us of the Devil and his Angels Messengers are inferiour to those that send them The seven Devils that entered into the swept and garnished house were worse then the former Neither can Principalities and Powers and Governours and Princes of the darkness of this World design others then several ranks of evil Angels There can be no being without some kind of order there can be no order in parity If we look up into Heaven there is The King of Gods The Lord of Lords higher then the highest If to the earth there are Monarchs Kings Princes Peeres people If we look down to Hell there is the Prince of Devils They labour for Confusion that call for Parity What should the Church doe with such a for me as is not exempliied in Heaven in Earth in Hell One Devil according to their supposition may be used to cast out another How far the command of one spirit over another may extend it is a secret of infernal state too deep for the inquiry of men The thing it self is apparent upon compact and precontracted composition one gives way to other for the common advantage As we see in the Common-wealth of Cheaters and Cut-purses one doth the fact another is feed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actor falls not out with the revealer but divides with him that cunning spoil One malicious miscreant sets the Devil on work to the inflicting of disease or death another upon agreement for a further spiritual gain takes him off There is a Devil in both And if there seem more bodily favour there is no less spiritual danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitor in the other It will be no cause of discord in Hell that one Devil gives ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gain of a Soul Oh God that any creature which bears thine Image should not abhorre to be beholding to the powers of Hell for aid for advice Is is not because there is not a God in Israel that men goe to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men be so sottish to think that the vowed enemie of their Souls can offer them a bait without an hook What evil is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redress He wounds he heals again And if he will not It is the Lord let him doe what seems good in his eyes If he do not deliver us he will crown our faithfulness in a patient perseverance The wounds of God are better then the salves of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Envy could devise so high a slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Devil to the Jewes therefore they accuse him for a conjurer Beelzebub was the chief of Devils therefore they accuse him for on Arch-exorcist for the worst kinde of Magician Some professors of this black Art though their work be devilish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Jesus and will presumptuously seem to doe that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement The Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Devil and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the Law of Moses in the very hand of a Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deep doth this wound reach that our Saviour searching it to the bottome findes no less in it then the sin against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadful sentence of the irremissibleness of that sin unto death And if this horrible crimination were cast upon thee O Saviour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if we thy sinful servants be branded on all sides with evil tongues Yea which is yet more how plain is it that these men forced their tongue to speak this slander against their own heart Else this Blasphemy had been onely against the Son of man not against the Holy Ghost but now that the searcher of hearts findes it to be no less then against the Blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully cross their conscience Envie never regards how true but how mischievous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For us Blessed are we when men revile us and say all manner of evil of us for the name of Chirst For them What reward shall be given to thee thou false tongue Even sharp arrows with hot burning coales yea those very coales of hell from which thou wert inkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid-way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the miracle to a Satanical operation they confess it good but not enough and therefore urge Christ to a further proof Though thou hast cast out this dumb Devil yet this is no sufficient argument of thy Divine power We have yet seen nothing from thee like those antient Miracles of the times of our fore-fathers Joshuah caused the Sun to stand still Elias brought fire down from heaven Samuel astonish'd the people with thunder and rain in the midst of harvest If thou wouldst command our belief doe somewhat like to these The casting out of a Devil shews thee to have some power over Hell shew us now that thou hast no less power over Heaven There is a kinde of unreasonableness of desire and insatiableness in infidelity it never knows when it hath evidence enough This which the Jews overlooked was a more irrefragable demonstration of Divinity then that which they desired A Devil was more then a Meteor or a parcel of an element to cast out a Devil by command more then to command fire from Heaven Infidelity ever loves to be her own carver No son can be more like a father then these Jews to their progenitours in the desart that there might be no fear of degenerating into good they also of old tempted God in the Wilderness First they are weary of the Egyptian bondage and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those fornaces By ten miraculous Plagues they are freed and going out of those confines the Egyptians follow them the Sea is before them now they are more afflicted with their liberty then their servitude The Sea yields way the Egyptians are drowned and now that they are safe on the other shore they tempt the Providence of God for water The Rock yields it them then no less for bread and meat God sends them Manna and Quailes they cry out of the food of Angels Their present enemies in the way are vanquished they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan Nothing from God but Mercy nothing from them but Temptations Their true brood both in nature and in sin had abundant proofs of the
should all see his comfortable Divine Magnanimity wherewith he entred into those sad lists only Three of them shall be allowed to be the witnesses of his Agonie only those three that had been the witnesses of his glorious Transfiguration That sight had well fore-arm'd and prepared them for this how could they be dismai'd to see his trouble who there saw his Majesty how could they be dismai'd to see his body now sweat which they had then seen to shine how could they be daunted to see him now accosted with Judas and his train whom they then saw attended with Moses and Elias how could they be discouraged to hear the reproaches of base men when they had heard the voice of God to him from that excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Now before these eyes this Sun begins to be over-cast with clouds He began to be sorrowfull and very heavy Many sad thoughts for mankinde had he secretly hatched and yet smothered in his own breast now his grief is too great to keep in My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death O Saviour what must thou needs feel when thou saidst so Feeble mindes are apt to bemone themselves upon light occasions the grief must needs be violent that causeth a strong heart to break forth into a passionate complaint Woe is me what a word is this for the Son of God Where is that Comforter which thou promisedst to send to others where is that thy Father of all mercies and God of all comfort in whose presence is the fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore where are those constant and chearfull resolutions of a fearlesse walking through the valley of the shadow of death Alas if that face were not hid from thee whose essence could not be disunited these pangs could not have been The Sun was withdrawn awhile that there might be a cool though not a dark night as in the world so in thy breast withdrawn in respect of sight not of being It was the hardest piece of thy sufferings that thou must be disconsolate But to whom dost thou make this moan O thou Saviour of men Hard is that man driven that is fain to complain to his inferiours Had Peter or James or John thus bewailed himself to thee there had been ease to their Soul in venting it self thou hadst been both apt to pity them and able to relieve them but now in that thou lamentest thy case to them alas what issue couldst thou exspect They might be astonish'd with thy grief but there is neither power in their hands to free thee from those sorrows nor power in their compassion to mitigate them Nay in this condition what could all the Angels of Heaven as of themselves doe to succour thee What strength could they have but from thee What creature can help when thou complainest It must be only the stronger that can aid the weak Old and holy Simeon could fore-say to thy Blessed Mother that a sword should pierce through her Soul but alas how many swords at once pierce thine Every one of these words is both sharp and edged My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death What humane Soul is capable of the conceit of the least of those sorrows that oppressed thine It was not thy body that suffered now the pain of body is but as the body of pain the anguish of the Soul is as the Soul of anguish That and in that thou sufferedst where are they that dare so far disparage thy Sorrow as to say thy Soul suffered only in sympathy with thy body not immediately but by participation not in its self but in its partner Thou best knewest what thou feltest and thou that feltest thine own pain canst crie out of thy Soul Neither didst thou say My Soul is troubled so it often was even to tears but My Soul is sorrowfull as if it had been before assaulted now possessed with grief Nor yet this in any tolerable moderation changes of Passion are incident to every humane Soul but Exceeding sorrowfull Yet there are degrees in the very extremities of evils those that are most vehement may yet be capable of a remedy at least a relaxation thine was past these hopes Exceeding sorrowfull unto death What was it what could it be O Saviour that lay thus heavy upon thy Divine Soul Was it the fear of Death was it the fore-felt pain shame torment of thine ensuing Crucifixion Oh poor and base thoughts of the narrow hearts of cowardly and impotent mortality How many thousands of thy blessed Martyrs have welcomed no lesse tortures with smiles and gratulations and have made a sport of those exquisite cruelties which their very Tyrants thought unsufferable Whence had they this strength but from thee If their weakness were thus undaunted and prevalent what was thy power No no It was the sad weight of the sin of mankinde it was the heavy burden of thy Fathers wrath for our sin that thus pressed thy Soul and wrung from thee these bitter expressions What can it avail thee O Saviour to tell thy grief to men who can ease thee but he of whom thou saidst My Father is greater then I Lo to him thou turnest O Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me Was not this that prayer O dear Christ which in the daies of thy flesh thou offeredst up with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save thee from death Surely this was it Never was crie so strong never was God thus solicited How could Heaven chuse but shake at such a Prayer from the Power that made it How can my heart but tremble to hear this suit from the Captain of our Salvation O thou that saidst I and my Father are one dost thou suffer ought from thy Father but what thou wouldst what thou determinedst was this Cup of thine either casual or forced wouldst thou wish for what thou knewest thou wouldst not have possible Far far be these mis-raised thoughts of our ignorance and frailty Thou camest to suffer and thou wouldst doe what thou camest for yet since thou wouldst be a man thou wouldst take all of man save sin it is but humane and not sinfull to be loath to suffer what we may avoid In this velleity of thine thou wouldst shew what that Nature of ours which thou hadst assumed could incline to wish but in thy resolution thou wouldst shew us what thy victorious thoughts raised and assisted by thy Divine power had determinately pitched upon Neverthelesse not as I will but as thou wilt As man thou hadst a Will of thine own no humane Soul can be perfect without that main faculty That will which naturally could be content to incline towards an exemption from miseries gladly vails to that Divine will whereby thou art designed to the chastisements of our peace Those pains which in themselves were grievous thou embracest as decreed so as thy fear hath given
place to thy love and obedience How should we have known these evils so formidable if thou hadst not in half a thought inclined to deprecate them How could we have avoided so formidable and deadly evils if thou hadst not willingly undergone them We acknowledge thine holy fear we adore thy Divine fortitude Whiles thy Minde was in this fearfull agitation it is no marvell if thy Feet were not fixed Thy place is more changed then thy thoughts One while thou walkest to thy drouzy Attendants and stirrest up their needfull vigilancy then thou returnest to thy passionate Devotions thou fallest again upon thy face If thy body be humbled down to the earth thy Soul is yet lower thy prayers are so much more vehement as thy pangs are And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground O my Saviour what an agonie am I in whiles I think of thine What pain what fear what strife what horrour was in thy Sacred breast How didst thou struggle under the weight of our sins that thou thus sweatest that thou thus bleedest All was peace with thee thou wert one with thy coeternal and coessential Father all the Angels worshipped thee all the powers of Heaven and earth awfully acknowledged thine Infiniteness It was our person that feoffed thee in this misery and torment in that thou sustainedst thy Father's wrath and our curse If eternal death be unsufferable if every sin deserve eternal death what O what was it for thy Soul in this short time of thy bitter Passion to answer those millions of eternal deaths which all the sins of all mankinde had deserved from the just hand of thy Godhead I marvell not if thou bleedest a sweat if thou sweatest blood If the moisture of that Sweat be from the Body the tincture of it is from the Soul As there never was such another Sweat so neither can there be ever such a Suffering It is no wonder if the Sweat were more then natural when the Suffering was more then humane O Saviour so willing was that precious blood of thine to be let forth for us that it was ready to prevent thy Persecutors and issued forth in those pores before thy wounds were opened by thy Tormentors O that my heart could bleed unto thee with true inward compunction for those sins of mine which are guilty of this thine Agonie and have drawn blood of thee both in the Garden and on the Cross Woe is me I had been in Hell if thou hadst not been in thine Agonie I had scorched if thou hadst not sweat Oh let me abhor my own wickednesse and admire and blesse thy Mercy But O ye blessed Spirits which came to comfort my conflicted Saviour how did ye look upon the Son of God when ye saw him labouring for life under these violent temptations with what astonishment did ye behold him bleeding whom ye adored In the Wilderness after his Duell with Satan ye came and ministred unto him and now in the Garden whiles he is in an harder combat ye appear to strengthen him O the wise and marvellous dispensation of the Almighty Whom God will afflict an Angel shall relieve the Son shall suffer the Servant shall comfort him the God of Angels droupeth the Angel of God strengthens him Blessed Jesu if as Man thou wouldst be made a little lower then the Angels how can it disparage thee to be attended and cheared up by an Angel Thine Humiliation would not disdain comfort from meaner hands How free was it for thy Father to convey seasonable consolations to thine humbled Soul by whatsoever means Behold though thy Cup shall not passe yet it shall be sweetned What if thou see not for the time thy Fathers face yet thou shalt feel his hand What could that Spirit have done without the God of Spirits O Father of Mercies thou maiest bring thine into Agonies but thou wilt never leave them there In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts shall refresh my Soul Whatsoever be the means of my supportation I know and adore the Author Peter and Malchus or Christ Apprehended WHerefore O Saviour didst thou take those three choice Disciples with thee from their fellows but that thou expectedst some comfort from their presence A seasonable word may sometimes fall from the meanest attendant and the very society of those we trust carries in it some kinde of contentment Alas what broken reeds are men Whiles thou art sweating in thine Agonie they are snorting securely Admonitions threats intreaties cannot keep their eyes open Thou tellest them of danger they will needs dream of ease and though twice rouzed as if they had purposed this neglect they carelesly sleep out thy sorrow and their own peril What help hast thou of such Followers In the mount of thy Transfiguration they slept and besides fell on their faces when they should behold thy glory and were not themselves for fear in the garden of thine Agonie they fell upon the ground for drouzinesse when they should compassionate thy sorrow and lost themselves in a stupid sleepinesse Doubtlesse even this disregard made thy prayers so much more fervent The lesse comfort we finde on earth the more we seek above Neither soughtst thou more then thou foundest Lo thou wert heard in that which thou fearedst An Angel supplies men that Spirit was vigilant whiles thy Disciples were heavy The exchange was happy No sooner is this good Angel vanished then that domestick Devil appears Judas comes up and shews himself in the head of those miscreant troups He whose too much honour it had been to be a Follower of so Blessed a Master affects now to be the leader of this wicked rabble The Sheeps fleece is now cast off the Wolf appears in his own likenesse He that would be false to his Master would be true to his Chapmen Even evil spirits keep touch with themselves The bold Traitor dare yet still mix Hypocrisie with Villany his very salutations and kisses murder O Saviour this is no news to thee All those who under a shew of Godlinesse practise impiety do still betray thee thus Thou who hadst said One of you is a Devil didst not now say Avoid Satan but Friend wherefore art thou come As yet Judas it was not too late Had there been any the least spark of Grace yet remaining in that perfidious bosome this word had fetcht thee upon thy knees All this Sunshine cannot thaw an obdurate heart The sign is given Jesus is taken Wretched Traitor why wouldst thou for this purpose be thus attended and ye foolish Priests and Elders why sent you such a band and so armed for this apprehension One messenger had been enough for a voluntary prisoner Had my Saviour been unwilling to be taken all your forces with all the Legions of Hell to help them had been too little since he was willing to be attached two were too many When he did but
suffered till now now thy bloody Passion begins a cruell expoliation begins that violence Again do these grim and mercilesse Souldiers lay their rude hands upon thee and strip thee naked again are those bleeding wales laid open to all eyes again must thy Sacred body undergoe the shame of an abhorred nakednesse Lo thou that clothest man with raiment beasts with hides fishes with scales and shells earth with flowers Heaven with Stars art despoiled of cloaths and standest exposed to the scorn of all beholders As the First Adam entred into his Paradise so dost thou the Second Adam into thine naked and as the First Adam was clothed with Innocence when he had no cloaths so wert thou the Second too and more then so thy nakednesse O Saviour cloaths our Souls not with Innocence only but with Beauty Hadst not thou been naked we had been cloathed with confusion O happy nakednesse whereby we are covered from shame O happy shame whereby we are invested with glory All the beholders stand wrapped with warm garments thou only art stripped to tread the wine-presse alone How did thy Blessed Mother now wish her veile upon thy shoulders and that Disciple who lately ran from thee naked wish'd in vain that his loving pity might doe that for thee which fear forced him to for himself Shame is succeeded with Pain Oh the torment of the Crosse Methinks I see and feel how having fastned the transverse to the body of that fatal Tree and lai'd it upon the ground they racked and strained thy tender and sacred Lims to fit the extent of their fore-appointed measure and having tentered out thine arms beyond their natural reach how they fastned them with cords till those strong iron nails which were driven up to the head through the palms of thy Blessed hands had not more firmly then painfully fixed thee to the Gibbet The tree is raised up and now not without a vehement concussion setled in the mortise Woe is me how are thy joynts and sinews torn and stretched till they crack again by this torturing distension how doth thine own weight torment thee whiles thy whole body rests upon this forced and dolorous hold till thy nailed feet bear their part in a no lesse afflictive supportation How did the rough iron pierce thy Soul whiles passing through those tender and sensible parts it carried thy flesh before it and as it were rivetted it to that shamefull Tree There now O dear Jesu there thou hangest between Heaven and earth naked bleeding forlorn despicable the spectacle of miseries the scorn of men Be abashed O ye Heavens and earth and all ye creatures wrap up your selves in horrour and confusion to see the shame and pain and curse of your most pure and Omnipotent Creator How could ye subsist whiles he thus suffers in whom ye are O Saviour didst thou take flesh for our Redemption to be thus indignely used thus mangled thus tortured Was this measure fit to be offered to that Sacred body that was conceived by the Holy Ghost of the pure substance of an immaculate Virgin Woe is me that which was unspotted with sin is all blemished with humane crueltie and so wofully disfigured that the Blessed Mother that bore thee could not now have known thee so bloody were thy Temples so swolne and discoloured was thy Face so was the skin of thy whole body streaked with red and blew stripes so did thy thornie diadem shade thine Heavenly countenance so did the streams of thy blood cover and deform all thy parts The eye of Sense could not distinguish thee O dear Saviour in the nearest proximity to thy Crosse the eye of Faith sees thee in all this distance and by how much more ignominy deformity pain it finds in thee so much more it admires the glory of thy mercy Alas is this the Head that is decked by thine eternall Father with a Crown of pure gold of immortall and incomprehensible Majesty which is now bushed with thorns Is this the Eye that saw the Heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descending upon that head that saw such resplendence of Heavenly brightnesse on mount Tabor which now begins to be overclouded with death Are these the Eares that heard the voice of thy Father owning thee out of Heaven which now tingle with buffettings and glow with reproaches and bleed with thorns Are these the Lips that spake as never mans spake full of grace and power that called out dead Lazarus that ejected the stubbornest Devils that commanded the cure of all diseases which now are swoln with blows and discoloured with blewnesse and blood Is this the Face that should be fairer then the sons of men which the Angels of Heaven so desired to see and can never be satisfied with seeing that is thus foul with the nasty mixtures of sweat and blood and spittings on Are these the Hands that stretched out the Heavens as a curtain that by their touch healed the lame the deaf the blind which are now bleeding with the nailes Are these the Feet which walked lately upon the liquid pavement of the sea before whose footstool all the Nations of the earth are bidden to worship that are now so painfully fixed to the Crosse O cruell and unthankfull mankind that offered such measure to the Lord of Life O infinitely mercifull Saviour that wouldst suffer all this for unthankfull mankind That fiends should doe these things to guilty souls it is though terrible yet just but that men should doe thus to the Blessed Son of God it is beyond the capacity of our horrour Even the most hostile dispositions have been only content to kill Death hath sated the most eager malice thine enemies O Saviour held not themselves satisfied unlesse they might injoy thy torment Two Thieves are appointed to be thy companions in death thou art designed to the midst as the chief malefactor on whether hand soever thou lookest thine eye meets with an hatefull partner But O Blessed Jesu how shall I enough admire and celebrate thy infinite Mercy who madest so happy an use of this Jewish despight as to improve it to the occasion of the Salvation of one and the comfort of millions Is not this as the last so the greatest specialty of thy wonderfull compassion to convert that dying Thief with those nailed hands to snatch a Soul out of the mouth of Hell Lord how I blesse thee for this work how doe I stand amazed at this above all other the demonstrations of thy Goodnesse and Power The Offender came to die nothing was in his thoughts but his guilt and torment whiles he was yet in his blood thou saidst This Soul shall live Ere yet the intoxicating Potion could have time to work upon his brain thy Spirit infuses Faith into his heart He that before had nothing in his eye but present death and torture is now lifted up above his Crosse in a blessed ambition Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome Is this the voice of a Thief
let you ye would fain pull upon your selves the guilt of his blood he deprecates it ye kill he sues for your remission and life His tongue cries louder then his blood Father forgive them O Saviour thou couldst not but be heard Those who out of ignorance and simplicity thus persecuted thee find the happy issue of thine intercession Now I see whence it was that three thousand souls were converted soon after at one Sermon It was not Peter's speech it was thy prayer that was thus effectual Now they have grace to know and confess whence they have both forgiveness and salvation and can recompence their blasphemies with thanksgiving What sin is there Lord whereof I can despair of the remission or what offence can I be unwilling to remit when thou prayest for the forgiveness of thy murderers and blasphemers There is no day so long but hath his evening At last O blessed Saviour thou art drawing to an end of these painful sufferings when spent with toil and torment thou criest out I thirst How shouldst thou do other O dear Jesu how shouldst thou do other then thirst The night thou hadst spent in watching in prayer in agony in thy conveyance from the Garden to Jerusalem from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilate in thy restless answers in buffetings and stripes the day in arraignments in haling from place to place in scourgings in stripping in robing and disrobing in bleeding in tugging under thy Cross in woundings and distension in pain and passion No marvel if thou thirstedst Although there was more in this drought then thy need It was no less requisite thou shouldst thirst then that thou shouldst dye Both were upon the same predetermination both upon the same prediction How else should that word be verified Psal 22. 14 15. All my bones are out of joynt my heart is like waxe it is melted in the midst of my bowels My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jawes and thou hast brought me into the dust of death Had it not been to make up that word whereof one jot cannot pass though thou hadst felt this thirst yet thou hadst not bewrayed it Alas what could it avail to bemoan thy wants to insulting enemies whose sport was thy misery How should they pity thy thirst that pitied not thy bloodshed It was not their favour that thou expectedst herein but their conviction O Saviour how can we thy sinful servants think much to be exercised with hunger and thirst when we hear thee thus complain Thou that not long since proclaimedst in the Temple If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters now thy self thirstest Thou in whom we believe complainest to want some drops thou hadst the command of all the waters both above the firmament and below it yet thou wouldst thirst Even so Lord thou that wouldst dye for us wouldst thirst for us O give me to thirst after those waters which thou promisest whatever become of those waters which thou wouldst want The time was when craving water of the Samaritan thou gavest better then that thou askedst Oh give me to thirst after that more precious Water and so do thou give me of that water of life that I may never thirst again Blessed God how marvelously dost thou contrive thine own affaires Thine enemies whiles they would despight thee shall unwittingly justifie thee and convince themselves As thou fore saidst In thy thirst they gave thee vineger to drink Had they given thee Wine thou hadst not taken it the night before thou hadst taken leave of that comfortable liquor resolving to drink no more of that sweet juice till thou shouldst drink it new with them in thy Fathers Kingdome Had they given thee Water they had not fulfilled that prediction whereby they were self-condemned I know not now O dear Jesu whether this last draught of thine were more pleasing to thee or more distastful Distastful in it self for what liquor could be equally harsh pleasing in that it made up those Sufferings thou wert to indure and those Prophesies thou wert to fulfil Now there is no more to doe thy full consummation of all predictions of all types and ceremonies of all sufferings of all satisfactions is happily both effected and proclaimed nothing now remains but a voluntary sweet and Heavenly resignation of thy Blessed Soul into the hands of thine eternal Father and a bowing of thine head for the change of a better Crown and a peaceable obdormition in thy bed of ease and honour and an instant entrance into rest triumph Glory And now O blessed Jesu how easily have carnal eyes all this while mistaken the passages and intentions of this thy last and most glorious work Our weakness could hitherto see nothing here but pain and ignominy now my better-inlightned eyes see in this elevation of thine both honour and happiness Lo thou that art the Mediator betwixt God and man the reconciler of Heaven and earth art lift up betwixt earth and Heaven that thou mightest accord both Thou that art the great Captain of our Salvation the conquerour of all the adverse powers of death and hell art exalted upon this Triumphal chariot of the Cross that thou mightest trample upon death and drag all those Infernal Principalities manicled after thee Those arms which thine enemies meant violently to extend are stretched forth for the imbracing of all mankind that shall come in for the benefit of thine all-sufficient redemption Even whiles thou sufferest thou reignest Oh the impotent madness of silly men They think to disgrace thee with wrie faces with tongues put out with bitter scoffs with poor wretched indignities when in the mean time the Heavens declare thy righteousness O Lord and the earth shews forth thy power The Sun pulls in his light as not abiding to see the sufferings of his Creator the Earth trembles under the sense of the wrong done to her Maker the Rocks renâ— the veile of the Temple teares from the top to the bottome shortly all the frame of the world acknowledges the dominion of that Son of God whom man despised Earth and Hell have done their worst O Saviour thou art in thy Paradise and triumphest over the malice of men and Devils The remainders of thy Sacred person are not yet free The Souldiers have parted thy garments and cast lots upon thy seamless coat those poor spoils cannot so much inrich them as glorifie thee whose Scriptures are fulfilled by their barbarous sortitions The Jews sue to have thy bones divided but they sue in vain No more could thy garments be whole then thy body could be broken One inviolable Decree over-rules both Foolish executioners ye look up at that crucified Body as if it were altogether in your power and mercy nothing appears to you but impotence and death little do ye know what an irresistible guard there is upon that Sacred
desire to save the labour of Transcriptions I found it not unfit the World should see what Preparative was given for so stirring a Potion neither can there be so much need in these languishing times of any discourse as that which serves to quicken our Mortification wherein I so much rejoyce to have so happily met with those Reverend Bishops who led the way and followed me in this Holy Service The God of Heaven make all our endeavours effectuall to the saving of the Souls of his people Amen A SERMON PREACHED To his Majestie on the Sunday before the Fast being March 30. at White-hall In way of preparation for that holy Exercise By the B. of EXCESTER Galat. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live c. HE that was once tossed in the confluence of two Seas Acts 27. 41. was once no lesse streightned in his resolutions betwixt life and death Phil. 1. 23. Neither doth my Text argue him in any other case here As there he knew not whether he should chuse so here he knew not whether he had I am crucified there he is dead yet I live there he is alive again yet not I there he lives not but Christ in me there he more then lives This holy correction makes my Text full of wonders full of sacred riddles 1. The living God is dead upon the Crosse Christ crucified 2. S. Paul who died by the sword dies on the Cross 3. S. Paul who was not Paul till after Christ's death is yet crucified with Christ 4. S. Paul thus crucified yet lives 5. S. Paul lives not himself whiles he lives 6. Christ who is crucified lives in Paul who was crucified with him See then here both a Lent and an Easter A Lent of Mortification I am crucified with Christ an Easter of Resurrection and life I live yet not I but Christ lives in me The Lent of my Text will be sufficient as proper for this season wherein my speech shall passe through three long stages of discourse Christ crucified S. Paul crucified S. Paul crucified with Christ In all which your Honourable and Christian patience shall as much shorten my way as my care shall shorten the way to your patience Christ's Cross is the first lesson of our infancy worthy to be our last and all The great Doctor of the Gentiles affected not to flie any higher pitch Grande crucis Sacramentum as Ambrose This is the greatest wonder that ever earth or heaven yielded God incarnate was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but God suffering and dying was so much more as Death is more penal then Birth The God-head of man and the blood of God are two such Miracles as the Angels of Heaven can never enough look into never admire enough Ruffin tells us that among the Sacred Characters of the Egyptians the Cross was antiently one which was said to signifie eternal life hence their Learneder sort were converted to and confirmed in the Faith Surely we know that in God's Hieroglyphicks Eternal Life is both represented and exhibited to us by the Crosse That the Crosse of Christ was made of the Tree of Life a slip whereof the Angels gave to Adam's son out of Paradise is but a Jewish Legend Galatine may believe it not we but that it is made the Tree of Life to all believers we are sure This is the only scale of Heaven never man ascended thither but by it By this Christ himself climb'd up to his own glory Dominus regnavit à ligno as Tertullian translates that of the Psalm Father glorifie thy name that is saith he Duc me ad crucem Lift me up to the tree not of my shame but of my triumph Behold we preach Christ crucified saith Saint Paul to the Jews a stumbling-block to the Greeks foolishnesse but to them which are called Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1. 23. Foolish men that stumble at power and deride wisdome Upbraid us now ye fond Jews and Pagans with a Crucified Saviour It is our glory it is our happinesse which ye make our reproach Had not our Saviour died he could have been no Saviour for us had not our Saviour died we could not have lived See now the flag of our dear Redeemer this Cross shining eminently in loco pudoris in our foreheads and if we had any place more high more conspicuous more honourable there we would advance it O blessed Jesu when thou art thus lifted up on thy Cross thou drawest all hearts unto thee there thou leadest captivity captive and givest gifts unto men Ye are deceived O ye blinde Jews and Painims ye are deceived it is not a Gibbet it is a Throne of Honour to which our Saviour is raised a Throne of such Honour as to which Heaven and earth and hell do and must vail The Sun hides his awfull head the earth trembles the rocks rend the graves open and all the frame of Nature doth homage to their Lord in this secret but Divine pomp of Crucifixion And whiles ye think his feet and hands despicably fixed behold he is powerfully trampling upon Hell and Death and setting up trophees of his most glorious Victory and scattering everlasting Crowns and Scepters unto all Believers O Saviour I do rather more adore thee on the Calvary of thy Passion then on the Tabor of thy Transsiguration or the Olivet of thine Ascension and cannot so effectuously blesse thee for Pater clarifica Father glorifie me as for My God my God why hast thou forsaken me sith it is no news for God to be great and glorious but for the Eternal and ever-living God to be abased to be abased unto death to the death of the Cross is that which could not but amaze the Angels and confound Devils and so much more magnifies thine infinite Mercy by how much an infinite person would become more ignominious All Hosannas of men all Allellujahs of Saints and Angels come short of this Majestick humiliation Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Revel 5. 13. And ye Honourable and beloved as ever ye hope to make musick in Heaven learn to tune your harps to the note and ditty of these Heavenly Elders Rejoice in this and rejoice in nothing but this Cross not in your transitory Honours Titles Treasures which will at the last leave you inconsolately sorrowfull but in this Cross of Christ whereby the world is crucified to you and you to the world Oh clip and embrace this pretious Cross with both your arms and say with that blessed Martyr Amor meus crucifixus est My Love is crucified Those that have searched into the monuments of Jerusalem write that our Saviour was crucified with his face to the West which howsoever spightfully meant of the Jews as not allowing him worthy to look on the Holy City and Temple yet was not without a mysterie Oculi ejus super Gentes respiciunt
