needs be full of that Full 5. with the fulness of Riches too the unsearchable riches of Christ says St. Paul Eph. iii. 8. so full that we can find out no bottom of it come to no end of it unsearchable His fulness 6. was the fulness of Glory too we saw it says St. Iohn two verses before the Text such a glory as of the onely begotten Son of the Father and that sure is all the fulness of God Yet to put all out of doubt this fulness was the fulness of the God-head too expresly all the fulness of it and all of it bodily too says St. Paul Col. ii 3. Bodily how 's that why that 's full in all dimensions in all dimensions of a body length and breadth and heighth and depth the length and infinity of his Power the extent and breadth of his Love the height and eminency of his Majesty the depth and unfathomedness of his Wisdom all met together in Christ. 3. Nor will this seem strange at all if we consider for our third point in this fulness how and in what respect 't is his and 't is his both as he is God and as man He could not be thus full as I have told you unless he were God could not have the God-head dwell in him bodily unless God were in the body unless he were incarnate God Nor could other kinds of his fulness be in him unless he were man He could not be a full and sufficient Sacrifice and so offered for one had he not been man nor a perfect High Priest to mediate for us if not taken from among men the great promise that contains all the rest that of the seed of the Woman could not have been fulfilled would not have had its fulness from him but as man The very attribute of fulness speaks him God none full but God no fulness or satisfaction but in him yet some kinds of his fulness evidence him man are not the fulnesses of God as God but as God made man and so the Evangelist by the Context delivers it as the fulness of the word made flesh of the eternal word becoming man This fulness is the fulness of Christ and Christ is both God and Man so the fulness of both 4. And such a fulness that none runs over anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows that 's fulness but that 's not all so above them too it is as it runs down upon his fellows he is not full only for himself for us it was that he was born that he was given that he was anointed that he was full full of grace and full of truth and full of glory that we might be fill'd with grace and truth and glory He indeed is the head that was anointed with oyl but that head is ours the Church is the body upon which it runs down from the head 5. And that not to the near parts alone to the beard or shoulders but even to the skirts of the garment it runs so full it runs Ex hoc omnes all the members nay all the clothes not only those that are true members of the Church but even those who have but an outward relation to it all that have but an external right or adherence as skirts and clothes have yet some benefit of this oyl of this fulness of his Christ is no niggard his fulness nothing so stinted as some narrow and envious souls will have it here 's enough for all enough for the whole world to take and yet leave all full still You may light a thousand candles at one and yet the light of it no way lessened by it You may fill a thousand worlds if there were so many from his fulness and yet he never a whit the less full Take all you can cope all that will nay all that are or shall be here 's still for all as much as at the first O the depth of the riches of the fulness of Christ I could fill the hour I could fill the day I could fill all the remnant of my days with the discourses of it and should I do it I could yet say nothing of it near the full but be as far from sounding the depth of it at the end as I was at the beginning I pass therefore to that which we can better comprehend easier reach our filling out of this fulness the second general 2. Our filling is here said to be receiving Be our fulness never so great it is no other we have received it all Alas poor things we have nothing of our selves What hast thou that thou hast not received says the Apostle 1 Cor. iv 7. Is it grace that grows not in our gardens it comes from Paradise what we have is transplanted from thence Is it nature why that too is received We did not make our selves we received as well our natural as our spiritual endowments from him that made us Is it glory why God calls it his glory a thing he will not share but by beams and glances What should I now mention worldly Riches Estate and Honour they are too evidently received to be denied they are so 'T is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich Prov. xx 22. so Riches are received I shall deliver him and bring him to honour says God Psal. xci 15. so Honour is received And the earth hath God given to the children of men Psal. cxv 16. so our Estates and Lands every Clod and Turf of them is received For the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and from his fulness we receive of it what we have Enough this to humble us for if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not 't is St. Paul's inference upon it Thou hast no reason to boast thy self O man thy Honour thy Riches thy good Parts thy Graces they are not from thy self thou didst but receive them thou hast nothing of thine own why art thou proud And 2. if all received all we have nothing but so many receipts look we then well to our accounts they are things we are to reckon for we had best see how we expend them that at the general Audit we may give up our accounts with joy To do so 't will be convenient to think often of our receipts our own poverty and indigence a third business we may learn hence to grow sensible of our emptinesses and necessities that we are a meer bill of receipts so much received to day so much yesterday so much day by day item our souls item our bodies item our health item our wealth and so on ward nothing but received and without receiving nothing Upon this reflection upon our own vacuities we cannot 4. but open our hearts to receive our hands to take any thing from his fulness to supply us to desire to have them fill'd our selves fill'd out of his fulness something thence to make us full 2. Yet 2. we must not expect to be so
the Saints arising and coming out of their Graves 2. In their coming into the holy City and there appearing unto many telling and declaring it The Evidence of the power of his Resurrection to be seen 1. in opening the Graves 2. In raising the Saints bodies that slept there 3. In sending them into the holy City 4. sending them thither to appear to many The Pledge of our Resurrection it is 1. that they that rise are of those that slept Saints and members of the same body with us that 2. 't is no phantasm no phantastick or meer imagined business for they appeared to many The whole business of their Resurrection is a Symbol and signification of ours both of that to grace and that to glory 1. Of that to grace the grave and sleep the Symbols of sin and sleeping in it the bodies rising thence of the souls rising out of sin their going into the holy City of the souls passing from sin to righteousness and holiness their appearing to many of this righteousness manifested and appearing unto all A Symbol 2. it is of the Resurrection unto glory where the Grave first opens then the body rises then into the holy City into new Hierusalem it goes and there appears and shines for ever Thus you have the Text opened as well as the Graves we must now go on to raise such bodies of doctrine and comfort out of it as may bring us all into the holy City serve to make us holy here and happy hereafter partakers here of the First Resurrection and hereafter in the Second He that here opened the Graves and raised the dead bodies out of their sleep open your ears and hearts and raise your understandings and affections that we may all of us have our share in both rise first to righteousness then to glory Christs Resurrection is the pattern and ground of both we therefore begin with that with those words first that bear witness to the truth of it that Christ is risen A double Testimony we gather of it in the words from the rising of the dead Saints and from their appearing It was a sign indeed that the Resurrection was well towards when the Graves began to open we could not but see somewhat of it even in those dark Caverns when they once began to let in the light some hope of rising even when a body begins to yawn some hope the body might come ere long to recover its long lost liberty when the prison doors were wide set open and the shackles of death knockt off the legs some sign and hope I say it would be so that there would be a resurrection of some of some one or other by and by But the Graves being opened at Christs Passion they could be but hopeful prognosticks at most of his Resurrection a Testimony it could not be but when out of these opened Graves the Saints arose out of their sleep they could tell us more certain news of it than so And being but members of that body of which Christ Iesus was the head we must needs know the head is risen when the body is got up the head first ere any member could be it never so holy never so much Saint He is the head of the Church says the Apostle Eph. v. 23. and the Church the body and if any part of the body be raised to life the head you may be sure is first too For if Christ be the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. xv â—0 and the first begotten from the dead as he is stiled Rev. â— 5. If we see others risen other dead bodies walking and alive there is no witness more true than that he is The first fruits ever before the crop Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christs says St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 23. out of order else and the first begotten ever before all the rest second and third and fourth and all witness the first begotten was before them the first begotten from the dead risen before the other dead And it seems 't is not a single witness they were many dead bodies here that rose and in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established Deut. xvii 6. much more in the mouths of many Witnesses And if these be from the dead surely then the most incredulous will believe Nay Father Abraham says Dives but if one come from the deaâ— they will believe yea and repent too Luke xvi 30. Here 's more than one here 's many that not so much as any of Dives his brethren the most voluptuous secure customary and obstinate sinner can be incredulous after this or have reason to doubt the truth or have the power to contradict it To satisfie either particular curiosity or infidelity God does not use to send us messengers from the dead he sends us to Moses and the Prophets there ver 29. for our instruction does not press men from hell or heaven or raise them out of their beds of rest to send them on an errand to us though perhaps little can be universally though ordinarily it perhaps may be defin'd in this particular for the ignorance we are under of the condition of the bounds and limits of the dead If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets says Father Abraham neither will they believe if one rise from the dead If they will not believe the living word the word of the living God no likelihood that they should believe the word of a dead man especially when they cannot be certain but it may be the devil the father of lies and falshood But not of one only rising from the dead that to be sure no man so simple to venture his faith upon a single Testimony and such a one as that Or if he would God does not use to do extraordinary miracles where the ordinary means of probation or information are sufficient But in this great business that concerns all mankind he is pleased to step out of his ordinary course to give us for once some extraordinary satisfaction that all Ages afterward might be sufficiently convinced of the truth of Christs Resurrection from heaven and earth by the Testimony of the dead and living that there might be no occasion hereafter to doubt for ever He raises therefore a great company to attend the triumph of his Sons Resurrection and to bear witness to it 2. And as it is not a single witness so it is not secondly a single testimony 't is not from their rising only but from their going into the City and there appearing unto many For sure neither their journey nor appearance was to tell stories of the dead what is done either in the grave or heaven or hell to satisfie the curious soul with a discovery of those Chambers of silence or the Land where all things are forgotten and therefore all forgotten that we may know they remember when they come thence to tell us nothing that is there their business was
