Church was that there were no divisions or distractions in their Body God be praised for the multiplication of his Saints now over all the world we cannot meet now under one Roof as these did nor sit down in rows in one Field together as those 5000 did whom our Saviour fed in the Desart the bounds of all the Land of Canaan are not able to hold us God be glorified for the increase Our unity of place is to meet in those publique Assemblies which are allotted to particular Churches at those appointed times which are enjoyned us In no wise to slack our presence here on the Lords day to flock together on other festival days at Morning Prayer on week days to be much more diligent than we have been fie upon our tardiness and excuses in that duty do we look that God shall bless us in our Persons and Calling to take a Benediction away with us to serve us the whole week and come no oftner is not he the God that makes men to be of one mind to come to the Temple together and there to receive the Holy Ghost Chiefly I wish heartily in Christ that they would consort together with us who take no offence at our Doctrine established but make a separation and strangeness both from us and among themselves for matter of Ceremonies and things indifferent They that are baptized into Christ and one Faith why should they not come together with one accord in one place I must not be prolix I will say no more to it but let us say with St. Paul Hebr. x. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are not of them who separate or draw back unto perdition Vnto perdition let that be noted The observation of this point gains thus much more out of St. Austin As all the Tribes of Israel were gathered together about Mount Sinah to hear in what manner the Law was proclaimed so here was an agreement of all persons to joyn together to receive the Holy Ghost but in that admirable similitude there is this dissimilitude that the people were prohibited with many terrors to come near the place where the Law was delivered but at this time the Holy Ghost was sent unto them who expecting the promise were all with one accord in one place And Calvin conjects much unto this note that the minds of the faithful were exceedingly encouraged and chang'd for the better the stoutest Champions of them all had no manlike fortitude in them before the Shepherd was smitten and instantly they were scattered and ran away for fear now the very women had hardned themselves against all danger they mix themselves together in one place with that holy company and fear no evil that can happen unto them A resolved constant mind an heroick heart to take up the Cross of Christ and to suffer unto the death for righteousness sake is a sign of much grace in the soul and an admirable preparation to receive the greatest measure of the Holy Ghost And that you may not think this Apostolical Society had crept into a dark corner where no espials could find them out Many Authors that have laboured to understand where it was say it was a spacious goodly Room of as much note as any private House in all Jerusalem and frequented so often by the Apostles that their haunt was known through all the City All that I have met withal conclude it was the same upper Chamber where our Saviour celebrated his last Supper and so consecrated the place Nicephorus and Cedrenus say it was the House of John the Evangelist for he took the Blessed Virgin to his own home and she was now among them a slender guess God wot and repugnant to many circumstances of Scripture Theophylact says it was the House of Simon the Leper how can that be when his House was in Bethany Matth. xxvi 6. Euthymius says it was the House of Joseph of Arimathea an honourable Counseller and had goodly Rooms to receive them Baronius goes with the most voices all are but conjectures that it was the House of Mary the Mother of John whose surname was Mark. To this Adrichomius consents and says this was the place where 3000 Jews were converted by Peter and baptized thither Peter betook himself when the Angel brought him out of prison there Stephen and others were made Deacons there James the Brother of our Lord so called was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem there the first Council of the Apostles was held Acts xv All ancient Authors conclude it was about where the Tower of Sion stood and this is certain that Helen the Mother of Constantine did build a goodly Temple upon the same place to honour that holy ground It was a Figure of the whole Church of Christ so much the more to be remembred and the Church is a Figure of the Kingdom of Heaven where all the Saints and I trust all we shall praise the Lord with one accord in one place for evermore It follows now as the outward Bond of Peace was with this Society so they were claspt together faster with the inward Bond of Agreement with the unity of the same spirit they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one accord There cannot be a more proper true and certain disposition to make us meet for the Holy Ghost than unanimity As the Halcyon so our Naturalists say never appears but against fair weather so the Spirit comes either not at all or not very plentifully unto us until he find concord among us without jars and tranquility without bitterness The unity of the Apostles is called by the Fathers parasceue spiritus the way-making to receive the grace of God and if the Patient be prepared aright the Agent will do his work the sooner and the better No gifts of benediction are given to strive and oppose to fight one against another but for charity and edification therefore it was the beginning of our Collect three Sundays past Almighty God which dost make the minds of all faithful men to be of one will and it is a principal part of our Gospel for this day Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you That peace which Christ left among the Apostles was as it were an earnest penny put into their hands that they should have the full donative of the Comforter from above Our Saviour was born in the days of Caesar Augustus when a still Peace was over all the world now He pours out his holy spirit upon them that were of one accord and of one heart the one was his first act upon earth the other is his last then he was cloathed with our flesh now we are invested with his spirit This remarkable amity and Saint-like brotherhood among the Members of the Church which had no ruptures was well prefigur'd in the old Feast of Pentecost which was kept by the Jews For Levit. xxiii 19. upon the day of Pentecost among other Burnt-offerings the Priests were appointed in
forth fruit So this maiden Mother knew no man she did not conceive after the manner of women but by the power of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost shall over-shadow thee says Gabriel Bene dictum est obumbrabit says Gregory Vmbra enim a lumine formatur corpore i. e. A Deo Virgine The world is full of expression which says the Holy Ghost shall over-shadow her for a shadow is caused by the resplendency of Light and the opacity of a gross body standing between So Christ who is the shadow of our refuge under which we stand to couch our selves from the scorching anger of Gods wrath he was conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin that was the body the Light of Heaven and the Holy Ghost reflecting upon it Verbum fuit pater ejus auditus mater says Fulgentius Upon the word of the Salutation of the Angel and by the Ear of Mary that heard the word between these two alone he was made man and they were unto him like as a Father and a Mother St. Austin says very sweetly that this admirable Creature Mary the Mother of our Lord is in this verse like unto the Church of Christ the Church is often called a Virgin the Virgin the Daughter of Sion I but since so many faithful Sons are born unto the Church by the Preaching of the Gospel how can they be the Sons of the Church or the Church their Mother if she be still a Virgin Very fitly and conveniently as he answers Virgo est parit Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit the Church is a Virgin and yet fruitful of Children for she is like the Mother of our Lord who was a Virgin Mother Why God did make this choice I mean why he chose this Blessed Virgin of the line of David to carry her own Redeemer and ours in her Womb before all the daughters of women ask in Gods name and seek the reason but let this be the ground upon which you build Sapientia aedificavit sibi domum Prov. 9.1 Wisdom did build her self an house God did befit himself with so clean a vessel as there was not a more heavenly creature upon earth neither since nor before her and such a Virgin was the purest casket which might be found wherein to lay up the gem of the world The very body of Christ without the soul was laid up in a tomb wherein never Corps were laid before in a new Tomb and reason good for though the soul was flitted away yet the union between the Body and the Divine Nature was not dissolved and therefore his Sepulchre was a new Sepulchre which was never seasoned with man before O then when the living Body and the Godhead were united into one person very meet and requisite it was that no Child should ever take up that Womb before the Son of God the son of a sinner was not first to possess that place which was ordained for the Son of God Moreover as the Woman Mary did bring forth the Son who bruised the Serpents head which brought sin into the world by the woman Eve so the Virgin Mary was the occasion of Grace as the Virgin Eve was the cause of Damnation Eve had not known Adam as yet when she was beguiled and seduced the man so Mary had not known Joseph Et illa peperit and she brought forth her first born Son And thus you see Sapientia adificavit sibi domum wisdom did build her self an house To make some use of this point unto our selves we see how well the Womb of the Virgin Mary did fit the Birth of Christ but will you know what manner of house wisdom doth build unto her self even unto this day Our Saviour was so well pleased with a Virgin-dwelling for once that ever since he loves to abide and dwell in a Virgin and unpolluted heart Cor simplex est cor Virgineum a plain dealing heart such a one as Jacobs was a charitable well-meaning heart is a single heart that hath no guile such a one is in travel with Christ Cor duplex est cor adulterum an hypocrites heart that hath two faces and speaks with two tongues he conceives mischief and brings forth ungodliness this is an adulterous heart and as concerning the heart of the hypocrite and malicious if any man say loe here is Christ or loe there is Christ believe them not Beloved you see how curiously every feathered Fowl makes a nest to lay her young one art and reason are not able to make such a work as the ingenuity of Nature doth wherefore let it not irk you once again to hearken how to prepare a nest wherein to lay your Saviour Grace is more choice and curious than either Art or Nature Still I am resolved it must be a Virgins breast that is fruitful to bring forth Christ but in my sense Zacheus was a Virgin and perchance living in the state of Wedlock Nay Mary Magdalen was a Virgin in this acception though sometimes a Sinner given to the flesh yet Anna the ancient Widow may pass for this Virgin without a Paradox For as a Virgin is at the dispose of her Father to be given and betrothed so is the virgin soul altogether into the will of God and surely in a sort Christ himself is there for it hath conceived by the Holy Ghost Nothing is wanting that this soul so formed into obedience should be answerable unto Mary but as we read of her it must be of the house and lineage of David Saint Chrysostom said of David's heart it was volumen charitatis a volume of love and charity always chanting and singing zeal and devotion to let your heart say according to the tune of his heart My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise as if it could not be removed from God nor God from it and then it is of the house and lineage of David I have said enough I think to shew what is in some competent sort proportionable in a good Christian to the virginity of Mary that his soul may be made fit to bring forth Christ St. Bernard calls me back a little Respexit Dominus humilitatem Mariae non virginitatem Mary confessed her self that God regarded her lowliness and not her virginity Et illa peperit and the lowly hand-maid brought forth the Babe of exceeding glory Hail thou that art highly favoured says the Angel yea but thrice hail thou that art lowly minded Etiam in coelo stare non potuit superba sublimitas if we will not beware of pride by the fall of men whose examples are often seen why take heed of it by the fall of Angels Heaven would not let pride be unpunished in Lucifer but threw it lower than the earth Christ would not let great humility be unrewarded in Mary but exalted it I may say above the heavens for so you shall perceive by the second part of my Text the strange
