and harmless to him and at last he was fain to tell the men of the Land that they were metamorphosed into beasts and into the worst kind of all O ye Generations of vipers c. Son of man says God to Ezekil thou dwellest among Scorpions But Son of God thou didst die and wert crucified among Scorpions he changed for the worser company when he came from the beasts in the champion fields to the Pharisees in Jerusalem But to what a diminution of his excellency did Christ descend To what a low fall from that glory which was due unto him To be cast out from among the company of Angels into a desart to be a companion of beasts He before whom thousand thousands are said to minister and ten thousand thousands are said to stand before him Dan. vii 10. Instead of this Royal Train none but the savage cattel compass him round about His humility is the expiation of our pride he consorts with beasts that we may have fellowship with Angels He lives peaceably with Wolves and Tygers to obtain grace for us through the merit of his obedience that our brutish affections may be subject to reason and to the Law of God So St. Hierom made me bold with this Allegory Tunc bestiae nobiscum sunt cum caro non concupiscit adversus spiritum Then we and the beasts live quietly together when the Flesh doth not covet against the Spirit None of these descants which I have drawn from the best antiquity upon Christs removing into the Wilderness but were fit to be noted I have my own share to cast in that herein Christ was a lively exhibition of the Type of the Scape Goat of which you shall read a strange Ceremony Lev. xvi 20. The High Priest was not to come at all times into the holy place within the Vail no more than once a year First he was to offer a Bullock for a sin-offering for himself then he was to present two Kids of the Goats before the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle according as the lot fell the one Goat was slain and his bloud sprinkled within the Vail As for the other this Ceremony was appointed Aaron put both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and did confess all the iniquities of the children of Israel over him and did put them upon the head of the Goat and the Goat did bear away their Iniquities into a Land not inhabited and he was let go into the Wilderness The Learned in their best conjectures do expound it after this sort in an Allegory By the Goat which was slain and sacrificed they understand the Humane Nature of Christ for Christ suffered only in his flesh By the Scape-goat they understand his Divine Nature for according to his Divinity he could not die he could not be crucified and yet it was the infinite value of that nature that bore away all our Iniquities For as God could not suffer for sin so man alone could not satisfie for sin Thus by very good Analogy our Saviour Christ is the Scape-goat upon whose head we laid all our sins And the better to give light to this Mystery he was really sent into the Wilderness in my Text to put us in mind that the Goat which was sent away into a Land uninhabited was a Type of him and therefore St. Mark speaks of a violent expulsion Expulit eum in desertum The Spirit did drive him into the Wilderness A little spoken concerning these Typical shadows will quickly rise to enough I come to that Doctrine which is aptest to conclude the first general part of my Text how Christ made himself often a stranger to this world and shewed it by retiring unto unfrequented places Quasi in mundo extra mundum ageret says one as if he minded another world much more when he lived in this His flesh was not ill pampered or fatned for sin and yet he fasted His integrity was untaintable ill examples could not seduce him the viciousness of the age could not infect him yet he drew back sometimes from those scandalous contagions as if he had said to one of us or to every one of us give thy soul such respite sometimes that it may abandon all earthly cares for a time and have leisure to talk with God As Christ invites his Church from the empestring of multitudes of people and secular businesses Come my beloved let us go forth into the field let us lodge in the Villages Cant. vii 11. We had need of longer Vacations than Terms more rest to serve God than stirring days to enrich our selves that we may ask God forgiveness at leisure for the sins which we did commit in our business Come ye apart into a desart place and rest awhile says our Saviour to his Disciples Mar. vi 31. All cannot receive this saying you will say all have not the way and opportunity to retire themselves bodily from the conflux of the world but there is a way for every man that his mind may pluck it self out of the throng and adhere to God So St. Cyprian bears off all objections from this exhortation Etsi omnes diversorium non excipiat loci animi tamen omnino necessaria est solitudo All men cannot cast the World behind their back and go alone into remote places but it is necessary for the heart of every man to say often my God and I am alone together I am solitary with him often in the midst of troubles God hath made man a sociable creature if the contagion of the world doth not make him unsociable Who can live with patience or comfort where he sees the Creator of Heaven and Earth dishonoured daily No reverence in the lips of children but swearing and prophanation No faithfulness in mens words but deceit and guile The trust of Guardians turn'd to supplantation the league of Friendship turn'd to treachery the bond of Wedlock so impiously so often wronged in Adultery Whom can the Living trust for righteous dealing Whom can the dying trust for an upright Executor What good man doth not feel the passions of Lot within himself at the recital of these things His soul vext with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites and therefore from thence he was glad to fly and retire to Zoar This made the Prophet Jeremy complain O ye that dwell in Moab leave the Cities and dwell in the Rock Chap. xlviii 28. Fuge seculi mare naufragium non timebis says St. Ambrose Sail away into some little streams and leave that Ocean of ungodliness which is in the most frequented places and ye shall not fear Shipwrack St. Basil extols it in the height of Gorgias the Martyr his praise that he left his native soil and all society and made the desolate woods his habitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he detested the buyers and sellers the forswearers and liars I told you before that Eremitical solitariness was much in danger of tentation but one
wouldst make an Advocate It is in his own power to raise up thy Brother after four days Two days our Saviour abode beyond Jordan after Lazarus was dead and after he set forward to Bethany he made two days Journey of it before he came to the place all this while the Prisoner was fast lockt up under the Gates of Death Belike Lazarus could not be released till Christ came unto the Cave where he was laid No such necessity Beloved Vbicunque Christus steterat patebant inferi Hell must open her mouth in any place where Christ did set his foot nay in any place where he should but say unto the Grave I will be thou opened Therefore another Reason must be given why Lazarus staid until the fourth day for his Enlargement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom Jonas and Lazarus both were Servants they must not jump with Christ in the same Privileges in every thing then the Servant should be equal with his Master Jonas came out of the Whales Belly the third day so did Christ out of the Tomb but Jonas was alive and Christ was dead there was the Difference between the Servant and the Master Christ rose from the dead and so did Lazarus but Christ the third day and Lazarus the fourth there 's the Difference between the Master and the Servant The Resurrection of the dead is an Article of the Creed ingendred in the heart by a very strong Faith 't is mirabilium mirificentia as one says The astonishment of all admiration and when it shall be reported by the Women that an Angel told them it the best of them all will doubt Thomas and many more will flatly deny it What deny that Christ could quicken himself the third day when he raised up Lazarus the fourth Lazarus was unto Christ as Aaron's Rod was unto Aaron The Sedition of Dathan and Abiram opposed Aaron and would not acknowledge him to be the High Priest That shall be tried says the Lord and Aaron's Rod which was a dry stick budded buds and bloomed blossoms as if it had been living more than all the other Rods of the Tribes of Israel So Lazarus was laid up in the Cave like the Rod of Aaron in the Tabernacle and when his life was restored the fourth day it proved that Christ could build up the Temple again in three days which they had pluckt down before What shall we say then That the Resurrection was more wonderful in Lazarus by one day than in Christ himself Nothing less For Christ was raised up by his own power and Lazarus by the power of Christ Christs death was violent his very heart as some think was digg'd through with the Souldiers Spear Lazarus his death was natural and no principal part of his body was wounded or impaired Si aliud videtur vobis mortuus aliud videtur occisus if it be one thing to die in the peace of nature and another thing to be made away by violence Ecce Dominus utrumque fecit here are examples of both that returned to life Christ the third day from the death of violence Lazarus the fourth day from the death of nature both are from the Lord. As a Servant said of an unlucky day wherein all things went cross huic diei oculos eruere vellem he vished the Sun had never shined upon it So this fourth day hath not a little troubled Satan Upon the fourth day Gen. i. 14. God set lights in the Firmament to what end to divide the day from the night and the light from the darkness Periisti Satana this is a fatal day with the Devil who would have mingled night with day and darkness with light but now his works are discovered The fourth year hath been as climacterical unto him and as much out of his way in the 13. of St. Luke and the 7. verse These three years says the Lord of the Vineyard I have lookt for fruit and find none now I will cut down the Vine nay says the Dresser of the Vineyard stay but this year also and the fourth there are hopes it will bring forth grapes and please the Lord. To say thus much for our Evangelist St. John the fourth Evangelist gave the shrewdest blow to the stratagems of Satan and hath so prov'd the Divinity of Christ almost in every verse that Ebion and Cerinthus were confounded and Heresie is proved a lyar to her face for ever Even so was this number critical unto death in the Resurrection of Lazarus three days he was given for lost and upon the fourth day Christ cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth There is a moral sense besides that whereof I have spoken and that is like fine flower boulted out of the Letter and it yields like the bread which our Saviour broke to the multitude and will satisfie thousands Death was the reward of sin In that Lazarus was dead and buried I read the Parable of a sinner upon his Sepulcher In that he was four days dead he must be magnus peccator says St. Austin no small offender can be meant by that but a grievous sinner Where have you laid him says Christ O what a dreadful question is that Lord know me for one of thy children but know me for a sinner rather than not know me at all Let it not be said unto me Depart from me I know you not Projectus sum à facie oculorum tuorum says David in the person of a castaway I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes Perditum nescit ubi sit it is Gods language he pretends he sees not them he knows not them that were lost Adam where art thou says God O Adam that question had confounded thee if Christ had not answer'd for thee Loe I come Where are the other nine says Christ of the Lepers de ingratis quasi ignotis loquitur ungrateful men were not in Christs Book he knows not what becoms of them nor whither they wander so to enquire of Lazarus as if he knew not where he was laid is to set him forth as the similitude of a great sinner ubi posuistis where have you laid him nay but this agrees not perchance with his Sisters message He whom thou lovest is sick and again See how he loved him Yes it agrees full well Si peccatores non amaret Deus de coelo non descenderet it was out of a most compassionate love that God descended from heaven to save sinners Behold he lov'd him and yet Lazarus stands for the Parable of a sinner That foundation is laid and then you shall know the better what is meant by lying four days in the Sepulcher First we are all dead born man as soon as he sees the light his heart is in darkness he brings the seeds of original sin with his frail flesh into the world and then he is dead one day 2. Nature hath dictated a Law unto us The Gentiles are a Law unto themselves sais St.
