Samaria The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him says Solomon Prov. x. 14. The Jews were very scrupulous with Christs Doctrine lest the Romans should come and take away their Nation in conclusion the Romans did come and lead them away in captivity Timuerunt Judei perdere terram perdiderunt coelum says St. Austin Cowards as they were they were so fearful that they might not lose their possession upon earth that they lost their possession both in earth and heaven But I come to take the instance of the Day into this Doctrine How foolishly how rashly was Herod troubled because such Miracles concurr'd at the birth of Christ lest his Kingdom should be translated from him And Eusebius makes Domitian the Emperour to concur with Herod in this Point for hearing much talk of the Saviour and deliverer of those that put their trust in him he was afraid lest the Christians had a King in store to depose him but afterwards desisted from his persecution being certified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Kingdom was not of this world but an heavenly and Angelical Nothing you see is comfortable to them that have not the true comforter the holy Spirit in their soul I have given my self large scope to run into this Point that I might joyn some Use for your instruction with the celebration of the Day And now I will sum it up when I have discussed one thing how we may know a godly fear which the Angel would allow from a tyrannous molesting fear which He would inhibit And this we must enquire into à posteriori by the several effects on this wise according to Aquinas Vel propter mala quae timet ad Deum accedit vel propter mala quae timet à Deo recedit Either for fear of some loss or harm it approacheth unto God and that 's a religious fear or else for fear of some harm it forgets God and departeth from him and that 's a criminous and a sinful fear The Devils fear and tremble says St. James but they are never the nearer to be good Diabolus habet timorem affligentem non à penâ cohibentem Satan feels some horror that gnaws and torments him but he feels not the blessing of that fear which should discipline him from sin and amend him I will give another difference of this fear according to the gestures of men as they were good or bad Abraham fell forward on his face when the Lord spake unto him in all probability so did St. Paul when at his Conversion the light from heaven did shine about so that he and all that were with him fell flat to the ground and were sore afraid These in their fear fell towards God and towards the throne of his footstool But those ungracious servants of the High Priests that came to lay hold of our Saviour and to bind him as soon as Christ had said unto them Whom seek ye I am he they went backward and fell to the ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as old Eli trembled when he heard the Ark was taken and fell backward from his Seat upon the ground and brake his neck This is a naughty fear which recoils from God and runs back from his Commandments Now in the close of this Doctrine I know every man will desire to know what manner of fear this was which the Angel did repel in the Shepherds I answer that in all probability it was mixt of good and bad There was both an affection of reverence in it to the glory of God which shined in the light which was round about them and an immoderate passion of humane frailty which did indispose them to receive any tidings from heaven No face can be seen in a troubled water and no message can arrive intelligently at his ear who is perplexed with trembling and astonishment therefore to quiet their mind that the Word of grace might receive the fairer impression the Angel said unto them fear not Which is the period of my second observation how they should and how they should not fear The third interrogatory which is all I will dispatch at this time is a question that comes nearer to them why they should not fear and that for two reasons Propter nuntium propter nunciatum First in a less principal respect because an Angel came to comfort them but chiefly in a more principal regard because Christ was born to be their comfort A good messenger is a good medicine says Solomon Prov. xiii 17. and the condition of this messenger is very comfortable like a lenitive medicine his congratulation runs as if he had said fear not me as if I were that Cherubin who was appointed to stand at the entrance of the Garden to keep you from the Tree of Life no I am sent to prepare his way who is born of a Virgin this day to bring you into Paradise I have said it be not afraid for I am one that stand always before the face of your father which is in heaven I know that his thoughts are full of mercy and compassion towards you Moses and the Prophets spake concerning Christ to come that he should deliver his people from their sins but they were sinners themselves which had utterly disabled their testimony but that they were inspired from God The Law will reclaim that the same man should be testis and reus the person impleaded for guilty and yet a witness in the fact therefore an Angel who was guilty of no disobedience of no breach against the Law his testimony was unsuspected to testifie the birth of a Saviour Not as if such as they be were stipulatores sureties unto men for the Promises of God for because the Lord can swear by none greater he swore by himself and because he can promise by none greater he promiseth by himself It is not for mans sake or for an Angels sake but for his own truth and mercy sake that we believe Jesus was born in the similitude of man to be Mediator between God and man and since the Son of God hath come among us in the flesh we may reply unto this heavenly Messenger as the Samaritans did to the woman that drew water for Christ Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world But you will object what trust is there in any Creature be he never so glorious that he can promise comfort and say we should not fear Why Beloved we must not set light or despise their help that God hath set to be our Guardians and Defenders to pitch their Pavilions round about us The Prince of the air and his evil Spirits are never wanting to entrap us But what said Elisha to his Servant in the mountain when Chariots of horsemen and heavenly succours do present themselves before him Plures nobiscum there are more that be
special priviledge not by common publication that which was a secret among some few is now vulgar to all God hath disclosed his hidden treasures to us as unto friends He was their Lord so he is ours but he is also our Father They were his servants and so are we but the interest we have in Christ that hath taken our nature upon him hath made us more than servants and exalted us to be his friends Hitherto I have held your attentions to the Supplicant now the Petition of his soul comes in order that he may depart The Servant had a burden that opprest him a frail and a corruptible body and he desires the Lord to ease him of it and to take it from him For so St. Ambrose and the Syrian Paraphrast read the word optatively Dimitte O take me away from hence and let me depart And they that say it is dimittis for dimittes the Present Tense for the Future bring it up to the same sense Lord thou wilt now let thy servant depart so Origen and St. Cyprian read it for the Hebrews use to make their Petitions in the future time as thou shalt hear my prayer in an acceptable time which is a fit form of words to ask in faith and not to waver as St. James says but the word here is Metaphorical in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say in the native term Lord now lettest thou thy servant be unloosed as horses are taken from the Plough and set up to rest when they have drawn till Evening and are weary or to signifie says St. Ambrose that necessity compelled him to stay here Ideo dimitti poscit quasi à vinculis quibusdam ad libertatem festinaret therefore he desires to be let loose as if he had been enthraled like some Captive and now would shake off his bonds and attain his liberty This earth is not our Country therefore though we have an inbred desire to have the union of the body and soul maintained yet our willingness inclines to be uncloathed of the body rather than not go from hence when we are full of days Quis peregre constitutus non prepararet in patriam regredi says St. Cyprian that man were unnatural that affected to be a stranger and had rather travel always than settle himself at home in peace revolve in your memory the words of just men in holy Scripture and you shall find that this is common to them all to mourn and sigh because their pilgrimage was prolonged Wo is me that I am constrained to live with Mesech says David Who shall deliver me from the body of this death Says St. Paul It is enough Lord take away my life I am not better than my Fathers says Elias While the body was a Palace the soul was content to stay in it now it is become a filthy prison no wonder if it desires to be gone Let not Simeons Nunc dimittis nor this Doctrine be mistaken every mans willingness to leave this world and to die is not commended from hence but when it is joyned with patience and good internal motives especially when we find an aptness and good preparation in our selves that when we go from hence we shall be joyned to the Lord. There is no worse sign in some that God is departed from them than when they are sullen and froward with their life and care not which way they break violently out of the world so they may depart Seneca could say Mori velle non tantum fortis patiens set etiam fastidiosus potest that is not only stout men are resolved to die and such as are fortified against fear but the discontented that cannot bear his cross had rather lose himself than his peevishness good and bad upon several reasons are contented both to die and to live Sunt homines qui cum patientiâ moriuntur sunt autem quidam perfecti qui cum patientiâ vivunt says St. Austin There are some holy men that exercise their patience to be content to die there are some perfect men that exercise their patience to be content to live therefore the motives that induced Simeon to this must be sifted to make him an inoffensive nay a profitable example Salmeron the Jesuit follows a most capricious invention that this reverend Sire importuned God to put a period to his days as soon as Christ was born that he might be the first Nuncio to the Fathers that were in limbo and certifie them that the Messias was come into the world who would exalt them from that lowly condition in which they were held and conduct their souls into the Kingdom of heaven This is so extravagant that I give it you to note the man and the far-fetcht way of their expositions The true reason is that this cygnea cantio this farewel Song of his hath taught us that there is no terror in going to the Grave no sting in death since God appeared before us and became man to deliver our souls from the nethermost hell and to make our bodies like to his own most glorious body They that know not what their condition may be in the next world must needs think of death with an heavie heart and sigh and wring their hands when they feel it approaching He that could see Christ no otherwise than through the dark mists of the Law did count it somewhat an irksom thing to go out of the land of the living it was a good King of Judah that chattered like a Swallow when Isaiah told him he should live no longer But it is incredible to humane reason how it encourageth a faithful man to meet his death with chearfulness because though not in our own bodies yet in the Apostles and others we have seen we have heard and our hands have handled the word of life and that we know there is plentious redemption for us in Christ our Saviour Simeon knew the instant of his dissolution was at hand and yet he sang away the remainder of his life with joy as who should say Egredere ô anima fly away my soul fly away like a dove and take thy rest for now I see that the promises of grace and mercy are true here is Christ thy Saviour in thy hands thine eyes do see thine arms do support thy Salvation though thou departest thou shalt not go from him for he is man on earth to comfort thee and God in heaven to glorifie thee This is it which did animate Simeon to say Lord let me depart and therefore as the Patriarches in the time of the Law desired length of days upon earth that they might live to see the Messias so let us desire a joyful departure to be with him for evermore I proceed the time which he sets for the accomplishment of his Petition is presently or at that instant Now Lord now let c. Nunc ante hâc non item As who should say if I had been summoned to leave
and fell to them again seven times and no less and never made an end till his Servant told him he saw a little cloud rising out of the sea He that will give over for seven times seven repulses and will not be importunate with the Lord it were pity his desires should be successful Such constant such contrite devotion how can it choose but pierce the clouds The High Priest went once a year into the Holy of Holies with the perfume of Incense What is Incense but Prayer What is the Holy of Holies but the Kingdom of heaven O that you would believe which I am sure you ought to do that no part of Piety is so beneficial to the soul as Prayer You will remember my saying perhaps when you are upon the bed of your last sickness that Prayer is the Key to open the gate of heaven that Prayer is that address of the soul with which God appointed we should draw near unto him Now I know the most of you had rather spend your pains another way but at that last hour of anxiety unless God forsake you for your sins your heart will be intent upon nothing but upon zealous Prayer It is but a circumstance drawn into my Text from another Evangelist therefore I will pass it by with Bedes observation that Prayer is an active and a passive Benediction it draws God to us and by the same motion draws us to God as if a ship lay at Anchor tost upon the waves you may pluck the Cable with your hands and think to hale the ship to you but the Cable being of stronger tack will pluck you to the Ship The Prophet Isaiah in his Prayers was confident he could not be denied therefore he cries out O that thou wouldst burst the heavens O Lord and come down Our High-Priest Jesus offered the sweet odours of his Prayers unto his Father and loe the heavens were opened unto him The second consideration of the first Point is ended but I would you would diligently begin to practise it Thirdly I shall recite it before you how this Miracle fell out to glorifie Christ Therefore the Text says Loe the heavens were opened to him opened manifestly for the view of all beholders that were present but opened unto him because it was meant for his inauguration to honour his Mediatorship who came to redeem mankind from the curse of endless death and captivity Therefore imagine not as if the whole heavens did seem unveiled to discover all their glory but only so much of the Firmament did spangle like a Canopy advanced in state over our Saviours head as might betoken his Celestial Dignity The Father at this Baptism proclaimed him from above to be his well beloved Son and to make us understand that his love where it lights consists not in sweet words of affection only he did attire the Air in most Princely beauty to honour his well-beloved in whom he was well pleased Contrariwise at the Passion of Christ the Sun denied his light to the earth and the Regions above did never look so terrible as then with black clouds and darkness for he carried the malediction of us all upon him and it was a day of wrath and vengeance when God took punishment upon all iniquity We read of no Angel that was near to behold him at that dolorous hour upon the Cross belike it was a sight so ingrate and pitiful to behold that they withdrew themselves but at the triumph of his Baptism it is not mine but St. Austins opinion that the heavens which reach as far as the habitation of all blessed spirits were opened Vt in coelestibus esset miraculum de his quae agebantur in terris that the Angels might take this amiable spectacle into their view of those things that were done upon earth for would it not ravish the Powers of Heaven to peep into this Mystery that the Son of God should stoop so low in the River Jordan That a mortal man should hold up his hand above his head to baptize him When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from the Babylonish bondage the deliverance was so gladsom to the Land of Canaan to receive her ancient Inhabitants again that the Mountains skipped like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep When the Apostles prayed among them that were converted and had received the Holy Ghost the place was shaken where they were assembled as if the ground could have cleft for joy Acts iv 31. Then could the Heavens contain to burst themselves for joy when Christ was initiated into his Royal Office The Earth was obsequious to the honour of such as were earthly the Heavens did honour Christ at his Baptism for the second man was from the heaven heavenly Now I come to fill up the last thing considerable in this Miracle what joy and comfort the opening of the heavens affords to all them that believe in Jesus The heavens were opened the Dove descended a voice from above proclaimed the good will of the Father to rejoyce our hearts that the immortal Laver of Baptism is able to cast all those blessings upon us not that all those were not in Christ and due to him before the Sacrament For did he then begin to have the Spirit rest upon him who is of the same eternal substance with the Spirit Or was that the first time when the heavens were opened to him of whom it is said of old Heaven is my seat and Earth is my foot stool Nor did his Father then begin to call him Son for we read in the book of the Psalms Thou art my Son this day that is from all eternity I have begotten thee When God spake and answered our Saviours Prayer from Heaven Christ turns to the Jews saying This voice came not for me but for your sakes Joh. xii 30. Likewise he might expound upon the opening of the heaven this was not for me but for your sakes Restincta est aquis baptismi romphaea flammatilis quae claudit paradisum says Ratbertus A fiery flaming Sword debarr'd the way into Paradise by Gods appointment which flame is mystically quenched in the Baptism of our blessed Mediator and now as if the Angel had said I will stop the way into Paradise no more the Heavens were opened And if Marriage be called honourable inasmuch as he vouchsafed his Presence at a Marriage at Cana in Galilee then Baptism is most honourable and blessed because he was more than present at it He came in his own person from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized To what purpose should this Scripture say Loe or behold the heavens were opened Unless it were a continual opening from that time to this how could we behold it If open and immediately shut again it were not so proper to say unto us behold But if they always stand open by the meritorious Redemption of Christ then it is an apt Phrase to say Behold the Heavens were opened
follow which I propound by way of question and thus first An bonum sit Christum non crucifigi If it could be good for them that Christ should entrench himself in Mount Thabor and never go to Jerusalem to be crucified Lord grant us not our own wishes when we desire evil unto our selves for this Apostle unwittingly desired as much mischief to fall upon his own head as the Devil could wish Peter was well strucken in years his person of grave authority his affections full of well-meaning love to Christ therefore this was but one of three times that he made bold to resist his Masters passion and disswade it Mat. xvi 22. Be propitious unto thy self Lord thou shalt not be killed by the Scribes and High Priests At another time he cut off Malchus ear in the Garden to save his Saviour And though he durst not openly dehort him now for he was check'd before and called Satan for that fault yet the same meaning is closely conveyed in these words Master it is good for us to be here What should I say It was not his opinion alone but it seems all his brethren were of the same mind they knew not the Scriptures and thought the Church might do well enough though Christ did never die upon the Cross for when Peter alone did speak in this cause St. Mark says Christ turned about and looked upon all his Disciples Mar. viii 33. And then rebuked Peter Get thee behind me Satan Peter gives him the title of Master if he would stay there and not die but St. Paul shews that even by death he won himself the Mastership Col. 2.18 He is the first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the pre-eminence His deceived Servants thought that it was inglorious for him to die whereas it was an honour to the Lamb of God to be brought unto that Altar So it behaved Christ to suffer and to enter into his glory I have met with one who delivered his opinion very eloquently how fit it was for our Saviour to remove from this place where his Disciple would have fixed him Says He this is not the Mount where our Lord must end his days but the fatal Calvary His face shall not shine with light but be disgraced with Spittle and smeared with bloud His Garments shall not be white to honour him but in scorn and derision He shall not stand between Moses and Elias but hang between two Thieves Thou Peter shalt not think it good to be with him but run away and deny him The Father shall not call unto him from heaven Thou art my well-beloved Son but the Son shall cry out that he is forsaken of the Father There shall not be a bright cloud over the place but darkness over the face of the earth Finally no other Tabernacle shall be built for him but a Cross of malediction 2. And might not Peter counsel him without offence against this ignominious death No my Beloved For it is not to be excused how he knew not the Scriptures that this was the course appointed for the redemption of the world the hungry could not eat their bread until it was broken We could not quench our thirst with the water of life till it was poured out of his wounds We could not be healed of the sting of death till the brazen Serpent was lifted up Jonas must be cast out of the belly of the Whale before he preach to the Ninivites Christ must die and rise again before the Disciples be sent to preach to all Nations The lxx Psalm hath this title A remembrance to the chief Musician and the first words of the Psalm are these Haste thee O Lord to deliver me make haste to help me O Lord. As who should say Thou that art the chief Musician unto whom all the Angels of heaven sing their Alelujah haste thee to redeem us by thy precious bloud Go up to thy Cross and suffer for it is time that thou have mercy upon us yea the time is come But you will say Had it not been most barbarous in Peter according to the tenure of that Psalm in the Exposition which I have given to wish the death of Christ First it might become his own Apostle that did tenderly love him neither to urge him nor disswade him but to say The will of the Lord be done Next I must tell you it is no such horrid thing as a weak Christian may imagine to have pray'd unto the Father that his Son might die upon the Cross for our Redemption Even so Father because thou wilt have it Yet this distinction must mollifie it Intuitu nostrae redemptionis non ipsius cruciatus says Lombard Rejoycing for the benefit of our Salvation but sorrowing for the bitterness of his Passion grieving for his sorrows but giving thanks with gladness for our own deliverance Therefore in no wise did Peter give right counsel when to decline the issue of that dismal Passion he said Master it is good c. But Ne quicquam sapit qui sibi non sapit How should he be a good Counsellor for his Master that was not wise for himself For I ask in the next place An bonum non videre mortem If it could be good for Peter and the two Disciples not to see death No surely there is a gain and advantage to be made by death Phil. i. 21. Then when we languish as we think of our last sickness then we begin to call our sins to remembrance then we look over the Covenant of the Law which we have so often broken then we breath out our soul in Prayer and fill our eyes and our heart with repentance the sense of imminent death takes away the sting of death by contrition and a most consciencious examination of the days that are past one hour well imployed about that time is better than a year in diebus illis when we were remiss and careless Even Balaam the Sorcerer did perceive what Soveraign Physick of Salvation God did administer to his Saints upon their sick bed and therefore he cries out O let me die the death of the righteous A righteous mans death is like the Cherubin standing before the Garden of Eden that with one blow lets him into Paradise and would Peter stay in the Mountain and want the best Schoolmaster of Repentance and Mortification Besides it is a good thing to be weary of every thing even of life it self till we come to heaven I know a man may desire to die out of frowardness I praise not that As Elias and Jonas were fretful because they were cross'd and in that vexation of mind they desired to die This is rudeness and impatiency to desire to die because they would not live as God would have them But there is earning to get above the desires of frail nature and to desire to put off the body that we may put on Christ So Nazianzen begins an Epistle to Nyssen out of
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Antiphrasis or the contrary because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
Day of Salvation says Isaiah and that day reacheth from the time that Remission of sins is preached in the bloud of Christ unto the end of the world Now as the Text is common to all Evangelical Days so there is one Day that lifts up its head above them all the most memorable Day of our Saviour's Resurrection then it was verily fulfilled as Peter urg'd it that the Stone which the Builders refused became the head of the corner St. Chrysostom Nyssen and almost who not pitch upon Easter-day for the particular application of this Text that was the Day wherein God did bring forth a more eminent work than in other common days and upon every Sunday in the year for that Day 's sake the Church hath appointed sacred Assemblies that we may rejoyce and be glad Well then of Davids Day first and from thence how particular Holidays may be ordeined to magnifie Gods extraordinary benefits next of the blessed Age of the Gospel wherein we have great cause to rejoyce and be comforted for Christ hath wiped away all tears from our eyes And last of all I shall take the right opportunity to speak of the glorious Feast of the Resurrection and how the Church doth keep the weekly Feast of the Lords day to rejoyce and be glad in it And first the Holy Ghost hath left it written for the honor of the Lords Anointed This is the Day which the Lord hath made There is one thing in that form of speech which jarrs a little against the ear how can it be said that God did make one day more than another for he hath framed all Times and Seasons alike the Sun knoweth his going down and he maketh it return again every morning to give light unto the World In the Hymns of the Heathen he is called Diespiter the Father of all days indifferently it is he that sets the Heavens in perpetual motion and makes the hours run on and when he calls back his word the Plumbets shall go down and time shall be no more It is granted therefore that he giveth continuance and being to all days after one sort and for the Phrase of my Text a new Writer hath well exprest himself Non includitur mensura temporis sed conditiones tempori incidentes it is not meant of the Day which the Sun makes with his diurnal motion but of the great Work which was wrought in that Day that is not that God made that Day more than others but that He made more in that Day than in others It is vulgar to impute the condition of things which fall out in some certain dayes to the days themselves per metonymiam adjuncti although a day as it is meerly a space of time cannot possibly be capable of such Attributes We take liberty to call this a cold or a moist day not for its own sake but because coldness and moisture happen in the day so for the contingency of glorious things we call the day it self glorious and to renown the memorable acts of the Lord we have got a use to speak thus This is the day which the Lord hath made In 1 Sam. 12.6 according to the Original and that 's pointed at in our Margent it is said that the Lord made Moses and Aaron why are not all that are born of a woman the works of his hands as well as Moses and Aaron therefore our Translation hath rendred the sense rather than the word that the Lord advanced Moses and Aaron In like manner we may read my Text thus This is the Day which the Lord advanced for he made it remarkable with an extraordinary favour and thereby gave it a Dignity and Exaltation above its fellows The going out and the return of every year are from the Almighty with the store and abundance that it brings forth but when the clouds drop fatness with unusual plenty then the Prophet says that he crowns that year with his goodness Psal lxv 11. So some principal Days are crowned above the rest as this Day wherein through the sun shine of his mercy he set a Crown of pure Gold upon the head of David his Servant Piety forbid that we should not thankfully receive the most vulgar benefits I know that common things are commonly neglected but learn to see God in small things or you shall never see him in greater If I had learnt it of no other yet I find enough in Seneca for that use Communia negligenda non sunt c. neglect not to give thanks for common and quotidian favours for life and health and suppeditation of food that the Sun doth shine upon us that we have the air to breath in that the Sea doth ebb and flow for navigation There are days of small things as Zachary calls them chap. iv 10. but those small things are to be consider'd of us with a grateful heart who are less than the least of all his mercies but how much more requisite is it then to observe those days wherein some eminent blessings are confer'd upon us what a behooveful thing it is every man for his own part to keep a Calender of the famous Acts of the Lord for our Birth for our Baptism for great Preservations and to represent them before us at the return of every year with grateful acknowledgment from the bottom of our heart and when God doth see that we are so mindful of a prosperous Day he will grant us many prosperous Years and for the period of joy a most prosperous Eternity that shall never have a period This is made as plane then as you can wish upon what special Prerogative the Lord is said to make a particular day because he doth appoint some special favour to fall out upon it and the Wise-mans Question is answered Ecclus. xxxiii 7. Why doth one day excel another when as all the light of every day of the year is of the Sun It is not the material light which distinguisheth the nobleness of Dayes but he that made the Sun more excellent than the other Stars of the Firmament hath made Princes glorious as the Sun in the Orb of the Common-wealth and a Day of a Princes Exaltation is like a Prince among Days and in that capacity to be magnified Such a day is said to be made by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because God himself and none else is the Author of the Power of Kings He and none but He took David from following the Ews great with young and set him over the Princes of his People In a word since the Day is taken for the Work of the Day the real meaning of the first words of my Text is this is the King which the Lord hath made Samuel anointed him the People shouted and cried God save him but the Lord did constitute him the Ruler of the Twelve Tribes and gave him his Sovereign Authority the Crowns of Glory in Heaven and the Crowns of Dignity upon Earth are both held by
death the Sun rose earlier by certain hours than the natural season Vt redderet lucis horas quas terror Dominicae passionis invaserat to make restitution of those hours of light which were lost by the Eclipse of the Sun at our Saviours Passion and so it should be called a Day because it was miraculous and longer than the natural proportion of a Day But this is without the Book and rather Poetical than Theological But secondly to more purpose it justly bears the title of a Day for were it not for the benefit of Christ's Resurrection we had been buried in eternal night our bodies had gone down into the Sepulchre as into the Land of darkness to perish and rot and never to see the light more Nox est perpetuò una dormienda but through him who hath planted us into the similitude of his Resurrection we awake from sleep we stand up from the dead and Christ shall give us light 3. The claritude of those glorified Bodies which we shall put on in the General Resurrection will make us carry Day about with us whithersoever we go You know how Christ did look at his Transfiguration his face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light Mat. xvii 2. therefore it must needs be day with the Saints for ever after they are risen from the dead since according to the Pattern of their Masters beauty their faces shall shine like the Sun in the Firmament But fourthly whether these curiosities touch the Point I am not sure upon this I dare build that it is called the Day which the Lord made because no greater work than the Resurrection of Christ was made upon any day since the world began for two things are to be considered in it Quod apparuit in Christo quod nondum apparuit in nobis that which was wrought upon Christ's Body and was seen in him and by virtue of his rising from the dead that which shall appear in us hereafter O infinite Power which quickned Jesus again the life and soul of all the Members of his Body and would not let him see corruption I know not how to compare the noblest Acts of the Lord as many have done I dare not do it as whether it were more to create a man out of nothing or to recompose a man again when his Soul was flitted and the Substance of his Body passed about into innumerous Transmutations after the revolution of five or six thousand years This I know that on our part it had been better for us never to have been than not to have been restored to the Image of God which was defaced in us and simply to be is nothing so well as to be made incorruptible in the outward man and the inward man to be restored unto Righteousness and Holiness of life Besides after the Creation God did cease from his work and there is no new thing under the Sun but after the Resurrection of Christ God doth continually save his people from their Sins Or if you interpose that as the Father did rest the last day of the Week from the Works of the Creation so the Son did rest on the first day of the Week having absolutely accomplished the Work of our Redemption then I infer if the Rest of the Father ceasing from creating material things did sanctifie a Day then this greater Rest of the Son must much more sanctifie a Festival As the new Heavens and the new Earth shall be more glorious than the old which are subject to vanity so the Jewish Feast on the Sabbath for the Remembrance of the Creation is nothing so honourable as the Christian Feast of the Lords Day in Remembrance of the Resurrection Therefore at the close of the Benefit let me admonish you of the Duty We will c. When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from a strange Land they came home again to the Land of Canaan from whence they were descended like men that had lien long among the dead and were quite forgotten But with so much mirth and joy as is unutterable their mouth was filled with laughter and their tongue with joy This was but a Type of the Body brought back out of the Grave therefore this gladness will become us much better in the Substance than in the Figure Christ is returned victoriously out of the Sepulcher and in that victory hath redeemed us all from the captivity of the Grave then how requisite is it that our mouth should be filled with laughter and our tongue with singing for the Lord hath done very great things for us whereof we are glad There was never any Society I am perswaded more disconsolate more crest-faln than the Disciples were upon the Eve of this happy Resurrection their faith failed them and their courage failed them they lockt themselves up and sat drowzily like men that had lost the fairest expectation that heart could imagin and had neither life nor soul Heaviness did endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Jesus came into the midst of them the doors being shut and shewed them his feet and his hands Then were the Disciples glad when they saw the Lord Joh. xx 20. before the Lords Ascension though their minds were yet somewhat carnal yet they were glad that his sayings were verified in despight of the Jews that He was risen again the third day The old Father confuted his churlish Son with that principle of good nature it was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again Luke xv 32. Again the Disciples were very frollick because when they saw the Lord revived again they were perswaded that He would restore the Temporal Kingdom unto Israel a thing which erroneously they had long lookt for but after his Ascension then their joy was high swoln and full to the brim for it was illuminated by faith they rejoyced that he was risen and gone up in glory to possess his Kingdom for when Christ our life shall appear again then shall we also appear in glory But because ancient Customs are things that will stick to the remembrance I will borrow a little time to impart unto you what glad remonstrances the Old Fathers of the Church were wont to make of it First their very outward Garments were of the best they had and full of splendor not out of pride and wantonness but to testifie that in every circumstance they did magnifie that holy Mystery of Christs rising from the dead and to witness in their outward habit that the resurrection of the dead is the cloathing of us with new and immortal apparel Therefore Nazianzen wishing for his own dissolution cries out take from me this ponderous Garment that is this sinful corruptible Body which makes me sweat and faint and give me a lighter that will never trouble me Secondly their Churches were trickt up with the best bravery that they could
it is 1 Cor. vi 11. But ye are washed but ye are sanctified In that sacred Laver we are sprinkled with the bloud of Christ and so made Saints Sancti quasi sanguine tincti it is a bloud which purifieth from uncleanness for of old they that desired to be purified did dip some part of their body in the bloud of the Sacrifice Baptism is Pactum vitae purioris cum Deo a Covenant with God to lead a pure and unspotted life a sequestration of that which is holy from all profane abuses it is jus gentium says Tully a national and received Law throughout all the world Vt ne mortales quod Deorum immortalium cultui consecratum est usu capere possint that no man usurp that for common uses which was consecrated to the service of the immortal Gods so that a Saint is as much as one that is washt and made clean in Christ and engaged unto holiness all the days of his life 3. For the confession of the true doctrines sake which flesh and bloud could not reveal unto us but our Father which is in heaven our reward was to be called the faithful the faithful of the circumcision Acts x. 45. and in many places beside This continued our note of distinction more than any other in ancient Liturgies and so remains in some of our own Collects as grant we beseech thee merciful Lord to thy faithful people pardon and peace And it stuck more close to the Church than any title in St. Cyprians days as appears by these words Quid Christiana plebs faceret cui de fide nomen est What should Christian people do in this case whose name is given them from the Faith So I have represented to you that in the earliest days of the Gospel the Disciples were called Brethen from their sincerity of love Saints from the purification of Baptism Faithful from that Orrhodox truth which they professed and hope in Christ which St. Paul hath put all together in one verse To the Saints and faithful Brethren in Christ which are at Colosse chap. i. ver 2. But as St. Paul says By honour and dishonour by evil report and by good report we approve our selves the Ministers of Chrisft And they that scoffed at the way of salvation did load us with contumelious taunts that they might soil our Profession The first bitter arrow that our Enemies shot forth was to call us Nazarens Tertullus the spruce Orator was aware of that and charged St. Paul that he was a ring leader of the Sect of the Nazarens Act. xxiv 5. Surely they delighted the more in this Nickname because of that opprobrious by word can there any good come out of Nazareth St. Hierom says that the spiteful Jews had no other term for the Christians in his days and how in that term they cursed us thrice every day in their Synagogues Now when they thought to gall us both with their curse and their venemous scorn Epiphanius says that the Apostles liked it well enough to be called Nazarens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their intention was to put the name of Nazareth upon him where the Angel Gabriel saluted the Blessed Virgin and where she conceived Christ and they were contented It seems so for because they held it no disgrace Julian the Emperor would not call them Nazarens but Galilaeans and proclaimed it says Nazianzen that they should plead or be empleaded by no other name throughout all his Dominions the name of Christian says the same Father it grated his ear some Divine Majesty was in the syllables that it put horror into his conscience but for his own quiet and their wrongs he thought it better to call them Galilaeans his slanderous intention was all that was ill in it for the appellation it self was not slanderous an Angel of God directed his Message to them in that form Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven Act. i. 11. But here was the secret gibe one Judas of Galilee a Firebrand of sedition had lodged an ill opinion in many of the Jews who were born in that Region that such as paid Tithes to God were not to pay Tribute to Cesar neither ought they to call any one their Lord but him that created Heaven and Earth In plain meaning he and his Consorts of Galilee were errant Rebels and though none were so far from faction and disobedience as these modest Disciples yet to perswade the World that they had an Anti-monarchichal grudg in their bosom this Apostate called them Galilaeans Lastly because the Orthodox Champions of the Church confounded the obstinate Gentiles with certain verses cited out of the Books of the Sibyls therefore in despite they invented the name Sibyllistae and pointed at us for the Disciples of those Prophetesses the Sibyls whereas it was their own doing to make us urge them with those proofs since they would not believe the Old Testament and the Prophets of the Lord. I cannot forget how Albertus Pighius played such a wise part or rather a far worse being the first that called our Reformed Divines Scripturarios Scripture-men because they grounded all their Doctrin upon the written word of the holy Scriptures yet in my judgment Sibyllist was not so ill a scoff as Scripturarian Now you know from that which hath been spoken what good Titles adorned the Primitive Saints and how their Enemies drew their name with a black coal in terms of scurrillity the bad appellations vanished away by the brightness of their vertue the good ones were like a scanty Robe too short to cover all their excellency they bore the Cross of Christ gladly and triumphantly wherefore this eximious Inscription was given them which is here in my Text all other names were but as a trail of golden beams to beautify this which includes them all Christian 'T is very much that no Author is mentioned here who was so lucky to impose this name which will be glorious no doubt in all the World as long as the Sun and Moon endure Carthusian hath his opinion that Infidels were the Inventers in disdain at Christ whom that pious Generation worshipped Comestor imputes it to the converted Greeks and Gentiles to the end that they and the believing Jews might have one common cognizance There are more than enough that think it may proceed from St. Peter whose first Episcopal See was at Antioch and then they think they have engrossed all Christians to be under the Pastoral charge of him and his Successors his Successors at Rome they mean and not at Antioch Turrian the Jesuit is far more reasonable sayiâ—â— that the Nomenclator is not known but that the name was ratified by a Synod of Apostles for he mentions a Synod held at Antioch in which these three Canons passed 1. That none should be circumcised for Baptism was the true Circumcision made without hands 2. That all Nations that believed might be collected into the Catholick
Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone p. 302 XII Upon the same p. 312 XIII Vpon Matth. iv 7. Jesus said unto him it is written again Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God p. 322 XIV Vpon S. Matth. iv 8. Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high Mountain and sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them p. 331 XV. Vpon S. Matth. iv 9. And saith unto him all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me p. 340 XVI Upon the same p. 349 XVII Vpon S. Matth. iv 9 10. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Then saith Jesus unto him get thee hence Satan p. 359 XVIII Vpon S. Matth. iv 10. For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve p. 368 XIX Upon the same p. 377 XX. Upon the same p. 387 XXI Vpon S. Matth. iv 11. Then the Devil leaveth him and behold Angels came and ministred unto him p. 398 VII Sermons upon the Transfiguration of our Saviour I. Vpon S. Luke ix 28 29. And it came to pass about an eight dayes after these sayings he took Peter and John and James and went up into a Mountain to pray And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering p. 411 II. Vpon S. Luke ix 29 30 31. The fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering And behold there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias p. 422 III. Vpon S. Luke ix 31 32. Who appeared in glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Hierusalem But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep and when they were awake they saw his glory and the two men that stood with him p. 432 IV. Vpon S. Luke ix 33. And it came to pass as they departed from him Peter said unto Jesus Master it is good for us to be here and let us make three Tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias not knowing what he said p. 440 V. Upon the same p. 450 VI. Vpon S. Luke ix 34. While he thus spake there came a Cloud and overshadowed them and they feared as they entred into the Cloud p. 460 VII Vpon S. Luke ix 35 36. And there came a voice out of the Cloud saying This is my beloved Son hear him And when the voice was past Jesus was found alone And they kept it close and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen p. 470 V Sermons upon the Passion of our Saviour I. Vpon S. Matth. xxvii 24. I am innocent of the bloud of this just Person see you to it p. 483 II. Vpon S. John xix 34. But one of the Souldiers with a Spear pierced his side and forthwith came thereout Bloud and Water p. 505 III. Vpon Gen. xxii 13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him a Ram caught in a thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the Ram and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his Son p. 516 IV. Vpon John iii. 14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up p. 527 V. Vpon Acts ii 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain p. 538 IX Sermons upon the Resurrection of our Saviour I. Vpon Acts ii 24. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it p. 549 II. Vpon S. John 11.43 And when he had thus spoken he cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth p. 558. III. S. John xi 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths and his face was bound about with a Napkin p. 568 IV. Vpon S. John xx 1. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the Sepulcher and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulcher p. 577 V. Vpon S. Matth. xxviii 2. And behold there was a great Earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sate upon it p. 586 VI. Vpon S. Matth. xxviii 3 4. His Countenance was like lightning and his Raiment white as snow And for fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men p. 597 VII Vpon S. Mark xvi 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he had cast seven Devils p. 607 VIII Vpon S. Matth. xxviii 9 10. And as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them saying all hail and they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him Then said Jesus unto them be not afraid go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me p. 615 IX Vpon S. Matth. xxviii 13. Say ye his Disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept p. 624 V Sermons upon the Descent of the Holy Ghost I. Vpon Acts ii 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place p. 637 II. Vpon 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 p. 646 III. Vpon Acts ii 3. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them p. 654 IV. Vpon Acts ii 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance p. 663 V. Vpon Acts ii 12 13. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this Others mocking said these men are full of new wine p. 672 III Sermons preached upon Psalm cxviii 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it The first at Whitehall upon the Kings Coronation p. 683 The second at Holbourn upon Easter-day p. 693 The Third in defence of the Festivals of the Church p. 702 The second Sermon upon the Kings Coronation preached at the Spittle in the Mayoralty of Sir Cuthbert Hacket upon 1 Sam. ii 30. Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed p. 711 A Sermon preached upon the Gowry Conspiracy before King James upon Psalm xli 9. Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my bread hath lift up his heel against me p. 731 II Sermons upon the 5th of November preached at Whitehall
before King James I. Vpon Amos ix 2. Though they dig into Hell thence shall my hand take them p. 742 II. Vpon Acts xxviii 5. And he shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm p. 752 II Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. v. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him p. 762 Upon the same p. 771 III. Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. viii 20 21. And Noah builded an Altar to the Lord and took of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl and offered burnt offerings on the Altar And the Lord smelled a sweet savour p. 780 Upon the same p. 789 Upon the same p. 798 II Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. xix 26. But his Wife lookt back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt p. 896 Upon the same p. 815 A Sermon preached at Whitehall upon Numb xxi 7. Pray unto the Lord that he take the Serpents from us p. 823 A Sermon upon Joshua xxii 20. And that man perished not alone in his iniquity p. 831 A Fast Sermon preached at Whitehall upon Nehem. i. 4. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven p. 849 A Sermon upon Prov. iii. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee p. 862 II Sermons concerning the Rechabites upon Jer. xxxv 6. But they said we will drink no wine p. 873 II Sermons preached at Whitehall upon John iv 13 14. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst p. 483 Upon the same p. 902 III Sermons preached at Whitehall upon John vi 11. And Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks distributed to the Disciples and the Disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would p. 911 Upon the same 921 Upon the same 931 A Sermon preached at Whitehall upon St. Lukes day upon Acts xi 26. And the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch p. 941 A Commencement Sermon preached at Cambridge upon Acts xii 23. And immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory p. 952 III Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gal. iv 26. But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all p. 964 Upon the same 973 Upon the same 983 II Sermons preached upon All Saints day in Holbourn I. Upon Rev. vi 9. I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the Testimony which they held p. 992. II. Vpon Rev. vi 10. And they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth p. 1003 AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE and DEATH OF THE AUTHOR THE Son of Sirach a renowned Preacher in his Generation has given us counsel to commend Famous Men and our Fathers of whom we are begotten and in the close of his excellent Book has presented us with a large Catalogue of them together with an Encomium of their Actions whose remembrance sayes he is sweet as Honey in all Mouths and pleasant as Musick at a Banquet of Wine St. Paul has directly imitated the Son of Sirach and enumerated many antient Heroes not without a due Commemoration and farther given us a Precept To remember our Governors or Guides in the Christian Faith holy Bishops and Martyrs after their death as appears plainly by the following words whose faith follow considering the end of their Conversation Accordingly in the Primitive times the Bishops of Rome took care that the lives and actions of all holy Men and Martyrs especially should be recorded For this purpose publick Notaries were appointed by S. Clement say some though Platina first ascribes their institution to Anterus whose Records were far more large than the present Roman Martyrology or that of Bede and Vsuardus or the Menologue of the Greeks which for the most part contain only the Names and Deaths of the Martyrs but those were a Narrative of their whole Lives and Doctrines and Speeches at large their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famous Acts and Sufferings for the Christian Faith which were also read sometimes in their Religious Assemblies for the encouragement of others and are said to have converted many to the Christian Faith But these long since perished through the malice and cruelty of Dioclesian in those fires which consumed their Bodies and their Books together Afterwards when Christian Religion reflourished the Christian Church resumed these Studies again St Ambrose did right to the memory of Theodosius Paulinus of St. Ambrose Nazianzen to Athanasius St. Hierom to Nepotian Possidonius to St. Austin Amphilochius to St. Basil St. Hierom and Gennadius wrot of all Ecclesiastical Writers and illustrious men in the Christian Church from the beginning of it to their own times And after all these there wanted not Martyrologers and Writers of Lives but such as perhaps we had better have wanted than enjoyed their Writings insomuch that a great Lieutenant under the Papal Standard durst affirm that the Stories of the Heathen Captains and Philosophers were more excellently written then of Christs own Apostles and Martyrs For those were done so notably that they were like to live for ever whereas the lives of many Saints in the Christian Church were so corruptly and shamefully penn'd that they could no way advantage the Reader so that at this day we have two things to bewail not only that we have lost the true reports of the Primitive Christians but likewise that the lives of the Saints we have remaining have not been written by Saints and true men but by liars who have stufft their fastidious Writings with so many prodigious Tales as are more apt to beget infidelity than faith and all honest and judicious men are ashamed and grieved to read them For my own part I intend not in this tumultuary haste to write an absolute Life of the Author or recollect all his Actions praise-worthy but only for satisfaction of some importunate friends to represent quaedam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some few Memoirs and Passages of his Life which I have received from his Lordships most intimate acquaintance and for the most part from his own reports Tecum etenim longos memini consumere Soles and in them am resolved to sacrifice to Truth and not to Affection to the glory of God and not to humane fame to write nothing false or fictitious nor things true in an hyperbolical and flaunting manner as in a Panegyrick but only a Breviary of his most active and industrious life where the truth shall be recited without false Idea's and representations and his Lordship made to appear what really he was both in his Divine vertues and humane passions
semblance hath shined upon some faces when it redounded from no inward fountain as in the Transfiguration of Christ from the personal union of the Divinity or as in the beatitude of the Saints from their Glorification But God cast a beam of honour upon them from the comfort of his own presence So in the forty days that Moses was upon the Mount twice he came down to commune with the Children of Israel and there was no alteration in him he lookt as one of the other people But when the Almighty passed by him and proclaimed his mighty name in his ears then when Moses came down the skin of his face did shine and the people were afraid to come nigh him Exod. 34 30. as the purple of one ripe grape doth tincture that which is next it with the same colour so that flaming Majesty wherein the Lord appear'd did cast a new die of awfulness upon the forehead of Moses And S. Stephen the Martyr had a glimpse of the Glory of Christ which like a ray of the Sun darted upon his face and all that sate in the Council saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel Acts 6. ult 4. A lightsomness and coruscation hath been shewn from heaven not resting upon the persons nothing was chang'd about them but upon the place where they stood in the day time when it appear'd it was more glorious than the day and when it appear'd in the night it turn'd the night into day So it happened unto Paul at noon-tide as he journeyed unto Damascus hear his own testimony to Agrippa Acts 26.13 At mid-day O King I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun shining round about me and them that journeyed with me So it happened to the Shepherds upon christmas-Christmas-day as they kept watch over their flocks by night when the nights are at the darkest according to the season of the year the heavens were spread above them like a glistering Canopy the glory of the Lord shone round about them and so many ways in Scripture four in all God hath communicated light to glorifie his own works and his Saints that praise him You shall hear some opinions what kind of light this was which did spangle in the field when the Angel came unto the Shepherds St. Ambrose thinks it was some fulgure of the Stars Angels says he and Shepherds had a voice and a tongue to publish their joy but the constellations of heaven Quia voce non poterant gaudia sua officio protestantur because they could not utter their joy by a tongue they express it by their duty to start like lightning into the fields which were near to Bethlehem And whether he speak it by a figurative amplification or not I know not but the same Author hath these words Sol praeter consuetudinem in hac festivitate matutinus illuxit the Sun prevented the morning watch and peept upon the earth earlier than he should to guild all those fields with his light which were adjoyning to the Stable where Christ was born For. says he why might not the Sun make more haste than natural to offer service to the Son of God as well as stand still in the firmament to attend a petty Jesus Joshuah the Captain of the Israelites But with the leave of that holy man I conceive if the Sun had rose miraculously before the time the Scripture would have express'd it even as we find it mentioned that the Sun was eclipsed and the heavens darkened at the Passion of our Lord. Others are conceited because an Angel is a glorified creature therefore the body which he took upon him did shine triumphantly as if he had stood in a cloud of light Hence it comes says the Cardinal that among other honours which are decreed to Saints in their Canonization this is one Pinguntur eorum imagines addito certo quodam lumine in signum gloriae quam habent in coelis Their images are painted with resplendent rays about them to signifie the light of that glory which they enjoy in heaven But beloved my Text says not glory did shine about the Angel or that the glory of the Angel did hallow the place but the Glory of the Lord did shine about the Shepherds Therefore I adhere to that learned Author who says it was Claritas creata prae se ferens divinam majestatem a clarity of light newly created which bare the evident shew of no created Spirit but of a Divine Majesty and some are bold to say that this white glorious cloud which dazled the Shepherds afterward being compacted into one body it made that blazing Star which went before the Wisemen from the East unto Bethlehem and I leave it indifferent to you as you think fit to believe them But I leave to agitate this point any more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what this shining Glory was and for some profitable use and application I come to the next thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what use there was of it to celebrate our Saviours Nativity First The Lord did put on this glorious apparel even a robe of light to express the Majesty of his Son who was born to save the world Mis-conceive not his excellent greatness because he lies in a Manner but estimate him by this sign from Heaven that the glory of the Lord did shine round about to honour his Nativity Christ is obscur'd in the Stable says St. Austin but his messenger shines in the field Sic opera humilitatis apud nos contemptibilia illustria sunt in conspectu Dei so humility may appear contemptible to us but it is glorious in the sight of God In the old Testament says Hugo though Angels were sent to men upon sundry occasions yet they never came with this propertie as far as we read that glory did shine about them Nunc exorto Sole justitiae tanquam solares radii lucidi fulgentes apparent but now the Sun of Righteousness did rise upon the earth they appear conspicuous in their colours like the beams of the Sun Nothing could resemble Christ so well as this Claritas Domini the brightness and splendor of the Lord because he is the brightness of the Fathers Glory Heb. 1.3 it is a similitude which gives ample occasion unto faith to make fit constructions The Father is compar'd to the Sun in the firmament and Christ his only begotten to the light of the Sun 1. Non libere à patre procedit sed naturaliter says St. Cyril he comes out from the Father not of free choice as if the Father had power not to beget him but naturally as the light hath an emanation from the body of the Sun so that the Sun cannot choose but give light 2. The generation of God the Son is eternal even as the Father is eternal we cannot say there was a time when he was not no more then we can say there was a time when the Sun had
brought with him lookt another way Titus ii 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Some few persons are culled out here for all that shall be shielded under the buckler of this Saviour unto you a Saviour is born says the Angel speaking only to the Shepherds that 's because no more were in the way But to as many as read these words and mark them the word speaks continually and is never silent the message is as properly brought to you as ever it was to the Shepherds to you a Saviour is born The Prophet Isaiah allows him to all the Sons of Adam that will lay claim unto him unto us a Child it born and unto us a Son is given Isa ix 6. 'T is a kind expression to rejoyce at the good news of another mans prosperity 't is incident to a sweet nature to do so And indeed if Angels were so enlightned with the gladsomness of our benefit that when they had said it over they could not choose but sing it also in the verses after my Text Cum de aliena gratia Angeli exultent quae nostra est stupiditas If the blessed Cherubims exult for the grace that we find in Gods eyes what stupidness is in us if our hearts do not triumph for gladness for the benefit flows unto us and not unto the Angels The Devils fretted and roared out against Christ because he came into the world for mans sake and not for their deliverance Quid nobis tibi What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God we renounce thee Mat. viii 29. The evil spirits rage that he is not theirs the good Spirits of God rejoyce that his Father hath made him all ours being secure of their own glorious estate they triumph that we shall be exalted to the fellowship of their happiness Well then to you he is born not only to the Shepherds but inclusive to all men so you have heard in the former verse his birth was gaudium omni populo joy to all people only they are excluded that exclude themselves by infidelity Facit multorum infidelitas ut non omnibus nasceretur qui omnibus natus est says St. Ambrose the infidelity of many now infidelity is properly imputed to those within the Church who had the means to believe and did not the infidelity of many is a bar that the Incarnation of Christ pertains not to all men although he was born for all men Every man therefore must strive so to love Christ and to keep his Commandements that he may feel the joy of this day particularly enter into his heart and the Spirit testifying to his spirit unto me a Saviour is born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greeks it comes of the possessive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tuus a Saviour restoreth every man to himself for a sinner is lost not only to God and the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven but he is lost to himself and to the comfort of a good conscience until Christ restore him again to joy and peace within his own heart that he may say to himself as Philip did to Nathanael I have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth c. Oportet uti nostro in utilitatem nostram de servatore salutem operari says Bernard Let us make our profit from that which is our own and let every man collect his own salvation from his own Saviour To you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings Mal. iv 2. The Sun enlightens half the world at once yet none discern colours by the light but they that open their eyes and a Saviour is born unto us all which is Christ the Lord but enclasp him in thine heart as old Simeon did in his arms and then thou mayst sing his Nunc Dimittis or Mary's Magnificat My spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour The fourth thing to be consider'd is what early tidings the Shepherds had of our Saviours birth hodie natus I do not tell it to you says the Angel after a month or after a week go to Bethlehem and search and ye shall find this is the first day that his Mother bore him This day is born unto you in the City of David c. Before the blessed seed was promised for a long while ye have had a state in reversion that Christ should come in the flesh to save his people from their sins now the act is accomplished ye have a state in being enter upon your happiness and possess it reckon from henceforth that you have your joy in hand this day the great deliverer hath taken up a poor Palace in the City of David According to a natural computation of days we forget the nights though an Infant be brought forth in the still hours of darkness yet from thenceforth we call it the Birth-day and not the birth-night of such an Infant In such accompts I know not how we speak of nothing but day for that 's the Dialect of the Kingdom of Heaven where there is day for ever and no darkness So the Shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night and after the first hour the morning began as the general conjecture runs our Saviour was born yet since a natural day comprehends darkness as well as light the Angel was pleas'd to say This day he is born This is literal and to the plain meaning yet I refrain not their allusions altogether that say the darkness was remov'd away by that radiant glory which shone round about the Angels and that the night was as clear in those parts as if the Sun had risen upon the earth therefore upon the comfort of that miraculous illumination the messenger says This day is born unto you And David by some men is made to speak to this allusion Psal cxxxviii The night is as clear as the day which was true say they at our Saviours Incarnation Others take their liberty to guess that good tidings make the night be called day and sad tidings make the day be called night Heavy misfortunes indeed have fallen out in the night for the most part Sennacheribi great host slain in the night Thou fool this night thy soul shall be taken from thee a threatning to the rich Epicure yet it holds not always But if Christ be the day-star and his Birth turns night into day it will become us as the Apostle says to walk as children of the light Curiosity hath gone too far in one question touching this part of my Text why this late day was esteemed most expedient in Gods wisdom to send his Son in the flesh four thousand years had almost expir'd since the seed of the Woman was promised to bruise the Serpents head and yet no sooner then hodie say they that will search in to all causes the Angel said to day but why he came punctually on that
without a Lutrum or satisfaction This stops the mouth of the Devil that he cannot calumniate and it resounds the praise of God that the iniquity of the world did not escape unrevenged Caiaphas meant to speak bitterly and to blaspheme but the Lord turned the curse of his mouth into the words of blessing It is expedient for us that one man die for the people and that the whole Nation perish not Joh. xi 50. Secondly They divulge the honour of Christ unto the ends of the world for the mercy that came down with him upon all those that should believe in his name if his Justice was not forgotten in their Song surely his Mercy should be much more solemnized The Angels for their own share were unacquainted with mercy 't was news in heaven till this occasion hapned they had felt gratiam confirmantem but not gratiam condonantem that is the Lord bestowed upon the good Angels grace to confirm them in grace but for those rebellious ones of their Order that had sinned they found no grace to remit their trespasses properly that is called mercy but a thing so rare and unheard of in heaven that as soon as ever they saw it stirring in the earth they sing Glory to God in the highest Thirdly They praise the Lord on high for the Incarnation of his Son because the dignity of the work was so from himself that no Creature did merit it none did beseech or intercede unto him for it before he had destinate it nothing but his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and compassion could move him to it Nemo in hoc opere glorietur nullius merito ascribatur no man can ascribe it to his deserts no man can partake in the glory What was man that the Son of God did visit him For him we shall be glorified by him we have obtained peace through him good will hath shined upon men therefore unto him be all the glory This was the Angels Congratulation and no doubt God shall be glorified in his holy places on high but shall that God who is most high be worshipped and glorified by us below That is it the Angels pray for and wish for our sakes and for our Salvation that we of the Militant Church beneath may extol the name of the Lord and give him glory Among men sinners pray for sinners and it is but one for another the People pray for the Prince and the Prince for the People The Priest for the Congregation and the Congregation for the Priest Great and small there are no odds in that they requite one another with their mutual Charity the head cannot say unto the feet I have no need of your Prayers nor the feet unto the head Dum singuli orant pro omnibus omnes orant pro singulis while every particular man prays for all Christians in the Church all Christians in the Church pray for every particular man but as I said this is sinners for sinners quid pro quo But when the Angels are sollicitous in Hymns and Supplications for us it is not that we should pray to them or pray for them again but shew charity that cannot be requited They know that many Sacrifices of Prayers are requisite to bless any Congregation on earth that God may have his due honour from it and therefore all the powers in heaven above assist us with their intercession And especially they are mindful over us to make that Petition on our behalf that we may never forget that our condition is base and as low as the clay and dust of the earth and that God is highly exalted above all the world therefore that we are made to worship him and to fall down before him and to render the homage of our humility to our Chief that is dominion and glory to him that is the highest We find this title of most high in Melchisedechs title Gen. xiv 18. and never before There it comes in as some say whom I approve for this reason Melchisedech is the first in holy Scripture that is called a King that being the greatest name of pre-eminency among men God blazons his own honour just at the first discovery of that name to shew how far it exceeds all earthly Principality and calls him Melchisedech King of Salem a Priest of the most high God And indeed there was a glory due to that Melchisedech and to every one in his rank that is set on high above the people but take heed we let not our Worship and Service rest in them and in the admiration of their outward Pomp and go no higher God set Princes in their Thrones of Majesty to be bowed unto and obeyed that we may rise up in our Meditations and consider how excellent and superlative he is that gave such power and dominion to men Before Christ came into the world it was Gloria in excelsis men worshipt their Idols in every high place as the Prophets did greatly complain of it but it was not Deo in altissimis they worshipt the Host of heaven and things above but they did not lift up their hearts to him that sitteth above the heavens Therefore this is the sum of the Angels Prayer that men may give dominion and praise and thanksgiving to the true God and their wish was as effectual as they could desire for even immediately upon the Birth of Christ Idolatry went down the heathen Gods were discovered more and more to be but Wood and Stone the work of mens hands and the praise of the true God began to be sounded forth in all places The next issue of this first Point is the Angels teach us by the contents of their Prayer that Gods glory is to be sought before all things Nihil aequius est quam ut pro quo quis oret pro eo etiam laboret says St. Austin Whatsoever we pray for we must not only stand wishing it but as much as in us lies endeavour it also First repeating often the marvelous works which he hath done for the conservation of those that praise him and for the destruction of his enemies O God we have heard with our ears and our Fathers have declared unto us the noble works that thou didst in their days and in the old time before them Secondly By confessing of our grievous sins which makes his mercy and his grace so excellent throughout all the world and depressing our best works to be as ineffectual as our sins unto Salvation unless the Lord will cover the stains that are in them with the bloud of Christ Surely the reward which he brings with him is much exalted when we deny not but the best thing we do is less than the least of all his mercies Thirdly by defying by shunning by resisting nay by rooting out the children of Belial that blaspheme his glory for God will avenge himself of them that are tame and patient when his name is violated and his honour prophaned it is the glory of humane Laws
they are to be seen and testifie what I say do never aspire to that sublimity nay they that referred every thing they had to the gift and goodness of their Idols Riches to Plutus joyful Marriage to Juno Victory to Mars prosperous Navigation to Neptune all these and the very breath of their life to Jupiter yet the Devil was not suffered to fool them with this gross opinion that any of their adulterate Deities was worth the name of a Saviour Salvation belongeth to our God and his goodness upon his people says the Psalmist Salvation had never been known upon earth unless this day heaven had faln down upon the earth But though all comfort in this world were forgotten nothing but darkness and weeping and captivity over all the Universe yet this one word is enough to turn all the sorrow into gladness nay to turn hell into heaven Where art thou O Lord that we may find thee Wherein shall we enquire for thee that we may see thy love and glory If I look for thee in the work of Creation thou art Omnipotent if I consider thee in the work of Preservation thou art most vigilant if I seek thee in the store of all things wherewith thou hast filled Sea and Land thou art most indulgent but when the incarnation of my Lord Jesus and the mystery of Salvation comes into my thoughts then O God thou art most transcendent and I am lost in the Abyssus of thy goodness When I call him the Glass in which I see all truth the Fountain in which we taste all sweetness the Ark in which all precious things are laid up the Pearl which is worth all other Riches the Flower of Jessai which hath the savour of life unto life the Bread that satisfies all hunger the Medicine that healeth all sickness the Light that dispelleth all darkness when I have run over all these and as many more glorious Titles as I can lay on this description is above them and you may pick them all out of these Syllables our salvation much more when he is exalted with this adjunct in my Text an horn of salvation And can so great a thing as Salvation be amplified through so mean an Epithet Beside that it is a badg of a beast it is not of the choicest substance of nature for what is an horn but the excrement of the Nerves in the outward parts as Teeth proceed out of our gums within But as God did not abhor to be made man for our deliverance so he recoiles not from having his goodness compared to the grossest things for our better intelligence And yet to see the perverseness of the most learned Wits likely they intangle those Similitudes with intricate difficulties to which God hath mightily condescended and even abased himself for our better perspicuity Did not he intend to set up a plain and a sensible Sacrament before our eyes when his Evangelist hath thus described him an horn of salvation And yet what abstruce mistakes are some faln into that would be more subtil than the Spirit of God Abulensis says that this phrase is originally derived from the horn that shined upon the head of Moses when he came down from the Mount and had talkt with God forty days And there being this ample resemblance between Christ and Moses the one brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt the other acquits us from the bondage of sin and hell Therefore Christ should take this character from Moses that was his Type and be called an horn of salvation I like not this opinion for many reasons First Moses had no such disfigurement in his face as the appearance of horns when he came from God Ignorant Painters make us ridiculous to the Jews with their childish errors They know he put a vail on when his face shined and can they tell how horns branching out would admit of such a vail Some Limners conceived that the splendour of his face sent forth beams of light which indeed Rabby Solomon calls by a figure cornua magnificentiae others that were bunglers in the Art took these beams to be horns and with the help of the Vulgar Latine Translation they have made him of an holy Saint a prodigious monster Their error stops not here for this character doth so little agree with Moses that the Scriptuce is very wary never to call Moses the salvation of the people Why For salvation comes not by the Law but by Faith If eternal life could be attained by the works of the Law there had been no need of Christmas day our Mediator had been born in vain he had died in vain therefore mark it in Mat. xxii when the Pharisees askt our Saviour which was the great Commandment of the Law as if all their study all their hope and confidence were in the Law he answers them fully but immediately he calls them to another question What think ye of Christ whose Son is he As who should say by the works of the Law shall no Flesh be justified it were better for you to know and believe in Christ there is no other name under heaven through which you can be saved So I cast off this first opinion to impute horns unto Moses is a vanity to impute salvation to him is an Heresie Secondly Some would draw the Phrase from an heathen Proverb Delrio the Jesuit is not against it The heathen Jupiter as their Poets tell us in their raptures was nourisht by a Goat in his Infancy and for the memory of it that horn was endued with vertue to bring forth plenty of all things for the life of man and constantly they call that which exceeds with all abundance the horn of Amalthea Now Christ replinishing us with all good things supplying us with more than we can desire or deserve in whom we are complete as St. Paul says Col. ii 10. he is this celestial horn about which prophane Authors puzzled themselves and knew not what they said And shall I ever be perswaded that the Scripture hath borrowed terms of honour out of their Fables to give to the Son of God It sounds not well to my judgment yet I subscribe it was an eximious Title of great antiquity for when God raised up the fortunes of Job again he had three Daughters the name of the first was Jemima which is by interpretation day The second Kesia that is sweet Cassia The third Keren happuch that is the horn of plenty and the best Editions of the Septuagint have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the horn of Amalthea Yet to strike off that opinion that horn in the old Addage betokened an inexhaust Fountain of earthly felicity this horn in my Text is the staff and stay of heavenly salvation Therefore they differ as much in effect as finite and infinite Barradius observing that Christ accomplisht the work of our salvation upon his Cross would deduce that from thence he should be called the horn of salvation because the two
It is a wonder how many learned men did acquiesce in this opinion as if none were like it Whereas cui bono to what end should two Evangelists spend such pains to describe both the legal and the natural line of Joseph and in the mean time the family of Mary should be forgotten by whom only it may be demonstrated that according to the Scripture Christ was of the house of David 3. The safest opinion and without any intricacy is that Joseph was the true Son of Jacob but the Son-in-law of Heli by the marriage of the Virgin Mary so the Virgin being the Daughter of Heli and Heli being of the stock of Nathan the Son of David the truth lifts up its head against all adversaries that Christ was of the lineage of David If any one dislike this as Calvin doth because Sons-in-law are called Sons I reply why not as well as Daughters-in-law Daughters Ruth xviii And if you will admit of the acuteness of Gomaras all is salved he doth enlarge the parenthesis Luke iii. 23. Jesus began to be about thirty years of age being the Son of Heli For that which comes between is a parenthesis being as was supposed the Son of Joseph but being the Son of Heli c. This reading hath my great approbation Heli being Christs Grand-father by the Mothers side and by this reading it is as clear as the light of the Sun that Christ was of the house of David Pardon me if I have troubled you with a genealogy at other times I will forbear but it is proper to this day Now I will end all with the use and fruit of his birth all this salvation this mighty salvation raised up to the admiration of heaven and earth all is for us and hath c. But for this word all the rest were loose this girds about us nay it fills our bosoms with it The Devils renounced his coming into the world What have we to do with thee says Satan Mat. viii 29. The good Angels had joy derived unto them through his Birth but neither glory nor salvation they were ours because he is ours because he is our horn of salvation But in what capacity doth Zachary take him to be his first as a Jew for it was fit that salvation should first be offered to them that were the natural branches Secondly As a Priest salvation came to the Priesthood out of the house of David that is the protection of the Church by God and the King Thirdly and principally as a man who is a sinner that had need of a Mediator For God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of all mankind He excludes only those that include not themselves Want of Faith causeth that he that is born to all is not born to all Unto us a child is born says Isaiah c. 9. and he directs his message to King Ahaz a man of great iniquity but Christ was born for him as likewise he was born unto Zachary a just man and one that lived most unblamably The sinner that hath done very wickedly by faith in him and by repentance he may be saved the good man that lives obediently and devoutly without him he cannot be saved Finally since this horn of salvation is raised up unto us let us lay hold of it and fasten upon it Vtamur nostro in utilitatem nostram let us use him for our best behoof and draw the proper extract out of him I mean salvation He is ours by being made flesh and blood we shall be his by renouncing flesh and blood he is ours by his natural generation we are his by spiritual regeneration he is ours his Body and Blood are ours in the Holy Sacrament we shall be his both body and soul by receiving those mysteries worthily that is faithfully thankfully charitably penitently devoutly Amen THE THIRTEENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION MAT. ii 1 2. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem Saying where is he that is born King of the Jews For we have seen his Star in the East and are come to worship him THe Nativity of Christ was that wonder which came to pass this day but how he was revealed and known of them that sought him is the use of the day for Christ was born that he might be found And that is the cause that the manifestation of his birth is joyned together with his birth and more copiously handled a great deal both by St. Matthew and St. Luke by St. Luke how the Shepherds were sent to find him in a Manger by St. Matthew how the Sages of the East were admonished to come from a far Country that he might be known unto them God could have brought it to pass that the blessed Virgin should have been delivered as she travelled to Bethlem either in the Wilderness or in the Forest of Lebanon where none should have been the wiser but loe this had been contrary to his own work of grace to fold up his mercy in darkness when light was come into the world Therefore he call'd so many witnesses about him after such a manner with such new and over-natural signs that his Nativity was as publick as Angels and Stars and Jews and Gentiles could make it The Angel sent the Shepherds out of the fields to enquire him as if he would have the whole Country of the Jews flock thither The Star called the Wisemen out of the East to come and worship him as if the heavens would invite all the Gentiles to resort to him thither God diffused the tidings that his Son was born both to common places such as Bethlem and the Stable and to holy places such as the Temple at Jerusalem where Simeon and Anna confessed him to be the light of the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel Mark it Beloved so long as the Witnesses came to worship him so long as those that had him in their arms praised the Lord and blessed the day they saw him so long he was manifested more and more But instantly he sate in a cloud as soon as Herod sought to kill him then he drew back the light by which he was known and hid himself in Egypt If then we are now met together with such faith as is fruitful to yield him honour and worship and praise and glory some strange Star will rise in our hearts and make it easie to find him out then those mysteries of my Text shall be opened to us how he was first revealed to the Gentiles hearken then to that story which hath been so precious with the Church in all Ages and begins as I have read unto you When Jesus was born in Bethlem c. Each of these verses contain a several portion of matter to be handled by it self the one concerning the doings the other concerning the sayings of the Wise-men first you have their Journey and then their Errand
learning of the world hath busied it self about conjecture this is evident truth and no conjecture that they were Gentiles far remote from the Temple at Jerusalem which God had chosen out above all the earth for the holy place of his honour This is the reason that makes Twelfth-day so great a Feast throughout all the world because in the person of the Wise men a door of Faith was opened unto the Nations that knew not God As a Star is an heavenly body that is common to all Coasts and Climates to illuminate them so the Birth of Christ was attended by a Star because all people should partake of his Grace and Gospel Behold ye the Philistines and they of Tyre with the Morians loe there was he born Psal lxxxvii 4. As who should say it should be no prejudice to us that he was born among the Jews in the City of David for his blessing shall be with us as much as if he had been born in every Country of the Gentiles They that believe in Christ they are his Country-men They that hear the word of God and keep it they are my Mother and my Brothers and my Sisters says our Saviour The Prophet Jonas who was a Type of Christ in none of his smallest works but even in his glorious Resurrection he was sent to the Gentiles of Ninive to denote that through Christ that great Prophet whom the Lord would raise up the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven should be opened to the Gentiles But this is stale now and little thought upon because the sound of the word hath gone forth into the ends of the world for sixteen hundred years who considers this merciful loving kindness as he ought though at the first every small thing was admired and it was marvellous in mens eyes to see any partakers of the heavenly gift but the very natural branches of the stock of Abraham Christ himself wondered at the Centurions Faith for he was not of the house of Israel he was astonisht at the importunity and zeal of the Syro-phenisian O woman great is thy faith at the Samaritan who being a Samaritan was thankful when nine others were forgetful These were rare occurrences in the beginning And when St. Luke brings in his Shepherds to visit Christ in his manger he doth not say ecce pastores behold there were Shepherds of the Jews that saw the Birth of our Lord but St. Matthew lays an index of wonder upon these Gentiles Ecce Magi Behold there came Wise men of the East to Jerusalem A great change as ever was in the world to be remembred on this day with most festival Thanksgiving but never to be forgotten Every Nation loves to know above all other Antiquities when her people were converted to the Faith as our Country reckons from King Lucius the French from Clodoveus but the whole world from this day from the coming of the Wise men of the East to Jerusalem But the end of this strange work should especially be kept in mind and with that I end this point Our Saviour told the Pharisees to what end God called the Gentiles The kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Mat. xxi 43. From hence I move a little forward with their motion to the next thing observed Venerunt they came as if the Star had said unto them seek ye my face and they had answered with David Thy face Lord will I seek As soon as ever Christ was born cum natus est at that instant they set forward and made no delay Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day says the Wise man Ecclus. v. 7. Remigius says that the Wise men were brought through the air by an Angel to Jerusalem as Habakkuk was taken up when he carried meat to the Reapers but what needed a Star to direct them if they had not beaten out the way of themselves the Scripture says not they were brought but they came they trod out a long journey with much chearfulness though with much distress to their wearied bodies but where the carkass is thither will the Eagles be gathered and no happiness in any place but to be with the Lord. These were honourable persons and of great account in their own Country though they were not Kings as I have adjudged it before they could have spared their own labour and have sent their servants into Judea to have brought them tidings what strange thing had happened and truly there are too many that would have excused themselves by messengers the way being so long and tedious between them and Christ If it be far to Church from our own home 't is too common to mutter at it and to maunder at a little way every one would have a Chappel of Ease at his next door as if it were fitter for Christ to come to them than for them to come to Christ You forget in the mean time that God considers your bodily labour the molestations and inconveniences which you suffer in the flesh for his word sake To do your Masters work with so much tenderness and easiness to your own person is negligence and self love and as you sow you shall reap Herod I pray you mark it at the eighth verse of this Chapter he would not move out of Jerusalem to look out Christ himself and yet Bethlehem was but six miles off but he sent the Wise men to Bethlehem and bad them search diligently for the Child and when they had found him bring him word but because he sate still himself and set others about it he never found our Saviour Oleaster ad olivam non oliva ad oleastrum veniebat says St. Austin The wild Olive must come to the natural Olive to be ingrafted into it the natural Olive must not go to the wild Olive Venite qui laboratis Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden The fountain must not come to the thirsty man but the thirsty man must come to the fountain to drink The place where the blessed babe lay the Maker of his Mother is worth the seeing to this day worth their travel that have resorted to it from West and East how much more worthy of a journey ten thousand times when the glorious Infant himself was in the place Most justly did our Saviour condemn the whole world that the Queen of Sheba came from far to hear the Wisdom of Solomon and yet the Gentiles did not flock so fast as they ought to have done when a greater than Solomon was upon the earth Tully speaks it of Crassus the Orator as I remember being lately departed we came into the Senate house to look upon the place where that renowned Senator was wont to stand What part of Bethlehem or Jerusalem or Galilee is not a thousand times more worth the viewing where any thing can be recalled to memory of Christs Birth or Miracles
