determine that the onely formal cause of our Justification is God's Justice not by which he himself is Just but by which he makes us just wherewith being endowed by him we are renewed in the Spirit of our mindes and are not onely reputed but are made truely just receiving every man his own measure of Justice which the Holy Ghost divides to him according to each mans predisposition of himself and cooperation And withall they denounce a flat Anathema to all those who dare to say that we are formally justified by Christs Righteousness or by the sole imputation of that Righteousness or by the sole remission of our sins and not by our inherent Grace diffused in our hearts by the holy Ghost Which terms they have so craftily laid together as if they would cast an aspersion upon their Adversaries of separating the necessity of Sanctification from the pretended Justification by Faith wherein all our words and writings will abundantly clear us before God and men That there is an inherent Justice in us is no less certain then that it is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost For God doth not justifie the wicked man as such but of wicked makes him good not by mere acceptation but by a real change whiles he Justifies him whom he Sanctifies These two acts of Mercie are inseparable But this Justice being wrought in us by the Holy Spirit according to the modell of our weak receit and not according to the full power of the infinite agent is not so perfect as that it can bear us out before the Tribunal of God It must be onely under the garment of our elder Brother that we dare come in for a Blessing His Righteousness made ours by Faith is that whereby we are justified in the sight of God This Doctrine is that which is blasted with a Tridentine curse Heat now the History of this Doctrine of Justification related by their Andrew Vega de Justif lib. 7. cap. 24. Magnafuit c. Some Ages since saith he there was a great concertation amongst Divines what should be the formal cause of our Justification Some thought it to be no created Justice infused into man but onely the favour and merciful acceptation of God In which opinion the Master of Sentences is thought by some to have been Others whose opinion is more common and probable held it to be some created quality informing the Souls of the Just This Opinion was allowed in the Council of Vienna and the School-Doctors after the Master of Sentences delivered this not as probable onely but as certain Afterwards when some defended the opposite part to be more probable it seemed good to the holy Synod of Trent thus to determine it So as till the late Council of Trent by the confession of Vega himself this Opinion was maintained as probable onely not as of Faith Yea I adde by his leave the contrary was till then most current It is not the Logick of this Point we strive for it is not the Grammar it is the Divinity What is that whereby we stand acquitted before the Righteous Judge whether our inherent Justice or Christs imputed Justice apprehended by Faith The Divines of Trent are for the former all Antiquity with us for the latter A just Volume would scarce contain the pregnant Testimonies of the Fathers to this purpose Saint Chrysostome tels us it is the wonder of Gods Mercy that he who hath sinned confesseth is pardoned secured and suddenly appears Just Just but how The Cross took away the Curse saith he most sweetly Faith brought in Righteousness and Righteousness drew on the Grace of the Spirit Saint Ambrose tels us that our carnal infirmity blemisheth our works but that uprightness of our Faith covers our errours and obtains our pardon And professeth that he will glory not for that he is Righteous but for that he is Redeemed nor for that he is void of sins but for that his sins are forgiven him Saint Jerome tells us then we are just when we confess our selves sinners and that our Righteousness stands not in any Merit of ours but in the mere Mercy of God and that the acknowledgement of our imperfection is the imperfect perfection of the Just Saint Gregory tells us that our Just Advocate shall defend us Righteous in his Judgement because we know and accuse our selves unrighteous and that our confidence must not be in our acts but in our Advocate But the sweet and passionate speeches of Saint Austin and S. Bernard would fill a book alone neither can any Reformed Divine either more disparage our inherent Righteousness or more magnifie and challenge the imputed It shall suffice us to give a taste of both We have all therefore Brethren received of his fulness of the fulness of his Mercy of the abundance of his Goodness have we received What Remission of sins that we might be justified by Faith and what more Grace for Grace that is for this Grace wherein we live by Faith we shall receive another saith that Divinest of the Fathers And soon after All that are from sinful Adam are sinners all that are justified by Christ are just not in themselves but in him for in themselves if ye ask after them they are Adam in him they are Christs And elsewhere Rejoice in the Lord and be glad O ye Righteous O wicked O proud men that rejoice in your selves now believing in him who justifieth the wicked your Faith is imputed to you for Righteousness Rejoice in the Lord why Because now ye are just And whence are ye just Not by your own Merits but by his Grace Whence are ye just Because ye are justified Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods Elect It sufficeth me for all Righteousness that I have that God propitious to me against whom onely I have sinned All that he hath decreed not to impute unto me is as if it had not been Not to sin is Gods Justice mans Justice is Gods indulgence saith devout Bernard How pregnant is that famous Profession of his And if the mercies of the Lord be from everlasting and to everlasting I will also sing the mercies of the Lord everlastingly What shall I sing of mine own righteousness No Lord I will remember thy Righteousness alone for that is mine too Thou art made unto me of God Righteousness should I fear that it will not serve us both It is no short Cloak that it should not cover twain Thy Righteousness is Righteousness for ever and what is longer then Eternity Behold thy large and everlasting mercy will largely cover both thee and me at once in me it covers a multitude of sins in thee Lord what can it cover but the treasures of Pitie the riches of Bountie Thus he What should I need to draw down this Truth through the times of Anselme Lombard Bonaventure Gerson The Manual of Christian Religion set forth in the
A tyrannous guiltinesse never thinks it self safe but ever seeks to assure it self in the excesse of cruelty Doubtlesse he which so privily inquired for Christ did as secretly brew this massacre The mothers were set with their children on their laps feeding them with the breast or talking to them in the familiar language of their love when suddenly the Executioner rushes in and snatches them from their armes and at once pulling forth his Commission and his knife without regard to shrieks or teares murthers the innocent Babe and leaves the passionate mother in a mean between madnesse and death What cursing of Herod what wringing of hands what condoling what exclaiming was now in the streets of Bethleem O bloody Herod that couldst sacrifice so many harmlesse lives to thine ambition What could those Infants have done If it were thy person whereof thou wert afraid what likelihood was it thou couldst live till those sucklings might endanger thee This news might affect thy Successors it could not concern thee if the heat of an impotent and furious envy had not made thee thirsty of blood It is not long that thou shalt enjoy this cruelty After a few hatefull years thy soul shall feel the weight of so many Innocents of so many just curses He for whose sake thou killedst so many shall strike thee with death and then what wouldest thou have given to have been as one of those Infants whom thou murtheredst In the mean time when thine executioners returned and told thee of their unpartial dispatch thou smiledst to think how thou hadst defeated thy rivall and beguiled the Starre and deluded the Prophecies whiles God in Heaven and his Son on earth laugh thee to scorn and make thy rage an occasion of further glory to him whom thou meantest to suppresse He that could take away the lives of other cannot protract his own Herod is now sent home The coast is clear for the return of that holy Family now God calls them from their exile Christ and his Mother had not stayed so long out of the confines of the reputed visible Church but to teach us continuance under the Crosse Sometimes God sees it good for us not to sip of the cup of affliction but to make a diet-drink of it for constant and common use If he allow us no other liquor for many yeares we must take it off chearfully and know that it is but the measure of our betters Joseph and Mary stir not without a command their departure stay removall is ordered by the voice of God If Egypt had been more tedious unto them they durst not move their foot till they were bidden It is good in our own businesse to follow reason or custome but in God's businesse if we have any other guide but himself we presume and cannot expect a blessing O the wonderful dispensation of God in concealing 〈◊〉 himself from men Christ was now some five years old he bears 〈◊〉 as an infant and knowing all things neither takes nor gives notice of ought concerning his removall and disposing but appoints that to be done by his Angel which the Angel could not have done but by him Since he would take our nature he would be a perfect child suppressing the manifestation and exercise of that Godhead whereto that infant-nature was conjoyned Even so O Saviour the humility of thine infancy was answerable to that of thy birth The more thou hidest and abasest thy self for us the more should we magnifie thee the more should we deject our selves for thee Unto thee with the Father and the holy Ghost he all honour and glory now for ever Amen Contemplations THE SECOND BOOK Containing Christ among the Doctors Christ Baptized Christ Tempted Simon Called The Marriage in Cana. The good Centurion To the Honourable General Sir EDWARD CECILL Knight all Honour and Happiness Most Honoured Sir THE store of a good Scribe is according to our Saviour both old new I would if I durst be ambitious of this only honour Having therefore drawn forth those not frivolous thoughts out of the Old Testament I fetch these following from the New God is the same in both as the body differs not with the age of the sute with the change of robes The old and new wine of holy Truth came both out of one vineyard yet here may we safely say to the Word of his Father as was said to the Bridegroom of Cana Thou hast kept the best wine till the last The authority of both is equally sacred the use admits no lesse difference then is betwixt a Saviour fore shadowed and come The intermission of those military imployments which have wone you just honour both in forrain nations and at home is in this onely gainfull that it yields you leisure to these happy thoughts which shall more fully acquaint you with him that is at once the God of Hosts and the Prince of Peace To the furtherance whereof these my poor labours shall doe no thankless offices In lieu of your noble favours to me both at home and where you have merited command nothing can be returned but humble acknowledgments and hearty prayers for the increase of your Honour and all Happiness to your self and your thrice-worthy and vertuous Lady by him that is deeply obliged and truly devoted to you both JOS. HALL Christ among the Doctors EVen the Spring shews us what we may hope for of the tree in Summer In his nonage therefore would our Saviour give us a tast of his future proof lest if his perfection should have shewed it self without warning to the world it should have been entertained with more wonder then belief Now this act of his Childhood shall prepare the faith of men by fore-exspectation Notwithstanding all this early demonstration of his Divine graces the incredulous Jews could afterwards say Whence hath this man his wisdome and great works What would they have said if he had suddenly leapt forth into the clear light of the world The Sun would dazle all eyes if he should break forth at his first rising into his full strength now he hath both the day-star to goe before him and to bid men look for that glorious body and the lively colours of the day to publish his approach the eye is comforted not hurt by his appearance The Parents of Christ went up yearly to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passeover the Law was only for the males I do not finde the Blessed Virgin bound to this voiage the weaker sex received indulgence from God Yet she knowing the spiritual profit of that journey takes pains voluntarily to measure that long way every year Piety regards not any distinction of sexes or degrees neither yet doth God's acceptation rather doth it please the mercy of the Highest more to reward that service which though he like in all yet out of favour he will not impose upon all It could not be but that she whom the holy Ghost over-shadowed should be zealous of God's