upon but discursive In matters of faith if reasons may be brought for the conviction of the gain-sayers it is well if they be helps they cannot be grounds of our belief In the most faithful heart there are some sparks of infidelity so to believe that we should have no doubt at all is scarce incident unto flesh and blood It is a great perfection if we have attained to overcome our doubts What did mislead Zacharie but that which uses to guide others Reason I am old and my wife is of great age As if years and drie loines could be any let to him which is able of very stones to raise up children unto Abraham Faith and reason have their limits where reason ends faith begins and if reason will be encroaching upon the bounds of faith she is straight taken captive by infidelity We are not fit to follow Christ if we have not denied our selves and the chief piece of our selves is our reason We must yield God able to doe that which we cannot comprehend and we must comprehend that by our faith which is disclaimed by reason Hagar must be driven out of doors that Sara may rule alone The authority of the reporter makes way for belief in things which are otherwise hard to passe although in the matters of God we should not so much care who speaks as what is spoken and from whom The Angel tells his name place office unasked that Zacharie might not think any news impossible that was brought him by an heavenly messenger Even where there is no use of language the spirits are distinguished by names and each knows his own appellation and others He that gave leave unto man his Image to give names unto all his visible and inferiour creatures did himself put names unto the spiritual and as their name is so are they mighty and glorious But lest Zacharie should no lesse doubt of the stile of the messenger then of the errand it self he is at once both confirmed and punished with dumbness That tongue which moved the doubt must be tyed up He shall ask no more questions for forty weeks because he asked this one distrustfully Neither did Zacharie lose his tongue for the time but his ears also he was not onely mute but deaf For otherwise when they came to ask his allowance for the name of his Son they needed not to have demanded it by signs but by words God will not passe over slight offences and those which may plead the most colourable pretences in his best children without a sensible check it is not our holy entireness with God that can bear us out in the least sin yea rather the more acquaintance we have with his Majesty the more sure we are of correction when we offend This may procure us more favour in our well-doing not lesse justice in evil Zacharie staied and the people waited whether some longer discourse betwixt the Angel and him then needed to be recorded or whether astonishment at the apparition and news withheld him I inquire not the multitude thought him long yet though they could but see afar off they would not depart till he returned to blesse them Their patient attendance without shames us that are hardly perswaded to attend within whiles both our senses are imploied in our divine services and we are admitted to be co-agents with our Ministers At last Zacharie comes out speechlesse and more amazes them with his presence then with his delay The eyes of the multitude that were not worthy to see his vision yet see the signs of his vision that the world might be put into the exspectation of some extraordinary sequell GOD makes way for his voice by silence His speech could not have said so much as his dumbness Zacharie would fain have spoken and could not with us too many are dumb and need not Negligence Fear Partiality stop the mouthes of many which shall once say Woe to me because I held my peace His hand speaks that which he cannot with his tongue and he makes them by signs to understand that which they might read in his face Those powers we have we must use But though he have ceased to speak yet he ceased not to minister He takes not this dumbness for a dismission but stayes out the eight daies of his course as one that knew the eyes and hands and heart would be accepted of that God which had bereaved him of his tongue We may not straight take occasions of withdrawing our selves from the publick services of our God much lesse under the Gospel The Law which stood much upon bodily perfection dispensed with age for attendance The Gospel which is all for the Soul regards those inward powers which whiles they are vigorous exclude all excuses of our ministration The Annunciation of CHRIST THE Spirit of GOD was never so accurate in any description as that which concerns the Incarnation of GOD. It was fit no circumstance should be omitted in that Story whereon the faith salvation of all the World dependeth We cannot so much as doubt of this truth and be saved no not the number of the moneth not the name of the Angel is concealed Every particle imports not more certainty then excellence The time is the sixth moneth after John's Conception the prime of the Spring Christ was conceived in the Spring born in the Solstice He in whom the World received a new life receives life in the same season wherein the World received his first life from him and he which stretches out the dayes of his Church and lengthens them to Eternitie appeares after all the short and dimme light of the Law and enlightens the World with his glory The Messenger is an Angel A man was too mean to carry the news of the Conception of God Never any businesse was conceived in Heaven that did so much concerne the earth as the Conception of the GOD of Heaven in Womb of earth No lesse then an Arch-Angel was worthy to bear this tydings and never any Angel received a greater honour then of this Embassage It was fit our reparation should answer our fall An evil Angel was the first motioner of the one to Eve a Virgin then espoused to Adam in the Garden of Eden a good Angell is the first reporter of the other to Mary a Virgin espoused to Joseph in that place which as the Garden of Galilee had a name from flourishing No good Angel could be the Author of our restauration as that evil Angel was of our ruine But that which those glorious Spirits could not doe themselves they are glad to report as done by the God of Spirits Good news rejoices the bearer With what joy did this holy Angel bring the news of that Saviour in whom we are redeemed to life himself established in life and glory The first Preacher of the Gospel was an Angel That office must needs be glorious that derives it self from such a Predecessor God appointed his Angel to be the first
Preacher and hath since called his Preachers Angels The message is well suited An Angel comes to a Virgin Gabriel to Mary He that was by signification the strength of God to her that was by signification exalted by God to the conceiving of him that was the God of strength to a Maid but espoused a Maid for the honour of Virginity espoused for the honour of Marriage The marriage was in a sort made not consummate through the instinct of him that meant to make her not an example but a miracle of women In this whole work God would have nothing ordinary It was fit that she should be a married Virgin which should be a Virgin mother He that meant to take mans nature without mans corruption would be the Son of man without mans seed would be the seed of the woman without man and amongst all women of a pure Virgin but amongst Virgins of one espoused that there might be at once a Witness and a Guardian of her fruitful Virginity If the same God had not been the authour of Virginity and Marriage he had never countenanced Virginity by Marriage Whether doth this glorious Angel come to finde the Mother of him that was GOD but to obscure Galilee A part which even the Jewes themselves despised as forsaken of their priviledges Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Behold an Angel comes to that Galilee out of which no Prophet comes and the God of Prophets and Angels descends to be conceived in that Galilee out of which no Prophet ariseth He that filleth all places makes no difference of places It is the person which gives honour and priviledge to the place not the place to the person as the presence of God makes the Heaven the Heaven doth not make the honour glorious No blinde corner of Nazareth can hide the blessed Virgin from the Angel The favours of God will finde out his children wheresoever they are withdrawn It is the fashion of God to seek out the most despised on whom to bestow his honours We cannot run away as from the judgements so not from the mercies of our God The cottages of Galilee are preferred by God to the famous Palaces of Jerusalem he cares not how homely he converse with his own Why should we be transported with the outward glory of places whiles our God regards it not We are not of the Angels diet if we had not rather be with the blessed Virgin at Nazareth then with the proud Dames in the Court of Jerusalem It is a great vanity to respect any thing above goodness and to disesteem goodness for any want The Angel salutes the Virgin he prayes not to her he salutes her as a Saint he prayes not to her as a Goddess For us to salute her as he did were grosse presumption for neither are we as he was neither is she as she was If he that was a Spirit saluted her that was flesh and blood here on earth it is not for us that are flesh and blood to salute her which is a glorious Spirit in Heaven For us to pray to her in the Angels salutation were to abuse the Virgin the Angel the salutation But how gladly doe we second the Angel in the praise of her which was more ours then his How justly doe we blesse her whom the Angel pronounceth blessed How worthily is she honoured of men whom the Angel proclaimeth beloved of God O blessed Mary he cannot blesse thee he cannot honour thee too much that deifies thee not That which the Angel said of thee thou hast prophesied of thy self we believe the Angel and thee All Generations shall call thee blessed by the fruit of whose womb all Generations are blessed If Zachary were amazed with the sight of this Angel much more the Virgin That very Sex had more disadvantage of fear If it had been but a man that had come to her in that secrecie and suddenness she could not but have been troubled how much more when the shining glory of the person doubled the astonishment The troubles of holy mindes end ever in comfort Joy was the errand of the Angel and not terrour Fear as all passions disquiets the heart and makes it for the time unfit to receive the messages of God Soon hath the Angel cleared these troublesome mists of passions and sent out the beams of heavenly consolation in the remotest corner of her soul by the glad news of her Saviour How can joy but enter into her heart out of whose womb shall come salvation What room can fear finde in that breast that is assured of favour Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God Let those fear who know they are in displeasure or know not they are gracious Thine happy estate calls for confidence and that confidence for joy What should what can they fear who are favoured of him at whom the Devils tremble Not the presence of the good Angels but the temptations of the evil strike many terrors into our weaknesse we could not be dismaied with them if we did not forget our condition We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father If that Spirit O God witnesse with our spirits that we are thine how can we fear any of those spirituall wickednesses Give us assurance of thy favour and let the powers of Hell doe their worst It was no ordinary favour that the Virgin found in Heaven No mortall Creature was ever thus graced that he should take part of her nature that was the God of Nature that he which made all things should make his humane body of hers that her womb should yield that flesh which was personally united to the Godhead that she should bear him that upholds the world Loe thou shalt conceive and bear a Son and shalt call his name Jesus It is a question whether there be more wonder in the Conception or in the Fruit the Conception of the Virgin or Jesus conceived Both are marvellous but the former doth not more exceed all other wonders then the latter exceedeth it For the childe of a Virgin is the reimprovement of that power which created the world but that God should be incarnate of a Virgin was an abasement of his Majestie and an exaltation of the creature beyond all example Well was that Child worthy to make the mother blessed Here was a double Conception one in the wombe of her body the other of the soul If that were more miraculous this was more beneficiall that was her priviledge this was her happinesse If that were singular to her this is common to all his chosen There is no renewed heart wherein thou O Saviour art not formed again Blessed be thou that hast herein made us blessed For what womb can conceive thee and not partake of thee Who can partake of thee and not be happy Doubtlesse the Virgin understood the Angel as he meant of a present Conception which made her so much
the time for Shilo to come No power was left in the Jewes but to obey Augustus is the Emperor of the World under him Herod is the King of Judaea Cyrenius is president of Syria Jurie hath nothing of her own For Herod if he were a King yet he was no Jew and if he had been a Jew yet he was no otherwise a King then tributary and titular The Edict came out from Augustus was executed by Cyrenius Herod is no actor in this service Gain and glory are the ends of this taxation each man profest himself a subject and paid for the priviledge of his servitude Now their very heads were not their own but must be payed for to the head of a forrein Seate They which before stood upon the termes of their immunitie stoop at the last The proud suggestions of Judas the Galilean might shed their blood and swell their stomacks but could not ease their yoak neither was it the meaning of God that holinesse if they had been as they pretended should shelter them from subjection A Tribute is imposed upon Gods free people This act of bondage brings them liberty Now when they seemed most neglected of God they are blessed with a Redeemer when they are most pressed with forrein Soveraignty God sends them a King of their own to whom Caesar himself must be a subject The goodnesse of our God picks out the most needfull times of our relief and comfort Our extremities give him the most glory Whither must Joseph and Marie come to be taxed but unto David's Citie The very place proves their descent He that succeeded David in his Throne must succeed him in the place of his Birth So clearly was Bethleem designed to this honour by the Prophets that even the Priests and the Scribes could point Herod unto it and assured him the King of the Jews could be no where else born Bethleem justly the house of bread the bread that came down from Heaven is there given to the world whence should we have the bread of life but from the house of bread O holy David was this the Well of Bethleem whereof thou didst so thirst to drink of old when thou saidst O that one would give me drink of the water of the Well of Bethleem Surely that other water when it was brought thee by thy Worthies thou pouredst it on the ground and wouldst not drink of it This was that living Water for which thy soul longed whereof thou saidst elsewhere As the Hart brayeth after the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God It was no lesse then four daies journey from Nazareth to Bethleem How just an excuse might the Blessed Virgin have pleaded for her absence What woman did ever undertake such a journey so near her delivery And doubtlesse Joseph which was now taught of God to love and honour her was loath to draw forth a dear wife in so unwieldy a case into so manifest hazard But the charge was peremptory the obedience exemplary The desire of an inoffensive observance even of Heathenish authority digests all difficulties We may not take easie occasions to withdraw our obedience to supreme commands Yea how didst thou O Saviour by whom Augustus reigned in the Womb of thy Mother yield this homage to Augustus The first lesson that ever thy example taught us was Obedience After many steps are Joseph and Mary come to Bethleem The plight wherein she was would not allow any speed and the forced leisure of the journey causeth disappointment the end was worse then the way there was no rest in the way there was no room in the Inne It could not be but that there were many of the kindred of Joseph and Mary at that time in Bethleem for both there were their Ancestors born if not themselves and thither came up all the Cousins of their blood yet there and then doth the holy Virgin want room to lay either her head or her burthen If the house of David had not lost all mercy and good nature a Daughter of David could not so near the time of her travel have been destitute of lodging in the City of David Little did the Bethleemites think what a guest they refused else they would gladly have opened their doors to him which was able to open the gates of Heaven to them Now their inhospitality is punishment enough to it self They have lost the honour and happinesse of being host to their God Even still O blessed Saviour thou standest at our doors and knockest every motion of thy good Spirit tells us thou art there Now thou comest in thine own name and there thou standest whiles thy head is full of dew and thy locks wet with the drops of the night If we suffer carnal desires and worldly thoughts to take up the lodging of our heart and revel within us whiles thou waitest upon our admission surely our judgement shall be so much the greater by how much better we know whom we have excluded What do we cry shame on the Bethleemites whilest we are wilfully more churlish more unthankfull There is no room in my heart for the wonder at this humility He for whom Heaven is too streight whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain lies in the streight cabbin of the womb and when he would inlarge himself for the world is not allowed the room of an Inne The many mansions of Heaven were at his disposing the Earth was his and the fulnesse of it yet he suffers himself to be refused of a base cottage and complaineth not What measure should discontent us wretched men when thou O God farest thus from thy creatures How should we learn both to want and abound from thee which abounding with the glory and riches of heaven wouldst want a lodging in thy first welcome to the earth Thou camest to thine own and thy own received thee not How can it trouble us to be rejected of the world which is not ours What wonder is it if thy servants wandred abroad in sheeps skins and goats skins destitute and afflicted when their Lord is denyed harbour How should all the world blush at this indignity of Bethleem He that came to save men is sent for his first lodging to the beasts the stable is become his Inne the cratch his bed O strange cradle of that great King which heaven it self may envy O Saviour thou that wert both the Maker and Owner of Heaven of Earth couldst have made thee a Palace without hands couldst have commanded thee an empty room in those houses which thy creatures had made When thou didst but bid the Angels avoid their first place they fell down from Heaven like lightning and when in thy humbled estate thou didst but say I am he who was able to stand before thee How easie had it been for thee to have made place for thy self in the throngs of the stateliest Courts Why wouldst thou be thus homely but that
by contemning worldly glories thou mightest teach us to contemn them that thou mightest sanctifie poverty to them whom thou calledst unto want that since thou which hadst the choice of all earthly conditions wouldst be born poor and despised those which must want out of necessity might not think their poverty grievous Here was neither friend to entertain nor servant to attend nor place wherein to be attended onely the poor beasts gave way to the God of all the world It is the great mysterie of Godlinesse that God was manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels but here which was the top of all wonders the very beasts might see their Maker For those spirits to see God in the flesh it was not so strange as for the brute creatures to see him which was the God of spirits He that would be led into the wildernesse amongst wilde beasts to be tempted would come into the house of beasts to be born that from the height of his divine glory his humiliation might be the greater How can we be abased low enough for thee O Saviour that hast thus neglected thy self for us That the visitation might be answerable to the homelinesse of the place attendants provision who shall come to congratulate his birth but poor shepherds The 〈◊〉 of the earth rest at home and have no summons to attend him by whom they reign God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty In an obscure time the night unto obscure men shepherds doth God manifest the light of his Son by glorious Angels It is not our meannesse O God that can exclude us from the best of thy mercies yea thus far dost thou respect persons that thou hast put down the mighty and exalted them of low degree If these shepherds had been snorting in their beds they had no more seen Angels nor heard news of their Saviour then their neighbours their vigilancy is honoured with this heavenly vision Those which are industrious in any calling are capable of further blessings whereas the idle are fit for nothing but temptation No lesse then a whole Chore of Angels are worthy to sing the hymn of Glory to God for the incarnation of his Son What joy is enough for us whose nature he took and whom he came to restore by his incarnation If we had the tongues of Angels we could not raise this note high enough to the praise of our glorious Redeemer No sooner doe the Shepherds hear the news of a Saviour then they run to Bethleem to seeke him Those that left their beds to tend their flocks leave their flocks to enquire after their Saviour No earthly thing is too dear to be forsaken for Christ If we suffer any worldly occasion to stay us from Bethleem we care more for our sheep then our souls It is not possible that a faithfull heart should heare where Christ is and not labour to the sight to the fruition of him Where art thou O Saviour but at home in thine own house in the assembly of thy Saints where art thou to be found but in thy Word and Sacraments yea there thou seekest for us if there we hast not to seek for thee we are worthy to want thee worthy that our want of thee here should make us want the presence of thy face for ever The Sages and the Star THE Shepherds and the Cratch accorded well yet even they saw nothing which they might not contemn neither was there any of those shepherds that seemed not more like a King then that King whom they came to see But oh the Divine Majesty that shined in this baseness There lies the Babe in the stable crying in the manger whom the Angels came down from heaven to proclaim whom the Sages come from the East to adore whom an heavenly Star notifies to the world that now men might see that Heaven and earth serves him that neglected himself Those lights that hang low are not far seen but those which are high placed are equally seen in the remotest distances Thy light O Saviour was no lesse then heavenly The East saw that which Bethleem might have seen oft-times those which are neerest in place are farthest off in affection Large objects when they are too close to the eye doe so overfill the sense that they are not discerned What a shame is this to Bethleem the Sages came out of the East to worship him whom that village refused The Bethleemites were Jews the wise-men Gentiles This first entertainment of Christ was a presage of the sequel The Gentiles shall come from far to adore Christ whiles the Jews reject him Those Easterlings were great searchers of the depths of Nature professed Philosophers them hath God singled out to the honour of the manifestation of Christ Humane Learning well improved makes us capable of Divine There is no Knowledge whereof God is not the Authour he would never have bestowed any gift that should lead us away from himself It is an ignorant conceit that inquiry into Nature should make men Atheous No man is so apt to see the Star of Christ as a diligent disciple of Philosophy Doubtless this light was visible 〈…〉 onely they followed it which knew it had more then Nature he 〈…〉 that is wise for his own soul If these wise men had been acquainted with all the other stars of heaven and had not seen the Star of Christ they had had but light enough to lead them into utter darkness Philosophy without this Star is but the wisp of Errour These Sages were in a mean between the Angels and the Shepherds God would in all the ranks of intelligent Creatures have some to be witnesses of his Son The Angels direct the Shepherds the Star guides the Sages The duller capacity hath the more clear and powerful helps the wisdome of our good God proportions the means unto the disposition of the persons Their Astronomy had taught them this Star was not ordinary whether in sight or in brightness or in motion The eyes of Nature might well see that some strange news was portended to the world by it but that this Star designed the birth of the Messias there needed yet another light If the Star had not besides had the commentary of a revelation from God it could have led the wise-men onely into a fruitless wonder Give them to be the offspring of Balaam yet the true prediction of that false Prophet was not enough warrant If he told them the Messias should arise as a Star out of Jacob he did not tell them that a Star should arise far from the posterity of Jacob at the birth of the Messias He that did put that Prophesie into the mouth of Balaam did also put this illumination into the heart of the Sages The Spirit of God is free to breathe where he listeth Many shall come from the East and the West to seek Christ when the Children of the Kingdome shall be shut out Even then God did not
should give place to the God of Spirits How well contented was holy Mary with so just an answer how doth she now again in her heart renew her answer to the Angel Behold the servant of the Lord be it according to thy word We are all the Sons of God in another kinde Nature and the World thinks we should attend them We are not worthy to say we have a Father in Heaven if we cannot steal away from these earthly distractions and imploy our selves in the services of our God Christ's Baptism JOHN did every way forerun Christ not so much in the time of his Birth as in his office Neither was there more unlikeliness in their Disposition and carriage then similitude in their Function Both did preach and baptize only John baptized by himself our Saviour by his Disciples our Saviour wrought miracles by himself by his Disciples John wrought none by either Wherein Christ meant to shew himself a Lord and John a servant and John meant to approve himself a true servant to him whose harbinger he was He that leapt in the womb of his mother when his Saviour then newly conceived came in presence bestir'd himself when he was brought forth into the light of the Church to the honour and service of his Saviour he did the same before Christ which Christ charged his Disciples to do after him Preach and Baptize The Gospel ran alwaies in one tenor and was never but like it self So it became the Word of him in whom there is no shadow by turning and whose Word it is I am Jehova I change not It was fit that he which had the Prophets the Star the Angel to foretell his coming into the world should have his Usher to goe before him when he would notifie himself to the world John was the voice of a Cryer Christ was the Word of his Father it was fit this Voice should make a noise to the world ere the Word of the Father should speak to it John's note was still Repentance the Axe to the root the Fan to the floor the Chaffe to the fire as his raiment was rough so was his tongue and if his food were wilde Hony his speech was stinging Locusts Thus must the way be made for Christ in every heart Plausibility is no fit preface to Regeneration If the heart of man had continued upright God might have been entertained without contradiction but now violence must be offered to our corruption ere we can have room for Grace If the great Way-maker do not cast down hills and raise up valleys in the bosomes of men there is no passage for Christ Never will Christ come into that Soul where the Herald of Repentance hath not been before him That Saviour of ours who from eternity lay hid in the Counsel of God who in the fulness of time so came that he lay hid in the womb of his mother for the space of forty weeks after he was come thought fit to lye hid 〈◊〉 Nazareth for the space of thirty years now at last begins to shew himself to the world and comes from Galilee to Jordan He that was God alwaies and might have been perfect man in an instant would by degrees rise to the perfection both of his Manhood and execution of his Mediatorship to teach us the necessity of leasure in spiritual proceedings that many Suns and successions of seasons and means must be stayed for ere we can attain our maturity and that when we are ripe for the imployments of God we should no lesse willingly leave our obscurity then we took the benefit of it for our preparation He that was formerly circumcised would now be baptized What is Baptism but an Evangelical Circumcision What was Circumcision but a Legal Baptism One both supplied and succeeded the other yet the Authour of both will undergoe both He would be circumcised to sanctifie his Church that was and baptized to sanctifie his Church that should be that so in both Testaments he might open a way into Heaven There was in him neither filthiness nor foreskin of corruption that should need either knife or water He came not to be a Saviour for himself but for us we are all uncleanness and uncircumcision he would therefore have that done to his most pure body which should be of force to clear our impure Souls thus making himself sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him His Baptism gives virtue to ours His last action or rather passion was his baptizing with blood his first was his baptization with water both of them wash the world from their sins Yea this latter did not onely wash the souls of men but washeth that very water by which we are washed from hence is that made both clean and holy and can both cleanse and hallow us And if the very handkerchief which touched his Apostles had power of cure how much more that Water which the sacred body of Christ touched Christ comes far to seek his baptism to teach us for whose sake he was baptized to wait upon the Ordinances of God and to sue for the favour of spiritual blessings They are worthlesse commodities that are not worth seeking for It is rarely seen that God is found of any man unsought for that desire which only makes us capable of good things cannot stand with neglect John durst not baptize unbidden his Master sent him to doe this service and behold the Master comes to his servant to call for the participation of that priviledge which he himself had instituted and injoyned How willingly should we come to our spiritual Superiours for our part in those mysteries which God hath left in their keeping yea how gladly should we come to that Christ who gives us these blessings who is given to us in them This seemed too great an honour for the modesty of John to receive If his mother could say when her blessed cousin the Virgin Mary came to visit her Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me how much more might he say so when the Divine Son of that mother came to call for a favour from him I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me O holy Baptist if there were not a greater born of woman then thou yet thou couldest not be born of a woman and not need to be baptized of thy Saviour He baptized with fire thou with water Little would thy water have availed thee without his fire If he had not baptized thee how wert thou sanctified from the womb There can be no flesh without filthiness neither thy supernatural Conception nor thy austere life could exempt thee from the need of Baptism Even those that have not lived to sin after the similitude of Adam yet are they so tainted with Adam that unless the second Adam cleanse them by his Baptism they are hopeless There is no less use of Baptism unto all then there is certainty of