to offer him up for an whole burnt Offering I conceive very well what a straight Abraham was in and that the bowels of nature were never at such a quandary what to do Yet he yielded at the first warning and said it should be done But this trial wherein Christ assayed what his fore-runner would do when he came to be baptized is more perplexful a great deal God proved his servant Abraham what he would do for his bidding with a mortal Son that must die Here God proves John Baptist what he will do to his own immortal Son by whom he made the worlds And to take away the life of Isaac was nothing so hard a case of demur as to make the least abatement from the glory of Christ When God offered so much was it not very disputable with man to bethink him how to take But howsoever this was the greatest appearence of scruple that could be imagined yet I must lay my hand upon my mouth and say with Job How should man contend with the Almighty The way of the Lord is equal though the best Saints on earth may fail in their judgment and know not how to find it out As none of the men of Timnah could guess at the meaning of Samsons Riddle but Samson himself revealed it so none could interpret the paradox of Christ why he would be baptized but Christ himself Suffer it to be so now For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness So much as I shall narrate to you of this Story at this time consists of these two parts in general 1. How John Baptist lost himself in a doubt And comest thou to me 2. How Christ helps him out of it And Jesus answering c. John makes a question of that which Christ commanded Christ commands him again and puts it out of question The doubt of John is no pertinacious error but an admiration mixt of love and humility Comest thou to me Our Saviour accordingly deals gently with him not with the least check to betray any offence but after these two ways Sicut Dominus imperans sicut Preceptor docens First As his Lord he lays his strict command upon him Suffer it to be so now Secondly As his Preceptor he teacheth him cause for if For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness His power to say the word and impose upon him had sufficed but he gives him reason likewise for his better satisfaction These are the particulars to be handled It is the small pittance which remains of my Text since last day how the Prophet hath lost himself in admiration Comest thou to me At which words I am now to enter my Treatise and shall soon dispatch them John puts his speech into a form of wonder how could he do less When he saw the Lord of heaven and earth put himself into the form of a sinner and into the condition of a servant Do you ever read in the Gospel that the Angels brought tidings of his low estate that he would be made flesh but that they cry out in their Preface Ecce behold as if they could not utter the message without admiration Faith is nothing else but a long continued astonishment which knows not how to utter it self because the Lord hath done such marvellous things for us But above all this exinanivit seipsum this exinanition and making himself almost nothing for our sakes it puzzles them most who are best able to consider it Something we would fain say to it and when we have brought it forth it 's nothing but wonder and exclamation So did Elizabeth the mother of this Prophet Whence is it that the mother of my Lord doth come unto me So doth the Prophet himself break forth when the undefiled came to the waters of cleansing Comest thou to me Dost thou wash my feet Says Peter to his Lord. Quis dicere poterit quantum inter hoc Tu illud mihi intersit discriminis says St. Austin O how far are those two words remote one from another Thou the great Jehovah and I an abject worm and dost thou wash my feet The self-same infinite odds John Baptist acknowledgeth between himself and the Messias The breadth of the earth may be measured the height of heaven may be taken but the distance between these two terms cannot be fathomed Thou and I Thou an incomprehensible God and I a small fragment of thy works And comest thou to me And let me add this to the rest John Baptist had greater reason than Peter to cry out at our Saviours humiliation and to say to this effect What meanest thou Lord This shape of a servant doth not become thee for Peter had seen long trial before that Christ was made poor that we might be made rich and made himself of no account that we might be exalted but John was put upon the first proof of all hence he began to depress himself and to communicate of those things which sinners did when he came to be baptized in Jordan Besides it is a greater sign of infirmity to come as it were to be cleansed among the polluted than to take the office to cleanse the defiled therefore it was a greater argument of humility to come to be wash'd in Baptism than to take a Towel and girt himself withal and to wash his Apostles feet It was no small thing therefore that made John Baptist speak like an astonisht man Comest thou to me Thus you see how not only an ordinary person such as we are but a great Prophet whose stile above all others was the Friend of the Bridegroom such a one may loose himself not only by searching into the height of Gods glory but by meditating likewise upon the depth of his humility St. Chrysostom says John Baptist should have taken the rise of his admiration a little further off not from the Baptism but from the Nativity of our Saviour The wonderful abasement was that the infinite God would be made a miserable man all other parts of humiliation fall in sweetly because he would be made in the form of sinful flesh When you consider how he would be inclosed in a Virgins womb be tempted be despised be buffeted be crucified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among so many sorrows and contempts never marvel if he would be baptized There were four things that might seem doubtful to John but to which of them may not a most answerable satisfaction be given according to the mystery of our Redemption which Christ had undertaken 1. Comest thou As who should say I am thy Messenger to go before thy face Why didst thou not send for thy servant but hast come unto him Let it suffice to say to this that the Sacraments must not be commanded except in case of necessity to wait upon us at home but we must come to them behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her Mistris
unto the worlds end The Schoolmen collect a threefold opening of the heaven in holy Scripture and every way through the power and act of Christ Says Ales In baptismo aperta est coeli janua per figuram in passione per meritum in ascensione per effectum 1. The gates of heaven were opened at this Baptism as in a Type or Figure that they should be opened and God will certainly make good whatsoever he did but shadow in a Figure 2. They were opened at the shedding of his bloud upon the Cross as by those means which did meritoriously procure the opening Therefore we sing in the Te Deum When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers 3. They were opened effectually when his own glorious body entred in once into the most Holy of Holies when the heads of the everlasting doors were lifted up at the day of his Ascension And where the head doth sit at the right hand of God the Members of the body having their sins washed clean away shall reign also The Earth never opened in holy Scripture but upon some Curse for the destruction of man The Heavens never opened but that some mighty Blessing might distil down upon us the probatum whereof is in the second general part of my Text for the first Miracle which we have handled did but make way unto the second And after the heavens were opened he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him That John Baptist had this Miracle so clearly in his eye that he saw the Spirit of God I find it not so material to the business of the Text as to insist much upon it For although some observe upon it that the first Witness that preach'd of the Son of God is conceited to be the first Witness that saw the Holy Ghost yet the Miracle hapned not so much for Johns sake as to lead the whole multitude into a right apprehension that Jesus was that holy One which came into the world for the redemption of Israel John was born of a barren woman his Garments very strange and uncouth no better than the skins of Camels clapt about him as they were flay'd from the beast his austerity of life stupendious his Preaching powerful high in estimation so that all the Regions round about came to him to be baptized this drew them to conceit that none could come into the world to be compared with John But Columba columbam docuit the Dove taught the Dove the Spirit taught the Church who was the Christ the Saviour of mankind by the descending of the Dove That which I will speak to this Point briefly shall be brancht out into a threefold inquiry 1. Whether this were a living bird or no more than the figurative Apparition of a Dove 2. How aptly the Spirit came in one figure upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles 3. That the figure of a Dove doth sweetly admonish us of the properties of the Holy Ghost What manner of Dove this was is not a question of such doubtful resolution as the former how the heavens were opened for treading in the path of the Scripture as I adjudge it we may find the truth For three Evangelists say that the Spirit did sit upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were a Dove then add St. Luke unto it that the Dove came in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a bodily shape and these put together me seems do strongly prove two things 1. That it was not viva columba a Pigeon out of the Dove-Coats with a living soul for to notifie that there was but the outward fashion and resemblance of such a bird in three Gospels we read it was but quasi columba like a Dove And yet that you may not take it to be mere Phenomenon a shadow to perswade the eye having no substance in truth St. Luke hath not omitted that it was a bodily shape Verae effigies columbae a body created for this service having the true lineaments of a Dove To make both these opinions good by several illustrations And first what need it to be of the true Species of Doves Was not miraculous Omnipotency as much seen to frame such a shape out of the Elements at an instant and to put motion in it to descend upon the head of Christ as if it had been a very foul It was a work which could not be effected but by the infinite and incomprehensible Trinity For the Dove was a representation of the Holy Ghost the voice which came from heaven did speak the Father only the humane nature was united only to the Person of the Son but the Dove the voice the humane nature were the works of the whole Trinity which coequally works all effects in the world You may fully conceive what natural composition this Dove had by those bodily shapes wherein the Angels or God appeared of old to the Patriarchs they were not actuated by a soul but moved about by God or his Angels for the present turn as a Ship is by the Pilot. When their Errand was dispatcht the body vanisht away into air So the use of this Miracle being accomplished at Jordan the Dove was no more seen but instantly resolved into Elements Besides that which came down upon the Disciples at Whitsontide was a cloven tongue like as of fire did ever any man say it was fire indeed So this Apparition upon the head of Christ was like a Dove But for what purpose or necessity should it be a Dove indeed For Christ was man indeed because he took upon him the nature of man to redeem it therefore the reason is forcible that the Holy Ghost should not come down in a Dove indeed because he took not upon him the nature of a Dove to redeem it Secondly I gathered from St. Luke though it had not the life of a Dove yet it had lineaments and compacture of true substance like a Dove Christ came among us bodily in the flesh wherefore says St. Austin to shew that the assumption of a corporeal nature did not make an inequality of persons in the Godhead a voice was heard from heaven in the Person of the Father as if it had proceeded from the instruments of the body and a bodily Dove did descend from heaven in the Person as it were of the Holy Ghost Likewise the coming down is the motion of a body The Spirit is every where and cannot descend to any place which was not filled with his presence from the beginning of the world but in hôc signo in this bodily shape and effigie he came down And mark Beloved the Devil is Spiritus cadens I saw Satan fall like lightning down he tumbles to the nethermost Pit and all that follow him but the Holy Ghost descends like an humble Spirit according as our Saviour bids us place our selves at
in domo charitatis in a charitable Hospital family every man hastened to a good work as if he had flown like a Dove Was not Paul a brave wing'd Apostle that traversed much of Asia and preacht the Gospel in every place from Jerusalem to Illyricum Seventhly The Doves eyes are fixt upon the Rivers of waters Cant. v. 12. some say out of vigilancy to espy therein the gliding of the Kite that flies above and to save it self So the spiritual man looks backward to the first waters wherein he was dipt to the Vow which he made in Baptism There he remembers his Garment was made white and he must not stain it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not only to wash away filth but to give tincture or colour to that which is died So in Baptism the foul spots of iniquity are taken forth and by sanctification a clear gloss is set upon our soul It was the exhortation of old at Baptism Accipe vestem candidam immaculatam c. Take this white garment pure and undefiled it was their Ceremony to put on such and keep it undefiled against the day of the Lord. Et grege de niveo gaudia pastor habet says Lactantius The Shepherd rejoyceth to see the fleeces of his Lambs fair and unspotted These are pennae deargentatae as the Psalmist says the Doves wings are silver wings and if they be bright Silver here it will be changed into a better Metal hereafter a Crown of Gold whose wings are silver wings and the feathers of Gold Lastly As it was toucht before in the days of Noah the Dove was a presager of a better world to come and in this Text likewise it is Nuncia futuri seculi the happy annuntiate that there is a better world to come when these evil days of sin and misery are ended So we are sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise which is the earnest of our inheritance the Spirit is a pledge of that possession which is purchased for us in the Kingdom of heaven whither he bring us c. THE SIXTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 17. And loe a voice from heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased SPeak O Heaven and hearken O Earth unto the word of the Lord. The Earth must keep silence and give ear when God is his own Orator himself and utters his pleasure with his own voice As it is usual when some great Palace is raising fron the Foundation that the Master of the Possession will lay the first stone with his own hands So the Church being to be built up again in the New Testament not upon the foundation of Works but upon Faith not upon Moses but upon Jesus Christ Loe the mighty God publisheth the first tidings of reconciliation from his own mouth and himself in the Prophet Isaiahs Phrase doth lay in Sion a chief corner stone elect and precious for the Foundation which sustains the whole body of the Saints is no other but such as is contained in that brief Proclamation which I have read unto you This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Some of the Fathers very aptly call the Text Gods ample testimonial given to his Son that the world might receive him gladly being about to preach the glad tidings of salvation Moses you know would not offer himself to the Children of Israel to be the means that should release them from Pharaohs bondage before he had a token of Credence who did send him to the People and the Lord said unto him Thou shalt say I am hath sent me unto you So our High Priest and anointed Saviour would keep that form to have a clear testificate to commend him to the World Now a Dove was but a dumb shew and might be interpreted many ways wherefore an articulate and a majestical voice was heard from heaven which would pierce the ears of all that were gathered together and could not be mistaken In that nature therefore as a Testimonial given to him that was now about to be the great Preacher of righteousness I will divide the Text 1. The Person that did bear witness it is the Father 2. The manner how he testified to the honour of his Son by a voice Loe a voice 3. The authority of that voice which was every way to be accepted because it was from heaven 4. The Person to whom the witness is born to a Son This is my Son 5. What is witnessed of him in respect of himself that he was beloved This is my beloved 6. What is witnessed of him in respect of our consolation that he is filius complacentiae in whom and through whom the Father is well pleased That is to say not only beloved in himself but procures us to be beloved likewise for his sake for all that by Baptism have put on Christ are unto God as Christ himself is Filii dilecti complacentes Sons beloved well pleasing So the Text is our Saviours Testimonial and our own Consolation And loe a voice c. The Father is become a witness to glorifie his Son that is the first consideration to be made upon my Text. The Spirit hath done his part before now the voice the Father is come to perfect this great solemnity and so the justice of God agrees with his own Law Ex ore duorum aut trium testium Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established was ever any truth so strongly confirmed so undeniably maintained that the Father which made all things should ratifie it sensibly in the audience of men Never was it heard of but only in this case which is the top of all truth that Jesus was the Son of God Other truths we are well perswaded of which come from the light of reason or from the testimony of man yet reason may be blind and man may err but it is impossible that God should lie Heb. vi And admit it to be good for who can controul it that the Prophets and Apostles were inspired from God so that the contents which they have written are certain and infallible then his divine wisdom which gave them that instinct whatsoever he utters immediately from himself it may well stand upon comparisons that it is much more infallible So St. Hierom distinguisheth between that truth which is increate and which is infused and participate that the truth of the Saints is called a lie in respect of that verity which abideth in the Father Yea let God be true and every man a liar in which words says he it is implied that God alone is true even as he alone is said to have immortality for although he hath communicated immortality to Angels and to the souls of men yet it is not their own immortality but his love and favour to give it to them So the Prophets and holy men were inspired with true knowledge yet it was not their own truth
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
him we obey under the commination of hell fire if we be slack in our duty We are servants commanded to our task he did the works of him that sent him as a Prince receives the dignity of a province from his Father to administer it to his honour and if he had refused it it could not turn to his prejudice therefore both Angels and men owe as much obedience for their own part as they can perform but the dispensation of Christs humility was not imposed but freely undertaken and by that vertue and title meritorious In the last place therefore all the effects of Gods will are pleasing unto him to be done and so it is pleasing unto God to have us humble our souls sometimes before him with fasting and mourning but a good duty is wronged when the more rigid defenders of merit of condignity say that there is an equivalency and proportion between the studious keeping of some appointed Fasts with other voluntary afflictions and the reward of eternal life Is it not enough to say that our imperfect obedience pleaseth God and shall be rewarded according to his own promise and free grace Will it not satisfie us to go to heaven by mere mercy and undeserved liberality Beware to gild your works by the name of merit why should the ungodly make such proud boasting Dip them in the name of free remission of sins by the bloud of Jesus Christ and God will give glory to us his adopted Sons because we give all glory to the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 2. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungry LET it not trouble my Auditors because I shall speak at this time of that Fast which our Saviour kept forty days this is not the proper season I confess and if any man be ready to say as one Philosopher in Laertius quipt another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why do you handle a matter that behoves us in a time that doth not behove it My answer is If I pickt out this for a single Text at this time my oversight were unpardonable but you know I take the parts of this Story in order and must follow my subject as it hapneth to be discuss'd Indeed our Church which doth always follow the steps of pure Antiquity hath appointed this portion of Gospel to be read yearly upon the first day of Lent For the memory of any great thing is better preserved when it is remembred solemnly about the time that it hapned So God said to the Children of Israel upon their coming out of Pharaohs bondage Remember this day continually in your generations Exod. xiv 3. And upon a great memorandum thus the Lord said to Ezekiel Son of man write the name of the day of this same day the King of Babylon set his face against Jerusalem this same day Ezek. xiv 3. And many have cited Nazianzen when they commend a word spoken in season Ex verbo illud potissimum quod est tempori convenientissimum That which best suits the time is best spoken out of the Scripture I subscribe to this wise direction and I do not violate it now out of neglect or contempt but upon apparent necessity that I may leave no gaps in this Scripture which I handle about our Saviours conflict with Satan but fill up the exposition of every verse as I proceed with such meditations as I am able to afford I come therefore to the remainder of this verse which is due unto you to be explained and it consists in two things The continuance of our Saviours fast and the consequent The continuance that he fasted forty days and forty nights the consequent that he was afterwards an hungry The one is a supernatural elevation the other is a natural condition In the first he shewed his divine vertue in the second his humane infirmity Upon the former the Devil feared he was the Son of God upon the latter he perswaded himself he was no more than a mortal man Whether is more strange that having flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone he should make his appetite forget to ask for sustenance so long Or being the Son of God who filleth every living thing with food himself should hunger and want In the first we admire him Be thou exalted Lord in thine own strength In the second we love him because he was made poor that we might be made rich in both we magnifie him Attend to these particulars and first that he had fasted forty days Forty days and forty nights not now a day and then a day at several times for that is easie and ordinary but all at once without intermission The Grammarians have medled with this Point to confirm it by this rule Jejunavit quadraginta dies non diebus quia tempus continuum ferè quarto casu ponitur Nouns of time expressed plurally in the Accusative case do betoken such a distance of time continued and not interrupted Therefore Christ observed a continuation of fast from the first day to the fortieth no man I think would understand it otherwise and if any were so captious St. Luke would not suffer him for his words are in those days he eat nothing Luk. iv 2. There is no efficacy in numbers said the wiser Philosophers and very truly but some numbers are apt to enforce a reverent esteem towards them by considering miraculous occurrencies which fell out in holy Scripture in such and such a number So Tolet in a sort magnifies this number of forty days that it is numerus mysteriis significandis accommodatus a number coincident very often to the greatest mysteries and noblest works of God Forty days it rained upon the earth in the days of Noah when God cleansed the great sins of the world by water Caleb and Joshuah returned from searching of the Land of Canaan after forty days Num. xiii 26. Christ continued upon earth forty days among his Disciples after he was risen from the dead before he ascended into heaven The Ninivites were forewarned that they should be consumed after forty days if they did not repent and turn unto the Lord. Thus it came to pass for what reason we cannot tell but God knows why his Providence doth so exactly and so often keep that measure of time in great signs and wonders Non potest fortuitò fieri quod tam saepe sit says one whom I never find superstitious in numbers It falls out too often to be called contingent and the oftener it falls out the more to be attended Yet it is the safest conclusion and hath least impertinency in it to say that Moses fasted forty days at the institution of the Law and Elias as long at the restauration of the Law so Christ kept even with them and fasted just as long as they before the publication of the Gospel As Jonas was three
with his Granaries Christ was made poor that we might be made rich and for the good use of our riches he hath made many poor I did read you even now what Exposition might be made upon those words of David I never saw the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their bread some not unfitly do bend it to this sense The Psalmist commends liberality in the preceding verses and those that are prone to relieve the helpless Now lest any man might object yet I may cloath others so far that I may leave my self naked I may supply others till I be drawn dry No says he in that verse no misfortune shall come to such liberality I never saw the righteous forsaken meaning such righteous as he spake of before that are liberal and lend I never saw his seed beg their bread The charitable shall have his loan again sometimes corporally sometimes spiritually always certainly And thus you have heard my reasons to controul Satans rule that there are and have been divers opprest with necessity and want of bread and yet God doth not cease to be their Father and they must retain the comfort that they are his Sons Only take in this to the advantage of the Point As Satan is vigilant to espy who are in want and to suggest doubts and infidelity into their heart so there is no man shall think he is not in want if he will be ruled by his perswasion I told you before out of Theophylact what he propounded to our Saviour Cum panis unus sufficeret jubet lapides in panes converti When one loaf of bread might satisfie a mans hunger he required all the stones in the Wilderness which were near at hand to be turned into bread It is he that makes our prodigal Feasters wish their chear were better when they have already too much To have bare enough in his construction is to want and nothing is sufficient but an Epicures superfluity Perhaps the plenty which is present will evict the greatest murmurer and make him confess here is well and enough for the present occasion O but says the Tempter are you sure of large suppeditation for the time hereafter If you are not aforehand with the world you are in a bad case and want bread If your condition be not more comfortable than your Prayer Give us this day our dayly bread you may pray and perish Howsoever Beloved do you rely upon this that Gods providence will be the best interpreter of his own Prayer he that bids you pray for the sustenance of one day best knows how he will cherish and relieve you tomorrow Whereas in the former petitions we are taught to ask that the Kingdom of heaven might come it were unwise having so good a thing in our wish to ask much for the bread of this life One days dimensum is enough to ask for at once for who knows whether after a day he shall go from hence for ever and be no more seen If happily a worldly man be satisfied to say I have enough for one and enough for my time Soul thou hast much goods laid up in store for many years yet Satan will object that you want bread for you have not enough laid up for your Posterity and for many generations and because men know not how their stock may increase and fructifie therefore they dilate their appetite in infinitum and say after the words of that Disciple Whence shall I have bread for so many that come out of my Loyns that every one may have a little Gehazi did not say his Master had need of Naamans Rayments or his money but there were two children of the Prophets lately come to him and he would have two change of Rayments and a Talent of Silver for them So many will confess they have wherewithal to serve their own turn they cannot complain but their own necessities are liberally provided but they would have change of Rayments and Talent upon Talent for their children And if it were possible like Noah and those that came out of the Ark with him they would have the whole world to be distributed among their Sons and Daughters All these ways our Adversary the Devil doth shape discontent in our hearts to make us say we lack and have not enough then he objects Who is then your Father that should provide for you What Son is he that wanteth bread if he have a merciful Father And so far upon the first general part of the Text. And as this Satanical rule upon which I have spoken depraves our judgment in the most capital conclusion of true Religion the next rule which I now come to open bars and corrupts our practise in all manner of justice and righteousness it is thus whosoever wants bread let him get it by any stratagem or device by any unlawful slight which Proposition though it be not exprest in such plain terms in my Text yet the wit of Satan neither would nor could insinuate that bad meaning in any other Language to Christ than as we read it Command that these stones be made bread I know Christ hath extended his miracles to supply worldly blessings to his people especially at a push as Peter found ready pay for his Masters Tribute and for his own out of the head of a Fish and lest the people should faint that had continued fasting three days to hear Christ preach in the Wilderness a wonderful increase of food was multiplied to satisfie many thousands out of five loaves and two fishes God did get himself glory by these works in the sight of all Jury But the case is quite altered in this which Satan demands Christ was private by himself in the Desart when he had fasted forty days and forty nights and was afterwards an hungry the Devil had no colour in that place to bid him filch or cheat or do any base office to feed his belly The worst therefore he could say was altogether to omit he should call upon God nay rather since the Lord had destituted him of all provision without expectation of help from the Divine Providence do the best you can for your self Command that these stones c. This is that Maxim which those Heathens that had no Equity nor Philosophy in them did maintain Quocunque modo rem stand not upon the niceties of Truth and Law and Justice but get your living as you can Victum tibi confice quem Deus non suppeditat as our most literal Expositors do Paraphrase my Text God cares not for you but shift for your self as well as you can you must have bread Such are those irreligious and discontented words 2 Kings vi 33. The evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer There is no Commandment of the two Tables can be unviolated if you remove the bounds of justice and give your wit and conscience scope to make a fortune upon all jugling and devices Blasphemy Idolatry
because they have rebelled against God and hated his Church What an honour what a prerogative is this not only to escape condemnation which our sins deserved but to have judgment committed to our power against our enemies and yet for all this promise how dissolutely how prophanely some live as if they would rather justifie than judge the wicked world and the evil Angels I cannot hold from interserting one thing what Lapide the Jesuite says upon that place of St. Paul that the righteous shall be Assessors with Christ and sit next him in judgment Vt Cardinales cum Papâ just as the Cardinals assist the Pope to judge all men so he marring a true Doctrine with a most vile Similitude I forget not that I am like to digress therefore I return that you may observe with me how nothing would choak Satan more than to baffle him with the infirmity of man and put this to it no Text more unwelcom to him than this to hear of Manna in the Wilderness 1. This was it which cherished their whole Host whom the Devil thought irrecoverably undone for want of sustenance 2. It stopt the mouth of discontent that there was no more murmuring 3. The ceasing of it on the Sabbath day was a most effectual motive that they should sanctifie that day unto the Lord. 4. It did not serve the body only but it was a spiritual refection likewise and a representation of the holy Communion of the Lords Table So St. Paul the old Fathers did all eat of the same spiritual meat and drank of the same spiritual drink 5. Manna was laid up in the Ark with the two Tables and the rod of Aaron that the Lord might be thanked for it by a perpetual Commemoration All these rubs were in Satans way when Christ cited this Text to expunge his tentation What should this Sophister do now The words of the Scripture are evident and unanswerable Why it is worth the while to mark it he had nothing to retort for the present but past on to another allurement but after a a while he provokes the Pharisees to make an objection against our Saviour upon the very same instance Joh. vi 31. What Sign shewest thou that we may see and believe What dost thou work Our Fathers did eat Manna in the Desart c. This was to turn Christs own weapon as he thought against himself but in that demand of the Pharisees and in this tentation of Satans there is the same sin of presumption who would dare to prescribe God the Jews would have had bread miraculously after the same way that their fore-fathers had when now there was no lack the Devil would have bread made after a new way which never was before as if Gods Providence were drawn dry unless the stones were mollified into loaves to be eaten No says out Saviour and now I come to the verybody of his answer man shall not live c. Which being divided into many Propositions this was the first that man is not necessarily bound to ordinary sustenance man shall not live by bread alone And that will bear a double construction First That God is able to preserve life in whom he pleaseth without all material Aliments So Calvin on this place Vt desint omnes cibi solam ejus benedictionem ad nos alendos sufficere His benediction is alimony enough though there were no meat in the world For he can preserve the body of man in such an orderly mixture of all parts that the elements shall be at peace in our body no quality shall feed upon another heat shall not dry up the moisture parch the juyce of the veins the pangs and girds of hunger and thirst shall not molest us But as the fire was inhibited that it should not burn the three Children that were cast into the Furnace so natural heat within us may be inhibited by Gods command that it shall waste nothing away in all our composition So St. Hierom Spiritus sanctus aliquando supplet locum cibi potus in corpore The Holy Ghost is called our food in the Book of God not only in a mystical sense but sometime the vertue of the Spirit supplies the place of bodily refection that we shall not need to ask for it Thus it must be if the stories of good Authors have not exceeded the truth that the devoutest Christians of the Greek Churches could hold out healthfully with such often and such long continued fasts that now adays I could promise them but short life that should follow their steps Moses was fed forty days with nothing but the Law Elias fed as long or rather fasted as long upon that zeal which he had for Gods glory Satan could not deny this for as we are created by a word which was Almighty so we may be kept alive by a word which is Almighty made of nothing and preserved out of nothing This is not to be resisted The Doctrine is as clear as day according to the Analogy of faith But if Christs answer had carried this sense I believe the Tempter would have cavill'd thus Right as you say bread is not absolutely necessary for life no nor any other victual God can sustain you as he hath done hitherto by his power but you see you are hungry and must have bread he hath forsaken you Beloved the most easie and literal sense of Scripture for the most part is the truest and surely because our Saviour likened his own case to the Israelites who though they had no bread wade of corn had Manna instead of it which came from heaven Therefore the answer is this plain passage what compels me to turn stones into bread There are innumerable helps beside to keep me from famishing Is there no way say you but this to do me good Yes God hath spread a Table in the Wilderness for Moses and all Israel and more instances might be added even as thick as stones The Widow of Sarepta kept house for her self her Son and the Prophet Elias a long time with a little meal in a barrel and a spoonful of oyl All the Markets in Samaria were suddenly stored with that which the Aramites their enemies had left behind them It was not yet revealed to Satan how many thousands were fed in a desart place with five loaves and two fishes and the fragments which remained did much exceed the quantity of the meat that was whole It is ancient story though it be not Canonical Scripture how the Angel took up Habakkuk by the hair of the head and carried him and the meat which he had in his hand for the Reapers to Daniel in Babylon I fear it will not deserve a memorial among these honest Records what some relate in the lives of the Eremites that Paul the Anchorite being solitary in the vast Sands of Egypt which yield not a morsel for the belly every day an Angel of heaven set half a loaf of bread before him and made it
which was in them all brought out an harmony of the same truth from several Authors apprehend it if you will by this vulgar similitude A Gardiner curious in devices had taught four several learners to draw the same artificial knot upon the ground and every of the four laid out his knot as he was instructed upon several beds but each set it with several kinds of herbs you will not say I hope but the knot is the same albeit the herbs planted upon it are different So all the four Evangelists were taught by one Holy Ghost to draw out the same model of our Saviour's life his Transfiguration his Passion his Resurrection the herbs indeed with which every Gospel is planted are divers the narrations differ in words but that 's the excellency of the truth of our Gospel that in several phrases every one of those holy Scribes sets down the same Lord Jesus Christ This I have added to the illustration of this seeming difference after six days Christ was transfigured 't is true and as true it was about an eight days after these sayings The last respect unto the time is joyned with the place this Transfiguration fell out after he was gone up into a mountain to pray A valley is as capable of Gods glory as a mountain for God is God of the valleys as well as of the hills whatsoever Benhadad the King of Syria said to the contrary but Christ chose this high hill as well for the exercise of Prayer as for the mystery of his Transformation there may seem to be two intentions that he desired such a place for prayer quia coeli conspectus liberior quia solitudo major First upon the higher ground there is the more free contemplation of Heaven the place to which we lift up our eyes and our hearts in prayer for though our Lord is every where both in heaven and earth and under the earth yet thither we advance our devotions as to the chief Throne of his Majesty Next our Saviour left a concourse of people beneath and went to the mountain to pour out his devotions there as in a solitary sequestration where he should not be troubled Into such unfrequented hills he did often retire alone as if he would teach us to bid all the world adieu and all earthy thoughts when we utter our supplications before our heavenly Father neither doth it seem expedient to act the miracle of the Transfiguration upon a meaner Theater than an exceeding high mountain to shew what ascensions must be in their soul who have a desire to be exalted to Gods glory Our heart according to its own evil inclination cleavs unto the dust like a serpent our thoughts are of low stature like Zachaeus if they will climb up let it be for no other end or errand but as he did to see Christ There are two mountains says Bernard which we must ascend but not both at once First there is the mountain where the Son of God did preach Mat. v. and after that go up to the mountain where he was transfigured Mat. 17. Non solum meditemur in praemiis sed etiam in mandatis Domini I beseech you first meditate upon the Sayings and Commandments of God and afterward upon his Transfiguration upon the reward of glory and not as it is the vain custom of the world run on presumptuously upon assurance of glorification and to forget the true order first to ascend upon the mountain of obedience If you think it material to my expositions to know what mountain this was on which the dignity of this great work did befall you shall be informed in that also I know none but Ephrem the Syrian that says it was Mount Sinah He had his fetch oportebat in eo suggeftu consignari novum testamantum in quo conscriptum fuit vetus it behoved he speaks as if he would appoint God it behoved the New Testament to be chiefly honoured in that place where the old Law was delivered But God is not bound to man's witty divinations for this Mountain as it appears in our Saviour's journeys was in Galilee and Sinai is in Arabia Galat. iv 25. St. Hierom did long dwel and study in the Region of Judaea and he says in his Epitaph or Funeral farewel to Paula that it was Mount Tabor And Euthymius interserts as much Psa lxxxix 13. upon those words Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy name This was so constantly believed that Helen the Mother of Constantine built a Church upon that ground to celebrate the place where Christ had been wonderfully dignified and if relations deceive us not there are the ruins of two little Chappels more upon Mount Tabor at this day erected by some superstitious conceipt because St. Peter said Master let us build here three Tabernacles All that I read beside is in Josephus that it was the most craggy and steepy high place in all Galilee in some parts inaccessible the fitter to resemble the Kingdom of Heaven to which we cannot ascend but in one rugged path repentance and faith And the Historian who was a famous Captain also adds that he built a wall about it in 40 days that the Jews might defend themselves there as in a strong Castle from the incursion of the Romans It is more than all these have said that S. Peter calls it the Holy Mount This voice we heard when we were with him in the holy mount Holy because the Sacred Trinity did open it self in that place as I will shew hereafter holy because Jesus the Holy of Holies did shine there in the bright lustre of beatitude not as if there were any holiness in the soil and all other earth prophane God did not mean so when he said to Moses Put off thy shoos from thy feet for the place on which thou standest is holy ground but because it puts an holy reverence into a man that approacheth either in body or mind and thinketh seriously what wonders were done upon that holy Mountain So I have done with the first part of my Text the circumstance of time and place which is the entrance into this Miracle It cannot be unpleasant to examine the smallest parcels of such divine works to them that love the History of Christ In the next general part we read as there was choice of time and place so there was choice of persons He took Peter and John and James What a-do should we have had with some men if none but Peter had followed his Master into the Mountain upon this glorious occasion as it is Leo caught hold of it to speak strange words and such as may amuse the Reader The Lord did take Peter into the fellowship of the indivisible Trinity When the Wolf in the Fable peept into the Shepheards house and saw him and his servants dress a Lamb to be eaten says the Wolf what a stir would have been made if I had done as much So I dare be bold
