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.
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
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
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
violence there is no insequent time to call for grace and mercy But 3. since violence overcame them the sin was none of theirs but the Ravishers As St. Austin said of Sextus Brutus and Lucretia Duo fuerunt unus commisit adulterium the sin was wrought between two and yet one only committed adultery because Lucretia was forced But you will say and why doth St. Paul put Samson in the bedroul of the Patriarchs that had obtained the Promise if every one that is guilty of his own violent death be a Reprobate St. Austins answer is Latenter à spiritu sancto jussus est Samson had departed out of this world a Cast-away if he had not been prompted to pull down the Theater of the Philistins by some inward motions sent from God But some litigious one will say Was any sin ever committed but such an answer will make it a vertue Beloved Samsons case was not every mans for first he had extraordinary Revelations of the Spirit God did work many Miracles by his hands Secondly Samson prayed that his strength might be restored that he might be avenged of the Philistines and the Lord did give him strength for that purpose beyond the capacity of a natural man Put these together and they make a particular case that he above any other of the like sort was directed by the Spirit to pull down the house upon his enemies But in my own private judgment I have ever thought that Samsons care was not to bring certain death upon himself but only to hazard his life in a great venture which is lawful in Military Stratagems against enemies as to enter a breach upon the mouth of a Canon a Souldier may come off with safety but it is odds he dies for it A Seaman being boarded blows up the Deck he may escape himself but his chance is very hazardous and for ought any man is able to say to the structure of this house which Samson pluck'd down he saw no possibility but he might escape although he profest he would adventure to die with his enemies a mixt case it was not very hopeful nor quite desperate Howsoever St. Austins answer as I have illustrated it unto you is very satisfactory that he was moved unto it by some special instinct from God And so far upon this Point wherein I have laboured to let you see that the Devil hath not a more poysonous Arrow in his Quiver than to excite one to kill himself Bear with me if I have been copious in it Who can say enough against a sin so horrid so unnatural so unpardonable It did not content the Devil that Christ should fall from the Pinacle unless it were his own voluntary act If thou he the Son of God cast thy self down After this demand of Satans I propounded to intreat upon what supposition it was demanded If thou be the Son of God This thorn is yet in his foot and pricks him he would fain put it out of doubt whether this were the eternal and only begotten Son of God And he follows the search in these words as if he were no Infidel but by way of Concession yielded this thou art the Son of God therefore it can be no harm to thee to cast thy self down from a Pinacle of the Temple Which is as St. Paul writes If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead he was certain to atttain unto it and therefore that IF is a Particle of Modesty not of Hesitation As Ribadenira says of Father Ignatius that he halted of the wound which he received at Pampelune but so little that the most curious could scarce discern that he halted So Satan distrusts whether Christ were the promised Messias but so artificially that he would not seem to be distrustful But distrust he did and did rather presume Christ was no more than some excellent Prophet than otherwise For he knew that God could not be tempted the crafty Angel had that understanding therefore he hoped mainly he did but bicker with a man And a certain Expositor plaies wittily upon this notion that St. Matthew St. Mark and St. Luke deliver the manner of this tentation but St. John speaks not a word of it For as he collects the other three begin their Gospels with Christs temporary Generation how he was made man St. John begins thus In the beginning was the Word from the generation of God but because God cannot be tempted at all he found no place in his Gospel for this story Well because Christ eschewed the Tempters craftiness in the former bout and held him yet in suspence he lifts at him now with all his strength and thinks to be upon the rack no longer this second If thou be the Son of God shall discover all he doth not doubt it Et verbo facto est exploratio It is an exploration driven home both by word and fact 1. He took him up to the Pinacle Would he be taken along by him if he were the mighty Son of God Why not As an invincible Champion that dare fight upon any ground with his Adversary 2. The Messias was expected both at the holy City and at the Temple and he brings him unto both to see if he would acknowledge his Kingdom The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Sion Psal cx 1. And again The Lord shall suddenly come to his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in Mal. iii. 1. Yet Satan could gather nothing from this for he made himself invisible in this transportation and was not seen Hereafter at his own season the whole City and Temple shall ring of him Behold thy King cometh unto thee meekly upon an Ass 3. He popp'd in a place of the Psalm but hereafter more of that very perversly hoping Christ would declare himself and say the application of this Psalm belongs to all the holy Saints but not to me that am greater than Saints and Angels But Christ spared that labour and gave him Scripture for his Scripture 4. Upon the tentation it self he presumed it would perfectly come to light who he was For if he cast himself down thinking he should be safe as when he pass'd through the air and yet catch hurt it is as he could wish Or if he catch no hurt and cast himself down that Miracle must allow him to be the Son of God All this the wisdom of our Redeemer declined proving that mans life must not be cast into danger where there is no necessity thus you see the Devil laboured hard and yet could not resolve the Riddle that troubled him If thou be c. And now let me shew you that this vile Connexion which he hath made is against all reason and consequency If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down There is as little Logick in this Hypothetical Proposition as there is Divinity in that verse of Davids Psalm as he hath quoted in the
