all fuluess is and dwells Col. ii 9. God blessed for ever Rom. ix 5. Let 's make this acknowledgment of him profess and proclaim it as they do here call him the ever blessed Blessed 6. be all his works actions and passions the works of our Redemption Justification Sanctification Glorification which all come to us only through his Name and Merits Attribute we all to him and to his Name Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be the praise and glory of all these great and wonderful things Blessed lastly be all his purposes and intentions towards us he came to reveal his Fathers will unto us bless him for that bless we should all such that make known unto us the will of God Beati pedes Evangelizantium Blessed be the feet of the Ministers of the Gospel much more this great Archbishop of our Souls that sends them He came to glorifie the Father S. Iohn viii to teach us to do so bless him for that He came to save and deliver us from all kind of evil however we wilfully thrust daily into it some or other bless him for that say all good of him that wishes and works all good to us but which is only truly to bless further we all purposes what we can and help them forward that he and we may be glorified by the hand For this blessing is not meerly a form of words we must 1. earnestly and heartily desire God to bless to bless all Christs ways of coming to us that we may joyfully and chearfully and devoutly entertain him Desire God 2. to bless him that cometh in his name him whoe're he be that he sends to us but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially that his coming may come abroad to all the world all come in unto him Desire 3. that man may bless him incite the sons of men to sing praise too unto him Praise him all ye Nations praise him all ye people strive what we can to get all we come nigh to come with us and bear a part in blessing him In a word bless we our selves in him think and profess and proclaim our selves blessed that Christ is come to us that we have our part and portion in him place all our joy all our rejoycing all our triumph that he is with us that the name of the Lord is declared unto us that by his coming the name of the Lord is called upon us that we are now of his retinue that we now belong unto him that he is daily coming in us And for this Hosanna now 3. in excelsis indeed Hosanna to him in the highest sing we it as loud as we can reach as loud as we can cry it And that may pass for the first interpretation of in excelsis that we are to cry it as loud as we can cry it do what we can to express our joy how we can to give him thanks to exalt his praise what we are able in excelsis to the highest of our power so Psal. cxlviii 1. Praise him in the height We all of us in excelsis in our highest yea and 2. the very highest the very most in excelsis of us all the highest of us is too low to praise him worthily yet praise him O ye highest ye Kings and Princes of the earth Kings of the earth and all people Psal. cxlviii 11. come down from your excelsis and lay your Crowns and Scepters at the feet of this King as S. Luke that cometh and submit all your Kingdoms to the Kingdom of Christ make ye all your Kingdoms to bless his that your Kingdoms also may be blessed Nay and yet there are higher then these highest who are to praise him Praise him all ye heavens Psal. cxlviii 4. Praise him all ye Angels praise him all his Hosts ver 2. So S. Luke intimates it when he expresses it peace on earth in Heaven and glory in the highest glory in Heaven for the peace that is made between Heaven and Earth by him that cometh here in the name of the Lord by whom says the Apostle all things are reconciled Whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven Col. i. 20. Hosanna in the highest for this peace with the highest sung be it by Heaven and Earth by Angels and Men the Angels sung somewhat a like Song at his Birth when he was coming into the world according as St. Luke interprets it and will sing it again if we invite them as the Psalmist does to sing with us and we must desire it that God may be prais'd all glory both in Heaven and Earth That 's the way indeed to Hosanna in the highest as it is a Song of Praise but 't is also we told you a prayer that even our praises and the ground of them may continue A prayer 1. to God in excelsis the most highest as the Psalmist speaks Save us O thou most highest No salvation but from those everlasting hills of mercy salvation to be look'd for from none else the very meanest of the multitude know that A prayer 2. for salvation in excelsis that he would deliver us with a high hand work salvation with a mighty arm such as all the world might see it that he would magnifie this King that cometh and exalt his Kingdom that cometh to the clouds set it above the reach and power of malicious men make it grow and prosper maugre all contradiction and opposition of the highest and strongest of the earth A prayer 3. for salvation in excelsis indeed for salvation in the highest Heavens not only to be delivered here but to be sav'd hereafter not only for Grace and Righteousness here of the highest pitch but for glory of the highest order a prayer that God as he has exalted him that here came in his name so he would exalt us all that call upon his name to sit at his right hand in heavenly places in the highest right So these multitudes pray and so pray we so praise they and so praise we Do what we can our selves to praise and bless him and do what we can to get others do it call upon the Angels to joyn with us do it with all our might and strength stretch out our voices scrue up our strings nothing content or satisfie us in our prayers or praises but the highest the highest thankfulness the highest devotion the highest expression and way of both that either the multitudes before or the multitudes that follow Iews or Christians former or latter Saints ever used before us All perhaps cannot spread carpets cloths and garments to entertain him nor have all Boughs of Palms or Olives to meet him with all have not wherewith to make a solemn shew and flourish but all have tongues all may sing Hosanna's to him or if that word be hard all may cry Save us Lord and Blessed be he that came and cometh If we have neither substance to praise him with nor solemn Ceremonies allowed
the Vse both of the Doctrine and the Day to apply them both and cry out every one of us with St. Paul 'T is I and I and I for whom He came In the Doctrine there are these particulars 1. That Christ Iesus came into the world 2. That He came to save sinners 3. That He came to save the chiefest of them the very quorum primi of them What is it else to S. Paul or us or why does he bring himself in upon no better title 4. That all these are faithful sayings and worthy of acceptation all single such but all together make up a saying worthy all acceptation the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the saying above all sayings the whole Word and Gospel it self the Word after which no word can be said nothing beyond it Of which therefore surely the Vse 2. must needs be great if we throughly apply it and four ways there are to do it in the Text four Vses we are to make of it 1. If a saying a faithful saying it be we then faithfully to believe it 2. If worthy acceptation we then worthily to accept it 3. If it reach the chief sinners too our chief business then with St. Paul humbly to apply it to our own particular not think much any of us to say quorum ego primus not to stick to confess our selves the chiefest among them that are sinners so we may be found chief or second or any one among them that are saved 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a special saying this is not to be wrapt up in silence then nor hudled up within private walls but to be spoken and spoken out cried and proclaimed to all the world And all this lastly I add to be done to day That indeed is not in the Text but 't is in the Time and never better to be done then now to day That 's the right use of this Holy time that to which the Church designs Christmas to proclaim Christs coming into the world to save sinners and to call them in all to come to him To carry on the design I go on now with the Text and begin with the first branch of the Doctrine there that Christ Iesus came into the world 1. That he did so this great day is witness worthy therefore to be kept for ever for a witness of it and they that keep it not to be suspected that they do not think he did nor believe that there was any such matter Yet that such a one there was one Iesus that went about doing good the Iews his rankest enemies will not deny it That that Iesus was the Christ though the Iews will not the Samaritans will confess it S. Iohn iv 43. Christ and Jesus too the Christ the Saviour of the world nay the Christ indeed and the Saviour indeed and they know it they say there Nay of the Jews too many believed it S. Iohn vii 31. believed and justified it Nor did they it without good ground the many Miracles that he did in the confirmation of it the performing what was prophesied of the Messiah Isa. xxxv 6. and lxi 1. The opening the eyes of the blind the making the lame to walk the deaf to hear the dumb to speak the cleansing the Lepers the raising the dead the preaching to the poor the Gospel of peace those pure and holy and comfortable Doctrines that he taught were a sufficient resolution to S. Iohn Baptists question that it was He that should come and we should look for no other S. Mat. xi 3 4 5. no other than He. Indeed we need not for this Iesus is a Iesus of another sort of another manner of spelling 't is observ'd then all former Iesus's then Iesus the Son of Nun or Iesus the Son of Iosedec or Iesus the Son of Syrach this Iehoscuah Iesus or a Iehoscuah for 't is so in the Hebrew is with the points of Iehovah in it a Iehovah Iesus a Saviour that is the Lord as the Angel tells us St. Luke ii 11. A Iesus never the like before a Iesus above every Iesus a name now above every name a name to which Heaven and Earth and Hell must bow never did they to any Iesus else And as this name now above every name so this coming of his above every coming We sometimes call our own births I confess a coming into the world but properly none ever came into the world but he For 1. He only truly can be said to come who is before he comes so were not we only he so 2. He only strictly comes who comes willingly our crying and strugling at our entrance into the world shews how unwillingly we come into it He alone it is that sings out Lo I come Psal. xl 3. He only properly comes who comes from some place or other Alas we had none to come from but the womb of nothing He only had a place to be in before he came Now such a Iesus as this as has God in his name and must be conceived to be also so by the way of his coming may well be the Messiah that should come into the world Iesus the Christ. We need seek no further especially if it be the Iesus that comes to save sinners And he it is says our next particular 2. Nay the Angel said so before he was born He had the name given him for the purpose S. Mat. i. 21. Thou shalt call his name Iesus for why For he shall save his people from their sins Himself professes he came for the purpose to call sinners to repentance S. Luke v. 32. and that 's to save them yea so for them that there 's a non veni to others he came for no other to speak truth there were no other to come for Omnes aberraverunt We were all sinners So if he came for the best of us he yet came for sinners for them or no body But so for such as not for them that were not such so altogether for sinners as not at all for the righteous I came not to call the righteous not them but sinners as it were in opposition to them Indeed Opus non habent they had no need of his coming The whole need not the Physician S. Mat. ix 12. but they that are sick and they are sinners In a word not only so for sinners as before the righteous and as it were against the righteous but so for sinners too as for the worst first for the greatest of them above the least the quorum primi to be the primi the chiefest sinners he chiefly came for that 's the third Point of this great Doctrine of the Text. 3. Look the company he keeps you 'l say so Publicans and Sinners the most emphatical of the name there you find him so often that he is accused for it by the righteous the Scribe and Pharisee S. Mark ii 16. So for the most enormous sinners it seems that the righteous cannot bear it they
11. Prophesie had neither life nor spirit without it and the Name of Iesus is the very Amen to it Rev. iii. 14. All the Promises of God too in him are yea and in him Amen says the Apostle 2 Cor. i. 20. His very name is the Amen Rev. iii. 14. The faithful and true witness in the same verse Absolutely faithful and true Rev. xix 11. Nay This same Name Iesus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to save was rightly given him in this sense first that it saved the honour of God and the credit of his Prophets that their words fell not to the ground but were all accomplished and made good in his blessed Name A good Name the while for us to hold by for our souls to rest on for our hopes to anchor on that is so faithful and true to us will not fail us in a word or tittle II. And indeed it need not for it is 2. a Name of Power A Name 1. at which the Devils roar and tremble Iesu thou Son of God what have we to do with thee A Name 2. that not only scares the Devils but casts them out and unhouses them of their safer dwellings A Name so powerful 3. that pronounced even by some that followed not Christ with the Apostles St. Luke ix 49. that were not of so confident a faith or so near a relation to him it yet cast them out So mighty 4. that in it many of those also cast out devils did many wonderful works St. Mat. xvii 22. to whom he will profess he never knew them who must therefore at last depart down to those Devils they cast out A name it seems that though in a wicked mouth has oft done wonders So powerful 5. that no disease or sickness no ach or aile no infirmity or malady could stand against it His Name says St. Peter hath made this man whole whom ye see and know Acts iii. 16. His name made that man makes all men whole So powerful 6. with God himself that he cannot stand against it cannot deny us any thing that we ask in it If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it says Christ St. Ioh. xiv 14. whatsoever it be verse 13. and my Father will do it too St. Ioh. xv 16. In a word Iesus signiffes a Saviour and a Saviour is a name of power He that saves either himself or others must be no weakling The stronger man in the Gospel at least St. Luke xi 22. mighty to save as the Prophet speaks Isa. lxiii 1. But he that saves us from the powers of darkness must be the strong and mighty God too and so is his name Isa. ix 6. or the devil will be too strong for him O thou God who art mighty to save save thy Servants from him save us from all the evils and mischiefs he plots against us that through thy Name we may tread them under that rise up against us III. So will this Name be glorious too so it was and so it is we are to shew you next a Name of Majesty and glory Take it from the reason the Angel gives of the Imposition St. Luke i. 31 32 33. Thou shalt call his Name Iesus Why Why he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give him the Throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the house of Iudah for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end The whole together nothing but the Angels comment upon the name Iesus nothing but the interpretation of the name where we consider first that 't is a royal name the name of a King not of any King neither but a King by succession not any new upstart King but of a King from the lineage of ancient Kings not of any hereditary or successive King neither but of one from the Kings of Iudah Kings of Gods own making none of Ieroboams lineage or any others of the peoples setting up more glorious than so And yet more of a King whose Kingdom shall have no end that 's a glorious King indeed All other Kings die and leave their Kingdoms and their names behind them half wrapt up at least in dust and rubbish this has an everlasting Kingdom and an everlasting Name he lives ever and that lives so too But of his Kingdom there shall be no end hath another sense too All the ends of the earth shall come in unto him there shall be no particular end or bound of his Dominion Upon his holy hill of Sion indeed it is God sets him Psal. ii 6. But so there that he gives him the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession ver 8. that he may rule them thence He is both an everlasting and an universal King Nay lastly the King of Kings his Name is written so upon his thigh Rev. xix 16. So glorious a Name has he such a superexaltavit there is upon it so highly exalted is this name Iesus Phil. ii 9. So highly that some Commentators and Grammarians would have it the same with the Name Iehovah then surely 't is full of Majesty and Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only say they is added either to make it effable which was before ineffable to make it possible and lawful to be uttered which was before scarce either so infinite was the Majesty of that great Name Or 2. to intimate to us that God now is become man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a man and put into his own Name of Iehovah so making it Iehosuah or Iesuah which is our Iesus and the Name now given us to be saved by Whether this Criticism will hold or no the name Emmanuel which says S. Matthew was fulfilled in this of Iesus so fulfilled that the Evangelist quotes the Prophets words of calling him Emmanuel fulfilled in the calling of him Iesus S. Matih i. 21 22 23. as if both were the same that name I say has Gods Name in it to be sure El is one of his so with us it is there joyn'd enough to render it glorious and the Angel telling us in his interpretation and reason of the Name that he was the Son of the Highest intimates it was a Name of the highest Majesty and Glory And what can we say upon it less than burst out with the Psalmist into a holy exclamation O Lord our Governour O Lord our Iesus how excellent is thy name in all the world It is all cloth'd with Majesty and Honour it is deckt with light it spreads out it self in the Heavens like a curtain it lays the beams of its chamber in the waters it makes the cloud its Chariot it comes riding to us upon the wings of the wind the Holy Spirit breaths it full upon us it makes the Angels its Spirit to convey it it makes the Ministers of it a flaming fire it laid the
only that meek and merciful man St. Gregory that valiant Lion St. Ambrose that laborious Oxe St. Ierome that sublime Eagle St. Augustine as some please to fancy these four beasts or the four first Patriarchates as others have interpreted them but all the four corners of the earth have since profest it and with the twenty four Elders faln down and worshipt it The lustre and glory of that glorious mystery has shone thorow all the quarters of the World and all his famous mercies to his people and his judgments against their enemies are still daily celebrated and magnified in all the Congregations of the Saints This St. Iohn foresaw and here foretels the poor persecuted Christians then that how hard soever things went with them then they should ere long turn all their sighs and lamentations into Songs of praise for their deliverance and salvation This they should and 3. we should as much It was foretold of them they should it is commanded us we should Therefore glorifie him says the Apostle 1 Cor. vi 20. glorifie him in your bodies and glorifie him in your spirits glorifie him with the bodies that glorifie him and glorifie him with the Spirits that glorifie him bear them all company in so doing do it all the ways you can you can neither do it too many nor too much Put on the faces of Eagles in the Temple and raise your souls up there and praise him Put on the faces of men at home and let the holiness of your conversation praise him there Put on the appearance of Oxen in your Callings and let the diligence of your Actions and Vocations praise him Put on the appearance of Lions abroad in all places of temptations and let your courage in the resisting and repelling them praise him there Thus we truly copy out our pattern Yet to transcribe it perfectly well we must now secondly also transcribe their earnestness For here they not only give praise and glory unto God but they do it earnestly they rest not doing it they rest not saying that is 1. They cannot rest unless they say it And I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber neither the temples of my head to take any rest till I have found out a way to praise my God till I have offered up the service of my thanks and added something to his glory must be the Christians resolution 2. They rest not saying is they say it and say it again say it over and over Holy Holy Holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in some Copies nine times read Holy nine times repeated they think they can never say it enough No more it seems did David when he so oft repeated For his mercy endureth for ever in one single Psalm Psal. cxxxvi And hence it is the Church to imitate this holy fervour so often reiterates the Doxologie and inserts so many several Hymns and even either begins almost all its Prayers and Collects with an acknowledgment either of his Mercy Goodness and Providence or ends them with acknowledgment of his Majesty Power and Glory this both to imitate the glorious Saints and to obey the Apostles injunction of being fervent in Prayers and Praises 3. They rest not saying is they rest not but in so doing That 's their rest their joy their happiness to do so thus to be always praising God It would be ours too had we the same affections to it or the same senses of it We could not go to rest nor lie down to sleep could not sit down and take our rest till we had first lift up our eyes and hearts nay and voices too sometimes till we had first paid our thanks and given him praise for his protections in our ways and labours untill then 3. But to be thus eager and earnest at it is not all So we might be for a start and give over presently but 't is day and night that Angels and good men do it There is no night indeed properly with the Angels 'T is with them eternal day yet all that time which we call day and night they are still a saying it The Morning comes and they are at it the Night comes and they are at it still Let me go for the day breaketh says the Angel that strove with Iacob Gen. xxxii 26. And I must sing my Mattens adds the Chaldee Paraphrase as if he had said I can stay no longer I must go take my Morning course in the heavenly Choirs And in the depth of night we find them by whole hosts and multitudes at their Gloria in Excelsis Glory be to God in the highest St. Luke ii 13. The first fervours of Christian Piety were somewhat like this of the Angels You might have seen their Churches full at midnight all the Watches of the night you might have heard them chanting out the praises of their God and all the several hours of the day you might have found some or other continually praising God in his holy Temples as well as in their Closets Nay in the Iewish Temple they ceased not to do so Ye that by night stand in the House of the Lord Psal. cxiv 2. Praise him ye says holy David for indeed ye stand there to praise him and the Temple it self stood open all the day for all comers to that purpose when they would Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing says the Psalmist Psal. xxx 13. 'T is a good thing to do so Psal. xcii 1 2. To tell of thy loving kindness early in the morning and of thy Truth in the night season so good that David himself resolves upon it Psal. cxlv 2. Every day will I give thanks unto thee and praise thy Name for ever and ever prays also that his mouth may be filled with Gods praise that he may sing of his glory and honour all the day long Psal. lxxi 7. from morning to night and from night again to morning he would willingly do nothing else Nay be the night and day taken either in their natural or moral sense either properly for the spaces and intervals of light and darkness or morally for the sad hours of affliction and adversity and those bright ones of jollity and prosperity good men praise God in them both do not cease to do it if sorrows curtain up their eyes with tears and put out all their light of joy and comfort yet blessed be the Name of the Lord cry they out with patient Iob Chap. i. 21. Again if their paths be strow'd with light and the Sun gild all their actions with lustrous beams if Heaven shine full upon them they are not yet so dazell'd but they see and adore Gods mercy in them and in the mid'st of all their glories and successes they are still upon his praise and render all to him Neither the one night nor this other day make them at any time forget him A good item to us hence 1. not to suffer
