivered from the snares of our enemies On the sixth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God of powers to whom all belongs that is best ingraft in our breasts the love of thy holy name and grant in us the increase of Religion that thou mayest nourish those things which are good and being so nourished maintain them by the practise of pietie The Secret TAke unto thee O Lord benignely these oblations of thy people and be propitious upon our supplications and that no ones desires be frustrate no ones request in vain grant we beseech thee that what we ask faithfully we may obtain efficaciously The post-Communion WE are O Lord full with thy gifts we beseech thee grant that we may be cleansed by their effect and defended by their help On the seventh Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God whose providence is so disposed as it never can be frustrated remove we humbly beseech thee all things that are hurtfull and grant whatsoever may be beneficiall unto us The Secret O God who hast concluded the diversity of the legall hosts under the perfection of one sacrifice receive the same from thy devout people and sanctifie it as thou diddest the offerings of Abel that what every one tenders thee in honour of thy Majesty may avail to the health of us all The post-Communion MAy thy medicinall operation clemently free us from our perversities and bring us to those things that are right On the eighth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee propitiously the spirit of thinking and doing what is right that as we cannot be without thee so we may live unto thee The Secret REceive O Lord we beseech thee what of thy
making it my Work that I can onely say it is my Observation and must give the honour of it to the Prefect of the Sodality his Holinesse for no other single Person can challenge that Priviledge of prescribing the Formes of publick Prayers unto the Universall Church though in truth we must by Name attribute the first Collection of these Prayers unto Gelasius the first Pope of that Name in the year of our Lord 482. and the stating them into the order we now have them in throughout the year unto Saint Gregory the first most worthy called the Great for his remarkable Saintity in the year 590. who in his Volâ—me intituled of Sacraments meaning of Mysteries for it seemes he found these Prayers to be most profoundly mysterious indeed as now I here endeavour to declare throughout my Book hath added some more Prayers to what Gelasius made and hath compacted them altogether as into a Magazine of the Churches Piety whereunto by Decree of two severall Councels namely the second Milevitan and the third Carthaginian held in Saint Agustines time or thereabouts it was forbid to add any more unlesse they were approved by a Generall Councell or at least some Nationall one of Bishops See the 12th Canon in the first Councell above It hath pleased us say the Fathers that the Prayers and divine Services which shall be approved of in this Councell be celebrated by all and that no other be used in the Church unlesse such as shall by the most prudent men bee made or are approved by the Synod least any thing contrary to Faith or through ignorance or lesse then due studie be composed These Authorities I cite not so much to vaunt my own design as to avouch I am not worthy to be Father of it otherwise then by Observation as above I said but thence I am bold indeed to commend the Devotion unto our Sodality as a practise of the most solid Piety imaginable And here I must crave leave to mind the Reader that it will very little availe a man to be of this Christian Sodality unless he make himself worthy of it by his saintitie which he shall soonest arive unto by making the Scripture his studie as was before desired and by taking it often in the Cordiall of Holy Churches prayers when he doth not swallow the greater parts of it all at once by reading much thereof expounded as hee hath it here for this will alwaies be to feed on heavenly food such as can never breed hereticall diseases in the body of our Sodality but must needs give saving nourishment to all our soules and make us feeding here a while on these sweet honey Combs of Grace within our holy Hive feast for all etetnity on the better fruits of glory with all the holy Company of this Sodality in Heaven To conclude I shall desire the Reader to know my aim in this Book was not to set out any thing absolvtely new but something very necessary for the Praying people and exceeding usefull for the preaching Pastor since as the one will have matter enough of Piety from hence so the other will have ground enough for ampliation and to dilate himself upon a short warning by way of exhortation to the People though he be destitute of other Books to help himself and had it not been that I held my self obliged to repair by other men my own omissions in this kind out of a multitude of diversions other wayes as also that I stand more strictly bound of late to help the people then formerly I was my superiours best know why and how truly I should have shaken off I fear the labour of this laborious work whereby I shall not yet be covetous of any other honour then to be door-keeper unto this Sodality and to subscribe my self the most unworthy member of it F. P. HEre followeth a Table directing how to apply each Psalme to the proper Key or genuine sense thereof which I take out of the proemiall Annotations to the second Tome of the holy Bible as it is translated by the Reverend Priests of the Colledge of Doway beginning with the book of Psalmes And though perhaps some Psalmes may seem as proper to other Keyes as unto those they have assigned yet I give so much to their Authority that till some greater countermand it this may be more safely relyed upon then any other and therefore I recommend this way as the best that yet is found out for rendring the book of Plalmes intelligible in some measure to the Common people and very usefull to the Pastours of the Church who may perhaps more safely rely upon these Senses than any private Judgement of their own because these men were versed in the Learned Languages and made it their study to apply each Psalme to a right Key according to such rules as are by them laid down in these Proemialls for that purpose Now these Keyes they reduce to Ten in number which are as follow 1. God in him-himself THe First is of God as he is in himself Trine in Persons and One in Essence and of his Divine Attributes 2. God Creating The Second is of Gods Works in his Creatures as of the Creation and Conservation of the whole World 3. God governing by providence The Third is of the Divine Providence especially towards Man in protecting and rewarding the Just and permitting and punishing the Evill 4. God by Moses leading the Hebrews out of Aegypt into Canaan The Fourth is of the peculiar calling of the Hebrew people their beginning in Abraham Isaack and Jacob their marvellous increase in Aegypt their diverse estates many admirable and miraculous things done amongst them with their ingratitude rejection and reprobation 5. God Redeemer of Mankind The Fifth and principall Key is of our Redeemer Jesus Christ and of his Incarnation Nativity Life and Death Resurrection Ascention and Glory all prophetically foretold 6. Christ erecting his Church The Sixth is of the Conversion of the Gentiles or of the Catholike Church of Christ ever visible in her Pastours Sacraments and Sacrifice of the holy Altar and propagated over all the world 7. Faith and good Works The Seventh is of Faith and good Works which is the true manner of Christians serving God 8. The proper acts of David The Eighth is of Davids own Works and of Gods singular benefits towards him for which he rendreth thanks and Divine Praises as also of his recounting his enemies dangers and afflictions of minde and body namely by Saul Absolon and others in which cases he humbly beseecheth Gods protection and further he expresseth himself a perfect Image and pattern of a sincere and hearty-penitent bewailing confessing and punishing his own sins 9. Death Judgment The Nineth is of Death and Judgement the End and Renovation of this World with the generall Resurrection 10. Heaven Hell The Tenth and last is of Heaven and Hell according as every one deserveth in this Life NOw in the Table following These
other Prophet hence they ask as followeth 25. Why then dost thou baptize if thou be neither Christ nor Elias nor the Prophet and by this Interrogatory they thought to have confounded him So it argues beside the Commission they had to ask Who he was they added this Question out of their own malice to him and out of Ostentation to shew the people they were well read in the Scriptures 26. To this Iohn replyes by distinguishing betwixt his own and Christs Baptism telling the people he doth but Baptize in water Christ shall baptize in Spirit for thus the rest of the Evangelists make the Baptist answer and therefore S. Iohn omits that So the Baptist professeth his Baptism is onely in water as a sign or Figure of Christs Baptism which shall be in Spirit to remission of sins which this of Iohns was not but onely by his Baptisme he exhorted people to pennance and tears for sin not that sin was thereby remitted But there is one in the midst of you whom yee know not Iesus Christ who daily converseth with you and yet you do not take notice of him to be the true Messias whom you enquire after so earnestly as who should say leave your curious questions doe but use your own eyes look but earnestly upon Iesus and you shall soon by his works perceive he is the man you seek for 27. The Baptist sayes Christ shall come after him because he shall preach when Iohn is dead by saying Christ was made before him hee both alludes to the eternall generation of Jesus in the decree divine and to the perpetuall prelation or preference both of doctrine and sanctity wherein Christ was many degrees before the Baptist in so much as he doth not esteem himself worthy to untie our Saviours shooes which in the esteem of man is the meanest office that can be imagined because wee commonly stoop as low as earth to perform it 28. This Bethanie is not that where Martha and Lazarus treated our Saviour but is distinguished from it as much in the mysterie of the name as in the distance of the place for that Bethania signifies the house of humility This the house of Ships or The place of passage namely where the people of Israel passed over the River Iordan going out of Egypt into the land of promise and there Christ was baptized by Iohn where also Iohn commonly baptized all others to shew the Figurative Baptisme did declare the transmigration in the true Baptisme from Sin to Grace and so was like that passage of the Israelites from Aegypt into the land of promise from a wretched to a prosperous condition The Application 1. WHat so deplorable as to have eyes and not to see the shining Sun This blindness of the Jewes is what to day the Gospel represents They knew the Tokens of the true Messias well enough they knew those were not verified in the Baptist and as well they knew them all made good in Jesus Christ yet seeme to doubt O wilfull Caecity 2. What shall we think to see the Christian blinder than the Jew the Catholicks perverser than the Hereticks and as we read Tim. 1. Confessing they knew God yet denying him in their Works By doing such things as give themselves the Lye Whence holy David sayes Iniquity belyes herself And this so often as Christians in Profession are Infidels in Practice 3. But see a greater blindness yet in these who will defend their Vices to be Virtues and even glory in their own Iniquities Say then beloved was it not high time to seek an Eye-bright out to cure this Caecity of Souls rebuk'd in being represented Whilest we pray as above to day for illumination of Grace to disperse the dismall darkness of corrupted Nature On the fourth Sunday of Advent The Antiphon O Emmanuel our King and Lawgiver the expectation of Nations and the Saviour of them come to save us O Lord our God Vers Drop dew c. Resp Be the earth c. NOte this O Emmanuel or some one of the seven great O s variable as the Sunday falls out on dayes more or less before Christmas Day is alwayes the Antiphon on this Sunday And these O s shall be explicated in the other Tome of this work when every day that hath a severall Prayer and Gospel shall be set out as these Sundayes were suffice it now to reflect that this O this exclaiming voice argues the manner of crying out in the old Patriarchs and Prophets for the coming away of the so long expected Messias The Prayer O Lord we beseech thee raise up thy power and with thy mighty virtue come away to our succour that by the help of thy grace what our sinnes retard the indulgence of thy propitiation may Accelerate The Illustration LOok in what Stile the Church began her Advent-Prayers she ends them with the same as if Omnipotency had not power enough and could be raised to greater by being rowsed or stirred up for though it be not needfull yet we may lawfully and laudably enough speak in this language to Almighty God who magnifies to us at least his power by acknowledging our want of it to be so great as if it needed re-inforcement to doe the work of our Redemption an act as farre above the Angels naturall reach as it was beyond our hopes or merits had it not been mercifully promised without desert in Man for when Angels see the Sun of Justice clad in the clouds of our Iniquity they were amazed and saw that God had found a means to adde as it were to his Omnipotency by partaking of humane Impotency and by raising our weakness in his sacred person to an ability above Angelicall capacity he seemed indeed to rowse or stirre up his own Omnipotency to a Super-omnipotency to an act greater than it had ere before extended to namely to pardoning of Sin a thing the Angels never were acquainted with for though Man were redeemed yet the Devils were for all eternity condemned upon the guilt of their one onely sin Nor is it a lessening of the phrase to ask the succour of Gods mighty virtue though it be in truth Almighty for all we can adde to God is rather diminution than addition to his perfection which consisteth in simplicity so that in him Power and Omnipotency Might and Almightiness is all one Thing because his Attributes are his Essence each of them Infinâ—â—e and all of them together making his Infinity no greater than it is in any one alone if yet we may use that freedom to speak of multiplicity where pesonality excepted simplicity makes up all perfection as in God it doth But having in this language courted down Almighty God from Heaven lest we grow vaine-glorious by the honour of his approach see how the rest of this dayes Prayer doth humble us while in the following words we give this reason for our calling God to our Succours with all his mustred forces That by the help of his Grace added
the Old than to the New Law Thirdly because in that state they were in they did want the fruit of Adoption because when they dyed Just yet they could not partake of Heaven the now immediate reward of such blessed Soules as they were in regard Christ had not opened the gates thereof to mortalls by his first entring into Heaven as was fit he should since all others were to follow upon his Title not upon their own Lastly because Christ by exempting us from the servitude of the Old Law gave us the right of claime to the Spirit of Adoption which was that of the New Law taught by Christ and affirmed by the holy Ghost 6. This Verse clearly shewes the truth of the Doctrine above delivered since to declare we were partakers of the Divine Filiation God sent us the Spirit of his Son Divine the holy Ghost as who should say it is a true signe we are partakers of the Divine Nature because we have the Divine Spirit in us though this Spirit doth rather shew we are the Sons of God than make us such as the Signe shews the thing to be there where the Signe of the thing is for indeed we are the Children of God by the merits of Christ his passion since the true Adoptive cause the root of our filiation is the Son of God his Incarnation for thence we become God because God became Man so the grace of the holy Ghost or his Spirit abounding in us is rather the signe than the cause of our Adoption or filiation since our adoption is by Christ and the proof thereof is by his holy Spirit abiding in us not that this spirit of the holy Ghost is an empty signe but that besides the signe it is of our filiation to God it is also the same God with the Father and the Son really and truly sanctifying of us and uniting himself unto us by his holy Grace as well as he unites us to the actuall participation of our Saviours Passion at the same instant when he gives us his Grace and thereby teacheth us to cry Abba Father that is to say O Heavenly Father look upon us as thy Children being made so by the passion of thy Son and declared to be so by the coming of the holy Ghost amongst us into our hearts inabling them with a loud pious affection though sometimes their lips move not to cry unto thee in that filiall voice which ever opens the ears of thy mercy towards us and makes thee often ask us as thou didst silent Moses thus internally and silently crying to thee What doe you cry unto me for Exod. 14. ver 15. my dearest Children what doe you want it is but ask and have 7. Here is a Graecisme or Greek transition from the Second person to the Third as who should say what I speak of you O Galatians adopted as above the like I say of all third Persons even any Gentile so adopted that be he of what Nation he will if he can truly cry Abba Father he is not a Servant but a Sonne of God and if a Sonne he is an Heir also by God that is by Christ who is the Son of God O happy Children of this Heavenly Father who makes all his issue equall Heires and leaves not younger children to the mercy of their Elder brothers for their Patrimony but gives all his whole estate in Heavenly Glory and by that himself for their Patrimony whence Saint Austine sayes well Thou hast created us O Lord to and for thy self and our heart is at no rest untill it have the happinesse to rest in thee nothing lesse than thy self can satiate us and this satiety we enjoy when thy glory appears in us and placeth us in thee The Application 1. LEarn all ye Monarchs of the Times to know this Text forbids you Lord it here as if you were not under Age. The Kingdomes you command you then usurp when you deny obedience to the Church Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords he is the Father of all Christians who hath made no servant Tutour to command us but his Sacred Spouse the holy Church so long as here we live 2. Learn all ye proudest men to stoop to the degree of little ones again now you behold your ancient God become a Child of Man to make you Men children of Almighty God 3. Learn ye that glory to write man to Nature to be but Babes yet to Grace let not Christ remain alone an Infant be every Christian at the least an Innocent to keep him company while holy Church recounts his Cradle-dayes And Prayes that as children unable to doe manly acts our selves we may be directed in the pleasure of our Heavenly Father by doing nothing but in the Name of his onely Sonne who knowes best what will please him and make us deserve well at his Holy Hands by abounding in good Works The Gospel LUKE 2. ver 33. c. 33. ANd his Father and Mother were marvelling upon those things which were spoken concerning him 34. And Simeon blessed him and said to Mary his Mother Behold this is set unto the ruine and unto the resurrection of many in Israel and for a signe which shall be contradicted 35. And thine own soul shall a sword pierce that out of many hearts cogitations may be revealed 36. And there was Anne a prophetesse the daughter of Phanuel of the Tribe of Aser she was far stricken in dayes and had lived with a Husband seven years from her Virginity 37. And she was a widdow untill eighty and four years who departed not from the Temple by fasting and prayers serving night and day 38. And she at the same hour suddenly coming in Confessed to our Lord and spake of him to all that expected the redemption of Israel 39. And after they had wholly done all things according to the Law of our Lord they returned into Galilee into their City Nazareth 40. And the Child grew and waxed strong full of wisdom and the grace of God was in him The Explication 33. NOte here Saint Ioseph is not called Christ his Father as Nurses husbands are called Foster-fathers to the children whom their wives give suck unto though they never did beget those children but further and yet more really because Jesus was the true and naturall Child of the Blessed Virgin Mary being joyned in reall Wedlock with Saint Ioseph though she never did accompany her husband in the Marriage bed so his paternity was more than nutritious and yet less than naturall because Jesus was onely the Son of Ioseph marryed to the Virgin Mary but never having knowledge of her Body and therefore he is called the putative or esteemed Father of Christ for all he never did beget him meerly because his wife did truly bear him and was his naturall Mother though by a meanes supernaturall to wit the over-shadowing of the holy Ghost These his Parents are here said to be marvelling not that they were perhaps