too yet in measure and order too no other then the Spirit gives them utterance 4. And lastly though first it be in the Text yet because it is but the circumstance and time of the story and not the main business or second of it and fittest to close up all in good time and order The Time when all this was done when these things came to pass when the Apostles were so dispos'd when the Holy Ghost thus descended when this strange issue fell out When the day of Pentecost was fully come in very good time the promis'd time Christs time Gods own time such as he had prefigur'd them in in the Law too at the fifty days Feast after the Passover a solemn day and somewhat more as you shall hear anon Thus we best join the History and the Moral the Doctrine and Use of Pentecost or Whitsunday nay the very Holy Spirit of the day and our souls to day together that we may not be like men that only come to hear news a story and away but such as hear the Word and profit by it Which that we may Come O mighty wind and blow upon us Descend O holy Fire and warm our hearts give me a tongue O blessed Spirit out of this days number and utterance give thy servants capacious spirits and remembrance that thy Word may rush in upon them as a sound from Heaven and fill the houses of all our souls with joy and gladness with holy fire of Piety and Devotion that we may with one accord one heart and mind speak forth thy praise and glory The first Point in the order I have set you is the disposition of them that the Holy Spirit will come and light upon 1. They are of one accord 2. in one place 3. sitting quietly and expecting there and that 4. also upon the solemn day when the day of Pentecost any solemn day or occasion is presented them They are first of one accord whom this Spirit vouchsafes to descend into This unity draws the Spirit to them that keeps it with them the house of unity is the only Temple of the Spirit of Unity That soul which breaks the bond of unity and divides it self from the Church of Christ from the company of the Apostles and their Successors the still Fathers of it cannot hold this holy wind cannot enclose this holy fire they are broken and crackt crack only of the Spirit but are really broken from that body in which only the Spirit moves Take and divide a member from the body be it the principal that in which most spirit was the heart or the head and once divided the Spirit vanishes from it will not sit nor dwell in it just so is it it in Christs Body the Church If one of the chiefest members of it one erst while of the devoutest and most religious in it once grow so proud of his own wisdom or gifts so singular in his conceits as to separate himself from his fellows from that body whereof Christ is the head he goes away like a member from the natural body and leaves the Spirit behind him that retires from him for it is one Spirit and cannot be divided from the body though it work diversly in it If this being of one accord of one mind be the temper for the receipt of the Holy Spirit as here you see it is and in reason it can be no otherwise it being the Spirit of love and unity What spirit are they of Whose Religion is Faction whose chief pretended Piety is Schism whose business is to differ from all the World Nothing can be more evident than that men are now adays much at a loss for the Spirit however every one claim to it seeing there is no accord but discord not diversities only but contrarieties but contradictions amongst them that most pretend the Spirit Indeed were this they any less a They than the Apostles themselves and the whole number of the then Disciples or had there been but the least division among them either about the manner of staying or expecting Christs Promise or which is less about the place to stay in It may be these men might have had a shadow for their separations but Apostles they were and in one place they were too altogether agreed in all were all in unity were all in uniformity not their minds only but their bodies too together Men thought it nothing a while since to withdraw themselves from the Houses of God as if no matter at all for the place they could for all that be of the same faith but too woful experience has prov'd it now that with the one place the one faith is vanisht with the ceremony the substance gone too with the uniformity of Worship the unanimity of our minds and the uniformity of our faith too blown into the air How shall we do O blessed Spirit in so many crackt vessels to retain thee Needs must the Spirit expire out of that body which has so many breaches and divisions in it so many divided houses so many broken Churches so many rotten Congregations I know if it be only necessity divides us and drives us into several dens and caves as it did the Primitive Christians in the days of those fiery persecutions that the Holy Spirit will ransack all the cranies and search out all the privatest corners be they above ground or under it but it is because the mind of all those several places is but one and in that respect they are no more than so many several cells of the one Catholick Church but where choice and not necessity wilfulness and not force singularity and not purity of Truth or Conscience makes the division and draws Disciples into Chambers Parlors Barns or Mills Woods or Desarts go not says Christ out after them say they what they will of Christ or Spirit there believe it not St. Matth. xxix 26. Two in a field and yet one taken and the other left two at the mill and one taken and the other left ver 40. So at the most I fear great hazard that any if they be no better no more orderly gather'd when the Master comes Or were they yet perhaps in several places sitting as they are here that is quietly and in true peace and faith expecting the promise of their Lord something might be said to excuse their separations but not only actually to break the unity of the Spirit and the bond of Peace but to breath out nothing but war contention and dispute to be so far from sitting down and either suffering for Christ or humbly expecting his time of assistance and deliverance out of their perplexities and discomforts as to take the matter into their own hands and prevent the coming of the Spirit of Peace by rising and raising spirits of war and confusion they must give me leave to tell them they know not what spirit they are of a heady guiddy furious spirit zeal I bear them witness with St. Paul
negligence or ignorance sometimes of the Managers or the slie cunning of an undiscerned or unminded Adversary or the peevishness of a Party been often thrown into a confusion and almost brought to desolation If we love the Church and we pretend it nay if we love our selves and that we commonly do too much we must agree together We cannot hope our houses shall escape if the City be all on fire at every corner Or 't is but a poor comfort when we see Polyphemus devour our fellows to think only we shall be the last And a vain confidence it is to suppose when a mutiny is once begun that we can stop it when we please Diseases and ill humours once let loose run insensibly through all the parts we cannot retrive them as we list or fix them when we will Our very hopes of a recovery are lost in a moment we have betrayed our selves by opening the way to confusion by our own contests and the whole body drops into a carkass and all is gone If we would but consider our own bodies and learn thence from our own senses as the Apostle would have us in the fore-cited Chapter we could not be so stupid so senseless to draw on our own ruines by our Divisions Methinks I cannot speak more sensibly to all the purposes of Peace nor you understand them more feelingly than by this Metaphor of the body and the members Yet the Argument is much advanced by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by our being called into it by the favour that God has done us in bringing us into it 4. That God has brought us into the Church made us to be a body of Christians is a blessing we too seldom think of yet 't is a great one and a great motive too to be at peace with our own happines and not disturb it No man would divide his happiness who may enjoy it whole much less divide it when he must lose it whole divide from it and divide it from himself least as for the divisions of Reuben Judg. v. 15. so for this there should come nothing of it but grief of heart Again 2. we are called into one body says the Text certainly not to make it two or tear it asunder into more we are call'd into one to keep in one to love and live and die together this one is an argument to hold unity I may raise a third Argument if I read the words exactly as they are without the indulgence of construing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read it as we do in one body ye are called called all at a lump all in a body at once However it was with the Colossians whether called altogether or by parcels I am sure with us it was lately in uno corpore the whole body of the Nation were called into one at once Our happiness came all at a clap and shot from East to West from North to South like lightning in a moment The Land came not in by pieces was not won in as Lands are by Conquest one Town or Country after another And will we then now tear off our selves by pieces into our late Confusions Who has bewitched us that we should think to do it If we add for a fourth as we may do well in a reflexion upon our selves that we were called who a little before seem'd cast away call'd into a body who durst not for many years before appear in any called into one who were then scatter'd into many call'd into one Church into one Government under one head then too when we scarce had any name but by-names to be called by and had made our selves unworthy of any by our sins to be then called and so called as we were was even a calling us out of worms and dust out of nothing to an anticipated Resurrection And can we so far forget our selves as to undo our happiness and divide again Have the miseries of our late Dissensions so clearly slipt out of our memories or are the squadrons and divisions of armed troops so blessed a sight within our Quarters If so God has done us an injury to call us into one to cease our wars and bring home peace and safety to our doors and we do as good as tell him so whilst we either run our selves into divisions raise them or continue them For unthankful 5. miserably unthankful too as well as foolish and inconsiderate we must needs be thus to contemn to throw away our peace 5. And shall we add unthankfulness to the bulk of our transgressions I trow not And yet we shall if we oppose the rule of Peace To be thankful is to return somewhat answerable to the favour that is received Now what more answerable to peace than peace it self to the peace of God than peace with our brethren And he that returns not this returns nothing He can no more have peace with God than love to him whom he has not seen if he have not peace with his brother whom he has seen To be sure he cannot be thankful that kicks Gods favours back again into his face and unmannerly bids him take them again he cares no for them And yet we do no less when we despise and cast away the peace to which he has call'd us we say plainly enough it is not worth the having whilst we do not think it worth the keeping Nay and all the blessings of peace all Gods calling and recalling us first and last out of sin out of misery out of confusions and destructions the very name of Christians and the uniting us again under one King and Church are certainly no blessings in our judgments and opinions if we thus wilfully and contemptuously tear all in pieces rather than peaceably submit to their determinations for unity and order where we have nothing to object but that they are in in things indifferent which is in all mens reason else the greatest reason we should comply with them And no man that truly thanks God for them can do otherwise I am loth to say what I must needs say now in the last place too that they must needs be churlish and sullen as well as unthankful no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all in them in the other sense neither no mildness or softness who aftâ—â— all St. Pauls Arguments for peace and union will not be perswaded unto it For when God that here calls us unto peace shall one day call us to an accompt how gracious and thankful we have been for his calling us to it what we have done or not done towards it consider I beseech you whether you think seriously in your hearts that it will there pass for true endeavours for peace to answer thus Lord we have been all for peace and we petitioned for it but we could not have it upon our own conditions We would have agreed for a Publick Service but we could not have it of our own making We could well
