confession and undertaking a holy life and therefore in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are conjoyned in the significations as they are in the mystery it is a giving up our names to Christ and it is part of the foundation or the first Principles of the Religion as appears in S. Paul's Catechism it is so the first thing that it is for babes and Neophytes in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father and taken into the hands of their Mother Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity 〈◊〉 janua porta Gratiae primus introitus Sanctorum adaeternam Dei Ecclesiae consuetudinem The gate of the Church the door of Grace the first entrance of the Saints to an eternal conversation with God and the Church Sacramentum initiationis intrantium Christianismum investituram S. Bernard calls it The Sacrament of initiation and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion And the person so entring is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the Religion or a Proselyte and Convert and one added to the number of the Church in imitation of that of S. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God added to the Church those that should be saved just as the Church does to this day and for ever baptizing Infants and Catechuments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are added to the Church that they may be added to the Lord and the number of the Inhabitants of Heaven 15. Secondly The next step beyond this is Adoption into the Convenant which is an immediate consequent of the first Presentation this being the first act of man that the first act of God And this is called by S. Paul a being baptized in one spirit into one body that is we are made capable of the Communion of Saints the blessings of the faithful the priviledges of the Church by this we are as S. Luke calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordained or disposed put into the order of Eternal Life being made members of the mystical Body under Christ our Head 16. Thirdly And therefore Baptism is a new birth by which we enter into the new world the new Creation the blessings and spiritualities of the Kingdom and this is the expression which our Saviour himself used Nicodemus Unless a man be born of Water and the Spirit and it is by S. Paul called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laver of Regeneration for now we begin to be reckoned in new Census or account God is become our Father Christ our elder Brother the Spirit the earnest of our Inheritance the Church our Mother our food is the body and bloud of our Lord Faith is our learning Religion our employment and our whole life is spiritual and Heaven the object of our Hopes and the mighty price of our high Calling And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us the Spirit of Grace which besides our Soul and body is a principle of action of one nature and shall with them enter into the portion of our Inheritance And therefore the Primitive Christians who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord usually writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour made it an abbreviature by writing only the Capitals thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Heathens in mockery and derision made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Fish and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach but the Christians owned the name and turned it into a pious Metaphor and were content that they should enjoy their pleasure in the Acrostich but upon that occasion Tertullian speaks pertinently to this Article Nos pisciculi sccundùm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrum Jesum Christum in aqua nascimur Christ whom you call a Fish we knowledge to be our Lord and Saviour and we if you please are the little fishes for we are born in water thence we derive our spiritual life And because from henceforward we are a new Creation the Church uses to assign new relations to the Catechumens Spiritual Fathers and Susceptors and at their entrance into Baptism the Christians and Jewish Proselytes did use to cancel all secular affections to their temporal relatives Nec quicquam priùs 〈◊〉 quà m contemnere Deos exuere patriam parentes liberos fratres vilia habere said Tacitus of the Christians which was true in the sence only that Christ said He that doth not hate father or mother for my sake is not worthy of me that is he that doth not hate them praeme rather than forsake me forsake them is unworthy of me 17. Fourthly In Baptism all our sins are pardoned according to the words of a Prophet I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness The Catechumen descends into the Font a Sinner he arises purified he goes down the son of Death he comes up the son of the Resurrection he enters in the son of Folly and prevarication he returns the son of Reconciliation he stoops down the child of Wrath and ascends the heir of Mercy he was the child of the Devil and now he is the servant and the son of God They are the words of Venerable Bede concerning this Mystery And this was ingeniously signified by that Greek inscription upon a Font which is so prettily contriv'd that the words may be read after the Greek or after the Hebrew manner and be exactly the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord wash my sin and not my face only And so it is intended and promised Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins and call on the Name of the Lord said Ananias to Saul for Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the washing of water in the word that is Baptism in the Christian Religion and therefore Tertullian calls Baptism lavacrum compendiatum a compendious Laver that is an intire cleansing the Soul in that one action justly and rightly performed In the rehearsal of which Doctrine it was not an unpleasant Etymology that 〈◊〉 Sinaita gave of Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which our sins are thrown off and they fall like leeches when they are full of bloud and water or like the chains from S. Peter's hands at the presence of the Angel Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an intire full forgiveness of sins so that they shall never be called again to scrutiny Omnia Daemonis armae His merguntur aquis quibus ille renascitur Infans Qui captivus erat The captivity of the Soul is taken away by the bloud of Redemption and the fiery darts of the Devil are quenched by these salutary waters and what the flames of Hell are expiating or punishing to eternal
death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name above every name Thus his present life was a state of merit and work and as a reward of it he was crowned with glory and immortality his Name was exalted his Kingdom glorified he was made the Lord of all the Creatures the first-fruits of the Resurrection the exemplar of glory and the Prince and Head of the Catholick Church and because this was his recompence and the fruits of his Humility and Obedience it is certain it was not a necessary consequence and a natural efflux of the personal union of the Godhead with the Humanity This I discourse to this purpose that we may not in our esteem lessen the suffering of our dearest Lord by thinking he had the supports of actual Glory in the midst of all his Sufferings For there is no one minute or ray of Glory but its fruition does outweigh and make us insensible of the greatest calamities and the spirit of pain which can be extracted from all the infelicities of this world True it is that the greatest beauties in this world are receptive of an allay of sorrow and nothing can have pleasure in all capacities The most beautious feathers of the birds of Paradise the Estrich or the Peacock if put into our throat are not there so pleasant as to the eye But the beatifick joys of the least glory of Heaven take away all pain wipe away all tears from our eyes and it is not possible that at the same instant the Soul of Jesus should be ravished with Glory and yet abated with pains grievous and 〈◊〉 On the other side some say that the Soul of Jesus upon the Cross suffered the pains of Hell and all the torments of the damned and that without such sufferings it is not imaginable he should pay the price which God's wrath should demand of us But the same that reproves the one does also reprehend the other for the Hope that was the support of the Soul of Jesus as it confesses an imperfection that is not consistent with the state of Glory so it excludes the Despair that is the torment proper to accursed souls Our dearest Lord suffered the whole condition of Humanity Sin only excepted and freed us from Hell with suffering those sad pains and merited Heaven for his own Humanity as the Head and all faithful people as the Members of his mystical Body And therefore his life here was only a state of pilgrimage not at all trimmed with beatifick glories Much less was he ever in the state of Hell or upon the Cross felt the formal misery and spirit of torment which is the 〈◊〉 of damned spirits because it was impossible Christ should despair and without Despair it is impossible there should be a Hell But this is highly probable that in the intension of degrees and present anguish the Soul of our Lord might feel a greater load of wrath than is incumbent in every instant upon perishing souls For all the sadness which may be imagined to be in Hell consists in acts produced from principles that cannot surpass the force of humane or Angelical nature but the pain which our Blessed Lord endured for the expiation of our sins was an issue of an united and concentred anger was received into the heart of God and Man and was commensurate to the whole latitude of the Grace Patience and Charity of the Word incarnate The Crucisixion Mark 15 25. Erat autem Hora tertia crucifixerunt eum Mark 15 25. And is was the third houre they crucified him The takeing down from the Cross. Luk. 23 50 And there was a man named Ioseph a Counsellour he was a good man a lust y e same had not consented to y e counsell deed of them 52. This man went unto Pilate begged y e Body of Iesus 53 And he took it down wrapped it in linen layd it in a Sepulehre that was hewn in stone wherein never man before was layd 6. And now behold the Priest and the Sacrifice of all the world laid upon the Altar of the Cross bleeding and tortured and dying to reconcile his Father to us and he was arrayed with ornaments more glorious than the robes of Aaron The Crown of Thorns was his Mitre the Cross his Pastoral staffe the Nails piercing his hands were in stead of Rings the ancient ornament of Priests and his flesh rased and checker'd with blew and bloud in stead of the parti-coloured Robe But as this object calls for our Devotion our Love and Eucharist to our dearest Lord so it must needs irreconcile us to Sin which in the eye of