may very well be called Iesus his Mount by a kind of excellency as sufficiently to be known by that name when there is no distinction added to remark any other Mountain by as here there is not and so we may here take the Mountain to import as much as Iesus his Mount specially frequented by him and celebrated abundantly by so sacred a resort thereunto The great Multitudes that are here said to follow him were those present at his Sermon upon this Mount so taken therewith as they could not forsake him but followed him many of them up and down all the Country conversing either with himself with his Disciples or with some that had been cured by him and so never wanting imployment of delight unto them 2. Many doubt whether this cure of the Leper be the same which Saint Mark recounts Chap. 1. ver 40. and Saint Luke Chap. 5. ver 12 for by them it seemes this Miracle was not done immediately after Christ descended from the Mount nor in the Valley near it because Saint Luke sayes it was done in a certain City besides they recount other Miracles before this consequent to Christ his coming down from the mountain aforesaid yet because Saint Matthew seemes the most exact for the series or order of his Sacred History therefore we may rather think the others stood not so precisely upon the order but satisfied themselves to tell what was done by Christ first or last Again Saint Luke may be understood to mean without the City though he say the cure was done in a certain City because it was a cure upon a Citizen whose disease being a Leprosie did force him out of the Town according to the custome of all such foul diseased persons to avoid the danger of infecting others so it being done on or in the Citizen S. Luke may call it a cure done in the City whereunto the Leper did belong and such speeches are frequent for men often say we had a strange cure wrought here in our City such a man for example cured thus and thus though happily the party might bee carried out of Town to his Physitian or Chirurgion so we see a way cleer enough to avoid contradiction amongst the Evangelists however their Stories may seem now and then not to jumpe exactly in all particulars as for example they all three agree in their severall expressions of this Lepers coming to Christ for cure for whereas S. Mark tells us he came bending his knees and S. Luke sayes falling on his face This Adoration S Matthew brings him in with is the conclusion of both those postures as who should say he kneeling down first then falling prostrate on his face adored Jesus as that great God from whom he begg'd his cure knowing his disease was more contagious than any man could heal and by this manner of speech assuring himself it was in the power of Christ while he said unto him If thou wilt thou canst cleanse me of this scurfie Leprosie in which words though he shewed his owne desire of cure yet withall he declared his resignation to the divine will saying If thou wilt thou canst make c. as who should say Gods power is equall to his will and if thou wilt not thy holy will be done for thou knowest better what to will for mee than I doe for my self wherefore O Lord as thy holy will is bee it done with mee but I desire no other power at least to cure mee than thy sacred will Now that this was the meaning of the Lepers words the next Verse shews 3. For behold no sooner had this creature resigned himself perfectly to the will of his Creator shewing therein bee did love God above all things even himself included then in testimony of that truth saying to those who love God all things cooperate for their good he was cured by Christ stretching forth his purest hand upon the impure petitioner and saying I will cure thee since thou sayest so truly that my will is adequate unto my power Bee thou therefore made clean of thy corporall impurity as by Faith I see thou art of thy spirituall infidelity But here we are to observe Christ touched the Leper which as it was a prevarication of the Mosaick Law Levit. 13. so it shewed the abrogation thereof lay in the power of Christ who came to give a more perfect Law unto the People of God Again this touch was in signe of Benevolence lastly it was happily an application of right actives to passives for effecting the cure since the very corporall touch of Christ his sacred hand was of force to cure all diseases but the method of Christs words deserveth here a speciall remark for while he sayes I will he confutes the heresie of Photinus denying Christ to be God and to have for the proof of his omnipotence his omnivolence that is to say all things as subject to his Will as to his Power as also he confutes the Arrian heresie denying Christ to have power of himself or to be God equall to his Father in power and so obliged to command rather in his Fathers name than in his own whereas here he commands the cure as from himself and in vertue of his own absolute power saying Be thou made clean wherefore this place must not be read as some conceive saying I will cure thee no but I will Be thou cured as who should say since thou desirest no greater power than my will loe I will what thou desirest and therefore thus I command thy disease to leave thee Be thou cleansed Lâ—stly he confutes the Manichaean Heresie teaching Christ to have no reall but onely some phantasticall body which he disproves by the reall and perceptible touch he gave the Leper while by means of that physicall or sensible touch he was pleased to cure him besides Saint Hierome well observes this answer held the stile of the request for the Leper had used the same Phrase saying If thou wilt thou canst so Christ replyes to both saying he will and shewing he can while he commands it to be done as was desired and that as the text saith immediately for the effect of Gods will is the work or deed he will have to be done and so there needs no medium where the will and power are both equall and identified as in God all Attributes are according to that of holy David Psal 148. ver 5. He said the word and all things were thereby made 4. This was not so much a command to him as an example to others how to conceal and not to vaunt their own glory when they doe any thing that is notably praise-worthy while he sends him to the Priest he fulfils the Law Levit. 14. commanding all in such cases to get the testimony of the Priests for their cures so here he shews he will not abrogate the whole Law of Moses or the morall part of it although he did abrogate the servile Ceremoniall part thereof It was
I of a slight command can doe much by vertue of this power what mayst thou O Christ by thy command who hast perfect and absolute power over Heaven and Earth and art under no command as I am who can deny but this stile was used purposely for our morall instruction that hearing this we should remember if at any time we have command ovâ—r others yet we are commanded our selves by many more above us and again to advertise us that the Soul shall then best command the Body when she her selfe moves not but as commanded by God and moved by his holy grace And if she rebell against God no marvell the body requoiles against her as in Adam and his race was and still is apparent 10. Since Admiration or Wonder is an effect of ignorance and Christ as being God was omniscient and had in perfection all the three Sciences that could render him perfectly knowing as man namely Beatificall Infused and Experimentall certain it is his Admiration here could not be a proper wondring at what he seemes to make exceeding strange of as by professing he had not found so great faith in Israel rather indeed to excite and stir up others to admiration and imitation of the like than that he was or could be seised on by the surprisall of any new notion accruing unto him which he had not before So Saint Austine sayes well These operations in Christ were rather signes of his actions upon others than of his passions from them of his teaching us not of his being taught himself by any thing that could happen unto him new or strange and what followes is to be taken strictly as spoken to those common people who were then present for else it could not be meant of all others or spoken to them that were absent For example when he said to those that followed him I have not found so great Faith in Israel meaning among such as you are that now behold the Faith of this Centurion for certainly he knew the Faith of his blessed Mother of Abraham of Moses and of John the Baptist was greater yet than this of the said Centurion so highly commended so much admired by our Saviour 11. This following Verse illustrates the latter end of the former in the sense as above for here Christ gives Abraham Isaack and Iacob as presidents for singular Faith rewarded with eternall glory in the Kingdome of Heaven and sayes Many shall come from East and West meaning from all corners of the world and share with Abraham c. in the like reward for their like Faith so here our Saviour alludes to the calling of the Gentiles unto the Faith of Christ and gives for their encouragement this encomiastick or superlative praise of the Centurion for the first fruits of the Gentiles vocation or beleeving in Christ Iesus the adoration of three Kings arguing not so much Faith as the Profession did so what he said to his followers in the Verse above may by adjoynder of this unto it be conceived as if Christ had said he never found so great Faith in any Gentile whom he had met with amongst the Israelites as he found in this Centurion for the three Kings were not Israelites admit their adoration could argue like Faith in them 12. He pursues the incitement to like Faith of this Centurion saying Those Gentiles who believe as he did shall succeed in the Kingdome of Glory to be dis-inherited Heirs thereof namely the Israelites or Jewes whom he calls the Children of the Kingdome in two regards first because as descended from the loynes of Abraham they were heires to his promised earthly kingdome of Iudea next as for the same reason they were heires to the Heavenly Kingdome of glory likewise promised to his issue in like Faith to his as who should say the forraign Gentiles shall inherit the two Crowns whereunto the Jewes were born heirs by Promise and this by reason the said Gâ—ntiles shall receive the faith of Abraham which the Jewes had deserted and apostatized from So as the Gentiles shall be saved in reward of their Faith and the Jewes damned in punishment of their incredulity which damnation or hell is here called outward darknes as often elsâ—where in holy Writ it is because hell as it is the most remote part from Heaven so is it the darkest and outmost in respect of the inhabitants in Glory whose Beatitude consisting in their beholding the inward light of the Deity by means of the outward light of Glory argues the damnation of the wicked consisteth in their being deprived of all light either of Glory or of God and consequently are out-casts from Heaven wallowing in the deep hell of outward darkness And as by this darkness is understood their pain of damnation or pain of loss consisting in an absolute privation of the sight or light of God and consequenly of all light so by weeping or gnashing of teeth is understood their pain of sense best expressed by those termes which alwayes betoken sorrow and horrour 13. Christ concludes giving the Centurion all he askes in reward of his Faith so curing his Boy at a distance in vertue of his sole Word as was observed that just when Christ spake those words Be it to thee as thou believest then the child was wel recovered hence we are to learn that according to the firmnesse of our Faith we may measure the greatness of our hope in God and mystically we may apply this passage of the Centurion to our selves who are commanders of our senses and powers which make up a spirituall Militia in this life Iob 7. if therefore any of these languish or grow otherwise diseased let us make our addresses by our Friends the Saints in Heaven and Good men on Earth to God beseeching him to cure that sick sense or faculty which is in danger to let in upon us the death of Sin and look with what Faith with what Hope with what Love we make our applications to Almighty God either by our selves or others we may rest assured our help shall be answerable thereunto The Application 1. CHrist cures the Leper to Day by a touch of his sacred Hand to shew he had cured the leprosie of sin in all humane nature by touching it with his nature Divine in the mystery of his Incarnation 2. Being intreated he cures the Centurions son by saying I will come and cure him however by the humility and faith of the Centurion he was not suffered to goe but desired by his Word to doe it at a distance This argues the power of Christ to be as operative as his Person and that by his Power given to Priests he cures all humble and believing Souls in the Sacrament of Pennance as he did the Centurion whose corporall infirmity was here but a figure of Sin-sick-souls 3. O happy Christians who have against all humane diseases a Cure Divine The touch of all the three Persons of the sacred Trinity in the Blessed Sacrament
suites unto the rest of this dayes service also because all these were figures of our Baptisme in Christ of our being fed with the Manna of his Blessed Body and with the drink of his precious Bloud and lest it should be with us as the Epistle ends by telling us it was with the Children of Israel in the greater part of whom God was not well pâ—eased because they requited those signall favours with their murmurings ingratitude and other hainous crimes therefore holy Church this Day with more than ordinary reason bids us all pray as guilty it seemes of like ingratitude that we who for our sinnes are justly punished for the glory of Gods Name may be mercifully delivered from the same that so having prayed away Sin the cause we may be quit of the effect our just punishment for Sin And this for the onely reason whereupon we can hope it meerly to glorifie the Name of God who if for his own glory he should not forgive us could have no title or motive from us to doe it and for that cause this Prayer doth presse him home for Mercy when it mindes him of his own Glory in the being mercifull as being indeed the end for which he made mankinde that by him he might be glorified and fill up the places of the collapsed Angels The Epistle 1 COR. 9. ver 24. c. and Chap. 10. ver 1. c. 24. KNow you not that they that run in a race all run indeed but one receiveth the price so run that you may obtain 25. And every one that striveth for maistery refraineth himself from all things and they certes that they may receive a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible 26. I therefore so run not as it were at an uncertain thing so I fight not as it were beating the aire 27. But I chastise my Body and bring it into servitude lest perhaps when I have preached to others my self become reprobate Chap. 10.1 For I will not have you ignorant Brethren that our Fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the Sea 2. And all in Moses were baptized in the cloud and in the Sea 3. And all did eat the same Spiritual food 4. Aad all drunk the same Spirituall drink and they drunk of the Spirituall Rock that followed them and the Rock was Christ 5. But in the more part of them God was not well pleased The Explication 24. THE Apostle had in the foregoing verses spoken of his disinterested evangelizing without the least mixture of sordid gaine for his so doing but meerly out of zeale to Soules and love to God and in this verse he similifies between an Evangelizer and one that runs a race having first stated his businesse that the Evangelizer must be a man voyd of all proper Interest or ends ayming onely at Gods honour and the salvation of Soules so to this purpose he tels us first litterally of Evangelizers that though all of them doe runne yet it seemes not alwaies all with one ayme or end not for one and the same prise some for true zeale and they win the race others for self interest and they though continually running yet loose the match because they runne by the bowe not by the string they would fayne carry with them the compasse of their own desires and yet think to get heaven too so they take perhaps more paines and yet to lesse indeed to no purpose Mystically the Apostle meanes the same of the lay-people who all pretend to runne for the prize of heaven but he that is to say such onely winne it who runne right on and make no Maeanderous circles of mixed ends which retard their speed And that he meanes not onely one person but all such as runne equally that is to their utmost all for one pure simple and impermixed end the following words avow when he saies so runne yee that yee may obtaine that yee may winne the race the prize the kingdome of heaven the Crown of Glory Here he speaks in the plurall number to shew that heaven is not reserved onely for the best of Christians but that every good Christian may by running reach it but then he must be alwaies running as continually racers are since the least interpaulation or intermission of running is to cast ones self behind and therefore by so running is here meant running with all speed possible since when we doe all we can unlesse God reward our uttermost endeavours with adding spirituall wings to our leaden heels we shall come short Hence it is S. Austine saies very well Not to goe forward in virtue is to goe backward So S. Bernard too Epist 254. therefore if to advance be to runne not to runne is to loose ground and in the same place he brings in a similitude of Jacobs ladder whereon there was no angel at all stood still but every one was in perpetuall motion either upwards or downwards The ascending Angels importing the blessed soules and the descending the damned whence it is that not to rise in virtue is to fall to vice shewing there is no finall medium between good and bad between heaven and hell 25. Here the Apostle alludes to his own refraining all sinister or propper interest in his Evangelizing least they might retard his speed in that race he was running for his crown of Glory as Racers refraine from all such meats as doe obstruct or shorten their wind and feed upon those things as dilate the lungs or lengthen wind which is of greatest use for Coursers and thus he doth to confound those sordid Soules who will abridge themselves here of many pleasures and delights meerely to gaine the temporall reward of popular applause and yet will not refraine the least of their sensualities to gaine the eternall reward of praise from God and Angels but if we shall gather one principle which will serve to all purposes in this kind let us here fix our eyes upon temperance as most conducing to healthy and vigorous soules as takeing away all lustfull humours and supplying us with chast spirits that render our soules sound agil active and victorious 26. See how prettily S. Paul compares sinister ends in Gods service to men at cuffs with the ayre or running at hazard whether they shall win or loose that is by mixing humane with divine ends by rayling at the world and the devill as if they were our onely enemies and yet pampering the body which is indeed mans greatest adversary in regard neither of the other two can hurt us if we be sure the body be subdued Because we are not tempted as angels by pure intellectual motives but by sensual or corporeall ones 27. And that this was the Apostles sence in the verse above see how he now speakes in clear termes to the same purpose saying I chastize my body and bring it into servitude as if that were indeed the maine enemy a man had and truely so it is for nothing saith Aristotle enters into
