we are lead to place and persons of a little better condition to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night from the shepherds by a manifest ascent to the Apparition of an Angel the Angel of the Lord from one Angel to a multitude which is much better a multitude of the heavenly Host from that noble Army to him who is greater than all the Angels a Saviour which is Christ the Lord And lastly from that Saviour on earth to his most excellent dominion in heaven Gloria in excelsis glory be to God on high And as in our Church Service we do or should shut up every Psalm with that devout Doxology Glory be to the Father c. as if that were it which gave every Psalm his tune and relish so glory be to God on high is a verse which may most fitly be said or sung to every circumstance which belongs to the birth of Christ He was laid in a Manger glory be to God on high for that humility proclaimed by Angels glory be to God on high for their attendance and ministry manifested to Shepherds glory be to God on high for instructing their simplicity finally to comfort our hearts that night and darkness are dispelled a glorious beam of light made the earth glister where they stood and therefore glory be to God on high for the comfort of that heavenly illumination and glory The Text which I have read unto you contains those particulars which are most natural to heaven and most proper to earth things most truly celestial are Angels and Light and glory all these did joyn together to solemnize this great Nativity when tidings came unto the Shepherds and that which properly savours of earth is fear especially ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã great fear and shepherds not able suddenly to entertain heavenly visions were sore afraid If you will fully know how and in what triumphant manner these tidings were declared from heaven and withal with what astonishment they did possess the earth lend me your attention to these four parts in general 1. Here is Gods Minister imployed to divulge the Incarnation Loe the Angel of the Lord. 2. The pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him the glory of the Lord did shine round about 3. Here are the persons though I have spoke largely of them heretofore I say the persons honoured both with that messenger and that solemnity the Angel came to them the glory shone round about them they were Shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night 4. How this Angel and that shining glory did affect these poor men they were sore afraid And for your parts dearly beloved so prepare your souls so to meditate upon Christs Birth that when you promise your selves after your dissolution the joy of Angels and glory shining round about you remember to temper presumption with the Shepherds fear and reverence and again when weakness and little faith are sore afraid be mindful that Christ was born to bring us to that light which knows no darkness and to everlasting glory So knit them into your heart as they are most divinely woven into my Text And loe the Angel of the Lord came upon them c. And first be ready to hear how Gods Mnister was employed to divulge the Incarnation Loe the Angel of the Lord came upon them touching whose Apparition five interrogatories must be answered Quis what Angel this was of all the heavenly Hierarchy ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it should seem one of conspicuous glory the Angel of the Lord. 2. Quando when he came I believe instantly after Mary was delivered Ecce loe he came that note demonstrative expresseth the celerity 3. Quomodo the true substance of an Angel is not visible and apparitive to men he came in some fashion altered from himself ecce it was wonderful loe an Angel 4. Quo situ how he did apply himself to the Shepherd de coelo supervenit says one Translation he stood above them astitit juxta illos says another he stood near unto them we say he came upon them 5. Quare why men were not accepted to do this office to manifest the Birth of Jesus but loe an Angel of the Lord. 1. Quis and who was this Angel of all the heavenly Hierarchy modest ignorance is better than presumptuous knowledge doubtless the Holy Spirit had given him his Name in this place if it had concerned our edification yet he was no novice but St. Cyprian himself that ventured to call him Gabriel Veniunt in Bethlehem quam praedixit Gabriel invenitur Emanuel that is the Shepherds came to Bethlehem as Gabriel had taught them and there they found Emanuel who is God with us Surely so Divine a Father would not bolt out without a mark to aim at and I discern some colour for that conjecture out of a Grammatical Article Zachary was visited by a messenger from heaven as he was doing his office in the Temple Luke 1.11 There appeared unto him an Angel of the Lord but verse 26. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Angel Gabriel was sent to the Blessed Virgin in the City of Nazareth and as if he were to be known from that holy Spirit who came to Zachary by this emphatical Article being once named Gabriel from thenceforth he is spoken of according to his office the Angel of the Lord. Surely he was one of the most glorious attendants of heaven one of those principal Seraphins that stand always before the throne of God the business about which he came was of the highest nature that ever was sent from Heaven to Earth and therefore who should undertake it but as great a creature as the Heaven and Earth afforded But the School Doctors say otherwise who build upon the groundless curiosities of their adulterate Dionysius list to their speculation forsooth that Cherubins and Seraphins Thrones Principalities and Dominions are vertues of the highest rank and order always resident in the Orbs of Heaven never giving attendance to the Militant Church beneath But that commonly stiled Archangels and Angels in which degrees they place this Gabriel they have intercourse and messages as God appoints them to the world below A brave president if you mark it for their lazie Cardinal Prelates that the active Angels such as proclaim and preach Christ should be the underlings to the rest and to pretend that there are others of no such troublesome office and employment that are the superiour principalities Well as it is probable with St. Cyprian to say this welcome Messenger was Gabriel so it is more probable to hold against Dionysius his conjectures that this glorious Herauld who came to publish a Saviour to the world was one of the mightiest and chief of the Cherubins loe the Angel of the Lord. 1. The next interrogatory is quando at what time and season the Angel came Ecce venit surely he made no stay but came with great expedition after Christ was born if it were not in the same
and Political Priviledges made Satan desire to contaminate it with the greatest sins as with the Martyrdom of the Saints with the hypocrisie of the Pharisees with sundry other crimes and with this presumptuous precipitation if he could have drawn Christ unto it In Psalm cxxii there are three things which made very much to the praise of it 1. It was a City compact together the strongest Tower of defence in all the Kingdom 2. There sate the Thrones of Judgment even the Thrones of the house of David And 3. Thither went the Tribes up to give thanks to the name of the Lord so that for Fortitude for Civil Justice and for the use of Religion for being an holy City it was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the very eye of the Land of Canaan But especially the name of Jerusalem in holy Scripture is rather the name of Gods Church than of a place which contained material building and therefore very aptly called the holy City Nay there is not one word beside in all the Book of God which contains the whole threefold estate of the Church that I can remember namely both the Synagogue under the Law and the Gospel under Grace and the blessed Communion of the Saints in heaven For Jerusalem as the Grammarians note is a Noun of the dual number to signifie both the Militant part on earth and the Triumphant part in heaven of them that are sanctified and joyned to Christ the head No place so pregnant as Gal. iv 25. where St. Paul shews a double Jerusalem upon Earth the Synagogue and the Gospel Jerusalem which now is says the Apostle which desired to be under the Law under the rudiments of Moses was in bondage with her Children but Jerusalem which is above not meaning the Choirs of Angels in heaven but the Church Apostolical which is watered with the dew of heaven from above That is free which is the mother of us all Here are two Jerusalems one above another the Antitype above the Type the Substance above the Shadow the Son of God exhibited in the flesh above the Figures and Sacrifices of the Levitical Priesthood But in both respects it was called the holy City For as concerning the Law of Ceremonies there was no other place but it where they were purely exhibited to God and as concerning the New Testament or Faith in Christ there it began Repentance and Salvation were preached unto all Nations beginning at Jerusalem And for this relative holiness which that City had by being the chief and most ancient Seat of the Oracles of God even Heaven did borrow a name from Earth and hath not despised to be called the upper Jerusalem St. John says when the old Elements of the world did pass away there was a new Heaven and a new Earth and he saw the New Jerusalem coming down from God prepared as a Bride for her Husband Rev. xxi 1. For these causes it had Nomen super omne nomen A name above all names among all the dwellings upon earth even as Christ had a name above all names among the Sons of men But as the Serpent did find a way to come into Paradise so he resorted to this holy City It is his joy to make that a Cage of unclean birds which was the Sanctuary of God It is his industry to sow Tares in the midst of Wheat it is his envy to make an evil Leprosie rise up in those Walls where Christs name is praised it is his pastime to pollute the holy City that the Lord may abhor it And this was easily brought about by the Devil Jerusalem hath run his own fortune Gods honour did abide in it for a while and after a while it became an hissing to all the Earth Once there was no other place in all the world that was holy there was no other Metropolis no other Sanctuary all the habitations of the earth beside were Idolatrous therefore from that ancient purity wherein it excelled alone it is called Sancta an holy City The former renown did so remain upon it then when it had been guilty of the bloud of all the Prophets and had crucified Christ himself yet after all this the Spirit of God lets it retain a name fitter for its ancient Sanctity than for its present Iniquity Many dead bodies of the Saints arose and came into the holy City and appeared unto many Alas now it is neither holy nor yet a City but first a Theater upon which all wickedness was acted and then an heap of ruines Although after the change of many names which it hath suffered Adrichomius says that the Turks in their Language call it the holy City to this day How well doth this parallel the state of the Roman Pontificat at this day We are often told and the oftner the less reason here did the Apostles Peter and Paul preach and suffer Martyrdom here have thirty faithful Bishops successively suffered for the name of Christ here have the Arrian the Nestorian the Pelagian Heresies been refuted this is the holy City Yes as Jerusalem is so entitled for the pure Worship of God which was once professed there not for the present faith and sincerity all places have admitted impurity and corruption for it was denounced to man that the whole Earth and every part of it should bring forth thorns and thistles unto him All Kingdoms and Cities have their periods and shall have them to shew that Gods Kingdom only is perpetual All Nurseries and Seminaries of Faith have had their full Tides and their Ebbings their times of Grace and their aversions from it to shew that truth is only established in the heavens And I doubt not but after the revolution of those years and days which God hath prefixed in his secret knowledge it will be more easie for our Posterity than it is for us upon great alterations that happen in all places to prove that where the Papacy now reigns it suffers the same fate with Jerusalem was but is not the holy City Well to seek further into this Point the Tempter did devise rather to pollute Christ than the City of God to which he brought him yet certainly thither he brought him because that place did serve his turn better than the solitary Desart Our Saviours own Kindred were ambitious to have him manifested Shew thy self unto the world and this was the very Pin which Satan did drive at that Christ would affect to be gaz'd upon and admiâed Digito monstrari dicier hic est to be pointed at for the mighty Prophet upon whom the Spirit descended at Jordan in the sight of all the people What went you out into the wilderness to see There is nothing to be seen in the Wilderness that is no place for pride to do its work in But come to Jerusalem and there are thousands of spectators to take notice of a Prophet This is the nature of vain-glory to mingle it self in a populous throng where it may be observed Ut
a tree Yet Christ avoided to be slain among the Infants of Bethlem he would not be cast down the steep Mountain in Galilee nor be stoned by the Pharisees but to expiate the first sin by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree he was exalted on a tree like the Serpent in the wilderness And there is somewhat of observation in it that he suffered in an elevation between heaven and earth to purge the Region of the Air from the infestation of the Devil Who was Damnatus ad acrem tanquam ad carcerem says St. Austin thrown out of heaven to remain in the air as in a prison and therefore called by St. Paul The Prince of the power of the air Eph. ii 2. Nay Hesiod the Heathen Poet came to this knowledge by what tradition I know not that wicked spirits enemies to mankind were diffused over that Element Therefore Jesus dying upon the Cross gave up the Ghost in the air that he might cleanse the air from those flying Serpents that is from Diabolical infestations says St. Athanasius Secondly He was mounted upon his Cross as a Conquerour over that which was trodden down and trampled under feet wherein he seemed to be condemned he condemned the world wherein he took infirmity upon him he shewed invincible fortitude wherein he suffered death he overcame the power of Death From that fatal Tree which the Jews prepared for an indelible ignominy Potentia redemptoris secit gradum ad gloriam says Leo The puissance of the Redeemer made it a degree unto glory The Devil stirred up all sorts of men against him his Disciples to deny him the Jews to accuse him the Souldiers to crucifie him the Passengers to blaspheme him The more opposition the greater was the triumph For the Psalmist makes it a Song of Jubilee They came about me like bees and are extinct as the fire among the thorns Let me give it a simile from another feast coincident this year upon the day of the Passion The Patron entitled to the noble Order of the Garter sits victoriously on horse-back and the Dragon is beaten under his feet and cast upon his back So our Champion rides in triumph upon the Cross and his enemy fell before him For Christ was visibly crucified but the Devil invisibly says Origen When our Saviour was transfigured and appeared in glory then Moses and Elias spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Luk. ix 31. As if there were no fitter time to speak of his death than in that clarification because his death was the purchase of glory in that abasement he was exalted and did exalt us that believe in him in that machine and craned us up by his Cross to heaven And therefore he promised unto the penitent Thief when he was upon the Cross the joyes of Paradise because his Cross did open Paradise to all believers Two things are notorious marks that this kind of death so vile in appearance was a constructive exaltation First that the imperial Ensign of the Roman Army in the days of Constantine the Great was cast into the figure of a Cross known in ancient Authors by that obsolete word laborum it was a victorious auspice to have the flag of the Cross which was never overcome to fly before them Then it came to be extolled even to the top of the Crown of Kings A locis suppliciorum fecit transitum ad coronas Imperatorum says St. Austin Once it was infamous for a sign of a servile death now it is translated as it were from Golgotha unto the Crowns of Emperours Fructus arborem exaltat jam honor est non horror The fruit that hung upon the tree hath taken away all ignominy from the tree now the horror of it is changed into a Trophee of honour As the Serpent was lifted up so there was power and exaltation and victory in the sacrifice of our Saviour Thirdly As the Son of God was conquerant in death so he was glorified after death He humbled himself to death even to the death of the Cross wherefore God hath highly exalted him By his Cross and Passion he hath entred into heaven there to sit at the right hand of the Majesty for ever Now he is exalted in his Resurrection death hath no more dominion over him now his name is blessed and hallowed as the balm from which our salvation distilleth now his Kingdom is enlarged from Sea to Sea and the uttermost parts of the earth are his possession Now his people are gathered unto him to magnifie and praise him all Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall do him service These are the success and the consequents of his humiliation Therefore as you would not envy his greatness in his Resurrection so do not despise the meanness of his Passion Non te pigeat videre serpentem in ligno pendentem si vis videre regem in solio regnantem says St. Austin be not troubled to see him lifted up upon a Pole like the brazen Serpent if you desire to see him sit upon his Throne as King of Kings and Lord of Lords Ought not Christ to suffer these things and so to enter into his glory And let this confirm our faith and make us willing to be conformable to his sufferings The afflictive way nay the destructive way of persecution is the advancement of a Christian to be pluckt down is to be lifted up Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God Acts xiv 22. As some did swim to shore upon planks in that shipwrack wherein St. Paul was a companion Acts xxvii so being all of us in the common naufrage of sin none are more safe than they that swim out upon the Cross which God hath laid upon them If we must bid farewel to temporal prosperity let us see what Pearls of patience and repentance we can find as Job did in the dunghil of sorrow and misery If Tempests blow stronger and stronger let us strive with Elias to go up to heaven in the whirlwind what we want in the Church Militant continue stedfast in the truth and it will be supplied in the Church Triumphant But in what estate soever you are be lifted up from the earth and let your affections be above Let not Satan get the upper ground and make advantage of it against us beneath Is he in the air Then shall my heart be in heaven Is he upon an exceeding high mountain in his tentations Then will I fly up to the Sanctuary of the Lord upon the wings of a Dove For the Mountain of the Lords house is established in the top of the mountains Isa ii 2. Would he have me look upon the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them No I will look upon him who despised glory and hath purchased honour by his opprobry upon him who was lifted up like the Serpent in the wilderness Draw near now and come unto that place where this
this lower Region God hath committed the Children to the nurture of the Parents the Woman to the safeguard of her Husband the Subject injured to the justice of the Magistrate the Sick and Impotent to the refection of them that are whole the Poor and Naked to the liberality of the Rich. Every weak and distressed is appointed his Protector by Gods Ordinance that is strong and whole and that Patron that looks not to those poor Clients with whom he stands incharged let him take heed that himself wants not a Patron when he looks for Christ to be his Advocate But when a whole Nation of true Believers nay when a whole world of Christians have been persecuted all at once Who looks to that God And will give them the wages of wicked Servants that should have been nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his precious Portion and yet had their chief hand in the Tragedy against it And because the whole earth sometimes fails of their duty towards the Church therefore the Lord hath his Angels in store as the last and infallible refuge that the less we are beholding to the Earth we may acknowledge our selves the more beholding to Heaven If Davids bowels earned for a rebellious Son and gave all the Captains charge Deal gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalon Verily the Lord will put his Ministers upon that good Office to be a Wall of protection to his obedient Sons Aut eripient periculum aut eripient animam Either they will take your afflictions from you or take you from your afflictions The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and will deliver them And though the Devil meant nothing less than truth in his Sermon since he would needs preach let us lay hold of this for a true ground that the good Angels are very certain to keep their charge as they are commanded they are like the diligent Souldiers under the Centurions authority He says unto one go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh But their charge is set and appointed them it is not in their own free choice to lend their assistance where they please So the Schoolmen draw many questions to this Principle Non sunt liber â potestate praediti sed ministri ad nutum Domini The reason is twofold First All things must be done in order and without direction and appointment whom the Hosts of heaven should guard how far and at what time the Discipline would be altogether confused in that heavenly custody Secondly The knowledge of those blessed Spirits is finite they are not present at all our troubles which we suffer on earth they being far remote in heaven they know not the groanings of the heart it is out of their Sphere to apprehend what succour is needful for Infants that cannot moan themselves that cannot ask it of all these things they must be made acquainted and then their Province is allotted unto them by the especial Commission of God Wherefore as they are given by nature and grace to love Mankind so by a special Mandate and charge they are bound unto it Peter imputes his deliverance out of Prison to the Angels Ministry but principally to the Lords word and authority he doth not say that the Angel pull'd him out of danger of his own motion but now know I that the Lord hath sent his Angel and hath delivered me from the hand of Herod and from the expectation of all the people Acts xii 11. It was a good speech of Jonathans 1 Sam. xiv 6. There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few Had he but added one thing more the speech had been complete and full of faith there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few or by none at all Then to what use serves the Auxiliary custody of Angels when the strength of all protection is in God alone without the subordinate performance of any Creature To dissolve this Question into many Answers First They that say their Creed and understand it that God is the Father Almighty and have the Theorie that his vertue by it self is all-sufficient yet when it comes to the experience and practice they will boggle and be much unconfident of their own security if some powers which are ordained of God and more familiar to us than his infinite Essence be not promised to relieve us in the day of our Visitation Israel had great cause to have strong affiance in him that had brought them out of the Land of Egypt yet a weak Plant had need of a Prop to be bound unto it and therefore their Charter was thus enlarged Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared Exod. xxiii 20. This was ex abundanti somewhat given above that which needed for the rudeness and infirmity of our faith Secondly The Ministry of those blessed Spirits is used here below not for the defect of the supreme power but to shew his Majesty and Dignity as earthly Princes have their Stipatores some bands of Noble Gentlemen to stand about their Person rather for Pomp than necessity Yet it begets obsequiousness and awe unto their Majesty Pavorinus a man of rare skill in Learning whensoever Hadrian the Emperour discoursed with him condescended in all things to let the Emperour overmatch him and when his friends thought it too much obsequiousness Favorinus thus excused himself I will permit him to be more learned that hath thirty Legions of Souldiers under his command So the imployment of that heavenly Host lends no assistance to God but proclaims him that hath so many terrible Ministers to command to be most dreadful and glorious and who is able to stand before his Host Thirdly The Angels and Saints shall make up one Triumphant Church in heaven the whole body of things in heaven and things on earth being gathered under Christ the head therefore they are knit together in these good Offices of defence and guardianship as a taste of that unity which shall be complete hereafter And indeed it is through Christ that these parts are recollected together which were disjoyned before It pleased the Father to reconcile all things unto himself in him whether they were things in heaven or things in earth He is that Ladder upon which Jacob saw Angels ascend and descend and so Christ speaking of that reconciliation which he had wrought told the High Priests Hereafter ye shall see the heavens open and Angels ascending and descending Fourthly Aquinas doth thus excogitate There are two ways wherein man stands in need of help to have grace infused into him and to be guided and assisted in perfecting that which is good Deus immediate hominem inclinat ad bonum infundendo ei gratiam God only and immediately doth infuse supernatural grace into the heart Sed inveniendae sunt
exist hic exclusus intravit these two St. Austin makes to be very like being shut in the Sepulchre he came out by his own power being shut out of doors he came in by his own power Well let it be answered that Christs body did not penetrate the dimensions either of stone or door as I told you before but that a passage was made for him miraculously so that in a moment which could not be discern'd they gave way and made him entrance and though this answer like not our Adversaries I am sure they cannot refute it And is this fair dealing when St. John doth not tell how Christ came in the doors being shut from thence to pronounce how Christ is present in the Holy Communion and see their inference Christ came in to his Disciples the doors being shut ergo Christs body being in heaven the same body is in the Priests hands in ten thousand places at once and in every little crumb of the Host his whole body is present He that understands this consequence is more than a mortal creature I will run over their chiefly alleaged subtilties and dispatch all Bellarmine affirms that the corporeal substance of Christ partakes the spiritual manner of Angelical existence that is he is present in the Eucharist substantially not quantitatively And yet Aquinas and He himself confess that the substance of Christs body is not there naked or divested of dimensive quantity it hath quantity there but is not there after a quantitative manner to have quantity but not the nature of quantity is not this a flat Chimaera to be in the Host substantially but not with quantity and local dimensions I have read it from them a thousand times but could never found what it should be And shall I think those millions of godly but unlearned Souls in the Church must learn such distinctions to obtein salvation but a late Jesuit would thus illustrate it the soul of man is an whole soul in every part of the body an Angel at once in distinct ubities or places the thoughts of man may be at once in many quarters of the Earth God is in Heaven and Earth at once therefore the body of Christ may be in many Hosts at the same instant I answer there is not one of these things alleaged will fit the purpose for every Angel is definitively in a place so that being in one site he removes to another The soul is immaterial by nature and the form of the body the thought of man is an intentional motion and action and not a corporeal or spiritual thing God is every where because he is infinite but Christs humane body is finite material limited to certain place and measure and differeth from all the former things therefore it hangs not together from the pretence of those instances that the same identical body of Christ is multiplied in the Sacrament of so many thousand Altars Thus their sophistical cavils have compel'd me to go with them one mile and for the last conclusion I will go with them twain But say those subtle Writers if God can put an whole Camel in the eye of a needle may he not put the whole body of Christ in the least part of a consecrated Crum In this Objection they strain at a Crum and swallow a Camel Christ did not say that a Camel continuing in his ordinary quantity can pass through the eye of a needle but by a supposition a rich man making Mammon his God may as easily pass to Heaven But lest we may seem to be averse to Gods omnipotency I go further that there is a two-fold power in God ordinata absoluta one according to the order which himself hath fixed by his Word and Will the other according to the infiniteness of his Essence which exceedeth his Will According to the power of God measur'd and regulated by his Word and Will it is impossible that a Camel in his gross bulk should pass through the eye of needle or that the whole body of Christ can be in a bit of bread or that he is substantively present in many places at one instant We do not say that the infinite Essence of God could not have ordeined these things to be possible but he hath in every place of Scripture reveal'd that He will not have these things to be possible The power of God is his will and what He will not He cannot is the saying of Tertullian Now that God will have it possible to have the body of Christ pass through the dimensions and solidity of the Grave-stone He no where affirmeth and therefore I do utterly reject the Pontifician interpretation I have finisht what I had premeditated upon all the three motions in my Text at last we see all was composed into quiet and the Angel sat upon the Grave-stone But here I will rest my self at this time and proceed no further Almighty God roll away the stone of ignorance and stubbornness from within us and settle all these things in our hearts for Jesus Christ his sake who died for our sins and rose again as this day for our justification AMEN THE SIXTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT. xxviii 3 4. His Countenance was like lightning and his Rayment white as snow And for fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men THere is no day mentioned in all the Scripture upon which so much business and action is recorded to fall out as upon this grand day the day of our Lord and Saviours Resurrection The holy Evangelists according to the secret wisdom of the Spirit write in a confused order the sundry accidents of this day which with your patience I will set down very briefly every one in their own place Mary Magdalen and the other women bought Odours and sweet Spices to embalm the body lying in the Sepulcher and to that end came forth very early in the Morning As they hastened on the day there hapned a great Earthquake and the Angel of God rouled the stone from the Sepulcher The Watchmen who kept the Monument are sore afraid at the sight of the Angel and at the opening of the Grave they certifie the High Priests all that was done and the High Priests out-face the truth with lying and corruption Now Mary Magdalen and the women being come to the place where the body had been laid miss it and wonder at it Mary runs to Peter and John and tels them they have taken the Lord out of the Sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him While Mary was gone the Angel comforts the other women that staid behind fear not ye seek Jesus which was crucified he is not here but he is risen go tell his Disciples c. Yet these women went not far from thence But in this space Peter and John came to the Sepulcher and found the Monument empty save of a few linnen cloaths Mary Magdalen also comes back to the Sepulcher and weeps
many Ages that went before you I see a spectacle to be commiserated in this old Fabrick before mine eyes O that God would stir up many Nehemiahs among you to re-edifie his Temples and Churches which are decaied and impoverished Hearken to another Proposition In the Republick of the Jews in the Fiftieth year the year of Jubilee the Land which was sold away from any Tribe returned again to the Tribe and to his Family that sold it You see and I hope do pity it at least into how many Tribes the portion of the Church is divided how many Impropriations have almost laid waste the dwelling places of God God stir up a religious heart in many of you to imitate those Worthies who have bequeathed of their Wealth to regain unto the Tribe of Levi that which was so sinfully alienated from them Fifty and fifty years and more to them are run out and still our Inheritance is in the hand of Srangers and there will remain unless by your bounty you will repossess the Church again in those holy demeans which by divine right belong unto it It is worth your knowledge to give you notice how riches came first into the world says Abulensis in his question upon Genesis Cain and Abel and Seth burnt whole burnt-offerings in the open field upon the floor of the earth unto the Lord the great fire of those Sacrifices melted Gold and Silver in the veines of the earth lying near unto the Superficies and purged it from dross as in a refining Furnace which being congealed men found out the use of it and how precious it was and so by this mans conjecture Riches were first found out by doing Honour unto God and is it not most natural to repay them back again for Gods honour and to expect a better recompence The Text I confess doth most properly touch upon the Cleargy themselves upon the Priests of God Honorantes Honorabo they may claim it especially as their due for I told you the Message was delivered by an Angel to Eli the High Priest and to his Sons who had succeeded him in the Priesthood if they had been righteous Let the Sons of Aaron especially praise the Lord with the two Silver Trumpets Verbo vita their painful doctrine and their pious and peaceable life and then if all other honour fail they shall be thrice honoured when the Archangel shall call them out of the Grave with his Trumpet to the Resurrection of the Just If you will see an honourable Priest indeed read the Ninth Chapter of Ecclesiasticus It is the praise of Simon the Son of Onias What a declaration is there What a Description of his glory Beyond all the Eloquence that ever I met with in humane Oratory if the delight of the Subject do not deceive my judgment Such Honour in his Robes when he was cloathed with the perfection of Glory such Majesty in the manner of his Sacrificing such shouting with the Musick of the Temple how the High Priest stretcht his hands over the Congregation and gave them the blessing of the Lord with his lips then how the People bowed their face to the ground and worshipped the Lord lastly how Simon himself was honoured in the Congregation shining like a Rainbow in a cloud of dew They that will please themselves let them read it and learn both what it is for the Bishop to ravish the People with devotion and for the people to return all reverence and honour to the Bishop I know this Doctrine is against the stomach of a troublesom Faction in the Church If God and the King should give Honour unto his Priests every day they would grudge against it every hour No Honour or Lordship for that Coat say they as if because our Saviour called the Disciples the Salt of the earth we must be all set like the Salt at the lower end of the Table If Joseph were honoured in the sight of all the Egyptians that laid up food in Pharaohs Granary shall no honourable place belong unto them that lay up spiritual food in the Temple for the people of the Lord Can you turn this Text and say it was not preach'd to Eli Them that Honour me I will Honour Let me answer one Objection and so I will end this first part What is this that God saith Honorantes Honorabo he will Honour his Saints when such as have filled the Commonwealth with outcries and the Church with abominations are Rulers and Potentates in every Age When the rich Glutton is cloathed with Purple and fine Linnen every day they that make this complaint let them turn about and look where they are in Earth or in Heaven One asked Aesop why the Weeds grew faster than the Flowers in his Garden says the wise man Quia terra est horum Noverca illorum Mater The Earth is own-Mother to my Weeds and Stepmother to my Flowers So says Christ to his Disciples Doth the World hate you And no marvel you are not of the World your Conversation is in Heaven But will you have a Paradox indeed God never gave honours to a wicked and pestilent person Why but how came he to have them Is not all Honour from God Yes but they were not given to him Dati sunt Avo Proavoque dati seris nepotibus says Seneca they were given to the good Grandfathers or Forefathers that used them well or they are prepared for the Sons or Nephews who will use them better hereafter Mamercus Scaurus was a known Adulterer and yet the Romans chose him Consul not intending to give him Honour but forsooth his Father had been an excellent Senator Et indigne fert populus Romanus sobolem ejus jacere they were loth to disgrace his dissolute Son And surely God will much more respect the thousand Generations of them that love him and keep his Commandments for the honours which a dangerous person hath are not his own they are hatcht for the Children yet unborn that the promise may coextend only to the just Them that honour me I will honour All this while we have been in the first part of Pharaohs Dream among the goodly Kine and in a golden Harvest now we come to the second to the lank ears of Corn to the ill-favoured Cattle to those that cast Gods honour behind their backs till he cast them away into utter darkness for so says the other member of the Text They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Theodoret in his Ecclesiastical History having discoursed briefly upon the life of Julian the Apostate brake off abruptly and would not speak of his Successor the Christian Emperour Jovinian till he had begun a new Book and a new Treatise it were a great Trespass says he to write their Acts and Monuments upon the same Paper So I affected this method I confess to spin a new Web as it were and to frame a new discourse when I came to them who are the contemners of Gods
what delight Owls may take to separate themselves and sit alone but Vbi cadaver ibi aquilae where the body is there will the Eagles be gathered This is the fourth Pillar upon which the praise of the Rechabites is erected they were Votaries in one Vow they were joyned in an order and confederacy to serve the Lord When all other Relations will be out of date in heaven perchance quite forgotten the Title of Brotherhood among the Saints shall continue for ever Thus the Rechabites are combined Et illi dixerunt and they all said with one acclamation We will drink no Wine But since I have spoken to the allowance and good liking of such as put themselves into one link and brotherhood of Religion a thing unusual in our ears a word will not be unfitting before I proceed any farther to explain my self and let you know both whom I cast off and whom I would entertain and justifie in this Doctrine First God forbid I should allow any factious conjuration like the desperate Campe of Absolon like Theudas and his Banditi like Judas of Galilee and his Swordmen no nor every foolish Rabble that meets at Tavern must be called an Order We had of late times such as bound themselves in a League as if they had been Rechabites and they chose a name for themselves as if they had been Sheperds I will not say they did drink no wine But this I dare say if they had run riot as they began they would have left themselves as little Land to plow as the Rechabites had neither field nor vineyard The Friers and Monks of Rome they are Orders that seem devoted to the Church and so were the Pharisees Verily some were anciently allowed in the Church to profess such austerity as needed not to counterpoise the Philosophical strict life of many Heathen And as their original was not allowed from God but mans institution so in a little space they grew so bad that almost no zealous Spirit in any Age but did defie the Monasteries In our time their profession of poverty is but lazy beggary their obedience is to gain liberty against them who were made to command them and to profess thraldom to one who usurps authority their Vow of Chastity is to despise the Ordinance of Marriage and to enjoy fleshly liberty their practice is so profane that Boccace an Italian thought they spent all their study to find out this one conclusion that there was no God But the Rechabites fixed themselves so curiously upon the true Worship of God as the Star pointed in a right line to the Manger where Christ was reposed For there is but this double error in enjoying the world First To think through infidelity Deum defuturum ubi promisit that God will fail to provide for us notwithstanding his Promises So runs the Devils Tentation against our Saviour Mat. iv He must command stones to be made bread or he must starve for ever Secondly To run into presumption Deum adfuturum ubi non promisit that God would succour us in those cases where he never passed his word to do it Behold it again in the Sophistry of Satan Cast thy self down for he will give his Angels charge over thee to decline Infidelity the Rechabites commit their bodies to Tabernacles instead of houses They live among strangers instead of their own people Their Substance is the poor increase of their Flocks instead of Lands and Revenues their Diet is Parsimonious they will drink no Wine Yet to decline presumption they exercise a Calling they fill up a good employment in the Commonwealth they have Children and Families to instruct in the Lord. These are the Confederates and Votaries in whose holy life I found but three things before for your imitation 1. Their constancy against enticements 2. Their obedience and awful respects to the Laws of Jonadab 3. Their temperance and religious weaning of their bodies from the surfeited breasts of Drunkenness and Luxury now your patience may expect as it is my duty to perform the last task concerning the Vow of the Rechabites The Fountain is but one but the Head is parted into these four streams 1. What inducements they had to make this Vow 2. That their Vow being made stood upon just and lawful conditions 3. That the greater defenders of Vows the Roman Monks do not imitate the Rechabites 4. That Vows being justly made they are solemnly to be performed and then the Lord is pleased Every part shall be offered again to your remembrance as it is handled In the first place they had encouragement to take this Vow upon them for three reasons 1. As being but strangers to the true Commonwealth of Israel 2. To make the better preparation for the Captivity of Babylon 3. To draw their affections to the content of a little and the contempt of the world We love for the most part to gaze at strangers and curiosity will ask as if it were in Office about their birth and condition Their Genealogy briefly and under correction of better skill is on this wise Midian was born unto Abraham of Ketura Gen. xxv Jethro the Father of Zipporah the Wife of Moses came of that stock being Priest and Son of Midian Exod. ii Hemath is the next in knowledge of that Race and of Hemath came the Kenites 1 Chron. ii 55. Now the Kenites were the Children of Moses's Father-in-Law this is the very Text. Judg. i. 16. They went up out of the City of Palm trees with the Israelites and dwelt among them in the Wilderness and feared the Lord. But the Kenites were voluntary adjoyners not of the Covenant and Inheritance they had none in Canaan no not a foot of ground God having mightily blessed them with a little only by keeping Sheep as their Father Jethro and his Daughters did Rechab and Jonadab provided assurance for their Children among the Israelites for ever And whereas strangers should cast about for two things especially that is neither to be burdensom to the place they live in and eat out the Inhabitants nor to be unprofitable as superfluous parts of the Kingdom So did these men they were bound to plant no Vineyards to till no ground or build houses and who could say they robbed the Country of any Commodity But they fed Flocks and attended their charge in the field least Israel should say we have no need of you Happy men who left the pleasant Country where they were born and followed the Tabernacle into a strange Land where they might be born again by the grace of God As Tully said when he fled from Rome to Pompey Exilium in Pompeii causâ est tanquam patria he that was banished for so good a man was better than at home So resolve we every one to follow the true Church wheresoever it is tossed about in the World there is no banishment to a Christian but to be far from God Earth is our Pilgrimage and Heaven our Country Christus
produce in Europe When their Wonders are done so far from home it is a sign they would be trusted but not hazard examination 4. Where the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven it was fit that the Soil just under that Zenith should be the Cradle of the Church to receive its infancy Christ commanded his Disciples to tarry at Jerusalem till they were endued with power from above Act. i. 4. He would not send his Souldiers abroad unarm'd to fight his Battels the Spirit of Grace is medulla Ecclesiae the Pith the Marrow of it Our strength without it is but like that of dead bones where it descends plentifully there riseth up a Church to Christ And here the Apostles had it not inchoativè but cumulativè they were abundantly filled with it because they were to empty it out to all Nations Out of these Premises I proceed to the Conclusion Jerusalem was Ecclesia Primitivorum The Church of the First-born the Apostles the eldest Sons of their Mother did teach the first Alphabet of Christianity there and therefore by way of gratitude to so great a Benefactress the Catholick Church by way of Metonymy Causa pro causato will never be ashamed to be called Jerusalem Every Kingdom upon due right must bear a reverend respect to them from whom they received their happy conversion Some had the first knowledge of Salvation from Rome some from Constantinople some from Antioch some from France some from England but all from Jerusalem And yet none of these are to domineer over the faith of their Brethren They that have begotten us in Christ may teach another Gospel in the revolution of Ages than the Gospel of Christ and then are we bound ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to labour to reduce them into the right way above all others who were the Parents of Religion It is a blessing sorted out to some whereof David speaks Thou hast made me wiser than my Teachers Jerusalem that drank the luke-warm bloud from Christs side and had the Prerogative of pure Doctrine without all mixture of insincerity it had a Bishop in the whirl of times John the Predecessor of Prailius who was an Origenist and a suspected Pelagian another of its Pastors was Gerontius a confessed Eutychian and divers others it had that were leavened with heretical contagion None would concur with these unless they would put out their eyes to wander for company because they were the chief Fathers of the City of God Imagine therefore that Alcasar the Jesuit had all tâat he could ask that the new Jerusalem that came from heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband was the Church of Rome yet his Reader must be very courteous that will admit that Exposition give them this moreover that Isaiah meant it Chap. lx 3. The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising No proper name is specified there But what if it were Rome Although the seventy two and their own Vulgar Latine have added the word Jerusalem unto it Above all suppose it were possible to consist with my Text that it were the Roman Church which was opposed to Hagar the Bond-woman that these were her Epithets to be above and free and the Mother of us all which had it been Tu es Petrus had never been planted in the fore-front of their argument nor had it been their Dromedary ridden and jaded upon all Controversies this had been their Achilles in which they had boasted themselves invincible But if all this garnish had been the true beauty of that Church it would afford us no more than to meditate upon the Prophets question with wonder and commiseration How is the faithful City become an harlot The true Church upon earth is a Tabernacle portable hither and thither easily devolved from place to place When Abraham looked for a City that had foundations he expected it in heaven and not in earth Heb. xi I know what is ready to be caught hold of from hence by some and much good do them with it that the Church is compared here to no ignoble handful of people which a man must grope for in the dark but to an illustrious Commonweal famously known and conspicuous in a glorious manner to all the world Yet with their leave this Jerusalem which St. Paul prefers was in those days like a Pearl in the shell orient in it self but hidden from the world overspread with a multitude of gainsayers ten thousand Adversaries and ten thousand more to one Orthodox believer As the Historian says of C. Marius brought so low in his fortune that he hid himself from pursuers of Sylla in the flags of a fenny ditch Quis eum fuisse tum consulem aut futurum credere Who would have thought he had been Consul or should ever live to be Consul again So when the Apostles and a few persons more met in an upper Chamber at the feast of Pentecost who would have took them to be the Kingdom of God upon earth and none but they Or who would have divined that such as they begot in the truth should spread into all quarters as the Stars for multitude It is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes The Mountain of the Lord hath been notorious and a clear object unto innumerous eyes upon the top of the Mountains But is there any such promise that her outward splendour should be constant and her felicity perpetual Nay rather are we not threatned with such times when it shall be rare to find faith upon the earth with large Apostacies with flying away into the Wilderness with the Saints dispersed into private Corners Grant that this should be for one hard brunt and no more Dato non concesso yet if the small number of right Believers may be compelled at any time to exercise their Religion in private the reason falls which some do pertinaciously allege that the Church must be always well known over the greatest part of the Earth because her Doctrines and Traditions must be fair and open to all them that will come unto her to seek salvation or else such as continue in ignorance are excusable if sometimes it may be obscured by misery their mouth is stopt for making that objection and we are assured that the conversion of Unbelievers is not so plentifully brought to pass by the populous association of men professing faith and godliness as by the inward impulsion of the spirit where the Labourers pains do hit successfully by the hidden will of God But if the quarrel went no further than that the Church is a Jerusalem always well known and visible in some measure of manifestation it might quickly be compounded a Congregation there hath been ever since the Apostles whose report might come to the ears of natural men though their profession of supernatural verities was known only to spiritual men in this latitude we may believe upon historical faith that the City upon an hill was never