all the world brought so great shame and pain and amazement upon the Son of God when he only became engaged by a charitable substitution of himself in our place and therefore we are assured by the demonstration of sense and experience it will bring death and all imaginable miseries as the just expresses of God's indignation and hatred for to this we may apply the words of our Lord in the prediction of miseries to Jerusalem If this be done in the green tree what shall be done in the dry For it is certain Christ infinitely pleased his Father even by becoming the person made 〈◊〉 in estimate of Law and yet so great Charity of our Lord and the so great love and pleasure of his Father exempted him not from suffering pains intolerable and much less shall those escape who provoke and displease God and despise so great Salvation which the Holy Jesus hath wrought with the expence of bloud and so precious a life 7. But here we see a great representation and testimony of the Divine Justice who was so angry with sin who had so severely threatned it who does so essentially hate it that he would not spare his only Son when he became a conjunct person relative to the guilt by undertaking the charges of our Nature For although God hath set down in holy Scripture the order of his Justice and the manner of its manifestation that one Soul shall not perish for the sins of another yet this is meant for Justice and for Mercy too that is he will not curse the Son for the Father's fault or in any relation whatsoever substitute one person for another to make him involuntarily guilty But when this shall be desired by a person that cannot finally perish and does a mercy to the exempt persons and is a voluntary act of the suscipient and shall in the event also redound to an infinite good it is no deflection from the Divine Justice to excuse many by the affliction of one who also for that very suffering shall have infinite compensation We see that for the sin of Cham all his posterity were accursed the Subjects of David died with the Plague because their Prince numbred the people Idolatry is punished in the children of the fourth generation
Idolatry to get ground amongst them 17. THE two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin were loyal both to God and their Prince continuing obedient to their lawful Sovereign and firmly adhering to the worship of the Temple though even here too impiety in some places maintained its ground having taken root in the Reign of Solomon who through his over-great partiality and fondness to his Wives had been betrayed to give too much countenance to 〈◊〉 The extirpation hereof was the design and attempt of all the pious and good Princes of Judah Jehosaphat set himself in good earnest to recover Religion and the state of the Church to its ancient purity and lustre he abolished the Groves and high places and appointed itinerant Priests and Levites to go from City to City to expound the Law and instruct the people in the knowledge of their duty nay he himself held a royal Visitation Going quite through the Land and bringing back the people to the Lord God of their Fathers But under the succeeding Kings Religion again lost its ground and had been quite extinct during the tyranny and usurpation of Athaliah but that good Jehoiada the High Priest kept it alive by his admirable zeal and industry While he lived his Pupil Joas who owed both his Crown and his life to him promoted the design and purged the Temple though after his Tutors death he apostatized to prophaneness and idolatry Nor indeed was the reformation effectually advanced till the time of Hezekiah who no sooner ascended the Throne but he summoned the Priests and Levites exhorted them to begin at home and first to reform themselves then to cleanse and repair the Temple he resetled the Priests and Levites in their proper places and offices and caused them to offer all sorts of Sacrifices and the Passeover to be universally celebrated with great strictness and solemnity he destroyed the Monuments of Idolatry took away the Altars in Jerusalem and having given commission the people did the like in all parts of the Kingdom breaking the Images cutting down the Groves throwing down the Altars and high places until they had utterly destroyed them all But neither greatness nor piety can exempt any from the common Laws of mortality Hezekiah dies and his son Manasseh succeeds a wicked Prince under whose influence impiety like a land-flood broke in upon Religion and laid all waste before it But his Grandchild Josiah made some amends he gave signal instances of an early piety for in the eighth year of his Reign while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his Father and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem he defaced whatever had been abused and prostituted to Idolatry and Superstition throughout the whole Kingdom repaired God's house and ordered its worship according to the prescript of the Mosaick Law a copy whereof they had found in the ruines of the Temple solemnly engaged himself and his people to be true to Religion and the worship of God and caused so great and solemn a Passeover to be held that there was no Passeover like to it kept in Israel from the days of Samuel And more he had done had not an immature death cut him off in the midst both of his days and his pious designs and projects Not many years after God being highly provoked by the prodigious impieties of that Nation delivered it up to the Army of the King of Babylon who demolished the City harassed the Land and carried the people captive unto Babylon And no wonder the Divine patience could hold no longer when all the chief of the Priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the Heathen and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem Seventy years they remained under this captivity during which time the Prophet Daniel gave lively and particular accounts of the Messiah that he should come into the World to introduce a Law of everlasting righteousness to die as a sacrifice and expiation for the sins of the people and to put a period to the Levitical sacrifices and oblations And whereas other prophecies had only in general defined the time of the Messiah's coming he particularly determines the period that all this should be at the end of LXX weeks that is at the expiration of CCCCXC years which exactly fell in with the time of our Saviour's appearing in the World The seventy years captivity being run out by the 〈◊〉 of the King of Babylon they were set free and by him permitted and assisted to repair Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple which was accordingly done under the government of Nehemiah and the succeeding Rulers and the Temple finished by Zorobabel and things brought into some tolerable state of order and decency and so continued till the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes King of Syria by whom the Temple was prophaned and violated and the Jewish Church miserably afflicted and distressed he thrust out Onias the High Priest and put in his brother Jason a man lost both to Religion and good manners and who by a vast summ of money had purchased the Priesthood of Antiochus At this time Matthias a Priest and the head of the 〈◊〉 Family stood up for his Country after whom came Judas Macchabaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus truly characters him a man of a generous temper and a valiant mind ready to do or suffer any thing to assert the Liberties and Religion of his Country followed both in his zeal and prosperous success by his two Brothers Jonathan and Simon successively High Priests and Commanders after him Next him came John surnamed Hyrcanus then Aristobulus Alexander Hyrcanus Aristobulus junior Alexander Antigonus in whose time Herod the Great having by the favour of Antony obtained of the Roman Senate the Sovereignty over the Jewish Nation and being willing that the Priesthood should intirely depend upon his arbitrary disposure abrogated the succession of the Asmonaean Family and put in one Ananel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus calls him an obscure Priest of the line of those who had been Priests in Babylon To him succeeded Aristobulus to him Jesus the son of Phabes to him Simon who being deposed next came Matthias deposed also by Herod next him Joazar who underwent the same fate from Archelaus then Jesus the son of Sie after whom Joazar was again restored to the Chair and under his Pontificate though before his first deposition Christ was born things every day growing worse among them till about seventy years after the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost and brought the Romans who finally took away their place and Nation 18. BEFORE we go off from this part of our discourse it may not be amiss to take a more particular view of the state of the Jewish Church as it stood at the time of our Saviour's appearing in the World as what may reflect some considerable light upon the
imitation of the whole action and the rite of Institution And the purpose of it is that we might secure the excellency and holiness of such predispositions and concomitant Graces which are necessary to the worthy and effectual susception of the external Rites of Christianity 4. After the Holy Jesus was baptized and had prayed the Heavens opened the holy Ghost descended and a voice from Heaven proclaimed him to be the Son of God and one in whom the Father was well pleased and the same 〈◊〉 that was cast upon the head of our High Priest went unto his 〈◊〉 and thence sell to the borders of his garment for as Christ our Head felt these effects in manifestation so the Church believes God does to her and to her meanest children in the susception of the holy Rite of Baptism in right apt and holy dispositions For the Heavens open too upon us and the Holy Ghost descends to 〈◊〉 the waters and to hallow the Catechumen and to pardon the passed and repented sins and to consign him to the inheritance of 〈◊〉 and to put on his military girdle and give him the Sacrament and oath of fidelity for all this is understood to be meant by those frequent expressions of Scripture calling Baptism the Laver of Regeneration Illumination a washing away the filth of the flesh and the Answer of a good conscience a being buried with Christ and many others of the like purpose and signification But we may also learn hence sacredly to esteem the Rites of Religion which he first sanctified by his own personal susception and then made necessary by his own institution and command and God hath made to be conveyances of blessing and ministeries of the Holy Spirit 5. The Holy Ghost descended upon Jesus in the manner or visible representment of a Dove either in similitude of figure which he was pleased to assume as the Church more generally hath believed or at least he did descend like