the bones of them that have been or shall be interred here rest in peace untill a joyful resurrection Let heavenly goodness be on all those that shall here be wedded in lawful Matrimony remembring it is the mystery of Christ and his Church made one with him O let the most Divine Sacrament of Christs Body broken and his Bloud shed for us be the savour of life unto all that receive it Sanctify to holy Calling such as shall be ordained Priests and Deacons by Imposition of hands And we heartily pray that thy Word preached within these walls may be delivered with that truth sincerity zeal and efficacy that it may reclaim the ungodly confirm the righteous and draw many to salvation through Jesus Christ c. BLessed and immortal Lord who stirrest up the hearts of thy faithful people to do unto thee true and laudable service we magnifie thy Grace and the inward working of thy holy Spirit upon the heart of our gracious Soveraign Lord King CHARLES his Highness James Duke of York and his most Religious Dutchess and all Dukes Dutchesses Nobles and Peers of this Realm with our most gracious Metropolitan and all Bishops and others of the holy Orders of the Clergy all Baronets Knights and Gentry Ladies and devout persons of that Sex and for all the Gentry and godly Commonalty for all Cities Burrows Towns and Villages who have bountifully contributed to re-edify and repair this ancient and beautiful Cathedral which was almost demolished by Sons of Belial But these thy large-hearted and bountiful servants have raised up this Holy Place to its former beauty and comliness again Lord recompence them all sevenfold into their bosom As they have bestowed their temporal things willingly and largely upon this holy place so recompence them with eternal things and with increase of earthly abundance as thou knowest to be most expedient for them Let the Generation of the faithful be blessed and let their memories be precious to all posterity O Lord this is thy Tabernacle it is thy House and not mans perfect it we beseech thee in that which is wanting to accomplish it And for all those thy choice servants whose charitable hands have given their oblation to raise up again this sacred Habitation which was pulled down by impious hands give them all thine eternal Kingdom for their Habitation Amen O Thou Holy One who dwellest in the highest Heavens and lookest down upon all thy servants and considerest the condition of all men now we have begun to speak to our Lord God who are but dust and ashes permit us to continue our prayers for the souls health and external prosperity of all those that are concerned in this place Be favourable and merciful to the most reverend Father in God Gilbert Lord Archbishop of Canterbury our most munificent Benefactor under whose Government we reap much peace good order and happiness O Lord be merciful to me thy Servant the most unworthy of them that wear a linnen Ephod yet by thy providence and his Majesties favour the Bishop of this Church and of the Diocess to which it belongs Be a loving God to the Dean Archdeacons Canon Residentiaries Prebendaries Vicars Coral and to all that belong to this Christian Foundation Bless them that live and are encompassed in the Close and Ground of this Cathedral Pour down the plentiful showers of thy bounteous goodness upon this neighbour City of Litchfield the Bailiffs Sheriff Aldermen all the Magistrates and all the Inhabitants thereof Lord we extend our petitions further that thou wilt please to bless all that pertain to this large Diocess for all the Clergy of it that they may be godly examples to their Flock that they may attend to Prayer to Preaching and to administer thy holy Sacraments and diligently to do all duties to those under their charge that are in health or sickness O Lord multiply thy blessings upon all Christian people in the several Shires and Districts belonging to the Government of this Bishoprick and keep us all O Lord in faith and obedience to thee in loyalty to our Soveraign in charity one toward another in submission to the good and orderly Discipline of the Church And save us from Heresies Schisms Fanatical separations and all scandals against the Gospel And guide us all to live as becometh us in the true Communion of Saints Grant all this O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake To whom with Thee and thy Holy Spirit be ascribed and given c. PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy holy Name and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Then the Bishop pronounced a solemn Blessing upon the whole Administration performed and upon all that were present Then followed the Service of Morning Prayer for that day two especial Anthems in extraordinary being added Provision was made instantly for Alms to the Poor And in a very stately Gallery which the Bishop erected in the House where he lived his Lordship annexed to the precedent Solemnity a Feast for three days First to feast all that belonged to the Choir and the Church together with the Proctors and other Officers of the Ecclesiastical Courts On a second day to remember God's great goodness in the restauration and reconciliation of the Church He feasted the Bailiffs Sheriff and all the Aldermen of the City of Lichfield On a third day to the same purpose in the same place He feasted all the Gentry Male and Female of the Close and City He would often afterwards give God thanks who had accepted him as an unworthy Instrument to build him an House that what he could not accomplish at Holbourn in his younger years when he was more able to take pains yet He had now enabled him to do in his old age and far worse times when he found by experience the Wars had exhausted not only the Wealth but Piety of the Nation and that it was far easier under Charles the First his Reign to raise an hundred pound to Pious Vses than now ten pounds So some observe that in the Primitive Church Charity ebb'd lower and lower till the stream quite dried up the first examples thereof were most bountiful to provoke the liberality of following Ages Barnabas gave all his Possessions and so did many others Ananias divided half or thereabouts but the next Age minced it to a considerable Legacy and then it fell to Charity in small money afterwards to good words only as St. James sayes and I pray be comforted sed ecquid tinnit Dolabella seldom one cross or coyn dropt from them the like he observ'd in our own Church in the Ages past and present when Christianity was first planted among us our glorious Founders built Colledges and Cathedral Churches the next rank of Benefactors endowed Schools and Parishes after Ages gave
prompt him with this remembrance be not a blemish to the glory of thy Father in Heaven So much for that part of the Testimony Christ is the eternal Son of God and by him we are called to adoption of Sons Now the Spirit could not stay here but proceeds to glorifie him further This is my beloved Son This is my beloved and thou art my beloved we read it both ways in several Evangelists Ne uno modo dictum minùs intelligatur says St. Austin that the words expressed two manner of ways might be more clearly intelligible Thou art my beloved Son and this is my beloved Son do admonish us two things out of this diversity both that the Father is highly pleased in his Son and that in him he is well pleased with us for his Sons sake For he hath accepted us in the beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. i. 6. This title of beloved is three ways agreeable to Christ 1. Super omnes dilectus est à patre That above all things he is beloved of the Father an infinite love must needs result upon the begetting of an infinite wisdom Amor Deum gubernat amoris omne regnum est the heathen were wont to sing it and knew no reason for it but we know why that God himself was ruled by love love swayed all things in the world God himself is ruled by love that is the Father is intreated by the merits of his Son to break the yoak of his own justice from off our necks and hath put the dominion of life and death into his hands that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow as if he chiefly delighted in the honour of his Son The Schoolmen acutely assign him the preheminence of the Father above all things with this distinction that he was Dilectus quia filius not Filius quia dilectus Beloved because he was a Son and not made a Son because he was beloved which is the condition of them that are adopted Secondly Christ is Paterni amoris erga nos argumentum the proof of Gods exceeding love to us for so God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that who so believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting so he loved it that there is no measure or similitude to compare it The gradations of Bernard by which he draws up our soul higher and higher to meditate upon the divine love are these 1. Prius nos dilexit it were fit the Lord should be sought unto by such underlings as we are yet he began in way of affection and prevented us well contented if we would correspond and answer his offer 2. Tantillos dilexit he loved us and ordained to make us a people when as yet we were not 3. Tales he loved us again in his best beloved when we had defiled our creation 4. Tantus O the immenseness of his love he that is greater than the Heavens said unto us poor dust and ashes let me be your Saviour 5. Tantum dilexit so constant was the passion of his love that it brought him to the Passion of the Cross 6. Tam gratis of his own free love without merits foreseen in us to deserve it he bequeathed unto us an immortal inheritance this is the purchase of that well-beloved in whom he cannot but be well pleased As in the brestplate of Aaron there was holiness written to the Lord that the people might be accepted when he offered incense for them so the love of God is written with the pen of a Diamond in his Son never to be blotted out that looking upon him we might find grace and favour to be received into glory Thirdly Christ is beloved because he was obedient in all things we are all children of wrath that have rebelled against our Father God looked down from heaven to see if any would seek after him and we are all gone out of the way they were all become abominable usque ad unum and that one was Christ This voice prevents that infidelity which some might imagine upon his Passion for they that lookt with fleshly eyes might think he was one rejected and forsaken of God they might think him under the frown and malediction of his Father for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree but howsoever in the representation of our sins the Sun may discolour him and make him look black yet he is fair O daughters of Jerusalem and though we be prodigals that have wasted our Fathers goods and mis-imployed the portion of his grace yet the voice from heaven shall never be proved a liar concerning Christ This is my beloved Son Behold my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased Mat. xii 18. God is love and if the Son take the name from the Father may he not rightly be called the Beloved If I be a Master says our God where is my fear If I be a Father where is my honour And may he not add If I be the love of the Church where is the love to requite it For without love we may keep all the rest to our selves If we fear him without love it is abject and servil if we honour him without love it is flattery Love made the world of visible creatures and it must make the new world of Saints and Angels Truly did one say that the Emblem of a pious heart was Carbo ignitus divini amoris flammâ absorptus A firy coal wasting away all the gross and earthy parts of it with the flame of divine love Were never any tears better bestowed than one I read of in ancient times whose eyes did shed drops to see Gods glory scandalously abused by those that lived about him and being asked What ailed him to grieve so much for other mens sins It was his wonted answer Quia amor non amatur because love it self was not beloved again For if you loved me says Christ yo wo ld keep my Commandments Intimate love thinks nothing too much and too tedious to be done for the beloved yea it thinks nothing too bitter to be suffered no more did Christ for his Church The Spouse doth interlace it among her love-delights that she should suffer for the Lord so it is figuratively couched Cant. i. 13. My love is a bundle of Myrrh to me Says Bernard Myrrha amara aspera c. Myrrh is rugged and bitter yet of sweet fragrancy So tribulation is harsh but sweet for Christs sake And again Fasciculus Myrrhae dilectus mihi My Beloved is fasciculus but a little bundle of Myrrh but a little corrasive of affliction whatsoever we suffer Quia leve prae amore ipsius ducat quicquid asperi immineat If our affection be strong and entire to God a great deal of sorrow is nothing it is but a little bundle for I reckon that the sorrows of this life are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed Give me a resolute will ready to
because they have rebelled against God and hated his Church What an honour what a prerogative is this not only to escape condemnation which our sins deserved but to have judgment committed to our power against our enemies and yet for all this promise how dissolutely how prophanely some live as if they would rather justifie than judge the wicked world and the evil Angels I cannot hold from interserting one thing what Lapide the Jesuite says upon that place of St. Paul that the righteous shall be Assessors with Christ and sit next him in judgment Vt Cardinales cum Papâ just as the Cardinals assist the Pope to judge all men so he marring a true Doctrine with a most vile Similitude I forget not that I am like to digress therefore I return that you may observe with me how nothing would choak Satan more than to baffle him with the infirmity of man and put this to it no Text more unwelcom to him than this to hear of Manna in the Wilderness 1. This was it which cherished their whole Host whom the Devil thought irrecoverably undone for want of sustenance 2. It stopt the mouth of discontent that there was no more murmuring 3. The ceasing of it on the Sabbath day was a most effectual motive that they should sanctifie that day unto the Lord. 4. It did not serve the body only but it was a spiritual refection likewise and a representation of the holy Communion of the Lords Table So St. Paul the old Fathers did all eat of the same spiritual meat and drank of the same spiritual drink 5. Manna was laid up in the Ark with the two Tables and the rod of Aaron that the Lord might be thanked for it by a perpetual Commemoration All these rubs were in Satans way when Christ cited this Text to expunge his tentation What should this Sophister do now The words of the Scripture are evident and unanswerable Why it is worth the while to mark it he had nothing to retort for the present but past on to another allurement but after a a while he provokes the Pharisees to make an objection against our Saviour upon the very same instance Joh. vi 31. What Sign shewest thou that we may see and believe What dost thou work Our Fathers did eat Manna in the Desart c. This was to turn Christs own weapon as he thought against himself but in that demand of the Pharisees and in this tentation of Satans there is the same sin of presumption who would dare to prescribe God the Jews would have had bread miraculously after the same way that their fore-fathers had when now there was no lack the Devil would have bread made after a new way which never was before as if Gods Providence were drawn dry unless the stones were mollified into loaves to be eaten No says out Saviour and now I come to the verybody of his answer man shall not live c. Which being divided into many Propositions this was the first that man is not necessarily bound to ordinary sustenance man shall not live by bread alone And that will bear a double construction First That God is able to preserve life in whom he pleaseth without all material Aliments So Calvin on this place Vt desint omnes cibi solam ejus benedictionem ad nos alendos sufficere His benediction is alimony enough though there were no meat in the world For he can preserve the body of man in such an orderly mixture of all parts that the elements shall be at peace in our body no quality shall feed upon another heat shall not dry up the moisture parch the juyce of the veins the pangs and girds of hunger and thirst shall not molest us But as the fire was inhibited that it should not burn the three Children that were cast into the Furnace so natural heat within us may be inhibited by Gods command that it shall waste nothing away in all our composition So St. Hierom Spiritus sanctus aliquando supplet locum cibi potus in corpore The Holy Ghost is called our food in the Book of God not only in a mystical sense but sometime the vertue of the Spirit supplies the place of bodily refection that we shall not need to ask for it Thus it must be if the stories of good Authors have not exceeded the truth that the devoutest Christians of the Greek Churches could hold out healthfully with such often and such long continued fasts that now adays I could promise them but short life that should follow their steps Moses was fed forty days with nothing but the Law Elias fed as long or rather fasted as long upon that zeal which he had for Gods glory Satan could not deny this for as we are created by a word which was Almighty so we may be kept alive by a word which is Almighty made of nothing and preserved out of nothing This is not to be resisted The Doctrine is as clear as day according to the Analogy of faith But if Christs answer had carried this sense I believe the Tempter would have cavill'd thus Right as you say bread is not absolutely necessary for life no nor any other victual God can sustain you as he hath done hitherto by his power but you see you are hungry and must have bread he hath forsaken you Beloved the most easie and literal sense of Scripture for the most part is the truest and surely because our Saviour likened his own case to the Israelites who though they had no bread wade of corn had Manna instead of it which came from heaven Therefore the answer is this plain passage what compels me to turn stones into bread There are innumerable helps beside to keep me from famishing Is there no way say you but this to do me good Yes God hath spread a Table in the Wilderness for Moses and all Israel and more instances might be added even as thick as stones The Widow of Sarepta kept house for her self her Son and the Prophet Elias a long time with a little meal in a barrel and a spoonful of oyl All the Markets in Samaria were suddenly stored with that which the Aramites their enemies had left behind them It was not yet revealed to Satan how many thousands were fed in a desart place with five loaves and two fishes and the fragments which remained did much exceed the quantity of the meat that was whole It is ancient story though it be not Canonical Scripture how the Angel took up Habakkuk by the hair of the head and carried him and the meat which he had in his hand for the Reapers to Daniel in Babylon I fear it will not deserve a memorial among these honest Records what some relate in the lives of the Eremites that Paul the Anchorite being solitary in the vast Sands of Egypt which yield not a morsel for the belly every day an Angel of heaven set half a loaf of bread before him and made it