Septuagint Translation marrs all when it renders it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was taken up as it were into Heaven There is no such diminution of as it were in the sacred Text He went up to heaven sayes the Original That could not be the Element of Air which is sometimes called Heaven for the Air is rather the Seat of Satan who is called the Prince of the Air than of the Blessed from thence come turbulencies and winds and tempests but they are at rest from all labour and unquietness Nor can it be meant of that Heaven of the lower Orbs for then they should be hurried about every day with the swift motion of the Spheres from East to Occident Where then could Elias be reposed but in the Heaven of happiness in the tranquillity of Abraham's bosom as Dathan and Abiram were swallowed alive into Hell so Enoch and Elias were lifted up alive into Heaven Heaven is taken two wayes both for the place and for the state and condition of it and both wayes I have good ground to say that Elias was in body among the spirits of the Kings and Patriarchs and Prophets and just men who are dead in the love of God and all they went to Heaven locally as to their place and to Heaven figuratively that is to joy and happiness Which I oppose to the adverse and very erroneous opinion maintained by the Schoolmen among the Pontificians that the spirits of just men which departed before Christs ascension into Heaven were reclused into a receptacle call'd Limbus Patrum which was the verge or fringe of Hell where they suffered no pain but sustained a temporal loss having not as yet admittance into the Courts of the House of our God How unconsonant is this to our Saviour's words Many shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of God How unlike to that Phrase of David Lord who shall ascend into thy holy hill how unagreeing to the title of Abrahams bosom wherein Lazarus was in a long distance from the gulf of sorrow But to go one step further and no more at this time did not Christ by his ascension open a passage to the Souls of the blessed to draw nearer to God in the highest heavens than ever before yes verily I believe it and I am compelled to maintain it by St. Pauls Doctrine Heb. ix 8. The way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing that is while the Law of Moses did endure Their Souls departing were at rest in Heaven in the hand of God no way obtruded near the confines of Hell as the Schoolmen taught who either could not or would not discern a medium between the Limbus of Hell and the highest Heaven They lived by the same faith that we do though not with the same evidence and fulness that we have therefore their Souls departing had a dimension of happiness allotted for them yet not with that fulness of joy which now they have nor perhaps with that measure and proportion which they and we shall have hereafter Beloved remember and consider Heaven is so large and spacious that it is fit to admit divers Quarterings and Mansions in it the Arch-angels Throne the Angels Palace the blessed seats of the faithful since Christs ascension the Refrigerium of the faithful before his ascension a Tabernacle allotted for Enock and Elias all these might be several yet Heaven big enough to make room for all In my Fathers house there are many mansions says Christ that went before us to prepare a place And To thee O blessed Saviour c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON The Transfiguration LUKE ix 31 32. Who appeared in glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Hierusalem But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep and when they were awake they saw his glory and the two men that stood with him WHen I compare many parcels of Sacred Scripture and many fictions of the Heathen together which are of great similitude I perceive that Satan intended to discredit the holy Writ by devising Fables so like to the sacred truth I do verily think their Deucalion and his floud was taken from the story of our Noah and his Deluge Their Hippolytus refusing the tentations of Phedra and yet accused by her for a Rape is our Joseph after the same manner impeached by his lustful Mistress Their Hercules is our Joshuah Their Bellerophon carrying Letters to cut his own throat is our Vrias so betrayed by David Their Nisus of Megara and his fatal purple hair cut off by Scylla is our Sampson and his locks cut off by Dalilah So their infamous transmutations of their Gods into Bulls and Swans and a thousand lying shapes were publisht by the Devil to make the Transfiguration of our Saviour suspected Shame upon such gross Figments which can no way darken the manifold light of the Gospel so palpably counterfeit that they need no refutation As Irenaeus passed his censure upon them Victoria est sententiae vestrae manifestatio it was victory enough to the Christian cause to tell and relate their absurd opinions But in reference to the Metamorphoses of those Idol Gods St. Peter justifies the truth of our Saviours Transfiguration thus We have not cunningly devised Fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye witnesses of his Majesty 2. Pet. i. 16. The Heathen write how their Gods were changed upon earth but to their shame and ignominy The Son of God was changed miraculously upon earth but into a body of resplendent glory When God was come down to men upon earth the Heaven did seem to come down upon earth to God When the Greek Emperour John Palaeologus was drawn into Italy by Pope Eugenius the forth to be present in the Florentine Council the City of Venice entertained him so magnificently with their Streets all guilded and their Boats and Galleys as rich as their Streets that the Greeks in astonishment at the bravery cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth was become a Heaven for that day I have met with no parcel of a Story in my reading more fit to be applied to this occasion When Mount Thabor did harbour our Lord and our Lord did glister with beatifical brightness and the Saints above did come thither in their Princely array and the very clouds did look more white than Lillies and the voice of the Father spake more pleasing than the sweetest Musick This is my well beloved Son I may justly cry out the Earth was become an Heaven for that day All things else in the Gospel are intermixed with much humility this one Treatise lifts up my stile and makes me say Paulò majora canamus This piece which I spred before you is nothing but Triumph and Majesty and Glory Unto these words which
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
glory the lustre of his clouds the voice which came from Heaven to magnifie him that made them afraid in his behalf they suffer and therefore they are sure to be raised up His mercy doth so far engage him to relieve all those who find any oppressure for his cause that a little trouble shall soon end in a great deal of joy a little amazement shall soon be blown over with a great deal of satisfaction a little fear shall soon be rid away with a great deal of loving kindness For when the Disciples were dejected with the awfulness of his Majesty presently he touched them and said arise be not afraid THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON The Transfiguration LUKE ix 35 36. And there came a voice out of the Cloud saying This is my beloved Son hear him And when the voice was past Jesus was found alone And they kept it close and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen IN divers manners God spake in the old time to our Fathers by the Prophets Heb. i. 1. and in as divers manners he hath spoken to us in the New Covenant by the Evangelists Variety is delectable when it doth not jar but make up unity I have gone along in this story of the Transfiguration upon the Text of St. Luke but by the way I made advantage to insert every passage out of St. Matthew and St. Mark which is remembred in them over and above St. Lukes Relation nor will I wrong the Subject which I have handled so much to fail in that diligence at this time because it is the last act in which I shall dispatch my Meditations upon this Miracle Wherefore when I have inlaid the Story with those particulars which occur in all the holy Authors it will be perfect thus I gave you account upon the last occasion what the Eternal Father uttered from above concerning his Eternal Son the glory which he gives his Son riseth up in two tops namely the honour which He finds with the Father this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and that obedience which all the world must yield him hear Him Now as soon as this voice had ceased to speak all the bravery of his Transfiguration vanisht and was seen no more so says my Text when the voice was past Jesus was found alone hereupon the three Disciples wondred what was become of Moses and Elias and the fair Cloud that overshadowed them S. Matthew says they lifted up their eyes and saw no man save Jesus only nor did they only look up to Heaven for what they missed St. Mark says they looked round about and saw no man any more save Jesus only with themselves Now touching the consequent of all mark what followed and all 's done my Text says they told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen St. Matthew supplies why they told of nothing and how long they conceal'd the matter As they came down from the Mountain Jesus charged them saying tell the vision to no man till the Son of man be risen again from the dead St. Matthew says the Disciples were enjoyned secrecy but he omits that they obeyed St. Luke says they kept secrecy but he omits that they were enjoyned therefore St. Mark hath compacted both into his Story thus As they came down from the Mountain he charged them they should tell no man what things they had seen till the Son of man were risen from the dead and they kept that saying with themselves Having thus laid all the Narration close together I do not strictly hold me to the narrow compass of my Text but I will divide that which remains to be spoken of this Miracle in the full amplitude as I find it in all the Evangelists And I will confine my discourse and your memory to be helpt by four Particulars First the Father did commit all Power and Authority to the Son in this word Hear him Secondly that the Church might the better admit his sole Authority and none other all other persons of excellency vanisht and Christ was left alone the Disciples lookt up and lookt about but there was none left with them save Jesus only Thirdly Christ did put his Authority in execution as they came down from the Mountain he charged them they should tell no man the things which they had seen till himself was risen from the dead Fourthly the Disciples did as he commanded them they kept it close and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen Of these to Gods glory and with your patience Being now to enter upon the Exhortation to hear I hope all my Auditors will be attentive The Ear is that Omer wherein we must receive the Manna which coms down from Heaven and the Heart is as the Ark of the Lord wherein we must lay it up The Ear is the Tunnel through which the liquor or new wine is poured the Heart is the new Bottle that receives and keeps Offer your self pliantly and diligently to take in the words of wholsom doctrine at the brim of the Ear and God will shake them down lower and lower till they come into the Heart All things in this World beneath are under the conditions of vanity and corruption and therefore the Eye hath nothing to see which is worth the seeing but the Word of God is pure and undefiled and therefore the Ear hath somewhat to hear which is worth the hearing Our Saviour never provoked the Eye to circumspection with he that hath eys to see let him see but he called upon the Ear for attention very often in the Gospel He that hath ears to hear let him hear By extraordinary dispensation the Lord hath converted some by inward motion before they were appeal'd to Gods service by outward calling and his Spirit spake to their inward Heart before they heard the sound of faith preacht to the outward Ear. For we know not how the Wisemen of the East came to know that the Star which went before them belong'd to him that was born King of the Jews but by a Divine inspiration and so we must leave that strange work to the secret power of God that call'd them for we read no more of them after that one place how they lived or died in the true Religion of the Son of God God did suggest to old Simeon that the Babe which came into the Temple with his Mother was the Christ John Baptist sprang in his Mothers womb at the Salutation In like manner Cornelius found favour before God by an instinct from above which spake to his inward conscience before he was made a Scholar to hear the Church teach and instruct him yet the love of him that called him to be an elect Saint staid not there but commended him for his Souls instruction to be Peters Disciple Send to Joppa for one Simon whose surname is Peter he shall tell thee what thou oughtest
I would confess it impossible but to instance in the principal parts I will divide them into four quarters that you may see how the punishment of the Jews is proportionable to the injuries which they did unto out Lord 1. He was bound like a Malefactor and are not the Jews made Bond-slaves and Captives for ever 2. He was blinded that he might be buffeted and what is so blind as the heart of that Nation 3. He was spat upon and reviled they hated him without a cause And no people under the Sun every where more hated and disaffected Lastly He was murdered with the death of the Cross the death of malediction And according to their stubbornness and infidelity we can scarce say less in charity than that the death of malediction is faln upon them As the Prophet Amos said For three transgressions and for four I will not turn away my punishments from Israel because they sold the righteous for Silver and the poor for a pair of Shooes To be enthralled without Liberty to be blind without Light to be hated without Love to be condemned without Mercy thus I have quartered out the dismal sorrows of that Nation which spilt his bloud and speaking a word briefly of each part I will conclude this exercise First They bound the Messias and they themselves are Captives That Caesar whom they stood so much for before Pilate even he did pervert the Nation and destroy the Temple In Mount Olivet they did first lay hands upon Christ in Mount Olivet says Josephus the Roman Souldiers did first entrench themselves to besiege Hierusalem The unutterable misery of their City how it was taken and defaced is so common a story that I will not spend the time to rehearse it As the punishment of the Deluge was fifteen Cubits higher than the tallest Mountains of the earth so the punishment of that City was fifteen times greater than that mighty City Within the Walls the Famine was so great that it parched their bodies and dried up their living moisture that Children had not tears to weep over their dead Parents Nay the living had not strength enough to dig a grave to bury the dead Without the Walls their Prisoners were so paid with the same coin which they dealt unto our Saviour Ut spatium crucibus deesset corporibus cruces That the field did not afford room enough to set up so many Crosses or had there been space in the field there was not wood in the Mountains to make so many And do they not think the Cross of Christ did work in this affliction As Tertullian said to the Heathen you have sent offerings heretofore to the Temple you have bestowed gifts upon Jerusalem Nunquam nunc dominaturi nisi Deo in Christum deliquissent Nay says Josephus if the Sword of Titus had not cut them short their crimes were so unnatural and so desperate that the wrath of Sodom and Gomorrha had rained down upon them When that desolation shall come says the great Prophet whom they hanged on a tree you will call upon the Hills to cover you and the Mountains to fall upon you Sic in cavernis collibus se abscondiderunt says Beda they did lurk in Groats and Caves of the Rocks to avoid the Romans and so fulfilled the Prophesie ever since that black day O populus natus ad servitutem They have lost the remembrance of liberty They cannot say of any parcel of ground in the earth this is our field and our possession Of all the men upon the earth they are the only Nation under heaven that have neither portion in earth nor in heaven When the City was lost Adrian would never suffer them to return to see it unless it were to mourn and sorrow and then they must pay for it Sic qui sanguinem Christi vendunt jam suas lachrymas emunt They bargained for Christs bloud and they pay for their own tears Non est tutus Judaeus ad Ecclesiam confugiens says the Canon Law They only have no safety though they betake them to the protection of a Church Other men are Lords of that wealth which God hath bestowed upon them but they are Tributaries ad placitum spung'd every year as the necessity of the Prince requires Money can never prosper with them since they bought our Lord. Indeed Judas sold him the Jews did buy him and they gave him to Pilate and so the Gentile hath purchased him Other men can be avenged of the insolencies of their Adversaries and so every man lives in peace under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree but they are never quiet for violence and outrages committed against their person Ideo Judaei pacem habere non possunt quia seditionum principem eligere maluerunt says Isidor How can they hope for rest who refused the Prince of peace and chose Barrabas the Prince of seditions The next Viol of vengeance is the gross darkness of their heart ever since they blinded our Saviour If Samson be blinded and put to scorn shall he not pluck down the Theater upon the Princes and upon the People If Elisha be scoft at shall he not call for Bears to devour the Children The Disciples forsook Christ and ran away at midnight this night you shall be offended at me In nocte scandalizantur says Origen and Peter plunged himself into that fearful denial ante gallicinium before the crowing of the Cock this betokened that they sinned out of ignorance and therefore were received into favour upon repentance But for the High Priests and Elders Mane facto consilium capiunt when it was morning they took counsel against Jesus Hoc est scientes peccant in lumine says that Author They sinned by broad day-light as it were against their own conscience and they that did so much abuse the light are cast into a long darkness for ever The miraculous Eclipse of the Sun says St. Hierom an Emblem of that blindness which should possess them was not over the whole Hemisphere of the world but only in Jury For neither Graecian Astronomer nor Arabian do speak of it Wanderers they were in the Wilderness about forty years wanderers they have been in their vain imaginations almost two thousand Then they were directed as the clouds went before them now they are guided by Vapours and Pillars of smoak After our Saviours Ascension eight years were spent when St. Matthew wrote his Gospel and yet even to that day they did report and believe that his Disciples stole him away by night What when the Souldiers slept If they were broad awake says St. Austin why would they suffer the body to be so conveyed If they were fast asleep which way came they to know the conveyance Beda takes this to be not a story but a Prophesie in the Gospel that the Jews shall be so hardened in unbelief that they shall give credence to that report for ever This it is to curse themselves with such an
sleep was to rescue from the power of the Grave Blessed are these days Beloved to whom much is given the Book is unclasped the Mysteries are open we are now as well instructed that the dead shall rise again as that the Trees shall put forth in the Spring which stood upon the ground like withered trunks in the Winter Or that the day shall break in the Morning when it is but the first crowing of the Cock and darkness upon the face of the earth but until Christ was risen and ascended and that the Holy Ghost had filled them with an Evangelical Spirit the Resurrection from the dead was a language they understood not The ancient Church had a Ceremony to light but one Candle on the Altar on Easter Eve all the rest standing by it were put out to signifie that the whole faith of the Resurrection of the Son of God for that time was only in the Virgin Mary and in no other Apostle Fides explicita resurrectionis in solâ virgine remansit was a common opinion and surely the Resurrection from the dead was one of the latest Articles which was explicitly believed And at this time they were but ill prepared to make good Believers no face is well seen in a troubled water and no mystery of faith can sink in deep when the mind is fearful Alas say they Master spare thy self it is death for you and us to go into Judaea let Lazarus sleep his Sisters will be careful to awake him Fear is but an evil Counsellor There was resolution in our Saviour such as you might expect from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah And as when Syracusa was oppressed Dion bethought himself how he might safely attempt to succour them at length most generously broke off that demur Me de meipso consulere non decet pereuntibus Syracusanis It was too late to consult how he might save himself when his dear Countrymen the Syracusians perished So it was out of time to tell our Saviour of sparing himself when Martha was discomforted Mary wept Lazarus dead and gone let them take up stones to cast at him but first tollite lapidem take away the Grave stone that his friend may live again Like Homers bird that fed her young ones and was her self an hungry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Christ like the loving Dam will hatch the young ones in the Shell yea in the Tomb though himself be taken Though it is sure they will shortly cry out let him be crucified yet will he come to Judaea and cry with a loud voice Lazarus come forth But as the stone is in the Plum so the most difficult question is inmost and now to be handled Four days the body of Lazarus lay without life and sense the soul was parted But where did the soul rest in quatriduo mortis What place had it to rest in for four days until it returned to the ancient habitation St Paul was wrapt into the third heavens there all knowledge is to be had all mysteries to be expounded and yet he knew not how he came thither whether in the body or out of the body he leaves it altogether uncertain And shall I tell you but a worm upon earth what became of another man when Paul in heaven knew not what became of himself Look among the bold conjectures of the Schoolmen and as the old man said of his Advocates who did rather puzzle him than instruct him in his cause Incertior sum multò quà m dudum The farther you go on with their Problems the further you are from resolution And so many places have they allotted to receive souls that Adrian may well make a doubt Animula vagula blandula quae nunc abibis in loca it is hard to say by their rules at which end of the Town a soul should go out to take a journey Origen would say that all souls were created fzrom the beginning of the world and are sent in their turns to take bodies upon them as God disposeth That the soul of Lazarus when it flitted out being to be presently united to the flesh again returned to the place where souls expected to be committed into bodies as if it were a new birth not a Resurrection This favours of Plato rather than of the Scripture and therefore I rather dismiss it as a Fable And yet it helps not much to say his soul was translated to the place where Enoch was first reserved and then Elias Enoch's translation was not as they imagine in a solitary Tabernacle where he was reserved by himself in the outward Courts of heaven for then was Adam in a better estate in Paradise God did make him an helper to keep him company Surely if Enoch were not among the blessed that did see God face to face he was more happy upon earth when he walked with God Gen. v. wherefore there was no such thing as recessus Enoch if these conjectures fail not What other Closet have they thought upon to hold the soul of Lazarus Why Infants which die unbaptized mark the argumentation who are charged with no fault but Original sin which in their Divinity is but the privation of grace that should have been conferred are allotted to a place called Limbus infantum where they are not in torment but are excluded from seeing the glory of God a punishment like unto their sin not of sense but of loss and privation Yea but how know you that Lazarus was unbaptized One of an holy Family much endeared to the love of Christ it were strange if he had neither gone out to John into the Wilderness to partake of the Baptism of Repentance nor could be so much beholding to the Apostles to give him the Baptism of Christ Shall I press it further The foreskin of his flesh was circumcised after the manner of the Jews and the Circumcised were in the Covenant as well as the Baptized What say you now Doth not Limbus Infantum smell of a forgery But what think you of the commodity of Purgatory thither run many of the later Expositors and say that the soul of Lazarus went before them Like the Quadrature of a Circle so is this cleansing Lake a thing of much discourse and no appearance As Geographers when they do not know what inhabitants possess a Country they fill the empty place with the Pictures of Lions and Tigers and wild beasts so the Papists not knowing what kind of coast this Purgatory is replenish it with hideous Ghosts and tormented Spirits But surely if Lazarus had been removed among those souls of little ease would Christ have delayed his comming to the fourth day Since the Schoolmen grant that the pains of Hell are no greater than those of Purgatory only that there is more comfort in these because they shall have a determinate ending Nay Martha was an unkind Sister and so was Mary that never spake for his deliverance from pain if these pains be so unsufferable Some
you will leave at that Idem facis ac qui è monte se praecipitans velit sistere says Tully You are unwise as he that did cast himself headlong from a steepy rock and thought he could stop before he lost his breath Sin hath no moderation Qui facit peccatum est servus peccati He that commits sin is the servant of sin you cannot play fast and loose with the Devil If you be once bound it will ask you plenty of tears and many groans of repentance that Christ may make you free Sin is not like the green wit hs that tied Samson and brake like a thread of Tow but like the fetters cast upon poor Joseph The Iron entred into his soul says David It is such a long captivity as the Jews suffred in Babylon it trusseth you up as the tares were bound in bundles for everlasting fire Mat. xiii Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the Leopard his spots Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Jer. xiii 23. Now because sin is a bond especially sin that is enormous and scandalous not only Satan by inclining them to evil but God in his justice holds them fast to it that they cannot get loose For the Priest he casts another bond upon that Quodcunque lig averitis whatsoever you bind upon earth they bind none but incorrigible and contumacious sinners that is one bond for another and then the Lords bond is thrown upon them both whatsoever you bind upon earth it is bound in heaven the bond of iniquity is upon the sinner the bond of Ecclesiastical Censure is upon the bond of iniquity the bond of Gods judgment ratifies the bond of Ecclesiastical Censure How can the planchers fly out when they are thus hoopt about A threefold cord is not easily broken Ligantur poenâ qui ligati fuerunt culpâ à bonis operibus says Lira They are bound over to eternal punishment in the life to come who in this life bound themselves from doing good Thirdly Let us understand what it is for a sinner to be bound hand and foot Manus non extensae ad eleemosynam pedes tardi ad bonum so says the Gloss Hands that were shut to the poor and gave no Alms feet that have not frequently walked to the house of God these were bound in this life when they should have executed their Function and then follows Take him and bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness Mat. xxii The hand is the principal Engine of all other instruments and if it be bound we may direct much perchance yet can execute nothing But there is no musick in that eloquence where the tongue perswades enough but the hand is like the hand of Jeroboam dried up and withered He that takes upon him to teach and direct let his hands be loose that he may give a demonstration of his Doctrine in his own works and then it is powerful Dux consilio miles exemplo as it was said of Caesar He gave the counsel of a General he did the work of a Common Souldier The Sun under a Cloud looks as if his glorious beams were shut up and imprisoned So it is a dark and a gloomy Profession of Piety to cast no beams abroad let your light shine before men that they may see your good works If your hands I mean your good deeds be bound up the bonds are such as Lazarus had and worse the swadling bonds of eternal death Pedes sunt affectus sensuales qui terrae adhaerent that is the usual Moral by feet are understood our sensual Passions and Affections which cleave unto the earth Indeed Lazarus will walk better with those feet when they are obedient to reason and bound to her Law than when they are loose and run their own ways Excellent Servants to be guided but unruly Masters to command O let your affections be set upon heaven above and not fix themselves upon earth beneath and then you may say with David I will run the way of thy Commandments So much for the binding of the hands and feet The last Point and that which shuts up all is to open this Mystery that Lazarus his face was bound with a Napkin Lazarus came forth with his winding-sheet about his body with his Napkin about his face here again is the Resurrection of Lazarus distinguished from the Resurrection of Christ As for Christs grave cloaths Peter look'd in and saw them wrapt together when his body was without And what caused this difference Beloved Why first to answer a false rumour which belied both Christ and his Disciples at once even for that cause our Saviours linnen cloaths were left behind in the Monument You will say his Disciples came by night and stole him away But if they took out the body why did they leave the linnen cloaths behind Had desperate thieves such leisure to uncase him and to fold up several parcels by themselves when a guard of Souldiers were round about them Now when as no such objection should be made against Lazarus he came forth with his winding sheet knit about his hands and feet and his face with a Napkin 2. Lazarus rose out of the Grave but to die again he was virbius One poor life served him to change it for two deaths and therefore he came abroad like a mortal man with his raggs wrapt about him to cover his nakedness But Christs says Nissen rose to immortality and therefore left those clouts in the grave which had been cast about him That blessed life which we shall enjoy needs not garments to cloath the body In the days of innocency Adam and Eve walked naked and were not ashamed they saw no uncomliness in it Then shall apparel much less be an ornament to a glorified body And therefore Elias mounting up to heaven in the fiery Chariot left his Mantle with Elisha But he in our Text returned to the estate of frailty and corruption his face was covered with a Napkin Thirdly says St. Austin Lazarus in the Tomb was the figure of a sinful man Lazarus coming forth was the type of one that was born again and is regenerate But as touching a man new born and regenerate still there remain in him Vinculum peccati velumignorantiae The intanglements of some sins and the vail of ignorance The bonds about the feet and the Napkin about the face But as for Christs linnen cloaths in whom there was nor sin nor ignorance but a soul full of grace and truth why should he carry away his Shrowd or his Kercher No he bequeathed them to the earth and left them to the Monument Let us be wise unto salvation and not too curious in searching these things the Text doth admonish us For why was Lazarus his face covered though his Spirit was returned unto him again St. Austin answers Quod in hâc vitâ per speculum videmus in aenigmate postea autem facie ad
faciem Because in this life we see darkly as in a glass but hereafter we shall see God face to face As concerning natural Causes and Effects says Aristotle we see into them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Owles eyes by day that discern nothing clearly but as concerning the Mysteries of Godliness we look upon them as Moses did upon the Land of Canaan when Jordan was between we are in one Country and see afar off indistinctly the prospect of another As Rebecca took away her vail when Isaac came toward her that she might see his face so this vail shall be taken from the Church which is the Spouse of God when he draws near unto it Now Lazarus his Napkin is about our face O that thou wouldst rent away this vail O Lord that we might see thy glory Behold as the eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistress even so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us AMEN THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN XX. I. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the Sepulcher and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulcher THis is the day which the Lord hath made and thus begins the Gospel appointed for this great day of the Lord. A Gospel of which I may say it is full even to the brims of Divine Meditations For here are those two Christian Pillars that uphold the Church of God such as shall never be removed Fides Fidelis the faith of the Elect and relatively an elect Vessel that receiv'd the faith a principal Article of our Creed that Christ rose again the third day from the dead and a very illustrious instance of Mary Magdalene who was brought to believe in that Article 1. The Faith which must be believ'd to sanctifie our contemplations 2. The Faithful that did believe to bring us to a godly practice So the Spirit of God hath led Mary Magdalene to the Sepulcher to see that Christ was risen from the dead and the self-same Spirit hath led us to see the love and piety of Mary Magdalene And as this devout woman hath obtained a place of memorial for her name among the blessed of the New Testament because the example of her zeal did shine before us So our names shall find a place among those that are recorded in the Book of Life such honor shall they have that follow after My Text begins a story concerning that first witness to whom our Lord and Saviour's Resurrection was revealed Now upon so much of the Story as is recorded in this verse five things shall be handled First the Condition of that Witness before whom our Lord did first appear after he came out of the Grave Mary Magdalene 2. You may note the Constancy of her love that she remembred him after death and came unto his Sepulcher 3. It is to be ascribed to her Faith that she chose the right season the first day of the week 4. The Expedition which she made is a token of restless diligence that she came early when it was yet dark 5. An Accident of admiration encounters her that she seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulcher No Witness more classical for Gods use than Mary Magdalene a repentant Sinner No love more expressive than to shew affection even after death no season so fit to be watcht as the same which Christ foretold how the third day he would rise which fell out on the first day of the week no fruit that doth better become Faith and Love than vigilant diligence without sloth Repentance Love Faith Diligence shall ever be thus requited that God will shew them a sign from Heaven beyond their expectation The condition of the person is the first thing that we encounter Mary Magdalene cometh unto the Sepulcher She came not alone but other Associates did bear her company such as were devout women and loved our Lord. But our Evangelist knew a reason that she alone was worth the mentioning instead of all besides and upon her name only his Narration runs that Mary Magdalen came unto the Sepulcher The Scripture hath not forgot some of those that were her Associates in other Gospels St. Matthew says Mary Magdalen went forth as it began to dawn and the other Mary St. Mark names three Mary Magdalen and Mary the Mother of James and Salome St. Luke speaks of an indefinite number but every Divine Writer begins with Mary Magdalen she and Joanna and Mary the Mother of James and other Women that were with them But this Woman in my Text was more fervent and passionate in the cause she incited all the rest to go with her to the Sepulcher wherefore she is remembred by our Evangelist in a kind of singularity above all the rest John himself was the Disciple of Love and was careful to eternize her name in this story which did abound in Love above all her Fellows Some antient Writers knew not how so good a Work could be done wherein many religious Women conspired together without the most Blessed Mary the mother of our Lord. Rather than it should turn to her disesteem to stay behind Sedulius Nyssen and Nicephorus were willing I think to mistake that the Woman whom St. Matthew calls the other Mary was the Holy Virgin The disadvantages which this Opinion brings with it were not thought upon that another name should stand before hers to be past over with such an easie mention as the other Mary and not the mother of our Lord a thing which especially St. Luke useth not to forget And what an instance of moment were this that among all others our Lord did first appear to Mary Magdalen after he was risen from the dead Surely his mother had been partaker of that sweet Vision as soon as any if she had been in place to behold him Bernard invents a reason to satisfie himself though perhaps it will not satisfie all men why the Blessed Virgin did willingly absent herself from coming to the Sepulcher the first day of the Week because her Faith abounded more than all the rest She was constantly persuaded that Christ was risen upon the third day even as he had spoken before and she would not go to the Sepulcher to seek the living among the dead But if any man should cast a doubt that the Holy Scriptures would not have concealed such a superexcellent strain of Faith in the Blessed Virgin if she had believed the Mystery of the Resurrection when the Disciples and all other were mistaken besides that none of the Church did perfectly understand the Scriptures until the Holy Ghost fell down upon them at the Feast of Pentecost I say if any should cast in such a doubt I know not how it would be resolved I have no Warrant to affirm any thing in this point neither doth the Scripture
all the Elements at the last and great Resurrection There is a day to come when the earth shall disclose her bloud and shall no more cover her slain Isa xxvi 21. Then shall the whole earth shake and be dissolved as when one wipes a dish and turns the other side says the Prophet And therefore Diogenes the Cynick in a flout would be left above ground when he was dead for one day says he all will be turned topside turvy and then I shall lie right Haggai speaking of that great and dreadful day expresseth it by Earthquakes and Commotions Yet once is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land and I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory Such a clashing and perturbation shall precede our future happiness that the sudden change may the more affect us from extremity of amazement in the twinckling of an eye to extremity of glory Instead of many places this of Ezekiel will fit us for all Ecce commotio accesserunt ossa ad ossa Behold a shaking and the bones came together bone to his bone If it were nothing else but so many Monuments of stone cracking asunder so many Graves yawning so many Bones grating one against another this would make a strange sound in mens ears how much more when the dust shall be shaken from the very Center that the Dead since Adam may have all their limbs again When the Elements shall melt with heat and the Heavens pass away with a noise when the Impenitent shall howl the Unjust skreek out the righteous lift up their voice of thanksgiving and the Angels sing Haleluja all this together in a medley will make a strange commotion which is prefigured in the antecedent of our Saviours Resurrection Behold c. Thirdly It signifies that the Majesty of the Lord was upon the earth to defend his people that he came down and trod upon his footstool that he alone is terrible against all other terrors that may trouble us that he is present to protect all those that love the coming of our Lord Jesus When he came down to deliver the Law the earth shook even as Sinah also was moved at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob the Mountains owed that homage to tremble when the glory of the Lord was upon them And though it was dreadful yet so long as God was present in the midst of them the Host of Israel knew they were in safety So the Monuments did quiver and tremble when Christ did break forth of the Grave in triumph which did at once beget these seeming contrary passions in them that believe an awful reverence and a bold encouragement This the Fathers collect because Mary Magdalen and the other devout women were now upon their journey when the Earthquake began yet they went not back neither stopt in the way but advanced with chearfulness to the very mouth of the Sepulcher When a blazing Star appeared in the days of Vespasian says he It threatens not fatality to me but to the King of Persia who nourisheth long locks like the streaming flame of a Comet So those holy women did truly apprehend that the buzzling of the Earthquake was their protection and bad mens confusion And here a fourth reason offers it self the anger of the Lord did roar out of the earth against those Jews who thought to prevail that death should devour him against Pilate that allowed his Seal to this conspiracy and against the Souldiers that watcht the Sepulcher An unexpected judgment of which they did not dream that the earth which is a most dull and silent Element should burst into many pieces to chide their infidelity Pittacus the wise man had such confidence in the stability of the earth that it is delivered for his saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you might trust the Earth it would do you no harm but the Sea was not to be trusted Foolish wise man that understood not how terrible a vengeance the shaking of the earth is when the Lord is angry In the fourth year of Nero which was the twenty seventh year after our Saviours Passion more than one quarter of the City of Rome was beaten flat with an Earthquake and all the Inhabitants slain And six years after that three the most famous Cities in all Asia were ruin'd by this judgment Heraclis Laodicaea and Colophe The same fatality hath swallowed up the Cities of Colossus and Nice it were endless to rehearse particulars And although Christ would not interject such sadness with the joyfulness of his Resurrection-day to procure death and ruine to his enemies by this Earthquake we read of no such mischief done by it in the Text of Scripture yet I believe it is unutterable how this accident did shake and apall the Souldiers Miseri quos tunc percutit pavor mortis quando securitas vitae redditur Unhappy wretches who at that time were most of all strucken with the fear of death when Christ did give us this demonstrance to be secure of eternal life I leave it to you to consider how an evil conscience diffused chilness and quaking into all their bones They must needs reel and totter and fall down desperately to the Earth who are weighed down with the Plummets of their own guiltiness And what a miserable folly was this to tremble because they were loth to die yet their office was at this time to be mortis satellites deaths guard appointed to be adversaries to life and to hinder the Resurrection Now because the Consciences of these evil men were only wounded and no other harm done by the Earthquake therefore fifthly some say that the place round about did rather dance for joy than quake for trembling As when Israel came out of Egypt the Psalmist says The Mountains skipped like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep Surely under that Hyperbole is to be understood that the motion of the Earth did bewray some gladsome entertainment As the Disciples prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled Acts iv 31. It is expounded generally that the Earth did move with gladness and reverence because the Saints kneeled upon it Horum sub gressibus ergo laeta movetur humus says Arator And as the Child sprang within Elizabeth when the Blessed Virgin came unto her with our Saviour in her womb and says she How is it that the Mother of my Lord doth come unto me So the Earth did rejoyce and tripudiate when our Saviour came forth alive out of the belly of the Grave as who should say O dust thou shalt be ennobled and compacted into an incorruptible body And how is it that my Redeemer comes forth and lives for ever I will put no more Oyl into this Lamp than Beda's words distinguishing between the two Earthquakes the one at the Passion
as when a bow-string is snapt in twain yet both parts of the strings do still remain in the nocks of the Bow So the body of our Saviour was holy and venerable because it retained the personal union of the Godhead and the Sepulcher where it was reposed deserved the attendance of an Angel Fourthly If not an Angel who else would be believed in so great a matter as this was Tell me who could give testimony beside that would be credited The Disciples were never so tardy to conceive never so unapprehensive in any thing else as in this They knew not as yet what the rising from the dead did mean Observe the talk of Cleophas and the other Disciple Luk. xxiv 21. And guess at all the company beside They confess Christ had been a Prophet mighty in word and deed whom Pilate and the Rulers had condemned to death and crucified but we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel As who should say being he is dead there is an end of our hope we look for no more redemption from him God loves to have better witnesses than these in all his works that we may not say he takes us unprepared we were not well wrought to credulity David said it in his haste what if he had said it upon premeditation All men are liars It was not fit so fundamental an Article of faith as this was should be preatcht at first time by lying lips nay rather by an Angel who was confirmed in grace that he would not lie And how little had the authority of any man swayed Mary Magdalen to believe when albeit an Angel had told her the truth how Christ was risen yet she distrusts and runs to Peter and John with a quite contrary tale that some body had taken away her Masters body and she knew not where they had laid it and therefore because an Angel could not put that faith into her Christ took it in hand and disclosed himself Fifthly An Angel appears at the mouth of the Grave after Christ came to life again who is the first fruits of our Resurrection which is in effect to promise that we shall be exalted after death to the society of Angels Thus a worthy Author observed it before me The finding of an Angel in the place of dead bodies is for a pledge that there is a possibility and hope that dead bodies may come into the place of Angels Why not the bodies in the Grave to be advanced in heaven one day as well as the Angels in heaven to be about the Grave this day And I pray you mark it with me There are many Apparitions of Angels recorded in holy Scripture yet this one time and no more if I be not mistaken an accurate description is made what manner of Robe and Garment they did seem to wear His countenance was like lightning and his rayment white as snow in the next verse to my Text. The Holy Ghost would never have instanced in the bright colour of the Garment but to shew with what Angelical shapes we shall be cloathed in the Resurrection 6. Lastly Angels desire to be present at every thing wherein mankind is benefited that they may rejoyce with us No envy no malignity in them that we shall be made perfect in both parts of nature both in body and soul and so in that respect exceed them who are only spiritual substances For they that rejoyce when one sinner is converted how much more do they rejoyce that all mankind shall be deliver'd from the Prisons of death and beautified with immortality they fought with the Devil about the Body of Moses they will strive with death and corruption about the restauration of our bodies For God will send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect from the four corners of the earth this is meant of their Ministry to rake up our bones and dust together at the great day of the Resurrection Surgente Christo terrenis redditur coeleste commercium now Angels came down in bodily shapes because Christ had exalted frail flesh unto incorruption now they talk familiarly to Gods servants as with the tongues of men because our tongues shall be made Psalteries of the divine praise for ever I have done with the Angels descent from heaven and now I come to the third motion which was particularly about our Saviours Sepulchre He came and rolled back the stone from the door When you hear that the door of our Saviours Sepulchre was a great stone and a stone rolled upon it you must not conceive the manner by such Tombs and Monuments as we have now adaies Neither will I refer you to those types and Medals which are printed now adaies and taken from the fashion of the Sepulchre which at this day is to be seen in the Holy City and is kept by certain Orders of Friars with great reverence For with what assurance can I say it is the same Sepulchre wherein our Saviour lay when Eusebius says that in the reign of Constantine the Emperor the place was nothing but a rude heap of earth so that there was no memory remaining of our Saviours Burial place But those of the learned that seem to me to speak probably say thus Jerusalem was seated upon a rocky place so that all their chief Monuments were digged out of stony Quarries Every Family of noble reputation as the learned Casaubon notes it out of the Rabbies had a Sepulchre proper to it self with a certain number of hollow places or excavations to receive the Corpses of that Family Some say there were wont to be thirteen in every Vault some say but eight In such a Vault belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea was Christ laid a rocky stony Moument it was lest some should say he was digg'd out by some secret Mine a new one wherein never any had been laid lest they should say not He but another body rose a Tomb not belonging to himself but to another man because he neither died nor was buried for himself but for us men and for our salvation St. Cyril helps us further to know that the Monuments of the Kings of Juda and Israel were raised a little above the ground but the Tombs of all others of that Nation who were under the Princely rank were hewn out seven cubits under ground Eusebius very directly says of his Tomb it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cave but none so pat as the Prophet Jeremy Lam. v. 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me An hollow descension into a low place is called a Dungeon And as we cover a Wells mouth with planks of wood or with lead so in sundry places of Scripture it appears that they rolled great stones upon the mouth of their Caves And surely Joseph of Arimathaea barr'd this Sepulchre with a stronger stone than ordinary that our Lords body might not be abused by the malice of his Enemies