that heavenly Host who were the first that preacht the Gospel to the Shepherds I take my self off from this discourse in which I might amply proceed lest you say unto me as one said of Hortensius that he advanc'd Eloquence to the skies craftily meaning that himself might be advanc'd as an Eloquent Orator in the commendation If we glory we will glory in our infirmities and in the Cross of Christ not presuming upon that amplification of analogy with Angels I will lay the scene of my reproof beyond the Seas but I would we were quit of the fault at home How many exalted Prelates refuse to do that office to teach Christ especially to poor Shepherds although a Cherubim of Heaven in my Text did willingly submit himself to do the work It troubled the Historiographers among our Adversaries to find out one Pope in almost 100 years that was a pulpit man when he became a Pope that was Pius V and he but rarely I may say of such men as Pliny did of those Emperours who made great suit to be Consuls and then disdain'd to discharge the Function O inscitia verae majestatis concupiscere honorem quem dedigneris dedignari quem concupieris O ignorance of duty to affect that honour which they scorn'd to execute to scorn to execute that honour which they earnestly affected Is an Angel no more than fit to preach Christ and is proud man too good for it 6. The fancies of men have assaye'd to add this for a sixth reason to the former that the noble Hierarchies of Heaven do merit some increase and addition of glory by their care and obsequiousness toward the universal body of the Church of Christ but the matter was better scann'd by Biel who therefore refutes that sentence of Lombard Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus Angelus non habuisset summam suam beatitudinem Then it would follow that the Eternal Felicity of the Thrones of Heaven did depend upon the creation of man for except there had been a Church here below to which they might administer they had wanted occasion to demerit some increase of their glory Indeed it is an opinion that savours of servility and baseness as if they that stand always before the face of God would do nothing but upon gain and advantage Alas they have no other end of their labour but that which every man should have in charity the increase and enlargement of the Triumphant Church in Heaven and therefore our Saviour Luke 12.9 threatens Apostates from the Faith thus He that denieth me before men him will I deny before the Angels of God that is before the greatest friends and well-wishers of our beatitude Lastly It is an observation not to be omitted how St. Austin compares three several ways wherein Christ was manifested to the Shepherds by an Angel to the Wise men by a Star to Simeon and Anna devout people that spent their age in the Temple by the Holy Ghost Simeon and Anna were exceeding faithful such as waited and expected every day the salvation of Israel and therefore the Holy Ghost told them secretly in their hearts as soon as the Babe was brought into the Temple that this was the Lamb of God which should take away the sins of the world The Shepherds I presume were just men but had not so much perfection in the knowledge of the Law to look for and expect a Saviour therefore an extraordinary Nuntio an Angel was sent unto them but the Gentiles utter aliens from the Faith were directed to the Manger by signs and wonders from heaven So says St. Paul 1 Cor. 14.22 Signs are for them that believe not and Prophesies for them that believe And as the axiom is in Philosophy every thing is best collated when it is fitted ad modum recipientis Now the Shepherds were Jews and were taught in the Synagogues concerning the Apparition of Angels the Magi were Astronomers and better knew the course of Stars The book of the Creature was sit to teach the Gentiles but a Divine Spirit was better accommodate to teach a Jew that they might receive the Gospel even as they had received the Law and the Law was delivered says St. Paul by the ministration of Angels And so much for the first general part all the five questions being satisfied which of the Angels this was when he came in what figure and apparition how he did apply himself to the Shepherds and lastly why men were not accepted to do this office but loe an Angel of the Lord. The order which I propounded requires now that I speak of the pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the glory of the Lord shone round about them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the glory of the Lord fitly rendred in this place by the vulgar Latin Claritas Domini a lightsome brightness or splendor which God caus'd to shine in that place making the night unto the Shepherds as clear as if it had been day So when a lightsome pure cloud did appear in the Dedication of Solomons Temple the Text says 1 Kings 8.11 The glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord therefore it was not properly that essential glory of God unto which no man in this life can approach but lux ante gloriam the consolation of a beautiful light which was the shadow and the fore-runner of Glory But it were a great trespass in Art to run into obscurity and confusion when we are to speak of light 1. Therefore I will endeavour to shew how many ways such brightsome apparitions are observable in holy Scripture 2. Why this illustrious Glory did shine round about the Shepherds When God would beautifie and adorn a thing in some excellent manner I find that in a four-fold fashion he scatters and transfuses the beams of light and splendor either upon it or about it 1. Let us reflect our remembrance upon our Saviours Transfiguration his face did shine as the Sun and his rayment was white as the light as white as snow says St. Mark so that no Fuller on earth could make a thing so white Now we know that Christ was not as yet glorified his body had not yet put on incorruption therefore Eluxit splendor à Divinitate it was the pleasure of his Divinity at this instant to alter his countenance and his garment and from the union of his Divine nature this glory did redound upon the outward parts 2. In the Resurrection when our flesh shall become an inhabitant of the heavens not only the face but all the body of man shall look in a triumphant manner like a pillar of light which unspeakable beauty shall result from the soul to the blessing and ornament of the body So I read Dan. 12.3 They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever 3. This claritude and heavenly
prostrate our selves to the earth in giving honour to Christ for our salvation Both the Saints in heaven and the Faithful on earth and the Dead departed under the earth all these hath God ordained to bow the knee at the name of his Son Jesus Phil. ii 10. Indeed to do it toties quoties at every repetition of the name is not necessarily inferr'd from thence perhaps say it be no more than a pious Institution of the Church to keep us in a faithful remembrance that we do not forget it yet a dutiful Child will hearken to the voice of the Church and not wave her Authority and neglect it as if the Spirit of God had not directed her to prescribe outward things in a decent manner to the setting forth of Gods glory Isaiah could not speak of a Saviour in the Old Testament but this comes in Vnto me shall every knee bow and every tongue shall swear Isa xlv 23. and lest the world might suppose they may be bold and sawcy with a merciful Saviour St. Paul admonisheth how that Saviour shall be a Judge Rom. xiv 11. We shall all stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ for it is written As I live saith the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God Beloved now ye are in Gods Temple judgment you neither see nor fear but imagin with me the Lord were coming in the clouds every mans innumerable sins laid open before him to condemn him in this distraction of amazement is there any thing to put life into your terrified souls but the name of a Saviour then let an Angel preach before you There is no name under heaven by which you can be saved but only the name of Jesus Tell me from your own heart what you think if in that case your head would not uncover your knee bend yea your face grovel upon the earth confess this and amend your stubbornness it is nothing but the forgetfulness of destruction which makes ye so unregardful to do reverence at the name of salvation One thing more and I shall have said enough to this Zanchy and others allow that soon after the first 300 years it was a custom ungain-said in that ancient Orthodox Church to put S. Paul's item in practice and more than that to bend and uncover at the name of Jesus and this done to let the Arrians see that all worship and honour was due to the eternal Son of God Though I trust there be now no Arrians among us is it not fit to hold the Ceremony that we may keep simple and perverse men from being Arrians Princes do not use to lose any part of the honour which was once given them upon any occasion and will not God look to have that honour maintain'd which was once laudibly ascrib'd vnto him by all mens confession he cannot grow less to have his honour impair'd howsoever there may be a mutability in occasions I will end with St. Austins words Hoc nomen salvatoris mei in ipso adhuc lacte matris cor meum pie biberat my heart did drink in this name of Saviour with piety and reverence even from my Mothers breasts So much for the honour of imposition the benefit of application and that worship of reverence which is due to be done at the name of Saviour Now I may say I have built up the Tower in my Text the strong Tower of David our chief defence that which remains is but the raising of the Walls to compass it about And you remember what we must deal with next he comes so near unto us that he participates of our nature Salvator natus he is a Saviour that is born born might the Shepherds say what an Infant whose mouth was not yet opened so that an Angel spake for him can this be that wonderful one ye talk of that shall deliver us Ecce venit equitans that had been more probable to be believ'd behold he cometh riding though it were in despicable humility Beheld he cometh riding upon an ass and upon a colt the foal of an ass But to be born an Infant though it were his diminution it was our glory and exaltation He was born and made like unto us in all things sin only excepted not to give us a natural life such as he took after our image but to make us partakers of his Divine Excellency that as we have carried the image of the earthly we might carry the image of the heavenly We rejoyce at the birth of our own children the Psalmist calls them arrows in our quiver as if they were the might of our strength Yet alas for their birth it would be unto nothing but eternal sorrow unless it were for the Incarnation of this Infant in my Text we might curse the day wherein we were born with Job and wish the day quite blotted out with Jeremy but that we cast off our former birth as it were and begin our life again at Baptism in the name of our Saviour How wisely the Almighty doth fold one work in another and one counsel in another to perfect the body of the Saints is past our finding out Yet it is sweet to enquire into the method of our salvation and to ask after this mystery among others why the Son of God would destroy sin in the nature of man and why he would be born in the similitude of corruptible flesh to gain for us an immortal inheritance I must prefer St. Paul's reason in the first place because it is direct Scripture Heb. iv 15. We have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin So that Christ as he was God of the substance of the Father begotten before the worlds he knew our misery and infirmity but as he was man of the substance of his Mother born in the world so did he feel our afflictions and compassionate our infirmities He knoweth whereof we be made and remembreth that we are but dust When the bones of the poor cleave to the skin in time of famine and scarcity when the blood waxeth wan and pale with sickness when the body is under the torments of a tyrant in these extremities we may fly to Christ with boldness and plead unto his mercies O our Saviour that wert incarnate thou thy self didst take a corruptible body into the unity of thy person the chastisement of our peace was upon thy flesh thou knowest what we are able to suffer thou knowest our weakness and our frailty As for other causes why he would be conceiv'd in the womb of a mortal woman and be born to be a Saviour I will briefly go along with Damascen who reduceth them to these four heads that God might demonstrate the goodness of his Love his Justice his Wisdom and his power 1. To the first of these the heathen spake somewhat but knew not well what they said Amor
seed of Angels but the seed of Abraham yet they are as forward in praise and thanksgiving as if the benefit had been their own Let the envy of wicked natures envy at this that God hath such good servants as are possessed with exceeding joy not for their own but for their fellow servants happiness O most Angelical perfection to account of the blessings that fall upon our brethren as if they descended upon our selves This heavenly Host did sing with mirth upon our Holy day but it is the Devils manner to houl and cry at the good of others if Christ came to save a man they rore that he came to torment them before the time Since the deliverance of poor distressed men was the Devils pain let the salvation of all those upon whom the faith of the Gospel doth shine be our rejoycing The foundation of Lycurgus his Commonwealth among the Spartans was Ne scirent privatim vivere that they should not accustom themselves to think of the private but of the publick good and it is the foundation of charity among Christians Nescirent privatim gratias agere that they should not restrain their thankfulness to their own peculiar but to extend it for favours which do befall every member in the Church of Christ Thirdly The Choire of heaven sang praise unto God on this day to set us in whom it concern'd to us a Child is born and to us a Son is given Shall the standers by pour out their Jubilee and will we hold our peace Will we make it no holy day when it only concerns ours and not the Angels redemption Was it not opprobrious to the Scribes and High Priests and Pharisees that a troop of Wisemen should beat out a journey of twelve days perhaps and peradventure more and bring all the precious gifts with them that those Eastern Countries afforded and all this to honour him that was born King of the Jews and yet his own people neither visit upon those reports nor search for him suffer him to fly away into Egypt and never miss him he came unto his own and his own received him not And when Satan stands forth to accuse the Sons of men will he not as much cast it in our teeth the Angels began a pleasant Song for your sakes and you ungrateful whose nature he took upon him did not follow they piped unto you but you did not dance He came unto his own and his own rejoyced not Fourthly Gregory puts in his conjecture among the rest Dum nos conspiciunt recipi suum gaudent numerum impleri Lucifer and his adherents whose rebellion had cast them out of Heaven did break the numbers of the glorious Angels and make them less therefore they break out into singing because the rooms of those collapsed Angels shall be filled in Heaven with those penitent sinners on earth that walk by Faith and newness of life as Peter and the rest no doubt were much comforted after Judas had fall'n away from his place by transgression that Matthias was numbred with the eleven Apostles The Church of Christ hath lost ground in great shares of Europe and Asia but what happy tidings are those and I trust they shall be better and better when we hear that souls are gained as fast in the furthest India and remotest America The Lacedemonians had a choice band of Souldiers which they call'd their immortal Phalanx because the number was always kept full at the instant almost when one of the band died or was slain another was elected into the order So the true flock of Christ is certain and invariable the number cannot be wrong'd many Apostates slide away yet elsewhere many millions are added to the Church This augmentation of them that are lost makes the Angels glad and sing Glory be to God on high Fifthly and lastly since the eternal Son of God did inhabit upon the earth the earth was become an amiable theatre for heavenly creatures to play their parts upon And as the Poet flatter'd Augustus Caesar that the spirits of the Decii and of the Scipio's wisht they had been reserv'd to have lived in his happy Reign so we may say and yet in no flattering phrase that the Angels either wisht themselves incarnate or else to minister to Christ continually upon earth in their incorporeal condition As the Saints arose out of their graves in their bodies and descended out of heaven in their souls and appeared unto many in the holy City of our Saviours Resurrection so the Cherubims came down from the firmament above and made their apparition in a visible form to celebrate the mystery of his Incarnation Not one of the Fathers but have wrote resolutely without doubting that Angels are part of our assembly in these Congregations ever since and most intelligently do so interpret St. Paul 1 Cor. 11.10 The woman ought to have power of her head because of the Angels that is to do nothing immodestly or unchastly because the Angels would be witnesses of their impudency And thus far on that point how the celestial chantors that modulate their tunes continually before the Throne of God these were the organs and well tuned Cymbals that welcomed Christ with a Song of Joy unto the earth But beside their heavenly nature they were a multitude a numberless concourse of them as some think even the whole company of Angels ten thousands of thousands that minister before the Throne of God as the Prophet Daniel speaks the windows of heaven were opened and Seraphins came down as thick as rain It is hard to say whether it would not have been pain and grief for any of those blessed Spirits to have staid behind though it were in Heaven whether they could have quieted their own desires to be absent from this occasion I am sure St. Paul leaves out none of them but cites them altogether Heb. i. 6. When he brings his first-born into the world he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him Another says and that 's Salmeron the fields of Bethlehem could not contain all the Angels supposing as it is truth that they appeared visibly Sed ex omni hierarchia aliqui advenerant sicut in militia sunt multi ordines but some appeared out of every Hierarchy instead of all the rest as sometimes certain choice Souldiers are pickt out of every Squadron in an Army It was a matter of great consequence never any tidings of such weight were brought into the world before and reason good then that divers should come to testifie it and it was matter of great praise as ever shall be sung and reason good then that many should come to celebrate it If you will argue what would barely have sufficed I confess though fewer had preacht Christ in the audience of the Shepherds and though a multitude of this multitude had been spared yet the tidings would effectually have been believed and the whole world have been partakers of them But it is no contradiction
glory of God and the firmament shews his handy work About beatitude or final felicity there have been great disputes whether it should consist in action or in contemplation but the best resolution of the problem is that praise consisting partly in contemplating the great goodness of the object to be praised partly in the fruit of the lips which sends forth that honour our blessedness shall consist in giving land to the Holy Trinity and unto the Lamb that sits upon the Throne for evermore Vidisti vilia audi mirifica says St. Ambrose upon these words that which the Shepherds saw with their eyes was a little Infant poorly brought forth into the world and cast aside neglectfully in a corner of a stable but that which they heard with their ears was strange and admirable both that all the tongues of men should glorifie this child and that the Angels who by nature had no tongues assumed bodies for that hour that they might speak with such a mouth with such a voice with such a dialect and language as men use to do and fill the world with praises of his name who made himself an improperium a derision and scorn unto many to take away our infamy and therefore worthy to be praised The Devil feigned the tongue of man to delude our first Parents that they should be made like unto God the good Angels also frame a voice in the air like unto the tongue of man to dissolve the works of the Devil and to teach us that God is made like unto us Let the Serpent hiss at it this heavenly host which consists of our friends and protectors doth sing it out and warble it Coelesti quadam ineffabili modulatione says the ordinary gloss with a celestial harmony far transcending all humane musick and above all possible Relation A Nurses lullaby will sing a Child out of crying and frowardness and make it still but it had need be a singing Angel nay the concent and harmony of all the Angels that should chear up our hearts with the gladness of a Saviour and wipe away all tears from our eyes when before we knew our selves dead in sins and trespasses And it is good to take it at the best sense great comfort it is that these holy Ministers of Heaven came with singing and exultation It was a sign that there was a great change wrought in the world and favour and propitiation come about to the full desire of our heart Angels have been sent with fire and brimstome as against Sodom and Gomorrah with wrath and reproof to make all the children of Israel to weep Judg. ii with a Sword and with the noisom Pestilence when David had sinned in numbring the people but all this horror and dreriment is cast aside by the birth of Christ says St. Chrysostom and Angels come with Anthems and Carols of praise Thus the Lord hath put a song of thanksgiving into our mouth for he hath done marvellous things If Asaph and that Choire did lift up their note with all sorts of musical instruments in the Old Law while the Sacrifice was burning upon the Altar I am sure we have much more cause not in imitation of Asaph but of the Angels to praise the Lord with Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Luther I know not upon what reason unless it were because the Angels in my Text did begin the Gospel with melody he makes Psalmody to be one of the notes of the Orthodox Church of Christ The voice of man certainly is to praise God in its best tunes and elegancies and the reasons why musical notes are most fit and necessary amidst our Christian Prayers are these four 1. Rules of piety steal into our mind with the delight of the harmony The Agathyrsians even to Plato's days were wont to sing their Laws and put them in tune that men might repeat them in their Recreations 2. It kindles Devotion and fills the soul with more loving affections Make a chearful noise to the God of Jacob says David As the noise of Flutes and of Trumpets inspire a courage into Souldiers and enflame them to be victorious so the Psalms of the Church raise up the heart and make it leap to be with God as if our soul were upon our lips and would fly away to heaven 3. An heavy spirit oppresseth zeal and that service of God is twice done which is done with alacrity and our Christian merriment by St. James his rule is singing and making melody to the Lord. When our Saviour and his company were sad the night before his Passion to put away that heaviness they sung an Hymn when they went to Mount Olivet 4. To sing some part of Divine Doctrine is very profitable because that which is sung is most treatibly pronounced the understanding stays long upon it and nails it the faster to the memory It was a Law of Numa among the Romans Nihil oportet in transcursu à diis petere sed ubi vacat est otium we must ask nothing of God by snatches but with sober deliberation And as our Parochial singing of Psalms is very sweet and requisite wherein all or most of the Congregation bear a part so it doth well become Princes Courts and Episcopal Churches to have more curious and sumptuous musick of several Instruments and a skilful Choire appointed to execute it It is semblable to that of my Text where the Angels sung the Service and the Shepherds gave them audience If some wayward humors say this Choiral Musick hath no relish with them it doth not help them in the practice of Religion they understand it not I answer they accuse themselves of many faults in their own complaint 1. That they understand not that which they have by roat if they would mark it 2. They are malicious that would deprive them of that sweetness who are much affected with it 3. It is arrogancy in a high nature to wish that their own ignorant immusical unfashion'd humour should be a prescription to a whole Church To conclude all I come from publick Church Musick to our private delight in holy Songs S. Hierom testifies that in his days as they walkt about the Market as they sailed in Ships as they were busie at Work they sung some holy Ditties It is our solace at home our recreation abroad says St. Basil Neither is it irksome to any but to the evil spirit for the evil spirit went out of Saul when David played upon his Harp and David was no profane Minstrel but a Divine Singer But I read of two sorts of Hereticks that quarrel'd it the Arrians dislik'd singing of Psalms because the Orthodox Christians did use it and the Manicheans because they condemn'd the whole Old Testament Insani sunt adversus medicamentum quo sani esse potuissent They are furious to find fault with that which would have healed their fury But we have learn'd to praise the Lord with our best skill with our
Father David I lay the point now with all evidence and perspicuity against the infidelity of the Jews 1. God did promise the Scepter unto Judah Gen. xlix 2. Judah had it in David and Solomon 3. It was threatned to be taken away and never restored again and so it was in Jeconiah 4. Whereas the family droopt and decayed the promise was that it should reflourish in Christ 5. That it should be a Kingdom greater than ever was before extended from the flood unto the worlds end Lastly that it should stand and dure for ever In all things the Gospel consents with Moses and the Prophets and the blind Jews that will contradict it even Judah shall be scattered with this horn Zach. i. 21. and be broken in pieces with the Scepter of this Kingdom but as the Prophet infers well if I be Lord where is mine honour and if Christ be a King where is our obedience God hath anointed him with his horn of power to be a King O that the unction of his Grace may distil upon our hearts that we may serve and fear him Concupiscence says I will reign Ambition says I will reign the Devil says I will reign the world says I will reign but a good Christian will say Non habeo regem nisi Dominum Jesum There is no King that shall command my conscience but Jesus Christ he is the horn of my salvation The points remaining shall take up no long time the next that I come to is the verb of action how God did raise up this horn of salvation you may know the meaning of this by our own vulgar phrase for it is our usual saying that God raiseth up friends to a miserable man when his relief and deliverance come through those means which he never expected The house of David had ennobled the Kingdom of Israel more than any other tribe or kindred that came out of the loins of Jacob is freed the Nation from the oppression of the Philistines expulsed the Jebusites out of the Imperial City reared up the stupendious fabrick of the Temple contrived the service of the Priests and Levites into admirable decency brought them into great respect with Foreign Princes All this came to them by the Son of Jesse and Solomon that succeeded him But in process of time the lineage of David was quite eclipsed that stately horn was broken especially when Herod ruffled it the poor remnant of the kindred pluckt in their head and durst not with any safety own themselves to be of that progeny Loe the inconstant state of humane things the sons and daughters of David who were the Princes of that Kingdom were become poor artisans and inmates in by-places and nothing was so beneficial to them as to be forlorn and despicable Now chops in another alteration more strange than all that had been before a Virgin of a most private fortune in that stock not lookt upon not thought upon to repair that decay she conceives a Son by the power of the Holy Ghost in whom the honour of David's house was more exalted than if he had subdued all those Countrys which Cyrus and Alexander made tributary to their Empire This is according to that Prophesie which James applied to our Saviour Acts xv 16. in that solemn Council of the Apostles after this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down and I will build again the ruines thereof and will set it up This kindred in whom the Majesty of Judah did once rest nothing could be laid more flat than it in the revolution of a few ages and of a suddain this diminution was repaired no flesh and blood was ever more advanced than that house if they did not bid defiance to their own honor that Jesus Christ came from them according to the flesh This did David foresee and presageth it to his own generation Psal cxxxii I will make the horn of David to flourish but the Verb decomposit in the Septuagint is most significant ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will make it sprout up again as when a tree is cut down and the stock appears to be dead but a little branch springs out of the root grows high and tall and fills up a better room than the trunk which was felled But the Jew complains to this day that he can perceive no such redintegration of the house of David O who is so blind and sensless as that Nation who would not receive him that came to be their glory and being plagued for their unbelief they will not perceive their punishment and misery the horn is raised up and the beast out of which it grew will not own it or acknowledge it But the promise of God cannot be made of none effect through their infidelity There is room enough beside in the world to receive him though his own exclude him the horn is raised up though the Rebels of the house of David reject him The condition of our humane nature was most innocent and Angelical in the first Creation we sinned we fell our boughs of glory were lopt away our fruit of holiness was shaken from it our substance was involved in the general curse of the earth to bring forth nothing but thorns and briars Thus we continued a despised mass of corruption till our horn was exalted in the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Then was our nature advanced to one hypostasis with God himself as if a Giant should bear up an Infant upon his shoulders so we that pass'd for no better than blood temper'd with dirt are become as it were emulous with the thrones of heaven by this assumption of our manhood into his person because he took not upon him the seed of Angels but the seed of Abraham And as all that are born of women have some access of dignity because Christ took the similitude of our nature so the Church superabounds in two priviledges first as Gregory notes upon such words as these 1 Sam. 2. that it is said to the Priests of the Gospel whose sins ye remit they shall be remitted c. yet the like was never said to the Priests of the Law because remission of sins was brought to pass by him that was made man therefore from that time forth men were made the Ministers of Pardon and Absolution that 's the horn of the Church the power of the Keys Secondly God hath replenished us that are called by his name with a great abundance of the Holy Ghost and since Christ was made flesh he hath poured out of his spirit upon all flesh Loe these are the ascensions by which we climb up into heaven through this mercy that the Lord God of Israel hath raised up unto us an horn of salvation Now follows the third part of the Text to the end the Jews might know that this was the Messias which they expected here 's his lineage exprest according to the words of the Prophets he was raised
time Therefore not St. Austin but some other forgetful Author said in 29 Serm. de Temp. that Christ was magnified for a fourth renowned work also upon that day namely for the first miracle of the loaves and fishes Concerning the first three I have authority enough in ancient Writers and three such miracles to be celebrated in the offices of one feast are enough to give it a principal reputation So gladsom a festival it was chiefly to sing praises to the Lord for the calling of the Gentiles that if either King or Potentate withdrew himself from Church on this day it was enough to tax him for a Pagan and that he did abhor the Gospel Therefore such as write of Julian the Emperour and his deep hypocrisie note in him that for many years he would come in all Princely pomp to Gods house at this feast lest he should have seemed openly and directly to have renounced all Christianity I have told you in what price and estimation this Festival was held of old because nothing was so precious to the Gentiles as their own salvation Therefore I hope you will do the day that common right to give diligent ear to some portion of the Scripture while I entreat upon it with what persons and miracles and other circumstances the preamble of our calling and illumination began In the Epistle for the day if you mark it we forget not Pauls kindness that he was a prisoner for us Gentiles Eph. 3.1 it is worth our thanks and remembrance much more is it worth the recitation in the Gospel what Christ became for our sakes a condition far meaner than for an Apostle to become a prisoner Paul from a sinful man became a diligent Apostle Christ being God came unto us in the shape of a sinful man of an impotent Babe and was bound though not in fetters yet in swadling clouts laid up in a Manger as contemptible a corner as a gaol and being all innocency reputed for our sakes worse than Barrabas the greatest scandal of the prison of him St. Paul did preach and the Prophets did preach and the Stars did preach and these Wise-men did preach that we Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of the same promise in Christ I have been copious upon the descent and stock and other qualities of these wise men upon their coming upon their journey so long and perilous from the East to Jerusalem Three things do equally divide my whole matter the doings and the sayings of these Pilgrims and the occasion of both For their doings and sayings to be equally regarded upon this Text I find that I concur with St. Chrysostom ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã see the vertue of these Wise men both to come so far and to speak so far to come from home for Christs sake and to speak so home for Christs sake Where is he that is born c. The occasion of all is now to be handled Now when Jesus was born which is opened by two circumstances of the place that was in Bethlem and of the time In the days of Herod the King Now their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or boldness of speaking the truth is drawn to two heads by the Fathers Vnum quaerunt unum asserunt say they but here is one question and two assertions The confident question Where is he that is born King of the Jews The assertions first What God had wrought for them We have seen his Star in the East Secondly What God had wrought in them And are come to worship him And in the beginning I take the occasion in hand Now when Jesus was born Is that the Axel upon which all the business of these Eastern Travellers turns it self No wonder if that beget a great holy day for Christs birth is the occasion of all the holy days in the year If you keep some days festival for the Evangelists you know how they deserve it because they were his Penmen and Recorders if other times are celebrated for the Martyrdom of the Apostles because they were his Witnesses the Innocents of Bethlehem were slain in his quarrel and Michael and all the Angels fight for the Church because Christ is the head both of things in heaven and of things in earth All our joy all our triumphs all our glory move from hence and from this occasion Now when Jesus was born But to what end was all this hast Why should they make forward to see the Child as soon as ever he was born What could they report of him when they returned home but that they had seen an Infant His Tongue was not apt to speak as yet nor his hands to shew any proof of strength and mightiness They might have spared their labour one would think till he had been well grown to years of action and perfection nay but the Star calls them forth and will not let them loiter if they omit this opportunity God knows whether ever they have the benefit of a Star to usher them again The Lord above did know and the new Creature this strange Star did preach it and the hearts of the Wise-men were enlightened to understand it that there was occasion enough to call all the heathen or at least the wisest of the heathen or at least the Princes of the West I say to call them from the ends of the world to Judea to see this little Bethlemite lately born yet greater than all the Angels though they spring not from fleshly generation to see him suck at the breasts of Mary for a few drops of milk who feeds every living thing with plenteousness to see him supported in a Mothers arms who sustains the whole world by his power and founded the Elements upon nothing to see him cast his eyes about and newly peep out of those lidds of flesh to whom all things lie naked and discovered even the darkness of the pit and the secrets of the heart of man Nothing can be said nothing can be thought of this birth but is so mysterious and incomprehensible that the silly Shepherds who could not ponder those Magnalia Dei those Metaphysicks which the Angels told them made known abroad the things which they had heard concerning this Child but as for these Wise-men that could delve into a Mystery when they saw the young Child they fell down and worshipped him and presented him with their Treasures but we do not read of one word they spake either at Bethlem or when they returned home to their own Country the thing was ineffable and perhaps they praised God in silence and admiration that such a Child was born but could not utter it Such as would travel for wisdom had enough occasion for their journey were it never so far to behold the very Nativity though abstracted from the blessing that grows unto it Oritur origo rerum that he should have any kind of being in time who is Ens entium the cause and fountain of all
appointed by the best of Reformed Churches I mean this of England God be glorified for his grace towards us We do not urge them so peremptorily as to say thus it is necessary to be a Christian but thus it becometh us to serve the Lord and that which is decent in Gods house I say again will ever prevail with tractable and godly dispositions You cannot hear or meditate too much upon that of St. Paul Phil. iv 8. Whatsoever things are just or venerable whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report and let me add whatsoever things become us these things do and the God of peace shall be with you Amen THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 15 16. Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water AT these words John Baptist hath changed his mind you may perceive but not his humility It was his perswasion that it could not behove him to minister the Sacrament to his Saviour But since Christ would have his hand to do that duty he puts himself upon the office and performs it Whether did he refuse at first or come on at last with greater humility Nay the further we go in the actions of the Saints of God they will manifest unto us that they are better and better For is it not more lowliness to obey when he was taught a reason for it than to tremble and to start back at the presence of Christ because he was confounded at his coming to Baptism and was not taught a reason Every vertue is so much the better rooted when it knows the true cause of its own rectitude In this John said very well at verse 14. which I have handled lately I have need to be baptized of thee Though he were a most bright vessel of honour yet he did feel a defect in himself how far he wanted the grace of God to open his eyes a little clearer and his desire was secretly fulfilled the spirit of illumination did slide into his heart and made him to understand about what work of ignominy our Saviour came into the world and would begin from hence to do after the custom of a despicable sinner O glorious God that at the same instant did baptize him of whom he was baptized Quomodo creavit Mariam creatus est à Mariâ sic dedit baptismum Johanni baptizatus est à Johanne As he made the Virgin Mary his mother and was made man of the substance of the Virgin even so he baptized John with the Spirit and was baptized of John in water Nothing was ever done in the Church which was eminently noble and eximious but with an opinion that a Spirit from heaven was sent to reveal it So in old Legends they report that the Angels of God did whisper divine Oracles into St. Ambrose that Doves were sent from heaven to infuse holy wisdom into Basil and Gregory that the soul of Paul was sent to gild over the Writings of Chrysostom with Eloquence nil sine numine So the Spirit before he appeared in a bodily shape upon our Saviour entred by his invisible power into the heart of this great Prophet and he that before denied to baptize his Master because he was humble is now ready to baptize him because he is more humble for after Christ had spoken Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized c. That which is here described in the Baptism of our Saviour comprehends three things 1. As the Naturallists call it here is removens prohibens that which did prohibit the effect is removed away John resists no more Then he suffered him 2. Here is the effect it self Jesus was baptized 3. That this beginning was but a preparatory to greater matters which should follow therefore he went up straightway out of the water First I must insist upon this consideration that the obstacle of Johns doubting is taken away then he suffred him The woman of Samaria because she knew not our Saviour gave him no water to drink John Baptist because he knew him to be God immortal gave him no water to be baptized An ignorance very inoffensive was in them both and so they were easily corrected with a word for they that wander for want of knowledge and not for want of obedience are easily brought into the way when they are taught the truth Moses did soon put off his shooes when he knew the place whereon he stood was holy ground Mary Magdalen took our Saviour for the Gardener when he was risen from the dead but she fell presently at his feet and worshipt him when she knew it was the Lord. Peter did demur and hesitate what to do when the sheet was let down before him with all manner of four footed beasts but straightway learnt that nothing was common or polluted which the Lord had cleansed John was loth to take the honour upon him to pour water upon our Saviours head but you see he need not be bidden twice when the Lord commanded he did wisely consider what was injoyned him by the divine authority rather than what did become his own unworthiness and did as he was bidden without any more repugnancy Vera est humilitas quam non deserit comes obedientia So I think St. Austin there dwells an humble mind you may be sure which is associated with tractable obedience Aristotle falling into the praise of that sententious judgment which in some men is very exhortative that weaker capacities should hearken to such mens opinions without any manner of contradiction for their eye is fixt upon a true ground and principle for whatsoever they deliver therefore where age and experience and prudence meet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã you ought to submit to their bare dictates and sayings no less than if they were the most forcible demonstrations This was most wholsom counsel for the ignorant for they will learn more a thousand times by believing their Teachers than by framing their wit to a captious inquisitive course admitting nothing for good unless their own line can fathom it John Baptist was a right Scholar to make a good proficient whose reason was confounded and knew not what Christ did mean yet because it was his Masters will he was obsequious against the grain of his own reason Then he suffered him The praise which S. Chrysostom gives to this holy man is thus in a negative expression ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he yielded quickly he was not immoderately contentious for the Holy Spirit makes us mild and apt to consent the adverse Spirit makes us unquiet and vexatious to our neighbours As God describes the refractory Israelites who did ever resist their Prophets Isa xlviii 4. I know that thou art obstinate and thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow is brass This obstinacy you see in the Prophets phrase is a sign of an iron age and I pray God we be not
increase will soon follow when you have begun happily God will teach you to proceed and to put your Talent into the way of increase The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob says David that is he loveth the perfect Sacraments of the New Testament better than the types and shadows of the Old Now Baptism is called especially one of the gates of Sion for that it is but the first door to let us into the Church The Church it self is an upper Chamber as Christ is said to eat his Passeover with his Disciples in superiori caenaculo the highest in the world next to heaven it self there are many stairs and degrees of vertues upon which we must climb till we come to the top of the hill In Baptism we go down as it were into the River and sit in the lowest room of humility but as speedily as we can we must advance our soul and go up from grace to grace from vertue to vertue and you shall hear that voice of joy from Christ himself Friends sit up higher AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 16. And loe the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him AS Moses said unto himself when he saw the splendor of a bright fire in the bush so do I say unto you Let us now turn aside and see this great sight Great in the Object great in the Persons and great in the Mysteries Great in the Object to be seen for loe the heavens were opened And what mean trash was that which Satan did offer to the view of our Saviour in respect of this all the Kingdoms of the world made visible in the twinckling of an eye Great in the Persons to be understood in their several apparitions for these are the great Estates that rule the world God the Son manifested at the Baptism of water God the Holy Ghost to be discerned in the sensible shape of a Dove and God the Father whose glory was heard in the voice This is my well beloved Son This is no usual matter it must be some extraordinary solemnity which is graced by the full concourse of the Trinity I find it so once at the Creation Gen. i. and I find it at this time when Christ is baptized Man was created a brittle vessel for the Potters use without a Metaphor the servant of his Lord and to let him know to whom he owes his Creation every fountain of life is recited in the Story The Father the Word which was in the beginning and the Spirit which moved upon the face of the waters But in the New Testament we rise up higher from the state of Servants and become the Sons of our heavenly Father and that we may know to whom we owe our adoption and grace once again in this place Christ comes to Jordan the Holy Ghost descends in the bodily shape of a Dove and the Father utters himself in a voice from heaven Now for the mysteries I am bold to say the Church is capable of no greater than are here contained First Here are all the causes and instruments of our Salvation implied The Sacraments which are the Seals of righteousness the word taught which begets faith and the Spirit which moves upon them and puts life into them both The Father is in the Word the Son sanctifieth the Sacrament and the influence which blesseth them both unto us is the Dove which rested upon that sacred head unto whom all the members are fitly compacted And besides all these primary causes and instrumental helps of salvation here is an Epitomy of all those benefits which the Mediatorship of Christ will procure unto us The Heavens which were shut before set open to receive us the Spirit of Sanctification to be poured out upon us and that God will be pleased in us through his only beloved Son To recapitulate these things premised briefly the Mysteries are so great as none so superlative The Persons manifested infinitely glorious as none so excellent the Object so delightful to the eye of the soul as none so amiable And loe the heavens were opened unto him c. Of three immortal benefits which our Redeemer hath procured for us this Text contains a couple and both declared in no ordinary fashion but by the wonderful power of God First Here is a wonder wrought above Loe the heavens were opened unto him Secondly Here is another wonder come down below to the world beneath And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him These are the two members of the Text the first part whereof is opened already for how could we unlock that hidden Mystery unless the Key of David had unbarred it And loe the heavens c. Take notice in the first part of the Text that here is a word of invitement to draw our eyes upon it Loe the heavens were opened Nature hath made man with that erection of face to look upward that he must often view the heavens but the sight is never clear enough without abundance of grace to see them open Wherefore without the advantage of the second Miracle in the Text we should never be capable to conceive the first Christ procures the Dove to descend he makes the holy Spirit light among his Saints and then our eyes which were be-darkned before shall be ready to look up and perceive Loe the heavens were opened In this order I shall briefly discourse upon it 1. What is meant by the heavens standing open 2. What did procure and obtain it 3. How this Miracle fell out to glorifie Christ 4. What joy and comfort it implies to all those that are of the houshold of our Saviour The first inquiry is to this purpose what is meant and exprest by the heavens standing open We do but grope in the dark for such notions as this and mens opinions are divided into five several conjectures First When the true glory of the heavens is made visible to the eye of a man upon earth God imparting and revealing to the senses of his body a taste of that happiness which is laid up for them that fear him So Stephen was ravisht with such a sight and cried out I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God It is not needful to say that the parts of heaven were set open like a window to let him look in but as it is concluded in fairest probability Oculus ejus porrectus fuit usque ad coelum empyreum The glance of his eye was endowed with vertue to penetrate through the clouds and through the spheres unto the Throne of God This acception doth no way agree with my Text for the heavens are said to be opened in this Scripture that all the multitude might behold the miracle but you must not think it was given to them all good and