in this Verse and the next there is no promise made of a penny which was the just reward of a whole dayes labour but onely of what was just proportionable to the time and merit of their pains which argues for the doctrine of merit asserted by the Catholiques denyed by Hereticks who cannot endure to hear of merit in any but in Christ Nor is there any in men as due to what like men corrupted they doe though to what they doe as more than men that is as elevated above the pitch or reach of nature by grace wee doe allow them merit but still so as this merit receives value from Christ's Passion not from Humane actions onely and consequently Christ merits in them or they in Christ but not in themselves or of themseves 5. This verse puts us in mind that God hath more sollicitude to call us to him than we have of going our selves 6. Here we find an addition of a whole daies idlenesse whereas before there was onely some little loytering objected to those that were called as we heard ver 3. above The reason is that this eleventh houre is the last which can be allowed to losse for at the twelfth Judgement begins and therefore those now called were told they had lost all their former time and were bid go for one hour at least labour to save their soules The former calls we may understand made to the Iewes This latter to the Gentles Origen takes Adam to signifie them called at the first hour Paul to signifie them called at the latter hour 7. Hear the reason given by these last called why they came no sooner because no man did sooner hire them and to this excuse the rationall master makes no reply as not willing to blame where there was no fault and certainely there is none in those who come not before God calls them for it is impossible any corrupted nature should look towards heaven were it not that Gods holy grace propends than that way To these therefore it was onely said well goe now at last that I doe call you imploy this last hour to Gods honour and glory where observe nothing is promised not that these shall need feare to receive no reward but that they shall humbly acknowledge the little they can doe in so short a time as this life affords us is not worthy so great a reward as heaven and that thence Gods infinite goodnesse may appear the more giving to the least minute of holy labour an everlasting crown of glory for our rewards a gallant incouragement indeed to all noble soules and enough to give noble thoughts and hopes to the most abject spirits 8. By evening is here meant the day of doome by the Bayliffe Origen understands S. Michael or the Angels guardian of each soule summoning men to this latter Judgement and leaving them to receive the publike reward or punishment as formerly they had done the private but better is Christ understood to be the Bayliffe here of his heavenly Father paying each soule the hire of his labours though some conceive the holy Ghost may be the rewarder as he is by his grace given the Caller and Imployer of Soules in the Vineyard or Church of Christ The reason why the penny is here called a reward is because a reward is not a thing given answerable to time or paines but to merit and therefore the distribution of this reward is said to begin first with those who were last called because the grace whereby the Apostles and Gentiles were made servants of God and Labourers in Christs Vineyard was infinitely more valuable than that whereby the Iewes were called and consequently no marvell if in an houres time it caused more merit in Christians than in all the ages before it had caused among the Iewes 9. There was but a penny promised the first comers and the last receiveing as much were in that regard preferred and made as it were the first because they received equall reward for unequall labour but since all reward was gratuite as respecting the party rewarded no marvell the rewarder gave his bounties as he pleased though he would vouchsafe them the title of rewards 10 11 12. The greatest difficulty we have here is to explicate what is meant by murmur in that sence of the parable which makes the last to be saved soules for those who understand them out-casts from glory will not scruple to say the damned soules live not onely in eternal murmur but in open mutiny and rebellion against Almighty God for saving the Blessed and not them too but we may piously acquiesce here to Suarez and Vasquez their interpretation of murmur in the last blessed to see the first so strangely above their merits rewarded not that this admiring murmur is the least repining but the most extatick admiration of the infinite goodnesse of Almighty God first in saving any Iewes at all since they had butchered his sacred Sonne next in giving an endelesse crown of Glory to an instantaneous time of labour in the Gentiles This I say we shall rather give to those renowned men for a plausible exposition of this hard place than contrast with them the solidity thereof unlesse a better could be found out By the burden of the day and the beates we may here understand the long time w th the Iewes groaned under the dark law of Nature or tormenting Law of Moses from Adam to Christ which was the duration of the Iewish Synagogue and the hot persecution the Iewes groaned under not onely when the Romanes first sack'd Ierusalem and destroyed it with the greatest number of the Jewish nation but while the subjection of the Iewes lasts even to the worlds end they being the scorne of men for ever in a just revenge of their scorning the most beautifull among the Sonnes of men CHRIST JESUS 13 14. These two verses shew that first there was no injustice done to him who had the just reward of his labours which he contracted for next a contracted bragaine with one hinders not an ultroneous reward to another if a man please to bestow his bounty upon those who never laboured to deserve it since it is free for any man to dispose of his own as best pleaseth himself 15. This is a friendly expostulation of the Master with the Servants who needed not have given other reason for his will but his own pleasure and though here he give no other yet it is a vouchsafing in him to give that since the murmur was unjust where no injustice was done and indeed this place shewes how truely S. Austine saies That when God rewards man he crownes his own not the workes of men 16. According to the first sense of this parable explicated as above The last first are the blessed not onely called but chosen and these are in number few and the first last are the damned not chosen but called onely and for not answering the expectation of their calling are damned and
these are in number many in regard of the blessed that are saved but in the other opinion making both first and last saved soules it is hard to solve how all that are called are not also chosen since every saved soule is elected to salvation But Malâ—onat solves it thus saying out of the precedent particular assertion that the first shall be last and the last first he now makes a generall conclusion affirming many are called but not many chosen as in such a kind of way he spake in the precedent Chapter ver 23. how hard it was for all rich men to be saved because once a wealthy young man refused the counsell of holy poverty given unto him others say by many called are included all because all are many though few onely are saved others will have it that all are called to observance of the Commandements but not all to the observance of evangelical Counsels or all to grace but few to glory The Application HOw ever S. Paul in his Epistle to day seems to set us all a running over the Race of this life each upon his uttermost speed for the gaining of his own soul onely yet S. Matthew in this Gospel gives us hope we may gaine heaven for others as well as for our selves while he sets us all on work in the Vineyard of our Lord where the fruits of our labours are common though our reward be but particular 2. Hence it is this days Gospel points directly at the Pastors of Gods Church and at the missionary Priests set on work in the Vineyard of Christ for gaining soules by converting of the whole world yet indirectly it alludes to every soules particular indeavours in cultivating of their own special land in hope of gaining heaven by the sweat of their browes 3. So still we see toyle and labour is to be the life of man upon earth who forfeited all his temporall rest by Adams sinne and though our Saviour purchas 't againe an eternall rest for us in the next world yet that future rest must be gained â—y a perpetuall present labour here most justly inflicted one us for the punishment of sinne Hence we fitly pray to day as above On SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY The Antiphon LUKE 8. ver 10. TO you it is given to know the mysterie of the Kingdome of God but to others in parables said Jesus to his disciples Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer O God who seest we confide not in any of our own Actions grant us propitiously that against all adversities we may be armed by the protection of the Doctor of the Gentiles The Illustration I Have known hundreds even Priests themselves much admire at this prayer wherein Saint Paul with his best attribute is so unexpectedly brought in when not the least mention of any feast to him sacred is made by holy Church either in the office or service of the day and though I might in so hard a condition as I am now plunged into for making my designe good to day pretend it were sufficient for all the whole Church to be commanded to pray as now the mother Church of Rome doth this day unto Saint Paul whose Station is now kept in that holy City with great concourse of people thereunto yet this were to runne my selfe upon the rock of why not other Saints to be brought as unexpectedly into the prayers of the Church by this account as well as two onely are in all the year Saint Paul to day Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian upon Midlent-Thursday though we shall find every day in the year made sacred to some Saint or other by the frequentation of their stations in the City of Rome besides if this might satisfie others it must not be satisfaction to me because it comes not home to my designe of adjusting the Prayer to the Epistle and Gospel of the day unlesse we can find it as suitable to the latter as it is indeed to the former relating from first to last the whole story in a manner of Saint Pauls life though truely in the Gospel there is not one syllable of him wherefore if meditation had not helped us out this concordant designe had been very discordantly broken off but upon a day or two spent in prayer to find out some report between these parts of holy Churches services and upon remembring it was but last Sunday we were taught our life was a mere labour here upon earth and that we were all hired as labourers to work in the Vineyard of Christ me thought it was not strange this next Gospell should bring us in labouring indeed and like so many husband men sowing with corne the Vineyard we had lately ploughed up nor was it then so strange to heare us call upon the chiefe labourer now in eternall rest Saint Paul to help us with his intercession that our labours might be if not as great or as profitable at least as incessant as his were who by the common suffrages of all the Church will easily be granted to have been the chiefe Seeds-man thereof though Saint Peter were the chiefe pastor or governour and if so then it will be a most proper prayer on that day when the Gospell runns all upon sowing seed in severall grounds as to day it doth that the principall Seeds-man be called upon to help us the chiefe Preacher he that is stiled the Doctor of Gentiles or Nations for his eminence in preaching that is to say in sowing the word of God in the hearts of men and that this word is the seed to day made mention off we have our Saviours own authority to avouch it so we cannot be said to have strained this sense out of the prayer to day because it is as genuine to it as the Word of God in the parable is to the seed our Saviour doth compare it unto and look how many waies Expositors make Analogies between the Word and Seed so many waies at least shall we find this a proper prayer both to the Epistle and Gospel of the day and we may hope for the same answer from heaven whilest we complaining like S. Paul do look up thither and say we cannot confide in any of our own actions and therefore begge Almighty God will propitiously grant us in all our adversities that we may be armed with the protection of the Doctor of the Gentiles that is to say not onely by his prayer for our perseverance who were with Adam last Sunday sent to gaine our bread with the sweat of our browes but further by his protection namely by the same protection which was S. Pauls in all his temptations and difficulties the grace of God for this is that answer which was given to him in the height of his complaints Saul Saul My Grace sufficeth thee and truly the same Grace is more than an abundant protection for all the world nor can any man in the whole vniverse ask this protection with more
so now they think they have reason and do well in so reproaching of him because first they had observed he did frequently converse with Samaritanes next that he was bred up in Nazareth a City in Galilee neer to Samaria whence the Jews of that place were esteemed to be much like the Samaritanes Lastly and most literally that the Religion of the Samaritanes was mixed partly with Judaism partly with Gentilism since they did worship the god of the Assyrians from whom they were descended as well as keep the Rights of the Synagogue and for this cause the Jews held them Schismaticks and so detested their Sacrifices that to call Christ a Samaritane was to shew they did detest him too which appeared by their adding he was also possâ—ssed by some Devil and spake as mad men do that are in diabolical frenzies But the truth is they did really believe he was some Devil himself because he laid claim to be the Messias and to be the Son of God which they looked upon him for as if he had been Lucifer himself and Christ understood their meaning to be thus when in the next Verse he tells them 49. He neither is nor hath in him any Devil because in telling them he is the Son of God he doth not boast his own descent so much as that he gives the honour and glory of all he doth unto his heavenly Father and for this Act of his they seek to disgrace and to dishonour indeed to revile him O unparalleld meekness and deep reply in one word to both their calumnies for though he mention not Samaritane in this Reply yet by saying he hath no Devil in him he includes the other since the Schism of the Samaritanes made them slaves of the Devil wherefore he replies onely to the Slander cast upon his Father by calling him Devil to shew he regards not much the abuse they committed against himself as he was man but as he was the Son of God whence he must needs vindicate his Fathers if not his own cause 50. How well might he say this who had professed he came hither by command of his Father that he preached his Fathers not his own Doctrine and the like I do therefore said he not seek my own but my Fathers honour and glory it sufficeth me that I know when the hour of his holy Pleasure is come he will clarifie glorifie me as afterwards he did when Christ said unto him before his Transfiguration the hour is come clarifie thy Son Joh. cap. 17. v. 1. and as then he did honour him by manifesting his glory and avouching him to be his Son so the other part of this Verse will be verified when he shall judge as God and punish those that revile his said Son not that in this place Christ reflected on the general Iudgement which is referred to himself but unto the private Judgement that God makes either by punishing temporally the sins of the people as he did in the destruction of the Jews by Titus and the Romans for having crucified Christ or eternally if he reserve their punishment till the hour of their death for Christ is not properly said to come as Iudge to every Soul dying but to all Souls at the latter day So our private Iudgements are the Sentences of God rather then of Christ upon us yet not to the exclusion of Christ neither 51. Whereupon turning to his own veracity rather then regarding their falsehood he says Amen Amen Truly Truly or since I am God and cannot lye be mens opinions what they will yet really and truly be it so that whosoever shall hear and keep my Word shall never dye eternally for so he would taste eternal death but though he dye temporally through the separation of his Body from his Soul yet he shall not dy eternally that is he shall not sin mortally which can onely cause eternal death and even that death of the body I shall take away too when at the general Resurrection I shall give both corporal and spiritual life everlasting to those Blessed who have inviolably kept and observed my word by living as I have given Law unto them 52 53. By this Reply we may see they understood not the true Sence of Christs meaning when they think to obtrude the lye and the Devil upon him by shewing he hath asserted a manifest lye in saying who believe in him should never dye for say they though thou were God yet would it not follow to hear thy word and keep it were enough to render one immortal since Abraham and the Prophets did hear and keep Gods Word and yet are dead whereas he never meant they should not dye temporally but that they should not dye eternally or which is all one dye in deadly sin nor can indeed the other Sence be rationally inferred out of the Letter of the Text which alludes onely to eternal death No marvel they should wonder at his pretending to be greater then Abraham whom they were content to make Head of the Synagogue by reason he was the First Believer for this proceeded not onely out of their affected but indeed out of their reall ignorance that Christ was God as well as Man and so they held it absurd he should pretend to an immunity not granted to the best of them as then they to argue against him were content to admit Abraham to be he being indeed the Father of all Beliefe the first Believer of all the Synagogue for they went not to Adam nor to the Faithful under the Law of Nature though indeed Moses was the first Member of the Synagogue framed into a Body for Abrahams Beliefe was Personal onely Moses his was Legal 54. The beginning of this Verse is his Answer to the close of the last as who should say he did not make nor boast himself to be much though he might with modesty and truth enough have done it so he doth not desire any other or more glory then what his Father gives him and says if he desire more it proves null alluding to the Judgements of Courts that never take the Testimony of any Party in his own Cause and so now that he is in contrast with them he pretends not to his own Testimony of himself but remits all to his Father whom they did confess to be their God and consequently beyond all exception to be believed 55. Observe he tells them they do not know his Father though they confess him to be their God when they heard him speak and profess Christ was onely his beloved Son and bid them hear that is believe him for then they did not or would not take notice this voyce came from heaven from God the Father as it did indeed But the literal sence of this place is that though they knew there was but one God and did believe in him yet they did not know that God who was one in Essence was Trine in Persons and consequently did beget the word his eternal
the good works that help to Sanctifie the First weeks Fast of Lent Chastity of Body and Purity of Soul The Second The Love of Enemies Declining evil Talk and evil Company Hearing the Word of God keeping it in our Hearts and Speaking forth the Praises of our Lord The Third Alacrity of Soul joyn'd with Contrition Decency and Order in the Rights of Holy Church and the Fruit of Joy if not all the other twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost after Communion the Fourth Compassion and a perfect Resignation to our Saviours Passion Integrity and Innocency of Life The Passion Week Adde now to these this Holy Week to make the Fast Compleat Patience Humility and Obedience besides the Contempt of the World recommended in the following Gospel so shall we do as we are taught this holy Time of Lent and as we Pray we may to share in the Joyful Resurrection according as we Fasting thus condole with Jesus in his Sacred Passion 2. Let not the first Verse of this Epistle stagger us beloved seeming to require not onely these three Vertues from us for the accomplishing our Holy Fast but those in some degree of perfection answerable to the like Vertues in our Blessed Saviour so that it is his Invincible Patience his Profoundest Humility and his most Prompt Obedience we are to imitate His Patience St. Paul 2 Thes 3. presumes to bid us pray for saying Our Lord direct our Hearts in the Charity of God and in the Patience of Christ His Humility himself bids us imitate Matth. 11. v. 29. Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart His Obedience we come neerest to at greatest ease in loving one another since he says Joh. 15. ver 12. This is my Precept That you love each other as I lov'd you and this obedience we bring neerest home to his when as he dy'd for us all in obedience to his heavenly Father we dye for one another in Testimony of our obedience to this his Precept as all Martyrs do or when we rather choose to dye to Nature by not sinning then to Grace by breaking our obedience to his least Commands 3. Thus shall we with a general view see what we ought to have been at this time of Lent and with a particular regard behold our present duty proper to this Holy Week that being dead to sin we may live to Grace that being buried with Christ we may rise with him to Glory since onely they deserve to share with him in the Joy of his Resurrection who by imitating of his Vertues are partakers with him in his bitter Death and Passion According as we pray above we may The Gospel Matth. 21. v. 1 c. 1 And when they drew nigh to Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto Mount Olivet then Jesus sent two disciples 2 Saying to them Go ye into the town that is against you and immediately you shall finde an Ass tyed and a Colt with her loose them and bring them to me 3 And if any man shall say ought unto you say ye that our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them go 4 And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying 5 Say ye to the daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting upon an Ass and a Colt the fole of her that is used to the yoke 6 And the Disciples going did as Jesus commanded them 7 And they brought the Ass and the Colt and laid their garments upon them and made him sit thereon 8 And a very great multitude spread their Garments in the way and others did cut boughes from the trees and strewed them in the way 9 And the multitudes that went before and that followed cryed saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord. Hosanna in the highest The Explication 1. NOte that St. Mark Mark 11. ver 2. and St. Luke Luke 19. ver 29. relating this Passage mention Bethania which yet is here omitted the reason they speak of it was for that Bethania Bethphage and Ierusalem are all three neer together and St. Iohn Cha. 12. v. 1. makes mention of our Saviours Supping the night before in Bethania so they name the place whence he came as well as those he passed by and went unto Jerusalem whereas St. Matth. mentions onely those places he passed by which were Bethphage and Mount Olivet before he came unto the valley of Josaphat which lay just in view of the City through which valley runs the river Cedron As for Bethphage it is so called as signifying the Mouth of the valley because it is placed just at the entrance into Iosaphat and is as it were the mouth thereof so it is called the House of the Mouth in the Hebrew Tongue because through a little narrow passage out of Bethphage close by the Mount Olivet they go into the valley of Iosaphat and then at a Golden gate in to the Temple which stands without the City of Jerusalem Hence Bethphage is thought to be the place where the Priests of the Temple living all provisions for Sacrifices were made ready Lambs Goats Oxen Pigeons Turtles and the like and therefore Christ was pleased to pass this way through the Golden gate into Jerusalem to shew he was the lamb of God who came to be sacrificed for the sins of the people and that it was his sacred Person whom the Paschal Lamb did prefigure As also for this cause he came from Bethania when he had a little before raised Lazarus from his grave and passed now triumphantly through the valley of Josaphat into the earthly Jerusalem to declare that in the same valley he was to come much more triumphantly as Judge over all the dead who should at the latter day be raised and carrying the Blessed onely with him into the heavenly City of Jerusalem would leave the wicked to eternal confusion as those who now conspired his death after this Triumph were to be left over to utter destruction both â—â—ey and their famous City what two Disciples were sent is not certain some say Philip and Peter some Peter and John it boots little who they were though the two latter are more likely because they were those for certain that went afterward to provide the Pascal Lamb which Christ did eat with his Disciples 2. Whether Christ spake these words between Bethania and Bethphage or after he came past Bethphage is uncertain if before then probably he meant by the Town against you Bethphage if after then he meant some little village by it for certainly all agree it was not meant of Jerusalem because in the Latine it is called a little Castle 3. In this verse is shewed both the Deity of God and his Dominion or power over all things the first that he could see things absent the second that he could command them to be presently brought unto him without any contradiction onely