that her Lords body was gone but then Christ appears first unto her whom she took to be the Gardener Presently she goes and tells the Disciples she had seen the Lord. The other women who had fled from the Sepulcher and were amazed said nothing to any man of that which the Angel before did bid them say for they are yet incredulous and then comes in St. Lukes relation that they looked again into the Sepulcher and the two men in white whom they saw said unto them Why seek ye the living among the dead He is not here but he is risen And as St. Matthew adds he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him Then they returned and told all these things to the Eleven but they seemed to them as idle tales And as these women went to tell the Disciples Christ did meet them according to the Angels promise and saluted them and they held him by the feet and worshipped him These rumours went abroad into every mans mouth and toward the setting of the Sun Christ adjoyned himself to Cleophas and the other Disciple as a waifaring man and was known of them in the breaking of bread whereupon they return to Jerusalem and tell the Disciples Now the Disciples had a message sent them to go into Galilee and there they should see the Lord but out of fear and incredulity they durst not move out of doors Therefore on the same day at Evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst of them and said peace be unto you This was the fourth Apparition which he made on this very day A day of so many noble acts and chances that it is able alone to make an history and a history of that great moment that St. Paul writes as if a lively and effectual assent to this Article of the Creed to this one Article were able alone to make a Christian Rom. x. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And although there are other limbs of truth which make up the body of Christian Faith yet if any man ask me about Faith as one askt Christ about the Commandments which is the first and greatest Commandment So in the Point of belief if any one shall say which is the first and great Article of the Creed I would boldly reply this before any other The third day he rose again from the dead The matter then which it behoves us to speak on at this solemn Feast for the quality it is the very Essence and Elixar of our faith and for the quantity so copious that above all the narrations of the Gospel it is most venerable and delightful for the variety of the story I have passed already as the year hath come about into these Points how Mary Magdalen and the other women brought sweet Odours and Spices on the first day of the Week to embalm his body and that as they were on their way three strange motions came to pass the one in the whole Element of Earth the foundations whereof were opened behold there was a great Earthquake and then the heavens were opened for an Angel came down from thence and then the Grave was opened by the rouling away of the stone Now follows the Text which I have read in order wherein is contained this section of the story the Angel puts on a terrible appearance and removes away those that would not believe and so makes room for those that came devoutly prepared If the Band of Souldiers had staid at the Sepulcher these godly women durst not approach for fear of violent ravishment nor durst the Disciples have come near lest these hirelings should spill their bloud But to prevent all outrage the Angel put on a look like lightning and made the hearts of these miscreants faint and when they were driven off the zealous women and the Disciples were admitted to see this glorious work which the Lord had wrought and to testifie what they had seen to all the world The two verses which enter us into this part of the story may be thus distinguished The first is a description of Gods Watchman of his coelestial guard His Countenance was like lightning and his Rayment white as snow The second is a description of Pilates Watchmen and his Roman Guard For fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men Gods Angel is notified by his Visage His Countenance was like lightning and by his Rayment it was white as snow Pilates Ruffians are much betrayed by outward fear for fear of him the Keepers did shake but the inward damp of conscience was most terrible they became as dead men Of these particulars that God may be glorified and you edified You have seen the figures of many Angels and Cherubims about the Tombs of Princes and great men carved by the Art of the Statuary but all the histories of the world afford not such an instance that a very Angel sate upon a Grave-stone excepting this occurrence at our Saviours Resurrection St. Luke says that the women saw two men cloathed in white St. Mark says it was a young man cloathed in a long white garment but they were not very men that came from the dead as Moses and Elias were seen in the Mount at the Transfiguration they were true Angels in the visible shapes of men who took it now for a dignity to be seen in a body because our body was exalted to be incorruptible in the Resurrection of Christ Whether then they be called Angels or men all is one but when St. Matthew mentions one Angel and St. John reckons two when St. Mark says there was one young man in white St. Luke says there were two men in shining garments Is not this a discord No not at all There was but one Angel that spake to the women now St. Matthew and St. Mark refer us only to that person that was the speaker St. Luke and St. John labour to tell us the number of those witnesses that were present and testified of his Resurrection and they were two This is no difference when some write of the singular person of that Angel which spake and others in the plural person of those Angels that witnessed You have heard the reason why this Angel is called a man and why but one is named though there were two in place now I will put this unto it that he came to the Sepulcher neither as a man alone nor as an Angel alone but as an Angel and a Man John Baptist the fore runner of the Nativity came poorly clad with a vesture of Camels skins and a leathern Girdle about his loyns his Errand was to witness to the Son of God coming to us in great humility but this Angel who is the fore-runner of the
inward man must exceed all natural similitudes lavabis me dealbabor supra nivem thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter than the snow We come into the world odious and defiled therefore we wash in the Sacrament of Baptism that we may be cleansed yet again we grow obscene and wallow in the mire of this world therefore we do often crave the bloud of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to cleanse and purifie our conscience and after all this he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled he that useth this world shall be contaminated therefore repentance which sometimes I hope brings tears with it must stand us often in stead to purge out the spots of uncleanness and this is our pureness before God that we sorrow for our impurity But remember I beseech you to keep your vessel chaste and undefiled for as this Angel appeared white as snow when Christ rose from the dead so let us go to our Graves as white as Doves in innocency and simplicity of heart that 's the colour of hope and purity belongs to all those that have hope of a glorious resurrection Secondly this snowy resplendent Vesture in the Angel is the Ensign of great joy for joy had never so good reason to break out heartily and redundantly as that Christ was risen from the dead The Sun and Moon in the Firmament do set every day and rise again no great joy to see those bright Lamps again because we certainly expect them but all that retein'd upon Christ thought when he was crucified such was their little faith that he was lost for ever and therefore when he came unto them and shewed them his feet and hands they believed not for joy and wondred Luke xxiv 41. and afterward being throughly perswaded of it they returned to Jerusalem with great joy v. 52. O Lord who is able to express what triumphs there were in Heaven when the Souls of the Saints perceived that Death was overcome that Hell had lost the victory and that they should be cloathed with their bodies for ever on Good Friday the Heaven and the Earth mourned the Eclipse put all in black on Easter day the colour is changed Heaven and Angels are all in white From this great Festival to the end of the next Lords day they that were baptized went all in white for the ancient Church took a delight to be ceremonious in these things and therefore the next day called Low Sunday by us the Low Sunday in respect of this the highest day in all the year with them was known by this name Dominica in albis the Sunday for wearing of white Garments and this colour was so constantly observ'd for the figurative signification of exceeding joy When Israel came out of Egypt and the House of Jacob from a strange language the Mountains skipped like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep Psal cxiv And why is that one of the proper Psalms appointed to be read on this day because if the joy could not be expressed but by such strange Hyperboles when the People of God came out of the Bondage of Egypt then what unutterable gladness it is that the Son of God broke the bondage of death asunder and by his own victory brought us all out of the captivity of the Grave for ever It was a Proverb in their Heathen Entertainments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a sign of good welcom when the Porter which lets you in is chearful the Cherubins are the Porters of Paradise in former times holding an Instrument of minacy in their hands to keep us back now they appear gladsom and will conduct us with joy to Christ I told you before that in all the other Evangelists the pious women that came with spices to the Sepulcher to embalm Christs Body did not see the afrightful rutilancy in the Angels face but only this fair gladsome Robe he lookt like a Priest to preach Christs Resurrection pur âque in veste Sacerdos a good decorum in the Heathen Poets verse although some are so foolish now-a-days that they had as live see lightning as a white Garment upon his back that supplies the place of the Angel But the Angel himself were not able to satisfie all such quarrelsom consciences therefore I let it pass The use of his coming was to stir us up to joy to rejoyce in God In the world we shall have tribulation but this is a blessing of which neither fire nor water nor any tyranny can prevent us we shall have a joyful resurrection And as the Jews had the Law written in the Fringe of their Garments so we may read this observation likewise in the long Robe of the Angel which was white as snow that it was idaea gloriae the Idaea of that triumphant glory which shall be in the bodies of the Elect when they are raised up in immortality Indeed if no such reason should be assigned it would be hard to answer this objection Quid facit indumentum ubi tegendi necessitas non habitat What should a Garment do where there is no need of covering neither heat nor cold Summer nor Winter Whether they that rise from the dead shall be naked in their bodies is a captious question to be propounded Nakedness had no shame in it I am sure in the days of innocency before Adam fell and then indubitably it will have less cause to blush in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the opinion of the Greek Fathers and therefore the white Robe of this Celestial Messenger was rather figurative of the brightness of our glory than a description of our Vestiments And the Scripture is constant to that phrase to make us constant in our expectation Those few names in Sarda which had not defiled their Garments shall walk with me in white Revel iii. 4. and the President of all Patterns our blessed Saviour at his Transfiguration in which he shewed what manner of Citizens we should be in the Heavenly Jerusalem the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering The Pharisees required a sign and Christ told them they should have no sign but that of the Prophet Jonas for Jonas rose as it were out of the Whales belly to preach destruction against Nineveh so all that the Souldiers knew by Christs rising should be lightning to burn them up but the godly women that saw this Angel over and above the sign of the Prophet Jonas saw this glorious Apparel to betoken the dainty and delicate part of the resurrection In these our evil days our Soul is full of rebellious concupiscence and therefore our Body is made miserable hereafter the Soul will be enlightned with all kind of grace and the Body shall be changed to be incorruptible Equal or like to the Angels the Elect shall be Christ hath so promised and in a mutual assurance these Angels that came in white were made like to us Like to us I say but
Behold he goes before you to Galilee Was there any cause therefore that they should think to bless their eyes with him before they had made a journey into Galilee but behold the Angels had not all the mind of the Lord revealed unto them Jesus met the women hard by where the word was spoken and long before they went into Galilee So it is with all who are dear to God They look not for the vision of God till they are dead for no man shall see God at any time and live Yet before we get into Galilee before the Soul ascends into heaven he grants us that blessing to see him often with the eye of faith As the place is one part of the wonder so there is another Ecce another behold in the time just as they were going to tell the Disciples that an Angel had publisht at the Monument that the Master was risen just then he met them One hath made a good note of it qui communicant Christum aliis ipsum altiùs intelligent Teach the ways of the Lord to others and thou shalt understand them the better thy self Communicate unto the ignorant what thou knowest of Christ thy Saviour and thine own knowledg shall increase unto thee in the communication A great encouragement though the mysteries of faith are deep and inexplicable yet to preach them as we are able because we have this hope that Jesus the revealer of all secrets will meet us by the way And yet behold again that Jerusalem being so populous and at this time of the Passover throng'd with all sorts of strangers he was descerned of none but of these women these he meets and salutes them This is their reward that they left their soft Couch and some hours before the Sun rose came to seek the Lord. The Servants of God are called generatio quaerentium Psal xxii This is the generation of them that seek thee even of them that seek thy face O Jacob. He says in the Prophet Isaiah that he was found of them that sought him not much more will he be found of those that sought him Ask St. Cyprian why many that thought themselves Eagles could not behold him with their piercing eyes and that this little Nest of Sparrows these few women did encounter him St. Cyprian says quae ardentiùs dilexerunt quae devotiùs quaesicrunt such as loved him more affectionately such as sought him more devoutly they have the blessing to enjoy him But a wiser than Cyprian even Solomon says it Prov. viii 17. I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me In a word Christ meets all those that go in the way of faith and obedience as these women did And as the Father went out to meet his prodigal Son before his Son did look for him so go on in repentance in love in zeal in holiness and you shall see the unexpected day of the Lord. After this hear the words which our Saviour spake to the women St. Paul heard his voice from heaven but did not at first see him St. Stephen saw him stand at the right hand of God but did not hear him speak these persons had the blessedness both to hear him and see him and his tunable voice gave them this salutation before they spake to him all hail It is no question but Christ spake unto them in the Syrian or in the Hebrew tongue and their word of love and courtesie to one another when they met was shalom or peace And so the Syrian Paraphrast renders these words of my Text pax vobis peace be unto you But the Evangelist hath kept the Greek form of salutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejoyce The Latin tongue useth that word which was usual in the mouth of the Romans when they gave the wishes of a good day unto any avete an old Latian word whose meaning themselves did not know The Poet Martial was a good Critick that confessed it Exprimere Rufe fidicula licet cogant Ave latinum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non potes Gracum Now at last to descend to our language we express it as you read it all hail which is a Saxon ideom for all health The optative form of the Hebrews was Peace of the Greeks Joy they were merry Greeks of us English health The common custom was that friends should meet friends with auspicious words with congratulation of happiness one to another whensoever they came together upon appointment or incidentary occasions Among the Heathen Humanity and Civility among us Christians Brotherly love is the original to salute one another with a Prayer when we meet But who is he among an hundred that thinks the name of God and a Prayer is in his mouth when he bids a Good morrow or a Good even to his Neighbour he hath no perceivance of his all hail or of those charitable words that come from him He doth not bless his Brother after the meaning of the phrase but he talks by rote like a Parrot And as it is most supine negligence to mean no good in our salutation and will fall into the condemnation of idle words so it is most devillish to give the outward salute of good words and to have war in our heart As Joab spake peaceably to Abner that is saluted him and then smote him that he died as Judas gave all hail to his Master and betrayed him with a signal of a courtesie A familiar thing in this wicked world to bid God save and God speed to them whose destruction we covet and to think of cursing in our heart at the same instant when the form of blessing is in our mouth Shame be to our dissimulation that it is but a form It began to be so odious among the Heathen to salute out of wanton fashion when they meant no kindness that it grew in use among them to confirm their Greetings with an oath In one of Terence his Comedies this passage is between two Servants Salve mecastor Parmeno tu aedipol Syra they swore they did verily mean them all the good wherewith they saluted them But this would not mend the matter in our dissembling age for we have many that will salute and swear and yet intend mischief to their neighbour and so will mix malice with perjury I leave them to the bitterness of their own sins and to have their portion with Hypocrites I am sure the salutation of our Saviour did really bring peace and joy and health to them that were saluted Gaudere eas jubet quae condemnatae erant ad habendum merorem says Euthymius womenkind in Eve was condemned to sorrow Gen. iii. Now Christ bids them rejoyce and obliterates the handwriting of sorrow that was against them Avete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now be merry and joyful now that you have seen with your eys that Christ is the resurrection and the life the Heavens and all the powers therein Archangels and Angels Patriarchs and Prophets
of First-fruits which at this time by the Levitical Sanctions were waved to the Lord are rendred after the spiritual gloss of our Church to be amor Dei proximi the love of God and the love of our Neighbour and these must be weaved or heaved up after their manner what 's that why our integrity and piety must shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father that is in heaven Beloved here 's the difference they gave first-fruits of earthly things this day unto God but this day we celebrate the memorial how God gave First-fruits of heavenly things unto man In Rom. viii 23. St. Paul speaks of the first-fruits of the spirit in a diminutive sense as the inchoation of grace the enlightning of faith the hope of better things that what he hath begun in us he will perfect but the first-fruits of the spirit which the Church reapt this day was that which sanctified the whole lump for ever after for this last correspondency and for the other forenamed the Apostles in a most acceptable time expected the Holy Ghost when the day c. A most delicious gift poured out from God in the very strength and deliciousness of the year A festival time it was you have heard and such a Festival as brought a Concourse of many Nations to Jerusalem so it appears in this chapter I have my authority from St. Ambrose that the Lord had this time much in mind to do it honor many years before for some Jewish Tradition hath encouraged him to say that the certain season when the Angel came down to the Pool of Bethesda to trouble the water that whosoever stepped in first might be made whole of his disease it was but once a year and that once was the Feast of Pentecost Mark how the Lord design'd out that day for his Angelical Miracle I will not engage my self into that Chronological question whether our first Whitsunday when the Holy Ghost appeared in firy tongues was the very Pentecost of the Jews or rather the day after To the latter opinion many incline upon that slight reason because St. Luke writ this Story of the Acts 28 years after Christ's ascension into heaven and then the Jews Pentecost was abolished the doubt is much uncertain wherefore I let it pass But I can assure you that in very ancient times of the Christian Faith yea in the most ancient if Clement his Constitutions were warrantable this day was kept with as high honour and devotion as the zeal of our Forefathers could excogitate Says Eusebius lamenting that his Master Constantine the Emperor died at the same time if I should call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holiday of Holidays we should not erre He adds that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it had honour done it seven weeks together This in my apprehension refers us to three things First the Church was wont to sing that chearful Anthem of Alleluia every Sunday from Easter to Whitsuntide an arbitrary Ceremony at the discretion of every particular Church and our Church of England since the Reformation continued the custom according to the first Liturgies set forth in Edward the sixth his Reign to sing or say alleluia from Easter to Whitsuntide at Morning Prayer 2. By the ancient Prescript no Fasts were bidden all those seven weeks nothing but joy and exultation was heard and practiced 3. During all that space they did not kneel at time of Prayer but stand upright looking towards Heaven from whence the Holy Ghost descended Nefas erat de geniculis adorare in Tertullian's time these were ancient Rites and Prescriptions to magnify this day in the beauty of holiness But whereas Eusebius adds that Christ ascended into Heaven the very same day the Holy Ghost descended this was his oversight though not his alone who would not pick the right sense Act. i. 3. that Christ was seen of his Disciples but fourty days speaking of the things of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore on the fourtieth day he was taken from them into Heaven and ten days after the plentiful showers of grace did rain down upon the Church the time is so precisely noted says Isidor Palcusiot to refute that proud Heretick Montanus who said the great promise of the Holy Spirit was not fulfill'd at the Feast of Pentecost but long after in his days This is the glorious day which the Lord hath made wherein he summ'd up the complement of all his benefits as the sixt day was the complement of the Creation All other preceding mercies were but words to this the Holy Ghost is the Seal or Signature of those words to make the deed the stronger in quo signati estis Eph. iv 30. in whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Rejoyce in this day and keep it holy before the Lord not in decking the body in full diet in sport in idleness but in thankfulness in purity of mind in spiritual consolations in the feast of a good conscience and ever set before you at such seasons what Gregory said Quid prodest interesse festis hominum si contingat deesse festis Angelorum What profit is it to keep holiday with men if we should be excluded from keeping holiday with Angels for evermore So much for the time of the Holy Ghosts coming I repent me not that I have been long in it for it was most material The persons that received this power from on high are next in the way of my discourse omnes all of them Many there are that understand this note of Universality collectivè not as meant of all that were present but of all the Apostles The whole Church was gathered together for the Election of a new Apostle that 's apparent in the former chapter and the lot fell upon Matthias The number of names together were about an hundred and twenty Among these there were divers women Mary the Mother of our Lord is expresly mentioned for one of them these continued together in prayer and supplication even until the time that the Holy Ghost did fill the Room Now I would put the case into this distinction whether the spirit came down upon them all upon them all in some great measure no question but not upon them all with the same virtue and power and illumination Many talents of rare perfections were distributed among all the Believers that were present men and women for else Peter had not applied the place of the Prophet Joel so pertinently ver 17. of this chap. In the last days I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh your sons and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions St. Hierom leans to this side and says that the mighty gift of grace was given to all that believed even as God took the spirit of Moses and gave it to the 70 Elders and it came to pass when the spirit rested upon them
they prophesied and did not cease Num. xi 25. Elegantly St. Austin to favour this opinion Christ warned his Apostles not to stir from Jirusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father and that not many days thence that is 10 days after his Ascension they should receive the Holy Ghost But says the Father Christ gave this spirit not only to them but to ten times as many as the Twelve to sixscore in all Ea est fidelitas imo liberalitas Christi docens nos pauca promittere sed decuplo plura praestare this is the just dealing nay the liberality of Christ which bids us promise no more than we will perform but rather perform ten times more than you promise But whether the cloven tongues which lookt as if they had been of fire did descend upon the whole Congregation men and women may a little be doubted for they were Types and Figures that the Lord would send forth of his Servants to be bold and fervent Preachers in all Nations and women were interdicted from the public ministry of Preaching though in the beginning they were imployed in some private labours of the Word And if the women had the gift of tongues they did not utter them in this Chapter for when all were amazed to hear such diversity of languages from illiterate ones and such as never travelled some mocked and said these men are full of new wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the masculine gender And 't is not to be despised for an observation that ver 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all are said to be full of the Holy Ghost and ver 3. the firy tongues are said to sit not upon all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon each of them meaning I conjecture upon each of the Apostles but I will not strive for it In the old Missals I am sure I have not perused the latter it reads the Epistle thus omnes discipuli all the Disciples were with one accord in one place and Beza says in two antient Greek Copies he had found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Apostles and none other mentioned Certainly they were primarily intended to reap the benefit of the day For it is well noted by the first Writers that there were four things proper and peculiar to the Apostles given them for the gathering together of the Saints which were not communicable to any other Servant of Christ The first was immediate vocation from Heaven St. Paul demonstrated he was not inferior to the best of the Apostles because of that property The second was infallibility of judgment in the necessary points of faith 3. A Generality of Commission to have the care of the whole world committed to every one of them to exercise their power in all places towards all persons 4. To speak in all the tongues and languages of the world to confirm their Doctrin by signs and miracles and by the imposition of their hands to give the like miraculous gifts of the spirit to others For although the having of miraculous gifts and the power to work miracles was not simply proper to the Apostles yet to have them in a sort as by the imposition of their hands to give the spirit unto others and to enable such as they thought fit to do signs and wonders through the finger of God this was a benediction upon the heads of the Apostles from the great day of Pentecost and only upon them Simon Magus that Mammonist you may remember would have bought it of them but had a curse instead of a blessing Nay when Philip the Deacon had baptized some at Samaria the Apostles went to confirm those whom he had baptized by imposition of hands that they might receive some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost And as these graces were reserved only for the Apostolical honor in their time so were they never since passed over to any by succession Instead of immediate calling God be praised we can shew our Vocation derived by succession from the Apostles Instead of infallibility of judgment we have the direction of the Scriptures to guide us in finding out the truth instead of general Commission over the whole World we have particular assignment of several Churches and parts of Christs Flock to feed instead of their miraculous gifts and power to confer them to others we have that faith which was confirmed by the Apostles miracles And so I have declared that many even all the Believers that met together shared in the blessings of this day but the Apostles had an excellency and preeminency above them all for the government of the Church not disputing what particular irradiations and sanctifications the Blessed Virgin had which we may suppose to be incomparable beyond all others such as were fit for her to receive but they are not here revealed But of the persons hitherto I can spare no more time for that for it is worth much observation how they were prepared to receive the Holy Ghost which I handle in this order howsoever the words ly first that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first unà then unanimes they were all in one place To be altogether in one City in Jerusalem and not to stir from thence till they had received the Comforter even the Spirit of Truth to that purpose Christ laid his command upon them but they were met together not only in one City but in one house not only in one Vineyard but like Grapes they hung together in one cluster Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity In publick they consorted together Luke v. ult they were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God together in private they held fast the same friendship and amity by this says our Saviour shall they know you to be my Disciples if you love one another Whether it were the time of praying or hearing the Word or breaking of bread mark it in several places of this Chapter they did it with chearfulness and mutual friendship they were never asunder Unity in matter of circumstance in matter of place carries blessing and edification with it that we are Brethren it is the Lords doing to make men to be of one mind to dwell in one house Psal lxviii 6. We read it in our last Translation he setteth the solitary in Families that is he reduceth the dispersed into unity and outward conformity I told you and pressed it earnestly about this time the last year what an acceptable thing it was to God that when Noah and his Sons and Daughters were all the living of men and women that were left in the World that these should all praise the Lord together in outward unity with one voice and with one Sacrifice this was called a sweet smelling savour so much it delighted God this day to see the Church met together those 120 names that after Ages might know how well compacted the Primitive
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long abiders in the 13. verse of the former chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
dead works were not quickned by grace better it might be for us that we had never been born therefore the life of Sanctification was begun in the Church as it were with a gentle gust of wind when Christ breathed on his own and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost So you see this outward sign of insufflation was constantly used at our Creation at our Resurrection at our Sanctification to shew how it is the same God that worketh all in all Yet St. Ambrose comes in with a third Meditation upon it Says he God did give man a living soul at first by breathing or inspiration to let him see he did not only give him a temporal or carnal vivification but grace and sanctity to live for ever But when man had lost this primitive grace and original righteousness it was fit to let us know that such losses could be repaired by none but Christ therefore Christ breathed again upon man to demonstrate that he was the restorer of those immortal blessings which exceed our merits and pass all understanding But when Christ was ascended up on high the Spirit could not be infused immediately from the breath of his mouth but in Analogy to it it came into the place where the Apostles were gathered together like the murmuring wind or the breath of heaven As Solomon fore-told it in his Poetical Ode Cant. iv 16. Awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out And here again I shall pass through some humane Comparisons to the illustration of most divine Mysteries First of all Elementary Creatures the Wind is the most active thing in the world nothing so quick and active as it Vsque adeo agit ut nisi agat non sit when it is not active it is not at all no stirring of the air no wind So it is with the Spirit of faith and love the very being of it consists in being operative What shall I do to inherit eternal life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome it impels the heart to be never out of motion in some spiritual exercise Either the Tongue is praying or the Ear is hearing or the Heart is meditating or the Hand is giving or the Soul is thirsting for remission of sins When the Spirit beats not in the Pulses there is no spirit in the body it is a dead Carkass and in whomsoever there is a cessation from all good works you may say it justly that there the Holy Ghost is extinguished there is no difference between a standing Puddle and a dead Sea And cozen not your selves with a vain confidence that albeit you be altogether barren and unprofitable no fruit of Sanctification budding from you yet Semen Dei manet the sap may be in the root the vertue in the Seed-corn though it do not put out These may-bees are pitiful Anchors of hope and miserable comforters Will you say the wind is up when there is a still Serena no puff of air moving Then think as little that God dwells in that brest where there are no tokens of Sanctification Secondly I have it from St. Austin Flatus ille à carnali palea corda mundabit The Wind is the advantage of the Husbandman to winnow Chaff from Wheat and where the Spirit blows upon the conscience it will purge it from all dead works The cares of this world the thought of getting Riches anxieties for honours and advancements these overspread the life of a natural man left to the ways of carnal reason but as soon as ever we begin to sift and discuss these cogitations by the doctrine of the Spirit they vanish and disperse Tradam protervis in mare Creticum portare ventis they are light and empty of true goodness and so are blown away to the Father of errors and delusions to the Devil himself from whence they came Thirdly Says St. Chrysostome Suppose a Ship be well appointed with Pilot Mariners Sails Cables Anchors and all convenient appurtenances to what use will all this serve if the winds stir not So let there be profound Judgment quick Invention neat Eloquence and all the graces of Art in a man these will not bring a man one whit onward in his Voyage to the haven of happiness to the kingdom of glory unless the sweet gales of the Spirit carry him forward those are the wings of the Dove upon which the Soul shall fly away and be at rest Another Author taken for St. Chrysostome writing upon St. Matthew composeth it thus As the ground doth not fructifie by rain alone but there is a prolificous vertue in the winds which blows upon the fields and makes the Spring to sprout So it is not our Doctrine alone which converts your Souls though it distill like the soft drops of rain upon the earth but benediction of inward grace that goes with the word breaths salvation upon our heart The Letter may kill but the Spirit quickneth and in our Evangelical Priesthood we are Ministers not of the Letter alone but of the Spirit also Qui instat praecepto praecurrit auxilio the words of Leo which I take to be solid truth in this Point when God presseth us with the outward instruction of his Word He impresseth the secret operation of his Spirit to make it fructifie And now to come to another portion of the Text it agrees very accurately with the nature of that supernal gift which God infuseth into his Saints that the Spirit came with a sudden flaw of wind And I am very willing to make that collection of it which divers have done before me Datur haec gratia ex improviso sine meritis Grace is a blessing that comes unlook'd for unawares nay it is impossible for an unconverted man to say now I am prepared for it now I expect it now my heart is ready to receive it for there is no good preparation for grace in the soul of man till some portion of it have entred before Natural dispositions cannot attain to bring in supernatural grace Therefore the first influx and admission of it must needs be sudden and unawares As you can make no rules for the Wind why it should blow South to day and North to morrow why from this Point of heaven at such a season rather than from another So there is no aim to be taken how this or that man was first partaker of the heavenly light which is thus couched in our Saviours words The kingdom of God cometh not with observation neither shall they say loe here or loe there for the Kingdom of God is within you Luk. xvii 20. For what observation can we make or through what tokens can we collect that God will begin to draw a sinner unto him Will you say he lives justly and chastely If they were Christian justice and chastity the seed of the Spirit was in his heart before If they be but moral conformities he is still the
fulness not that the Vessel of any of their hearts was so replenisht but that God could have poured in more if it had seemed good unto him for nothing but the essence of God is all sufficient and can admit of no augmentation but never was there such copious measure of it either diffused among the Israelites in the Old Law no nor imparted to us Christians since this Generation did leave the world Rupertus says upon it it was now now when this Ocean of the Spirit was poured out that the Devil was bound and cast into the bottomless pit though that is rather to be ascribed to the virtue of Christ's Passion and to his bloud shed upon the Cross When Mary poured a Box of Spiknard very precious upon our Saviour's head Judas grumbled and said quorsum perditio to what end is so much waste and lest any profane person should so gibe at this blessing and say to what end was so much plenty and superfluity of the Spirit take these reasons with you for your use and instruction and I will begin with two Maxims of reasons 1. Si natura non deficit in necessariis multò minùs spiritus sanctus if Nature is furnisht with all instruments and faculties fit for its work surely the Holy Ghost would not be scanty in any thing that should conduce to resound the Glory of God over all the world 2. Speculative men tell us tantum medii sumendum est quantum ad finem conducit he that is a wise Appointer will lay forth so much means as will bring the end to pass Put these together and it will follow that here was neither too little nor too much nothing wanting nor yet to spare The work of the Apostles was the greatest Task that ever was put upon mens shoulders Christ gave them one Commission which might be discharg'd with some moderate pains and adventures to preach unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel Their second Commission might seem unto flesh and bloud insupportable Go and teach all Nations c. How much ground was to be trod how many deaths to be hazarded how many subtle Philosophers to be convinced we preach unto them that are brought up in Religion and are glad to hear us they were sent to those that stop their ears at them and could not endure the name of Christ their heart therefore their judgment their courage their patience did require a far other proportion of the Spirit than will suffice a common Christian their filling must be more abundant because they were to empty it out to so many And unto whomsoever God hath imparted more copious grace let him not despise his Brethren but let him use that plenteous Gift for the benefit of many for the edification of the Members of Christ's Body or else the blessing that did adorn him will condemn him The next thing we learn is that we must strive and contend and pray for the fulness of the Spirit it is not every Modicum and pittance of it which will content him that truly loves the Lord. The Son of Syrach says of that wisdom which sanctifieth all things They that eat me shall be hungry and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty Ecclus xxiv 21. And very certain none so eager to have more grace as they that have a liberal portion already None so instant to get ten Talents as he that hath received five Let Elisha have some enlightnings of a Prophetical Spirit and then he makes bold to ask that a double portion of Elias his Spirit may rest upon him Gregory says it is the property of the fruits of the Spirit Cum non habentur in fastidio sunt cum habentur in desiderio They that have them not either never miss them or think vilely of them they that have them do insatiably desire them It is a sign of a disdainful lothsomness in nature to come to the Fountain of living waters and to do no more but sip and wet our lips with it He that hath a truly heavenly gust of it pleno se proluit alveo As St. Paul phraseth it We are all made to drink into one spirit 1 Cor. xii 12. Still we shall call for more and more not because want and driness doth afflict us but because desire doth please us Nemo primo statim die ad satietatem potatur spiritus sancti says Calvin no man is made Christian enough in a day to go to the Kingdom of heaven unless it be in such a rare example as that was of the penitent Thief It is a false spirit that says unto any mortal man it is well if you can keep at this stay and prove no worse I know the greatest part of indifferent Christians are so affected to carnal content that if it were possible to measure out to a drachm what quantity of righteousness would serve them to be endued with that they might attain salvation they would reach so far if the grace of God would assist them but would take no care to seek any further I say if they knew the trick how to make just a Saint and no more they would spare a labour for seeking beyond that Point and for the rest sacrifice to carnal security Christianum esse probant minimum esse non probant as St. Hierom speaks they do not love a man unless he be a Christian And again they will not love him if he be a vehement and an earnest Christian to serve the Lord. Certainly it is a sign that there is no sanctification in that conscience where there is not a studious longing of the soul for an augmentation The learned among the Heathen love to talk of strange Creatures and Plutarch tells of a fish whereof if a man taste but a little it is hurtful if he eat it up all it is medicinal True or false be his story it comes fit to be applied a little holiness will vanish away like a morning mist as Hosea speaks nay it is prone to turn to mans hurt for when there is but little of it it turns to hypocrisie but as God hath given us plenteous redemption in Christ so we must return him plenteous faith and plenteous obedience with all our heart and with all our soul and love our neighbour with a plenteous love even as we love our selves and that is to be filled with the Holy Ghost Let this be the conclusion of the first part of my Text the inward donation of the Spirit the outward exercise of it remains to be handled They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance The Spirit which is signified by the wind and inspiration is necessary to all Christians who are invited to faith But as it appears in Tongues so it was requisite for them only that were sent to teach all Nations That is if God had meant only to make good men of them the wind would have sufficed but intending to make good Apostles of