that persecuted thine innocence but limbs of this Devil And why are we then amazed to see thee touched and locally transported by the head when we see thee yielding thy self over to be crucified by the members If Satan did the worse and greater mediately by their hands no marvel if he doe the lesse and easier immediately by his own yet neither of them without thy voluntary dispensation He could not have looked at thee without thee And if the Son of God did thus suffer his own holy and precious Body to be carried by Satan what wonder is it if that Enemy have sometimes power given him over the sinful bodies of the adopted sons of God It is not the strength of Faith that can secure us from the outward violences of that Evil one This difference I finde betwixt his spiritual and bodily assaults those are beaten back by the shield of Faith these admit not of such repulse As the best man may be lame blind diseased so through the permission of God he may be bodily vexed by an old Man-slayer Grace was never given us for a Target against externall Afflictions Methinks I see Christ hoised upon the highest battlements of the Temple whose very roof was an hundred and thirty Cubits high and Satan standing by him with this speech in his mouth Well then since in the matter of nourishment thou wilt needs depend upon thy Father's Providence that he can without means sustain thee take now further tryall of that Providence in thy miraculous preservation Cast thy self down from this height Behold thou art here in Jerusalem the famous and holy City of the World here thou art on the top of the pinnacle of that Temple which is dedicated to thy Father and if thou be God to thy self The eyes of all men are now fixt upon thee there cannot be devised a more ready way to spread thy glory and to proclaim thy Deity then by casting thy self headlong to the Earth All the World will say there is more in thee then a man And for danger there can be none What can hurt him that is the Son of God and wherefore serves that glorious Guard of Angels which have by Divine Commission taken upon them the charge of thine Humanity Since therefore in one act thou mayest be both safe and celebrated trust thy Father and those thy serviceable Spirits with thine assured preservation Cast thy self down And why didst thou not O thou malignant spirit endeavour to cast down my Saviour by those same presumptuous hands that brought him up since the descent is more easie then the raising up Was it for that it had not been so great an advantage to thee that he should fall by thy means as by his own Falling into sin was more then to fall from the pinnacle Still thy care and suit is to make us Authors to our selves of evil thou gainest nothing by our bodily hurt if the Soul be safe Or was it rather for that thou couldest not I doubt not but thy Malice could as well have served to have offered this measure to himself as to his holy Apostle soon after But he that bounded thy power tethers thee shorter Thou couldest not thou canst not do what thou wouldst He that would permit thee to carry him up bindes thy hands from casting him down And woe were it for us if thou wert not ever stinted Why did Satan carry up Christ so high but on purpose that his fall might be the more deadly So deals he still with us he exalts us that we may be dangerously abased he puffs them up with swelling thoughts of their own worthinesse that they may be vile in the eyes of God and fall into condemnation It is the manner of God to cast down that he may raise to abase that he may exalt Contrarily Satan raises up that he may throw down and intends nothing but our dejection in our advancement Height of place gives opportunity of Tentation Thus busie is that Wicked one in working against the members of Christ If any of them be in eminence above others those he labours most to ruinate They had need to stand fast that stand high There is both more danger of their falling and more hurt in their fall He that had presumed thus far to tempt the Lord of Life would fain now dare him also to presume upon his Deity If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down There is not a more tried shaft in all his quiver then this a perswasion to men to bear themselves too bold upon the favour of God Thou art the Elect and Redeemed of God sin because Grace hath abounded sin that it may abound Thou art safe enough though thou offend be not too much an adversary to thine own liberty False spirit it is no liberty to sinne but servitude rather there is liberty but in the freedome from sin Every one of us that hath the hope of Sons must purge himself even as he is pure that hath redeemed us We are bought with a price therefore must we glorifie God in our body and spirits for they are God's Our Sonship teaches us awe and obedience and therefore because we are Sons we will not cast our selves down into sin How idlely do Satan and wicked men measure God by the crooked line of their own misconceit Iwis Christ cannot be the Son of God unlesse he cast himself down from the Pinnacle unlesse he come down from the Crosse God is not merciful unlesse he honour them in all their desires not just unlesse he take speedy vengeance where they require it But when they have spent their folly upon these vain imaginations Christ is the Son of God though he stay on the top of the Temple God will be merciful though we miscarry and just though sinners seem lawlesse Neither will he be any other then he is or measured by any rule but himself But what is this I see Satan himself with a Bible under his arm with a Text in his mouth It is written He shall give his Angels charge over thee How still in that Wicked one doth Subtilty strive with Presumption Who could not but over-wonder at this if he did not consider that since the Devil dar'd to touch the sacred Body of Christ with his hand he may well touch the Scriptures of God with his tongue Let no man henceforth marvel to hear Hereticks or Hypocrites quote Scriptures when Satan himself hath not spared to cite them What are they the worse for this more then that holy Body wich is transported Some have been poisoned by their meats and drinks yet either these nourish us or nothing It is not the Letter of the Scripture that can carry it but the Sense if we divide these two we prophane and abuse that Word we alledge And wherefore doth this foul spirit urge a Text but for imitation for prevention and for successe Christ had alledged a Scripture unto him he re-alledges Scripture unto Christ
heart He could not change his blood he could over-rule his affections He loved that Nation which was chosen of God and if he were not of the Synagogue yet he built a Synagogue where he might not be a partie he would be a Benefactor Next to being good is a favouring of goodnesse We could not love Religion if we utterly want it How many true Jews were not so zealous Either will or ability lacked in them whom duty more obliged Good affections do many times more then supply Nature Neither doth God regard whence but what we are I do not see this Centurion come to Christ as the Israelitish Captain came to Elias in Carmel but with his Cap in his hand with much suit much submission by others by himself he sends first the Elders of the Jews whom he might hope that their Nation and place might make gracious then left the imployment of others might argue neglect he seconds them in person Cold and fruitlesse are the motions of friends where we do wilfully shut up our own lips Importunity cannot but speed well in both Could we but speak for our selves as this Captain did for his servant what could we possibly want What marvel is it if God be not forward to give where we care not to ask or ask as if we cared not to receive Shall we yet call this a suit or a complaint I hear no one word of entreaty The lesse is said the more is concealed it is enough to lay open his want He knew well that he had to deal with so wise and merciful a Physician as that the opening of the malady was a craving of cure If our spiritual miseries be but confessed they cannot fail of redress Great variety of Suitors resorted to Christ one comes to him for a Son another for a Daughter a third for himself I see none come for his Servant but this one Centurion Neither was he a better man then a Master His Servant is sick he doth not drive him out of doors but laies him at home neither doth he stand gazing by his beds-side but seeks forth He seeks forth not to Witches or Charmers but to Christ he seeks to Christ not with a fashionable relation but with a vehement aggravation of the disease Had the Master been sick the faithfullest Servant could have done no more He is unworthy to be well served that will not sometimes wait upon his followers Conceits of inferiority may not breed in us a neglect of charitable offices So must we look down upon our Servants here on earth as that we must still look up to our Master which is in Heaven But why didst thou not O Centurion rather bring thy Servant to Christ for cure then sue for him absent There was a Paralytick whom Faith and Charity brought to our Saviour let down through the uncovered roof in his Bed why was not thine so carried so presented Was it out of the strength of thy faith which assured thee thou neededst not shew thy Servant to him that saw all things One and the same grace may yield contrary effects They because they believed brought the Patient to Christ thou broughtest not thine to him because thou believedst Their act argued no lesse desire thine more confidence Thy labour was lesse because thy Faith was more Oh that I could come thus to my Saviour and make such mone to him for my self Lord my soul is sick of unbelief sick of self-love sick of inordinate desires I should not need to say more Thy mercy O Saviour would not then stay by for my suit but would prevent me as here with a gracious ingagement I will come and heal thee I did not hear the Centurion say either Come or Heal him The one he meant though he said not the other he neither said nor meant Christ over-gives both his words intentions It is the manner of that Divine munificence where he meets with a faithful Suitor to give more then is requested to give when he is not requested The very insinuations of our necessities are no lesse violent then successefull We think the measure of humane bountie runs over when we obtain but what we ask with importunity that infinite Goodnesse keeps within bounds when it overflows the desires of our hearts As he said so he did The Word of Christ either is his act or concurs with it He did not stand still when he said I will come but he went as he spake When the Ruler intreated him for his son Come down ere he dye our Saviour stir'd not a foot the Centurion did but complain of the sicknesse of his servant and Christ unasked sayes I will come and heal him That he might be farre from so much as seeming to honour wealth and despise meannesse he that came in the shape of a Servant would goe down to the sick Servants pallet would not goe to the Bed of the rich Rulers Son It is the basest motive of respect that ariseth merely from outward Greatnesse Either more Grace or more Need may justly challenge our favourable regards no lesse then private Obligations Even so O Saviour that which thou offeredst to doe for the Centurion's Servant hast thou done for us We were sick unto death so farre had the dead palsie of sin overtaken us that there was no life of Grace left in us when thou wert not content to sit still in Heaven and say I will cure them but addedst also I will come and cure them Thy self camest down accordingly to this miserable World and hast personally healed us so as now we shall not die but live and declare thy works O Lord. And oh that we could enough praise that love and mercy which hath so graciously abased thee and could be but so low dejected before thee as thou hast stooped low unto us that we could be but as lowly subjects of thy goodnesse as we are unworthy O admirable return of Humility Christ will goe down to visit the sick Servant The Master of that Servant saies Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof the Jewish Elders that went before to mediate for him could say He is worthy that thou shouldest doe this for him but the Centurion when he comes to speak for himself I am not worthy They said He was worthy of Christ's Miracle he sayes he is unworthy of Christ's presence There is great difference betwixt others valuations and our own Sometimes the world under-rates him that findes reason to set an high price upon himself Sometimes again it overvalues a man that knows just cause of his own humiliation If others mistake us this can be no warrant for our errour We cannot be wise unlesse we receive the knowledge of our selves by direct beams not by reflection unlesse we have learned to contemn unjust applauses and scorning the flattery of the World to frown upon our own vilenesse Lord I am not worthy Many a one if he had been in the Centurion's