should seem either to receive glory from David or need his name to cover the obscurity of his beginning There is no glory to that of humility nor any so truly honourable as the humble spirit And of Iesse 4. not David to point out as it were the very time of our Messiah's coming even then when there was scarce any thing to be seen or heard of the house of David the Royal Line as it were extinct and Davids house brought back again to its first beginning to that private and low condition it was in in the days of Iesse Thus again would God teach us to be humble in the midst of all our ruff and glory by thus shewing us what the greatest Families of the greatest Princes may quickly come to where they may take up e're they are aware And 2. to give us the nearest sign both of Christs coming and of himself that when things were at the lowest then it would be and that his coming would be in a low condition too in poverty and humility Root and Iesse both intimate as much And lastly if we may with some Etymologists derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and interpret it a gift there will be as good a reason as any why it is here said rather of Iesse than of David even because this root of all this good is to us comes meerly of free gift So God loved the world says S. Iohn iii. 16. that he gave his only begotten Son and not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy says St. Paul this great kindness of God our Saviour appeared towards us this Lord our Saviour appeared to us Tit. iii. 4 5. as a root as a rod as a branch a root to settle us a rod to comfort us a branch to shelter us a root to give us life a rod to rule us in it a branch to crown us for it a close stubb'd root a weak slender rod a tender branch full of loveliness meekness and humility And he appeared as they all do out of the earth watered by the dew of Heaven they have no other Father than the heavenly showers so by the descending of the Holy Ghost upon the Blessed Virgin as rain into a dry ground this holy Root put forth this Branch sprung up without other father of his humanity which is the meaning both of erit in the Text and egredietur in the beginning both of this shall be here and that shall come forth or there shall grow up in the first verse of the Chapter And thus we have the first part of the Text the descent and stock and nature and condition and birth of Christ with other things pertaining to it And now for his design to be set up or stand for an Ensign to the people II. And indeed for that he was born to gather the stragling world into one body to unite the Iew and Gentile under one head to bring the straying sheep into one fold to draw all the Armies of the earth together into one heavenly host that we might all march lovingly under the banner of the Almighty under the command of Heaven Men had long marched under the command of Flesh Earth and Hell God had suffered all Nations saith St. Paul to do so to walk after their own ways Acts xiv 16. But now he commands otherwise commands to repent and leave those unhappy Standards to come in to his Acts xvii 30. And he exempts none debars none all men every where are called to it Acts xvii 30. every nation and every one in every Nation that will come shall be accepted Acts x. 35. every creature says he himself St. Mark xvi 15. Iew and Greek bond and free male and female all one here Gal. iii. 28. Be we never so heavy laden with sins and infirmities under this banner we shall find rest St. Mat. xi 28. Be we never so hotly pursued by our fiercest enemies here we shall have shelter and protection For he is not only an Ensign set up to invite us in but an Ensign to protect us too by the Armies it leads out for us And as it first is set up to call us and secondly to bring us into a place of defence and safety so does it thirdly stand to us and not leave us An Ensign may be set up and quickly taken down but this stands and stands for ever It is not idly said when 't is here said particularly it is to stand Humane forces devices and designs may be set up and not stand at all but God's and Christ's theirs will the gates of Hell it self cannot disappoint them cannot throw down this Banner St. Mat. xvi 18. His counsels shall stand he will do all his pleasure Isa. xlvi 10. They do but fight against God that go about to resist it says Gamaliel the great Doctor of the Law Acts v. 39. And will you know the Staff the Colours and the Flag or Streamer of this Ensign why the Staff is his Cross the Colours are Blood and Water and the Streamer the Gospel or preaching of them to the world The Staff that carried the Colours was of old time fashioned like a Cross a cross bar near the top there was from which the Flag or Streamer hung so as it were prefiguring that all the Hosts and Armies of the Nations were one day to be gathered under the Banner of the Cross to which Souldiers should daily flow out of all the Nations and Kingdoms of the earth By Blood and Water the two Sacraments is the way to him and the Word or Gospel preached is the Flag wav'd out to invite all people in Come we then in first and let not this Flag of Reconciliation of peace and treaty for to such ends are Flags sometimes hung out be set up in vain let it not stand like an Ensign forsaken upon a hill come we in to treat with him at least about our everlasting peace lest it become a Flag of defiance by and by Come we in 2. and submit to the conditions of peace submit to his orders and commands The Septuagint reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here to intimate this He that stands for an Ensign is to be the great Ruler and Commander of the Nations 't is requisite therefore that we come in and obey him Come we 3. to this Standard and remember we are also to fight under it That 's the prime reason of Ensigns and Banners We promise to do it when we are Baptiz'd and it must be our business to perform it It is not for us to be afraid of pains or labour of danger or trouble of our lives and fortunes for Christs service a Souldier scorns it even he who fights but for a little pay and that commonly ill paid And shall we turn cowards when we fight for a Kingdom and that in Heaven which we may be sure of if we fight well Above all 4. if this Ensign stand up for us let
or secular respects and motions but a sweetness without sensual daintiness a lustre without lightness a modest look without dejectedness a grave countenance without severity a fair face without fancy eyes sparkling only heavenly flames cheeks commanding holy modesty lips distilling celestial sweetness beauty without its faults figure and proportion and all such as was most answerable and advantageous to the work he came about every way fitted to the most perfect operations of the reasonable and immortal soul the most beautiful then sure when beauty is nothing else but an exact order and proportion of things in relation to their nature and end both to themselves and to each other Take his description from the Spouses own mouth Cant. v. 10 11 12 c. My beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand His head is as the most fine gold his locks are bushy or curled and black as a Raven His eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the rivers of water washed with water and fitly set that is set in fulness fitly placed and as a precious stone in the soil of a Ring His cheeks are as a bed of Spices as sweet flowers his lips like Lillies dropping sweet smelling Myrrhe his hands are as gold Rings set with Beryl his belly as bright Ivory over-laid with Saphyrs His legs are as pillars of Marble set upon sockets of fine Gold His countenance like Lebanon excellent as the Cedars His mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O daughters of Ierusalem This is our beloved too Solomon indeed has poetically express'd it Yet something else there is in it besides a poetick phrase Beautiful he thus supposes he is to be who was to be this Spouse have the beauty of all beautiful things in the world conferr'd upon him at least to have the finest and subtilest part of all worldly beauties those imperceptible yet powerful species of them which make them really amiable and attractive a head and locks and eyes and hands and feet quantity colour and proportion such as darted from them not only a resemblance but the very spirit of heavenly beauty innocence purity strength and vigour Poets when they commend beauty call it divine and heavenly this of his it was truly so a kind of sensible Divinity through all his parts Shall I give you his colour to make up the beauty He was white pure white in his Nativity ruddy in his Passion bright and glistering in his life black in his death Azure-vein'd in his Resurrection No wonder now to see the Spouse sit down under his shadow with great delight Cant. ii 3. we sure our selves now can do less and yet this is but the shadow of his beauty The true beauty is the souls the beauty of the soul the very soul of beauty the beauty of the body but the body nay the carcase of it And this of the souls he had 2. in its prime perfection 2. Now beauty consists in three particulars the perfection of the lineaments the due proportion of them each to other and the excellency and purity of the colour They are all compleat in the soul of Christ. The lineaments of the soul are its faculties and powers the proportion of them is the due subordination of them to God and one another The colours are the vertues and graces that are in them His powers and faculties would not but be compleat which had nothing of old Adam in them His understanding without ignorance he knew all the very hearts of all thoughts as they rose what they thought within themselves S. Luke v. 22. thoughts before they rose what the Pharisees with other would have done to him had he committed himself unto them Now Tyre and Sidon would have repented had they had the mercy allowed to Corazin and Bethsaida S. Luke x. 13. His will without wilfulness or weakness his passions without infirmity or extravagance his inferiour powers without defect or maim his understanding clear his will holy his passions sweet all his powers vigorous Hear the Wise man describe him under the name of Wisdom Wisd. xvii 22 23 c. In her that is in him who is the Wisdom of the Father is an understanding Spirit holy one onely manifold subtile lively clear undefiled plain nor subject to hurt loving the thing that is good quick which cannot be letted ready to do good kind to man stedfast sure free from care having all power overseeing all things and going through all understanding pure and most subtile spirits and ver 25 26. A pure influence flowing from the Glory of the Almighty the brightness of the everlasting light the unspotted mirror of the power of God and the image of his goodness The powers of his soul being thus pure vigorous and unspotted they cannot 2. but be in order the will following his understanding the passions subordinate to them both all the inferiour powers obedient and ready at command and pleasure He had no sooner exprest a kind of grievance in his sensitive powers at the approach of those strange horrors of his death and sufferings but presently comes out Non mea sed tua Not my will but thine all in a moment at peace and in tranquillity No rash or idle word no unseemly passage no sowre look nor gesture or expression unsuitable to his Divinity throughout his life the very Devils to their own confusion cannot but confess it We know thee who thou art the Holy One of God S. Mark i. 24. To this add those heavenly colours and glances of grace and vertues and you have his soul compleatly beautiful Meekness and Innocence and Patience and Obedience even to the death Mercy and Goodness and Piety and what else is truly called by the name of good are all in him insomuch that the Apostle tells us the very fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily Col. ii 9. No Divine Grace or Vertue wanting in him In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ver 3. In him all sanctity and holiness not so much as the least guile in his mouth 1 S. Pet. ii 22. So holy that he is made holiness and sanctification unto us 1 Cor. i. 30. Sancti quasi sanguine uncti We Saints and holy become hallowed by the sprinkling of his blood In him lastly is all the power and vertue omnis virtus that is omnis potestas all the power in heaven and earth fully given to him S. Matth. xxviii 18. So that now we shall need to say little of the other particular of this first general point of Christs perfect beauty that he is not only Formosus but Formosus prae not only fair but very fair for where there is so much as you have heard exceeding and excellent it must needs be Where the body is compleat in all its parts the soul exact in all its powers the body without any ill inclination natural or habitual the soul without
the least stain of thought or glance of irregularity nothing to sully the soul or body all wisdom and holiness and power and vertue We can say no less of him then the Psalmist of Ierusalem Very excellent things are spoken of thee thou City of God thou miraculous habitation of the Almighty thou very dwelling not of God only but the very Godhead too Nor shall I need to say much of the third the prae filiis that his beauty is more sweet and innocent then the new-born babes Alas the sweetest fairest child comes sullied into the world with Adams guilt Some of that dust that God cast upon him when he told him Dust he was and into dust he should return sticks so upon the face and body the very soul and spirit too of the prettiest infant that it is nothing to this days child In omnibus sine peccato Heb. iv 15. In all without sin says the Apostle the very temptations he suffered were not from the sinfulness of his nature any original concupiscence non novit says the Apostle in another place 1 Cor. v. 21. he knew it not knew no sin at all in this he might use St. Peters phrase Man I know not what thou meanest I know not what this condition of man so much as means Prae filiis he is as much purer then the child we call innocent as much before it in purity and innocence as he is in time and being Nay yet again though we see the sweetest beauty is commonly that of children whilst they are so yet even that beauty must needs have some kind of stain or mole or some insensible kind of defect though we know not what nor how to term it which was not in him The very natural inordination of our powers must needs give a kind of dull shadow to our exactest beauty and silently speak the inward fault by some outward defect though we are too dull being of the same mold to apprehend it whilst there could be no such darkness in the face of Christ no Genius in it which was not perfectly attractive and exactly fitted to its place and office This perhaps may seem a subtlety to our duller apprehensions but 't is plain that I shall tell you though but briefly in the fourth particular that he is fairer then the children of men then men come to their perfect beauty Alas alas