speak the Oracles of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rational discourses 1 Pet. iv 11. So our Saviour promised his Disciples I will give you a mouth and wisdom not a mouth only but wisdom with it so that all your Adversaries shall not be able to gainsay it Luk. xxi 15. Finally the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the person of an Evangelical Priest The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should speak a word in season Isa l. 4. And so to end all let us send up our tongues of praise and thanksgiving to heaven to the gracious God that did send down the blessing of these Tongues to his Church upon earth And the same Lord Jesus exalt us to his Church Triumphant where with one song and with one voice we shall sing glory to him for evermore AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 12 13. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this Others mocking said these men are full of new wine MEntion being made in the former part of this Chapter what effects the Mission of the Holy Ghost as upon this day wrought in the Apostles the next thing which is disclosed in these two verses is what entertainment it found in the World What entertainment should it find but joy and gladness and thanksgiving it was a shower of grace that fell from Heaven and every drop of it more valuable than an Orient Pearl which made the whole earth barren and unfruitful before spring out with spiritual increase that from thenceforth the Wombs of Mothers should not bring out men but Saints It was not as upon the sixth day of the week in the Creation of the World that God did breath into man the breath of Life but upon this first day of the week he breathed into his Church the breath of Righteousness and filled it with the seeds of future Glory From the Feast of the Passover the Jews were to number seven weeks and then they kept a most solemn day called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost that 's this very day instituted to recognize how at that time they came out of Egypt from the Bondage of Pharaoh and received the Law which was delivered upon Mount Horeb. But to expunge the memory of that occasion God did superinduct a far greater blessing upon this Festival day and poured out his Spirit in a bountiful and miraculous manner upon his Disciples at Jerusalem Was there a season appointed to congratulate the deliverance of the Jews from the Captivity of the Body and doth not this Mercy exalt it self above the other that they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise to be enfranchised from the slavery of Sin and the Devil Was the remembrance of the Law a perpetual rejoycing though it were a killing Letter and is it not ten thousand times more comfortable to receive the power of the Holy Ghost which enabled them to keep the Law Did they take it kindly and chearfully to receive the Law written in Tables of Stone And is not the change a great deal better on this day to have it written in the fleshly Tables of their Heart Then the Lord gave them but one Talent and they made but small multiplication of it nay they were the Servants in the Parable and who but they that bound it up and buried it in a Napkin Lo here are five Talents delivered unto us a greater Sum than ever the Children of Men received before And answer me now in equity what entertainment the Mission of the Holy Ghost should receive in the World Not to deceive your expectation with many words the case is thus The best of the Jews that came to the God-speed of this days work profest ignorance and knew not what to make of it the worst of them exhaled envy and rancour out of their malignant minds and jeared at it And they were all amazed and were in doubt c. The parts must needs arise to these two heads Grande miraculum Grande ludibrium First a great Miracle for it wrought these three things first Amazement they were all amazed secondly Doubt they were in doubt thirdly earnest Search and Inquisition for they said one to another what meaneth this But though the greater part were thus affected and therefore it is said they were all amazed meaning the greater number yet divers turn'd it to mockery and said these men are full of new wine First the sending of the Holy Ghost was construed to be a great Miracle by all that saw the effects of it in the Apostles and in the beginning it is exprest by a passion that took away their reason for a time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were amazed then it troubled their reason they doubted and finally it exercised their reason for they asked after it Amazement is a word to express the highest and most sudden admiration that can take a man when astonishment doth seize upon the faculties of the mind and bind them up for a little space that they have no power to exercise themselves as if they were Planet-blasted The Latin word Attonitus is he that is scared with a sudden clap of thunder so that he is stupified for a while but the Greek word in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goes further for the right signification is they were beside themselves or they were in an extasie So our Saviour's Kinsmen being themselves out of their wits with ignorance thought that our Saviour was transported when he preached the Gospel and knew not what he said therefore their opinion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is beside himself Mark iii. 21. Ecstatici qui non sunt in potestate mentis they that are amazed have not their mind present for the time it is dizied and confounded so that this Miracle wrought upon the Jews after the highest pitch of admiration Let us interpret it to the best that joy did overcome them to see the riches of all goodness poured out upon the Sons of men Their Forefathers were astonisht with fear at the delivery of the Law and they are astonisht with joy at the coming of the Holy Ghost The Gift it self the Persons that received it the Operation which it did exercise in them to speak the glory of God in all Tongues and Languages all are transcendently wonderful that the wit of a natural man especially is not able to comprehend them The Gift it self in the first place is so celestial that the Lord himself is not more wonderful in all his works than in sending the Holy Ghost so hidden from the knowledg of the world so rare to be found so beneficial to mankind that he that marvels not at it is himself a Miracle Are you amazed at things which are secret and very abstruse in their nature none more close and unperceivable than this As the wind passeth by and is not perceived so God breaths the
Christ God reigns in Kings as in his Deputies and they reign in God as in their Author and Authorizer and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says S. Chrysostom the chief Dignity of their States that they hold not their Sovereignty from any mortal means but immediately from God Per me Reges regnant Prov. viii 15. Solomon acknowledgeth that he held his Tenure of one and but of one that was greater than himself Of him that is the Root of all Majesty according to the determination of the Prophet Daniel The Kingdoms are Gods and to whom be will he giveth them Dan. iv 14. And God is highly to be blessed that hath given such power unto men for better not be at all than not to be under Rule and Government For it is not as Core the Ringleader of the great Sedition thought that Moses took too much upon him because he guided the People with a faithful hand he took upon him that Authority which God had given to his Vicegerent and they that question'd it did not rise up against Man but against the Ordinance of God Omnia per illum all things are of him as St. Paul says Rom. xi 30. but all things are not of him as Kings do reign by him other Creatures have their dependance one of another in the connexion of natural causes but the Power of Sovereign Majesty is not mixed with Earthly Causes but hath an immediate copulation with the Power the Providence the Constitution yea and the Castigation of God if it do not decree righteousness For God is the Judg he patteth down one and setteth up another Psal lxxv 6. If there be any cavillation therefore with free Princes as there was with Moses Who made thee a Ruler we will answer it by remotion of false and pretended Causes 1. Satan hath arrogated the disposition of all earthly Magistracies to himself as Luke iv 6. when he had shewn unto Christ all the Kingdoms of the world and the Glory of them says he All this power will I give thee for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Execrable Spirit he dares assume that which is proper to the Almighty to speak the word and the whole world shall have a new face of Government and that he could remove Kings as our Saviour said that by faith his Disciples should remove Mountains he remembred how suddenly himself was deposed from glory that he fell like lightning And when God pleaseth all the Kingdoms of the World shall have as sudden a transmutation when he shall come in Glory to take all Power and Dominion into his own hand and to judg both the Quick and the Dead But in the mean time the Thrones of Kings are establisht in Heaven and Satan is a liar with an Hyperbole of impudency to say that it lies in him to manage or alter those Governments which God hath put in order O how many have gone to Witches and Necromancers and rak'd Hell to be informed how it should fare with the succession of some State or Empire so did Valens in the Ecclesiastical History so did Julian the Apostate and nothing did sway with him more to apostatize than because some Heathenish Priests foretold by Demoniacal Divinations that the Empire should descend upon him What can be more repugnant than this course to Honour and Religion it is God that makes the Day wherein Kings reign and not the Prince of Darkness that is condemned to eternal night it is God that is highly exalted above the Heavens and not Lucifer who is faln from glory and is debased beneath the Earth But secondly what say we to Intruders that make their own Day and exalt themselves in the Throne of Dominion as Adoniah exalted himself saying I will be King 1 Kings i. 5. and as Athaliah did take the Scepter into her own hand when God did never give it her why mark the lamentable end of them both and then you will perceive the irregularity of their action Let not the smoak glory that it riseth up of it self for so it vanisheth infelicity must be the event of that promotion where God doth not say friend sit up higher Thirdly lest Tyrants should snatch this honour to themselves there are such as have thought of a Remedy worse than the Disease namely that the Ratification of all Principality should depend upon the voice of the People and the continuation upon their good liking with a quamdiu se bene gesserit to have and to hold his Governance no longer than the popular opinion shall commend his good behaviour their reasons are first because when men and women multiplied and began to fill up the Body of a Common-wealth it was their own act and consent to put their necks under the yoke of a King Admit it were so yet you will not say but it was God and his inspiration that directed them to make a Supreme Head unto their Body for all order proceeds from that wisdom which comes from above Neither is it fit to be granted that it savours of the wisdom of God or of the well-order'd reason of man that in the first foundation of Kingdoms the Subjects set a Ruler over them to hold from thenceforth according to their windy and phantastical approbation The Bond which is made in Marriage is knit by the act and consent of man and woman yet being once made it doth not depend upon their consent but it holds of God In like sort at first were Kings espoused to their Kingdoms God did give the Bride as I may so say to the Husband and so the connexion is indissoluble Again howsoever it holds in other Republiques yet in that wherein God especially delighted I mean the Israelitish when the People thought it honourable for them to have a King like other Nations they did not call an Assembly and appoint themselves a King but they referred the matter to the Lord and he selected Saul out of all their Tribes to go in and out before them Secondly such as have meditated nothing but the confusion of an Anarchy have thus mutter'd if none but God doth make the Day of Annointed Princes then none but He can unmake them none but He can chastise them for injustice and violence Then how shall the cause of the poor be revenged when the Man of the Earth exalteth himself against him What an irreligious manner of arguing is this as if there were no hope of justice and redress if the cause be committed to God only When Samuel told the People that it would fall out that their Kings whom they desired would be very burdensom to them and inflict sore oppressions upon their State says he Clamabitis in illo die you will cry out in that day he doth not say you will reject your King and set up another but you have no other remedy but to cry out unto the Lord and forasmuch as your sins have deserved that oppression the Lord will
mind but unless we intermix the solemn Service of God at those times and spend some hours with godly profit in the Church it is but the Feast of Fools or perhaps worse the Feast of Epicures So the Prophet mentions some Swinish Carousers that thought they did solemnize their Kings Day in a jovial manner with drinking healths till they lost their wit and their health In the day of our King the Princes made him sick with flagons of wine Hos vii 5. Such Tospots celebrate a Feast to the use of the Devil and not to the Glory of God But it was unto that Glory that this Song and this Day which is chanted and this Joy which is so chearfully profest are all dedicated This is the Day which the Lord hath made c. But how hard a thing it is to draw men and women with their good will to Church for some have stretcht all their wits and their learning to defie our Church because it hath appointed Holidays for solemn occasions of Prayer and Thanksgiving and the greatest part of the Kingdom not out of opposition but out of negligence and slothfulness doth omit the due observation which belongs unto them You give your selves over at such times to cessation from work it may be to Sports and Games and Interludes the Fields shall be all day full of loose persons and the House of the Lord empty It is true that rest from labour becoms an Holiday yet the very vacation from labour is not simply pleasing to God but the better to follow Religious Service and beware to confound rest and idleness as if they were all one they are idle whom the painfulness of action causeth to avoid that labour whereunto God and Nature bindeth them they rest that either cease from their work when they have brought it to perfection or else give over a meaner labour because a better and more worthy is to be undertaken therefore though some part of an Holiday is indulged to put gladness into the life of them that are toiled with continual work yet the substantial character of the day is to meet together in our Religious Convocations and to adore the Name of the Lord. I shall not be able at this fag end of the hour to traverse this point as I would some satisfaction I will give you now God willing and defer that which remains to a more spacious occasion My Doctrin which I lay down is this that it is lawful for any Church to celebrate what Feasts it will so all be done with order and edification And I say more that every Church ought to set apart Solemn Times to remember annually the extraordinary works of God though such designed and determinate Days are not commanded in Holy scripture And I put to this moreover that God doth accept what the Church in due consideration doth voluntarily consecrate to Religious use I will put two parts of my Proposition together that this was lawful to be done and that it ought to be done Nature did teach the Heathen God taught the Jews and Christ by his own practice while he was upon earth taught us that to meet at Extraordinary Times for the celebration of Excellent Things was just and righteous One doth eloquently and very truly commend the various fruit of keeping such Sacred Times in this full Encomiasticon Festival days are the Splendour and outward Dignity of our Religion forcible Witnesses of ancient truth agnizing of great Benefits received Provocations to the Exercises of Piety Shadows of our endless felicity in Heaven First I will begin at the last of these That there must be great consolation in the due keeping of an Holiday if you rightly understand it because it represents the joy which is laid up for us in the Kingdom of Heaven and it is a most comfortable expectation when the very outward countenance of that which we are about on Earth doth prefigure after a sort that which we tend unto in the everlasting Habitations Bear but this in mind that the Rubrick days in the Almanack do prefigure that celestial condition wherein being mixed with Angels we shall sing Haleluia to the Lamb for evermore having no worldly toil or vexation to distract us and this would make us most chearful to bear a part in a solemn Congregation The Kingdom of Heaven was but darkly revealed to the Jews in the Old Testament and yet to bear in mind the glory which is laid up for the Godly they devoted a portion of every Day to the Divine Service in the Morning and Evening Sacrifice a portion of every Week upon the Sabbath a portion of every Moneth upon the New Moon a portion of every Season of the Year the Passover in the Spring the Feast of Pentecost in the Summer the Feast of Tabernacles in the Autumn and in latter Ages the Feast of Dedication in the Winter Every seventh Year was a Solemn Year for the Cessation of all Plowing and Sowing and that 's a contracted Age Every Fiftieth Year was most solemn for the memorizing of the Grand Jubilee and that 's a long protracted Age. If they did so often represent their longing to be at rest in heavenly places much more doth it concern us under the Gospel who are nearer neighbours than they to that future glory Secondly such gandy dayes are most meet for the agnizing of great benefits received I esteem the more of this reason because it is St. Austins Ne volumine temporum ingrata obreperet oblivio by Festival Solemnities and set Days we dedicate and sanctifie to God the memory or his chief benefits lest unthankfulness and forgetfulness should creep upon us in the course of time Nor is it enough to remember some notable favour upon one day and no more with great pomp and splendor for the revolution of time will obscure that as if it had never been the constant habit of doing well is not gotten without the custom of doing well without an iteration of holy Duties Beside such as are weak and tottering in faith might imagin that we did set no high price upon the Nativity of our Lord upon his Passion his Resurrection his Ascension and upon the Coming of the Holy Ghost if we did not extol him for them with some outward and eminent acts of glory Thirdly the principal Articles of Faith are nailed fast to our memory by clothing great Feasts with some transcendent tokens of joy and holiness At the Feast of Christmas every simple body is put in mind that Christ took our nature upon him and was born of a pure Virgin On Good Friday even Babes and Children are taught that he died upon the Cross to redeem us from eternal death Easterday proclaims it that our Saviour rose again in his own Body from the Grave and will raise up our Flesh at the last day to be like his own glorious Body Ascension day or Holy Thursday rememorates every year that He is gone up into Heaven to
will not say but it was very meet for an Israelite under the Law to know it but alass they did grope in the dark and it is hard to say whether ever they did find it for what Type or shadow did come home to demonstrate it You must not reply that it did appear in Jonas who came forth alive after he had been three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale for this was no Lesson for them that lived in eight or nine Ages from Moses unto the days of Jonas Neither must you urge that the first Temple was pluckt down to the ground and another reared up in the place which Temple did so prefigure Christs body that in that respect Haggai says The glory of the second house was greater than the first Hag. ii 10. This could never inform the peoples judgment all the while that the Tabernacle was under Tents Truly all that I can lead you to in this case is to the Ark which was but an Epitome of the Temple Nay nor to the Ark it self but to the three holy Reliques which were laid up in the Ark in them with a little curious observation you may find a rude draught of the Resurrection of our Saviour The two Tables of the Law which God gave first to Moses were broken but they were new hewn and written over again there was the reparation of the work of God which seemed to have been utterly lost The Pot of Mannah was in the Ark and this resembled Christ the Pot was like his Humane Nature of the earth earthy The Manna like his Godhead was above nature and came from heaven why this Manna would not keep above two days at the most after that it would putrifie but that which was put into the Pot did out-last the two days of putrefaction and for ought we know was never corrupted Finally Aarons Rod was a dead dry stick but it shot forth like a living Tree and brought forth Almonds Now if the Resurrection of Christ the very Pillar of faith was to be collected out of such dark obscure shadows what a gloomy night was the time of the Law And what an illustrious day is the Gospel which speaks this mystery so plainly to the capacity even of Children and Ideots Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Yet I will confess that we are not yet come to broad day-light till the general Resurrection of all flesh is accomplished Very sweetly says one of the Moderns Tempus gratiae aurora est quae diet vicinior est quam nocti This time of grace is not complete day but a complete morning which hath little in it of the night and much of the day That is if you compare us with those of the Synagogue we are partakers of the day If you compare us with the life to come when our glory shall be revealed and Christ shall be all in all then we are yet in a dusky condition and have not hitherto shaken off the night St. Paul hath nickt it with most proper words Rom. xiii 12. says he The night is far spent the day is at hand Processit nox not Praecessit as the Vulgar Latin does misread it darkness is much abated not quite dispersed for as yet we see darkly as in a glass but the dawning of the day is risen in our Horizon for God hath given us the explicite knowledg of all Mysteries that conduce to our Salvation When the Church had first rest from persecution it had leisure to invent a splendour of Ceremonies in setting forth the Service of God among others I find that this was practised in the fourth Age that when the Deacon went up to some high place to read the Gospel there were certain attendants in the Church called Acolythi that carried two Torches lighted before him Ad demonstrandum quod de tenebris infidelitatis venimus ad lucem fidei to signifie that we have thrown aside darkness and infidelity and are come by the help of the Gospel into marvelous light So St. Hierom against Vigilantius in the day-time in the Eastern Countries when the Gospel is read Candles are lighted not ad fugandas tenebras sed ad sigum laetitiae demonstrandum not that such artificial light adds any thing to the light of the day but it is a token that light is come to us and we are glad of the illumination Give us leave then to say without boasting that wheresoever the name of Christ is professed and in no place else there is the acceptable time there is the day of salvation As there was light in Goshen when all the Land of Egypt was in darkness But especially we shall shew that we do believe that the day spring from on high hath visited us if we keep that one rule which St. Paul hath enforced upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us walk honestly and decently as in the day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either the energy of the word means that because many eyes are witnesses of our dressing in the day we will then habit our selves more comely than in the night when none or only those of our Family behold us So the Christian Church is like a City upon an Hill which cannot be hid the eyes of all Nations are bent upon it therefore let us walk soberly and justly that we give no scandal to the enemies of the Gospel Be as careful to apparel your souls handsomely with all grace and vertue in the sight of God as you are observant to dress your bodies decently in the day that nothing deformed may appear in you to the eyes of men Or it may thus concord with the Apostles intention such as are dissolute will forbear to riot it in the day they that are drunken are drunken in the night A Nation that is more civil in the night than in the day is hardly to be found unless it be true that some do tax us for such a Nation but all distempers of roaring and mischief for the most part break out in darkness Well then since the Gospel is a perpetual day not so little as a Lanthorn unto our feet that is but dim but a light from heaven above the light of the Sun Acts xxvi 13. Let us walk honestly as children of the light knowing we are made a spectacle to God and Angels and Men. So far I have entreated upon the Lords benignity he hath not only crowned David to be a mighty Potentate in the Land of Canaan but in the day of his Son Christ Jesus he hath crowned us all Kings and Priests of righteousness and hath given us a long day to rejoyce in even for ever and ever Now follows our acceptance and duty since this day hath appeared to the wish of our heart We will rejoyce and be glad in it as who should say as the faithful Israelites did keep one day for Davids Inauguration so in the day of the
of the Creation This doth unavoidably suggest unto us that no day of the seven is fitter for our celebration than Sunday or the first day of the Week when Christ rose from the dead he having dispatcht all the works of exinanition and given us manifest assurance and joy for our eternal redemption And so I fall into the next member propounded what ground we have for keeping this day weekly to the service of God in the Resurrection of Christ Some what have been heedless in their assertions have confidently delivered that the Lords day is clearly instituted in the work of Christs Resurrection nay that the Resurrection did apply and determine the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment to the Lords day These go so far that all proof and reason forsakes them It is true that our Saviours victorious rising from the dead was a good occasion which the Church took to celebrate this day but that act of his rising from the dead was not instead of a Law to appoint the day They are not the works of God but his words that institute Laws and where there is no Imperative act of the Law-giver there can be no Law to bind In six days the Lord made heaven and earth and all things therein and rested the seventh day yet that Cessation of God from his works had not made that seventh day in every week holy to the Jews without his pleasure signified to keep it So the Resurrection of the Lord doth not make the Lords day a solemn day for Divine Service in all our Generations by a compulsory Statute unless it were said in the Gospel and so it was never said you shall keep the first day of the Week holy in honour of the Resurrection Without some imperative word or sentence to declare Gods pleasure we cannot deduce a Law And if the Resurrection of itself without a Precept annexed had exalted it to be an holy day St. Paul would never have agreed with them that esteemed all days alike Rom. xiv Out of this perverse zeal to make a rule out of Christs works without a Precept some would not be baptized till the age of thirty years because Christ was baptized no sooner Others stood nicely upon it that Orders of Priesthood were to be given to none before that age and for no other cause but because he preach'd no sooner Infinite fancies would be multiplied if these ways were allowed for good Divinity It is safe and true to say that the day is kept congruously but not necessarily for the Resurrection sake And surely the Primitive Church could have made choice of no day of the Week more proper and convenient for the Religious Worship of God in honour of that principal Article of our belief and the corner stone of all the rest Ignatius calls every Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Resurrection day St. Austin says Dominicus dies Christi resurrectione declaratus est ex illo coepit habere festivitatem suam Words which will bear no other construction howsoever some do torture them but thus that the Lords day is published by Christs Resurrection and from thenceforth began to be a Festival And again Domini resuscitatio consecravit nobis Dominicum diem promisit nobis aeternum diem The resuscitation of Christ hath consecrated for us the Lords day and doth promise us an eternal day yet there is no Imperative Edict from heaven to make it so but the light of holy discretion did guide the Church to appoint it so St. Austin hath clustered together many other admirable works of God done upon the first day of the Week in which God did make his first Creature of Light In which the Israelites went through the Red-Sea upon dry Land In which Manna did first fall from heaven In it was the first miracle of water turned into Wine Of the five loaves and two fishes In it Christ was baptized rose from the dead appeared often to his Disciples sent down the Holy Ghost and wherein we expect that at the last day he will come to judgment But the Resurrection is pre-eminent above all things else that hapned in it and that blessing though it do not ratifie a Law yet it is the occasion why this day is Weekly celebrated But I must tell you that one Analogy is ill prosecuted by some though it be vulgar in mens Writings That the Lords rest must be sanctified on what day soever it falleth that is not true unless there be a Law to enforce it therefore as the Sabbath was held holy when God rested from the works of the Creation so Sunday must be kept holy wherein the Son of God after his rising from the Grave rested gloriously from the work of our Redemption That last clause is falsly presumed for he made perfect our Redemption at his death and the price was paid for our sins not by his Resurrection but by his Sacrifice on the Cross and then he gave up the Ghost and said It is finished The day of the Passion therefore if you respect it as a resting from satisfying for our sins deserved to be made a continual Holy day but it was not meet to be kept with joy And mark it I pray you that we honour the day of his rising every Week rather than that of his suffering not because it is a better day or the day of his rest for he rested in the Grave and did spend his Resurrection day in much action but because it is the first day unto the Church of joy and gladness And a chief ingredient in an holy day dedicated to God is to rejoyce and be glad I proceed to the third thing to be inquired into what ground we have to keep the Lords day from any Precept mentioned in the Gospel either delivered by Christ himself or by his Apostles Certainly it never proceeded out of our Saviours mouth to appropriate this designed day to his honour and we must take heed to thrust Laws upon him of our own invention which he never imposed If such a thing had come from him no time had been fitter to express it than when the Pharisees cavilled at his Disciples for plucking the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath day Mat. xii Then he might have retorted that the observation of the Sabbath was expiring but he would constitute the first day of the Week to be the heir of the Sabbath Yet our Lord was so far from such a motion that whereas he reproved the Pharisees with much indignation Mat. v. and vi Chapters for their lax and dissolute interpretations of many moral Laws he corrects them often in the Gospel for being so strict in the rigid performance of the Sabbath which he would never have done if it had totally consisted of moral duties But about the definite appointment of a day Christ is silent for his Precepts in the New Testament are altogether touching spiritual worship And says St. Paul Carnal ordinances were imposed
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
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
Cardinal his Exposition is thus Si descendero in infernum hoc est si profundum malorum confiteri nolo If I keep close in my breast the secret of my sin yet God will reveal it to my confusion Si ascendero in coelum si de justitiâ meâ superbiero Though I extoll my own works as high as my Saviours merit yet my righteousness shall be found an abomination The Chaldee Paraphrase leads us to this interpretation when the Army of the King of Babylon shall come though you hide your selves in Vaults and Caves yet your flight shall be in vain Quamvis ad aras fugitis though you clime up to the Altar as Joab did yet the Sword of Benaiah shall cut you short Lyra's opinion is the third and divers from the others Si recurrerint ad consulendum Daemones pro suâ evasione sicut Saul fecit Though they dig into Hell and consult with Witches and Sorcerers as Saul did yet all shall come to nought and then Si ascenderint in coelum sanctos invocando though they call upon all the Saints in heaven yet shall not that superstition help their cause But had Lyra or Hugo lived in these our days or for eighteen years past had any wrote upon Amos but a Jesuit one interpretation beyond all these must needs have met them in the face they could not shun it For to dig into Hell and to climbe up into heaven they are all in all both root and branches of that most execrable Powder-plot Wherefore you may conceive as if the Prophet Amos had thus spoken Though they dig into Hell or though they undermine our Kingdom with vaults and Sellarage their impious labour shall come to nothing but to their own utter shame Yea though they climb up into Heaven though they canonize the enemies of God and the King and make Saints and Martyrs of them whom justice did execute yet their sin shall be revealed in this world and remembred to their condemnation in the world to come If thy body were equal to thy mind says one to Alexander Alterâ manu orientem alterâ occidentem tetigisses A short reach and nothing to this stratagem Never was any work composed of such contrarieties that had the Devil at one end and the Saints at the other Hell at the bottom and Heaven at the top They mount up to heaven they go down again to the deep says David Psa cvii. And in the next verse he concludes that Mariners upon such giddy motions stagger like drunken men and are at their wits end What Shall I not much more be bold to say of these men that dive into Hell and would be inthroned in Heaven are not they at their wits end Are they not drunk with the cup of abominations You see then I have two ways to seek out these Powder Conspiratours toward Hell and thither you may trace them by their digging toward Heaven but they never came thither for all their climbing Were there no more Garnets upon earth nay no more well-wishers to such treasons in this our Realm than there are in Heaven it were a blessing that would deserve the solemnity of another Holy-day wherefore I will turn me to the left hand only and seek them out where I am sure I shall not miss that is in the first part of the verse Though they dig c. Who they were whom the Prophet Amos speaks of it bears no great sway in our present occasion Who indeed but the Children of Israel Being now in Gods sight as Ethiopians in the seventh verse of this Chapter Idolaters that swore by the God of Dan and Beersheba and by the sin of Samaria in the latter verse of the former Chapter And you know now-adays who are like unto them that were once an elected Church and the Israel of God but now have almost overtaken the Heathen in a kind of mimical Idolatry But let them pass with that fault and God amend them it is not pertinent to the work of this day My provision upon these words shall be laid out in this rank and order 1. Here is the negotiation of the wicked that they dig there wants no pains there wants no secresie 2. Here is the object of their imployment and that is Hell 3. There is a twofold end implied why they undertake such a business either for their own refuge as I told you out of Hugo and the Chaldee Paraphrase Or rather to undermine others which is more agreeing to Lyra. 4. Here is the frustrating and the defeating of their work Thence my hand will take them out snatch them from their thievish corners and take his Chosen out of all their trouble Beloved to what toil iniquity puts men to 1. They dig and labour 2. To what secresie What dread of conscience They dig into Hell 3. How unprofitable is the event For when all is done they are apprehended by the hand of God not unlike St. Peters fishing Luk. v. 5. Master says he we have toyled hard and all the night and caught nothing Which is like St. Pauls gradation who calls them works unfruitful works and works of darkness Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness I begin with the Action wherein two things are to be observed the labour and the Secresie Digging it imports labour sin it self it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and most burdensom it is to them who are servants to obey it Whatsoever we do as we are men it is an action under one of these three heads For it is either an action of Phansie and prevents the concurrence of the will and is neither good nor bad Or secondly it is an action of the will but rash and sudden and prevents advice and deliberation which impeacheth both the value of a good deed and diminisheth the malice of a bad for as touching sudden passions and temptations that take us unawares there hath always been some mitigation in the Laws of Man and pardon no question before the judgment of God Or lastly the will hath dwelt some time upon her object and consulted and delighted in it and then if the work be amiss this is that which as St. Paul says makes sin exceeding sinful And now beloved this is that which our great Adversary desires in us to make us lay the Cockatrice Egg and hatch it and bring it up to put us to fodere to dig and take pains to be sinful To make the Prodigal Son bind himself Prentice and feed Swine a strange homage and a most base attendance to plow up iniquity as the Prophet speaks and to reap ungodliness Egypt was the Type and Figure the very platform of Satans Kingdom There is nothing but gathering stubble and groaning under task-masters making brick and more brick if we flinch under the burden And the heathen when they would make us believe that they had peep'd into Hell and seen all make no relation but of toil and hard
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministry of
perfection of virtue that the Lord may say this my Son is like Joseph the comfort of old Israel a Plant which I set in a lucky hour it brings forth fragrant flowers of obedience of alms of charity to delight me and as old Isaac said I smell the savour of my Son like the savour of a Field which is newly mown from which all dispreading weeds and luxury are quite cut down You flow with vain delights but that is Gods contristation You please your selves with filthy communication but St. Paul says you grieve the Holy spirit Ephes iv You are sportful and merry even till calamity comes upon you but the security of Jerusalem causeth Christ to weep Properly grief and vexation are not incident to God or to the Eternal Spirit you shall know to your cost that when our voluptuous life is chang'd to howling and gnashing of teeth Angels shall sing about his Throne without ceasing but wicked men do what lies in them to put Christ to sorrow and sadness as earthly Parents eat their own heart and macerate themselves when their Children will not be ruled by their authority Comment thus I beseech you upon all your unlawful pleasures Can there be any rellish in that joy wherewith you grieve your Redeemer any sweetness in that sacriledg wherein God is impoverished Will you sing placebo to any man to grate the ear of the Most High Will you perfume your self for the Chamber of a Curtezan and stink in the nostrils of the Lord no I will abandon all my delights that He may be pleased in my mortification I will mourn continually in repentance that He may smile at it the zeal of his House shall eat me up I will burn with devotion that He may smell a sweet savour The dolor and smart of any present calamity doth not trouble a righteous man so much as that he feels the wrath of God upon him so prosperity peace health nay Heaven it self make him not so happy as to collect from the sense of his benefits that the Lord is delighted with him This is the Nuptial Song which we look for when we are married to the Lamb as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall the Lord rejoyce over thee Isa 62.5 Here it is to be admonished that nothing is so savoury and delightful which we do as what the Lord doth himself non tam delectatur ut aliquid accipiat quà m ut aliquid det his love is very bountiful and better pleased to give than to take Therefore in no place of Scripture did his joy break forth so gaudily as in the Parable where he bad his Servants kill the fatted Calf to bid his penitent Child welcom home whereupon says Chrysologus immolabat vitulum i. filium gaudebat he rejoyced in the death of his own Son for our sakes because his mercy was free to have mercy on whom He pleased in that propitiatory Sacrifice The Jews would bring thousands of Rams to the Altar at this day the Lord will have none of them because they will not bring them in the faith of that Sacrifice wherein alone He is well pleased If abundance of Oblations would have made a grateful steam to mount up to Heaven they had done it long agoe Josephus says against Appio that 5000 of their Levites took their turn every week to attend at the Altar I am sure much Sacrifice must be brought to employ so many hands but non est mihi voluntas in vobis says Malachi I have no pleasure in you nor in your gifts surely because they offered not up unto him the savour of his Son All manners of Religions do not please God that were in effect to say that all kind of smels had an odoriferous fragrancy You must plow with Gods Heifer present him with faith in the death of his own dearly beloved Son and your imperfect righteousness being perfum'd with that incense the Lord will take it for a sweet savour and call it perfect obedience Let me now make you partakers of the third Proviso that a rank stink steams from Beasts and Fowl burnt in the fire yet the piety of Noah did ascend up in a sweet smell to Heaven therefore let not such good things stink in the nostrils of men that did delight the Lord. It is Gods direction to gather tares in bundels so I will muster together the corrupt examples of those that were as senseless as Davids Idols They had noses and smelt not or at least they were so full of the putrefaction of their own sins that they complained there was an ill sent where indeed there was the fragrancy of most excellent virtue Pharaoh called Religion an idle mans Exercise says he ye are idle ye are idle and therefore ye would go into the Wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord. Michol scoff'd at David for being in an extasie of joy that the Ark was brought into Jerusalem The Pharisees disliked every good thing that Christ did and observe it I beseech you from thence they provoked the most dreadful words that ever came from Christs mouth He that sinneth against the Holy Ghost it shall neither be remitted to him in this world nor in the world to come Judas smelt no sweet savour in the ointment which a most pious woman poured upon our Saviour's head but complained quorsum perditio haec to what purpose is this waste The scoffers of Jerusalem said the Disciples were full of new wine when they preached the Name of Christ in all tongues and languages New wine at Whitsuntide was never heard of for there are scarce new leaves upon the Vine at that season I wept and chustned my self with fasting and it was turned to my reproof says the holy Penitent It is altogether a fault that we will not commend nay that we will gibe and deride at that which is very good and devout in them that are of a contrary faction Sectaries whose courses I abhor yet somethings should not be scoffed at that they are diligent to come to Church that they read the Scriptures that they are not accustomed to rash and odious swearing let not these things be reckoned with their justly condemned hypocrisie Pontificians whose errors I decry yet their observing Canonical hours of Prayer their obedience to obey Ecclesiastical Laws their desire to kindle zeal by visiting those places where our Lord and Saviour frequented let these things be separated from their Superstitions As Seneca said of Learning quicquid bene scriptum est meum est whatsoever was well written by any man he took for his own as freely as if he had invented it so I say of Religion quicquid bene gestum est meum est whatsoever is praise-worthy in any Sect I will not scoff at it but imitate it When the Pharisees boasted of some of their good deeds haec oportuit fieri says our Saviour this is well this ought to have been done and not other things left undone Holofernes could not dislike