coate would have thought well of it a Captain a man of good ability and command a founder of a Synagogue a Patron of Religion yet he overlooks all these and when he casts his eye upon the Divine worth of Christ and his own weaknesse he saies I am not worthy Alas Lord I am a Gentile an Alien a man of blood thou art holy thou art omnipotent True Humility will teach us to finde out the best of another and the worst piece of our selves Pride contrarily shews us nothing but matter of admiration in our selves in others of contempt Whiles he confest himself unworthy of any favour he approved himself worthy of all Had not Christ been before in his heart he could not have thought himself unworthy to entertain that Guest within his house Under the low roof of an humble breast doth God ever delight to dwell The state of his Palace may not be measured by the height but by the depth Brags and bold faces do oft-times carry it away with men nothing prevails with God but our voluntary dejections It is fit the foundations should be layd deep where the building is high The Centurion's Humility was not more low then his Faith was lofty that reaches up into Heaven and in the face of humane weaknesse descries Omnipotence Onely say the word and my Servant shall be whole Had the Centurion's roof been Heaven it self it could not have been worthy to be come under of him whose Word was Almighty and who was the Almighty Word of his Father Such is Christ confessed by him that saies Onely say the word None but a Divine Power is unlimited neither hath Faith any other bounds then God himself There needs no footing to remove Mountains or Devils but a word Do but say the word O Saviour my sin shall be remitted my Soul shall be healed my body shall be raised from dust both Soul and body shall be glorious Whereupon then was the steddy confidence of the good Centurion He saw how powerful his own word was with those that were under his command though himself were under the command of another the force whereof extended even to absent performances well therefore might he argue that a free and unbounded power might give infallible commands and that the most obstinate Disease must therefore needs yield to the beck of the God of Nature Weaknesse may shew us what is in strength by one drop of water we may see what is in the main Ocean I marvell not if the Centurion were kinde to his Servants for they were dutifull to him he can but say Doe this and it is done these mutuall respects draw on each other chearfull and diligent service in the one calls for a due and favourable care in the other they that neglect to please cannot complain to be neglected Oh that I could be but such a Servant to mine heavenly Master Alas every of his commands saies Doe this and I doe it not every of his inhibitions saies Doe it not and I doe it He saies Goe from the World I run to it he saies Come to me I run from him Woe is me this is not service but enmity How can I look for favour while I return Rebellion It is a gracious Master whom we serve there can be no duty of ours that he sees not that he acknowledges not that he crowns not We could not but be happy if we could be officious What can be more marvellous then to see Christ marvell All marvelling supposes an ignorance going before and a knowledge following some accident unexpected now who wrought this Faith in the Centurion but he that wondred at it He knew well what he wrought because he wrought what he would yet he wondred at what he both wrought and knew to teach us much more to admire that which he at once knows and holds admirable He wrought this Faith as God he wondred at it as man God wrought and man admired he that was both did both to teach us where to bestow our wonder I never finde Christ wondring at gold or silver at the costly and curious works of humane skill or industry yea when the Disciples wondred at the magnificence of the Temple he rebuked them rather I finde him not wondring at the frame of Heaven and earth nor at the orderly disposition of all creatures and events the familiarity of these things intercepts the admiration But when he sees the grace or acts of Faith he so approves them that he is ravished with wonder He that rejoyced in the view of his Creation to see that of Nothing he had made all things good rejoyces no lesse in the reformation of his Creature to see that he had made good of evil Behold thou art faire my Love behold thou art faire and there is no spot in thee My Sister my Spouse thou hast wounded my heart thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes Our Wealth Beauty Wit Learning Honour may make us accepted of men but it is our Faith onely that shall make God in love with us And why are we of any other save God's Diet to be more affected with the least measure of Grace in any man then with all the outward glories of the World There are great men whom we justly pity we can admire none but the gracious Neither was that plant more worth of wonder in it self then that it grew in such a soile with so little help of Rain and Sun The weaknesse of means addes to the praise and acceptation of our proficiency To doe good upon a little is the commendation of thrist it is small thank to be full-handed in a large estate As contrarily the strength of means doubles the revenge of our neglect It is not more the shame of Israel then the glory of the Centurion that our Saviour saies I have not found so great faith in Israel Had Israel yielded any equall Faith it could not have been unespied of these All-seeing eyes yet were their helps so much greater as their Faith was lesse and God never gives more then he requires Where we have laid our Tillage and Compost and Seed who would not look for a Crop but if the uncultured fallow yield more how justly is that unanswerable ground near to a curse Our Saviour did not mutter this censorious testimony to himself not whisper it to his Disciples but he turned him about to the people and spake it in their eares that he might at once work their shame and emulation In all other things except spirituall our self-love makes us impatient of equals much lesse can we endure to be out-stripped by those who are our professed inferiours It is well if any thing can kindle in us holy ambitions Dull and base are the spirits of that man that can abide to see another overtake him in the way and out-run him to Heaven He that both wrought this Faith and wondred at it doth now reward it Goe thy waies and as thou
that wrencht his hip and changed his name and dismist him with a blessing and now he cannot forget his old mercy to the house of Israel To that only doth he profess himself sent Their first brood were shepherds now they are sheep and those not garded not empastured but strayed and lost O Saviour we see thy charge the house of Israel not of Esau sheep not goats not wolves lost sheep not securely impaled in the confidence of their safe condition Woe were to us if thou wert not sent to us He is not a Jew which is one without Every Israelite is not a true one We are not of thy fold if we be not sheep thou wilt not reduce us to thy fold if we be not lost in our own apprehensions O Lord thou hast put a fleece upon our backs we have lost our selves enough make us so sensible of our own wandrings that we may finde thee sent unto us and may be happily found of thee Hath not this poor woman yet done Can neither the silence of Christ nor his deniall silence her Is it possible she should have any glimpse of hope after so resolute repulses yet still as if she saw no argument of discouragement she comes and worships and cries Lord help me She which could not in the house get a word of Christ she that saw her solicitors though Christ's own Disciples repelled yet she comes Before she followed now she overtakes him before she sued aloof now she comes close to him no contempt can cast her off Faith is an undaunted Grace it hath a strong heart and a bold forehead even very denials cannot dismay it much lesse delaies She came not to face not to expostulate but to prostrate her self at his feet Her tongue worshipt him before now her knee The eye of her Faith saw that Divinity in Christ which bowed her to his Earth There cannot be a fitter gesture of man to God then adoration Her first suit was for mercy now for help There is no use of mercy but in helpfulness To be pitied without aide is but an addition to misery Who can blame us if we care not for an unprofitable compassion The very suit was gracious She saith not Lord if thou canst help me as the father of the Lunatick but professes the power whiles she beggs the act and gives glory where she would have relief Who now can expect other then a faire and yielding answer to so humble so faithfull so patient a suppliant What can speed well if a prayer of Faith from the knees of Humility succeeds not And yet behold the further she goes the worse she fares her discouragement is doubled with her suit It is not good to take the childrens bread and to cast it to dogs First his silence implied a contempt then his answer defended his silence now his speech expresses and defends his contempt Lo he hath turned her from a woman to a dog and as it were spurns her from his feet with an harsh repulse What shall we say is the Lamb of God turned Lion Doth that clear fountain of mercy run blood O Saviour did ever so hard a word fall from those milde lips Thou called'st Herod sox most worthily he was crafty and wicked the Scribes and Pharisees a generation of Vipers they were venemous and cruell Judas a Devil he was both covetous and treacherous But here was a woman in distresse and distresse challenges mercy a good woman a faithfull suppliant a Canaanitish Disciple a Christian Canaanite yet rated and whipt out for a dog by thee who wert all goodnesse and mercy How different are thy wayes from ours Even thy severity argues favour The Triall had not been so sharp if thou hadst not found the Faith so strong if thou hadst not meant the issue so happy Thou hadst not driven her away as a dog if thou hadst not intended to admit her for a Saint and to advance her as much for a pattern of Faith as thou depressedst her for a spectacle of contempt The time was when the Jews were children and the Gentiles dogs now the case is happily altered the Jews are the dogs so their dear and Divine country-man calls the Concision we Gentiles are the children What certainty is there in an external profession that gives us only to seem not to be at least the being that it gives is doubtfull and temporary We may be children to day and dogs to morrow The true assurance of our condition is in the decree and covenant of God on his part in our Faith and Obedience on ours How they of children became dogs it is not hard to say their presumption their unbelief transformed them and to perfect their brutishnesse they set their fangs upon the Lord of life How we of dogs become children I know no reason But O the depth That which at the first singled them out from the nations of the world hath at last singled us out from the world and them It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that hath mercy Lord how should we blesse thy Goodnesse that we of dogs are Children how should we feare thy Justice since they of Children are dogs Oh let not us be high-minded but tremble If they were cut off who crucified thee in thine humbled estate what may we expect who crucifie thee daily in thy glory Now what ordinary patience would not have been over-strained with so contemptuous a repulse How few but would have faln into intemperate passions into passionate expostulations Art thou the Prophet of God that so disdainfully entertainest poor suppliants Is this the comfort that thou dealest to the distressed Is this the fruit of my humble adoration of my faithfull profession Did I snarl or bark at thee when I called thee the Son of David Did I flie upon thee otherwise then with my prayers and tears And if this terme were fit for my vileness yet doth it become thy lips Is it not sorrow enough to me that I am afflicted with my daughters misery but that thou of whom I hoped for relief must adde to mine affliction in an unkinde reproach But here is none of all this Contrarily her Humility grants all her patience overcomes all and she meekly answers Truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crums which fall from their masters Table The reply is not more witty then faithfull O Lord thou art Truth it self thy words can be no other then truth thou hast call'd me a dog and a dog I am give me therefore the favour and priviledge of a dog that I may gather up some crums of mercy from under that table whereat thy children sit This blessing though great to me yet to the infinitenesse of thy power and mercy is but as a crum to a Feast I presume not to presse to the board but to creep under it Deny me not those small offalls which else would be swept away in the dust After this
stripe give me but a crum and I shall fawn upon thee and depart satisfied O woman say I great is thine Humility great is thy Patience but O woman saith my Saviour great is thy Faith He sees the root we the stock Nothing but Faith could thus temper the heart thus strengthen the Soul thus charm the tongue O precious Faith O acceptable perseverance It is no marvel if that chiding end in favour Be it to thee even as thou wilt Never did such Grace goe away uncrowned The beneficence had been streight if thou hadst not carried away more then thou suedst for Lo thou that camest a dog goest away a child thou that wouldst but creep under the childrens feet art set at their elbow thou that wouldst have taken up a crum art feasted with full dishes The way to speed well at God's hand is to be humbled in his eyes and in our own It is quite otherwise with God and with men With men we are so accounted of as we account of our selves He shall be sure to be vile in the sight of others which is vile in his own With God nothing is got by vain ostentation nothing is lost by abasement O God when we look down to our own weaknesse and cast up our eyes to thine infiniteness thine omnipotence what poor things we are but when we look down upon our sins and wickedness how shall we expresse our shame None of all thy creatures except Devils are capable of so soul a quality As we have thus made our selves worse then beasts so let us in a sincere humblenesse of minde acknowledge it to thee who canst pity forgive redresse it So setting our selves down at the lower end of the table of thy creatures thou the great Master of the Feast mayst be pleased to advance us to the height of Glory The Deaf and Dumb man cured OUR Saviour's entrance into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon was not without a Miracle neither was his regresse as the Sun neither rises nor sets without light In his entrance he delivers the daughter of the faithfull Syrophoenician in his egresse he cures the deaf and dumb He can no more want work then that work can want successe Whether the Patient were naturally deaf and perfectly dumb or imperfectly dumb and accidentally deaf I labour not Sure I am that he was so deaf that he could not hear of Christ so dumb that he could not speak for himself Good neighbours supply his ears his tongue they bring him