a Dove and in his robe of fire hovered over the Baptist's head and then sate upon him as the Dove uses to sit upon the house of her dwelling whose proprieties of nature are pretty and modest Hieroglyphicks of the duty of spiritual persons which are thus observed in both Philosophies The Dove sings not but mourns it hath no gall strikes not with its bill hath no crooked talons and forgets its young ones soonest of any the inhabitants of the air And the effects of the Holy Spirit are symbolical in all the sons of Sanctification For the voice of the Church is sad in those accents which express her own condition but as the Dove is not so sad in her breast as in her note so neither is the interiour condition of the Church wretched and miserable but indeed her Song is most of it Elegy within her own walls and her condition looks sad and her joys are not pleasures in the publick estimate but they that afflict her think her miserable because they know not the sweetnesses of a holy peace and serenity which supports her spirit and plains the heart under a rugged brow making the Soul festival under the noise of a Threne and sadder groanings But the Sons of consolation are also taught their Duty by this Apparition for upon whomsoever the Spirit descends he teaches him to be meek and charitable neither offending by the violence of hands or looser language For the Dove is inoffensive in beak and foot and feels no disturbance and violence of passions when its dearest interests are destroyed that we also may be of an even spirit in the saddest accidents which usually discompose our peace and however such symbolical intimations receive their efficacy from the fancy of the contriver yet here whether this Apparition did intend any such moral representment or no it is certain that where-ever the holy Spirit does dwell there also Peace and Sanctity Meekness and Charity a mortisied will and an active dereliction of our desires do inhabit But besides this hieroglyphical representment this Dove like that which Noah sent out from the Ark did aptly signifie the World to be renewed and all to be turned to a new creation and God hath made a new Covenant with us that unless we provoke him he will never destroy us any more 6. No sooner had the voice of God pronounced Jesus to be the well-beloved Son of God but the Devil thought it of great concernment to attempt him with all his malice and his art and that is the condition of all those whom God's grace hath separated from the common expectations and societies of the world and therefore the Son of Sirach gave good advice My son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy Soul for temptation for not only the Spirits of darkness are exasperated at the declension of their own Kingdom but also the nature and constitution of vertues and eminent graces which holy persons exercise in their lives is such as to be easily assailable by their contraries apt to be lessened by time to be interrupted by weariness to grow flat and insipid by tediousness of labour to be omitted and grow infrequent by the impertinent diversions of society and secular occasions so that to rescind the 〈◊〉 of Vice made firm by nature and evil habits to acquire every new degree 〈◊〉 Vertue to continue the holy fires of zeal in their just proportion to 〈◊〉 the Devil and to reject the invitations of the World and the 〈◊〉 embraces of the Flesh which are the proper employment of the sons of God is a perpetual difficulty and every possibility of 〈◊〉 the strictness of a Duty is a Temptation and an insecurity to them who have begun to serve God in hard battels 7. The Holy Spirit did drive Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil And 〈◊〉 we are bound to pray instantly that we fall into no Temptation yet if by Divine permission or by an inspiration of the Holy Spirit we be engaged in an action or course of life that is full of Temptation and empty of comfort let us apprehend it as an issue of Divine Providence as an occasion of the rewards of Diligence and Patience as an instrument of Vertue as a designation of that way in which we must glorifie God but no argument of disfavour since our dearest Lord the most Holy Jesus who could have driven the Devil away by the Breath of his mouth yet was by the Spirit of his Father permitted to a trial and molestation by the spirits of Darkness And this is S. James's counsel My brethren count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations knowing that the trial of your Faith worketh Patience So far is a Blessing when the Spirit is the instrument of our motion and brings us to the trial of our Faith but if the Spirit leaves us and delivers us over to the Devil not to be tempted but to be abused and ruined it is a sad
little irregularities and so many great imperfections that it will appear the more necessary to repair the breaches and lesser ruines by such acts of Piety and Religion because every Communication is intended to be a nearer approach to God a 〈◊〉 step in Grace a progress towards glory and an instrument of perfection and therefore upon the stock of our spiritual interests for the purchase of a greater hope and the advantages of a growing Charity ought to be frequently received I end with the words of a pious and learned person It is a vain fear and an imprudent 〈◊〉 that procrastinates and desers going to the Lord that calls them they deny to go to the fire pretending they are cold and refuse Physick because they need it The PRAYER O Blessed and Eternal Jesus who gavest thy self a Sacrifice for our sins thy Body for our spiritual food thy 〈◊〉 to nourish our spirits and to quench the flames of Hell and Lust who didst so love us who were thine enemies that thou desiredst to reconcile us to thee and becamest all one with us that we may live the same life think the same thoughts love the same love and be partakers of thy Resurrection and Immortality open every window of my Soul that I may be full of light and may see the excellency of thy Love the merits of thy Sacrifice the bitterness of thy Passion the glories and virtues of the mysterious Sacrament Lord let me ever hunger and thirst after this instrument of Righteousness let me have no gust or relish of the unsatisfying delights of things below but let my Soul dwell in thee let me for ever receive thee spiritually and very frequently communicate with thee sacramentally and imitate thy Vertues pionsly and strictly and dwell in the pleasures of thy house eternally Lord thou hast prepared a table for me against them that trouble me let that holy Sacrament of the Eucharist be to me a defence and shield a nourishment and medicine life and health a means of sanctification and spiritual growth that I receiving the body of my dearest Lord may be one with his mystical body and of the same spirit united with indissoluble bonds of a strong Faith and a holy Hope and a never-failing Charity that from this veil I may pass into the visions of eternal clarity from eating thy Body to beholding thy face in the glories of thy everlasting Kingdom O Blessed and Eternal Jesus Amen Considerations upon the Accidents happening on the Vespers of the Passion The Prayer in the Garden Luk 22. 41. And he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast kneeled down prayed 42 Saying Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done 43 And there appeared an Angel from heaven strengthening him Iudas betrayeth Christ Mat 26. 47. And while he yet spake Lo. Iudas one of the twelue came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief Preists Elders of the people 48. Now he that be trayed him gave them a sign saying whomsoever I shall kiss that same is he hold him fast 49. And forthwith he came to Iesus and said Haile Master and kissed him 1. WHen Jesus had supped and sang a Hymn and prayed and exhorted and comforted his Disciples with a Farewell-Sermon in which he repeated 〈◊〉 of his former Precepts which were now apposite to the present condition and re-inforced them with proper and pertinent arguments he went over the brook Cedron and entred into a Garden and into the prologue of his Passion chusing that place for his Agony and satisfactory pains in which the first scene of humane misery was represented and where he might best attend the offices of Devotion preparatory to his Death Besides this he therefore departed from the house that he might give opportunity to his Enemies surprise and yet not incommodate the good man by whose hospitality they had eaten the Paschal Lamb so that he went like a Lamb to the slaughter to the Garden as to a prison as if by an agreement with his persecutors he had expected their arrest and stayed there to prevent their farther enquiry For so great was his desire to pay our Ransom that himself did assist by a forward patience and active opportunity towards the persecution teaching us that by an active zeal and a ready spirit we assist the designs of God's glory though in our own sufferings and secular infelicities 2. When he entred the Garden he left his Disciples at the entrance of it calling with him only Peter James and John he withdrew himself from the rest about a stone 's cast and began to be exceeding heavy He was not sad till he had called them for his sorrow began when he pleased which sorrow he also chose to represent to those three who had seen his Transfiguration the earnest of his future Glory that they might see of how great glory for our sakes he disrobed himself and that they also might by the confronting those contradictory accidents observe that God uses to dispense his comforts the irradiations and emissions of his glory to be preparatives to those sorrows with which our life must be allayed and seasoned that none should refuse to partake of the sufferings of Christ if either they have already felt his comforts or hope hereafter to wear his crown And it is not ill observed that S. Peter being the chief of the Apostles and Doctor of the Circumcision S. John being a Virgin and S. James the first of the Apostles that was martyred were admitted to Christ's greatest retirements and mysterious secrecies as being persons of so singular and eminent dispositions to whom according to the pious opinion of the Church especially Coronets are prepared in Heaven besides the great Crown of rightcousness which in common shall beautifie the heads of all the Saints meaning this that Doctors Virgins and Martyrs shall receive even for their very state of life and accidental Graces more eminent degrees of accidental Glory like as the Sun reflecting upon a limpid fountain receives its rays doubled without any increment of its proper and natural light 3. Jesus began to be exceeding sorrowful to be sore amazed and sad even to death And because he was now to suffer the pains of our sins there began his Passion whence our sins spring From an evil heart and a prevaricating spirit all our sins arise and in the spirit of Christ began his sorrow where he truly felt the full value and demerit of Sin which we think not worthy of a tear or a hearty sigh but he groaned and fell under the burthen But therefore he took upon him this sadness that our imperfect sorrow and contrition might be heightned in his example and accepted in its union and consederacy with his And Jesus still designed a farther mercy for us for he sanctified the passion of Fear and hallowed natural sadnesses that we might not