appointed Which is the fountain of all discontent not to stay Gods leisure and to complain of his Providence as if he had broke his day Such will fall into a passion as if they wanted ease and that the ground was not soft enough under their feet though the way should lead them to the Kingdom of Heaven But a true faith expects Gods leisure from day to day will neither faint nor fret that his suit hangs long in the Court of Requests Many sores will never be well healed unless they be long dressing and many deliverances will never be throughly perfect unless they be long settling and many mercies are like seed in the ground and will be long growing A second Instance of grudging is in the 5. verse Our soul loatheth this light bread Is that a fault in bread to be light see how they commend it in dispraising it I am sure they came lightly by it It fell like a hoar frost about their Tents they neither ploughed nor sowed nor reaped they did but stoop and gather it they lived as easily as young birds in the nest when the Dam puts meat into their mouths They did not see how God did take away the curse of Adam from them to eat bread in the sweat of their brows Let them look to this and make use of it that are of the best rank that God do not lay this sin to their charge on this wise you labour not at all yet you want not you have store enough and ease enough into the bargain yet never content They that work hard for one dayes food depend upon God and call upon him more than they that have before hand for a year nay sufficient for an age Now put both the exceptions of the Israelites together for their bones and their belly for their journey and their bread and you see a little painfulness was repined at as a great deal of misery and a great benefit slighted for but a little favour But was there so much evil in this sin to cause a flight of Serpents to fall upon the Camp I believe so and I will prove it First there are two sins so scandalous to the Jewish Nation that Philo conceals them nay Josephus out of more love to his Country then fidelity in History never remembers them those be the worshipping of the Golden Calf and this serpentine sin of murmuring at Salmonah Therefore this artifice of Josephus tells you that murmuring was one of the two sins of the first magnitude Secondly it is a filthy crime to obscure great benefits under a black cloud of unthankfulness They murmured at Moses whom no praises could sufficiently extol for his rare deservings He brought them out of Egypt and made them all free men that were slaves What recompence could they make him for their liberty They were beholding to him for one thing more which was greater than all the rest to uphold them in true Religion and the right Worship of God so that it was said of them and of no other Nation in the Earth Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God Deut. xii 2. In all things he ruled them with a faithful hand yet they were ever at this key O that it were otherwise that it were better thus and thus which were no better than Nebuchadonosor's Dreams he knew not himself what he had dreamt of when he was awake The use of it from their error is that we should sit down and count how many blessings we have received and be thankful rather than fret at a few imaginary inconveniences which I can puff away with a little breath as easily as a downy blow-ball O all ye works of the Lord which he hath wrought in England in less than two years praise him and magnify him for ever We have cause to frame a ditty balsamed all over with a perfume of thanksgiving for all things that God hath done for us from the center of the Earth to the top of Heaven Thirdly God hath laid a great burden upon the shoulders of the Ruler to provide for the safety of so many millions and what reward hath he in this World but acceptance and encouragement from his Lieges This was the comfort of David 2 Sam. iii. 36. Whatsoever the King did pleased the People But if so much merit meet with frowardness then says Moses I cannot bear your cumbrance burden and strife Deut. i. 12. And if they weary the good spirit of Moses doubtless they shall receive the recompence of their own bitter spirit Nay if the Ruler be not the better for your good word let him not be the worse for your undutiful language A reasonable thing as can be askt If you will not honour him do not murmur at him that 's the least that can be required and too little in conscience But we must get what we can from bad debtors To be short in this point if you speak evil of that which you are bound to praise if you fall foul on the ways of God because you will not wait his leisure if you pick quarrels at good things for which you are bound to give thanks I appeal not as I might to mans judgment to dry up the filth that runs from faction with the spunge of the Laws I refer them to God and to the Host of his venemous creatures which he will send to correct their poisonous tongues The sin is like to nothing more than an Asp or Viper no serpent so much a serpent as a murmuring spirit therefore such a punishment was a fit cover to clap upon such a sin The Lord sent serpents among them A Judgment 1. vile 2. painful 3. strong 4. incurable First a vile one to die serpent-bitten was inglorious to the warlike stomach of that People their sword could not help them and if they kept not in their Tents like Prisoners one of these Sergeants of God would shoot through the air and clap upon them Let no man say a woman slew me says Abimelech Judg ix 54. Let not the uncircumcised thrust me through says Saul 1 Sam. xxxi 4. But this was far below them both and most opprobrious to humane nature For as the Devil could not choose a viler creature wherein to tempt us so there is not a meaner on earth to chastise us They might be for ought we know created on purpose for this office of wrath as the Frogs and Locusts in Egypt or gathered from all quarters to fall thick upon their Camp as Quails were brought from all places to feed them there might be store of them in the Wilderness before now but never stirred up till now to do execution I define it not but which way soever they came they were never a whit the better It is a reproach upon man who had the dominion of the Creatures and saw them all put under his feet that every paultry worm is able to turn against him and bring him to the dust Marvel not
Sacrilegious It is unadvised Martinism and nothing else that frowns against the sumptuousness of the Church Build up an Ark a Gods name out of the spoils of Egypt we are not warned to destroy with Achan O let him perish alone in his iniquity This shall serve to be spoken for the first part of my Text the iniquity which betrayed Achan unto the vengeance of God which iniquity consisted of scandal against all the Host of Israel disobedience against Joshuah covetousness against his own foul the subject of the punishment follows And first if we dare look upon our own death and are not afraid to see our own bloud spilt homo periit I must tell you man perished in iniquity Do you call to mind what Mordecai said to Esther Think not that thou shalt escape in the Kings house there is no sanctuary in earth but that all must die or all men must be changed says St. Paul For as it was written upon Hectors Tomb Non Hector illic Troja sed tumulo jacet so we may endite upon the Grave of Adam homo periit here lies Man and his Posterity Surely if the Jews returning from Captivity could not chuse but shed tears to see the building of the Second Temple having remembred the glory of the First So who can look upon mankind in the state of misery without pity and compassion that can remember him in the days of peace and innocency Should we consider what variety and new delights Adam and Eve had before them to meditate upon the beauty of their own original righteousness the Tree of the Garden wherein all the beasts of the Forrest do move Heaven and Earth spick and span new to look upon and we may say as Epaminondas did concerning a worthy Captain that died in the Camp at Leuctra Quomodo vacavit huic in tantis negotiis mori How could this man spare any leisure to sin and die A strange misfortune Adam was set to dress the Garden of Eden and proved the first weed thereof in his own person wherefore Joseph of Arimathea built his Tomb like a birds nest in his Garden in remembrance that a trespass committed in a Garden was the first occasion of Tombs and Epitaphs and is it not usual to this day to cast up our Graves after the similitude of beds in Gardens In the state of innocency our meditation should have been only concerning the immortality of the Soul and Body but now we are constrained to study this Lesson as much as any for our healths sake homo periit how Man comes to die and read learned Lectures upon our own Carkases and Anatomies And it is not in vain that we place the heavy remembrance of an Anatomy before our Almanacks as if we were to prefix that Memorandum for a Diary before every day of the year homo periit that our flesh is come unto corruption and that our days are consumed in vanity Yet the fear of common calamity is most often forgot in every mans private security To tell you that man is come to destruction it is but a name and a sound and a second notion and seems to be nothing to us in particular We sit in our glory among Gods threatnings like King Solomon in his Throne among dead Lions which could not bite us But point out at Achan or Saul or any sinner set apart for the view of the World and it will work upon us Mark it if it be not true for who ever put on sackcloth or cast ashes upon his head for St. Peters Prophecy that all the World and the works thereof should be burnt with fire and the Elements melt away with heat But if Jonas denounce fire against one City and say Nineveh shall be destroyed then Nineveh will prevent those ashes which her Enemies would bring upon her and fulfil Jonah's Prophesy in the ashes of repentance O come not to view Gods Judgments as vain people do to the execution of some Malefactor that know who it is must suffer and that they shall stand by and fare no worse but to behold it but look upon Gods threatnings as upon some curious Picture which in thy fancy seems to look upon thee only and have such a touch of conscience at iste periit that man perished as King Belshazzar had in his Feast of wine when Gods hand wrote upon the Wall he perswaded himself that index digitus the finger pointed at no other but himself alone Now let us go one step lower to Pilates Ecce homo behold the man Behold Achan the Son of Zerah that man perished not alone in his iniquity Achan that had out-lived the corruption of his young years and was grown in age able to go to warfare to have many Children to know how to steal from God and dissemble with Joshua doth his hoary head go down with peace into the Grave King David reprieved Shemei his bitter Enemy unto the Reign of King Solomon Solomon reprieved him till his fault was almost out of mind Quem saepe casus transit aliquando invenit did his head go down with peace into the Grave Like the Web of Penelope all that hath been wrought in the year may be ravelled out in a night Crescant says God to the Tares Matt. xiii nay let them grow and sprout up and then cut them down and cast them dry into the fire Secondly He that was spared among all the dangers of the Wilderness is consumed in the City He that could escape the Pilgrimage of fourty years is doom'd to die in Canaan He that was not devoured in the fire of Taberah is burnt in the Valley of Achor As Aristotle speaks of Homers Poetry when he set up Walls for Troy in one Book and pluckt them down in another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murum Peoeta quem finxit delevit So God can deal with us set us up or pluck us down but we are less than Walls They that walk in the night preserve the flame of their Torch or Candle from winds and Casualties abroad which notwithstanding they put out when they return to their home So Achan that walked over the Sea when the Bridg was under water and liv'd among Scorpions and was not consumed in the Sedition of Dathan nor slain in the Battels of Moab yet in portu naufragium the Vessel is not cast away in the Ocean Sea but in the Haven and his light is put out at home in the long expected Canaan Thus Judgment follows Judgment as Antigonus said when he spoiled Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alexander cut down the rich ears of Corn and he pluckt up the Stubble after him so the Armies of rebellious Sinners had been mown down in the Wilderness Achan and some few more were pluckt up like Stubble when Judgment seemed to pass them over Note this thirdly in Achans person mischief did light upon him not in the hunger and thirst of the Wilderness not in his poverty but having compiled much riches
heaven out of the fire than some out of their feather-bed The soul is in the body as the Lamps were in Gideons Pitchers break the Pitchers and the Lamps will shine and then begins the Victory What Seneca said of the state of Rome under Caesar the Dictator Respub sub eo stare non potuit sed cecidit in sinum boni principis the same is competent to the state of man We cannot hold out long we shall sink under the burden of sin Sed cecidit homo in sinum boni principis repent and we may fall into Abrahams bosom When Scipio led his Army against Carthage and his Scabberd fell off from his Sword his Souldiers were dismayed at it as a sign of ill fortune This is nothing says Scipio for I have my Sword still in my hand and that I must fight with So let the body fall into the dust or ashes keep the Soul clean make it white in the bloud of the Lamb by Faith and then all is safe It is the soul that first must taste of glory St. Austin asks why the Devil made so much of his darling Sylla that in all his life he was scarce perplexed with any misfortune The Father replies Timuit magis Diabolus nè corrigeretur Sylla quà m nè vinceretur The Devil cared not if he had burst his neck but he was afraid his vertue would be greater if his felicity were less Wherefore if Achan did give God the glory as Joshuah did instruct him all might go well with his soul though iste periit his body were consumed The Romans were wont to Deifie their Emperours on this sort Their bodies were placed in a pile of wood and at the top of the Hearse an Eagle was kept close untill the flame had taken hold of the body and then the Eagle was suffered to fly away to heaven So leave we the body of Achan in the Pile of wood yet in the mercies of Jesus Christ his Soul might take the wings of the Morning as David says and after all his tedious Pilgrimage live in rest for ever Nothing should make me mistrustful and doubt of his salvation but his too late repentance Is this a time to leave off sin when we must leave off life and can sin no more Poenitentiam dare possumus securitatem non possumus Do you then come to play the Huxters for mercy as if the Market were cheapest at the latter end of the day The Son of man will come to judgment suddenly as swift as the lightning The Resurrection shall be suddenly at one blast of the Archangels Trumpet Corruptio fit in momento the soul will not creep but fly out of the body suddenly Shall all things be sudden but mans repentance If you love your Country and wish it victory against all her enemies if you tender your Children and Allies and desire their safety nay if you love your Gold and Silver and cast about to leave a good inheritance beware to draw the anger of God Vnius ob noxam furias upon so many innocent souls have peace in Jesus Christ and let Achan perish alone in his aniquity AMEN A SERMON Preached before the KING at WHITE-HALL the 5. of April 1665. UPON THE SOLEMN FAST To crave a Blessing of GOD for his MAJESTIES NAVAL FORCES NEHEM i. 4. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain dayes and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven WE have many Solemn dayes in the year to remember the noble Works of our Saviour But the Church hath set forth no proper day to mind us how He will come to judgment in the end of the World Is not that an oversight will some say that there is no red letter in the Calender to bring the Object of that mighty Judgment before us that it may not be forgotten Hear the reason and I know you will excuse it All the beneficial Works of our Saviour came to pass upon certain days of the year whose revolution is known or easily guessed at and those days are exactly kept with holy diligence But for the Day of Judgment it is kept secret so that the Angels of Heaven are ignorant of it Therefore to keep one solemn day recurrent every year for an admonition that such a dreadful hour is to come were in a sort to prescribe God to an appointed time who must not be prescribed If any press it further and say Shall we then have no solemn opportunity to learn that capital Lesson that Christ will come in the clouds with power and great glory to call the Earth before him Far be that omission from us For to what end servs a publick Fast but to prepare us all to hear that voice Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye forth to meet him This is the day wherein every tender conscience should feel the Ax laid to the root of the Tree Now the whole Kingdom stands as it were at the Bar to be arraigned before the Majesty of God We come to call our selvs to judgment before Christ calls us to prevent him Here we are met not to justify our selves O God forbid but to confess the evil we have done that we may not suffer the evil we have deserved They are mighty sins which we come to deplore not only the iniquities of this place though great and exemplary not the sins of the great City alone though it abound in people and wickedness but the innumerous contagious crying sins of this Nation of this England for which and whose pardon we come to make our mournful supplication Now to teach you to stear your course by a Godly instance I lay my matter among the Servants of God in the Land of Judah of whom I could have told you that when they were in fear of bad Neighbours round about them kept a general Humiliation for all the People Nehem. ix 1. The People fasted in sackcloth and cast ashes upon their heads But I know where I am and I will rather instruct you from the Pattern of Nehemiah called the Tirshata a mighty Prince among the People who was so zealous for the prosperity of his Country that you can scarce match him with all that went before him Moses was the Grandfather of Israel that brought them out of the Captivity of Egypt Nehemiah was their Co founder or Foster father who repaired the ruins of the Captivity of Babylon The Text shews what he did in the beginning of his zeal to appease the anger of the Lord. In two general parts I will discover his piety which I call the wound of his heart and the cure of that wound the occasion of his humiliation and the humiliation it self The wound of his heart was given by evil tydings It came to pass when I heard these words which afflicted him two wayes first for the ruins which the Land had suffered secondly for the impediments of its reparation The care of the
Wound consists in five degrees of humiliation 1. He sat down 2. He wept 3. He mourned certain dayes 4. He fasted 5. He played before the God of Heaven That God that gives many Medicines to heal the sickness of the Body hath provided these sacred Remedies to heal the troubles of the Soul I rise up now from the first step Nehemiah was sore perplexed to hear what the Land had suffered Upon which I begin with this Observation that he was in great anguish not for any evil which he saw but with bad tidings and grievous reports as it is just before my Text The Remnant of Israel were in great affliction and reproach the Wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the Gates burnt with fire This is short and sowr yet far short of the total of their tribulation Howsoever Nehemiah saw none of this he was at Babylon when these Tragedies were acted at Jerusalem he heard of their distress but was not upon the place to behold it yet the noise that came to his ears did strike his heart that he sat down and wept So open your bowels and condole like Christians when you hear of one anothers miseries though they be far from you else God will draw them nearer I will name the remotest to you the mournful condition of the Servants of Christ in Hungary Dalmatia Greece and Candia under the Mahumetan cruelty though these are a thousand leagues from you yet joyn them close to you in your Prayers and Compassion Let me come home we are not upon the Seas to day with our illustrious Duke and valiant Country-men we are not in peril of Wracks and Storms and roaring Canons as they are but let our Prayers walk upon the Seas unto them as Peter assayed to go to Christ that as they hazard their lives for us we offer up our Souls to God for them To descend to lower Objects you do not see the hard food of the Poor his sorry Table his dry Morsels you do not see the comfortless Lodging and Dungeon of the Captive These are the Blessings of Wealth and Liberty Yea but do you not consider it sometimes and bewail and extend your hand to relieve it if not some of us may know what hunger and captivity mean if the report of those things in others do not cause you to melt in charity Nehemiah did not see much evil yet the report toucht him near and he sat down and wept My next Observation is that as he did not see the evil of the Land of Judah so he could not feel it If all Jerusalem had been burnt to ashes it had not broke him in his fortune nor eclipsed him in his honour He was a Courtier in the Palace of Artaxerxes his Cup-bearer a dignified Officer no weeping news could diminish his greatness Had he been a self-lover like too many of these dayes a cunning Courtier that had no end but to provide for himself then he would have measured all fortune by his own Last and unless his own person had been toucht the Shoo should not have wrung him But here was one reteining to the holy Court indeed to the Court of Heaven his own prosperity did disrelish with him because Gods anger was upon the Land to which he owed his life He did like a good man to involve himself in the publick fortune And what joy could he take in his Honours with Artaxerxes when reproach had spread upon the Country that bred him and upon the Church of God in which he lookt for salvation He that makes light of common danger with tush they are on the Seas I am on the Land I shall shift for one that man is the fairest mark at whom God will suddenly shoot with a swift arrow because he is in love with his own security Nehemiah could have shifted for one but that did not content him When it is best with our selves then it is safest to fear then to seek the Lord and to beseech him for the welfare of our selves and others Health and plenty and ease have not yet forsaken us yet the blasts of bad rumours and presages are about us When you hear such words it is time to mourn and fast and pray before the God of Heaven Hitherto I have treated that Nehemiah bewailed the sufferings past my next observation is upon another matter that when by Gods hand the repair was very hopeful it grieved him that the mischievous attempts of envious unlucky Neighbours did all that they could to stop the remedy which is just our case God sent this Tirshata this mighty man to build up the holy City again out of the ruines under which it was covered but it grieved their Neighbours over the next River Chap. ii 9. as ours are over the next Seas that there came a man to seek the welfare of Israel Ver. 10. Mark their conditions who they were Sanballat of Samaria and Samaria had long been the nest of Rebellion Tobiah the servant an Ammonite a man servile low born of base extraction Geshem the Arabian and the Arabians were great Thieves by Land as our Foes are Arabians upon the waters These Samaritans Ammonites Arabians Rebels and Thieves basely descended maligned the prosperity of Jerusalem when it began to flourish again under Nehemiah And note their shifts and half witted devices to oppose him First They fell to mocking and scoffing Chap. iv 1. Scurrility is to be expected from such as are bred up in the rudeness of a populacy Secondly At the eighth verse of the fourth Chapter they made ready to fight him but hearing his preparations shewed their teeth and never proceeded Thirdly Chap. vi 8. they raised scandalous reports against the Ruler and the People and how our Maligners would desame us with broaching lies Europe and all the world are witness Fourthly At the thirteenth verse of that Chapter they hired Prophets to Prophesie against Nehemiah to put him in fear and if we would be discouraged by such fictions they have not been wanting These were troubles which fell upon the noble heart of Nehemiah to see that blessing which God had begun by his industry cross'd and check'd by an ignoble and servile Generation So may our renowned Prince and General say in disdain at this upstart bog of men whose Noble Person is of more value than all their Provinces estimated at a rackt value Et mecum certasse ferentur Unless England had given them being and a power to resist they had not been able this day to have resisted the meanest of the Captains of my Lord the King To dispatch this Point though our Kingdom hath no resemblance to Pharaoh and the Egyptians God be praised yet our Plagues and those of Egypt have some parallel in their order Their first Plague was the Plague of bloud so was ours but God hath delivered us from the continual slaughters of a most impious and rebellious War Pass from the end of the seventh Chapter of Exodus to the beginning
that gives the least perfunctory admonition to pray to Saints None Is there any example in the Book of God of any of his Servants that did it None The rich Glutton was a Reprobate that called out of hell upon Abraham Is there any Promise annexed to invocation of Saints that God will bless it None Then happy are they that keep close to the Religion of Nehemiah who prayed before the God of heaven I have held you long and will dispatch now with a few auspicious words Auspicious I say because they come from the heart the hope the comfortable perswasion of one though a mean one that hath sought the Lord. We are met to day like Nehemiah before the God of heaven before the God of the Waters above the heaven before the God of the Seas and of the Earth and of all dry places God will bless us and go out with our most magnanimous Prince with our Fleet and Host for the justness of our Cause helpt with strong Faith fervent Prayer reformed lives united minds and religious ends First The ground of confidence is the justness of the Cause Unless any would think it fit to have the Lion sleep while Water-rats pull him by the Mane Every private Subject may appeal to Law for redress of his injuries there is a Magistrate set over him to do him right A King being immediatly Supreme under God cannot plead before an earthly Tribunal Surely if he receive wrong by Foraign ill-willers his case is not more remediless than the meanest Subjects A Treaty is a formal course of Arbitration it hath no absolute power to command that to be streight which was crooked before Therefore it is left to a King to do himself right by his Sword against the provocation of his enemies To wage War is a felicity to ill Princes and sometimes a necessity to the good Secondly The courage of a Warriour is a strong Faith Let me apply unto it Ephes vi 16. Take ye the shield of Faith and it will quench the firy Darts and why not the firy shot of the wicked And cover you with the Helmet of Salvation If you would not have the Seas make a noise and rore believe that Christ is in the same Ship with you and that he is awake and not asleep in the hinder part But if ye distrust he will rebuke you and say Why are ye fearful O ye of little faith Every stedfast faith is charged like a Canon and will do as great execution upon our Aggressors The Heathen themselves are Witnesses to us that a Legion of Christians marching in the Army with Marcus Aurelius by their Faith in Christ and Prayer obtained great Thunder and Lightning which utterly routed the Host that came against them and that Legion was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thundring Legion for an whole Age after And I am confident we have many such thundring Faiths among the Regiments of the Royal Fleet. Thirdly Be fervent and uncessant in Prayer As Moses held up his hands to the going down of the Sun when Joshuah fought and vanquished Amalek Exod. xvii 12. My heart rejoyceth within me when I consider how many Congregations are in Prayer this day to crave victorious success about ten thousand Why it is as if so many Ships were equipped to be added to the gallant Argosies of his Majesties upon the Seas who cry aloud to God for the long felicity of the King in this and in all his enterprises for the welfare of the Realm the prosperity of the Army and particularly that God will be the Anchor to keep our Anchor firm and sure Fourthly O that the reformation of our lives may go together with our Prayers They are the works of Justice Temperance Mortification that will make us strong and our Enemies feeble Then our Fasts shall famish them our tears shall drown them and our Repentance shall condemn them As for Lust Riot Swearing Libertinism let them not be named among the Chieftains nor among the meanest Boat-swains Let our enemies be such flashy ill-framed Christians It is a pious undefiled chaste conversation that will be an invincible Bulwark about this fortunate Island If riotous sins rise out of evil manners they are worse than Capers and Skippers than the Devil and all his Instruments Fifthly Minds and hearts united are a brave advantage to the present Service And that is apparent that both Houses of Parliament have made this the Cause of the whole Nation and provided liberally for the Pay and Reward of the Enterprise It is the felicity of our King David the man after Gods own heart and the man after the Peoples own heart that he bowed the heart of Israel as the heart of one man 2 Sam. xix 14. Yet I cannot dissemble it with you that many of the Nobles of Judah when Nehemiah was so careful for them turned recreants sent Letters to Tobiah and kept intelligence with him Chap. vi 17. Those that be like him are Vultures who when two Armies are to encounter flutter about the place to watch upon what side most will be slain that they may prey upon the reaking Carkasses If there be any such Vultures among us I will read them their doom The story is in Socrates lib. 6. c. There was War between Theodosius and the strong Rebel Maximus Theophilus a cunning Gipsie for he was an Alexandrian born writes two fawning Letters one to Theodosius the other to Maximus and sent them by his Servant Isidore with a great Sum of Gold to present that to him that got the Victory A Souldier looking for a booty in Isidores Knapsack while he slept hapned to find both the Letters and gave them both to Theodosius who defeated Maximus You may imagine what became of Isidore whose Carkass was made a prey to Vultures on a Gibbet because he was a Spy to halt on both sides So God detect them to their confusion who are as double-minded as that Egyptian Lastly A laudable and vertuous end crowns all Now what end do we propound to our selves in our common Supplications to day No doubt it is that violence and injustice being suppressed by War we may live in peace For if Peace be not the end of War it is barbarous immanity as in the Turkish Crescent But the next question is the more principal what end do we propound to our selves upon the settlement of Peace Why to enjoy the fruits of it thankfully to Gods glory Blessed are the People whose hearts are so affected I will promise them the Palm of Victory in this life and Eternal mercy hereafter But if you desire Trade may flourish and be opulent that you may fill your Cups fuller throw away heaps of Gold in Gaming shine in Jewels swim in Luxury you may pray till the Sun go down and rise again and God will never hear you Or if you mean when your Foes are subdued abroad to oppress those whom you hate and malign at home you shall
you must know that there is a threefold evidence of truth to be distinguished First there is the evidence of our outward senses Matt. xvi when it is Evening you say it will be fair weather for the Sky is red O ye hypocrites can you discern the face of heaven says our Saviour as who should say then there is more to be understood 2. There is the evidence of knowledg which will condemn the Heathen that know not God for the invisible things may be understood by the things which are made even his eternal Godhead Rom. i. both these truths you see are fruitless without a third and what is that but the evidence of faith Heb. xi As for other Truths every man is in the high way to get them capiat qui capere potest but as for this Truth it hath looked down from Heaven says David looked upon whom it listeth and all men have not faith Whether Faith be the evident Truth or not all the World almost upon a time stuck at that point but onely Abraham either because their eyes were dim or because it shined like the face of Moses that they could not behold it Yea we have sundry Traditions that some Philosophers cast an eye upon the first verse of the Scripture In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth but they started at it like the Host of Israel at the dead Corps of Amasa and went no further Alas poor Philosophy who knows not how to confound the wisdom of her Principles The fire hath been as temperate as the morning air Dan. 3. the waters have stood upon an heap like the strong ribs of a Mountain Exod. xiv the Sun hath hid his face at noon day when Astronomy could find no reason for it their Art was as blind as the Heaven in the Eclipse But every part of nature should be out of frame Heaven and Earth should pass away before one title of Gods book should perish that with the dissolution of the Heavens no Angels might remain and with the ruine of the Earth no men might be left to testify against it The holy Martyrs have forsaken their lives that this truth might not forsake them And as it is reported of our Philosopher that the ashes spread upon the high Mountains of Tenariffa retain for ever any letters drawn out upon them by reason of the tranquillity of the place So no wind or storm can scatter away those holy words of Gods Book since they have been written in the ashes of the Martyrs the Law cannot endure better in the Tables of Stone than the Gospel in that sacred dust If Faith be not a Truth how did Abraham see Christmas day and rejoyce and keep it a solemn Festival more than a thousand years before the name was entred into our Calender He knew the faithfulness of Gods Promise that made Jesus our Redemption so undoubtedly that he swore him a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech The Mother of our Lord might ask reverently quomodo How should these things be The best in the World have their doubts of infirmity but Domine non erit tibi this thing shall not be so when Christ had spoken it that was a mistake in St. Peter and yet behold the Evidence of Truth shewed it self more abundantly anon after in the faith of that Apostle than in all the skill of Greece and Egypt Tell me what Physician could promise recovery to the Cripple lying at the Beautiful Gate Durst all the Colledg of Galen say unto him confidently stand up and walk but the Apostle saw that one grane of faith could give him the use of his feet and ancle bones that he might leap and praise the Lord. Whatsoever is confirmed by the mouth of two or three Witnesses it passeth for truth by the Law of God and Man and good reason for it Now the Old Testament was confirmed under the name of three Patriarchs I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. In the New Covenant whether it were at the Transfiguration of Christ Peter James and John three Attendants did bear him company to Mount Tabor in like manner at the raising up of Jairus Daughter and in the Mount of Olives when he sweat and prayed so many were with him as before and the self same three Disciples all was confirmed under the mouth of three Witnesses But I will take no more pains in this point to prove Faith to be a Truth as I remember the great Orator reports of a good man Q. Metellus he was excused or rather forbidden to shew his proof unto the Senate in a Controversie to be debated lest the Bench should seem to distrust so reverend a Citizen None but Julian the Apostate and such accursed as he hath left behind him would scoff at Faith whose cavil it was as Nazianzen reports that we had a starting hole for all objections in one silly word Believe These men knew not that Faith in a little Pearl was worth all the substance of a Merchant and he sold all he had to buy the Pearl Matt. xiii Surely if the Womb of Mary deserved a Blessing from all Generations that bore the Infant from everlasting if the Arms of Simeon deserved a Church Anthem every Evensong that enclasped him if the Tomb of Joseph was attended by Angels where his body lay then cut down Palms and spread your Garments in the way for Christ is rode in triumph into that heart into which faith is entred Now Truth is fruitful and brings forth Truth a Daughter not unlike her self Divine Truth is the cause of Human Truth of a true Conversation of a right Balance and a just Fphah Her Merchandise is such as Abraham's was with the Hittites Gen. 23. which I will ever commend when he bought a Tomb for Sarah such as the ancient Romans was aedes pestilentes vendo the Seller was not ashamed to confess that his House had the Pestilence Not as St. Hierom told the Trades of his time tanti vitrium quanti margaritam to chop away Glass for Rubies or as St. Basil says of Gordias the Martyr that his Soul was vexed with the City and he retired into the Wilderness leaving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he could not endure the Buyers and Sellers the forswearers and liars And what doth all come to when they cast up their Audit Prov. xxi 6. The getting of riches by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death Let our Merchants beware that they carry not that report which the Wits of St. Paul's time put upon the Cretians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwayes liars evil beasts and slow-bellies or as Plutarch spake of Demades the Pleader then grown past the best that there was nothing left in him but his Tongue and his Paunch his Tongue to tell lies and his Belly to surfeit the meer Reliques of an Ox sacrificed Nay I beseech you
Dives Table Moses did fast upon Mount Sinai when he talked with God but in the Valley beneath the people sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Elias did not drink for forty days at length he did pray for rain and had drink from heaven But Luxury corrupts the Air and breeds sterility Tot curiis decuriis ructantibus acescit coelum says Tertullian by an excellent Hyperbole Daniel by his slender food of pulse and water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Basil taught the Lions to hunger and want their prey all night when he was cast into their Den. Therefore foul shame it was for the Pharisees says the same Father to look sowerly and sickly when they wanted their repast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why did they not rejoyce rather for the healthfulness of their soul Wherefore when thou fastest anoint thy head and wash thy face says our Saviour You would think by this that a Fast were the celebration of some Bridal He was no Benefactor in Greece that did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mend their diet No Emperour for the people of Rome that did not enter into his Kingdom with a Congiary or Banquet But the Saints of God will not let us know when or what day they went to heaven without a Fast before it Let not this Doctrine give occasion to the Wealthy of this Kingdom to lessen their Magnificence and pinch their Table Charitable house-keeping hath been always the honour of this Realm and a blessing destined for the poor But whatsoever your eye beholds when you set before you plenteous provision will you think as the Epicure of Rome did that the Table is furnished for your own throat and boast that Lucullus sups with Lucullus No Beloved look upon it as the Father of a Family whose eyes wait upon your benevolence look upon it as the Steward of the poor whose mouths shall bless God that hath enlarged your heart to do good unto them And be not like the larded Epicure that eateth like Behemoth Job xl 16 whose force is in the navel of his belly What unfitness is in such a corps for speculation of knowledge What dulness to Prayer and Devotion Had we not need of a long Lent between our Shroving and our Easter And besides the sin of the gurmundizing Glutton I must not spare to tell you that there is luxuria in modico a riotous diet which longs after nothing but dainties and delicates As to be wanton stomacht after Mandrakes with Rachel to long after the fruits of Pontus and Asia with Lucullus To affect strange Cookery of France and Italy Why should you make more of your corruptible bodies than our Saviour did of his glorified body Ecquid habetis filioli Children have you any thing to eat Do but observe the prohibition of meats in the old Law neither herbs nor roots nor any homely food were forbidden but the curiosity of some delicious flesh was denied to the children of Israel They had their Quails indeed in the Wilderness when they lusted and they that fasted three days in the Desart with our Saviour had nothing but two fishes and five barly loaves among two thousand Chuse you with whether of these you would make your Table They with the Quails had the curse of God and these had the blessing of our Saviour It is a mystery methinks that Father Jacob sent away his Honey and Spices Nuts and Almonds for a Present unto Joseph to buy him coarser food I mean the Corn of Egypt Nos oleris coma nos siliqua foeta legumine paverit innocuis Epulis says the sweet Prudentius In Ethnick Rome a Senator was charged to keep so mean a Table by the Law called Centussis that a Mess of Friers now adays would rise an hungry from it Ignorance it is wilful ignorance that hath made the world so riotous both in Gluttony and Drunkenness because forsooth these are such sins as are not forbidden in the Ten Commandments Not to trouble you with many conjectures why God did so I will give you this answer for your utmost satisfaction Nothing is forbidden in the Ten Commandments Nisi directè deordinet hominem ad Deum aut ad proximum says Hales except it be a transgression directly against God or our Neighbour Gluttony and drunkenness are principally inordinate passions not against God and our Neighbour but against our own body But doth this diminish the guilt of these sins No Beloved but rather they do many ways dispose a man to disorder himself both to God and his Neighbour God is often blasphemed bloud spilt lust provoked the Lords day violated the Magistrate disobeyed and next to the pronity of original sin intemperance of meats and drinks is the fuel of all sins Wherefore be a Rechabite or the next to a Rechabite in surfeit and immoderation to drink no Wine There is but one thing remains to dispatch our exercise for this time I have made a large discourse how Fasting and Temperance are the third Encomium or praise of the Rechabites Indeed David doth wish it above all curses to the enemies of the Lord that their Table may be made a snare But for mensa laqueus that a prodigal Table is a snare to a good conscience it is no strange thing What say you to inedia laqueus To fast and subdue the body is made a greater snare as the Devil hath contrived it among our Romish Adversaries I knew the Devil could tempt an innocent to offend with eating but would you think he could take advantage upon an empty stomach Would you think that Lent and a few Ember Weeks should be called Lutrum peccatorum A satisfaction for sin To cross this error that it was not abstinence from meats and drinks simply taken which did commend us unto God therefore as we lost the knowledge of God by Gluttony and eating Gen. iii. So the Second Adam was known to his Disciples and Cleophas thrice after his Resurrection as they were at meat to shew that the Table of sobriety was sanctified in the Lord. Wherefore let the boast of the proud Pharisee I fast twice a week be made a Collect in the Roman Prayer-book We are tied to say grace unto God when we receive our meat but these men expect most impiously that God should say grace and give them thanks for fasting especially if it were a Vow as this was of the Rechabites Nunquam bibemus for ever we will drink no wine It is a blessed conspiracy when sundry souls confederate themselves together to serve the Lord. Glad was Davids heart to have company to go to the Altar I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord. Indeed the Spouse of Christ is not one stick of Juniper or a single lump of Frankincense though never so sweet but Fasciculus Myrrhae a bundle of Myrrh Cant. i. Faith in unity it is the glory of Christianity I know not
Parable But this Vow of the Rechabites may be discharged with facility Of their Pastoral life they had many examples in other Countries of men living in Woods as if they had been born of Trees and of their temperate life they had an instance in the Nazarites But nothing is more feizable in the World than evil therefore in the third place it concerns a Vow to be lawful To resolve upon evil is a defiance against God omnis promissio mali est comminatio Isaiah calls it an agreement with Hell and a Covenant with Death Lamech that swore in his wrath to kill a man the Mother of Michah who did solemnly dedicate her Silver for a molten Image the Swordmen that vowed the death of Paul these gave their faith in hostage to the Devil to work iniquity Put to these the revengeful Romanist that is sent to sea by his Ghostly Father with a worse Devil in him than was in the Gergasens Swine to set Kingdoms in combustion and to destroy the Lords Anointed There are also unlawful Votaries but not so bad as the former whose heart was right with the Lord in their Vow but being rash and sudden never considered that the issue might be dangerous Thus Jepthab returning from the slaughter of the Ammonites brought a deliberate curse upon his own Daughter And what justice was in the Oath of Saul that swore every man should die that tasted food that day as well he that heard the Law as Jonathan that did not These are Vows like sharp arrows shot up into Heaven soft enough while they are in the air but the danger is whose head they light upon when they return again Well I acquit the Vow of the Rechabites from any harm to drink or spare is lawful it is our freedom making no conscience Not one Expositor of many but conceive that Jonadab and his Children took this penance upon them because it grieved them to hear that Sion should be desolate and Jerusalem an heap of stones Let others feast it while destruction comes upon them unawares There are such lovers of themselves qui mallent stellam de coelo perire quà m vaccam de armento who had rather Heaven should lose a Star than himself be endamaged a Sheep the Vine will not leave his sweetness nor the Olive his fatness neither would put away private content for the publick good but a zealous Rechabite is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and leaves both the sweetness of the Wine and all power for ever to plant Vineyards the better to be prepared to pray for Jerusalem Lastly multa licent quae non expediunt May it be done safely that is some content but is it fit to be done faciens ad cultum Dei is it profitable for holiness that is the fourth Condition Every act of Divine Worship well placed raiseth up our melody unto God in a higher note the noise of every idle superstition drowns the Musick When David vowed an Habitation for the mighty God of Jacob Arise O Lord into thy resting place thou and the ark of thy strength then he fill'd Heaven and Earth with his Melody We heard of the same at Ephrata and found it in the woods But that rude noise Templum Domini Templum Domini to vow Pilgrimages and gadding about to I know not what it breeds no incensement of devotion a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like an Artist more busie than well occupied that made a Charriot for a Fly to draw it But that this Vow was of some moment in the practice of piety it appears by Gods benediction upon them in the last verse of this Chapter For as it was said of Socrates his goodness that it stood the Commonwealth of Athens in more stead than all their warlike Prowess by Sea and Land so that Religious life of the Rechabites was the best Wall and Fortress to keep Judah in peace and safety Those that like Thomas the Apostle would put their finger into the world and thrust their hand into riches and see the print of their nails or else they will not believe these would make you think that they were Disciples of Christ and yet indent to receive Tribute from him as if he were their Servant And almost who doth not follow Christ rather to be a gainer by him than a loser Ecce nos reliquimus omnia Behold we have left all and followed thee that was the perfection of the Apostles that was the state of the Rechabites not simply all every thing that belonged to the maintenance of a man and so to live upon beggery sed quid velle debeant didicerunt they have learned to ask nothing but a Gourd to cover their head a few Flocks of Sheep to imploy their hands the Spring water to quench their thirst They that must have no more have cut off superfluous desires that they can never ask more And so I have declared that piety and a godly life were chiefly aimed at in the Vow of the Rechabites But admit it had all in one Vow which could be good in any will it avail to license a Profession of Votaries in our Reformed Church my Text casts this Question in the way and I will remove it in a word If any man would make a single Vow for his own person by this Example let him go on and prosper Advice is necessary in so great a business and in the multitude of Counsellors there is safety A Vow of Private Devotion hath always been allowed in these cases following First when the heart of any humble Supplicant did earn to obtein some great mercy from God 2. When a terror of some imminent judgment did hang over the head of sinners and threaten destruction not to be fourty dayes distance off as in the case of the Ninevites 3. It may be a caveat to check concupiscence lest we sin over our enormous sins not once but often Lastly it kindles a frozen and benummed zeal and puts a flame into it as if it had been set afire by a Seraphin with a Coal from the Altar Now for publick Confederacy of many persons in one Order it is as lawful being well managed as it is full of exceptions before the institution Why may there not be holy Combinations to praise the Lord as there are Orders for Chivalry and Honour in divers Countries as the most noble Order of the Garter in our own Kingdom the Knights of the Golden Fleece and the like I know not any well advised man that can take exceptions at the Knights of the Sepulcher instituted in a strict Collegiate life covenanting to fight against Pagans for the Christian Faith upon their own charges and bearing Crosses about their neck in remembrance of our Saviours five wounds but if any other condition shall intervene to the affronting of Religion quae dederam supra repeto funemque reduco I will no more approve such knots of superstition than I would allow of Sheba the Son of Bichri