make us his instruments to defile the holy Temple Gods glory is put to the greatest scandal and reproach And this is brought to pass so many ways that it is plain to see there hath been a most witty complotter in the treachery 1. When any Prelate is so puft up that he thinks himself too great to be a door-keeper in Gods house but will be higher than all the Church and seâ— on the top of the Pinacle who sitting in the Temple of God exalts himself above all that is called God 2. The Temple is defiled by setting up Idols in the Courts of our heavenly King even in the midst of thee O thou Sanctuary of the Lord. 3. By offering up unclean Sacrifice either false Doctrine or impious Prayers or superstitious Worship or corrupted Sacraments 4. When men set their foot within the sacred Tabernacle with carnal thoughts with worldly imaginations with no zeal or attention 5. To bring any prophane work any secular business within those walls which are consecrated to the name of the Lord. This is that Camel which the Jewish Priests did swallow when they strained at a Gnat. For they told our Saviour that he brake the Sabbath he did not keep the Law but they themselves did licence and allow the prophanation of the Temple by bringing Merchandize into it selling of Sheep and Oxen and changing money and you know how Christ revenged it even with anger and indignation I must borrow time to tell you how Christ did bestir himself in the reformation of that abuse more than in any thing else throughout all the Gospel For first he corrected that fault twice over in the second of St. Johns Gospel in the beginning of his Ministry and Mat. xxi toward the end of his life anon before he suffered You see what an obstinate evil it was which would not be redressed for one admonition 2. When he came to Jerusalem there were many other faults flagrant crimes wherewith the place abounded yet the first thing he reformed was the abuse of the Temple 3. He would not tolerate the least prophanation wink at no fault for he would not permit that any should carry so much as a Vessel through the Temple Mar. xi 16. 4. He reformed this trespass not only by preaching and quoating Scripture against it but by a scourge and by violence by word and deed And surely if words will not serve God will bring blows to maintain the reverence of his house that it be not contemned What a dissolute carriage it is to see a man step into a Church and neither veil his head nor bend his knee nor lift up his hands or eyes to heaven Who dwels there I pray you that you are so familiar in the house Could you be more saucy in a Tavern or in a Theater This is no other but the very gate of heaven says Jacob when he had but a vision of God and his Angels Brethren renounce the Devil let him not alienate your reverence from that place which God hath specially appointed for the saving of your soul Holiness becometh thine house for ever O holy blessed and glorious Trinity AMEN THE ELEVENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 6. And saith unto him If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down For it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone IT is altogether unknown to man when a sin comes merely from the suggestion of his own heart and when it comes from the tentation of the Devil But in one case eminently above many others it is most likely that there is some hellish provocation when out of good principles and religious grounds our heart is quite turned out of the way to rebell against the Lord. Ely the High Priest had a tender fatherly affection Who could turn this wholsom water into poyson to make him wink at the vices and dissoluteness of his Sons but Satan David was a thankful Prince and loved to remember how God had multiplied his favours upon him yet upon this stock grew that evil fruit to number the people Why the Text says Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel King Josias was an enemy to the Heathen that knew not God and he that deludes good motions made him so irreconcilable that he would fight against Pharaoh Necho to his own destruction and harkened not to the word which came from the mouth of God Certainly the hand of Joab was in this and in all such fallacies where a good fountain is made to send forth sweet waters and bitter as to sin because grace abounds to neglect publick Prayer because faith comes by hearing to cark and care too much for the world because a man would provide for his Posterity And this master-wit of Hell laid this bait to make our Saviour swallow it in this present tentation For Christ being demanded to make bread of stones he replies that he was confident in his Fathers Promises Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Are you so confident Thinks the Tempter and upon this confidence I will thrust you on Have you appeal'd to Cesar And to Cesaer you shall go It is true that you say God is very gracious and will not destitute you in any want or danger you have answered very well therefore cast your self down from this Pinacle and be confident still God will look to it that you shall be supported This is the very train discovered and made as clear unto you as the light of the Sun In the former tentation he would drive Christ to unlawful means if that take not because he trusts in God then trust in him still and refrain from the use of things lawful so St. Austin distinguisheth that his first fallacy was Deum defuturum ubi promisit that God would not help where he had promised to assist and the second fallacy which now I am to handle is Deum adfuturum ubi non promisit that God would help where he had not promised to assist Where many things are to be found out in one verse they must be divided severally and in this order I take it to be expedient 1. Here is Satans demand Cast thy self down 2. Upon what supposition he demands it Why if thou be the Son of God 3. Upon what authority authority enough for it is written 4. Upon what assistance why the best in the world whether it is the supreme or the instrumental The supremeis God He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and the instrumental are the most glorious powerful and excellent creatures in all the world the whole Host of Angels in their hands they shall bear thee lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone These are such particulars as the wisdom of the Spirit hath left us
to consider upon these words and as I begin at Satans demand so I make two branches of it the Motion and the Mover The Motion is tumbling headlong to be cast down and the Mover must be himself Cast thy self down To the handling and use of these are required your ear my utterance and Gods grace to both I begin with the Motion and if the meaning of him that counselled it had been well carried it were a motion easily perswaded to him that is of an humble spirit a good man is ever ready to be directed to go and sit down in the lowest room and to be abased to the very center of humility When the heart is in good awe of God the joynts will bend unto the earth O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker This we are sure is far from Satans purpose and can be no construction of his words Optat omnes cadere qui se sentit prae omnibus cecidisse says St. Austin He would have all men fall in that sort as himself hath done with aspiring and presumption that they might never rise again The Beast in the Fable which had lost his tail made an Oration before all the Beasts of the Wood what a comly thing it was to want a tail and very useful and so concluded that they would all cut off theirs but the Fox made answer You intend not to make us decent like your self but to have us all as deformed After the same manner the Devil Preacheth unto Christ to descend from the top of the Pinacle to the bottom not to set him in the posture of an humble man but to make him arrogant like Lucifer for such a violent precipitation says he can do no hurt at all to such a one as you are a most holy one that are called the Son of God I will use Bonaventure's saying upon it Satan did interlace lofty pride with this lowly seeming motion Vt descendendo corporaeliter faceret cum superbire spiritualiter ut simul esset ascensus vanus descensus verus That he might fall down bodily and be proud spiritually and so he thrust together a frivolous presumption and a dangerous descension How much is humility abused when Pride will wear the colours of that good vertue to deceive the world There was grose ambition in Absalons stooping to steal the hearts of the people The Scribes and Pharisees would dop to the ground when they greeted their friends in the Market place The same Bishop that hath more Princely Augustious titles ascribed unto him then would fill up a Sermon by themselves subscribes himself very often Servus servorum Christ the servant of the servants of Christ As a Kite will sweep the earth with his wings that he may truss the Prey in his Talons and fly aloft to devour it So all the crouches and submissions which an ambitious man makes are to get somewhat which he seeks for and to clamber to promotion This is observed because Satan impels Christ to cast himself down not for true humility sake but upon vain glory to flutter in the Air that all Jerusalem might take notice how precious he was to the care and custody of all the Angels In the next place convert your thoughts to this see what kind of Miracles they are which the Devil delights in the working of Miracles is reduced to Gods Omnipotent Prerogative beyond the ordinary Law of Nature And Christ did often put it in act to save to revive to comfort the body to convert the soul Nay but these are no part of the Devils asking neither cure the sick nor give eyes to the blind nor raise the dead nor help up Eutiches again as Paul did when he fell from the upper window of the house to the ground none of these good offices of mercy doth he require but mitte te deorsum if you be the Son of God tumble down and confound your self Non signa humano generi salutaria sed perniciosa requirit says Bernard Do some pernicious Miracle and then you please him Beware of those men whose wit whose counsels whose directions tend to nothing but to some mens ruine and destruction Hic niger est hunc tu Romane caveto you see who is their Leader and whose steps they follow The Heathen could say how that Orator must needs have much malice in his complexion who was a better Accuser than a Defender that could sooner find a hole in his Adversaries cause than help his own Client so it is Satanissimum let me use a new word in this case he is a very Satanist upon whom that description of David lights Destruction and unhappiness is in their counsels and the way of peace they have not known The Magicians of Pharaoh could bring forth Frogs upon all the Land of Egypt as well as Aaron when he stretcht forth his rod but the Magicians with all their Inchantments could not rid the Land of those Frogs as Aaron did when he cried unto the Lord. Inchanters are permitted to work strange mischiefs but the Lord hath reserved it to himself to work strange mercies Ahitophel was exceeding wise no doubt accounted the Oracle of his age yet we know no instance of his wit in all the Scripture wherein he had his hand but in most turbulent and seditious propositions The Devil made use of his craft to serve his own turn but a wit that is sanctified with Gods grace know it by this character it had rather make than mar advance than pull down preserve than destroy reconcile than put at enmity When the voice from heaven spake to Peter as he was in a trance Arise Peter kill and eat the meaning was he should eat of such things as the Gentiles did which were prohibited before communicate with the Gentiles convert the Gentiles Now do you think that Cardinals mouth was not full of gall that made this Exposition of the Miracle Arise Bishop of Rome wage war with the Venetians and kill them because they will not obey yout Interdict Certainly this mans breath was like the strong East Wind that brought most of the grievous Plagues of the Land of Egypt I do not like such Prophets though Micaiah was wrongfully reputed such a one by Ahab that never prophesie good but evil nor such Disciples as would shew their authority by calling down fire from heaven nor such unlucky spirits that are like the malignant Planets which produce nothing but maleficous effects When Songs were sung in every Street of Greece that Philip had eraced the fair City of Olynthus O but when will he build up such a City Says a silly woman and then I would sing too An ill turn is quickly watcht for beside the venomous inclination of our own nature to do hurt You shall have the Devil to boot to help it on he counsels like an enemy no miracle which brings good with it to mankind but destruction Mitte te deorsum Cast
preacht upon the house top to all the world Secondly the Jesuit Valentia commends the doctrin of Aquinas that the Image and the Semplar is to be worshipped with the same act of adoration is most true most pious and very consonant to the decrees of faith and Azorius the Jesuit says that 's constant Theologorum sententia the most constant opinion of their Divines I am sure worse can hardly be Vasques the Jesuit thinks he hath cast on water to cool this hot opinion by saying that the Image of Christ and Christ himself are worshipped with the same worship together as Thomas says but the intention of the worship is meant not at all to the Image but to the Prototypon Suarez is of a third opinion and says to oppose Durandus that the act of worship is intended and directed to the Object before them that is to the Image yet to oppose Vasquez that it is homage inferior to that they do to Christ but some worship rests even in the very Image propter prototypon for Christs sake it is suppositum quod adoratur non ratio adorationis sed quoddam adjunctum Bellarmine is of this last opinion but involves his mind most intricately to avoid all opposition Says he we are indebted to some Images in a Religious Worship which is an imperfect form of worship and is reduced to that worship which is due to the substance for which they stand As Christs Image must have an honour reduced to latria but inferior to it The Images of the Saints not such worship as pertains to a Saint sed cultus inferior qui dici potest dulia secundum quid vel dulia anologicè reductivè dulia after a sort reductively and by proportion The best understanding of these quidlibets are that they were meant not to be understood We may profess ignorance of such minced meat without blushing when Vasquez says Mille modis difficultatem illius doctores explicare conantur their Doctors have tried a thousand waies to untie these knots and still questions start up to puzzle them I remember what Eutropeus says that when Irene the Empress had maintain'd the Worship of Images with horrid unnatural cruelty and murders for seventeen daies together the wether was most unusually dark certainly to notifie the blindess that was come into the world by the Doctrine of Images Let them varnish their cause with what art they will let us hear what they can say that their doctrine falls not foul upon the second Commandment marry that they have nothing to do with Idols which were the shapes of imaginary Gods such as never were extant how prove they that that an Idol is a resemblance of that which never had any true being because St. Paul says an Idol is nothing I am sure this shift is as good as nothing for properly in the Greek tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is any artificial resemblance of a bodily thing