increase will soon follow when you have begun happily God will teach you to proceed and to put your Talent into the way of increase The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob says David that is he loveth the perfect Sacraments of the New Testament better than the types and shadows of the Old Now Baptism is called especially one of the gates of Sion for that it is but the first door to let us into the Church The Church it self is an upper Chamber as Christ is said to eat his Passeover with his Disciples in superiori caenaculo the highest in the world next to heaven it self there are many stairs and degrees of vertues upon which we must climb till we come to the top of the hill In Baptism we go down as it were into the River and sit in the lowest room of humility but as speedily as we can we must advance our soul and go up from grace to grace from vertue to vertue and you shall hear that voice of joy from Christ himself Friends sit up higher AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 16. And loe the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him AS Moses said unto himself when he saw the splendor of a bright fire in the bush so do I say unto you Let us now turn aside and see this great sight Great in the Object great in the Persons and great in the Mysteries Great in the Object to be seen for loe the heavens were opened And what mean trash was that which Satan did offer to the view of our Saviour in respect of this all the Kingdoms of the world made visible in the twinckling of an eye Great in the Persons to be understood in their several apparitions for these are the great Estates that rule the world God the Son manifested at the Baptism of water God the Holy Ghost to be discerned in the sensible shape of a Dove and God the Father whose glory was heard in the voice This is my well beloved Son This is no usual matter it must be some extraordinary solemnity which is graced by the full concourse of the Trinity I find it so once at the Creation Gen. i. and I find it at this time when Christ is baptized Man was created a brittle vessel for the Potters use without a Metaphor the servant of his Lord and to let him know to whom he owes his Creation every fountain of life is recited in the Story The Father the Word which was in the beginning and the Spirit which moved upon the face of the waters But in the New Testament we rise up higher from the state of Servants and become the Sons of our heavenly Father and that we may know to whom we owe our adoption and grace once again in this place Christ comes to Jordan the Holy Ghost descends in the bodily shape of a Dove and the Father utters himself in a voice from heaven Now for the mysteries I am bold to say the Church is capable of no greater than are here contained First Here are all the causes and instruments of our Salvation implied The Sacraments which are the Seals of righteousness the word taught which begets faith and the Spirit which moves upon them and puts life into them both The Father is in the Word the Son sanctifieth the Sacrament and the influence which blesseth them both unto us is the Dove which rested upon that sacred head unto whom all the members are fitly compacted And besides all these primary causes and instrumental helps of salvation here is an Epitomy of all those benefits which the Mediatorship of Christ will procure unto us The Heavens which were shut before set open to receive us the Spirit of Sanctification to be poured out upon us and that God will be pleased in us through his only beloved Son To recapitulate these things premised briefly the Mysteries are so great as none so superlative The Persons manifested infinitely glorious as none so excellent the Object so delightful to the eye of the soul as none so amiable And loe the heavens were opened unto him c. Of three immortal benefits which our Redeemer hath procured for us this Text contains a couple and both declared in no ordinary fashion but by the wonderful power of God First Here is a wonder wrought above Loe the heavens were opened unto him Secondly Here is another wonder come down below to the world beneath And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him These are the two members of the Text the first part whereof is opened already for how could we unlock that hidden Mystery unless the Key of David had unbarred it And loe the heavens c. Take notice in the first part of the Text that here is a word of invitement to draw our eyes upon it Loe the heavens were opened Nature hath made man with that erection of face to look upward that he must often view the heavens but the sight is never clear enough without abundance of grace to see them open Wherefore without the advantage of the second Miracle in the Text we should never be capable to conceive the first Christ procures the Dove to descend he makes the holy Spirit light among his Saints and then our eyes which were be-darkned before shall be ready to look up and perceive Loe the heavens were opened In this order I shall briefly discourse upon it 1. What is meant by the heavens standing open 2. What did procure and obtain it 3. How this Miracle fell out to glorifie Christ 4. What joy and comfort it implies to all those that are of the houshold of our Saviour The first inquiry is to this purpose what is meant and exprest by the heavens standing open We do but grope in the dark for such notions as this and mens opinions are divided into five several conjectures First When the true glory of the heavens is made visible to the eye of a man upon earth God imparting and revealing to the senses of his body a taste of that happiness which is laid up for them that fear him So Stephen was ravisht with such a sight and cried out I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God It is not needful to say that the parts of heaven were set open like a window to let him look in but as it is concluded in fairest probability Oculus ejus porrectus fuit usque ad coelum empyreum The glance of his eye was endowed with vertue to penetrate through the clouds and through the spheres unto the Throne of God This acception doth no way agree with my Text for the heavens are said to be opened in this Scripture that all the multitude might behold the miracle but you must not think it was given to them all good and
upon them to make them loiter from their daily necessary labour but it was an high solemnity as fell out in all the year Dies celeberrimus sanctissimus as the Vulgar Latin reads it Lev. xxiii 21. where we read that then they should proclaime and call an holy Convocation So I have summed up the three occasions of this Feast in the Old Law first to give thanks for their deliverance from bondage Secondly to honour the day wherein first they received the Law at Mount Sinah and thirdly to offer up the first fruits of their Harvest will you see now how aptly the gift of the Holy Ghost was distributed at the same time When the day of Pentecost c. First Whereas the Jews did celebrate at the Feast of Pentecost their enfranchisement from the house of bondage so the benefit of liberty was augmented this day much more than ever it was before This Satan knew well enough and therefore the longest thing wherein he held the Church in ignorance was about the sending of the Holy Ghost long after the name of Christ and his power was received whole Cities and Societies confessed they had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost or not Ignorance in those Points which are necessary to salvation is the greatest thraldom and captivity in the world False Prophets says S. Paul do lead captive silly women laden with sins 2 Tim. iii. 6. I spake not only of such as sate in the darkness of death and were lost these were like Samson in fetters having their eies put out but the Disciples the flower of Christs train saw nothing in holy mysteries as they ought to see till the influence of this glorious day cleared there eye-sight their eyes were held their hearts were held they knew not which way their Redemption was brought about and how Israel was restored Our Saviour took out but one Text in all the New Testament it is out of Isaiah and it is to this very purpose that the Spirit of God redeemed us out of the captivity of ignorance the place is extant Luk. iv 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised This comes home to the matter I am sure Yet moreover this is a day of restitution unto liberty because it dissolved the Church from the tye and yoke of Levitical Ceremonies from those multitude of Statutes which overwhelmed the people with observation As Pharaoh was drowned in the red Sea so the tenure of Mosaical Ceremonies was drowned in the bloud of Christ which was shed upon the Cross and on this Feast we received the Seal of the Spirit that we were rid of them all So far I have demonstrated that at this time we shook off the bondage of Ignorance and Ceremonies which makes it a feast of Pentecost to us Christians as well as it was to the Jews Secondly You shall find the other correspondency marvelously kept between the Law and the Gospel Christ at his death was slain not only as the Paschal Lamb but even when the Lamb was slain on the Feast of Passeover Now from the Feast of Passeover or rather from the second day of sweet bread reckoning fifty days the Children of Israel came to Mount Sinah and there received the Law which was kept ever after with a most sacred memorial so fifty days after Christ rose from the dead the Apostles and the Church received the Spirit of Sanctification And I am sure we have much more cause to renown our Pentecost than the Jews had to honour theirs If the Law which was the ministration of death was so thankfully remembred how much more the dedication of the Gospel For this day as the Fathers say very well was the first dedication of Christs Catholick Church upon earth They were made the Sons of the bondwoman by the Law we are made the Sons of the free-woman by the Spirit We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but we have received the spirit of adoption Rom. viii 15. A sinner could have no comfort in the Pentecost of the Jews they had the Law and that condemned them this was miserable comfort We have gladsom tidings this day not from Sinah but out of Sion which bids us live by faith in Christ In no other Feast of the Jews might Leaven be eaten it was an hainous transgression but the two loaves of the first fruits were to be baked with Leaven which were dedicated to God at this Feast Lev. xxiii 17. Expositors say no more to it but thus Leaven was put into the dough of new corn Vt panes sapidiores essent to make it more savory certainly so vulgar an interpretation is much under the meaning of the Holy Ghost I would rather say it had a mystical construction that Leaven was allowed at this Feast to intimate that the Holy Spirit would bear with the leaven of our nature with our sins of frailty and infirmity And it is observable that this is the number of the Jubilee every fiftieth year was the Jubilee year which was a time with the Jews to restore all men to their Lands which were sold away by ill-husbandry and a general forgiving of all debts So this day was a true Jubilee for remission of Trespasses it was at this time that Peter preach'd remission of sins to all that did repent and believe to all without exception for says he the Promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call So I have shewed that we received the divine Spirit of grace at Sion at the same time that they received the terrible Law at Sinah which makes it a greater Feast of Pentecost to us Christians than it was unto the Jews Thirdly We agree no less with them in the next similitude for keeping this day The Israelites according to the early maturity of corn in that climate began to put their Sickle at this time into Wheat Harvest so the Apostles from this day forward went forth to reap that which the Prophets had sown gathering much fruit unto eternal life and bringing the Wheat of God into his Garner unto the everlasting praise of the glory of his grace Their Barly Harvest such was the condition of their Soil and Husbandry begun at Easter their Wheat was begun to be cut down seven weeks after at Whitsuntide and the latter was called Tempus primitiarum the Time or Festival of First-fruits which were presented to the Lord. So God breathed his spirit into man at the creation of Adam that was the first Harvest which spirit being choked by him and coming to nothing this day there was a second emission of the spirit into man fully to restore and renew him again Now the two Loaves