helped by none comforted by none and he makes himself a companion of Devils to everlasting ages but in the judgment of Repentance and Tribunal of the Church the penitent sinner is prayed for by a whole army of militant Saints and causes joy to all the Church triumphant And to establish this Tribunal in the Church and to transmit pardon to penitent sinners and a salutary judgment upon the person and the crime and to appoint Physicians and Guardians of the Soul was one of the designs and mercies of the Resurrection of Jesus And let not any Christian man either by false opinion or an unbelieving spirit or an incurious apprehension undervalue or neglect this ministery which Christ hath so sacredly and solemnly established Happy is he that dashes his sins against the rock upon which the Church is built that the Church gathering up the planks and fragments of the shipwreck and the shivers of the broken heart may re-unite them pouring Oil into the wounds made by the blows of sin and restoring with meekness gentleness care counsel and authority persons overtaken in a fault For that act of Ministery is not ineffectual which God hath promised shall be ratified in Heaven and that Authority is not contemptible which the Holy Jesus conveyed by breathing upon his Church the Holy Ghost But Christ intended that those whom he had made Guides of our Souls and Judges of our Consciences in order to counsel and ministerial pardon should also be used by us in all cases of our Souls and that we go to Heaven the way he hath appointed that is by offices and ministeries Ecclesiastical 17. When our Blessed Lord had so confirmed the Faith of the Church and appointed an Ecclesiastical Ministery he had but one work more to do upon earth and that was the Institution of the holy Sacrament of Baptism which he ordained as a solemn Initiation and mysterious Profession of the Faith upon which the Church is built making it a solemn Publication of our Profession the rite of Stipulation or entring Covenant with our Lord the solemnity of the Paction Evangelical in which we undertake to be Disciples to the Holy Jesus that is to believe his Doctrine to fear his Threatnings to rely upon his Promises and to obey his Commandments all the days of our life and he for his part actually performs much and promises more he takes off all the guilt of our preceding days purging our Souls and making them clean as in the day of innocence promising withall that if we perform our undertaking and remain in the state in which he now puts us he will continually assist us with his Spirit prevent and attend us with his Grace he will deliver us from the power of the Devil he will keep our Souls in merciful joyful and safe custody till the great Day of the Lord he will then raise our Bodies from the Grave he will make them to be spiritual and immortal he will re-unite them to our Souls and beatifie both Bodies and Souls in his own Kingdom admitting them into eternal and unspeakable glories All which that he might verifie and prepare respectively in the presence of his Disciples he ascended into the bosome of God and the eternal comprehensions of celestial Glory The PRAYER O Holy and Eternal Jesus who hast overcome Death and triumphed over all the powers of Hell Darkness Sin and the Grave manifesting the truth of thy Promises the power of thy Divinity the majesty of thy Person the rewards of thy Glory and the mercies and excellent designs of thy Evangelical Kingdom by thy glorious and powerful Resurrection preserve my Soul from eternal death and make me to rise from the death of Sin and to live the life of Grace loving thy Perfections adoring thy Mercy pursuing the interest of thy Kingdom being united to the Church under thee our Head conforming to thy holy Laws established in Faith entertained and confirmed with a modest humble and certain Hope and sanctified by Charity that I engraving thee in my heart and submitting to thee in my spirit and imitating thee in thy glorious example may be partaker of thy Resurrection which is my hope and my desire the support of my Faith the object of my Joy and the strength of my Confidence In thee Holy Jesus do I trust I confess thy Faith I believe all that thou hast taught I desire to perform all thy injunctions and my own undertaking my Soul is in thy hand do thou support and guide it and pity my infirmities and when thou shalt reveal thy great Day shew to me the mercies and effects of thy Advocation and Intercession and Redemption Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God for in thee have I trusted let me never be confounded Thou art just thou 〈◊〉 merciful thou art gracious and compassionate thou hast done miracles and prodigies of favour to me and all the world Let not those great actions and sufferings be ineffective but make me capable and receptive of thy Mercies and then I am certain to receive them I am thine O save me thou art mine O Holy Jesus O dwell with me for ever and let me dwell with thee adoring and praising the eternal glories of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen THE END 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE TABLE OF The Life of CHRIST Where are more Numbers than one the first Number denotes the Page the latter the Number of the Section A. ABsolution of dying Persons of what benefit 407. 23. Whether to be given to all that desire it 408. 24. Acceptable Year of the Lord what it means 186. 22. Actions of Jesus confuted his Accusers 390. 2. Acts of Vertue to be done by sick and dying Persons 405 406. 19 20. Accusation of Criminals not to be aggravated odiously 393. 8. It ought to be onely for purposes of Charity ibid. Accusation of innocent persons ought to be born patiently by the innocent 393. 9. Accusation of Jesus 352. 24. Adam buried in Golgotha 354. 31. Adoption of Sons 316. 7. Advent of our Lord must be entertained with joy 156. 3. Adultery made more criminal under the Gospel than under the Law 249. 37 c. Adultery of the eyes 250. 36. Adrian the Emperour built a Temple to Venus and Adonis in the place of Christ's Birth 14. 6. Agony of Jesus in the Garden 350. 20. Agesilaus was more commended for his modesty and obedience than for his prosperous good Conduct 50. 25. Albes or white garments wore by the Church and why 393. 9 10. Alms intended for a defensative against Covetousness 258. 1. Ordinarily to be according to our ability ibid. Sometimes beyond in what cases ibid. Necessities of all indigent people are the object of our Alms 259. 3. Manner of Alms an office of Christian prudence ibid. The two Altars in Solomon's Temple what they did represent 83. 4. Ambitious seeking Ecclesiastical Dignities very criminal 96. 2. Ambition is
the dead which an Infidel might easily not only question but deny but from what was sufficiently evident and 〈◊〉 to the meanest Idiot his planting and propagating Christianity in the World For it is not says he in the power of a mere man in so short a time to encircle the World to compass Sea and Land and in matters of so great importance to rescue mankind from the slavery of absurd and unreasonable customs and the powerful tyranny of evil habits and these not Romans only but Persians and the most barbarous Nations of the world A reformation which he wrought not by force and the power of the sword nor by pouring into the world numerous Legions and Armies but by a few inconsiderable men no more at first than Eleven a company of obscure and mean simple and illiterate poor and helpless naked and unarmed persons who had scarce a shooe to tread on or a coat to cover them And yet by these he perswaded so great a part of mankind to be able freely to reason not only of things of the present but of a future state to renounce the Laws of their Country and throw off those ancient and inveterate customs which had taken root for so many Ages and planted others in their room and reduced men from those easie ways whereinto they were hurried into the more rugged and difficult paths of vertue All which he did while he had to contend with opposite powers and when he himself had undergone the most ignominious death even the death of the Cross. Afterwards he addresses himself to the Jew and discourses with him much after the same rate Consider says he and bethink thy self what it is in so short a time to fill the whole world with so many famous Churches to convert so many Nations to the Faith to prevail with men to forsake the Religion of their Country to root up their rites and customs to shake off the Empire of lust and pleasure and the Laws of vice like dust to abolish and abominate their Temples and their Altars their Idols and their Sacrifices their profane and impious Festivals as dirt and dung and instead hereof to set up Christian Altars in all places among the Romans Persians Scythians Moors and Indians and not there only but in the Countries beyond this World of ours For even the British Islands that lie beyond the Ocean and those that are in 〈◊〉 have felt the power of the Christian Faith Churches and Altars being erected there to the service of Christ. A matter truly great and admirable and which would clearly have demonstrated a Divine and Supereminent Power although there had been no opposition in the case but that all things had run on calmly and smoothly to think that in so few years the Christian Faith should be able to reclaim the whole World from its vicious customs and to win them over to other manners more laborious and difficult repugnant both to their native inclinations and to the Laws and principles of their education and such as oblig'd them to a more strict and accurate course of life and these persons not one or two not twenty or an hundred but in a manner all mankind and this brought about by no better instruments than a few rude and unlearned private and unknown tradesmen who had neither estate nor reputation learning nor eloquence kindred nor Country to recommend them to the world a few Fishermen and Tent-makers and whom distinguished by their Language as well as their Religion the rest of the world scorn'd as barbarous And yet these were the men by whom our Lord built up his Church and extended it from one end of the world unto the other Other considerations there are with which the Father does urge and illustrate this argument which I forbear to insist on in this place VII Sixthly The