At leastwise he will counterfeit an imitation of the Son of God Neither is it in this alone what one act ever passed the hand of God which Satan did not apishly attempt to second If we follow Christ in the outward action with contrary intentions we follow Satan in following Christ Or perhaps Satan meant to make Christ hereby weary of this weapon As we see fashions when they are taken up of the unworthy are cast off by the Great It was doubtlesse one cause why Christ afterward forbad the Devil even to confesse the Truth because his mouth was a stander But chiefly doth he this for a better colour of his Tentation He gilds over this false metall with Scripture that it may passe current Even now is Satan transformed into an Angel of Light and will seem godly for a mischief If Hypocrites make a fair shew to deceive with a glorious lustre of Holinesse we see whence they borrowed it How many thousand souls are betraied by the abuse of that Word whose use is soveraign and saving No Devil is so dangerous as the religious Devil If good meat turn to the nourishment not of Nature but of the Disease we may not forbear to feed but endeavour to purge the body of those evil humours which cause the stomach to work against it self O God thou that hast given us light give us clear and sound eyes that we may take comfort of that Light thou hast given us Thy Word is holy make our hearts so and then shall they finde that Word not more true then cordial Let not this Divine Table of thine be made a snare to our souls What can be a better act then to speak Scripture It were a wonder if Satan should do a good thing well He cites Scripture then but with mutilation and distortion it comes not out of his mouth but maimed and perverted One piece is left all misapplied Those that wrest or mangle Scripture for their own turn it is easie to see from what School they come Let us take the Word from the Author not from the Usurper David would not doubt to eat that sheep which he pulled out of the mouth of the Bear or Lion He shall give his Angels charge over thee Oh comfortable assurance of our protection God's children never goe unattended Like unto great Princes we walk ever in the midst of our guard though invisible yet true careful powerful What creatures are so glorious as the Angels of Heaven yet their Maker hath set them to serve us Our Adoption makes us at once great and safe We may be contemptible and ignominious in the eyes of the world but the Angels of God observe us the while and scorn not to wait upon us in our homeliest occasions The Sun or the Light may we keep out of our houses the Aire we cannot much lesse these Spirits that are more simple and immaterial No walls no bolts can sever them from our sides they accompany us in dungeons they goe with us into our exile How can we either fear danger or complain of solitarinesse whiles we have so unseparable so glorious Companions Is our Saviour distasted with Scripture because Satan mis-laies it in his dish Doth he not rather snatch this sword out of that impure hand beat Satan with the weapon which he abuseth It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God The Scripture is one as that God whose it is Where it carries an appearance of difficulty or inconvenience it needs no light to clear it but that which it hath in it self All doubts that may arise from it are fully answered by collation It is true that God hath taken this care and given this charge of his own he will have them kept not in their sins they may trust him they may not tempt him he meant to incourage their Faith not their Presumption To cast our selves upon any immediate Providence when means fail not is to disobey in stead of believing God We may challenge God on his Word we may not strain him beyond it we may make account of what he promised we may not subject his Promises to unjust examinations and where no need is make triall of his Power Justice Mercy by devices of our own All the Devils in Hell could not elude the force of this Divine answer and now Satan sees how vainly he tempteth Christ to tempt God Yet again for all this do I see him setting upon the Son of God Satan is not foiled when he is resisted Neither diffidence nor presumption can fasten upon Christ he shall be tried with Honour As some expert Fencer that challenges at all weapons so doth his great Enemy In vain shall we plead our skill in some if we fail in any It must be our wisedome to be prepared for all kinde of assaults as those that hold Towns and Forts do not only defend themselves from incursions but from the Cannon and the Pionier Still doth that subtil Serpent traverse his ground for an advantage The Temple is not high enough for his next Tentation he therefore carries up Christ to the top of an exceeding high Mountain All enemies in pitcht fields strive for the benefit of the Hill or River or Wind or Sun That which his servant Balac did by his instigation himself doth now immediately change places in hope of prevailing If the obscure country will not move us he tries what the Court can do if not our home the Tavern if not the field our closer As no place is left free by his malice so no place must be made prejudicial by our carelesnesse and as we should alwaies watch over our selves so then most when the opportunity carries cause of suspicion Wherefore is Christ carried up so high but for prospect If the Kingdomes of the earth and their glory were only to be presented to his imagination the Valley would have served if to the outward sense no Hill could suffice Circular bodies though small cannot be seen at once This shew was made to both divers Kingdomes lying round about Judea were represented to the eye the glory of them to the imagination Satan meant the eye could tempt the fancy no less then the fancie could tempt the will How many thousand souls have died of the wound of the eye If we do not let in sin at the window of the eye or the door of the eare it cannot enter into our hearts If there be any pomp majestie pleasure bravery in the world where should it be but in the Courts of Princes whom God hath made his Images his Deputies on earth There is soft rayment sumptuous feasts rich jewels honourable attendance glorious triumphs royal state these Satan laies out to the fairest shew But oh the craft of that old Serpent Many a care attends Greatnesse No Crown is without thorns High seats are never but uneasie All those infinite discontentments which are the shadow of earthly Soveraigntie he hides out of the way nothing may
the cure of his sons Fever What pains even the greatest can be content to take for bodily health No way is long no labour tedious to the desirous Our Souls are sick of a spiritual Fever labouring under the cold fit of Infidelity and the hot fit of Self-love and we sit still at home and see them languish unto death This Ruler was neither faithless nor faithful Had he been quite faithless he had not taken such pains to come to Christ Had he been faithful he had not made this suit to Christ when he was come Come down and heal my son ere he die Come down as if Christ could not have cured him absent Ere he die as if that power could not have raised him being dead How much difference was here betwixt the Centurion and the Ruler That came for his Servant this for his Son This son was not more above the servant then the Faith which sued for the servant surpassed that which sued for the son The one can say Master come not under my roof for I am not worthy onely speak the word and my servant shall be whole The other can say Master either come under my roof or my son cannot be whole Heal my son had been a good suit for Christ is the onely Physician for all diseases but Come down and heal him was to teach God how to work It is good reason that he should challenge the right of prescribing to us who are every way his own it is presumption in us to stint him unto our forms An expert workman cannot abide to be taught by a novice how much less shall the all-wise God endure to be directed by his creature This is more then if the Patient should take upon him to give a Recipe to the Physician That God would give us grace is a beseeming suit but to say Give it me by prosperitie is a sawcy motion As there is faithfulness in desiring the End so modesty and patience in referring the Means to the author In spiritual things God hath acquainted us with the means whereby he will work even his own Sacred Ordinances Upon these because they have his own promise we may call absolutely for a Blessing In all others there is no reason that beggers should be chusers He who doth whatsoever he will must doe it how he will It is for us to receive not to appoint He who came to complain of his son's sickness hears of his own Except ye see signes and wonders ye will not believe This Nobleman was as is like of Capernaum There had Christ often preached there was one of his chief residencies Either this man had heard our Saviour oft or might have done yet because Christ's Miracles came to him onely by hear-say for as yet we finde none at all wrought where he preached most therefore the man believes not enough but so speaks to Christ as to some ordinary Physician Come down and heal It was the common disease of the Jews Incredulity which no receit could heal but Wonders A wicked and adulterous generation seeks signes Had they not been wilfully graceless there was already proof enough of the Messias the miraculous conception and life of the Fore-runner Zacharie's dumbness the attestation of Angels the apparition of the Star the journey of the Sages the vision of the Shepherds the testimonies of Anna and Simeon the Prophecies fulfilled the Voice from Heaven at his Baptisme the Divine words that he spake and yet they must have all made up with Miracles which though he be not unwilling to give at his own times yet he thinks much to be tied unto at theirs Not to believe without signes was a signe of stubborn hearts It was a foul fault and a dangerous one Ye will not believe What is it that shall condemn the world but unbelief What can condemn us without it No sin can condemn the repentant Repentance is a fruit of Faith where true Faith is then there can be no condemnation as there can be nothing but condemnation without it How much more foul in a noble Capernaite that had heard the Sermons of so Divine a Teacher The greater light we have the more shame it is for us to stumble Oh what shall become of us that reel and fall in the clearest Sun-shine that ever looked forth upon any Church Be merciful to our sins O God and say any thing of us rather then Ye will not believe Our Saviour tels him of his unbelief He feels not himself sick of that disease All his minde is on his dying son As easily do we complain of bodily griefs as we are hardly affected with spiritual Oh the meekness and mercy of this Lamb of God! When we would have look'd that he should have punished this suitor for not believing he condescends to him that he may believe Go thy way thy son liveth If we should measure our hopes by our own worthiness there were no exspectation of blessings but if we shall measure them by his bounty and compassion there can be no doubt of prevailing As some tender mother that gives the breast to her unquiet childe in stead of the rod so deals he with our perversnesses How God differences men according to no other conditions then of their Faith The Centurion's servant was sick the Ruler's son The Centurion doth not sue unto Christ to come onely sayes My servant is sick of a Palsie Christ answers him I will come and heal him The Ruler sues unto Christ that he would come and heal his son Christ will not goe onely sayes Goe thy way thy Son lives Outward things carrie no respect with God The Image of that Divine Majesty shining inwardly in the Graces of the Soul is that which wins love from him in the meanest estate The Centurion's Faith therefore could doe more then the Ruler's Greatness and that faithful mans servant hath more regard then this great mans son The Ruler's request was Come and heale Christ's answer was Goe thy way thy Son lives Our merciful Saviour meets those in the end whom he crosses in the way How sweetly doth he correct our prayers and whiles he doth not give us what we ask gives us better then we asked Justly doth he forbear to goe down with this Ruler lest he should confirm him in an opinion of measuring his power by conceits of locality and distance but he doth that in absence for which his presence was required with a repulse Thy Son liveth giving a greater demonstration of his Omnipotencie then was craved How oft doth he not hear to our will that he may hear us to our advantage The chosen Vessel would be rid of Tentations he heares of a supply of Grace The sick man asks Release receives Patience Life and receives Glory Let us ask what we think best let him give what he knows best With one word doth Christ heal two Patients the son and the father the sons Fever the fathers Unbelief That operative word of our
waters and they could not but obey him now he speaks in the same language to the evil Spirit he intreats not he perswades not he commands Command argues Superiority He only is infinitely stronger then the strong one in possession Else where powers are matcht though with some inequality they tugge for the victory and without resistance yield nothing There are no fewer sorts of 〈◊〉 with Satan then with men Some have dealt with him by suit as the old Satanian hereticks and the present Indian Savages sacrificing to him that he hurt not Others by covenant conditioning their service upon his assistance as Witches and Magicians Others by insinuation of implicite compact as Charmers and Figure-casters Others by adjuration as the sons of Scaeva and modern Exorcists unwarrantably charging him by an higher name then their own None ever offered to deal with Satan by a direct and primary command but the God of Spirits The great Archangel when the strife was about the body of Moses commanded not but imprecated rather The Lord rebuke thee Satan It is only the God that made this Spirit an Angel of light that can command him now that he hath made himself the Prince of darkness If any created power dare to usurp a word of command he laughs at their presumption and knows them his vassals whom he dissembles to fear as his Lords It is thou only O Saviour at whose beck those stubborn Principalities of Hell yield and tremble No wicked man can be so much a slave to Satan as Satan is to thee The interposition of thy grace may defeat that dominion of Satan thy rule is absolute and capable of no lett What need we to fear whiles we are under so omnipotent a Commander The waves of the deep rage horribly yet the Lord is stronger then they Let those Principalities and Powers doe their worst Those mighty adversaries are under the command of him who loved us so well as to bleed for us What can we now doubt of His power or his will How can we professe him a God and doubt of his power How can we professe him a Saviour and doubt of his will He both can and will command those Infernal powers We are no lesse safe then they are malicious The Devil saw Jesus by the eyes of the Demoniack for the same saw that spake but it was the ill spirit that said I besecch thee torment me not It was sore against his will that he saw so dreadfull an object The over-ruling power of Christ dragged the soul spirit into his presence Guiltiness would fain keep out of sight The limmes of so wofull an head shall once call on the Hills and Rocks to hide them from the face of the Lamb such Lion-like terrour is in that milde face when it looks upon wickedness Neither shall it be one day the least part of the torment of the damned to see the most lovely spectacle that Heaven can afford He from whom they fled in his offers of Grace shall be so much more terrible as he was and is more gracious I marvel not therefore that the Devil when he saw Jesus cried out I could marvell that he fell down that he worshipped him That which the proud spirit would have had Christ to have done to him in his great Duell the same he now doth unto Christ fearfully servilely forcedly Who shall henceforth brag of the external homage he performs to the Son of God when he sees Satan himself fall down and worship What comfort can there be in that which is common to us with Devils who as they believe and tremble so they tremble and worship The outward bowing is the body of the action the disposition of the Soul is the soul of it therein lies the difference from the counterfeit stoopings of wicked men and spirits The religious heart serves the Lord in fear and rejoices in him with trembling What it doth is in way of service In service to his Lord whose Soveraignty is his comfort and protection in the fear of a son not of a slave in fear tempered with joy in a joy but allayed with trembling whereas the prostration of wicked men and Devils is only an act of form or of force as to their Judge as to their tormentor not as to their Lord in mere servility not in reverence in an uncomfortable dulness without all delight in a perfect horror without capacity of joy These worship without thanks because they fall down without the true affections of worship Whoso marvels to see the Devil upon his knees would much more marvel to hear what came from his mouth Jesu the Son of the most high God A confession which if we should hear without the name of the Author we should ask from what Saint it came Behold the same name given to Christ by the Devil which was formerly given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his name Jesus That awfull name whereat every knee shall bow in Heaven in earth and under the earth is called upon by this prostrate Devil And lest that should not import enough since others have been honoured by this name in Type he addes for full distinction The Son of the most high God The good Syrophenician and blind Bartimaeus could say The Son of David It was well to acknowledge the true descent of his pedigree according to the flesh but this infernall Spirit looks aloft and fetcheth his line out of the highest Heavens The Son of the most high God The famous confession of the prime Apostle which honoured him with a new name to immortality was no other then Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God and what other do I hear from the lips of a fiend None more Divine words could fall from the highest Saint Nothing hinders but that the veriest miscreant on earth yea the foulest Devil in Hell may speak holily It is no passing of judgment upon loose sentences So Peter should have been cast for a Satan in denying forswearing cursing and the Devil should have been set up for a Saint in confessing Jesus the Son of the most high God Fond hypocrite that pleasest thy self in talking well heare this Devil and when thou canst speak better then he look to fare better but in the mean time know that a smooth tongue and a foul heart carries away double judgments Let curious heads dispute whether the Devil knew Christ to be God In this I dare believe himself though in nothing else he knew what he believed what he believed that he confessed Jesus the Son of the most high God To the confusion of those semi-Christians that have either held doubtfully or ignorantly mis-known or blasphemously denied what the very Devils have professed How little can a bare speculation avail us in these cases of Divinity So far this Devil hath attained to no ease no comfort Knowledge alone doth but puffe up it is our love that edifies If there be not a sense of our sure interest in
this Jesus a power to apply his merits and obedience we are no whit the safer no whit the better only we are so much the wiser to understand who shall condemn us This piece of the clause was spoken like a Saint Jesus the Son of the most high God the other piece like a Devil What have I to doe with thee If the disclamation were universall the latter words would impugne the former for whiles he confesses Jesus to be the Son of the most high God he withall confesses his own inevitable subjection Wherefore would he beseech if he were not obnoxious He cannot he dare not say What hast thou to doe with me but What have I to doe with thee Others indeed I have vexed thee I fear In respect then of any violence of any personal provocation What have I to doe with thee And dost thou ask O thou evil spirit what hast thou to doe with Christ whiles thou vexest a servant of Christ Hast thou thy name from knowledge and yet so mistakest him whom thou confessest as if nothing could be done to him but what immediately concerns his own person Hear that great and just Judge sentencing upon his dreadfull Tribunal Inasmuch as thou didst it unto one of these little ones thou didst it unto me It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of the Members from the Head He that had humility enough to kneel to the Son of God hath boldnesse enough to expostulate Art thou come to torment us before our time Whether it were that Satan who useth to enjoy the torment of sinners whose musick it is to hear our shrieks and gnashings held it no small piece of his torment to be restrained in the exercise of his tyranny or whether the very presence of Christ were his rack for the guilty spirit projecteth terrible things and cannot behold the Judge or the executioner without a renovation of horrour or whether that as himself professeth he were now in a fearfull expectation of being commanded down into the deep for a further degree of actual torment which he thus deprecates There are tortures appointed to the very spiritual natures of evil Angels Men that are led by Sense have easily granted the body subject to torment who yet have not so readily conceived this incident to a spiritual substance The Holy Ghost hath not thought it fit to acquaint us with the particular manner of these invisible acts rather willing that we should herein fear then enquire But as all matters of Faith though they cannot be proved by Reason for that they are in a higher sphere yet afford an answer able to stop the mouth of all Reason that dares bark against them since truth cannot be opposite to it self so this of the sufferings of Spirits There is therefore both an intentional torment incident to Spirits and a reall For as in Blessedness the good Spirits finde themselves joyned unto the chief good and hereupon feel a perfect love of God and unspeakable joy in him and rest in themselves so contrarily the evil Spirits perceive themselves eternally excluded from the presence of God and see themselves setled in a wofull darkness and from the sense of this separation arises an horrour not to be expressed not to be conceived How many men have we known to torment themselves with their own thoughts There needs no other gibbet then that which their troubled spirit hath erected in their own heart And if some pains begin at the Body and from thence afflict the Soul in a copartnership of grief yet others arise immediately from the Soul and draw the Body into a participation of misery Why may we not therefore conceive mere and separate Spirits capable of such an inward excruciation Besides which I hear the Judge of men and Angels say Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels I hear the Prophet say Tophet is prepared of old If with fear and without curiosity we may look upon those flames why may we not attribute a spiritual nature to that more then natural fire In the end of the world the Elements shall be dissolved by fire and if the pure quintessential matter of the skie and the element of fire it self shall be dissolved by fire then that last fire shall be of another nature then that which it consumeth What hinders then but that the Omnipotent God hath from eternity created a fire of another nature proportionable even to Spiritual essences Or why may we not distinguish of fire as it is it self a bodily creature and as it is an instrument of Gods justice so working not by any material virtue or power of its own but by a certain height of supernatural efficacy to which it is exalted by the Omnipotence of that supreme and righteous Judge Or lastly why may we not conceive that though Spirits have nothing material in their nature which that fire should work upon yet by the judgement of the Almighty Arbiter of the world justly willing their torment they may be made most sensible of pain and by the obedible submission of their created nature wrought upon immediately by their appointed tortures besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are everlastingly confined For if the incorporeal Spirits of living men may be held in a lothed or painful body and conceive sorrow to be so imprisoned why may we not as easily yield that the evil spirits of Angels or men may be held in those direfull flames and much more abhor therein to continue for ever Tremble rather O my Soul at the thought of this wofull condition of the evil Angels who for one onely act of Apostasie from God are thus perpetually tormented whereas we sinfull wretches multiply many and presumptuous offences against the Majesty of our God And withall admire and magnifie that infinite Mercy to the miserable generation of man which after this holy severity of justice to the revolted Angels so graciously forbears our hainous iniquities and both suffers us to be free for the time from these hellish torments and gives us opportunity of a perfect freedome from them for ever Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thine infirmities who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions There is no time wherein the evil spirits are not tormented there is a time wherein they exspect to be tormented yet more Art thou come to torment us before our time They knew that the last Assises are the prefixed terme of their full execution which they also understood to be not yet come For though they knew not when the Day of Judgement should be a point concealed from the glorious Angels of Heaven yet they knew when it should not be and therefore they say Before the time Even the very evil spirits confesse and fearfully attend a set
thy words never till now at thy silence A miserable suppliant cries and sues whiles the God of mercies is speechlesse He that comforts the afflicted addes affliction to the comfortlesse by a willing disrespect What shall we say then Is the fountain of Mercy dried up O Saviour couldst thou but hear she did not murmur not whisper but cry out couldst thou but pity but regard her that was as good as she was miserable If thy ears were open could thy bowels be shut Certainly it was thou that didst put it into the heart into the mouth of this woman to ask and to ask thus of thy self She could never have said O Lord thou son of David but from thee but by thee None calleth Jesus the Lord but by the holy Ghost Much more therefore didst thou hear the words of thine own making and well wert thou pleased to hear what thou thoughtest good to forbear to answer It was thine own grace that sealed up thy lips Whether for the triall of her patience and perseverance forâ— silence carried a semblance of neglect and a willing neglect laies strong siege to the best fort of the Soul Even calm tempers when they have been stirred have bewrayed impetuousness of Passion If there be any dregs in the bottom of the glasse when the water is shaken they will be soon seen Or whether for the more sharpning of her desires and raising of her zealous importunity Our holy longings are increased with delaies it whets our appetite to be held fasting Or whether for the more sweetning of the blessing by the difficulty or stay of obtaining The benefit that comes with ease is easily contemned Long and eager pursuit endears any favour Or whether for the ingaging of his Disciples in so charitable a suit Or whether for the wise avoidance of exception from the captious Jews or lastly for the drawing on of an holy and imitable pattern of faithfull perseverance and to teach us not to measure God's hearing of our suit by his present answer or his present answer by our own sense Whiles our weakness exspects thy words thy wisdome resolves upon thy silence Never wert thou better pleased to hear the acclamation of Angels then to hear this woman say O Lord thou son of David yet silence is thy answer When we have made our prayers it is an happy thing to hear the report of them back from Heaven but if we alwaies do not so it is not for us to be dejected and to accuse either our infidelity or thy neglect since we finde here a faithfull suitor met with a gracious Saviour and yet he answered her not a word If we be poor in spirit God is rich in mercy he cannot send us away empty yet he will not alwaies let us feel his condescent crossing us in our will that he may advance our benefit It was no small fruit of Christ's silence that the Disciples were hereupon moved to pray for her not for a mere dismission it had been no favour to have required this but a punishment for if to be held in suspense be miserable to be sent away with a repulse is more but for a mercifull grant They saw much passion in the woman much cause of passion they saw great discouragement on Christ's part great constancy on hers Upon all these they feel her misery and become suitors for her unrequested It is our duty in case of necessity to intercede for each other and by how much more familiar we are with Christ so much more to improve our interest for the relief of the distressed We are bidden to say Our Father not mine yea being members of one body we pray for our selves in others If the foot be prickt the back bends the head bows down the eyes look the hands stir the tongue calls for aide the whole man is in pain and labours for redresse He cannot pray or be heard for himself that is no mans friend but his own No prayer without faith no faith without charity no charity without mutual intercession That which urged them to speak for her is urged to Christ by them for her obtaining She cries after us Prayer is as an arrow if it be drawn up but a little it goes not far but if it be pull'd up to the head it flies strongly and pierces deep If it be but dribbled forth of carelesse lips it falls down at our foot the strength of our ejaculation sends it up into Heaven and fetches down a blessing The childe hath escaped many a stripe by his loud crying and the very unjust Judge cannot indure the widows clamour Heartless motions do but teach us to deny servent suits offer violence both to earth and Heaven Christ would not answer the woman but doth answer the Disciples Those that have a familiarity with God shall receive answers when strangers shall stand out Yea even of domesticks some are more intire He that lay in Jesus his bosome could receive that intelligence which was concealed from the rest But who can tell whether that silence or this answer be more grievous I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel What is this answer but a defence of that silence and seeming neglect Whiles he said nothing his forbearance might have been supposed to proceed from the necessity of some greater thoughts but now his answer professeth that silence to have proceeded from a willing resolution not to answer and therefore he doth not vouchsafe so much as to give to her the answer but to her solicitors that they might return his deniall from him to her who had undertaken to derive her suit to him I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Like a faithfull Embassadour Christ hath an eye to his commission That may not be violated though to an apparant advantage whither he is not sent he may not goe As he so all his have their fixed marks set at these they aime and think it not safe to shoot at rovers In matter of morality it is not for us to stand onely upon inhibitions avoiding what is forbidden but upon commands endeavouring only what is injoyned We need no other rule of our life then the intention of our several stations And if he that was God would take no further scope to himself then the limits of his commission how much doth it concern us frail men to keep within compass or what shall become of our lawlesness that live in a direct contrariety to the will of him that sent us Israel was Jacob's name from him derived to his posterity till the division of the Tribes under Jeroboam all that nation was Israel then the Father's name went to the most which were ten Tribes the name of the Son Juda to the best which were two Christ takes no notice of this unhappy division he remembers the antient name which he gave to that faithfull wrestler It was this Christ with whom Jacob strove it was he
himself that owns the roof that receives him But oh the incomparable happiness then of that man whose heart receives him not for a day not for years of dayes not for millions of years but for eternity This may be our condition if we be not streightned in our own bowels O Saviour do thou welcome thy self to these houses of clay that we may receive a joyful welcome to thee in those everlasting habitations Zacheus was not more glad of Christ then the Jews were discontented Four vices met here at once Envy Scrupulousness Ignorance Pride Their eye was evil because Christ's was good I do not hear any of them invite Christ to his home yet they snarl at the honour of this unworthy Host they thought it too much happiness for a Sinner which themselves willingly neglected to sue for Wretched men they cannot see the Mercy of Christ for being bleared with the happiness of Zacheus yea that very Mercy which they see torments them If that viper be the deadliest which feeds the sweetest how poisonous must this disposition needs be that feeds upon Grace What a contrariety there is betwixt good Angels and evil men The Angels rejoyce at that whereat men pout and stomack men are ready to cry and burst for anger at that which makes musick in Heaven Oh wicked and foolish elder brother that feeds on hunger and his own heart without doors because his younger brother is feasting on the fat calf within Besides Envy they stand scrupulously upon the terms of Traditions These sons of the earth might not be conversed with their threshold was unclean Touch me not for I am holier then thou That he therefore who went for a Prophet should go to the house of a Publican and Sinner must needs be a great eye-sore They that might not go in to a Sinner cared not what sins entred into themselves the true cozens of those Hypocrites who held it a pollution to go into the Judgment-hall no pollution to murder the Lord of life There cannot be a greater argument of a false heart then to stumble at these straws and to leap over the blocks of gross impiety Well did our Saviour know how hainously offensive it would be to turn in to this Publican he knows and regards it not A Soul is to be won what cares he for idle misconstruction Morally good actions must not be suspended upon danger of causeless scandal In things indifferent and arbitrary it is fit to be overruled by fear of offence but if men will stumble in the plain ground of good let them fall without our regard not without their own peril I know not if it were not David's weakness to abstain from good words whiles the wicked were in place Let Justice be done in spite of the world and in spite of Hell Mercy Ignorance was in part guilty of these scruples they thought Christ either too holy to go to a Sinner or in going made unholy Foolish men to whom came he To you righteous Let himself speak I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Whither should the Physician go but to the sick the who le need him not Love is the best attractive of us and he to whom much is forgiven loves much O Saviour the glittering palaces of proud Justiciaries are not for thee thou lovest the lowly and ragged cottage of a contrite heart Neither could here be any danger of thy pollution Thy Sun could cast his beams upon the impurest dunghil and not be tainted It was free and safe for the Leper and Bloody-fluxed to touch thee thou couldst heal them they could not infect thee Neither is it otherwise in this moral contagion We who are obnoxious to evil may be insensibly defiled thy Purity was enough to remedy that which might marre a world Thou canst help us we cannot hurt thee Oh let thy presence ever bless us and let us ever bless thee for thy presence Pride was an attendant of this Ignorance so did they note Zacheus for a Sinner as if themselves had been none His sins were written in his forehead theirs in their breast The presumption of their secrecy makes them insult upon his notoriousness The smoke of pride flies still upward and in the mounting vanisheth Contrition beats it down and fetcheth tears from the tender eyes There are stage-sins and there are closet-sins These may not upbraid the other they may be more hainous though less manifest It is a dangerous vanity to look outward at other mens sins with scorn when we have more need to cast our eyes inward to see our own with humiliation Thus they stumbled and fell but Zacheus stood All their malicious murmur could not dishearten his Piety and Joy in the entertaining of Christ Before Zacheus lay down as a Sinner now he stands up as a Convert sinning is falling continuance in sin is lying down Repentance is rising and standing up Yet perhaps this standing was not so much the site of his Constancy or of his Conversion as of his Reverence Christ's affability hath not made him unmannerly Zacheus stood And what if the desire of more audibleness raised him to his feet In that smalness of stature it was not fit he should lose ought of his height It was meet so noble a proclamation should want no advantage of hearing Never was our Saviour better welcomed The penitent Publican makes his Will and makes Christ his Supervisor His Will consists of Legacies given of Debts paid gifts to the poor payments to the injuried There is Liberality in the former in the latter Justice in both the proportions are large Half to the poor fourfold to the wronged This hand sowed not sparingly Here must needs be much of his own that was well gotten whether left by patrimony or saved by parsimony or gained by honest improvement For when he had restored fourfold to every one whom he had oppressed yet there remained a whole half for pious uses and this he so distributes that every word commends his bounty I give and what is more free then gist In alms we may neither sell nor return nor cast away We sell if we part with them for importunity for vain-glory for retribution we return them if we give with respect to former offices this is to pay not to bestow we cast away if in our beneficence we neither regard order nor discretion Zacheus did neither cast away nor return nor sell but give I do give not I will The prorogation of good makes it thankless The alms that smell of the hand lose the praise It is twice given that is given quickly Those that deferre their gifts till their death-bed do as good as say Lord I will give thee something when I can keep it no longer Happy is the man that is his own executor I give my goods not anothers It is a thankless vanity to be liberal of another mans purse Whoso gives of that which he hath taken away from the owner doth more