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. She is a Jerusalem a visible fair City that 's her external Communion 2. A Jerusalem above that 's her internal Sanctity 3. A Jerusalem that is free which is her supernal Redemption 4. A Mother that 's her Fruitfulness 5. The Mother of us which comprehends her Unity 6. The Mother of us all which expresseth the Universality Somewhat upon each of these as God shall assist me that the hour may be profitable to the hearers Jerusalem is the Substantive or fundamental word that bears up the whole Text and it is as musical a word as most that run upon syllables but it offers more pleasantness to the understanding than to the ear full of happy signification a name given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher Plato was wont to say to accommodate to the Church Apostolical that unless God had foreseen that his saving truth should first grow up within the walls thereof it had never been called Jerusalem The first mention of it is to be required from Josh x. i. where we read that Adoni-zedek King of Jerusalem was afraid of Joshua when he had taken the strong City of Ai Yet I will not say that it was called Jerusalem in those dayes when Adoni-zedek lived It had two names before and the best Antiquaries of the Jews confess it is not spoken of by their Wise-men which name preceded The Rulers thereof whose mention is of the oldest time are Melchi-zedek and Adoni-zedek that is the King of Justice and the Lord of Justice so that the City was formerly called Zedek or Justice that without controversy but because through the corruption of our manners Justice may set mens teeth on edg when it is too severe and inflexible therefore it was also called Salem or the Border of Peace Melchisedech kept his chief Court there and he was King of Salem and Priest of the most high God And thus in the times fore-gone augusto augurio for a more fortunate Auspice it was known by the names of Zedek and Salem Justice and Peace both which were fulfilled in Christ our Lord who suffered there to satisfie his Fathers Justice and made our peace by the Propitiation in his bloud Things by-past so long agoe for the most part are all uncertain and it is not known whether it were David the renowned Conqueror of that City or some other holy Prophet that enlarged the short word Salem and made it Jerusalem Whosoever it was if our Doctors hit him right he had an excellent reason for it In this place the mighty Hill was called Mount Moriah in the dayes of Abraham Thither he brought his onely Son Isaac to sacrifice him as the Lord commanded but when the Ram caught by the horns did excuse his Son he called that high place Jehovah Jireth the Lord will be seen in the Mount This Jireth prefixt before Salem makes it Jerusalem as who should say this City the Church will bring you to the vision of peace Or thus let her be comforted in her persecutions Deus providebit pacem God will provide peace So that Justice Peace and Providence are the flowers that spring out of her names a sign that some great Blessing was hatching within her Circuit which was brought forth when the first Flock of Christ the great Shepherd was folded there who were sent from thence to baptize all Nations Neither have we of the New Testament encroached upon this Name without leave the Psalms the Prophets all that went before have given us authority for it To cite one for all those words of Jeremy come next to my mind At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord and all the Nations shall be gathered unto it We are the Parties spoken of and we are that Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord. Not to rob them of it that first possessed the Name but that both of us might be marked with one stamp as with a Seal of Unity It was Jerusalem before unto them of the Circumcision and still it is Jerusalem unto us of the Uncircumcision The Law and the Gospel are at no discord unless they be perversly mistaken the one was Christ veiled the other is Christ reveiled they make not two Churches no more than an Infant and one of full age make two diverse men it is the same bough that bears the flower and the fruit they are both Jerusalem No conjunction in the World was intended by God to be more amicable than between us two that we should be one People one Body one Sheepfold one City one Jerusalem any thing what you will which was of multitude and will hold fast together and become the same How often is our Peace-maker called a Corner-stone that he might grow with us both into one frame of building he stretched him to both Walls that both might rest in him Yet for all this none under Heaven are worse agreed than we through the envy of the Devil Socrus Synagoga divisa est contra nurum Ecclesiam says St. Austin It is as our Saviour foretold the Mother-in-law the Synagogue is divided against the Daughter-in-law the Church and the Daughter-in-law the Church is divided against the Mother-in-law the Synagogue But the scandal of the rupture is theirs and the curse of it is upon them which will never escape them that affect schismatical separations and to be holy after their own cut It were lamentable to tell you what the Polity of the Jews is at this time a spiritual Sodom is an harsh word but we that march after the Standard of Christ are an holy Jerusalem Which word must needs gather up our mind into many notions wherein Jerusalem of old and the Catholick Church do symbolize both of them the Seats of the Oracles of God both of them the Thrones of the Priesthood both of them sown with the bloud of Martyrs both of them illuminated by Prophets immediately sent from God there the Lepers that were cleansed after due Rites performed were received into the Congregation here contrite sinners after due penance performed receive their absolution to that Kings brought Presents and Proselytes came from far to this the most glorious Monarchs have afforded their bounty and protection In the one Christ was sacrificed for the sins of the World but the new Jerusalem and none but it doth partake the merit of his Sacrifice If fancy will take scope these Analogies are without number therefore I pass them by And I refer my self to two things especially how the Name descended upon the Church First While the old Tabernacle stood Jerusalem was the chief place wherein men called upon the Name of the Lord. Secondly Out of the same Sion went forth the New Law and Jerusalem was the Mother of the first born in Christ For the first as you would call a School of good letters Athens a place of good Military Education Lacedaemon and a Country of intemperance and luxury Babylon so because the Worship of God
say to this objection Prayer is the Incense which ascends up to heaven and brings down God's blessing upon us for fourscore and two years without interruption God hath continued true Religion among us and blessed this Kingdom with peace and prosperity and not without the daily assistance of the Prayers of Cathedral Churches How the Lord will dispose of us if those places be silenced touching the frequency of that holy duty it is only in the foreknowledg of God and no man can guess it Secondly I will proceed to the other Wing of the Cherubin the great power of God to work our conversion and salvation which is Preaching and therein the use and convenience of Cathedral and Collegiat Churches hath been and we hope may continue so to be very great May it please you Mr. Speaker and this Honourable House it must be confessed that in the beginning of the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory many of our Parochial Churches were supplied with men of slight and easie parts but especial care was taken that in our Cathedral Churches to which great concourses did resort men of very able parts were planted to preach both on the Lords day and on some week day as appears by Dr. Alley afterwards Bishop of Exeter who preached such learned Sermons in the Church of St. Pauls that he hath left unto us good matter to collect out of him even to this day And give me leave Mr. Speaker to take occasion from hence to refel that slander which some have cast out that Lecture-preachers are a new Corporation Vpstarts and such other words of obloquy Sir this is nothing but ignorance and malice for as the local Statutes of all or the most Cathedral Churches do require Lecture-Sermons on the Week-dayes so from the beginning of Reformation they have been read in them by very able Divines And it is our humble suit Mr. Speaker unto this Honourable House that if our local Statutes have not laid enough upon us in the godly and profitable performance of Preaching that by the assistance of this Honourable House more may be exacted particularly that two Sermons may be preached in every Cathedral and Collegiate Church upon the Lords day and one at the least on the Week-days Our motion comes from this consideration that the Divines for the most part are studied and able men to perform them and those Churches are usually supplied with large and copious Libraries and the Monuments of Antiquity Councils Fathers Modern Authors Schoolmen Casuists and many Books must be turn'd over by him that will utter that which should endure the test and convince gainsayers In the third place Mr. Speaker I shall name that whose use and conveniency is so nearly and irrefragably concern'd by the prosperity of Cathedral and Collegiat Churches that it is as palpable as if you felt it with your hand and that 's the advancement and encouragement of Learning a benefit of that consideration that I am assured it doth deeply enter into the thoughts of this Honourable House And because our years ascend up by degrees therefore I will follow this speculation through three of those ascensions First touching our puny years in Grammar Schools Secondly touching young Students in the Vniversities that enter into their first course of Divinity Thirdly touching grave Divines of great proficiency who maintain the cause of true Religion by their learned Pen And first out principal Grammar Schools in the Kingdom are maintained by the charity of those Churches the care and discipline of them is set forward by their oversight fit Masters are provided for them and their method in teaching frequently examin'd and great cause for it for School-Masters of late are grown so fanciful inducing new Methods and Compendiums of teaching which tend to nothing but loss of time and ignorance so that it is not enough to nominate Governors to look unto them once in a twelve-month or every half year but there must be care without intemission to see that they swerve not as likewise for this use that the most deserving Scholars be transplanted to the Vniversities by their examination and choice so that these young Seminaries of Learning depend upon them and would come to lamentable decay if they had not such Governors For the next rank of young Students that are to begin the study of Divinity it must be confessed by all men that are conversant in the general experience of the world that they will be far more industrious when they see rewards prepared which may recompence the costs which they put their friends to in their education and make them some recompence for their great labours It is represented before them how many tedious dayes and nights they must devour prolix Authors that are set before them had they not need of encouragement to undergo it and where there is not a desirable Prize to run for who will toil himself much to contend for it Upon the fear and jealousie that these retributions of labour should be taken away from industrious Students the Vniversities of the Realm do feel a languor and a pining away already in both their bodies In a populous Colledge I mean Trinity Colledge in Cambridge wherein 70 or 80 Students were admitted communibus annis I have heard by two Witnesses of that Society that not above six were admitted from Allhalland-day to Faster Eeve Let any man ask the Booksellers of Pauls Church-yard and Little-Britain if their Books I mean grave and learned Authors do not lie upon their hand and are not sailable There is a timorous imagination abroad as if we were shutting up learning in a Case and laying it quite aside Mr. Speaker if the bare threatning make such a stop in all kind of literature what would it work if the blow were given To this end both the Universities have sent up their humble Petitions to this Honourable House which we greatly desire may graciously be admitted The third Rank are those that are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel the Champions of Christs Cause against the Adversary by their learned Pen And those that have left us their excellent labours in this kind excepting some few have either been the Professors and Commorants in the two Universities or such as have had Preferments in Colledgiat and Cathedral Churches as I am able to shew by a Catalogue of their Names and Works For such and none but such are furnished with best opportunity to write Books for the defence of our Religion For as in the Universities the Society of many learned men may be had for advise and discourse so when we depart from them to live abroad we find small Academies in the company of many grounded Scholars in those Foundations and it is discourse that ripens learning as the spark of fire is struck out between the Flint and the Steel There likewise we have copious and well furnished Libraries to peruse learned Authors of all kinds which must be consulted in great