power and authority convey'd by this Commission to the Apostles was equally conferr'd upon all of them They were all chosen at the same time all equally impowred to Preach and Baptize all equally intrusted with the power of binding and loosing all invested with the same mission and all equally furnished with the same gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost Indeed the Advocates of the Church of Rome do with a mighty zeal and fierceness contend for S. Peter's being Head and Prince of the Apostles advanced by Christ to a supremacy and prerogative not only above but over the rest of the Apostles and not without reason the fortunes of that Church being concerned in the supremacy of S. Peter No wonder therefore they ransack all corners press and force in whatever may but seem to give countenance to it Witness those thin and miserable shifts which Bellarmine calls arguments to prove and make it good so utterly devoid of all rational conviction so unable to justifie themselves to sober and considering men that a man would think they had been contrived for no other purpose than to cheat sools and make wise men laugh And the truth is nothing with me more shakes the reputation of the wisdom of that learned man than his making use of such weak and trifling arguments in so important and concerning an Article so vital and essential to the constitution of that Church As when he argues Peter's superiority from the mere changing of his name for what 's this to supremacy besides that it was not done to him alone the same being done to James and John from his being first reckoned up in the Catalogue of Apostles his walking with Christ upon the water his paying tribute for his Master and himself his being commanded to let down the Net and Christ's teaching in Peter's ship and this ship must denote the Church and Peter's being owner of it entitle him to be supreme Ruler and Governour of the Church so Bellarmine in terms as plain as he could well express it from Christ's first washing Peter's feet though the story recorded by the Evangelist says no such thing and his foretelling only his death all which and many more prerogatives of S. Peter to the number of no less than XXVIII are summoned in to give in evidence in this cause and many of these too drawn out of Apocryphal and supposititious Authors and not only uncertain but absurd and fabulous and yet upon such arguments as these do they found his paramount authority A plain evidence of a desperate and sinking cause when such twigs must be laid hold on to support and keep it above water Had they suffered Peter to be content with a primacy of Order which his age and gravity seemed to challenge for him no wise and peaceable man would have denied it as being a thing ordinarily practised among equals and necessary to the well governing a society but when nothing but a primacy of Power will serve the turn as if the rest of the Apostles had been inferiour to him this may by no means be granted as being expresly contrary to the positive
Proseucha's or houses of Prayer usually uncovered and standing in the fields the Jews had in several places wherein our Lord continued all night not in one continued and intire act of devotion but probably by intervals and repeated returns of duty 2. EARLY the next morning his Disciples came to him out of whom he made choice of Twelve to be his Apostles that they might be the constant attendants upon his person to hear his Discourses and be Eye-witnesses of his Miracles to be always conversant with him while he was upon Earth and afterwards to be sent abroad up and down the World to carry on that work which he himself had begun whom therefore he invested with the power of working Miracles which was more completely conferr'd upon them after his Ascension into Heaven Passing by the several fancies and conjectures of the Ancients why our Saviour pitch'd upon the just number of Twelve whereof before it may deserve to be considered whether our Lord being now to appoint the Supreme Officers and Governours of his Church which the Apostle styles the Commonwealth of Israel might not herein have a more peculiar allusion to the twelve Patriarchs as founders of their several Tribes or to the constant Heads and Rulers of those twelve Tribes of which the body of the Jewish Nation did consist Especially since he himself seems elsewhere to give countenance to it when he tells the Apostles that when the Son of man shall sit on the Throne of his Glory that is be gone back to Heaven and have taken full possession of his Evangelical Kingdom which principally commenc'd from his Resurrection that then they also should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel that is they should have great powers and authorities in the Church such as the power of the Keys and other Rights of Spiritual Judicature and Sovereignty answerable in some proportion to the power and dignity which the Heads and Rulers of the twelve Tribes of Israel did enjoy 3. IN the enumeration of these twelve Apostles all the Evangelists constantly place S. Peter in the front and S. Matthew expresly tells us that he was the first that is he was the first that was called to be an Apostle his Age also and the gravity of his person more particularly qualifying him for a Primacy of Order amongst the rest of the Apostles as that without which no society of men can be managed or maintained 〈◊〉 than this as none will deny him so more than this neither Scripture nor 〈◊〉 antiquity do allow him And now it was that our Lord actually conferr'd that 〈◊〉 upon him which before he had promised him Simon he surnamed Peter It 〈◊〉 here be enquired when and by whom the Apostles were baptized That they were is unquestionable being themselves appointed to confer it upon others but when or how the Scripture is altogether silent Nicephorus from no worse an Author as he pretends than Euodius next 〈◊〉 S. Peter's immediate successor in the 〈◊〉 of Autioch tells us That of all the Apostles Christ baptized none but Peter with his own hands that Peter baptized Andrew and the two sons of 〈◊〉 and they the rest of the Apostles This if so would greatly make for the honour of S. Peter But alas his authority is not only suspicious but 〈◊〉 in a manner deserted by S. Peter's best friends and the strongest champions of his cause Baronius himself however 〈◊〉 willing to make use of him elsewhere confessing that this Epistle of 〈◊〉 is altogether unknown to any of the Ancients As for the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus which to the same purpose he quotes out of Sophronius though not Sophronius but Johannes Moschus as is notoriously known be the Author of that Book besides that it is delivered upon an uncertain report pretended to have been alledged in a discourse between one Dionysius Bishop of Ascalon and his Clergy out of a Book of Clemens not now extant his Authors are much alike that is of no great value and authority 4. AMONGST these Apostles our Lord chose a Triumvirate Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to be his more intimate companions whom he admitted more familiarly than the rest unto all the more secret passages and transactions of his Life The first instance of which was on this occasion Jairus a Ruler of the Synagogue had a daughter desperately sick whose disease having baffled all the arts of Physick was 〈◊〉 curable by the immediate agency of the God of Nature He therefore in all humility addresses himself to our Saviour which he had no sooner done but servants 〈◊〉 post to tell him that it was in vain to trouble our Lord for that his daughter was dead Christ bids him not despond if his Faith held out there was no danger And 〈◊〉 none to follow him but Peter James and John goes along with him to the house where he was derided by the sorrowful friends and neighbours for telling them that she was not perfectly dead But our Lord entering in with the commanding efficacy of two words restor'd her at once both to life and perfect health 5. OUR Lord after this preached many Sermons and wrought many Miracles amongst which none more remarkable than his feeding a multitude of five thousand men besides women and children with but five Loaves and two Fishes of which nevertheless twelve Baskets of sragments were taken up Which being done and the multitude dismissed he commanded the Apostles to take Ship it being now near night and to cross over to Capernaum whilest he himself as his manner was retired to a neighbouring mountain to dispose himself to Prayer and Contemplation The Apostles were 〈◊〉 got into the middle of the Sea when on a sudden a violent Storm and Tempest began to arise whereby they were brought into present danger of their lives Our Saviour who knew how the case stood with them and how much they laboured under infinite pains and fears having himself caused this Tempest for the greater trial of their Faith a little before morning for so long they remained in this imminent danger immediately conveyed himself upon the Sea where the Waves received him being proud to carry their Master He who refused to 〈◊〉 the Devil when tempting him to throw himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple did here commit himself to a boisterous instable Element and that in a violent Storm walking upon the water as if it had been dry ground But that infinite power that made and supports the World as it gave rules to all particular beings so can when it please countermand the Laws of their Creation and make them act contrary to their natural inclinations If God say the word the Sun will stand still in the middle of the Heavens if Go back 't will retrocede as upon the Dial of Ahaz if he command it the Heavens will become as Brass and the Earth as