Means out of office The Motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled THE time drew on wherein Jesus must be received up He must take death in his way Calvary is in his passage to mount Olivet He must be lift up to the Cross thence to climb into his Heaven Yet this comes not into mention as if all the thought of Death were swallowed up in this Victory over Death Neither O Saviour is it otherwise with us the weak members of thy mystical body We must die we shall be glorified What if Death stand before us we look beyond him at that transcendent Glory How should we be dismai'd with that pain which is attended with a blessed Immortality The strongest receit against Death is the happy estate that follows it next to that is the fore-exspectation of it and resolution against it He stedfastly set his face to goe to Hierusalem Hierusalem the nest of his enemies the Amphitheater of his conflicts the fatall place of his death Well did he know the plots and ambushes that were there laid for him and the bloody issue of those designs yet he will goe and goes resolved for the worst It is a sure and wise way to send our thoughts before us to grapple with those evils which we know must be incountred The enemy is half overcome that is well prepared for The strongest mischief may be outfaced with a seasonable fore-resolution There can be no greater disadvantage then the suddennesse of a surprisal O God what I have not the power to avoid let me have the wisdome to exspect The way from Galilee to Judaea lay through the Region of Samaria if not the City Christ now towards the end of his Preaching could not but be attended with a multitude of followers It was necessary there should be purveyors and harbingers to procure lodgings and provision for so large a troup Some of his own retinue are addressed to this service they seek not for palaces and delicates but for house-room and victuals It was he whose the earth was and the fulnesse thereof whos 's the Heavens are and the mansions therein yet he who could have commanded Angels sues to Samaritanes He that filled and comprehended Heaven sends for shelter in a Samaritane Cottage It was thy choice O Saviour to take upon thee the shape not of a Prince but of a Servant How can we either neglect means or despise homelinesse when thou the God of all the World wouldst stoop to the suit of so poor a provision We know well in what terms the Samaritanes stood with the Jews so much more hostile as they did more symbolize in matter of Religion no Nations were mutually so hatefull to each other A Samaritane's bread was no better then Swines-flesh their very fire and water was not more grudged then infectious The looking towards Jerusalem was here cause enough of repulse No enmity is so desperate as that which arises from matter of Religion Agreement in some points when there are differences in the main doth but advance hatred the more It is not more strange to hear the Son of God sue for a lodging then to hear him repelled Upon so churlish a denial the two angry Disciples return to their Master on a fiery errand Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them as Elias did The Sons of Thunder would be lightning straight their zeal whether as kinsmen or Disciples could not brook so harsh a refusal As they were naturally more hot then their fellows so now they thought their Piety bade them be impatient Yet they dare not but begin with leave Master wilt thou His will must lead theirs their choler cannot drive their wills before his all their motion is from him onely True Disciples are like those artificial engines which goe no otherwise then they are set or like little Children that speak nothing but what they are taught O Saviour if we have wills of our own we are not thine Do thou set me as thou wouldst have me goe do thou teach me what thou wouldst have me say or doe A mannerly preface leads in a faulty suit Master wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them Faulty both in presumption and in desire of private revenge I do not hear them say Master will it please thee who art the sole Lord of the Heavens and the Elements to command fire from Heaven upon these men but Wilt thou that we command As if because they had power given them over diseases and unclean spirits therefore Heaven and earth were in their managing How easily might they be mistaken Their large commission had the just limits Subjects that have munificent grants from their Princes can challenge nothing beyond the words of their Patent And if the fetching down fire from Heaven were lesse then the dispossessing of Devils since the Devil shall inable the Beast to doe thus much yet how possible is it to doe the greater and stick at the lesse where both depend upon a delegated power The Magicians of Egypt could bring forth Frogs and Blood they could not bring Lice ordinary Corruption can doe that which they could not It is the fashion of our bold Nature upon an inch given to challenge an ell and where we finde our selves graced with some abilities to flatter our selves with the faculty of more I grant Faith hath done as great things as ever Presumption undertook but there is great difference in the enterprises of both The one hath a warrant either by instinct or expresse command the other none at all Indeed had these two Disciples either meant or said Master if it be thy pleasure to command us to call down fire from Heaven we know thy word shall enable us to doe what thou requirest if the words be ours the power shall be thine this had been but holy modest faithfull but if they supposed there needed nothing save a leave only and that might they be but let loose they could goe alone they presumed they offended Yet had they thus overshot themselves in some pious and charitable motion the fault had been the lesse now the act had in it both cruelty and private revenge Their zeal was not worthy of more praise then their fury of censure That fire should fall down from Heaven upon men is a fearfull thing to think of and that which hath not been often done It was done in the case of Sodome when those five unclean Cities burned with the unnatural fire of hellish Lust it was done two several times at the suit of Elijah it was done in an height of triall to that great pattern of Patience I finde it no more and tremble at these I finde But besides the dreadfulness of the judgment it self who can but quake at the thought of the suddainnesse of this destruction which sweeps away both Body and Soul in a state of unpreparation of unrepentance so as this fire should but
therefore say to you with the Psalmist I have said ye are Gods if ye were transfigured in Tabor could ye be more but ye shall die like men there is your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was a worthy and witty note of Hierome that amongst all trees the Cedars are bidden to praise God which are the tallest and yet Dies Domini super omnes Cedros Libani Esay 2. Ye gallants whom a little yellow earth and the webs of that curious worm have made gorgeous without and perhaps proud within remember that ere long as one worm decks you without so another worm shall consume you within and that both the earth that you pranck up and that earth wherewith you pranck it is running back into dust Let not your high estate hide from you your fatal humiliation let not your Purples hide from you your Winding-sheet But even on the top of Tabor think of the depth of the Grave think of your departure from men while ye are advanced above men We are now ascended to the top of the Hill Let us therefore stand and see and wonder at this great sight as Moses to see the bush flaming and not consumed so we to see the Humanity continuing it self in the midst of these beams of Glory Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in the form of a servant now for the time he was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transformed That there is no cause why Maldonat should so inveigh against some of ours yea of his own as Jansenius who translates it Transformation for what is the external form but the figure and their own Vulgar as hotly as he takes it reads it Philip. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 formam servi accipiens There is no danger in this ambiguity Not the substantial form but the external fashion of Christ was changed he having three forms as Bernard distinguishes contemptam splendidam Divinam changeth here the first into the second This is one of the rarest occurrences that ever befel the Saviour of the World I am wont to reckon up these four principal Wonders of his life Incarnation Tentation Transfiguration and Agonie the first in the Womb of the Virgin the second in the Wilderness the third in the Mount the fourth in the Garden the first that God should become man the second that God and man should be tempted and transported by Satan the third that man should be glorified upon earth the last that he which was man and God should sweat blood under the sense of Gods wrath for man And all these either had the Angels for witnesses or the immediate voice of God The first had Angels singing the second Angels ministring the third the voice of God thundring the fourth the Angels comforting that it may be no wonder the Earth marvels at those things whereat the Angels of Heaven stand amazed Bernard makes three kinds of wonderful changes Sublimitas in humilitatem Height to lowliness when the Word took flesh Contemptibilitas in Majestatem when Christ transformed himself before his Disciples Mutabilitas in Aeternitatem when he rose again and ascended to Heaven to reign for ever Ye see this is one of them and as Tabor did rise out of the valley of Galilee so this Exaltation did rise out of the midst of Christ's Humiliation Other marvels do increase his dejection this onely makes for his Glory and the glory of this is matchable with the humiliation of all the rest That Face wherein before saith Esay there was no form nor beautie now shines as the Sun That Face which men hid their faces from in contempt now shines so that mortal eyes could not chuse but hide themselves from the lustre of it and immortal receive their beams from it He had ever in vultu sidereum quiddam as Hierome speaks a certain heavenly Majesty and port in his countenance which made his Disciples follow him at first sight but now here was the perfection of supercelestial brightness It was a Miracle in the Three Children that they so were delivered from the flames that their very garments smelt not of the fire it is no less Miracle in Christ that his very garments were died Celestial and did savour of his Glory like as Aaron was so anointed on his head and beard that his skirts were all perfumed His clothes therefore shined as snow yea that were but a waterish white as the Light it self saith S. Mark and Matthew in the most Greek Copies That seamless coat as it had no welt so it had no spot The King's Son is all fair even without O excellent Glory of his Humanitie The best Diamond or Carbuncle is hid with a case but this brightness pierceth through all his garments and makes them lightsome in him which use to conceal light in others Herod put him on in mockage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 23. not a white but a bright robe the ignorance whereof makes a shew of disparity in the Evangelists but God the Father to glorifie him cloaths his very garments with Heavenly splendor Behold thou art fair my beloved behold thou art fair and there is no spot in thee Thine head is as fine gold thy mouth is as sweet things and thou art wholly delectable Come forth ye daughters of Sion and behold King Salomon with the Crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of the gladness of his heart O Saviour if thou wert such in Tabor what art thou in Heaven If this were the glory of thy Humanity what is the presence of thy Godhead Let no man yet wrong himself so much as to magnifie this happiness as anothers and to put himself out of the participation of this glory Christ is our head we are his members As we all were in the First Adam both innocent and sinning so are we in the Second Adam both shining in Tabor and bleeding sweat in the Garden And as we are already happy in him so shall we be once in our selves by and through him He shall change our vile bodies that they may be like his glorious body Behold our Pattern and rejoyce Like his glorious body These very bodies that are now cloddie like the earth shall once be bright as the Sun and we that now see clay in one anothers faces shall then see nothing but Heaven in our countenances and we that now set forth our bodies with clothes shall then be clothed upon with Immortality out of the wardrobe of Heaven And if ever any painted face should be admitted to the sight of this Glory as I much fear it yea I am sure God will have none but true faces in Heaven they would be ashamed to think that ever they had faces to daub with these beastly pigments in comparison of this Heavenly complexion Let us therefore look upon this flesh not so much with contempt of what it was and is as with a joyfull hope of what it shall be And when our courage is assaulted with the
Disciples stood compassed in that bright Cloud exspecting some miraculous event of so Heavenly a Vision when suddenly they might hear a voice sounding out of that Cloud saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him They need not be told whose that voice was the place the matter evinced it No Angel in Heaven could or durst have said so How gladly doth Peter afterwards recount it For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son c. It was onely the eare that was here taught not the eye As of Horeb so of Sinai so of Tabor might God say Ye saw no shape nor image in that day that the Lord spake unto you He that knows our proneness to idolatry avoids those occasions which we might take to abuse our own fansies Twice hath God spoken these words to his own Son from Heaven once in his Baptisme and now again in his Transfiguration Here not without some oppositive comparison not Moses not Elias but This. Moses and Elias were Servants this a Son Moses and Elias were sons but of grace and choice this is that Son the Son by nature Other sons are beloved as of favour and free election this is The Beloved as in the unitie of his essence Others are so beloved that he is pleased with themselves this so beloved that in and for him he is pleased with mankinde As the relation betwixt the Father and the Son is infinite so is the Love We measure the intention of Love by the extention the love that rests in the person affected alone is but streight true Love descends like Aaron's Ointment from the head to the skirts to children friends allyes O incomprehensible large love of God the Father to the Son that for his sake he is pleased with the World O perfect and happy complacence Out of Christ there is nothing but enmity betwixt God and the Soul in him there can be nothing but peace When the beams are met in one center they do not only heat but burn Our weak love is diffused to many God hath some the world more and therein wives children friends but this infinite love of God hath all the beams of it united in one onely Object the Son of his Love Neither doth he love any thing but in the participation of his Love in the derivation from it O God let me be found in Christ and how canst thou but be pleased with me This one voice proclaimes Christ at once the Son of God the Reconciler of the world the Doctor and Law-giver of his Church As the Son of God he is essentially interessed in his Love as he is the Reconciler of the world in whom God is well pleased he doth most justly challenge our love and adherence as he is the Doctor and Law-giver he doth justly challenge our audience our obedience Even so Lord teach us to hear and obey thee as our Teacher to love thee and believe in thee as our Reconciler and as the eternal Son of thy Father to adore thee The light caused wonder in the Disciples but the voice astonishment They are all falne down upon their faces Who can blame a mortal man to be thus affected with the voice of his Maker Yet this word was but plausible and hortatory O God how shall flesh and blood be other then swallowed up with the horror of thy dreadful sentence of death The Lion shall roar who shall not be afraid How shall those that have slighted the sweet voice of thine invitations call to the rocks to hide them from the terror of thy Judgments The God of mercies pities our infirmities I do not hear our Saviour say Ye lay sleeping one while upon the earth now ye lye astonished Ye could neither wake to see nor stand to hear now lye still and tremble But he graciously touches and comforts them Arise fear not That voice which shall once raise them up out of the earth might well raise them up from it That hand which by the least touch restored sight lims life might well restore the spirits of the dismaied O Saviour let that soveraign hand of thine touch us when we lye in the trances of our griefs in the bed of our securities in the grave of our sins and we shall arise They looking up saw no man save Jesus alone and that doubtless in his wonted form All was now gone Moses Elias the Cloud the Voice the Glory Tabor it self cannot be long blessed with that Divine light and those shining guests Heaven will not allow to earth any long continuance of Glory Only above is constant happiness to be look'd for and injoyed where we shall ever see our Saviour in his unchangeable brightness where the light shall never be either clouded or varied Moses and Elias are gone only Christ is left The glory of the Law and the Prophets was but temporary yea momentany that onely Christ may remain to us intire and conspicuous They came but to give testimony to Christ when that is done they are vanished Neither could these raised Disciples finde any miss of Moses and Elias when they had Christ still with them Had Jesus been gone and left either Moses or Elias or both in the Mount with his Disciples that presence though glorious could not have comforted them Now that they are gone and he is left they cannot be capable of discomfort O Saviour it matters not who is away whiles thou art with us Thou art God all-sufficient what can we want when we want not thee Thy presence shall make Tabor it self an Heaven yea Hell it self cannot make us miserable with the fruition of thee The Woman taken in Adultery WHat a busie life was this of Christs He spent the night in the mount of Olives the day in the Temple whereas the night is for a retired repose the day for company His retiredness was for prayer his companiableness was for preaching All night he watches in the Mount all the morning he preaches in the Temple It was not for pleasure that he was here upon earth his whole time was penal and toilsome How do we resemble him if his life were all pain and labour ours all pastime He found no such fair success the day before The multitude was divided in their opinion of him messengers were sent and suborned to apprehend him yet he returns to the Temple It is for the sluggard or the coward to plead a Lion in the way upon the calling of God we must overlook and contemn all the spight and opposition of men Even after an ill harvest we must sow and after denials we must woe for God This Sun of Righteousness prevents that other and shines early with wholesome doctrines upon the Soules of his hearers The Auditory is both thronged and attentive Yet not all with the same intentions If the people came to learn the Scribes and
I see both an Embleme and a Prophesie How didst thou herein mean to teach thy Disciples how much thou hatest an unfruitful profession and what judgements thou meantest to bring upon that barren generation Once before hadst thou compared the Jewish nation to a Fig-tree in the midst of thy vineyard which after three yeares exspectation and culture yielding no fruit was by thee the Owner doomed to a speedy excision now thou actest what thou then saidst No tree abounds more with leaf and shade no Nation abounded more with Ceremonial observations and semblances of Piety Outward profession where there is want of inward truth and real practice doth but help to draw on and aggravate judgment Had this Fig-tree been utterly bear and leafless it had perhaps escaped the Curse Hear this ye vain Hypocrites that care only to shew well never caring for the sincere truth of a Conscionable Obedience your fair outside shall be sure to help you to a Curse That which was the fault of this tree is the punishment of it fruitlesness Let no fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever Had the boughs been appointed to be torn down and the body split in pieces the doom had been more easy and that juicy plant might yet have recovered and have lived to recompence this deficiency now it shall be what it was fruitless Woe be to that Church or Soul that is punished with her own Sin Outward plagues are but favour in comparison of Spiritual judgements That Curse might well have stood with a long continuance the Tree might have lived long though fruitless but no sooner is the word passed then the leaves flagg and turn yellow the branches wrinkle and shrink the bark discolours the root dries the plant withers O God what creature is able to abide the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure Even the most great and glorious Angels of Heaven could not stand one moment before thine anger but perish'd under thy wrath everlastingly How irresistible is thy Power how dreadful are thy Judgements Lord chastise my fruitlesness but punish it not at least punish it but curse it not lest I wither and be consumed Christ betraied SUCH an eye-sore was Christ that raised Lazarus and Lazarus whom Christ raised to the envious Priests Scribes Elders of the Jews that they consult to murder both Whiles either of them lives neither can the glory of that Miracle die nor the shame of the oppugners Those malicious heads are laid together in the Parlour of Caiaphas Happy had it been for them if they had spent but half those thoughts upon their own Salvation which they misimployed upon the destruction of the innocent At last this results that Force is not their way Subtilty and Treachery must doe that which should be vainly attempted by Power Who is so fit to work this feat against Christ as one of his own There can be no Treason where is not some Trust Who so fit among the domesticks as he that bare the bag and over-lov'd that which he bare That heart which hath once enslaved it self to red and white earth made be may any thing Who can trust to the power of good means when Judas who heard Christ daily whom others heard to preach Christ daily who daily saw Christ's Miracles and daily wrought Miracles in Christ's name is at his best a Thief and ere long a Traitor That crafty and malignant spirit which presided in that bloody counsel hath easily found out a fit instrument for this Hellish plot As God knows so Satan guesses who are his and will be sure to make use of his own If Judas were Christ's domestick yet he was Mammon's servant he could not but hate that Master whom he formally professed to serve whiles he really served that master which Christ professed to hate He is but in his trade whiles he is bartering even for his Master What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you Saidst thou not well O Saviour I have chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil Thou that knewest to distinguish betwixt men and spirits callest Judas by his right name Loe he is become a tempter to the worst of evils Wretched Judas whether shall I more abhor thy treachery or wonder at thy folly What will they what can they give thee valuable to that head which thou proferest to sale Were they able to pay or thou capable to receive all those precious metalls that are laid up in the secret cabins of the whole earth how were this price equivalent to the worth of him that made them Had they been able to have fetch'd down those rich and glittering spangles of Heaven and to have put them into thy fist what had this been to weigh with a God How basely therefore dost thou speak of chaffering for him whose the world was What will ye give me Alas what were they what had they miserable men to pay for such a purchase The time was when he that set thee on work could say All the kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them are mine and I give them to whom I please all these will I give thee Had he now made that offer to thee in this wofull bargain it might have carried some colour of a temptation and even thus it had been a match ill made But for thee to tender a trade of so invaluable a commodity to these pelting petty chapmen for thirty poor silverlings it was no lesse base then wicked How unequal is this rate Thou that valuedst Mary's ointment which she bestowed upon the feet of Christ at three hundred pieces of silver sellest thy Master on whom that precious odour was spent at thirty Worldly hearts are penny-wise and pound-foolish they know how to set high prizes upon the worthlesse trash of this world but for Heavenly things or the God that owns them these they shamefully undervalue And I will deliver him unto you False and presumptuous Judas it was more then thou couldst doe thy price was not more too low then thy undertaking was too high Had all the powers of Hell combined with thee they could not have delivered thy Master into the hands of men The act was none but his own all that he did all that he suffered was perfectly voluntary Had he pleased to resist how easily had he with one breath blown thee and thy complices down into their Hell It is no thank to thee that he would be delivered O Saviour all our safety all our comfort depends not so much upon thine act as upon thy will in vain should we have hoped for the benefit of a forced redemption The bargain is driven the price pai'd Judas returns and looks no lesse smoothly upon his Master and his fellows then as if he had done no differvice What cares he his heart tells him he is rich though it tell him he is false He was not now first an Hypocrite The Passeover is at hand no man is so busie
say I am he that easie breath alone routed all your troups and cast them to the earth whom it might as easily have cast down into Hell What if he had said I will not be taken where had ye been or what could your swords and staves have done against Omnipotence Those Disciples that failed of their vigilance failed not of their courage they had heard their Master speak of providing swords and now they thought it was time to use them Shall we smite They were willing to fight for him with whom they were not carefull to watch but of all other Peter was most forward in stead of opening his lips he unsheaths his sword and in stead of Shall I smites He had noted Malchus a busie servant of the High priest too ready to second Judas and to lay his rude hands upon the Lord of Life against this man his heart rises and his hand is lift up That eare which had too-officiously listened to the unjust and cruell charge of his wicked Master is now severed from that worse head which it had mis-served I love and honour thy zeal O blessed Disciple Thou couldst not brook wrong done to thy Divine Master Had thy life been dearer to thee then his safety thou hadst not drawn thy sword upon a whole troup It was in earnest that thou saidst Though all men yet not I and Though I should die with thee yet I will not deny thee Lo thou art ready to die upon him that should touch that Sacred person what would thy life now have been in comparison of renouncing him Since thou wert so fervent why didst thou not rather fall upon that treachour that betrai'd him then that Sergeant that arrested him Surely the sin was so much greater as the plot of mischief is more then the execution as a Domestick is nearer then a Stranger as the treason of a Friend is worse then the forced enmity of an Hireling Was it that the guilty wretch upon the fact done subduced himself and shrouded his false head under the wings of darknesse Was it that thou couldst not so suddenly apprehend the odious depth of that Villany and instantly hate him that had been thy old companion Was it that thy amazednesse as yet conceived not the purposed issue of this seizure and astonishedly waited for the successe Was it that though Judas were more faulty yet Malchus was more imperiously cruell Howsoever thy Courage was awaked with thy self and thy heart was no lesse sincere then thine hand was rash Put up again thy sword into his place for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword Good intentions are no warrant for our actions O Saviour thou canst at once accept of our meanings and censure our deeds Could there be an affection more worth incouragement then the love to such a Master Could there be a more just cause wherein to draw his sword then in thy quarrell Yet this love this quarrell cannot shield Peter from thy check thy meek tongue smites him gently who had furiously smote thine enemy Put up thy sword It was Peter's sword but to put up not to use there is a sword which Peter may use but it is of another metall Our weapons are as our warfare spiritual if he smite not with this he incurs no lesse blame then for smiting with the other as for this material sword what should he doe with it that is not allowed to strike When the Prince of Peace bade his Followers sell their coat and buy a sword he meant to insinuate the need of these arms not their improvement and to teach them the danger of the time not the manner of the repulse of danger When they therefore said Behold here are two swords he answered It is enough he said not Go buy more More had not been enow if a bodily defence had been intended David's tower had been too streight to yield sufficient furniture of this kinde When it comes to use Peter's one sword is too much Put up thy sword Indeed there is a temporal sword and that sword must be drawn else wherefore is it but drawn by him that bears it and he bears it that is ordained to be an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil for he bears not the sword in vain If another man draw it it cuts his fingers and draws so much blood of him that unwarrantably wields it as that he who takes the sword shall perish with the sword Can I chuse but wonder how Peter could thus strike unwounded how he whose first blow made the fray could escape hewing in pieces from that band of Ruffians This could not have been if thy power O Saviour had not restrained their rage if thy seasonable and sharp reproof had not prevented their revenge Now for ought I see Peter smarts no lesse then Malchus neither is Peter's eare lesse smitten by the milde tongue of his Master then Malchus his eare by the hand of Peter Weak Disciple thou hast zeal but not according to knowledge there is not more danger in this act of thine then inconsideration and ignorance The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Thou drawest thy sword to rescue me from suffering Alas if I suffer not what would become of thee what would become of mankinde where were that eternal and just Decree of my Father wherein I am a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world Dost thou go about to hinder thine own and the whole worlds Redemption Did I not once before call thee Satan for suggesting to me this immunity from my Passion and dost thou now think to favour me with a reall opposition to this great and necessary work Canst thou be so weak as to imagine that this Suffering of mine is not free and voluntary Canst thou be so injurious to me as to think I yield because I want aid to resist Have I not given to thee and to the world many undeniable proofs of my Omnipotence Didst thou not see how easie it had been for me to have blown away these poor forces of my adversaries Dost thou not know that if I would require it all the glorious troups of the Angels of Heaven any one whereof is more then worlds of men would presently shew themselves ready to attend and rescue me Might this have stood with the Justice of my Decree with the Glory of my Mercy with the Benefit of mans Redemption it had been done my Power should have triumphed over the impotent malice of my enemies but now since that eternal Decree must be accomplished my Mercy must be approved mankinde must be ransomed and this cannot be done without my Suffering Thy wel-meant valour is no better then a wrong to thy self to the world to me to my Father O gracious Saviour whiles thou thus smitest thy Disciple thou healest him whom thy Disciple smote Many greater Miracles hadst thou done none that bewraied more mercy and meeknesse then this last Cure