too Holy in glorifying of his Angels holy in justifying his Saints holy in punishing the Devils Holy in his Glory and holy in his Mercy and holy in his Justice holy in his Seraphims and holy in his Cherubims and holy in his Thrones holy in his Power and holy in his Wisdom and holy in his Providence Holy in his Ways and holy in his Laws and Holy in his Promises holy in the Womb and holy in Manger and holy on the Cross holy in his Miracles and holy in his Doctrines and holy in his Examples holy in his Saints and holy in his Sacraments and holy in his Temples holy in Himself holy in his Son holy in his Spirit Holy Father holy Son and Holy Spirit Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of Heaven and all the Saints in Heaven and Earth we laud and magnifie thy glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most High Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Glory and Honour and Thanks be unto Thee for ever and ever Amen Amen Amen THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Calling of St. Peter St. LUKE v. 8. Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. A Strange Speech for him that speaks to him 't is spoken from St. Peter to his Saviour One would think it were one of the Gadarens who thus intreated him to depart the Coasts Strange indeed to desire him to depart without whom we cannot be stranger to give such a reason for it a reason that should rather induce us to intreat him to tarry than to go for being sinful men we have most need of him to stay with us but strangest of all it is for St. Peter to desire it and upon his knees to beseech it To desire Christ to go away from us to go from us because we have need of his being with us and for such a one as St. Peter and that so earnestly to inintreat it is a business we well skill not at the first dash Yet if we consider what St. Peter was when he so cried out or what made him to do it or how unfit he being a sinful son of man thought himself for the company of the Son of God we shall cease to wonder and know it is the sinners case for ever so to do to be astonished at miracles not to bear suddenly the presence of our Lord and when we first apprehend it to cry out to him with St. Peter here to withdraw from us for a while for that we are not able to endure the brightness and terrour of his Splendour and Majesty It was a miraculous and stupendious draught of Fish after they had given up all hopes of the least suddenly came to Net which thus amazed St. Peter and his Fellows They had drudged and toyl'd all night and not a Fish appeared but when Christ came to them then came whole showles and thrust so fast into the Net that they brake it to get in as if the mute and unreasonable creatures themselves had such a mind to see him by whose Word they were created that they valued not their lives so they might see or serve his pleasure And yet St. Peter makes as much means that he might see him no longer whom if he had not seen and seen again notwithstanding his desires to the contrary it had been better he had never seen nor been at all But such is our mortal condition that we can neither bear our unhappiness nor our happiness unreasonable Creatures go beyond us in the entertainment of them both according to their kinds though it may be here St. Peters humility speaks as loud as his unworthiness or inability to endure the presence of his Lord. St. Peter we must needs say was not thorowly call'd as yet to be a Disciple this humble acknowledgment of his own unworthiness to be so was a good beginning Here it is we begin our Christianity which though it seems to be a kind of refusal of our Master is but a trick to get into his service who himself is humble and lowly and receives none so soon as they that are such none at all but such whom by the posture of their knees and the tenours of hearty and humble words you may discern for such And to sum up the whole meaning of the words to a brief Head they are no other nor no more than St. Peters profession of his own humble condition that he is not worthy that his God and his Redeemer should come so near him and therefore in an Extasie as it were at the sight of so glorious a Guest desires him to forbear to oppress his unworthy servant with an honour he was not yet able to bear Yet we cannot but confess the words may have a harder sense upon them as the voice of a stupid apprehension or an insensibleness of such heavenly favours as our Saviours company brings with it We shall have time to hint at that anon It shall suffice now at first to trouble you only with two evident and general parts Christs absence desired And The Reason alledged for it I. Christ desired to be gone Depart from me And II. Why he is so For I am a sinful man O Lord. The Desire seems to be the voice of a threefold person and such is St. Peters now 1. Of a man 2. Of a sinful man and yet 3. Of an humble man Me that me here confessing my self a sinful man The Reasons equal the variety of the desires or Desirers Three they are too 1. For I am a man 2. For I am a sinful man 3. For thou O Lord thou art God and I a man 'T is a Text to teach us what we are to whom we speak and how to speak to him And if you go hence home without learning this you may say perhaps you have heard a Sermon but you have learnt nothing by it It shall be your faults if you do not And unless we cry in a sense contrary to St. Peters meaning Depart from us O Lord out of a kind of contempt and weariness of his Word and not out of the conscience of our own unworthiness of so great a blessing then though our words be somewhat indiscreet though we sometimes speak words not fitting for our Saviour to hear though they seem to shew a kind of refusal of him yet being no other than the meer expression of the apprehension of his glorious presence and our own unworthiness Christ will comfort us and call out to us presently as he doth to St. Peter ver 10. not to fear we shall not lose by his Word or Presence nor by our so sensible apprehension of his glory though we be but a generation of sinful men That our desires first may be set right though peradventure not always speak so the desires being the hinge upon
cannot but afflict us at his coming so it is we must see him See we must though but to see the justice of our own damnation Nothing can be more certain then this sight sight it is the surest sense and to see him at his coming is to be certain of it at the least but to see the Son of man at his coming is certainly with evidence and to be bound to see it to have such a tie upon us such a condition on us that we shall see it whether we will or no is a certainty with a necessity upon it That so no man may doubt of a final retribution whilst he is certain he shall one day see him who will reward every man according to his work Let not then the unjustly oppressed innocent let not the less prosperous godly spirit droop or the glorious and yet triumphing sinner the prosperous Rebel or thriving Atheist pride himself in the success of his Sins for he is coming that shall come and make the just mans eyes run over with joy and happiness for his fore-passed tears and fill the others eyes with shame and confusion for all their glory It may be long before he comes but come he will at last and his reward is with him 5. But who is this that comes so the Prophet once so we now or in what shape will he appear God is the Judge of all the earth and who is it that can see God Or if he has committed all judgment to the Son as it is S. Iohn iii. Yet who can see him either being of one substance with the Father the same individual and invisible Essence That therefore he may be seen he comes in the form of the Son of man This was that which Daniel foresaw in his night visions Dan. vii 13. one like the Son of man coming with the Clouds of Heaven that which S. Peter told Cornelius that he it was who was ordain'd to be the judge of quick and dead Acts x. 42. Not as he was Lord of Heaven and Earth or as he was the eternal off-spring of the Deity for so he could not be ordain'd he himself being from all eternity but as the Son of man for he hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man St. John v. 27. That was it by which he obtain'd the Throne of Judgment having in that form both done and suffered all things for our salvation God thinking but just that he should be our Judge who came to save us from judgment that he should judge us who had been partaker of our infirmities and knew our weaknesses and would by the compassion of nature easier acquit us or with more evidence of justice condemn us himself having once been subject to the like humane though not sinful passions This is the form in which all eyes may see him all Nations behold him nor shall the scars of his wounds be covered but that even by them we may acknowledge our crucified Saviour is become our Judge Who whilst he judges us in the form of man will condemn us for nothing above the power of man And yet even by his actions as he was man will he condemn ours His Humility our Pride his Abstinence our Gluttony and excess his Patience our Impatience his Chastity our Lusts his paying Caesar beyond his due our undutiful with-drawings from him in a word his Goodness Piety and Devotion our ungodliness impieties and prophaneness And as it is a mercy thus to be judg'd by one who is sensible of our frail condition so is it a glory besides that our nature is so high exalted as to be the Judge of the world not of men only but Angels too What favour may we not expect when he is our Judge who is our Saviour who will not lay aside our nature in his Glory that he may retain that sympathy and compassion to us which was taken with it when he took it from us 6. I shall not here need to spend much time to tell you 6. what he comes for who have told you so often of a day of Judgment and the Son of man to sit on the tribunal His coming is to Judgment for he comes with power and that power of a Judge Only I must tell you 2. that his motion is no faster then an easie coming So loth is he to come to Judgment so unwilling to enter into dispute with Flesh and Blood that he delays the hasty prayers of the afflicted Saints under the Altars of Heaven seems a little to with-hold the full beams of mercy which he has laid up for the Saints rather then to post to the destruction of the wicked Yet for the elects sake to hasten he does a little and therefore he makes a Cloud the Chariot of his Power that when he once begins to come he may come quickly And not so only but come in Glory which is the last observable in his coming in a Cloud with Power and great Glory In a Cloud he ascended Acts 1. and the Angel told the Disciples there that he should so come as they saw him go In the Clouds say the other Evangelists they speak of more then one His cloud is not a single cloud there are attendant clouds upon it Angels surround his Throne S. Mat. xxv 31. the Trumpet of the Archangel sounds before him 2 Thess. i. 7. his Throne is a throne of Glory S. Mat. xix 28. and his Apostles Thrones are round about him and all things are in subjection under his feet 1 Cor. xv 27. Thus is he rewarded with Majesty and Glory for his meekness and humility that we seeing the recompence of those despised vertues may learn to embrace them by so strong incentives and allurements What will ye one day say O ye obstinate Iews when you shall see his Glory whose poverty you so despised What will ye do at his Throne of Judgment who would not receive him in his Cradle of Mercy How will his enemies bemoan themselves with them Wisd. v. We fools thought his life madness and his end without honour How is he now numbred among the children of God the first born amongst many brethren Fools indeed to count him what we did for he shall come again with Majesty and Glory Glory is a word by which Christ seems as it were ever and anon to refresh the fainting spirits of his Disciples which are ready to betray their Masters to despair upon the apprehension of the fears and terror which their Lord had told them should precede and accompany the latter day This word recalls their spirits that they begin to look up again and lift up their heads For having thus as it were amaz'd their thoughts and unhing'd their patience he setles them again with some special comfort that when these things begin to come to pass they should look up and lift up their heads for however it fall out to others their Redemption draweth nigh Never
civil and handsom terms gestures and carriage that we should carry our selves like men at least if we will not like Christians And for such times as the Text refers to 't is but seasonable 1. That the sufferers do not increase their sufferings with their own incivilities or corrupt or dishonour them by so doing and 2. That those that cause them to suffer do not enhance the others sufferings remembring that themselves also are but men and the spoke of the wheel as that Captive King observed which is now above may by and by be below again especially if it be true as true it is that the Lord is at hand his Chariot is coming after and the Mother of Sisera the greatest Captain need not ask why tarry the Wheels of it so long why is it so long a coming It will come and will not tarry 't is happy if it come not on us whilst we are raâ—ting and railing against any whosoever 3. There is a third signification of the word for Modesty so the Latin renders it Modestia As fit a posture for sad times for any times be the Lord at hand or be he not as any whatsoever Not the peculiar vertue of women only though of them 1 Tim. ii 9. but of men too an especial way to win our adversaries to win Infidels to Christianity when they shall behold our conversation in all sweetness and composure our bodies comely and decently apparelled our gate sober our gesture grave our eyes modest our countenance compos'd our speech discreet our behaviour all in order when they shall see us merry without lightness jesting without scurrility sober without sullenness grave without doggedness compos'd without affectedness serious without dulness all our demeanour wholly bent to all Christian well-pleasingness at all times with all companies upon all occasions in all places and businesses This is nothing but moderation neither we may keep the English still moderation in our garb and habit and discourse and motion modesty that is moderation in them all 4. Yet there is a fourth acception of the word for that sweet and meek and gentle temper of the mind whereby we carry our selves patiently and unmov'd in persecution not rendring evil for evil to them that persecute us not vexing and tearing our selves upon it not studying revenge or returning mischief but on the contrary good for evil blessing for cursing prayers for imprecations committing our cause and our selves to God that judgeth righteously this is the true Christian moderation that to which we are called says S. Peter that of which Christ gave us an example suffered as well for that to give us an example of it as any thing else 1 S. Pet. ii 21 22 23. That to which belongs the blessing S. Mat. v. 5. from this Lord that is at hand 'T is the very vocation of a Christian the very design of the Christians Lord a blessedness there is in the very doing it when and whilst we so suffer we are blessed S. Mat. v. 10. even before that great reward in heaven bidden therefore ver 12. to rejoyce and be exceeding glad upon it bidden by S. Iames to count it all joy S. Iames i. 2. bidden by S. Paul in the verse before the Text to rejoyce and rejoyce again upon it Nay so exceeding joy it seems the Christian feels in it that he is fain upon the back of it in this very verse to call to us to be moderate in the expressing it to call to us for moderation in it lest we should even burst with it or overflow into some extraordinary effusions of it and so provoke more affliction by it Rejoyce the Apostle would have us in our sufferings for Christ but yet with moderation be meek and patient and contented and resigned in them yet not as we were sensless careless or desperate but discreet and moderate in them all neither so sensible of them nor anxious in them as to forget others and our respects due to any of them nor so sensless and careless to forget our selves and the care due unto our selves This the moderation most proper to the persons and time persons under persecution and in the time of being so the most seasonable advice and as seasonable to be given when the Lord is at hand moderation to be observed in the expectation of his coming They were not too hastily to expect it The Thessalonians were almost shaken in mind and troubled by so hasty a conceit that the day of Christ was at hand 2 Thess. ii 2. That Christ was just then a coming S. Paul was fain to stop their haste to moderate their expectation to tell them though the day was near it was not so near as they supposed it they must be content to expect a little longer some things were to be done first So necessary seems moderation in this point too lest expecting the Lord too soon and failing of him they should be shaken and fall away from him as if he had deceived them quit their Faith and Religion for want of patience and moderation Thus you have the four senses of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 four kinds of moderation Equity or Clemency Humanity or Civility Modesty or Sobriety and Meekness or Gentleness It follows next that they be shewed that we shew them all that we make them known Let your moderation be known For sufficient it is not always to do well we must be known to do it though not do it to be known yet be known to do it Indeed when we fast or pray or give alms or do any good work we must not do it that we may appear to men to do so St. Mat. vi 3 4 6 18. yet it must appear to men for all that sometimes that we do so Ye that is ye Christians are the light of the world and a light is not to be put under a bushel S. Mat. v. 15. but on a Candlestick to give light unto all that are in the house Let your light therefore shine before men ver 16. Shine so before them that they may see your good works see and glorifie glorifie God that has given such graces unto men glorifie him again by taking thence an example of such things to themselves There have been are still doubtless many that brag much of Faith and Holiness and Purity nay of Meekness and moderation too but if we call them to S. Iames his shew us them as he requires them by their works we may say as Christ said of the Lepers that were cleansed S. Luke xvii 18. There are scarce found one of ten that shew that return of Glory unto God if one they count him but a Samaritan no true Israelite for it though S. Iames says expresly Faith is dead where there is no such expression and for those other vertues the very action is so evidently outward that they must needs be known where they are they cannot be hid are not the vertues they pretend to if not