So the Father is the Voice the Son is the Word the Spirit proceeding from them both is the Truth and these three are all one and undivided So you see why the Father is resembled in the signification of a voice I must adjoyn also how well this doth express the comforts of a Gospel The Law was a dead Letter litera occidit by the strength of sin it killed us all because we were not able to perform it The Gospel is viva vox a quickning living voice such a one as quickned Lazarus when he was four days in the Grave The Law was heard in Trumpet and Thunder upon Mount Sinai Now comes a still voice such a one as would not scare a Dove away now comes Musick from heaven now comes obsecro vos that fair spoken language of the Apostles I beseech ye brethren This is such a winning allicient voice that the words that proceed from it are rather kisses than words therefore the Church speaking to the praise of the Gospels sweetness begins the song on this wise Cant. i. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth The first time that ever we read of Gods voice in the Old Testament you shall hear what Adam says upon it Gen. iii. 10. I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid But at the first time that you read of Gods voice in the New Testament it is made smooth and soft to our ear with This is my beloved and here I am well pleased What else to be concluded from hence But that an evidence and manifestation of faith shall be discovered to all men As when one telleth his mind to his Friend not by messengers or by Script but face to face Thou spakest sometimes in dreams and visions to thy people But says the Lord I will speak with my Servant Moses mouth to mouth Num. xii 8. So by the revelation of the Gospel we are all become as precious to God as Moses was and the Lord talketh with us as one doth with his friend face to face And with all succinctness that is the sum of the second Point Neither must I insist long upon the third thing noted which is the great Authority that this voice doth carry because it came from heaven and Loe a voice from heaven The Oracles of the Gentiles were wont to come out of hollow Caves and Rocks The Law of the Hebrews was delivered from the top of a smoaking hill but as Judges and great Magistrates were wont to publish their Laws from their Throne of State so doth God deliver the Law of Faith from Heaven and that Firmament above it is the Throne of God When the Earth opens it is to swallow Chore Dathan and Abiron When the Heaven opens it is to pour out consolation The Gospel reckons up three times that the Lord spake from heaven above and at each time it had the same Theme to magnifie the Saviour of the World The first time at his Baptism the second time at his Transfiguration the third time anon before his Passion when the Son begg'd earnestly Father glorifie thy name the Father answers him I have glorified it and I will glorifie it again Joh. xii 28. And that you may be assured how that celestial voice continues to speak unto us in the accent of comfort John tells us he heard a voice from heaven saying Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord Rev. xiv 13. Bode no evil with your tongue to any since the Lord out of his habitation speaks nothing but love and benediction towards us The voice of God is an open heaven but as for the curser and reviler his throat is an open sepulchre Sursum corda The tidings of Salvation come not from beneath they hover above our head therefore lift up your heart lift up your understanding and you will easily perceive that every part of sacred Scripture is a voice from heaven I know unless the inward testimony of the Spirit prevail upon your soul and induce it to believe all external Arguments from the judgment of the Church in all Ages from harmony of truth from fulfilling of Prophesies and whatsoever else will be insufficient to perswade you Yet if any thing more than other will puzzle the refractory it is this that in every part and scope it sounds like a voice from heaven far otherwise than the books of humane learning That which drives our labours and studies only to the glory of God that which propounds no other reward but the fruition of God that which talks of no acts and monuments but such as belong to God this must be divine and from above Nec vox hominem sonat Surely it must be a voice from heaven But do the Heathen thus in any of those three parts of their Sciences either in their Moral Institutions or Natural Disquisitions or Historical Narrations In their Histories they write to honour men in their Philosophy to know the World in their Moral and Politick Axioms to make a just and a noble Patriot for his Country No Tract throughout all mans wit and learning but only in the sacred Scriptures like a voice from heaven Perhaps here and there a Sentence of theirs may soar aloft but as Kites flie high yet still look down to the Carion upon the Dunghil So the stile of the Heathen may rise up in some things as it were in the clouds but from thence they look down how they may be famous and popular And that is no better than a blast of vanity sure it is no voice from heaven Beloved this is a most illustrious opening of the Gospel that the heavens assumed a tongue and began to speak wherefore it is for good reason that our Saviour had that diction so often in his mouth He that hath ears to hear let him hear Let me be bold to add he that hath a tongue to confess let him praise the Lord. As we delight to have the Lord speak to us so it delighteth the Lord to have us speak to him And as the Father did vouchsafe to send his voice from heaven to earth so let our lips be full of Prayers that we may send our voice from earth to heaven God is not an Eccho nothing but empty voice we read of his face and his presence and his right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore And as Absalon though he were a disloyal Son yet he did wishly desire to stand before his Father Says he to Joab wherefore am I come from Gerar to Jerusalem if I may not see the Kings face So the rebounding of the voice from heaven is to enflame our affections that we may see his face in heaven So shall it be their fair lot and inheritance who are Fìlii dilecti complacentes Sons Beloved in whom he is well pleased These are the Testimonials due to Christ and flowing from Christ to us which now I come to handle The fourth annotation is the Person to whom
own Land without drawing bloud from Judah So this ghostly enemy hath not prevailed so far as to win the out-works of your innocency Such a tentation is but an Antiperistasis that augments the heat of vertue As St. Ambrose gives Joseph this Encomiastick Nonne tentatio Joseph virtutis est consecratio Nonne injuria carceris corona est castitatis That unchaste offer which Josephs Mistris offered unto him it did consecrate it did deifie his chastity Jonathans Arrows were either on this side his Lad whom he sent out into the field or else shot beyond him So the darts of Lust were either wide of Joseph or shot over his head an impregnable chastity is not so much as scratcht with these shafts of love Bring the case of such a one before Bernard and he doth excuse him from all guiltiness Non nocet sensus ubi non est consensus imò quod resistentem fatigat vincentem coronat This would Satan have that is no blame of mine unless my consent yield and say this would I have But more of this by and by where I will shew that Satans sinful Propositions were no way sinful to Christ that rejected them But I speak of that which I confess is very unusual a tentation repulsed and no part of the Commandment broken he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled Few are like those three servants of God to be cast into the Furnace and not to have the smell of fire about them But what if it please the Lord to have us exercised with the assault of some infirmities so that our conscience doth witness against us it is taken in the snares of sin Far be it from us to think that the Lord doth permit it to our condemnation and not rather to better us in obedience As a little wedge is beaten in sometimes to drive out a greater so a little tentation is suffered to creep in that a bigger mischief may not enter The falling into some sins in the best of Gods Servants is an anticipation against pride that they may not be puft up with their own righteousness Animam oportet assiduis saliri tentationibus says St. Ambrose Some errors and offences do rub salt upon a good mans integrity that it may not putrifie with presumption And whosoever is molested in heart because the enemy doth not cease to pollute him with evil desires and bad cogitations let him hope that God doth sift him as he did his great Servant St. Paul 2 Cor. xii 7. Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations there was given me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me To spend no time about the diversity of Interpretations what this Messenger of Satan should be I give my voice on their side that assign it to be carnal concupiscence for whose sake the Apostle says 1 Cor. ix 27. I bring under my body and keep it in subjection and against which he complains Rom. vii 23. I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin This spawn of depravation whatsoever it was did produce a good effect that he who was dignified with many revelations might consider he was a frail man for all that because of his inward rebellion in the flesh and his often imperfections Stimuli carnis sunt stimuli orationis Those thorns in the flesh did prick him on to continual prayer O blessed fruits of regeneration when our very sins shall make us serve the Lord with the better appetite And now I conclude the first general part of the Text for I think all other reasons may be easily reduced to these six which I have run over why Christ was tempted of the Devil In the second general part of the Text this Tentation hath an Author whose name is derived from calumniation and reviling that evil Angel to be known of all men because he is to be shunned of all men one often to be remembred and ever to be detested of much fame in the Gospel as Pilate is in the Creed because his malice is outragious against the Church both in heaven and earth of many titles for he is a great Prince over the children of disobedience none worse than that which is his common denomination ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the reviler or the Devil The first accusation which he invented was against God himself whom he traduced for interdicting the fruit of one tree to our first Parents although their allowance was all things beside which the earth brought forth in great abundance And if God himself were not free from his slanderous impeachments they that are devoted to Gods honour must needs be obnoxious to his manifold calumniations And because he doth commence new matter of reviling before the audience of God continually St. John calls him the accuser who doth accuse our brethren before God day and night Rev. xii 10. Let every sin reduce it self to the head and fountain and the slanderer will be more ashamed of his chief than any Gluttony is first known in Esau Drunkenness in Noah Tyranny in Nimrod Polygamy in Lamech Murder in Cain but reviling in the Devil Nor is reviling only the murdering of a mans good name but directly it is a sin that is guilty of more bloud than any other iniquity And therefore the Devil whose mouth is the great bellows that blows defamation abroad Christ gives him his due when he says he was Homicida ab initio A murderer from the beginning Joh. viii 44. All the miseries which did befall the Martyrs and holy men began in slander and ended in slaughter Naboth first accused wrongfully for blaspheming God and the King and so put to death The Elders stirred up false witnesses that said they heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and the holy place the next news you here he is cast out of the City and stoned Our blessed Saviour was first wrongfully cried out upon that he made himself a King then led away to Pilate to be Crucified Is not this the fruit then of this Divinity Beware of slandering and evil speaking it is Peccatum sanguinum peccatum daemonum The sin of bloudshed and the sin of Devils The very Prince of Devils is characterized by being an accuser not because a man may not sometimes accuse and yet be a charitable Christian but because the more he accuseth the Elect of God the more it tickleth and delights his envie says St. Austin To this of St. Austin Lactantius hath added another reason Nos criminatorem vocamus quod crimina in quae ipse illicit ad Deum deferat We call our great Adversary a Devil or Calumniator because he delates and reports our faults to God to which his own wiliness did entice us First he empoysons us with bad suggestions and makes us guilty and then discovers us The reason why he tempts is to gather proofs of accusation against
answers it better fight single against Satan one to one in the Wilderness than fight against Satan and wicked men who will entice you to sin as fast as Satan Therefore let them take out my Lesson and eschew the frequent Societies of populous places who find the Contagion of pestilent multitudes rub some rust upon them and infect their integrity It is not the place but the corruptions of the place which the meditations of the Fathers gathered out of my Text do lead you to abandon therefore the words of our Saviour shall stand in the last place to shut up this Point Joh. xvii 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them that is the Disciples out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil So much for the circumstance of the place My Sermon thus far hath been upon the Wilderness against the handling of the next Point it is fit to ask What went we forth into the Wilderness to see Why to behold Christ fasting before he fought with the Devil Though that is not all he did there for there is much more behind yet this is enough to make it worth our labour Esurivit panis sicut defecit via sicut vulnerata est sanitas sicut mortua est vita says St. Austin By the same wonderful dispensation that the way of life was weary health it self was wounded life it self died by the same dispensation the bread of life fasted and was afterwards an hungry A sanctified fast hath two religious ends in it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as St. Paul says 1. To chastise our own body and to take revenge upon it 2. To put it into a good temperature for the minds sake Neither of these causes could be set before Christ in this long fast for his Flesh had never rebelled against the Spirit neither was there any inordinateness in his natural constitution which could be corrected by temperance Some therefore hold an opinion that Christ went not into the Wilderness to fast that fell out so indeed and was a necessary accessory because there was no food to be had You know the people ran after Christ into these spacious fields to hear Christ preach and not to fast with him yet there they continued three days fasting and had nothing to eat until four thousands were fed miraculously with five loaves and two fishes In like manner Moses went not up into the Mount to fast but to receive the Tables and truly this opinion is not to be contemned for St. Mark remembers that he was in the Wilderness tempted of Satan and quite omits his fasting This is prest the more zealously by some and with sufficient probability to shew upon what weak foundation they build who fetch it from hence that Christ observed the fast of forty days on purpose to constitute a yearly Lent in the Church for ever or a Quadragesimal fast for if it were by accident that Christ fasted here that can be no constitution of his intendment Nor indeed did he appoint any such thing as I will shew in just time Yet I concur not in the main sentence with those Authors for it seems to me this was purposed by Christ to go into the Desart and spend his time in Prayer and Fasting Now was the conflict at hand now was the first institution and undertaking of the greatest matter in the world the salvation of mankind and could not begin with a better Praeludium than an extraordinary Fast In this I will be directed by the interlineal gloss Jejunat ut tentetur tentatur quia jejunat He did fast that he might provoke tentations against himself and he did provoke tentations because he fasted For the better explication of the causes why he was pleased to fast I will lay down the distinction of Christs will as I find it considered in the School three ways Sicut ratio est unibilis corpori sicut est omnino conformis Deitati ratione membrorum 1. The soul is united to the body and for that union sake the will desireth the good of the whole man 2. God and man were united in Christ into one person therefore his will was subject in all things to the divine Law and pleasure 3. He was the head of the body which is the Church and therefore his will did graciously affect the prosperity of his members In these three respects there are so many causes of moment why Jesus fasted 1. Because it is profitable to conserve the whole man against tentations 2. It was the divine pleasure to provoke the Devil to give the onset by macerating and enfeebling his body and Satans foil was the greater because he was the challenger 3. He had regard unto his members to avenge himself on the Tempter by the victory of temperance who brought sin into the world through our first Parents by the sin of Gluttony Other causes I leave behind for refutation First I say it gives us a lesson to fast and withdraw the ordinary sustenance from the body when we perceive our selves in likelihood to encounter some temptation King Jehosaphat had a great battle to fight with the Ammonites and before the conflict he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah 2 Chron. xx 3. So did Esther when she undertook the great danger to go in to Ahasuerus against the Law to intercede for the deliverance of the whole Nation of the Jews she would not venture upon so great a peril unless all the Jews would fast three whole days before the Lord and neither eat nor drink Est iv 16. What should I say more out of many examples Ezra suspecting what great opposition he should find to re-edifie the Temple of the Lord he proclaimed a Fast that all the People might afflict themselves before God Ezra viii 21. And St. Basil a great Practiser of this doctrine as any was in the world which is better than a Teacher bid all his Scholars take it upon his word that Sobriety was the best Antidote in the world to expel the venom of the Devil This holy Father was so good a spiritual Physician that the Church had not a better since his time I think to prescribe a good diet for the soul Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomack poor Lazarus went fasting to heaven scarce fraught with the crums of the rich mans Table Moses did fast upon Sinah for forty days when he talked with God But the People who in the mean time did commit Idolatry sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Daniel refused the meat and drink allowed him from the Kings Table ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to honour his temperance and fasting the very Lions into whose Den he was cast were taught to fast and hunger and not to eat up Daniel who was thrown before them to be a prey unto their teeth Thus far he If you ask me wherein we honour God in what part it
truth after so much Preaching and Writing which the very Devils believed though unwillingly after the manifestation of some signs and tokens that the Son of Mary the Virgin was the Son of God coeternal and consubstantial with his Father All that knew Christ to be the Lord did not apprehend him after the same manner His Disciples and generally all that belong to the true Church find him out per lumen fidei by the revelation of supernatural faith so you must understand that in St. John No man knoweth the Father but the Son and no man knoweth the Son but he to whom the Father will reveal him Secondly The Angels of heaven who desire to peep into these mysteries they know him per lumen gloriae by the illumination of celestial glory Thirdly The Devils who are able to collect from signs and conjectures far more than any man these were convicted by his outward works and miracles as the Centurion cried out when the Sun was eclipsed and the veil of the Temple was rent in twain surely this was the Son of God St. Austin hath two rules of great direction to them that would be satisfied in this question 1. Christus tantùm innotuit Daemonibus quantùm voluit That cannot be denied Christ was disclosed to the Devils so much at a time as he saw fit to reveal himself and no more therefore their reason lacks weight that object how the very evil Angels being at first created full of rare perfections must needs know the mystery of the holy Trinity and that was such a principle of divine knowledge as could never be lost and by consequent they could never misconceive who was the Son of God This Argument is sand without chalk and doth not hang together For all that rebellious Regiment being cast out of heaven they were bereft of that excellent knowledge and of all other supernatural endowments and now they apprehend no more of God than God thinks it expedient for his own glory So stands the second rule of St. Austin Sic eis innotuit sicut eis terrendis innotescendum fuit Christ opened himself to Satan even as in the revenge of his justice he thought it fit to increase his terrour and amazement It was not a saving knowledge to the Devil no nor a knowledge so much as to make him cautious but a knowledge that increased sorrow and inflamed him with hatred Concerning the most wicked of men it is said None of the Princes of this world knew him for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of lifeâ But Satan knew him and knew the Prophets what a glorious triumph the ignominy of the Cross would be unto him and as Isaiah saith by his death My righteous servant shall justifie many he knew he should destroy his own kingdom by the death of Christ yet Satan did prosecute against him and put it into the heart of Judas for since God had appointed his Son should die the Devil could not hinder his counsel and an outragious malice made him run desperate upon his own ruine This sprig of the Devils condition is planted in too many who are maliciously carried away with that Hell within them which hunts for vengeance Here is one drives his neighbour through all the Purgatories of the Law and yet perceives it must eat out his own estate and beggar him Here is another will quarrel to the death though nothing more certain than fall under the Sword or hang under the Gallows How many bloudy Assassines have crept out of Friers Cels and Jesuites Colledges and have lifted up their hand against God himself I may say in the person of Gods Anointed This blow they are sure shall both curse the Miscreant that did it and the Religion that taught it These are not weakness of men infirmities of the flesh though men would be wicked yet unless the Devil were in it and his desperate malice to boot such apparent sottishness could not be in their wickedness The agitation of this first Point lies but one question further whether this argument of the Tempters were strong enough to discover the true Son of God Command that these stones be made bread Creation is an act proper to the Lord and certainly incommunicable to any creature for there is an infinite distance between something and nothing therefore nothing but an infinite power can make something of nothing Now to create is either simply to give a being where there was none before as to make the earth and the heavens of nothing or to produce a thing out of such matter as was no way prepared for such a form as to make a man of the slime of the earth For it is as much to produce one substance out of another in a moment which was no way prepared for alteration as it is to create it out of nothing These could not choose but be Satans principles to be confident in this experiment If thou be the Son c. You will say perhaps did not Elisha the Prophet increase whole vessels of oyl from a little Cruse And yet this is no warrant to say he was the Son of God Beloved Elisha did make the Prayer for the poor Widows sake and God did multiply the oyl into that mighty quantity therefore we must run to this answer Either Satan hath more quickness and insight than men have to know when a miracle is done immediately by God himself or by his Servant whether by the prime Independent power or by the second and derivative power or else there is no evasion but we must say for all his art the Devil required no sufficient argument to convince his Infidelity This Christ might do as the Son of God by excellent adoption not by eternal generation and this will make that frequent saying of Athanasius true that the Devil was an Arian Cardinal Tolet a man of no small wit goes further in his conjectures than any man hath done before him Thus he objects Whither would this Serpent wind himself Or what would he find out The very Son of God by such a miracle as this Did not Moses work stranger conversions before Pharaoh And yet Pharaoh did not say this is the Son of God but truly this is the finger of God or the power of God that worketh in Moses Nay the evil one himself is able to bring about strange prestigiations as were seen in Pharaohs Sorcerers You see how hard it is to ground our faith as the Devil would do his upon miracles Yet Satan was more cunning in this way than any man can be for his judgment did lean upon two principles first if Christ turned stones into bread the hand of God was in it for our Saviour was holy and unblameable no way tainted with Magical Sorcery and if any Daemoniacal Art were in the fact the Prince of Devils must needs be aware of it Secondly God worketh no miracle by the hands of his Prophets or holy men to
laugh with them that are merry but to make them voluptuous and exceed fly as low as you will and as high as you will Which alteration you shall find between that tentation which is past already and that which is now begun Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City and setteth him on a Pinacle of the Temple In which words are to be noted four things Ordo Modus Locus communis Locus proprius First The order of these tentations that this is the immediate and next tentation to the former for then the Devil took him Secondly The manner is by assumption ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he took him up 3. The more common place to which he took him it was to the holy City Jerusalem 4. Here is the peculiar and proper place he setteth him on a Pinacle of the Temple These are the parts of that Argument which at this time lies before us Now this is the reason why I make the order of these tentations one and the first part of the Text at this time because St. Luke puts this tentation in the last part which St. Matthew accounts the second and this which St. Matthew reckons for the second St. Luke refers it last For after Christ had refused the motion to make bread of stones it follows according to St. Luke The Devil took him up into an high Mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world in a moment of time but our Evangelist gives his Narration the accent of time Tunc assumpsit then he took him up into the holy City Because therefore St. Matthew shews the Connexion of order it is believed generally that he hath the perfect consequence of the story One says that in some old Copies of the Greeks St. Luke concurs passage by passage with St. Matthew Jansenius a learned Author it seems had found some such thing and I believe so had St. Ambrose for whereas he wrote Commentaries purposely upon St. Luke yet he keeps no other order but the self-same which is found in St. Matthew Howsoever this is no jar or contradiction between the holy Writers but a variety which begets many good Meditations when we think upon it First Aquinas did thus excogitate upon it Quandoque ex inani gloria venitur ad cupiditatem quandoque ex cupiditate ad inanem gloriam The tentation upon the Pinacle was directed to beget vain-glory the tentation upon the Mountain tended to beget immoderate coveting of worldly things Now for these two there is no choice in the precedency for sometimes vain-glory would support it self by coveting in excess and sometimes a covetous affection drives a man into the itch of glory Secondly All sins are not equal yet there are some capital sins that in several respects are of an equal deformity between themselves and then they take their turn in holy Scripture one interchangeably to be set before the other Murder and Adultery Adultery and Murder are flagrant crimes and in some comparisons one is the greater trespass against our brother in some comparisons the other Thou shalt do no murder thou shalt not commit adultery so Moses ranged them in the Law to the Jews Thou shalt not commit Adultery thou shalt not kill Rom. xiii 9. So St Paul disposeth them writing to the Gentiles Indeed in the Hebrew Murder is first forbidden for being is simply better than well-being but in the 70 Translation Adultery is first forbidden for comparatively well-being is better than being St. Matthew therefore following the Hebrew says Christ did thus rehearse the Commandments to the young man Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit Adultery Mat. xix 18. St. Luke following the 72. cites our Saviour saying to the same man Do not commit Adultery do not kill Luk. xviii 20. So Pride in some cases is worse than Covetousness and therefore our Evangelist entreats first upon the tentation to Pride in some cases Covetousness is worse than Pride and so the other Evangelist writes first of that tentation which instigated unto Covetousness Thirdly St. Luke laid those two tentations together which were commenced in the Wilderness and Mountains and then with less confusion to the Readers apprehension speaks of that which fell out in the City and upon the Temple Many times the Scripture by anticipation brings in the history of a thing before the precise time wherein it was done as Mat. xxvii In the description of our Saviours Passion this accident is brought in that many dead bodies of the Saints arose and appeared in the holy City to many and yet it came not to pass upon the Passion day but when Christ was risen from the dead This Maxim is of good direction to the wise that can understand it Ordo artificialis in narratione rerum saepe est utilior ad intelligendum quà m ordo naturalis To transpose things in an history artificially is many times better for our understanding than the plain natural order But this tentation as it is sorted in St. Matthew is well placed both by the natural truth of the history and by the artificial method of it And thus much briefly to make this Point even between these two most divine Evangelists I put on to the next thing which is most strange in this tentation and verily to be admired the manner of it to which Christ did submit himself it is by Assumption by carriage through the air Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City It was a good Spirit which led him into the Wilderness to the exercises of Fasting and Prayer and Contemplation the very same which sate upon his head at Baptism in the shape of a Dove Now here is another Spirit retaining to the contrary faction who is ready not only to lead him but even to carry him through the Air to the most conspicuous Turret in all the City of Jerusalem Some of the ancient and pure stock of Writers were so loath to preach this Doctrine in the Church that Satan did bear up Christ between Heaven and Earth for fear of offending weak ones that they made other constructions of it which will no abide the test St. Cyprian expounds it as if all this had been done by Vision and Imagination But will Cyprian say that Christ was urged to cast himself down to the ground putativè not really but in imagination Or will he grant that our glorious Champion did vanquish his Adversary but in fancy and opinion Exilis esset Christi victoria Then Christ had but little to boast of and the Scripture would never have recorded this act as the most famous of all victories Beside these many other Interpreters in a more rational way confess this was a conflict truly and apparently fought and that the Devil really took him up Pedibus ductum non volantem he went along from the Wilderness up to the top of the Pinacle on his feet upon the Devils provocation And this opinion they maintain upon the meaning
make us his instruments to defile the holy Temple Gods glory is put to the greatest scandal and reproach And this is brought to pass so many ways that it is plain to see there hath been a most witty complotter in the treachery 1. When any Prelate is so puft up that he thinks himself too great to be a door-keeper in Gods house but will be higher than all the Church and seâ on the top of the Pinacle who sitting in the Temple of God exalts himself above all that is called God 2. The Temple is defiled by setting up Idols in the Courts of our heavenly King even in the midst of thee O thou Sanctuary of the Lord. 3. By offering up unclean Sacrifice either false Doctrine or impious Prayers or superstitious Worship or corrupted Sacraments 4. When men set their foot within the sacred Tabernacle with carnal thoughts with worldly imaginations with no zeal or attention 5. To bring any prophane work any secular business within those walls which are consecrated to the name of the Lord. This is that Camel which the Jewish Priests did swallow when they strained at a Gnat. For they told our Saviour that he brake the Sabbath he did not keep the Law but they themselves did licence and allow the prophanation of the Temple by bringing Merchandize into it selling of Sheep and Oxen and changing money and you know how Christ revenged it even with anger and indignation I must borrow time to tell you how Christ did bestir himself in the reformation of that abuse more than in any thing else throughout all the Gospel For first he corrected that fault twice over in the second of St. Johns Gospel in the beginning of his Ministry and Mat. xxi toward the end of his life anon before he suffered You see what an obstinate evil it was which would not be redressed for one admonition 2. When he came to Jerusalem there were many other faults flagrant crimes wherewith the place abounded yet the first thing he reformed was the abuse of the Temple 3. He would not tolerate the least prophanation wink at no fault for he would not permit that any should carry so much as a Vessel through the Temple Mar. xi 16. 4. He reformed this trespass not only by preaching and quoating Scripture against it but by a scourge and by violence by word and deed And surely if words will not serve God will bring blows to maintain the reverence of his house that it be not contemned What a dissolute carriage it is to see a man step into a Church and neither veil his head nor bend his knee nor lift up his hands or eyes to heaven Who dwels there I pray you that you are so familiar in the house Could you be more saucy in a Tavern or in a Theater This is no other but the very gate of heaven says Jacob when he had but a vision of God and his Angels Brethren renounce the Devil let him not alienate your reverence from that place which God hath specially appointed for the saving of your soul Holiness becometh thine house for ever O holy blessed and glorious Trinity AMEN THE ELEVENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 6. And saith unto him If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down For it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone IT is altogether unknown to man when a sin comes merely from the suggestion of his own heart and when it comes from the tentation of the Devil But in one case eminently above many others it is most likely that there is some hellish provocation when out of good principles and religious grounds our heart is quite turned out of the way to rebell against the Lord. Ely the High Priest had a tender fatherly affection Who could turn this wholsom water into poyson to make him wink at the vices and dissoluteness of his Sons but Satan David was a thankful Prince and loved to remember how God had multiplied his favours upon him yet upon this stock grew that evil fruit to number the people Why the Text says Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel King Josias was an enemy to the Heathen that knew not God and he that deludes good motions made him so irreconcilable that he would fight against Pharaoh Necho to his own destruction and harkened not to the word which came from the mouth of God Certainly the hand of Joab was in this and in all such fallacies where a good fountain is made to send forth sweet waters and bitter as to sin because grace abounds to neglect publick Prayer because faith comes by hearing to cark and care too much for the world because a man would provide for his Posterity And this master-wit of Hell laid this bait to make our Saviour swallow it in this present tentation For Christ being demanded to make bread of stones he replies that he was confident in his Fathers Promises Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Are you so confident Thinks the Tempter and upon this confidence I will thrust you on Have you appeal'd to Cesar And to Cesaer you shall go It is true that you say God is very gracious and will not destitute you in any want or danger you have answered very well therefore cast your self down from this Pinacle and be confident still God will look to it that you shall be supported This is the very train discovered and made as clear unto you as the light of the Sun In the former tentation he would drive Christ to unlawful means if that take not because he trusts in God then trust in him still and refrain from the use of things lawful so St. Austin distinguisheth that his first fallacy was Deum defuturum ubi promisit that God would not help where he had promised to assist and the second fallacy which now I am to handle is Deum adfuturum ubi non promisit that God would help where he had not promised to assist Where many things are to be found out in one verse they must be divided severally and in this order I take it to be expedient 1. Here is Satans demand Cast thy self down 2. Upon what supposition he demands it Why if thou be the Son of God 3. Upon what authority authority enough for it is written 4. Upon what assistance why the best in the world whether it is the supreme or the instrumental The supremeis God He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and the instrumental are the most glorious powerful and excellent creatures in all the world the whole Host of Angels in their hands they shall bear thee lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone These are such particulars as the wisdom of the Spirit hath left us
the wicked Spirit out of thy breast by speaking hatefully and reproachfully to the old man within thee and to his corruptions The rod of the wicked shall not rest in the lot of the righteous lest the righteous put forth their hands to wickedness Psal cxxv 5. And though in many things we sin all and who can say he hath not offended Yet take heed ye commit not sin with greediness as if you delighted in the servitude of iniquity nay as if you did it with that full resolution that you saw hell fire before you and yet you will not be reformed This is to gaze the Devil in the face and to have no remorse of conscience But if frailty steals upon us yet extinguish not the ardour of zeal which would fain be delivered from that captivity let it cry out I am carried away with the violence of my depraved nature and the evil which I would not that I do This is to commit sin but with such a delight as is mixt with great unwillingness The love of God still abideth in us and we cry out against the Tempter Get thee behind me Satan Though a good man be carried back sometime in his pious endeavours yet he looks towards Gods glory he minds that chiefly and he will not cast his eye off He moves not willingly toward the Devil though the Devil tread upon his heel behind him and sometimes prevails to pluck him back from God But remember how David composed himself and with that I end I have set God always before me therefore I shall not fall AMEN THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 10. For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve THE Lacedaemonians had this Lesson in the private Instructions of their State and observed it as far as they could ut nunquâm cum eôdem hoste ter confligerent by no means to give battel three several times to the same Enemy for that Enemy encountring them so often might learn to overcome them by their own wayes and stratagems Why Satan hath this advantage to try masteries the third time with our Saviour neither did Christ varie one jot from his usual manner of defence he fights with the same sling and with a stone taken out of the same brook as before scriptum est for it is written the written word is all the refuge that our Lord did seek Satan knows full well at what guard He will lye doth then the adversary speed ever the better for this can he improve that knowledge to help himself Nay but far otherwise Christ is so surely fixt upon one true ground so constant to that rock of the Divine Law which is stronger than all the waves of the sea that some against it that his adversary discern'd at last the longer he strove the more unable he was to maintain the quarrel If the tempted entrench himself within the Scriptures indignation shall vex the tempter but he shall never prevail The Devil believes and trembles at it that all the Law is irresistable and shall triumph over the enemies of the Lord but this Text after which no more was said as if more could not be spoken it contains a more strict and high command than any other portion of the Law it extends not only to transgressors to hedg them in their duty that they may not start from it but to the blessed Angels that are confirm'd in grace to the damned Devils that are incorrigible in sin ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã worship and adoration is lookt for at all these and every particular whether they be such as are comforted under mercy or such as are tormented under the Judges fury or such as sing praises for ever before the King of glory all must bend and do him homage At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow both in the highest region of souls in the middle region of the Militant Church or in the lowest region of Hell at that name every knee shall bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Therefore Justin Martyr call'd upon all the Heathen with whom he disputed to receive this charge which my Text gives This says he is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the greatest that is the most spacious Commandment of all other a Charter between God and all his Creatures That upon which David speaks on this manner thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psal cxix 96. this is a chain to which all the works of the Lord are fastned and therefore our Saviour was sure it would bend his opposite with whom he disputed that he should not reply Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Where the Text is so clear I will not make it hard to be understood with dividing it The specials to be spoken of are these First the Lord God is to be worshipped Secondly the Lord God is to be served Thirdly He onely to be worshipped and served therefore fourthly whatsoever things they are beside to which men do offer religious worship and service let them mince and excuse it with what distinctions they please they run into flat Idolatry Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God let this be first the query upon the first point tu adorabis is there any emphasis in the Pronoun thou shalt worship Is the Commandment directed to the Tempter for that doubt I find in St. Chrisost whether it be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Precept or a Repulse a Doctrin or a Defiance Thou shalt worship I answer it in several conclusions First the outward act of worship and adoration is enjoyned continually even to the spirits of damnation and they must perform it God hath put all things under Christs feet the Grave and Death and Hell Who is meant by Hell but Satan and his Camrades that are sunk into that place of sorrow wherefore he was bound to pay worship himself where he call'd for worship and let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. i. 6. yea and the Devil forceth himself sometimes to pay this tribute unto Christ though much against his will and content but sometimes he doth outwardly worship him that he may not fall into greater torments For as a Servant that hath run away and is taken falls down at his Masters feet that he may not be beaten so this unclean spirit having entred into a man that lived in tombs in the Country of the Gaderens when Christ came into those coasts the Devil did not keep the man close out of sight but came forth to meet Christ and worshipt our Saviour Mark v. 10. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the very word in my Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Luke vii 28. he fell down in that body into which he had entred before him and he besought him very much that he would not send him away out of the Countrey Indeed it is seen by the sequel
make supplications unto them When I commend my self to the Prayers of any man upon earth I attribute nothing unto him falsly as divine he hath ears to hear me he hath memory faith and chariry to commend his brethren to God But when I do the like to the Saints granting the distinction that they call upon them to intercede not to perform their request but when I do the like to them I make them stand in the place of God to hear all men every where at once perhaps lifting up their voice nay perchance no more than the thought of their heart unto them Solius Dei proprium est ubique omnes audire exandire It is the excellency of God alone to hear and attend to all men in all places at once Therefore he makes an Idol of that Saint in whom he supposeth as much vertue and excellency to hear him how much soever distant as is in God himself I omit burning Incense to their Shrines making Pilgrimages to their Sepulchres Building Churches wherein their memory may be worshipped and invoked And making Vows in their names which is one of the flowers of Gods eternal royalty They that are such earnest Devotees to Creatures and think there is not work enough for a Christian to worship God alone deserve that gross delusion which hath started from some of their own Confessions that many names are enrolled for glorified Saints and great Patrons of the Church whose souls are tormented in Hell Let God be worshipped for the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs departed so shall we our selves we trust one day have a place in that Coelestial Quire where the Lord our God is only worshipped and he only served day and night without ceasing AMEN THE TWENTIETH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve I Am come to this Text again in the zeal of Elias to let no kind of Idolater be unrebuked that doth not worship the Lord and serve him only according to these words which were Law at first and our Saviour by reciting them hath made them Gospel Take the Priests of Baal says that holy man and let not one of them escape 1 King xviii 40. I will trace his steps in this cause and will rather be a man of contention as Jeremy became by taking the Lords part then suffer Rags and Reliques Stocks and Stones to have an attractive virtue more than magnetical to draw religious honour and adoration unto them If men would hold their peace these things which I now proceed to arraign and condemn for having holy worship done unto them have no tongues to defend themselves They are not Angels or Saints departed they have neither life nor motion in them neither the Cedar that grows in Libanus nor the Hisop that grows on the top of the wall but the Trunck of the Cedar and such other things as Art hath made unfit for any further benefit of nature 'T is strange that sharp-witted men will take pains to extol such dull inanimate things as can never thank them And concerning inanimate liveless things how superstitiously such glory as belongeth to God alone hath been imparted unto them I shall spend my labours at this time for concerning rank Heathen Idol Gods imaginaries Deities and concerning the Host of Heaven above and the Spirits of darkness beneath how they are idolized by some I have maintained the judgment of our Church before But our quarrel against the Pontificians to vindicate all religious worship latrical and dulical to the Lord of Heaven alone is like a Suit in Law that holds many Terms as long a quarrel as upon any other common place in all Divinity I am in hand at this time with the same Controversie again to protest against four things namely 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Religious adoration of the Reliques of Saints 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Religious adoration of the Elements in the Lords Supper 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Religious adoration of the Sign of the Cross and that most stiffely and impudently maintained 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Worship of Pictures and Images whether resembling Christ or his Saints Wo is it for the Church of Christ that we must spend an hour in these dissentions but what peace can there be while these Idolatries are maintained under the name of great devotion and anathema denounced against them that cry out for the Lord and for his Christ to them glory and worship and to none but them And now I have sounded the trumpet to this battel I betake me to the particulars propounded First that Religious adoration of Reliques confronts the verity of my Text c. But in the Exordium if any one shall ask how do our Opposites worship or serve Reliques or any of the aforenamed I will satisfie him that for the intentions of their heart in their inward reverence towards these things we could not accuse them but that they profess and teach it is religious and holy honour for if it were no more than precious estimation to some of those things we would not disfavour their practice but consent unto it and for their outward behaviour which expresseth the affections within judg if this be not to worship to kneel unto to kiss those things to prostrate the body to hold up the hands and eyes and uncover the head before them judg also if this be not serving of them censing of perfumes in those places lighting candles to honour them adorning with the richest cost of jewels and gold Circumgestation Procession Supplication Festival days appointed for their service and as much as all these Guilds and Religious Orders appointed to attend them This is square and open dealing that I impute Idolatry and Will-worship unto them upon grounds of practice and confession Nay I have not said all no not by half touching that over respect which is done to the Reliques of Christ and his Saints They exalt them above the Altar St. Ambrose thought it a great honour for himself or any deceased Bishop to lye under the Altar they call that adoration which is given to them meritorious The Priests teach the people that there is a kind of grace communicated to those Reliques they take Pilgrimages to them swear by them carry parts about as Prophylacticks against bodily and ghostly evil and pronounce indulgence for venial sins to them that fall down and worship them Beside the main sin see the uncertainty of all this Of Saints they have mightily multiplied the number and of their Reliques far more than is possible to belong unto them Yet it is impossible to know by faith who are Saints deceased but those whose memorial is recorded in Scripture and for their Reliques it is not denied they are conjectur'd at by mere humane credulity The bones of a Varlet may be carried in procession for the bones of a Martyr decem millia talium rerum Romae fiunt says L.