to Christ Behold a Miracle led in by charity acted by power led out by modesty It was a true office of Love to speak thus in the cause of the dumb to lend senses to him that wanted Poor man he had nothing to intreat for him but his impotence here was neither eare to inform nor tongue to crave His friends are sensible of his infirmity and unasked bring him to cure This spiritual service we owe to each other It is true we should be quick of hearing to the things of God and of our peace quick of tongue to call for our helps but alas we are naturally deaf and dumb to good We have ear and tongue enough for the world if that do but whisper we hear it if that do but draw back we crie after it we have neither for God ever since our eare was lent to the Serpent in Paradise it hath been spiritually deaf ever since we set our tooth in the forbidden fruit our tongue hath been speechlesse to God and that which was faulty in the Root is worse in the Branches Every Soul is more deafned and bedumbed by increasing corruptions by actual sins Some ears the infinite mercy of God hath bored some tongues he hath untied by the power of regeneration these are wanting to their holy faculties if they doe not improve themselves in bringing the deaf and dumb unto Christ There are some deaf and dumb upon necessity some others upon affectation Those such as live either out of the pale of the Church or under a spiritual tyranny within the Church we have no help for them but our prayers our pity can reach further then our aide These such as may hear of a Christ and sue to him but will not a condition so much more fearfull as it is more voluntary This kinde is full of wofull variety whiles some are deaf by an outward obturation whether by the prejudice of the Teacher or by secular occasions and distractions others by the inwardly-aposteming tumors of pride by the ill vapors of carnal affections of froward resolutions All of them like the deaf adder have their ears shut to the Divine charmer Oh miserable condition of foolish men so peevishly averse from their own Salvation so much more worthy of our commiseration as it is more incapable of their own These are the men whose cure we must labour whom we must bring to Christ by admonitions by threats by authority and if need be by wholsome compulsions They do not onely lend their hand to the deaf and dumb but their tongue also they say for him that which he could not wish to say for himself Doubtlesse they had made signs to him of what they intended and finding him forward in his desires now they speak to Christ for him Every man lightly hath a tongue to speak for himself happy is he that keeps a tongue for other men We are charged not with Supplications only but with Intercessions Herein is both the largest improvement of our love and most effectual No distance can hinder this fruit of our Devotion Thus we may oblige those that we shall never see those that can never thank us This beneficence cannot impoverish us the more we give we have still the more It is a safe and happy store that cannot be impaired by our bounty What was their suit but that Christ would put his hand upon the Patient Not that they would prescribe the means or imply a necessity of his touch but for that they saw this was the ordinary course both of Christ and his Disciples by touching to heal Our prayers must be directed to the usual proceedings of God His actions must be the rule of our prayers our payers may not prescribe his actions That gracious Saviour who is wont to exceed our desires does more then they sue for Not only doth he touch the party but takes him by the hand and leads him from the multitude He that would be healed of his spiritual infirmities must be sequestred from the throng of the world There is a good use in due times of Solitarinesse That Soul can never injoy God that is not sometimes retired The modest Bridegroom of the Church will not impart himself to his Spouse before company Or perhaps this secession was for our example of a willing and carefull avoidance of vain-glory in our actions Whence also it is that our Saviour gives an after-charge of secrecy He that could say He that doth evil hateth the
undertake it without noise without ostentation I hear thee not say I will give them to eate but Give ye as if it should be their act not thine Thus sometimes it pleaseth thee to require of us what we are not able to perform either that thou maiest shew us what we cannot doe and so humble us or that thou majest erect us to a dependence upon thee which canst doe it for us As when the Mother bids the Infant come to her which hath not yet the steddy use of his leggs it is that he may cling the faster to her hand or coat for supportation Thou bidst us impotent wretches to keep thy royal Law Alas what can we Sinners doe there is not one letter of those thy Ten words that we are able to keep This charge of thine intends to shew us not our strength but our weakness Thus thou wouldest turn our eyes both back to what we might have done to what we could have done and upwards to thee in whom we have done it in whom we can doe it He wrongs thy Goodness and Justice that misconstrues these thy commands as if they were of the same nature with those of the Egyptian task-masters requiring the brick and not giving the straw But in bidding us doe what we cannot thou inablest us to doe what thou biddest Thy Precepts under the Gospel have not onely an intimation of our duty but an habilitation of thy power as here when thou badest the Disciples to give to the multitude thou meantest to supply unto them what thou commandedst to give Our Saviour hath what he would an acknowledgement of their insufficiency We have here but five loaves and two fishes A poor provision for the family of the Lord of the whole earth Five loaves and those barley two fishes and those little ones We well know O Saviour that the beasts were thine on a thousand mountains all the corn thine that covered the whole surface of the earth all the fouls of the aire thine it was thou that providedst those drifts of Quails that fell among the tents of thy rebellious Israelites that rainedst down those showrs of Manna round about their camp and dost thou take up for thy self and thy meiny with five barly loaves and two little fishes Certainly this was thy will not thy need to teach us that this body must be fed not pampered Our belly may not be our master much less our God or if it be the next word is whose glory is their shame whose end damnation It is noted as the crime of the rich glutton that he fared deliciously every day I never finde that Christ entertained any guests but twice and that was onely with loaves and fishes I finde him sometimes feasted by others more liberally But his domestical fare how simple how homely it is The end of food is to sustain Nature Meat was ordained for the belly the belly for the body the body for the Soul the Soul for God we must still look through the subordinate Ends to the highest To rest in the pleasure of the meat is for those creatures which have no Soules Oh the extreme delicacy of these times What conquisition is here of all sorts of curious dishes from the furthest seas and lands to make up one hours meal what broken cookery what devised mixtures what nice sauces what feasting not of the tast only but of the sent Are we the Disciples of him that took up with the loaves and fishes or the Scholars of a Philoxenus or an Apitius or Vitellius or those other monsters of the palate the true sons of those first Parents that killed themselves with their teeth Neither was the quality of these victuals more course then the quantity small They make a But of five loaves and two fishes and well might in respect of so many thousand mouths A little food to an hungry stomack doth rather stir up appetite then satisfie it as a little rain upon a droughty soil doth rather help to scorch then refresh it When we look with the eye of Sense or Reason upon any Object we shall see an impossibility of those effects which Faith can easily apprehend and Divine power more easily produce Carnal mindes are ready to measure all our hopes by humane possibilities and when they fail to despair of success where true Faith measures them by Divine power and therefore can never be disheartned This Grace is for things not seen and whether beyond hope or against it The virtue is not in the means but in the agent Bring them hither to me How much more easie had it been for our Saviour to fetch the loaves to him then to multiply them The hands of the Disciples shall bring them that they might more fully witness both the Author and manner of the instant Miracle Had the loaves and fishes been multiplied without this bringing perhaps they might have seemed to have come by the secret provision of the guests now there can be no question either of the act or of the agent As God takes pleasure in doing wonders for men so he loves to be acknowledged in the great works that he doth He hath no reason to part with his own glory that is too pretious for him to lose or for his creature to embezel And how justly didst thou O Saviour in this mean to teach thy Disciples that it was thou only who feedest the world and upon whom both themselves and all their fellow-creatures must depend for their nourishment and provision and that if it came not through thy hands it could not come to theirs There need no more words I do not hear the Disciples stand upon the terms of their own necessity Alas Sir it is too little for our selves whence shall we then relieve our own hunger Give leave to our Charity to begin at home But they willingly yield to the command of their Master and put themselves upon his Providence for the sequel When we have a charge from God it is not for us to stand upon self-respects in this case there is no such sure liberty as in a self-contempt O God when thou callest to us for our five loaves we must forget our own interest otherwise if we be more thristy then obedient our good turns evil and much better had it been for us to have wanted that which we withhold from the owner He that is the Master of the Feast marshals the guests He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass They obey and exspect Oh marvelous Faith So many thousands sit down and address themselves to a meal when they saw nothing but five poor barly loaves and two small fishes None of them say Sit down to what Here are the mouths but where is the meat We can soon be set but whence shall we be served Ere we draw our knives let us see our chear But they meekly and obediently dispose themselves to their places and look up to Christ for a miraculous purveyance It
so daunt the heart of those which are free from their power what a terror shall it be to live perpetually in the sight yea under the torture of thousands of legions of millions of Devils Oh the madness of wilfull sinners that will needs run themselves headily into so dreadfull a damnation It was high time for our Saviour to speak What with the Tempest what with the Apparition the Disciples were almost lost with fear How seasonable are his gracious redresses Till they were thus affrighted he would not speak when they were thus affrighted he would not hold his peace If his presence were fearfull yet his word was comfortable Be of good chear it is I yea it is his word only which must make his presence both known and comfortable He was present before they mistook him and feared there needs no other erection of their drooping hearts but It is I. It is cordial enough to us in the worst of our afflictions to be assured of Christs presence with us Say but It is I O Saviour and let evils doe their worst thou needest not say any more Thy voice was evidence enough so well were thy Disciples acquainted with the tongue of thee their Master that It is I was as much as an hundred names Thou art the good Shepherd we are not of thy Flock if we know thee not by thy voice from a thousand Even this one is a great word yea an ample style It is I. The same tongue that said to Moses I am hath sent thee saith now to the Disciples It is I I your Lord and Master I the commander of windes and waters I the soveraign Lord of Heaven and earth I the God of Spirits Let Heaven be but as one scroll and let it be written all over with titles they cannot expresse more then It is I. Oh sweet and seasonable word of a gracious Saviour able to calm all tempests able to revive all hearts Say but so to my Soul and in spight of Hell I am safe No sooner hath Jesus said I then Peter answers Master He can instantly name him that did not name himself Every little hint is enough to Faith The Church sees her Beloved as well through the Lattice as through the open Window Which of all the Followers of Christ gave so pregnant testimonies upon all occasions of his Faith of his Love to his Master as Peter The rest were silent whiles he both owned his Master and craved accesse to him in that liquid way Yet what a sensible mixture is here of Faith Distrust It is Faith that said Master it was Distrust as some have construed it that said If it be thou It was Faith that said Bid me come to thee implying that his word could as well enable as command it was Faith that durst step down upon that watery pavement it was Distrust that upon the sight of a mighty winde feared It was Faith that he walked it was Distrust that he sunk it was Faith that said Lord save me Oh the imperfect composition of the best Saint upon earth as far from pure Faith as from mere Infidelity If there be pure earth in the center all upward is mixed with the other elements contrarily pure Grace is above in the glorified Spirits all below is mixed with infirmity with corruption Our best is but as the Aire which never was never can be at once fully enlightned neither is there in the same Region one constant state of