judges right Let us do nothing but with moderation and not think much to shew it unto all when we are sure to be rewarded for it and those that observe it not are sure to be punished 8. The Lord is at hand in the blessed Sacrament and that is also now at hand but a week between us and it And moderation of all kinds is but a due preparation to it some special act of it to be done against it Righteousness and equity is the habitation of his seat says David the Lord sits not nor abides where they are not The holy Sacrament that is his Seat a Seat of wonder is not set but in the righteous and good soul has no efficacy but there Modesty and humility are the steps to it into the modest and humble soul only will he vouchsafe to come All reverence and civility is but requisite in our addresses unto it But moderation meekness and patience and sweetness and forgiving injuries is so requisite that there is no coming there no offering at the altar till we be first reconciled to our Brother Go be first reconciled to thy Brother says our Lord himself S. Mat. v. 24. so that now if we desire a blessing of the blessed Sacrament unto us if we desire the Lord should there come to us let our moderation be known to all men before we come Let us study the art of reconcilement let us not stand upon points of honour or punctilio's with our Brother upon quirks and niceties let us part with somewhat of our right let us do it civilly use all men with courtesie and civility express all modesty and sweetness in our conversation all softness and moderation patience and meekness gentleness and loving kindness towards all even the bitterest of our enemies considering the Lord is at hand the Lord of Righteousness expects our righteousness and equity the Lord in his body and looks for the reverent and handsom behaviour of our bodies the Lord of pure eyes and cannot endure any unseemliness or intemperance either in our inward or outward man the Lord that died and suffered for us and upon that score requires we should be content to suffer also any thing for him not to be angry or troubled or repine or murmur at it or at them that cause it At the Holy Sacrament he is so near at hand that he is at the Table with us reaches to every one a portion of himself yet will give it to none but such as come in an universal Charity with all the forementioned moderations Give me leave to conclude the Text as I began it and fix the last Argument upon the time The time is now approaching wherein the Lord came down from Heaven that he might be the more at hand Fit it is we should strive to be the more at hand to him the readier at his command and service the time wherein he moderated himself and glory as it were to teach us moderation appeared so to all that our moderation also might appear to all of what size or rank or sect whatsoever I remember a story of Constantia Queen of Arragon who having taken Charles Prince of Salerno and resolving to sacrifice him to death to revenge the death of her Nephew Conradinus basely and unworthily put to death by his Father Charles of Anjon sent the message to him on a Friday morning to prepare himself for death The young Prince it seems not guilty of his Fathers cruelty returns her this answer That besides other courtesies received from her Majesty in Prison she did him a singular favour to appoint the day of his death on a Friday and that it was good reason he should die culpable on that day whereon Christ died innocent The answer related so much mov'd Constantia that she sends him this reply Tell Prince Charles if he take contentment to suffer death on a Friday because Christ died on it I will likewise find my satisfaction to pardon him also on the same day that Iesus sign'd my pardon and the pardon of his Executioners with his Blood God forbid I shed the blood of a man on the day my Master shed his for me I will not rest upon the bitterness of revenge I freely pardon him Behold a Speech of a Queen worthy to command the world worthy a Christian indeed To apply it is only to tell you we may often take excellent occasions of vertue and goodness from times and days and bid you go and do likewisâ— The time that is at hand is a time to be celebrated with all Christian joy and moderation some particular and special act of Charity Equity Modesty Meekness Moderation to be sought out to be done in it or to welcome it The Feast of Love to be solemnized with an universal Charity the Lord at hand to be honoured with the good works of all our hands His coming to pardon and save sinners to be accompanied with a general reconcilement and forgiveness of all enemies and injuries of a moderation to be exhibited unto all Let your moderation then keep time as well as measure be now especially shewn and known and felt and magnified by all with whom we have to do that thus attending all his comings he may come with comfort and carry us away with honour come in grace and hear us come in mercy and pardon us come in his word and teach us come in spirit and dwell with us come in his Sacrament and feed and nourish us come in power and deliver us come in mercy and reward us come in glory and save us and take us with him to be nearer to him more at hand to sit at his right hand for evermore THE FIRST SERMON ON Christmas-Day ISAIAH Xi 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Iesse which shall stand for an Ensign of the People to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious AND in that day there shall be And in this day there was a root of Iesse that put forth its branch That day was but the Prophesie this day is the Gospel of it Now first to speak it in the Psalmists phrase truth flourished out of the earth now first the truth of it appeared Some indeed have applied it to Hezekiah and perhaps not amiss in a lower sense but the Apostle who is the best Commentator ever upon the Prophets applies it unto Christ Rom. xv 10. There we find the Text and him it suits to more exactly every tittle of it and of the Chapter hitherto than to Hezekiah or any else He was properly the branch that was then to grow out of old Iesse's root For Hezekiah was born and grown up already some years before thirteen at least He 2. it is whom the Spirit of the Lord does rest upon ver 2. upon Hezekiah and all of us it is the Dove going and returning Upon him 3. only it is that the Spirit in all its fulness with all its gifts wisdom and
any outward splendours but wholly fixt upon himself That 4. by his very first appearance we might know his Kingdom was not of this world he was no temporal King we might see by his Furniture and Palace that lastly we might know he came to teach us new ways of life and sanctifie to us the way of poverty and humility 5. In the Stable For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word for Manger is a place for Horses by the way that we might understand our life here is but a journey and our longest stay but that of Travellers by the way and therefore there he places himself for all comers by his Incarnation and Birth to conduct them home into their Country our Country which is above Nor is it 6. without a mystery that there was no room for him in the Inn. Inns are places of much resort and company and no wonder if Christ be too commonly thrust out thence They are made houses of licentiousness and revelling no wonder if Christ be not suffered to be there They are places of more worldly business and no wonder neither that there is often there no room for him when the business is so different from his and mens minds so much taken up with it Into the Stable or whither he will he may go for them they heed him not there is no room for him in the Inn that is where much company or riot or too much worldly business is That there was no room for him in the Inn puts us to enquire how it came about and we find it was a time of the greatest concourse and in that also lastly there is a mystery all this done at such a time that so all might know that it belonged to aâ—l to know the Birth and posture of their Saviour his coming and his coming in humility to save them At such a time in such a place in such a case so poor so forlorn so despicable without respect without conveniences wast thou born O Lord that we through thy want might abound through thy neglect might be regarded through thy want of room room on earth might find room in heaven O happy Rags more pâ—ecious than the Purple of Kings and Emperours O holy Manger more glorious than their golden Thrones The poverty of those Rags are our riches the baseness of the Manger our glory his wrapping and binding up our loosing from Death and Hell and his no room our eternal Mansions Thus we have twice run over the Text pickt out both the moral and the mystery of every circumstance in it of our Saviours Birth I hope we have shewed you mysteries enow and you have seen humility enough But it is not enough to see the one or the other unless now we take up the Virgin Maries part which is behind bring forth this First-born to our selves suffer him to be born in us who was born for us and bring forth Christ in our lives wrap him and lay him up with all the tenderness of a Mother The pure Virgin pious soul is this She that brings forth Christ the nourishing and cherishing of him and all his gifts and graces is this wrapping him in Swadling-clothes the laying up his Word his Promises and Precepts in our hearts is the laying him in the Manger What though there be no room for him in the Inn though the world will not entertain him the devout soul will find a place to lay him in though it have nothing of its own but rags a poor ragged righteousness for our righteousness says the Prophet is but menstruous rags yet the best it hath it will lay him in and though it have nothing but a Manger a poor strait narrow soul none of the cleanliest neither to lodge him in yet such as it is he shall command it his lying there will cleanse it and his righteousness piece up our rags What though there be no room for him in the Inn I hope there is in our houses for him 'T is Christmas time and let 's keep open house for him let his Rags be our Christmas Rayment his Manger our Christmas cheer his Stable our Christmas great Chamber Hall Dining-room We must clothe with him and feed with him and lodge with him at this Feast He is now ready by and by to give himself to eat you may see him wrapt ready in the Swadling-clothes of his blessed Sacrament you may behold him laid upon the Altar as in his Manger do but make room for him and we will bring him forth and you shall look upon him and handle him and feed upon him bring we only the rags of a rent and torn and broken and contrite heart the white linen cloths of pure intentions and honest affections to swathe him in wrap him up fast and lay him close to our souls and bosoms 't is a day of mysteries 't is a mysterious business we are about Christ wrapt up Christ in the Sacrament Christ in a mystery let us be content to let it go so believe admire and adore it 'T is sufficient that we know Christs swadling-clothes his Righteousness will keep us warmer than all our Winter Garments his rags hold out more storms than our thickest clothes let 's put them on His Manger feeds us better than all the Asian delicates all the dainties of the world let 's feed our souls upon him His Stable is not hang'd here with Arras or deck'd with gilded furniture but 't is hang'd infinitely with gifts and graces the Stable is dark but there is the Light of the world to enlighten it The smell of the Beasts our sins are perfumed and taken away with the sweet odours of holy pardon and forgiveness the incondite noise of the Oxe and Ass and Horse are still'd with the musick of the heavenly Host the noise of our sins with the promises of the Gospel this day brought to us Let us not then think much to take him wrapt up that is in a Mystery without examining how and which way we receive him 't is in the condition he comes to us Let us be content with him in his rags in his humblest and lowest condition 't is the way he comes to day let us our selves wrap and lay him up in the best place we can find for him though the best we have will be little better then a Manger What though there be no room for him in the Inn in worldly souls I hope yet ours will entertain him invite him too and say as Laban said to Abraham's servant Gen. xxiv 31. Come in thou blessed of the Lord come in come in thou blessed Child come in wherefore standest thou without I have prepared the house and room for the Camels the house for thee my soul for thee thy self and my body for the Camels those outward Elements that are to convey thee They are not fitted they are not fitted as thou deservest but thou that here acceptedst of rags accept my poor ragged preparations Thou
by a Fire Here it was first he visited in person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was but a looking down from heaven till now a looking on us at a distance and that was a blessing too that he would any way look upon such poor worms as we it could not be construed visiting properly till this day came Now first it is so without a figure Yet is not good old Zachary too quick Does he not cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too soon our blessed Saviour was not yet born how says he then the Lord hath visited and redeemed his people Answer we might the good old man here prophesied 't is said so just the verse before and after the manner of Prophets speaks of things to come as done already But we need not this strain to help us out Christ was already really come down from heaven had been now three months incarnate had begun his visit had beheld the lowliness of his handmaid says his Blessed Mother ver 48. The Angel had told her twelve weeks since Her Lord was with her ver 28. of this Chapter Blessed Zachary understood it then no less than his Wife Elizabeth that proclaimed it ver 43. though he could not speak it As soon as he could he does and breaks out into a Song of Praise that was his prophesying for this new made Visit this new rais'd Salvation That word slipt e're I was aware comes in before the time But 't is well it did you might else perhaps have mistaken visiting for punishing so it went commonliest in Scripture till to day It does not here This business has alter'd it from its old acception And yet punishing sometimes is a blessing too 'T is a mercy we oft stand in need of to bring us home to God But it is infinitely a greater when he comes himself to fetch us home as now he does Shall I shew you how great it is Why then 1. It is a visit of Grace and honour that he made us here he visited us as great and noble persons do their inferiours to do them honour Hence Whence it is to me says St. Eliz. that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me c. ver 43. She good soul knew not how to value such an honour nor whence it was Whence then is this O Lord that the Lord of that Blessed Mother my Lord himself should come unto me That 's a far higher honour and no reason of it to be given but that so it shall be done to those whom this great King of Heaven and Earth delighteth thus to honour 'T is a blessing first this that we speak of by which God owns and honours us 2. It was a visit of Charity He visited his people as charitable men do the poor mans house to seek some occasion to bestow an Alms. He went about doing good says S. Peter Acts x. 38. As poor as he was and the Apostle tells us poor he was he had a bag for the poor S. Iohn xii 6. and for our sakes it was he became poor says S. Paul 2 Cor. viii 9. emptied bag and himself and all to make us rich His visit now 2. is a blessing that makes us rich 3. It was a visit of Service too He visited us as the Physician does his Patient to serve his necessity to cure and recover him The innumerable multitudes of the sick and lame and blind and deaf and dumb and Lepers and possessed that he daily healed and cured will sufficiently evince he visited them also as a Physician So 't was a blessing 3. that cures all diseases makes all sound and whole again 4. His visit 4. was a visit of brotherly love and kindness He visited us as David did his Brethren to supply their wants carry them provision and take their pledge 1 Sam. xvii 17. He did so and much more becomes himself by this visit our Provision makes his Body our meat and his Blood our drink and himself our pledge supplies all our defects and wants and enters himself body for body and soul for soul to make all good This a visiting no brother could do more no brother so much 5. His visit 5. was not of petty kindnesses but great mercies abundant mercies too He visited us as holy David says he does the earth Psal. lxv 9 11. Thou visitest the earth and blessest it thou makest it very plenteous Thou waterest her furrows thou sendest rain into the little Vallies thereof thou makest it soft with the drops of rain and blessest the increase of it He not only furnishes our necessities but replenishes us with abundances makes us soft and plump and fat and fruitful by his heavenly dews and showers This 5. a visit of abundant superabundant mercies 6. His visit 6. was a visit of Friendship and that 's more yet He visited us as blessed Mary did her Cousin Elizabeth came to us to rejoyce and be merry with us So acquainted has he now made himself with us by this visit that he now vouchsafes to call us friends S. Iohn xv 15. he eats and drinks and dwells and tarries with us makes it his delight to be among the sons of men This is a visit I know not a name good enough to give it And yet lastly his visit was not of a common and ordinary friendship neither but of a friendship that holds to death He visited us as the Priest or Confessor does the dying man When health and strength and mirth and Physicians and Friends have all given us over he stands by and comforts us and leaves us not till he has fitted us wholly to his own bosom A visit of everlasting friendship or an everlasting visit was this visit in the Text. Thus I have shewed you a seven-fold visit that our Lord has made us made Gods first blessing into seven A visit of Honour a visit of Charity a visit of Service a visit of Kindness a visit of Mercy a visit of Friendship and a visit of everlasting Love All these ways he visited his people and still visits them all the ways he can imagine to bless them and do them good And yet I should have thought I had forgot one if it did not fall in with the blessing we are to consider next Redeeming For he visited us also as he is said to do the children of Israel Gen. l. 24. to bring us out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage He visited us to redeem us or visited and redeemed 2. Now if redeem'd Captives it seems we were And so we were under a fourfold Captivity To the World to Sin to Death and to the Devil The World 1. that had ensnared and fettered us so wholly taken us that it had taken away our names and we were called by the name of the World instead of that of Men as if we were grown such worldlings that we had even lost our natures and our names even the best of us the Elect are sometimes called
acknowledging of Gods blessings the first part of ours so sure a point of it that Confiteri to acknowledge or confess the blessing or him that sends it is above sixty times in the Book of Psalms set down for blessing And whole Psalms you have that are nothing else but an enumeration and catalogue of blessings the 66. the 103. the 104. the 105. the 107. the 136. And the more particular we are in it the more we bless him You have heard how particular Zachary is in it here He hath visited he hath redeemed c. given us nine particulars leaves neither gift nor giver unacknowledged Honourable it is to do so honourable to reveal to reveal the works of God says the Angel Iob xii 7. honourable to him honourable to us we cannot honour God without it nor expect honour from him if we will not acknowledge it Come and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul is the best way to begin our blessing 2. But it is but to begin it We must go on to the next way of blessing set close to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Benedictus from Benedicere both tell us there is much of it in words Only verbum is factum and dicere is facere sometimes in the holy page So we must take both words and deeds to do it with The word by the hand of thy servant as the Scripture sometimes speaks is the best way to bless him with Yet to our benedicere in the first sense first And to do that to give him good words is the least that we can give him let us be sure then not to grudge him them Confess we that he is good and gracious and merciful full of mercy plenteous in goodness and truth Streighten we not his visits stifle we not his Redemption coop we not up his salvation to a corner suffer we it to run large and full that the whole world may bless him for it Let us 2. speak it out Gods blessings were not done in a corner no more must ours Publick and solemn they would be And the Church has made it and Text part of the publick service that every one might bear a part in blessing God Every one of us and every thing of us too our souls and all that is within us heart and mind and all All within us and all without us our lips praise him our mouths praise him our hands praise him our flesh praise him our bones say who is like him all the members of our body turn themselves into tongues to bless him Bless we him 3. in set Hymns on purpose in good votes and wishes that his Church may prosper his Name be magnified his Glory advanced to the highest pitch for bene dicere is bene vovere too And sanctificare is no less To bless is sometimes to sanctifie So God blessed the seventh day is God hallow'd it and to sanctifie a day or place to bless him in is to bless him by his own pattern that he hath set us well said if well done I dare assure you to set apart both times and places to bless him in 2. But dicere is not all sung never sweetly said never so well The Lord bless thee in common phrase is the Lord do good unto thee Indeed Gods blessing is always such his benedicere is bene facere His saying is a doing his blessing a making blessed 'T is fit our blessing should be somewhat like it To himself indeed we can do no good He neither wants it nor can be better'd by it To His we may Though not to his head yet to his feet The poor we may bless them And the blessing them is blessing him for inasmuch as ye have done it unto these you have done it unto me says he himself S. Mat. xxv And truly it must needs be a poor blessing that cannot reach his feet Nay 't is a poor one if it reach no higher Indeed he that giveth alms he sacrifices praise says the Son of Syrach Ecclus. xxxv 2. And praise is blessing But to bless is to honour too And honour the Lord with thy substance says a wiser then the Son of Syrach Prov. iv Something must be done to his own honour So nething given or offered to support that here among us for to bless is to give thanks and that intimates somewhat to be given to him as well as said or spoken to him It will else be verba dare and not gratias a meer cheating him of our thanks As soon as Naaman the Syrian was cured of his Leprosie he begs of the Prophet to accept a blessing for it Nature had taught him God was to be blest so 2 Kings v. 15. When the Captains of Israel had found by their whole numbers how God had delivered them they come with a blessing in their hands of sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels of gold for the house of God Numb xxxi 52. David and his people the story tells us blest him so too 1 Chron. xxix 20 21. offered incredible sums of Gold and Silver for the service of the house of God And let me tell you without begging for it that the House of God being now by this Visit in the Text made the very office of salvation where he daily visits us and entertains us with his Body and Blood with holy conferences and discourses where he seals us every day to the day of Redemption and offers to us all the means of salvation there can be no way of blessing God so answerable and proportionable to his thus blessing us as thus blessing him again Yet where there is nothing thus to bless him with there is yet another way of blessing him nay where there are other ways this must be too To bless him is to glorifie him and a good life does that S. Mat. v. 16. By our ill lives the name of God is blasphemed says the Apostle Rom. ii 24. Then by our good ones it must needs be blest Zachary seems to point at this way of blessing when he tells us we were delivered that we might serve our Visitor in holiness and righteousness ver 75. And thus he that has neither eyes to look up nor hands to lift up nor feet to go up to the house of blessing nor tongue to bless him nor so much as a Cross to bless himself or God not a mite to throw into his treasure may truly bless him and be accepted To this and all the other ways of blessing is the Text set And let all now come in and bear a part in blessing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel is now lastly a call to call them in The Prophet David does so Psal. cxlviii Sun and Moon and Stars and Light Heaven and Earth and Waters both above and under them Dragons and Deeps Fire and Hail and Snow and Vapour and Wind and Storm and Hills and Trees and Beasts and Cattel