answering part by part unto it so that it hath a right in nature to stand for it but according to Scripture and the phrase of ancient holy Writers Idola fiunt ex simulacris quando adorantur any graven similitude or image when it is once adored it becomes an Idol The fashions of all things in all places are rehearsed in the second Commandement in heaven above in earth beneath in the water under the earth and yet if you make a Figure or Statue of any of these to worship it that 's an Idol and you an Idolater As Lucullus was asham'd to fight with the Asiatiques whom he vanquisht so easily so I am asham'd to toss an objection about which hath no tang of probability in it An Idol is nothing sayes the Scripture that is it hath nothing of divine Majesty in it to be ador'd As Euripides says elegantly of lazy men they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very nullety nothing Says St. Chrysostom upon it an Idol is nothing because there is but one God and none beside him The Sun the Moon and the Stars those are those nothings when they are idolized and St. Austin the Pagans worship those things which are but they are nothing to make Gods of they can not help us they can not save us St. Paul therefore adds 1 Cor. viii 4 an Idol is nothing in the world and there is none other Gods but one Our Adversaries must nock another arrow this was headless why it is pretended they do not leave God to worship Idols of wood or metals which the Law condemns but they worship God in the Image or the Image with God or the Image for God's sake let them vary it as they will 't is naught every way for where hath the Almighty condescended that such Concomitancies should be co-worshipt with him or for him never never there are no ligaments for such a conjunction Our Divines have often rubb'd the salt of some instances in their sores and yet they do not feel them The Children of Israel when they worshipped the similitude of an Ox that eateth hay do you think they cast away all thought of the Lord their God and went to it down right with that molten Effigies I believe the weaker capacities among them might do so as the Pontificians confess that the ruder and simpler among them fall down and worship the very substance of the Image that is before them but Aaron and the Princes of the people bowed not to the golden lump of their own Bracelets and Earerings but to God in that similitude of an Ox. The Lord had given them manna or food from heaven and an Ox among all the customs of the Heathen which they had seen was the Embleme of plenty so Joseph who was the Granary of Egypt by his providence Moses calls him the firstling of a Bullock and T. Livie says when Minutius had supplied Rome with corn in time of great necessity a golden Ox was set up in the Market-place to honour his memory that beast you know plows up the surrows of the earth to receive the seed which yields the increase of the year from this superstition a Calf or Ox for a Calf remember it is not the name of the age was the Object wherein they worshipped God Ferus a Roman Writer confesseth that the Israelites did honour God himself in their molten Image He had reason to say so for Aaron who best knew the meaning of it proclaimed against the morrow a Feast unto the Lord Jehovah And though the people were mad with their own inventions make them not so bad that when they cried out These are thy Gods which brought thee out of Egypt Exod. xxxii 4. they meant their Baby which they had made but yesterday That plural number is in the singular Nehem ix 18. They made them a molten Calf and said this is thy God that brought thee out of Egypt attributing that power to the sign for the thing signified Indeed the Psalmist says they forgat God who had done so
his own mouth and Oracle any mortal man to build a place for him but the most conspicuous Prophet and the most conspicuous King in all Israel Moses for the Tabernacle and Solomon for the Temple and therefore Peter asked no ignoble office from Christ when he would be appointed from him to make him a Tabernacle If thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles he asked his leave Matt. xvii 4. Of that humble submission I will speak a word by and by one thing calls me to consider it first that here is an infallible note of a large and a vehement love affectus sine mensurâ propriarum virium an affection which never measured how it could perform that to which it offered true love doth not consider how it shall be able to finish that which it undertakes we undertake to renounce the Devil and all his works to keep all the Commandments which all our frailties will not permit but love adventures to try what it can do and therefore love is called the fulfilling of the Law Mary Magdalen came to enbalm our Saviour's body in the Sepulcher and never thought till she was hard by that there was a stone upon the Sepulcher which she could not roll away when Christ was risen and she took him for the Gardner Sir says she If thou hast born him hence tel me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away Why a dead body useth to be born by four strong men to the ground and this had need of more help when his body was wrapt up with an hundred pound weight of sweet spices yet out of more confidence than strength she said she would bring his corps again into the Grave So Peter and his helpers would raise up three Tabernacles in Mount Thabor having neither Workmens tools nor materials nor skill I think in that Trade yet he would dispatch a Building instantly that he would to receive his Lord and those two Gloriosoes that were with him if Christ let him alone what unartificial work he would have made But true love strides over all impossibilities nihil erubescit nisi nomen difficultatis it would be ashamed of it self to think any thing were difficult You see his aim was above his skill and will it fully excuse him to say all was out of love never lay it upon that love Christ loves well but if it be love that is right and considerate says a most accurate Father of our own Church St. Paul commends love on this wise 1 Cor. xiii 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nihil perperam facit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not behave it self unseemly keeps decorum forgets not what belongs to duty and decency then the Lord accepts it Love may and doth forget it self otherwhile and then the Heathen mans saying is true importunus amor parum distat a simultate he that loves God inconsiderately and perversely is a kind of enemy Peter thought let him work and then there they would stay and all should be happy whereas there can be no true happiness where there is so much as faciamus any bodily work Though there was a fault yet love makes it but a diminutive error in him and as in every Evangelists relation we may read his love so in St. Matthew his obedience if thou wilt let us make three Tabernacles and well remembred of him that Christ said I came from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me Joh. vi so though Peter thought himself in Heaven yet he must not do his own will but the will of the Lord Nay if it were not for doing our own will against his there would be nothing but Heaven Cesset propria voluntas infernus non erit says Bernard Give up your own will to the will of the Lord into his hands and direction and there would be no Hell in the world The chief part of our wisdom is not to lean upon our own wisdom Let his will guide all that cannot deceive us whose will it was to suffer death upon the Cross because our own will had destroyed us A Client will refer his Cause to the direction of his Counsel a Builder the Fabrique of his House to a Master of Architecture the Lord will plead our cause against them that strive against us the Lord will build up the decayed places of Jerusalem and make us polished stones for his own Temple except the Lord build the house their labour is but lost that build it si tu faciamus not our will but thy will be done if thou wilt let us make c. This makes for the Apostles defence but there is some coliquintida in all things that man can do or say for as Peter consulted with God so he consulted also with his own fancy But in spiritual things says the Apostle I consulted not with flesh and blood Galat. i. 16. Here is Peter holding God in one hand and his own carnal imagination in another and indeed this was not to ask if Christ would such a thing but to tempt him to be willing to that which was scandalous and inglorious to his Majesty say the Apostles Acts i. Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom unto Israel Their question may seem to be submissive but it was not there was venom in those fair words for they would have him willing to establish a temporal Soveraignty in Israel I will conclude this first part with an exact rule of St. Pauls Be ye not unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is Ephes v. 17. So much for the Builders faciamus let us make I proceed to the Fabrique or Building tria Tabernacula three Tabernacles either Booths compacted of arms of trees lopt off from the trunck called attegias by the Old Latins or pleasant Arbors of living boughs which are writhed in arch-wise over head and every sprig close twisted in to fence off the weather called arbuscula topiaria the best Shelters to receive these great persons that the poor man could think of whether the Mountain could afford them or no we have no evidence to make it appear that was never thought of when he spoke it for he was so surpriz'd with joy that he had no leisure to recollect himself but herein his zeal was very generous he would fain build another world and never see this again Quem seculi hujus illecebrosa non caperent gratia resurrectionis allexit says St. Ambrose though the provocations of this world could not intangle Peter yet he was catcht with that fair sight how God will honour us in the Resurrection there he would build there he would fain set his rest to dwell in a Tabernacle made of boughs and bushes with Christ and Moses and Elias affected him better than to enjoy a Palace in this sinful World Exilium in Pompeii causâ est tanquam patria says a Roman that a man could not miss his native Country that endured banishment
in Pompey's company I may say in a better capacity of truth that the three Disciples could not miss their Parents their Children their Friends their Possessions their Countrey no nor the whole World beneath if they could but reserve a Tabernacle in any secret place wherein they might enjoy our Lord Jesus Christ The Prophets who were preserv'd by Obadiah's favour were contented to live in a Cave where they might serve God without Idolatry and Peter would possess a new-found World not inhabited by evil men alter alteri magnum theatrum sumus a few good ones are enough to enjoy one another without a contagion of the multitude Alas when he would needs be making a place for Christ that he could devise no better Structure than a Tabernacle But will God indeed dwell on the earth says Solomon Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee how much less this House that I have builded Solomon thought so meanly of the goodliest Temple that ever was built for Gods honour what a Building was here then not worthy to be named Let us make three Tabernacles As he was laid in a Manger when he was born so he was never housed richly and sumptuously all the while he lived upon earth never till Joseph of Arimathaea composed his body decently in a fair Sepulcher which is not an excuse that we should make him vile houses now but a provocation to make him amends on our part for that contempt which was offered him when he lived in Judaea As for the instance of my Text that Peter offered him a Tabernacle made of a few sticks it is to be born with both because he knew not what he said and he was able to do no better True love is satisfied that all will be taken in good part which is well intended As Jacob set up a Stone and poured oil upon it and called it the House of God Gen. xxviii 18. what would you have him do that had no better at hand but where the Land abounds with costly and sumptuous materials can ye bestow them better than upon the Church of Christ Do you not perswade your self that there the Lord hath heard you often from Heaven and given you all manner of things that are good and can you suffer those walls to be unadorn'd where you have been prosperous or can any heart be so hardned to suffer that Table to be unfurnisht with Ornaments at which we have often been fed with the Bread of Life and the Cup of Benediction I charge not this place with any such neglect but I commend and pronounce them blessed especially who have been liberal that Gods honour might be set out among us in the beauty of holiness and I lament it where it is otherwise for it is a mournful sight me-thinks to see any place excel the Church in preeminence and magnificence not as if I thought the Lord did favour us for fair walls and roofs without a fair inside but first it signifies the almightiness of God when we honour him with the best and chiefest of all outward things and secondly it makes our zeal shine before men that we love our Heavenly Father better than all the wealth of the Earth and the Lord loveth a chearful giver The best Temples that we can dedicate to God are our sanctified Souls and Bodies and therefore St. Austin said alluding to this Text Qui Deo vult facere tabernacula praeparet ei penitralia cordis He that will make a Tabernacle for God let him prepare a clean heart this is well said if we play not the hypocrites with this figurative Religion If some men be incited to offer up the Sacrifice of Alms unto Christ they tell you spare them for that and they will offer up the Sacrifice of a contrite heart Are not these two ill divided bid them worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker that they hold superfluous for they will bend the knees of their heart Are not those two ill divided Charge the rich men of the World to repair Gods decayed Churches and make them beautiful that draws money from them too fast therefore they say we will build a Sanctuary to the Lord in our inward heart Be not deceived God cannot be mocked with these metaphorical excuses I had rather offer with St. Peter to build a Tabernacle unadvisedly where there was no cause than be backward to build a Tabernacle for the mighty Lord where there was a cause Because Moses and Elias had preached Christ unto the Disciples they would do something again to requite it not hear the word of God gratis as some do as if they would give no mony for it If you will give nothing for that precious gift which cometh from above take heed the Lord do not say to you at the last day What good service have you done in all your life that I should give any thing to you as some men have their customs not to give so undoubtedly God hath his custom not to reward As David said to Araunah The Lord forbid I should sacrifice unto him of that which cost me nothing so Peter would not hear a Sermon of Christ crucified and do no good thing for it faciamus c. These Tabernacles which he spake of being an allusion to the Church I find them agree very well in this that the Militant Church is but like a Tabernacle portable from one place to another to be taken down in one place and to be set up in another always removing As we see the Gospel began to shine most bright at first in the Eastern Countries and now it hath pleased God that in the most conspicuous purity it is carried into the West From Jerusalem it removed to Antioch from Antioch to divers places of Achaia in Greece further and further every Age till now that the multitude of the Isles do praise the Lord like a Militant Tabernacle or Pavilion pitcht where God pleaseth to fight against the Devil and his Angels and to win ground from him that would destroy the Earth Psal cxxviii 3. The Wife which is spoken of there and likned to a fruitful Vine is an Allegory of the Church Now the Church while it wanders upon earth is vitis in lateribus domus a fruitful Vine upon the walls of the House it stands without the doors of the Palace but when the Church shall be settled quietly in the upper Jerusalem it shall be vitis in penetralibus domus the Vine shall be translated into the midst of Paradice there it shall be a City abiding for ever and no longer a removing Tabernacle Now you have heard St. Peters zeal in the Fabrique which he moved to be built in the progress of this point you shall hear these Tabernacles of his were but wild Chimaera's or as we say Castles in the air for he took Mount Thabor as it was now adorn'd with glory for the Heaven which he desired to enjoy