yet upon the birth no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would serve the turn the joy was too big for the Language of man to deliver How shall we then express our selves for the honour of the day Preaching is our present business but words were too little and therefore the Angels turn'd Musicians and sung it Musick was not enough and therefore Wise men brought Gifts unto the Cradle Neither were Gifts the way for you may see by the cratch and the swadling clouts that He affected Poverty The Tongues of men that is Preaching and Prayer the Tongues of Angels that is Musick and Singing the courteous Gifts of the Eastern men Gold Myrrh and Frankincense all are fit for the solemnity of these twelve days but not all sufficient This happy day made an end of the woful Captivity of the Sons of men under sin and Satan See how far David went when none but the Tribe of Judah came back from the Captivity of Babylon When the Lord turned the Captivity of Sion then were we like to them that dream This is the greatest strain of joy as we may interpret it I do not mean that we should doubt whether we were verily preserved from the captivity of Sin by the birth of Christ whether it were so indeed or but a dream like the Poets amorous fancy Credimus an qui amant ipsi sibi somnia fingunt or as Livy said of the Grecians when the Romans sent them unexpected liberty after their hard thraldom Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur they were amazed as if they were not awake but sleeping but I would have your Soul transported as it were with an Extasie of devotion as if Zeal and the Love of Jesus Christ put you in a dream imagine strongly that this day is not the Anniversary to be celebrated after many years but the very day it self of Christs Nativity Cannot you think that this Church is the Cratch that received the Babe O cui cuncta possunt invidere marmora Cannot you think your selves to be those Shepherds whom the Angels sent of the good Errand to look out a Saviour Who had not rather be one of them Shepherds than any King in the world Then strongly possess your souls that you see the Son of God that you stand over him and behold him as he is wrapped in swadling clouts lying in a Manger O that we could so deeply perswade our Soul that this Text is no report but a vision before our eyes So we must do or else it is not full Christmas joy it is no true Angelical devotion And then you shall see in this verse Mary laid of her Child O the passing exaltation for flesh and bloud to be such a Mother and the Child laid in a Manger O the wonderful humiliation of the eternal God to be such a Son But that every part of the Text may be handled apart by it self in his own order I will insist upon these five things 1. Here is the strange condition of the Mother Et illa peperit and she brought forth a Son who by nature was no bearer for she was a Virgin 2. The strange condition of the Babe ejus primogenitus the first begotten of God was the first born Son of flesh and bloud 3. The strange condition of the Birth that it was without the curse of woman without the pangs of travail the Fathers collect it from hence that as soon as the Babe was born she could wrap him in swadling clouts a manifest sign that there was no debility or weakness in her 4. The strange condition of the place of the Nativity She laid him in a Manger Lastly the strange condition of men that there was no room in the Inn for Jesus and Mary these are the parts of my Text With great reverence be it spoken I may call them the swadling clouts wherewith I must wrap my Saviour First Let us consider the strange condition of a maiden Mother Et illa peperit and she brought forth a Son who by nature was no bearer for she was a Virgin A Doctrine which the Heathen and Pagan men will not admit and which the Incredulous Jew to this day after his manner derides The Heathen were so confident that a Virgin could not bring forth that as Orosius reports when Augustus Caesar had rest round about from all his enemies He shut up the Gates of Janus his Temple and called it the Temple of peace and enquiring from their Oracles of Sorcery how long it should stand shut it was answered Quousque Virgo pariet untill the time that a Virgin brings forth a Son The Messengers thought this answer to be as if he had said it should stand shut for ever and so they wrote upon the Gates Templum pacis aeternum The Temple of peace was eternal Let me dispute the case with a meer natural man How doth the harvest of the field enrich the Husbandman It is answered By the Seed which was sown in the ground Say again How came Seed into the world to sow the ground Surely you must confess that the first Seed had a Maker who did not derive it from the Ears of Wheat but made it of nothing by the power of his own hand Qui sine seminibus operatur semina c. says St. Austin then God could make a man without the Seed of man in the Virgins womb who made Seed for the corn before ever there was earing or harvest Nay there is an instance for it in the little Bees as the Poet doth Philosophize they do not bring forth their young ones as other Creatures do by the help of Male and Female together but they gather the seed which begets the young ones from the dew of leaves and herbs and flowers and so they bring them forth Nec concubitu indulgent nec corpora segnes in Venerem solvunt and therefore the Bee by some is called the Emblem of Virginity And as for the unbelieving Jew the darkness and blindness of his heart cannot put out the light of Isaiahs Prophesie Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son for what though the word in the Original signifie not only a Virgin but any woman of a young and tender age Yet in that place as St. Hierom says very well it must be nomen integritatis non aetatis a name of Virginal integrity and not of young age or else you drown the astonishment which the Prophet doth so much exaggerate and amplifie I will give you a Sign why what sign is it for a young woman to bear a Child No extraordinary one I am sure Nay says he Ecce Virgo behold and wonder at it Behold a Miracle which shall never be wrought but once in the world This was Virga Aaron florida nec humectata Aarons Rod which was not watered and yet being a dry stick which had the help of no sap to make it fruitful it flourisht and put out and brought
so dear for our sleep when God if you please hath given you that for nothing the slenderest place served our Saviour to cover his head Reclinavit in praesepi She laid him in a Manger Fourthly and lastly God provided the Virgins wombe for our Saviour before he was born man provided a Manger after he was born that you may see that God is ever worse provided for by man than he provides for himself Let him provide for himself the manner of an Ark or inspire the heart of Solomon what Temple should be built unto him and the world had never such a piece of work for beauty and magnificence Let him trust to the benevolence of men I praise God I am not in the place now where I need to complain but more eyes have seen such Churches especially such Chancels which our Zealous Lay Parsons of the Kingdom have sacrilegiously unroof'd and uncas'd the Lead and left them thatch and straw for a covering and scarce that too O God I shame to speak it surely by all description of antient Writers our Saviour was better provided when He was laid in a Manger Their unworthiness deserves to be parallel'd with those men of strange condition in the last part of my Text that kept possession against Christ himself and shut him out of doors for there was no room for him in the Inn nor for his Mother Mary Was there no Obadiah that would receive a Prophet No Obededom that would take the Ark of God into his house Some say that because the whole City of David was so ungrateful to their new-born King therefore the Angel of purpose shunned all the Inhabitants and went into the field to find out Shepherds and sent them first to behold their Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Others say because Bethlem was so pittiless to this Babe therefore God raised up the fury of Herod which had no pity of their Babes but slew all their Children from two years old and under Surely we all see how the Roman Conquerours carried them away captive from their own Country neither man nor child hath room to inhabite Bethlem this day neither is there such a Town as Bethlem standing because there was no room for Christ You know the Parable of the good Samaritan that took the wounded man and carried him to his Inn and left him safe there and paid his charges The sence of the Parable is reduced by many of the Fathers unto Christ himself He is the good Samaritan that would not let our wounds bleed abroad but hous'd us and lodg'd us in his own Inn that is the Church to upbraid the incivility of men by the Letter of the Parable that we gave no hospitality to the Son of God The reasons given why Joseph and Mary were thus excluded are three The first is false nay indeed calumnious that they came tardy and after all other company to pay their Tribute money No Beloved such an hasty Couple so forward to give unto God that which is Gods would never be slack to give unto Caesar that which is Caesars Besides if she brought forth her first-born Son upon the first day of the week upon Sunday as some cast it out then the whole day before she was in Bethlem for upon the Saturday or Sabbath she must not travel perchance they had been longer in the City and as we say danced attendance being poor persons before the Officers of the Tribute would dispatch them and yet all this while no room was made in the Inn nor in any charitable house for the Nativity of Christ The indignation against this were able to make us like Jacob live under the dew and frost of Heaven as the Prophet protested never to climbe up to our bed because Christ was so disappointed Or as Vriah said unto David The Ark abides in Tents my Lord Joab is encampt in the open field and shall I go up into mine own house The glory of Israel was laid in a Cratch the Salvation of the world was turned into a Stable and dost thou permit us to live in sieled houses But the second and true reason why the Inn afforded them no room was this Augustus Caesars Tax had drawn multitudes unto Bethlem that filled every corner the true use of it was that there might be more attendance about the King of Glory to do him reverence and homage but the greater multitude the fouler was the neglect the more inexcusable the disobedience They that glory in multitudes as a great testimony to prove the verity of their Church are as wise as them that should prove their Harvest to be plentiful because it hath abundance of Thistles A multitude flockt after Christ in the Wilderness verily it is to eat of the Loaves and Fishes not for the Doctrines sake A multitude followed him into the High Priests Hall and the whole Rabble cried out Let him be crucified A troupe of Souldiers watcht his Sepulchre and belied his Resurrection a multitude was in Bethlem at his Nativity and there was no room for him in the Inn. But thirdly We may suppose the multitudes had not so pestered the Town but that one Lodging might be spar'd if there were horse-room in the Stable as it appears there was because Christ lay in the Manger then it cannot sound in my ear but there might be room made for men in the Inn. Yes but Lazarus is poor and therefore he must not come over the Threshold but lie at the rich Gluttons door and though the fish of the Sea were so liberal to pay our Saviours Tribute the beasts of the Stable so obedient to leave space for his birth yet reasonable men stood upon it that they would not entertain him for nothing Booz was a rare example that took Ruth into his house when she went a begging Booz was a Bethlemite but it seems he had left none behind him for Mary and Joseph were poor and there was no room for them in the Inn. I know not how it came to pass but for the credit of Poverty which was thus despised not many rich but many poor in the days of our Saviour did receive the Gospel As dry wood says Bernard sooner taketh fire than that which is green and flourishing So the poor did embrace the glad tidings of Salvation without resistance when the Nobles of the world that flourisht in their wealth refused it O but let Bethlem be ten times more populous for multitude were Mary of the poorest of the people which could not be admitting that she and Joseph paid Subsidies to Caesar nay were she a Samaritan with whom the Jew hated to commerce yet Barbarians would take her in and cherish her in the time of Childbirth Beloved it is a kind of churlishness that can admit no Apology This is all that I can say since men had left their civility to be men to wipe away that foul ignominy God took our nature upon him and was made man even He
better tidings to you Israelites than to any other Nation if you will accept them The Son of God came of their Fathers according to the flesh in their Country he came to preach daily and no where in the world beside in their eyes he wrought his Miracles and upon their bodies he practis'd his wonderful power to cure their Diseases to make their Blind to see and their Lame to walk He professed himself to be more devoted to their welfare than to all the earth beside before the Canaanitish woman I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel They were his he did acknowledge it he was theirs but they denied it he came to his own but his own received him not To abreviate my discourse in this point Evangelizo vobis they are glad tidings to you because it is given to you to hear the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven for blessed is the ear that heareth the things which you hear Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God It is flat cheating in the Devil to put dubitation into mans fancy on this wise I am partaker of the outward word but I know not whether God have gone any further with me to give me his inward Spirit to quicken that seed unto immortal life Beloved as Christ did institute both Bread and Wine to be the outward Elements of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood Bread is the substance of food Wine causeth the concoction and makes it comfortable food So the word preacht is the food of life and God never lets it go alone without some drops of the Wine of his Grace to make it nourishing and beneficial Jude xiii 23. Manoah the Father of Sampson cries out to his Wife we shall surely die because we have seen God Nay says she If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not receive a burnt-offering at our hand Neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would at this time have told us such things as these So let me answer all dubitative Christians unless the Lord did desire thy salvation he would not put his Word into thy ear nor his Sacrament into thy mouth The Gospel is an happy annuntiation to every one that hears it unless he quench the Grace which is offered unto him Evangelium omni populo the tidings are auspicious to all people To all people Trahit sua quemque voluptas There are so innumerous many fond pleasures desires vanities affections in several appetites can any thing satisfie them all yes it is relishable to every