before that time long sin had so sullied them that we may read dark lines in all their faces the Physicgnomist will tell you all their faults our sins and deformities are by that time written in our foreheads engraven in our hands our beauty is almost clean lost into corruption Could we see as Angels do those eyes that seem to sparkle flames would look terrible as the fires of Hell Those cheeks that seem beauteous in their blushes would be seen to have no other than the colour of our sins those lips which we cry up for sweetness would stink in our conceit with rottenness the teeth that look white as Ivory we should behold black with calumny and slander as the â—oot of the foulest Chimneys the fair curled locks would look like snakes the young spawn of the great red Dragon the hands that look so white and delicate would appear filthy bloody and unclean We poor we are but blind moles and bats We see nothing We know not what is beautiful what is lovely If we did these earthly beauties would seem what I have said them nay worse Christ only would be beautiful no body but Christs body no body but that wherein Christ dwells in whose eyes and cheeks and lips and head and hands you might see Christs Beauty Meekness Love Charity Goodness Justice Mercy Innocence Piety with the rest of those lines of beauty which were in him But whatever we would then say of the bodies we can say no other even now of the souls of men thâ—t none are fair but that are well colour'd and proportion'd to those heavenly lines and in this point freely acknowledge the pre-eminence of Christ the prerogative of this Spouse And well may we say of him with the Psalmist that he is fairer then the children of men whom daily sins deform and render ugly when the Apostle sets him before the Sons of God the Angels the Cherubins and Seraphins which you will of them for to which of them says he has he said at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Heb. i. 5. begotten thee after mine own image the very express image of my person the brightness of my glory ver 3. Fairer then the children of men no doubt who is as fair and bright as God who is higher then all the Sons of men all the people by the head by the Godhead which is in him Which being in him there needs no more to say but that 't is of necessity he must be the fairest of the Sons of men through whose eyes and face and hands and whole body the rays of the Divine Beauty are continually darting from within Well may we now also expect some of it at his lips and so we find it here in the very next words very fully issuing there Full of grace are thy lips that 's the second general of the Text Gratia diffusa in labiis Grace in the lips as well as beauty in the forehead in face or other parts of soul and body Three degrees we observe in the words to make up this fulness Gratia est gratia diffusa diffusa in labiis that Grace there is in him as well as beauty 2. Grace abundant and in full measure And 3. so abundant and so full that it falls into the lips comes out full spout there there above all it issues and manifests and appears Grace first that 's good with beauty all beauty but deform'd without is a good hint to you by the way to get those souls fill'd with grace whose bodies God has made fine with beauty If God has given thee beauty beg of him that he would also give thee grace beautifie thy soul as well as body and strive thou also what thou canst possibly thy self to adorn thy beauty with grace and goodness or if thou hast little or no beauty in thy body make amends for it by the beauty and sweetness of thy soul though thy face be not fair thy lips may be gracious thou mayest be full of good words and works and thou mayest do God more service with the grace of thy lips than with the beauty of thy fairest face that so amazes and ravishes worldly lovers Now a threefold grace there is in Christ. And 1. The grace of his person or personal grace wherewith his own person was indued so far as to be free from all kind of sin The grace of the Head whereby he disperses his graces into all his Members as the Head of the Church into the Body into the souls of Christians and Believers And then the grace of Union that
to anoint the Humanity with the Deity without which he could not have been the Saviour could not have made satisfaction for so infinite a mass of sins Gods blessing meerly it was his meer goodness and blessing so to contrive salvation to us to enable the Manhood with the Godhead to go through the work of our Redemption God so loved the world that he sent his Son into the world in our mortal nature thus enabled thus beautified thus filled that we might all be partakers of his fulness 4. Yet in the fourth place though Christ as meer man could not deserve this grace and beauty yet when once the Manhood was united to the Godhead then he deserv'd the second blessing Then propterea therefore God hath blessed him is as true a rendring as the other then when being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death then comes in St. Paul's therefore or wherefore rightly Phil. ii 8 9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow that we should bow our selves in humility and thankfulness unto him that every tongue should confess all tongues bless him and bless God for him that we might praise him in the Church in the midst of the Congregation For a double blessing has Christ purchas'd to himself a blessing upon his Person and a blessing upon his Church By his Grace and Beauty he has first purchas'd to himself a name and then a Church a glorious one too Ephes. v. 27. made himself the head of it For it pleased God that in him should all fulness dwell it pleased him also by that fulness to reconcile all things to himself to make him the head of all the Saviour of them all to bless him in the ordinary stile of Scripture where children are called the blessing of the Lord to bless him with an everlasting seed a Church and people to the end of the world do the gates of Hell what they can against it 5. There remains nothing now but our Benedixit to answer God's our blessing to answer his We to bless him again for all his blessings For to that purpose is both Christs grace and Gods blessing all his blessings therefore fulness of grace in him that it might be diffus'd and poured out upon us therefore diffus'd and poured out upon us that we might pour out something for it Bene fecit for Benedixit some good works or other at least Benedixit for Benedixit good words for it blessing for blessing Indeed 't is but Benedixit here with God but dixit fecit he said and it was done saying and doing are all one with God should be so with us if we would be like him our deeds as good as our words our piety as fair as our pretences that 's the only truly blessing God And the likest too to last in secula to hold for ever Good words and praising God in words is but the leaves of the tree of blessing and leaves you know will wither the stock and trunck is blessing God in earnest by good works by expressing the diffusions of this grace in our lives and actions by imitating and conforming our selves to the beauty of this beloved If he be so fair as you have seen it how can we now but love him if his lips so full of grace how can we but delight to hear him to hear his word If blessed how can we less then strive to be partakers of his blessing If for ever how can we but desire to be ever with him perpetually attending him If his beauty was Gods blessing let us humbly acknowledge ours comes all from him If the grace of his lips were the blessing of Gods let us know we are not able of our selves to speak so much as a good word as of our selves If again he was therefore blessed because he was so beautiful and so diffus'd his grace us'd both his beauty and eloquence to bring about the children of men to become the children of God let us so employ those smaller glimmerings of beauty and gifts of grace we have to the service and glory of God and his Christ. We dote much upon worldly beauties we think we talk we dream of them our minds and affections are ever on them wholly after them Why do we not so on Christ and after him he is the fairest of ten thousand Solomon in all his glory not like him none of all the Sons of Adam comes near him Why do we not then delight to look upon him to discourse with him to talk of him to be ever with him What 's the reason we do not season our labours our recreations our retirements our discourses with him We are easily won with fair words and gracious speeches Lo here are lips the most eloquent that ever were why do we not even hang upon them why do we not with the Spouse in the Canticles desire him to kiss us with the kisses of his lips to communicate his fulness to us Indeed I can render no cause at all but that we are so immerst in flesh and earthly beauties that we cannot see the true heavenly beauty of Christ or we do not believe it And yet this Jesus is every where to be seen his Ministers his Word his daily Grace preventing directing and assisting preserving and delivering us the creatures plainly and evidently enough discover him daily to us But to day we have a fairer discovery and sight of him This Iesus that is so fair this Iesus so full of grace this Iesus so blessed of God for ever is this day presented to us in his Blessed Sacrament there is he himself in all his beauty all his fulness Say we then to him Come in thou blessed of the Lord come in we have made ready and prepared the house for thee and for thy Camels for thy self and those consecrated elements that carry and convey thee Get we our vessels ready and shut the door to us as the poor Widow did shut out all worldly thoughts and wandring fancies that he may pour out his oyl his grace into them till they be full And pour we out our souls before him in all devotion and humility in all praise and thanksgiving Is not the cup we are to take the cup of blessing in the Apostles stile take we it then and bless him with it taste and see how gracious the Lord is see and behold how fair he is how amiable and lovely and be ravish'd with his beauty and sweetness and never think we can be satisfied with it with seeing or hearing or blessing him but be always doing so for ever So shall he make us fair with his beauty good with his grace happy with his blessedness bring us one day to see his face in perfect beauty and so see his grace poured out into glory there to bless and praise and magnifie him for ever
their reward Three now we have to go through Procidentes Adorârunt Obtulêrunt the three acts or parts or points of Worship we are to perform to Christ each in its order as it lies and first of Procidentes their Prostration Here it is we first hear of any worship done to Christ and this falling down this prostration the first worship as if no other no lesser adoration could serve turn after so great a blessing as the sight of a Saviour as if his taking on a body challeng'd our whole bodies now his coming down from Heaven our falling down upon the earth his so great humiliation our greatest expression of our humility Many sorts of adoration have been observed greater and lesser Bowing the head Exod. i. 10. Bowing the body Gen. xviii 2. Bending the knee Isa. xlv 23. Worshipping upon the knee Psal. xcv 6. God thus worshipped by them all And falling down before him is no news to hear of neither in Scripture or Antiquity whatsoever niceness or laziness or profaneness of late have either said or practis'd against it They were Wise men here that did it yet it is well that the Scripture calls them so I know who have been counted fools superstitious fools for as little a matter for the same though I cannot but wonder to see as much done in a complement to a thing worse than a reasonable man whilst God himself is denied it Indeed it may be if we compare the persons we shall quickly see the reason These in the Text were Wise men of credit and reputation men of some quality men that understood themselves and knew the language of Heaven and can turn the Stars to their proper uses that think not much of much pains to find a Redeemer that know how to use a King and serve a God that run readily at the first call of Heaven to pay this worship Your selves can inform you what they are that deny it I shall not tell you Poor ignorant Shepherds may perhaps through ignorance or astonishment omit the Ceremony and be pardon'd so they go away praising and rejoycing but great learned Clerks cannot be excus'd if they pretermit it but neither the one nor the other if they deny it Ignorance will be no sufficient plea for the one nor a distinction or a pretence of scandal for the other in a point so plain as perpetual custom from the beginning of the world and plain words of Scripture make it Abraham falls upon his face in a thankful acceptance of Gods promise Gen. xvii 17. His servant Eleazar bows down and worships Gen. xxiv 26. Old Iacob did as much as he could towards it on his bed Gen. xxi 31. And the people of Israel Exod. iv 31. and this before the Law was given And Moses before the Law was written fell down before the Lord as he tells the people Deut. ix 18. So it was no Iewish Law or custom then but even a point of the Law of Nature though practis'd also by the Iew by David Ps. v. 7. by Solomon 2 Chron. vi 13. by Ezekiel ch xi 13. by Daniel ch vi 10. by all the Prophets by all the people all the children of Israel together bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement and worshipped and praised the Lord 2 