of them and behold Angels came and ministred unto him From this note or preface of attention I pass on to their person that came to minister unto Christ and they are Angels As the Philistins stood on a Mountain on the one side and Israel on a Mountain on the other side and there was a Valley between them from whence both the Armies might behold their two Champions David and Goliah fight it out So I dispute not against their conjecture that say the good Angels stood gazing from one prospect and the bad Angels from another to mark which way the Victory of this Duel would incline between Christ and Satan On the good Angels part this is certain we are put to no trial by our enemies visible or invisible but they come gladly to the speed of it and look upon us both with compassion and admiration We are made a spectacle unto the world and to Angels and to men says St. Paul As the Heathen did flock in multitudes to the Theaters to see the Christians cast unto wild beasts to be eaten which was no little part of their persecution that their enemies fed their eyes in sport with their misery So the blessed powers of heaven came to behold the same spectacle to compassionate that cruelty and to fortifie the sufferance of the Saints And if they can be content to be present at the skirmishes of the Scholars can it be supposed they would be away at this time when the Master of the fence was to play his Prize Beloved to put this further sometimes the Angels gave attendance to Moses Law and the Law it self was delivered by a Mediator in the hands of Angels But their study and delight was such in the Gospel of Christ that they gave all diligence to learn and understand it in all the mysteries St. Paul says that he was a Minister to preach the grace of God and to teach the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ says he To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. iii. 10. A most observable Text of Scripture that the Angels of heaven are the learneder for noting those passages which are taught touching the Mysteries of our salvation in this Church on earth And St. Chrysostom the loudest Trumpet of that Apostles glory among all the Fathers cries out See if Paul be not an Evangelist as well unto Angels as unto men This is marvellous and not to be admitted as if the good Angels knew not the Incarnation of Christ before and the calling of the Gentiles For how could they be ignorant of those divine Lessons which were so obvious and common in all the Prophets Admitting then that the whole substance of that Doctrine was known unto them long before yet many circumstances were revealed unto them by the actions and passions of the Church in after-time What then Was Paul or are we able to explain any thing for the better capacity of Angels No certainly Non addiscunt per Ecclesiam docentem sed per ea quae geruntur in Ecclesiâ Those principal intellectual spirits do not profit by the preaching of our Ministry but by things managed experimentally in the Church which were not so clear in Prophesie or speculation as when time revealed them They knew that Christ should bruise the Serpents head but when they saw it actually performed in repelling the three antecedent temptations then the mystery of God was made known unto them experimentally by the Church Those significations of the Gospel which the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven even those things the Angels desire to look into ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to stoop down and look into as Peter and John stoopt to look into the Sepulchre that is bowed down in humility to look into the great mystery of the Resurrection They are not inanes speculatores fond and curious gazers but most observant and most humble learners they will stoop unto the knowledge of the wisdom of God And that the Angels did note and pry into all things which our Saviour did in the dispensation of his Mediatorship the posture of the Cherubins upon the Ark is no unsignificant Figure Says God The faces of the Cherubins shall be toward the mercy seat Exod. xxv 20. As if the Angels did never cast their eye off from Christ our Propitiator from the Mercy Seat but did continually desire him in the fulness of time to have mercy upon Sion So I have made it known that such diligent attendants who listned faithfully to all the occurrencies of the Gospel must needs be at hand when Christ had ended his combate vvith the Devil And so ready at hand that it is noted these Angels are not said to descend from heaven as if they had been far off in another world but to come and minister which betokens a near attendance They came and ministred unto him And now Satan sees more by the event by this officious service of the Angels than he could extort by all his temptations Homo est quem ipse tentat Deus cui ab Angelis ministratur He must be a man that suffered such temptations but he must be a God that had such Ministers Christ came not to be ministred unto but to minister Mat. xx 28. That is in St. Pauls words He took upon him the form of a servant Phil. ii 7. For the very form of a man is the form of a servant Yet this servant thinks it no robbery to be equal with that God to whom all the powers in heaven and in earth do bow and obey But wherefore came the Angels now Do they come to bring assistance when the Devil was vanquished and had left our Saviour This were as the Adagie goes Post bellum auxilium Choraebus brought succours to the Siege of Troy when the fray was ended They miss of the right intention that think the Angels came for this end It was not to strengthen him against his enemy that was beaten and vanquished but to minister and stand before him for these reasons First possibly to spread a Table for him in the Wilderness and bring him meat because he had now fasted forty days and forty nights without intermission Not as if he could not be supplied without their provision but it was his pleasure they should attend upon his diet to let his enemy see there was another way to feed his body than to make stones of bread And this was it it may be that plurally many Angels came to minister unto him Had they been required barely to provide him necessaries one Angel could have brought enough of sustenance to give one man a meal but because this was intended not for any necessary relief towards his person but to shew his excellency above those heavenly hosts Behold a multitude stood round about him and Angels came and ministred unto him Secondly they might come to comfort him after
to place safe enough in their own Country Once indeed they were scared with a great tempest upon the Lake of Genezaret which might have faln out upon any other occasion and then they cry out desperately Lord save us we perish But upon their haughty demand Christ askt them Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of It was a cup of wormwood and tribulation such as Moses and Elias drank of to the very lees and those are they that appear with him in glory those are they that sit in his Kingdom the one at his right hand the other at his left Their countenances have been sad now they smile for ever they have worn sackcloath and ashes and mingled their drink with weeping now they appear bedeck'd with Majesty For if none might enter into King Ahasuerus Gate cloathed with sackcloath Esth iv 2. Then much more all that are deigned the presence of the King of heaven shall shine triumphantly in glory Thirdly The objects of Moses and Elias standing conspicuously before the face of these three men would instill into them the imitation of their holy life and impectorate to them those good examples whereby they themselves should become mirrours and examples to after Ages Their Justice their Prayers their Temperance their Constancy to true Religion their hatred of Idolatry all these were texted in their face all their noble acts were remembred by seeing them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Chrysostome The history of the Saints warms out hearts within us to read it Historiae sacrae inspectio est quasi compendium resurrectionis ante oculos habere says one To entertain our time in reading the Sacred History is to cast our eyes upon a model of the Resurrection But to be brought in place where there was an ocular Apparition of Moses and Elias was to gain both a model of their Resurrection and a Chronicle of their History It is a good thing to call the dead into consultation with the living where God promiseth to send the former and the latter rain to the earth many apply it mystically to this purpose The Examples of the Patriarchs and Prophets well digested into our use are the first showers of rain or the dew of the morning The Examples of Christ and his Apostles and such as have shined like burning lights since their days are the latter rain or the dew of the Evening but these drop down one after another and fill the Church with spiritual encrease No observation more appertinent than this which I find attributed to St. Hierom. Moses was first inspired to write the Book of Genesis which contains the acts of the old World before he published Exodus which contains the Law A fair method which came from heaven First instructed to write the History of Antiquity before he Penn'd a Pandect of Laws for the use of Posterity lest he should rashly proceed to teach the Children before he had wisely learnt the Examples of the Fathers I will set my rest upon this Text of Scripture that there is not a pithier Precept in all the Sacred Volume Deut. xxxii 7. Remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee It is a very satisfying thing when a truth comes to us by a good descent as the Poet bragg'd of his stories Quae Phoebo pater omnipotens mihi Phoebus Apollo God did inspire Moses and Elias to know what sufferings his Son should undergo at Jerusalem they preach'd it before the Disciples the Disciples to their Scholars they to the next and so from Generation to Generation it is an Heir-loom to the latest Posterity Alta mysteria per majores ad alios debent devenire Let great mysteries be devolved from the mouths of famous forerunners such as Moses and Elias The Devil himself was ashamed of upstarts when they came to be broachers of their own fancies Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye Sometime it is as hard to know who were the broachers of new Doctrine as to understand the Doctrine it self As Tiberius scoft at a conceited Roman proud enough but of no good Parentage Curtius Rufus videtur mihi ex se natus Curtius Rufus did beget himself he had no Progenitors So ignominious it is to press any thing for current which is a brat of yesterdays invention and doth not bear a pass from the example of our fore-fathers Beware of novel Doctrines and observe it when you will if they do not beget new Vices as a Mill-stone new-peck'd fills the meal it grinds with more gravel than one that is smooth with use Therefore gather such Manna as fell very early in the Morning Enquire for the old I mean for the oldest way but habete salem be sure it be salted with Apostolical Doctrine and then it will not be tainted with corruption That we might not only fetch our Examples so far as the Apostles but a reach beyond them likewise here were two old Sires of great authority and veneration that came to Mount Thabor Moses and Elias Fourthly I had occasion the last day to make a difference between these two Saints thus far that the body of the one was always living the body of the other that is of Moses came from the dead which is an improvement to the truth of that Article of our Creed that Christ shall bring all to judgment both the quick and dead before him The dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds How many applications may be deduced from thence likewise that the dead and the living came to teach that Christ should die upon the Cross and live again unto the glory of the Father Or thus to teach us Mortification and Vivification that we should die unto sin and live unto God But referring your memories back to that which is past I stay my self upon this Notion that Moses and Elias come from the other world unto this to let us see and that it is undeniably true that there is a life remaining after this is ended and of a much happier condition a life of glory It is the complaint of them who dispute stifly for their own infidelity Nullus de mortuis resurgit None come from the dead to teach us that are living but since we mean the Apparitions of them that should come from the other world they should say none come from the living to us who in comparison to them may be called the dead But to answer to the meaning of the objection words may be reformed with ease Have none been sent with tidings to us from the habitation of the other world Yes twice apparently to go no farther At the first bout Moses and Elias from Mount Thabor at the second bout a witness without all exception our blessed Saviour who rose the the third day from
in Pompey's company I may say in a better capacity of truth that the three Disciples could not miss their Parents their Children their Friends their Possessions their Countrey no nor the whole World beneath if they could but reserve a Tabernacle in any secret place wherein they might enjoy our Lord Jesus Christ The Prophets who were preserv'd by Obadiah's favour were contented to live in a Cave where they might serve God without Idolatry and Peter would possess a new-found World not inhabited by evil men alter alteri magnum theatrum sumus a few good ones are enough to enjoy one another without a contagion of the multitude Alas when he would needs be making a place for Christ that he could devise no better Structure than a Tabernacle But will God indeed dwell on the earth says Solomon Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee how much less this House that I have builded Solomon thought so meanly of the goodliest Temple that ever was built for Gods honour what a Building was here then not worthy to be named Let us make three Tabernacles As he was laid in a Manger when he was born so he was never housed richly and sumptuously all the while he lived upon earth never till Joseph of Arimathaea composed his body decently in a fair Sepulcher which is not an excuse that we should make him vile houses now but a provocation to make him amends on our part for that contempt which was offered him when he lived in Judaea As for the instance of my Text that Peter offered him a Tabernacle made of a few sticks it is to be born with both because he knew not what he said and he was able to do no better True love is satisfied that all will be taken in good part which is well intended As Jacob set up a Stone and poured oil upon it and called it the House of God Gen. xxviii 18. what would you have him do that had no better at hand but where the Land abounds with costly and sumptuous materials can ye bestow them better than upon the Church of Christ Do you not perswade your self that there the Lord hath heard you often from Heaven and given you all manner of things that are good and can you suffer those walls to be unadorn'd where you have been prosperous or can any heart be so hardned to suffer that Table to be unfurnisht with Ornaments at which we have often been fed with the Bread of Life and the Cup of Benediction I charge not this place with any such neglect but I commend and pronounce them blessed especially who have been liberal that Gods honour might be set out among us in the beauty of holiness and I lament it where it is otherwise for it is a mournful sight me-thinks to see any place excel the Church in preeminence and magnificence not as if I thought the Lord did favour us for fair walls and roofs without a fair inside but first it signifies the almightiness of God when we honour him with the best and chiefest of all outward things and secondly it makes our zeal shine before men that we love our Heavenly Father better than all the wealth of the Earth and the Lord loveth a chearful giver The best Temples that we can dedicate to God are our sanctified Souls and Bodies and therefore St. Austin said alluding to this Text Qui Deo vult facere tabernacula praeparet ei penitralia cordis He that will make a Tabernacle for God let him prepare a clean heart this is well said if we play not the hypocrites with this figurative Religion If some men be incited to offer up the Sacrifice of Alms unto Christ they tell you spare them for that and they will offer up the Sacrifice of a contrite heart Are not these two ill divided bid them worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker that they hold superfluous for they will bend the knees of their heart Are not those two ill divided Charge the rich men of the World to repair Gods decayed Churches and make them beautiful that draws money from them too fast therefore they say we will build a Sanctuary to the Lord in our inward heart Be not deceived God cannot be mocked with these metaphorical excuses I had rather offer with St. Peter to build a Tabernacle unadvisedly where there was no cause than be backward to build a Tabernacle for the mighty Lord where there was a cause Because Moses and Elias had preached Christ unto the Disciples they would do something again to requite it not hear the word of God gratis as some do as if they would give no mony for it If you will give nothing for that precious gift which cometh from above take heed the Lord do not say to you at the last day What good service have you done in all your life that I should give any thing to you as some men have their customs not to give so undoubtedly God hath his custom not to reward As David said to Araunah The Lord forbid I should sacrifice unto him of that which cost me nothing so Peter would not hear a Sermon of Christ crucified and do no good thing for it faciamus c. These Tabernacles which he spake of being an allusion to the Church I find them agree very well in this that the Militant Church is but like a Tabernacle portable from one place to another to be taken down in one place and to be set up in another always removing As we see the Gospel began to shine most bright at first in the Eastern Countries and now it hath pleased God that in the most conspicuous purity it is carried into the West From Jerusalem it removed to Antioch from Antioch to divers places of Achaia in Greece further and further every Age till now that the multitude of the Isles do praise the Lord like a Militant Tabernacle or Pavilion pitcht where God pleaseth to fight against the Devil and his Angels and to win ground from him that would destroy the Earth Psal cxxviii 3. The Wife which is spoken of there and likned to a fruitful Vine is an Allegory of the Church Now the Church while it wanders upon earth is vitis in lateribus domus a fruitful Vine upon the walls of the House it stands without the doors of the Palace but when the Church shall be settled quietly in the upper Jerusalem it shall be vitis in penetralibus domus the Vine shall be translated into the midst of Paradice there it shall be a City abiding for ever and no longer a removing Tabernacle Now you have heard St. Peters zeal in the Fabrique which he moved to be built in the progress of this point you shall hear these Tabernacles of his were but wild Chimaera's or as we say Castles in the air for he took Mount Thabor as it was now adorn'd with glory for the Heaven which he desired to enjoy
therefore to what end without great error could he erect a Tabernacle there either for sacred or for civil use To make a Church or an Oratory in Heaven to praise the Lord was a most wandring fancy St. John says of that Vision which he saw in his Divine rapture before the Throne of God Templum non vidi in eâ I saw no Temple therein in that supernal City of God for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it Revel xxi 22. In this world we are gathered together into the House of God to make Prayers together to hear Instructions to dispense the Sacraments but in the next life these Forms shall cease for we shall have a most blessed Mansion in God himself as in a Divine Temple for ever So the Prophet Jeremy foretold that in the new World there shall be one Sabboth for ever but no Pastors to teach the Flocks no Sheep coats to drive the Flocks unto no Churches no Tabernacles for Divine Service but all things in a better estate and condition These are his words They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest saith the Lord Jerem. xxxi 34. But the most Expositors take the words of the Apostle in relation to a civil use as if he would make small Sconces or Tabernacles upon the top of the Hill to shelter Christ and Moses and Elias from the injuries of the air Such things he had wanted himself when he was a Fisherman and spent his time and labour near about the Sea of Tiberias he did often miss a poor Shed to keep him from foul weather and now he knows not how to gratifie Christ and the two Prophets but by building Tabernacles that they might find no annoyance in the Mountain What if God had sent a Worm to make these Bowers he talked of wither of a sudden as the Gourd of Jonas came to nothing in a day where was his Shelter then if God had not made a better Heaven for man than man it seems would make for himself he should exchange this World for small advantage and pass from misery to infelicity Where God is seated in his holy places there is neither heat nor cold storm nor tempest no offence or affliction tuti sub matribus agni balatum exercent as safe as the nursling Child is in the bosom of the Mother in such safety and tranquillity the Saints are reposed with Christ above and therefore it is called Abrahans Bosom Hills are nearer to Gods Thunder said the Heathen Poets than the bottoms of the Valleys therefore this was no steady Anchor for a man to trust to though Mount Thabor had been never so high and although the plain fields are more obnoxious to the inundations of Seas and Rivers yet in the days of Noah the waters prevailed fifteen cubits higher than the tallest Mountains As for the glistering of Mount Thabor perhaps the Apostles who expected Christ should take upon him an earthly Kingdom they might swel in their heart and thinks it carried the semblance of a Princes Throne why the natural pulchritude of the Earth in one flower in a Lilly excels Solomon in all his Royalty how much more doth the supernatural glory of the Throne of God excel it The Son of Sirach speaks of the triumphing Majesty of Simon the Son of Onias and among other comparisons that he lookt like a Rainbow in a cloud of dew Ecclus 50.7 A Rainbow is mixt of fair colours and is a comfortable sign but it melts away presently in a cloud of dew such a dropping imaginary thing is all the glory upon earth a Rainbow in a cloud of dew There is an excellent passage to this purpose in the next verse when I come unto it Peter would have satisfied himself with that glory which bedazled him upon earth and while he was yet speaking there came a Cloud and overshadowed him and took that glory away Some dark Cloud interposeth it self and bedusks all worldly glory then shall we be left in fear as he was and that 's the sting which is ever in the tail of that admiration which thinks a slash of vain pomp is a very Heaven upon Earth So far we have seen what an unnecessary thing it was to propound the making of a Tabernacle at this time for wheresoever Gods glory doth appear there is protection and safety goes with it it was to as little purpose as if he would have built an Ark like Noah where there was no fear of a deluge The children of men shall be safe under the shadow of thy wings says the Psalmist there 's Tabernacle enough for all that fear him but Peter is excessive and would have a plurality of defences faciamus tria tabernacula let us make three Tabernacles Why shall Moses and Elias part one from another or shall both be disjoyned from Christ Herein St. Peter was no good Harbinger for these must lodg together Evangelium Lex Prophetae unum habent Tabernaculum Ecclesiam Dei the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Commandments of the Law the Histories and Predictions of the Prophets make up one Catholick Church dispersed through all places of the World propagated through all the Ages of the World unus Pastor unum Ovile there is but one Shepherd and one Sheepfold and whom God hath joyned into one family let not man put asunder into three Tabernacles Non quaerere debes quà m prudenter hortabatur sed quà m fervens caritate Dei says St. Ambrose If you examine what the Apostle said by wisdom and sage judgment you shall find a great defect but if charity and zeal may cover a multitude of faults here is much to answer for him love is ready to commit faults by too much presumption but it is a good argument to excuse them Peters was an error of love and so to be passed over with a light reprehension but whosoever in these days shall set up three Tabernacles in the Church one for Christ one for Moses and one for Elias is a Schismatik As we have two eyes and yet they see but one object and two ears which hear but one sound so the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel are the eies and the ears of a Christian blessed are the eyes that see what they demonstrate blessed are the ears that hear what they deliver for faith cometh by hearing yet we see but one Redeemer there is but one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus We hear but one truth and our hearts and affections must all be of one mind there is but one Faith one Christ one Baptism there must be but one Church and one Tabernacle As Charles Duke of Burgundy said in a Scoff for his part he loved the Kingdom of France so well that where it had one King he wished it had six so where the Church
is one entire Body one Tabernacle and no more Satan wisheth it were ten that there might be strifes among us I am of Christ and I for Moses and I for Elias even as among the Corinthians I am of Paul and I of Cephas and I of Christ This emulation and Schism comes of it to make more Tabernacles than one faciamus tria c. From the Builders and the Fabrick I proceed thirdly to the Possessors one for Thee one for Moses and one for Elias little Cottages yet Peter considered they would be somewhat for them that had nothing before Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head ipse faber domum non habuit he had not an house to lodg in though they call'd him the Carpenters Son Moses was thrust into an Ark of bulrushes Elias was turn'd out into the vast Wilderness Marmoreo tumulo Licinus jacet Cato parvo Pompeius nullo The mighty men of the World took up all the room from Christ and the Prophets all that the Apostle could make them were little Canopies of boughs and glad he had that for them that they might not want an Habitation What a narrow thing is mans wit though our will and desires are infinite he would confine him that is unconfined put all the light of the Sun into a Nutshel take up the vast waters of the Sea into a spoon that is comprize all the glory of Christ in a wicker Tabernacle How shall they praise his name from one end of the world unto the other How shall he ascend up on high with Majesty and honour Be thou exalted O God above the heavens let thy glory be above all the earth Psal lvii 11. Christs Kingdom is more communicable than to be thrust into a corner If they shall say unto you Behold he is in the desart go not forth behold he is in the secret Chambers believe it not Mat. xxiv 26. In like manner if they shall say unto you he is in Mount Tabor or in a Tabernacle do not regard them Numen ubique est he is in heaven and in earth and in all deep places Yet in this unadvised ejaculation it is true he that will make any fabrick for a sanctified end and out of a religious respect Faciamus tibi Let us make it for thee O God was very right if he had gone no further Churches are only consecrated and dedicated to the Almighty our English name is proof to go no further ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã say the Greeks the Lords house from thence we say Kyrk or Church by adding words of aspiration At the erection of the Tabernacle Exod. xl 31. At the consecration of the Temple 2 Kings viii 11. It pleased God to give a manifest sign from heaven that he possessed both And because the Lord did so solemnly shew his honor in those excellent places therefore it is fit they should be appropriated to him by us with a most solemn dedication both to make them publick for sacred offices and that the builders may surrender their right and make God the owner for ever and to make it awful to every man that they be not polluted with prophane abuse What says St. Paul have ye not houses to eat and to drink in Where you see even before Churches were erected he gave an admonition Prophetically that these two are things for several places to eat and to drink customarily and to pray and preach Christs Tabernacle indeed must be for our duty belonging to Christ and for no other service And though Peter thought not himself and his fellow Disciples worthy of a Tabernacle he thought perhaps they should be quartered with Christ to be his Ministers there yet he propounds as much for Moses and Elias as he did for our Lord one for Moses and one for Elias T is is the fond and offensive love of superstition to dishonour the Saints when they would heap immoderate honour upon them He spake far too much when he would exalt them to equal honour with their Maker and yet he spake it much to their injury when he would deprive them of the beatifical Vision and sweet Society of Christ For to confine them to their own Tabernacles was to make them want the joy of their eyes which the Angels desire to behold and to see his sweetness these two great Prophets came down from heaven I am glad Salmeron the Jesuite fell in with me in this Point says he they do all fall upon this rock on which Peter did who are so addicted to some peculiar Saint that they will equallize him with Christ himself This is to advance them to equality with God to make Tabernacles and Churches to them as unto God St. Austin liked not that and therefore that none might mistake he distinguisheth Nos Martyribus nostris non templa sicut Diis sed memorias sicut hominibus mortuis fabricamus We do not erect To the Martys as unto God but Tombs of remembrance as unto men whose spirits live with God for ever And in another place we allow them Monuments of honor but not Altars of divine Service ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says St. Basil Divine Worship is due to God an honourable memory to the Martyrs Herod the Great was at great charge about the Temple of Jerusalem the work was good but his end was vain glorious and popular So men of liberal zeal but erroneous superstition built some Sacred Houses and did impatronize some Saints to be the Tutelary powers of those Churches and Oratories the work is good but the end is corrupt not that the sacred buildings are called by the names of Martyrs and Apostles as this is by St. Andrew we use those names by way of mere distinction to know one sacred place from another which perchance they imposed upon superstition Distinction of names is for variety sake and to take away confusion Sometimes by one Saint sometimes by all the Saints sometimes known only by the name of the Founder sometimes some famous work denominates them as Anastasia or the Resurrection and St. Sophia or Wisdom anciently the two most goodly Churches in the world and both in Constantinople Usually they are entituled by some renowned Martyr whose acts are worthy to be had in remembrance Nay sometime for mere distinction sake the buildings retain the names of fabulous Saints as Pope Gelasius himself condemned the Legend of St. George for Apocryphal they may add St. Christopher and divers more Yet the holy Oratories are no more dishonoured by those names than the Days of the Week by the Idol Planets Gods than the Ship which carried St. Paul by the sign of Castor and Pollux than Daniel who was called Bellishazzar from the Idol Belli Names of distinction are arbitrary and inoffensive to the judicious but Sacraries or Churches though they carry divers names are only to be built to God and consecrated to his
not the same For howsoever they took upon them this glorious appearance yet it was nothing to them they are glorious spirits we shall be glorified both in body and in spirit they shall possess the double in their Land Everlasting joy shall be with them Isa lxi 7. Duplicia possidebunt this is their double portion their soul shall be filled with the vision of God and their body shall be bright like this Angels Garment yea fairer than earthly resemblance can decipher And so much for Gods Watchman upon the first verse and for those occurrent meditations which fell out upon it His countenance c. Against these the next verse opposeth Pilates Watchmen Watchmen indeed out of suspicions and infidelity not out of devotion and reverence Souldiers they were and no worse than of a Roman Garison but Souldiers in a piece of Arras would have serv'd as well Are these Romani rerum Domini Roman spirits whose brave resolution is a Proverb throughout all the world miserable Keepers that were set to daunt others and yet themselves shake for fear and became as dead men The Doctrin of this point will make up several Propositions to be considered First That the stoutest of wicked men have their great fears for their own heart tells them that there is one against them against whom it is impossible to stand The Philistins are mistrustful Who is able to withstand these mighty Gods The Aramites are quell'd if they do but think they hear a noise All the Money-changers of the Temple run away from a little scourge if Christ take it into his hand The High Priests Servants arm'd with swords and staves fall flat to the ground if He say no more unto them but whom seek ye I am He. Non potest stare quem conscientia destituit quem impellit reatus He that hath plummets of sin upon his conscience must sink to the ground it is impossible his legs should bear him And do not think this doctrine is less to be credited because there appears most resolute courage in many blasphemous Ruffians that are scarce half Christians that neither fear roaring Seas nor Earthquakes as the barbarous Celts were wont to say of themselvs for howsoever they are prodigal of their bloud and had rather die than seem to quail yet if you could see into their brest it must be that you should find a natural damp there because the Soul will be inquisitive what shall betide it hereafter and it is impossible it should speak comfort unto it self A Wolf is a most adventurous Beast yet he cannot run a furlong to seek his prey but he looks about to watch who follows him because he knows he is hated so the stoutest of the ungodly is bridled by the terror of an evil conscience in all his pride and glory I confess that some portion of fear is a passion incident to the righteous and best disposed Many things may intimidate a good man or woman for want of instruction what the Divine assistance can bring to pass out of a soft complexion out of a remorse for sin more acute in some than in others and out of too much love to themselves and those things upon earth which are most dear unto their love for such imperfections are in the best but it is not such a confus'd malignant fear as the enemies of Christ feel which makes Judas burst in twain which makes Arius fall in pieces which makes Cain surmise every one that sees him will kill him which makes Tyrants they dare not trust their nearest Servants nor their dearest Children which makes the Keepers of the Sepulcher shake for fear and become as dead men Secondly attend how terror falls upon them that think to terrifie Christs Saints they that were set to afright the Disciples are more afrighted themselves 'T is true that the zealous women which came with Odors and sweet Spices to the Sepulcher were much amazed yet the Angel spake mild and gentle words unto them and bid them be not afraid but the Souldiers were overwhelmed with perturbation and never comforted Let Pilate set another Guard upon his Guard for these are daunted upon whom both He and the Jews relied to maintain their fact which they had done against God and Man But the terrible men are requited with terror Pharaoh did never threaten Moses so sharply but before he saw him again he was in a worse perplexity than Moses for some grievous plague that was faln upon him David fled from Saul and yet Saul was more dejected in his heart than David Eusebius says upon the resolution of the Martyrs that their Persecutors were more afraid to see them suffer their torments than they were to endure it And some Heathen Historians testifie to this that Julian the Emperor had a device to trouble the Christian Church above measure by allowing and furthering the Jews to build up the Temple at Jerusalem again but the Workmen and their Taskmasters were let from proceeding by thunder and eruptions of fire and many such impediments which came from Heaven Satan was sent to buffet Paul but Paul did buffet Satan by mortiâying his body by praying to the Lord that the rebellion of concupiscence might be taken from him The poor man in the Gospel possessed with Devils who fomed and gnasht with his teeth and was even torn with violence this man was not so much tormented as the Devils were to be cast forth and sent headlong to the Sea Of all stories methinks those are the pleasantest to read to see a malicious man stewed in his own sawce burnt in the same fire which he kindled for his neighbour An invading Enemy driven back with a mighty overthrow a litigious person cast in Law to his undoing A merciless man in the Gospel changing places with him whom he cast in prison Matth. xviii Hamans plot against Mordecai executed upon himself the Lions that were kept hungry to eat up Daniel devouring those that accused him the Souldiers set to scare all the well-willers of Christ that came to the Sepulcher and themselves scared out of their wits that their heart was dead within them The Dogs are sometimes gor'd and pauncht by the Beast which they hunted and they that meant destruction to the Saints are first destroyed O Lord let the malice of them that are ill affected to Christ and his Flock be ever so requiâed Thirdly let it be attended that the fear of death is exceedingly in the hearts of them that do not believe in the Resurrection Alas they that set all their stake upon this life and are perswaded when this puff of breath is stopt that they shall sleep in an eternal night and never be wakened more can you wonder if they be infinitely agast upon the summons of death The Stag when he is at bay and ready to be pluckt down and torn sheds tears naturally and drops of sorrow trickle down from him because he shall part with his life for ever
Church was that there were no divisions or distractions in their Body God be praised for the multiplication of his Saints now over all the world we cannot meet now under one Roof as these did nor sit down in rows in one Field together as those 5000 did whom our Saviour fed in the Desart the bounds of all the Land of Canaan are not able to hold us God be glorified for the increase Our unity of place is to meet in those publique Assemblies which are allotted to particular Churches at those appointed times which are enjoyned us In no wise to slack our presence here on the Lords day to flock together on other festival days at Morning Prayer on week days to be much more diligent than we have been fie upon our tardiness and excuses in that duty do we look that God shall bless us in our Persons and Calling to take a Benediction away with us to serve us the whole week and come no oftner is not he the God that makes men to be of one mind to come to the Temple together and there to receive the Holy Ghost Chiefly I wish heartily in Christ that they would consort together with us who take no offence at our Doctrine established but make a separation and strangeness both from us and among themselves for matter of Ceremonies and things indifferent They that are baptized into Christ and one Faith why should they not come together with one accord in one place I must not be prolix I will say no more to it but let us say with St. Paul Hebr. x. 39. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We are not of them who separate or draw back unto perdition Vnto perdition let that be noted The observation of this point gains thus much more out of St. Austin As all the Tribes of Israel were gathered together about Mount Sinah to hear in what manner the Law was proclaimed so here was an agreement of all persons to joyn together to receive the Holy Ghost but in that admirable similitude there is this dissimilitude that the people were prohibited with many terrors to come near the place where the Law was delivered but at this time the Holy Ghost was sent unto them who expecting the promise were all with one accord in one place And Calvin conjects much unto this note that the minds of the faithful were exceedingly encouraged and chang'd for the better the stoutest Champions of them all had no manlike fortitude in them before the Shepherd was smitten and instantly they were scattered and ran away for fear now the very women had hardned themselves against all danger they mix themselves together in one place with that holy company and fear no evil that can happen unto them A resolved constant mind an heroick heart to take up the Cross of Christ and to suffer unto the death for righteousness sake is a sign of much grace in the soul and an admirable preparation to receive the greatest measure of the Holy Ghost And that you may not think this Apostolical Society had crept into a dark corner where no espials could find them out Many Authors that have laboured to understand where it was say it was a spacious goodly Room of as much note as any private House in all Jerusalem and frequented so often by the Apostles that their haunt was known through all the City All that I have met withal conclude it was the same upper Chamber where our Saviour celebrated his last Supper and so consecrated the place Nicephorus and Cedrenus say it was the House of John the Evangelist for he took the Blessed Virgin to his own home and she was now among them a slender guess God wot and repugnant to many circumstances of Scripture Theophylact says it was the House of Simon the Leper how can that be when his House was in Bethany Matth. xxvi 6. Euthymius says it was the House of Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counseller and had goodly Rooms to receive them Baronius goes with the most voices all are but conjectures that it was the House of Mary the Mother of John whose surname was Mark. To this Adrichomius consents and says this was the place where 3000 Jews were converted by Peter and baptized thither Peter betook himself when the Angel brought him out of prison there Stephen and others were made Deacons there James the Brother of our Lord so called was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem there the first Council of the Apostles was held Acts xv All ancient Authors conclude it was about where the Tower of Sion stood and this is certain that Helen the Mother of Constantine did build a goodly Temple upon the same place to honour that holy ground It was a Figure of the whole Church of Christ so much the more to be remembred and the Church is a Figure of the Kingdom of Heaven where all the Saints and I trust all we shall praise the Lord with one accord in one place for evermore It follows now as the outward Bond of Peace was with this Society so they were claspt together faster with the inward Bond of Agreement with the unity of the same spirit they were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with one accord There cannot be a more proper true and certain disposition to make us meet for the Holy Ghost than unanimity As the Halcyon so our Naturalists say never appears but against fair weather so the Spirit comes either not at all or not very plentifully unto us until he find concord among us without jars and tranquility without bitterness The unity of the Apostles is called by the Fathers parasceue spiritus the way-making to receive the grace of God and if the Patient be prepared aright the Agent will do his work the sooner and the better No gifts of benediction are given to strive and oppose to fight one against another but for charity and edification therefore it was the beginning of our Collect three Sundays past Almighty God which dost make the minds of all faithful men to be of one will and it is a principal part of our Gospel for this day Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you That peace which Christ left among the Apostles was as it were an earnest penny put into their hands that they should have the full donative of the Comforter from above Our Saviour was born in the days of Caesar Augustus when a still Peace was over all the world now He pours out his holy spirit upon them that were of one accord and of one heart the one was his first act upon earth the other is his last then he was cloathed with our flesh now we are invested with his spirit This remarkable amity and Saint-like brotherhood among the Members of the Church which had no ruptures was well prefigur'd in the old Feast of Pentecost which was kept by the Jews For Levit. xxiii 19. upon the day of Pentecost among other Burnt-offerings the Priests were appointed in