light It shall once be noon with us when we shall have nothing but bright beams of Glory now it is but the dawning wherein it is hard to say whether there be more light then darkness We are now fair as the Moon which hath some spots in her greatest beauty we shall be pure as the Sun whose face is all bright and glorious Ever since the time that Adam set his tooth in the Apple till our mouth be full of mould it never was it never can be other with us Far be it from us to settle willingly upon the dregs of our Infidelity far be it from us to be disheartened with the sense of our defects and imperfections We believe Lord help our unbelief Whiles I finde some disputing the lawfulness of Peter's suit others quarrelling his If it be thou let me be taken up with the wonder at the Faith the fervour the Heroical valour of this prime Apostle that durst say Bid me come to thee upon the waters He might have suspected that the Voice of his Master might have been as easily imitated by that imagined Spirit as his Person he might have feared the blustering tempest the threatning billows the yielding nature of that devouring element but as despising all these thoughts of misdoubt such is his desire to be near his Master that he saies Bid me come to thee upon the waters He saies not Come thou to me this had been Christ's act and not his Neither doth he say Let me come to thee this had been his act and not Christ's Neither doth he say Pray that I may come to thee as if this act had been out of the power of either But Bid me come to thee I know thou canst command both the waves and me me to be so light that I shall not bruise the moist surface of the waves the waves to be so solid that they shall not yield to my weight All things obey thee Bid me come to thee upon the waters It was a bold spirit that could wish it more bold that could act it No sooner hath our Saviour said Come then he sets his foot upon the unquiet Sea not fearing either the softness or the roughness of that uncouth passage We are wont to wonder at the courage of that daring man who first committed himself to the Sea in a frail Bark though he had the strength of an oaken planck to secure him how valiant must we needs grant him to be that durst set his foot upon the bare sea and shift his paces Well did Peter know that he who bade him could uphold him and therefore he both sues to be bidden and ventures to be upholden True Faith tasks it self with difficulties neither can be dismaied with the conceits of ordinary impossibilities It is not the scattering of straws or casting of mole-hills whereby the virtue of it is described but removing of mountain Like some courageous Leader it desires the honour of a danger and sues for the first onset whereas the worldly heart freezes in a lazie or cowardly fear and only casts for safety and ease Peter sues Jesus bids Rather will he work Miracles then disappoint the suit of a faithful man How easily might our Saviour have turned over this strange request of his bold Disiple and have said What my Omnipotence can doe is no rule for thy weakness It is no lesse then presumption in a mere man to hope to imitate the miraculous works of God and man Stay thou in the ship and wonder
contenting thy self in this that thou hast a Master to whom the land and water is alike Yet I hear not a check but a Call Come The suit of Ambition is suddainly quashed in the Mother of the Zebedees The suits of Revenge prove no better in the mouth of the two fiery Disciples But a suit of Faith though high and seemingly unfit for us he hath no power to deny How much lesse O Saviour wilt thou stick at those things which lie in the very road of our Christianity Never man said Bid me to come to thee in the way of thy commandements whom thou didst not both bid and inable to come True Faith rests not in great and good desires but acts and executes accordingly Peter doth not wish to goe and yet stand stillâ— but his foot answers his tongue and instantly chops down upon the waters To sit still and wish is for sluggish and cowardly spirits Formal volitions yea velleities of good whiles we will not so mucâ—â—â— step out of the ship of our Nature to walk unto Christ are but the faint motions of vain Hypocrisie It will be long enough ere the gale of good wishes can carry us to our Haven Ease slayeth the foolish O Saviour we have thy command to come to thee out of the ship of our natural corruption Let no Sea affray us let no tempest of Temptation withhold us No way can be but safe when thou art the End Lo Peter is walking upon the waves two hands uphold him the hand of Christ's Power the hand of his own Faith neither of them would doe it alone The hand of Christ's Power laid hold on him the hand of his Faith laid hold on the Power of Christ commanding Had not Christ's hand been powerfull that Faith had been in vain Had not that Faith of his strongly fixed upon Christ that Power had not been effectual to his preservation Whiles we are here in the world we walk upon the waters still the same hands bear us up If he let goe his hold of us we drown if we let goe our hold of him we sink and shreek as Peter did here who when he saw the winde boistrous was afraid and beginning to sink cried saying Lord save me When he wisht to be bidden to walk unto Christ he thought of the waters Bid me to come to thee on the waters he thought not of the windes which raged on those waters or if he thought of a stiffe gale yet that tempestuous and sudden gust was out of his account and exspectation Those evils that we are prepared for have not such power over us as those that surprise us A good water-man sees a dangerous billow coming towards him and cuts it and mounts over it with ease the unheedy is overwhelmed O Saviour let my haste to thee be zealous but not improvident ere I set my foot out of the ship let me foresee the Tempest when I have cast the worst I cannot either miscarry or complain So soon as he began to fear he began to sink whiles he believed the Sea was brass when once he began to distrust those waves were water He cannot sink whiles he trusts the power of his Master he cannot but sink when he misdoubts it Our Faith gives us as courage and boldness so success too our infidelity laies us open to all dangers to all mischiefs It was Peter's improvidence not to foresee it was his weakness to fear it was the effect of his fear to sink it was his Faith that recollects it self and breaks through his infidelity and in sinking could say Lord save me His foot could not be so swift in sinking as his heart in imploring he knew who could uphold him from sinking and being sunk deliver him and therefore he saies Lord save me It is a notable both sign and effect of true Faith in suddain extremities to ejaculate holy desires and with the wings of our first thoughts to flie up instantly to the throne of Grace for present succour Upon deliberation it is possible for a man that hath been carelesse and profane by good means to be drawn to holy dispositions but on the suddain a man will appear as he is whatever is most rife in the heart will come forth at the mouth It is good to observe how our surprisals finde us the rest is but forced this is natural Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh O Saviour no evil can be swifter then my thought my thought shall be upon thee ere I can be seized upon by the speediest mischief at least if I over-run not evils I shall overtake them It was Christ his Lord whom Peter had offended in distrusting it is Christ his Lord to whom he sues for deliverance His weakness doth not discourage him from his refuge O God when we have displeased thee when we have sunk in thy displeasure whither should we flie for aide but to thee whom we have provoked Against thee only is our sin in thee only is our help In vain shall all the powers of Heaven and earth conspire to relieve us if thou withhold from our succour As we offend thy Justice daily by our sins so let us continually relie upon thy Mercy by the strength of our Faith Lord save us The mercy of Christ is at once sought and found Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him He doth not say Hadst thou trusted me I would have safely preserved thee but since thou wilt needs wrong my power and care with a cowardly diffidence sink and drown but rather as pitying the infirmity of his fearful Disciple he puts out the hand for his relief That hand hath been stretch'd forth for the aide of many a one that hath never ask'd it never any ask'd it to whose succour it hath not been stretched With what speed with what confidence should we flie to that soveraign bounty from which never any suitor was sent away empty Jesus gave Peter his hand but withall he gave him a check O thou of little faith why doubtedst thou As Peter's Faith was not pure but mixed with some distrust so our Saviours help was not clear and absolute but mixed with some reproof A reproof wherein there was both a censure and an expostulation a censure of his Faith an expostulation for his Doubt both of them sore heavy By how much more excellent and usefull a grace Faith is by so much more shamefull is the defect of it and by how much more reason here was of confidence by so much more blame-worthy was the Doubt Now Peter had a double reason of his confidence the command of Christ the power of Christ the one in bidding him to come the other in sustaining him whiles he came To misdoubt him whose will he knew whose power he felt was well worth a reprehension When I saw Peter stepping forth upon the waters I could not but wonder at his great Faith yet behold ere he can have measured many paces
the Judge of hearts taxes him for little Faith Our mountains are but moats to God Would my heart have served me to dare the doing of this that Peter did Durst I have set my foot where he did O Saviour if thou foundest cause to censure the weaknesse and poverty of his Faith what maist thou well say to mine They mistake that think thou wilt take up with any thing Thou lookest for firmitude and vigour in those Graces which thou wilt allow in thy best Disciples no lesse then truth The first steps were confident there was fear in the next Oh the sudden alteration of our affections of our dispositions One pace varies our spiritual condition What hold is there of so fickle creatures if we be left never so little to our selves As this lower world wherein we are is the region of mutability so are we the living pieces of it subject to a perpetual change It is for the blessed Saints and Angels above to be fixed in good Whiles we are here there can be no constancy expected from us but in variablenesse As well as our Saviour loves Peter yet he chides him It is the fruit of his favour and mercy that we escape judgment not that we escape reproof Had not Peter found grace with his Master he had been suffered to sink in silence now he is saved with a check There may be more love in frowns then in smiles whom he loves he chastises What is chiding but a verbal castigation and what is chastisement but a reall chiding Correct me O Lord yet in thy judgment not in thy fury Oh let the righteous God smite me when I offend with his gracious reproofs these shall be a precious oyle that shall not break my head The bloody Issue healed THE time was O Saviour when a worthy woman offered to touch thee and was forbidden now a meaner touches thee with approbation and incouragement Yet as there was much difference in that Body of thine which was the Object of that touch being now mortal and passible then impassible and immortal so there was in the Agents this a stranger that a familiar this obscure that famous The same actions vary with time and other circumstances and accordingly receive their dislike or allowance Doubtless thou hadst herein no small respect to the faith of Jairus unto whose house thou wert going That good man had but one onely Daughter which lay sick in the beginning of his suit ere the end lay dead Whiles she lived his hope lived her death disheartned it It was a great work that thou meantest to doe for him it was a great word that thou saidst to him Fear not believe and she shall be made whole To make this good by the touch of the verge of thy garment thou revivedst one from the verge of death How must Jairus needs now think He who by the virtue of his garment can pull this woman out of the paws of death which hath been twelve years dying can as well by the power of his word pull my daughter who hath been twelve years living out of the jaws of death which hath newly seised on her It was fit the good Ruler should be raised up with this handsel of thy Divine power whom he came to solicit That thou mightest lose no time thou curedst in thy passage The Sun stands not still to give his influences but diffuses them in his ordinary motion How shall we imitate thee if we suffer our hands to be out of ure with good Our life goes away with our time we lose that which we improve not The Patient laboured of an Issue of blood a Disease that had not more pain then shame nor more natural infirmity then Legal impurity Time added to her grief twelve long years had she languished under this wofull complaint Besides the tediousness diseases must needs get head by continuance and so much more both weaken Nature and strengthen themselves by how much longer they afflict us So it is in the Soul so in the State Vices which are the Sicknesses of both when they grow inveterate have a strong plea for their abode and uncontrollablenesse Yet more to mend the matter Poverty which is another disease was superadded to her sicknesse She had spent all she had upon Physicians Whiles she had wherewith to make much of her self and to procure good tendance choice diet and all the succours of a distressed languishment she could not but finde some mitigation of her sorrow but now want began to pinch her