therefore to what end without great error could he erect a Tabernacle there either for sacred or for civil use To make a Church or an Oratory in Heaven to praise the Lord was a most wandring fancy St. John says of that Vision which he saw in his Divine rapture before the Throne of God Templum non vidi in eâ I saw no Temple therein in that supernal City of God for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it Revel xxi 22. In this world we are gathered together into the House of God to make Prayers together to hear Instructions to dispense the Sacraments but in the next life these Forms shall cease for we shall have a most blessed Mansion in God himself as in a Divine Temple for ever So the Prophet Jeremy foretold that in the new World there shall be one Sabboth for ever but no Pastors to teach the Flocks no Sheep coats to drive the Flocks unto no Churches no Tabernacles for Divine Service but all things in a better estate and condition These are his words They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest saith the Lord Jerem. xxxi 34. But the most Expositors take the words of the Apostle in relation to a civil use as if he would make small Sconces or Tabernacles upon the top of the Hill to shelter Christ and Moses and Elias from the injuries of the air Such things he had wanted himself when he was a Fisherman and spent his time and labour near about the Sea of Tiberias he did often miss a poor Shed to keep him from foul weather and now he knows not how to gratifie Christ and the two Prophets but by building Tabernacles that they might find no annoyance in the Mountain What if God had sent a Worm to make these Bowers he talked of wither of a sudden as the Gourd of Jonas came to nothing in a day where was his Shelter then if God had not made a better Heaven for man than man it seems would make for himself he should exchange this World for small advantage and pass from misery to infelicity Where God is seated in his holy places there is neither heat nor cold storm nor tempest no offence or affliction tuti sub matribus agni balatum exercent as safe as the nursling Child is in the bosom of the Mother in such safety and tranquillity the Saints are reposed with Christ above and therefore it is called Abrahans Bosom Hills are nearer to Gods Thunder said the Heathen Poets than the bottoms of the Valleys therefore this was no steady Anchor for a man to trust to though Mount Thabor had been never so high and although the plain fields are more obnoxious to the inundations of Seas and Rivers yet in the days of Noah the waters prevailed fifteen cubits higher than the tallest Mountains As for the glistering of Mount Thabor perhaps the Apostles who expected Christ should take upon him an earthly Kingdom they might swel in their heart and thinks it carried the semblance of a Princes Throne why the natural pulchritude of the Earth in one flower in a Lilly excels Solomon in all his Royalty how much more doth the supernatural glory of the Throne of God excel it The Son of Sirach speaks of the triumphing Majesty of Simon the Son of Onias and among other comparisons that he lookt like a Rainbow in a cloud of dew Ecclus 50.7 A Rainbow is mixt of fair colours and is a comfortable sign but it melts away presently in a cloud of dew such a dropping imaginary thing is all the glory upon earth a Rainbow in a cloud of dew There is an excellent passage to this purpose in the next verse when I come unto it Peter would have satisfied himself with that glory which bedazled him upon earth and while he was yet speaking there came a Cloud and overshadowed him and took that glory away Some dark Cloud interposeth it self and bedusks all worldly glory then shall we be left in fear as he was and that 's the sting which is ever in the tail of that admiration which thinks a slash of vain pomp is a very Heaven upon Earth So far we have seen what an unnecessary thing it was to propound the making of a Tabernacle at this time for wheresoever Gods glory doth appear there is protection and safety goes with it it was to as little purpose as if he would have built an Ark like Noah where there was no fear of a deluge The children of men shall be safe under the shadow of thy wings says the Psalmist there 's Tabernacle enough for all that fear him but Peter is excessive and would have a plurality of defences faciamus tria tabernacula let us make three Tabernacles Why shall Moses and Elias part one from another or shall both be disjoyned from Christ Herein St. Peter was no good Harbinger for these must lodg together Evangelium Lex Prophetae unum habent Tabernaculum Ecclesiam Dei the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Commandments of the Law the Histories and Predictions of the Prophets make up one Catholick Church dispersed through all places of the World propagated through all the Ages of the World unus Pastor unum Ovile there is but one Shepherd and one Sheepfold and whom God hath joyned into one family let not man put asunder into three Tabernacles Non quaerere debes quà m prudenter hortabatur sed quà m fervens caritate Dei says St. Ambrose If you examine what the Apostle said by wisdom and sage judgment you shall find a great defect but if charity and zeal may cover a multitude of faults here is much to answer for him love is ready to commit faults by too much presumption but it is a good argument to excuse them Peters was an error of love and so to be passed over with a light reprehension but whosoever in these days shall set up three Tabernacles in the Church one for Christ one for Moses and one for Elias is a Schismatik As we have two eyes and yet they see but one object and two ears which hear but one sound so the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel are the eies and the ears of a Christian blessed are the eyes that see what they demonstrate blessed are the ears that hear what they deliver for faith cometh by hearing yet we see but one Redeemer there is but one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus We hear but one truth and our hearts and affections must all be of one mind there is but one Faith one Christ one Baptism there must be but one Church and one Tabernacle As Charles Duke of Burgundy said in a Scoff for his part he loved the Kingdom of France so well that where it had one King he wished it had six so where the Church
is one entire Body one Tabernacle and no more Satan wisheth it were ten that there might be strifes among us I am of Christ and I for Moses and I for Elias even as among the Corinthians I am of Paul and I of Cephas and I of Christ This emulation and Schism comes of it to make more Tabernacles than one faciamus tria c. From the Builders and the Fabrick I proceed thirdly to the Possessors one for Thee one for Moses and one for Elias little Cottages yet Peter considered they would be somewhat for them that had nothing before Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head ipse faber domum non habuit he had not an house to lodg in though they call'd him the Carpenters Son Moses was thrust into an Ark of bulrushes Elias was turn'd out into the vast Wilderness Marmoreo tumulo Licinus jacet Cato parvo Pompeius nullo The mighty men of the World took up all the room from Christ and the Prophets all that the Apostle could make them were little Canopies of boughs and glad he had that for them that they might not want an Habitation What a narrow thing is mans wit though our will and desires are infinite he would confine him that is unconfined put all the light of the Sun into a Nutshel take up the vast waters of the Sea into a spoon that is comprize all the glory of Christ in a wicker Tabernacle How shall they praise his name from one end of the world unto the other How shall he ascend up on high with Majesty and honour Be thou exalted O God above the heavens let thy glory be above all the earth Psal lvii 11. Christs Kingdom is more communicable than to be thrust into a corner If they shall say unto you Behold he is in the desart go not forth behold he is in the secret Chambers believe it not Mat. xxiv 26. In like manner if they shall say unto you he is in Mount Tabor or in a Tabernacle do not regard them Numen ubique est he is in heaven and in earth and in all deep places Yet in this unadvised ejaculation it is true he that will make any fabrick for a sanctified end and out of a religious respect Faciamus tibi Let us make it for thee O God was very right if he had gone no further Churches are only consecrated and dedicated to the Almighty our English name is proof to go no further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greeks the Lords house from thence we say Kyrk or Church by adding words of aspiration At the erection of the Tabernacle Exod. xl 31. At the consecration of the Temple 2 Kings viii 11. It pleased God to give a manifest sign from heaven that he possessed both And because the Lord did so solemnly shew his honor in those excellent places therefore it is fit they should be appropriated to him by us with a most solemn dedication both to make them publick for sacred offices and that the builders may surrender their right and make God the owner for ever and to make it awful to every man that they be not polluted with prophane abuse What says St. Paul have ye not houses to eat and to drink in Where you see even before Churches were erected he gave an admonition Prophetically that these two are things for several places to eat and to drink customarily and to pray and preach Christs Tabernacle indeed must be for our duty belonging to Christ and for no other service And though Peter thought not himself and his fellow Disciples worthy of a Tabernacle he thought perhaps they should be quartered with Christ to be his Ministers there yet he propounds as much for Moses and Elias as he did for our Lord one for Moses and one for Elias T is is the fond and offensive love of superstition to dishonour the Saints when they would heap immoderate honour upon them He spake far too much when he would exalt them to equal honour with their Maker and yet he spake it much to their injury when he would deprive them of the beatifical Vision and sweet Society of Christ For to confine them to their own Tabernacles was to make them want the joy of their eyes which the Angels desire to behold and to see his sweetness these two great Prophets came down from heaven I am glad Salmeron the Jesuite fell in with me in this Point says he they do all fall upon this rock on which Peter did who are so addicted to some peculiar Saint that they will equallize him with Christ himself This is to advance them to equality with God to make Tabernacles and Churches to them as unto God St. Austin liked not that and therefore that none might mistake he distinguisheth Nos Martyribus nostris non templa sicut Diis sed memorias sicut hominibus mortuis fabricamus We do not erect To the Martys as unto God but Tombs of remembrance as unto men whose spirits live with God for ever And in another place we allow them Monuments of honor but not Altars of divine Service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Basil Divine Worship is due to God an honourable memory to the Martyrs Herod the Great was at great charge about the Temple of Jerusalem the work was good but his end was vain glorious and popular So men of liberal zeal but erroneous superstition built some Sacred Houses and did impatronize some Saints to be the Tutelary powers of those Churches and Oratories the work is good but the end is corrupt not that the sacred buildings are called by the names of Martyrs and Apostles as this is by St. Andrew we use those names by way of mere distinction to know one sacred place from another which perchance they imposed upon superstition Distinction of names is for variety sake and to take away confusion Sometimes by one Saint sometimes by all the Saints sometimes known only by the name of the Founder sometimes some famous work denominates them as Anastasia or the Resurrection and St. Sophia or Wisdom anciently the two most goodly Churches in the world and both in Constantinople Usually they are entituled by some renowned Martyr whose acts are worthy to be had in remembrance Nay sometime for mere distinction sake the buildings retain the names of fabulous Saints as Pope Gelasius himself condemned the Legend of St. George for Apocryphal they may add St. Christopher and divers more Yet the holy Oratories are no more dishonoured by those names than the Days of the Week by the Idol Planets Gods than the Ship which carried St. Paul by the sign of Castor and Pollux than Daniel who was called Bellishazzar from the Idol Belli Names of distinction are arbitrary and inoffensive to the judicious but Sacraries or Churches though they carry divers names are only to be built to God and consecrated to his
beat strong upon Elias his ear the whole Camp of the Aramites ran away when they did but think they heard a noise the figure of a mans hand dampt King Belshazzar a Whip of small cords shaken in our Saviours hand made the Mony-changers overturn their Tables for haste and run out of the Temple 2 Macch. iv the Author of that History says that the Lord made the Clouds in the air appear like a great Battail and like horse-men fighting to the terror of Jerusalem it is an easie thing therefore for him that dwells above to make a little Cloud seem a terrible spectacle And this which shook the Disciples had some extraordinary qualities in it to strike the outward senses with amazement it had not the conditions of a natural Meteor for it had much more brightness than any other part of the air it was a Cloud that rid close upon the earth and was not exalted as they use to be into the higher parts of the air it was framed like some beauteous Chamber to receive the Son of God in Majesty together with Moses and Elias it was dissolved at an instant as soon as ever this apparition was dispatcht This was enough then to cause astonishment that the finger of God was in this Cloud above the ordinary course of nature Now there is not the least empty Cloud which the wind blows about but the Lord appoints it for some end and service much more you will allow there were manifold causes for the sending of this Cloud and the judgments of the skilful conceit them to be these First the Lord did shew that He could frame a better piece of Architecture of a sudden than Peter could imagin to build he spake of three Tabernacles which would be long in piecing together God in a moment creates one Cloud to receive them all better than an hundred Tabernacles Such a one as Moses and the Israelites had in the Wilderness to shadow them against all offence Such things the Heathen did drive at in their Poetical Fictions but I am sure the Lord is able to pitch a Cloud between his chosen and their enemies that the hand of violence shall not touch them neither shall any evil come nigh their dwelling Trust in the Lord in the time of danger if ever our foes should rise up against us and say though we are not within the fence of strong Walls and Bulwarks yet if thou O God of Hosts will cast but a thin Cloud between us and our enemies we shall be safe under thy wings until their tyranny be over-past Secondly a Cloud did interpose it self to qualify the Object of the Transfiguration and to make it fit for the Disciples to behold it the Cloud indeed was very bright yet it was dark and opacous in respect of Christs body which did exceed the very light of the Sun Which St. Chysostom proves that I may add somewhat more than I have said before to this purpose in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his face was compared to shine as the Sun yet sayes he the Disciples bewray how it did exceed that example for they never fell down for fear to see the light of the Sun but they fell down to see the light of his body Therefore this Cloud did cast it self between as if Christ would put a Veil upon his face that their weak sight might the better behold him In this life we must look through a Cloud we must expect to see him as in a Glass darkly hereafter we shall see him face to face Mark the infirmity of mans nature in this sinful corruptible condition and let us learn humility it was not enough that Peter John and James were not transformed in the Mount as Christ was no nor as Moses and Elias were our vile flesh is not receptive of such celestial excellency but to abase them and us further a shady Cloud opposed it self before their eyes because we are not fit nor worthy to behold such pure happiness in these days of vanity Such knowledg is too excellent for me says David I cannot attain unto it Thirdly this Cloud was set up for a Land-mark to limit curiosity and to drive men off from approaching too near to pry into the Divine secrets where God sets up a Cloud it is a manifest sign that those are our bounds and we must not break them As when the Lord came down upon Mount Sinah it was full of smoak and vapour that his Majesty might be concealed in those thick mists and none of the people no not so much as a Beast durst come nearer under pain of death What a becoming thing it is to look no further into Gods secrets than he hath given us eyes to see and when there is a mystery which the wisest God hath given no charge to search into it to say I see a Cloud between me and this secret and I must go no further The Devil himself doth not envy us knowledg but he doth envy us obedience The ancient Apostolical Creed consists of twelve Articles to be believed as they are commonly divided Pope Pius the fourth made them twelve four and twenty such as they are and if we want more mysteries of faith and knowledg to work upon I doubt not but Satan would allow us a thousand But as the Romanists who have twelve Articles of Creed more than we yet have one Commandment less for the second is quite left out of their Portresses and Breviaries no nor the least mention of it made in the Expositions of the great Schoolman Aquinas so the restless wit of man runs presumptuously upon all uncouth paths of knowledg which he should not tread but he keeps off from the Law and Good Works as if there were a Cloud say I between them nay as if there were a Lion in the way and so there is but it is that Lion which goes about night and day seeking whom he may devour But as our Proverb is of speculative men that dare enquire into any thing though it be never so much above their capacity that they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sore aloft in the air and talk in the clouds so the Apostle intimates that they are not wise unto sobriety and being drunk with curious knowledg as the Jews very falsly said the Apostles were with new wine they must needs stumble and fall Fourthly and I am sure this reason searcheth the true cause of the Cloud as near as any God the Father in the Old Testament was wont to utter his voice out of the thick clouds of the air and so he continues his holy will in the Gospel and therefore prepared this Cloud to preach from thence the words which follow This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him It was thus when he spake unto Moses himself Exod. xxiv 16. the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai and the Cloud covered it six days and the seventh day