the name of the whole Congregation to offer up two Lambs of the first year for a Sacrifice of Peace-offerings You will say that 's no strange matter to present a Peace-offering to the Lord true indeed particular persons did it often in their own behalf but Maimonides observes it that the publick Body the Vniversal Church of the Jews never offered any Peace-offering but at the Feast of Pentecost O who will work this work for the Militant Catholique Church that we may say of all the parts of it omnes unanimiter they conclude all for the Orthodox Faith with one accord Some strange salvation must drop out of the clouds we know not how to work this Attonement yet on both sides let every man take heed he make not the rent bigger with more obstinacy and greater separation sweetly did a meek Moses of our own Church write there will come a time when three words uttered with charity and meekness shall receive a far more blessed reward than three thousand Volumes written with disdainful sharpness of wit It may seem a wonderful and unanswerable scruple that many in the former Ages of the Church did so much transcend us in these dayes for gifts of Miracles gifts of Devotion and Learning for Watchings and Fastings for Industry and assiduous diligence for most prosperous success in winning many Souls to the Kingdom of Heaven but the true cause is that their unanimity and pious agreement opened a wide gate to admit sanctification into their breast and our discords exclude it No spirit can give life to Members dismembred unless they be first united and compact together Ezekiel knew not how scattered bones could live but the bones came together bone to his bone and then the breath of the Lord came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet Ezekiel xxxvii 10. The Scribes and Elders of the Jews in few years after our Saviour was crucified were like broken bones scattered and divided like as one breaketh and heweth wood every year by bribery or calumniations the High Priest lost his dignity and a new one was substituted Josephus most impartially hath related that there was no care of Religion no zeal for the Law among them because there was nothing but bandings and factions in their Synagogues Here was no accord and therefore no Holy Spirit came down into their habitations Against the Congregation of the famous first Nicene Council the Fathers that met together it is not to be concealed forgat themselves so far that they put up innumerous Bills of complaints one against another before the Emperor Constantine The Emperor knew this was a most repugnant beginning to the good work they had in hand to enter into the consideration of Christs business with distracted enmities therefore he threw all their bills and brables into the fire and then bad them proceed in the name of Christ and in the grace of his Holy Spirit Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty says the Prophet Hosea chap. x. 2. A contentious stickler that loves to be the head of a Faction and to disjoynt things out of peace and quietness I wonder whether ever he thinks how the Apostles were composed and prepared when they received the Holy Ghost Fuerunt omnes eâdem animatione simul in unam so St. Austin reads they had one heart and one mind and one inclination to advance the Kingdom of Christ they were all with one accord in one place I enter now upon the last part of all that I may find the way out of my Text and conclude it is the other Preparation for the coming of the Holy Ghost as all the Disciples were knit in vinculo pacis in the bond of peace and concord so they were united together in vinculo spei in the bond of hope by patience and expectation they were ejusdem unanimitatis and ejusdem longanimitatis they kept together for the promise of the Holy Ghost till fifty days were fulfilled God made the Israelites number fifty days after their coming out of Egypt before the Law was delivered ut adventus sui desiderium accenderet to make their hearts burn within them with longing for his coming so he put off the coming of the Holy Ghost for the same space of time to make them think of his promise with eager expectation The Jews called it the Feast of fifty days and the Feast of weeks for whether we reckon by days or weeks or years we must wait the Lords leisure and say expectans expectavi Psal xl 1. I have waited patiently for the Lord and say with our Saviour not my will but thy will be done that is not my time but thy time be fulfilled Where is the faith where is the humility of those rash spirits that will not tarry the fulness of time but have all things at their whistle by and by or quarrel with God as if he had forgot them They received this blessing of wonderful grace that were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã long abiders in the 13. verse of the former chapter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or perseverantes ver 14. such as continue till the day of promise was fully come He that believeth let him not make haste says the Prophet Isaiah God will do all things by his own leisure and maturity if he happen to stay stay for him Habak ii 3. for at last he that cometh will come and then he is no flitter his gifts are without repentance and he will abide with us for ever AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and filled all the house where they were sitting THE Feast of Christs Resurrection and the Feast of Whitsunday or coming of the Holy Ghost are distant one from another fifty days in space of time but are as near to themselves as the bark unto the tree in real substance and in spiritual conjunction In the Resurrection the strength of Hell was weakened for us In the descending of the Holy Ghost the vertue of Heaven was made powerful in us In the first the doors of the Grave were unlock'd that we might not be held in death In the other the windows of heaven were opened that we might be partakers of the life to come The Resurrection reduceth the soul into the body again which was dissolved by the sin of Adam The coming of the Holy Ghost doth again reduce grace into the Soul when original Justice had been taken from it by the same mans transgression These are parallell'd in primo gradu and the comparison may reach a little further to our present business that there was a great noise caused at Christs rising For behold there was an Earthquake Mat. xxviii 2. And loe as great a noise from above at the coming of the Holy Ghost for behold there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind These two honourable Feasts
having such near relation I have found out most principal Texts for them both this year out of the same Chapter for Easter day Ver. 24. whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death For Whitsunday in that notable portion of the story which I have read unto you And I told you upon the last great solemnity that Whitsunday was principally ordained for this end to make Easter day famous over all the world But the principal fruits of this day are three if we may comprehend an Ocean of graces in so small a number In the zeal of our Prayers we passed them over in the Morning Collect and that Collect extracted them from the Epistle and Gospel appointed Thus you may perceive that the Service of the Church of England is the treasure of my observations The Collect runs upon these three Points Teaching Illumination Consolation God which upon this day hath taught the hearts of thy faithful people for heavenly Doctrine began to be made common to all the world from this day Yet many hear the Word but most unprofitably therefore it follows that God hath sent us the light of his holy Spirit to have a right judgment in all things And many have the benefit of true Doctrine and the help of Illumination but with much sorrow and persecution therefore the Holy Ghost came down also that we might rejoyce in his holy comfort Thus far the contents of that short Prayer have helpt me The Gospel for the day runs altogether upon the last branch upon Consolation I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter The Epistle falls upon the two former upon Doctrine and Illumination and that in two sensible miracles For Doctrine that a sound came from heaven as of a mighty wind to foreshew that the sound of the Word should go forth into all Lands for Illumination that cloven tongues appeared and sate upon them as it were of fire The noise was as a Trumpet to wake the World the firy Tongues as so many lights to let them see their visitation Thus the Holy Ghost is presented to both the senses to the Ear as to the sense of faith to the Eye as to the sense of love The Ear is the ground of the Word and Doctrine and that gives the first admittance to Faith and therefore the Holy Ghost began his operation there according to my Text and that in these particulars to be considered 1. That God caused a sound to be heard upon the descending of the Holy Spirit 2. The manner of the sound is resembled to a Wind. 3. To a sudden wind 4. To a rushing mighty wind 5. It was from heaven 6. It filled all the house where they were sitting All these particulars are worthy of my labour and your attention That there came a sound from heaven at the mission of the Holy Ghost is the first thing remarkable A sound first to call in them that were without Secondly To demonstrate the Office of them that were within As the chiming of Bells calls us together to Church so an audible sound from heaven was a warning to the Jews to flock to that place where the Apostles were gathered together The Master of the Feast in the Gospel sent forth his Servants and invited the Guests and bad them be told what preparation he had made for their coming so the men of Jerusalem had as sensible an invitation to draw them to the great Feast of the Gospel as if a Canon had been discharged in their Ear. Or if they were yet unprepared to taste of such Manna as fell from heaven into their lap yet the Lords doings were so palpable before them that their consciences must be extremely stupified with malice if they made an ill interpretation of others that were then filled from above with the great power of God And indeed Oecumenius says that the sound did pierce the ears of all that were in the City that such as were curious to know the reason might come and see ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that the open manifestation of the miracle might preserve it from calumny But you will say it did not gain the good opinion of the Jews for all the gift of Tongues had such a forerunner not vox clamantis but sonus intonantis not the voice of a Crier but a peal of thunder to bring it into the world yet the people did disgrace it with a vile imputation of drunkenness True it proved as ill as could be expected but says St. Chrysostome if they said the Apostles were full of new Wine when these signs concurred what would they have said without them The most graceful and melodious sounds in the world are lost to deaf men and though a clamour and a cry from heaven were come down as it is in my Text yet it moved not those that like the deaf Adder had stopped their ears The Serpent in that place is called in the Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by Antiphrasis or the contrary because it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an unperswaded Creature all Art and Charming is spent in vain it will not listen it will not mitigate its venomous wrath and so the Translator Apollinarius says upon it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that when the Adder is mischievously angry for the time of his violent anger and while that lasts he is stark deaf though he can hear by nature So such as are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Tit. i. 16. Disobedient and reprobate to every good work though they have the sense of hearing by nature yet when they are violently set upon infidelity and stubbornness they give no more attention to the sound that comes from heaven than do the stones of the Temple When Stephen preached so divinely to the Jews that the heavens opened in the time of his Sermon Acts vii 56. as if way had been made for the Angels and Saints to be his Auditors even then when the gates of heaven stood wide open at the grace of his words they that should have given him best attention stopped their ears and ran upon him But the sin of them that will not hear let it lie upon their own head they cannot say but there hath been a Trumpet among them to awake them from the sleep of sin The sound which God hath sent forth is shrill and loud to call in those that are without And he that hath ears c. But secondly the Spirit came in a very audible sound to declare what a door of utterance should be opened from thenceforth to the Messengers of Christ That their sound should go out into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the World Rom. x. 18. The Gospel preached to every creature under heaven Col. i. 23. How many were in that lamentable condition like the Disciples at Ephesus that had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost Angels themselves began to be Preachers when a door of entrance was
utterance ALL the joy which we celebrate for the famous acts of Christ is irksom to the Devil and the particular Solemnities which we keep are grievous to those that shut their eyes against the truth Upon the yearly day of our Saviours Nativity the Jew is sad and displeas'd because he believes not that he that was born of Mary a pure Virgin was the Son of God and the Messias whom their Fathers lookt for that should sit upon the Throne of David for evermore Upon the high Feast of his Resurrection the Sadducee gnasheth with his teeth because he denieth that the dead can be raised to life So upon this triumphant Feast wherein we abound with comfort for the sending of the Holy Ghost the Pelagian is malecontented who is an enemy to the efficacy of Grace and the more cause we have to maintain the dignity of it and to be throughly disciplin'd what the Holy Ghost hath wrought for our Soul because the Church is miserably soured of late in all places with the leaven of Pelagius Again as all the parts of our Saviours Mediatorship were several degrees to advance our Salvation and like the several steps of Jacobs Ladder to bring us nearer and nearer to Heaven so in this comparison the sending of the Holy Ghost is the loftiest degree and as it were the top of the spire which is next neighbour to the Kingdom of Glory for as man in his first creation had but an incomplete being till the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so man in his reparation was but incompletely restored till Christ did send the Comforter to infuse into him the breath of sanctification This day therefore is the concluding Feast of all the great days wherein we rememorate the noble works of our Lord and to go further this Text is the upshot of all the blessings that were conferred upon the Church in this happy day Christ took our nature upon him that he might die for our sins he suffered and was crucified that he might reconcile all such to his Father as would repent and believe repentance and faith to please God cannot enter into the heart of the natural man by his own abilities a power from Heaven must be the means to bring that about which is so repugnant to our corrupt nature Traverse over the mystery of our Redemption and you shall find that the work is at a stand till supernal grace poured in do draw it forward as Physicians say that spiritus est ultimum alimenti the last concoction and the most refined part of our nourishment is that which makes the spirits so the donation of the Holy Spirit is the accomplishment and final resolution of all the benefits which we partake in Christ And the last payment collated by that precious liberality to enrich the Church for ever is here in my Text nay indeed it was but a preparation before the talent of grace was not tendred till now That which was set forth in figure in the former verses is here exhibited in real substance Before a rushing wind made a noise here was the very thing imparted which was shadowed by the wind before certain firy tongues made a glittering that sat upon their head now their own tongues became most fluent and voluble with wonderful eloquence In brief to the exact building up of the Church two things were requir'd which are not wanting but abound in this verse First that the Lord should speak unto the Heart Secondly that he should speak unto the Ear by an invisible word and by a visible He spake invisibly to the Heart when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost he spake visibly to the Ear when his Ministers began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Nay more to gather a Society together whose Labours should be dispread over all the world it was expedient that the Lord should confer both ordinary and extraordinary Gifts upon them His ordinary Blessing and indeed nothing is blest without it is some quantity of Sanctification his extraordinary Blessing is twofold to send such as are not lightly sprinkled but filled with the Spirit and to speak with divers Tongues that their sound may go forth into all the World Yet again to shew the Amplitude of Gods allowance to his Primitive Church he makes a double provision first for every Disciple as he is one Member of this Body and so all and every one of them were filled with the Holy Ghost and then he provides for all the Members of his Body junctim in one union and communion they began c. so that here 's the inward and the outward blessing the ordinary and the extraordinary the particular and the universal The inward ordinary and particular blessing is this that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost If you look for the provision with which the Primitive Church was stored look for it in this Chapter and you will find out upon judicious survey that there are three things which make it plenteous with all manner of store Pastores Verbum and Spiritus First certain Pastors allotted to the sacred Function to guide the souls of the People 2. the Word of life which is put into their mouth to be preacht unto all Nations 3. The Spirit of grace accompanying the Word to make it fruitful and prolificous in the hearts of them that hear it and obey it That some were ordeined Pastors and Bishops to teach and rule the Church that 's clear the Apostles met together in Jerusalem with one accord as Christ had appointed and the Cloven Tongues which came from Heaven sat upon each of them that was their Commission to take their Bishoprick upon them that the Word was delivered unto them which they should preach and Elocution to impart that Word to every Kingdom and Language that 's as clear Eight times in this one Chapter St. Peter quotes the Scripture of the old Testament and with divers tongues according to the capacity of all the Nations and Languages that were met together and that the Holy Ghost was infused with much abundance at the same time that 's as clear and pregnant as the rest 't is twice gone over in my Text both in the beginning and in the end they were filled with the Holy Ghost and the Spirit gave them utterance A Church without lawful Pastors is but a Synagogue of Schismatiques a Pastor without a Tongue is but an Idol Shepherd or a dumb Dog a Tongue without the power of the Spirit is but sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal As St. Paul said of the three grand Theological Virtues Now abideth Faith Hope Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity so I say of these necessary parts that constitute the Church the Ministry the Word and the Spirit but the chiefest and most excellent of these is the Spirit In some strange manner God may have a Church without a consecrated Priesthood as when Adam and
Wise men of Greece you are always Children what God was what Beatitude was what the Soul was what the state of men in the next world was nay what Vertue was so many Philosophers so many minds As fast as one built an opinion another pulled it down with his objections doubt was both the pleasure and the torment of their wits It is the Christian faith alone rooted in us by the operation of the holy Spirit never to be shaken or removed which delivers us from all diffidence and inconstancy of doubts The more miserable is the condition of our times wherein wanton wits make Problems and Disputations of divers Points of Divinity which were embraced before by all the Worthies of the Church from the begining of Reformation Had we no Scriptures before Or no helps of learning to expound them Or no illumination of the Spirit to know the sense of them Or is this the Age of new Revelations To doubt of that which hath been in a good frame so long must needs put Unity into Multiplicity Charity into Discord Peace into War and Faith into Infidelity But upon the first Introduction of Christian Religion at the first Mission of the Holy Ghost humane infirmity had some leave to doubt that it might learn so these dubitants said one to another What meaneth this Many of those that flock'd about the Apostles and were amazed at the Tongues wherewith they spake are called devout men ver 5. of this Chapter so it seems because they desire to come out of their doubting by framing such a question whereby they might learn what the power of God did intend Ita cum stupore admirari Dei opera convenit ut simul accedat intelligendi studium says Calvin so wonder at the works of God that withal you express a desire to understand them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says the Proverb propound doubts with this modest submission that wise men may expound them unto you The error was that they asked one another the blind enquired of the blind which was the way out of the wood the ignorant conferred with the ignorant such as God had not revealed himself unto argue the Point among themselves and they omit the Apostles who were in place and could best resolve them When the people will be their own Teachers and never consult with them who are Gods Interpreters and Embassadors by their calling will not St. Pauls Prediction be fulfilled upon them Desiring to be Teachers they understand not what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim. i. 7. Though their Counsellors were not the wisest a riff raff multitude of all sorts ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Oecumenius a mixture of hot and weak heads yet their question tended to an occasion of knowledge What meaneth this Just so their Fore-fathers when they saw the Manna which fell from heaven asked one of another Manhu as we have it in the Margin of our Bibles What is this Exod. xvi 15. I will answer for both parts as Moses did both for that which rained from heaven then for the sustenance of their bodies and for this which was poured out for the blessing of our souls this is the bread which the Lord hath given you from heaven But Beza reads this question potentially Quid hoc rei esse possit What will this come to hereafter These unlearned men are furnished with abilities to talk with all the world It is not a seed or two which they have got but they received a strange gift from God above in the whole sheaf What will the Lord bring to pass from these beginnings That was well considered For God doth not work secundum ultimum potentiae all that he can do at once He began with an handful of men and the Church increased to as many as the Stars in heaven for multitude He gave them a Cup of new wine at this Feast he did not leave till they had a copious Vintage and the Presses overflowed with liquor of eternal life In one day he made this truth exalt it self above the opposition of the Jews in a few Ages he made it too strong for all the contradiction of the Heathen When Luther and a few that harkened to him began to burnish true and Orthodox Doctrine from the Rubbish of Popery the adjacent Kingdoms that heard of it looked for small propagation But they that yearned in their bowels to see the expulsion of superstition expected a large progress from that small beginning Their hope was upon this question Quid hoc rei esse possit What will this come to It is Gods manner to work himself mighty honour out of small appearance And although the advancement of Religion is hindred abroad and I would it were not stopt at home the Jews are obstinate Mahumetans are prepotent Adversaries the Heathen are wilfully addicted to worship strange Gods yet the leaven of the Spirit hath not lost its vertue it will in those seasons which God hath appointed breath through the whole lump And still my heart attends to the efficacy of the Gospel which may be kept back it cannot be suppressed what will this come to before the end of the world Thus far we have conversed with them that were much affected with the miracle that God bestowed as on this day an Ocean of the Holy Ghost upon a small Assembly of Saints Now you shall hear that there was an ignoble off-scum of the people that made but a mockery of it Others mocking said these men are full of new wine St. Basil says they were the Pharisees that made this derision of Gods power In a bad action where none are named the Pharisees above all others deserve to be suspected Their whole life was hypocrisie and what is that but a mockery of God and a Stage-play to personate holiness Oecumenius says they were the Plebeians as the most ignorant are the greatest Taunters flouting agrees best with foolery and base breeding For certain they were Jews for Peter turns his speech unto them ver 14. Ye men of Judaea and he confutes them with the testimony of the Prophet Joel ver 16. and that Prophesie was only in the hands of the Jews a scoffing Nation and now it is returned upon their own head For it is even to be pitied that they are hooted at and derided publickly as they walk in the streets in all Kingdoms where they have purchased to themselves an habitation How often did they gibe at our Saviour and his Miracles As when he said that Jairus daughter was not dead but slept they laught him to scorn When he preach'd that plain and evident Doctrine that men cannot serve God and Mammon the Pharisees who were covetous derided him Luk. xvi 14. And that you may know the Servants were used no worse than the Master they called our Saviour a Wine-bibber Luk. vii 34. And you may be sure at such a great occasion as this the devil would keep his wont and do all despight to
a little extemporary acquaintance and no more with that to which they say Amen Next let every man preach that challengeth he hath the gift sorrily God knows and then he knows that Preaching will come to nothing as well as Prayer Beware that you let not our great Adversary subvert all Piety and Religion by these encroachments bad men may mock holy Ordinances but God is not mocked Fear the Lord reverence his ways receive the blessings of the Spirit with thanksgiving and praise rule the Tongue to glorifie him that made it to set forth his honour that gives it utterance AMEN THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE CORONATION PSAL. cxviii 24. This is the Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and he glad in it THE words which I have selected to preach upon are part of a Psalm which excels both in the Letter and in the Spirit rich in the litteral sense copious in the spiritual the Kingdom of David set forth magnificently in the one the Kingdom of Christ glorified in the other Sometimes the ditty of the Song points directly at the Throne of David and sometimes at Christs Triumphs over his Death and his victorious Resurrection I cannot choose between them both but think of the Country of Mesopotamia the fruitful Garden of the world girt about with waters the Rivers did flow in and out in all quarters of the Land and the Land was much more pleasant for the windings and intricate Maeanders of the Rivers So this Hymn hath a most delightful alternation in it skipping often from Christ to David and from David to Christ with sundry melodious changes as if it purposed to make the Reader lose himself if he did not curiously note the Narration There hath been much ado among Expositors whether the Psalm should concern them both or only one of them choose you which you will Some refer it all to David and to the rejoycing of the People in his behalf that they saw him happily inaugurated King of Israel after he had been long kept back by the House of Saul and many other potent Enemies The Jewish Rabbins make no other construction of it and they follow the Chaldee Paraphrast who doth thus read the 22. verse of this Psalm the Builders did reject the youngest of the Sons of Jessai and would not let him reign over them but he hath deserved to be received for their Prince and Governor therefore we will keep holy day and rejoyce Thus Vatablus and Isidore Clarius and many others of this latter Age have dived no further than into the superficies of this Scripture that is into so much and no more than concerned the Monarchy of David But they did not see into the bottom that lookt no further for the Antient Fathers of the Church not one but all have discover'd so manifest a Prophesie concerning our Saviour that nothing can be clearer It is a general rule that David in most of his Psalms had more regard to Christ than to Himself in this more eminently than ordinary so that the New Testament is full of the application Pick out the 22. verse The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner according to three several Gospels our Saviour demonstrates that himself was the Stone which the Scribes and Pharisees refused but God had exalted him to be the Head of the Church both ih Heaven and Earth St. Peter proves as much in the audience of many thousands of the Jews and none of them did contradict him Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified this is the Stone which is set at naught of you Builders which is become the head of the corner ver 26. of this Psalm Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord I doubt not but all the loyal hearts of Juda and Jerusalem did congratulate David in those words when he entred into the Royal City but all the Multitude of the People applied them to the Advent of the Messias Hosanna to the Son of David blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Matth. xxi 9. And indeed St. Hierom says that the Jews in their Liturgy of old were wont to read this Psalm in their Synagogues for the Messias sake and did put it among those Prayers in which they did heartily desire the coming of Christ the Lord Nay says Cajetan the 17. verse can become the mouth of no mortal man but it is the voice of the immortal Son of God to say I will not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Therefore those Authors that had the most judicious Palat have acknowledged that sometimes Davids matters are brought into this Psalm and sometimes Christs nay sometimes both of them in one verse as in my Text. The begining of the Psalm says St. Chysostom was a Celebration for the setting on the Crown upon the head of the King of Israel but ex improviso mutavit argumentum in a sudden extasie the Prophet changeth his argument and speaks of Christ nay says Euthymius if a man will be acquainted with the stile of the Propets let him remember that this is their custom intercidere solent sermones in rem aliam transire ne adversarii manus injiciant they use to break off abruptly and fall from one thing to another lest if the Enemies of the Truth did understand them they would make away those holy Writings to the irrecoverable loss of the Church of Christ This was necessary to be premised that you might know what to look for out of my Text namely David's Day in the Letter and Christ's Day in the Spirit In the Case of David no man doubts what day is pointed at surely it is the day of his Inauguration when after much resistance made by his Enemies at last he did enjoy the Scepter of all Israel quietly and peaceably and there was an Holy-day instituted to remember it with sacred Solemnity The Lord had made that Day happy unto David and the People did celebrate it in a joyful and religious manner I need not to tell you how proper that construction of my Text is to this Day wherein God hath settled our Anointed Sovereign over all the Kingdoms of his Father and I trust you profess your due thankfulness to God for his most pious and religious Reign and that we have great cause to rejoyce and be glad in it But which is that among all the days of Christ which God did make more transcendently than the rest there 's a little scruple in that point I find one or two refer it to the day of his Nativity but their reasons are weak and they are no considerable number to be followed St. Hierom and St. Austin are in the right I think for they apply it to the whole time of the Gospel wherein the terrors of the Law are broken and all things are most sweet and pleasant to penitent Believers Behold now is the acceptable Time now is the
holy Angels and herein the Bohemian Churches accorded with us as I see in their Confession yet these Ordinances we uphold because they are beautiful to Religion and contein nothing repugnant to faith and good manners not by any long antiquity as I was able to speak for the former Feasts For Polydor Virgil was most unadvised when he wrote that these Feasts were kept from the Apostles times one distinction is to be ruminated upon that there were some hundreds of years past between the keeping of such Feasts in Private places and universally over all the Church Where any Apostle or Saint flourisht in his life or seal'd the Faith with his death that particular Place or City did celebrate his Festival it gain'd no further as very anciently the Bishop of Smyrna wrote that Polycarpus his day was at hand and he would call the people together to celebrate it devoutly For the universal acceptance of them in all Churches the most will acknowledg that it began at the soonest in the sixth Age under Gregory the Great but with the best search that I can make I cannot perceive that Publick Holidays were kept in the names of Peter and Paul Andrew and John till in the Ninth Age at a Council gathered at Mentz by Charles the Great and some Festivals dropt in straglingly long after as in the names of St. Thomas St. Bartholomew and St. Luke in the Twelfth Age so that it is no great antiquity which upholds those Saints dayes but these reasons following First that we may give thanks that the Church had such examples and be stirred up to the imitation of their vertue 2. As the Scripture hath not commanded such days so it hath not forbad them and in things honest and laudable we must obey them that are set over us in the Lord. 3. A solemn Fast may be proclaim'd to avert Gods Judgments Joel ii 15. and if God allow a meeting of rest upon some new occasion of a doleful event will he not permit piety to triumph with joy and gladness when the whole race of mankind doth or may participate the benefit 4. As there is nothing repugnant in Scripture so there is something very consonant to it For though the Jews were directed like Children in all their Ceremonies yet the whole Nation being delivered from the Plot of Haman Esther and Mordecai ordained a Feast in memory of it Esth ix 21. and we must not think they meant to make it a Merry-wake but a time to praise God In the Jewish Ritual they had a set Service for it as one says and it is vainly put off that this was a Divine Law and not an Ecclesiastical because it is entred into the Scripture For do they find that God sent word by any Prophet no such thing Mordecai suggested it Esther sollicited it Ahasuerus a Heathen King ratified it and so it went current with the People Again Jo. x. 22. our Saviour went up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of the Dedication and was not that Feast a voluntary Sanction of the Synagogue it must be confest for when Antiochus had profaned the Altar of the Temple 1 Mach. iv Judas Machabeus instituted a perpetual Feast toward the end of November to dedicate it again unto the Lord. The principal grudg of some wrangling men is against the Feasts of the Saints not against the Feasts of Christ and that because they have been Idolatrously abused in the Church of Rome their common Maxime is adiaphora non necessaria horrendâ idololatriâ polluta sunt abolenda I will explain them Things necessary to Religion though abused are not to be abolisht as the Word and Sacraments but adiaphorous things abused with no less than Idolatry must for ever be laid aside and these have caused Pilgrimages upon opinion of merit Invocation of Saints Worship of Reliques This foundation is false for by this slight the Devil would blow up all our Ceremonies and we should not have one left Our Churches must be pluckt down and the Bells hang no longer in the Steeple for they have been exorcised and baptized I yield that a Ceremonious Ordinance polluted with Idolatry is to cease if the abuse can not be taken away as Hezekiah could not stop the people from worshipping the brazen Serpent but when manifested good comes and evil is but suspected the former wrong being redrest what equity is there to cast it off I should fight with many other such objections but want of time will part that fray and I shall meet with them all to the capacity of the understanding by shewing upon what abuses Holy-days are to be disallowed 1. It is impious to institute them immediately to the honor of the Saints Some of the Children of our own Mother have scandalized us for that fault and yet Card. Bel. doth acquit us but we cannot acquit him for he delivers it roundly that the honour of the day doth immediately and terminatively belong unto the Saints but we enstile the day by their name for their memorial sake as some called their Moneths by the names of their Emperors but in those days we do only worship God 2. It is very lewd to employ them to vanities Interludes idleness and not the service of God take heed the Lord do not say I will turn your Feasts into mourning Siccine exprimitur publicum gaudium per publicum dedecus says Tertulliam 3. To abound with excessive number of Holy-days is a fault likewise it cannot consist with charity to lay so many injunctions and burdens upon mens consciences It made St. Austin cry out Tolerabilior esset Judaeorum conditio the Jews were less vexed with Observations than Christians Clemangis complained of the excessive number in the Roman Church and especially that they read the Legends of Saints upon those days and not the Scriptures Numerositas festivitatum cives decet non exules says one his meaning is to keep many Holy-days was fitter for Heaven than for Earth 4. As a needless multiplication though for good Saints and good occasions is bad so to appoint them for false Saints and bad occasions is ten times worse their Corpus Christi day instituted by Vrban IV. an 1264. upon a forg'd Miracle is most disallowable they carry the Host in Procession to have a Creature adored A solemn day is kept by them for the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin into heaven which hath no probable Author till Damascens time in the year 800. There 's another a great deal later for her Immaculate Conception as if she were sanctified in the womb and had no original sin Some are consecrated to Saints that for ought we know never were as Christopher Hypolitus some to such as never were Saints as Ignatius Loyola the Founder of the Jesuits a man compounded of nothing but vain-glory dissimulation and subtlety Canus their own Bishop could say we honour the memory of divers for Saints on earth whose souls are tormented in hell 5. It
are Clavis Ecclesiae sera Coeli Baptism the Key to open a door and give us admittance into the Church of Christ and the Eucharist is such a confirmation of grace that it is like a bolt that shuts us up into Heaven What reverence what devotion can be too much for such blessed mysteries Mistake me not when I speak of Reverence and Devotion I mean nothing less than Adoration and Worship to the Elements I allow not nay I abhor Popish Elevation and Procession I fear this lifting up of the Host ever since the Devil took up Christ to a Pinacle of the Temple I detest their gamish and gaudy Procession as if our Saviour did think it an Honour to ride upon the Popes Palfrey as Haman did upon King Ahasuerus Horse away with such ridiculous gesticulations But I am ashamed on the other side that there should be such froward Persons such unthankful Receivers of the Sacrament of thankfulness in our Church that deny the duty of their knee to the Supper of the Lord their feet stand stiff like the two Pillars which upheld the Theatre of the Philistines and Samson can scarce pluck them to the ground The very Devil durst not deny the truth in this Point Ask him what it is to honour Mat. 4. to fall down and worship As Maecoenas spake of a Roman that being amazed forgot to kneel unto Caesar when he came in his presence Hic homo timet timere Caesarem so these men are afraid lest they should over-reach themselves and give God more honour than his due It was an excellent speech of Scipio Africanus who being to ride in honour refused to sit in an Arch Triumphal Quia seni praetereunti non potuit assurgere if an old man passed by he could not rise up and do him reverence Beloved the Table of the Lord is a time of great triumph and solemnity and God is not passing from us but coming to us and is this all the honour that we will do him to stand upon stilts rather than kneel Will neither the apprehension of Christs Passion move us at that time Nor that Prayer which is used that body and soul may be preserved unto everlasting life will not that make us fall down Nor the consideration how Christ did humble himself for us unto the death of the Cross will not that make us humble Let it be the reproach of such profane men that Manna is faln down from Heaven round about our Tents and they will not stoop to gather it The fourth and last Honour which redounds to God is to obey the powers which are ordained of God It is good Divinity every day it is the proper Theam of this day O Lord make it a victorious and joyful day to thine Anointed Servant and our most gacious Soveraign many and many years and make it an happy and a triumphant day to his People that are under him and to their Children that are yet unborn Nazianzen speaking of Kings and Rulers to be the Images of God says that Monarchs and Kings in respect of God were like Pictures drawn clean throughout to the Feet the middle sort of Governours to Pictures drawn to the Girdle the third rank and lowest in authority to Pictures drawn but to the neck and shoulders but all in some sort are the Images of God only Christ is the express Image of his Person that sate down at the right hand of his Majesty Heb. i. O let Man who is made according to the similitude and likeness of Gods own goodness be faithful and Loyal to obey Kings and Princes in whom he hath imprinted the Image of his power and authority Mary Magdalen sate at our Saviours feet his Disciple John came nearer to his head and leaned upon his breast so God hath put all the world under his feet but Kings and Rulers lean as it were upon his breast as coming nearer to his love Now as the Altar was a refuge for them that fled unto it so Kings being as it were united unto God by an invisible copulation they are like priviledged persons always next unto the Altar and the hand of violence must not hurt them He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that honoureth you honoureth me But the Jesuit is more subtle than any beast of the field and he puts in a quarrel against Gods Anointed that if any prove an Heretick or a scandalous person to the Church nolumus hunc regnare then he hath lost the privilege of his Unction and his Scepter shall be broken by the Popes effulminating Authority I cannot answer this traiterous opposition better than by an Embleme of a Diamond with this word dum formas minuis He that pares a Diamond to make it give a better lustre and to point it artificially impairs the worth and value of the Diamond so to cut such large allowance from the due which God hath granted without that qualification to his Vice-gerents under pretence to make their Kingdom more beautiful and religious is the next way to break the neck of all Soveraignty it were well we had less of their art and more of their honesty As Agesilaus wrote to the Judges in the behalf of Nicias if Nicias his Cause be good let justice prevail if his Cause be wrong let favour prevail but be sure that Nicias prevail So say I if the Scepter of the King be a Scepter of mercy and righteousness God be blessed it is then we will honour it for righteousness sake if it should go wrong and not as we would have it so it hath far'd with other Common-wealths the Throne of the King is established in heaven and we must honour it for Gods sake but be sure the King be honour'd and obeyed There is a Fable which Plutarch hath to this purpose the Tail of the Snake began to cavil with the Head because the Head did always lead the way and direct the Body which way it list The Tail would not be contented unless it might go formost by course and the Head come sometimes behind but what followed upon this new contrivance the Tail prickt it self in thorns the Body was bruised every part offended and at last the Head was intreated to take upon him to lead and then the whole body was contented Beloved our part is to pray to God that the Head may run on in the right way like the matchless Pair that went before the mirrour of women pious Queen Elizabeth and the most excellent and learned of all wise Princes that ever were or shall be blessed King James Our part is to submit our wisdom to the secret counsels of the King and to demonstrate our faithfulness and love more amply by how much the times are like to be dangerous and troublesome but for the Tail to go formost it is a dishonour to God who hath given the Crown and Scepter to the King and it can breed nothing but disorder and confusion To sum up these four
residue the Lord will give victory to his chosen people But as Cyrus in Xenophon speaks of the manner of the Median hunting beasts in Gardens that they did ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hunt beasts that were bound so to follow these turncoat Fugitives which have sheltred themselves in Cloisters and are sworn to do us mischief it were vincta venari to pursue that which was entangled therefore I leave them with Judas and this brand upon both their foreheads concluding the second part of my Text c. I am now descended in the third place to the stratagem of this day and am faln upon the haters of my Lord the King A King who is an uniter of Kingdoms into one body as David was of Judah and Israel none more zealous no not David himself for the prosperity of Jerusalem and the magnificence of the holy Temple Under Christ not only the Supreme Head but under Christ the most careful Watchman of our Churches and as Christ did tenderly affect his Apostles above all other men so the Successors of the Apostles the Reverend and most holy Bishops of our Church have found not the smallest place in the love of our gracious Soveraign Surely above all men if the Clergy be not careful to set forth the honour of this day with great joy and solemnity it is their ignorance or their negligence Ignorance is the very annihilating of a Scholar negligence the foulest fault in a Labourer Had these furious Sword-men that laid their weapons to his throat sound an austere Master nay a Tyrant they must have born with it and not touch the man that bears the character of the Lords Anointed But his Peers are verè parâs welcom as his equals his familiar friends Had they been out of the lists of counsel not acquainted with secret affairs what should they do but be thankful for the peace which they enjoy without trouble and pray for that Government which fills them with plenteousness without their labour but they were familiars in whom he trusted adventuring his Royal Person not only under their roof but under their locks and custody Lastly had his bounty no way flown into their Coffers and whose bounty among all the Kings of the earth hath replenished more yet their bodies are secure by the protection of his Laws their souls secure by his maintenance of true Religion their goods secure by his Courts of Justice and yet his own c. Did eat of his bread that is true But to feed upon the Kings hospitality is a curtesie every day common to thousands that visit the Court But for a mighty Monarch to grace his Subjects Table with his Royal Presence and to eat of his bread this is not the felicity of every one Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter it is a respect of high honour where it lights and the glory of an illustrious Family And out of doubt that mind must be very sordid and avaricious that esteems it not the more noble grace to make their service find acceptation that they may expend somewhat rather than receive somewhat of a mighty Potentate I can spare no more time to publish the black sin of the Authors of this treachery It was Dionysius his saying to Plato that if he should dismiss him and give him leave to depart for Greece Plato would make him the common talk of Athens Do not think O King says Plato that we have so little care of learned conference that we would chuse you for our discourse So I hope beloved that our hearts are so full charged with thankfulness to God for this days deliverance that in twenty years and more we have no leisure as yet to think of the Malefactors Let this day be spent and many days following only in Prayer and Supplication and Thanksgiving to that God who hath given victory to his Anointed and will do to his Seed for evermore Nay let me add one thing coronidis vice and I have quite done we have found this verse to tax Achitophel to condemn Judas and lastly to lie at their door who perished deservedly this day in their own fury Bonaventure hath yet smelt out another enemy and such a one as none more familiar none more intimate to any of us all Is not this fair warning beloved And will you know who it is O man it is thy self He that prays to God to bless him from his enimies is afraid of malice indeed it is a dreadful thing He that prays to God to bless him from his friends is afraid of treachery and indeed no mischief less avoidable But let me pray to God to bless me from my self no enemie so full of flattery so like to prevail so cunning in tentation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is the Civil War which wastes the inward parts it is the carnal man against the spiritual Self-love is every mans disease Why You are your own familiar friend Confession of sins can hardly be extorted from us Why We trust to our selves too much Gluttony and Riot are within our Walls Why We feed our selves and are our own carvers From our enemies defend us O Christ from Forain Invasion from Domestical Conspiracy from the malice of Satan and from the corruption of this vile Flesh the body of death which we carry about Good Lord deliver us AMEN THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Fifth of November AMOS ix 2. Though they dig into Hell thence shall my hand take them WE have two sorts of Holy-days and Festivals to call Assemblies together into the Church of God Some in honour of the Saints who are our friends that their Piety may redound to our imitation Some occasioned by the malice of our enemies to sing praises for our preservation both are useful if we advise aright And who knows whether King David was instructed better from Hushai his Friend or from Shemei that reviled him He that would be safe says Plutarch and walk sure ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he must either have true Friends or bitter enemies And as God would have it the Church hath plenty of both sorts Saints of honour in heaven spiteful men to undermine it upon earth darkness beneath to complot treachery light above to reveal it There is both manus fodiens an hand digging into Hell against us and manus educens the eternal hand that fashioned all things on our side to take them out Beloved here are two chief instructions from two main ways to inform our faith blessed is every one that hath duly prepared one heart to receive them Which that we may the better do I pray observe what a lofty Hyperbole the whole verse doth consist of threatning the ungodly that they shall neither have advantage by Heaven nor Hell Though they dig c. They that go about to cast away themselves are not in their way except they wander And that you may know how sinners straggle whithersoever they go mark what several interpretations the words do bear Hugo the