and safety and all so that to become poor can be nothing else but to become man and Christs becoming so must be his becoming man Yet not to know it only but to know it for a grace as St. Paul would have us we must know who it is that became poor 2. How poor he became who became poor 3. What he was still though he became poor Our Lord Iesus Christ says the Text he it is egenus factus he came to very want 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a kind of penury like that of beggars Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all that it is he continued rich still though he was poor he could not lose his infinity of riches though he took on his poverty quitted not his Deity though he covered it with the rags of his humanity We first look upon his person our Lord Iesus Christ. He is a Lord it seems that became poor that first and truly the first and only time that we read he entituled himself Lord it follows presently he hath need St. Mat. xxi 3. The Lord hath need This may be true as the Italian observes of the Lords and Princes of the world none need commonly so much as they nor they before they came to be Lords and Princes but of the Lord and Prince of Heaven as our Lord surely is that 's somewhat strange that he should have any need yet so it is and it may serve to teach the best of us of men Lords and great ones too to be content sometimes to suffer need seeing the Lord of Lords was found poor Iesus 2. it is was found so Iesus is a Saviour and that 's stranger A Saviour that is poor is like to prove but a poor Saviour Yet this is oftentimes Gods method the poor and base things of the world and things that are despis'd to confound the rich and noble and the mighty 1 Cor. i. 28. that no flesh as the Apostle infers there might glory in his presence This very name of Iesus was then sent by an Angel to be given him when he had first told he should be born St. Mat. i. 21. born of a poor Virgin and yet save his people from their sins that we may know God needs nothing to help him his very poverty is our salvation Jesus poor the poorest contemptible means he can save us by Nay even the Christ 3. the Messiah so long expected comes poor when he was expected rich to shew the vanity of mens conceit and fancies when they will go alone Christ the King of Israel the great Prophet the everlasting High Priest and Arch-bishop of our souls he came poor that men might give over looking upon the outward appearance of things and think it no diminution to the calling of Priest or Prophet to be sometimes in a low and mean condition seeing the Christ himself anointed with the holy oil above all Priests and Prophets came in no other And now this we have gotten by considering the person that if he that is Priest and Prophet and Saviour and Lord and the Lord of all may become poor and God do all his work notwithstanding by him then poverty is neither dishonourable in it self nor so disadvantageous in its own nature but that God can still make use of it to his Service does still most make use of it dispences his heavenly treasure to us more commonly in earthen vessels 2 Cor. iv 7. then in Gold and Silver and we therefore not to slight the Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ though become poor their bodily presence weak and their speech contemptible as St. Pauls undervaluers speak 2 Cor. x. 10. For their Lord and ours became poor himself as poor as the poorest which will appear by the second consideration I am now to shew you how poor he became of whom it is here said he became poor And that not only that poor thing called man that poor worm and dust that poor vanity and nothing we call man but the very poorest of the name the novissimus virorum the lag and fag of all a very scum of men says the Prophet and the very out-cast of the people So poor that there is not a way to be poor in but he was poor in 1. Poorly descended a poor Carpenters Wife his Mother 2. Poorly born in a Stable among Beasts poorly wrapt in rags poorly cradled in a Manger poorly bedded upon a lock of Hay poorly attended by the Oxe and Ass poorly every way provided for not a fire to dress him at in the depth of Winter only the steam and breath of the Beasts to keep him warm Cobwebs for Hangings the dung of the Beasts for his Perfumes noise and lowings neighing and brayings for his Musick every thing as poor about him as want and necessity could make it 3. Poorly bred too a Carpenter it seems by S. Mark vi 5. at his reputed Fathers Trade 4. Poorly living too not a house to put his head in not a pillow of his own to lay his head on S. Luke ix 57. not a room to sup in but what he borrow'd S. Mark xiv 15. no money nor meat but by miracle S. Mat. xvii 27. or by charity S. Mat. ix 10. not so much as a Bucket to draw water or a cup to drink it in St. Iohn iv 11. Nay more for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more he was poor even to beggary was fain to beg even water it self in the last cited Chapter ver 7. had a bag carried always by one of his Disciples to receive any thing that charitable minded people would put into it St. Iohn xii 6. his Disciples were so low driven following him that they were fain sometimes to pull the ears of Corn as they passed by to satisfie their hunger five or seven loaves with two or three little fishes among them all was great provision with them Indeed we read not punctually that he begg'd at any time but we see him as near it as was possible if he did not and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all profane Writers never signifies less But let it be but what we translate it meerly poor though the Prophet David in the Person of Christ Psalm xl 18. cries Mendicus sum pauper I am a poor beggar be it yet but poor yet so poor it is he was that he was poor in all every way poor Poor in Spirit none poorer none more willing to be trampled on suffered men to plow upon his back and make long furrows make a poor thing of him indeed do any thing what they would with him poor in flesh too They may tell all my bones says the Prophet of him Psalm xxii 17. they stand staring and looking upon me a meer gazing-stock of poverty a miracle of poverty marvellous poor poor in reputation He made himself of no reputation took upon him the form of a Servant says St. Paul Phil. ii 7 8. of a servant of a slave valued at
by the mouth of the Holy Spirit of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God himself now quitted of injustice and want of bowels of compassion You have a witness of it undeniable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my eyes have seen it Salvation clear even to the sense and to the certain'st the sight The eye may see it 2. Viderunt oculi he might have added contractaverunt manus me◠and his hands handled it but if the eye see it we need not sue to the hand for certainty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these eyes No longer now the eyes of Prophesie those are grown dim and almost out Isaiah indeed could say is born is given so certain was he of it but never viderunt oculi for all that be never liv'd to see it one degree this above the infallibility of Prophesie Time was when this Salutare tuum was inveloped in clouds It was so till this day came a mystery kept secret since the world began lockt up in Heaven so close that mine eyes have wasted away with looking for thy saving health O Lord sighs David and the Church answers him with Vtinam disrumperes coelos Break the Heavens O Lord and come down O utinam O would thou wouldst But now as we have heard so have we seen thy salvation Nor need we any extraordinary piercing eye to see it so plain and manifest is the object that eyes almost sunk into their holes eyes over which the curtains of a long night are well nigh drawn eyes veiled with the mists of age eyes well near worn out with looking and expectation the dimmest aged'st sight may see it Mine eyes old Father Simeons Nor need the Manichee strain his eye-sight to discern it He need not as is usual when we look on curious pieces close one eye that the visual spirits being contracted we may see those things which else by reason of their curious subtilty scape the seeing 'T is no such aiery phantasm but that we may with open face and eyes behold it he may see it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both his eyes without straining without that trouble But if our senses should play false with us yet my eyes the eyes of a Prophet a holy man inspir'd and detain'd a prisoner in the flesh on purpose for this spectacle cannot possibly deceive us Especially if you add but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he did not perceive it only as a far off Balaams sight or had a glance or glimmering of it only but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saw it plain so plain as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know it too Saw it in his arms and lookt near it nay into it by the quick lively eye of a firm faith for with both eyes he saw it the eyes of his body and the eyes of his soul the Saviour with the one Salvation with the other the child with those the God with these And what greater evidence then that of sight what greater certainty then that of faith If all this be yet too little if viderunt be to seek and oculi fail and mei be deceived yet parasti cannot but list it above the weakness of probability put all out of question It was not only seen but prepared to be seen It came not as the world thinks of other salvations by chance but was prepared Parasti Thou hast prepared it prepared by him that prepared the world Higher yet parasti thou hast prepared done it long since the preparation began not now had a higher beginning a beginning before the face of all people before the face of any people before the face of the waters before the face of the world appeared Chosen us in him says St. Paul then chosen and prepared him for us before the foundation of the world Ephes. i. 4. But this parasti is not the blessing of this day Parasti ab aterno so to the Patriarchs too but in conspectu before our faces made manifest in these last times manifested in the flesh that 's the blessing we this day commemorate A body thou hast prepared me that prepared then lo I come he will be born presently Christmas out of hand Parasti now compleat this day he was first made ready and drest in swadling-clothes And prepared So it came not at mans entreaty or desert Nay when he thought not of it When Adam was running away to hide himself then the promise of the womans seed stept in between and when Religion and Devotion lay at the last gasp ready to bid the world adieu then comes he himself who had been so long preparing and fulfilled the promise This a degree of certainty higher then our imaginations can follow it that relies wholly on Gods own parasti without mans uncertain preparation Yet something ado there was to bring this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this salvation to be seen A long preparation there was of Patriarchs Moses and the Prophets of Promises Types and Figures and Prophesies for the space of four thousand years This long train led the triumph then comes the Saviour then Salvation Sure and certain it must needs be to which there are so many agreeing witnesses This then so variously typified so many ways shadowed so often promised so clearly prophesied so constantly so fully testified so long expected so earnestly desired This is the Salvation prepared for us Whoever looks for any other may look his eyes out shall never see it This Name the only Name by which we shall be saved the Name of Iesus Yet notwithstanding all that 's said or can be said 't is but parasti still 'T is not Posuisti prepared for all not put set up for all as if all should be saved No posui te in casum set for the fall of many those that will not turn their eyes up hither that care not for viderunt neglect this sight slight this salvation But however this dismal success often comes about Parasti it is that cannot be lost and in conspectu omnium populorum for all it is prepared for all in general none excluded this parasti he that put parasti into this good Fathers mouth put in omnium populorum too Not only the certainty but the universality of this salvation that 's the third part of the Text and thither are we come Before the face of all people Prepared that 's a favour and for the people that 's an ample one and one step to an universal People are men a great company of men and for men and a multitude of men it is prepared nusquam Angelos not for Angels in no wise for them not one of them No they are still the Sons of darkness no day-spring from on high to visit them For men and not for the better or more honourable part of men alone but for the people too the meanest sinfulest men in more favour with God then the Apostate Angels And not to some few of those people neither
into Heaven cannot now but look askew upon the earth To look up into Heaven is 2. to despise and trample upon all things under it He is not likely to be a Martyr that looks downward that values any thing below Nay he dies his natural death but unwillingly and untowardly whose eyes or heart or sences are taken up with the things about him Even to die chearfully though in a bed of Roses one must not have his mind upon them He so looks upon all worldly interests as dust and chaff who looks up stedfastly into heaven eyes all things by the by who eyes that well The covetous worldling the voluptuous Gallant the gaudy Butterflies of fashion will never make you Martyrs they are wholly fixt in the contemplation of their gold their Mistresses their Pleasures or their Fashions He scorns to look at these whose eyes are upon Heaven Yet to scorn there but especially to fit us against a tempest or a storm of stones there is a third looking up to Heaven in Prayer and Supplication It is not by our own strength or power that we can wade through streams of Blood or sing in flames we had need of assistance from above and he that looks up to Heaven seems so to beg it It was no doubt the spirit of Devotion that so fixt his sight he saw what was like to fall below he provides against it from above looks to that great Corner-stone to arm him against those which were now ready to shower upon his head It is impossible without our prayers and some aid thence to endure one petty pebble But to make it a compleat Martyrdom we must not look up only for our own interests for we are 4. to look up for our very enemies and beg Heavens pardon for them He that dies not in Charity dies not a Christian but he that dies not heart and hand and eyes and all compleat in it cannot die a Martyr Here we find S. Stephen lifting up his eyes to set himself to prayer 't is but two verses or three after that we hear his prayer Lord lay not this sin to their charge This was one thing it seems he lookt up so stedfastly to Heaven for A good lesson and fit for the occasion so to pass by the injuries of our greatest enemies as if we did not see them as if we had something else to look after then such petty contrasts as if we despis'd all worldly enmities as well as affections minded nothing but heaven and him that St. Stephen saw standing there All these ways we are to day to learn to look up to Heaven as 1. to our hop'd for Country as 2. from things that hinder us too long from coming to it as 3. for aid and help to bring us thither as 4. for mercy and pardon thence to our selves and enemies that we may all one day meet together there The posture it self is natural 'T is natural for men in misery to look up to Heaven nay the very insensible creature when it complains the Cow when it lows the Dog when he howls casts up its head according to its proportion after its fashion as if it naturally crav'd some comfort thence 'T is the general practice of Saints and holy persons Lift up your eyes says the Prophet Isa. xl 26. I will lift up my eyes says Holy David Psal. cxxi 1. And distrest Susanna lifts up her eyes and looks up towards Heaven ver 35. Nay Christ himself sighing or praying or sometimes working miracles looks up to Heaven who yet carried Heaven about him to teach us in all distresses to look up thither in all our actions to fetch assistance thence If we had those thoughts of Heaven we should I know how little of the eye the earth should have Vbi amor ibi oculus where the love is there 's the eye We may easiy guess what we love best by our looks if Heaven be it our eyes are there if any thing else our eyes are there 'T is easie then to tell you St. Stephens longings where his thoughts are fixt when we are told he so stedfastly lookt up to heaven And indeed it is not so much the looking up to Heaven as the stedfast and attentive doing it that fits us to die for Christ. 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a a kind of stretching or straining the eye-sight to look inquisitively into the object To look carelesly or perfunctorily into Heaven it self to do it in a fit to be godly and pious now and then or by starts and girds will not serve turn to mind seriously what we are about that 's the only piety will carry it Plus vaâ—â—t hora fervens quam mensis tepens One hour one half hour spent with a warm attention at our prayers is worth a month a year an age of our cold Devotions 'T is good to be zealous says St. Paul somewhat hot and vehement in a good matter And it had need be a stedfast and attentive Devotion that can hold out with this But. To stand praying or looking up to Heaven when our enemies are gnashing their teath upon us and come running head-long on us to have no regard to their rushing fury nor interrupt our prayers nor omit any ceremony of them neither for all their savage malice now pressing fiercely on us but look up stedfastly still not quich aside this looks surely like a Martyr The little Boy that held Alexander the candle whilst he was sacrificing to his Gods so long that the wick burnt into his finger and yet neither cried nor shrunk at it lest he should disturb his Lords Devotions will find few fellows among Christians to pattern him in the exercise of their strictest pieties Let but a leaf stir a wind breathe a fly buzz the very light but dwindle any thing move or shake and our poor Religion alas is put off the hinge 't is well if it be not at an end too What would it do if danger and death were at our heels as here it was Oh this attentive stedfast fastning the soul upon the business of heaven were a rare piety if we could compass it This glorious Martyr has shew'd us an example the lesson is that we should practise it But all this is no wonder seeing he was full of the Holy Ghost That Almighty Spirit is able to blow away all diversions able to turn the shower of stones into the softness and drift of Snow able to make all the torments of Death fall light and easie If we can get our souls filled once with that we need fear nothing nothing will distract our thoughts or draw our eyes from Heaven Then it will be no wonder neither to see next the Glory of God and Iesus standing at the right hand of God I call'd this point St. Stephens confirmation or his encouragement to his death He that once comes to have a sight of God and Christ of Gods Glory and Christ at the right hand of