this that if any durst oppose it should suffice to answer our Lord hath need of them he who is not onely Lord of those Animals but of their Masters and of all the creatures in the world and then when you shall tel them this they will let them goe see the humility of Christ he did not say this shal command them away but they will let them goe to shew Gods commands doe not force but court our wils into consent for those who he wil have doe any thing he moves their consents and doth not wrest it from them whether they will or no the like humility he shewed in choosing so comtemptible a Beast for his Triumphant Steed but yet a creature patient and able to labour thereby to declare he was to beare a great burden not of our Saviours weight but of all the sinnes of the world lay'd upon our Saviours shoulders yet lest men mistake it is here to be observed the Asses of Iudaea were large strong and stately beasts much like unto the Mules of other Countries whence we read Iud. 12. v. 14. where seventy Sonnes and Nephews of Abdon the Prince of Israel were all mounted upon such like Asses and by this it appeareth they were beasts of esteeme as well as of strength so Christ resolving to make a kinde of Triumph chose though a contemptible yet not an unapt beast for his purpose who was resolved to shew he esteemed not the pomp of this world though he was content to be once acknowledged to deserve the stile and title of King 4. 5. As by these two following verses doth appeare it was necessary that he should take this title to verifie all the predictions that were of him by the Prophets as namely this of his Triumph into Jerusalem was by the Prophet Isaias Chap. 62. v. 11. though others conceive this place is but cited as coincident with that of Zacharie Chap. 9. v. 9. to the same purpose and so Cornelius à Lapide explicates this Text upon that of Zacharie see him for more of this subject in that Tome by the Yoke is here understood the burthen laid upon the Asses back not that Asses did then use to draw with Yokes upon their necks as Oxen doe 6. This Verse onely shews the promptitude wherewith the Disciples obeyed our Lords commands as no way doubting to finde what he bad them seek or to have been bid to bring what they should not finde and by this we are instructed not to dispute God Almighties commands nor doubt of our Powers to keep them if we go about them as he bids us and confide in his assistance for the performance on our parts 7. The reason why both the Ass and her Colt were brought was that Christ rode on them both on the Ass the longer and mountainous way of Mount Olivet on the Colt into the City but principally for the mystery couched underneath namely that Christ was to command not onely the Jews who had been used to the bridle of the Law represented by the Ass made to the Saddle but also the unback't and unbridled Gentiles meant by the Colt as the ruder people before the Law of Moses who never were bridled broken nor made fit for â—he Commands of God by any Precept or Law upon them Now the Reasons why Christ was pleased to come in this Triumph were to give a Pledge of his absolute Regal Power over all the world by coming like a King into the most famous City of the Earth to let the Jews their Scribes Pharisees Doctors and Priests see he was the Messias foretold thus coming among them by the Prophecy of Zachary above cited to shew again that he was indeed the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world while he came not onely from Bethphage as they do but in the manner they use to come in Pompe and Solemnity into the City some days before the Feast of the Pascal Lamb as the Legal Lamb was wont so to be brought in to deride the Pompe and Glory of this World by seeming to accept of it to day and resolving to renounce it as contemptible immediately when he rather chose to dye a Sacrifice for the people then to live their King Lastly to shew that his kingdom truly consisted here of Suffering however in the next world it was to be glorious and therefore even to his Suffering he went Triumphantly as giving his Holy Martyrs example to do the like in their persecutions and in going towards their Executions with Alacrity and Joy to take possession of the Crown of Sorrow before they come to their Crown of Glory 8. This was to shew they did in earnest look upon him and treat him as their King for when Kings did passe by it was usuall to strew the streets and deck them as well as could be thereby to shew their affections and loyalties to their Soveraigne by their garments we are here to understand those onely that hang loose as Coates Cloakes Scarfes and the like These boughs they had from the Mount Olivet a place full of all sorts of Flory Plants and Trees This ceremony mystically bids us cut off the luxuriant branches of our inordinate desires pluck up the flowers of our wanton sensualities and cast them at our Saviours feet as the spoiles of his grace for him to trample over and thereby to shew they shall no longer have roote in us if any soule be so happy as to have no sinnes let him cast downe then the better branches of his good works the flowers of his vertues and so bedeck the way for Christ our Lord to passe 9. Hosanna is a word compounded and signifying an apprecation of health or happinesse not much unlike to that we use to say long live the King or God blesse the King so by this word they both acknowledged him to be the Messias and the new King that had been so many thousand yeeres expected for the comfort and redemption of the people for that was imported in the words Sonne of David because the Messias was to come by promise out of Davids loynes who had raigned gloriously in Jerusalem and who came descended lineally from Abraham so the best sense of this acclamation was to wish health first to Christ their King and next to themselves as knowing the good of the people depends upon the Kings prosperity by blessing him comming in the name of the Lord they mean as the promise of our Lord God made to Abraham and in him to the people Hosanna in the highest imports thou God on high save this our Messias and in him save also us The Application 1. WHat may be added here more then was said in the Illustration of the Prayer in the Epistles Application or in the Explication of this Gospels Text is that as Jesus came to dye for all the world so he was pleased by all sorts of people to be attended on in this his Triumph into Hierusalem the whole worlds Metropolis or
that where there wants a will a wish sufficeth Say then beloved can you wish at least ability to rise from Death of Sin into the Life of Grace O wish it then for shame and wishing Pray as above with Holy Church that having had from God the grace of such a wish he will vouchsafe to prosecute it in you till you come thereby to such a Glory as you cannot wish to have a Greater The Gospel Mark 16. v. 1 c. 1 And when the Sabbath was past Mary Magdalene and Mary of James and Salome bought Spices that coming they might anoynt Jesus 2 And very early the first of the Sabbaths they come to the Monument the Sun being now risen 3 And they said one to another who shall role us back the stone from the door of the Monument 4 And looking they saw the stone rolled back For it was very great 5 And entring into the Monument they saw a yong man sitting on the right hand covered with a White Robe and they were astonied 6 Who saith to them Be not dismayed you seek Iesus of Nazareth that was crucified he is risen he is not here behold the place where they laid him 7 But go tell his Disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee There you shall see him as he told you The Explication 1. THat is when Saturday night was past for Saturday was the Sabbath of the Jews then and not till then lest they should be said to violate the Sabbath they bought Spices to anoint Jesus Here is to be noted the Sedulity and Diligence to be used by Christian Souls to take hold of the first minute of time allowed for devotion and not to loyter any instant thereof away since these pious women watched purposely all night to lay hold of the first stroake of the clock which strook twelve that then they might freely call up the Shop keepers to sell them oyntments when the last minute of the Sabbath was past Note these three women were Mary Magdalene the sister to Martha and Lazarus Mary of James that is the Mother of James the lesser so called for distinction from the other Iames the greater who was also an Apostle and Salome wife to Zebedeus Mother to James the greater and to John the Evangelist the favourite of Jesus and whether or no Salome be her Christian name here or her surname is not cleer by the Text For she may have been Mary Salome wife to Zebedeus above which is not unsuitable to the common Tradition of the three Maries that visited the Sepulcher of Christ and to whom in recompence he after appeared by this action we see the ancient custom of Pilgrimage to Holy Places and reverencing of Reliques however those who deny that to be lawful distinguish between the Reliques of Christ and others because Christ was God and it was besides an ancient custom of the Jews to embalm dead bodies to make them odoriferous and sweet so this was not done by them to Christ as God for indeed they did not then firmly believe in his Deity but were passionate Lovers of his Holy Person and as they esteemed him a man of Blessed Life so to shew their devotion to him they went as it were to embalm his Body and his Tombe which they revered as Reliques of man not of God and as this gives a literal avowment to Pilgrimages and worship of Reliques so it is a Tropical Example for all Christians to carry the oyntments of their Vertues and good Works about them as shewing they desire therewith to embalm the Memory of Christs Death and Passion and those who shall be diligent in this Art of Piety may hope with the first to see Christ in Heaven for the reward of their attending so Religiously on the Grave of his Death and Passion in this life 2. It seems they had been stayed in their journey to the Sepulchre either in the buying their oyntments or upon other accommodations for their holy purpose that it was Sun-rising ere they came to the Monument how ever they were going thither from midnight to that time of the day and had assuredly the merit of a more speedy arrival though by Divine providence it was appointed Christ should be out of his Grave sooner then any the most faithful Soul could get thither to see whether he was risen or not according to his promise if yet they were not retarded by the same Providence for a punishment of their want of Faith that came with intent to finde him there and as man to embalm him whom as God they ought to have believed was risen and needed not those pious expressions towards his humanity which this Resolution and Action in these holy Women did represent 3. Here again they betraied the weakness of their Faith as if God could not remove all obstacles in the way to his own Service as it seems really he did by the hands of his holy Angels who St. Matth. cap. 28. v. 3. sayes had rolâ—ed this stone away before they came which yet the Angel did not by any his Corporal Touch but by making an Earth-quake purposely to do it and joyntly to shew the terrour all the Earth was in for having covered the glorious Body of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and by this we see the Power that Angels have over all Corporal Things when they can even by the Touch of their Vertues or Powers make the whole Earth to quake not that there was need for the Angel to remove this stone that Christ might rise for he did rise before the Stone was gone by the same Power wherewith he came out of his Mothers Wombe without the least violation of her Virginity but meerly that by the stones removal the coming Maries and others to follow might see Christ was risen and why may not Christs Body be as well all under the Little Wafer of the Consecrated Hoste as it was able to pass through the Virgins Wombe a Childe and through the Stone a Man without any Division in either Quantities or Bodies through which it passed Note though these Maries were solicitous who should help them to role away the stone yet they went on with their Holy Resolutions to shew us we are not to desist from doing good though we finde huge Difficulties in our way but to proceed and put our trust in God that to those who Love him even every thing in Nature will co-operate towards the expression of their Loves 4. This Verse gives an excellent Proof of what was said last for see they no sooner look to have the stone removed but they finde it done to their hands by the Angel as above though they knew not who did it and therefore here is mention this Stone was very Great because we should not despair of overcoming any the greatest Difficulties in the way of a willing Soul to serve Almighty God 5. See they lose no time to ask or wonder how the stone was gone their
exaltation when Saint Peter in his Epistle tels us we that are Christians are called to suffer with Christ who gave us example by his sufferings to follow his steps even unto death for him who did vouchsafe to dye for us And is not this the full sence of the Prayer As for the Gospell if we look with a regardfull eye upon it 't is but the same sence in other words for while it runs upon the nature of a Shepheard it never comes unto the hight of his commends untill it layes him low as death to save his sheep so still it drives to that abasement which is our exaltation and drawes us sweetly on to dye for him while it gives us an example of confidence that admits no fear because there is no security but in Trust and who can we trust more safely then him that knowes no guile our Saviour Jesus Christ who rather dyes in us then we can dye for him and if he dye it is that we may live and joy eternally with him that by his resurrection conquered death Thus do the sparkes of spirit flye from every letter of the Holy Text when they are strook against the steele of this dayes Prayer and thus the high dignity of Pastorate acquires a glory from the lowest stoop the Pastor makes even that to death so in a word our highest sanctity consists in our lowest humility as this dayes Prayer Epistle and Gospel do all avouch The Epistle 1 Pet. 2. v. 21 c. 21 For unto this are you called because Christ also suffered for us leaving you an example that you may follow his steps 32 Who did no sinne neither was guile found in his mouth 23 VVho when he was reviled did not revile when he suffered he threatned not but delivered himselfe to him that Iudged him unjustly 24 VVho himselfe bare our sinnes in his body upon the Tree that dead to sins we may live to justice by whose stripes you are healed 25 For you were as sheep straying but you are converted now to the Pastor and Bishop of your soules The Explication 21. SAint Peter had before advised to bear patiently not onely just punishments inflicted on the faithfull to whom he writ dispersed as they were some here some there of Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia but also to bear injuries with the like patience saying that to this Christians were called because Christ did suffer for us most unjustly leaving us example to doe the like if need were and as there were three causes which moved God to become man this last is one of them The first was by his death to redeeme us the second by his preaching to teach us the third by his example to draw us to imitate his sanctity of life And to this last the Apostle now chiefely exhorts in this place as we see by the following verse contrary to the Hereticks Doctrine who hold it needless Christ having dyed for our sinnes that man himselfe use any mortification or doe any penance at all 22. Nor could he do any because he was God as well as man and hence Calvins Doctrine teaching Christ was a reall sinner and that he was in regard of his sins afraid to dye and did sweat bloud for fear thereof were all most abominable blasphemies because though in Christ there were two natures humane and divine yet there was in him but one person so had that person sinned God had sinned as well as man since the actions are attributed to the suppositum or person not to the natures contracted by the person but see the Apostle mindes us that Christ was not onely free from sin of fact but also of word and consequently of thought which is by word expressed nor is this marvell since out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Matt. c. 12. v. 34. but certainly God was the most abounding in Jesus his heart and so his words were all holy he being the very word of the eternall Father to whom as nothing is more proper then veracity so nothing is more improper then falsity or dissimulation fraud or guile 23 As indeed he was reviled when they called him drunkard raiser of seditions blasphemer nay conjurer or devill as casting out devils in the devils name yet did not he revile those who used him so ill nor did he recriminate as commonly men doe that excuse their own sins by casting other mens faults in their dish though in pure charity we read in Saint Matthew cap. 23. How roundly he did rebuke the Jewes to see if by a temporall check he could preserve them from eternall paines of hell which is a far other aime then those use who excuse themselves by way of recrimination of others for their end is not charity but passion or revenge and when he might have terrified the Judges that unjustly did condemne him he did not give them the least threat but gave himselfe up to the hands of Pilate his unjust judge how farre short are we of following this example whose whole indeavors are in all our actions even in those that are unjust to justifie our selves whereas if we would follow Saint Bernards counsell we should finde a remedy for all evils and injuries done unto us in the passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 24. The Apostle here assimilates Christ to the Emissary Goat in Levit. cap. 16. v. 21. Sent out into the desert loaden with all the sinnes of the people and so Christ came into the desert of this world out of his Eternall Fathers heavenly Pallace carrying all our sinnes upon his shoulders though by sins here is not understood the fact or guilt thereof but the punishment due unto them by the tree is meant the Crosse of Christ whereon while he dies hee represents us to his heavenly Father as dead to sinne because he dyes for us and for our sins whereupon Saint Ambrose sayes divinely well c. It was not our Life but our Sinne which dyed when Christ our Saviour dyed upon the Crosse So we being dead by that meanes to sinne may live to justice that is in the sight of the just Judge may deserve Eternall life in heaven for living justly here on earth O Soveraigne Stripes which bruising Christs body do cure our Soules more ulcerated with sinne then his body was with stripes 25. Straying we were indeed from God from vertue from Salvation from heaven and running to the devill to vice to damnation to hell had not Christ our Shepheard â—â—duced us to his fold againe by converting us to an amendment of our lives and winning us to follow the Footsteps of our heavenly Pastor and Bishop of our Soules See Bishops are metaphorically called Pastors because as shepheards feed their sheep so do Bishops by Doctrine and example feed the soules of men but Christ is eminentially called both as feeding soules not onely by grace here but with glory in the next world The Application 1. HOw sweetly Holy Church