no lesse then her distemper and helpt to make her perfectly miserable Yet could she have parted from her substance with ease her complaint had been the lesse Could the Physicians have given her if not health yet relaxation and painlesnesse her means had not been mis-bestowed but now she suffered many things from them many an unpleasing potion many tormenting incisions and divulsions did she endure from their hands the Remedy was equal in trouble to the Disease Yet had the cost and pain been never so great could she have hereby purchased health the match had been happy all the world were no price for this commodity but alas her estate was the worse her body not the better her money was wasted not her disease Art could give her neither cure nor hope It were injurious to blame that noble Science for that it alwaies speeds not Notwithstanding all those soveraign remedies men must in their times sicken and die Even the miraculous Gifts of Healing could not preserve the owners from disease and dissolution It were pity but that this woman should have been thus sick the nature the durablenesse cost pain incurablenesse of her disease both sent her to seek Christ and moved Christ to her cure Our extremities drive us to our Saviour his love draws him to be most present and helpfull to our extremities When we are forsaken of all succours and hopes we are fittest for his redresse Never are we nearer to help then when we despair of help There is no fear no danger but in our own insensiblenesse This woman was a stranger to Christ it seems she had never seen him The report of his Miracles had lifted her up to such a confidence of his power and mercy as that she said in her self If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be whole The shame of her disease stopt her mouth from any verbal suit Had she been acknown of her infirmity she had been shunned and abhorred and disdainfully put back of all the beholders as doubtlesse where she was known the Law forced her to live apart Now she conceals both her grief and her desire and her faith and only speaks where she may be bold within her self If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be whole I seek not mysteries in the virtue of the hem rather then of the garment Indeed it was God's command to Israel that they should be marked not only in their
this abashed Patient I may come in and confesse my errour and implore thy mercy It is no unusall thing for kindnesse to look sternly for the time that it may indear it self more when it lists to be discovered With a severe countenance did our Saviour look about him and ask Who touched me When the woman comes in trembling and confessing both her act and successe he clears up his brows and speaks comfortably to her Daughter be of good chear thy faith hath made thee whole goe in peace O sweet and seasonable word fit for those mercifull and Divine lips able to secure any heart to dispell any fears Still O Saviour thou doest thus to us when we fall down before thee in an awfull dejectednesse thou rearest us up with a chearfull and compassionate incouragement when thou findest us bold and presumptuous thou lovest to take us down when humbled it is enough to have prostrated us Like as that Lion of Bethel worries the disobedient Prophet guards the poor Asse that stood quaking before him Or like some mighty winde that bears over a tall Elme or Cedar with the same breath that it raiseth a stooping Reed Or like some good Physician who finding the body obstructed and surcharged with ill humors evacuates it and when it is sufficiently pulled down raises it up with soveraign Cordials And still doe thou so to my Soul if at any time thou perceivest me stiffe and rebellious ready to face out my sin against thee spare me not let me smart till I relent But a broken and contrite heart thou wilt not O Lord O Lord do not reject It is only thy Word which gives what it requires comfort and confidence Had any other shaken her by the shoulder and cheared her up against those oppressive passions it had been but wast winde No voice but his who hath power to remit sin can secure the heart from the conscience of sin from the pangs of Conscience In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts O Lord thy comforts only have power to refresh my soul Her cure was Christs act yet he gives the praise of it to her Thy faith hath made thee whole He had said before Virtue is gone out from me now he acknowledges a virtue inherent in her It was his virtue that cured her yet he graciously casts this work upon her Faith Not that her Faith did it by way of merit by way of efficiency but by way of impetration So much did our Saviour regard that Faith which he had wrought in her that he will honour it with the successe of her Cure Such and the same is still the remedy of our spirituall diseases our sins By faith we are justified by faith we are saved Thou only O Saviour canst heal us thou wilt not heal us but by our Faith not as it issues from us but as it appropriates thee The sicknesse is ours the remedy is ours the sicknesse is our own by nature the remedy ours by thy grace both working and accepting it Our Faith is no lesse from thee then thy Cure is from our Faith Oh happy dismission Goe in peace How unquiet had this poor soul formerly been She had no outward peace with her Neighbours they shunned and abhorred her presence in this condition yea they must doe so She had no peace in Body that was pained and vexed with so long and foul a disease Much lesse had she peace in her Minde which was grievously disquieted with sorrow for her sicknesse with anger and discontentment at her torturing Physicians with fear of the continuance of so bad a guest Her Soul for the present had no peace from the sense of her guiltinesse in the carriage of this businesse from the conceived displeasure of him to whom she came for comfort and redresse At once now doth our Saviour calm all these storms and in one word and act restores to her peace with her Neighbours peace in her Self peace in Body in Minde in Soul Goe in peace Even so Lord it was for thee only who art the Prince of Peace to bestow thy peace where thou pleasest Our body minde Soul estate is thine whether to afflict or ease It is a wonder if all of us doe not aile somewhat In vain shall we speak peace to our selves in vain shall the world speak peace to us except thou say to us as thou didst to this distressed soul Goe in peace JAIRUS and his Daughter HOw troublesome did the peoples importunity seem to Jairus That great man came to sue unto Jesus for his dying Daughter the throng of the multitude intercepted him Every man is most sensible of his own necessity It is no straining courtesie in the challenge of our interest in Christ there is no unmannerlinesse in our strife for the greatest share in his presence and benediction That only Childe of this Ruler lay a dying when he came to solicite Christs aide and was dead whiles he solicited it There was hope in her sicknesse in her extremity there was fear in her death despair and impossibility as they thought of help Thy daughter is dead trouble not the Master When we have to doe with a mere finite power this word were but just He was a Prophet no lesse then a King that said Whiles the childe was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the childe may live But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall goe to him but he shall not return to me But since thou hast to doe with an Omnipotent agent know now O thou faithlesse messenger that death can be no bar to his power How well would it have become thee to have said Thy daughter is dead but who can tell whether thy God and Saviour will not be gracious to thee that the childe may revive Cannot he in whose hands are the issues of death bring her back again Here were more Manners then Faith Trouble not the Master Infidelity is all for ease and thinks every good work tedious That which Nature accounts troublesome is pleasing and delightfull to Grace Is it any pain for an hungry man to eate O Saviour it was thy meat and drink to doe thy Fathers will and his will was that thou shouldest bear our griefs and take away our sorrows It cannot be thy trouble which is our happinesse that we may still sue to thee The messenger could not so whisper his ill news but Jesus heard it Jairus hears that he feared and was now heartlesse with so sad tidings He that resolved not to trouble the Master meant to take so much more trouble to himself and would now yield to a hopelesse sorrow He whose work it is to comfort the afflicted rouzeth up the dejected heart of that pensive father Fear not believe only and she shall be made whole The word was not more chearfull then difficult Fear not Who can
seduced by their suggestion might slip into some thoughts of distrust There could not be a greater crimination then faithlesse and perverse faithlesse in not believing perverse in being obstinately set in their unbelief Doubtlesse these men were not free from other notorious crimes all were drowned in their Infidelity Morall uncleannesses or violences may seem more hainous to men none are so odious to God as these Intellectual wickednesses What an happy change is here in one breath of Christ How long shall I suffer you Bring him hither to me The one is a word of anger the other of favour His just indignation doth not exceed or impeach his Goodnesse What a sweet mixture there is in the perfect simplicity of the Divine Nature In the midst of judgement he remembers mercy yea he acts it His Sun shines in the midst of this storm Whether he frown or whether he smile it is all to one purpose that he may win the incredulous and disobedient Whither should the rigour of all our censures tend but to edification and not to destruction We are Physicians we are not executioners we give purges to cure and not poisons to kill It is for the just Judge to say one day to reprobate Souls Depart from me in the mean time it is for us to invite all that are spiritually possessed to the participation of mercy Bring him hither to me O Saviour distance was no hindrance to thy work why should the Demoniack be brought to thee Was it that this deliverance might be the better evicted and that the beholders might see it was not for nothing that the Disciples were opposed with so refractory a spirit or was it that the Scribes might be witnesses of that strong hostility that was betwixt thee and that foul spirit and be ashamed of their blasphemous slander or was it that the father of the Demoniack might be quickened in that Faith which now through the suggestion of the Scribes begun to droup when he should hear and see Christ so chearfully to undertake and perform that whereof they had bidden him despair The possessed is brought the Devil is rebuked and ejected That stiff spirit which stood out boldly against the commands of the Disciples cannot but stoop to the voice of the Master that power which did at first cast him out of Heaven easily dispossesses him of an house of clay The Lord rebuke thee Satan and then thou canst not but flee The Disciples who were not used to these affronts cannot but be troubled at their mis-successe Master why could not we cast him out Had they been conscious of any defect in themselves they had never ask'd the question Little did they think to hear of their Unbelief Had they not had great Faith they could not have cast out any Devils had they not had some want of Faith they had cast out this It is possible for us to be defective in some Graces and not to feel it Although not so much their weaknesse is guilty of this unprevailing as the strength of that evil spirit This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting Weaker spirits were wont to be ejected by a command this Devil was more sturdy and boisterous As there are degrees of statures in men so there are degrees of strength and rebellion in spirituall wickednesses Here bidding will not serve they must pray and praying will not serve without fasting They must pray to God that they may prevail they must fast to make their prayer more servent more effectuall We cannot now command we can fast and pray How good is our God to us that whiles he hath not thought fit to continue to us those means which are lesse powerfull for the dispossessing of the powers of darknesse yet hath he given us the greater Whiles we can fast and pray God will command for us Satan cannot prevail against us The Widow's mites THE sacred wealth of the Temple was either in stuffe or in coin For the one the Jews had an house for the other a chest At the concourse of all the males to the Temple thrice a year upon occasion of the solemn Feasts the oblations of both kinds were liberall Our Saviour as taking pleasure in the prospect sets himself to view those Offerings whether for holy uses or charitable Those things we delight in we love to behold The eye and the heart will go together And can we think O Saviour that thy Glory hath diminished ought of thy gracious respects to our beneficence or that thine acceptance of our Charity was confined to the earth Even now that thou â—ittest at the right hand of thy Fathers glory thou â—eest every hand that is stretched out to the relief of thy poor Saints here below And if vanity have power to stir up our Liberality out of a conceit to be seen of men how shall Faith incourage our Bounty in knowing that we are seen of thee and accepted by thee Alas what are we the better for the notice of those perishing and impotent eyes which can onely view the outside of our actions or for that wast winde of applause which vanisheth in the lips of the speaker Thine eye O Lord is piercing and retributive As to see thee is perfect Happinesse so to be seen of thee is true contentment and glory And dost thou O God see what we give thee and not see what we take away from thee Are our Offerings more noted then our Sacriledges Surely thy Mercy is not more quick-sighted then thy Justice In both kindes our actions are viewed our account is kept and we are sure to receive Rewards for what we have given and Vengeance for what we have defalked With thine eye of Knowledge thou seest all we doe but what we doe well thou seest with thine eye of Approbation So didst thou now behold these pious and charitable Oblations How well wert thou pleased with this variety Thou sawest many rich men give much and one poor Widow give more then they in lesser room The Jews were now under the Romane pressure they were all tributaries yet many of them rich and those rich men were liberal to the common chest Hadst thou seen those many rich give little we had heard of thy censure thou expectest a proportion betwixt the giver and the gift betwixt the gift and the receit where that fails the blame is just That Nation though otherwise faulty enough was in this commendable How bounteously open were their hands to the house of God Time was when their liberality was fain to be restrained by Proclamation and now it needed no incitement the rich gave much the poorest gave more He saw a poor widow casting in two mites It was misery enough that she was a Widow The married woman is under the carefull provision of an Husband if she spend he earns in that estate four hands work for her in her viduity but two Poverty added to the sorrow of her widowhood The losse of some Husbands is