of the Paschal Supper he arose from the Table and laying aside his upper garment which according to the fashion of those Eastern Countries being long was unfit for action and himself taking a Towel and pouring water into a Bason he began to wash all the Apostles feet not disdaining those of Judas himself Coming to Peter he would by no means admit an instance of so much condescension What the Master do this to the Servant the Son of God to so vile a sinner This made him a second time refuse it Thou shalt never wash my feet But our Lord soon corrects his imprudent modesty by telling him That if he wash'd him not he could have no part with him Insinuating the mystery of this action which was to denote Remission of sin and the purifying vertue of the Spirit of Christ to be poured upon all true Christians Peter satisfied with this answer soon altered his resolution Lord not my feet only but also my hands and my head If the case be so let me be wash'd all over rather than come short of my portion in thee This being done he returned again to the Table and acquainted them with the meaning and tendency of this mystical action and what force it ought to have upon them towards one another The washing it self denoted their inward and Spiritual cleansing by the Bloud and Spirit of Christ symbolically typified and 〈◊〉 by all the washings and Baptisms of the Mosaick Institution The washing of the feet respected our intire sanctification in our whole Spirit Soul and Body no part being to be left impure And then that all this should be done by so great a person their Lord and Master preached to their very senses a Sermon of the greatest humility and condescension and taught them how little reason they had to boggle at the meanest offices of kindness and charity towards others when he himself had stoop'd to solow an abasure towards them And now he began more immediately to reflect upon his sufferings and upon him who was to be the occasion of them telling them that one of them would be the Traitor to betray him Whereat they were strangely troubled and every one began to suspect himself till Peter whose love and care for his Master commonly made him start sooner than the rest made signs to S. John who lay in our Saviour's bosom to ask him particularly who it was which our Saviour presently did by making them understand that it was Judas Iscariot who not long after left the company 2. AND now our Lord began the Institution of his Supper that great solemn Institution which he was resolved to leave behind him to be constantly celebrated in all Ages of the Church as the standing monument of his love in dying for mankind For now he told them that he himself must leave them and that whither he went they could not come Peter not well understanding what he meant asked him whither it was that he was going Our Lord replied It was to that place whither he could not now follow him but that he should do it afterwards intimating the Martyrdom he was to undergo for the sake of Christ. To which Peter answered that he knew no reason why he might not follow him seeing that if it was even to the laying down of his life for his sake he was most ready and resolved to do it Our Lord liked not this over-confident presumption and therefore told him they were great things which he promised but that he took not the true measures of his own strength nor espied the snares and designs of Satan who desired no better an occasion than this to sift and winnow them But that he had prayed to Heaven for him That his faith might not fail by which means being strengthened himself he should be obliged to strengthen and confirm his brethren And whereas he so confidently assured him that he was ready to go along with him not only into prison but even to death it self our Lord plainly told him That not withstanding all his confident and generous resolutions before the Cock crowed twice that is before three of the Clock in the morning he would that very night three several times deny his Master With which answer our Lord wisely rebuked his confidence and taught him had he understood the lesson not to trust to his own strength but intirely to depend upon him who is able to keep us from salling Withall insinuating that though by his sin he would justly forseit the Divine grace and favour yet upon his repentance he should be restored to the honour of the Apostolate as a certain evidence of the Divine goodness and indulgence to him 3. HAVING sung an Hymn and concluded the whole affair he left the house where all these things had been transacted and went with his Apostles unto the Mount of Olives where he again put them in mind how much they would be offended at those things which he was now to suffer and Peter again renewed his resolute and undaunted promise of suffering and dying with him yea out of an excessive confidence told him That though all the rest should for sake and deny him yet would not 〈◊〉 deny him How far will zeal and an 〈◊〉 affection transport even a good man into vanity and presumption Peter questions others but never doubts himself So natural is self-love so apt are we to take the fairest measures of our selves Nay though our Lord had but a little before once and again reproved this vain humour yet does he still not only persist but grow up in it So hardly are we brought to espy our own faults or to be so throughly convinced of them as to correct and reform them This confidence of his inspired all the rest with a mighty courage all the Apostles likewise assuring him of their constant and unshaken adhering to him Our Lord returning the same answer to Peter which he had done before From hence they went down into the Village of Gethsemane where leaving the rest of the Apostles he accompanied with none but Peter James and John retired into a neighbouring Garden whither 〈◊〉 tells us Christians even in his time were wont to come solemnly to offer up their Prayers to Heaven and where as the Arabian Geographer informs us a fair and stately Church was built to the honour of the Virgin Mary to enter upon the Ante-scene of the fatal Tragedy that was now approaching it bearing a very fit proportion as some of the Fathers have observed that as the first Adam fell and ruin'd mankind in a Garden so a Garden should be the place where the second Adam should begin his Passion in order to the Redemption of the World Gardens which to us are places of repose and pleasure and scenes of divertisement and delight were to our Lord a school of Temptation a Theatre of great horrors and sufferings and the first approaches of the hour of
on to preach confidently and securely for that he himself would stand by him and preserve him 2. ABOUT this time as is most probable he wrote his first Epistle to the Thessalonians Silas and Timothy being lately returned from thence and having done the message for which he had sent them thither The main design of the Epistle is to confirm them in the belief of the Christian Religion and that they would persevere in it notwithstanding all the afflictions and persecutions which he had told them would ensue upon their profession of the Gospel and to instruct them in the main duties of a Christian and Religious life While the Apostle was thus imployed the malice of the Jews was no less at work against him and universally combining together they brought him before Gallio the Proconsul of the Province elder Brother to the famous Seneca Before him they accused the Apostle as an Innovator in Religion that sought to introduce a new way of worship contrary to what was established by the Jewish Law and permitted by the Roman Powers The Apostle was ready to have pleaded his own cause but the Proconsul told them that had it been a matter of right or wrong that had faln under the cognizance of the Civil Judicature it had been very fit and reasonable that he should have heard and determined the case but since the controversie was only concerning the punctilio's and niceties of their Religion it was very improper for him to be a Judge in such matters And when they still clamoured about it he threw out their Indictment and commanded his officers to drive them out of Court Whereupon some of the Towns men seised upon Sosthenes one of the Rulers of the Jewish Consistory a man active and busie in this Insurrection and beat him even before the Court of Judicature the Proconsul not at all concerning himself about it A year and an half S. Paul continued in this place and before his departure thence wrote his second Epistle to the Thessalonians to supply the want of his coming to them which in his former he had resolved on and for which in a manner he had engaged his promise In this therefore he endeavours again to confirm their minds in the truth of the Gospel and that they would not be shaken with those troubles which the wicked unbelieving Jews would not cease to create them a lost and undone race of men and whom the Divine vengeance was ready finally to overtake And because some passages in his 〈◊〉 Letter relating to this destruction had been mis-understood as if this day of the Lord were just then at hand he rectifies those mistakes and shews what must precede our Lord's coming unto Judgment 3. S. 〈◊〉 having thus fully planted and cultivated the Church at Corinth resolved now for Syria And taking along with him Aquila and Priscilla at Cenchrea the Port and Harbour of Corinth Aquila for of him it is certainly to be understood shaved his head in performance of a Nazarite-Vow he had formerly made the time whereof was now run out In his passage into Syria he came to Ephesus where he preached a while in the Synagogue of the Jews And though desired to stay with them yet having resolved to be at Jerusalem at the Passeover probably that he might have the fitter opportunity to meet his friends and preach the Gospel to those vast numbers that usually 〈◊〉 to that great solemnity he promised that in his return he would come again to them Sailing thence he landed at Caesarca and thence went up to Jerusalem where having visited the Church and kept the Feast he went down to Antioch Here having staid some time he traversed the Countries of Galatia and Phrygia confirming as he went the new-converted Christians and so came to 〈◊〉 where finding certain Christian Disciples he enquired of them whether since their conversion they had received the miraculous gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost They told him that the Doctrine which they had received had nothing in it of that nature nor had they ever heard that any such extraordinary Spirit had of late been bestowed upon the Church Hereupon he further enquired unto what they had been baptized the Christian Baptism being administred in the name of the Holy Ghost They answered they had received no more than John's Baptism which though it 〈◊〉 them to repentance yet did explicitly speak nothing of the Holy Ghost or its gists and powers To this the Apostle replied That though John's Baptism did openly oblige to nothing but Repentance yet that it did implicitly acknowledge the whole Doctrine concerning Christ and the Holy Ghost Whereto they assenting were solemnly initiated by Christian Baptism and the Apostle laying his hands upon them they immediately received the Holy Ghost in the gift of Tongues Prophecy and other miraculous powers conferred upon them 4. AFTER this he 〈◊〉 into the Jewish Synagogues where for the first three months he contended and disputed with the Jews endeavouring with great earnestness and resolution to convince them of the truth of those things that concerned the Christian Religion But when instead of success he met with nothing but refractoriness and infidelity he left the Synagogue and taking those with him whom he had converted instructed them and others that resorted to him in the School of one Tyrannus a place where Scholars were wont to be educated and instructed In this manner he continued for two years together In which time the Jews and Proselytes of the whole 〈◊〉 Asia had opportunity of having the Gospel preached to them And because Miracles are the clearest evidence of a Divine commission and the most immediate Credentials of Heaven those which do nearliest affect our senses and consequently have the strongest influence upon our minds therefore God was pleased to ratifie the doctrine which S. Paul delivered by great and miraculous operations and those of somewhat a more peculiar and extraordinary nature Insomuch that he did not only heal those that came to him but if Napkins or Handkerchiefs were but touched by him and applied unto the sick their diseases immediately vanished and the Daemons and evil Spirits departed out of those that were possessed by them 5. EPHESUS above all other places in the World was noted of old for the study of Magick and all secret and hidden Arts whence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so often spoken of by the Ancients which were certain obscure and mystical Spells and Charms by which they endeavoured to heal Diseases and drive away evil Spirits and do things beyond the reach and apprehensions of common people Besides other professors of this black Art there were at this time at Ephesus certain Jews who dealt in the arts of 〈◊〉 and Incantation a craft and mystery which Josephus affirms to have been derived from Solomon who he tells us did not only find it out but composed forms of Exorcism and Inchantment whereby to cure diseases and expel