more glorifie thy infinite mercy in suffering It is not out of any compassion of thy misery or care of thine ease that Simon of Cyrene is forced to be the porter of thy Crosse it was out of their own eagernesse of thy dispatch thy feeble paces were too slow for their purpose their thirst after thy blood made them impatient of delay If thou have wearily strugled with the burden of thy shame all along the streets of Jerusalem when thou com'st once past the gates an helper shall be deputed to thee the expedition of thy death was more sweet to them then the pain of a lingring passage What thou saidst to Judas they say to the Executioner What thou doest doe quickly Whiles thou yet livest they cannot be quiet they cannot be safe to hasten thine end they lighten thy carriage Hadst thou done this out of choice which thou didst out of constraint how I should have envied thee O Simon of Cyrene as too happy in the honour to be the first man that bore that Crosse of thy Saviour wherein millions of blessed Martyrs have since that time been ambitious to succeed thee Thus to bear thy Crosse for thee O Saviour was more then to bear a crown from thee Could I be worthy to be thus graced by thee I should pity all other glories Whiles thou thus passest O dear Jesu the streets and waies resound not all with one note If the malicious Jews and cruell Souldiers insulted upon thee and either haled or railed thee on with a bitter violence thy faithfull Followers were no lesse loud in their moans and ejulations neither would they indure that the noise of their cries and lamentations should be drowned with the clamour of those reproches but especially thy Blessed Mother and those other zealous associates of her own Sex were most passionate in their wailings And why should I think that all that devout multitude which so lately cried Hosanna in the streets did not also bear their part in these publick condolings Though it had not concerned thy self O Saviour thine ears had been still more open to the voice of grief then of malice and so thy lips also are open to the one shut to the other Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children Who would not have thought O Saviour that thou shouldst have been wholly taken up with thine own sorrows The expectation of so bitter a Death had been enough to have overwhelmed any Soul but thine yet even now can thy gracious eye finde time to look beyond thine own miseries at theirs and to pity them who insensible of their own insuing condition mourned for thine now present They see thine extremity thou foreseest theirs they powre out their sorrow upon thee thou divertest it upon themselves We silly creatures walk blindefolded in this vale of tears and little know what evil is towards us only what we feel we know and whiles we feel nothing can finde leisure to bestow our commiseration on those who need it perhaps lesse then our selves Even now O Saviour when thou wert within the view of thy Calvary thou canst foresee and pity the vastation of thy Jerusalem and givest a sad Prophecy of the imminent destruction of that City which lately had cost thee tears and now shall cost thee blood It is not all the indign cruelty of men that can rob thee of thy Mercy Jerusalem could not want Malefactors though Barabbas was dismissed That all this execution might seem to be done out of the zeal of Justice two capital offenders adjudged to their Gibbet shall accompany thee O Saviour both to thy death and in it They are led manicled after thee as lesse criminous no stripes had disabled them from bearing their own Crosses Long agoe was this unmeet society foretold by thine Evangelical Seer He was taken from prison and from judgment He was cut out of the land of the living He made his grave with the Wicked O blessed Jesu it had been disparagement enough to thee to be forted with the best of men since there is much sin in the perfectest and there could be no sin in thee but to be matched with the scum of mankinde whom vengeance would not let to live is such an indignity as confounds my thoughts Surely there is no Angel in Heaven but would have been proud to attend thee and what could the earth afford worthy of thy train yet malice hath suited thee with company next to Hell that their viciousnesse might reflect upon thee and their Sin might stain thine Innocence Ye are deceived O ye fond Judges This is the way to grace your dying malefactors this is not the way to disgrace him whose guiltlesnesse and perfection triumph'd over your injustice his presence was able to make your Thieves happy their presence could no more blemish him then your own Thus guarded thus attended thus accompanied art thou Blessed Jesu led to that loathsome and infamous hill which now thy last blood shall make Sacred now thou settest thy foot upon that rising ground which shalt prevent thine Olivet whence thy Soul shall first ascend into thy Glory There whiles thou art addressing thy self for thy last Act thou art presented with that bitter and farewell-potion wherewith dying Malefactors were wont to have their senses stupified that they might not feel the torments of their execution It was but the common mercy of men to alleviate the death of Offenders since the intent of their last doom is not so much pain as dissolution That draught O Saviour was not more welcome to the guilty then hatefull unto thee In the vigor of all thine inward and outward senses thou wouldst incounter the most violent assaults of death and scornedst to abate the least touch of thy quickest apprehension Thou well knewest that the work thou wentest about would require the use of all thy powers it was not thine ease that thou soughtest but our Redemption neither meantest thou to yield to thy last enemy but to resist and to overcome him which that thou mightest doe the more gloriously thou challengedst him to doe his worst and in the mean time wouldst not disfurnish thy self of any of thy powerfull faculties This greatest combat that ever was shall be fought on even hand neither wouldst thou steal that Victory which thou now atchievedst over Death and Hell Thou didst but touch at this cup it is a far bitterer then this that thou art now drinking up to the dregs thou refusedst that which was offered thee by men but that which was mixed by thine eternal Father though mere Gall and Wormwood thou didst drink up to the last drop And therein O Blessed Jesu lies all our health and salvation I know not whether I do more suffer in thy pain or joy in the issue of thy Suffering Now even now O Saviour art thou entring into those dreadfull lists and now art thou grapling with thy last enemy as if thou hadst not
at once removes that which both they did and might have feared The stone is removed the seal broken the watch fled What a scorn doth the Almighty God make of the impotent designes of men They thought the stone shall make the grave sure the seal shall make the stone sure the guard shall make both sure Now when they think all safe God sends an Angel from Heaven above the earth quakes beneath the stone rolls away the Souldiers stand like carkasses and when they have got heart enough to run away think themselves valiant the Tomb is opened Christ is risen they confounded Oh the vain projects of silly men as if with one shovel-full of mire they would dam up the Sea or with a clout hang'd forth they would keep the Sun from shining Oh these Spiders-webs or houses of Cards which fond children have as they think skilfully framed which the least breath breaks and ruines Who are we sorry worms that we should look in any business to prevail against our Creator What creature is so base that he cannot arm against us to our confusion The Lice and Frogs shall be too strong for Pharaoh the Worms for Herod There is no wisdome nor counsel against the Lord. Oh the marvellous pomp and magnificence of our Saviours Resurrection The earth quakes the Angel appears that it may be plainly seen that this Divine person now rising had the command both of earth and Heaven At the dissolution of thine Humane nature O Saviour was an Earthquake at the re-uniting of it is an Earthquake to tell the world that the God of Nature then suffered and had now conquered Whiles thou laiest still in the earth the earth was still when thou camest to fetch thine own The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob. When thou our true Sampson awakedst and foundst thy self tied with these Philistian cords and rousedst up and brakest those hard and strong twists with a sudden power no marvel if the room shook under thee Good cause had the earth to quake when the God that made it powerfully calls for his own flesh from the usurpation of her bowels Good cause had she to open her graves and yield up her dead in attendance to the Lord of Life whom she had presumed to detain in that cell of her darkness What a seeming impotence was here that thou who art the true Rock of thy Church shouldst lye obscurely shrouded in Joseph's rock thou that art the true corner-stone of thy Church shouldst be shut up with a double stone the one of thy grave the other of thy vault thou by whom we are sealed to the day of our Redemption shouldst be sealed up in a blind cavern of earth But now what a demonstration of power doth both the world and I see in thy glorious Resurrection The rocks tear the graves open the stones roll away the dead rise and appear the Souldiers flee and tremble Saints and Angels attend thy rising O Saviour thou laiest down in weakness thou risest in power and glory thou laiest down like a man thou risest like a God What a lively image hast thou herein given me of the dreadful Majesty of the general Resurrection and thy second appearance Then not the earth onely but the powers of Heaven shall be shaken not some few graves shall be open and some Saints appear but all the bars of death shall be broken and all that sleep in their graves shall awake and stand up from the dead before thee not some one Angel shall descend but thou the great Angel of the Covenant attended with thousand thousands of those mighty Spirits And if these stout Souldiers were so filled with terrour at the feeling of an Earthquake and the sight of an Angel that they had scarce breath left in them for the time to witness them alive where shall thine enemies appear O Lord in the day of thy terrible appearance when the earth shall reel and vanish and the elements shall be on a flame about their ears and the Heavens shall wrap up as a scroll O God thou mightest have removed this stone by the force of thine Earthquake as well as rive other rocks yet thou wouldst rather use the Ministery of an Angel or thou that gavest thy self life and gavest being both to the stone and to the earth couldst more easily have removed the stone then moved the earth but it was thy pleasure to make use of an Angels hand And now he that would ask why thou wouldst doe it rather by an Angel then by thy self may as well ask why thou didst not rather give thy Law by thine own immediate hand then by the ministration of Angels why by an Angel thou struckest the Israelites with plagues the Assyrians with the sword why an Angel appeared to comfort thee after thy Temptation and Agony when thou wert able to comfort thy self why thou usest the influences of Heaven to fruiten the earth why thou imployest Second causes in all events when thou couldst doe all things alone It is good reason thou shouldst serve thy self of thine own neither is there any ground to be required whether of their motion or rest besides thy will Thou didst raise thy self the Angels removed the stone They that could have no hand in thy Resurrection yet shall have an hand in removing outward impediments not because thou needst but because thou wouldst like as thou alone didst raise Lazarus thou badst others let him loose Works of Omnipotency thou reservest to thine own immediate performance ordinary actions thou doest by subordinate means Although this act of the Angels was not merely with respect to thee but partly to those devout Women to ease them of their care to manifest unto them thy Resurrection So officious are those glorious Spirits not onely to thee their Maker but even to the meanest of thy servants especially in the furtherance of all their spiritual designes Let us bring our Odours they will be sure to roll away the stone Why do not we imitate them in our forwardness to promote each others Salvation We pray to doe thy will here as they doe in Heaven if we do not act our wishes we do but mock thee in our Devotions How glorious did this Angel of thine appear The terrified Souldiers saw his face like lightning both they and the Women saw his garments shining bright and white as snow such a presence became his errand It was fit that as in thy Passion the Sun was darkned and all Creatures were clad with heaviness so in thy Resurrection the best of thy Creatures should testifie their joy and exsultation in the brightness of their habit that as we on Festival-dayes put on our best cloaths so thine Angels should celebrate this blessed Festivity with a meet representation of Glory They could not but injoy our joy to see the work of mans Redemption thus fully finished and if there be mirth in Heaven at the conversion of
into that dear Sepulcher Holy desires never but speed well There she sees two glorious Angels the one sitting at the head the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain Their shining brightness shew'd them to be no mortal creatures besides that Peter and John had but newly come out of the Sepulcher and both found and left it empty in her sight which was now suddenly filled with those celestial guests That white linen wherewith Joseph had shrouded the Sacred body of Jesus was now shamed with a brighter whiteness Yet do I not find the good Woman ought appalled with that inexspected glory So was her heart taken up with the thought for her Saviour that she seemed not sensible of whatsoever other Objects Those tears which she did let drop into the Sepulcher send up back to her the voice of those Angels Woman why weepest thou God and his Angels take notice of every tear of our Devotion The sudden wonder hath not dried her eyes nor charmed her tongue She freely confesseth the cause of her grief to be the missing of her Saviour They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him Alas good Mary how dost thou lose thy tears of whom dost thou complain but of thy best friend who hath removed thy Lord but himself who but his own Deity hath taken away that humane body out of that region of death Neither is he now laid any more he stands by thee whose removal thou complainest of Thus many a tender and humbled Soul afflicts it self with the want of that Saviour whom it hath and feeleth not Sense may be no judge of the bewailed absence of Christ Do but turn back thine eye O thou Religious Soul and see Jesus standing by thee though thou knewst not that it was Jesus His habit was not his own Sometimes it pleases our Saviour to appear unto his not like himself his holy disguises are our trials Sometimes he will seem a Stranger sometimes an Enemie sometimes he offers himself to us in the shape of a poor man sometimes of a distressed Captive Happy is he that can discern his Saviour in all forms Mary took him for a Gardener Devout Magdalene thou art not much mistaken As it was the trade of the First Adam to dress the Garden of Eden so was it the trade of the Second to tend the Garden of his Church He diggs up the soil by seasonable Afflictions he sows in it the seeds of Grace he plants it with gracious motions he waters it with his Word yea with his own blood he weeds it by wholsome censures O Blessed Saviour what is it that thou neglectest to doe for this selected inclosure of thy Church As in some respect thou art the true Vine and thy Father the Husbandman so also in some other we are the Vine and thou art the Husbandman Oh be thou such to me as thou appearedst unto Magdalene break up the fallows of my Nature implant me with Grace prune me with meet corrections bedew me with the former and latter rain doe what thou wilt to make me fruitful Still the good Woman weeps and still complains and passionately inquires of thee O Saviour for thy self How apt are we if thou dost never so little vary from our apprehensions to mis-know thee and to wrong our selves by our mis-opinions All this while hast thou concealed thy self from thine affectionate client thou sawest her teares and heardest her importunities and inquiries at last as it was with Joseph that he could no longer contain himself from the notice of his brethren thy compassion causes thee to break forth into a clear expression of thy self by expressing her name unto her self Mary She was used as to the name so to the sound to the accent Thou spakest to her before but in the tone of a stranger now of a friend of a Master Like a good Shepheard thou callest thy sheep by their name and they know thy voice What was thy call of her but a clear pattern of our Vocation As her so thou callest us first familiarly effectually She could not begin with thee otherwise then in the compellation of a stranger it was thy mercy to begin with her That correction of thy Spirit is sweet and useful Now after ye have known God or rather are known of him We do know thee O God but our active knowledge is after our passive first we are known of thee then we know thee that knewest us And as our Knowledge so is our Calling so is our Election thou beginnest to us in all and most justly sayest You have not chosen me but I have chosen you When thou wouldst speak to this Devout client as a stranger thou spakest aloof Woman whom seekest thou now when thou wouldst be known to her thou callest her by her name Mary General invitations and common mercies are for us as men but where thou givest Grace as to thine elect thou comest close to the Soul and winnest us with dear and particular intimations That very name did as much as say Know him of whom thou art known and beloved and turns her about to thy view and acknowledgment She turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is to say Master Before her face was towards the Angels this word fetches her about and turns her face to thee from whom her misprision had averted it We do not rightly apprehend thee O Saviour if any creature in Heaven or earth can keep our eyes and our hearts from thee The Angels were bright and glorious thy appearance was homely thy habit mean yet when she heard thy voice she turns her back upon the Angels and salutes thee with a Rabboni and falls down before thee in a desire of an humble amplexation of those Sacred feet which she now rejoyces to see past the use of her Odours Where there was such familiarity in the mutual compellation what means such strangeness in the charge Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Thou wert not wont O Saviour to make so dainty of being touched It is not long since these very same hands touched thee in thine anointing the Bloody-fluxed woman touched thee the thankful Penitent in Simon 's house touched thee What speak I of these The multitude touch'd thee the Executioners touch'd thee and even after thy Resurrection thou didst not stick to say to thy Disciples Touch me and see and to invite Thomas to put his fingers into thy side neither is it long after this before thou sufferest the three Maries to touch and hold thy feet How then saist thou Touch me not Was it in a mild taxation of her mistaking as if thou hadst said Thou knowest not that I have now an Immortal body but so demeanest thy self towards me as if I were still in my wonted condition know now that the case is altered howsoever indeed I have not yet ascended to my Father yet this body of mine which
interposed Hadst thou merely respected thine own Glory thou hadst instantly changed thy grave for thy Paradise for so much the sooner hadst thou been possessed of thy Fathers joy we would not continue in a Dungeon when we might be in a Palace but thou who for our sakes vouchsafedst to descend from Heaven to earth wouldst now in the upshot have a gracious regard to us in thy return Thy death had troubled the hearts of many Disciples who thought that condition too mean to be compatible with the glory of the Messiah and thoughts of diffidence were apt to seize upon the holiest breasts So long therefore wouldst thou hold footing upon earth till the world were fully convinced of the infallible evidences of thy Resurrection of all which time thou only canst give an account it was not for flesh and blood to trace the waies of Immortality neither was our frail corruptible sinful nature a meet companion for thy now-glorified Humanity the glorious angels of Heaven were now thy fittest attendants But yet how oft did it please thee graciously to impart thy self this while unto men and not only to appear unto thy Disciples but to renew unto them the familiar forms of thy wonted conversation in conferring walking eating with them and now when thou drewest near to thy last parting thou who hadst many times shew'd thy self before to thy several Disciples thoughtest meet to assemble them all together for an universal valediction Who can be too rigorous in censuring the ignorances of well-meaning Christians when he sees the domestick Followers of Christ even after his Resurrection mistake the main end of his coming in the flesh Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdome to Israel They saw their Master now out of the reach of all Jewish envie they saw his power illimited and irresistible they saw him stay so long upon earth that they might imagine he meant to fix his abode there and what should he doe there but reign and wherefore should they be now assembled but for the choice and distribution of Offices and for the ordering of the affairs of that state which was now to be vindicated O weak thoughts of well-instructed Disciples What should an Heavenly body doe in an earthly throne How should a spiritual life be imployed in secular cares How poor a business is the temporal Kingdome of Israel for the King of Heaven And even yet O Blessed Saviour I do not hear thee sharply controll this erroneous conceit of thy mistaken Followers thy mild correction insists rather upon the time then the misconceived substance of that restauration It was thy gracious purpose that thy Spirit should by degrees rectifie their judgements and illuminate them with thy Divine truths in the mean time it was sufficient to raise up their hearts to an expectation of that Holy Ghost which should shortly lead them into all needful and requisite verities And now with a gracious promise of that Spirit of thine with a careful charge renewed unto thy Disciples for the promulgation of thy Gospel with an Heavenly Benediction of all thine acclaming attendance thou tak'st leave of earth When he had spoken these things whiles they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight Oh happy parting fit for the Saviour of mankind answerable to that Divine conversation to that succeeding Glory O blessed Jesu let me so farre imitate thee as to depart hence with a blessing in my mouth let my Soul when it is stepping over the threshold of Heaven leave behind it a legacy of Peace and Happiness It was from the mount of Olives that thou tookst thy rise into Heaven Thou mightest have ascended from the valley all the globe of earth was alike to thee but since thou wert to mount upward thou wouldst take so much advantage as that staire of ground would afford thee thou wouldst not use the help of a Miracle in that wherein Nature offered her ordinary service What difficulty had it been for thee to have styed up from the very center of earth But since thou hadst made hills so much nearer unto Heaven thou wouldst not neglect the benefit of thy own Creation Where we have common helps we may not depend upon Supernatural provisions we may not strain the Divine Providence to the supply of our negligence or the humoring of our presumption Thou that couldst alwaies have walked on the Sea wouldst walk so but once when thou wantedst shipping thou to whom the highest mountains were but valleys wouldst walk up to an hill to ascend thence into Heaven O God teach me to bless thee for means when I have them and to trust thee for means when I have them not yea to trust to thee without means when I have no hope of them What hill was this thou chosest but the mount of Olives Thy Pulpit shall I call it or thine Oratory The place from whence thou hadst wont to showre down thine Heavenly Doctrine upon the hearers the place whence thou hadst wont to sent up thy Prayers unto thy Heavenly Father the place that shared with the Temple for both In the day-time thou wert preaching in the Temple in the night praying in the mount of Olives On this very hill was the bloody sweat of thine Agonie now is it the mount of thy Triumph From this mount of Olives did flow that oyle of gladness wherewith thy Church is everlastingly refreshed That God that uses to punish us in the same kind wherein we have offended retributes also to us in the same kind and circumstances wherein we have been afflicted To us also O Saviour even to us thy unworthy members dost thou seasonably vouchsafe to give a proportionable joy to our heaviness laughter to our mourning glory to contempt and shame Our agonies shall be answered with exaltation Whither then O Blessed Jesu whither didst thou ascend whither but home into thine Heaven From the mountain wert thou taken up and what but Heaven is above the hills Lo these are those mountains of spices which thy Spouse the Church long since desired thee to climbe Thou hast now climbed up that infinite steepness and hast left all sublimity below thee Already hadst thou approved thy self the Lord and Commander of Earth of Sea of Hell The Earth confest thee her Lord when at thy voice she rendered thee thy Lazarus when she shook at thy Passion and gave up her dead Saints The Sea acknowledged thee in that it became a pavement to thy feet and at thy command to the feet of thy Disciple in that it became thy Treasury for thy Tribute-money Hell found and acknowledged thee in that thou conqueredst all the powers of darkness even him that had the power of death the Devil It now onely remained that as the Lord of the Aire thou shouldst pass through all the regions of that yielding element and as Lord of Heaven thou shouldst pass through all the glorious contignations thereof that so every knee might bow
to thee both in Heaven and in Earth and under the earth Thou hadst an everlasting right to that Heaven that should be an undoubted possession of it ever since it was yea even whiles thou didst cry and spraul in the Cratch whiles thou didst hang upon the Cross whiles thou wert sealed up in thy Grave but thine Humane nature had not taken actual possession of it till now Like as it was in thy true Type David he had right to the Kingdome of Israel immediately upon his anointing but yet many an hard brunt did he pass ere he had the full possession of it in his ascent to Hebron I see now O Blessed Jesu I see where thou art even farre above all Heavens at the right hand of thy Father's Glory This is the farre countrey into which the Nobleman went to receive for himself a Kingdom farre off to us to thee near yea intrinsecal Oh do thou raise up my Heart thither to thee place thou my Affections upon thee above and teach me therefore to love Heaven because thou art there How then O Blessed Saviour how didst thou ascend Whiles they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight So wast thou taken up as that the act was thine own the power of the act none but thine Thou that descendedst wast the same that ascendedst as in thy descent there was no use of any power or will but thine own no more was there in thine ascent Still and ever wert thou the Master of thine own acts Thou laidst down thy own life no man took it from thee Thou raisedst up thy self from death no hand did or could help thee Thou carriedst up thine own glorified flesh and placedst it in Heaven The Angels did attend thee they did not aid thee whence had they their strength but from thee Elias ascended to Heaven but he was fetcht up in a Chariot of fire that it might appear hence that man had need of other helps who else could not of himself so much as lift up himself to the Aiery Heaven much less to the Empyreal But thou our Redeemer neededst no Chariot no carriage of Angels thou art the Author of life and motion they move in and from thee As thou therefore didst move thy self upward so by the same Divine power thou wilt raise us up to the participation of thy Glory These vile bodies shall be made like to thy glorious body according to the working whereby thou art able to subdue all things unto thy self Elias had but one witness of his rapture into Heaven S. Paul had none no not himself for whether in the body or out of the body he knew not Thou O Blessed Jesu wouldst neither have all eyes witnesses of thine Ascension nor yet too few As after thy Resurrection thou didst not set thy self upon the pinnacle of the Temple nor yet publickly shew thy self within it as making thy presence too cheap but madest choice of those eyes whom thou wouldst bless with the sight of thee thou wert seen indeed of five hundred at once but they were Brethren So in thine Ascension thou didst not carry all Jerusalem promiscuously forth with thee to see thy glorious departure but onely that selected company of thy Disciples which had attended thee in thy life Those who immediately upon thine ascending returned to Jerusalem were an hundred and twenty persons a competent number of witnesses to verifie that thy miraculous and triumphant passage into thy Glory Lo those onely were thought worthy to behold thy Majestical Ascent which had been partners with thee in thy Humiliation Still thou wilt have it thus with us O Saviour and we embrace the condition if we will converse with thee in thy lowly estate here upon earth wading with thee through contempt and manifold afflictions we shall be made happy with the sight and communion of thy Glory above O my Soul be thou now if ever ravished with the contemplation of this comfortable and blessed farewel of thy Saviour What a sight was this how full of joyful assurance of spiritual consolation Methinks I see it still with their eyes how thou my glorious Saviour didst leisurely and insensibly rise up from thine Olivet taking leave of thine acclaming Disciples now left below thee with gracious eyes with Heavenly Benedictions Methinks I see how they followed thee with eager and longing eyes with arms lifted up as if they had wished them winged to have soared up after thee And if Eliah gave assurance to his servant Elisha that if he should behold him in that rapture his Masters Spirit should be doubled upon him what an accession of the Spirit of joy and confidence must needs be to thy happy Disciples in seeing thee thus gradually rising up to thy Heaven Oh how unwillingly did their intentive eyes let goe so Blessed an Object How unwelcome was that Cloud that interposed it self betwixt thee and them and closing up it self left only a glorious splendour behind it as the bright track of thine Ascension Of old here below the Glory of the Lord appeared in the Cloud now afarre off in the sky the Cloud intercepted this Heavenly Glory if distance did not rather doe it then that bright meteor Their eyes attended thee on thy way so farre as their beams would reach when they could goe no further the Cloud received thee Lo yet even that very screen whereby thou wert taken off from all earthly view was no other then glorious how much rather do all the beholders fix their sight upon that Cloud then upon the best piece of the Firmament Never was the Sun it self gazed on with so much intention With what long looks with what astonished acclamations did these transported beholders follow thee their ascending Saviour as if they would have lookt through that Cloud and that Heaven that hid thee from them But oh what tongue of the highest Archangel of Heaven can express the welcome of thee the King of Glory into those Blessed Regions of Immortality Surely the Empyreal Heaven never resounded with so much joy God ascended with jubilation and the Lord with the sound of the Trumpet It is not for us weak and finite creatures to wish to conceive those incomprehensible spiritual Divine gratulations that the Glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now-glorified Humane nature Certainly if when he brought his onely-begotten Son into the world he said Let all the Angels worship him much more now that he ascends on high and hath led captivity captive hath he given him a Name above all Names that at the name of JESUS all knees should bow And if the Holy Angels did so caroll at his Birth in the very entrance into that estate of Humiliation and in firmity with what triumph did they receive him now returning from the perfect atchievement of man's Redemption And if when his Type had vanquished Goliah and carried the head into Jerusalem the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and
timbrels how shall we think those Angelical Spirits triumphed in meeting of the great Conqueror of Hell and Death How did they sing Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Surely as he shall come so he went and behold he shall come with thousands of his Holy Ones thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him From all whom methinks I hear that blessed applause Worthy is the Lamb that was killed to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and praise Praise and honour and glory and power be to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore And why dost not thou O my Soul help to bear thy part with that happy Quire of Heaven Why art not thou rapt out of my bosome with an extasie of joy to see this Humane nature of ours exalted above all the Powers of Heaven adored of Angels Archangels Cherubin Seraphim and all those mighty and glorious Spirits and sitting there crowned with infinite Glory and Majesty Although little would it avail thee that our Nature is thus honoured if the benefit of this Ascension did not reflect upon thee How many are miserable enough in themselves notwithstanding the Glory of their humane nature in Christ None but those that are found in him are the happier by him who but the Members are the better for the glory of the Head O Saviour how should our weakness have ever hoped to climb into Heaven if thou hadst not gone before and made way for us It is for us that thou the Fore-runner art entred in Now thy Church hath her wish Draw me and I shall run after thee Even so O Blessed Jesu how ambitiously should we follow thee with the paces of Love and Faith and aspire towards thy Glory Thou that art the way hast made the way to thy self and us Thou didst humble thy self and becamest obedient to the death even to the death of the Cross Therefore hath God also highly exalted thee and upon the same terms will not fail to advance us we see thy track before us of Humility and Obedience Oh teach me to follow thee in the roughest waies of Obedience in the bloody paths of Death that I may at last overtake thee in those high steps of Immortality Amongst those millions of Angels that attended this triumphant Ascension of thine O Saviour some are appointed to this lower station to comfort thine astonished Disciples in the certain assurance of thy no-less glorious Return Two men stood by them in white apparel They stood by them they were not of them they seemed Men they were Angels Men for their familiarity two for more certainty of testimony in white for the joy of thine Ascension The Angels formerly celebrated thy Nativity with Songs but we do not finde they then appeared in white thou wert then to undergoe much sorrow many conflicts it was the vale of tears into which thou wert come down So soon as thou wert risen the women saw an Angel in the form of a young man cloathed in white and now so soon as thou art ascended Two men cloathed in white stand by thy Disciples thy task was now done thy victory atchieved and nothing remained but a Crown which was now set upon thy head Justly therefore were those blessed Angels suited with the robes of light and joy And why should our garments be of any other colour why should oile be wanting to our heads when the eyes of our Faith see thee thus ascended It is for us O Saviour that thou art gone to prepare a place in those celestial Mansions it is for us that thou sittest at the right hand of Majesty It is a piece of thy Divine Prayer to thy Father that those whom he hath given thee may be with thee To every bleeding Soul thou saiest still as thou didst to Peter Whither I goe thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me hereafter In assured hope of this Glory why do I not rejoyce and beforehand walk in white with thine Angels that at the last I may walk with thee in white Little would the presence of these Angels have availed if they had not been heard as well as seen They stand not silent therefore but directing their speech to the amazed beholders say Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven What a question was this Could any of those two hundred and forty eyes have power to turn themselves off to any other Object then that Cloud and that point of Heaven where they left their ascended Saviour Surely every one of them were so fixed that had not the speech of these Angels called them off there they had set up their rest till the darkness of night had interposed Pardon me O ye Blessed Angels had I been there with them I should also have been unwilling to have had mine eyes pull'd off from that dear prospect and diverted unto you Never could they have gazed so happily as now If but some Great man be advanced to Honour over our heads how apt we are to stand at a gaze and to eye him as some strange meteor Let the Sun but shine a little upon these Dials how are they look'd at by all passengers Yet alas what can earthly advancement make us other then we are dust and ashes which the higher it is blown the more it is scattered Oh how worthy is the King of Glory to command our eyes now in the highest pitch of his Heavenly exaltation Lord I can never look enough at the place where thou art but what eye could be satisfied with seeing the way that thou wentest It was not the purpose of these Angels to check the long looks of these faithfull Disciples after their ascended Master it was onely a change of eyes that they intended of Carnal for Spiritual of the eye of Sense for the eye of Faith This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him goe into Heaven Look not after him O ye weak Disciples as so departed that ye shall see him no more if he be gone yet he is not lost those Heavens that received him shall restore him neither can those Blessed Mansions decrease his Glory Ye have seen him ascend upon the Chariot of a bright Cloud and in the clouds of Heaven ye shall see him descend again to his last Judgement He is gone can it trouble you to know you have an Advocate in Heaven Strive not now so much to exercise your bodily eyes in looking after him as the eyes of your Souls in looking for him Ye cannot O ye Blessed Spirits wish other then well to mankind How happy a diversion of eyes and thoughts is this that you advise If it be our sorrow to part with our Saviour yet to part with him into Heaven it is our comfort