it 2. It makes us leave to thirst after vain delights by little and little 3. He that satiates his spirit with it in this life shall be discharged from all manner of thirst hereafter when he changeth this life to live with God for ever The first of these Propositions begets this lesson where sanctification hath moistned the inward man to the bottom and to the root there the heart is restless till it obtain a larger abundance of the spirit After this manner a good Proficient gains upon Gods blessing step by step Thou hast given me to know thee O Lord but confirm my faith also to believe in thee nay give me not onely to believe but to suffer for thy Names sake so shalt thou try and examine if there be any way of wickedness in me or if thou hast not reserv'd me for the Cup of afflictions yet prove me throughly by obedience grant that my works may please thee that I may do thy will on earth as it is in heaven Make thy Laws sweet unto my mouth sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb Such a one is Marcianus the Anchorite chronicled by Theodoret One of his ancient acquaintance being in chase after his Game found him alone in a Desart What make you so far from your friends says the Huntsman and what make you so far in the Woods says Marcianus I am hunting for a Beast says he and I will not leave till I have taken it and I am hunting for my God says Marcianus and I will not leave till I have found him Such a one by Procopius his description was Justinian the Emperor and such an Example was worth a thousand nulla honorandi Dei satietas cum cepit he was never cloyed to do God honor he never thought his duty was enough in Religious service The more we bend our affection to heavenly things we shall be enflamed with more devotion as devotion encreaseth the more help shall be added the more help the more diligence and the more diligence the more glory Nemo primo statim die ad satietatem potatur says one of the Moderns No man is made Christian enough in a day to go to the Kingdom of Heaven unless it be in such a rare example as that was of the penitent Thief It is a false spirit that says unto any mortal man it is well if you can keep at this stay and prove no worse Yet I know the greatest part of indifferent Christians are so affected to the love of the World that if it were possible to measure out to a dram what quantity of righteousness would serve them to attain to salvation they would reach so far if the Grace of God would assist them but they would seek no further I say if they knew the trick how to make just a Saint and no more they would spare a labour for seeking beyond that point and for the rest sacrifice to carnal security Certainly there can be no living water already where there is no thirsting for more Whatsoever you know or hear of that any Saint living or departed hath done for Gods sake it is a shame for you if you do not covet to do as much or more than that at least if you be not sorry that your frailties make you come short of the best Speak thus to your own heart Should any of thy Servants love thee better than I should any of thy Disciples be more obedient than I for none of thine Elect is so much indebted to thy Passion as I am because none had so many sins to be forgiven Thus your Soul must thirst to be the nearest that shall stand before the presence of the Lord and count your self extreme lag in perfection until you desire to come equal with the principal Saints Lord let me love thee as Peter did Lord let me love thee more than these Some cried Hosanna and shouted for ioy when our Saviour went to Jerusalem some cut down branches of Palms that was a more real expression of his welcome some spared their Garments from their back and laid them in his way These were the formost in affection and what a becoming thing it was to be the best of all those that ran forth to meet our Saviour but as if one should wish always to be a Child and never come to manly growth so is a lumpish Christian who perswades himself that a moderate competency of righteousness is best let others if they will strive to be those green Olive trees that flourish in the House of the Lord. The learned among the Heathen love to talk of strange Creatures and Plutarch tells of a Fish of which to eat a little is hurtful to eat it up all is medicinal True or false be the Story it comes fit to be applied Christ promiseth no blessing to him that doth but wet his lips with this living water a little spattering holiness will turn to hypocrisy the vertue of it abides with those that drink deep for the preserving and cherishing of a spiritual life and the thirsty Soul the more it drinks up the more it will cry out give me ever of this water to drink The second Experiment is this the water which Christ gives turns the edg of the appetite quite from this world and makes us leave to thirst after all other delights he that drinketh of this water though concupiscence cannot quite be rooted out yet he shall never long greedily after carnal lusts He that doth not hate his own Soul cannot be my Disciple is not this a Paradox for what shall it profit me to love all things else if I hate it well love it as it is Christs Soul altogether ravished with the love of him hate it as it was thine own Soul altogether ravished with the love of the world Tunc animam nostram benè odimus cum ejus carnalibus desideriis non acquiescimus says Gregory as a man seems to be ill affected to another if he deny him that he sues for so such heavenly resolutions by a Catachresis are called the hate of the Soul when we deny it satisfaction in foolish and earthly inclinations He that hath called promotion to honour or the fatness of riches or luxury or any such thing the darling of his heart it was for want of this water in my Text to cool the inflammation of his fever but if ever he receive a dose of it the new Wine is put in a new Bottle and both shall be preserved The grace of God doth supply the place of a Cherubin that stood with a flaming sword to keep Adam out of Paradise so the Holy Spirit will give the watch-word and cry out in the time of tentation turn aside and enter not into the paths of these pleasures these are not the Paradise into which you should come if you do there is a Sword that will cut you in twain and give you your portion with Hypocrites St. Austin observs upon the
viluerunt Lesser things are admired which happen rarely the greater works of God because they are frequent are heeded carelesly Say not now but ye see cause enough why Christ did actuate this Miracle of the loaves no oftner than twice he would not stretch his Creatures beyond their natural size to please their idle curiosity And yet I will tell you of a miraculous multiplication but I do not wish you to believe that is done toties quoties as they think fit that have the Relique in their custody It is the Cross on which our Saviour was crucified you must not question the Story but that Helen found it in an heap of rubbish at Jerusalem many did desire Chips of it out of their devotion and though innumerous slices of it were cut away yet it kept its just magnitude and never varied The thing was divulged by some but none of the famous Doctors one thousand three hundred years ago One of them that is said to write extemporary Catechisms when he was a young man compares the Cross which wasted not for all the shivers that were borrowed from it to these Loaves and Fishes Another says out of his credulous good meaning that it got this solidity because the bloud of him was spilt upon it who saw no corruption And to this hour say such as get their living by this craft this holy wood is not consumed though it be abundantly imparted Is this credible that Christ did dispense this power unto any to work a Miracle when they would as if there were an Office erected to do signs and wonders Qui Bavtum non odit he that hath so strong a stomach to disgest this let him swallow such an other that out of three or four nails that pierced our Saviours hands and feet the Friers can direct you to Churches and Religious Houses where an hundred instead of four are exposed to adoration What though the Beam of the Cross did not diminish for the portions cut away yet which way did the Nails increase Did one Nail spawn another as big as it self None is so frontless to defend it But to cut off further process upon the matter It is best to bind the Legend how the Cross and the Nails have multiplied into volumes and believe them together But the sure way is not to parallel the glorious works of our Master with such Apocryphal fictions There is a great difference between Juggling and Miracles Hitherto touching the Act of his power in producing this admired work go onward to the next Point and we shall encounter his goodness Our Saviour did not use to do tricks to shew his skill but that some might be the better for him therefore his power was joyned with Beneficence Vt potestas non terreat sed amorem excitet says St. Austin That he might not astonish them with his greatness but endear them with his liberality Leaf gold is drawn out a great way and then it is fit for nothing but Ostentation So the multiplying of the Loaves and Fishes had served barely for the pomp of the eye but that the wonderful encrease thereof concluded in a benefit And first I note though the love of Christ to mankind was excessive strong unto death yet going in the Tract of reason they had little cause to look for this at his hands Alas he had no home to entertain them no Revenues wherewith to feast them no Olive yards or Vineyards to bestow upon them Could five thousand look for a Supper of his bestowing For our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might become rich that is says Nazianzen he put on the poverty of my wretched flesh that I might gain the riches of his glorious Divinity They that followed him had not their wages in Meats and Drinks in Silver and Gold but in Sanctity and Justification in peace of Conscience and in the earnest of the Spirit to be heirs of Salvation And he whose Profession it was to open the Treasures of Heaven to his Disciples and to possess naught of Earth no not so much as to set his foot upon doth he strain himself to give entertainment to so many in the Wilderness What was this but to yield as it were to the time to be beneficial to the Jews in a temporal way that by all means he might win their love He had fed their Spirit with the Word of life and satiated them one would think with the promise of eternal Joy and Immortality if they believed in his name but he knoweth whereof we are made he considereth the Worm in our corruptible appetite which is always craving He remembred that a little in hand goes a great way with them that cannot abide to have all their state in reversion therefore he distributed unto the necessity of their body though his Errand for which he came into the world was to be the Saver of Souls as you would say he stept a little out of his own way to bring them into the right way I cannot but revolve it in my fancy that the Jews were more transported with this curtesie of our Saviours than with all that had preceded Hereupon they cry out This is the Messias this is he that should come into the world Let us take him up and make him a King How ignorantly and unequally doth flesh and bloud set a price upon the works of God I durst almost say that this was one of the least good turns that ever he did them When a Miracle came off graciously indeed it had such a tang at the end of it as Son thy sins be forgiven thee or This day is Salvation come to thine house This had no such heavenly adjunct but was a frank Feast among a promiscuous company as his rain falls upon the just and unjust Well though the grudgings of this disease are become natural to us all to like the heavenly offices of the Gospel the better if Christ befriend us a little with these corruptible things yet carnal Companions are most odious to apprice things momentary before coelestial How much better doth Solomon distinguish Length of days meaning endless days are in his right hand and in his left hand riches and honour Wherefore David describes evil affected men that value earth before heaven that their right hand is a right hand of iniquity because they grasp transitory things in their right hand fixing their chiefest complacency in them which are favours of much later digress and to be received in the left And the same Metaphor is prosecuted in another sacred Song Cant. ii 6. His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me Sinistra capiti non praeponitur sed supponitur says Bernard The left hand which bestows Loaves and Fishes must be under our head not above it as if it were the top of our desires but the right hand should compass us about at the very heart To this Point but a word more Christ produced
people was and we seek a Country in the heavens What are five Loaves and two Fishes the poor pittances of Nature to procure us felicity Some say send them to the next Village for succour to the intercession of Saints and Angels No sweet Saviour but as the eyes of a servant look unto the hands of his Master so our soul waits upon thee until thou have mercy upon us Nor did our Saviour distribute his Largess only to stop the gap of necessity For had they been runnagates David doth award them to be unpitied Let them continue in scarceness but flagrante ptetate when their hearts were set upon zeal and their ears attentive by the space of an whole day to hear the Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven then this Miracle falls out as a reward of their Piety For even as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts of Charity were wont to be celebrated among the Christians in the Primitive Church immediately after the divine Mysteries had been solemnized So when these Jews had lent their patience to a good Sermon I am sure for never man spake like him by his enemies confession the close of it was that they eat bread together joyfully with singleness of heart And I do not amiss to say that this diligence to hear and learn did attract his love to do this for them for did they importune him by Prayer Did any one among so many beseech him to shew his power and pity them no but they had done enough to open his bowels though they held their peace for first seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added unto you Hallow his name advance his Kingdom and do his will and that which follows comes in by course you cannot fail of your daily bread In this Assembly that sanctified the whole day in the Desart to wait on Christ you may imagine there were sundry of them that lived by their sweat and labour from hand to mouth Will not these be much damnified by their godliness The night was come they had earned nothing by their labour they may go home and starve yea nothing less they that had committed themselves to his providence like the fowls of the air shall fair as well as the fowls of the air For the Lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord do want no good thing Psal xxxiv 10. The Apostles not long before this accident in my Text were sent abroad without Scrip without provision without change of raiment Lacked you any thing says our Saviour the Heathen could not say that the Christians were the poorer for not working the seventh day your Trade is increasing while your shop is shut up on Holidays if you serve the Lord. Godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. iv 8. We had Brethren in diebus illis in those noble times that came near to the Apostles who durst urge the Lord upon his word in the face of Infidels that the soul of the righteous should not famish In the year 176 Marcus Aurelius was ready to give battel to the Marcomans but the day was so hot and the drought so sore that his Army fainted and could not strike a stroke The Christians that served under him to shew the glory of their great Master Jesus the Son of God joyned their Prayers together and instantly obtained so much rain as refreshed all the Roman Legions and so much thunder as consumed the Marcomans with fire and lightening I make not the Doctors of the Church my Authors for it but Dion Cassius an Heathen confesseth the accident and Xiphiline another of the same ascribes it to the Christians and that Legion which consisted of Christians was called from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thundring Legion long after The blessings of the Lord they are not viscata beneficia they do not hang in his fingers like birdlime when his Children need them but they drop like an Honeycomb without straining But men are so apt to object against this as if they stretcht their wits to make God a liar they will tell you that they have known and heard of righteous men that have been forsaken and destitute Digito terebrare Salinum contentus perages si cum Jove vivere tentas Poverty ever was and will be the obloquy of honesty Neither is bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill Eccles ix 11. Well the knot is soon untied if you do not over-reckon with God and extend his word to a greater proportion of temporal blessings than he hath promised There is a Son that grudged at his Father Luke xv quia nusquam haedum dedisset he had never given him a Kid to make merry with his friends Must every one that is a Son look for a Kid and for enough wherewith he may be merry and voluptuous no no if you have pabulum latibulum any thing to stay hunger and a Cave to put your head in God is not in your debt and you may do as well as they that have the Kid for life is oftner lost by surfeiting than by starving Every Levite that serves faithfully at the Altar must not think to wear a Mitre like Aaron as St. Hierom speaks of Praetextatus that would be baptized and become a Christian if he might be Bishop of Rome All men must not look to be requited like Valentinian that refused the Tribune-ship of Julian upon condition of Idolatry and became an Emperor They that gape for so much tenter Gods promise to the stretch of their own greediness First They seek dominion and wealth and think the Kingdom of Heaven will come into the vantage Miserable souls that do not fear lest their dignity should be their total recompence and all that ever they shall have for their service They that put themselves upon Gods providence as these men did in the Desart they shall not want but remember then that they must accept of barley loaves for current payment Peter and John had neither silver nor gold yet they had food and raiment and for the most part the most fortunate are they that be no such Camels but they may pass through the eye of the needle I will work out of the point but this little more these five hundred men that waited upon Christ had kept their Fast to the full Canonical time they had eat nothing until night therefore he distributes the loaves dissolves their fast and would not suffer them to continue it any longer than might do them good A man in the fervour of his desire will pursue that he desires so hard as he will quite forget his meat so Esau felt no hunger when he was in the chase a hunting but as soon as that was over he longed for meat upon any terms so during the whole day that our Saviour
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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
against him Qui meretricibus voluptatibus inservit non liber est sed servus To be under pleasure is to be under tyranny and therefore the Statue of a Strumpet did better resemble servitude But happy are thy servants O Lord that stand before thee Deo parere libertas est you may think that Seneca had conferred with St. Paul when he learnt that Lesson that the service of God is perfect freedom who hath made us a Royal Priesthood and holy Nation Says Leo in the second Anniversary Sermon upon his own Assumption to the Papacy nothing so Kingly as a mind subject to God and Ruler of his own passions nothing so Priestly as to offer up the sacrifice of a pure conscience and the oblation of a broken heart There were ancient Ceremonies in Baptism as if the party to be baptized came to be inaugurated to a Kingdom when he professed himself a Disciple of the Gospel For it appears in some Rituals that they put a Crown of flowers upon the head of the Neophyte to which the Collect then used doth testifie We beseech thee O King of heaven for this dissoluble Crown to give him a Crown of justice and good works The same was figured by these Ceremonies in confirmation that is by the unction of their forehead and by the fascia which bound about their temples as a Diadem All these customs do border upon this phrase that our Jerusalem is every where in the Gospel called the Kingdom of heaven God is such a King whom none but Kings do serve none but Melchisedechs who are free from sin and at once both Servants of righteousness and Kings of righteousness Dignitate Domini honorata sit conditio servi He is so great a Lord that it is a Lordship nay a Kingdom to serve him In a word remember that our freedom is a strict obligation to all excellent vertue that being delivered from the hands of our enemies we may serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life Lord keep thy Jerusalem free from the bondage of sin that we may not be cast into the prison of utter darkness AMEN THE THIRD SERMON UPON GAL. iv 26. Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all HAving drawn out the description of the Church in sundry lines of beauty that it is a Jerusalem a visible and glorious City for the external Communion a Jerusalem from above for her internal Graces a Jerusalem that is free for her Redemption through the bloud of Christ every man I suppose will attest thus unto it nihil addi potest huic bono nisi ut sit perpetuum O that it would last thus unto the worlds end by continual propagation for nothing can be added unto that which is so completely good but that it should be perpetual Lo I shall land you now upon that Shore and represent the Church unto you as a Mother that brings forth and is never barren whose fruitfulness continues her praise and happiness for ever she is the Mother of us all and of all those Generations after us that live by the faith of the Son of God as long as the World endures We are not in the condition of Xerxes who had as goodly a Train of Souldiers as ever marched into the Field but it drew tears from his eyes to think that in less than the space of an hundred years not one of all those thousands should remain alive They had not a Mother which brought forth uncessantly to repair their mortality That good which will not continue breeds great discomfort upon certain expectation of mutability But our Jerusalem shall never wain nor consume it is sown with the seeds of immortality If we were all included in one Isaac and he were slain upon the Altar for a Sacrifice yet Abraham were sure that God would restore him again being dead Jacob might faint and fear lest his Sons should miscarry one after another and he remain childless his despair was grounded upon the sadness of humane events if I be bereaved of my Children I am bereaved Gen. xliii 14. But the Church shall see her Childrens Children grow up by succession without end of dayes Christ should be put to death again and rise no more which is most impossible if she should quite disappear The root of the Tree of Life should die which cannot be imagined if her branches should all wither But this is a Lamp which is nourished with fresh oil from Heaven and shall never be put out it is the chiefest of all that is called good upon Earth and a constant perpetual good Therefore let the Children rise up and call this Mother blessed And as the Church hath taken upon it the proper name of Jerusalem yet without any Contract to the local and material building of Jerusalem so she hath taken up the appellation of a Mother yet without any respect to nature no way bending to natural causes or natural affections For not only our Parents in the flesh but the whole World hath quite lost us in this word As Moses remembred the great devotion of Levi that he said of his Father and Mother I have not seen them or I respect them not and of his Brethren I do not acknowledg them Deut. xxxiii 9. So by deriving our selves from this Mother we cast our fleshly Parentage aside and we say to her who did give us to suck from her Breasts as our Saviour did to the Blessed Virgin Mulier quid mihi tecum Woman what have I to do with thee Jerusalem is ours and we are hers Jerusalem which is above is free c. This remainder of the verse which is the dispatch of the whole Text requires our inspection into three particulars First To know our Mother that we may not be ignorant either of her fruitfulness or our own obedience He is a wise Son says Telemachus in Homer that knows his Father but he is a foolish Son that doth not know his Mother Secondly Note the unity and indivision of the Children of this Mother They are a cluster of Grapes hanging upon one Stalk a Brood of Chickens clockt under the wings of one Hen there is but one Steâ— and one Progeny one Nostrum in relation to this Parent Mater nostrum the Mother of us The third and last part puts us to observe that the note of Universality was large in Pauls days but now much more amplified than in those times mater nostrum omnium the Mother of us all First A Mother gives a being to those whom she brings forth and that which is brought forth owes a great duty to the Mother upon these two hinges this main part of the Text is turned the one is the Fruitfulness of the Mother the other is the Obedience of the Children And what being is that which Jerusalem above doth contribute unto us that she is called our Mother It challengeth no part in our specifical essence or the
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
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
frame which the wise men of the world did think most out of order Some will say in their first cogitations upon my Text Are these the Souls of the First-born in Heaven that make such a clamour against their Persecutors Can they indeed be so eager of revenge Tantae ne animis coelestibus irae Besides Are they so passionately addicted to their own desires that they will not stay the prefixed time which God hath set but challenge him for slackness Vsque quo How long dost thou put us off Again What imperfection is this which they pretend as if they knew not how long it were till Christ would take the Kingdom into his hand and judge the proud after their deserving How do they know as they are known if they be kept so short of divine revelation But to stifle these Cavillations take special notice that you lose the whole Chain of this Prophesie if you hold not fast by this Link that St. John was in a rapture and taken up to the Heaven in the Spirit where the passages which he met withal were not really transacted but he seem'd to see the souls which were slain and he seemed to hear the moans which they made which is nothing else but a Prosopopaea where the Spirits of the Martyrs are imaginarily brought in as if they demanded the suppression of violent men that had spilt their bloud which doth not evince that any infirmities or disorderly affections are in them which may rashly be supposed but to set two things streight in our opinion which many Philosophizing heads did champ upon as if they were crooked in the Divine Providence First The righteous are taken away and no man regardeth it as the Prophet says Their days are cut short by violence and cruelty and yet their Persecutors live and are mighty What did the Heathen say to this who had good report for their Moral Conversation Is there no Justice in heaven Or doth it set no price upon the bloud of Just men Yes here is the best assurance that can be demanded a Scene as it were acted in heaven wherein is represented that the wrongs of the Saints are fresh in memory and shall never be forgotten Yet this is not all As this Scale is hoised up so there is another that must down as fast and that is principally aimed at in this Text. An Oppressor whose hand hath been very heavy upon another he is always jealous that in the turn of the Wheel his malice may be requited For none so miserable but in the Revolutions of Fortune may call his injuries to an account if he live What is the Method therefore of them that are profound Graduates in Malice Why mortui non mordent Let not thine Adversary live if you love to be secure dispatch him As Bassianus insulted over his Brother Geta when he had killed him Sit Divus frater meus modò ne sit vivus as long as my Brother lives not I care not though he be among the Gods Or as Jezebel cheared up Ahab that the worst was past Arise eat and take possession Naboth is not alive but dead This is a Maxim then in the Devils Politicks if you hunt for the destruction of any man your safety is in his utter extirpation This is as false as God is holy and true It is palpable that my Text labours especially with this Doctrine That the poor oppressed is more likely to obtain redress against his enemy when he is dead than when he was alive His Soul is then most precious to the Lord his Prayer most flagrant he is so near to Christ that he is next to the Altar his understanding is so enlightned that he knows what to ask and never fail Do their Oppressors think that these can do no harm because their bones lie scattered before the pit I would not be in Ahabs case though Naboth be dead and not alive for no worldly good would I provoke the clamours of such as these for they cry with a loud voice c. Here you have a Petition then put up to a mighty King by some persons that had sustained injury and after that garb I will divide it First As it useth to be in such petitory Writs consider we to whom the Supplication is preferred to one from whom there lies no appeal the King of Kings and Lord of Lords And the words are so laid together that the Souls under the Altar do beseech him by his three mighty Attributes Per potentiam per bonitatem per trigam gloriae He is the Lord therefore they implore him by that power which can do all things He is Holy therefore they solicite him by that goodness which detests Oppressions He is Truth and therefore they urge him by those Promises made which he cannot but accomplish It is the Lord holy and true into his hands they commend their Petition Secondly The manner of Petitioning is with vehemency and importunity With vehemency for they cried with a loud voice With importunity for they expostulate that it is not yet done How long Lord c. Thirdly Their asking and request is for no petty injury but for their bloud to judge and avenge their bloud Lastly The parties against whom they complain are expressed by contempt of their condition They dwell upon earth And now tell me if the Eagle hath not cause to fear though he hath torn these innocent Doves to pieces in his talons In what peril do those Grantortoes live that have slain the poor Servants of Christ heaps upon heaps When such a God is besought by the souls of such dear servants with such zeal and vehemency upon so great an injury and against such worldlings whose best project is to live upon the earth what will this come to in the end But the restauration of the afflicted the destruction of their Persecutors unto these tears for their joy in the nethermost Hell unto the others joy for their tears in the Kingdom everlasting Having thus distributed the Text into portions I go back to that which I put in the first rank the Petition is preferred to the Lord to the Lord that is holy and true And those words are both an invocation of praise and an obtestation by those sacred properties of the Divine Nature that their desire might be effected He that makes his address to God let him begin with his praise let him commemorate his excellent greatness let him delight to rehearse his Titles of Majesty without these your Petition is headless it hath no Exordium to induct it into the Court of grace extol him in his noble Attributes before you begin to exhibite your desires and the everlasting doors will be lifted up to let you in for the Lord cannot refuse his own glory As David bears you up to it in the last Psalm the Trumpet the Harp the Cymbal the Organ all Instruments of Musick are in the Tongue of him that doth praise the Lord. They were no babies
First the toil of their body and then the zeal of their mind nothing can be more complete than St. Austins judgment upon both Ambulabant Per fidem desiderant speciem As it is the stage of a Christian to walk in this life by faith and that race is run so constantly to win that heavenly prize that we may see what we have believed face to face So these Eastern Travellers went on their way by faith till they came to Jerusalem and then like those that had finished their course Desiderant speciem they wish that their eyes may be blessed with the hope of their faith Where is he that is born King of the Jews We have wearied our selves but he is our rest we have seen his Star but where is he that commands the course of all the Stars We have seen a wonder in the heavens but where is he whom the Prophet calls wonderful upon earth We have seen the Ensign but where is the Captain under whose Colours we would be led We have seen his Star in the East and are come to worship him Ambulabant per speciem upon that subject with Gods leave contained in the first verse I will speak at this time and hereafter how they required that faith might be changed into vision Upon their doings or upon their journey therefore I consider 1. Who were the Pilgrims Magi or Wisemen 2. Their Pilgrimage Venerunt they came 3. The length of that Pilgrimage from the East to Jerusalem 4. The occasion of that journey when Jesus was born 5. The place of that birth Bethlem of Judea 6. The time of that birth in the days of Herod the King O most true delights and joys of a feastival Christmas 1. To learn what wisdom it is to seek out a Saviour Wise-men came unto him 2. What rest we shall find in our soul when we desire no rest till we have found him 3. How mighty his Kingdom is that all Nations shall come from far to worship him Many shall come from the East and from the West and sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of God O blessed birth not only the greatest and most holy places partake of it as that great and holy City Jerusalem but little Bethlem and the most prophane Regions of the East which abounded with Idolaters O joyful birth which came not only to pass in the times of good Prophets Old Simeon and Anna the widow but in evil days in times of sorrow and captivity in the days of Herod the King For he alone that was born in the days of Herod can turn our sorrow into gladness Let these be the meditations let these be the frolicks and triumphs of our Christmass these shall make it holy day to our soul to be informed in all particulars how Jesus was born in Bethlem in the days of Herod the King and behold there came c. First Constet de personis let the condition of these persons be examined for every word in the Text must partake of that knowledge for though they are but obscurely described here yet all holy Writers have accounted it zeal and not curiosity to labour in the search what they were says St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much watching and many prayers are needful to find it out The original Text calls them Magi out of which word many have suspected that they were of a scandalous profession we call them Wise-men in our translation which is a very safe and sure opinion of them some have entitled them for Kings but very corruptly all confess them to be Gentiles and very truly and I think I shall satisfie you to the full by considering the persons in this fourfold capacity First They that thought the name of Magi to be full of offence and suspicion had much to say for themselves Simon the Sorcerer and Elymas the Sorcerer who could be worse than they Yet Magus is their title For howsoever it was meant for a good Appellation at first yet as the names of Tyrant and Sophister became very foul and contemptuous by the abuse so although a Magus was an innocent Artist at first yet some of the tribe were so far corrupted in their knowledge that Magick was accounted no better than raking hell and charming infernal spirits for satisfaction The least fault in the Profession and yet that a great one was judicial Astrology to make Schemes and calculate Nativities from certain houses which they framed to themselves in heaven and to attribute a fatal necessity to all mens actions from some aspect of the Stars which reigned at their Geniture As Pauls antecedent life most adverse to Christ did no way dishonour him to have it remembred after his conversion so the Fathers thought it no soil to these holy Travellers to impute the worst unto them what they had been Tertullian magnifies God for the great alteration Primitias gentium ex inferis excitavit the Lord raised up these that were the first fruits of the Gentiles even from the Jawes of Hell St. Hillary thinks they were called to mighty Faith from mighty Impiety Homines professionis à scientiâ divinae cognitionis longè aversae they were men of a profession most different from the sweetness and simplicity of divine wisdom But Theophilact lays load upon them to make their conversion shine the brighter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were men envassalled to devils and the enemies of God And St. Austin whose meekness would not revile them but to make Gods mercies appear the greater in them Sicut praevalet imperitia in rusticitate pastorum ita praevalet impietas in sacrilegiis magorum Rudeness and ignorance was predominant in the Shepherds that were sent by the Angels to Bethlem so wickedness was notorious in these blasphemous Magi who were led by the Star to Jerusalem and yet both became the children of God You hear how good and judicious Authors thought that the conversation of these Magi had sometimes been Diabolical And if St. Matthew wrote first in Hebrew and in that Hebrew which Munster took pains to publish they have more to say for themselves for Magi is rendred by no better word there but grand Impostors or Necromancers And this opinion of their person whether right or wrong is very comfortable for the most holy man that ever lived let him judge himself as he ought and he shall find how much it will refresh his heavy laden conscience that such grand-tortoes as these sinners of the highest pitch were called to the hopes of eternal life Nemo desperet salutem sibi credenti qui Magis conspicit donatam If Magi and workers with familiar spirits are invited to Christs Nativity Quid non speramus They that are enemies may be reconciled to the Prince of peace as our first Lesson for this day doth call him they that are Publicans may become Apostles they that have defiled themselves like Mary Magdalen may wash in
tears and be clean many that are last may be first in the Kingdom of heaven I have satisfied you what comfort comes of it though these Magi which came to Christ had been the worst of all men though antiquity had said right that they were Impostors and deceivers after the great power of Satan yet they were not such as I conceive but men conversed in the studies of deep wisdom or wise-men as we translate the word Such as are most accurate to give the true sense of names do so perswade me Suidas saith that Magi were Philosophi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophers but of that tribe that dedicated themselves to the knowledge of God Phavorinus says they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Priests that studied divine learning according to the Religion of that Country To go higher Pliny says the Magi were skilful in sacred learning and which moves me more Strabo says that in his days and about his days St. Mathew wrote his Gospel they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Professors of a strict and austere life as you would say religious Whether they were by succession the Scholars of that great Oriental Patriarch for Philosophy Zoroastres or Prophets children derived from the succession of Balaam all is one which conjecture is true or whether both be false but in all likelihood they managed the sacred Offices of the Persian Religion For Eusebius says how in his days it troubled the Magi that the Persians became Christians for by Sacerdotal succession they lookt to their own religion that it should receive no detriment Diogenes Laertius in that book which every young Scholar turns over wherein he wrote very accurately of all Philosophical Sects says that the Magi attended the Religion of the Gods prayed and sacrificed and for their learning as well as their ministry Porphyrie says they were interpreters of divine controversies Though they were but a bad Priesthood yet a Priesthood and a very learned one in their superstitious way When I first took a hint of this I laboured to make it truth out of good Authors the notion must needs be pleasant to them who wear an Ephod in Christs service that as silly swains ignorant Lay-men were the first fruits among the Jews so Priests of a religious calling were the first fruits of the Gentiles and were incited by a divine assistance to seek and find out our Saviour But though this be true yet since my Text speaks not of their office and science about Religion but simply as they were Wise-men I will pitch upon that Such as the Grecians called Philosophers the Jews Scribes the Assyrians Chaldeans the Indians Gymnosophists the Gauls Druids this Island Bards the Romans Aruspices such were the Magi with the Persians men that had furnished themselves with all fit knowledge to be their Judges and Counsellors of state You shall find that seven Wise-men who knew the Law and Judgments stood before Ahasuerus the great King of Persia Esther i. 13. these were such as the Magi in my Text the most sufficient directors of all affairs in that mighty Kingdom Humane Learning and Political Wisdom are so far from being impediments to an man in the way to the Kingdom of heaven that they are excellent Pedestals for the Pillar of Faith to stand upon and wise men if pride do not puff them up with vain opinion are best able to resist the devil and his tentations because they best know why they serve the Lord and have most intelligence to ponder why they should not be conformed to the fashion of the world Certainly they are of that rank to whom much is given and much shall be required of them Plain ignorant shepherds came to Christ soon after the first minutes of his Nativity and those harmless unsuspected persons told it abroad in all Bethlehem that by the foolish things of the world God might confound the wise that 's a great mystery of our salvation yet that the Gospel might lose no opinion by illiterate messengers the Sophi the acutest wits of the East discharge the same office that God may be glorified both in the prudent and ignorant Learned men of all sorts believed and were saved Zenas a Lawyer Luke a Physician Paul brought up at Gamaliel's feet he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Felix said all sorts of art and literature these were wise men and never so wise as in this to seek out Christ and to prefer the simplicity of faith before all the rudiments of the world I approve it not that these Travellers were Kings it is an error I will remove by and by but after the manner of Persia they were honourable in their own Country yet their quality of wisdom is remembred before their honour Nay had they been Kings the Romish Expositors say it was most apt for the Gospel they should be called Wise men Majus est testimonium quod datur Christo à sapientibus quam quod datur a regibus it did more convince the Heathens that their Wise men and Philosophers bare testimony to Christ than if they had been Monarchs Those are the chariots and horsemen of Israel burning and shining lights It strengthens our part exceedingly when the eloquence of Apollo and the Athenian Education of Dionysius the Areopagite are converted to the edifying of the Church but for such as are wise and learned yet whet those weapons for the maintainance of pernicious errors against true Religion we pray as David did Lord turn the wisdom of Achitophel into foolishness and their subtilty into their own destruction I have declared my opinion for the Priest-hood and learning of these wise men and am not afraid to dissent from them who interpret Magi to be Nechromancers or vain Astrologers for even after they had worshipt Christ still they are called Magi. When Herod perceived he was mocked of the Magi or Wise men he was exceeding wroth ver 16. 'T is probable that a name of Odium and scandal should not be given them after they had worshipped our Saviour Thus far both these opinions may agree that the principal of those who visited Christ were reverend Sages of the East and that some ancient Authors had been informed by tradition that there were those in their train who secretly were Wizzards and Sorcerers The best complexion may have a tettar run into it and the best profession may have some followers that give themselves over to the Devil And this reconciliation I am more willing to embrace because it supposeth that a full Chorus a great company of wise men came to Christ from the East Not three only as some say who dare say any thing Leo the Great above 400 years after Christ was born is the most ancient Author that I have met with who stands precisely for the number of three and how much the circumstances of a true story may be falsified after 400 years it is too manifest by the records of all ages The Author of