were heaped upon him and both he and his company furnished with provisions necessary for the rest of their Voyage Nay Publius himself is said by some to have been hereby converted to the Faith and by S. Paul to have been constituted Bishop of the Island and that this was he that succeeded S. Denys the Areopagite in the See of Athens and was afterwards crowned with Martyrdom 9. AFTER three Months stay in this Island they went a-board the Castor and Pollux a Ship of Alexandria bound for Italy At Syracuse they put in and staid three Days thence sailed to Rhegium and so to Puteoli where they landed and finding some Christians there staid a week with them and then set forward in their Journey to Rome The Christians at Rome having heard of their arrival several of them came part of the way to meet them some as far as the Three Taverns a place thirty three Miles from Rome others as far as Appii Forum fifty one Miles distant thence Great was their mutual salutation and the encouragement which the Apostle received by it glad no doubt to see that Christians found so much liberty at Rome By them he was conducted in a kind of triumph into the City where when they were arrived the rest of the Prisoners were delivered over to the Captain of the Guard and by him disposed in the common Gaol while S. Paul probably at Julius his request and recommendation was permitted to stay in a private House only with a Souldier to secure and guard him SECT VII S. Paul's Acts from his coming to Rome till his Martyrdom S. Paul's summoning the chief of the Jews at Rome and his discourse to them Their resractoriness and infidelity His first hearing before Nero. The success of his Preaching Poppaea Sabina Nero's Concubine one of his Converts Tacitus his character of her Onesimus converted by S. Paul at Rome and sent back with an Epistle to Philemon his Master The great obligation which Christianity lays upon Servants to diligence and sidelity in their duty The rigorous and arbitrary power of Masters over Servants by the Roman Laws This mitigated by the Laws of the Gospel S. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians upon what occasion sent His Epistle to the Ephesians and another to the Colossians His second Epistle to Timothy written probably at his first being at Rome The Epistle to the Hebrews by whom written and in what Language The aim and design of it S. Paul's Preaching the Gospel in the West and in what parts of it His return to Rome when His imprisonment under Nero and why His being beheaded Milk instead of blood said to flow from his body Different Accounts of the time of his suffering His burial where and the great Church erected to his memory 1. THE first thing S. Paul did after he came to Rome was to summon the Heads of the Jewish Consistory there whom he acquainted with the cause and manner of his coming that though he had been guilty of no violation of the Law of their Religion yet had he been delivered by the Jews into the hands of the Roman Governours who would have acquitted him once and again as innocent of any capital offence but by the perversness of the Jews he was forced not with an intention to charge his own Nation already sufficiently odious to the Romans but only to vindicate and clear himself to make his Appeal to Caesar that being come he had sent for them to let them know that it was for his constant asserting the Resurrection the hope of all true 〈◊〉 that he was bound with that Chain which they saw upon him The Jews replied that they had received no advice concerning him nor had any of the Nation that came from Judaea brought any Charge against him only for the Religion which he had espoused they desired to be a little better informed about it it being every where decried both by Jew and Gentile Accordingly upon a day appointed he discoursed to them from morning to night concerning the Religion and Doctrine of the holy Jesus proving from the promises and predictions of the Old Testament that he was the true Messiah His discourse succeeded not with all alike some being convinced others persisted in their infidelity And as they were departing in some discontent at each other the Apostle told them it was now too plain God had accomplished upon them the prophetical curse of being left to their own wilful hardness and impenitency to be blind at noon-day and to run themselves against all means and methods into irrecoverable ruine That since the case was thus with them they must expect that henceforth he should turn his preaching to the Gentiles who would be most ready to entertain what they had so scornfully rejected the glad tidings of the Gospel 2. IT was not probably long after this that he was brought to his first hearing before the Emperor where those friends whom he most expected should stand by him plainly deserted him afraid it seems of appearing in so ticklish a cause before so unreasonable a Judge who governed himself by no other measures than the brutish and extravagant pleasure of his lust or humour But God stood by him and encouraged him as indeed Divine consolations are many times then nearest to us when humane assistances are farthest from us This cowardise of theirs the Apostle had a charity large enough to cover heartily praying that it might not be brought in against them in the Accounts of the great Day Two years he dwelt at Rome in an house which he hired for his own use wherein he constantly imployed himself in preaching and writing for the good of the Church He preached daily without interruption to all that came to him and with good success yea even upon some of the better rank and quality and those belonging to the Court it self Among which the Roman Martyrologie reckons Torpes an Officer of prime note in Nero's Palace and afterwards a Martyr for the Faith and Chrysostom if Baronius cite him right tells us of Nero's Cup-bearer and one of his Concubines supposed by some to have been Poppaea Sabina of whom Tacitus gives this character that she wanted nothing to render her one of the most accomplished Ladies in the World but a chast and a vertuous mind And I know not how far it may seem to countenance her conversion at least inclination to a better Religion than that of Paganism that Josephus styles her a pious woman and tells us that she effectually solicited the cause of the Jews with her Husband Nero and what favours Josephus himself received from her at Rome he relates in his own life 3. AMONGST others of our Apostle's Converts at Rome was Onesimus who had formerly been servant to Philemon a person of eminency in Colosse but had run away from his Master and taken things of some value with him Having rambled as far as Rome he was now converted by S.
and pious and who crowned all the rest with the laying down his life for the testimony of that Gospel which he had both Preached and Published to the World The End of S. Luke's Life DIPTYCHA APOSTOLICA OR A Brief Enumeration and Account of the APOSTLES and their SUCCESSORS FOR THE First Three Hundred Years in the Five great Churches said to have been Founded by them thence called by the Ancients APOSTOLICAL CHURCHES VIZ. Antioch Rome Jerusalem Byzantium or Constantinople and Alexandria ANTIOCH THIS I place first partly because 't is generally acknowledged even by the Romish Writers that a Church was founded here by S. Peter some considerable time before that at Rome partly because here it was that the Venerable name of Christians did first commence In which respect the Fathers in the Council at Constantinople under Nectarius in their Synodicon to them at Rome stile the Church of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most Ancient and truly Apostolical and S. Chrysostom The head of the whole World The Succession of its Bishops till the time of Constantine which shall be the Boundary of this Catalogue was as followeth I. S. Peter the Apostole who governed this Church at least 7. years Nicephorus of Constantinople says Eleven II. Euodius who sat 23. years In his time the Disciples were first called Christians at Antioch III. Ignatius After near 40. years Presidency over this Church he was carried out of Syria to Rome and there thrown to wild Beasts in the Theatre Ann. Chr. 110. Trajan 11. IV. Heron he was Bishop 20. years To him succeeded V. Cornelius who kept the place 13. years dying Ann. Chr. 142. VI. Eros 26 or as Eusebius 24. years VII Theophilus 13. a man of great Parts and Learning many of his Works were extant in Eusebius his time and some of them we still have at this day VIII Maximinus 13. he dying the next that was chosen was IX Serapio 25. many of his Works are mentioned by Eusebius and S. Hierom. To him succeeded X. Asclepiades a man of great worth and eminency and invincible constancy in the time of persecution he continued in this See 9. years XI Philetus 8. XII Zebinus or Zebennus he sat 6. years XIII Babylas 13. after many conflicts and sufferings for the Faith he received the crown of Martyrdom under Decius and commanded his Chains to be buried with him XIV Fabius or as the Patriarch Nicephorus calls him Flavius possessed tho Chair 9. years He was a little inclining towards Novatianism XV. Demetrianus he sat Bishop says Nicephorus 4 says Eusebius 8. years XVI Paulus Samosatenus sat in the chair 8. years when for his Unepiscopal manners and practices his unsound Dogmata and principles and especially his mean and unworthy opinions concerning our Saviour he was condemned and deposed