Day of Salvation says Isaiah and that day reacheth from the time that Remission of sins is preached in the bloud of Christ unto the end of the world Now as the Text is common to all Evangelical Days so there is one Day that lifts up its head above them all the most memorable Day of our Saviour's Resurrection then it was verily fulfilled as Peter urg'd it that the Stone which the Builders refused became the head of the corner St. Chrysostom Nyssen and almost who not pitch upon Easter-day for the particular application of this Text that was the Day wherein God did bring forth a more eminent work than in other common days and upon every Sunday in the year for that Day 's sake the Church hath appointed sacred Assemblies that we may rejoyce and be glad Well then of Davids Day first and from thence how particular Holidays may be ordeined to magnifie Gods extraordinary benefits next of the blessed Age of the Gospel wherein we have great cause to rejoyce and be comforted for Christ hath wiped away all tears from our eyes And last of all I shall take the right opportunity to speak of the glorious Feast of the Resurrection and how the Church doth keep the weekly Feast of the Lords day to rejoyce and be glad in it And first the Holy Ghost hath left it written for the honor of the Lords Anointed This is the Day which the Lord hath made There is one thing in that form of speech which jarrs a little against the ear how can it be said that God did make one day more than another for he hath framed all Times and Seasons alike the Sun knoweth his going down and he maketh it return again every morning to give light unto the World In the Hymns of the Heathen he is called Diespiter the Father of all days indifferently it is he that sets the Heavens in perpetual motion and makes the hours run on and when he calls back his word the Plumbets shall go down and time shall be no more It is granted therefore that he giveth continuance and being to all days after one sort and for the Phrase of my Text a new Writer hath well exprest himself Non includitur mensura temporis sed conditiones tempori incidentes it is not meant of the Day which the Sun makes with his diurnal motion but of the great Work which was wrought in that Day that is not that God made that Day more than others but that He made more in that Day than in others It is vulgar to impute the condition of things which fall out in some certain dayes to the days themselves per metonymiam adjuncti although a day as it is meerly a space of time cannot possibly be capable of such Attributes We take liberty to call this a cold or a moist day not for its own sake but because coldness and moisture happen in the day so for the contingency of glorious things we call the day it self glorious and to renown the memorable acts of the Lord we have got a use to speak thus This is the day which the Lord hath made In 1 Sam. 12.6 according to the Original and that 's pointed at in our Margent it is said that the Lord made Moses and Aaron why are not all that are born of a woman the works of his hands as well as Moses and Aaron therefore our Translation hath rendred the sense rather than the word that the Lord advanced Moses and Aaron In like manner we may read my Text thus This is the Day which the Lord advanced for he made it remarkable with an extraordinary favour and thereby gave it a Dignity and Exaltation above its fellows The going out and the return of every year are from the Almighty with the store and abundance that it brings forth but when the clouds drop fatness with unusual plenty then the Prophet says that he crowns that year with his goodness Psal lxv 11. So some principal Days are crowned above the rest as this Day wherein through the sun shine of his mercy he set a Crown of pure Gold upon the head of David his Servant Piety forbid that we should not thankfully receive the most vulgar benefits I know that common things are commonly neglected but learn to see God in small things or you shall never see him in greater If I had learnt it of no other yet I find enough in Seneca for that use Communia negligenda non sunt c. neglect not to give thanks for common and quotidian favours for life and health and suppeditation of food that the Sun doth shine upon us that we have the air to breath in that the Sea doth ebb and flow for navigation There are days of small things as Zachary calls them chap. iv 10. but those small things are to be consider'd of us with a grateful heart who are less than the least of all his mercies but how much more requisite is it then to observe those days wherein some eminent blessings are confer'd upon us what a behooveful thing it is every man for his own part to keep a Calender of the famous Acts of the Lord for our Birth for our Baptism for great Preservations and to represent them before us at the return of every year with grateful acknowledgment from the bottom of our heart and when God doth see that we are so mindful of a prosperous Day he will grant us many prosperous Years and for the period of joy a most prosperous Eternity that shall never have a period This is made as plane then as you can wish upon what special Prerogative the Lord is said to make a particular day because he doth appoint some special favour to fall out upon it and the Wise-mans Question is answered Ecclus. xxxiii 7. Why doth one day excel another when as all the light of every day of the year is of the Sun It is not the material light which distinguisheth the nobleness of Dayes but he that made the Sun more excellent than the other Stars of the Firmament hath made Princes glorious as the Sun in the Orb of the Common-wealth and a Day of a Princes Exaltation is like a Prince among Days and in that capacity to be magnified Such a day is said to be made by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because God himself and none else is the Author of the Power of Kings He and none but He took David from following the Ews great with young and set him over the Princes of his People In a word since the Day is taken for the Work of the Day the real meaning of the first words of my Text is this is the King which the Lord hath made Samuel anointed him the People shouted and cried God save him but the Lord did constitute him the Ruler of the Twelve Tribes and gave him his Sovereign Authority the Crowns of Glory in Heaven and the Crowns of Dignity upon Earth are both held by
worship that which was base and despicable like Gods of Silver and Gold then cause might be shewn why flesh and bloud should disdain it O Beloved it is the King of Kings and the excellency of Jacob He sits upon a Throne that is circled about with a Rainbow Rev. 4. A Rainbow was his first Covenant which He made to spare the World and reason good that his Throne should be compassed about with Mercy Next unto the Rainbow sate Twenty four Elders that had Crowns of Gold upon their heads supposed to be Twelve Patriarchs and Twelve Apostles that propagated his glory unto all Nations both Jews and Gentiles as who should say All Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall do him service To shut out all objections It is certain that Majesty and Dominion lose the hearts of men that should obey and purchase Envy and Hatred which cannot shift it self sometimes into Lowliness and Humility O see and be astonished at it if God have not submitted himself to the fashion of man For as the Ark of God when it was in the Wilderness had Pelles caprinas supra byssinum a Covering of Goats hair upon the silken Curtains which were costly and precious So the Lord Almighty who most properly is cloathed with light as with a garment hath also put on flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones that by all means He might allure us unto his Love sometime adoring him in Honour sometime admiring his Humility And I give them over as past all good that are as stubborn as Cato of whom it is said Dictatorem odit nec minùs Caesurem He neither lov'd the Dictator in his great Office nor Caesar in his private Calling that are not affected with the poor Nativity of the Son of man nor with the excellency of God in the highest heavens Love Jesus that was made man or where is thy thankfulness Honour and praise his name that ruleth over all or where is thy devotion I know it will be more profitable to my Hearers to instance in those particulars of Honour and Worship wherein God especially is delighted and I propound these four to your Christian practice 1. We must magnifie his Name 2. Obey his Word and Commandments and thus far the Angels go with Man and no farther but it is not enough for us Angelis dimidium mundi factum est sed nobis totum Heaven is but half the World which is made for Angels but Heaven and Earth the whole compass of the World is made for Man Therefore 3. in the third place we must give reverence to his Sacraments as to the Seals of his Love and Mercy And 4. obey his Magistrates Let us draw this division to some rule that you may be sure it is full and complete First you know God is to be considered in his own Essence bare and naked by it self next these three Attributes and properties are most inward unto it his Wisdom his Goodness and his Power Now the Essence of God is declared by his Names his Wisdom is revealed in his Word his Sacraments convey his goodness unto us and Kings and Princes bear the Image of his Power and Authority If any man can find out more ways to honour the Lord let him go on and prosper I had rather praise his name upon a ten-stringed Lute with David than with St. Peter set up three Tabernacles and no more and come short of one of those which I have propounded But first of the honour due unto his Name As the Sun is the cause of our knowledge to distinguish the hours of the day upon the Dial and yet we know not our time by the Sun it self immediately but by the shadow it casteth So the Essence of God is the cause of all things and yet we have not his Essence but his Name revealed unto us this is the Oracle of the inward Temple and the Star that leads unto holy Bethlem where Christ is laid Unto this Name we should lift up our hands in Prayer and for this Names sake stretch them out in Alms unto the poor And as David ask'd if there were any of the Race of Jonathan left to whom he might shew mercy and Mephibosheth was brought unto him an impotent Cripple but the Son of Jonathan So let us enquire if there be any thing of the Lord remaining among us if all be not lost by the Fall of Adam that we may do honour unto it alas it is but a small thing it is but the Name of our God but let us make much of it as he did of Mephibosheth let it be in great esteem and veneration When I speak of the honour due unto his Name I mean the honouring of God himself at the mention of his Name Our Mother-Church of England as careful that I may not enter into comparisons as any Church in the world to take away the yoke of superfluous Ceremonies and yet very provident to make the body of man submit it self to a decent outward worship of holiness hath prescribed unto us by a Canon that while we are in Gods House at the mention of the Name of Jesus we should do reverence with the Knee and uncover the Head I know not by what peevishness of some or by what presumption of others it is more neglected in many Congregations of this City than elsewhere throughout all the Realm Doth that Name which imports Salvation and Redemption from your sins no more affect you Or do you give no more obedience to the Church-Authority Are you not Fidelis in minimo faithful in a small matter How do you look that your heavenly Father should appoint you to be faithful over much I am not ignorant that some have made Sorcery rather than Religion and Blasphemy than Devotion of the holy Name of Jesus as among others that Frier that said when our Saviour did bend his head upon the Cross it was not as the Scripture says to give up the Ghost but he did bow it unto the Title Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews And Pope John the Twentieth gave an Indulgence to any body for the pardon of one enormous sin that should do reverence at the hearing of that Name yet on the other side me thinks they set light by their Salvation that neither will do reverence themselves nor love to see if in another at the mentioning of that holy name To make a difference between the names of God that one is more holy than another it is not my opinion and I think is scarce honesty in the Schoolmen to distinguish as they have done that when we call God the Just one Omnipotent Wise and the like they are Attributes belonging to the Divine Nature from everlasting and therefore to be respected with the highest Adoration but when we call him Lord Creator and Redeemer what 's that but Jesus they are Nomina in tempore à Deo sumpta relative names assumed since the beginning of the
many Ages that went before you I see a spectacle to be commiserated in this old Fabrick before mine eyes O that God would stir up many Nehemiahs among you to re-edifie his Temples and Churches which are decaied and impoverished Hearken to another Proposition In the Republick of the Jews in the Fiftieth year the year of Jubilee the Land which was sold away from any Tribe returned again to the Tribe and to his Family that sold it You see and I hope do pity it at least into how many Tribes the portion of the Church is divided how many Impropriations have almost laid waste the dwelling places of God God stir up a religious heart in many of you to imitate those Worthies who have bequeathed of their Wealth to regain unto the Tribe of Levi that which was so sinfully alienated from them Fifty and fifty years and more to them are run out and still our Inheritance is in the hand of Srangers and there will remain unless by your bounty you will repossess the Church again in those holy demeans which by divine right belong unto it It is worth your knowledge to give you notice how riches came first into the world says Abulensis in his question upon Genesis Cain and Abel and Seth burnt whole burnt-offerings in the open field upon the floor of the earth unto the Lord the great fire of those Sacrifices melted Gold and Silver in the veines of the earth lying near unto the Superficies and purged it from dross as in a refining Furnace which being congealed men found out the use of it and how precious it was and so by this mans conjecture Riches were first found out by doing Honour unto God and is it not most natural to repay them back again for Gods honour and to expect a better recompence The Text I confess doth most properly touch upon the Cleargy themselves upon the Priests of God Honorantes Honorabo they may claim it especially as their due for I told you the Message was delivered by an Angel to Eli the High Priest and to his Sons who had succeeded him in the Priesthood if they had been righteous Let the Sons of Aaron especially praise the Lord with the two Silver Trumpets Verbo vita their painful doctrine and their pious and peaceable life and then if all other honour fail they shall be thrice honoured when the Archangel shall call them out of the Grave with his Trumpet to the Resurrection of the Just If you will see an honourable Priest indeed read the Ninth Chapter of Ecclesiasticus It is the praise of Simon the Son of Onias What a declaration is there What a Description of his glory Beyond all the Eloquence that ever I met with in humane Oratory if the delight of the Subject do not deceive my judgment Such Honour in his Robes when he was cloathed with the perfection of Glory such Majesty in the manner of his Sacrificing such shouting with the Musick of the Temple how the High Priest stretcht his hands over the Congregation and gave them the blessing of the Lord with his lips then how the People bowed their face to the ground and worshipped the Lord lastly how Simon himself was honoured in the Congregation shining like a Rainbow in a cloud of dew They that will please themselves let them read it and learn both what it is for the Bishop to ravish the People with devotion and for the people to return all reverence and honour to the Bishop I know this Doctrine is against the stomach of a troublesom Faction in the Church If God and the King should give Honour unto his Priests every day they would grudge against it every hour No Honour or Lordship for that Coat say they as if because our Saviour called the Disciples the Salt of the earth we must be all set like the Salt at the lower end of the Table If Joseph were honoured in the sight of all the Egyptians that laid up food in Pharaohs Granary shall no honourable place belong unto them that lay up spiritual food in