palat that will taste it though the true delight apprehended is included among the small number of the Elect yet it is given to all and no man shall say he is lost for want of a Redeemer and a sacrifice for his sins Cum omnibus scriptus significavit omnes says Origen He was taxed in his Mothers Womb by Augustus Caesar when all the world was taxed to intimate that he did communicate himself to all the world that after that conscription of their names in Caesars enrollment whosoever believed in him his name might be written among the Saints in the book of Life In the first lesson read upon Christmas-day thus you have it Isa ix 3. They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest and as men rejoyce when they divide the spoil A good Harvest is not welcome to one Village but it is gladsome to the whole Country round about and when spoils are divided after the vanquishing of an Enemy every Souldier is enricht and hath his share Such a communicative blessing is our Saviours Incarnation every man fills his bosom with the sheaves of the harvest every Christian Souldier that fights a good warfare plucks somewhat from the spoils of the Enemy The dew of thy birth is as the womb of the morning A learned Father of our own Church transposeth the Versicle on this wise Thy birth from the Womb is as the morning dew which waters the whole earth As the walls of Jericho fell down before the sound of the rams horns so the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile methinks it fell down flat to the ground at this blast of the Angels trumpet in my Text that these were glad tidings not toti populo but omni populo not to the whole people of the Jews but to all the people of the world The wall of discord is taken away in the universe which parted those two great houses and shall not the sweet welcome of the Birth of Christ take away a wall of partition between thee and thy neighbour which is in thy heart Can you out of enmity and hatred wish sorrow unto any when God wisheth joy great joy unto all dost thou envy at the prosperity of thy brother when the Lord would have the same glad tidings common to you both Lay down old grudgings and quarrels with the old year and begin the new year with a new reconciliation in love unfeigned and true meaning Charity and the Lord renew a right spirit in us all Amen THE SIXTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE ii 11. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. THE Angel hath made a brief Sermon upon a great occasion The occasion is the Incarnation of our Lord and who can be so copious upon that subject as the Mystery requires yet the Sermon which the Angel preacheth is neither a whole Chapter nor a whole Gospel but three verses of a Gospel In the multitude of words a great deal is lost unto the hearer the good application of a little whatsoever we think will yield the best fruits of increase But for such divine joy as is here proclaimed it was fit to roul it up in a small pill and to minister it to the audience in a little quantity How is it possible for frail flesh to subsist and not to be dissolv'd for gladness if the Angel had continued his tidings with such matter as he begun a Saviour is born unto you a Saviour is born no petty redeemer but the Lord strong and mighty a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. O it was provident care after the Shepherds had heard a little to tell them no more at once but rather to send them away into the City that they might see the rest After Israel had shaken off the Chaldean slavery and the Lord had turned the captivity of Sion David knew not how to express their astonisht joy but thus they were like unto them that dream as Livie says of the Grecians when the Romans that conquer'd them sent them unexpected liberty Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur they received the tidings as if it had been a pleasing dream and themselves scarce awake So our sins have so much discomforted our hearts that our spirits are confus'd and faint if we receive all the comfort that God sends at once like a strong
perfume the sweetness overcomes our sence Here 's one line for a copy and enough to be taken out at one time Vnto you is born this day c. The Text cannot be divided into equal parts for here is one word among them which not only in this place but wheresoever you find it it is like Saul higher by head and shoulders then all the rest As Painters and Guilders write the names of God in glass or upon the walls with many rays and flaming beams to beautifie it round about so the name of Saviour is the great word in my Text and all that is added beside in other circumstances is a trail of golden beams to beautifie it First then with reverend lips and circumcised ears let us begin with the joyful tidings of a Saviour 2. Here 's our participation of him in his Nature natus he is born and made like unto us 3. It is honourable to be made like us but it is beneficial to be made for us and natus vobis unto you is born a Saviour 4. Is not the use of his Birth superannuated the virtue of it long since expir'd no 't is fresh and new as a man is most active when he begins first to run hodie natus he is born this day 5. Is he not like the King in the Gospel who journeyed into a far Country extra orbem solisque vias quite out of the way in another world no the circumstance of place points his dwelling to be near in civitate David he is born in the City of David 6. Perhaps to make him man is to quite unmake him shall we find him able to subdue our enemies and save us since he hath taken upon him the condition of humane fragility yes the last words speak his excellency and power for he is Christus Dominus such a Saviour as is Christ the Lord for unto you is born this day in the City of David c. The beginning of our days work is from that word which magnifies him that is the word of God above all things for he is a Saviour Time was when the children of Israel had rather Moses should speak unto them than God Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we dye Exod. xx 19. Now let Israel say let not Moses speak with us nor the Law for then we shall surely die Above all tongues let the Angel speak with us that proclaims a Saviour and we shall surely live If all comfort in the world were forgotten nothing but darkness and weeping and captivity over all the earth yet here 's a word which is enough to turn all that sorrow into gladness yea to turn Hell it self into Heaven This day is born unto you a Saviour it comprehends all other names of Grace and blessing as Manna is said to have all kind of sapors in it to please the taste When you have call'd him the glass in which we see all truth the fountain in which we taste all sweetness the ark in which all precious things are laid up the pearl which is worth all other riches the flower of Jesse which hath the savour of life unto life the bread that satisfieth all hunger the medicine that healeth all sickness the light that dispelleth all darkness when you have run over all these and as many more glorious titles as you can lay on this one word is above them and you may pick them all out of these syllables a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Abraham could endure to live in a strange Land nay he could endure to want his only Son Isaac if God pleas'd Elias could want his bodily sustenance for forty days John Baptist could want the comfort of all society in the Wilderness Peter could leave all he had and want his substance Paul could live in bonds and want his liberty Paphnutius could want his eyes yea the Martyrs for Christs sake could want their lives but they could not be without the redemption of their soul they could not want a Saviour The Prophet Isaiah hath foretold that the heaven and earth should joyn their strength together to make a Saviour Isa xlv 8. Drop down the heavens from above and let the earth open and let them bring forth salvation that 's the effect and the 15. verse speaks of the person O God of Israel the Saviour The heavens must drop down from above and the earth must open and concur beneath the whole universe must be put together the Divine Nature and the Humane tantae molis erat to make a Saviour To confuse the Jews with this place I have read of a learned Scribe of theirs one Rabbi Accados who wrote thus before the coming of Christ that the Messias should come into the world to save men and the Gentiles should call him Jesus or the Saviour of the world Indeed the Gentiles did not only do so after our Saviours ascension into Heaven being taught unto it by the Apostolical preaching but in the time of Idolatry which is very strange Tully says in the 4. Oration against Verres that he saw an Image at Syracuse in Sicily with this Inscription upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour and he admires at the strong significancy of the word Hoc quantum est magnum est ut latine exprimi uno verbo non possit to give salvation or to be a Saviour is such an appellative that all the Latine tongue was not furnished with a word to set it forth But what if their language could have fit it that 's nothing unless the soul do unite it to it self and write it upon the tables of the heart But that the name may not be an empty sound to us as it was to them consider these three things 1. With what honour it was impos'd 2. What excellency it includes 3. What reverence it deserves For the first of these an honour in the imposition of a name will ever stick by the person and the origen hereof came from the chiefest that is above all Phil. ii 9. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name It was ever of old in the right of the Father to give a name unto his child Zachary when he could not speak call'd for writing tables to appoint the name of John the Baptist therefore Christ having no Father on earth his Father gave him a name from Heaven His Father gave it but he did commit it to the trust of an Angel to bring it for the Angel was the first that ever mention'd it to Joseph the husband of Mary in a dream Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins Matth. i. 21. God gave it the Angel brought it and men did assign it the eighth day when he was circumcised his name was called Jesus which was so named of the Angel before he was conceived in the Womb. Hereupon Bernard casts in
Deum gubernat amoris omne regnum est Love did rule God himself love swayed all things in the world We know and admire the meaning that the love of the Son turn'd the enmity of the Father into peace it turn'd threatnings into forgiveness and death into life Poise every thing in a right scale and mark the heavy weight of our undeservings and the nature of man might stink in Gods nostrils which had so much offended him to believe a Serpent nay to believe the Devil in a Serpent rather then the lively Oracle of his own mouth Yet love took away that distastefulness which the whole Trinity had conceiv'd against sinful flesh and the second Person became flesh for our sakes and was made sin for our sakes by imputation that we might be made sons and righteous before God nay that we might be made the righteousness of God Rom. v. The Athenians were proud of Pompey's love that he would write his name a Citizen of their City for a princely person to accept a freedom in a mean Corporation is no little kindness how much more doth it aggravate the love of Christ to come from heaven and be made a Citizen of this vile earth to be born after a more vile condition than the most abject of the people 2. It is not so proper to say God did love us by Christ for God is love and in himself and for his own goodness sake he could not but love the work of his hands but this is the true and proper understanding of it that notwithstanding his love to his own justice through the merit of our Saviours humility he forgave us our sins therefore his love toward mankind and his love toward his justice went hand in hand and could not be parted He satisfied the vehemency of his love toward sinful man that he gave his Son to be born of a Virgin and to become our Mediator he satisfied the love he hath to his own Justice and the hatred he hath against sin when he did impose this office of a Mediator upon his beloved Son not without shedding of blood Justice cried out it was meet mercy should not rule all Adam and his posterity ought to dye or who will answer for them not an Angel or Spirit and therefore not the Son of God as he is God for God is a Spirit Meet it is every one should bear his own burden the nature that sinned let it bear the curse of its own sin Mans nature had sinned mans nature ought to suffer but that which our nature should bear our nature by a fit adequation of recompence could not bear Our sufferings were not enough to satisfie the wrath of God due to sin The Son of God is a most valuable person but not passible man is passible but not valuable the one nature ought to suffer but could not the other could suffer but ought not That he might be liable to all contempt he was born a Saviour and made a child that he might be able to pay the price he was perfect God as well as perfect man a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. 