Chron. vii 3. Christ himself allows the people to do as much to him takes it and takes it kindly from them Iairus the Ruler of the Synagogue falls at his feet St. Mark v. 20. Mary does as much St. Iohn xi 31. Others often do the same and none forbidden it nay he himself does it to his Father St. Mark xiv 35. fell down and prayed and do we then think much to do it The very Saints in Heaven where there is nor shadow certainly nor Ceremony fall down before him even before the Lamb. Rev. v. 8. and xi 16. and xiv 4. and are we too good to do it Is the practice of all ages of Heaven of Earth and Christ too not strong enough to bow our stubborn necks Is there Iudaism and Superstition in Heaven in Christ too Oh then let me be superstitious I am content to be so to be called so by any generation upon earth But to make it yet more evident if it can be nature it self in the midst of its corruptions keeps yet this impression undefac'd and more plainly professes this Reverence due to the Deity than even the Deity it self Never did any the most blind and foolish Heathen yet acknowledge a God but presently they worshipped him with their bodies Nay never did any ever pretend either honour or respect to man but he exprest it some way by his body by some gesture or other of it And must God that made it and Christ that redeemed it only go without it must man be reverenc'd with the body and the Devil serv'd with it and God be put off with the worship of the soul which yet neither can express it self nor think nor do any thing without the body whilst it is in it It was thought a good argument by S. Paul to glorifie God in our body as well as in our spirits and in old Manuscripts I must tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body only is because they are God's he hath bought them with a price 1 Cor. vi 20. good reason then that he should have them The body is for the Lord ver 13. of that Chapter Who then should have it but he 't is for no body else he only can claim it others do but borrow it or usurp it let him therefore have it 't is his own and it cannot be bestowed better he knows best to use it how to keep it fear we not Indeed it is so unreasonable to deny it him so unprofitable to the very body to keep it from him that I know not why we should expect to have it either safe or well when we deny it him Who can keep it better who can easier lift it up when it is down raise it up when it is fallen preserve it in health and strength than he And are we such fond fools then not to present it always to his protection and lay it at his feet who if he tread upon it does yet do it good Though we were Hereticks of the highest impudence and denied his God-head yet confessing his humanity we can do no less than give the worship of our bodies to him We can give him nothing less I may without breach of charity I fear suspect that this generation that are so violent against the worship of the body will e're long neither confess his God-head nor his Man-hood turn Arian and Manichee both together and prove a kind of mixed Hereticks unheard of hitherto beyond all the wickedness and folly of all their former predecessors come so far at last to think all done in a fancy or a dream make all the work of our redemption come
to nothing For certainly did they either seriously think him true God or true man we should see it by their bodies especially seeing we cannot see any thing by their spirits to the contrary Even men us'd to be thus worshipped 1 Kings i. 31. and Prophets 2 Kings ii 15. So that did they confess him any thing they would certainly fall down and worship him not deny it to be sure whether do it or no. For all falling down is not adoration It is the mind that makes that the intention of the soul that turns this outward expression of the body into adoration that makes it either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either a religious or a civil worship as it pleases This is the reason together with the Authority of the Fathers St. Augustin St. Leo St. Bernard and others that I make adorârunt here this word worship to relate to the soul as procidentes falling down to the body Though I am not ignorant that both in the School and Grammar sense it is seldom or never found without the interest and posture of the body yet must it of necessity most refer to the soul that being able only to specifie the worship and give it both its nature and its name by either intending it religiously as to God or civilly only as to a creature where it gives it the outward posture being oft the same indifferently to God and man That these Wise men intended it as an act of Devotion and Religion as to an incarnate God not a meer carnal man is the general opinion of the Church and not without good ground For first Wise men who ever propound some end to all their motions would not have undertaken so long and tedious and troublesom a journey to have seen a child in a Cradle or in the mothers lap no not a Royal babe they were Kings themselves so the Antients delivered them to us and the 72 Psalm foretells them by that name and they had often seen such sights in as much pomp and glory as they could expect it in Iudea At least cui bono what good should they get by it that 's a thing Wise men consider by any King of Iudea what was such an one or his child to them who had nor dependance nor commerce with him or if they had needed not make such a needless journey themselves to no more purpose than in a complement to visit him But 2. They tell us they had seen his Star now we and they knew well enough that the Kings of the earth though they have the Spangles of the Earth have not the Spangles of the Heaven at their command though they have Courts and Courtiers beset with sparks of Diamonds and Rubies they have not yet one spark of Heaven in their attendance No King of Stars but the King of Heaven none under whose command or dominion they move or shine none that can call them his but God that made them to worship one then who not only can alone call all the Stars by their names but by his own too is certainly in any Wise mans language to worship God Our very Star-gazers who confess no King and for ought we can see worship no God will yet confess that in the Latin they have regit Astra Deus that the Stars are only Gods and though a Wise man may by his wisdom divert their influence he can in no wise either command or direct their motion 3. They tell us too they came to worship their whole business was nothing else and we would think they had little indeed if they came so far only to give a complement to a child that could neither answer them nor understand them We must certainly take them not for Wise men but very fools to do so And if worship be the end of their coming we may quickly understand by the phrase of Scripture that it is divine worship that is meant Of worship indeed and adoration we may read in other senses there but it is never made a business said to be any ones aim or purpose but when it is referr'd to God and his House The Eunuch is said to come to Ierusalem and worship Acts viii 27. David invites us to fall down and worship Psal. xcv 6. St. Paul comes to Ierusalem to worship Acts xxiv 11. and certain Greeks are said to come up to worship St. Iohn xii 20. but all this while it is to worship God never made a work to worship man To fall down before or bow or reverence to any man how great soever is but an occasional piece of business on set purpose never When we come before Kings and Princes we do it but never come before them to this end only for to do it 4. Had they conceived no other of him than as man or a Child of man that poor contemptible condition and unworshipful pickle they found him in the rags of poverty the place they saw him in would have made them have forborn their worship quite they would have been so far from procidentes adorârunt that it would have been dedignantes abiêrunt instead of falling down and worshipping they would have gone their ways disdaining at him But so powerful was his Star and so had the day-Star risen in their hearts so had the eternal light shined to them that they could see what others could not in carne Deum God in the Child He that led them without taught them within both whom they worshipped and how to worship And indeed he that knows and considers whom he worships will worship both in Spirit and in truth with his soul and with his body in truth else he does not worship Adorare adoration consists of both nay cannot be well conceived if you take away either the one or the other The word it self in its primitive signification is manum ad os admovere concerns the body and is no more than to kiss the hand and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is just the same So was the fashion of the Greeks to worship and it seems ancient through the East for it is an expression of holy Iob chap. xxxi 21. If I have beheld the Sun when it shined c. or my mouth hath kissed my hand that is if he had worshipped any other God But it falls out with this as with other words they enlarge their signification by time and custom and so adoration is come to be applied to all worship of the body bowing the head bending the knee falling on the face kneeling at the feet according as each particular Country perform their reverence Time yet hath enlarged it further and our Saviour that eternal word and therefore the best Expositor of any word hath applied it also to the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Iohn iv 23. nay more calls them the truest worshippers that worship in Spirit And indeed the Spirits the Souls part is the chiefest the worship
is they are so Good but by the Covenant of the Gospel not the rigour of the Law Good by an Evangelical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods favourable interpretation and acceptance not by the strictness of worth and merit Good but overpoised with many bad ones Davids Delicta sua quis c. Who knows how oft he offends Enough to remember us we may offend when we think we are doing good may do best therefore and shall do safest not too much to remember them our selves but leave God in his goodness to remember them IV. And that we may do without any presumption put God in mind of them now and then 'T is my Fourth Particular plain in the Text. And plain too it is other good men have done so as well as Nehemiah Hezekiâ—h does so 2 Kings xx 3. I beseech thee O Lord remember how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Some of it was good deeds to this House we speak of Holy David particularizes his Psal cxxxii 1 2 and so on Lord says he remember David Why What of him Why How he sware unto thee O Lord and vowed a vow unto the Almighty God of Iacob Well What was that Why That he would not come within the Tabernacle of is house nor climbe up into his bed he would not suffer his eyes to sleep nor his eye-lids to slumber nor the Temples of his head to take any rest till he had found out a place for the Temple of the Lord an habitation for the mighty God of Iacob This he prays there that God would remember him and all his troubles for it how he was troubled till he had found it Him in all his troubles too whensoever he should come in any to deliver him out of all because of the good he had vowed and intended to the House V. But is it only a Prayer that God would remember Is it not a Record too 5. that he does He truly does you see it here upon Record he does in the books of his eternal Remembrance It is here remembred in every Chapter Your memories cannot be so short but they can tell you it The Gospel will tell you it too tell you God remembers all such deeds as these Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preacht and it shall be as long as there is any preaching there also that which this woman has done shall be told for a memorial of her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Mat. xxvi 13. Told and told again every body shall speak of it and it shall never shall be forgotten The Beam out of the Roof and the Timber out of the Wall shall tell it The Ointment upon Aarons head shall run down upon his beard to wet even the skirt of his cloathing and the dust it self shall not be able to lick it up If we speak of the House it self that stands an everlasting monument of the Founders Piety The very Walls of holy buildings that scarce now raise their heads so high as to be seen speak yet plainly forth their Founders and Benefactors God raises up some good soul or other even in the worst of times to revive their Names and blessed be they for it If we speak of the good done to the Offices of it those very Offices are but so many Records therefore from Generation to Generation Not a Rams not a Goats not a Badgers skin offered to the building of the Tabernacle but stands upon Gods File Not a Cherubs head not a Lilly a Flower or Pomgranate not a foot or Inch in the sacred Fabrick not a Farthing not a Mite to the Treasure of it falls to the ground unremembred un-numbred Nay even Sacriledge and Atheism after so many Centuries of thriving wickedness have not yet had the power to obliterate the memories of the Houses of God in the Land So are the good deeds themselves remembred Nor shall they that have ever done them or shall ever do them be forgotten Remember Me prays Nehemiah and he was heard in what he pray'd And you not only see it here but in the Catalogue made by the Son of Syrach and long since added near to the very Book of Gods own remembrances Among the Elect says he was Nehemias his renown is