St. Paul seems to find a kind of delight and sweetness in the very repeating it he so often uses it begins and ends his Epistles with it garnishes them all through with it scarce uses the very name of Christ without it as if it even sweetned that at least made it sweeter and made the Oyl and Chrism with which Christ himself was anointed run more merrily and freely to the very skirts of his clothing So that now is there any one sad let him take Iesus into his heart and he will take heart presently and his joy will return upon him Is any one fallen into a sin let him call heartily upon this Name and it will raise him up Is any one troubled with hardness of heart or dulness of spirit or dejection of mind or drowsiness in doing well in the meditation of this Name Iesus a Saviour all vanish and flie away Who was ever in such fear that it could not strengthen who in any danger that it could not deliver who in so great anxiety that it did not quiet who in any despair that it could not comfort and revive That we are not sensible of it is our own dulness and experience If we would but seriously meditate upon it we should quickly find it otherwise Nothing would please us where this Name were not No discourse would please us where it was not sometimes to be heard No writings delight us if this Name were left out All the sweetest Rhetorick and neatest eloquence would be dull without it our very prayers would seem imperfect which ended not in this very Name Our days would look dark and heavy which were not lightned with the Name of the Son of Righteousness Our nights but sad and dolesom which we entred not with this sweet Name when we lay down without commending our selves to God in it Our very years would have been a thousand times more unhappy than even those which we have seen of late would be nothing but trouble discontent and misery did they not begin in this Name were they not yearly usher'd in under the protection of it Were not this His Name was called Iesus proclaimed to day to begin it with we might call the year what we would but good we could not call it This setting forth Iesus a Saviour in the front is that which saves us all the year through from all the unlucky and unfortunate days that men call in it All the ill Aspects of Heaven of all the Stars and Planets grow vain and idle upon it and our days run sweetly and pleasantly under it The Psalmist seems thus to prophesie and foretel it Psal. lxv 12. Thou crownest the year with thy goodness and thy clouds drop fatness This day crowns the year this Name crowns the day all our dwellings would be but a sad wilderness all the year without it but they rejoyce and laugh and sing Hills and Vallies too being thus blest in the entrance of the year with this happy Name I end this point though so sweet that I part with it unwillingly with a stave or two of devout Bernards Jubile or Hymn upon it Nil canitur suâ—vins auditur nil jucundius Nil cogitatur dulcius quam Iesus Dei filius c. Iesu dulcedo cordium Fons vivâ—s lumen mentium Excedens omne gaudium omne deâ—iderium Nec lingua valet dicere nec litera exprimere Expertus potest oredere quod siâ— Iesum diligere There is nothing sweeter to be sung of nothing more delightful to be heard nothing more pleasant to be thought of than this Iesus Iesus the delight of hearts the light of minds above all joy above all we can desire the tongue cannot tell words cannot express only he that feels it can believe what sweetness is in Iesus A long song he makes of it It would not be amiss that we also made some short ones some ejaculations and raptures now and then upon it Give us but a taste and relish of the sweetness of thy blessed Name O Iesus and we shall also sing of it all the day long and praise thy Name for ever and ever and sing with the same Father Iesu Decus Angelicum in aure dulce canâ—icum in ore mel mirâ—ficâ—m in csrde nectar coelicum O Jesu thou joy and glory of Men and Angels thy Name is Musick in our ears honey in our mouths heavenly nectar to our hearts all sweetness all pleasure to us throughout wonderful sweet VI. Nay wonderful in all for 't is a Name of wonder and admiration Wonderful is one of the names the Prophet calls him by Isa. ix 6. And Cabalistical wits have pickt wonders out of it from every letter in all three languages In the Hebrew there are four letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from the signification of these letters rise the mystery Iod signifies a hand Schin a tooth Vau a nail or hook and Ain an eye the hand is the instrument of power the teeth one of the instruments of voices and words the nail an instrument in his passion and the eye an instrument or great discoverer of mercy and pity By all these he is our Iesus by his power he overthrew our enemies which would have slain us by his word he revives our souls when they were slain and dead by his Passion he redeemed us from our sins and for his own mercy sake he did all these In the Greek there are six letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which according to the old device of vailing names in numbers amount to the number of 888. the first letter is 10. the second 8. the third 200. the fourth 70. the fifth 400. and the last 300. which put all together make up that number and by reason that eight is the number they say of the Resurrection that falling out the eighth day the day after the Sabbath which is the seventh include this Mystery That in Iesus is our rest and Resurrection to eternal quiet The name of Antichrist is covered in the Revelation under the number of 666. Now the six days are days of labour pain and trouble the seventh is but a short day of rest whilst we are here 't is only the eighth day that follows after all which must close up all in everlasting glory free from all labour pain and troubâ—â— and this is found in no other name than in the Name of Iesus nor given us in any other And that it may not pass for a meer fancy the Cuman Sybills verses thus foretold his Name many years before Tunc ad mortales veniet mortalibus ipsis In terris similis natus patris omnipotentis Corpore vestitus vocales quatuor autem Fert non vocalesque duas binum geniorum Sed quae fit numeri totius summa docebo Namque octo monades totidem decades super ista Atque hecatontadas octo infidis significabit Hominibus nomen Tâ—â— vero mente teneto There shall come says she into the
and hope believe what here they saw that such a thing there was a Star lighted up on purpose to lead the Gentiles to Christ hope what here they felt within them some spiritual ray and guidance to him both believe and hope that as an outward visible Star there was to them so an inward and invisible Star still there will be to us by the light of which we may all come to the knowledge of Christ. We are next to see it what it is what it is to them what it is to us how this star looks to them how it looks to us To them this Star was a material Star to us 't is a spiritual and both bring their joy with them The Psalmist seems to be ravish'd with joy upon the sight of the Stars of Heaven when he considered the Heavens the works of Gods fingers the Moon and the Stars that he had ordained Psal. viii 3. Then in a kind of Extasie he cries out Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him That thou thus spanglest the Heavens with Stars for him That thou thus visitest him by the Stars Methinks the very beholding of that golden Canopy now our covering hereafter to be our footstool the casting up of our eyes to heaven in a bright starry night and considering that all those glorious Lamps are for the use of us poor men here and for our glory too hereafter cannot but raise a sweet delight and pleasure in the devout and pious soul and force out an ejaculation of thankfulness and joy to God that made them for us Sure I am that when neither Sun nor Stars appeared Acts xxvii 20. it follows presently that all hope of being saved was then taken away O the joy of a Star then the appearing of a Star would have made them then have leapt for joy We see them commonly that makes us so little to regard them If we behold them seriously we would sing together with them as Iob says they do together Job xxxviii 7. and praise him together as the Psalmist speaks with those stars of light But yet if we should have a Star made on purpose for us we would be gladder that God should descend to so immediate and special a care of us as to light up one of those bright Candles for some particular intent and service to us and such an one this is great reason therefore sure to rejoyce in it So much the more in that commonly the new raised Stars portend mischiefs and misfortunes to us but this was as all the Astrologers and Wise men then observed a healthsom gladsom star that brought health and happiness and saving in its wings never any such or like it before or since When God thus vouchsafes to make heaven dance attendance on us make all the Stars and Lights speak good to us some of them more than others those heavenly Creatures thus wait upon earth dust who is now so dull and earthy as not to rejoyce and glory in it Yet if the star not only portend happiness but eternal happiness besides if it foretell not only earthly but heavenly blessings too if it be a Star that leaves us not till it have brought us to the Child Iesus till it hath brought us to God himself there is matter indeed of great exceeding joy So a fourfold ground of joy you have in this very Star First Gods general providence over man to make even the heavenly Creatures serve him Secondly God's special Providence in it now and then sending a Star some special token to forewarn or guide him Thirdly God's comfortable Providence in so doing sometimes to bless and comfort us to uphold and chear us Fourthly Gods saving Providence thus to make all things though never so distant from us signally instrumental to our eternal happiness and salvation making the Stars and Heavens thus minister unto us For these four we may well take up St. Paul's resolution Phil. i. 18. We therein do rejoyce yea and will rejoyce And yet I must give you a fifth ray of this Star God's particular Providence over the Gentiles strangers from the Covenant of Promise aliens from the Comman-wealth of Israel men without promise without hope that had neither promise nor hope of mercy Eph. ii 12. that to them this Star should appear for them be made and sent is such a ground of joy to us that are of the same stock and lineage that without it we had had no joy at all who ever had 'T is upon this title we have our share in this happy Star upon this particular dispensation of thus gathering the Gentiles to him by it as by a Standard or Ensign for them to flow in unto him as the Prophet Phrases it This is the fifth ray of the material Star and it may go for a sixth That the Gentiles not then only but even to this day still enjoy the benefit of that Star have oftentimes material and sensible convoys unto Christ are often by the things of sense by sensible blessings drawn and perswaded to his service Thus you have the six Rays of the Star six comfortable Rays to ground our joys upon in the material Star We come now to the mystical or spiritual those Stars and Lights which yet remain even to this day to guide us to the same Iesus For more than one there is of this sort and all sufficient grounds of Ioy. 1. The first sort of Stars are devout and holy men shining as Daniel represents them like the Stars Dan. xii 3. Stars they are in this world whilst they live burning and shining Lights the very light and life and glory of the earth while they are upon it and Stars they shall be in the heavens when they come thither Here they go before us with the light of good examples to lead us to Christ and his righteousness to all holy and heavenly conversation And for it they shall one day shine as Stars for ever and ever A ground of joy it is to us that this Star we have that such guides we have by whose examples to conform our selves to the obedience of Christ in whose light to walk to him 2. A second sort of Stars are the Bishops and Pastors of the Church For however men now reckon them or however now much darkned in their heaven in this our Church in our Hemisphere Stars they are in the hand of Christ Rev. i. 16. in his right hand too the vision so interpreted v. 20. the seven Stars the seven Angels of the Churches the Church it self crown'd with twelve such Stars Rev. xii 1. the twelve Apostles All crowned Churches all that are compleat and perfect are crowned with such Stars with Bishops Pastors and Teachers And a solid ground of joy it is that we have such Stars to guide and direct us into the knowledge of Christ into the ways and means of salvation Let Hereticks and Schismaticks think their pleasure an exceeding joy it is to all that
in the Christian Dypticks And you see to day we have revived the Custom here 3. But 't is not a meer remembring them for honour but also a real remembring them and them that do them for a blessing all sorts of blessings So that would I commend to my dearest friend a Trade to make him rich and happy it should be doing good to the House of God 'T is an old Jewish saying Decima ut dives fias Pay thy Tyths if thou wilt grow rich Build God a House say I and he will build thee one again Do good to His House say I and he 'll do good to thine and a wicked Son shall not be able to cut off the Entail For 't is worth the notice that when God promised David a House upon this account he tells him that though his Son commit iniquity he would not utterly take his mercy from him I know there are that to be excused talk much of unsetled times This is the way to settle them When God and man shall see we are in earnest for the House of God and the Offices thereof all your Sects will cease to trouble you and vanish Some cry the State must be setled first Why Fundamenta ejus in montibus Sanctis says the Psalm the foundations of Hierusalem are upon the Holy Hills Lay your foundations there and you shall never be removed God of his goodness will make your Hill so strong No better way to fix the House of the Kingdom or your own than to begin with His. Others to get loose tell us of the decay of Trade Why how can it be other says God Hag. i. 9. You looked for much and it came to little and when you brought it home and 't was scarce worth bringing home I did blow upon it blew it into nothing And why was it says the Lord of Hosts Because of my house that lieth waste and ye run every man to his own house You dwell in Cedars and you lap your selves in Silks and Silver and you have all neat and fine about you but the House of God that lies in the dust and rubbish But is it time for you O ye says he for I know not what to call you to dwell in cieled houses and my house lie no better Did God think you make Gold and Silver Silks and Purples Marbles and Cedars for us only and our houses and not for himself also or his own Or do you think to thrive by being sparing to it or holding from it No says God from the day that the Foundation of the Lords Temple was laid consider it from this that day will I bless you Hag. ii 18 19. And prove him so say I for he bids so himself Mat. iii. 10. and see if he will not pour you out a blessing Indeed he has been before us with it He has brought us home and stablisht our Estates and restor'd our Religion done more to us and to our houses than we durst desire or hope and is it not all the reason in the world we should do good to his again Hang up our remembrances upon the Walls pay our acknowledgments upon his Altars and bless all the Offices of his house for so great blessings God will remember you again for what ever it is If you would yet more engage him to you know God loves the Gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Iacob Psal. lxxxvii 2. must needs therefore love these most that most love them And I doubt not but we shall find many here that do so many too that will so express it Yet not according to what a man has not but to what he has says our St. Paul does God accept him We cannot expect that all that love most can express most Yet according to their abilities they will do it A cup of cold water I confess to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall not lose the reward no more shall a single Mite to the house of God as his Every one however may do somewhat towards it They that cannot give much may give a little they that cannot pay may yet pray for it And to wish it well and to rejoyce in the prosperity and welfare of it the repairing and adorning of it are two mites that any one can give and God will accept where there can be no other Only where there is most we must present it with humility as David did 1 Chron. xxix What am I O Lord that I should be able after this sort to offer thus to do it And where there is but little we must present it with a regret that we can do no more Will God remember and accept us remember and pardon us remember and bless us with blessings of the right hand and blessings of the left remember us in all places both at home and abroad in all conditions both in the days of our prosperity and in the time of trouble in our goings out and in our comings in in our Persons and in our Estates in our selves and in our Posterities with them shall remain a good inheritance and their children shall be ever within the Covenant And when all earthly glances shall be forgotten that which we have done to the House of God shall be still remembred when our bodies shall lie down in dust our names shall live in heaven when a cold stone shall chill our ashes our bones shall flourish out of their graves when time shall have eaten out our Epitaphs our righteousness shall not be forgotten God will remember it for ever And though the general conflagration shall at last calcine these glorious structures into ashes we shall dwell safe in buildings not made with hands eternal in the heavens where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb shall be the Temple and we sing the Offices of heaven with Angels and Archangels and all the holy Spirits with joy and gladness for evermore To which glorious House and Office God of his mercy bring us in our several times and orders through c. THE FIRST SERMON On the Day of the PURIFICATION OF THE Blessed Virgin St. LUKE ii 27 28. And when the Parents brought in the Child Iesus to do for him after the custom of the Law Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God AND when That When was as this day When the days of the blessed Virgins Purification according to the Law of Moses were accomplished forty days after Christs Nativity this day just then they brought him to Ierusalem to present him to the Lord ver 22. Then blessed Mary and Ioseph brought then devout Simeon and Anna blessed and if we be either Maries or Anna's Iosephs or Simeons holy men or devout women we too will this day bless God for the blessing of the day For this day also of his presentation as well as those other days of his Birth Circumcision and Manifestation Candlemas-day as well as Christmas-day New-years-day or Epiphany is a day
the Visiting his coming in unto her In the Salutation there is to be considered both the Form of it and the Titles in it 1. The Form threefold 1. Hail 2. The Lord is with thee 3. Blesed art thou or be thou blessed Sis benedicta it may be as well as es 2. The Titles given her they three too Thou that art highly favoured that 's one Blessed thou that 's another Blessed among women that 's the third These all so evident and so plain that none can miss them But to these two Points two more are to be added The Grounds and Bounds of these great titles 1. The Ground of this high blessedness and favour 1. Full of grace so our old Translation and the old Latine render it her fulness of grace and goodness that 's one 2. But the Lord is with thee that 's the main thence all her blessedness thereby it is that she is so highly favoured because the Lord is with her 2. The Bounds or Limitation of these titles they come first with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no other form then what is and hath been given unto men though great they be yet divine they be not The greatest Title secondly is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from meer grace and favour Thirdly It must still too acknowledge Dominus tecum She hath a Lord is a Subject as well as we And lastly All her blessedness is but inter mulieres among women how much soever she excels all vvomen she is but inter mulieres among such Creatures in the rank of Creatures no Goddess nor partner vvith the Godhead either in title or vvorship By considering and laying all these Points together vve shall both vindicate the blessed Virgins honour as vvell from all superstitious as prophane abuses and our selves from all neglect of any duty to the mother of our Lord one so highly favoured and blessed by him whilst we give her all that either Lord or Angel gave her but yet dare not give her more And now Dominus mecum and Dominus vobiscum too the Lord be with me whilst I am speaking it and with you whilst you are hearing it and bless us both whilst we are about it that we may learn to bless where we should bless whom and when and how to do it and rightly both accept and apply God's blessings and our own We are now to learn it from the Angel his visiting and blessing the blessed Virgin here His visit and his Salutation to her But his visit or visitation that stands first Where the visiter the visited and his visit the Angel the Virgin and his coming into unto her are all to be considered And the Angel came in unto her And who so fit as an Angel to come into her to give this visit to give this blessing It was a bad Angel that brought the curse upon the woman 't was fit a good one should bring the blessing The imployment 2. suits none so well 'T was news of joy who could bring it better than one of those who were the first sons of eternal joy the first enjoyers of it who could pronounce it better Who fitter 3. to come with a Dominus tecum before the face of the Lord with a message of his coming down to earth than they who always behold his face in heaven St. Mat. xviii 10. Who fitter 4. to come to her she was an immaculate and unspotted Virgin and to whom do Virgins Chambers lie ope at midnight but to Angels God sends no other thither at that time of night and that that time it was may be well conjectured from Wisdom xviii 14 15. When all things were in quiet silence and that night was in the midst of her swift course Thine Almighty Word came down from Heaven then it seems was the time of her Conception of Christs coming to her before whom immediately the Angel came to bring the message that he was a coming if as St. Bernard says he were not come already And 5. with such a message to a Virgin as that she should conceive without a man who was convenient to bring it but an Angel Ne quo degenere depravaret affectu says St. Ambrose that there might not be the least ground of a false suspition But 6. to such a Virgin one so highly favour'd as to be made the mother of God for the mother of Christ is no less he being God what messenger could come less than an Angel Prophets and Patriarchs were too little for so great an embassage and Angels never came upon a greater Nay 7. every Angel neither was not fit for so high an Office The Angel Gabriel it was he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here Gabriel is by St. Hierom and St. Gregory interpreted Fortitudo Dei the Power or strength of God and in this work it appear'd indeed Gods strength and power never so much shewn as in the saving of us by Christ. It is by others 2. interpreted Vir Deus or Deus nobiscum God man or God with us Could any be thought fitter to bring this news upon his lips than he that carries it in his name Especially 3. being the same that foretold all this to Daniel Dan. ix 21. fit that he should see to the performance who brought the promise 4. Petrus Damiani thinks he was the holy Virgins Guardian Angel proper therefore to bring her this good message or any else 5. God had several times employed him before to Daniel Zachary and others and found hm faithful he therefore now employs him still that we may know he that is faithful in the least God will by degrees trust him with the most the greatest matters In a word Angels drove us out of Paradise and now they come to let us in again Then they placed a Sword to keep us out now they bring the word to let us in None now you see more fit for this business than an Angel than the Angel Gabriel too whether we respect the persons either from whom or to whom the message comes or the message or the time or the way and order of it So we have done with him come we now to her a greater than He if we may speak with Epiphanius and some others Yet I shall not give her other Titles than the Scripture gives her I am afraid to give her such as many do A Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Ioseph of the house of David she was and her name was Mary in the verse before the Text. 1. Of royal descent and linage 2. Espoused to an Husband of the same Kingly house 3. Of a name very answerable to her greatness Of Davids Seed for so her Son the Messiah was to be A Virgin for of such a one he was to come Semen mulieris not maris from the beginning the womans seed and not the mans so necessarily a Virgin then and so plainly foretold to be by Isaiah Isa. vii 14. A Virgin shall conceive and