and felicity if his absence could be grievous his return shall be happy and glorious Even so Lord Jesus come quickly In the mean while it is not Heaven that can keep thee from me it is not earth that can keep me from thee Raise thou up my Soul to a life of Faith with thee let me ever injoy thy conversation whiles I exspect thy return A SERMON OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING For the wonderful Mitigation of the late Mortalitie Preached before His Majestie upon His gracious Command at His Court of Whitehall Jan. 29. 1625. and upon the same Command published by JOS. HALL Dean of Worcester Psal 68. vers 19 20. Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death YEa blessed be the Lord who hath added this unto the load of his other Mercies to his unworthy servant that the same Tongue which was called not long since to chatter out our Publick Mournings in the Solemn Fast of this place is now imployed in a Song of Praise and the same Hand which was here lifted up for Supplication is now lift up in Thanksgiving Ye that then accompanied me with your tears and sighs accompany me now I beseech you in this happy change of note and time with your joyful Smiles and Acclamations to the GOD that hath wrought it It is not more natural for the Sun when it looks upon a moist and wellfermented earth to cause Vapors to ascend thence then it is for Greatness and Goodness when they both meet together upon an honest heart to draw up holy desires of gratulation The worth of the Agent doth it not alone without a â—it disposition in the Subject Let the Sun cast his strongest beams upon a flint a pumice he fetches out no stream Even so the Greatness and Goodness of the Almighty beating upon a dry and hard heart prevailes nothing Here all three are happily met In God infinite Greatness infinite Goodness such Greatness that he is attended with thousand thousands of Angels a Guard fit for the King of Heaven such Goodness that he receives Gifts even for the rebellious In David a Gracious heart that in a sweet sense of the great Goodness of his God breaths out this Divine Epiphonema Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation c. Wherein methinks the sweet Singer of Israel seems to raise his note to the emulation of the Quire of Heaven in the melody of their Allelujahs yea let me say now that he sings above in that Blessed Consort of glorious Spirits his Ditty cannot be better then this that he sung here upon earth and wherein we are about to bear our parts at this time Prepare I beseech you both your eares for David's Song and your hearts and tongues for your own And first in this Angelical strain your thoughts cannot but observe without me the Descant and the Ground The Descant of Gratulation Blessed be the Lord wherein is both Applause and Excitation an Applause given to God's Goodness and an Excitation of others to give that Applause The Ground is a threefold respect Of what God is in himself God and Lord Of what God is and doth to us which loadeth us daily with benefits Of what he is both in himself and to us The God of our Salvation which last like to some rich Stone is set off with a dark foyl To God the Lord belong the issues from death So in the first for his own sake in the second for our sakes in the third for his own and ours as God as Lord as a Benefactor as a Saviour and Deliverer Blessed be the Lord. It is not hard to observe that David's Allelujahs are more then his Hosannas his thanks more then his suits Oft-times doth he praise God when be begs nothing seldome ever doth he beg that favour for which he doth not raise up his Soul to an anticipation of Thanks neither is this any other then the universal under-song of all his Heavenly Ditties Blessed be the Lord. Praised as our former Translation hath it is too low Honour is more then Praise Blessing is more then Honour Neither is it for nothing that from this word Barac to bless is derived Berec the knee which is bowed in blessing and the cryer before Joseph proclaimed Abrech calling for the honour of the knee from all beholders Gen. 41. 43. Every slight trivial acknowledgement of worth is a Praise Blessing is in a higher strain of gratitude that carries the whole sway of the heart with it in a kinde of Divine rapture Praise is in matter of complement Blessing of Devotion The Apostle's Rule is that the less is blessed of the greater Abraham of the King of Salem The Prophets charge is that the greater should be blessed of the less yea the greatest of the least God of man This agrees well Blessing is an act that will bear reciprocation God blesseth man and man blesseth God God blesseth man imperatively man blesseth God optatively God blesseth man in the acts of Mercy man blesseth God in the notions in the expressions of thanks God blesses man when he makes him good and happy man blesseth God when he confesseth how good how gracious how glorious he is so as the blessing is wholly taken up in agnition in celebration in the one we acknowledge the Bounty of God to us in the other we magnifie him vocally really for that Bounty Oh see then what high account God makes of the affections and actions of his poor silly earth-creeping creatures that he gives us in them power to bless himself and takes it as an honour to be blessed of us David wonders that God should so vouchsafe to bless man how much more must we needs wonder at the mercy of God that will vouchsafe to be blessed by man a worm an atome a nothing Yet both S. James tels us that with the tongue we bless God and the Psalmist calls for it here as a service of dear acceptation Blessed be the Lord. Even we men live not Cameleon-like with the aire of thanks nor feed ere the fatter with praises how much less our Maker O God we know well that whatsoever men or Angels doe or doe not thou canst not but be infinitely Blessed in thy self before ever any creature was thou didst equally injoy thy blessed Self from all Eternity what can this worthless loose filme of flesh either adde to or detract from thine Infiniteness Yet thou that humblest thy self to behold the things that are done in Heaven and earth humblest thy self also to accept the weak breath of our Praises that are sent up to thee from earth to Heaven How should this incourage the vows the endeavours of our hearty thankfulness to see them graciously taken Would men take up with good words with good desires and quit our bonds
for thanks who would be a debter With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current If he then will honour us so far as to be blessed of us Oh let us honour him so far as to blesse him Quare verbis parcam gratuita sunt Why do we spare thanks that cost us nothing as that wise heathen O give unto the Lord ye mighty give unto the Lord the praises due to his name offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and still let the foot of our song be Blessed be the Lord. This for the Descant of gratulation the Ground follows His own sake hath reason to be first God will be blessed both as Jah and Adonai the one the style of his Essence the other of his Soveraignty Even the most accursed Deist would confesse that as a pure simple infinite absolute being God is to be blessed for if Being be good and these two be convertible Nature must needs teach him that an absolute and infinite Being must needs be absolutely and infinitely good But what do I blur the Glory of this Day with mention of those Monsters whose Idol is Nature whose Religion is secondary Atheism whose true region is the lowest Hell Those damned Ethnicks cannot will not conceive of God as he is because they impiously sever his Essence from his inward Relations We Christians can never be so heavenly affected to God as we ought till we can rise to this pitch of Piety to blesse God for what he is in himself without the external beneficial relations to the creature Else our respects reflect too much homeward and we do but look through God at our selves Neither is it for us only to blesse him as an absolute God but as a Soveraign Lord too whose Power hath no more limit then his Essence the great Moderator of Heaven and earth giving laws to his creature overruling all things marshalling all events crushing his enemies maintaining his Church adored by Angels trembled at by Devils Behold here a Lord worthy to be blessed We honour as we ought your conspicuous Greatness O ye eminent Potentates of the earth but alas what is this to the great Lord of Heaven when we look up thither we must crave leave to pity the breath of your nostrils the rust of your Coronets the dust of your graves the sting of your felicities and if ye take not good heed the blots of your memories As ye hold all in â—ee from this great Lord so let it be no disparagement to you to doe your lowliest homage to his footstool homage I mean in Action give me the reall benediction I am sure that is the best They blesse God that praise him they blesse him more and praise him best that obey him There are that crouch to you Great ones who yet hate you Oh let us take heed of offering these hollow observances to the searcher of hearts if we love not our own confusion They that proclaimed Christ at Jerusalem had not only Hosanna in their mouths but palms in their hands too so must we have Let me say then If the Hand bless not the Lord the Tongue is an Hypocrite Away with the wast complements of our vain Formalities Let our loud actions drown the language of our words in blessing the name of the Lord. Neither must we bless God as a Soveraign Lord only but which is yet a more feeling relation as a munificent Benefactor Who loadeth us daily with benefits Such is man's self-love that no inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence Whiles thou makest much of thy self every one shall speak well of thee how much more whiles thou makest much of them Here God hath met with us also Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm above all other of David's to abound see here I beseech you a four-fold gradation of Divine Bounty First here are Benefits The word is not expressed in the Original but necessarily implied in the sense for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God Favours Precepts Punishments the other two are out of the road of Gratulation When we might therefore have exspected Judgments behold hold Benefits And those secondly not sparingly handfulled out to us but dealt to us by the whole load loadeth with benefits Whom thirdly doth he load but us Not worthy and well-deserving subjects but us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebels And lastly this he doth not at one doal and no more as even churls rare Feasts use to be plentifull but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 successively unweariedly perpetually One favour were too much here are Benefits a sprinkling were too much here is a load once were too oft here is daily largition Cast your eyes therefore a little upon this threefold exaggeration of Beneficence the measure a load of benefits the subject unworthy us the time daily Who daily loadeth us with benefits Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of Mercies Were it no more but that he hath given us a world to live in a life to injoy aire to breath in earth to tread on fire to warm us water to cool and cleanse us cloaths to cover us food to nourish us sleep to refresh us houses to shelter us variety of creatures to serve and delight us here were a just load But now if we yet adde to these civility of breeding dearnesse of friends competency of Estate degrees of Honour honesty or dignity of vocation favour of Princes successe in imployments domestick comforts outward peace good reputation preservation from dangers rescue from evils the load is well mended If yet ye shall come closer and adde due proportion of Body integrity of parts perfection of senses strength of nature mediocrity of health sufficiency of appetite vigour of digestion wholsome temper of seasons freedome from cares this course must needs heighten it yet more If still ye shall adde to these the order and power and exercise of our inward Faculties inriched with Wisdome Art Learning Experience expressed by a not-unhandsome Elocution and shall now lay all these together that concern Estate Body Minde how can the axel-tree of the Soul but crack under the load of these Favours But if from what God hath done for us as men we look to what he hath done for us as Christians that he hath imbraced us with an everlasting Love that he hath molded us anew enlivened us by his Spirit fed us by his Word Sacraments clothed us with his Merits bought us with his Blood becoming vile to make us glorious a Curse to invest us with Blessedness in a word that he hath given himself to us his Son for us Oh the height and depth and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh the boundlesse toplesse bottomlesse load of Divine benefits whose immensity reaches from the center of this earth to the unlimited extent of the very Empyreal Heavens Oh that men would praise the
he that put it into the heart of his Gracious Servant to command a Ninive-like Humiliation What pithie what passionate Prayers were injoined to his disconsolate Church With what holy eagernesse did we devour those Fasts How well were we pleased with the austerity of that pious Penitence What loud cries did beat on all sides at the gates of Heaven and with what inexspectable unconceivable mercy were they answered How suddenly were those many thousands brought down to one poor unity not a number Other evils were wont to come on horseback to goe away on foot this mortality did not post but flie away Methought like unto the great ice it sunk at once Only so many are stricken as may hold us awfull and so few as may leave us thankfull Oh how soon is our Fasting and mourning turned into Laughter and joy How boldly do we now throng into this House of God and fearlesly mix our breaths in a common Devotion This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvailous in our eyes O thou that hearest the prayer to thee shall all flesh come And let all flesh come to thee with the voice of Praise and Thanksgiving It might have been just with thee O God to have swept us away in the common destruction what are we better then our brethren Thou hast let us live that we may praise thee It might have been just with thee to have inlarged the commission of thy killing Angel and to have rooted out this sinfull people from under Heaven But in the midst of judgment thou hast remembred mercy Our sins have not made thee forget to be gracious nor have shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure Thou hast wounded us and thou hast healed us again thou hast delivered us and been mercifull to our sins for thy names sake Oh that we could duly praise thy Name in the great Congregation Oh that our tongues our hearts our lives might blesse and glorifie thee that so thou mayest take pleasure to perfect this great work of our full deliverance and to make this Nation a dear example of thy Mercy of Peace Victory Prosperity to all the world In the mean time let us call all our fellow-creatures to help us bear a part in the Praise of our God Let the Heavens the Stars the winds the waters the dews the frosts the nights the dayes let the Earth and Sea the mountains wells trees fishes fouls beasts let men let Saints let Angels blesse the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Blessed blessed for ever be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Oh blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things and blessed be his glorious Name for ever and ever and let all the earth be filled with his glory Amen Amen One of the SERMONS Preached at Westminster on the day of the Publick Fast April 5. 1628. TO The Lords of the High Court of Parliament and by their appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Esay 5. vers 4 5. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes And now goe to I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof IT is a piece of a Song for so it is called Vers 1. Alas what should Songs doe to an heavy heart Prov. 25. 20. or Musick in a day of Mourning Howling and lamentation is fitter for this occasion Surely as we do sometimes weep for joy so do we sing also for sorrow Thus also doth the Prophet here If it be a Song it is a Dump Esay's Lacrymae fit for that Sheminith gravis symphonia as Tremelius turns it which some sad Psalms were set unto Both the Ditty and the Tune are dolefull There are in it three passionate strains Favours Wrongs Revenge Blessings Sins Judgements Favours and Blessings from God to Israel Sins which are the highest Wrongs from Israel to God Judgments by way of Revenge from God to Israel And each of those follow upon other God begins with Favours to his people they answer him with their Sins he replies upon them with Judgments and all of these are in their height The Favours of God are such as he asks What could be more The Sins are aggravated by those Favours what worse then wilde Grapes and disappointment And the Judgments must be aggravated to the proportion of their Sins what worse then the Hedge taken away the Wall broken the Vineyard trodden down and eaten up Let us follow the steps of God and his Prophet in all these and when we have passed these in Israel let us seek to them at home What should I need to crave attention the businesse is both Gods and our own God and we begin with Favours Favours not mean and ordinary not expressed in a right-down affirmation but in an expostulatory and self-convincing Question What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Every word is a new obligation That Israel is a Vineyard is no small favour of God that it is God's Vineyard is yet more that it is God's Vineyard so exquisitely cultivated as nothing more could be either added or desired is most of all Israel is no vast Desart no wilde Forest no moorish Fen no barren Heath no thornie Thicket but a Vineyard a Soile of use and fruit Look where you will in God's Book ye shall never finde any lively member of Gods Church compared to any but a fruitfull tree Not to a tall Cypresse the Embleme of unprofitable Honour nor to a smooth Ash the Embleme of unprofitable Prelacie that doth nothing but bear Keyes nor to a double-coloured Poplar the Embleme of Dissimulation nor to a well-shaded Plane that hath nothing but Form nor to a hollow Maple nor to a trembling Aspe nor to a prickly Thorn shortly not to any Plant whatsoever whose fruit is not usefull and beneficial Hear this then ye goodly Cedars strong Elmes fast-growing Willows sappy Sycomores and all the rest of the fruitlesse trees of the earth I mean all fashionable and barren Professors whatsoever ye may shoot up in height ye may spread far shade well shew fair but what are ye good for Ye may be fit for the Forest Ditches Hedg-rows of the world ye are not for the true saving soil of God's Israel that is a Vineyard there is place for none but Vines and true Vines are fruitfull He that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit saith our Saviour John 15. 5. And of all fruits what is comparable to that of the Vine Let the Vine it self speak in Jonathan's Parable Jud. 9. 13. Should I leave my Wine which cheareth God and man How is this God cheared with Wine It is an high Hyperbole yet seconded by the God of truth I will
so clear Predictions of the Prophets after so miraculous demonstrations of the Divine power of Christ after so many graves ransack'd dead raised Devils ejected lims and eyes new-created after such testimonies of the Starre Sages Angels God himself after such triumphs over death and hell do yet detrect to believe in him and to receive him for their Messias most justly are they in this first kinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a froward generation And so is any Nation under Heaven that follows them in the steps of their peevish incredulity more or less shutting their eyes upon the glorious light of Saving Truth like that sullen Tree in the Indies which they say closes it self against the beams of the rising Sun and opens onely to the dampish shades of the night Where we must take this Rule with us a Rule of most just proportion That the means of Light to any Nation aggravate the hainousness and damnableness of their Unbelief The time of that ignorance God regarded not but now saith Saint Paul to the Athenians Act. 17. 30. If I had not come and spoken to them they should have had no sin saith our Saviour Joh. 15. 22. Those that walk in Cimmerian in AEgyptian darkness it is neither shame nor wonder if they either erre or stumble but for a man to stumble the Sun in the face or to grope by the walls at noon in the midst of Goshen is so much more hateful as the occaecation is more willing The latter which is the negative untowardness in Action is when any Nation fails palpably in those holy duties of Piety Justice Charity which the Royal Law of their God requireth Of this kinde are those usual complaints The fear of God is not before their eyes God looked to see if there were any that looked after God and behold there was none The righteous is perished from the children of men Behold the teares of the oppressed and none comforted them The Prophets are full of these querulous notes there is not a page of them free yea hardly shall ye meet with one line of theirs which doth not brand their Israel with this defect of Holiness From the negative cast your eyes upon the positive crookedness or untowardness That is in matter of Faith the maintenance or Impiety Misbelief Heresie Superstition Atheisme and whatever other intellectual wickedness In matter of Fact Idolatries Profane carriage violation of Gods Daies and Ordinances Disobediences Murders Adulteries Thests Drunkenness Lyes Detractions or any other actual rebellion against God Behold I have drawn forth before you an Hellish rabble of sins enough to marre a world Whatever Nation now or succession of men abounds either in these sinful omissions or these hainous commissions whether in matter of Judgment or Manners is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an untoward generation That which makes a man crooked or untoward makes a Generation so for what is a Generation but a resultance of men their number doth not vary their condition But let not our zeal as it oft doth make us uncharitable when a whole Generation is taxed for untowardness think not that none are free No not one saith the Psalmist by way of servent aggravation All seek their own saith the Apostle all in comparison But never times were so overgrown with iniquity as that God hath not left himself some gracious remainders when the thievish Chaldaeans and Sabaeans have done their worst there shall be a messenger to say I am escaped Never was harvest or vintage so curiously inned that some gleanings were not left in the field some clusters among the leaves But these few if they may give a blessing to the times yet they cannot give a style the denomination still follows the greater though the worse part let these be never so good the Generation is and is noted for evil Let me therefore here commend to your better thoughts these three emergent considerations 1. The irreparable wrong and reproach that lewd men bring upon the very Ages and Nations where they live 2. The difference of times and Ages in respect of the degrees of evil 3. The warrant of the free censure of ill-deserving Times or Nations It were happy if the injury of a wicked man could be confined to his own bosome that he only should fare the worse for his sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as the Greek rule runs if it were but self-doe self-have as the old word is But as his lewdness is like some odious sent diffused through the whole room where he is so it reacheth to earth and Heaven yea to the very times and generations upon which he is unhappily faln Doubtless there were many worthy Saints in these very times of St. Peter there was the Blessed Mother of Christ the paragon of Sanctity there was a beavy of those devout and holy dames that attended the Doctrine bewailed the Death and would have embalmed the Corps of our Blessed Saviour there were the twelve Apostles the seventy Disciples the hundred and twenty names that were met in one room at Jerusalem Acts 1. 15. the five hundred brethren that saw Christ after his glorious and victorious Resurrection besides those many thousands that believed through their word in all the parts of Judaea and Galilee yet for all that the Apostle brands this with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an untoward generation It is not in the vertue of a few to drown the wickedness of the more If we come into a field that hath some good plenty of corn and some store of weeds though it be red with poppy or yellow with carlock or blew with wild-bottles or scabious we still call it a corn-field but if we come into a barn-floor and see some few graines scattered amongst an heap of chaffe we do not call it a corn-heap the quantity of the offal devours the mention of those insensible grains Thus it is with Times and Nations A little good is not seen amongst much ill a righteous Lot cannot make his City to be no Sodom Wickedness as it helps to corrupt so to shame a very Age. The Orator Tertullus when he would plead against Paul sayes We have found this man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pestilence Act. 24. 5. Foolish Tertullus that mistook the Antidote for the Poison the remedy for the disease But had S. Paul been such as thy misprision supposed him he had been such as thy unjust crimination now makes thy self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the plague of thy people A wicked man is a perfect contagion he infects the world with sin the very Age with infamy Malus vir malum publicum is not a more old then true word Are there then in any Nation under Heaven lewd miscreants whose hearts are Atheists whose tongues are â—lasphemers whose bodies are a Stews whose lips are nothing but a Factory of close villany let them please themselves and let others if ye will applaud them for their beneficial contributions to the publick affairs in
make us to appear in the sight of God The Toad or the Serpent are lovely objects to us in comparison of these disguises to the pure eyes of the Almighty yea so perfectly doth God hate them that he professes those hate him that like them Whosoever will be a friend to the world is an enemy to God Jam. 4. 4. Oh then if we love our Souls let us hate those fashions that may draw us into the detestation of the Almighty for our God is a consuming fire Besides misbeseeming it is a just plea against any Fashion that it is painfull For though there be some Pain allowed in all Pride yet too much we indure not and behold these Fashions shall pinch and torture us to death to an everlasting death of body and Soul The ill guest in the Parable was thus clad Mat. 22. 12. the King abhorres his suit and after expostulation gives the sentence Binde him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Oh fear and tremble at the exspectation of this dreadfull doom all ye that will needs be in the fashion of the world If ye be so foolish as to flatter your selves here in the conceit of your Liberty there shall be binding in the conceit of a lightsome and resplendent Magnificence there shall be darknesse in the conceit of Pleasure and Contentment there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Lastly commonnesse and age are the usuall disparagements of Fashions The best may not goe like every body where a Fashion is taken up of the basest it is disdained of the eminent Behold these are the fashions if not of all I am sure of the worst the very scum of the world is thus habited Let us that are Christians in an holy pride scorn to be suited like them As common so old fashions are in disgrace That man would be shouted at that should come forth in his great-grandfires suit though not rent not discoloured Behold these are the overworn and misshapen rags of the old man Away with them to the frippery of darknesse yea to the brokery of Hell Let us be for a change Old things are passed all things are become new As we look to have these bodies once changed from vile to glorious so let us now change the fashions of our bodies and Souls from corrupt and worldly to spirituall and heavenly and loathing all these misbelieving painfull common old fashions of the world let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ that being clad with the robes of his Righteousnesse here we may be cloathed upon with the robes of his Glory in the highest Heavens Amen THE ESTATE OF A CHRISTIAN Laid forth In a SERMON preached at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By Jos. HALL Rom. 12. 2. But be ye changed or transformed by the renewing of your minds c. THE true method of Christian practice is first destructive then astructive according to the Prophet Cease to doe evil learn to doe good This our Apostle observes who first unteacheth us ill fashions and then teacheth good We have done with the negative duty of a Christian what he must not doe hear now the affirmative what he must doe wherein our speech treading in the steps of the blessed Apostle shall passe through these four heads First that here must be a change secondly that this change must be by transformation thirdly that this transformation must be by renewing fourthly that this renewing must be of the minde But be ye changed or transformed by the renewing of your minds All of them points of high and singular importance and such as do therefore call for your best and carefullest attention Nothing is more changing then the fashion of the world Mundus transit The world passeth away saith S. John Yet here that we may not fashion our selves to the world we must be changed we must be changed from these changeable fashions of the world to a constant estate of Regeneration As there must be once a perfect change of this mortall to immortality so must there be onwards of this sinfull to gracious and as holy Job resolves to wait all the daies of his appointed time for that changing so this change contrarily waits for us and may not be put off one day What creature is there wherein God will not have a change They needed not as he made them nothing could fall from him but good we marr'd them and therefore they both are changed and must be Even of the very Heavens themselves it is said As a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed how much more these sublunary bodies that are never themselves We know the Elements are in a perpetual transmutation so are those bodies that are compounded of them as he said of the River we cannot step down twice into the same stream And every seven years as Philosophy hath observed our bodies are quite changed from what they were And as there is a natural change in our favours colour complexion temper so there is no lesse voluntary change in our diets in our dispositions in our delights With what scorn do we now look upon the Top which our Childhood was fond on how do we either smile or blush in our mature age to think of the humours and actions of our youth How much more must the depravedness of our spiritual condition call for a change It is a rule in Policy Not to alter a well-setled evil I am sure it holds not in the Oeconomy of the Soul wherein length of prescription pleads rather for a speedy removal no time can prejudice the King of Heaven In some cases indeed change is a sign of a weak unsetledness It is not for a wise man like Shel-fish to rise or fall with the Moon rather like unto the Heaven he must learn to move and be constant It was a good word of Basil to the Governour Utinam sempiterna sit hoec mea desipientia Let me dote thus alw aies It was not for nothing that Socrates had the reputation of Wisdome that famous Shrew of his Xantippe could say she never but saw him return with the countenance that he went out with Give me a man that in the changes of all conditions can frame himself to be like an Auditors counter and can stand either for a thousand or an hundred or if need be for one this man comes nearest to him in whom there is no shadow of turning But in case of present ill there can be no safety but in change I cannot blame the Angels and Saints in Heaven that they would not change I blesse them that they cannot because they are not capable of better and every motion is out of a kind of need I cannot wonder at the damned spirits that they would be any thing but what they are We that are naturally in the way to that damnation have reason to desire a change worse we cannot be upon
that will be climbing to Heaven by ladders of their own making with Acesius in Jerome what other issue can they exspect from the jealous God but a fearful precipitation Neither doubt I but this is one main ground of the Angels proclamation in the Apocalyps Cecidit cecidit Babylon It is fallen it is fallen Babylon the great City Thus from the Sin which is Pride we descend to the Punishment which is Ruine A mans Pride shall bring him low How can a bladder sink Yet Pride though it be light in respect of the inflation is heavie in respect of the offence The guiltiness is as a milstone to which it is tied that will bear it down to the bottome of the deep As therefore there is a reflex action in the Sin so is there in the Punishment it shall ruine it self No other hands shall need to be used in the Judgement besides her own As the lightning hath ever a spight at the high spires and tall pines striking them down or firing them when the shrubs and cotages stand untouched so hath the God that made it at a self-advanced Greatness whether out of a scorn of rivality or a just punishment of theft for the Proud man both in a cursed emulation makes himself his own Deity and steales glory from God to set out himself For both these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour he shall be brought down saith Solomon Down whither to the dust to Hell by others by God himself temporally here eternally hereafter Insomuch as Aesop himself we have it in Stobaeus when he was ask'd what God did answers Excelsa deprimit extollit humilia Besides the odionsness of a proud man amongst men commonly God is even with him here How many have we known that have been fastidious of their Diet which have come to leap at a crust to beg their bread yea to rob the hogs with the Prodigal How many that have been proud of their Beauty have been made ere they died the loathsome spectacles of deformity That of Esay strikes home Because the daughters of Sion are haughty and walk with stretched-out necks and wanton eyes c. Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughter of Zion Esay 3. 16. How many that from the height of their over-weening have been brought to Benhadad's halter or have been turn'd to graze with Nebuchadnezzar The Lord roots up the house of the proud Prov. 15. 25. But if they escape here as sometimes they do hereafter they shall not For the proud man is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 16. 5. God cannot indure him Ps 101. 5. And what of that Tu perdes superbos Thou shalt destroy the proud Ps 119. 21. The very Heathens devised the proud Giants struck with thunder from Heaven And if God spared not the Angels whom he placed in the highest Heavens but for their pride threw them down headlong to the nethermost hell how much less shall he spare the proud dust and ashes of the sons of men and shall cast them from the height of their earthly altitude to the bottome of that infernall dungeon Humility makes men Angels Pride made Angels Devils as that Father said I may well adde makes Devils of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies the Heathen Poet Menander Never soul escaped the revenge of Pride never shall escape it So sure as God is just Pride shall not go unpunished I know now we are all ready to call for a Bason with Pilate and to wash our hands from this foul sin Honourable and beloved this Vice is a close one it will cleave fast to you yea so close that ye can hardly discern it from a piece of your selves this is it that aggravates the danger of it For as Aquinas notes well some sins are more dangerous propter vehementiam impugnationis for the fury of their assault as the sin of Anger others for their correspondence to Nature as the sins of Lust others propter latentiam sui for their close sculking in our bosome as this sin of Pride Oh let us look seriously into the corners of our false hearts even with the Lantern of Gods Law and find out this subtile Devil and never give peace to our Souls till we have dispossessed him Down with your proud plumes O ye glorious Peacocks of the World look upon your black legs and your snake-like head be ashamed of your miserable infirmities else God will down with them and your selves in a fearful vengeance There is not the holiest of us but is this way faulty Oh let us be humbled by our Repentance that we may not be brought down to everlasting confusion let us be cast down upon our knees that we may not be cast down upon our faces For God will make good his own word one way A mans pride shall bring him low The sweeter part of this Ditty follows which is of Mercy Mercy which hath two strains also the Grace the Reward The gratious disposition for a Vertue properly it is not is Humility expressed here in the Subject The humble in spirit Not he that is forcibly humbled by others whether God or man so a wicked Ahab may walk softly and droop for the time and be never the better What thank is it if we bow when God sets his foot upon us but he that is voluntarily humble in spirit And yet there are also vicious kinds of this self-humility As first when man having only God supra se and therefore owing religious worship to him alone worships Angels or Saints that are but juxta se It is the charge that S. Paul gives to his Colossians Let no man deceive you in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels much less then of stocks and stones These very walls if they had eyes and tongues could testifie full many of these impious and Idolatrous cringes and prostrations So as if wood or stone could be capable of pollution here was enough till this abused frame was happily washed by the clear streams of the Gospel and re-sanctified by the Word and Prayer This is a Superstitious Humility 2. When a man basely subjects himself to serve the humors of the Great by gross supparasitation by either unjust or unfit actions and offices yielding himself a slave to the Times a pander to Vice This is a Servile Humility 3. When a man affects a courteous affability and lowly carriage for ostentation for advantage or when a man buries himself alive in an homely cowle in a pretence of mortification as if he went out of the world when the world is within him To be proud of Humility as a Father said well is worse then to be superciliously and openly proud This is an Hypocritical Humility 4. When out of pusillanimity or inordinateness a man prostitutes himself to those unworthy conditions and actions of sinful pleasure that mis-beseem a man a Christian This is a Brutish Humility All