to Gods hand Shall we not remove the occasion which may bring us into bondage hereafter Tant â sollicitudine petere audebis quod in te positum recusabis Will you pray so heartily for that unto God which you will not set hands to when you may do it for your selves Arise Barak and lead thy captivity captive thou Son of Abinoam I see it methinks in all your Countenances that every man is more willing to honour this day than the very day wherein he was born into the world for we are born in tears we are preserved with laughter God forbid that the enemy should have the upper hand to make this day a by-word for ever and to be blotted out from among the days of solemnity But whether they dig by Sophistry to pervert the weak and faithless Or whether they give words as smooth as Oyl having War in their hearts or whether they send over Emissaries Boutefeaues to devise against Hierusalem Lord keep thine anointed King in safety make his Crown flourish long upon his own head and upon the head of our most illustrious Prince and for ever uphold our Church and Commonweale that as thy truth hath brought it out of darkness of error and thy hand hath protected it from dark Conspiracies so it may shine in these Kingdoms for ever as the Sun in the Firmament and as the faithful Witness in heaven Even so Lord Jesus AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Fifth of November ACTS xxviii 5. And he shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm IT comes to pass from our desire to see mankind multiplied that almost no Infant is born into the world without the eyes of many to behold it but if any one have escaped a jeopardy with the hazard of his life as he is a creature new-born again from danger so we cast our eyes more wishly upon the person As many as the house could hold resorted to see Lazarus revived John ii Solomon's Porch full met at once to see the Cripple use his Legs Acts iii. All the Island ran together to behold St. Paul who had shook a Viper into the fire and felt no harm and that self-same Miracle is the employment which your patience doth now attend upon And though we regard the deliverance of others at the pleasure of our curiosity as we use to say at our idle time yet to see St. Paul preserved it is as Socrates spake of Lysias his Oration ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã somewhat more than business For that you may know him to be set up as a spectacle to look upon how many petty deaths were round about our Apostle in the former Chapter As if he should have gone out of the world like Hermaphroditus many ways at once In a mighty Tempest in a Famine of fourteen days in the hands of violent Souldiers surely his life had ended here but that God had determined he should die honourably by Caesars Sword Having satisfied the Sea a little beast assaileth him on the shore But excussit all is well both here and there and he is delivered And besides this we may very well make it not St. Pauls case alone it is like pure Gold which may be malleated and drawn out a great deal larger even to the entire profession of the whole Gospel 1. Vipera that there is a danger and then 2. Excussit both an easie and a joyful deliverance Ecclesia in illo patiebatur quando pro Ecclesiâ patiebatur as St. Augustin said of our Saviour The Church was wounded in him when he was wounded for the Church So St. Paul was an Embassadour to Caesar for the whole Church of God and therefore the ignominy and comfort redounded to the whole Church both of his great perplexity and likewise of his preservation To knit all this together a Serpent was a very fit instrument if you will regard the nature of man in these four degrees First Adam was set upon by a Serpent in the Garden of Eden and was stung to the quick and corrupt nature afforded him no deliverance Secondly The Israelites under Moses Law were assaulted and stung but found a remedy 3. St. Paul in the New Testament is assaulted but felt no harm Lastly The Saints in glory shall not so much as be assaulted To be vanquisht in our conflicts is the misery of our poor nature to be chastised by punishment is the rigour of the Law to be threatned by affliction is the life of the Gospel to be out of suspicion and fear of harm is the state of heaven The times of Nature and Law are past the days of Glory are not yet revealed my Text therefore not unfitly is a representation only of the third that is of the season of the Gospel This is the sum of all If neither life nor death height nor depth Viper nor any other creature can seperate us from the love of Christ then we boldly say without an error Ego sum Paulus thus was Paul and thus am I delivered Beloved from this one venimous Serpent take notice of the whole brood of the Viper Every torment is de crinibus anguis in the Poet a kind of Serpent greater or less If we complain like Jonas far more of a little worm that offends us than of a great Whale that devours us then affliction is Venenum patientiae it festers and leaves a wound behind it But if we be shod with the preparation of the Gospel Super aspidem basiliscum ambulare Not to fly from harm as fast as our feet can carry us but to walk at leisure upon the Lion and the Aspe then we bring the Text home to our selves then we shake beasts into the fire and feel no harm In which words may it please you to attend to these four parts 1. Here is a perilous Adversary known in this verse to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã savage and hurtful but better known in the former to be a Viper fastned on St. Pauls hand 2. His safe deliverance in excussit he shook off the worm 3. Vengeance is shown upon this fatal creature Excussit in ignem he cast it off for destruction into the fire Lastly The barbarous people who beheld all this they put us in mind of a fourth part they thought that God was in the work but mistook Paul for Pauls Creator therefore for a conclusion here is mirabile salutare a plain Miracle from heaven More likelihood for Paul to be kild there could not be and yet he felt no harm So danger is the first thing in order in my Text but scarce in time deliverance the next part was not one whit behind it in which there is Digitus Pauli the singer of Paul to requite the Viper with the flames of fire and Digitus Dei strange help from God alone I say the Barbarians did confess it The corps of the Text it is a deliverance now on the left hand behold peril and hazard of life on the right
examination for they will not tell us what they mean It cannot be that Terrestrial Paradise out of which Adam was banisht it cannot be that for the Floud prevailed above all the earth to waste and spoil it And for figurative significations of the word they are endless who can interpret them But will you know the truth upon Eccles xliv 16. The Vulgar Latine of such authentick credit with them hath cogg'd in the word Paradise Enoch pleased the Lord and was translated into Paradise The Arabick Version I hear upon the eleventh of the Hebrews hath used St. Pauls Text so and inserted the word Paradise into it Yet there is no such syllable in the 72 or in the Greek Text of the Son of Syrach that is all one to them where it serves their turn they make use of the Greek Copies before the Hebrew and of the Latine before the Greek the Roman Church can dignifie what Language it pleaseth But enough of this it is a meer Latine errour which first seduced the Schoolmen to write that Enoch was translated into Paradise Touching Limbus Patrum their Doctrine is more clear and explicite that it is a place below the earth called in large sense ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Hell a receptacle of the souls of those holy ones and good believers that died before Christ ascended into heaven where they were at rest and peace but enjoyed not the presence of God And this they expound to be that bosom of Abraham whither the Angels carried the soul of Lazarus The latter instance I suppose is enough to confute the former for the rich man looked up and saw Abraham and Lazarus in the high places above him a great gulf of exceeding distance being between them therefore it could be no such Limbus as they dream of in the Confines or Suburbs of hell And St. Austin dasht this opinion long since with an Argument not to be answered I have searched the Scriptures says he and could never find that Hades or Hell was taken in good part therefore to make a place of rest and joyful habitation to be the fourth and best degree of hell as all their Authors take it is beyond his understanding But why not Enoch assumed into some part of heaven Their reason for that The Scripture says plainly that Elias was carried up to heaven not because any quiet Habitation may be called Heaven in respect of this world of misery but forasmuch as verily he did change Earth for Heaven and therein is made a Type of Christs Ascension as Jonas the Prophet was a Type of his Resurrection So St. Ambrose I should have remembred it before upon the Funerals of Valentinian allows Abrahams bosom to be the house of God above the Firmament Certainly St. Paul would never have used that distinction Whether in the body or out of the body he knew not if it had been impossible for the body of man to be exalted into the third Heavens As Core and Dathan were swallowed quick into Hell body and soul for their great Rebellion so Enoch and Elias were carried quick into heaven body and soul for their great obedience The Greek Church keeps the Feast of Elias upon the twentieth of July says Metaphrastes in his Catalogue All that Lapide the Jesuit says unto it is that Elias his name is honoured upon that day by the Greek Church but he is not worshiped or invocated on that day because he is not in Heaven I know not whether the Jesuit say truth in that because I never saw the work of Metaphrastes but if the Greek Church neither make Prayers unto him nor give him religious honour I am sure they are the wiser and the farther from the Roman Superstition They have one question among the Schoolmen maintained pro and con with bitter contentions so God afflicts their wits that resist the truth upon their supposition that Enoch and Elias are not yet in Patriâ termino not yet come to the consummation of their days not yet in the receptacles of heaven but in some other place whither they be still in proficiency of holiness waxing better and better as when they lived upon earth for then say those Doctors this absurdity would follow they should exceed the Merits of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints their stock of good Works should run on in infinitum I think they are afraid they might prove such excellent servants that God should scarce be able to requite them Thus they entangle themselves in endless strifes to keep Enoch out of Heaven and with him all those souls that died in the Faith before our Saviour gave up the Ghost and upon affected misconstruction of those Texts that Christ was the first fruits of them that sleep that no man hath ascended into heaven but he that first descended the Son of man that is in heaven To explain my self and satisfie them remember our Saviours words that there are divers mansions in his Fathers house that is divers Stories of glory in his Fathers house built one above another there are outward Courts of glory and inward Chambers Now it is not to be denied but that Enoch and all the souls of all the just men of the Old Testament were in some quarterings of Heaven as in their proper place and in a state of happiness and salvation which is figuratively called heaven yet I do not say but Christ did open a door unto them to bring them nearer to the Vision of God in the highest heavens when himself did enter into glory The souls of good men deceased were ever in the hand of God but not ever in like distance to the joyes of God They were in Heaven before Christ ascended but not in such an Heaven as they possess now after he ascended Their Lot was Heaven from the beginning but their inheritance is augmented that Verse in our Morning Hymn looks this way I take it when thou hadst overcome c. But of St. Pauls meaning to jump with this Doctrine I am very confident Heb. ix 8. The way into the holiest of all was not yet mode manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing That I may leave no objections behind me to stumble you the main scruple is that the Scripture speaks as if Christ had made the first passage into Heaven in his own person which must be interpreted of the highest heavens where the blessed shall remain for ever no man was admitted there not the body nor the soul of man till he that was God and man in one person went in first and by his own merits and intercession gave access unto his brethren I settle in my own belief upon this answer not for want of two other answers and both of them probable The one that before ever Christ took flesh virtually and meritoriously he opened the Kingdom of heaven to all Believers Ab origine mundi operata est Christi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Ministry of
that was snatcht away unpreparedly without all sense of death It is true she had no Will to make she had no Legacies to bequeath for all was lost She had no house to set in order with Hezekiah for her Habitation was consumed with fire and brimstone yet she had a Soul to set in order which was ten thousand times more than all beside And although I will define nothing rashly against her for this judgment sake for I have learnt that modesty to let God only judge his own servants yet this momentary destruction of Lots Wife I am sure is worth both this and many hours meditations Quod cuivis cuiquam that which hapned but once since the world began to this one person may happen in some kind every day to any man Saul was desperately driven to seek to raise Samuel from the dead and appear before him this instance in my Text is one that never went down to the grave among the dead that she might always be in the remembrance of the living how she looked back to Sodom and became a Pillar of Salt Which words I divided formerly into such terms as might both respect the Contents of the Text and be expedient places for your memory Therefore I called the two principal branches an Epitaph and a Tomb. The Epitaph thus But his Wife looked back from behind him The Tomb which this Epitaph respects in that which follows And she became a Pillar of Salt If God made Epitaphs the stones of the Church should not be guilty of such flattery as they are for none of the offences of Lots Wife are left out in these few words but she is accused and very justly of these particulars as I shewed before 1. Of disobedience that she would not observe the precise Commandment of God in every motion of her body 2. Of great folly and blindness of heart that she would reject God and the preservation of her own life upon such easie conditions as to hold still her head 3. Of a Spirit most unattentive to learn for Lot went before her constantly and stedfastly the example was in her eye every step from Sodom to Zoar yet she would go her own ways 4. Of incredulity an incredulous soul Wisd x. 7. Either she did not believe that Sodom should be consumed as God had sent word or else she thought it would not be the worse for her though she turn'd about and lookt upon it 5. She relapsed and fainted in well-doing and desired to live again among those wicked sinners from whom God had withdrawn her This was opened in the first part The second is as strange for a Tomb as this was for an Epitaph A Christian Poet wrote thus Enigmatically upon it Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver sepulchrum tamen cadaver intus That she was made a Carkass that had no Sepulchre nay that she was made a Sepulchre that had no Carkass or rather that she was both Carkass and Sepulchre And to conform my self to the resolution of this Riddle I will consider this punishment inflicted from God two ways in reference to her self as to the Carkass and in reference to that into which she was turned as to the Sepulchre She that was punisht 1. Was one of those very few that professed the name of God among thousands that were unrighteous 2. She was one of four that were brought out of Sodom and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. 3. She was well nigh pass'd all danger and suffred shipwrack in the very Haven 4. She did wilfully cast her self away at the last cast therefore we read she was lost but not that she was ever bemoaned After this in reference to the Pillar of Salt 1. I consider it as a new punishment the like was never heard 2. As a sudden or momentaneous punishment 3. As a miraculous and most supernatural punishment 4. As a mortal punishment but not as a final destruction Of these in order The Lord told Abraham in the former Chap. that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was very great and therefore He was come down to see how grievous their sin was That which called him down to execute vengeance was not the iniquity of Lots house that little Family was all the remnant He had there to call upon his name but the filthy sins of the other Canaanites that abounded with rank and unnatural pollutions And the Angel tells Lot in this Chapter they were come to spare him and his but the Lord had sent them to destroy that City because the cry of it was waxen great before the Lord. They confess their Commission was given them to punish none but those Children of perdition that were aliens from all fear of God And yet behold one that was in the Catalogue of them that professed the Worship of God she offended and the hand of Gods fury is stretched out upon her She became a pillar of Salt Says one upon it Par est ut judex priùs suam domum examinet quà m alienam A Magistrate that will reform abuses let him make his own house the first example of reformation and then his Justice may more confidently call any to account that are not so near unto him St. Paul grounding upon that equitable case deciphers a good Bishop to be one that ruleth his own house well for if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God 1 Tim. iii. 5. This brings it to our apprehension directly why this person in my Text was chastised with no less than death because God would shew his justice upon his own Family where they sinned that unconverted Reprobates might expect nothing but the utmost of severity For if these things be done in a green tree what shall be done in a dry Luk. xxiii 31. There is no sort of anguish no calamity of any name or magnitude Captivities Famines Diseases that doth not shew it self as soon within the bowels of the Church as in any part of the World beside For a small trespass is taken more unkindly at their hands where grace abounds than a great profanation from the Heathen who were left as forsaken as the Mountains of Gilboa in Davids curse upon whom no dew of heaven did fall A small sin in Judah is as bad as an Idol in Samaria A lukewarmness or faintness of Religion in Laodicaea as bad as Paganism in those Regions that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death Therefore the first stroke of indignation shall light upon their sins from whom the Lord did expect the least offence and the most obedience Slay utterly both young and old both Maids and Children and begin at my Sanctuary says God Ezek. ix 6. You hear that the sword of vengeance shall be drawn forth first against the Sanctuary that is the pollutions of the Sanctuary Christ will sooner take his scourge
not consent to Pharaoh's tyranny He that will sin to please another makes his Friend either to be a God that shall rule him or a Devil that shall tempt him Three things says Aristotle do preserve the life of friendship 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to answer love with like affection 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã some similitude and likeness of condition 3. But above either ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã neither to sin our selves nor for our sakes to lay the charge of sin upon our familiars No he is too prodigal of his kindness that giveth his Friend both his heart and his conscience I may not forget how Agesilaus his Son behaved himself in this point toward his own Father the cause was corrupt wherein his Father did sollicit the Son answers him with this modesty Your Education taught me from a Child to keep the Laws and my youth is so inured to your former Discipline that I cannot skill the latter Here let Rhetoricians declaim whether this were duty or disobedience But let us examin the case by Philosophy I am sure that no mans reason is so nearly conjoyned to my soul as my own appetite although my appetite be meerly sensitive And must I oftentimes resist my own appetite and enthral it as a civil Rebel and have I not power much more to oppose any mans reason that perswades me unto evil his reason being but a stranger unto me and not of the secret Council of my Soul Yes out of question Remember what Herodias asked when the Kings oath was passed to deny her nothing St. Paul put in a caution that his Galatians should beware of them that came to pervert their faith in the shape of Angels Licet Angelus What could he say more for it is not the Angel of Smirna and Thiatira they had their faults not the Angel of Millain and Hippona the noble Army of the Church they might have their faults But if an Angel from Heaven preach another Gospel unto you than we have preached what then dare we say nolumus nay but anathema let him be accursed How it pitties me to hear some men say that they could live as soberly as chastly as Saintlike as the best if it were not for Company Fie upon such weakness what Simeon and Levy Brethren in iniquity let such a one be a Proverb and a By-word like Milo the Wrestler whose strength was so great that no Champion in Greece could wring a Pomegranet out of his hand but some lascivious Mistress some painted Harlot could make him let go his hold with a kiss Quid refert utrum in matre an in uxore dummodo Eva in omni muliere caveatur says St. Austin If thy Mother speak thee fair if the Wife of thy Bosom tempt thy heart beware of Eve and think of Adam The Serpent was a wise creature Gen. iii. and Eve could not but take his word in good manners Fond Mother of Mankind so ready to believe the Devil that her posterity ever since have been slow to believe God This is the weakness of our Times and to use holy Nazianzens words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to overwhelm sobriety with Wine in sweet courtesie and Healths as if every tipsie Friend were a Physician I doubt not but the men of Sodom that perished with fulness of bread even they how uncivil soever would have shewn enough of this kindness unto Lot and the Angels But is not this against nature says St. Basil to invite Acquaintants to a Feast for the sustenance of their lives and to endeavour to carry them out of doors like dead men Do you not pity the old Prophet that threatned Jeroboams Altar and made the ashes to tremble by the mighty power of his Message but yet was allured foolishly to turn in and eat when God forbad him He could not say non bibam and stand to it but a Lion out of the Forest did rend the morsels out of his belly before they were digested Beloved never can there be a better season for nolumus for every Christian to be a Rechabite then when any man reacheth out a Cup of intemperance unto us to say boldly we will not drink it And what if I should put you in mind of a more pernicious Cup than that which begets the surfeit of drunkenness it is called the Golden Cup of abominations and the Jesuits are the Cupbearers God give you grace to refuse it when it is reached out unto you and these are the days of trial when swarms of Romanists buz about to pervert the innocent What can they say unto you Beloved are they so meek and humble as we are who built their Popedom above Kings and made their Cardinals the Princes of the Earth Is their life more holy than ours tell me why Stews are maintained why they do sell Indulgences for sins Are they so merciful Who knows not Duke d'Alva's bloudy days Queen Maries Bonfires and the torments of Inquisitions Are they so loyal-hearted alass woe for the loss of so many Princes by their Treasons and Conspiracies But is Christ more magnified by them Why do they interfere upon his Intercession by praying to Saints upon his Mediation by their own Merits Is their Worship of God more spiritual wherefore do I see their Images Are Gods Ordinances so strictly observed in Rome why do some marry incestuously why are some forbidden Marriage Can they prove their Doctrin by so good a foundation as we do wherefore do they urge Traditions Finally Is their Religion more ancient no more than Abrahams Idolatry at Vr in Chaldaea was ancienter than the Worship of the living God Wherefore as our Saviour said to Peter Thou art Simon Bar Jona but thou shalt be called Peter Jonah signifies a Pigeon and Peter an hard Stone as who should say quem inveni timidum ut columbam efficiam lapidem So God confirm the feeble such as tremble on both sides and are fearful as Doves that they may be as the Rock against which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail that you may hold fast your Profession and say against that Cup as the Rechabites did to this non bibemus we will drink no poison Now I proceed to the second part of my Text which hath a strong connexion with the former for why did they resist these enticements and disavow the Prophet Jeremy because says the eighth verse of this Chapter They will obey the voice of Jonadab the Son of Rechab in all things that he hath charged them all the days of their life Their obedience is the second part of their Encomium They will obey the voice of Jonadab their Father The name of Father was that wherewith God was pleased to mollify our stony hearts and bring them into the subjection of the fifth Commandment Illa enim superioritas maximé amabilis est minimè invidiosa says Calvin we cannot envy the superiority of a Father every man being likely to succeed in the same dignity Festus reports
Negotiation what manner of Teachers they should be First To be diligent in their Apostleship that all that were commended to their cure should be sufficiently provided for and have enough Nay though immoderate replenishing be naught for the Spirit as well as for the body yet let them abound rather than want and though ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that which is unseasonable is unreasonable yet he shall make a better account before God that hath dropt somewhat out of season by affected supererogation than he that hath done too little in season and hath neglected the gift which was given him by imposition of hands Alexander the Predecessor of St. Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria returning to Alexandria after the Nicene Council was dissolved was so much a Pulpit man that for a long space he would suffer no man to preach in that great City but himself lest the Faith concluded lately at Nice should be mistaken by any other Doctor I think I may say he took too much upon him yet certainly it was a fault on the better hand It pleased our Saviour that his Disciples should feed their Guests rather with superfluity than scarcity Another Parable gives them a character that they were nummularii those that put Gods Talents to the money-changers that he might receive his own with Usury not as if Usurers were countenanced by the similitude but because as that gain is boundless so we should drive Gods trade extensively indefinitely without pause without measure and increase upon increase will require labour upon labour Says Gregory the old Law required of a brother that survived to marry his Relict and to raise up seed unto the Brother that died without issue The Apostles and such as have taken the like Office upon them by their Ordination are the Brethren of our Lord he calls them so himself our Lord departed as it were without issue because they were very few that believed in him when he ascended into heaven The Law therefore calls upon his Brethren to raise up Sons and Daughters unto him And though his heavenly Off-spring be grown innumerous at this day yet his Brethren are tied in as great conscience as ever before to tend the increase because the Church is not yet called at least the number of the Elect is not yet accomplished and if you would eat bread your selves in the kingdom of heaven distribute what ye have received that the people may eat I say what ye have received for beside diligence there must be sincerity The Disciples set of no other before the multitude but that which Christ brake Sic ea tantùm proponamus Ecclesiis que Christus praecepit So propound nothing but that which Christ taught and speak with no other tongue but as the Spirit gives you utterance and thou shalt save thy self and others But if you shall shred the wild Gourds of your own gathering with that which grows in Gods Garden the Children of the Prophets will cry out O thou man of God there is death in the pot Men that obtrude their own Traditions upon the Church are they aware of their high presumption The Prince of the evil Angels went no further Then I will be like the most high and he that says my truth is no less Orthodox than that which is written in the Prophets and Evangelists what difference is there between him and Lucifer Are they aware of the consequent of their new Doctrine that it creeps like a Gangrene and hath such a contagious quality to infect that which was sound that the truth which once they professed will be quite stained with innovation Or are they sensible of the threatnings of God Rev. xxii 18. If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this book It is unspeakable to say what a storm a man raiseth to toss the whole world in that invents a new Article of faith or enforceth the consent of Christians to that which is not indubiously the Word of God Be very choice to examine what it is with which you feed Christs Lambs and see that you take it out of Christs own hand I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you says St. Paul 1 Cor. xi 23. And so Lyrinensis a judicious exploder of all novelties id est proprium Christianae modestiae non sua posteris tradere sed à majoribus accepta servare It is a token of Christian modesty not to vent what we broach out of our own brain but to keep that which was committed of old One thing will cast me back a little before I conclude this Point Shall we look upon the Twelve feeding the multitude with the Loaves and Fishes in the capacity of good Pastors Then belike we must take Judas into the number Yes says Chrisostom Et ille habuit suum cophinum inter reliquos he took up a basket full of that which remained as well as his fellows And as long as he fed the People with the same which he had from Christ it was not to be despised because it came from him Let men be as they will be the sin of man shall not make the power of God to be of none effect It troubles not us therefore that Judas was one that distributed as well as Peter let it trouble them who think their sacred things are all marred or disappointed if the Priest be in a mortal sin An Hypocrite may play his part notably upon such an occasion as if he suspected the validity of the outward work where there is not inward sanctity Thus the Donatists in their first quarrel made head against Caecilius Bishop of Carthage because they pretended that he was ordained by Traditores by such as had delivered the Scriptures to Dioclesians bloud-hounds that they might burn them So the Luciferians fell off from the unity of the Church in opposition to Hereticks who returned again into the right way but those censorious Pharisees would allow of nothing they did in their Priestly Function And this was maintained sundry times by rugged irreconcilable natures and revived again if some say true in the days of Wickliff The stone of offence at which they stumbled was that the Church as we observe it well pronounceth after Christ that Bishops and Priests receive the Holy Ghost in their ordination but such as are spotted with grievous sins heresies have quenched the Holy Ghost Yea but not that Holy Ghost which they received in their holy Orders That is a grace conferred for the dispensation of divine mysteries and no other It is a grace whereby they are become Conduit-pipes of grace to others It is not a grace whereby they save themselves but whereby they save those whom they baptize comfort and teach and absolve in a word not the grace of an holy Life but of an holy Calling Be not therefore shaken with scruples and suspicions what operation the Offices of the Church have when Judas and
novitate vel obscuritate vel parvitate either it hath no glorious beginning for it is new or it cannot shew it for it is obscure or it dare not shew it for it is course and mean Now the glory which we have by Christ is amplified through these Comparisons For first Our Society began not obscurely but at Antioch the Metropolis of Syria one of the most populous and fairest Seats of the World in those days 2. The Records of it are without all exception in this indubitable sacred History 3. Neither is it a Mushrome of the field lately sprung up but it began in that Age when the Apostles of our Lord were living 4. Neither did we purchase our appellation from base and unworthy offices as by adoring the fortunes of men or by worshipping vain Gods but from the unanimity and accord which both Gentiles and Jews that believed did profess in serving the true only God and his Son by whom he made the World Jesus Christ No more then can be said then to these three Points Here are our Progenitors of worthy memory the Disciples their Title of honor and distinction they were called Christians and the place where they received it Antioch to make more of that which is so full in three parts were to make it less But of these in their order To begin with the Disciples and a little searching into them and their condition will make them known to be a noble and a numerous Society I must premise that two things had gone before which filled the Church with infinite increase of Believers First the Martyrdom of St. Stephen whereupon all that addicted themselves that way fled from Jerusalem and were strangely scattered abroad in most remoted places St. James from thenceforth calls them the twelve Tribes of the Dispersion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã St. Peter comes to some particularities and greets them by the name of Strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia Bythinia yet these were but a few of them in one Walk as I may say for such as write of the Conversion of Nations give a probable demonstrance that some of those dispersed Jews had crept into evety Kingdom that was habitable under the Sun And I instance in one thing especially because Baronius quotes an old English Manuscript contained in the Vatican Library for his Author that the chief adherents to Christ namely Joseph of Arimathaea Lazarus with his Sisters Mary and Martha were despitefully committed to the Seas in a Barque which had neither Oar nor Sail but Gods providence and the winds brought it safe to Marseils in France where they all landed and Joseph the Apostle of this Kingdom made a further journey into our Island And do not marvel that there should be enow to replenish all the World upon this dispersion for before our Saviour's Ascension he was seen of five hundred Brethren St. Peter's first Sermon after the coming of the Holy Ghost gained three thousand souls more The number of five thousand more were added to them by the power of his next Sermon preached in Solomons Porch Acts iv And after this St. Luke never counts how many were converted they were past his reckoning he relates the Blessing thus in the gross The number of the Disciples multiplied greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the Truth Acts vi 7. You see what store of laborers here were which were all cast out of Jerusalem upon the Persecution which was raised at the death of Stephen Non dispersi sed seminati non imbecillitate disjecti sed fidei gratiâ divisi says St. Athanasius they were not turned abroad at random but sown like seed in every quarter of the earth it was not fear and infirmity but the Grace of God which divided them Well the next thing that made the Spirit of God blow like the wind in all places where it listeth was the Conversion and Baptizing of Cornelius the Italian Captain about the seventh year after the Ascension of our Saviour The baptizing of the Eunuch by Philip though he were a more honourable person than Cornelius the great Treasurer to Queen Candace yet it made no noise at all for the Eunuch though an Aethiopian and so a Gentile yet he was a Proselyte of the Jewish Religion and so no Gentile Cornelius and his Houshold were the first of meer Gentiles that received the Holy Ghost and were baptized in the Name of the Lord. The tidings hereof did quickly arrive among the Brethren in all places and the Disciples knew by that token that they might spend their labours not upon the Jews only but upon the Gentiles also You see the means by which the Evangelical Truth was advanced so did Antioch grow to be a famous Church partly by their labours who fled from Jerusalem when St. Stephen was stoned ver 19. partly by attracting great numbers of Graecians to the faith of the Lord Jesus ver 20. and these now compounded together in one Body the faithful of the Circumcision and the faithful of the Uncircumcision these are Disciples recorded in my Text. This will put it likewise from your conceit that the twelve Apostles are not meant here by the attribute of Disciples they come far short of that exceeding number of Saints that were so entitled nor yet those seventy sent by two and two to preach and to cure diseases Luk. x. for distinction sake they began to be called old Disciples in these days as Mnason of Cyprus is called an old Disciple Act. xxi 16. But according to the largest courtesie of the word those that embraced the Doctrin of eternal life and this is done with our Saviour's good leave as it is Joh. viii 31. If you continue in my word then are you my Disciples indeed Sectaries and prophane Hereticks spread their errors abroad wo unto those that give ear unto them The great Dictators of natural Sciences ground their conclusions upon Principles of reason and would attain felicity not by faith but by arguments Miserable were all those that affected to be so wise that they could not be saved they are not these Disciples But leaving these pudled fountains blessed were the true Scholars of Grace that drew their waters from the Cisterns of Christ Truth went before them as a light and Sanctity did guide them by the hand these are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã taught of God as the word is in St. Paul And this is consolation enough to sweeten all other misery so the Prophet cherisheth the distressed Church that it was her glory that her Children should be the Disciples of that Truth which came down from Heaven O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted I will lay thy foundations with Saphires c. and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord Isa liv 13. How much did the Pharisees honour the poor man that was born blind when they meant to spit defiance in his face saying Thou art his Disciple Was
was performed after the best form and exactness within the Precincts of this City therefore those that emulate the Jews in an holy way to magnify the Lord Jesus and to advance his Name in their reasonable service they carry this good report to be called the Jerusalem of God Obadiah's Cave conteined most Orthodox Prophets Capernaum had a Synagogue to preach in perhaps as good Sermons delivered there as in all Judea Joppa had many devout people in it Bethany afforded a Family which exceeded all others in love to our Saviour but if you will shape unto your selves the beautiful Churches of Christ you must pass by these reserving much praise unto them all for that wherein they did very well and you must extend your thoughts to the flourishing Profession of Gods Name at Jerusalem Thither the Tribes went up that they might worship together in their most populous Assemblies not like some in our days that keep at home when the Convocations of the Lord require their presence and flatter themselves with their own sufficiency as if they needed no Prayers to commend them to Heaven but their own But one Simon Stylita mounted up in his Pillar by himself is not an whole Jerusalem To keep Religion in life there is nothing more needful than that such as are of the Visible Church have communion and society one with another Beside in this Metropolis of the Land of Canaan the degrees of the holy Priesthood were conspicuous from the chief Pontif to the meanest Levite Not all fellows as Core would have it And why not every one as good as Aaron This would make Babel and not Salem Demetrius his concourse for all the World Act. xxix no man was tied to say by your leave to his Companion for every man was a Master of the Mutiny Let not the pride of them that cannot get preeminence cry down the Authority of them who have commanded from the Apostles to this Age And remember that St. Jude hath pointed out some who were Spots in the Church not in the Synagogue that perished in the gainsaying of Core Now Core's gainsaying if you will expound it to the Letter can be nothing else but a seditious attempt against Ecclesiastical Dignity Beside the sound of Jerusalem brings to our remembrance all Divine Offices that were done in the Temple to celebrate his glory who is wonderful above all wherein we succeed them either in the same or by clothing their Figures with a Substance They had appointed hours of Prayer day by day in the Publick Congregation for their sakes that will find out a little time between Morning and Evening to step out of the affairs of the World into the Courts of Heaven they had the Law preached and expounded with uncessant diligence there were no less than 460 Synagogues within the Circuit of that City in the days of Josephus so many Pulpits to inculcate Doctrin into the People It seems they had a form of Catechizing by that Conference which was held between our Saviour and the Doctors they had Psalmody according to the most skilful Musick of David and Asaph they had Incense to learn us devotion they had Sacrifices to teach us mortification The exercise of all which indeed was much kept down under captivity and during Antiochus his Persecution But in the days of peace and liberty it had this external face of holiness And that our solemn and outward Profession of Gods worship should be suitable to this decency and splendor and not shuffled up as if we took our Platform from such an obscure Village as Bethphage or Emmaus it is incited to do all things after a sacred comeliness and magnificence by the name of Jerusalem So it is and yet these Mosaical fashions are passed away But it is an indelible Character belonging to that place from whence the Church rejoyceth to take its name that the first foundations of Christianity were laid in Jerusalem for as Seneca said of the Heavens dignum idoneum spectaculum si tantum praeteriret it was a gay and a goodly sight though it did no more but move above our head and pass away how much better was it to us by the virtue of its light and influence So Jerusalem is famous for that Levitical Worship of God which is passed away and vanished but much more glorious for the influence dispersed from thence over all the World by the Apostolical preaching for out of Sion went the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isa ii 3. Let us do it all favour says the Emperour Justin the Elder to Pope Hormisda for it is Mater Christiani nominis the Mother the Foundress of our Christian Profession We may take leave I think to discourse a little upon the wisdom of Gods good pleasure why this was the Brood-nest wherein the first Assembly was hatched that taught the Gospel First says Leo Vt ubi passus est Christus ignominiam ibi subiret gloriam Christ chose Bethlem for his Nativity but populous Jerusalem for his Passion where many might behold his opprobrious Death Lo in that soil where he became a scorn and dirision to them that were round about him he ascended into Heaven for Mount Olivet browed upon Jerusalem there he sent down the Holy Ghost there Faith and Repentance began to be preached in his Name there St. Peter made his first Sermon among devout men that were gathered together of every Nation under Heaven As there had been the Golgotha of his Humility so there he advanced the Standard of his Glory 2. Since our Saviour began to take his Kingdom upon him where should he proclaim himself first but in his Royal City there was the Court of David and of Solomon and meet it was that His Court should be there who was to sit upon the Seat of his Father David And it jumps well that he did not take possession of Jerusalem presently after he was baptized no not till he was crucified He did not actually reign in full Majesty till he triumphed over Death in his Resurrection From thenceforth the Royal Robe of Immortality was upon him and his Scepter in his hand to crush his Enemies and this was made known in the chief place of Gods Worship in the Gates of Jerusalem 3. Had the Gospel been preached in the beginning near about us in Europe or in Affrica or elsewhere far from that Country where Christ preached and suffered and rose again the news would have been strange and Unbelievers would have replied who are your Witnesses of these things But in the first utterance of Christian Faith to preach of his Passion within sight of Calvary of his Doctrin within the Temple of his Resurrection hard by Joseph of Arimathaea's Garden This was a demonstration of truth that it vented it self where it was best known Much unlike unto them who tell us in these parts what Miracles their Disciples do in India and tell them in India what Miracles they