it is distinguished from hazard fortune chance besides we are three severall times begotten first by nature or creation secondly by grace and regeneration in Baptisme remitting originall sinne thirdly by grace and pennance remitting actual sin though the Apostle here alludes only to the two last ways of our regeneration as is cleer by what followes saying we are thus begotten by the word of truth which is first understood by the second person of the Trinity becoming man to save us who were before Gods creatures but the devils children by the guilt of sinne and he is truly called the word of truth who is truth it selfe secondly the word of truth alludes to the promise of redemption made by God to Abraham through one of his seed Jesus Christ Thirdly the word of truth may allude to the Sacramentall words that are most true I Baptize I absolve thee fourthly and most literally by the word of truth is understood the word of the Gospel which is called properly the word of truth as first taught for such by Christ and afterwards confirmed for such by the Holy Ghost lastly by the word is understood the good life and doctrine of the faithfull corresponding to the word of God or Gospel of Truth for thus we are begotten also as by the word so that we may see in this generation God is our Father his grace the seed our Mother is a conformed will to the will of God her seed the consent to what our Holy Father cals unto and lastly the childe thus begotten of these Parents is our inward or supernaturall man so called from our better Parent God Almighty and yet even thus happily brought forth you see the Apostle cals us but some kinde of beginning to be creatures of Almighty God that is so his creatures as we are also his children though by this word beginning is best understood the chief principall or first fruits among men such as are to share in glory with the first created Spirits the Holy Angels as if other men that are not true Christians could not hope for this happiness and of this sort the Apostle accounts these to whom hee writes this Epistle by his creature therefore is understood onely those faithful soules who shall finally live and raigne with him in glory for all other creatures though his are not yet so excellently his as these for these are by speciall grace new creatures that is twice or thrice borne or made over such by nature or creation by grace or Baptisme by pennance and by glory 19. Know you that is to say you know enough by what I have said to you upon this subject of Christianity as above in generall termes now let me give you a lesson or two in particular let every one of you be swift or nimble to heare For as the wise man saith Prov. c. 1. v. 5. a wise man will heare and be more wise for he had observed many of them were so transported with finding they had some gifts of grace that they were alwayes boasting of them though even to the interruption of others that first had undertaken to speake of Godly things to them whence often they fell into passion and anger one with another and to all these the Apostle speakes particularly exhorting them with humility rather to heare others teach them then to undertake teaching others and not onely to heare but to follow the rules of their teachers for he onely perfectly heares the word of God who lives a life according to the doctrine he heares whence Saint Paul sayes Rom. 2. v. 13. not the hearers of the Law are just with God but the doers of the Law shall be justified we note here the Apostle relates in all this exhortation to the attaining of those vertues which he had first recommended to them in the beginning of this Epistle and in particular to wisdome which he mentioned in the fifth verse thereof so that as the property of wisedome he commends attention to what others can say slowness to speake our selves and slowness to anger and here he seemes by slowness of speech to recommend unto Preachers that quality and that they affect not loquacity but rather tardity of speech in their Sermons as more proper to imprint what they say and to edifie in the hearer for it was excellently said of Publius Mimus he knowes not how to speak that cannot hold his peace but much better of Saint Augustine Epist 132. in Psalm 139. in vaine doth he Preach the word of God to the eare who doth not himselfe heare it in his heart his meaning is let no man preach the word that hath not first heard what the Holy Ghost dictates to him upon it by way of meditation or contemplation besides Christ himselfe gave us this rule of whom we read Act 5.1 Iesus began to do and to teach to be silently a good man before he did openly Preach to perswade others to be good To conclude slowness to anger is advised as the best guard we have to stand upon because nothing so much loseth a wise man in the repute of others as choler passion and anger especially when it is frequent and therefore the Apostle not presuming it likely to be able to cut off that vice by the rootes adviseth at least that we be wary of it and not to fall unprovoked thereinto 20. By the anger of man is here understood that as God when he doth most justice in the latter day of judgement passeth that finall sentence without anger so to be here a just man one must be free from anger too but there are divers senses of this place among the expositors some will have it to meane that God to doe justice made not private mens anger the measure but the sentence of the impartiall Judge amongst men others will have it as if anger did not love but hate justice but the most genuine sense and to the Authors minde is that anger generally hinders all justice as if anger and passion did obstruct all the wayes to make a just man note Saint Thomas gives an excellent mark to know how we may be angry and not sinne when our anger followes reason and contrarywise whensoever reason followes anger there must needs be sin because anger is the chiefe agent reason but the instrument whereas in the former way anger is the instrumentall and reason the principall worker so by the anger of man is here understood the anger of the naturall man for if it be of the supernaturall it may be such as Christ and his Holy Saints had when they were angry at sinne and yet meeke to the sinners 21. Many refer this verse onely to the last thing spoken of anger as who should say since anger doth not produce justice it must needs worke the contrary effect namely all injustice amongst which is uncleanness and malice but yet this verse shall be much better referred to all that was said before verse v. 18. of
For as the Act of separated souls is necessarily unalterable like those of Angels so the last Act they had when they were united to their bodies remains eternally and is not unproperly said to be the same Act continued for all eternity and therefore free for ever because at first freely produced when the soul was in state of a viatour and out of that issued into the better state of an impatriated spirit nay though Purgatory intervene yet that remora alters not the nature or freedome of the Act because soules there retain their love to God wherewith they dyed however they suffer for former infirmities of their life past The Application 1. WHat may be to our special and present use in this Gospel is to observe that Holy Church culls it out as the most proper to the now flowing Feast of Pentecost though spoken by our Saviour to his Disciples before his Passion as appears ver 29. above but with intention they should then make memory and use thereof when they had received the holy Ghost as consequently we must do at the celebrating this Festivity The main scope of this Gospel is exhorting us to believe and love and telling us the sign of true love is to keep the word of God and that the effect of this love will be to draw down into our soules the Holy Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost as delighting to live in the hearts of those who love the Son of God and shew their love by keeping his holy word 2. But here is a special stile observable in this Gospel very profitable to be reflected on which is that our Saviour seems here only to relate or speak as v. 25. 26. and to leave it to the Holy Ghost to suggest and teach the true meaning of what he said as if it were a speech too profound for his Disciples to dive into without the help of the holy Ghost If then our B. Lord the wisdome of his eternal Father and consequently the best spokes-man in the world would not what ere he could speak so plain to his Apostles themselves as to be understood by them before the coming of the holy Ghost to explicate his meaning how absurdly shall it be done in those that are ignorant Lay-men to dare to understand or interpret holy writ 3. Hence we must infer that we are bound in the first place to believe the holy Ghost to be coequal God with the Father and the Son who sent him since none but God can be of Gods counsel and tell men the meaning of Gods holy word Again we must infer that it is the love of God who now must teach â—s the meaning of Gods holy word and that they are our Wills our Hearts which now must be instructed more then our understandings for these the wisdome of God our Saviour taught by the sight of Faith those the love of God the holy Ghost now teacheth by the fire of charity so that however Faith Rectifies yet it is charity must saintifie the soul how ever Christ Redeemed us yet he was pleased to send the holy Ghost to save us by his sayntifying grace and alas what had it availed us once to have been by God the Father Created once to have been by God the Son Redeemed if we were not more then once by God the holy Ghost sayntified as oft indeed as by sin we are made uncapable of the benefits of our Creation or Redemption Come therefore Holy Ghost come teaching come inamouring come comforting come sayntifying come saving Spirit into the open hearts thou hast of Christians ready to receive thee ready to be inkindled with the flames of thy most holy Love And Praying to day as above most fitly to the sense of this Holy Text. On Trinity Sunday THis Sunday is both the Octave of Pentecost and also the First Sunday after it therefore this week we have the Epistles Gospels and Prayers of two Sundayes for our entertainment and these both if I mistake not the most delightfull of any in the whole year The Antiphon Matth. 28. v. 19. THee God the Father unbegotten thee onely begotten Son thee Holy Ghost Comforter thee holy and undivided Trinity with all our heart and mouth we Confesse we Praise thee we Blesse thee to thee be Glory world without end Vers Blessed art thou O Lord in the firmament of heaven Resp Both praise-worthy and glorious for ever The Prayer ALmighty Everlasting God who hast granted to thy servants in confession of the true Faith to acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity and in the power of Majesty to adore unity we beseech thee heartily that in the firmnesse of the same Faith we may ever be defended from all adversity The Illustration NOw the mysteries of our Redemption are compleat by the contribution of all the Three divine persons of the Blessed Trinity thereunto as of the Father sending his only Son to dye for us of the Son coming and actually dying for our sins and of the holy Ghost descending and sanctifying us with his holy grace to make us sin no more it is most necessary we should close up the said mysteries with a peculiar feast of the same Blessed Trinity and so put a glorious crown upon the work of our Redemption while we begin to work out our salvation from the first root thereof which is our Faith in the most Blessed and undivided Trinity a mystery so unheard of before Christ had taught it to the world that even to this day it is the hardest thing which can be told to men and the thing which the blessed Angels that behold it do not comprehend how the Divine Nature can be personally Trine which neverthelesse is essentially but One. In admiration whereof St. Paul in this dayes Epistle breaks out into a Triple Trinity of his expressing this Triunity saying O depth of the Riches of the wisdome and of the knowledge of God! Loe the first Who ever knew the sense of our Lord or who was ever of his Counsel or who gave first unto him and it shall be restored again Loe the second For of God by God and in God are all things Loe the last of his Triple expressions alluding all of them to the Blessed Trinity as by the Expositours of this Epistle we shall find and consequently must acknowledge it to be included in the Prayer above As also the Gospel is expressing how our B. Lord sent his mission of Apostles with commission to Baptize and teach all the world the mystery of this Blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost So we have this day the best of harmonies in the mystical musick of this book while we find all three parts of holy Churches service to day so neatly woven into one the Epistle Gospel and Prayer all singing forth the praises of the most Blessed and undivided Trinity Father Son and holy Ghost three Divine Persons and one onely God Hitherto the mysteries of our Redemption were all upon
calls upon the Abysse in fine this is a reason above all reason but that which being increate it self creates the reasons of men and Angels as short of it self as finite things are short of infinite as creatures are short of their Creatour The Apostle ends this verse with an extatical admiration of Gods incomprehensible Judgments and investigable wayes that is to say the counsels means works and reasons of his providence who alone can cull Good out of evil as he doth convincing all Nations of incredulity that thence he may make one the motive for his mercy towards the other as was said above 34. How are we lost in our judgments when we see the wicked prosper and the just afflicted when we value humane abilities which in sight of God are follies because we do not know the sense the mind of God in these his permissions nor how contemptible a thing the wisest man under the cope of heaven is in the sight of God of whom Zeno said well that the pastime or sport of God was man as if God made but a Tennis ball of man or of the wisdome of men tossing him up and down at pleasure to the wonderment of us poor mortalls Whence the Abysse of humane misery calls upon the Abysse of Divine mercy and as S. Augustine saith the Abyss of humane ignorance calls upon the Abyss of the Divine knowledge or science How well then doth the Apostle say who knowes the mind of God or who was ever of his Counsel that is as Isaias said Chap. 40. v. 13. who ever gave him counsel or who did he ever make acquainted with such counsel as he gave himself in all internall and external operations whence no man must dare to ask why leaving the Jewes he turned to the Gentiles or the like 35. This place is remarkable for it is not asked who ever gave God any thing but who hath first given him any thing which before he had not received from him that so he might be able to make God his debtour truly no man and for this reason S. Paul sayes well what have you that you have not received and if you have received it why do you glory as if it had not been received by you but were your own Yet such is God Almighty his mercy to mankind that even this impossibility in man to make God his debtour by giving him any thing that was not his own before doth not hinder man of the honour to have God a debtour to him But then we must understand this saying safely and take heed we make not God our debtour for any gift or loan of ours to him but meerly for his own promises to us and those his promises though he were graciously pleased to make them voluntarily unto us yet he binds himself by vertue of his own promise to be our debtour for the performance of his words unto us to which purpose St. Augustine spake home in these words upon this place of the Apostle Serm. 16. Pay unto us what thou doest owe us because we have done what thou hast bid us to do though even what we have done were thy deed too because thou didst help us to do it 36. And for further proof of this doctrine the Apostle proceeds saying of him by him in him are all things that is to say not onely the essence or beeing of every thing but also the operations thereof since the operations of creatures are likewise creatures too as well as the things themselves that do operate and so both have equal dependance on Almighty God so that all things are of him as of their first maker by him as by their directour disposer and perfectour in him as in vertue of his assistance they are made do operate and are conserved But St. Augustine and with him the torrent of Fathers observe that what is said to be of God is appropriated to the Father what by God is attributed to the Son and what in God is reporting to the holy Ghost that so to the whole sacred and undivided Trinity we may refer the honour and glory of all beeing and operation of creatures insomuch that even from the Apostles time the close of prayer was made in this sort Glory be to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and by the Councill of Nice was added thereunto as it was in the beginning and now and ever world without end Amen For though here be ground of distinguishing Persons yet there is none of dividing essences or natures and therefore the Apostle telling us here of our obligation to the Blessed Trinity concludes saying not to them but to him be glory for ever that is to the one only undivided God who is neverthelesse distinguished into three several Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost A very apt close for the Epistle on Trinity Sunday The Application 1. WE have hinted in the Illustration above at the deep design of holy Church in closing up the grand work of humane Redemption and the Octave of the holy Ghost with a Feast made sacred to the B. Trinity wherein our Faith seems to be chiefly and wholly exercised because there is nothing so hard in Christian doctrine as to believe the Trinity of the sacred Triunity Now we may presume to affirm further that albeit from Pentecost to Advent the main aym of Christian duty be the exercise of charity in producing frequent acts thereof neverthelesse it was fitting to begin the practice of charity with an act of Faith to shew the difference between our love of God on Earth and our love of him in Heaven for there Faith shall cease that Love may increase and be alone the Totall duty of the Blessed but here Faith must increase least Love decrease in us Hence it was not onely fit that this our first act of charity to day should be to God but that it should be also accompanied with the strongest act of Faith imaginable which is this we now produce in making profession we believe God to be Trine and One. 2. Now not to break the order of the service that I mean of charity the main imploy of every Christian between this and the holy time of Advent see how by way of commemoration at least of the first Sunday after Pentecost we have regard to such another Prayer and such another Gospel whereunto I have added here the Epistle also though not read in open service as do mainly point at charity so shall we see in their perusal anon when these proper to the day are done 3. And lastly least this Act of Charity we are now to exercise should be defective being an act of love to God alone without relation to our neighbour see how we are taught to perfect it as well with an act of hope as with an act of Faith since the main scope of holy Churches prayer to day is to declare so strong a Hope in her believing and in her loving God that she puts it as a hopeful