great who raised up for us the Walls and some of them were to the house of God that were fallen and raised up our ruines Ecclus. xlix 13. There are others reckoned there upon the same account Zorobabel was a Signet the right hand so was Iesus the Son of Iosedec who in their time builded the House and set us an holy Temple to the Lord which was prepared for everlasting glory v. 11 12. there 's a memorial indeed And if you would know what this to be remembred is the parallel verses will tell you three things of it Connive super me and parce mihi Wink at and pardon me ver 22. and Memento in bonum remember me for good ver 31. To have our weaknesses winck'd at our sins pardon'd and our good with good rewarded these three make up Gods remembring us And he shews it particularly to those who do good to the place where his honour dwelleth 1. Many a default had Iacob made and done some more than justifiable sleights in his transactions with his Brethren but one vow for Bethel Gen. xxviii 22. sets all straight again and makes God go on his journey with him There are weaknesses wink'd at and no reason so probable as Bethel for it 2. David had some faults and great ones yet God says he turned not aside save only in the matter of Vriah the Hittite 1 Kings xv 5. Save that save many other that we could tell you of but that we will not rake up those sins that God passed by But why is God so tender in the point Why David was tender over Sion could not pray for the very pardon of his sins in that great Penitential Psalm of his but he must needs in the same breath as it were remember Sion Psal. li. 18. O be gracious unto Sion as if God else could not be gracious unto him or as if otherwise either the pardon of his sins would do him little good or else there were no readier orsurer way to get them pardon'd than by remembring Sion Ther 's the pardon of sins upon the score 3. Would you have a remembrance for your good as well as a forgetting for your evil Would you have God remember you with a blessing too Why your kindness to his house will do it God blessed the house of Obed Edom and all that appertained unto him because of the Ark of God 2 Sant vi 12. All that appertained 'T is good dwelling nigh such a man as he Again David would fain have been building God a house had gotten many materials and much money ready for it and God promises him upon it that He will build him a House for it and
there too late they begin to talk like men to speak reason The Christian penitent after he has run the course of sin and is now returning talks somewhat higher calls it a Prison the Stocks the Dungeon the very nethermost Hell thinks no words bad enough to stile it by We need not put any such upon the rack for this confession they go mourning and sighing it all the day long they tell you sensibly by their tears and blushes by their sad countenances and down-cast looks by their voluntary confessions their willing restraints now put upon themselves their pining punishing afflicting of their souls and bodies their wards and watches now over every step lest they should fall again that never were any poor souls so gull'd into a course so vain so unprofitable so dishonourable so full of perplexities so fruitful of anxieties so bitter so unpleasant as sin has been nor any thing whereof they are so much asham'd No fruit of all you see even our selves being judges And yet I will not send you away without some fruit or other somewhat after all this that may do you good For methinks if sin have no better fruits if wickedness come no better off we may first learn to be asham'd and blush to think of it be ashamed of sin We may 2. learn to beat it off thus at its first assaults What thou sin thou lust what fruit shall I have in thee what good shall I reap of thee Do I not see shame attend thee and death behind thee I am asham'd already to think upon thee away away thou impudent solicitress I love no such fruit I love no such end And if 3. we be so unhappy as to be at any time unawares engaged in any sin let us strike off presently upon the arguments of the Text. For why should we be so simple to take a course that will not profit to take pains to weave a web that will not cover us to plant trees that will yield no fruit to range after fruit that has no pleasure to court that which has no loveliness If we can expect nothing from our sins as you have heard we cannot why do we sweat about them if they bring home nought but shame why are we not at first asham'd to commit them if they end in death why will ye die O foolish people and unwise Lastly you that have led a course of sin and are yet perhaps still in it sit down and reckon every one of you with himself what you have gotten Imprimis So much cost and charges Item so much pains and labour so much care and trouble so much loss and damage so much unrest and disquiet so much hatred and ill-will so much disparagement and discredit so many anxieties and perplexities so many weary walks so much waiting and attendance so many disappointments and discouragements so many griefs and aches so many infirmities and diseases so many watches and broken sleeps so many dangers and distresses so many bitter throbs and sharp stings and fiery scorchings of a wounded Conscience so much and so much and so much misery all for a few minutes of pleasure for a little white and yellow dirt for a feather or a fly a buzze of honour or applause a fansie or a humour for a place of business or vexation sum'd up all in air and wind and dust and nothing Learn thus to make a daily reflection upon your selves and sins But after all these remember lastly 't is Death eternal Death everlasting misery Hell and damnation without end that is the end of sin that all this everlasting is for a thing that 's never lasting a thing that vanishes often in its doing all this death for that only which is the very shame of life and even turns it into death and surely you will no longer yield your members your souls and bodies to iniquity unto iniquity but unto righteousness unto holiness So shall ye happily comply with the Apostles argument in the Text and draw it as he would have you to the head do what he intends and aims at by it and by so doing attain that which he desires you should make your selves the greatest gainers can be imagined gain good out of evil glory out of shame life out of death all things out of nothing eternal life everlasting glory Which c. A SERMON ON THE Fourth Sunday in Lent I COR. ix 24. So run that you may obtain THat Christianity is a Race and Heaven the Goal and we all of us they that are to run is an ordinary Allegory in Scripture and Sermons which you have none of you but heard And that in this Race all that run do not obtain no more than they do that run in other Races every one sees and every one can tell you Not every one we told you the last day not they that run only with their tongues run they Lord Lord never so fast not many others that run further than so you will hear anon and too common experience can inform you But how so to run as to obtain is not a piece of so common knowledge Hic labor hoc opus est This is the Apostles business a business ordinary Christians are not sufficiently skill'd in 't is to be fear'd or if sufficiently skill'd in not so practised in but that they want a voice both behind and before them to tell them this is the way they are to walk in This is the way walk in it so and so run that you may obtain Were we to run in those Olympick Games which St. Paul here seems to allude to they who were practised in those sports and exercises were fittest to instruct us how so to run as to be conquerours there But being now to run the true Olympick that is the heavenly Race the true Race to heaven that true Olympus which that Poetical did but shadow this our Apostle that great wrastler not against flesh and bloud though in another sense against that too but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness whose whole life was nothing else but a continual exercise of all the hardships in the Christian course who so gloriously fought the good fight and finished his course can best teach us how to do so too With this Prerogative too above the cunningest of those Olympick Masters that they cannot so instruct their Schollars that they shall be sure of the prize they run for though they run never so accurately to their Rules many there running and but one obtaining but here by St. Paul's direction we may all run and all obtain For to that purpose only we are invited and directed to run that we may obtain Yet true it is as we may all obtain so we may not and it will be but a spur to us to fear it one spur to hasten and quicken us in our course St. Paul had such a one now and then to make him run He had run
consider the practise of those first Christian Saints and Martyrs those daily pains and cares their days and nights were spent in we would think our Race to heaven another-gates business Christianity another manner of thing than we make it now a days or are willing to conceive it Were there no other word than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text this run to express it we might understand it to be a work of labour and if we take it with that reference it has to the Olympick Races there are many things in the performance that will sufficiently shew it What a deal of pains and care did they take first to fit and prepare themselves And then with what might and main did they pursue their course How often have such Racers been taken up at the Goal so tired and spent that they have had much ado to recover their life or spirits Ah! did we but half so much for heaven there were no doubt of it Running take we it how we will is a violent exercise that for the time imploys all the parts and powers 'T is that the Apostle would have here that all the faculties and powers of our souls and bodies should be taken up in the business of heaven Our heads study it our hearts bend wholly to it our affections strive violently after it our hands labour for it our feet run the ways of Gods Commandments to come to it our eyes run down with water for it and our bodies with sweat about it 'T will cost somewhat more to come to heaven than a few good words at the last than a Lord forgive me and have mercy upon me when we are going out of the World or than a hot fit or two of Piety when we are in it or a cold and careless walking and stragling up and down in it throughout even all our lives Nay more 't is not running over whole Breviaries of Prayers 'T is not running over good Books only neither reading and studying of good things but running as we read that all that run may read in our running the Characters of heaven Would men but lay this to heart that it is no such easie or perfunctory business to get thither their courses would be better their lives holier themselves heavenlier than they are nor would so many put off the work to the last cast make a meer death-bed business of it as if they then were fit enough to run Gods ways when they cannot stir a hand or foot whereby 't is more then to be fear'd they deceive themselves and being then in no possibility to run they go they know not whither II. And yet for all the pains and running we talk of if now secondly it have not an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rule and steer it if it be not a so running such a one as is right set to obtain we had as good sit still This so to run is 1. To run lawfully 2. To run carefully 3. To run speedily 4. To run willingly 5. To run stoutly 6. To run patiently 7. To run constantly and to the end To run 1. lawfully according to the Laws and Rules prescribed to obtain it 2. Carefully the way to obtain it 3. Speedily with the speed requisite to obtain it 4. Willingly with spirit to obtain it 5. Stoutly to endure any thing to obtain it 6. Patiently to expect to obtain it 7. Constantly not giving out till we obtain it 1. Lawfully according to the Laws and Rules of the Race we are to run we are not crowned else says our Apostle 2 Tim. ii 5. Now the Laws of the Christian Race are Gods Commandments according to which we are diligently to direct our steps Yet three Laws there are more particular and proper to it the Law of Faith the Law of Hope and the Law of Charity These the three more peculiar Rules of it We must run in a full belief of Gods Promises in Christ that in him they are yea and in him Amen that God will not let one tittle of them fall to the ground Looking unto Iesus the Author and finisher of our faith Heb. xii 2. of our course too We must secondly run in hope that through his grace we also even we though the most unworthy shall obtain laying hold upon the hope so set before us Heb. vi 18. And thirdly in Charity must be our course though we strive for the mastery it must not be in strife or envy but in love and charity in unity and peace in love unfeigned our selves 2 Cor. vi 6. and provoking one another to it Heb. x. 24. no other strifes or provocation but who shall go before one another in love so keeping the bond of peace which once broken our clothes and garments which were tied up to us with it as with a girdle fall all down about us and hinder us both in our Race and of our Crown Those who have broke this bond and rent the Churches Robes and their own souls by their unhappy separations will after all their labour with those in the Psalm sleep their sleep and find nothing nothing but that they have hindered both others and themselves of the Crown of glory Run we lawfully and orderly then that first And 2. run we carefully too neither to the right hand nor to the left neither looking after sensual pleasures or worldly profits or sinful lusts not turning aside after those golden balls which the Devil the Flesh and world are always casting in the way to hinder us but straight on our course carefully shunning all temptations stumbling-blocks and stones of offence which are likely to trip up our heels and throw us in our race what carefulness says St. Paul 2 Cor. vii 11. has your godly sorrow wrought will earnest desire of a heavenly Crown say I work in you if you would think upon it It would make you 3. gather up all your strength set to all your force put to all your speed you would think you could not come soon enough to so glorious a Goal Let us go speedily and pray before the Lord say they in Zachary viii 21. Make haste and come down says our Saviour to Zacheus St. Luke xix 6. as if he that meant to see Christ here at his own house or hereafter in his must make what haste he can Running is our speediest motion and the more haste to Heaven the better speed though to earthly things the proverb says it is not and the reason may be indeed because our swiftest motion is to be towards Heaven to be reserv'd for that Yet willingly 4. must it be we must do it without Whip or Spur they are for unreasonable Beasts and not for men in running We are not to look that God should force and drive us to his work he loves no such workmen A ready mind is Gods Sacrifice he accepts no other If I do it willingly says our Apostle ver 17. I have a reward no reward else to