from thence he assists his Sacraments sanctifieth his Ministry gives grace unto his Word And if they did not escape who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn from him that speaketh from Heaven Secondly Our Jerusalem is above not only in the Head but in the Members I do not say in all the Members for the Church is that great House in which are Vessels of honour and dishonour Terms of Excellency though indistinctly attributed to the whole are agreeing oftentimes only to the chiefer or more refined part Some there are in this Body whom though we salute not by the proud word of their Sublimity yet in true possession which shall never be taken from them they are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã those that are above Witness that the Angels make up one Church with us being the chief Citizens that are reckoned in the triumphant part fellow Servants with us under one Lord adopted Sons under one Father Elect under one Christ This is the language of the Scripture and surely Members of one Mystical Body for the same Jesus is the Head of all Principality and Power Colos ii 10. Of this Family also are the Saints departed even all those holy Spirits that obey God in heavenly places and do not imitate the Devil and his Angels This is that Church which hath neither spot nor wrinkle for when I speak of such a Church says St. Austin in his retractations I mean none but those in Heaven After these that make the front and first File of our March there are many among us I trust who have their part in this description Jerusalem which is above the Elect of God the Church invisible invisible I say not for their persons but for their qualites for who can see who hath an internal union with Christ the Head Who can tell whether this or that may be filled with his Grace and quickned with his Spirit Cusanus says very well that there is no certain judgment to be made by the outward fruits who are living Members of the Church but in Infants that are newly baptized With the mouth we confess the truth but with the heart man believes unto righteousness and only God can see the heart But these whose integrity their Master knows and loves no matter in what base condition they wander here they are greater by far than the ungodly that over-peer them in promotion they are above indeed for they are as high as the pinacle of blessedness and their names are written in the Book of Life for their sakes God hath dropt down the beautiful style of Jerusalem upon the Houshold of Christ but without these no name were so fit for it as Sodom or Samaria Such as will wrangle where no occasion is offered have carped at this as if we removed all from the Church but such as are Israel in occulto and have their sins forgiven in Christ It was never our meaning neither can we help it but that we must keep communion with all those that profess the common Faith But if the Church had known Hypocrites it had not admitted them into the Portion of the Lord or else it had excluded them Et quid prodest non ejici coetu piorum si mereris ejici says St. Cyprian What the better is it for an Hypocrite that he is not cast out of the Congregation since he deserves to be cast out he may abide with us in the outward Society of them that call upon Christ praesumptivè non veraciter as Spalatensis says because we presume he is faithful though indeed he is the Child of the Devil numero non merito he makes up one of the Multitude that go in the broad way he is none of the few that strive to enter in at the steight gate he keeps the formality of a Christian with others beneath he perteins not to Jerusalem which is above Thirdly We have obtained this dignity to be ranked as them that are above because our calling is very holy He hath saved us and called us with an holy calling 2 Tim. i. 9. called to Doctrin which is above which flesh and bloud did not reveal but the Father that giveth wisdom plentifully ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Theophilact upon my Text God did preach the Gospel from on high with his own voice for take a Breviary of it and it is no more but that which he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased We are called to obey the truth by illumination from above from thence is sent the spirit of them that are baptized the spirit of the Apostles and Martyrs the spirit of Bishops and Doctors the spirit of all those that have lived in the Truth and shed their bloud for the Truth 's sake We are called to that Religion which consists in celestial Functions in Faith and Hope in Prayer and Charity not in a Religion which presseth them down that observe it with an insupportable weight of Shadows and Ceremonies but the hour is come when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth Beware of those of the Concision says St. Paul and among bad marks which they carry this is the conclusion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they mind earthly things that is they are pleased with carnal Ordinances with these low and beggerly Observations of the Levitical Priesthood but immediately turning himself to the Fundamentals of the Gospel and the practice thereof says he nostra politeia our way of serving God our manner of worship is in Heaven So Bernard says that the Synagogue moved in a low Orb. But Solomon speaking of the New Testament says Quae est ista quae ascendit Cant. iii. 3. Who is she that cometh up from the Wilderness perfumed with mirrh and frankincense with all the powders of the Merchant Above all we are called to holy actions which savour not of mans passions and purposes but are qualified from above Our fortitude is heavenly fortitude our temperance heavenly temperance our liberality to the poor heavenly liberality but the moral deeds of the Heathen living out of the Church that had the best gloss upon them were smutcht with some bad vapour below and every grane of vertue that grew out of their stalks did abound with the chaff of vanity And what exceeds all that I have said beside to make our calling heavenly and holy God is so gracious to those things which are done in the Church in the name of his Son that where an unfit instrument may seem to marr all by his extravagant profaneness by his impenitent conscience nay by his heretical pravity yet Christs presence and assistance are not wanting to his Word and Sacraments but their efficacy is free and current to the people though they be performed by a crooked and an adulterous Generation As the Posterity of Jacobs Handmaid had a Princedom among their Brethren in the Land of Canaan
being of our nature and yet I will tell you a vitious filthy sinner doth so ill become the name of a man that there is far more congruity between him and a Beast he is more Swine or Tyger or Fox or locust than man he is not four-footed but he is bruitish hearted in his inward parts he hath put off humanity But if repentance shall restore him out of this bestial conversation if God shall set good men at his right hand that by strength of reason force of perswasion timeliness of admonition yea or by sharpness of correction shall make him feel and know the beauty of an honest life he is redintegrated in the powers and faculties of a man which he had quite lost So that our being in the austerity of Philosophy is connexed with our well-being No good man and by consequent no not a man till he be governed by the Principality of reason civil Education and the conditement of Vertue is such a Parent as reposeth a vile person a transformed Monster into the proper line of his own Praedicament it makes him Man Not to flutter in the air as it were any longer with Paradoxes impious Catives I confess shall stand for men for they shall suffer the curses and punishment of men in Hell-fire What is it therefore which Jerusalem adds unto us that she is called our Mother why the renovation of the mind or the new man created after God in righteousness and true holiness And as the Birthright which Jacob obteined from Esau was instead of another birth unto Jacob so when such as were vessels of wrath became Heirs of the Promise by Baptism and the Ministry of the Church is not this a Mother that gives them a better life than they had before The Love of God is our life Faith conceives us Hope brings us forth Charity feeds us with her breasts Obedience wraps us in swadling bands and knowledg brings us up God doth inhabit our mind and understanding as the Soul doth inspire the Body As Abram was turned into Abraham and Simon into Peter when they pleased the Lord so take any one that is regenerate and chang'd from his vain conversation though his shape and substance continue as it was before yet the Angels that rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner behold him with their celestial eyes not as the same but as another Creature And no wonder if he become another object in the sight of Heaven the reasonable Soul is that which constitutes the natural man but Faith being superadded a better spirit possesseth him and Christ is the form of a Christian It is St. Paul's Phrase ver 19. of this Chapter My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you As Ananias travel'd and earned for a Child till Christ was formed in Paul so Paul travel'd and had the sorrows of a Mother when âhe brings forth in the anxiousness of his heart till Christ was formed in the Galatians First the Church brought him forth then he laboured abundantly and assisted the Church to bring forth others The true solution of the old Riddle Mater me genuit eadem mox gignitur ex me the Son of Grace is begotten of this Mother and afterward filling up a place in the Communion of Saints he is reckoned into the collective Body which is called Jerusalem our Mother But a late Writer puts in his judgment very well I think how far the Motherhood of the Church intends to make us Children of Adoption it travels in birth that by her work Christ may be formed in us The Members of our fleshly body are formed in our Mothers Womb by her natural faculties she can go further for the absolution of the work that is the inhabitation of the Soul is the act of God so the Church doth the part of a Mother it propounds repentance discloseth the mysteries of faith perswades us with the expectation of a great reward in Heaven offers us the use of both the salutiferous Sacraments thus a new fashion a new Creature even the form of Christ doth creep upon us but the life by which we live it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it comes from without from above from the inspiration of the spirit of Christ But without that efformation or effigeation in the Womb of the Mother never expect the vivification or information of the Holy Ghost a Doctrin best known in those trivial words of St. Austin he cannot have God for his Father that will not have the Church for his Mother Ascribe the top of the blessing to him from whom every good gift especially those which are supernatural descends Of his own good will He begat us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 His good will moved him to pity us his vertue and power went out from him to beget us and his truth which shined in our hearts was the instrumental cause to convert us Carry it along with you therefore that the invisible Father that is in Heaven works by the visible Mother the Church that is on Earth As Eve was the Mother of all living so she is the Mother of all believing Crescite multiplicamini is spoken to one as well as to the other both were ordeined in their several sorts for that blessing increase and multiply Therefore St. James hath conjoyned the Word of Truth to the Will of God both are mixed together to regenerate a pious people And although some have been too nice in expounding the Phrase Of his own will he begat us with the word of truth not with the words of truth in the plural as if our salvation were effected by pronouncing one word as when first we were made Members of Christ by saying I baptize thee and when we have sinned and return again to the Lord by saying I absolve thee yet be it briefly or largely it is the word spoken and preached by the Church which gives us this heavenly feature to be the holy ones of God Briefly the Mother that doth beget us is the Church Militant but the Mother to whose filiation and inheritance we aspire is the Church Triumphant It is true that in relation to Christ the Church is his Body and all we are his Members and in that reference it doth not make the Elect Servants of God but rather it is compounded of those Servants for properly the Body is not the Mother of the Members the Members are not the effect of the Body but they constitute the Body as integral parts And so Solomon hath more aptly given it honour in those delicious Metaphors of a Bundle of Myrrh a Cluster of Grapes and a Pomegranat which I think is the best resemblance a Pomgranat contains many kernels under one Coat so many thousands of Disciples are under the covering of Christ 2. As many kernels are in the small Pomegranat as in the great so the Graces of Christ are in the little Churches as in the more spacious 3. As
these Galatians in the common Brotherhood mater nostrum the Mother of us Bad Christians and weak Christians and Christians mis-led into Errors are still Christians retaining to the common Mother till they lose their legitimation by damnable Heresies accompanied with obstinacy But there must be a forbearing one another in love if we endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. iv 3. Now here I might end having no further to go in the Text if I did follow the Vulgar Latine Translation whose reading is Jerusalem quae sursum est libera quae est mater nostra Being content to say that Jerusalem is our Mother and not annexing that it is the Mother of us all But the Vniversality of the Church must not so slip from us It is the reading of the Greek Copies of the Syriack of St. Hierom and therefore to be preferred before the Vulgar Latine which hath curtail'd the verse Nay in reference to this omnium that Jerusalem is the Mother of such a multitude of us all it follows in the next words Rejoyce thou barren that bearest not the desolate hath many more Children than she that hath an husband A most remarkable thing in the power of God to fill the world with such an omnium in a short space out of Twelve Apostles It is all one to Christ to be glorified in many or in few and truth must not be carried by the number but by the dignity and weight of witnesses It is no ill passage in Pope Nicholas I. his Epistle to Michael the Emperour Numerus pusillus nec obest ubi abundat pietas nec multiplex prodest ubi regnat impietas But let the World choose whether they like a cause which is countenanced by many or by few we can refer our selves to either I mean to the greater or to the lesser number Says St. Austin we are a little flock as Lambs in the midst of Wolves and yet again it is true many shall come from the East and West and sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of God Multi pauci pauci in comparatione perditorum multi in societate Angelorum We are few and we are many We are few in proportion to them that are rejected and yet we shall make a mighty train to follow the Lamb being joyned to innumerous Societies of Angels The Citizens of this Jerusalem are all the Saints that have been and are now and shall be hereafter and surely these surpass the Stars of heaven for multitude We admire nothing more for multiplicity than the drops of rain or the drops of dew and therefore David prophesied that the Children of the Church should exceed by Millions and Thousands like the dew that overspreads the earth From the womb of the morning is the dew of thy youth Psal cx That is the sense of the Learned take Cajetan for all the rest the Generation of the faithful shall not be as a Mother brings forth two or three children but as the Morning that yields innumerous drops of dew Bucanan turn'd his most elegant verse to this strain Non roris imber ante lucem argenteis tot vestit arva gemmulis And he is imitated and emulated in our English by a Poet of our own he says the Servants of Christ shall be arayed in Ephods not so few as the pearls of morning dew hanging on the herbs and flowers And if the family of Christ hath not many names added daily unto it the sin lies at our own doors Jerusalem is the Mother of all and it is her part to invite all to take their share in the coelestial inheritance and to apply the Promise to every man as far as the sound of the Gospel can reach Christ died to redeem thy soul if thou wilt repent and believe I end with Solomons Prayer O that thou wert my brother that sucked the breast of my Mother O that ye were all such as I am says St. Paul except these bonds O that all and every person on earth would learn the way of eternal life Jerusalem hath amplitude to receive them she is the Mother of us all And heaven hath amplitude to receive them which is the City to which we tend for ever AMEN A SERMON UPON REVEL vi 9. I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the VVord of God and for the Testimony which they held INtending to speak somewhat according to the subject of the Day about the Church Triumphant in Heaven this Book is the most proper place to seek a Text out for that occasion surely it is so For that is the reason that the Epistle for the Day is selected out of St. John's Revelation rather than any other Scripture A door was opened in Heaven and he was carried thither in Spirit to peep into the Cabinet Counsels of the Most High Concerning therefore the things above and that little which is revealed to this World beneath how can we satisfie our selves better than out of his illumination As in the Parabolical Story of Lazarus and the Rich man Christ hath as it were unlockt Hell to let us see what the damned Spirits do so in this Book and in this Text above all other Sections of this Book he hath opened the Curtains of Heaven to let us see what the blessed Saints do But to go on soft and fair to the matter which I am to handle I confess it is no season yet to make hast because I am stopt with two objections First the Contents of this Prophesie have such an abstruse and mystical sense that the best Clerks in all Ages that have known most are commended for their moderation that they have said least unto it Whom would it not deter to meddle with it If he consider that the parcels of this Prophesie are all belonging to that Book with the seven Seals in the fifth Chapter And no man in heaven or in earth was able to open the Book no man able to read in it or to look into it There is but one thing that can help me out of the tanglings of this difficulty and that one thing will do it Namely that the whole Loom is not spun with one thread Among the hard and inexplicable passages there are some interlinings to refresh the Reader with facility In which sort my Text hath been ranked by the most Writers And reason good For at the opening of the first Seal in this Chapter will you mark it one of the Beasts invited St. John to the attention of some profound matter saying Come and see At the opening of the Second Seal because mystery upon mystery succeeded another Beast gave him warning to be very considerative saying come and see So at the opening of the third and fourth Seal all alike But when the Lamb doth open the fifth Seal in the exordium to my Text the voice did bid him no longer come and see there needed no such
sakes But Cornelius à Lapide the Jesuit puts the infamy of an Anabaptist upon Calvin as if he had taught that the soul departed had no sense or taste at all of the glory of God Why did he not censure Ambrose and Bernard Why did he not spit his venom upon Pope John the XXII There was good reason for that if we may believe Gerson a most grave Author of their own part But Calvin was the first that ever I met withall who writ a voluminous Treatise to prove that the souls of good men after this life have their quartering and Mansion in Heaven that they are not insensible of their state or benummed in sleep or fettered with darkness but that they praise the Lord continually and Christ that redeemed them which is consonant to this Point of my Text that John saw the souls under the Altar Yet I like not their way who are so careful to teach the people that the souls deceased do not sleep that they keep themselves waking with a thousand Fictions and Impostures there is scarce one leaf written of any Saint in the Church of Rome especially of the modern ones but you shall meet with two or three sprinklings in it how his soul appeared in this or that manner to his friends upon earth their posthumous miracles after their death exceed the number of those which they did when they were living And if any thing be out of order it is straitway rectified with an apparition And from whence think you the Elf or Goblin comes that appears From a place where I am sure this good Apostle saw no souls from the correction house of Purgatory Their Larvae or night-walking souls are their best Doctors for the confirmation of that opinion Ask Gregory the Great else who could urge little beside to gain credit to his opinion for the temporary chastisements of the faithful after this life but as the dead came and made relation to their surviving acquaintance Some silly men were first affrighted out of their wits with a gastly Vision and then guess you who it was that taught them points of Religion But four ages ran out after Gregories time before this cousenage grew trivial and common Gregory the Fourth in the year 835. decreed that a Solemn Feast should be held over all the Church to the memory of all the Saints in heaven that whatsoever was not fully performed in the Feasts and Vigils of particular Saints might be consummated on that day this was nothing to the puling souls detained in the prison of temporary castigation But almost two hundred years after Odilo the Abot of Cluni in commiseration to them that were departed in his own Monastery dedicated a day for the relief of their souls not yet admitted into heaven And Pope Jo. XVIII anno 1007 taking light from Odilo commanded the Feast of all Souls to be general in all places The Devil wanted nothing but the opening of this door to beat down all opposites with apparitions And let the Readers mark it that from that Age not a Book was written not a Chapter of a Book but it relates what Nocturnal Mercuries appeared to bring tidings from Purgatory Some Jangler will catch at this and say Belike you reject all Apparitions of the dead for lies or Demoniacal Impostures If I should I had Tertullian to abet me Omnem mortuorum exhibitionem incorporalem praestigias judices All incorporeal Phantosms of the dead are juglings and delusions And if any point of doctrine depend upon the sleeveless Errands that the souls departed bring I do renounce them for delusions We have Moses and the Prophets and we are certain their Spirits are ever to be preferred before any Spirit that comes from the dead For the living to go to the dead says the Prophet Isaiah none of that but to the Law and to the Testimony Isa viii 19. Rabbi Maimon says that some superstitious Jews would burn Incense among the graves that the dead might come and talk with them And therefore God said that man should be cut off from among the people that sought the truth among the dead Deut. xviii 11. Yet I deny it not but that the divine power hath sometimes presented the Saints departed to communicate with the living as they that appeared in the holy City to testifie our Saviours Resurrection Mat. xxvii Likewise in the 2. of Mach. Chap. ult Onius who once had been High Priest he was exhibited being dead to Judas Machabaeus that is another instance if you have any stomack to that Historian But the upshot is that Souls have been seen in heaven that was the Vision of St. John so Souls may be sent from Heaven but not from Purgatory Through fire I confess these souls had passed which the Apostle saw yet not through that subterraneous fire which they imagine but through the fire of Martyrdom and persecution He saw the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held And if it be true as none of the worst Expositors conjecture that the computation of the fifth Seal opened immediately before the words of my Text is rightly calculated at what time Dioclesian did cease to make havock in the Church it was a very fit time to see souls in heaven slain for the Word of God it was thwackt with Martyrs like an hive with Bees For burning of Churches for massacring of Christians for Proscription of Innocents no Persecution was ever like it It lasted ten whole years without ceasing and in the first year of his Reign in Egypt only an hundred forty and four thousand Christians were put to death beside seventy thousand that were banisht insomuch says Scaliger that the Epocha of Dioclesian is called the Epocha of the Martyrs in Chronology Who would have thought that the Posterity of Cham a Generation branded with dark and unlovely visages should have afforded so many sacrifices to be offered up unto the glory of Jesus Christ Well might the Church of Aethiopia sing the Canticle of Solomon I am black but comely O ye Daughters of Jerusalem And not only these but exceeding great numbers of Bishops Priests and People in all quarters of the habitable world a long bedroll of faithful men and women in this Island did taste of the bitter Cup under the same Tyrant Fathers lost their Children Children lack'd their Parents the Wife missed her Husband and one friend another whom St. John hath found altogether making up one Chorus of blessed Spirits and while Rachel the Church below mourneth for her Children Jerusalem which is above the Mother of us all rejoyceth for them Martyrdom is the way to sublimate death into a Cordial which was a poyson the means to make that a blessing which was a curse upon our nature A Traffick proper to none but to the Citizens of the supernal City to secure our whole adventure not by assuring but by losing their life It is not only the
greatest probation of faith but it changeth faith into another species of Religion than it was before St. Austin speaks to some holy people that were ready to die for the testimony which they held Mox aurei eritis nunc argentei estis Now you are Silver that is you are clean and sanctified but if you be tried in the Furnace of Martyrdom ye shall become Gold And as Gold is deposited in the best place of a mans Treasury so those golden Saints I mean those that are slain for the Word they are received into the most precious and costly Cabinets of the Kingdom of God Upon those words of the Psalm xxvii 5. He shall hide me in the secret of his Tabernacle says Bernard Christ is a Tabernacle of protection for all his servants but he reserves the Altar for the Martyrs which is the principal part of the Tabernacle In acknowledgment that they had won the chief Garland which was propounded to them that run the race the bones of the Martyrs anciently were wont to be buried in no common place of the Church but under the Altar So St. Ambrose of the bones of Protasius and Gervasius buried in his Church of Millain under the Altar says he Let these triumphal Sacrifices be brought to that place where Christ is sacrificed I had destined that plot of ground for mine own burial It is meet that the Priest should sleep in peace where he was wont to offer up the Peace-offering Sed cedo sacris victimis dexteram portionem locus ille martyribus debebatur but I resign the right hand of the Altar to them it is due to the Martyrs How their names were read at solemn times out of the Diptyches to renoun their passions how their requests which they made to the Church before they died were granted for the pardon of any delinquent how their reliques were held precious though not exposed superstitiously to veneration these and much to that effect were too long to recite it is measure heaped and running over that Stephen the Captain of the bloudy Army saw the Heavens opened to immortalize his sufferings and that in the first File of all that are blessed St. John saw those that were slain for the Word of God Yet this service is so rough unto our tender nature to part with life for the custody of the truth that all men had rather owe it to God than pay it him O but it is a good thing to put your self to the question secretly between God and your self and do it not easily or hypocritically admit I had supplied the room of Stephen of James of Justin Laurence Cyprian quanta nomina Should I have stood it out to the shedding of my bloud Or should I have fainted If you stick at it and cannot make a constant resolution go to a new scrutiny and that the flesh may not say that you deceive it with a superficial examination make the most that you can of the pains which you shall be put to under the hand of the torturer yet put all things in a right Scale that the pains to be endured are over in a pair of hours at longest for the most part in a pair of minutes that the truth which you defend is ten thousand times dearer than a corruptible body that the passions of this life are not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed solicite your self often with these meditations till you have concluded with a mature judgment as St. Paul did I count not my life dear unto my self so I may finish my course with joy And then I will pronounce you a Martyr in extraordinary for God accepteth the will for the deed But howsoever the preconsiderations of many be stout I fear they would grow effeminate upon the trial You cannot discharge a strict Lenten Fast how would your delicate bodies digest the hunger of an Inquisition The ground is too hard for your knees to pray upon what hope is there that you would hold out to lie upon the bare ground of a prison A throng in hot weather stifles you that you cannot endure the Church how would your flesh endure a flaming fire I believe you think this deaths-head hath been set too long before you And is there no smoother way to be a Martyr than by being slain Yes St. Paul says there is a living Sacrifice as well as a dead And St. Austin Pervenitur non solùm occasu sed contemptu carnis ad coronam You may receive the Crown prepared for them that fight lawfully not only by extinguishing but by mortifying the flesh Mine eyes do persecute my chastity ambition doth persecute my humility revengeful malice doth persecute my charity concupiscence is always persecuting my soul which way can I turn my self but that every thing is a Martyrdom to a Religious Christian But if I mortifie the deeds of the flesh if I abandon covetousness if I repress lust if I bridle malice if I trample upon the world whereas I was a Martyr in affliction before and sin did reign over me I have expulsed it by another Martyrdom by renovation and by crucifying the old man But alas for pitty how many Martyrs have we if they may be believed upon their own testimony How many whining passages in by-corners and Satyrical Sermons touching the persecution of the Saints God shield that Saints should suffer in so Orthodox and so mild a Church Sure they are mistaken Nay but they exclaim over and over that they suffer for their conscience For their conscience That is another thing Do they suffer for the Word of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Complutensian Bibles read my Text I love not to insult over misery with many words let them sift their own case and it will prove they are supprest for contemning Authority But there are others far more obstreperous against our state If Pictures and Almanacks and Martyrologies and Beatifications of Traitors will condemn us we are up to the ears in these Certificates for savage cruelty in killing the Saints Do they not mean Jesuites and Seminaries that were forbidden upon forfeiture of their head not to enter into his Majesties Dominions It is as clear as the light of the Sun then that they were executed for breaking the Statute-Law and not for the Word of God or for the Testimony which they held Every Malefactor will pretend that he dies in a good cause to make his judgment odious in mens nostrils Such as serve in the Gallies will never be known what crimes they are in for but complain that they wear their Chain for Faith and Religion Alass say their Abettors that canonize them that Statute is violated but by accident they come to instruct their own Proselytes and to execute the Function of their Priesthood therefore by consequent they are slain for the Word of God I will match their case with a full place of St. Cyprian and so answer them The Proconsul that
served under Decius the Emperour in Affrica banished hundreds of Christians out of Affrica threatning death unto them if they returned Divers of them did creep in secretly giving reason that they came to comfort their Brethren and to strengthen them in the faith St. Cyprian writes to them out of Prison to exile themselves again and to return no more else if they suffered they should be reputed not for Martyrs but for Malefactors I will not load them with envy though it be true that many of their Tenebrioes crept into England with damnable intentions make the best they can of their own actions St. Cyprian says if banisht men will enter into a Realm against the Law they shall die as Malefactors It is the Cause and not the Punishment that makes a Martyr What more trivial If a Virgin choose to die rather than to be ravished she is slain for the Word of If a good man be ruined rather than give his assistance to the ruine of an innocent it is for the Word of God c. But if he be brought to the Stake for confessing there are no Gods made with hands and that Jesus Christ God and man is the Saviour of all that believe if he stand to it and will not flinch for any terrour that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to hold his Testimony then he is slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony of the Lamb as the Dragon fought with them that kept the Commandments of God and had the Testimony of Jesus Christ meaning such as were holy and faithful very godly in their works very Orthodox in their belief This is that mixture of sweet Spices in whose exhalation a Martyr becomes an odour of a sweet savour unto the Lord. They were victimae altaris and thymiamata altaris Sacrifices slain upon the Altar of burnt-offerings and therefore became sweet Spices offered up upon the Altar of Incense which shall be the conclusion of this Point and the beginning of the next where the Apostle did behold those Saints that had exchanged their lives to glorifie God under the Altar And where doth St. John mean Where about is that Every curious itching ear will be more attentive to it than to any instruction that can be raised out of the Text A Traveller that asks his way if many of the Country Folk be present at his question it is ten to one but they will diversifie in their opinions and set him in so many ways that he shall never be wiser for their direction So I have consulted with more than a few Expositors to learn where I may find this Altar and not miss of it one points this way another that way Et incertior sum multò quà m dudum Among their variety of directions I know not which way to move Cosmography is a very easie part of learning to design the confines or distances of City from City Kingdom from Kingdom But it is one of the most difficult tasks in Divinity to understand the several quarterings and Mansion-places of heaven I confess I have no skill in Ouranography But to cut off all Proem I will be brief in my relation what is said to it and more brief in my determination The discordious opinions may be drawn to three heads some mean by the Altar an allotted place some relate it to the condition of their body some refer it to the state and condition of their Spirit Whosoever give the words a local meaning that the Souls were under the Altar they all agree in this that it imports that the Saints are kept back awhile from the uppermost part of Heaven where the Angels do offer up Praises continually upon the Altar of Incense which is next to the Holy of Holies and they that have not the nearest access to the Vision of God in form of Prophetical speech may be said to be under the Altar Some who pitcht upon this Interpretation had such fumes in their heads that they did not see the light Tertullian conceived that their Mansion was an earthly Paradise whither Enoch and Elias are translated Origen you may be sure hath some roaving excursion it is thus that the souls of the Faithful are put to School in some secret places before they go to heaven where they are purified from ignorance by degrees and then exalted Victorinus Afer a better Rhetorician than a Divine thinks that to be under the Altar is as if the souls were under the earth in some ample and pleasant regions like the Elysian Fields All these are humane Phantasies and I slip them aside But the most beaten rode to this purpose is that the souls of the Martyrs have a remuneration for their labours and sufferings past but not a consummation of that glory which shall be revealed unto them a share in Heaven but not a possession in the highest Heaven In atriis non in domo They are kept a loof off from the perfect Vision of God in the fulness of time they shall see him face to face Which is Bernards meaning when he says the blessed that are under the Altar because they are admitted to see the Humane Nature of Christ and not the Divine Not so as if totally they did see nothing of the Divine Nature but because they see it with less perspicacity than they shall hereafter so St. Ambrose and St. Hilary close with him And St. Chrysostom upon the Eleventh to the Hebrews Praeveniunt nos in certaminibus non praevenient in coronis they have fought a good fight before us but they shall not be crowned before us not because our Resurrection shall be at once the words will not bear it and the body is but the Robe which we shall put on the glory with which we shall be filled brim full that is the Crown which we shall wear in our Fathers Kingdom I know this is much distasteful to the Prelates of the Florentine and Tridentine Councils who have defined that the pure Souls in heaven enjoy the clearest Vision of God before the day of Judgment and want nothing to their integral happiness but the resuscitation of their bodies It may be so as they will have it But I am contented to say their state is Heaven and will go no further Neither can I see cause why the Churches of Christ should dissent if one say without pervicacious obstinacy the Spirits of righteous men are in the highest Heaven and another will say nothing peremptorily but that they are in Heaven indeed and do live with the Lord. Malo timidus esse quà m temerarius The Conclusion now is thus much That if this be granted for a Local Posture that the Souls are under the Altar there is nothing against Analogy of Faith to say they are in the outward Rooms of Heaven and stay there in expectation of more abundant glory Secondly Some relate this to the condition of their bodies And the Jesuits Ribera and à Lapide will have no
Persecutors to be a Counsel and not a Precept Some would have all going to Law to be a repining against the will of God and impatiency against his scourge when he takes any thing from us by the same tenure a sickness being a scourge from God we must not seek to the Physician to cure it Finally The Anabaptists think that the Gospel hath so quite cut the Nerves of revenge that they abhor the Magistrate who is the conservator of peace and justice and repute him to be Gods instrument no otherwise than as Nebuchadonozor or the Devil This is a large field of Tares to be cut down and all with one Sickle revenge may be prosecuted for the correction of sin for the peace of the Church for the demonstration of Gods justice So doth our Church in the Collect used in the time of War Asswage the malice of our Enemies abate their pride confound their devices So do the Souls of the Martyrs in heaven Avenge our bloud c. I confess it is an hard matter to hit of this way which I speak of and among those that pray for revenge not one among a thousand I am perswaded but tread awry Howsoever the pure love to Justice may stir us up to those devotions yet our frailty can scarcely perform it without some vindicative passions It is a common error to miscall our Spleen by the name of Zeal and to take that hot affection to be a Coal from the Altar which is a firebrand from the infernal Pit But it is a second Conclusion that the Spirits of good men departed may cry out to have judgment pass upon Tyrants for the effusion of their bloud because they can ask nothing inordinately they that are confirmed in grace and cannot sin they cannot make a Petition that is over-ballanced with the least grain of rancor or partiality Beside as Rabshekah said to the men of Judah how untruly let him answer it Am I now come up without the Lord against this Land to destroy it Yea the Lord said unto me Go up against this Land and destroy it So may the Saints say without prevarication Do we pray for vengeance against our Persecutors without the Lord Yea the Lord hath said unto us Pray unto me for vengeance against your Enemies their Will moves by his inspiration and they can wish for nothing without it Ab ipso bibunt quodcunque sitiunt St. Austin speaks it upon my Text when they thirst for any thing they drink it first from the Fountain of his pleasure Wherefore there is this disparity in our case and theirs We are ignorant what may become of our Persecutors Stubborn sinners are often called to repentance Paul was converted in that minute when he imagined most mischief against the Faith O then let us overcome evil with good praying that they may turn unto the Lord and be saved This is a fair Christian revenge indeed to pray against their sins Hoc ipsum in illis vindicatur quod periit iniquitas Now the Saints in glory as many of the best Divines hold are not at such uncertainty as we are but it is revealed unto them that their Persecutors are in a lost condition that they will die in their impenitency therefore in conformity to that judgment which God hath reserved for them they pour out their Imprecations that destruction may take them unawares They that know how unalterable the Decrees of the Lord are and by special impartment are acquainted with the execution of his Decrees it is impossible that the Saints in Heaven should solicite him for the salvation of Reprobates they pray for nothing but for that which they obtain they pray for none but for whom they may be heard Some of us ask and have not St. James tells us why Because we ask amiss The drift of this Conclusion is we ask good things of God for our Enemies because for ought we know they may become his friends The Martyrs cry aloud against their Enemies because they know they shall be Fiends of Hell We are restrained from cursing our ill-willers because malice will inject it self into such Prayers the Citizens which dwell above are liable to no such prohibition because there can be no defect in their charity The third Conclusion is so cautious to give no scandal so circumspect not to open the least window to malice and hatred that it resents the word Revenge in this place to be of an improper signification and that which the Souls departed sue for is not revenge but deliverance Deliverance Of what Not of themselves who are out of harms-way in Abrahams bosom But of their Brethren afflicted and tormented here beneath As who should say How long O Lord wilt thou not deliver the bloud of our Brethren the poor Members of the Militant Church from them that rage upon the Earth They that are dead in the Lord have not only an existence after this life but a memory to call to mind what garboyls were in this world when they breathed in it as the Parabolical History of the Rich man and Lazarus may confirm it This being presupposed as the opinion of others I press it not as irrefragable it must go along with it that they have a most compassionate desire that the poor Sheep whom they left in the midst of Wolves may have an end of their misery And no marvel if their Communion which they had and shall have again make them clamour as if they petition for themselves How long O Lord c. For as young Scholars talk Proverbially of the breaking of Priscians head when a Solacism is committed though he be rotten in his grave so unmerciful proceedings against them that suffer under the Cross of Christ seem to fetch bloud from the Saints in Heaven You will think I suppose that this Interpretation sticks at a knot To deliver is a softer and a more innocent word than to revenge how will that stubborn word to revenge bear so mild a signification The Criticks will readily help us in that David pleading his integrity before Saul yet mistrusting that his displeasure was unreasonable and implacable says he Vlciscatur me de te Jehova The Lord avenge me of thee As the Letter sounds this had been most disloyal and most dangerous to have cursed Saul to his face therefore the Phrase must be understood in this manner The Lord deliver me from thy vengeance Again 1 Mach. xiii 6. I will avenge my Nation and the Sanctuary and our Wives and Children for the heathen are gathered to destroy us What is meant then by avenging the Sanctuary but delivering it from profanation To uphold it with another Authority the Widow invokes the unjust Judge to avenge her of her adversary Luk. xviii 3. Camerarius says it is jus exequere do me right against him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Juris consulti vocant defensores that is they that defend and maintain the cause of the poor are called
rogat negare docet A saint Petitioner addresseth himself as if he meant to be denied But when you find a robustiousness in your Spirit that you are set to wrestle with God to cry out and not to give over it is an enlightning that you shall prevail but all the while that you are sluggish in asking it is an ill Presage that the time of mercy is not come Yet secondly Though the Lord be but modestly or rather remissly called upon for pardons and blessins out of his indulgence he will meet with our desires and crown them Two of Johns Disciples said unto our Saviour no more but this Rabbi where dwellest thou They did scarce knock at door and yet Christ invited them into his Train he bad them come and see But his sufferance and patience is so great that yellings and clamours must awake him before He be stirred up to vengeance He forgives one injury connives at another bears with a third and fourth it may be a year runs on perhaps seven perhaps an Age and Oppressors slide away without a check at last when their insolencies make a noise over all the Earth and roar like Bulls of Basan then the Avenger awakes out of sleep like a Giant that is refresht with Wine Thirdly Oppression and tyrannizing over the poor and helpless make the loudest clamours of any sins in the ears of God they will follow the unjust Rulers of the world like an heard of Wolves howling and yelling and tear up their Carkasses out of their very Graves There are but four sins that are said to cry in all the Scripture the bloud of Abel Gen. iv and that was for Oppression The bondage of the Israelites in Egypt and that was for Oppression The hire of the Labourer kept back by fraud Jam. v. 4. And that was for Oppression And the licenciousness of the Sodomites Gen. xviii who among their other crimes did most injuriously insult over Lot because he was a stranger and so you see that even their exorbitancy was not without Oppression Do not the tears run down the Widows cheeks And is not her cry against him that causeth them to fall Eccl. xxxv 15. You see that pious Author ascribes a crying and a clamour to the tears of the Widow and that also is for Oppression therefore I am sure it will be the Oppressors own turn to cry at the last in the place where there is nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth Cast your eye back now to the two former Points which I have handled to bring on the next the Souls of the righteous that have shed their bloud for the Testimony of Christ make Prayers that their slaughter may be revenged Fatal tidings to their Murderers the Martyrs cry out vehemently to have their Petition sign'd with a Fiat ut petitur a dismal exclamation to their Persecutors Nor is it one shreek and away but cry upon cry followed with instance and importunity They will never give over till vengeance light at last on their Enemies Witness this Vsque quo How long Lord The Author of the Second Book of Esdras Chap. iv 35. alludes to these words on this manner Did not the Souls of the righteous ask questions of these things in their Chambers Saying How long shall I hope in this fashion When cometh the fruit of out reward Surely he meant that the Saints begg'd continually for the augmentation of their triumph by the Resurrection of the body Others suppose it to be a vehement efflagitation that God would collect his Church into one body in Heaven and reveal his glory and that nothing doth hinder this but the destroying the man of sin and his adherents who have crush'd the Servants of God with a rod of Iron therefore they press it passionately that those that let the second appearance of Christ in glory may be taken out of the way St. Austin in one place exhorts his Auditors to holiness of life with this perswasion that the Saints in Heaven are hindred of their desires by our remissness in Piety We must accomplish the number of our good works before the end of all things come Et dum nos retardamus sanguis martyrum inultus est While we dispatch not apace to do our tasque the wicked flourish in their pomp and power and the bloud of the Martyrs is unrevenged All that draw this Line you may note it they apprehend that the words of my Text are the personal complaint of the Souls under the Altar and not the interpellation of their injuries I quarrel not the opinion for it is modest and rational But I will help it out of the briars of one scruple No man is so censorious to impute it to the Society of the Blessed as if they contended with Gods Justice that he delayed them they are cleared from all such impatiency or expostulation because they call him holy and true But we may ask what they mean to solicite him with Vsque quo's For they know that his Decrees are fix'd and that one minute of that time which he hath set shall not be broken though all the Angels made intercession The answer is to this and such case Preces fidelium antecedenter se habent ad Dei decretum non consequenter The Servants of God pray for Mercies or Judgments to be hastened abstracting from the Divine Decrees for though the Decrees cannot be refixed yet we are encouraged to beg for that which is conducible to our own necessities But the readiest way to put off all objections is to hold to my Fifth Conclusion that not the Martyrs themselves but the wrongs which they endured exclaim against their Enemies the atrocity of them doth seem to plead that the Lord should send his swift thunderbolts against cruel men they seem to cry out a day is too much to let them breath any longer they deserve not to be reprieved a minute till they go down to Hell O well is it for them that have been nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers of the Church They are secure among these vociferations for vengeance O how happy will it be for Moses and Samuel and Daniel that they have hurt no man that they have oppressed no man O what quiet of conscience have they that are clear from the bloud of all men for it is but a little season and the pride of Tyrants shall have a fall God tells the Martyrs so in the next verse Quod petendo esuriunt praesciendo satiantur They spake thirstingly to see the doom of their Enemies and here they are satiated with this Prediction that it will be after a little season but a little season indeed in respect of Eternity for Christ shall reign for ever Neither is God slack as men count slackness for that which is done in a fit ordination at the right minute that is fruit taken in its season and there is no tardiness at all Let Sion rejoyce let the desolate be comforted the