bear him yea a Virgin espous'd 1. To conceal the mystery of his Incarnation from the Devil 2. To take away all occasion of obloquy from devilish men 3. That the birth of our Saviour might be with all possible honour and 4. That his Genealogy might so be reckoned as all others regularly by the man as you see them both by St. Matthew and St. Luke Of a high and illustrious name besides Maria is Maris stella says St. Bede The star of the Sea a fit name for the mother of the bright morning star that rises out of the vast sea of God's infinite and endless love Maria 2. the Lyriack interprets Domina a Lady a name yet retain'd and given to her by all Christians our Lady or the Lady mother of our Lord. Marie 3. rendred by Petrus Damiani de monte altitudine Dei highly exalted as you would say like the Mountain of God in which he would vouchsafe to dwell after a more miraculous manner than in very Sion his own holy Mount. 4. St. Ambrose interprets it Deus ex genere meo God of my kin as if by her very name she was designed to have God born of her to be Deipara as the Church against all Hereticks has ever stil'd her the Mother of God you may well now fully conceive no Embassador so fit to come to such an one as her but some great Angel at the least And his coming to her comes next to be considered And the Angel came in unto her Where we are taught both how he came and where he found her By his coming or being said to come we are given to understand that it was in a bodily and humane shape So Angels often used to come in the likeness of men and at this time it was of all ways the most convenient that the Angels should come like men seeing their Lord was now to come so and one of them to come before him with the news When he himself would vouchsafe to wear the livery of our flesh 't is most convenient his servants sure that wait upon him whom he sends upon his errands should appear at least in the same Livery Nor could his Message easily be delivered in more sweetness nor the Blessed Maid entertain it with less terror or diffidence any other way For though it could not but trouble her as we see it did in the follovving verse to see a man at that time in her Closet ere she was aware yet his coming in so insensibly when the doors were shut upon her besides perhaps the brightness of his countenance and raiment could not but tell her it was an Angel and so abate her fear a little Yet observe here a difference between the Angels coming now and heretofore we never read of an Angels appearing but abroad or in the Temple till now Now they begin to grow more familiar with us come in into our Closets now Christ is coming the Kingdom of Heaven 't is a sign is come nigh unto us And 't is a good Item to us to keep much in our Closets seeing Angels are now to be met with there And 2. 't is an Item too for Virgins to keep within Dinah went out and met with you know whom came home ill-favouredly The blessed Virgin keeps in and meets with an holy Angel and the title of highly favoured and blessed for it The stragling gadding huswife meets no Angel to salute her whosoever does if we look for Angels company and salutations we must be much within A Garden enclosed is my Sister my Spouse a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed says Christ Cant. iv 12. The Spouse of Christ the Soul he loves and vouchsafes his company much private oft within Within and at her Prayers and Meditation too So was the blessed Virgin say the Fathers here blessedly employed watching at her devotions no way so sure to get an Angels company or hear good news from heaven to obtain a favour or a blessing thence as this as prayer and watching in our Closets This we piously believe of the blessed Virgin but we are sure she was within a true daughter of Sarah in it who it seems kept commonly within doors in her Tent Gen. xviii 10. whose daughters you are says St. Peter 1 Pet. 3. 6. as long as you do well must be too in this as well as other things if you vvould do vvell For lastly to shevv the truth of the Angels vvords that she vvas full of grace the Scripture tells us by the Angels coming into her that she vvas vvithin vvhere qui habeat abundantiam gratiae says Hugo they that are full of grace keep in as much as they can fearing the corrupt discourses and conversations of the World None so scrupulous of appearing abroad none more fear idle loose or vain discourses vvhich cannot be avoided by such vvho go often abroad than they that are fullest of grace and goodness Nor do they care for the salutation favours and complements of men vvho are highly favoured of the Lord. No matter at all vvith them to be neglected by men vvho desire only to be saluted by an Angel as vvas the Virgin here vvhich falls next to be considered The Angels Salutation Tvvo Points vve told you there vvere to be handled in it The form of it and the titles in it The form in vvhich it runs the Titles vvith vvhich it 's given The form is in three expressions Hail the Lord is with thee Thou art or be thou blessed Three several salutations as it vvere and that 1. for the greater reverence and honour to her so Kings and Queens are commonly saluted vvith three adorations 2. To shevv from vvhom he came from Father Son and Holy Ghost from all three persons in the Trinity That 3. she vvas so intent and busie at her devotions that she minded not perhaps his first and second Salutation he vvas fain to add a third To shevv lastly the triple blessing that he came vvith Peace and Grace and Blessedness that Heaven vvas novv at peace vvith us Grace vvas thence coming dovvn apace Heaven doors set open and very blessedness of Heaven clearly now propounded and proffered to us The first salutation is an Ave a salutation never heard from Angels mouth before And it speaks joy and peace and health and salvation both to her and us by her The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce rejoyce indeed at such a Child as now is to be born of thee O Virgin Daughter Behold I bring you tydings of great joy of a Child all our joy by him which is Christ the Lord 2. The Hebrew word speaks Peace be to thee A wish for peace the first news of Heaven reconciled the way to reconciliation being now in agitation and to be by her Peace from the Prince of Peace from the author of our peace now coming as joyful a salutation as we can wish all our peace from this Conception all begun with this message and
to unsaint the Saints to deny them their proper titles to level them with the meanest of our Servants We might learn better manners from the Angel here manners I say if it were nothing else for we dare not speak so to any here that are above us and we think much to be Thou'd without our titles by that new generation of possessed men who yet with more reason may call the best man thou then we the Apostles Iohn or Thomas But to descend to a particular survey of these Titles here Thou that art highly favoured so our new Translation renders it Full of grace so our old one hath it from the Latin Gratia plena and both right for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will carry both Grace is favour God's Grace is divine favour high in grace high in his favour full of his grace full of his favour all comes to one Now there is Gratia Creata and Increata Created grace and uncreated grace Created grace is either sanctifying or edifying the gifts of the Holy Spirit that sanctifie and make us holy or the gifts that make us serviceable to make others so The first to serve God in our selves as Faith Hope Charity and other graces The second to serve him in the Church such as the gift of Tongues of Prophesie of Healing and the like of each kind she had her fulness according to her measure and the designation that God appointed her For sanctifying Graces none fuller Solo Deo excepto God only excepted saith Epiphanius And 't is fit enough to believe that she vvho vvas so highly honoured to have her Womb filled vvith the body of the Lord had her soul as fully fill'd by the Holy Ghost For edifying Graces as they came not all into her measure she vvas not to preach to administer to govern to play the Apostle and therefore no necessity she should be full of all those gifts being those are not distributed all to any but unicuique secundum mensuram to every one according to his measure and employment and not at all times neither so neither is she said to be less ful for vvanting them There is one fulness of the Fountain another of the Brook another of a Vessel one fulnes of the Sea another of the River another of the Pond and yet all may be full Christ himself is said to be full of the Holy Ghost and St. Stephen is said to be full and others said to be full yet Christ as the Sea or Fountain they as the Rivulets or Rivers and yet all as they can hold 'T is so in Earth 't is so in Heaven And vvith such a fulness as the Brooks or Rivers is our Virgin full and with no other Where any edifying Grace vvas necessary for her she had it as well as others more perhaps than others Where it vvas not necessary it vvas no vvay to the impairing of her fulness though she had it not as the banks of the Rivers rose or the Channel was enlarged so were those graces but inter mulieres among women at the end makes me incline to think the fulness of Apostolick endowments do not any way belong to her women not being suffered in the times of the Apostles but to teach their children or servants at home never thought so full of the Spirit as to be sent to blow it all abroad And indeed it is not said here full of the Spirit but full of Grace and that is commonly understood of sanctifying Grace of which it is very convenient that we believe none fuller than she and the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not inforce it much higher in the business of created grace But in respect of the increated Grace that is of Christ with whom she was now so highly favoured as to be with Child none ever so filled with Grace indeed This was a grace of the highest nature of which created nature was never capable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well rendred highly highly favoured for 't is most highly can be imagined and this is her first title O thou that art highly favoured high in Gods grace and favour so high as to be made his Mother then sure made a fit receptacle for so great so holy a guest by the fulness of all grace and goodness From this follows the second Title Blessed blessed of God blessed of men blessed in the City and blessed in the Field Cities and Countreys call her blessed Blessed in the fruit of her body in her blessed Child Iesus Blessed in the fruit of her Ground her Cattel her Kine and her Sheep in the inferiour faculties of her soul and body all fructifie to Christ. Blessed her Basket and her Store her Womb and her Breasts the Womb that bare him and the Paps that gave him suck Blessed in her going out and in her coming in the Lord still being with her The good treasure of Heaven still open to her showring down upon her and the Earth fill'd with the blessings which she brought into the world when she brought forth the Son of God Blessed she indeed that was the Conduit of so great blessings though blessed most in the bearing him in her soul much more than bearing him in her body So Christ intimates to the woman that began to bless the Womb that is the Mother that bear him St. Luke xi 27. yea rather says he they that hear the word of God and keep it As if he had said she is more blessed in bearing the word in her soul than in her body But blessed she is Elizabeth by the Holy Spirit fell a blessing her when she came to see her And she her self by the same Spirit tells us all generations shall call her blessed ver 28. So we have sufficient example and authority to do it And I hope we will not suffer the Scripture to speak false but do it And 3. do it to her above all women Benedicta tu in mulieribus That 's her third Title Most blessed none so blessed none ever had Child so blessed none ever bore or brought forth Child as she Benedicta in mulieribus Blessed among women She indeed only blessed all others subject to the curse of in dolore paries of conceiving and bringing forth in sorrow She wholly free from that she a perpetual Virgin before and in and after Child-birth Christ came into her Womb insensibly came forth as it were insensibly too without groan or sorrow to her Blessed 2. among women they all henceforth saved by her Child-bearing notwithstanding she that is woman shall be saved in child-bearing 1 Tim. ii ie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by her child-bearing says a learned Commentator not their own but hers by the Child she bore and they therefore shall call her blessed Blessed 3. among women that is none more blessed then the best the highest of them none above the Mother of God none sure so good as she which now brings me to consider the grounds of all this honour
and the Morning came light and darkness succeeded one another so the day came no making else But of this 't is punctually said that it was made something in it or in the making more than ordinary Made 1. that is made famous by something done upon it death and hell and all the terrours of darkness this day put to flight for ever by Christs only Resurrection Made 2. that is appointed and ordained for something So Deus fecit Dominum Christum God is said to have made our Saviour Lord and Christ Acts ii 36. and of Christ that fecit nos Reges Sacerdotes that he made us that is ordained us Kings and Priests as God had him both Lord and Christ and upon this day both so that 't is no wonder if the day too be said to be made made or ordained and appointed to be remembred Made 3. to be celebrated too to be kept aniversary as a solemn day of joy and gladness of Praises and Thanksgivings Thus facere diem Sabbati Deut. v. 15. Pascha facere St. Mat. xxvi 18. is to keep the Sabbath and the Passeover what is there in Latine to make the Sabbath and the Passeover in our English is to keep them to make up or make out the day in Gods Worship and Service When God is said to make a day 't is for himself and we can make none but to him mar days we do when we spend them upon any thing or any else they are never made but when on him The greater sin theirs then that unmake the days that are thus made that both unsaint the Saints and unhallow the days and prophane both that make them for all but him all business but his as if the holiness of the Holiday were the only offence of it that which made the day or for which the day was made the only reason to them to unmake it 3. But however it pleases some to mar what God has made yet made days there have been many are and shall be Themselves are not yet so impudent to deny us all not the Lords days yet which yet are but so many little models of this great day But of made days all are not alike some high days some not so high though the one and the other made and constituted for Gods service Of made days this is the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The day so we told you out of Ignatius so we now tell you out of St. Augustine Principatum tenet 't is the prime As the blessed Virgin among women so this blessed day among the days says he The most holy Feast of Easter the good Emperour Constantine calls it four times in one Epistle to all the Churches Solenne nostrae religionis festum a little after the solemn Feast of our Religion by which we hold our hopes of immortality the very day of all our Religion and our hope Illa videtur dies clarior illuxisse sings Lactantius The fairest day that ever shone The Sun which so many hours withdrew its light and hid its face in sable darkness went down sooner into night at our Saviours Passion and to day rose so much sooner restored those hours to lengthen or encreased it beams to enlighten this glorious Day in the opinion or else Rhetorick of Chrysologus Eusebius and St. Augustine If so it was The Day indeed none like it ever since but if not There were two Suns rose to day to enlighten it the Sun of Heaven and the Son of God who is also stiled the Sun in the strictest spelling The Sun of righteousness needs must it be a glorious day indeed which is gilded with so much light so many glorious Rays All days were night before nothing but dark clouds and shadows under the Law of Moses nothing but a long unevitable night under the Law of nature nothing but a disconsolate night of sorrow under the power of sin and darkness this was the first bright day that dispell'd all darkness quite A kind of spring of day or glimmering twilight there was abroad from the first preaching of the Gospel but men could scarce see any thing not the Disciples themselves their eyes were ever and anon held not fully opened till the grave it self was this day opened and gave forth Christ to open the Scriptures to them by the evidence of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the day when all this was done when this marvelous light shone forth to enlighten all the world The day of all the days before or since 4. And now 4. it may well be so when the Lord made it All his works are wonderful all perfect and complete deserve Articles and Notes to be set upon them But when he sets the Note himself and gives the Article then to be sure 't is somewhat more than ordinary somewhat he would have us to observe above the rest And when he entitles himself to it or challenges it unto himself day it self is not more clear than that such a day must be observed Things that are exceding eminent and full of greatness wonder or perfection are commonly attributed unto God This day is such at least because 't is said God made it a peculiar work and Ordinance of his more than the common Ordinance of day and night and if God made it what is man that he should mar it or the son of man that he should unmake it Or how dares man or Son of man make little of that which God made so great So great as to call it his so great as to make it the mother of one and fifty daughters of all the Lords days in the year besides This is the Lords doing indeed None could alter the Sabbath into the Lords day but he None put down that and set up another abolish the Seventh and set up the First but the Lord of all and may do all what he pleases in heaven and earth Lord it every where how he will Herein he shews he is the Lord and this day the Lady of the year from whence so many little weekly Easter days take both their rise and name All the former days God made the Lord made this the Lord Christ the ground and Author of this day Christs rising raising this to that height it is Now God or Christ is not only said to do or make that which they do immediately by themselves but that also which they do by those to whom they have committed such authority So Christ tells us St. Luke x. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that heareth his Apostles his Church his Ministers heareth him himself their commands are his their orders his so long as they are not contrary to his word And thus we may evidently without much labour deduce the day to be his making From the Apostles times it came Palicarpus that Angel as is conceived of the Church of Smyrna Rev. ii 8. kept Easter saith Ireneaeus with St. Iohn and with the