avoidedst it renouncedst it professedst to come to serve Oh the forehead of Malice Goe ye shamelesse traducers and swear that Truth is guilty of all Falshood Justice of all Wrong and that the Sun is the only cause of Darknesse Fire of Cold. Now Pilate startles at the Charge The name of Tribute the name of Caesar is in mention These potent spells can fetch him back to the common Hall and call Jesus to the Bar. There O Saviour standst thou meekly to be judged who shalt once come to judge the quick and the dead Then shall he before whom thou stoodst guiltlesse and dejected stand before thy dreadfull Majesty guilty and trembling The name of a King of Caesar is justly tender and awfull the least whisper of an Usurpation or disturbance is entertained with a jealous care Pilate takes this intimation at the first bound Art thou then the King of the Jews He felt his own free-hold now touched it was time for him to stir Daniel's Weeks were now famously known to be near expiring Many arrogant and busie spirits as Judas of Galilee Theudas and that Egyptian Seducer taking that advantage had raised several Conspiracies set up new titles to the Crown gathered Forces to maintain their false claims Perhaps Pilate supposed some such businesse now on foot and therefore asks so curiously Art thou the King of the Jewes He that was no lesse Wisdome then Truth thought it not best either to affirm or deny at once Sometimes it may be extremely prejudicial to speak all truths To disclaim that Title suddenly which had been of old given him by the Prophets at his Birth by the Eastern Sages and now lately at his Procession by the acclaming multitude had been injurious to himself to professe and challenge it absolutely had been unsafe and needlesly provoking By wise and just degrees therefore doth he so affirm this truth that he both satisfies the inquirer and takes off all perill and prejudice from his assertion Pilate shall know him a King but such a King as no King needs to fear as all Kings ought to acknowledge and adore My Kingdome is not of this world It is your mistaking O ye earthly Potentates that is guilty of your fears Herod hears of a King born and is troubled Pilate hears of a King of the Jews and is incensed Were ye not ignorant ye could not be jealous Had ye learned to distinguish of Kingdomes these suspicions would vanish There are Secular Kingdomes there are Spirituall neither of these trenches upon other your Kingdome is Secular Christs is Spirituall both may both must stand together His Laws are Divine yours civil His Reign is eternall yours temporall the glory of his Rule is inward and stands in the Graces of Sanctification Love Peace Righteousness Joy in the Holy Ghost yours in outward pomp riches magnificence His Enemies are the Devil the World the Flesh yours are bodily usurpers and externall peace-breakers His Sword is the power of the Word and Spirit yours materiall His rule is over the Conscience yours over bodies and lives He punishes with Hell ye with temporal death or torture Yea so far is he from opposing your Government that by him ye Kings reign your Scepters are his but to maintain not to wield not to resist O the unjust fears of vain men He takes not away your earthly Kingdomes who gives you Heavenly he discrowns not the Body who crowns the Soul his intention is not to make you lesse great but more happy The charge is so fully answered that Pilate acquits the prisoner The Jewish Masters stand still without their very malice dares not venture their pollution in going in to prosecute their accusation Pilate hath examined him within and now comes forth to these eager complainants with a cold answer to their over-hot expectation I finde in him no fault at all O noble testimony of Christ's Innocence from that mouth which afterwards doomed him to death What a difference there is betwixt a man as he is himself and as he is the servant of others wills It is Pilate's tongue that saies I finde in him no fault at all It is the Jews tongue in Pilate's mouth that saies Let him be crucified That cruell sentence cannot blot him whom this attestation cleareth Neither doth he say I finde him not guilty in that whereof he is accused but gives an universal acquittance of the whole carriage of Christ I finde in him no fault at all In spight of Malice Innocence shall finde abettors Rather then Christ shall want witnesses the mouth of Pilate shall be opened to his justification How did these Jewish blood-suckers stand thunder-stricken with so unexspected a word His absolution was their death his acquital their conviction No fault when we have found Crimes no fault at all when we have condemned him for capital offences How palpably doth Pilate give us the lie How shamefully doth he affront our authority and disparage our justice So ingenuous a testimony doubtlesse exasperated the fury of these Jews the fire of their indignation was seven-fold more intended with the sense of their repulse I tremble to think how just Pilate as yet was and how soon after depraved yea how mercifull together with that Justice How sain would he have freed Jesus whom he found faultlesse Corrupt custome in memory of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage allowed to gratifie the Jews with the free delivery of some one prisoner Tradition would be incroaching the Paschal Lamb was monument enough of that happy rescue men affect to have something of their own Pilate was willing to take this advantage of dismissing Jesus That he might be the more likely to prevail he proposeth him with the choice and nomination of so notorious a Malefactor as he might justly think uncapable of all mercy Barabbas a Thief a Murderer a Seditionary infamous for all odious to all Had he propounded some other innocent prisoner he might have feared the election would be doubtfull he cannot misdoubt the competition of so prodigious a Malefactor Then they all cried again Not him but Barabbas O Malice beyond all example shamelesse and bloody Who can but blush to think that an Heathen should see Jews so impetuously unjust so savagely cruell He knew there was no fault to be found in Jesus he knew there was no Crime that was not to be found in Barabbas yet he hears and blushes to hear them say Not him but Barabbas Was not this think we out of similitude of condition Every thing affects the like to it self every thing affects the preservation of that it liketh What wonder is it then if ye Jews who prosesse your selves the murderers of that Just One favour a Barabbas O Saviour what a killing indignity was this for thee to hear from thine own Nation Hast thou refused all Glory to put on shame and misery for their sakes Hast thou disregarded thy Blessed self to save them and do they refuse thee for Barabbas Hast thou said
deadly condition As ye love your Souls give no sleep to your eyes nor peace to your hearts till ye find the sensible effects of the Death and Passion of Christ your Saviour within you mortifying all your corrupt affections and sinful actions that ye may truly say with S. Paul I am crucified with Christ Six several times do we find that Christ shed blood in his Circumcision in his Agonie in his Crowning in his Scourging in his Affixion in his Transfixion The instrument of the first was the Knife of the second vehemence of Passion of the third the Thorns of the fourth the Whips of the fifth the Nails of the last the Spear In all these we are we must be Partners with our Saviour In his Circumcision when we draw blood of our selves by cutting off the foreskin of our filthy if pleasing Corruptions Col. 2. 11. In his Agony when we are deeply affected with the sense of God's displeasure for sin and terrified with the frowns of an angry Father In his Crowning with thorns when we smart and bleed with reproches for the name of Christ when that which the world counts Honour is a pain to us for his sake when our guilty thoughts punish us and wound our restless heads with the sad remembrance of our sins In his Scourging when we tame our wanton and rebellious flesh with wise rigor and holy severity In his Affixion when all the powers of our Souls and parts of our body are strictly hampered and unremovably fastened upon the Royal Commandements of our Maker and Redeemer In his Transfixion when our hearts are wounded with Divine love with the Spouse in the Canticles or our Consciences with deep sorrow In all these we bleed with Christ and all these save the first onely belong to his Crucifying Surely as it was in the Old Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without bloodshed there was no remission Heb. 9. 22. so it is still and ever in the New If Christ had not thus bled for us no remission if we do not thus bleed with Christ no remission There is no benefit where is no partnership If Christ therefore bled with his Agony with his Thorns with his Whips with his Nails with his Spear in so many thousand passages as Tradition is bold to define and we never bleed either with the Agony of our sorrow for sin or the Thorns of holy cares for displeasure or the Scourges of severe Christian rigour or the Nails of holy constraint or the Spear of deep remorse how do we how can we for shame say we are crucified with Christ Divine S. Austin in his Epistle or Book rather to Honoratus gives us all the dimensions of the Cross of Christ The Latitude he makes in the transverse this saith he pertains to good Works because on this his hands were stretched The Length was from the ground to the transverse this is attributed to his longanimity and persistance for on that his Body was stayed and fixed The Height was in the head of the Cross above the transverse signifying the exspectation of supernal things The Depth of it was in that part which was pitcht below within the earth importing the profoundness of his free Grace which is the ground of all his beneficence In all these must we have our part with Christ In the Transverse of his Cross by the ready extension of our hands to all good Works of Piety Justice Charity in the Arrectary or beam of his Cross by continuance and uninterrupted perseverance in good in the Head of his Cross by an high elevated hope and looking for of Glory in the Foot of his Cross by a lively and firm Faith fastening our Souls upon the affiance of his free Grace and Mercy And thus shall we be crucified with Christ upon his own Cross Yet lastly we must goe further then this from his Cross to his Person So did S. Paul and every Believer die with Christ that he died in Christ For as in the first Adam we all lived and sinned so in the second all Believers died that they might live The first Adam brought in death to all mankind but at last actually died for none but himself the second Adam died for mankind and brought life to all Believers Seest thou thy Saviour therefore hanging upon the Cross all mankind hangs there with him as a Knight or Burgess of Parliament voices his whole Burrough or Country What speak I of this The arms and legs take the same lot with the head Every Believer is a lim of that body how can he therefore but die with him and in him That real union then which is betwixt Christ and us makes the Cross and Passion of Christ ours so as the thorns pierced our heads the scourages blooded our backs the nails wounded our hands and feet and the spear gored our sides and hearts by virtue whereof we receive justification from our sins and true mortification of our corruptions Every Believer therefore is dead already for his sins in his Saviour he needs not fear that he shall die again God is too just to punish twice for one fault to recover the summe both of the surety principal All the score of our arrerages is fully struck off by the infinite satisfaction of our Blessed Redeemer Comfort thy self therefore thou penitent and faithful Soul in the confidence of thy safety thou shalt not die but live since thou art already crucified with thy Saviour he died for thee thou diedst in him Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifies Who shall condemn It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and lives gloriously at the right hand of God making intercession for us To thee O Blessed Jesu together with thy Coeternal Father and Holy Spirit three Persons in one infinite and incomprehensible Deity be all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen ONE OF THE SERMONS Preached to the LORDS OF THE High Court of Parliament In their solemn Fast held on Ashwednesday Feb. 18. And by their Appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Acts 2. 37 38 40. 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 38. Then said Peter unto them Repent and be baptized c. 40. And with many other words did he testifie and exhort them saying Save your selves from this untoward generation WHO knows not that Simon Peter was a Fisher That was his trade both by Sea and Land if we may not rather say that as Simon he was a Fisher-man but as Peter he was a Fisher of men he that call'd him so made him so And surely his first draught of Fishes which as Simon he made at our Saviours Command might well be a trade Type of the first draught of men which as Peter he made in this place for as then the nets were ready to