to meet with in the world even among them he bestows and spends most upon and would be bestowed and spent himself for as this Apostle for these Corinthians 2 Cor. xii 15. as the consideration of the Cross of Christ. And no knowledge fitter for this You for the Corinthians people now divided into Schisms and Factions than to think of Christ crucified rent and torn in pieces by them thus crucified again by them through their Divisions who was crucified to unite them to bring all into one body under one head by his body on the Cross into himself the head Christ Iesus For there were at the time of this Epistle among the Corinthians as there are now among us some that much boasted of their knowledge as if they alone knew all was to be known more than St. Paul than a hundred St. Pauls made themselves heads of Factions and Schisms upon it and drew parties after them In this indeed differing from the heads of ours that they vaunted of their Humane Learning ours have nothing but ignorance to boast of they would have Faith reduced to Reason these rul'd by fancy yet in this agreeing both in their ignorance of the Cross of Christ or sure quite forgetting it and making Schisms and sowing Heresies in the Church of Christ though perhaps we could find them some Socinianiz'd wits too that would fain bring all to natural reason and really deny the very effects of the Cross of Christ his satisfaction and redemption the very denying in effect Christ crucified or any knowledge of it To beat down these great boasters and all vain braggers St. Paul resolves upon two Points in the Text a seeming ignorance and a real knowledge A seeming ignorance to confound their seeming knowledge a real knowledge to confound their real ignorance not to know and but to know not to know that is not to seem to know any thing yet to know to know every thing that is worth the knowing Iesus Christ and him crucified the whole way of salvation So to teach us besides and all that should come after him what to determine and how to determine both of our ignorances and knowledges what not to know things that have no profit but only breed strife and debate Schisms and Divisions not to know such things among them to do others hurt by our knowledge What to know Iesus Christ and him crucified that to be sure to know and nothing but him and it and in order unto it or him thus to determine and be determined the only way to profit and benefit both our selves and others at any time with our knowing and not knowing to know what and how far to know and not to know what to determine of and where to be determined Thus we have brought the Text to its own natural division to hinder our unnatural ones St. Pauls double determination One for Ignorance the other for Knowledge one not to know the other to know A determination too in a double sense as well as a double Object A double Determination about not knowing and a double one about knowing A determination to both and a determination of each I. A Determination not to know to seem ignorant I am determined not to know A Determination of this not knowing or seeming ignorant it is but seeming only so determin'd or put on 't is but among you 't is but in comparison of the following knowledge which is the only saving knowledge II. A Determination to know not to be really ignorant though not any thing but is something though not that those false Teachers vaunted of A Determination or determining of this knowledge 1. to Christ 2. Christ Iesus 3. Christ Iesus crucified that and nothing further now further among them nothing else to determine himself or them or his or their knowledges by at any time nothing save that nothing saving but that Thus the Text determines both our knowledge and ignorance and limits both shall determine and limit our discourse God grant we may all so be determined by it that both our ignorance and knowledge may hence learn their bounds and limits and all end at last in Iesus Christ and him crucified I begin with St. Pauls determination not to know any thing among the Corinthians where we have 1. the things he is determined not to know 2. the not knowing them 3. the determination so to do 4. the determining how far and among whom how and where to be ignorant and not know them And first many things there are not to be known of which 't is good to be ignorant Some things that are not worth the knowing light and trivial things which only rob us of those pretious minutes which a Christian should spend upon nobler thoughts Some things we are the worse for knowing which only infect the soul and instead of knowledge bring blindness and ignorance upon it Adam and Eves unhappy knowledge when we will needs be knowing more than God will have us curious and vain Arts and Sciences of which 't is far better with those in the Acts to burn the books than read them Some things we can scarce do worse than know them whose very knowledge is a guilt whereby we are perfected in wickedness grow cunning in contriving subtle in conveying experienced in managing sin or mischief Some things again there are which it is best not to know sins from which the safest fence is ignorance whose knowledge would but teach us to do them or leave in us a desire and itching after them nitimur in vetitum sins which else perhaps we had never thought of or attempted the not knowing of which had kept us safe because we cannot desire things we know not Some things there are again which though good and commendable yet of which we may say and say truly 't is very pleasant and useful too not to know in time and place and such is this any thing of the Apostles Humane Learning and Sciences Natural Reason and Artificial Eloquence Tongues and Languages Disputes and Questions whereof sometimes a real ignorance sometimes a seeming one will do more good than all of them together For diversity there is in the not knowing as well as in the things not to be known many ways of not knowing For not to know is 1. really to be ignorant which in good matters if it be not voluntary or affected but either by reason of a natural dulness or incapacity or for want of education which we could not have or because we had not the means or time to come to the knowledge of it or if we were not bound to know it is no sin may not only excuse from punishment but from fault Thus the poor simple man that knows not a letter nor understands half what others do not the tenth part that others do may know enough of Christ crucified to bring him into heaven when many that are more learned shall stand without But this ignorance for the most part of
5. two of them together not one single comforter alone but comfort upon comfort deliverance upon deliverance spiritual and temporal one at the right hand and another at our left But lastly hereafter to be sure we shall meet them in full Choires when we rise out of our Sepulchres then like young men indeed both they and we then to be always so never die again never grow old nor our garments neither but have them always shining The next point of the good success is to receive direction from them Two parts of it there are first to recal us from the wrong and then secondly to set us right Why seek you the living among the dead he is not here that 's the correction of our judgments and affections He is risen that 's the setting them to the right For a Traveller when he is out of the way to be told he is so is a thing any of us would take well and when we are stragling out of the way to Heaven going out of that safe and fair and happy way into the bogs of the world and mires of lusts and ditches of Hell to have an Angel one of a thousand as Iob speaks but a messenger of the Lord of Hosts to call out to us that we are wrong is certainly a happiness if we understood it and such God sends always to them that seek him truly if they will but turn their heads at the call and look after him Well but what says he that so calls out to us Why why seek you the living among the dead what 's that I. They seek the living among the dead that seek salvation by the Law of Moses long since dead and buried II. They seek the living among the dead that seek it by the works of nature by the power of them Nature without Grace is dead Verebar omnia opera mea says holy Iob there is not in us one poor work to trust to III. They seek the living among the dead that seek salvation that think to be sav'd by a meer outward holiness by the outward body of Religion without the inward life by forms of godliness whether they be meerly ceremonial performances of Religion or great shows and pretences of godliness without the power of it in their lives and conversations They lastly seek the living among the dead that seek Christ upon worldly interests that take up their Religion upon by-respects that do it for carnal or worldly affections But say the Angels He is not here Christ is not here Christ the Saviour is not that is our salvation is not to be found in the Law of Moses or by the Law of Works or in meer external performances or great pretences or in worldly and carnal hearts they are but Graves and Sepulchres all which we too much and too often bury our souls in and stand weeping by and are much perplexed at if we cannot find it there but must be forc'd from thence to a new search as here are the women are to leave these kinds of seeking all of them and betake us now to think of him as risen thence For so the Angels say he is He is risen And in this he both tells us what to conceive of him and at the same time to put off all our perplexities and tears and sorrows to rejoyce with him He is risen Risen and not rais'd others indeed have been rais'd from death the Sareptans Child the Widows Son one of these Mary's Brother Lazarus but none risen but he he rais'd himself they did not so he rais'd them all must raise us all too will raise us by his Resurrection For Risen that is 2. his Body risen that is we members of it to have part also in his Resurrection for if our Head be risen the Members also will follow after Must 3. in the interim follow him so raise our thoughts above the earth as to seek him now above to seek those things which are above that 's it the Angel directs us to by telling us he is risen so pointing us where now to fix our thoughts to leave the Sepulchre to bemoan it self to cast off all the ways and paths of death to throw off all worldly perplexities fears and sorrows or in the midst of them to take a ray at least from their shining garments and put on the looks of joy and gladness This both the direction they give us and the joy they make us partakers of To tell us he is risen whom we seek he is alive whom we bemoan for dead he that is our head our hope our love our life our joy our comfort our crovvn of rejoycing he in vvhom vve trusted vve may trust still hope still joy in him still for he is risen and alive That 's the close vve are novv to make to day that the ansvver vve are to give to the Angels speech that the application of the Text to make it full run vve once more over it Grovv vve then first as sensible as we can of our sad condition vvithout Christ hovv the Grave the last place of rest from all troubles has nothing in it vvithout him hovv our souls cannot be at quiet vvithout him hovv our hearts cannot but tremble vvhen he is gone our spirits faint our faces look sad and heavy dull and earthy vvhen he is from us Let us upon this â—it dovvn and vveep and be troubled and tremble at it that we may not at any time give him occasion henceforvvard to desert us or leave us comfortless at the Grave but send his Angels thither to direct and to conduct us to his joyful presence When we are thus made sensible what we are without him we then secondly certainly will make after him with all care and reverence all earnestness and diligence all humility and devout repentance troubled at his absence fearful of our own unworthiness and truly humbled for our sins that drove him from us perplext to lose him fearful to offend him vigilant to seek him that so at last we may recover him for you see he is recovered from the Grave and may again be by us recovered to our souls This the duty both our own necessities and the opportunity of this great day require of us The business we are next to go about exacts as much We are with these women come here to seek the Lords body and I shall anon give you news of greater joy than here the Angels did the Women They say he is not here but he is risen I say but he is risen and is here will be here by and by in his very Body Your eye cannot see him but your souls may there see and taste him too Lift up then your heads O ye immortal gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors that the King of Glory may come in Look up and lift up your heads for your salvation draweth nigh Bow down your faces no longer to the earth neither look here as to an earthly