as they were bidden and that bidding made it no intrusion upon their Fathers Providence The Lord also bad Gideon bring his Souldiers down unto the water and he would try them by a sign which of them should go against the Madianites the Lord did say it and therefore it was fit for him to obey that miraculous direction And Divines agree that it was not a fair answer in King Ahaz when God bid him ask a sign either in the depth beneath or in the height above he answered I will not ask neither will I tempt the Lord for the favour was propounded unto him both for his own part to increase his faith and much more for the instruction of all the people therefore he should have ask'd it But sometimes though upon no express command yet holy Prophets upon some divine instinct have tempted God to grant them a sign above the common and ordinary way of nature and yet their asking was laudable as Gen. xv God is very gracious to Abraham in all the passages I and commends him for his faith yet Abraham says Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit this Land of Canaan And a miracle was wrought to establish the Promise unto him Thus you must interpret wheresoever in holy Scripture you find such eminent men ask a sign to whom God talkt familiarly or poured Revelations into them or spake unto them in Visions that they had a Prophetical instinct for it which maks their case different from us that walk by ordinary faith Now I pray you mark that many times wicked people undertake things of a strange condition by instinct and bring them to pass but it is not Prophetical for it is an instinct of which themselves are not aware as the Mariners were prompted by instinct no doubt to cast lots and the Lot fell right upon Jonas yet they had no feeling that the hand of the Lord was in it But it is a Prophetical instinct which makes the act warrantable when the party imployed in it by God knows it and understands it to be such and concurreth with God as well in will as in the work Eliezer Abrahams Servant was sent to provide a Wife for Isaac and coming to Mesopotamia to the City of Nahor he makes this Prayer O Lord God of my Master Abraham send me good speed this day Loe I stand by the Well of water grant that the Maid to whom I say bow down thy Pitcher I pray thee that I may drink if she say drink and I will give thy Camels drink also may be she that thou hast ordained for thy Servant Isaac And it was so in the event The Scripture makes no description of this Eliezer for a Prophet yet if he felt a motion from God to try the Marriage this way good and lawful if not howsoever God let it come to pass for Abraham and Isaacs sake the course was not excusable but superstitious The like judgment I pass upon Jonathan for God only knows by what inspiring or revelation he did this he went up against the Philistines with his Armour-bearer and he resolves if they say come up unto us we will go up For the Lord hath delivered them into our hand and this shall be a sign unto us Though some say this was not to doubt of Gods excellency but of their own act yet that distinction avails not to explore the success of your own act by means unordained for that use unless divine instinct do help it is a vicious tentation Yet this I will add Jonathans act may be rescued from being tax'd for a tempting of God and exposing themselves to most doubtful peril in that two of them fought with an whole Host for the place was narrow where they could grapple but one to one and Jonathan had the upper ground and the Promise was ratified in the Book of Moses That one of them should chase an hundred and two of them put a thousand to flight Therefore Gods Command or his Promise or a Prophetical instinct do qualifie those things to be vertuous actions which otherwise were tentations ill adventured to anger the Lord. Thirdly Weighty and extraordinary callings had need of a mighty faith to undergo them and such men of old had a liberty allowed unto them to try their Vocation by some sign or some powerful work of God both for themselves and principally for the people that were committed to their governance As Moses pleaded when he was destined to be the Captain that should bring Israel out of Egypt Loe they will not believe me nor hearken to my voice they will say the Lord hath not appeared unto thee presently he was satisfied God bad him cast forth his Rod and it became a Serpent This the Lord did bear withal and let him require an extraordinary Warrant for an extraordinary Function So Gideon being a poor Thresher was called upon by the Angel to sight for Israel against the Madianites he deprecates that the Angel would take it no offence if he desired the encouragement of a Miracle to raise his faith to an eminent pitch Be not angry with me let me prove thee once again with the Fleece let it now be dry only upon the Fleece and let dew be upon all the ground To a private man this demand had been sin but to Gideon to sustain that excellent person which the Angel imposed on him at least it was tollerable Fourthly and finally there is a speculative inquiry or Antecedent to prove Gods will and power by Signs and Tokens and that is unlawful and there is an experimental or consequent one to enquire after Gods goodness in a mans own self by descending into the effects and enumerations of his mercies and proving our own Spirit and that is lawful So Mal. iii. 10. Bring ye all the Tithes into the store-house and prove me therewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open the windows of heaven unto you It were sinful to pay Tythes to that end as if you would tempt God by that conclusion whether he could open the windows of heaven and help you with store but consecutivè the trial is good do you that and God will do this put it to the success if the Lord do not treble his bounty unto those that pay him his Tythes and Offerings this is to taste and try how gracious he will be to our obedience not to put him to such effects as we imagine in the capreols of our own fancy for that is a culpable tentation So this Point being traversed as much as I intend and the time will give me leave I leave it behind me and proceed to the next What are the general heads of those presumptuous ways wherein the party sins that tempts the Lord And surely one principal and notorious offence is committed when a man exposeth his life to unnecessary dangers upon an ill-grounded confidence that God will bring him off with safety Upon this
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
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
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