is indeed the highest article of our Faith the first and main principle of Christian Religion But to conclude this doctrine 20. See how the beginning of this verse tells besides this mystery what the Apostles were commanded to teach the world namely to do all whatsoever Christ commanded them to deliver as the Will of God that is to say as well to do good works as to believe aright and to professe that Faith which was preached unto them and how ever Luther and Calvin pretend the Church of Christ and the right administration of the Sacraments thereof and of the divine Services had failed for many hundred of years together before they arrogated to themselves a kind of new Apostolate forsooth yet it is from hence confidently asserted by the unanimous consent of all Catholick Doctours and Divines that there neither hath been hitherto nor ever shall be hereafter till the day of doom which is the consummation or end of the world any failure in the Church of Christ nor in Christ his perpetual assistance and presence with his ever visible Church insomuch that he is ever visibly present in his perpetual visible rulers of the Church and invisibly in his continual-assisting grace and hence it is evidently proved that albeit no successours of the Apostles had those ample prerogatives which they enjoyed yet their Ministery is so the same that the Apostles was as Christ is said even to perpetuate the Apostles in their successours and his presence with them in his presence with their followers and in his assisting them as constantly as he did assist their predecessours though perhaps not as amply nor as efficaciously at all times For how else can it be true that Christ said to his Apostles he would send them another Comforter that should assist them eternally not in their persons but in their successours to the worlds end For the same are the gifts of Christ and of the Holy Ghost as far forth as they are both one and the same God Nay more Christ is even visibly remaining with the Ministers of his Church in the holy Eucharist or B. Sacrament of the Altar his blessed body and bloud being exposed perpetually to the receiving and adoration of the people more he is visibly with us in his Priests who are his visible instruments to administer the Sacraments and offer sacrifice unto the sacred Deity for though the Priest be the instrumental yet Christ is the chief and principal Priest himself it being proper to him to be both Sacrifice and Sacrificant so as in seeing the accidents of bodies we are said consequently to see the things whose accidents we see in like manner by seeing the Sacramental species we may be said to see the Sacrament the body and bloud of Christ whose accidents they are after consecration though the same species before were the accidents of bread and wine To conclude we may as truly say Christ is visibly with his Church to the worlds end as we may say a mans soul is visibly in his body that is to say perceptibly so long as a man lives and hath motion for look what the soul is to the body the same Christ is to his Church so that as the soul is the bodies natural life Christ is the supernatural life of the soul believing in him and making her self by that belief a member of his Church for as the soul makes the body move so Christ makes his Church to do according to that of S. Paul Philipp 2. he worketh all in all according to the purpose of his own holy will and again he it is that gives a will to do good and a power to put that will in execution and to perfect by him what was undertaken for him as being to his honour and glory The Application 1. IT is no marvel that to day we hear inculcated to us an explicite act of Faith in the Front and body of this Gospel while Hope and Charity are onely recommended to us in the close thereof and that but implicitely neither notwithstanding as our design of piety is laid in this work Charity is the chief vertue to be practis'd from this day untill Advent This is I say no marvel the very name of the day requiring this preference to Faith and the nature of the Feast inforcing it besides for since the proper object of Love is Goodnesse seen or understood and since the Blessed Trinity is not here seen at all but by the light of Faith therefore all the understanding we can have of it on Earth is first to believe and next to love it according as the Gospel intimates where Jesus by the vertue of Plenipotentiality given him both in heaven and earth sends his Apostles first to Teach the whole world the mystery of the B. Trinity by Baptizing all Nations in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost and thereby obliging them to believe explicitely these Three distinct Persons are all but one simple and single God whereas he bids the said Apostles here at least but implicitely to hope in and to love the sacred Trinity in as much as he commands their Teaching all Nations to observe all his Commandments whatsoever which yet are not observeable but for pure love of the commander and for pure hope of his recompencing our obedience unto his commands Who so reads the Gospel will soon see this to be the whole scope thereof 2. What then remaines for further application but that by an actual confessing this true Faith we actually glorifie the eternal Trinity and that in the Power of each Divine Persons sacred Majesty namely in the Power of the Father creating us in the Power of the Son redeeming us in the Power of the Holy Ghost sayntifying of us we adore the Unity of these Three Persons Deity since none but God can create none but God can redeem and none but God can sayntifie a soul 3. O Happy Christians who by firmly believing this to be their obligation to the sacred Trinity can neither want motive enough for Love of God nor ground enough for Hope that by this Act of Faith they shall be defended from all Adversity since the true victrix over all our enemies is as St. John tells us 1 Ep. c. 5. our Faith which overcomes the world and consequently all Adversity Say now the Prayer above and see how patt it is to what we here are taught On the first Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Luk. 6.37 JVdge not that you be not judged for in what Judgement you Judge you shall be Judged saith our Lord. Vers Let my prayer O Lord be directed Resp Even as Incense before thee The Prayer O God the strength of those that hope in thee be propitiously present to our prayers and because without thee mortal infirmity is of no ability grant the assistance of thy grace that in doing what thou dost command we may please thee both in will and work The Illustration ALbeit this Sunday is
be reall and not verball onely to be operative not idle or lazy for here the tongue is opposed to truth as dissimulation to sincerity and the word to the work as empty air to a purse full of money or as froth is to beer or wine To conclude hence we are taught further that we must not onely be effectually charitable but also we are bound to be affectionately so for it little avails to give alms unlesse we also love the poor whom we relieve and therefore love them because we relieve Christ in them and unlesse we give thus we sell our selves for popular applause by giving away our substance to purchase the empty air the shadows of vain commends and so lose a divine blessing as to the children of God to get a morall one as to be esteemed humane fathers of the world The Application 1. HItherto it hath appeared how exactly holy Church recommends unto us the practise of charity and truely this dayes Epistle confirms us in the same practise while it runnes wholly upon the subject of love so high that it seems to exceed even the last sundayes act of charity commanding then to love our enemies because now it exhorts us to do more then love them when v. 16. it invites to die for them also if need be which yet a true love of enemies involves as our Saviour did for us to shew his love unto us 2. And least we should pretend to love and not do it really see how the master of this Art S. John Evangelist in the last verse of this Epistle bids us take heed we do not feign the part we ought to act in earnest for he tells us 't is not enough to say we love unlesse we do it too no he obligeth us to love in deed to love in truth lest we seem to mock Almighty God by giving out we mean to act the best part of his sacred sonne his loving unto death those he pretended once to love according to that of the Evangelist Christ when he loved his people he loved them to his end that is he died for love of them 3. Hence we may safely say those are unworthy of the gift of love who have not in their hearts and eyes the holy fear of God as truely those can never have who dare to mock his sacred sonne by their dissembling love that is not reall No Christians no we are not yet in heaven where we cannot erre here we must carry fear before our eyes lest losing it we lose our labours too for without this holy fear we cannot work out our salvation nor can we hope to please his heavenly majesty unlesse we fear his power who is as well our Governour as our God and as we must love his Deity so we must fear his Government Whence it is holy Church most properly prayes to day as above The Gospel Luke 14. v. 16. c. 16. But he said to him A certain man made a great supper and called many 17. And he sent his servant at the houre of supper to say to the invited That they should come because now all things are ready 18. And they began all at once to make excuse The first said to him I have bought a farm and I must needâ— go forth and see it I pray thee hold me excused 19. And another said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee hold me excused 20. And another said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come 21. And the servant returning told these things unto his Lord. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant Go forth quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and the poor and feeble and blind and lame bring in hither 22. And the servant said Lord it is done as thou didst command and yet there is place 23. And the Lord said to the servant Go forth into the wayes and hedges and compell them to enter that my house may be filled 24. But I say to you that none of those men that were called shall taste of my supper The Explication 16. THis parable is almost the same that was mentioned Mat. 22.2 only there in a different way time and place as under the name of a dinner and here it is brought in under the name of a supper And there are divers senses made upon this supper Some call it a parable of the Incarnation life and death of Christ and thus S. Matthew seems to take it calling it a dinner as to the Church militant and a supper to the Church triumphant Others apply this parable unto the Blessed Sacrament and those make God the Father master of this feast his sacred Sonne the feast it self made of his blessed body and bloud and in favour of this opinion the holy Church at this time reads this Gospel as alluding to the flowing feast of Corpus Christi But yet for all that the literall sense of this Gospel alludes to the last supper of heavenly glory for that is the true supper which ends the laborious day time and begins eternall rest that never shall have end so though many may be cast out of doors after the dinner of the Church militant yet none can be cast out after they once enter to this triumphant supper And for that cause the most genuine sense of this place alludes as S. Gregory saith hom 36. to the society of eternall sweetnesse and glory Where note that great signifies here all the degrees of greatnesse such a supper as none could be greater either for the rarity of the dainties and banquets thereof or for the splendour and duration of it whereof S. Paul 1. Cor. 2. v. 9. sayes Eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard neither hath it ascended into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him And to this supper he called many by many are here understood no lesse then even all the Jews who were the true Church and people of God and were called by the Patriarchs and Prophets by John the Baptist by Christ himself while he lived amongst them 17. But by his servants whom he sent are properly meant the Apostles left by him to convert these Jews as well as other nations And by the bower of supper here mentioned is understood the resurrection of our Saviour for then and not till then were all things ready for this great supper of glory because then he brought with him from his grave a multitude of blessed souls who therefore were in Paradise as he promised the thief to be that very day he died because they were in his impassible presence that is to say when he was pleased to allow his body the benefit of all the gifts due to glorious bodies so though they were not in the finall place of eternall rest untill they did ascend with him to heaven yet they were set at the table of glory with him and were carried
our Saviour Jesus Christ but the Majesty and power of Almighty God indeed all the three persons of the B. Trinity so that to requite the love of him who made his Body be our food we are bound to come unto this Sacrament with acts of charity and to avoid the danger of unworthy receivers we are obliged to come unto it with all the fear and trembling we can that is to say by going first to confession and purging our conscience not onely from such sins as we are guilty of but even from inordinate affections to things that are not sin since we see in this Gospel those who had onely such affections were excluded from the Supper that was a Type of this holy Sacrament 2. Again since it was an act of the highest wisdome the second Person of the B. Trinity to contrive himself a Tabernacle in the soules of men wherein his infinite glory might take delight to dwell in hearts that had but a care to keep themselves in his good grace as the Priest sayes to day in holy office Wisdome hath built her self a House meaning amongst other senses Jesus Christ hath made himself a Tabernacle in humane soules that worthily receive the B. Sacrament it is but requisite we shew some zeal to his wisdome as well as to his Love namely that we bring with us to this heavenly banquet such a holy fear as may give testimony we aym at a reverence to his infinite wisdome while we shew a sign that we begin at least our selves to be wise by the best argument of humane wisdome holy fear according to that of Eccles 1. The beginning of wisdome is the fear of our Lord. 3. Nor will it be against the main scope of Christianity which is now continually to perfect charity in us while we joyn other vertues with our acts of love because though love must ever be included in all we say or do yet there is no vertue therefore to be excluded but any one or more may well go hand in hand with charity nay she indeed should never go alone being the Queen and Soveraign of all other vertues so they do but usher her where ere they go in her company as to day we are taught to lead our charity into the Church with a holy feare of our Lord. For which purpose we pray to day that we may come unto this holy Sacrament with equal fear with equal love and that for the reasons alledged in the Prayer as was said in the application of this dayes Epistle On the third Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Luk. 15.8 WHat woman if she have Ten groates if she have lost one groat doth she not light a Candle and sweep the house and search diligently untill she hath found it Vers Let my prayer O Lord be directed Resp Even as Incense before thee The Prayer O God who art the Protectour of those that hope in thee without whom nothing is valid nothing holy multiply we beseech thee over us thy mercy that thou being our ruler thou our guide we may so passe by the temporal goods of this world as not to loose the eternall of the next The Illustration SEe how in this excellent Prayer are summed up the contents of the Epistle and Gospel of the day how exactly do we in the beginning of this prayer observe the counsel given us in the Epistle humbling our selves under the mighty hand of God when we implore his protection over us confessing that without him nothing is valid nor holy in us and that we have no other title to his protection neither then his multiplyed mercies towards us upon which mercy we cast all our care all our hope and in confidence thereby to have him our ruler him our guide we commit our selves to the combat against all our enemies which we are to encounter in our passage through this alluring world beseeching his Divine Majesty that by our sober vigilancy over our own actions day and night accompanying his never failing conduct we may maugre opposition obtain the victory and receive the crown of Glory which this prayer petitions Behold it also as well adjusted to the Gospel For who doth not clearly see that whilest he shall not with the Publican hang upon our Saviours lips to hear his counsels and commands but runs his own wayes with the murmuring Pharisee he is presently a lost sheep and falls into sin if not to heresie as this parable imports and so in stead of onely passing by the pleasures of this world as the Prayer above adviseth he contrariwise dwelling on them in the swing of his own inordinate desires indangers his loosing heaven unlesse the good shepherd leave his flock in the desert by his being content for a time to see them want the comfort of his presâ—nce and consolation whilest he runs after his lost sheep and with much care finding him out brings him with joy back again to the Catholike Church if he were gone quite out of it or to Sacramental pennance if he were plunged into the mire of other grievous sins not schisme nor heresie But to come more home to our purpose whenâ—e is all this trouble to our Pastour but because the sheep do not with zeal and fervour say this prayer above do not hope in God but in themselves do not flye the roaring and the ranging lyon but run into his Jawes do not content themselves to feed in the pleasant pastures of holy conversation but run a hunting after the food of vain and worldly pleasures and consequently plunge themselves headlong into hell unlesse by the mercy of this heavenly shepherd they be reduced to an amendment of their lives and at last rewarded with eternal glory Whereunto it will hugely conduce to repeat this prayer often with such relation as we see it hath to the other parts of this dayes Service that so the sheep may do as the Pastour sayes This is the end of all preaching This the end of all prayer The Epistle 1 Pet. 5.6 c. 6 Be ye humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in the time of visitation 7 Casting all your carefulnesse upon him because he careth for you 8 Be sober and watch because your adversary the devill as a roaring lyon goeth about seeking whom he may devour 9 Whom resist ye strong in Faith knowing that the self same affliction is made to that your fraternity which is now in the world 10 But the God of all grace which hath called us unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus he will perfect you having suffered a little and confirm and establish you 11 To him be Glory and Empire for ever and ever Amen The Explication 6. THis verse exhorts to resignation unto the Divine Will in all occasions especially of adversity No marvel the hand of God is here called mighâ—y when it is omnipotent See how we are wooed into our own felicity when we are exhorted to humility and