the Temple for the people of the Lord Can you turn this Text and say it was not preach'd to Eli Them that Honour me I will Honour Let me answer one Objection and so I will end this first part What is this that God saith Honorantes Honorabo he will Honour his Saints when such as have filled the Commonwealth with outcries and the Church with abominations are Rulers and Potentates in every Age When the rich Glutton is cloathed with Purple and fine Linnen every day they that make this complaint let them turn about and look where they are in Earth or in Heaven One asked Aesop why the Weeds grew faster than the Flowers in his Garden says the wise man Quia terra est horum Noverca illorum Mater The Earth is own-Mother to my Weeds and Stepmother to my Flowers So says Christ to his Disciples Doth the World hate you And no marvel you are not of the World your Conversation is in Heaven But will you have a Paradox indeed God never gave honours to a wicked and pestilent person Why but how came he to have them Is not all Honour from God Yes but they were not given to him Dati sunt Avo Proavoque dati seris nepotibus says Seneca they were given to the good Grandfathers or Forefathers that used them well or they are prepared for the Sons or Nephews who will use them better hereafter Mamercus Scaurus was a known Adulterer and yet the Romans chose him Consul not intending to give him Honour but forsooth his Father had been an excellent Senator Et indigne fert populus Romanus sobolem ejus jacere they were loth to disgrace his dissolute Son And surely God will much more respect the thousand Generations of them that love him and keep his Commandments for the honours which a dangerous person hath are not his own they are hatcht for the Children yet unborn that the promise may coextend only to the just Them that honour me I will honour All this while we have been in the first part of Pharaohs Dream among the goodly Kine and in a golden Harvest now we come to the second to the lank ears of Corn to the ill-favoured Cattle to those that cast Gods honour behind their backs till he cast them away into utter darkness for so says the other member of the Text They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed Theodoret in his Ecclesiastical History having discoursed briefly upon the life of Julian the Apostate brake off abruptly and would not speak of his Successor the Christian Emperour Jovinian till he had begun a new Book and a new Treatise it were a great Trespass says he to write their Acts and Monuments upon the same Paper So I affected this method I confess to spin a new Web as it were and to frame a new discourse when I came to them who are the contemners of Gods
hand when so malicious a burden hung upon it yet I do not see how he shook off the Viper but I believe and know that it was the voice of the Lord which shaketh the wilderness yea the Lord that shaketh the wilderness of Cades Excussit What no more words concerning this great deliverance So great a work contracted into so small an Epitome If the Children of men work deliverances and strange ones too the relation will ask a Book perchance a Volume or a Legend to record it but it is a blessing so frequent with God that the world would not hold the Books of his preservations if it were not for excussit and tetigit he touch'd the sore and dixit he said the word as short as may be And yet to shake off a beast is such a sudden rescue in the turning of an hand that it is a most complete and more comfortable salvation Monstra superavit priùs quà m nosse possit as Seneca said of Hercules that he slew a Serpent before he knew what a Serpent was What a gentle cure it is As easie as a slumber For the most part it is sickness enough to be diseased with remedies Like as a Philosopher said being made whole after much Physick that it was with him as with a pestilent air cleansed by a clap of thunder And I make a doubt whose fortune was the worse whether the poor womans that took Physick but twelve years together for an issue of bloud or the sick man 's that in thirty eight years sought after no help but from the Pool of Bethesda Wherefore this is the sweetest mercy not to cast off the Viper by loathsom Potions but with no more hurt than Aaron cast forth his rod before Pharaoh from his hand which became a Serpent Gen. vii 10. This deliverance from a Viper makes good the Promise of the Lord Mar. xvi If you take up Serpents they shall not hurt you But as God was the chief Author so Paul had the glory of the execution What Paul himself and no other Indeed there was scarce a friend by to do it for him Hasty Souldiers that even now would have killed him and pitiless Barbarians and Malefactors his fellow Prisoners none of these were likely to relieve him the honour was his own to shake off the beast and yet enquire among all the other Apostles and you shall not find that any one was made an instrument to preserve himself St. Peter could not enter into the High Priests Hall but by a Damosel nor get out of Prison but by an Angel The ignominy was cast upon our Saviours self He saved others himself he cannot save He saved others bear with him in that I pray you though he did not save himself and perchance could not St. Peter As it was said of Mucianus the Roman Facilius erat ei dare imperium quà m accipere it was easier for him to advance another man to the Empire than to exalt himself so God hath ordained to the end that Charity might abound in all things even in the gift of Miracles to give the Apostles the power of healing not to cure themselves but to cure their Brethren No man must buy long life at so base a rate as Herodicus did of whom Aristotle reports that he rended nothing all his days but his own health Of many examples we have but this one in holy Scripture where the Physician did cure himself Paul then did heal himself But advise we well with every circumstance about the Text and then I ask did he not heal the infirmities of many more Yes and there were more Vipers than one in Melita so many Barbarians as thought in their heart but they were cruel thoughts that Paul was a murderer so many Vipers every evil censure against our neighbour it is Venenum charitatis the poyson of our charity shake it off a Gods name before it fasten Qui istoc credis de homine potes facere even for this hard opinion of Paul I doubt Melita had many murderers Yea I am perswaded that this their uncharicableness did more afflict St. Paul than any evil Serpent could as a more tender affection touch'd the heart of Romanus the Martyr to see the cruelty of Heathen Tyrants than to feel his own pain Quod lancinamur non dolet dolet quod error pectori insedit suo Thus the sin of the Barbarians hung upon the heart of the Apostle the Viper only upon his hand but one excussit did serve for both the beast was cast into the fire and then the uncharitable thoughts did vanish Well I see there was some divinity in those hands which were so often lifted up to God in Prayer those hands which wrote such divine Epistles to so many Churches those hands which consecrated the two famous Bishops Titus and Timothy those hands which gathered Alms for the poor Saints at Jerusalem O those hands were blessed no Serpent could envenom them The first office that the courteous fire did afford to Fructuosus the Martyr was to burn the cords which bound up his zealous arms which fain he would lift up to heaven Non ausa est cohibere paena palmas in morem crucis ad patrem levandas solvit brachia qâ—a Deum precentur so sung Prudentius And St. Hierom writes that Julian the wicked took up the body of John the Baptist and burnt it to ashes but his Head wherein the voice of a Crier spake and the Finger wherewith he pointed out Ecce agnus Dei Behold the Lamb of God those could not be consumed And I dare report it after so many Writers that the heart of our most reverend Cranmer was preserved by Gods Providence from the fire in honour of his integrity like the three Children in the Furnace O why should we doubt when God doth thus miraculously save the particular member of our body from harm but that the whole man in the whole entire body our corruptible shall put on incorruption If some should answer to these examples as Diagoras in Tully said to one that presented many Pictures before him of those who had escaped Sea-danger by calling upon Neptune Nusquam esse pictos qui in mari perierant naufragium fecerant There were more examples of them if they could be seen who were drowned in the Sea and yet called upon Neptune So perhaps many faithful men may be named who were not always fortunate in their deliverance Beloved what deliverance do you mean All this while you do not reckon how many miseries they prevent who are dispatch'd by one is it no excussit Do we shake off no small store of mischief when the soul doth uncase it self of this body of sin that with good King Josiah we may not see the evil to come Death is like the Angel set before the Garden of Eden which with one blow lets him that passeth by into Paradise When sinners and uncircumcised feel the wrath of God their
Christ had all effects and operations of grace and goodness from the beginning of the world The other answer is no man hath ascended into heaven but Christ but Enoch Elias and those that rose out of their graves and appeared in the holy City these were translated into heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 negatur non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one distinguisheth To ascend is to exalt himself by his own power to be translated is to be carried away by the power of God So Gregory says upon Elias his triumphant departure out of this world Ligitur in curru ascendisse quia homo purus adiutorio indiget alieno He is described to be mounted in a Chariot for it is not in man to reach up to heaven without divine assistance Wherefore I conclude this Point that nothing is repugnant to the dignity and priority of Christ but that Enoch was carried away to heaven in the hand of God And surely as the Apostle says the gifts of God are without repentance he took him not away from the state of corruption here to kill him hereafter As he saved him from death once and translated him so he will keep him from death for ever I confess it is strange to me that the greatest part of the Fathers should be of another mind but I confess the most ancient and the best part of them are of another mind Justin Martyr Tertullian and so downward to St. Austin Vivunt Enoch Elias sed reddituri ut morti debitum solverent Enoch and Elias are alive but the time is to come that they will return and pay the debt of nature and die Such learned judgments had carried me clear along with them but that the foundation upon which they built was evidently rotten The obstreperous Jews I dare avouch it laid the first stone of that error to oppose the true Messias that came to save them for whereas Malachi concludes the Old Testament with a Prediction that the next Prophet after him should be John the Baptist who should prepare the way unto Christ the Lord behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The Jewish Septuagint would make the world believe that the very Elias should personally appear against the Apparition of Messias and have cogged in a word to that purpose Behold I will send Elijah the Thisbite before the great day of the Lord. Upon this Tryphon the Jew being put to it learnedly by Justin Martyr falls at last into this cavil for his part he knew not whether the Messias were come or no but he knew he should have no power or authority till Elias anointed him What doth Justin Martyr reply to this We have not wanted one Elias already meaning John the Baptist and we shall see the true Elias himself going before the second coming of Christ Thus the good Fathers of the Christian Church were mistaken by the fraud of that addition Elias the Thisbite And since they lookt for Elias to come again they thought it as expedient that Enoch his pew-fellow and associate should joyn with him in the same fortune Well this comes not yet home to our Point for the Jews did not meddle or make with that question whether Elias and by consequent Enoch should die when he came again No that was brought in by Christian Disciples who were much stunned with an hard place in the Revelation in Chap. xi The two Witnesses that should fight with the Beast and be slain by the Beast the two Olive trees the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the earth Some ancient Writers have distorted this place to Enoch and Elias that they should preach against Antichrist three years and an half cloathed in Sackcloth be slain in Jerusalem and rise again in the face of all people before the general Resurrection Venerable Bede was the first whom I light upon that expounds it of the two Testaments of the Scripture which openly convince all false Prophets by the evidence of truth In this latter Age divers adhere to that exposition among the rest the Learned and Princely Pen of King James of blessed memory I believe many of those excellent Fathers if they had lived in these times would have approved the ingenuous collection of a late Writer how nothing is proved but that certain men in the last days shall preach against Antichrist and his Idolatries Now two Witnesses are spoken of that is very few if they be compared with the great numbers of their enemies but Witnesses must be two at least according to the Law therefore by the two Olive trees and two Candlesticks are meant Zorubabel and Joshua in the Prophet Zachary By them that have power to shut heaven in the days of their Prophesie that it rain not Elias and Elisha by them that have power to turn waters into bloud and to smite them with Plagues when they will Moses and Aaron But none of those are meant definitively and personally but that the Lord shall have powerful Witnesses to preach against false Prophets such as these and not any colour of intimation to bring in Enoch who is not glanced at in any description of the Text Many Writers opposite unto us are confident that if any Witnesses come from Heaven to fight against Antichrist they shall be Moses and Elias and Enoch shall continue where he is for ought they know Nay their judgments are so various herein that some follow St. Hilary and say the Witnesses shall be Moses and Elias One Hippolytus thrusts in St. John the Evangelist because it is said of him Thou must prophesie again Some say as much for the Prophet Jeremy because the time of his death is unrecorded locus est pluribus umbris it may be we shall hear of more hereafter For they have a wild and large field to run in that will interpret Prophesies unfulfilled Now if our Adversaries will be so resolute in their curiosities to define who these Witnesses are and be angry with them that dissent from them they for their part have less cause to blame them who will be so confident in their Expositions about the Beast his number the City on seven hills c. For their part they are well requited though I commend neither the secret things belong to thee O God the revealed unto us And it is revealed to us that God took Enoch to himself not that he will return him to us again But as David said after the departure of his Child We shall go to him he shall not come again to us And the Lord grant us all an happy passage out of this life to live with him for ever AMEN O Lord help thy Servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud and make us to be numbred with thy Saints in glory everlasting through Jesus Christ c. THE FIRST SERMON UPON NOAH GEN. viii 20 21. And Noah builded an Altar unto the