these self-humiliations are thankless and faulty It will be long enough ere the Superstitious Servile Hypocritical Brutish Humility shall advance us other then to the scaffold of our execution The True Humility is when a man is modestly lowly in his own eyes and sincerely abased in his heart and carriage before God And this self-humiliation is either in respect of Temporal or Spiritual things Of Temporal when a man thinks any condition good enough for him and therefore doth not unduly intrude himself into the preferments of the world whether in Church or Commonwealth When he thinks meanly of his own parts and actions highly and reverently of others and therefore in giving honour goes before others in taking it behind them Of Spiritual when he is vile in himself especially in respect of his sins and therefore abhors himself in sackcloth and ashes when the Grace that he hath he can acknowledge but not over-rate yea he takes it so low as he may do without wrong to the giver when for all Blessings he can awfully look up to his Creator and Redeemer ascribing all to him referring all to him depending for all upon him so much more magnifying the Mercy of God as he is more sensible of his own Unworthiness This is the true though short character of Humility A plain Grace ye see but lovely From which let it please you to turn your eyes to the Blessing allotted to it which is so expressed in the Original that it may either run The humble in spirit shall enjoy honour as in the former Translation or Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit as in the latter In both Honour is the portion of the humble for the raising of him in the one for the preserving of him in the other Honour from whom From God from men Even the good man of the house will say Friend sit up higher For though with vain men he is most set by that can most set our himself yet with the wiser the more a man dejects himself the more he is honoured It cannot stand with the justice of the truly-vertuous to suffer a man to be a loser by his Humility Much less will God abide it A broken heart O God thou wilt not despise saith the Psalmist and Pullati extolluntur salute The mourners are exalted with safety saith Eliphaz in Job 5. 11. The Lord lifteth up the meek saith David out of good proof and needs must he rise whom God lifteth What should we need any other precedent of this Vertue or other example of this Reward then our Blessed Saviour himself all other are worthy of forgetfulness in comparison Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equall with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant c. and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross O God what an incomprehensible dejection was here that the living God should descend from the highest Glory of Heaven and put upon him the rags of our Humanity and take on him not the man onely but the servant yea the malefactor abasing himself to our infirmities to our indignities to be reviled spat upon scourged wounded crucified yea all these are easie tasks to that which follows to be made a mark of his Fathers wrath in our stead so as in the bitterness of his Soul he is forced to cry out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me What heart of man yea what apprehension of Angels can be capable of fadoming the depth of this Humiliation Answerable to thy dejection O Saviour was thine exaltation as the conduit-water rises at least as high as it falls Now is thy name above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should how of things in Heaven in earth under the earth Neither meanest thou to be our Saviour onely but our pattern too I do not hear thee say Learn of me for I am Almighty I am Omniscient but Learn of me that I am meek If we can go down the steps of thine Humiliation we shall rise up the stairs of thy Glory Why do we not then say I will be yet more vile for the Lord Oh cast down your crowns with the twenty four Elders Apoc. 4. 10. before the Throne of God Humble your seves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Jam. 4. 10. Indeed there is none of us but hath just cause to be humbled whether we consider the wretchedness of our Nature or of our Estate What is the best flesh and blood but a pack of dust made up together into a stirring heap which in the dissolution molders to dust again When I consider the Heavens and see the Sun the Moon and the Stars as they stand in their order Lord what is man that thou regardest him what a Worm what an Ant what a nothing who besides his homeliness is still falling asunder for even of the greatest and best-composed is that of the Psalm verified Universa vanitas omnis homo Every man is all vanity Alas then what is it we should be proud of Is it Wealth What is the richest metal but red and white earth And that whereof too we may say as the Sons of the Prophets of their hatchet Alas Master it was but lent What speak I of this when our very breath is not our own The best praise of Coin is that it is current it runs from us yea it is volatile as wise Solomon Riches have wings and if they leave not us we must them We brought nothing hither and according to the proclamation of that great King we must carry nothing with us but our winding-sheet yea rather that must carry us Is it our Land How long is that ours That shall be fixed when we are gone and shall change as it hath done many Masters But withall where is it I remember what is reported of Socrates and Alcibiades Aelian tells the story Socrates saw Alcibiades proud of his spacious fields and wide inheritance he calls for a Map looks for Greece and finding it asks Alcibiades where his lands lay When he answered they were not laid forth in the Map Why said Socrates art thou proud of that which is no part of the earth What a poor spot is the dominion of the greatest King but what a nothing is the possession of a Subject A small parcel of a Shire not worthy the name of a Chorographer And had we with Licinius as much as a Kite could fly over yea if all the whole Globe were ours six or seven foot will serve us at the last Is it our Honour Alas that is none of ours for Honour is in him that gives it not in him that receives it And if the Plebeians will be stubborn or uncivil and respectless where is Honour and when we have it what a poor puffe is this how windy how unsatisfying Insomuch
Justice is Peace Fore-prophesied to be the Prince of Peace Esay 9. 6. the government is upon his shoulder saith that Evangelical Seer yea which of the Prophets is silent of this Style Constituted Behold I have set my King upon Sion Psal 2. 6. Acknowledged by the Sages Where is be that is born King of the Jews We have seen his star Mat. 2. 2. Usher'd in by the Angel Gabriel The Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David Luke 1. 32. Anointed he is Christus Domini and Christus Dominus anointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellows Proclaimed Behold thy King cometh to thee saith Zachary Hosanna Blessed be the Kingdome that comes in the name of the Lord said the Children in the streets Enthronized Thy throne O God is for ever and the scepter of thy Kingdome is a right scepter Honoured with due homage The Kings of the earth shall bring presents to thee saith the Psalmist And yet this King thus Presigured Fore-prophesied Constituted Acknowledged Usher'd in Anointed Proclaimed Enthronized Adored is cast off with a Nolumus hunc No King but Caesar And were they not well served think we Did or could ever any eye pity them Because they say Christ is not our King but Caesar therefore Christ shall plague them by Caesar that very Roman Government which they honoured in a corrivality and opposition to Christ shall revenge the quarrel of Christ in the utter subversion of these unthankful Rebels Oh foolish people and unjust do ye thus requite the Lord Did he empty himself of his Celestial Glory and put on weak Manhood and all the symptoms of wretched Mortality and do ye despise him for this Mercy Is he so vile to you because he was so vile for you Did his Love make him humble that his Humility should make him contemptible Did he chuse you out of all the kingdomes of the earth and do ye wilfully reject him Hear therefore ye despisers and tremble hear the just doom of him who will be your Judge if he shall not be your Saviour Those mine enemies that would not I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luk. 19. 27. Lord it is done as thou hast commanded and yet there is room Do we think that Christ hath no Rebels but Jews Would to God we sinners of the Gentiles had not said Disrumpamus vincula Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us What are his bonds but his Laws his cords but Religious institutions These flie about mens ears like rotten tow binding none but the impotent The bounds of his Kingdome are the ends of the earth It is an hard word yet I must say it Oh that there were not more Traitors in the world then Subjects Tell not me what mens Tongues say their Lives say loud enough Nolumus hunc Christ is no King for us Obedience is the true touch-stone of Loyalty not Protestations not outward Cringes not disbursement of Tribute We have all solemnly sworn allegeance to the God of Heaven we are ready to bow at the dear name of Jesus we stick not perhaps to give obedientiam bursalem as Gerson cals it to God but when it comes once to the deniall of our selves to the mortifying of our corruptions to the strangling of the children of our own accursed wombs to the offering up our bodies and Souls as a reasonable and lively sacrifice hîc Rhodus hîc saltus Kings rule by their Laws Be not deceived if slips of weakness marre not our Fealty certainly continuance in wilful sins cannot stand with our Subjection Quomodo legis How readest thou then as our Saviour asks What saies thy Law-giver in Sinai Thou shalt have no other Gods but me If now thou rear up in thy bosome altars to the Astaroth of Honour to the Tammuz of Lust to the Mammon of Wealth thou hast defied Christ for thy King God saies Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain If now thine unhallowed tongue will not be beaten out of the hellish track of Oaths Blasphemies prophane Scoffs thou hast defied Christ God sayes Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day If now thou shalt spend it altogether upon thy self or else thinkest with that wise Heathen thou dost septimam oetatis partem perdere thou defiest Christ God saies Thou shalt not commit adultery If now like an enraged stallion thou neighest after every object of impure Lust thou hast defied Christ God saies Non in comessationibus ebrietate Not in surfeiting and drunkenness If now we shall pour our health and our reason down our throats and shall sacrifice our Souls to our bellies what do we say but Nolumus hunc But O foolish Rebels that we are do we think thus to shake off the yoak of Christ In spight of men and devils he will be their King who do most grin and gnash at his Soveraignty Feel O ye wilful sinners if ye will not learn that as he hath a golden Scepter Virgam directionis Psal 45. 6. so he hath also an iron Scepter Psal 2. 9. Virgam furoris Esay 10. 5. Beauty and Bands Zach. 11. 10 14. If ye will not bow under the first yea must break under the second He shall break you in pieces like a Potters vessel to mammocks to dust Ye shall find that the Prince of darkness can no more avoid his own torment then he can cease from yours and every knee not onely in Heaven and in earth but under the earth too shall mal-grè bow to the name of that Jesus whom they have scornfully rejected with Nolumus hunc Christ is no King to us But I perswade my self better things of you all that hear me this day There is none of you I hope but would be glad to strew his garments his olive-boughs yea his myrtles and lawrels yea crown and scepter under the feet of Christ and cry Hosanna altissimo Oh then if you be in earnest take the Psalmists counsel Osculamini filium Give him the kiss of Homage of Obedience Let me have leave to say that this charge is there given to the great Princes and Rulers of the earth they who honour others with a kiss of their hand must honour themselves with the humble kiss of his No Power can exempt from this sweet Subjection Ecce servus tuns Behold I am thy servant faith David yea and vilior ero I will be yet more vile for the Lord. Tremble before his footstool O ye Great ones that bindeth Kings with chains and Nobles with fetters of iron Psal 149. 8. Your very Height inforces your Obedience the detrectation where of hath no other but Potentes potenter punientur Mighty ones shall be mightily tormented As an Angel of God so is my Lord the king as that wise Tekoan said Do ye not see how awful how submiss the Angels of Heaven are Before his throne they hide their faces with their wings and from his throne at his command
it For as that Father elsewhere In thy sight shall none living be justified He said not no man but none living not Evangelists not Angels not Thrones not Dominions If thou shalt mark the iniquities even of thine Elect saith S. Bernard Who shall abide it To say now that our actual Justice which is imperfect through the admixtion of venial sins ceaseth not to be both true and in a sort perfect Justice is to say there may be an unjust Justice or a just Injustice that even muddie water is clear or a leprous face beautiful Besides all experience evinceth our wants For as it is S. Austin's true observation He that is renewed from day to day is not all renewed so much he must needs be in his old corruption And as he speaks to his Hierome of the degrees of Charity There is in some more in some less in some none at all but the fullest measure which can receive no encrease is not to be found in any man while he lives here and so long as it may be encreased surely that which is less then it ought is faulty from which faultiness it must needs follow that there is no just man upon earth which doeth good and sinneth not and thence in Gods sight shall none living be justified Thus he To the very last hour our Prayer must be Forgive us our trespasses Our very daily endeavour therefore of increasing our Renovation convinceth us sufficiently of Imperfection and the imperfection of our Regeneration convinceth the impossibility of Justification by such Inherent Righteousness In short therefore since this Doctrine of the Roman Church is both new and erroneous against Scripture and Reason we have justly refused to receive it into our Belief and for such refusal are unjustly ejected CHAP. VI. The Newness of the Doctrine of Merit MErit is next wherein the Council of Trent is no less peremptory If any man shall say that the good works of a man justified do not truely merit eternal life let him be Anathema It is easie for Errour to shroud it self under the ambiguitie of words The word Merit hath been of large use with the Ancients who would have abhorred the present sense with them it sounded no other then Obtaining or Impetration not as now earning in the way of condign wages as if there were an equalitie of due proportion betwixt our Works and Heaven without all respects of pact promise favour according to the bold Comment of Scotus Tolet Pererius Costerus Weston and the rest of that strain Far far was the gracious humility of the Ancient Saints from this so high a presumption Let S. Basil speak for his fellows Eternal rest remains for those who in this life have lawfully striven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not for the Merits of their deeds but of the grace of that most munificent God in which they have trusted Why did I name one when they all with full consent as Cassander witnesseth profess to repose themselves wholy upon the mere Mercie of God and Merit of Christ with an humble renunciation of all worthiness in their own works Yea that unpartial Author derives this Doctrine even through the lower Ages of the Schoolmen and later Writers Thomas of Aquine Durand Adrian de Trajecto afterwards Pope Clictoveus and delivers it for the voice of the then present Church And before him Thomas Waldensis the great Champion of Pope Martine against the miscalled Hereticks of his own name professes him the sounder Divine and truer Catholick which simply denies any such Merit and ascribes all to the mere Grace of God and the will of the giver What should I need to darken the aire with a cloud of witnesses their Gregory Ariminensis their Brugensis Marsilius Pighius Eckius Ferus Stella Faber Stapulensis Let their famous Preacher Royard shut up all Quid igitur is qui Merita praetendit c. Whosoever he be that pretends his Merits what doth he else but deserve hell by his Works Let Bellarmine's Tutissimum est c. ground it self upon S. Bernard's experimental resolution Periculosa habitatio est Perilous is their dwelling-place who trust in their own Merits perilous because ruinous All these and many more teach this not as their own Doctrine but as the Churches Either they and the Church whose voice they are are Hereticks with us or we Orthodox with them and they and we with the Ancients The Noveltie of this Romane Doctrine is accompanied with Errour against Scripture against Reason Sect. 2. Against Scripture THat God doth graciously accept and munificently recompence our good Works even with an incomprehensible Glory we doubt not we deny not but this either out of the riches of his Mercy or the justice of his Promise But that we can earn this at his hands out of the intrinsecal worthiness of our acts is a challenge too high for flesh and blood yea for the Angels of Heaven How direct is our Saviours instance of the servant come out of the field and commanded by his Master to attendance Doth he thank that Servant because he did the things that were commanded him I trow not So likewise ye when ye shall have done all things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants Unprofitable perhaps you will say in respect of meriting thanks not unprofitable in respect of meriting wages For to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt True therefore herein our case differeth from servants that we may not look for God's reward as of Debt but as of Grace By Grace are ye saved through Faith neither is it our earning but God's gift Both it cannot be For if by Grace then it is no more of Works even of the most Renewed otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work should be no more Work Now not by works of Righteousness which we have done at our best but according to his Mercy he saveth us Were our Salvation of Works then should Eternal life be our wages but now The wages of sin is Death but the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sect. 3. Against Reason IN very Reason where all is of mere Duty there can be no Merit for how can we deserve reward by doing that which if we did not we should offend It is enough for him that is obliged to his task that his work is well taken Now all that we can possibly doe and more is most justly due unto God by the bond of our Creation of our Redemption by the charge of his Royal Law and that sweet Law of his Gospel Nay alas we are far from being able to compass so much as our duty In many things we sin all It is enough that in our Glory we cannot sin though their Faber Stapulensis would not yield so much and taxeth
this sense can be no other then figurative and commemorative Is it really propitiatory Without shedding of blood there is no remission If therefore sins be remitted by this Sacrifice it must be in relation to that blood which was shed in his true personal Sacrifice upon the Cross and what relation can be betwixt this and that but of representation and remembrance in which their moderate Cassander fully resteth Sect. 3. Missal Sacrifice against Reason IN Reason there must be in every Sacrifice as Cardinal Bellarmine grants a destruction of the thing offered and shall we say that they make their Saviour to crucifie him again No but to eat him for Consumptio seu manducatio quae fit à Sacerdote The consumption or manducation which is done of the Priest is an essential part of this Sacrifice saith the same Authour For in the whole action of the Masse there is saith he no other real destruction but this Suppose we then the true humane flesh blood and bone of Christ God and man really and corporally made such by this Transubstantiation whether is more horrible to crucisie or to eat it By this rule it is the Priests teeth and not his tongue that makes Christs body a Sacrifice By this rule it shall be hostia an host when it is not a Sacrifice and a reserved host is no Sacrifice howsoever consecrated And what if a mouse or other vermin should eat the Host it is a case put by themselves who then sacrificeth To stop all mouths Laicks eat as well as the Priest there is no difference in their manducation but Laicks sacrifice not and as Salmeron urges the Scripture distinguisheth betwixt the Sacrifice and the participation of it Are not they which eat of the Sacrifices partakers of the Altar And in the very Canon of the Mass Ut quotquot c. the prayer is That all we which in the participation of the Altar have taken the sacred Body and Blood of thy Son c. Wherein it is plain saith he that there is a distinction betwixt the Host and the eating of the Host Lastly sacrificing is an act done to God if then eating be sacrificing the Priest eates his God to his God Quorum Deus venter Whiles they in vain studie to reconcile this new-made Sacrifice of Christ already in Heaven with Jube haec praferri Command these to be carried by the hands of thine holy Angels to thine high Altar in Heaven in the sight of thy Divine Majesty we conclude That this proper and propitiatory Sacrifice of the Masse as a new unholy unreasonable Sacrifice is justly abhorred by us and we for abhorring it unjustly ejected CHAP. X. The Newness of Image-Worship AS for the setting up and worshipping of Images we shall not need to climbe so high as Arnobius or Origen or the Council of Eliberis Anno 305. or to that fact and history of Epiphanius whose famous Epistle is honored by the Translation of Hierome of the picture found by him in the Church of the Village of Anablatha though out of his own Diocese how he tore it in an holy zeal and wrote to the Bishop of the place beseeching him that no such Pictures may be hanged up contrary to our Religion though by the way who can but blush at Master Fisher's evasion that it was sure the Picture of some prophane Pagan when as Epiphanius himself there sayes it had Imaginem quasi Christi vel Sancti cujusdam the Image as it were of Christ or some Saint Surely therefore the Image went for Christs or for some noted Saints neither doth he finde fault with the irresemblance but with the Image as such That of Agobardus is sufficient for us Nullus antiquorum Catholicorum None of the ancient Catholicks ever thought that Images were to be worshipped or adored They had them indeed but for history sake to remember the Saints by not to worship them The decision of Gregory the Great some 600 yeares after Christ which he gave to Serenus Bishop of Massilia is famous in every mans mouth and pen El quidem quia eas ador ari vetuisses c. We commend you saith he that you forbade those Images to be worshipped but we reprove your breaking of them adding the reason of both For that they were only retained for history and instruction not for adoration Which ingenuous Cassander so comments upon as that he shews this to be a sufficient declaration of the judgement of the Romane Church in those times Videlicet ideo haberi picturas c. That Images are kept not to be adored and worshipped but that the ignorant by beholding those Pictures might as by written records be put in minde of what hath been formerly done and be thereupon stirred up to Piety And the same Authour tells us that Sanioribns scholiasticis displicet c. The sounder Schoolmen disliked that opinion of Thomas Aquine who held that the Image is to be worshipped with the same adoration which is due to the thing represented by it reckoning up Durand Holcot Biel. Not to spend many words in a clear case What the judgement and practice of our Ancestours in this Iland was concerning this point appears sufficiently by the relation of Roger Hoveden our Historian who tells us that in the year 792. Charls the King of France sent into this Isle a Synodal Book directed unto him from Constantinople wherein there were divers offensive passages but especially this one that by the unanimous consent of all the Doctours of the East and no fewer then 300 Bishops it was decreed that Images should be worshipped quod Ecclesia Dei execratur saith he which the Church of God abhorres Against which Errour Albinus saith he wrote an Epistle marvellously confirmed by authority of Divine Scriptures and in the person of our Bishops and Princes exhibited it together with the said Book unto the French King This was the setled resolution of our Predecessours And if since that time prevailing Superstition have incroached upon the ensuing succession of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let the old rules stand as those Fathers determined away with Novelties But good Lord how apt men are to raise or believe lies for their own advantage Urspergensis and other friends of Idolatry tell us of a Council held at London in the days of Pope Constantine Anno 714. wherein the worship of Images was publickly decreed the occasion whereof was this Egwin the Monk after made Bishop had a Vision from God wherein he was admonished to set up the Image of the Mother of God in his Church The matter was debated and brought before the Pope in his See Apostolick there Egwin was sworn to the truth of his Vision Thereupon Pope Constantinus sent his Legate Boniface into England who called a Council at London wherein after proof made of Egwin's Vision there was an act made for Image-worship A figment so gross that even their Baronius
as Hulda tels him but that his eyes might not see all the evil which should come upon Jerusalem We cannot have a better Commenter then S. Augustine If saith he the Souls of the dead could be present at the affairs of the living c. surely my good Mother would no night forsake me whom whiles she lived she followed both by land and sea Far be it from me to think that an happier life hath made her cruel c. But certainly that which the holy Psalmist tels us is true My Father and my Mother have forsaken me but the Lord took me up If therefore our Parents have left us how are they present or do interesse themselves in our cares or businesses And if our Parents do not who else among the dead know what we doe or what we suffer Esay the Prophet saith Thou art our Father for Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knows us not If so great Patriarchs were ignorant what became of that people which came from their loyns and which upon their belief was promised to descend from their stock how shall the dead have ought to doe either in the knowledge or aide of the affaires or actions of their dearest survivers How do we say that God provides mercifully for them who die before the evils come if even after their death they are sensible of the calamities of humane life c. How is it then that God promised to good King Josiah for a great blessing that he should die beforehand that he might not see the evils which he threatned to that place and people Thus that divine Father With whom agrees Saint Hierome Nec enim possumus c. Neither can we saith he when this life shall once be dissolved either enjoy our own labours or know what shall be done in the World afterwards But could the Saints of Heaven know our actions yet our hearts they cannot This is the peculiar skill of their Maker Thou art the searcher of the hearts and reines O righteous God God only knows abscondita animi the hidden secrets of the soul Now the Heart is the seat of our Prayers the Lips do but vent them to the eares of men Moses said nothing when God said Let me alone Moses Solomon's argument is irrefragable Hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place and doe and give to every man according to his wayes whose heart thou knowest For thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men He onely should be implored that can hear he onely can hear the Prayer that knows the heart Yet could they know our secretest desires it is an Honour that God challengeth as proper to himself to be invoked in our prayers Call upon me in the day of thy trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me There is one God and one mediator betwixt God and man the man Jesus Christ One and no more not only of redemption but of intercession also for through him onely we have accesse by one Spirit unto the Father and he hath invited us to himself Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Sect. 3. Against Reason HOw absurd therefore is it in Reason when the King of Heaven cals us to him to run with our Petitions to the Guard or Pages of the Court Had we to doe with a finite Prince whose eares must be his best informers or whose will to help us were justly questionable we might have reason to present our suits by second hands But since it is an Omnipresent and Omniscious God with whom we deal from whom the Saints and Angels receive all their light and love to his Church how extreme folly is it to sue to those Courtiers of Heaven and not to come immediatly to the Throne of Grace That one Mediator is able and willing also to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Besides how uncertain must our Devotions needs be when we can have no possible assurance of their audience for who can know that a Saint hears him That God ever hears us we are as sure as we are unsure to be heard of Saints Nay we are sure we cannot be all heard of them for what finite nature can divide it self betwixt ten thousand Suppliants at one instant in severall regions of the world much lesse impart it self whole to each Either therefore we must turn the Saints into so many Deities or we must yield that some of our prayers are unheard And whatsoever is not of faith is sin As for that heavenly glasse of Saint Gregorie's wherein the Saints see us and our suits confuted long since by Hugo de S. Victore it is as pleasing a fiction as if we imagined therefore to see all the corners of the earth because we see that Sun which sees them And the same eyes that see in God the particular necessities of his Saints below see in the same God such infinite Grace and Mercy for their relief as may save the labour of their reflecting upon that Divine mirrour in their speciall intercessions The Doctrine therefore and Practice of the Romish Invocation of Saints both as new and erroneous against Scripture and Reason we have justly rejected and are thereupon ejected as unjustly CHAP. XV. The Newnesse of Seven Sacraments THE late Councill of Florence indeed insinuates this number of Seven Sacraments as Suarez contends but the later Council of Trent determines it Si quis dixerit aut plura c. If any man shall say that there are either more or fewer sacraments then seven viz. Baptisme Confirmation c. or that any of these is not truly and properly a Sacrament let him be Anathema It is not more plain that in Scripture there is no mention of Sacraments then that in the Fathers there is no mention of Seven Cardinall Bellarmine's evasion that the Scripture and Fathers wrote no Catechisme is poor and ridiculous no more did the Councils of Florence and Trent and yet there the number is reckoned and defined So as the word Sacrament may be taken for any holy significant rite there may be as well seventy as seven so strictly as it may be and is taken by us there can no more be seven then seventy This determination of the number is so late that Cassander is forced to confesse Nec temerè c. You shall not easily find any man before Peter Lombard Which hath set down any certain and definite number of Sacraments And this observation is so just that upon the challenges of our Writers no one Author hath been produced by the Roman Doctors for the disproof of it elder then Hugo and the said Master of Sentences But numbers are ceremonies Both Luther and Philip Melanchthon professe they stand not much upon them It is the number numbred which is the thing it self mis-related