hands and pure hearts that lift not up their minds to vanity not their mouths to wickedness or deceit In Sum these are the only men that shall ascend those everlasting hills those eternal holy places that are only worthy to enter into Gods houses and holy places of the earth too obtain those admirable priviledges that are innocent and pure and just and true the only men worth the admiring as the Church and heaven the hill of the Lord and his holy place are the only things are worth it Heaven is for none but such and when we enter into the holy places we should all be such as none have right to enter them indeed but such Well now the business of the Text is in brief the way to Sion and to Heaven to the hill of the Lord and his holy place both that here and that hereafter where we have First the Condition of being admitted thither Then the Condition of them that are The first in the former of the two verses the second in the latter I. The Condition of being admitted or ascending into the hill of the Lord or standing up in his holy place what it is that is what or how great a business it is to be Gods peculiar people to be allow'd to enter into his Courts here and into Heaven at last what it is why 'T is 1. a priviledge some one not every one some few not all Who shall Is all shall not 'T is 2. a high one 'T is an ascent a rise 't is to a hill and the hill of the Lord who shall ascend who shall rise up Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord Who shall rise up 'T is 3. a holy one 't is to the hill of the Lord to a holy place 'T is 4. an admirable one the Prophet starts aside as it were from his discourse and wonders at it who it is should be so honoured 'T is 5. a glorious one For the hill of the Lord is not only an earthly hill his holy place not that only made with hands the words are as appliable to that of Heaven and Glory and so understood 'T is yet 6. hard to be come by 'T is an ascent hard and steep a high Hill no easie Plain raise and rouze our selves up we must to get it stand up to get and keep it And lastly that we may take in all the possible senses of the Text 't is Christs proper priviledge his prae aliis his first and above all others therefore delivered in the Singular Quis not Qui who is he not who are they that shall Though they others also shall yet they but by him he first they after he properly rises and ascends they more properly are rais'd and drawn after him II. The Condition now 2. of them that are so thus admitted to all these priviledges is 1. That they have clean hands That 2. they have pure hearts too That 3. they lift not up their mind to vanity That 4. they swear not deceitfully or to deceive The Priviledge we are to speak of is a real one a high one a holy one an admirable one a glorious one and though hard to be come by yet to be come by though through him The condition upon which we are to come by it 1. Innocency 2. Purity 3. Righteousness 4. Truth yet all too little without him He ascended to this purpose that we also might ascend after him that 's the Lesson we are now to teach you two parts it has the Condition of the Priviledge of the hill of the Lord and the Conditions of our Performance for it the one the Condition to be obtained and the other the Conditions to be performed the admission into the hill of the Lord and his holy place that the Condition to be obtained Innocence and Purity freeness from vanity and deceit they the Conditions to obtain it I now enter upon the first to shew what is the Condition we may ascend to what a great and glorious one it is to ascend into the hill of the Lord and to rise up in his holy place I. Several senses I intimated to you of the words 1. Some understanding by the hill of the Lord and his holy place the material hill and house of Sion and thence our Christian Churches 2. Others the spiritual house and building the faithful and true members of the Church 3. Others the eternal house of heaven the hill of Sion which is above Each of them is called Gods hill or holy place Sion Gods hill Psal. ii 6. and lxviii 15. The Temple his holy place Exod. xxvi 33. The Church the house of God not to be us'd like our own houses and therefore a holy place 1 Cor. xi 22. The Faithful the Temples the Dwellings the Buildings the House of God 1 Cor. iii. 17. 2 Tim. i. 14. 1 Cor. iii. 9. Heb. iii. 6. Heaven lastly is called Mount Sion Heb. xii 2. Rev. xiv 1. The holy place Heb. ix 12. The true Tabernacle and Sanctuary Heb. viii 2. Be it which of these it will or be it all to ascend into any of them is a condition worth the considering to be admitted into Gods House and Temple to be admitted into the Family of true Believers especially to be exalted so high as into heaven To be in any of these Conditions is to be in good condition a Condition which is 1. A Priviledge a peculiar favour not for every body to arrive at 't is a question who shall get it not every one says Christ. The faithful they are a little flock St. Luk. xii 32. A chosen Generation 1 Pet. ii 9. Few there are of such St. Mat. xx 16. only a parcel that Christ has given him by his Father St. Iohn vi 39. To you it is given says he himself St. Mat. xiii 11. to some it is given to some it is not So a priviledge it is to stand thus upon Mount Sion with the Lamb Rev. xiv 1. to be in the number of those that follow him whithersoever he goes And it will prove a Priviledge 2. to be of those that go up to the House of the Lord among them that keep holy day that is that go up to serve him there Now he has not dealt so with any Nation any but his own Psal. cxlvii 20. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord then he will bring me again and shew me his Ark and his Habitation says David 2 Sam. 15. 25. And if a favour it be not to be debarr'd the House of God in Shiloh or Hierusalem is it less think we to be allowed the liberty of Christian Churches to praise God in the great Congregations St. Paul counts it a mercy 2 Thes. ii 1. this gathering together unto him much comfort in it as in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ which is there joyn'd with it Non omnis I am sure we find it all have not the Priviledge we are out of Gods favour
a cold sweat to think of it before 't was built Gen. xxviii 17. Will the Lord dwell on earth Is it true says Solomon Can it be so Lord What am I says Holy David and my people that we should but offer to it Lord What is it that we should be allow'd to touch so holy ground with our unhallowed feet look upon so holy a sight with our unholy eyes that such a glo-worm as Man should be set upon a Hill But above all 3. Lord what is man Lord what is man that thou should'st so regard him as to advance him also into the holy Hill of Heaven too Lord what can we say what can we say Shall corruption inherit incorruption dust Heaven a worm creep so high What he that lost it for an Apple come thither after all he in whom dwelleth no good thing be let stay there where none but good and all good things are He that is not worth the Earth worth nought but Hell be admitted Heaven Lord What is Man or rather what art Thou O Lord how wonderful in mercies that thus priviledg'st the sons of men Admirable it is worth the whole course of your days to admire it in and you can never enough It will appear yet the more by the glory that accompanies it It is a glorious priviledge indeed even admirable for its glory Even in all the senses we take the words 't is 5. a Glorious Priviledge Glorious to be Sains they are heirs of Glory Glorious to be Saints in Churches for the Angels that are there 1 Cor. xi 10. to wait upon us and carry up our Prayers for the beauty of holiness that is seated there for the God of Glory whose presence is more glorious there But it is without comparison to be Saints in Glory Grace is the portion of Saints that 's one ray of Glory The Church the House of God is the Gate of Heaven Gen. xxviii 17. that 's the entrance into Glory What then is Heaven it self What is it to enter there into the very Throne of the King of Glory Lift up your heads O ye Gates lift up your heads and let us poor things in to see the King of Glory the Hill of the Lord can be no other then a Hill of Glory His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of Glory And being such you cannot imagine it 6. but hard to come by the very petty glories of the World are so This is a Hill of Glory hard to climb difficult to ascend craggy to pass up steep to clamber no plain campagnia to it the broad easie way leads some whether else St. Mat. vii 13. the way to this is narrow ver 14. 't is rough and troublesome To be of the number of Christs true faithful servants is no slight work 't is a fight 't is a race 't is a continual warfare fastings and watchings and cold and nakedness and hunger and thirst bands imprisonments dangers and distresses ignominy and reproach afflictions and persecutions the worlds hatred and our friends neglect all that we call hard or difficult is to be found in the way we are to go A man cannot leave a lust shake off bad company quit a course of sin enter upon a way of vertue profess his Religion or stand to it cannot ascend the spirtual Hill but he will meet some or other of these to contest and strive with But not only to ascend but to stand there as the word signifies to continue at so high a pitch to be constant in Truth and Piety that will be hard indeed and bring more difficulties to contrast with And yet to rise up to keep to that Translation that is to rise up in the defence of holy ways of our Religion is harder still to bloud it may come at last but to sweat it comes presently cold and hot sweats too fears and travels that 's the least to be expected Nor is it easie as it often proves to gain places to serve God in Temples are long in building that of Hierusalem 64 years together Great preparation there was by David and Solomon to that before and no little to the rearing of the Tabernacle It was 300 years and upward that Christianity was in the World before the Christians could get the priviledges of Sanctuaries and Churches The more ought we sure to value them that we come so hardly by them We would make more of the priviledge if we considered what pains and cost and time they cost how unhandsom Religion looks without them how hard it is to perform many of the holy offices where we want them how hard it would be to keep Religion in the minds of men if all our Churches should be made nests of Owls and Dragons and beds of Nettles and Thistles Yet I confess it is hard too to enter into those holy places with the reverence that becomes them to rise up holy there Every one that comes into the Church does not ascend he leaves his soul too oft below comes but in part his body that gets up the Hill the mind lies grovelling in the Valley amongst his Grounds and Cattel Nor may every one be said to rise up or stand in his holy place that stand or sits there in it unless his thoughts rise there unless his attention stands erect and stedfast up to Heaven when he is there he is indeed in the place but he unhallows it it is no longer holy in respect of him He must ascend in heart and soul raise up eyes and hands voice and attention too that can be properly said to ascend into the Hill of the Lord or rise up in his holy place Which how hard it is the very stragling of our own thoughts there will tell us we need not go to the Prophet to find a people that sit there as if they were Gods people and yet are not that hear his Word and stand not to it that raise up their voices and yet their hearts are still beneath We can furnish our selves with a number too great of such enow to tell us how hard it is to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and rise up in his holy place so few do it And if these two ascensions be so hard what 's the third the very righteous are scarcely sav'd 1 Pet. iv 18. If by any means I may says St. Paul 1 Cor. ix 27. supposes he may not he is afraid at least after all his Preaching he should become a cast-away fall short of the goal miss the Crown come short of the top of the Hill of the holy Place So hard a thing is Heaven so clogg'd are the wings of our soul so heavy and drossie are our spirits and our earth so earthy that it is hard to ascend so high We feel we find it and they but deceive themselves that think 't is but a running leap into Heaven a business to be done wholly or easily upon our Death-beds when we can
nor stir nor raise up our selves or our heads Who shall ascend Whatever question it is it is most certainly an assertion of difficulty Who shall ascend no man can read it but he will read hardness in the ascending And yet it would be harder but for the last consideration of the words that 't is a kind of admiration of the Prophets at the foresight of Christs Ascension He in his spirit foresaw his Saviour climb this Hill and wonder'd â—t it From his ascending some of the difficulty is abated He has led one way â—â—ac'd a path open'd a door into Heaven unto all Believers so we us'd to sing in the Te Deum I need not tell you he has ascended in all the senses of the words no height of holiness but he has none frequenter in the Temple than he was none in Heaven till he came thither He the first that made our dull earth ascend so high He rose and ascended up on high without the least help of metaphor or figure rose from the Grave ascended into the Hill aâ—cended thence into the Hill of the Lord stands there at his right hand St. Stephen saw him so Acts â—ii 53. Never said Prophet any thing that more punctually fell out than this he may well admire it and so may we Yea and praise him too To him we owe all our Ascensions all the height and ascensions of our spirits in grace and goodness all our priviledges to worship him in holy places all our assurances and hopes of Heaven and the possession of it His rising raises us his ascending makes us ascend He the only prime singular one we only as parts and members of him What is then left us to do What for all this priviledge Why if Christs grace and Gods Worship and Heaven it self be such priviledges I hope we will not be so silly to forgo them or betray them Seeing they be so high ones we cannot be so unworthy now to do any thing beneath them any base or unworthy thing Being holy ones too we will not be so profane to pollute our selves or them with lusts and sacriledges Being so admirable priviledges all we cannot certainly but adore Gods mercy in them Being glorious ones too we must glorifie him for them count all things dross and dung in comparison of them Being yet hard to come by the more need we have to labour for them set all our powers make it all our work to get them to get grace and worship and glory to ascend the hill and holy place with all holiness as the way to glory In a word seeing all this priviledge comes by Christ 't is him we are to thank and serve and worship upon his own hill and in his own holy place till the time come till we ascend in glory And yet there is something more behind the way to this hill the conditions required to obtain this priviledge what we are to perform that we may attain it To have clean hands and pure hearts minds not lift up to vanity and mouths that will not swear to deceive our neighbour For he only shall ascend into the hill of the Lord he only shall rise up in his holy place he only is a true Believer he only truly worships God when he comes to Church to worship he only shall go to Heaven that hath clean hands c. THE FIRST SERMON UPON Whitsunday St. JOHN iii. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit THe wind bloweth And this day it blew to purpose A mighty rushing wind there was that this day fill'd the House where the Disciples were assembled Acts ii 2. And it blew truly where it listed when it blew only in that Chamber where they were And the sound of it was heard sufficiently when Parthians and Medes and Elamites the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Iudea in Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphilia in Aegypt and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene and strangers of Rome Iews and Proselites Cretes and Arabians all of them this day heard it fram'd into articulate voices into Tongues as many and divers as the Countries they came from Yet could not any of them tell whence this wind blew whence these sounds came for they were all amazed and in doubt saying one to another What meaneth this ver 12. Nor could the Disciples themselves but in general that from heaven it came nor whither it went when it retired from them This Day then was this Text fulfilled in your ears O happy Disciples Nicodemus might to day by experiment understand what in this Chapter he could not apprehend the Wind and Spirit both together and feel the workings of them both there both in one descent together though here he did not when they were put in one word together where whether Spiritus Ventus or Spiritus Spiritus both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were understood Expositors have disputed and it stands yet upon the question The Ancients restrained the words to the holy Spirit and translate it Spiritus The Modern Expositors to the Wind and translate it Ventus To do both right we shall joyn both senses understand the words as a similitude made by our blessed Saviour to instruct both Nicodemus and us in the ways of the Spirit and in the knowledge of the spiritual Regeneration by the likeness of the Wind. So two Simile's there will be in the Text. Sicut Ventus sic Spiritus and Sicut spiritus sic spiritualis The First Similitude is between the Wind and the Spirit The Second between the Spirit and the spiritual man or him that is born of the Spirit In the similitude betwixt the Wind and the Spirit we shall observe I. The Nature of them both in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 breath or Wind or Spirit it signifies them all II. The Power and Operation both of the one and of the other they blow both of them where they list III. The Plainness of their sounds Thou hearest the sound thereof both of them easie enough to be heard IV. The Obscurity yet of both their Motions ye know of neither of them whence they come or whither they go According to these four points will the second similitude be extended too He that is born of the Spirit will be like the Spirit in all four In his Nature in his Operations in his Plainness in some particulars and his Obscurity in others So is every one that is born of the Spirit But to tell you fully the true Condition of him that is born of the Spirit I must tell you first the Nature the Operations and the Properties of the Spirit And to tell you the Nature the Operations and the Properties of the Spirit I must shew you also those of the Wind that so by the more perfect discovery of them we may the more perfectly admire them and
Houses and Buildings nay rends the Mountains and breaks in pieces the Rocks before it 1 Kings xix 11. But never did Wind so tear up Foundations by the roots never did so strong Buildings fall before that tumultuous vapour as this rushing mighty Wind that this day came down from Heaven hath cast down before it All the high things of the earth Wisdom and Learning and Might and Majesty have faln as easily as so many Paper Turrets at its breath all have given up themselves and thrown all prostrate at the Word of this Spirit so that the whole World stood wondring and amaz'd to see it self so turn'd about by the meer words of a few simple Fishermen without force or eloquence or craft to see it self so tamely submit its glory to the humility of Christ its greatness to his littleness its majesty to his baseness its wisdom to the foolishness of his Cross its ease pleasure to the pains and patience of it But manus excelsi fecit hoc 't is the hand of the most Highest that has done it such a wind could come from none but God such a Spirit can be none but his none but he could do it and it is marvellous in our eyes his power as marvellous as his mercy both of them above any created ones whatsoever Well may such a Wind as this now fill the house as it follows in the fifth Consideration And yet commonly the wind fills the open air and not the houses Common winds do so indeed but this peculiar Wind fills the house and every corner comes in even when the doors are shut or else opens and shuts them as it pleases a sign 't is more than air or airy spirit 't is he only that searches the hearts and reins that can glide so into these close rooms of ours and 't is our happiness it is so that he thus blows into the house of his own accord and power For give me a Ship says St. Chrysostom with all its tackling sails and anchors spread all in order too and let the wind lie still let there be no gale stirring and all its furniture and men are nothing no more is the soul with all its preparations without the blowing of the Spirit nay no more is all our eloquence all our arguments and perswasions the subtilty of our understanding the richness of our conceipt and notion the sweetness of the voice the rhetorick of words the strength of reason the whole tackling and furniture of the Orator or Preacher unless the Spirit come and fill the sail and stretch the canvas and so drive on the Vessel 'T is this implevit we must hold by 't is his filling our empty house our lank and lither sails that blows comfort to us And 't is the enhancing of the benefit which is the last considerable in this similitude of the wind that it fills the house only where they are sitting It is no ordinary or common favour that God vouchsafes in filling our houses with the Spirit he hath not dealt so with any other Nation with any other people than the Christian people It is the Church only and the souls of Christians in it that this mighty wind as rushing and mighty as it is does content and contain it self in All other houses and places stand empty cannot get this Tenant 'T is the property of this Wind and no other to blow where it lists in this house and no other within doors all within the Church none without at all or the sound of it only passes out to call others in that they may see and wonder at the things that are come to pass this day that Iews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians Parthians and Medes and all Nations under Heaven may beaâ— witness of the wonder and if they come in in some sort partake of it too of the wind though not of the tongues of some graces of the Spirit though not of the other Only come in they must into the Church of Christ which is his body before their veins be filled with this Spirit before they feel any motion of it Of the Wind I say such a portion of the Spirit as may breath into them the breath of life but tongues of fire are for those only who were sitting there before fitting as Governors of the Church to whom that baptism of fire was promised who were bid to tarry and expect it and when so enabled to go abroad then and use their tongues and blow the flames of divine love and charity through the World I should now proceed to these miraculous tongues the second representment of the Holy Spirit And me thinks I am unwilling to leave them unspoken of to which we ow our speech But your ears are already filled with the wind yet I hope 't is the proper wind of the day and the sound of it shall not vanish as the wind as ordinary winds and sounds nor my words as the soft air So much the rather in that this Point of the wind comes more home to us than that other of the tongues Tongues were for them that believe not says the Apostle but the Wind the rushing mighty Wind from Heaven to cast down all the strong holds of Sin and Satan for them that believe even for us all The fiery tongues concern the Apostles as a miraculous enabling of them to the work of the Apostleship to the preaching and divulging the Gospel of Christ but the breath and blowing of the Spirit concerns all Christians whatsoever under every notion To that our proper tenure is from this Wind nay so much the more because it is the breath of the Spirit not the tongue that makes us Christian the wind like that in Ezekiel quickens our dead bones into the life of Christ and by it we live to our own Salvation by the tongues only to anothers So having gotten our share already in this Wind from Heaven we may the easier bear the deferring of the discourse of the tongues thence And truly if we can now get the Spirit to blow upon these dead elements and quicken them to us into the body and blood of Christ we shall quickly by the vertue of that blood of the Vine speak with new tongues the Spirit will give utterance and we shall sing the praises of the Lord. That should be indeed the whole business of our tongues to day to be as loud as the loudest wind in our Thanksgivings O ye winds of God bless ye the Lord say the three Children in the fire O ye Children of the Lord bless ye the Lord in the Wind say I in this mighty rushing Wind acknowledge his goodness admire his power confess his praise who thus blows the sparks of grace up in us who clenses our souls from all impure airs and vapours who scatters the clouds of sorrow shews us the fairest face of Heaven who cools and refreshes and revives and purges us and wafts us to our heavenly Countrey by this holy