Creature rather than a worshiping of the Creator that he esteemed it was granted the Ceremonial Church because it could not be shifted For since it was to be feared that the Israelites had cast their eye upon those fond customs of the Gentiles and did affect to imitate them rather than they should sacrifice to false Gods God did permit they should sacrifice to his name to prevent Idolatry But I answer The most ancient and primitive use of sacrificing such as Noahs was in my Text is not so to be slighted For a bad thing by a toleration is not made half a vertue nay after toleration it still remains more than half a Vice Moses did allow a Bill of divorce for the hardness of mens hearts but that which is allowed for the hardness of the heart is yet a sin after the allowance the connivance of the Law cannot make any fashions of pride excusable and the farming out of Stews for Pensions cannot make Fornication venial But I pray you what Idolatry was suspicious in Abels time or at this time when Noah came new out of the Ark And yet even then Sacrifice was and was a sweet savour And the ground of the objection is mistaken for who can ever prove that the Children of Israel had learnt the formes of sacrificing in the Land of Egypt It is impossible For the Egyptians hated sacrificing and killing of Cattel wherefore Moses would not consent to Pharaoh to sacrifice to God in that Land Says he Shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us And the Egyptians continued such long after Christ when the Satyrist fell thus upon them Nefas illic foetum jugulare capellae carnibus humanis vesci licet c. This hath declared that the Ordinance of Sacrificing from the beginning was not a bare toleration to divert men from laying their Offering upon the Altars of their Idols But to make all perspicuous we are to harken to the judgment of Irenaeus and St. Hierom that Sacrificing was an holy Worship which God did like and allow from the beginning of the world and for many Ages there was no prescription for the manner all holy men had their freedom for quantùm and quomodo for how much for when it should be done but when the seed of Abraham proved recreants and fell in love with the superstition and worse than superstition then and not before was the Levitical Law drawn out at large to command all the true Worshipers of God to follow that written prescription in all their Sacrifices That is when the Molten Calf was set up by Aaron and the People to provoke God when they offered burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings unto it the Lord saw it was time no more to leave them to themselves to offer indefinitely and indeterminately how they list but after that he bound them to those Levitical rules whereof Moses made an entire book Says God ye shall break down the Altars and Groves of the Gods of the heathen but the Lord will chuse a place for you and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings ye shall not do after all things that we do here this day every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes That is their ancient liberty in sacrificing after what manner they pleased was restrained after the adoration of the Calf for fear of further Idolatry Sacrifice therefore was not barely a toleration for avoidance of Idolatry in the first institution but properly had many parts of Religious Worship in it which are these First the mind of him that brought the offering was bent to honour God that he was the giver of all things and the end to which all things were to be referred Which reason the Schoolmen very well put into this Proposition Emanant ex fide sacrificia quae amplissimè de Deo sentit The Religion of Sacrificing proceeds out of Faith which esteems most devotionately of Gods excellent greatness and in the act of Sacrificing it is carried up to worship God in his invisible glory And surely some Litany or Collects of Prayers were said at the same time with such like Ejaculations in them as these We lay this gift on thy Altar O Lord to acknowledge that every living thing is thine this is a Testimony that thine is the Power and the Dominion over all things let every thing do thee service for thou art the Saviour both of Man and Beast the life of every thing upon earth is in thy hand but thou alone art immortal thou art the same and endurest for ever or such a form of supplication as came from Davids mouth when he offered for the building of the Temple Who am I and what is my people that we shall be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own hand have we given thee Now the rudeness of the old World I may say did require these lessons to be taught and repeated often in visible figures in lessons that might be felt as well as heard which were fit to be written not in ink alone but even in the bloud of Sheep and of Goats A visible sign is a fair mark of remembrance for them that are slow to learn They that distrust their memory will wear a gimmal ring nay a thread or a rush about the finger to bring business into mind which might have been forgotten And God distrusting mans memory put him into the way of sacrificing a good shore or support for such a use so by that object which did incur into all the senses the Divine honour was kept in an everlasting remembrance Well then in this very service wherein they brought somewhat unto the Altar yet it was the Lords purpose to give and not to take Nothing is left to him in an whole Burnt-offering no more than a Prince gets when his Subjects make Bonfires at or upon the memory of his Inauguration Julian the Emperor scoffing at all the Royal Cesars that had been before him gives Antoninus Pius the praise before them all for this saying He being askt by Silenus what was the end of his life and of all his actions he answered to imitate the Gods And wherein consists that imitation says Silenus Antoninus rejoyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stand in need of little and to be beneficial to many that 's the true blazon indeed of the Divine dignity to want nothing and to do good to all Gods honour was recognized in sacrifice that was the end of it but our Goods and Oblations were nothing to him and therefore the elementary part of their gratitude was consum'd to nothing It was a Law not to be broken for the bloud of every Sacrifice to be spilt before the Altar and the fat to be burnt in the fire the bloud stood for the life which we breath the fat for the abundance of all increase which we enjoy now we ought to
Father Vasarenes as Agathias reports the Soothsayers foretold that his Mother should bring forth a Male child and he was crowned in her Womb his honour began the soonest I ever read of any and his guiltiness of sin and obligement to Gods wrath began as soon as the soul did inform the body If ever there were a Paradox in the world which Turks and Infidels hitherto have shamed to maintain it is the contrary to this doctrine that some iniquity is not the cause of perishing before the wrath of God Peribit in iniquitate it was ever good Divinity before Mariana and some Jesuits have perswaded desperate cast-aways to be saved by iniquity Saved did they say And for working abomination O are not the tender mercies of the wicked cruel St. Paul comforted our Mothers in their travel that the woman should be saved by bearing Children into the world they teach Reprobates to purchase a Saintship by murdering such whom the world is not worthy of Slaughter and bloudshed says our Philosopher Rhet. 1. lib. are not fit to make a question for discourse because it was never disputed by some either to be lawful or tolerable Nay in the second Eth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing can make Murder a good action much less Treason But this was the pity of a Philosopher and Alexanders Courtier not the stomach of a Jesuit and a grand Inquisitor If all the Saints should appear before God with the Instruments of their Piety Moses with the two Tables Aaron with his Rod David with his Psaltery Dorcas with the Garments of her Charity would you look for a Priest among them girded with a bloudy knife Or a Villain provided with fire and Gunpowder Who would look for it Except as when the Sons of God stood before the Lord Job i and Satan also was among them Nay heaven and earth shall pass away before Peribit in iniquitate become Apocryphal before the Wormwood of sin become the Palm of immortality Thus much for the cause in general but what offence his iniquity did give the sin of Achan will ask a peculiar and a larger trial You are deceived if you think it was but Larceny or greedy pilfering if a Thief steal he shall restore fourfold says the Law or seven fold says Solomon when stealing grew worse and worse that was the most of it But God saw more pernicious faults in Achan for his justice is not fidelis in minimo sharpest against small offences like the Popes Decretals which enjoyn a Priest forty days penance if he spill one drop of the Cup of the Lords Table and but seven days penance for Fornication But hainous was the fact of Achan first in scandal that an Israelite preserved so long in the Wilderness one that fought the Lords Battels and came always home with victory that he should be the first that trespassed among the Canaanites the heathen that would blaspheme the living God Secondly In disobedience that Joshuah his noble General made the head of all the Tribes by Gods appointment and Moses good liking and Eleazars Unction could not command to be obeyed Thirdly In faithless covetousness That since Manna did fall no more from heaven about their Tents the Lord did heed his people no longer every man must catch what come to his hands so Achan took the accursed c. Here is scandal to them that were without within themselves contempt of the Lord and his servant Joshuah in his own heart an inordinate desire to grow rich and sumptuous I do not make Achans fault the greater that Gods vengeance may be more plausible as St Austin spake of disgracing Cacus to honour Hercules the more Nisi nimis accusaretur Cacus parum Hercules laudaretur but remember my scope is all one with S. Pauls Interrogatories With whom was he grieved And to whom did he swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest If there be any delight in comparing sins as the Prophets use to dash the Idols of Jerusalem with the Idols of Samaria me thinks the first transgression of the Garden of Eden and the pleasant Land of Canaan almost another Eden are very semblable Eve walking in Paradise saw the fruits and her eye enticed her to take that which was forbidden and then she hid her self out of Gods sight So Achan treading upon the soil of Canaan saw a Babylonish Garment and his eye enticed him and he took it when it was forbidden and accursed and hid both the Garment and his sin from the sight of Joshuah But those are impudent crimes like the forehead of an Harlot that leave their memory to the evil world to be the first examples of transgressions cursed be that sin for it festers into scandal and unhappy shall be their end that fly from the Lord till they be left as a Beacon on the top of a Mountain and as an Ensign on a Hill says the Prophet Isaiah Many offences had never been committed or else brought forth by a worse Generation long after unless an evil Author had made the way known and easie for our corrupt nature therefore the first that gathered sticks and broke the Sabbath the Shilonites Son the first that cursed impious Gehazi the first that took sinful wages for the gift of God Ananias and Saphira the first dissemblers in the Primitive Church Achan the first Malefactor in the Land of Canaan these had their portion suddenly and drunk the Cup of Gods fury unto the dregs thereof I know not how fatal it is but since the small trenches of Rome were filled with too much bloud of Rhemus anon after they were digg'd massacres and persecutions have never departed from that unlucky building As the heavens are spread above us and seem to speak like the Statue of the King of Egypt In me quis intuens pius esto So the ground whereon we tread sometimes quakes and seems to be too holy to be defiled But if ever there were an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or incongruity of place to say unto sin exiforas this is no ground for sinners was it not the Land of Promise A small sin in Canaan was greater than a fornication in Egypt a trespass in Jerusalem is worse than an Idol in Samaria Had this deed been done in the Wilderness or in the paths of the Red Sea it had been more tolerable as one speaks of Pompeys obscure death in Egypt a thousand Leagues from Rome Procul hoc ut in orbe remoto abscondat fortuna nefas the offence had not been so notorious But the Angels themselves do wonder in a field of choice Wheat Vnde zizania Lord whence come Tares Will you resolve the Prophet Jeremy the same question He makes very strange fidelis civitas How is the faithful City become an Harlot To use the Lords own Sacrifice with the Sons of Eli for Riot and Extortion his own Supper for drunkenness with the bad Corinthians to employ the soyl of his own
in holy Scripture both how the Devil tempted Christ to see if He were God and how the Pharisees brought a case before him to try if He were Messias Cast thy self down from the Pinacle of the Temple says Satan if thou be the Son of God No that were cruelty against his own person and charity begins at home Then the Pharisees brought a sinner before him taken in adultery Joh. viii Their fingers itcht to be casting stones at her but he would not suffer them And this mercy proved him both to be Messias and the Son of God If men and Angels had kept good we had only known the friendship of God what it was and not his anger that was natural unto him We provoked justice violently and wrung it out of his hands And as the King of Israel said to Elisha when his enemies were inclosed within his power Shall I smite them my Father shall I smite them No says the Prophet but set bread and water before them So Justice said to God when we had transgressed Shall I smite them Shall I consume them at once O no says our Saviour but set bread and wine before them the Sacrament of his body and bloud which being eaten by faith will save our souls Christ wept but twice in all once over his friend Lazarus that was a natural grief and once over Jerusalem that sought his bloud that was a coelestial passion Nay though he went but a foot pace from one City to another to preach the Gospel yet he would needs ride to Jerusalem so to make haste to suffer longing till the work of our Redemption was finished St. Ambrose says he groaned as well to have the bitter Cup come quickly as to have it pass away and grew weary of delay till He had paid the Hand-writing which was against us There passed but a little time from midnight to midday betwixt his Attachment his Arraignment and his Execution as if his feet had stood upon thorns until his head was crowned with them Now tell me how you will look upon this Christ O ye malicious hearted whose feet are swift to shed bloud in Duels and fierce Encounters your hatred and his pitty your desire to destroy your enemies and his good will to recover them and bless them they savour undoubtedly of two sort of Serpents Christ is the Brazen Serpent lifted up who cured the infirmities of the People they are like the fiery Vermin which stung Gods Travellers in the Wilderness And when God was put to it to punish see how Mercy wrestled with Indignation Ah I will be avenged of mine enemies says the Prophet Isaiah he sighed because he must be wrathful as it was said of the mild Emperor Vespasian Indoluit quoties debuit esse ferox When he destroyed Sodom with an heayy wrath his justice came down but in slow drops of fire but his mercy is a full torrent like Jordan in a time of Harvest it brought Israel to a Land flowing with milk and honey for his mercy endureth for ever His goodness is swifter than Eagles for in six dayes he framed the World and all that is therein But he took forty days to destroy one City of Nineveh and then he spared it When he was first angry with man he did but walk in the cool says the Text to chide Adam but the Father of the Prodigal you know who I mean ran in haste to meet his Son and pardon him when he was yet far from him Finally it is written in Mat. xxv that benediction is from God Come ye blessed of my Father But malediction and cursing are not from him Go ye cursed but not cursed of my Father no such word in the Text he has no hand in that It was Gods Dialogue with Jonas Shouldst thou grieve that the Gourd of herbs is decayed and should not compassion touch me much more for this mighty People true Lord but if thou pardonest man for sin who in thy sight is but as a flower of the field less than the Gourd of Jonas should not man much more remit the offence of his Brother which is done against him I say much more it behoveth man and I will hold my self to that For first there is somewhat in our eyes that blinds them it is pulvis humanitatis the dust of our humane nature that makes us when we are the most sharp censurers of other mens faults not to discern truly the filth of their sin but the eyes of the Lord are bright as a couple of flaming Torches in the Revelation and offences appear before them more ghastly and tragical than our dim Candle half put out can enlighten us to perceive For instance hereof To morrow there is a Feast unto Jehovah says Aaron but the Lord could see that the Feast was luxury they rose up to play and the Sport was flat Idolatry So Saul could discern no harm in himself but a little foolish pitty when he spared Agag but the flaming eye saw it was Rebellion as foul as the sin of Witchcraft And is the Lord merciful to our transgressions when they cry unto him like the sound of many waters and should not Man much more acquit the World of every offence done against him for as much as we conceive not what is evil because our selves are evil Secondly among men a gift pleaseth the eyes and a recompence is a safe correcting of an injury but that were peccatum bis tinctum a sin died in scarlet to think to blot out sins before the Lord with the Fruit of our Body or with Rivers of Oil And can this God be reconciled then and should not man much more be merciful Beloved in the third place We are all full of our own infirmities Who knows whose turn it may be next to fly unto the Altar for a pardon Two that grind in the same Mill and two that walk in the same Field nay Barnabas and Paul fellow Labourers in the same Gospel may daily stumble one at another Our communication together cannot choose but be offensive as the earth licks up the water and the water devours the earth but who is the churlish Labourer to whom God cannot say Friend I do thee no wrong O can the just one have mercy upon us and should not offenders between themselves sinners unto sinners much more be charitable But there is one thing more in mercy than forgiveness alms and bounty to do good and distribute to be Oil and Physick to the wounded like the good Samaritan this is also a full Plume in the Wing of Charity like that other Mat. xxiii how often would I have gathered thee under my wings as a Hen doth her Chickens but thou wouldest not Beloved God hath suffered his fire to be unmerciful to sweep away the Habitation of the fatherless and innocent that our hands might build it up again And we shall not only build up houses of clay the reward