of muck but beaten down and burned with the fire of Gods Word the walls of Wood Hay Stubble which the Babylonian builders had raised upon the old Foundation which is Christ Jesus and edified upon it a fair Palace of Silver Gold precious Stones This same is the Opinion also of my Collegues of the French Church of this City of London If any self-conceited Christian thinketh this an advantage rather then a disparagement and disgrace to that punk the Roman Church and taketh thereby occasion to persevere to be her Bawd or Stallion and to run a whoring with her I say with the Psalmist The wicked hath left off to be wise and to doe good and with the Angel He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still For neither must an honest heart speak a lie for the good that may come of it nor conceal in time and place a necessary Truth for any evil that may insue of it If it harden more and more the flinty hearts of some unto death it will soften and melt the iron hearts of others unto life that seeing among us the mud and dirt of humane Traditions wherewith the Pope and his Clergy had furred and soiled the bright-shining glasse of the Gospel wiped away from this heavenly mirror of God's favour they may come unto us and beholding with open face as in a glasse the glory of the Lord may be changed with us into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Which last effect I pray with my heart your Reconciler may have with those that are children of Peace And so recommending your Lordship with all your learned eloquent sound and usefull Labours to Gods most powerfull blessing and my self to the continuance of your godly Prayers and old Friendship I remain for ever Your Lordships most humble and affectionate Servant GILBERT PRIMROSE From London the 26. of February 1629. To my Worthy and much respected Friend Mr. H. CHOLMLEY MAster Cholmley I have perused your Learned and full Reply to Master Burton's Answer wherein you have in a judicious eye abundantly righted your self and cleared a just Cause so as the Reader would wonder where an Adversary might finde ground to raise an opposition But let me tell you were iâ— a Book written by the Pen of an Angel from Heaven in this Subject I should doubt whether to wish it publick How true how just soever the plea be I finde such is the self-love and partiality of our corrupt nature the quarrell is inlarged by multiplying of words When I see a Fire quenched with Oyle I will expect to see a Controversie of this nature stinted by publick altercation New matter still rises in the agitation gives hint to a fore-resolved Opposite of a fresh disquisition So as we may sooner see an end of the common Peace then of an unkindly jarre in the Church especially such a one as is fomented with a mistaken Zeal on the one side and with a confidence of Knowledge on the other Silence hath sometimes quieted such like mis-raised brabbles never interchange of words This very Question was on foot some forty years agoe in the hote chace of great Authors but whether through the ingenuity of the parties or some over-ruling act of Divine Providence it soon died without noise so I wish it may now doe Rather let the weaker Title goe away with the last word then the Church shall be distracted For that Position of mine which occasioned your Vindication you see it sufficiently abetted and determined by so Reverend Authority as admits no exception I dare say no Learned Divine of our own Church or the forain can but subscribe in this our sense to the Judgement of these Worthies To draw forth therefore this cord of contention to any further length were no lesse needlesse then prejudiciall to the publick peace He is not worthy to be satisfied that will yet wrangle As for those Personall aspersions that are cast upon you by Malice be perswaded to despise them These Western parts where your reputation is deservedly pretious know your zeal for Gods Truth no lesse fervent though better governed then the most fiery of your Censurers No man more hateth Popish Superstition onely your fault is that you do not more hate Errour then Injustice and cannot abide wrong measure offered to the worst enemy Neither be you troubled with that idle exprobration of a Prebendary retribution who would care for a contumely so void of truth God knows that worthlesse gift was conferred upon you ere this task came into either of our thoughts and whoso knows the entire respects betwixt us from our very Cradles till this day may well think that a Prebend of three pounds by the year need not goe for a Fee where there is so much and so ancient cause of dearness I am sorry to see such rancour under the coat of Zeal Surely nothing but mere Malice can be guilty of this charge no lesse then of that other envious challenge of your decay of Graces of falling from your first Love from industry to ease from a weekly to a monethly preaching when those that know the state of your Tiverton the four-parted division of that charge and your forced confinement to your own day by publick authority both Spirituall and Temporall must needs acquit you and cry down the wrong of an accuser As for the vigour of Gods good Graces in you both common and sanctifying all the Country are your ample witnesses I that have interknown you from our childhood cannot but professe to finde the entrance of your age no lesse above the best of your youth in abilities then in time and still no lesse fruitfull in promises of increase then in eminent performances What need I urge this your Adversaries do enough feel your worth So as to speak seriously I cannot sufficiently wonder at the liberty of those men who professing a strict conscience of their wayes dare let their Pens or Tongues loose to so injurious and uncharitable a detraction whereof they know the just avenger is in Heaven It should not be thus betwixt Brethren no not with Enemies For the main business there wants not confidence on either side I am appealed to by both an unmeet Judge considering my so deep ingagements But if my umpierage may stand I award an eternall silence to both parts Sit down in peace then you and your worthy Second whose young ripeness and modest and learned discourse is worthy of better entertainment then contempt and let your zealous Opponents say that you have overcome your selves in a resolved cessation of Pens and them in a love of Peace Farewell from Your loving Friend and ancient Collegue JOS. EXON OCCASIONALL MEDITATIONS BY JOS. EXON Set forth by R. H. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE My very good Lord JAMES Lord Viscount Doncaster Right Honourable FInding these Papers amongst others lying aside
Upon the sight of an Eclipse of the Sun LIght is an ordinary and familiar Blessing yet so dear to us that one hours interception of it sets all the world in a wonder The two great Luminaries of Heaven as they impart light to us so they withdraw light from each other The Sun darkens the full Moon in casting the shadow of the earth upon her opposed face the new Moon repays this blemish to the Sun in the interposing of her dark body betwixt our eyes and his glorious beams the earth is troubled at both O God if we be so afflicted with the obscuring of some piece of one of thy created lights for an hour or two what a confusion shall it be that thou who art the God of these Lights in comparison of whom they are mere darknesse shalt hide thy face from thy creature for ever O thou that art the Sun of Righteousnesse if every of my sins cloud thy face yet let not my grievous sins eclipse thy light Thou shinest alwayes though I do not see thee but Oh never suffer my sins so to darken thy visage that I cannot see thee IV. Upon the sight of a gliding Star HOw easily is our sight deceived how easily doth our sight deceive us We saw no difference betwixt this Star and the rest the light seemed alike both whiles it stood and whiles it fell now we know it was no other then a base slimy Meteor guilded with the Sun-beams and now our foot can tread upon that which ere while our eye admired Had it been a Star it had still and ever shined now the very fall argues it a false and elementary Apparition Thus our Charity doth and must mis-lead us in our Spirituall judgements If we see men exalted in their Christian Profession fixed in the upper region of the Church shining with appearances of Grace we may not think them other thenâ—stars in this lower firmament but if they fall from their holy station and imbrace the present world whether in Judgement or Practice renouncing the Truth and power of Godliness now we may boldly say they had never any true light in them and were no other then a glittering composition of Pride and Hypocrisie O God if my Charity make me apt to be deceived by others let me be sure not to deceive my self Perhaps some of these apostating Stars have thought themselves true let their mis-carriage make me heedfull let the inward light of thy Grace more convince my truth to my self then my outward Profession can represent me glorious to others V. Upon a fair Prospect WHat a pleasing variety is here of Towns Rivers Hills Dales Woods Medows each of them striving to set forth the other and all of them to delight the eye So as this is no other then a naturall and reall Landscap drawn by that Almighty skilfull hand in this table of the Earth for the pleasure of our view no other creature besides Man is capable to apprehend this Beauty I shall doe wrong to him that brought me hither if I do not feed my eyes and praise my Maker It is the intermixture and change of these Objects that yields this contentment both to the Sense and Minde But there is a sight O my Soul that without all variety offers thee a truer and fuller delight even this Heaven above thee All thy other Prospects end in this This glorious circumference bounds and circles and inlightens all that thine eye can see whether thou look upward or forward or about thee there thine eye alights there let thy thoughts be fixed One inch of this lightsome Firmament hath more Beauty in it then the whole face of the Earth And yet this is but the floor of that goodly fabrick the outward curtain of that glorious Tabernacle Couldst thou but Oh that thou couldst look within that veile how shouldst thou be ravisht with that blissefull sight There in that incomprehensible light thou shouldst see him whom none can see and not be blessed thou shouldst see millions of pure and majesticall Angels of holy and glorified Souls there amongst thy Fathers many mansions thou shouldst take happy notice of thine owne Oh the best of earth now vile and contemptible Come down no more O my Soul after thou hast once pitched upon this Heavenly glory or if this flesh force thy descent be unquiet till thou art let loose to Immortality VI. Upon the frame of a Globe casually broken IT is hard to say whether is the greater Mans Art or Impotence He that cannot make one spire of grasse or corn of sand will yet be framing of Worlds he can imitate all things who can make nothing Here is a great World in a little room by the skill of the workman but in lesse room by mis-accident Had he seen this who upon the view of Plato's Book of Common-wealth eaten with Mice presaged the fatall miscarriage of the publick State he would sure have construed this casualty as ominous Whatever become of the Materiall world whose decay might seem no lesse to stand with Divine Providence then this Microcosme of individuall man sure I am the frame of the Morall world is and must be dis-joynted in the last times Men do and will fall from evil to worse He that hath made all times hath told us that the last shall be perilous Happy is he that can stand upright when the world declines and can endeavour to repair the common ruine with a constancy in goodnesse VII Upon a Cloud WHether it were a naturall Cloud wherewith our ascending Saviour was intercepted from the eyes of his Disciples upon mount Olivet I inquire not this I am sure of that the time now was when a Cloud surpassed the Sun in glory How did the intentive eyes of those ravished beholders envy that happy Meteor and since they could no more see that glorious Body fixed themselves upon that Celestiall Chariot wherewith it was carried up The Angels could tell the gazing Disciples to fetch them off from that astonishing prospect that this Jesus should so come again as they had seen him depart He went up in a Cloud and he shall come again in the clouds of Heaven to his last Judgement O Saviour I cannot look upward but I must see the sensible monuments both of thine Ascension and Return Let no cloud of Worldlinesse or Infidelity hinder me from following thee in thine Ascension or from expecting thee in thy Return VIII Upon the sight of a Grave digged up THE Earth as it is a great devourer so also it is a great preserver too Liquors and Fleshes are therein long kept from putrifying and are rather heightened in their Spirits by being buried in it but above all how safely doth it keep our Bodies for the Resurrection We are here but lay'd up for custody Balmes and Sere-cloths and Leads cannot doe so much as this lap of our common Mother when all these are dissolved into her dust as being unable to keep themselves from
other services it failed me not now that I have rested upon it I finde cause to complain It is no trusting to an arm of flesh on whatsoever occasion we put our confidence therein this reliance will be sure to end in pain and disappointment O God thine arm is strong and mighty all thy Creatures rest themselves upon that and are comfortably sustained Oh that we were not more capable of distrust then thine Omnipotent hand is of weariness and subduction LXVII Upon the Sparks flying upward IT is a feeling comparison that of Job of man born to labour as the sparks to flie upward That motion of theirs is no other then natural neither is it otherwise for man to labour his Minde is created active and apt to some or other Ratiocination his Joynts all stirring his Nerves made for helps of moving and his occasions of living call him forth to action So as an idle man doth not more want Grace then degenerate from Nature Indeed at the first kindling of the fire some sparks are wont by the impulsion of the bellows to flie forward or sideward and even so in our first Age youthly vanity may move us to irregular courses but when those first violences are overcome and we have attained to a setledness of disposition our sparks flie up our life is labour And why should we not doe that which we are made for Why should not God rather grudge us our Being then we grudge him our work It is no thank to us that we labour out of necessity Out of my Obedience to thee O God I desire ever to be imployed I shall never have comfort in my toil if it be rather a purveyance for my self then a Sacrifice to thee LXVIII Upon the sight of a Raven I Cannot see that Bird but I must needs think of Eliah and wonder no lesse at the Miracle of his Faith then of his Provision It was a strong belief that carried him into a desolate retiredness to exspect food from Ravens This fowl we know is ravenous all is too little that he can forage for himself and the Prophets Reason must needs suggest to him that in a drie barren Desart bread flesh must be great dainties yet he goes aside to exspect victuals from that purveyance He knew this Fowl to be no lesse greedy then unclean unclean as in Law so in the nature of his feed what is his ordinary prey but loathsome carrion Yet since God had appointed him this Caterer he stands not upon the nice points of a fastidious squeamishness but confidently depends upon that uncouth provision And accordingly those unlikely purveyors bring him bread and flesh in the Morning and bread and flesh in the Evening Not one of those hungry Ravens could swallow one morsell of those viands which were sent by them to a better mouth The River of Cherith sooner failed him then the tender of their service No doubt Eliah's stomack was often up before that his incurious diet came when exspecting from the mouth of his Cave out of what coast of Heaven these his Servitors might be descried upon the sight of them he magnified with a thankfull heart the wonderfull Goodness and Truth of his God and was nourished more with his Faith then with his Food O God how infinite is thy Providence Wisdome Power We creatures are not what we are but what thou wilt have us when thy turn is to be served we have none of our own Give me but Faith and doe what thou wilt LXIX Upon a Worm IT was an homely expression which God makes of the state of his Church Fear not thou Worm Jacob. Every foot is ready to tread on this despised creature Whiles it kept it self in that cold obscure Cell of the Earth wherein it was hidden it lay safe because it was secret but now that it hath put it self forth of that close Cave and hath presented it self to the light of the Sun to the eye of Passengers how is it vexed with the scorching beams and wrings up and down in an helplesse perplexity not finding where to shrowd it self how obnoxious is it to the fowls of the aire to the feet of men and beasts He that made this creature such and calls his Church so well knew the answerableness of their condition How doth the world overlook and contemn that little flock whose best guard hath ever been secrecy And if ever that despicable number have dared to shew it self how hath it been scorched and trampled upon and entertained with all variety of Persecution O Saviour thy Spouse fares no otherwise then thy self to match her fully thou hast said of thy self I am a Worm and no man Such thou wert in thine humbled estate here on earth such thou wouldest be But as it is a true word that he who made the Angels in Heaven made also the worms on earth so it is no lesse true that he who made himself and his Church Worms upon Earth hath raised our Nature in his Person above the Angels and our Person in his Church to little lesse then Angels It matters not how we fare in this valley of tears whiles we are sure of that infinite amends of Glory above LXX Upon the putting on of his Cloaths WHat a poor thing were Man if he were not beholden to other creatures The Earth affords him flax for his linen bread for his belly the Beasts his ordinary Cloaths the Silk-worm his bravery the back and bowels of the earth his metalls and fewell the Fishes Fowls Beasts his nourishment His wit indeed works upon all these to improve them to his own advantage but they must yield him materials else he subsists not And yet we fools are proud of our selves yea proud of the cast suits of the very basest Creatures There is not one of them that have so much need of us They would enjoy themselves the more if Man were not O God the more we are sensible of our own indigence the more let us wonder at thine All-sufficiency in thy self and long for that happy condition wherein thou which art all perfection shalt be all in all to us LXXI Upon the sight of a great Library WHat a world of Wit is here pack'd up together I know not whether this sight doth more dismay or comfort me It dismaies me to think that here is so much that I cannot know it comforts me to think that this variety yields so good helps to know what I should There is no truer word then that of Solomon There is no end of making many Books this sight verifies it there is no end indeed it were pity there should God hath given to man a busie Soul the agitation whereof cannot but through time and experience work out many hidden Truths to suppresse these would be no other then injurious to Mankinde whose Mindes like unto so many Candles should be kindled by each other The thoughts of our deliberation are most accurate these we vent into our Papers
what a task the Stomack must be put to in the concoction of so many mixtures I am not so austerely scrupulous as to deny the lawfulnesse of these abundant provisions upon just occasions I finde my Saviour himself more then once at a Feast this is recorded as well as his one long Fast Doubtlesse our bountifull God hath given us his creatures not for necessity only but for pleasure but these Exceedings would be both rare and moderate and when they must be require no lesse Patience then Temperance Might I have my option O God give me rather a little with peace and love He whose provision for every day was thirty measures of fine Flower and threescore measures of Meal thirty Oxen an hundred Sheep besides Venison and Fowl yet can pray Give me the Bread of sufficiency Let me have no perpetuall Feast but a good Conscience and from these great preparations for the health both of Soul and Body let me rise rather hungry then surcharged LXXXII Upon the hearing of a Lute well played on THere may be for ought we know infinite inventions of Art the possibility whereof we should hardly ever believe if they were fore-reported to us Had we lived in some rude and remote part of the World and should have been told that it is possible only by an hollow piece of Wood and the guts of Beasts stirred by the fingers of men to make so sweet and melodious a noise we should have thought it utterly incredible yet now that we see and hear it ordinarily done we make it no wonder It is no marvell if we cannot fore-imagine what kinde and means of Harmony God will have used by his Saints and Angels in Heaven when these poor matters seem so strange to our conceits which yet our very Senses are convinced of O God thou knowest infinite wayes to glorifie thy self by thy Creatures which do far transcend our weak and finite capacities Let me wonder at thy Wisdome and Power and be more awfull in my Adorations then curious in my Inquiries LXXXIII Upon the sight and noise of a Peacock I See there are many kinds of Hypocrites of all Birds this makes the fairest shew and the worst noise so as this is an Hypocrite to the Eye There are others as the Black-bird that looks foul and sooty but sings well this is an Hypocrite to the Eare. There are others that please us well both in their shew and voice but are crosse in their carriage and condition as the Popingay whose colours are beautifull and noise delightfull yet is it apt to doe mischief in scratching and biting any hand that comes neare it these are Hypocrites both to the Eye and Eare. Yet there is a degree further beyond the example of all brute Creatures of them whose shew whose words whose actions are fair but their hearts are foul and abominable No outward Beauty can make the Hypocrite other then odious For me let my Profession agree with my words my words with my actions my actions with my heart and let all of them be approved of the God of Truth LXXXIIII Upon a penitent Malefactor I Know not whether I should more admire the Wisdome or the Mercy of God in his proceedings with Men. Had not this man sinned thus notoriously he hâ—d never been thus happy whiles his courses were fair and civil yet he was gracelesse now his miscarriage hath drawn him into a just Affliction his Affliction hath humbled him God hath taken this advantage of his Humiliation for his Conversion Had not one foot slipt into the mouth of Hell he had never been in this forwardnesse to Heaven There is no man so weak or foolish as that he hath not strength or wit enough to sin or to make ill use of his sin It is only the goodness of an infinite God that can make our sin good to us though evil in it self O God it is no thank to our selves or to our sins that we are bettered with evill the Work is thine let thine be the Glory LXXXV Upon the sight of a Lilly THis must needs be a goodly Flower that our Saviour hath singled out to compare with Solomon and that not in his ordinary dresse but in all his Royalty Surely the earth had never so glorious a King as he Nature yielded nothing that might set forth Royall magnificence that he wanted yet he that made both Solomon and this Flower sayes that Solomon in all his Royalty was not clad like it What a poor thing is this earthly Bravery that is so easily overmatched How ill judges are we of outward Beauties that contemn these goodly Plants which their Creator thus magnifies and admire those base Metals which he in comparison hereof contemns If it be their transitorinesse that embaseth them what are we All flesh is Grasse and all the glory of man as the flower of Grasse As we cannot be so brave so we cannot be more permanent O God let it be my ambition to walk with thee hereafter in white Could I put on a robe of Stars here with proud Herod that glittering garment could not keep me from Lice or Worms Might I sit on a Throne of Gold within an house of Ivory I see I should not compare with this Flower I might be as transitory I should not be so beautifull What matters it whether I goe for a Flower or a Weed here whethersoever I must wither Oh thou which art greater then Solomon do thou cloath me with thy perfect Righteousnesse so shall I flourish for ever in the Courts of the House of my God LXXXVI Upon the sight of a Coffin stuck with Flowers TOO fair appearance is never free from just suspicion Whiles here was nothing but mere Wood no Flower was to be seen here now that this Wood is lined with an unsavoury Corps it is adorned with this sweet variety The Firre whereof that Coffin is made yields a naturall redolence alone now that it is stuffed thus noisomely all helps are too little to countervail that sent of corruption Neither is it otherwise in the Living Perpetual use of strong perfumes argues a guiltiness of some unpleasing savour The case is the same Spiritually an over-glorious outside of Profession implies some inward filthinesse that would fain escape notice Our uncomely parts have more comelinesse put on Too much Ornament imports extreme deformity For me let my shew be moderate so shall I neither deceive applause nor merit too deep censure LXXXVII Upon the view of the World IT is a good thing to see this materiall World but it is a better thing to think of the intelligible World This thought is the sight of the Soul whereby it discerneth things like it self Spirituall and Immortall which are so much beyond the worth of these sensible Objects as a Spirit is beyond a Body a pure substance beyond a corruptible an infinite God above a finite Creature O God how great a word is that which the Psalmist sayes of thee that
thou abasest thy self to behold the things both in Heaven and Earth It is our glory to look up even to the meanest piece of Heaven it is an abasement to thine incomprehensible Majesty to look down upon the best of Heaven Oh what a transcendent Glory must that needs be that is abased to behold the things of Heaven What an happinesse shall it be to me that mine eyes shall be exalted to see thee who art humbled to see the place and state of my blessednesse Yea those very Angels that see thy face are so resplendently glorious that we could not overlive the sight of one of their faces who are fain to hide their faces from the sight of thine How many millions attend thy Throne above and thy Footstool below in the ministration to thy Saints It is that thine invisible world the Communion wherewith can make me truely blessed O God if my body have fellowship here amongst Beasts of whose earthly substance it participates let my Soul be united to thee the God of Spirits and be raised up to enjoy the insensible society of thy blessed Angels Acquaint me before-hand with those Citizens and affairs of thine Heaven and make me no stranger to my future Glory LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp HOW small things may annoy the greatest Even a Mouse troubles an Elephant a Gnat a Lion a very Flea may disquiet a Giant What weapon can be nearer to nothing then the sting of this Wasp Yet what a painfull wound hath it given me that scarce-visible point how it envenomes and ranckles and swells up the flesh The tenderness of the part addes much to the grief And if I be thus vexed with the touch of an angry File Lord how shall I be able to indure the sting of a tormenting Conscience As that part is both most active and most sensible so that wound which it receives from it self is most intolerably grievous there were more ease in a nest of Hornets then under this one Torture O God howsoever I speed abroad give me Peace at home and whatever my Flesh suffer keep my Soul free Thus pained wherein do I finde ease but in laying honey to the part infected That Medicine only abates the anguish How near hath Nature placed the remedy to the offence Whensoever my Heart is stung with the remorse for sin only thy sweet and precious Merits O blessed Saviour can mitigate and heal the wound they have virtue to cure me give me Grace to apply them that soveraign receipt shall make my pain happy I shall thus applaud my grief It is good for me that I was thus afflicted LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon WIth what terrour doth this Malefactor stand at that Bar his Hand trembles whiles it is lift up for his triall his very Lips quake whiles he saith Not guilty his Countenance condemns him before the Judge and his fear is ready to execute him before his Hangman Yet this Judge is but a weak man that must soon after die himself that Sentence of Death which he can pronounce is already passed by Nature upon the most innocent that act of Death which the Law inflicteth by him is but momentany who knows whether himself shall not die more painfully O God with what horror shall the guilty Soul stand before thy dreadfull Tribunall in the day of the great Assizes of the World whiles there is the presence of an Infinite Majesty to daunt him a fierce and clamorous Conscience to give in evidence against him Legions of ugly and terrible Devils waiting to seize upon him a gulf of unquenchable Fire ready to receive him whiles the Glory of the Judge is no lesse confounding then the Cruelty of the Tormenters where the Sentence is unavoidable and the Execution everlasting Why do not these terrors of thee my God make me wise to hold a privy Sessions upon my Soul actions that being acquitted by my own heart I may not be condemned by thee and being judged by my self I may not be condemned with the World XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock. How harshly did this note sound in the eare of Peter yea pierced his very heart Many a time had he heard this Bird and was no whit moved with the noise now there was a Bird in his bosome that crowed lowder then this whose shrill accent conjoined with this astonished the guilty Disciple The wearie Labourer when he is awakened from his sweet sleep by this natural Clock of the Houshold is not so angry at this troublesome Bird nor so vexed at the hearing of that unseasonable sound as Peter was when this Fowl awakened his sleeping Conscience and called him to a timely repentance This Cock did but crow like others neither made or knew any difference of this tone and the rest there was a Divine hand that ordered this Mornings note to be a Summons of Penitence He that fore-told it had fore-appointed it that Bird could not but crow then and all the noise in the High Priests Hall could not keep that sound from Peter's eare But O Saviour couldst thou finde leisure when thou stoodst at the Bar of that unjust and cruell Judgment amidst all that bloody rabble of Enemies in the sense of all their fury and the exspectation of thine own Death to listen unto this Monitor of Peter's Repentance and upon the hearing of it to cast back thine eyes upon thy Denying Cursing Abjuring Disciple O Mercy without measure and beyond all the possibility of our admiration to neglect thy self for a Sinner to attend the Repentance of one when thou wert about to lay down thy life for all O God thou art still equally mercifull Every Elect Soul is no lesse dear unto thee Let the sound of thy faithfull Monitors smite my ears and let the beams of thy mercifull eyes wound my heart so as I may go forth and weep bitterly XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts WHen I bethink my self how Eternity depends upon this moment of life I wonder how I can think of any thing but Heaven but when I see the distractions of my Thoughts and the aberrations of my life I wonder how I can be so bewitched as whiles I believe an Heaven so to forget it All that I can doe is to be angry at mine own vanity My Thoughts would not be so many if they were all right there are ten thousand by-waies for one direct As there is but one Heaven so there is but one way to it that living way wherein I walk by Faith by Obedience All things the more perfect they are the more do they reduce themselves towards that Unity which is the Center of all Perfection O thou who art one and infinite draw in my heart from all these stragling and unprofitable Cogitations and confine it to thine Heaven and to thy self who art the Heaven of that Heaven Let me have no life but in thee no care but to injoy thee no ambition but thy Glory Oh make
of joy when I see men upon an unreasonable suggestion of that evil Spirit cast away their lives for nothing and so hastening their temporall death that they hazard an eternall CXVIII Upon the coming in of the Judge THE construction of men and their actions is altogether according to the disposition of the lookers on The same face of the Judge without any inward alteration is seen with terror by the guilty with joy and confidence by the oppressed innocent like as the same lips of the Bride-groom drop both myrrhe and hony at once hony to the well-disposed heart myrrhe to the rebellious and the same Cup relishes well to the healthfull and distasts the feverous the same word is though a sweet yet a contrary favour to the different receivers and the same Sun comforts the strong sight dazles the weak For a man to affect either to doe or speak that which may be pleasing to all men is but a weak and idle ambition when we see him that is infinitely Good appear terrible to more then he appears lovely Goodnesse is it self with whatever eyes it is look'd upon There can be no safety for that man that regards more the censure of men then the truth of being He that seeks to win all hearts hath lost his owne CXIX Upon the sight of an Heap of stones UNder such a pile it was that the first Martyr was buried none of all the antient Kings had so glorious a Tomb here were many stones and every one pretious Jacob leaned his head upon a stone and saw that Heavenly vision of Angels ascending and descending Many stones light upon Steven's head in the instant of his seeing the Heavens opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God Lo Jacob resting upon that one stone saw but the Angels Steven being to rest for once under those many stones saw the Lord of the Angels Jacob saw the Angels moving Steven saw Jesus standing As Jacob therefore afterwards according to his Vow made there an altar to God so Steven now in the present gathers these stones together of which he erected an holy altar whereon he offered up himself a blessed Sacrifice unto God And if there be a time of gathering stones and a time of casting them away this was the time wherein the Jews cast and Steven gathered up these stones for a monument of eternall Glory O blessed Saint thou didst not so clearly see Heaven opened as Heaven saw thee covered thou didst not so perfectly see thy Jesus standing as he saw thee lying patiently courageously under that fatall heap Do I mistake it or are those stones not Flints and Pebbles but Diamonds Rubies and Carbuncles to set upon thy Crown of Glory CXX Upon sight of a Bat and Owle THese Night-birds are glad to hide their heads all and if by some violence they be unseasonably forced our of their secrecy how are they followed and beaten by the birds of the day With us men it is contrary the Sons of Darknesse do with all eagernesse of maâ—ice pursue the children of the Light and drive them into corners and make a prey of them the opposition is alike but the advantage lies on the worse side Is it for that the Spirituall Light is no lesse hatefull to those Children of Darknesse then the naturall night is to those chearfull Birds of the day Or is it for that the Sons of Darknesse challenging no lesse propriety in the world then the Foul do in the lightsome aire abhorre and wonder at the conscionanable as strange and uncouth Howsoever as these Bats and Owls were made for the night being accordingly shaped foul and ill-favoured so we know these vicious men however they may please themselves have in them a true deformity fit to be shrowded in Darknesse and as they delight in the works of Darknesse so they are justly reserved to a state of Darknesse CXXI Upon the sight of a Well-fleeced Sheep WHat a warm Winter-coat hath God provided for this quiet innocent creature as indeed how wonderfull is his Wisdome and Goodness in all his purveiances Those creatures which are apter for motion and withall most fearfull by nature hath he clad somewhat thinner and hath allotted them safe and warm boroughs within the earth those that are fit for labour and use hath he furnished with a strong hide and for Man whom he hath thought good to bring forth naked tender helplesse he hath indued his Parents and himself with that noble faculty of Reason whereby he may provide all manner of helps for himself Yet again so bountifull is God in his provisions that he is not lavish so distributing his gifts that there is no more superfluity then want Those creatures that have beaks have no teeth and those that have shells without have no bones within All have enough nothing hath all Neither is it otherwise in that one kinde of Man whom he meant for the Lord of all Variety of gifts is here mixed with a frugall dispensation None hath cause to boast none to complain Every man is as free from an absolute defect as from perfection I desire not to comprehend O Lord teach me to doe nothing but wonder CXXII Upon the hearing of Thunder THere is no Grace whereof I finde so generall a want in my self and others as an awfull fear of the infinite Majesty of God Men are ready to affect and professe a kinde of Familiarity with God out of a pretence of love whereas if they knew him aright they could not think of him without dread nor name him without trembling their narrow hearts strive to conceive of him according to the scantling of their own streight and ignorant apprehension whereas they should only desire to have their thoughts swallowed up with an adoring wonder of his Divine incomprehensiblenesse Though he thunder not alwaies he is alwayes equally dreadfull there is none of his works which doth not bewray Omnipotency I blush at the sawcinesse of vain men that will be circumscribing the powerfull acts of the Almighty within the compasse of Naturall Causes forbearing to wonder at what they professe to know Nothing but Ignorance can be guilty of this Boldnesse There is no Divinity but in an humble fear no Philosophy but a silent admiration CXXIII Upon the sight of an Hedge-hog I Marvelled at the first reading what the Greeks meant by that Proverb of theirs The Fox knows many pretty wiles but the Hedg-hog knows one great one But when I considered the Nature and practice of this creature I easily found the reason of that speech grounded upon the care and shift that it makes for its own preservation Whiles it is under covert it knows how to bar the fore-dore against the cold Northern and Eastern blasts and to open the back-dore for quieter and calmer aire When it is pursued it knows how to roll up it self round within those thorns with which Nature hath environed it so as the Dog in stead of a beast findes