are not bound to have some care of others as well as of themselves if it be but to edifie and lead them on by their exemplarity of life therefore every lay-man ought more or lesse to zeal his neighbours soul and to contribute towards the saving of it in some sort or other though with intermission of his own devotions if the neighbour require his charitable assistance at that time when he would else be at his prayers 3. To conclude least even in the conversion of others souls pride or vain glory run away with ours we are still to keep the lamp of charity light at home burning within our hearts for fear it be as S. Paul said a vain labour to us though we gain all the soules in the world to heaven if we loose our own for want of regulating all our actions by the rule of love and charity to God first whereby we are secured and to our neighbour next that we may help him too Whence it is holy Church concludes her prayer to day petitioning that even in the best of Temporall goods which is the searching after other mens fooles a work of Time though a fruit of Eternitie we may be protected by the God of Love and may be ruled and guided by his charity which will carry us securely through all the allurements of Temporalitie into a safe and blissefull Eternitie Say now the prayer above and see how home it is unto this Application On the fourth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Luk. 5. v. 5. MAster we labouring all night have taken nothing but in thy word we will cast our net Vers Let my prayer O Lord c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee that by thy order our course in this world may be peaceably directed and that thy Church may injoy a quiet devotion The Illustration TWo things beloved we aske in this prayer a peaceable flowing of the course of this world and an unperturbed devotion in the Church O that we all had our desires in this or rather that we did all truely desire and pray for it doubtlesse we should then have it since holy Church we see unfeinedly petitions it while by this dayes service she exhorts us to do the like And truly one main reason why we apply not our selves to a still devotion in the Church is because we are neither at peace with one another in the world nor are content to let things flow in that channell which God hath ordered them to glide in but are ever striving to have all things go as we our selves desire For what Christian lives that hath not some grudge or other with his neighbour to say nothing of all the Christian Princes now at warres among themselves leaving the Turk and other Infidels to incroach upon them to perturb the quiet devotion of the Church and laugh us all to scorn besides But it remains to shew how this prayer exhausts the Epistle and Gospel of the Masse to day The Epistle tells us what order Almighty God hath set the world in and this prayer beggs the same course may flow peaceably according as God hath ordered it that is to say neither one man should jarre with another nor those other creatures which God hath subjected to man should repine at their subjection And I would to God man kept his course as peaceably as all other creatures under him do theirs I would to God he did as resignedly undergo those little sufferings he is here subjected unto as they deserve to be undergone in hope of the huge reward they are to have if patiently and peaceably endured see how to day we pray that we may do this What prayer then more suitable to this Epistle The Gospel tells us how sweetly Jesus Christ founded his Church to day upon the persons of the Apostles whom he calls to be the pillars thereof It tells us with what devotion S. Peter followed the first call of our Saviour it shews what miracles accompanied the Apostles being called to this ministery it declares with what peaceable piety they followed our Saviour and left all they had in the world to dedicate themselves to his devotion What else doth the prayer to day close withall then a petition that the same miraculous Institution of the Church may be continued by a like miraculous preservation of it in the self same quiet and peace of piety as it was instituted with for it is indeed a miracle to see it so preserved nor is the goodnesse of God lesse seen in this then in the other and thereby shews that this is not a prayer of one day but ought to continue and be the incessant prayer of holy Church unto the worlds end that so it may appear to be the same sweet Spouse of Christ in the end which it was in the beginning of the foundation thereof and for this purpose holy Church we see makes it her annuall prayer so must we make it our annuall practise to pray in this conformity to the preaching and prayer of our holy mother The Epistle Rom. 8. v. 18. c. 18 For I think that the passions of this time are not condigne to the glory to come that shall be revealed in us 19 For the expectation of the creature expecteth the revelation of the Sonnes of God 20 For the creature is made subject unto vanity not willing but for him that made it subject in hope 21 Because the creature also it self shal be delivered from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God 22 For we know that every creature groaneth and travelleth even till now 23 And not onely it but we also having the first fruits of the Spirit groan within our selves expecting the adoption of the sons of God the redemption of our body The Explication 18. HEnce hereticks take their rise to deny merit of good works but in vain for the Apostle onely means that humane actions as humane are not proportionable to the glory to that reward we purchase by them and in that sense onely denies our sufferings to be able to merit heaven But this notwithstanding our humane actions as they are elevated by the grace of God in vertue whereof they became good and meritorious and are by that means dipt in the passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ so they are in some manner proportionable to the reward they purchase in as much as they are so the effects of grace and not of nature and consequently may merit to be rewarded with eternall blisse or glory because grace is as it were the seed of glory and so what grace produceth is capable of glory Thus finite actions become capable of infinite reward thus one hours martyrdome is capable of eternall glory the like of other good works 19. This verse shews the greatnesse of the longing that creatures have after heaven when it seems to make the creature expectation it self whilest
given us in the Blessed Sacrament whereof this Gospel was but a figure according to the exposition of the best Expositours of Holy Writ For look how to day four thousand persons were corporally fed with multiplied loaves so are millions of soules dayly fed with the body of Christ multiplied under millions of consecrated hoasts and as by this food is chiefly nourished in us all that is good so by the practice of Piety as the prayer petitions in the close is maintained in us what by the aforesaid blessed Sacrament is nourished as who should say in vain we take this spirituall nutriment if after it we do not maintain the grace it gives us by the continuall study and practice of Piety wherefore to make this Prayer accomplished we beg in the close thereof that God will maintain in us by our practice of Piety the good nutriment we receive by the blessed Sacrament Thus wee see how admirably the Prayer is adapted to the other parts of this dayes service and withall we are taught that the perfection of a Christian life consists in the continuall practice of Piety and devotion The Epistle Rom. 6. v. 3. c. 3 Are you ignorant that all we which are baptized in Christ Jesus in his death we are baptized 4 For we are buried together with him by Baptisme into death that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also may walk in newnesse of life 5 For if we become complanted to the similitude of his death we shall be also of his resurrection 6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne may be destroyed to the end that we may serve sin no longer 7 For he that is dead is justified from sin 8 And if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live together with Christ 9 Knowing that Christ rising again from the dead now dieth no more death shall no more have dominion over him 10 For that he died to sin he died once but that he liveth he liveth to God 11 So think you also that you are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Explication 3. TO be baptized in Christ is to be christned according as Christ hath commanded in the name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost to be baptized in his death is as much as to say in representation of his death and that our Baptisme hath force and vertue from the merits of his death and passion and signifies that as Christ died on the Crosse to this naturall life so the baptized die to sinne and live to Christ which is a life opposite to that of a sinner 4. This verse adds more to the Analogie saying we are not onely dead to sinne in Baptisme but thereby also buried with him in proof of our death to sinne So that the Trine Immersion used in Baptisme alludes to the three dayes that Christ lay buried in his grave as our sinnes in Baptisme lie drowned under the water thereof And for this cause holy Church makes a solemn Baptisme yearly on Easter eve to shew that thereby those who died were buried with Christ do also rise with him by the glory of his heavenly Father that is to glorifie him to a new life in him in testimony whereof the baptized have a white garment cast over them called the Chrisome to shew the purity of their souls and are advised to carry the same inward purity with them to the tribunall of Christ as a proofe of their fidelity to their vow in holy Baptisme of renouncing the world the flesh and the devill so to conserve their puritie or newnesse of life to the which the Fathers exhort earnestly when they inculcate the frequent memory of our baptismall vow which they ground in these words so we also may walk importing so we may persevere in that purity 5. See how this verse insists further upon the consequence of our spirituall resurrection even in this life by our spirituall death and buriall as above shewing that our newnesse of life by Baptism is like the ingrafting us into the stock or tree of Christ whence we are to receive all our future sap or nutriment so that as his death to naturall life was the way to his resurrection in like manner our death to sinne is the way to our resurrection with him and as we see graftâ— following the changes of the tree they are ingrafted in seem in the winter to die with it in the spring to revive with it so do we by Baptisme in Christ seem to die with him in the winter of his passion but revive in the spring of his resurrection 6. Then we know indeed our old man to be crucified with Christ when the new man lives in him By the old Man understand custome of sinning renounced by Baptisme by the body of sinne understand here the whole masse of our sinnes by the destruction of it understand not the palliation of it onely by imputative Justice as heretikes do but the absolute death thereof by inherent justice infused by baptismall grace into our souls 7. And this sense is confirmed by the next verse saying he that is dead meaning to sinne is justified from sinne lives by the infused Justice which hath killed and not onely covered sinnes in the baptized 8. This verse imports our future life eternall which we firmly believe we shall injoy with Christ if here we die with him to sinne 9. The sense of the precedent verse is confirmed by this following that tells us death shall as little reign over us in the next life if we truely die to sinne in this as it did over Christ once risen from his grave and yet withall alludes to the constancie we ought to have in good works even in this life that having once had the happinesse to live spiritually here we should disdain to die again by relapse into sinne and so to let death dominear ever us whom once we had slain by grace Note here the strange goodnesse of our Saviour who being God was content to let death once dominear over him on the Crosse that we might for ever after triumph with him over death 10. Here Christ is not to be understood to die to sinne as we doe but to die for sinne not his own but ours and that once for all our sinnes Where he is said here to live to God understand with God a blessed and immortall life as also that by so living he may perpetually praise and glorifie Almightie God since as he died for sinnes abolition so he lives for Gods glorification 11. 'T is reason we should think our selves dead to sinne when by Baptisme we renounce it and living to God when by the same Baptisme we live in him But it is a high expression of the alteration which the Apostle exhorts unto in advising us to think we are dead to sinne for as dead men have no motion
you shall receive or reap corruption But the common sense is that the fruit of carnality is disease corruption death damnation that of spirit vertue life everlasting glory and salvation 9. The Apostle here exhorts to a perseverance in doing good the Priest constantly continuing to teach the Lay to learn to relieve his teacher and to work according as he is taught as if incessant reward were not otherwise to be hoped but for incessant labour So as we may understand this in two sorts we shall reap in due time in the next world if we do not cease our labours in this or we shall even in this world reap incessant reward in due time for our labours here if we labour constantly and slack not our zeales since it is the end that crownes the work either with grace in due time here or glory in due time in the next world 10. That is whilest we have time to sow the seeds of good works let us do good to all people Christians or Heathens not onely to those we catechize though principally to Christians as being domesticals and of one house with us fellow servants in the Church of Christ the true house of God The Application 1. THe last Sundayes service and this do seem to be almost the same onely that was a more general Application to all mankind this to the chosen sort of men who make up the mystical body of Christ his holy Church Wherefore S. Paul in this Epistle makes his addresse particularly to the Priests and Pastours of our soules from the first verse to the end of the fifth at the sixth he begins to tell the sheep their duty to the shepherd and so continues to the end of the eighth verse in the two last verses he concludes with an exhortation to them of perseverance in their Christian duties bidding them do good to all men whatsoever but especially to one another to the domesticals of Faith to those who have not onely Christ their Father but do professe his holy Spouse the Church to be their Mother 2. We see by the Illustration above that the Priests office to us is double the one to cleanse us by administring the holy Sacraments unto us the other to defend us by preaching praying and offering up their daily sacrifices for us Hence we must conclude our duty consists in preparing our selves worthily for receiving those Sacraments from the hands of the Priests lest we incurr the censures of unworthy receivers no lesse then our own damnation if it be the Sacrament of the holy Altar that we do receive and if any other of them there hangs a curse at least upon all who perform the work of God negligently as all unworthy receivers of any Sacraments do or the negligent hearers of any Sermons or of Masse which is the sacrifice as well of the people as of the Priest and these are peculiarly indeed the works of God as being instituted by his sacred Son nay more they are the works of his continued mercy towards us and so surpasse all other his works whatsoever because we are told his mercy is above all his works 3. Hence the Priest is put in mind further then in the Explication above with what a holy intention attention reverence and zeal of soules he ought to administer any Sacrament and also how with the like regards he ought to preach or offer up his sacrifices thereby to comply with the trust of Sayntity which both God and man have put into his hands lest he incurr the odious brand of becoming like the people so the Priest for how ever both are sinners to God yet the Priests are set apart as Saints to the eyes of men and they peculiarly were those he bade be holy as himself was holy who made them dispensers of the mysteries of God unto the people Lastly hence the Lay-men are minded with what humility reverence fear and trembling yet with what confidence comfort obedience with what Faith what hope what love with what adoration with what zeal to God Almighties honour and glory they ought to receive the holy Sacraments to hear the Word of God to assist at the sacrifice of Masse which is not onely a commemoration but even a renovation a repetition in a mysterious way of our Saviours death and passion so they are to look upon the Priest going to the Altar with the same devotion as if they did behold our Saviour going to be crucified Now that both may do this our holy Mother prayes to day as above for that special gift of God that bounty whereby it is performable that ardent charity which sets on fire the world of flesh and makes it flye out into flames of holy love unto his heavenly Majesty for by this love it is that the Church militant is govern'd and by the same love God is glorified for all eternity in his Church Triumphant The Gospel Luk. 7.11 11 And it came to passe afterwards he went into a City that is called Naim and there went with him his disciples and a very great multitude 12 And when he came nigh to the gate of the City behold a dead man was carried forth the onely son of his mother and she was a widow and a great multitude of the City with her 13 Whom when our Lord had seen being moved with mercy upon her he said to her Weep not 14 And he came near and touched the Coffin and they that carried it stood still and he said young man I say to thee arise 15 And he that was dead sate up and began to speak and he gave him to his mother 16 And fear took them all and they magnified God saying that a great Prophet is risen among us and that God hath visited his people The Explication 11. THis was a fair Citie in Galilee within two miles of mount Thabor and so had the name of Faire for Naim imports as much This made the sadder funerall and the more gladsome miracle being in so vast so famous a City into which so great a multitude such a train of people followed our Saviour 12. This seeming chance to man of two such multitudes meeting those within and those without the City at the funerall was designed by God to render more authenticall the miracle God thereby more glorified and Christ the more beloved though it is to be noted that the Jews and Romans too had their burials alwayes out of the Cities unlesse rarely for Kings who were buried in the Citie of Sion David building a place for that purpose Note this onely sonne was also her onely child hence the mothers sorrow was greater to lose in him all the whole hopes of her house being a widdow of note and so past hopes of more of that family 13. By saying to her weep not he shewed his compassion of her sorrow was such that he meant to take away the cause of her tears by restoring her son to life again and so doubtlesse she believed when he
meant a servile one neither such as servants are in towards their Masters but a filial one such as Children are in towards their Parents For then we best fear Christ when we love him most so by the fear of Christ is here understood also the love of him which makes us subject our selves to those superiours whom he hath placed over us Note lastly though superiours may and must bear a commanding hand outwardly over their Subjects yet they may and must to be perfect be even subject that is think themselves inferiour to their own Subjects in the sight of God as if God were better pleased with the Subjects obedience then with the superiours commands for this latent subjection is compatible even with open superiority and in this sense the Apostles words requiring all perfection in both parties may exhort to an absolute mutual subjection unto one another in the fear of Christ The Application 1. SAint Paul in the three first Verses of this Epistle exhorts the Ephesians to a wary and wise walking because the dayes are evil And least they should not understand what he meant by this he concludes those are wary and wise steps which are made according to the will of God In the fourth Verse he dehorts from Drunkenness and Riots but allows Repletion with the spirit In the three last Verses he shews evident signes of spiritual repletion as singing forth the praises of God and giving him thanks in the Name of his sacred Son who hath set us in so sweet a way of government as that our subjection to one another is without all fear but that of offending Jesus Christ 2. What can our charity cull out of this but that she ought to day so warily so wisely to walk as if she were passing some narrow stony Lane full of Thorns so that every step she made must be with hazard of a trip or stumble if not of salling too or at least of running a thorn into her foot and crippling her self And such she may presume the passage is when either the stone of scandall lies in her way or the briar of vainglory in her own actions that are good and laudable for in such occasions she must first by prayer indeavour to understand the will of God which never allows of scandalizing others under the fairest pretext that can be made of doing good He that says Wo be to the world from scandals knew it was not onely the ruine of him that gave it but of all that took it And when we read that to God alone is due all honour and glory we are forbid to arrogate either of them to our selves for that were to set up a Pew or seat for the Devil in the Quier of Jesus Christ and to sing the Dirge of our own damnation instead of praising and glorifying God for having done that good work in us which he is ready to crown with our salvation if we shall religiously ascribe all praise to him all blame to our selves To conclude then we are rightly subject to man according to the will of God when we dare displease the first to please the last saying with the Apostle If I should yet seek to please men I were not the servant of God meaning in those things onely where man commands against the will of God 3. But holy Church is not content to point us out our way to tell us what we are to do she further is solicitous to beg of God that he will give us grace to do as we are taught and this she begs to day so artificially as if she hop'd to prevent all sin by asking pardon for it ere it were committed under pretence that God would never suffer right believers to be other then faithfull lovers too exact performers of his holy will so far as in them lay Yet because our Beings are forc'd out of the Nothing that we were before God made us Be therefore all our actions so far as they are ours tend to the Nothing that we were for which cause holy Church gives it for granted all we do must needs be Nothing for so we may well call sin and therefore without scruple she begs a pardon for mistreading even in her most wary walking she begs a peace before the war be made to shew she makes a war against her will at least while she sins of frailty not of malice and thence petitions that being by the grace of God purg'd from the guilt of all offence she may serve his divine Majesty securely with a contented soul such as freed from fear of any thing but sin and flying that can like the early Lark rise from the earth singing the praises of Almighty God Say now the Prayer above and see if it import not full as much as this The Gospel Iohn 4. v. 46. c. 46 And there was a certain Lord whose Son was sick at Capharnaam 47 And having heard that Jesus came from Jury into Galilee he went to him and desired him that he would come down and heal his Son for he began to die 48 Jesus therefore said to him unless you see signes and wonders you believe not 49 The Lord saith to him Lord come down before that my Son die 50 Jesus said to him go thy Son liveth the man believed the word that Jesus said to him and went 51 And as he was going down his servants met him and they brought word saying that his Son lived 52 He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he was amended and they said to him that yesterday at the seventh hour the Feaver left him 53 The father therefore knew that it was in the same hour wherein Jesus said to him thy Son liveth and himself believed and his whole house The Explication 46. SAint Irenaeus will have the Centurion of whom Saint Matthew speaks in his eighth Chapter to be this Lord whom here Saint John mentions but it is more probable to be another because that Centurion did believe by the motive of this precedent cure and seeing Christ ready to go to his servant stopt him and said he needed not give himself the trouble of that labour but it would suffice if he did command the cure by a word of his mouth Matth. 8.8 whereas this Lord presseth Christ to go Again that Centurion asked the cure of a Palsie this Lord of a Feaver That Christ going and almost coming near him cured this he did not go unto nor stir towards Hence this must needs be a different cure from that and was indeed precedent to it as we said above 47. Note this Lord went from Capharnaam to Cana in Galilee fourteen Leagues off out of the fame he had heard of Christ his great cures but not believing this was done by any other then humane means he asked him rather as a famous Doctour then as otherwise qualified to come unto his son and cure him or if he did believe he could cure by touching the diseased yet he did not