elevates our souls by the Spirit of Wisdom coelestia sapere as it is Col. iii. 2. to those things that are above Sapientia est rerum altissimarum says the divine Philosopher Wisdom is of things of the higest nature of a high ascending strain 2. It penetrates and pierces like the fire by the Spirit of understanding understands that which the Spirit of man cannot understand 1 Cor. ii 11. the very things of God pierces into them all 3. It tries like fire by the Spirit of counsel and advice teaches us to prove all things and choose the best 4. It hardens us against all the evils that can befall us as fire does the brick against all weather by the spirit of fortitude and ghostly strength 5. It enlightens the darkness of our souls by the spirit of knowledge teaches us to know the things that belong unto our peace the ways and methods of salvation 6. It heats the coldness of our affections by the Spirit of piety and true godliness inflames us with devotion and zeal to Gods service And 7. it softens our obdurate hearts by the Spirit of holy fear that we melt into tears and sighs at the apprehension of Gods displeasure even as Wax melteth before the fire the highest hardest rockiest mountains melt and flow down at his presence when once his Spirit does but cast a ray upon them These are the seven gifts of the Spirit represented to us by so many properties of the fire 4. There are seven other operations and effects of the same Spirit as lively also exprest by it and make the fourth reason why the holy Ghost appears under the semblance of fire 1. Fire it burns and the Prophet Isaiah calls this Spirit a Spirit of burning Isa. iv 4. It makes our hearts burn within us as it did the Disciples going to Emaus St. Luke xxiv 32. puts us to a kind of pain raises sorrow and contrition in us makes the scalding water gush out of our eyes you may even feel it burn you 2. With this burning it purifies and purges too As things are purified by the fire so are our spirits and souls and bodies purified by the Spirit 3. For purifie it must needs for it devours all the dross the chaff the hay and stubble that is in us purges out our sins burns up every thing before it that offends is a consuming fire Heb. xii 29. so is God so is his Spirit 4. Yet as it is a consuming so it is a renewing fire Fire makes things new again And do but send out thy Spirit O Lord and they are made Psal. civ 30. We are all made for so it is that thou renewest the face of the earth the face of this dull earth of ours by putting into it the Holy Spirit 5. To this purpose it makes that like as fire it separates 5. things of divers natures silver from tin metals from dross Separare heterogenea is one of the effects of fire says the Philosopher to distinguish and divide between things of different kinds And Spiritus judicii discretionis the Prophet styles the Spirit a Spirit of judgment it is Isai. 4. 4. a discerning Spirit teaches us to discern between Dross and Gold Truth and Error between Good and Evil and without it we discern nothing This the Apostle reckons as a peculiar donation of it the discerning of spirits 1 Cor. xii 10. 6. Yet as it separates things of different natures so 6. it unites things of the same kind just as the fire does several pieces of the same metal into one body This holy Spirit is a Spirit of unity They that separate they have not the Spirit St. Iude 19. Schisms and Divisions Strife Heresies and Seditions are the works of the flesh not of the spirit Gal. v. 20. The fruit of the Spirit is love and peace says St. Paul there ver 22. And the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace we hear of too Ephes. iv 3. Into one Spirit we are baptiz'd all for there is but one one Spirit one Body one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God one all that are of God ver 5 6. nothing so contrary to the Holy Spirit as divisions of the members from the head or from one another a shrewd witness this against the spirits of our age and an evidence that to what spirit soever they lay claim they lay false claim to this they belong not to this Spirit which is so much for uniting all the parts of the body of Christ together 7. And this it can do when it s sees its time for lastly it is an invincible Spirit it bears down all before it turns all into it like the fire of all the Elements the most victorious and triumphant There is no standing out against this Spirit 't is an Almighty Spirit that can do what it will It inflames the air into a fire vain airy spirits into celestial flames of love and charity It dries up the water the raw waterish humors of our souls and fixes all waverings and inconstancies It burns up our earth and all the grass and hay and sprouts what ever that stand against it It sets whole houses all a fire sets us all a fire for Heaven and heavenly business Thus it burns it purifies it consumes and renews again it separates and it gathers and it caries all before it dees what it will in Heaven and Earth subdues Scepters vanquishes Kingdoms converts Nations throws down Infernal Powers and turns all into the obedience of Christ. To this purpose it is that it now also here comes in Tongues The second manner we noted of his appearance and that for three reasons 1. nothing more convenient to express either our business or him whose it is The Tongue is the instrument of speech the Word is express by it Christ is the Word the Holy Spirit as it were the Tongue to express him comes to day with an Host of tongues to send this Word abroad into all the World Nothing more necessary for the Apostles were to be the Preachers of it had receiv'd a Commission to go and preach St. Matth. xvi 15. wanted yet their tongues some new enablements went not therefore till they were this day brought them and a more necessary thing the Holy Ghost could not bring them for that purpose Yet they had need 2. be of fire sharp piercing tongues like the little flames of fire such as would pierce into the soul reveal the inmost secrets of the heart and spirits and it seems so they proved 1 Cor. xiv 25. piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit of the joints and marrow Heb. iv 12. Tongues of fire 3. to warm the cold affections of men into a love of Christ every tongue is not able to do that it must be a tongue set on fire from Heaven that can do that Tongues and tongues of fire sharp piercing tongues warm with heavenly heat are the only tongues
commission to call us to it or command it for his service or his Churches and we not to undertake it till we find our selves truly enabled rightly called and uprightly intending in it To joyn now the two Points of the Text together to know our right grounds and settle our obedience right upon them that we may know what we undertake when we undertake to follow Christ and do accordingly not pretend above our strength but keep Advent and St. Andrew both We are 1. to provide by St. Andrews obedience for Christs Advent that he when he at any times comes to us either in his Spirit or in his Word in humility or glory in our lives or at our deaths may find us ready straight to follow him No so acceptable entertainment for him no so fit preparation for him as a ready entire well guided obedience none so fit to receive him as St. Andrew the Soul so fitted and resolved to all obedience Thus we are to make our way for Advent by St. Andrew And to keep St. Andrews Feast to give our selves up to this obedience we must remember Christs Advent to us that we cannot follow till he first come to us acknowledge all our motion is from his Look he first upon us and speak to us and we straightway run but if he come not there is no following to be expected much less hast to do it All is from him to him therefore be all the praise if at any time or wherein at any time we follow him 't is his grace that does it that comes first before we follow And then thirdly to keep time to joyn both Feasts together in our hearts all the days of our life as well as in this day of the year Magnifie we him in his Saints follow we St. Andrew as he did Christ follow him to Christ chearfully without delay to day whilst it is day begin our course let us not think much to part with any thing for him Lay our honours riches souls and bodies at his feet and with pure and unmixt intentions study we wholly his service not our own Let not any be discouraged that perhaps he has nothing worth the leaving nothing but a few old broken nets Be it never so little we have left if we have left our selves nothing but given our selves and all to Christ we have given much he that with these Saints here leaves nothing but a few knotty threds if he has no more to leave has left as much as he that leaves most for he has left all and he that leaves most can do no more It is the mind not the much that God values Remember the poor Widows mites accepted by Christ above far greater gifts for they were all she had and who could give more The poor mans all is as much to him and as much all to God as the rich mans all his tatter'd Nets as much all his living as the others Lands and Seas are his and the poor man can as hardly part with his rags and clouts his leather bottle his mouldy bread and clouted shoes as the rich man with his silks and state and dainties so much perhaps the hardlier in that they are more necessary Yet that I may not seem to leave you upon too hard a task to scare you from following Christ I shall now tell you you may keep all and yet leave your nets You may keep your honours you may preserve your estates you may enjoy your worldly blessings only so keep a hand upon them or upon your selves that they be not nets and snares unto you let them not take your hearts or ensnare your affections or entangle your souls in vanities and sins let them not hold you from following Christ and keep them while you will Cast but off the Networks the catching desires of the flesh and world and so you also may be said to have left your nets And having so weaned your souls from inordinate affections to things below Let Christ be your Business his Life your Pattern his Commands your Law Be ye followers of Christ and let St. Andrew this day lead you after him into all universal obedience ready pure and sincere think not much to leave your Nets for him that left heaven for you you will gain more by following him than all the nets and draughts of the world are worth You may well throw away your Nets having caught him in whom you have caught glory and immortality and eternal life and by following him shall undoubtedly come at last out of this Sea of toil and misery where there is nothing but broken nets and fruitless labours or but wearisom and slippery fruits of them into the Port and Haven of everlasting rest and joys and happiness And that it may be so let us pray with the holy Church in the two Collects for Advent and St. Andrew Almighty God which didst give such grace to thy holy Apostle St. Andrew that he readily obey'd the calling of thy Son Iesus Christ and followed him without delay grant unto us all that we being called by thy holy Word may forthwith give â—ver our selves obediently to fulfil thy holy Commandments that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armour of light now in the time of this mortal life in the which thy Son Iesus Christ came to visit us with great humility that in the last day when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost now and ever A SERMON Preached At St. Pauls COL iii. 15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body and be ye thankful HOw little or much soever the Colossians needed this advice I am sure we do more than a little and much need there is to press it close For I know not but methinks as much as we talk of peace and write it in the front of our Petitions and Projects I am afraid our hearts are not right to it it rules not there And as much as we pretend our thankfulness to God for bringing us again into one body we see but slender expressions of it And yet we have the same Arguments both for thankfulness and peace to be thankful for our late recovered peace and to be at peace if we would be thought to be thankful as the Colossians had or could be imagined to have here our being called again into one body who were not long since in several ones united now under one head who were of late under many Gods Call and our own Callings Gods present mercies and our late miseries calling to us to perswade both There wants indeed some St. Paul to mind us of it to preach it home that we would be what we pretend that men would be honest once and either say no more