by a Synod at Antioch whose Synodical determination is at large extant in 〈◊〉 XVII Domnus succeeded in the place of the deposed He was son to Demetrian Paulus his predecessor in that See constituted and ordained to the place by the Fathers of that Synod who farther give him this honourable character that he was a man indued with all Episcopal vertues and ornaments Eusebius makes him to have sitten 6 Nicephorus but 2. years XVIII Timaeus he sat in the chair 10. years XIX Cyrillus who presided over that Church in the account of Nicephorus 15 of Eusebius 24. years XX. Tyrannus he sat 13. years in his time began the tenth Persecution under Dioclesian which rag'd with great severity XXI Vitalis 6. XXII Philogonius 5. succeeded by XXIII Paulinus or as Nicephorus calls him Paulus who after five years was deposed and driven out by the prevalency of the Arrian faction XXIV Eustathius formerly Bishop of Beroea a learned man and of great note and eminency in the Council of Nice the first general Council summoned by the Great Constantine after he had restored peace and prosperity to the Church ROME THE foundation of this Church is with just probabilities of reason by many of the Fathers equally attributed to Peter and Paul the one as Apostle of the Circumcision preaching to the Jews while the other probably as the Apostle of the Uncircumcision preached to the Gentiles Its Bishops succeeded in this order I. S. Peter and S. Paul who both suffered Martyrdom under Nero. II. Linus the son of Herculaneus a Tuscan he is mentioned by S. Paul he sat between 11. and 12. years III. Cletus or Anacletus or Anencletus supposed by many to be the same person though others who reckon 〈◊〉 a Greek born at Athens make them distinct whom yet we have left out not being mentioned by 〈◊〉 a Roman the son of AEmilianus sat 9 though others say but 2. years IV. Clemens a Roman born in Mount Caelius the son of Faustinus near a kin say some to the Emperor He was condemned to dig in the Marble-Quarries near the Euxin Sea and by the command of Trajan with an Anchor about his neck thrown into the Sea He was Bishop of Rome 9. years and 4. months V. Euarestus by birth a Greek but his Father a Jew of Bethlehem He is said to have been crowned with Martyrdom the last year of Trajan in the ninth of his Bishoprick or as others the thirteenth VI. Alexander a Roman though young in years was grave in his manners and conversation He sat 10. years and 7. months and died a Martyr VII Xystus or Sixtus a Roman he was Martyred in the tenth year of his Bishoprick and buried in the Vatican VIII Telesphorus a Greek succeeded Just in the Martyr flourished in his time He died a Martyr having sat 11. years and 3. months 10. years 8. months say others and lies buried near S. Peter in the Vatican IX Hyginus the son of an Athenian Philosopher was advanced to the Chair under Antoninus Pius He sat 4. years Eusebius says 8. X. Pius an Italian born at Aquilcia he died having been Bishop 11. years and 4. months according to Eusebius 15. years XI Anicetus born in Syria He is said after 9 or as others 11. years to have suffered Martydom and was buried in the Via Appia in the Cemetery of Callistus In his time Polycarp came to Rome XII 〈◊〉 or as Nicephorus calls him Soterichus was a Campanian the son of Concordius There was an intercourse of Letters between him and Dionysius Bishop of Corinth He died after he had sat 9. years or as Eusebius reckons 7. XIII Eleutherius born at Nicopolis in Greece To him Lucius King of Britain sent a Letter and an Embassy He sat 15. years died Ann. Chr. 186. and lies buried in the Vatican XIV Victor an African the son of Felix a man of a furious and intemperate spirit as appeared in his passionate proceedings in the controversie about the observation of Easter He was Bishop 10. years Onuphrius assigns him 12. years and one month XV. Zephyrinus a Roman succeeded and possessed the chair 8 but as others 18. years 20. says
industry for the good of the Church He suffered in the ninth year of the persecution with the loss of his head gaining the crown of Martyrdom After whose death came in the prosperous and happy days of the Church Constantine the Great turning the black and dismal scene of things into a state of calmness and serenity XVIII Achillas 9 though Nicephorus of Constantinople allows him but one year By him Arius upon his submission was ordained Presbyter XIX Alexander 23 under him Arius began more openly to broach his Heresie at Alexandria who was thereupon excommunicated and thrust out by Alexander and shortly after condemn'd by the Fathers of the Council of Nice ERRATA 〈◊〉 Pag. 15. line 17. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 22. l. 6. for silent r. 〈◊〉 p. 31. l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 47. l. 51. for were r. 〈◊〉 Lives of the Apostles Introduct p. 7. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Book p. 2. l. 27. r. 〈◊〉 p. 9. l. 12. dele 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 11. l. 17. for lawful r. careful p. 32. l. 45. r. 〈◊〉 p. 33. l. 15. for of r. 〈◊〉 p. 36. marg over against l. 32. r. 〈◊〉 p. 43. l. 54. r. Man p. 84. l. 17. after the add 〈◊〉 p. 87. l. 33. for This add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 109. l. 52. after he add had Some other literal mistakes the Reader I hope will amend In the 〈◊〉 words these two letters Daleth and Resh are not sufficiently distinguished FINIS A Brief Catalogue of Books newly Printed and Reprinted for R. Royston Bookseller to his Most Sacred Majesty THE Works of the Reverend and Learned Henry Hammond D. D. containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical with many Additions and Corrections from the Author' s own hand together with the Life of the Author enlarged by the Reverend Dr. Fell Dean of Christ-Church in Oxford In large Folio A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament Briefly explaining all the difficult Places thereof The Fourth Edition corrected By H. Hammond D. D. In Folio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Folio by Jer. Taylor Chaplain in Ordinary to K. Charles the First of Blessed Memory and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner The Second Part of the Practical Christian consisting of Meditations and Psalms illustrated with Notes or Paraphrased relating to the Hours of Prayer the ordinary Actions of Day and Night and several Dispositions of Men. By R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick An Answer to a Book Entituled A Rational Compendious way to Convince without dispute all persons whatsoever dissenting from the true Religion by J. K. By Gilbert Burnet In Octavo new The Royal Martyr and the Dutiful Subject in two Sermons By Gilbert Burnet New The Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of Receiving the Holy Communion c. The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to or a Book of Devotions for Families c. Both written by the Reverend S. Patrick D. D. in 12. A Serious aud Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion and Church of England c. Considerations concerning Comprehension Toleration and the Renouncing the Covenant In Octavo new Animadversions upon a Book Entituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Second Edition By a Person of Honour In Octavo Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church With the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Authors In Three Parts In Octavo Go in Peace Containing some brief Directions for young Ministers in their Visitation of the Sick Useful for the People in their state both of Health and Sickness In 12. New Conformity according to Canon Justified and the new way of Moderation Reproved A Sermon Preached at Exon in the Cathedral of S. Peter at the Visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God Anthony by Divine permission Lord Bishop of Exon. By William Gould In Quarto New A Visitation Sermon preached in the Cathedral at Exon. By John Prince Minister of the Gospel at S. Martins Exon. A Sermon preached at the Oxfordshire-Feast Novemb. 25. 1674. In the Church of S. Michael's Cornhill London By John Woolley M. A. In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 16. Tom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. de 〈◊〉 pag. 350. 〈◊〉 XXVII in Genes Tom. 2. p. 285. Heb. 1. 1 2. * Talm. Trast Sanbedr cap. Halce alibi vid. Menass Ben Isr. dâ— Resurrect lib. 3. c. 3. Concil Quast xxx in Genes Rom. 2. 14 15. Gen. 4. 6 7. Gem. Babyl Tâ— Sanhedr cap. 7. fol. 56. Maimond Tr. Me lak cap. 9. al â—â— passim ap Judaeos vid. Selâ—en de Jur. N. G. l. 1. c. 10. de Synedr Vol. 1. c. 2. p. 8. Job 31. 26 27 28. Job 1. 6. Job 31. 29 Job 31. 9 10 11. Vers. 5. 7. Chap. 24. 2 3 4 seq Chap. 31. 11-28 Gen. 9. 3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr de 〈◊〉 lib. 1. Sect. 47. p. 39. 〈◊〉 V. 5 6. 〈◊〉 17. 11. Gen 17. 9 10 11. * Talm. Tract Jeban 〈◊〉 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 49. p. 506. Gen. 6. 2 3. Gen. 18. 19. Gen. 18. 2. Exod 4. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 XVIII in 〈◊〉 p. 173. Tom. 2. Gen. 15. 17. Psalm 20. 3. 〈◊〉 P. 〈◊〉 in Gen. 4. Gen. 8. 20. Gen. 12. 7 8. 〈◊〉 chap. 13. 4. 18. Gen. 21. 33. Judg 6. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13. Deut. 16. 21. 〈◊〉 13. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX Ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliter 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 18. 1. * Antiquit. Jd. l. 1. c. 11. p. 19. * 〈◊〉 loc 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 Arboch ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Hist. Ec. l. lit 2. c. 4. p. 447. Gen. 4. 30 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 19. 22. Exod. 24. 5. Gen. 49. 3. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fol. 71. col 1. ap Selden de success ad leg Ebr. c. 5. p. 45. Heb. 12. 16. Gen. 3. 21. Levit. 7. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homil. XVIII in 〈◊〉 p. 174. Heb. 11. 4. Gen. 4. 4 5. Antiquit. Jud. 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 8. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Smeg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. p. 226. seqq Gen. 4. 26. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Sect. 1. ‖ Vid. ap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cit p. 230. * Dionys. Voss. not in 〈◊〉 p. 4. 〈◊〉 de Hist. Patr. 〈◊〉 6. p. 223. ‖ R. Eliez Maas Beres 〈◊〉 22. ibid. Gen. 6. 2. * Elmacin ap 〈◊〉 p. 233. Id. 〈◊〉 p. 234. * Elmac. Patric apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supr p. 235. Gen. 5. 〈◊〉 Heb. 11. 5 6. Gen. 5. 29. Gen. 6. 9. Antiqu. Jud. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 4. p. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syria p. 882. 〈◊〉 2. Genes 11. 〈◊〉 7. 11. 5. 32. 10. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p.