so have their names written in the book of life are predestinate and cannot choose but be saved But this is farre from the genuine sense of the Apostle who had before so much inculcated perseverance in good works as in this Epistle we have heard his meaning therefore must be that those who by Baptisme are first adopted children of God and by a holy life preserve their favour in the sight of God are at last written in the book of glory as at first they were in the book of grace as who should say he did exhort them that were first innocents to be at last Saints and so deserve to be finally inrolled Commanders of the heavenly Militia after they had been once listed souldiers of the militant Church of Christ The Application 1. THe doctrine of sincerity last Sunday inculcated is this day prosecuted by S. Paul to the Philippians and lest they should misunderstand him he tells them plainly he requires as sincere a Christianity in them as they found to be in himself while he makes his own rule of life their pattern and example to follow him by and doth not fear to fright them from their onely nominall Christianity by declaring those to be enemies to the Crosse of Christ who do not really sincerely take up the same and carry it as well as they pretend to do it who have not their conversation in heaven while they presume to hope their bodies shall go thither though their souls be wallowing here in the mire of flesh and bloud Finally lest they should be deterr'd from following S. Pauls Rule out of a despair of arriving to his perfection in Christianity which in those dayes was and still should be Synonyma with saintity he exhorts them at least to follow the examples of the two virtuous Matrones here set before their eyes Euodia and Syntiche as also those of his sincere companion though not an Apostle and of the rest of his Coadjutors in the propagation of the faith of Christ 2. Yes yes beloved 't is a holy sincerity that now our charity must bring along with her to her journeys end and therefore no marvell 't is two dayes together inculcated by holy Church nor can there be a greater sincerity then that to day before our eyes that of the Primitive Church and consequently that is it we should endeavour now to have indeed and not to fain for as we glory to be Christian Catholicks so we should endeavour to be as sincerely such as they from whom we are descended 3. And for as much as holy Church knows rightly well there is no saintity on earth free from iniquity no sincerity that is not waited on by some hypocrisie or other therefore while she preacheth perfection she prudently prayes for absolution especially now that she draws to the close of her annuall piety now that she brings her charity towards her journeys end lest vanity runne away with part of her holy labours For that is the safest step to saintity which tramples on iniquity treads it under foot those stand firmest in the grace of God that are alwayes begging new favours by asking pardon for old offences and they shew sincerity of their love to God who desire to cancell all their obligations to the devil who are not content with pardon for their guilt of sinne unlesse they may be loosened from the bands thereof from their affections unto sinne And for as much as charity is taught to march out of the field of this life with such a sincerity with such a sincere desire of saintity Therefore holy Church brings her towards her journeyes end now praying for it as above The Gospel Mat. 9. v. 18. c. 18 As he was speaking this unto them behold a certain Governour approched and adored him saying Lord my daughter is even now dead but come lay thy hand upon her and she shall live 19 And Jesus rising up followed him and his disciples 20 And behold a woman which was troubled with an issue of bloud twelve years came behind him and touched the hemme of his garment 21 For she said within her self If I shall touch onely his garment I shall be safe 22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said have a good heart daughter thy faith hath made thee safe And the woman became whole from that hour 23 And when Jesus was come into the house of the Governour and saw minstrels and the multitude keeping a stirre he said 24 Depart for the wench is not dead but sleepeth And they laughed him to scorn 25 And when the multitude was put forth he entred in and held her hand and the maid arose 26 And this bruit went forth into all that countrey The Explication 18. THat is as he was giving a reason why his disciples did not fast so rigorously as those of John the Baptist did and as also the Pharisees were wont to do which were onely voluntary and not legall fasts Then came in this Governour who was a chief officer in the Synagogue called Jairus which signifies Illuminatour or teacher of the people By Adoration is here literally meant falling at Christs feet which yet he did not do before news was brought him by his servants that now his daughter was dead lo then he believes firmly and in testimony thereof prostrates himself and in the very manner of his language saying now my daughter is dead he blames his not believing and asking help sooner but to make amends for his not hoping Christ could cure his sick daughter he invites him to go home and revive her though she now were dead not that he doubted but his power at a distance would suffice but that he had heard Christ was accustomed to touch those whom he healed in Capharnaam and this was on the sea coast of Galilee not farre from the same town famous for Christ his miracles 19. That this is the genuine sense of the verse above is gathered the rather from Christ his going immediately to undertake the cure even after the same manner namely by a touch of his sacred hand for we do not hear any rebuke given to Jairus for want of Faith but Christ resting satisfied his belief was full resolved to give him full satisfaction to his Faith and hope by reviving as was desired his dead daughter taking his disciples as witnesses to this his gracious condescending and working this miracle Yet this notwithstanding the Centurions Faith was above this of Jairus who onely asked a word saying Mat. 8.8 speak the word onely and held himself not worthy the honour of Christ his entring his house 20 21. 22. Note this woman was a Gentile and it wants not mystery to have the twelve yeares of her diseases continuation upon her here made mention of in regard it alludes to the twelve years age of Jairus daughter whom Christ was going to raise from death to life and thereby gives us to understand Christ by his ordaining to do those two miracles at
that number who according to holy Davids example Psal 118.109 have their soules alwayes in their hands that is to say who make account their every thought word or deed ought to be such as together with the same they are ready to deliver up their very souls into the hands of their Creatour and those souls so regulated as in this sodalitie we are taught according to the pattern of the blessed Virgin Mary Luke 2.19 who conserved in her heart every word that fell from the mouth of her sacred Sonne and as we shall then appear to conserve the same when out of the abundance of his holy word lodged in our hearts we make our mouths to speak and this we do whilest all our prayers are abstracts of the Word of God and all our conversation answerable to those prayers as if we can observe the methode of this book they will be And if beloved you but look upon the first contriver of this devotion Saint Gregory the great you will not undervalue it because it had so mean a reviver as my self Know it was he that called the Prayers of holy Church Mysteries Sacraments and surely for this one reason amongst the rest because they did mysteriously couch the sense of holy writ as we have hitherto assayed at least to shew and as to day we hope to make it appear this prayer above contains the sum of both Epistle and Gospell following though I confesse no soul would think it at first sight for in all the book there is not any prayer which holds a lesse visible proportion with the holy Text then this and yet if I mistake not we shall find it comes as home as heart can wish to our designe when once we shall resolve what is meant by the fruit of the divine work for that 's the key to all the treasure of Devotion couched in this prayer What if we say that fruit is our salvation since this is a work so truely divine that there is none indeed but God himselfe can bring forth such a fruit and yet so good a God we serve that he is pleased we shall our selves prepare this fruit and serve it up unto his heavenly Table while we are bid pray this day that since our understandings are already sufficiently instructed in our duties what they are and ought to be to God our wills may be stirred up to a performance of those duties to the more diligent preparing the fruits of the divine work the salvation of our soules that by redoubled diligence we may receive the greater remedies of God Almighties mercies meaning so much of his grace in this life as may secure us of his glory in the life to come which when with all the diligence imaginable we do obtain 't is still a mercy to us and must be gratis given or else we may justly fear to go without it so great a work it is to save a soul and therefore well is it called a work divine But what are we the nearer now for adjusting this Prayer unto the Epistle and Gospell of the day Admit this be the genuine sense of the Prayer above what report hath it to Judgement which is the subject of the Gospel Why this at least that the best preparative to save a soul is to remember the dreadfull day of doome and therefore when the Prayer beggs to have our wills stirred up to a more diligent preparing the fruits of the divine worke the salvation of our soules the Gospell puts us fitly in minde of the day of Judgement so to fright us into this diligence least through our sloth the Judge do want that crop of fruit which then he comes to gather And thus we seem to draw a little more neare at least to the end of our designe But if we reade the latter end of the Gospell comparing the day of Judgement to the sprouting out of a figg-tree we shall come nearer yet and if we hearken to the Expositours upon the 32 and 33 verses of this Gospell how sweetly they expound that Parable we shall then come fully home to the sweetest harmonie imaginable between the Gospell and the Prayer And for the Epistle it is nothing else but an exhortation of Saint Paul to the Colossians and in them to us how to prepare our soules to salvation even in the very language of the Prayer for example how to fructifie in all good works that we may at the latter day of doome whereof the Gospell minds us now be made worthie to partake of the lot of Saints to be delivered from the power of darkenesse and translated into the Kingdome of the Sonne of Love in whom we have redemption the remission of sinnes in a word the salvation of our soules or the ripening of that fruit which we must with all diligence prepare for the heavenly Table as beeing the worke of our heavenly Lord. When I say we doe consider this then we shall need no more to seek for a connexion between the preaching and the Prayer of holy Church to day in this period of our work wherein we were almost at a losse even now that we stood in greatest need of making good our whole designe in the close thereof And who can marvell now that this sweet Prayer should be suitable to the sower day of Judgement when we see that dreadfull story in the Gospell closed up with the gladsome Parable of a fruitfull Spring And why to shew that to the Blessed the day of doome is a time oâ— Joy and that the just alone are of consideration with Almightie God In a word please but to reade the Expositours upon that point as in the glosse below you find them and tell me then whether this Prayer doe want connexion unto that glosse of theirs if not then you will grant the Prayers of holy Church to be as Saint Gregory calls them Sacraments mysteries indeed of Pietie but such as when explained are sweet as honey and facile as we can desire For what more easie now then to see this Prayer alludes to Judgement in the same sense that holy Church desires her children should be ready for it that is to be prepared fruit for the heavenly Table and by that preparation to be worthie to receive the greater remedies of God Almighties mercies at the day of Judgement against the corruption of humane nature namely his gifts of glory added to those of grace And thus we shall close up the Ring of our devotion with the same Christian dutie we began it whilest mindfull of the day of doome we pray our wills may be raised up to an alacritie in our Christian dutie as they were by the same spirit of Prayer raised upon the same subject on the first Sunday of Advent which this foure and twentieth Sunday after Pentecost inclines unto in like manner as all parts of a circle bow to meet each other with a plie to circularitie and so the dutie of a Christian is then best performed
next because a cloud is a type of the hidden mystery of his Deity lastly because he shall have his judiciary Throne placed in a cloud wrought out into the form of a moving chariot so that a cloud shall be both his seat and his footstool whilest in the ayr he appears to all the world below on his Throne of Judgement He shall then come in great power to shew he could have done so too when he came a weakling and alone into the world at his Nativity In great Majesty by the attendance of all the quires of Angels and blessed Saints waiting upon him 31. This verse doth not keep the order of Judgment but tells the manner True it is this shall be but not after Christ hath appeared for it shall be done before that and many other of these signs so it is put in here lest the story should come short of truth not to observe the order of the passage This gathering of the elect from all corners of the world and from heaven it self even the highest and lowest saints there argues the care God hath of them and that no distance of place can hinder them from coming to him who sends his Angels to bring them for their reward it tells us also we need not proclaim our own good deeds God sees them be they done and kept never so secret to avoid vain-glory 32. What was literally said before is now anagogically prosecuted by the example of a fig-tree which never springs but when the heat is strong that so the fruit thereof may be securely ripened and not nipt with cold and because it is a tree bearing great store of fruit so the Sun of Justice appearing the earth yields up all her fruits all the Saints thereof and presents them to the Sun that must mature them for the table of his heavenly Father when the summer of the resurrection comes 33. This example he useth to shew that however Judgement be terrible to those that are in sin yet to the just and to God himself it is as welcome as the harvest which brings in the treasure of the year and the fruit of time into the barnes of Eternity And that we may be frighted from sin we are foretold many of the calamities we see in all ages are like some of these fore-running signes to the latter day so we may religiously fear our particular Judgement at least is at hand and when all the signes are fulfilled we may be as sure the general will follow as we are sure the ripening Sun is near when the fig-tree sends out her sap from her wary root or mystically thus when in the cold winter of Antichrists persecution we see the Saints the spiritual fig-trees of holy Church put forth with confidence their leaves and buds of sanctity we may rest assured those wise figge-trees are not deceived and then it is time for sinful fools to repent themselves lest if not then it be too late for ever so to do 34. This verse onely imports that before the end of this world these signs shall be seen and this Judgement shall be unavoydable to mankind for that is it he means by this generation 35. The heavens and earth shall passe that is to say shall be changed from the present state and condition wherein they now are and whereunto they were ordained but for a time so that their after state shall be of a farre other nature liable to none of these changes which are now frequent in them according to the present exigence and series of causes Others understand by the last words of this verse our Saviour speaks here comparatively as if it were more possible for the settled course of heaven and earth to fail all at one instant then for the least tittle of Christ his word to passe unverified and this sense is not improbable being that which S. Chrysostome avows The Application 1. LOok how the Christian year begins so must it end with fear and love These were the plying virtues to the will of God that we begun the Rules of this sodality withall on Advent Sunday see the same virtues ply into the perfect circle of the year to day they bringing us to the end of our annuall devotion which began it but with this difference fear led us then unto the duty of our love now love hath brought us to the duty of our fear then we remembred our Judge that we might love our Jesus now we have loved him we need but fear him in respect of others who do not truly love him because it love bring us to the Judgement-seat we may be sure to find a loving Judge such as will never damn us It is the oracular edict of his own veracity I love those that love me and again it was the first love-lesson we were taught when charity began to march upon her own leggs on the third Sunday after Pentecost 1 Joh. 4. v. 17. Perfect charity fears not judgement meaning sure for her own particular Yet must have still a fear thereof in regard of others and she may fear too in her own behalf but that need onely be a fear she doth not love enough 2. It was no doubt with this designe our Saviour ended the frightfull story of judgement with the comfortable parable of the springing fig-tree to shew our charity that finall day is dismall onely to the damned souls to those that know not what it is to love their Jesu-Judge We see the holy Fathers make that exposition of it And we know that every creature groans for grief at the delay of that relieving day Rom. 8. v. 22. when they shall all be eas'd of their obedience to the disobeying man they are made subject to and when they shall be set to a new series and frame again to be ever consistent in their severall degrees of perfection without vicissitudes of fading to re-flourish those alterations were their punishments for mens prevarication and for working corruption in his body who by sinne had corrupted his own soul Judgement is therefore the longing of the just to see that justice done at last which is differ'd so long And indeed all present chastisement is mercy in comparison of that finall punishment which is therefore eternall because the wicked are unalterable in their malice and so force a rigorous judgement from the bowels of a mercifull Judge 3. To conclude what other sense can holy Church have of this latter day when at the preaching on that frightfull Text she makes us such a comfortable prayer as bids us beg tho greater remedies of Gods piety then his continuall graces the gifts of his glory at the day of Judgement to candy the confections of his graces to embalm the bodies of his Saints and make them uncorrupt as are their souls And all this favour she confidently bids us ask in recompence onely of our willingnesse to ripen our selves in the Sunne of his holy grace that he may make us fruits of