3. Love and Justice are mightily declared that a Saviour was born and the eternal Wisdom of the Father comes in for her part to be magnified It is beyond our understanding to say nay but that the Father might have made a creature fit to satisfie his Justice to have clearly paid the price of our Redemption and so to have spared his Son yea but wisdom interpos'd it was not fit that man should owe his redemption to any other than to whom he owed his creation for the value of that benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer better than our Creator So Bernard Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio quam creatio Therefore God would not so dispose the mystery of our souls health that occasion should be given to love an Angel or Saint better than himself the King of Glory The Son that sits at his right hand by whom he made the worlds let him restore all things and the blessing of our Creation Redemption and all other good gifts shall meet in one center This is pretii difficilimi decentissima solutio say the Schoolmen a most convenient payment of a most difficult ransom 4. The boundless power and infinite virtue of the Godhead I confidently pronounce it did never appear so much in any other work as when a Saviour was born He that knew no beginning but was from all eternity to begin to be a man he that speaks to the world in thunder to cry in a cradle Verbum infans he that decketh himself with light as with a garment to be wrapt in swadling clouts he that opens his hand and filleth all things with plenteousness to suck for a few drops of milk at a womans breasts we are able to answer nothing to this but with the Angel to cry out Rev. v. 12. Dominion and power to the Lamb and to him that sitteth on the throne for evermore And so far of the second point The next word to be consider'd in the Text is like the flesh-hook which the Priest had to draw a portion of the Sacrifice unto himself To you a Saviour is born says the Angel Vobis natus the good turn shall be yours the blessing yours you ought to be affected with joy at this wonderous work for he is your Saviour Tell the Shepherds that a Saviour is born and they cannot but understand he is de nobis like unto us in nature but tell them unto you a Saviour is born that 's a great deal more than they understand that he is born for their redemption It is honourable to be made like us but advantageous in the highest degree that he was made for us Let us work upon this mine and here we shall find the precious mettal fit to pay the price of our debts to God in our steed when we were bankrupts First we learn from hence he was born to you and not unto himself to your glory to his own abasement and exinanition for his own part he was begotten of God before all times so noble a Nativity that when the Father bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. i. 6. Therefore for himself he needed no other birth to be born at all especially to be thus basely born in the manger of a stable He took a body as it were sown in dishonour that we might reap the harvest and be magnified Likewise he is called a Saviour not in respect of his own person indeed he was his own destroyer and our Saviour when the High Priests servants sought to lay hold of him in the Garden neither doth he go about to escape or to deny himself but whom seek ye I am he No man would put himself into the hands of barbarous enemies that meant to be his own Saviour all the salvation that he
Observation of days touching the very labour of the Cattel in the field and what not It was a burden as the Apostles testifie which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear yet there was sweetness in all this because it was done for the Lords sake though the task had been stricter David did well set forth the condition of the Law unto what great bondage it did captivate a man in these words Behold O Lord how that I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid a servant in extremity of thraldom and therefore it was repeated a Servant born for partus sequitur ventrem he must needs be so that was the Son of an handmaid he was born to be circumcised and to be a debtor to the whole Law Such were all they that boasted themselves to be the only freemen in the world because they were the Sons of Abraham Nay Simeon was not only such a Servant as I have hitherto described bridled under the Pedagogy of Moses Law but out of the relative terms of my Text I will shew that he was in greater subjection and aw for how doth he call the Lord here Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Lord that had power of life and death over his Vassal you shall not find it used again in all the four Evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Favorinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Lord of a bondman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a freeman that is an hired servant I have plaid the Critick enough such servants those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were anciently called so not because they were paid for their labour which they did undergo in drudgery but because they were taken by hostility and their lives were forfeited to the Conquerour who had power to slay them yet spared them and resigned them up into their hands that would lay down a ransom for them So Simeon confesseth that God had the power of life and death over him when he might have killed him out of his clemency he spared him Behold a Servant then and such as he was such were all the Jews a man under the yoke of the Law and under the power of death But behold as this day the Deliverer was born and did quite change the copy of our service Christ as God did put the Church under the servitude of the Law but being made man he hath exempted us to the liberty of the Gospel and though we shall all die through that sentence which cannot be repealed yet if we believe that he hath given himself a ransom for us and live unto righteousness we shall not die unto condemnation But that you may know what kind of servants they are that retain to that family whereof God takes the care and administration mind the character of Simeon which the Holy Ghost gives him in the verses preceding my Text for his Calling it is obscurely past over thus there was a man in Jerusalem Galatinus says out of the Rabbins that one Simeon the just was the Master of the great Doctor Gamaliel and that may very well light upon this Simeon Much hath been urged to prove him to be a Priest but to no purpose Salmeron and Tolet alledge that when a child came to be presented to the Lord the Priest took the child out of the arms of his Mother and did not restore him again till he was redeemed for five Shekles of Silver according to the Law Num. xviii but how will they prove that a Child might not light into the arms of some other incidentally as well as into the arms of the Priest Yea but Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary ver 34. that is a Sacerdotal action Nay not always old Jacob blessed Pharaoh and every Prophet is an instrument of Benediction At the last heave says Tolet it is an old tradition of the Church to paint him in a Priestly Vesture an hard refuge when they refer us for a proof to Pictures and not to the Word of God Whether the Priesthood or the Layty may challenge him for theirs I know not one thing I know that he was a just man and waited for the consolation of Israel a pious holy Father a frequenter of the Temple a man uncompounded with the world but this was his righteousness that he lookt for the blessed off-spring God and man whom the Lord would send to redeem his Saints You will say perhaps did not all the Jews expect the Messias What did he more than other men Why herein he did exceed them that they did not look for such benefits from the Messias as Simeon did such spiritual refreshment for the soul and for the spirit Then the common sort of people lookt for Christ afar off he lookt for him just at that time near at hand As Joseph of Arimathea is said to look for the Kingdom of God that is to see Christ incarnate even then in the fulness of time Luke xxiii 51. Again others waited for Christ but carelesly without any earnest affection Simeon even languisht with longing and did passionately desire it St. Austin says that he did continually pray for the coming of Christ and often repeated that of David Psal lxxxv Shew us thy mercy O Lord and grant us thy salvation and then God answered him that he would fulfill his hearts desire Nicephorus tells us a vagrant story that Simeon was reading those words Isa vii Behold a Virgin shall conceive a Son and being sollicitous what that place should mean an Angel appeared and told him he should not die till he had seen that Babe with his eyes of whom Isaiah Prophesied This is certain the Holy Ghost had given him some great assurance of it The Spirit was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 25. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only in him but upon him which signifies extraordinary assistance as when it is said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me Isa lxi You see now with what endowments of heavenly graces Simeon was enricht before he called himself the servant of the Lord. His modesty would give himself no better title yet our Saviour speaks better things of those that believed Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends c. Joh. xv 15. It is not the meaning that we shall ever out-grow the name of servant for even at the day of judgment in the time of our reward it shall be said Well done good and faithful servant But here it is we are all servants by debt and nature the Gospel stiles us friends by Covenant and Composition Before Christ was revealed God dealt with them of the Synagogue as with servants he did not reveal the mysteries of the Trinity of the Incarnation of the coming of the Holy Ghost if he did reveal them to the Prophets it was ex privilegio not ratione status it was by
the deliverance of Israel when he was born that was the Redeemer of all deliverers This is that emplaister of which Isaiah Prophesied that it should lenifie all their sores Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith our God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned Isa xl 1. And again the Lord shall comfort Zion he will comfort all her wast places he will make her Wilderness like Eden and her Desart like the Garden of the Lord joy and gladness shall be found therein thanksgiving and the voice of melody Isa li. 3. what a quick-sighted faith had Simeon that he could see so far into Christ upon what part of him did he cast his eye that he could find such a Champion in a little Infant wrapt in swadling clothes O what an heavenly light there shines before faith that the old man could espy in this little Bethlehemite that he should turn their captivity like the rivers in the South there was nothing to behold externally in Christ but contempt and weakness and poverty in those days who will distrust his protection now when there is nothing to be viewed about him but Power and Fortitude and Majesty O that men should be afraid to perish even in the presence nay even in the hand of such a Saviour He that is yet to seek for the peace of joy though death were at the door let him consume in his own infidelity Fourthly He had purchas'd peace before his departure because he had as much as could be askt his heart was satiated wirh good things a very greedy avarice had been in him if he could have askt any more And so Theophylact glosseth very judiciously upon my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that hath gained the sum and substance of all his hopes and petitions he may justly say that he can bid adieu to this world in peace So God promised to Abraham Gen. xv 15. thou shalt be buried in a good old age and thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace that is thy desire shall be filled brim full and measure running over nothing that thou canst ask in Faith but I will give it thee So Simeon possessed the complement of all felicity he had so much that he could desire no more for he that hath given us his Son will he not with him likewise giue us all things And take this to your use from hence that a wishing heart which is ever thirsting for more strugling for some addition and yet some more to that cannot be said to be in peace no more than an Hydropical man that thirsts for drink continually can be said to be in health Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops the satiating of one concupiscence begets another and that 's like a mill-horse in a circle that you can never say he is at his journeys end Therefore if you mean to be at ease and not to be wrackt with care let to morrow care for it self Fifthly And so to give this point its last allowance Origen and Irenaeus interpret my Text of that peace which Christ came to make between God and man St. Paul says that when we were darkened in our understanding walking in the lust of our own mind we were enemies with God and alas we are sure to come by the worst of that enmity for who is able to sustain his displeasure and it was no petty enmity but God did abhor us and provide all manner of scourges to plague us both in this world and in that which is to come No creatures which are noted for antipathies do shun one another at more distance than God doth abhor an impure soul and they are not sacrifices of Beasts that could make an attonement for us they were not Angels that could deprecate the Divine wrath and reconcile us they were glad to bring the tidings that an Eternal Son of an Eternal Father had done that good office for us Glory be to God on high and in earth peace it could never be well sung but at this Incarnation and therefore it could never be well said but at his Incarnation Lord now lettest thou thy servant c. You have heard of the supplicant and of his petition and the time which he sets and his good preparation of peace to go