it For as that Father elsewhere In thy sight shall none living be justified He said not no man but none living not Evangelists not Angels not Thrones not Dominions If thou shalt mark the iniquities even of thine Elect saith S. Bernard Who shall abide it To say now that our actual Justice which is imperfect through the admixtion of venial sins ceaseth not to be both true and in a sort perfect Justice is to say there may be an unjust Justice or a just Injustice that even muddie water is clear or a leprous face beautiful Besides all experience evinceth our wants For as it is S. Austin's true observation He that is renewed from day to day is not all renewed so much he must needs be in his old corruption And as he speaks to his Hierome of the degrees of Charity There is in some more in some less in some none at all but the fullest measure which can receive no encrease is not to be found in any man while he lives here and so long as it may be encreased surely that which is less then it ought is faulty from which faultiness it must needs follow that there is no just man upon earth which doeth good and sinneth not and thence in Gods sight shall none living be justified Thus he To the very last hour our Prayer must be Forgive us our trespasses Our very daily endeavour therefore of increasing our Renovation convinceth us sufficiently of Imperfection and the imperfection of our Regeneration convinceth the impossibility of Justification by such Inherent Righteousness In short therefore since this Doctrine of the Roman Church is both new and erroneous against Scripture and Reason we have justly refused to receive it into our Belief and for such refusal are unjustly ejected CHAP. VI. The Newness of the Doctrine of Merit MErit is next wherein the Council of Trent is no less peremptory If any man shall say that the good works of a man justified do not truely merit eternal life let him be Anathema It is easie for Errour to shroud it self under the ambiguitie of words The word Merit hath been of large use with the Ancients who would have abhorred the present sense with them it sounded no other then Obtaining or Impetration not as now earning in the way of condign wages as if there were an equalitie of due proportion betwixt our Works and Heaven without all respects of pact promise favour according to the bold Comment of Scotus Tolet Pererius Costerus Weston and the rest of that strain Far far was the gracious humility of the Ancient Saints from this so high a presumption Let S. Basil speak for his fellows Eternal rest remains for those who in this life have lawfully striven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not for the Merits of their deeds but of the grace of that most munificent God in which they have trusted Why did I name one when they all with full consent as Cassander witnesseth profess to repose themselves wholy upon the mere Mercie of God and Merit of Christ with an humble renunciation of all worthiness in their own works Yea that unpartial Author derives this Doctrine even through the lower Ages of the Schoolmen and later Writers Thomas of Aquine Durand Adrian de Trajecto afterwards Pope Clictoveus and delivers it for the voice of the then present Church And before him Thomas Waldensis the great Champion of Pope Martine against the miscalled Hereticks of his own name professes him the sounder Divine and truer Catholick which simply denies any such Merit and ascribes all to the mere Grace of God and the will of the giver What should I need to darken the aire with a cloud of witnesses their Gregory Ariminensis their Brugensis Marsilius Pighius Eckius Ferus Stella Faber Stapulensis Let their famous Preacher Royard shut up all Quid igitur is qui Merita praetendit c. Whosoever he be that pretends his Merits what doth he else but deserve hell by his Works Let Bellarmine's Tutissimum est c. ground it self upon S. Bernard's experimental resolution Periculosa habitatio est Perilous is their dwelling-place who trust in their own Merits perilous because ruinous All these and many more teach this not as their own Doctrine but as the Churches Either they and the Church whose voice they are are Hereticks with us or we Orthodox with them and they and we with the Ancients The Noveltie of this Romane Doctrine is accompanied with Errour against Scripture against Reason Sect. 2. Against Scripture THat God doth graciously accept and munificently recompence our good Works even with an incomprehensible Glory we doubt not we deny not but this either out of the riches of his Mercy or the justice of his Promise But that we can earn this at his hands out of the intrinsecal worthiness of our acts is a challenge too high for flesh and blood yea for the Angels of Heaven How direct is our Saviours instance of the servant come out of the field and commanded by his Master to attendance Doth he thank that Servant because he did the things that were commanded him I trow not So likewise ye when ye shall have done all things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants Unprofitable perhaps you will say in respect of meriting thanks not unprofitable in respect of meriting wages For to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt True therefore herein our case differeth from servants that we may not look for God's reward as of Debt but as of Grace By Grace are ye saved through Faith neither is it our earning but God's gift Both it cannot be For if by Grace then it is no more of Works even of the most Renewed otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work should be no more Work Now not by works of Righteousness which we have done at our best but according to his Mercy he saveth us Were our Salvation of Works then should Eternal life be our wages but now The wages of sin is Death but the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sect. 3. Against Reason IN very Reason where all is of mere Duty there can be no Merit for how can we deserve reward by doing that which if we did not we should offend It is enough for him that is obliged to his task that his work is well taken Now all that we can possibly doe and more is most justly due unto God by the bond of our Creation of our Redemption by the charge of his Royal Law and that sweet Law of his Gospel Nay alas we are far from being able to compass so much as our duty In many things we sin all It is enough that in our Glory we cannot sin though their Faber Stapulensis would not yield so much and taxeth
Penance and Absolution The antient course as Cassander and Lindanus truly witness was that Absolution and Reconciliation and right to the Communion of the Church was not given by imposition of hands unto the Penitent till he had given due satisfaction by performing of such penal acts as were enjoined by the discreet Penitentiarie yea those works of Penance saith he when they were done out of Faith and an heart truly sorrowfull and by the motion of the Holy Spirit preventing the minde of man with the help of his Divine Grace were thought not a little available to obtain remission of the sin and to pacifie the displeasure of God for sin Not that they could merit it by any dignity of theirs but that thereby the minde of man is in a sort fitted to the receit of God's Grace But now immediatly upon the Confession made the hand is laid upon the Penitent and he is received to his right of Communion and after his Absolution certain works of piety are enjoined him for the chastisement of the flesh and expurgation of the remainders of sin Thus Cassander In common apprehension this new order can be no other then preposterous and as our learned Bishop of Carlisle like Easter before Lent But for this Ipsi viderint it shall not trouble us how they nurture their own childe CHAP. XIV The Newness of the Romish Invocation of Saints OF all those Errours which we reject in the Church of Rome there is none that can plead so much shew of Antiquity as this of Invocation of Saints which yet as it hath been practised and defended in the later times should in vain seek either example or patronage amongst the Antient. However there might be some grounds of this Devotion secretly muttered and at last expressed in Panegyrick forms yet untill almost 500 years after Christ it was not in any sort admitted into the publick service It will be easily granted that the Blessed Virgin is the prime of all Saints neither could it be other then injurious that any other of that Heavenly Society should have the precedency of her Now the first that brought her name into the publick Devotions of the Greek Church is noted by Nicephorus to be Petrus Gnapheus or Fullo a Presbyter of Bithynia afterwards the Usurper of the See of Antioch much about 470 years after Christ who though a branded Heretick found out four things saith he very usefull and beneficial to the Catholick Church whereof the last was Ut in omni precatione c. That in every Prayer the Mother of God should be named and her Divine name called upon The phrase is very remarkable wherein this rising Superstition is expressed And as for the Latine Church we hear no news of this Invocation in the publick Letanies till Gregorie's time about some 130 years after the former And in the mean time some Fathers speak of it fearfully and doubtfully How could it be otherwise when the common opinion of the Antients even below Saint Austin's age did put up all the Souls of the Faithfull except Martyrs in some blinde receptacles whether in the Center of the earth or elsewhere where they might in candida exspectare diem Judicii as Tertullian hath it four severall times And Stapleton himself sticks not to name divers of them thus fouly mistaken Others of the Fathers have let fall speeches directly bent against this Invocation Non opus est patronis c. There is no need of any Advocates to God saith S. Chrysostome and most plainly elsewhere Homines si quando c. If we have any suit to men saith he we must fee the porters and treat with jesters and parasites and goe many times a long way about In God there is no such matter he is exorable without any of our Mediators without money without cost he grants our petitions It is enough for thee to crie with thine heart alone to powre out thy tears and presently thou hast won him to mercy Thus he And those of the Antients that seem to speak for it lay grounds that overthrow it Howsoever it be all holy Antiquity would have both blushed and spit at those forms of Invocation which the late Clients of Rome have broached to the world If perhaps they speak to the Saints tanquam deprecatores vel potius comprecatores as Spalatensis yields moving them to be competitioners with us to the throne of Grace not properly but improperly as Altissiodore construes it how would they have digested that blasphemous Psalter of our Lady imputed to Bonaventure and those styles of mere Deification which are given to her and the division of all offices of Piety to mankinde betwixt the Mother and the Son How had their eares glowed to hear Christus oravit Franciscus exoravit Christ prayed Francis prevailed How would they have brooked that which Ludovicus Vives freely confesses Multi Christiani c. Many Christians worship divâ—s divasque the Saints of both sexes no otherwise then God himself Or that which Spalatensis professes to have observed that the ignorant multitude are tarried with more entire religious affection to the Blessed Virgin or some other Saint then to Christ their Saviour These foul Superstitions are not more hainous then new and such as wherein we have justly abhorred to take part with the practicers of them Sect. 2. Invocation of Saints against Scripture AS for the better side of this mis-opinion even thus much colour of Antiquity were cause enough to suspend our censures according to that wise moderate resolution of learned Zanchius were it not that the Scriptures are so flatly opposite unto it as that we may justly wonder at that wisdome which hath provided Antidotes for a disease that of many hundred years after should have no being in the World The ground of this Invocation of Saints is their notice of our earthly condition and speciall Devotions And behold thou prevailest ever against man and he passeth thou changest his countenance and sendest him away His sons come to honour and he knows it not and they are brought low and he perceiveth it not saith Job The dead know nothing at all saith wise Solomon Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the Sun No portion in any thing therefore not in our miseries nor in our allocutions If we have a portion in them for their love and Prayers in common for the Church they have no portion in our particularities whether of want or complaint Abraham our Father is ignorant of us saith Esay and Israel acknowledges us not Loe the Father of the Faithfull above knows not his own children till they come into his bosome and he that gives them their names is to them as a stranger Wherefore should good Josiah be gathered to his Fathers