Rebellions Julian the Apostate reading the Bible with a malicious intention to quarrel at it said that Christianity was a Doctrin of too much patience but he could never find any place in it to object that it was a Doctrin of Rebellion If the Administration of a Kingdom were out of frame our Bishop maintain'd it were better to leave the redress to God than to a seditious Multitude and that the way to continue purity of Religion was not by Rebellion but by Martyrdom To resist lawful Powers by seditious Arms and unlawful Authority was not the Primitive and Apostolical Christianity but Popish Doctrin not taught the first 300 years but much about 1000 years after our Saviour's ascension into Heaven by the Pope of Rome the very time the Spirit of God said Satan should be let loose viz. by Gregory the VII who first taught the Germans to rebel against the Emperor Henry the fourth Yet this poison was now given the English People to drink out of the Papal Cup while they pretended quite contrary But our Bishop ever asserted this was not the way to pull down Antichrist but Protestant Religion and therefore he warn'd the Non-conforming Divines with whom he lately treated to have a care how they cried up a War and became famous only in the Congregation as Erostratus by setting the Temple on fire To prevent that fatal Bill of Root and Branch the Committee condescended to print the Liturgick Psalms in King James's Translation to expunge all Apocryphal Lessons and alter some passages in the body of the Book of Common-Prayer and certain other things which divers of the Presbyterian Divines said were satisfactory save that the furious Party of them put the Commons upon the violent way in particular old Mr. John White told many of the party who still pressed at Conferences for further Abatement of Conformity and the Laws established Time would come when they would wish they had been content with what was offered While this Committee was sitting the House of Commons having now entred upon the debate of taking away the whole Government Ecclesiastical by Bishops Deans and Chapters together with all their Revenue several Members of that House being friends to the Hierarchy mov'd that no mans Freehold might be taken away in Parliament without hearing them first speak for themselves whereupon the whole Committee imposed the Task upon Dr. Hacket forthwith to depart to his own House and Study and meet them again to morrow morning prepared to speak as the Advocate of the Church of England in the behalf of Deans and Chapters The Speech it self I found among his Papers which in regard that it was never yet published at large I have thought meet to add as follows May it please you Mr. Speaker and this Honourable House OVr expectations to be heard by Council in this great Cause hath brought us unto you most unprepared to deliver that which might be utter'd upon so copious Subject Yet since we have that favour from this Honourable House that we may be heard or some one of us in our own persons somewhat shall be offered to your prudent considerations by the meanest and most unpractised in pleading and forensecal causes of all those that attend you this day The unexpectedness to be thus employed it was imposed upon me but yesterday afternoon as my Brethren know is joyned with another disadvantage that we have not heard upon what crimes or offences of the Deans and Chapters so great a Patrimony as they enjoy is called in question that we might purge our selves of such imputations but only reports that fly abroad have arrived at our ears that Cathedral and Collegiate Churches with their Chapters are accounted by some to be of no use and convenience I aim at perspicuity and therefore I will cast what I have to say into as clear a method as I am able The use and convenience of Deans and Chapters I reduce unto two heads quoad res quoad personas first in regard of some things of great moment secondly in regard of divers persons whom I know the Justice of this Honourable House will take into consideration And first since God hath called his House the House of Prayer I shall keep a right order without derogation to any thing that follows to present them unto you as very convenient for the service of Prayer which is offered up to God in them daily both in his Morning and in his Evening Sacrifice In the antient Primitive Church as many learned Gentlemen in this Honourable House do know and as my Brethren that assist me can attest unto it the Christians did every day meet at Prayers and for the most part at the Blessed Sacrament if persecution did not distract them Then it is fit in a well-govern'd Church that there should be some places in imitation of them where daily Thanksgivings and Supplications should be made unto God And whereas it cannot be supposed but that divers remiss Christians do neglect oftentimes their daily duty of Prayer and some are forced to omit that length to which they would produce their Prayer by their multitude of business it is fit that there should be a publick duty of Prayer in some principal places where many are gathered together to supply the defects that are committed by private men And though I am sure the publick Duty of Prayer shall find great acceptance and approbation before so Christian an Auditory yet I confess I have heard abroad that the Service of Cathedral Churches gives offence to divers for the superexquisiteness of the Musick especially in late years so that it is not edifying nor intelligible to the hearers For this Objection in part I will confess it is strong and forcible in part I will mollifie it It is a just complaint Mr. Speaker and we humbly desire the assistance of this Honourable House for the reformation of it that Cathedral Musick for a great part of it serves rather to tickle the ear than to affect the heart with godliness and that which should be intended for devotion vanisheth away into quavers and air we heartily wish the amendment of it and that it were reduced to the form which Athanasius commends ut legentibus sint quà m cantantibus similiores But though these fractions and affected exquisiteness be laid aside yet the solemn Praise of God in Church Musick hath ever been accounted pious and laudable yea even that which is compounded with some art and elegancy for St. Paul speaks as if he had newly come from the Quire of Asaph requiring us to praise God in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Surely he would not have exprest himself in such variety of phrase I think if he had not approved variety of Musick in the Service of the Lord. Some will say per adventure What if this daily duty of making Prayers to God were intermitted in Cathedral Churches might it not be supplied in other Parochial Churches I have but thus much to
say to this objection Prayer is the Incense which ascends up to heaven and brings down God's blessing upon us for fourscore and two years without interruption God hath continued true Religion among us and blessed this Kingdom with peace and prosperity and not without the daily assistance of the Prayers of Cathedral Churches How the Lord will dispose of us if those places be silenced touching the frequency of that holy duty it is only in the foreknowledg of God and no man can guess it Secondly I will proceed to the other Wing of the Cherubin the great power of God to work our conversion and salvation which is Preaching and therein the use and convenience of Cathedral and Collegiat Churches hath been and we hope may continue so to be very great May it please you Mr. Speaker and this Honourable House it must be confessed that in the beginning of the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory many of our Parochial Churches were supplied with men of slight and easie parts but especial care was taken that in our Cathedral Churches to which great concourses did resort men of very able parts were planted to preach both on the Lords day and on some week day as appears by Dr. Alley afterwards Bishop of Exeter who preached such learned Sermons in the Church of St. Pauls that he hath left unto us good matter to collect out of him even to this day And give me leave Mr. Speaker to take occasion from hence to refel that slander which some have cast out that Lecture-preachers are a new Corporation Vpstarts and such other words of obloquy Sir this is nothing but ignorance and malice for as the local Statutes of all or the most Cathedral Churches do require Lecture-Sermons on the Week-dayes so from the beginning of Reformation they have been read in them by very able Divines And it is our humble suit Mr. Speaker unto this Honourable House that if our local Statutes have not laid enough upon us in the godly and profitable performance of Preaching that by the assistance of this Honourable House more may be exacted particularly that two Sermons may be preached in every Cathedral and Collegiate Church upon the Lords day and one at the least on the Week-days Our motion comes from this consideration that the Divines for the most part are studied and able men to perform them and those Churches are usually supplied with large and copious Libraries and the Monuments of Antiquity Councils Fathers Modern Authors Schoolmen Casuists and many Books must be turn'd over by him that will utter that which should endure the test and convince gainsayers In the third place Mr. Speaker I shall name that whose use and conveniency is so nearly and irrefragably concern'd by the prosperity of Cathedral and Collegiat Churches that it is as palpable as if you felt it with your hand and that 's the advancement and encouragement of Learning a benefit of that consideration that I am assured it doth deeply enter into the thoughts of this Honourable House And because our years ascend up by degrees therefore I will follow this speculation through three of those ascensions First touching our puny years in Grammar Schools Secondly touching young Students in the Vniversities that enter into their first course of Divinity Thirdly touching grave Divines of great proficiency who maintain the cause of true Religion by their learned Pen And first out principal Grammar Schools in the Kingdom are maintained by the charity of those Churches the care and discipline of them is set forward by their oversight fit Masters are provided for them and their method in teaching frequently examin'd and great cause for it for School-Masters of late are grown so fanciful inducing new Methods and Compendiums of teaching which tend to nothing but loss of time and ignorance so that it is not enough to nominate Governors to look unto them once in a twelve-month or every half year but there must be care without intemission to see that they swerve not as likewise for this use that the most deserving Scholars be transplanted to the Vniversities by their examination and choice so that these young Seminaries of Learning depend upon them and would come to lamentable decay if they had not such Governors For the next rank of young Students that are to begin the study of Divinity it must be confessed by all men that are conversant in the general experience of the world that they will be far more industrious when they see rewards prepared which may recompence the costs which they put their friends to in their education and make them some recompence for their great labours It is represented before them how many tedious dayes and nights they must devour prolix Authors that are set before them had they not need of encouragement to undergo it and where there is not a desirable Prize to run for who will toil himself much to contend for it Upon the fear and jealousie that these retributions of labour should be taken away from industrious Students the Vniversities of the Realm do feel a languor and a pining away already in both their bodies In a populous Colledge I mean Trinity Colledge in Cambridge wherein 70 or 80 Students were admitted communibus annis I have heard by two Witnesses of that Society that not above six were admitted from Allhalland-day to Faster Eeve Let any man ask the Booksellers of Pauls Church-yard and Little-Britain if their Books I mean grave and learned Authors do not lie upon their hand and are not sailable There is a timorous imagination abroad as if we were shutting up learning in a Case and laying it quite aside Mr. Speaker if the bare threatning make such a stop in all kind of literature what would it work if the blow were given To this end both the Universities have sent up their humble Petitions to this Honourable House which we greatly desire may graciously be admitted The third Rank are those that are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel the Champions of Christs Cause against the Adversary by their learned Pen And those that have left us their excellent labours in this kind excepting some few have either been the Professors and Commorants in the two Universities or such as have had Preferments in Colledgiat and Cathedral Churches as I am able to shew by a Catalogue of their Names and Works For such and none but such are furnished with best opportunity to write Books for the defence of our Religion For as in the Universities the Society of many learned men may be had for advise and discourse so when we depart from them to live abroad we find small Academies in the company of many grounded Scholars in those Foundations and it is discourse that ripens learning as the spark of fire is struck out between the Flint and the Steel There likewise we have copious and well furnished Libraries to peruse learned Authors of all kinds which must be consulted in great
two observations 1. It appears in St. Matthew that the Angel called him Jesus before he was born yea before he was conceived Luke i. 31. it was Gabriels message to Mary Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus Men called him so after he was born and circumcised Idem quippe Angeli salvator hominis hominis ab incarnatione Angeli ab initio creaturae for the same Lord is the Saviour both of Angels and Men of Angels before he was born from the beginning of the world of Men in the fulness of time after he was born That is the second person in Trinity being the eternal Son of the Father did confirm the good Angels in grace that they should never fall and the same person incarnate being the Mediator of God and Man did redeem the Elect that they should rise again from their sins and reign with him in glory 2. The complete imposition of the name was at his circumcision when he first shed his Blood as if his Death had been foretold as soon as he was born it would cost him blood not a few drops of the foreskin but the very blood of the heart to be called Jesus In Circumcision he was called a Saviour at his Passion the word Jesus was wrote upon the Cross then his enemies confest he was a Saviour In circumcisione non fuit actu perfecto sed destinatione salvator in Circumcision it was told by destination what he should be and incompleatly and by inchoation what he was It was a sign of servitude and of taking the guilt of sin to be Circumcised it was a sign of ignominy and reproach to be Crucified but this name exalted him and defended him against the bad opinion of the world when he was called at the one time in the Temple and entitled on the Cross at the other Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews To drive this point no longer about the honour of the imposition of the name this is the sum Angels and Men had their several shares in the dignity to give this attribute to our Lord but the name was grounded in his own nature of exceeding mercy and in his office of reconciliation therefore God alone could give him this name Innatum est ei nomen hoc non inditum ab humana aut Angelica natura says Bernard the name was bred with him and not imposed by men or Angels A name so royally impos'd must include a great deal of excellency that 's the next point Gallio the Deputy of Achaia was a great scorner of Religion and because Paul magnified Christ and the Jews blasphemed him Gallio said it was a controversie of words and names and he would not meddle with it it was not worth the while The name of Christ was beyond Gallio's reach to judge upon it David makes a great account of that which he did villifie Thou hast magnified thy name and thy word above all things Psal cxxxvii The names of God Jehovah are his names as a Creator and yet to be magnified above all things but the name of Jesus adds above his power of creation his goodness of saving and redemption Nihil nasci profuit nisi redimi profuisset it had been unbeneficial to be created unless we had been happily redeemed His Words his Actions his Miracles his Prayers his Sacraments his Sufferings all did smell of the Saviour Take him from his Infancy to his Death among his Disciples and among the Publicans among the Jews or among the Gentiles he was all Saviour The Jews were under the condition of thraldom at this time when Christ was born under the thraldom of their enemies and the tidings of a Saviour was sweet news at such a season yet the Shepherds could not so mistake that an Infant born but that day could go out with their hosts to subdue their enemies No person upon earth hath such need of a Saviour as a sinner whether it be peace or war Pandora's box of mischiefs all the miseries that can be named are the just reward of a sinner therefore the Angel doth not specifie to the Shepherds from what calamities he should redeem them and be called a Saviour indefinitely and absolutely from all A few particulars would but derogate from the honour of his salvation he sweeps away all evil at once like a Spiders web ab omni malo he saves us from the whole mass of evil a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Jer. xxiii 7. It shall no more be said the Lord Liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought the house of Israel from the North Country the land of Chaldaea Alas both these are easie redemptions to that which calls him Jesus in the New Testament the Lord liveth who saveth his people from their sins there begins his mercy at that point to break the heavy yoke of sin from our necks to repress the dominion of the flesh rebelling against the spirit to take away earthly desires from our will and affections in a word to clear us in Gods Court that our iniquities may no more be imputed to us Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Revel i. 5. 2. He is a Saviour that delivers us from the sting and punishment of sin which is death He destroyed our death by dying on the Cross and repaired our life again by his own Resurrection 3. He is a Saviour that delivereth us from the power of Satan that although the enemy tempt and oppose vehemently yet he should not overcome his Saints Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth John xii 32. and so cast forth that he shall never renew his tyranny again For through death Chrst did destroy him that had the power of death the Devil Heb. ii 14. 4. He is a Saviour that frees us from the wrath of God and when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Rom. v. From sin from death from Satan from the wrath of God These are the four heads of our Redemption and these are the excellencies included in the name of Saviour After these things thus declared methinks the third point should fall in directly without any contradiction Methinks of our selves without bidding men should strive to do abundant reverence at the hearing of this word a Jesus a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. We have not that feeling of our sins which we ought to have nor of the wrath of God for if we had we would hear this name with greater joyfulness but the destruction is not near enough to affect us Hell and damnation are not represented before our face if those things were so nigh that we did feel their horror we would not captiously gainsay that Ceremony of the Church to vail the head and bend the knee and to
being caught up into the clouds to live with God for ever Their judgment is right that he was disarrayed of all malignant qualities sin and mortality which belong to the soul or body But I wonder they should call these by the name of death for it was no otherwise with Enoch than it shall be with all men and women whom Christ shall find upon earth at his second coming St. Paul says they shall not die but they shall be changed that changing is no death for change and death are membra dividentia in the Apostle and cannot be confounded Now I have brought you out of all incumbrances of wrong opinions to the clear truth Enoch was not How He ceased not absolutely to live but he ceased to live any longer in a corruptible Tabernacle he prevailed above the sentence which was pronounced against Adam by the Judge of quick and dead Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return Mortality came from disobedience against the Commandment neither is it possible for any mere man to attain to such a measure of obedience as to deserve immortality do not imagine this holy Saint was without sin so that death could claim no dominion over him St. Chrysostome who speaks much for Enoch how the Lord rewarded his integrity with incorruption says no more but that he received Gods Law not that he kept it inviolably ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God kept him alive that received the Commandment that received it willingly and with an earnest heart to keep it But how was that Statute dispensed with you will say it is appointed to men once to die and after that comes judgment Heb. ix 27. An easie dispensation will serve for that for it was no otherwise with this man than it shall be with all the earth at the last day when the Inhabitants of the world shall not be uncloathed of skin and bone but be changed into an incorruptible perfection in the twinkling of an eye But that you may not wonder at Enochs case as if justice had connived and forgot it self remember this rule in St. James There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy Jam. iv 12. Mark that there are Judges constituted under the Law and it is not in them to save life where the Letter of the Law condemns for the Law governs them and not they the Law but there is a regent and principal authority whose clemency is above the Law That speech of Senecaes is as trivial as any Proverb Occidere contra legem nemo non potest servare nemo praeter te Every Varlet can kill a Citizen against the Law none but the Supreme Magistrate can save a Citizen against the Law You see then by what rectitude of justice Enoch might be exempted from death albeit we were all sentenced to become dust and clay out of which we were made because God is the most supreme independent Judge of all the world and may mitigate the severity of his own decrees Why should not his mercy preserve where it will And if he will preserve who can destroy Is there any curse but he can turn it into a blessing Where the Lord pleaseth to sweeten a bitter cup Poverty shall not be grievous nor ignominy dishonourable nor sickness painful nor life mortal A thousand fell before this Patriarch and ten thousand at his right hand but he was impassible and did not die He was not for the Lord took him Because the Septuagint Translators concur with St. Paul in one reading it is due to my Text to let it be known how they have enlarged this concise phrase And he was not in their words is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He was not found And Clemens the Scholar of St. Peter and Paul ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it was not found that he ever died He appeared not and yet the Lord killed him not so the Chaldee Paraphrase For as St. Jerom said figuratively of the sweet end that Nepotian made that he did Migrare non mori And St. Bernard as much of Hubertus that he did Abire non obire Those pious men might rather be said to have gone a journey out of the way than have died so very properly and without a Metaphor it was true of Enoch that he did not die but was retired out of the way where he could not be found It seems he was much sought for as certainly good men will quickly be missed Antigonum refodio as the honest mans saying was he would have scrap'd the just King Antigonus out of his Grave when he was departed Though Elias was manifestly taken away into heaven yet the Sons of the Prophets besought Elisha that fifty strong men might go seek him lest the Spirit of the Lord had cast him upon some Mountain or into some Valley I could not blame them to wish they might find him again So says one upon that inquisition was made for Elias Enochus cum raperetur fortasse diu inquisitus fuit It may be Enoch was much inquired for in many places after God had took him Selneccerus says that the Lord exalted him up into the clouds Coram totâ Ecclesiâ praecipuis Patriarchis a great Congregation of men and the chief Patriarchs looking upon it Bolducus the Capuchin more particularly yet both altogether uncertainly using their own divinations Tulit eum Deus in nube in quâ apparebat ministranti God took him away in a cloud wherein he appeared as Enoch ministred unto him in the time of Sacrifice If this were done before a throng of Witnesses they might think it no more than a rapture for a little time as Paul was taken up into the third heavens for a small space and afterward restored to the Church They might search and hope to enjoy him again but he was not found the more was their loss that they wanted him the more was his happiness that he was quite gone and wanted nothing But Luther is of opinion that he was retired alone to walk with God in Prayer and sweet Meditations and then the Lord lifted him away to the habitations of the blessed when none were privy to it Seth and all the other Fathers of the Church knew not what was become of him his Son Methasalem and his Family look'd for him with sad hearts as Joseph and Mary sought for Jesus sorrowing no doubt they suspected the malice of the Caiâites they thought he was slain like innocent Abel and privily buried Perhaps it was not revealed in a long time after what was become of him But as the Romans were highly discontented with the loss of Romulus their Founder and would not be satisfied till Proculus swore he saw him carried away into Heaven So when the Patriarchs had sate down sorrowing because they found not the very Gem of the Church the righteous man Enoch it made their gladness the greater when they knew the Lord had translated him alive into Paradise Now I proceed The benefit of it
that he passed into heaven without death is twâfold Quoad alios quoad ipsum partly in regard of others partly in regard of himââlf In regard of others what greater consolation upon the proof did befall the Church in that Age than from hence that there was an apparent instance that after this life God had prepared another for his Saints These are the very words of life Non solùm in verbo sed in facto God did not only give a promise but took this man away as a real pawn of his favour that Death should be swallowed up in victory Two things had hapned which shook the world with much fear First that Abel who had offered a good and a pleasing Sacrifice should be slain by Cain Is this the reward of the Righteous Shall Sinners always have the upper hand Hold ye contented says God do not ye see that Enoch is accounted worthy to decline Fate and Mortality because he was found obedient and just in the sight of God Put Abels persecution in one scale Enochs glorification in another and you will find how equally the lives of the Saints are mixt with afflictions and consolations The other discomfort was that Adam the Father of all flâsh was dead before their eyes and this struck wonderful terrour into their hearts till their fears were mitigated in the Assumption of Enoch For he that assumed body and soul together into heaven for power he was able and for mercy very willing though he marred the bodies of his Children with corruption to repair them again There was Seth the fifth Patriarch above Enoch then living far stricken in years and every day looking for his dissolution within fifty years after he was carried to the grave like a timely fruit dropping from the tree What a comfort it was unto him to see a Son of his own loins caught up alive into the Mansions of Beatitude As who should say at last such honour have all his Saints Such as love to put forth curious questions demand why Adams eyes were shut that he never saw this blessing for it fell out 150. years after his death why he alone of all the good Patriarchs was excluded from this common consolation It is ingenuiously answered that he had as much comfort as that came to proper to himself for he received the very words of the Covenant out of Gods mouth The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head No man else was so happy to have the living Oracle of the Lords voice sound in his ears that Christ should prevail against the enmity of the Devil Therefore to see or hear of the rapture of Enoch was not necessary for him but for all others it was that had not heard the primitive consolation Can you imagine but it kindled great desires in all them that believed to fly away like a bird unto the hills and to possess that requium which Enoch enjoyed Did not their hearts burn within them to see that glory which one of their Brethren and Kindred enjoyed How much more should the same mind be in us to be with Christ Who is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the way-maker unto life who is gone before to prepare a place for us No Enoch no Abel is our pattern but Christ himself hath shewn us by his own Ascension how our thoughts should ascend upward to sit at the right hand of God for evermore Hitherto I have declared that Enochs rapture was a comfort to all true believers against the terrours of death but I do not say as some do that the Resurrection of the body was any way exemplified in this mans translation The Scripture hath left it out among the Arguments of the Resurrection and the best instances are those which are applied by the Holy Ghost As our Saviour propounds the Prophet Jonas who was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale and came forth alive St. Paul proves it to the Romans by this Argument If you have the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead he will also quicken your mortal bodies As if he had said being it is the same Spirit it will produce the same effects And he perswades it to the Corinthians with many strong demonstrations this is the principal if Christ be risen from the dead then are we also assured of our Resurrection for it is not possible that the head should live and we that are his members remain in death These are Apostolical reasons and we are not sent to learn this Lesson from the rapture of Enoch or Elias For indeed those ensampies belong to another purpose to that refining of the mortal body and not putting off of the flesh which shall befall them that shall be found alive at the great day of the Lord. The Mystery which was opened to the Thessalonians The dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds So says Tertullian Enoch and Elias never slept with their Fathers Quare documenta sunt futurae integritatis therefore they shew that body and soul shall be indissoluble which he calls integrity in them that shall be the last Generation of the world And Irenaeus The translation of Enoch makes it manifest that these gross bodies of ours shall be no impediment to meet the Lord in the clouds For as the hand of God which made man of the dust of the earth put him into Paradise so the same hand though he be still but dust and earth can exalt him to a better Paradise And that exaltation though it prove not the Resurrection so absolutely yet directly it proves that the body is fit and capable to be carried away with the soul into the Kingdom of God Thus far upon the benefit quoad alios which redounded unto others from meditating upon this story that Enoch was not and the Lord took him I must joyn a little to this of the benefit quoad ipsum how commodious and good it was to himself for two respects I told you in my last Sermon that instead of walking with God the Jerusalem Targum reads it and Enoch laboured in the truth before the Lord he was an assiduous Teacher of the wicked world to reclaim them from their vices a Prophet that spent himself and his strength like a candle to give light to others all the impediment was that it is an hard matter to gain credit to good Doctrine from them that are hardned in their sins and it is a great honour from God to the Labourer in his harvest when scornful men do not despise his Message Therefore to win authority to Enochs Prophesies the Lord did as it were stretch out his arm from heaven and take him away in the Palm of his hand this was a sure seal indeed to all people that his Doctrine was given by divine inspiration Many false Prophets have commended their vain impostures to the world giving out
it had been dried before the fire now that and bread made of Barley had need to be washed down But what said the Roman Captain to his Army Nilum habetis vinum quaeritis they that had the whole River of Nile before them need not complain of thirst so they that were near to the Sea of Tiberias took no thought for any other Beverage it was a Lake of wholsom and fresh water which after the custom of the Jews is called a Sea if it be large and spacious and with that they were contented to quench their thirst Our Saviour furnished them once with wine at the joyful Solemnity of Marriage they lookt not for the like at every occasion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is a pleasant liquor says the Poet but it is the Milk of Venus They declined all incentives of lust and lived almost after Daniels rate with pulse and water When Christians lived among the Heathen they were detected by their parsimony and moderation of diet though it were to save their lives they could not gurmandize like Epicures Nos oleris comas nos siliqua faeta legumine paverit innocuis epulis says Prudentius by temperance and fasting they got the mastery of the concupiscence of the flesh But above all Christians especially sobriety descended from the Apostles upon Ecclesiasticks it deserved a censure in them to exceed in delicious fare the Canons are extant and the proofs are authentique that the great and solemn Fasts of the Church well known to us were observed by them a good while before they were admitted by the People None know better than we says St. Austin that when temperance directs us to deny our selves those things that are lawful we are the better instructed to shun the sinful works of the Devil which are altogether unlawful The Apostles are our Forerunners in this frugality or rather austerity of food and yet to see that for all this they were scandalized for riotous libertines The imputation against them according to St. Matthew is this that they did not fast when the Disciples of John did In St. Luke more palpably spiteful they tell our Saviour that his Disciples did eat and drink why not would they have them macerate themselves with wilful famishment but could envy it self lay excess or intemperance to their charge I would we were as clear from the fault as they we that abuse the fertilness of our Land to rankness of gluttony we that pay more to the belly than we owe to the whole body who almost is not an Apicius that can maintain it what sin did ever grow up in any State to a more prodigious extremity but if the droughts of three years successively threatening dearth and scarcity will not affrighten this sin from our Table it is not a piece of a Sermon that will beat it down Yet I pray you remember that sharp Epiphonema of the Parable These three years have I come and found no fruit cut it down Nay God defend Why then expiate your surfeitings with Apostolical abstinence and forget not what a thrifty pittance they had in store even five barley loaves and two fishes And was this all and were they pleased that Christ should take that little from them and give it away to strangers yes it appears by Andrews answer they did not grudg it We have no more it is as good as nothing to feed such a multitude This implies as if he spoke the rest they shall have it all and much good do them if that will content them And was he so willing to part with that which was necessary for his own sustenance he had no more And will not we bestow our superfluities upon them that want Every luxuriant Vine must be largely pruned and he that hath much must scatter bountifully The Vine doth not miss the redundant branch and a rich mans Purse is like a River that doth not fall for a spoonful of contribution But when a poor man conjects heartily to any pious use his faith is proved as well as his charity is exercised for it is a sign that he believes that God will sustein him though he have emptied himself of all his substance in a small Oblation There are three things says Gregory that are most holy Sacrifices castitas in juventute sobrietas in ubertate liberalitas in paupertate liberality in poverty chastity in youth moderation in plenty And St. Chrysostom infers it from the readiness of the Disciples to part with all their homely Viands ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã maunder not that you are scanted and have but little he that hath any thing hath somewhat to spare to lend to the needy When the poor Widow had conferr'd two Mites no less than all her living unto the godly uses of the Temple Christ avouched it in her praise it was more than all the rich ones had bestowed That is not by absolute but by proportionable quantity as Aquinas states it not measuring the magnitude of the Gift but the sincereness of the Charity Non perpendit quantum sed ex quanto proferatur says Bede God doth not estimate how much was given but out of how much it was taken It was more for her to give two mites than for Zacheus to give a talent So it was more for these Disciples to surrender up their five loaves and two fishes than for another to keep open house for all the poor in Jerusalem And these shall be the limits of the first point our Saviours bodily preparation to the ensuing Miracle accepit he took the loaves And what more beside accepit For the Miracle came not off without another preparation and that is Ghostly Postquam gratias egisset after he had given thanks Best take it with the full allowance as the other Evangelists have enlarged it that beside giving thanks he looked up to heaven and blessed So then before he brought the sign to pass he glorified his Father three ways with his Eye he looked up to heaven with his Tongue he gave thanks and with his Spirit he blessed If you will scan the value of an action by the rarity of it in holy Scripture and by the incidency upon none but great occasions then both these do concur in this that Christ looked up to heaven I call it to mind that it hapned three times that is not often now at this instant when he was about the miracle of the Loaves Once again when he raised Lazarus to life Joh. xi 41. And once more when he began his Prayer to his Father but a few minutes before he was apprehended to be crucified Joh. xvii 1. And the Tradition is of long continuance that he lifted up his eyes to heaven the fourth time when he consecrated the Elements at his Last Supper The Liturgies ascribed to St. James and St. Mark do remember it and upon the credulity of the example the Canon of the Mass in the Church of Rome commands it At all times you
may observe they were high attempts when the Son of God did use this Ceremony to look up to heaven It came from a good principle it tended to a good end and very good use is to be made of it The first good principle or impulsive cause is mercy He saw a great Multitude in want and destitute of sustenance and that was the provocation to make him fix his eyes upon the heavens to call down relief Our Evangelist in the fifth verse of this Chapter notes that he lift up his eyes meaning that he did affectionately behold a multitude of People all bescanted of food and that was the preparative to make him look higher to look up to heaven ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is his own word in St. Mark My bowels yearn to provide for this people in their extremity of hunger These entrals of compassion make us bold to look up to God compassion is that Optique Nerve that draws up the eye lid and encourageth us to seek for grace because our eyes send forth the visual rays of Charity Better it is to want Eyes and Legs and Arms than to lack these entrals of Pity You may carve the proportion of a man in Stone or cast it in Brass a fair Figure it shall be but it hath no Bowels So he is no better than a Lump of Brass or Stone that hath not the Affections of Clemency an Idol that hath Ears and hears not that hath Eyes and sees not but he that hath the tender heart-strings of mercy in his bosom he may have confidence to look up to heaven Secondly It is Devotion which draws up our looks to God It is a sign that the interiour contemplation is directed thither when the exteriour glances fly aloft The Eye cannot refrain to fix it self upon that object which the mind doth passionately desire Therefore it is become an act of Latria or religious veneration to advance the eyes to heaven in the fervour of Prayer Vnto thee lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens Psal cxxiii And to look up to Idols is all one as to worship Idols in the Phrase of Ezekiel Cast your eyes therefore to the Throne of God when you address your self to Prayer that Love and Zeal may be struck out of the fire of the Eye I do not press it as inseparable Ceremony for the humble Publican did well when he thought so abjectly of himself that he durst not lift up his eyes to heaven says St. Chrysostom like an Orator lest he should find the Catalogue of his sins written in the Firmament to accuse him Yet a perpetual affectation of winking or covering the face in Prayer seems not to me so laudable for why should we debar our selves to praise God with our most heavenly sense Next of all it carries us along with it to know what end Christ had in working this Miracle The root of all was above and he work'd downward he set his Fathers glory before his eyes and he directed this and all his actions to the propagation of it To feed such a scattered Rout so liberally so unexpectedly you may be sure it would spread his renown far and wide they would cry him up for a bountiful Lord in all places This was the fashion of the rising men in Rome about the time that Christ lived to fill the People with congiaries and Feasts and win their applause by cramming their belly But our Saviours conceit was above this earth he had none but coelestial intentions And therefore when the People out of admiration would have prosecuted it to a most honourable issue and have made him a King he shifted away into a Mountain that he might not be found at the fifteenth verse of this Chapter He neither began this work for temporal glory nor would let it end in temporal glory for he looked up to heaven Whether it be in sustaining the poor or in any other Christian work that flows from charity do it that ye may have honour of God and beware of the leaven of Ambition that you have no flat sinister thoughts in it or humane policies Popularity is like a thief in a Candle it makes it blaze much but it quickly wastes it He that doth good and looks up stedfastly to heaven makes God his Debtor he that looks asquint to the praise of men shall be paid with ignominy You know now out of what Principles Christ did this you are sure for what end he did it From both we have this Lesson Let our eyes look unto the eyes of our Master When he looks upward let not us look downward but let us mind heavenly things The frame of our bodies heaves us thither Erectos ad sidera tollere vultus it bids us look to God and that way should our soul turn it came from thence and thither it should draw again The composition of Nature therefore would not have us to be Moales rooting into the earth but grace goes further and would have us to be Eagles flying above the Clouds Aquila nidum sibi in arduis construit Job xxxix 27. The Eagle builds his nest on high It is the Emblem of a Christian whose Spirit is so transported with the meditation of a better life that he walks as it were among the Stars The soul is not where it lives but where it loves Therefore St. Paul said that his whole Negotiation was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a conversation which was in heaven Here is hunger and thirst there is indeficient satiety Here are Envyings and Seditions there are sweet Hymns and Halelujah's Here are Worms and Corruption there are Angels and Immortality And what a joyous thing is it to have a pledge of this happiness by looking towards it before the time be come about that we should possess it Most willingly therefore will I send up mine eyes as Harbingers before me to make room for the whole man both soul and body Laertius says of Empedocles that he answered one that asked him what was the end of his life Vt coelum aspiciam to view the heavens What could be the meaning of this Philosopher To pore upon it like a Star-gazer I cannot but imagine more acuteness in him that he discerned the felicity of man was laid up in those supernal places God is every where We circumscribe him not in heaven when we look up thither It is not the Throne of his Presence but of his Glory But because we should have narrow and gross cogitations if we sought him only in these fading things Therefore for our Hope sake for our Consolation sake especially for the elevation of our mind we turn our eyes towards him in that place where there is no mixture of mutability Exalt your Spirit that you live as fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. ii 19. Ascend up on high as belonging to that Church which hath the Moon under her feet Rev. xii 1. Fix your nest in