from hence and to be with the Lord. After this it is seasonable to speak of the assurance in which he trusted that God would grant him his desire for he askt nothing extravagantly and without warrant but it was secundum verbum tuum according to thy word and that word upon which he might stedfastly build is ver 26. it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death till he had seen the Lord's Christ revealed unto him But perhaps you will say why might it not be his own imagination that deluded him and no revelation from God We indeed that walk in the ordinary course of Grace may be cozened like Enthusiasts and think that our own doating fancies are inspirations from Heaven But Prophets that had extraordinary illuminations were able to distinguish between brain-sick notions and the word of God when it spake within them And Simeon you will mark it when I tell it you had a double and a double portion of the Spirit In the last days says Joel Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions These are different graces for several persons only in this Prophet they concurr'd both He had the old mans dream to reveal unto him that he should not die till Christ was manifested and he had the young mans vision to accomplish his happiness His eyes did see his salvation No doubt then he had sufficient means to prove in himself that it was the word of God that is the word of the Holy Ghost from whom he received that Oracle and hence St. Athanasius doth learnedly prove the divinity of the Holy Ghost And the plenty of this point will contribute this especially unto us that it is presumption to expect any thing to be granted us without warrant and promise received from the word of God That 's the Organ or Tongue by which the Holy Ghost speaks with us and he that puts himself upon any hazardous action without encouragement from it to bring him off with safety he makes a snare to bring himself to destruction Satan durst not be so impudent to tempt our Saviour to fall down from a pinacle of the Temple without pretence of authority from the Psalm that He shall give his Angels charge over thee and therefore we justly exclaim against Monastical Vows of perpetual Chastity and we see how frequently they apostate from their Vow and wallow in all lust and uncleanness because it is no where written if any one will take this yoke upon him I will assist him and make it light It is a miserable thing to have no other staff to lean upon then
hath redeemed his people Take the whole verse now together which is the exordium of this Prophetical Song and it contains two parts the magnifying of the divine goodness and the reason rendred why it was fit to break out into that devotion In the first here is the comprehension of all praise in this word blessed Secondly the comprehension of the divine titles the Lord God of Israel The next general member why this praise is given is drawn from two acts that God hath visited and that he hath redeemed And the Object of both those acts is it which makes it praise-worthy and thanks worth he hath visited his People First of all here is a full ascribing of all glory to God in this word blessed O how Zachary did meditate this all the while he was dumb O how much he desired all the while his utterance was stopt to bring forth these good words to the honour of his Maker He kept silence a long time from this heavenly Canticle but it was pain and grief unto him Now his mouth was opened with the key of the Holy Spirit to discourse of the wonderful works of God and it was a blessed thing that as soon as he was able to talk this was the first language that flowed from him Blessed be the Lord. Two things are the grace and dignity of our Elocutions Deum laudare verum dicere to praise the great Majesty of Heaven and to tell the truth upon Earth but why do I divide them two which will most properly fall into one For no truth so clear and evident as that the name of Christ is blessed for evermore They that speak the truth of him must speak well of him and whosoever blasphemes his honour is a Liar and an Antichrist As Hezekiah paid the Tribute which Sennacherib imposed upon him out of the Treasure of the house of the Lord and out of the Gold which over-laid the doors of the Temple 2 Kings xviii 16. so the praise of God is the chief treasure of our heart the chief thing that belongs to this holy place the very Gold of the Temple therefore when we magnifie his name we pay him Tribute out of the best thing which the Church can afford Neither is there any good business of Religion whereof we may be so confident that we are in a right course and do not swerve Our Belief may be grounded upon strong errors as it is among Hereticks Our Zeal may be transported into Faction as it is among Schismaticks Our Repentance may be slight and superficial as it is among Hypocrites We may be too forward in our Hope having no firm assurance from the fruits of a good Conscience Too free of our Charity when we do not distinguish who are fit to receive it Too prodigal of our Commendations when we do not note mens Actions whether they deserve it but be as copious as you will in magnifying your Creator and Redeemer and you are certain the work is very good most certain that you cannot tread awry Yet Satan and our own negligence are able to frame an objection against any truth which is most demonstrative What will our sluggish spirit say The honour of God doth not depend upon the fame of this World His glory cannot be raised higher than it is by our Jubilees and Songs or by our Instruments of Musick no though we could praise him as loud as claps of Thunder But for all this will you be content to glorifie him if it will bring your self to honour though it be no amplification to the Majesty of God Agreed then And first it is an high advancement that he will permit us to do him that homage though we should have no recompence for our labour it is abundantly rewarded that he will give us leave to exalt him he hath not dealt so with all people Unto the ungodly said God Why dost thou take my name within thy lips As it is an honour to the Magistrate that God hath committed the Sword of Justice to their power so it is an honour to every Christian that he hath permitted unto us to talk of his honour it is an Angels life continually to bless him and sound forth his glory Therefore that parcel of the Psalm may look this way let the praise of God be in their mouth and a two edged Sword in their hand the one is as great a priviledge belonging to us as the other to a Magistrate Secondly St. Peter grants it generally to all godly people Yè are an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices to God 1 Pet. ii 5. What is the spiritual Sacrifice but Praise and Thanksgiving Therefore let us offer up the sacrifice of praise sweetly and devoutly and all Christians shall become Priests in that respect and the holy portion of God and having offered up this visible sacrifice of praise we our selves in our hearts shall become the invisible sacrifice of God and bring oblation upon oblation unto the Altar it is nothing worth unless your own soul be the principal Oblation I press this the rather because it is so ill forgotten in the Roman Missal For they that do so often trouble your ears with their sacrifice and their Altar have not one word in their Missal that we or our souls should be a reasonable holy and living sacrifice to God Thirdly In giving glory to the Lamb and to him that sits upon the Throne we do not give but receive for no man can ascribe much praise to God but out of a large capacity of faith no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost no man can speak of the King of Kings according to his due excellency but it will procreate devotion and reverence therefore though Gods honour be in the same state that it was before yet your soul is in better state than it was before by praise and glorification Fourthly We do all agree with St. Paul that Charity is greater than the two other Theological Vertues greater than Faith that believeth all mysteries greater than Hope that expecteth all Promises and therefore greater because it shall abide with us in the Kingdom of Heaven when the other two shall vanish away So to laud and magnifie our Omnipotent Creator is far above all other acts of Religion because nothing else shall abide with us when we see God face to face There shall be no confession of Christ our Mediator for none shall deny him there shall be no fasting for man shall eat Angels food and have no need of nourishment no Alms shall be given for it is life without want and scarcity no Prayer for forgiveness of sins no hearing of the Word no sufferance of the Cross no intercession for them that suffer but the praise of God continueth and supplieth all the rest uncessantly we shall cry out Holy holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is and is to come Therefore it is called blessing of God because it
tears and be clean many that are last may be first in the Kingdom of heaven I have satisfied you what comfort comes of it though these Magi which came to Christ had been the worst of all men though antiquity had said right that they were Impostors and deceivers after the great power of Satan yet they were not such as I conceive but men conversed in the studies of deep wisdom or wise-men as we translate the word Such as are most accurate to give the true sense of names do so perswade me Suidas saith that Magi were Philosophi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophers but of that tribe that dedicated themselves to the knowledge of God Phavorinus says they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Priests that studied divine learning according to the Religion of that Country To go higher Pliny says the Magi were skilful in sacred learning and which moves me more Strabo says that in his days and about his days St. Mathew wrote his Gospel they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Professors of a strict and austere life as you would say religious Whether they were by succession the Scholars of that great Oriental Patriarch for Philosophy Zoroastres or Prophets children derived from the succession of Balaam all is one which conjecture is true or whether both be false but in all likelihood they managed the sacred Offices of the Persian Religion For Eusebius says how in his days it troubled the Magi that the Persians became Christians for by Sacerdotal succession they lookt to their own religion that it should receive no detriment Diogenes Laertius in that book which every young Scholar turns over wherein he wrote very accurately of all Philosophical Sects says that the Magi attended the Religion of the Gods prayed and sacrificed and for their learning as well as their ministry Porphyrie says they were interpreters of divine controversies Though they were but a bad Priesthood yet a Priesthood and a very learned one in their superstitious way When I first took a hint of this I laboured to make it truth out of good Authors the notion must needs be pleasant to them who wear an Ephod in Christs service that as silly swains ignorant Lay-men were the first fruits among the Jews so Priests of a religious calling were the first fruits of the Gentiles and were incited by a divine assistance to seek and find out our Saviour But though this be true yet since my Text speaks not of their office and science about Religion but simply as they were Wise-men I will pitch upon that Such as the Grecians called Philosophers the Jews Scribes the Assyrians Chaldeans the Indians Gymnosophists the Gauls Druids this Island Bards the Romans Aruspices such were the Magi with the Persians men that had furnished themselves with all fit knowledge to be their Judges and Counsellors of state You shall find that seven Wise-men who knew the Law and Judgments stood before Ahasuerus the great King of Persia Esther i. 13. these were such as the Magi in my Text the most sufficient directors of all affairs in that mighty Kingdom Humane Learning and Political Wisdom are so far from being impediments to an man in the way to the Kingdom of heaven that they are excellent Pedestals for the Pillar of Faith to stand upon and wise men if pride do not puff them up with vain opinion are best able to resist the devil and his tentations because they best know why they serve the Lord and have most intelligence to ponder why they should not be conformed to the fashion of the world Certainly they are of that rank to whom much is given and much shall be required of them Plain ignorant shepherds came to Christ soon after the first minutes of his Nativity and those harmless unsuspected persons told it abroad in all Bethlehem that by the foolish things of the world God might confound the wise that 's a great mystery of our salvation yet that the Gospel might lose no opinion by illiterate messengers the Sophi the acutest wits of the East discharge the same office that God may be glorified both in the prudent and ignorant Learned men of all sorts believed and were saved Zenas a Lawyer Luke a Physician Paul brought up at Gamaliel's feet he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Felix said all sorts of art and literature these were wise men and never so wise as in this to seek out Christ and to prefer the simplicity of faith before all the rudiments of the world I approve it not that these Travellers were Kings it is an error I will remove by and by but after the manner of Persia they were honourable in their own Country yet their quality of wisdom is remembred before their honour Nay had they been Kings the Romish Expositors say it was most apt for the Gospel they should be called Wise men Majus est testimonium quod datur Christo à sapientibus quam quod datur a regibus it did more convince the Heathens that their Wise men and Philosophers bare testimony to Christ than if they had been Monarchs Those are the chariots and horsemen of Israel burning and shining lights It strengthens our part exceedingly when the eloquence of Apollo and the Athenian Education of Dionysius the Areopagite are converted to the edifying of the Church but for such as are wise and learned yet whet those weapons for the maintainance of pernicious errors against true Religion we pray as David did Lord turn the wisdom of Achitophel into foolishness and their subtilty into their own destruction I have declared my opinion for the Priest-hood and learning of these wise men and am not afraid to dissent from them who interpret Magi to be Nechromancers or vain Astrologers for even after they had worshipt Christ still they are called Magi. When Herod perceived he was mocked of the Magi or Wise men he was exceeding wroth ver 16. 