to digest as well as tast there in the mouth is a kind of first digestion made Ruminate we then and meditate upon Christ when we have tasted him Let it be our business to spend much of our time and days henceforth in meditation of him that 's the way indeed to be filled with his Spirit while we thus digest him and chew upon him in our spirits Nor is 3. fire improper any way to bring to that holy Table The fire of charity is to kindle our devotion there to warm our affections and desires to it There 4. our tongues are to be warm'd into praises that they may run a nimble descant upon his benefits and move apace to the glory of his Name Thus are our tongues to be imployed and thus is the fire to be kindled in us that we may speak with our tongues This is the way to be filled with the Holy Spirit this blessed Sacrament the means to it Come thou therefore O blessed Spirit into our hearts and tongues lighten our understanding with thy heavenly light warm our affections with thy holy fire purge away all our dross burn up all our chaff renew our spirits separate our sins and evils from us unite us in thy love subdue us to thy self teach our hearts to think our tongues to speak our hands to act our feet to move only to thy will settle thy self in us hence forward and dwell with us so teach us with all our tongues and powers to praise thee here upon earth that we may one day praise thee with them in Heaven for evermore A SERMON UPON Trinity Sunday REV. IV. 8. And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come I Need not stretch the Text to reach the Time The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy Holy Holy in it is plain enough to teach the Trinity An Anthem sung here by the Angels and Saints in heaven done so here also by four of the chief Apostles and the Bishops of Iudea signified by the four beasts and twenty four Elders taken up after generally by the Saints on earth commended to us by the Church to day as our Epistle sent from heaven with a pattern in it for our Hymns and Praises to the blessed Trinity Lord God Almighty For 't is a part I must tell you of one of St. Iohn's Visions presenting to us what is done in heaven what Good would have done on earth and what should there be done ere long throughout it beginning at Hierusalem Glory and honour and thanks should be given unto God for the wonders he was doing for his servants for the deliverance he was working for his Church for the judgments he was bringing on their enemies as glory had been of old given him by his Saints and Prophets was now given him by his Apostles and Bishops so it should be given still by the whole Christian Church for ever as he himself was and is and is to come so was his praise and is and is to come we therefore all to learn to bear our parts in that heavenly Anthem against the time we come thither to bear them company Example you see we have here set before us to do it by and a form to do it in better we cannot wish the four Beasts or Cherubims Angels Saints and the Apostles there 's our Pattern for they rest not day and night saying it and Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is and is to come there 's the form we best do it in In each Part we shall observe a kind of Trinity or three Parts in each In the Pattern 1. the Persons 2. their earnestness and 3. their continuance 1. The persons praising God and saying it They the four beasts or living creatures as the words tell us just before 2. Their earnestness in it They rest not saying they cannot rest for saying it cannot rest without the saying it unless they say it say it over and over Holy Holy Holy cannot rest but doing it that 's their rest they take their praising God ◠Their continuance at it day and night it is and without rest and pause is it they are continually doing it saying and doing all to his honour and glory In the Form of Praise we have a sort of Trinity too three things observable 1. The glory or honour given Holy Holy Holy 2. The Persons to whom it is Lord God Almighty Father Son and Holy Ghost yet all three in one one single Lord one only God one alone Almighty and no more so there 's the Vnity in Trinity into the bargain And 3. here are the benefits intimated we praise him for He was our Creator He is our Redeemer He will be our Glorifier So you see Trinities enough in the Text to make it Trinity Sunday in it to fill all the Trinity Sundays after it The sum is that we are all to bear our parts in this holy Doxology to give glory and honour and power to the blessed Trinity with the four beasts and four and twenty Elders from time to time for evermore and that which may here serve well to perswade us to it is the Company and with them we will begin And they c. But who are they The beginning of the verse tells us the four beasts or as it may more genuinely and handsomly be translated the four living creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but what or who are they That 's the question and a hard one too it seems by the variety of opinions probably to be answered rather by conjecture than resolution We shall take the likeliest of them and pass the rest 1. Some by the four living Creatures this they would have the four Cardinal vertues understood by the Lion fortitude by the Calf or Oxe justice by the Eagle temperance and by the Man prudence And then the sense will be that God is most signally prais'd and glorified by a vertuous life no way like that to praise him To do righteousness to walk wisely to live soberly to stand stoutly to God and goodness that 's the true way to give glory to the whole Trinity 2. Others by the four living Creatures apprehend the four chief faculties of our souls to be insinuated with which we are to praise him The irascible intimated by the Lion the concupiscible by the Oxe the rational by the face of man and the Spirit by the Eagle And here the Lesson is that we are to do it to praise God with all our powers set our affections and desires upon it be moved and angry at every thing that comes in to hinder it search all the means our reason can find out to perfect praise and raise up our Spirits upon Eagles wings to perform it to the highest pitch 3. Some by these four conceive the whole world consisting of the four Elements represented to us as praising God The fire by the Lion whose nature is hot
our pleasures and vagaries our mirths and vanities our successes and prosperities to steal away the time we are to spend in giving God thanks and glory for them Nor 2. to permit our selves so much time to the reflection upon our griefs and troubles as to omit the praising God that they are no worse and that he thus fatherly chastises us to our bettering and amendment does all to us for the best Yet not to cease praising him day and night seems still to have some difficulty to understand it The Angels perhaps that neither eat nor drink nor sleep nor labour they may do it but how shall poor man compass it Why first Imprint in thy soul a fixt and solid resolution to direct all thy words and actions to his glory Renew it 2. every day thou risest and every night thou liest down Renounce 3 all by-ends and purposes that shall at any time creep in upon thee to take the praise and honour to thy self Design 4. thy actions as often as thou canst particularly to Gods service with some short offering them up to Gods will and pleasure either to cross or prosper them and when they be done say Gods Name be praised for them And lastly omit not the times of Prayer and Praise either in publick or in private but use thy best diligence to observe them to be constant and attentive at them Thus with the Spouse in the Canticles when we sleep our hearts awake and whether we eat or drink or walk or talk or whatsoever we do we do all to the glory of God and may be said to praise him day and night and not cease saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And so I come to the second General The form here set us to praise him in In which first we have to consider the glory it self that is expresly given him Holy Holy Holy To speak right indeed the whole sentence is nothing else yet this evidently referring to that of Isai. vi 3. where the Seraphims use this first part in their Hymn of praise I conceive this the chief and most remarkable part of of it which may therefore bear the name before the rest Now this saying Holy Holy Holy is attributing all purity perfection and glory to God as to the subject of it himself and the original of it to others thereby acknowledging him only to be worship'd and ador'd So that saying thus we say all good of him and all good from him to our selves Thrice 't is repeated which according to the Hebrew custom is so done to imprint it the deeper in our thoughts and may serve us as a threefold cord which is not easily broken to draw us to it But another reason the Fathers give And it is 1. they say to teach us the knowledge of the holy and blessed Trinity Indeed why else thrice and no less or more Why follows Lord God Almighty three more words why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three yet again and yet but three who was who is who is to come Why do the Seraphims in Isaiah say no more yet say so too Why have we in the following verses Glory and Honour and Thanks ver 9. and Glory and Honour and Power so punctually thrice and thrice only offered to them How came it to be so universally celebrated throughout the World and put into all the Catholik Liturgies every where words fall not from Angels and Angelical Spirits by chance or casually The holy Penmen write not words hap hazard Nor is it easie to conceive so hard a doctrine so uneasie to reason should be so generally and humbly entertain'd but by some powerful working of Gods Spirit This may be enough to satisfie us that the blessed Trinity is more then obscurely pointed out to us here And 2. to be sure the Fountain of all Holiness is here pointed to us that we may learn to whom to go for grace that we may see we our selves are but unholy things that nothing is in it self pure or holy none but God And 3. it points us out what we should be Be ye holy as I am holy says God No way otherwise to come near him no way else to come so near him as to give him thanks for out of polluted lips he will not take them For in the second place the Lord God Almighty it is we are to give this glory to The three Persons here me thinks are evident however God the Father the Lord the Son and the Almighty Spirit that made all things that does but blow and the waters flow that does but breath and man lives that with the least blast does what he will Yet these three it seems are still but one one Lord and one God and one Spirit Ephes. iv 4 5 6. all singulars here nounes verbs articles and participles all in the singular number here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we might see though a Trinity there be to be believed yet 't is in unity though three Personalities but one Nature though three Persons but one God All the scruple here can but arise from the setting Lord the Son before God the Father but that 's quickly answered when they tell you there is none here afore or after other none greater and lesser than another and therefore no matter at all for the order here where all is one and one is all Lord God Almighty Yet now to encourage us the better to our Praises and Thanksgivings see we in the last place the benefits they here praise him for and they are intimated to us in the close of all Who was and is and is to come In the first we understand the benefit of our creation God it was that created us In the second we read the benefit of our Redemption the Lord it is that redeems us daily pardons and delivers us In the third we have the benefit of our Glorification still to come the Holy Spirit here sealing us and hereafter enstating us in glory In them all together we may in brief see as in a Prospect that all the benefits we have received heretofore he was the Author of them that all the mercies we enjoy he is the Fountain of them that all the joys or good we hope for he is the donour of them he was he is he must be the bestower of them all without him nothing he was and is and will be to us all in all And now sure though I have not the time to specifie all the mercies we enjoy from this blessed Lord God Almighty and indeed had I all time I could not and all tongues Si mihi sint linguae centum sint oraque centum I could not yet we cannot but in gross at least take up a Song of Praise for altogether say somewhat towards it Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty holy in our Creation Holy in our Redemption holy in our Sanctification Holy in Heaven holy in Earth holy under the Earth
ever This last indeed is beyond proportion eternity for time all blessings for a few Precepts the wine of Angels for abstinence from the bloud of the Vine for want of houses upon earth eternal dwellings in the heavens You see the Reward is full of blessings I shall observe their triple proportion in running over them 1. Such then first is the Reward of their Obedience that it lengthens days The world thinks it shortens them if by it you take away any thing from your flesh bate any thing of your diet either in quantity or quality when the King or Church commands to do so 'T was not so here and without doubt it is not Obedience hath the promise of length of days in the Commandment 'T was the reason that Ionadab gave his Sons to obey him ver 7. That you may live many days It was a blessing of long days upon themselves That 's the First But it ends not so Upon their children too reaches to them is a blessing of succession This is to live beyond our selves to sprout afresh out of the dust to have posterity And a Posterity that shall not fail wither or crumble away that 's more If it be a male succession 't is more still Non deficiet vir not a man fail you Female generations lose the name and so the succession fails even while it lasts It does almost so when it passeth into a collateral line This fails not that way neither Not vir de stirpe it continues in a direct line from the root Tremellius's Translation sets it higher Non exscindetur vir Of all this Progeny there shall not so much as a man be cut off Die they must by the necessity of nature but not a man cut off by violence that however it far'd with the captive Jews in Babylon not any of these should fail there but return to their Tents in peace that a fair and even succession it should be that after many days pass on calmly and quietly to their Fathers tombs in peace gathered to their Fathers 'T is well this such a blessing upon Posterity But when not only succeeding generations participate the blessing but Ionadab and his Father Rechab too passed Ancestors receive a new accession of glory by it this is a blessing not upon the Sons only but upon deceased Fathers too And all this you may look for upon the like obedience A long life a lasting a continued a male a lineal an unblemish'd Posterity all redounding back again to your own glory This the first proportion that which is given for your Obedience to your Father 2. The second is greater stans in conspectu a Posterity high enough to be seen placed in the eye of the world men famous and renowned in their Generations This is but to stand on high before the Kings and Princes of the earth In conspectu meo is higher that stands before God a Posterity as virtuous as honourable Stand before him and in place near him near his Sanctuary the place of his presence plac'd there so it seems 1 Chron. ii 5. Placed on high and near him as near as the title of Gods can make them made Judges of the earth so stare in conspectu is sometimes interpreted This is a second proportion answering to their obedience to commands They shall be Commanders Under command they kept now they are above it above the people equal with the Princes of the earth A famous a pious an honourable Posterity the second reward of Obedience 3. All this is much exceeding much Yet honour and virtue are created things and therefore mutable may fail at last Theirs shall not Stans in conspectu In honour they shall be and in honour they shall stand In virtue they shall be and in virtue they shall stand standing is a posture of continuance Stand and stand in his sight dear as the apple of his eye That must not be touched no more must they and then nothing can change them to be sure Cunctis diebus puts all out of question They shall stand so all their days says the Text. What speak I of days Stand so for ever continue ever Christians succeed into their order and obedience they survive into Christians live in them for ever When succession shall have done successive motions have their periods and all days shall have an end yet then Ionadab shall not want a man to stand then before him and see his face for ever This is indeed the last Reward a firm a perpetual an eternal succession And now we are come up to the tops of the Mountains the everlasting hills Eternity is a Circle and there we wind about in everlasting rounds There we turn about to the beginning of the verse the Lord speaking and confirming all that so the certainty may embrace with the eternity That you may see I tell you no more than God himself will make good Thus saith the Lords of Hosts the God of Israel He hath promised it and shall he not bring it to pass He has said it and shall it not be done Said it by his Prophet and Prophesie though it sometime wants light yet never certainty He engageth his honour Thus saith the Lord Kings will not fail upon the word of their honour He engageth his power Thus saith the Lord of Hosts he that doth what he will in heaven and earth He engageth his goodness his tried experienced goodness Thus saith the God of Israel their God who can witness he never broke his promise nor fail'd his word But doth God take care only for the Rechabites Or says he it for your sake too For yours also doubtless 't is the Reward of Obedience where ere it is found as it is in the Text. Will you give me leave to enquire Has the King at any time commanded some of your superfluities and has he obtain'd them have you been content to part with any of your delights in diet apparel in your houses to endure some abridgments to obey him to supply him Have the Inferiour Magistrates demanded the execution of the Laws and have you assisted them Has the Church required your presence your order and assistance for I speak not now of your private Fathers and can you say with these Rechabites we have obeyed and kept all their Precepts and done according to all that hath been commanded us Then and not till then dare I warrant you You and your seed shall stand before him for ever For it is not a Reward only to private and personal obedience but the obedience of Cities of Nations too Obedient Cities and Kingdoms as well as Families shall not want men to stand before him for ever but disobedient and rebellious shall For Kingdoms Cities and Countries have their fates and when they have rent this bond of union that kept them to their head they must expect their Funerals You then to look to it Remember that of the Prophet How is the faithful City become a harlot