'T is probable that a name of Odium and scandal should not be given them after they had worshipped our Saviour Thus far both these opinions may agree that the principal of those who visited Christ were reverend Sages of the East and that some ancient Authors had been informed by tradition that there were those in their train who secretly were Wizzards and Sorcerers The best complexion may have a tettar run into it and the best profession may have some followers that give themselves over to the Devil And this reconciliation I am more willing to embrace because it supposeth that a full Chorus a great company of wise men came to Christ from the East Not three only as some say who dare say any thing Leo the Great above 400 years after Christ was born is the most ancient Author that I have met with who stands precisely for the number of three and how much the circumstances of a true story may be falsified after 400 years it is too manifest by the records of all ages The Author of
John should leap at the presence of our Saviour in his mothers womb and though it were an extraordinary case yet it demonstrates that the Holy Ghost can inhabit in a babe that is yet unborn or newly brought forth into the world Choose ye which of these opinions you will or choose ye neither and only be contented to believe concerning little ones that theirs is the Kingdom of heaven and therefore they ought to be baptized for unless ye be born again of water and the holy Spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven That is the stop of the first general Point the circumstance of time 1. Then when the people were full of repentance and did yearn for grace 2. Then when they began to conceit too much of John that he was the Christ 3. Then when our Saviour was of the ripe age of Priesthood and had seen thirty years in the world Then came c. It is time now to draw forward to the next general circumstance after what manner our Saviour would be baptized with the Baptism of John The Point is full of much matter even as Jordan it self in the time of harvest But I will obey the limits of the hour and handle two things briefly making my self your debter for the rest as God shall give occasion to pay it I frame therefore two questions on this sort 1. Upon what ground John did begin this new ceremony of Baptism never heard of before 2. What was the dignity or if you will call it so what was the vertue of Johns Baptism I address my self to the former To bring a new institution into the Church nay to bring in a new Sacrament of repentance for remission of sins this was more strange than if a new star had appeared in the Firmament What a confidence was in this great Prophet to call all Judea and the Regions round about unto him to receive Baptism And yet no print or footsteep in all the Law of Moses where such a Ceremony was commanded Nay if they had mark'd it it was to break the staff of the Law of Moses for upon the entertainment of a new Ceremony never heard of before it did betoken that old Rites and Customs were in their declination and near unto abolishing Besides is it not very strange that the learned Priests the wrangling Pharisees the ignorant people all with an unanimous consent should submit themselves to this new Ordinance and yet such an Ordinance as was confirmed by no miracle from heaven for John wrought no miracle the true wonder was that so many thousands should flock after him to be baptized without a miracle Yet the truth is that the most strict defenders of their own Law and the best Interpreters of it did not gainsay the new use of Baptism as unlawful for the Pharisees sent unto John and asked him Why baptisest thou if thou be not that Christ nor Elias nor that Prophet They do not quarrel the Ordinance of Baptism but what authority John had to baptize Two things are to be observed out of the forenamed Text for our satisfaction One that it was not belonging to the Office of any Priest or Prophet in the Old Testament to baptize unto remission of sins Another thing is that the Jews expected the washing of water to cleanse them from their sins under the Kingdom of Christ as S. Hierom thinks they collected it Isa iv 4. The Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion as who should say Circumcision was a seal upon Male children only the water of regeneration under Christ shall belong to Females also Again Ezekiel speaking of the blessings that shall abound in Christ Chap. xxxvi 25. seems clearly to express this new Sacrament Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness Moreover I cannot say whether the Rabbies of deep learning had the knowledge to understand that their Forefathers were by a figure baptized in the red Sea and in the Cloud which went along with them in the Wilderness So St. Paul expounded it by the Spirit of God But the Pharisees and it seems all the people were perswaded that when the Messias came they should be baptized for the remission of their sins either by himself or by some great Prophet who should be his Associate Therefore if John were the Christ they confess he may baptize or if he were Elias he might baptize For Malachy foretold Chap. iv 5. Behold I will send Eliah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Or if he were that Prophet he might baptize not any Prophet inspired from God that is not the meaning but the same whom Moses speaks of Deut. xviii 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken The Jews had no particular name for this Prophet the plain meaning is that Prophet is Christ himself Now Johns answer to the Pharisees was twofold what he was not and what he was He denies that he was the Christ or Elias himself who shall come perhaps before Christ as an Apparitor at the day of Judgment or that Prophet Then they object that he must not baptize nothing must be innovated in the Church without divine authority but they wilfully forgat what he said he was The voice of a Crier to prepare the ways of the Lord why co jure as the fore-runner of Christs Kingdom he betokened a new work was beginning and a new Ceremony of grace appointed and he baptized as many as came to Jordan and did confess their sins Praecursionis ordinem servavit nascendo baptisando says Gregory he shewed himself to be Christs Harbinger that went before him in Birth in Preaching and in Baptism Now ye see by what priviledge John did quite alter the old Mosaical Rites and began to baptize and I cannot omit how graciously by these means God did turn their superstition into a blessing To begin with the heathen who perceived in natural causes that water gives growth to Plants and Seeds and fecundity to all things but they forgat God who made it a fruitful part of nature and conceited that there was somewhat divine in that Element more than in any other not could they be contented to rest upon that which every man knows that a clean river would wash the dust and sweat from their body but were so foolish to souze themselves every morning thrice over head and ears in some pure Fountain as if it had some inherent vertue to cleanse the filthiness of their souls The Pharisees being more superstitious in their generation than any other Jews followed the heathen close Mar. vii 3. They eat not except they wash often if they come from Market except they wash they eate not and therefore they quarrel some of the Disciples that they eat with defiled that is with unwashen
goodness were remarkable for the quantity that he had an exceeding portion of the Spirit in which regard he was more than a Prophet for the time that he received it it was from the womb yea and in some signs before the womb had opened to bring him forth in which regard he was more than the child of any Prophet these two the Angel hath put together He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mothers womb This was inundatio spiritus the Spirit abounding in him as a River at high-water fills the banks but in the most probable opinion it was not emundatio spiritus it did not cleanse his soul from corruption in every part but it instructed him with vertue more than ordinary to do great works For God forbid but that a man may be said to be sanctified and to be full of the Holy Ghost although the infectious poyson of original sin do still remain in him Which original contagion raigns in the wicked is much abated and kept under in the Just was lessen'd by Gods especial favour more than usually in John but the malignity thereof is not quite taken away till our mortal have put on immortality The reason is very slender that the sin wherein his mother conceived him was taken away before he was born because he seemed to have a passion of faith before ever he saw the light when he leapt at the presence of our Saviour for that might be a transient passion and no doubt it was no more and nothing lets but sin may abide also where the Spirit of grace doth inhabit and continue That which is alledged to prove him to have some defilement like all the Sons of Adam is far more forcible namely where the Scripture says how all are conceived and born in sin Where it lets us know in another place how God hath concluded all under sin that he might have mercy upon all And St. Austin upholds this cause Nemo dici potest renatus nisi priùs sit natus Christ says Unless a man be born again he cannot be the child of God Surely common sense will lead us to this notion a man must be first born before he can be born again and if carnal birth go before Regeneration then no man can be cleansed from all sin before the birth of the womb Besides out of the same reason that St. Austin brings against the Pelagians to prove that the leprosie of Adams sin is in little Infants by the same I will prove it to be in John because the wages of sin is death Christ only excepted who took our sins upon him and the beheading of John is a remonstrance that the meritorious cause of death was in him I mean iniquity To give full measure to this Point and running over Mat. xi 11. Verely says Christ among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist yet he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he I leave the multipliciousness of Expositions upon that Text and betake me to St. Hieroms Aliud est coronam justitiae possidere aliud in acie pugnare The least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John because he was in his race and did struggle against sin and Satan the least in the kingdom of heaven hath his Crown upon his head and is past the fear of tentation So I have shewn that John had some frailties of flesh and bloud in him wherefore most submissively he flies to the true Altar of mercy for a pardon I have need to be baptized of thee Let the Saints of God have their due honour but let the mercies of Christ and the benefit of his bloud shed upon the Cross be dilated to every one that dies in the Lord which was the reason why I prosecuted the last Point And it is according to the humility of John to set forth his low estate when men would exalt him For the more the Embassadors of the Jews did magnifie him with Art thou the Christ Art thou Elias The more did he abase himself saying There is one among you whose shooes latchet I am not worthy to unloose Displiciat sibi unusquisque in se ut totus in Deo placeat Be displeased every man with himself and God will be pleased with thee This was of all comforts most intimate to the Prophets soul that he saw his own need and knew the right way to call for succour And the less hope he had of himself the more hope he had of God O how his hope quickned and exulted when he saw his Redeemer at Jordan whom he had never seen before He saw such comfort coming down with him as the Angel brought to Peter when he was in hold now the prison doors are opened get thee loose from thy sins But what speak I of Angels They had been sent indeed upon messages of joy there had been Patriarchs there had been Prophets in the world these were like fair diamonds whose light sparkles in the eye but gives no warmth to that which is cold But as the Psalmist says Except the Lord build the house the labourers labour but in vain Except the Son of God had vouchsafed in his own person to build the Church we had never reapt the fruit of eternal life John Baptist was an Israelite yet he trusts not to the Seed of Abraham Born under the Law but he knew it were death to rely upon that killing Letter He was a Prophet sanctified from the womb he cares not for that For what had he which he had not received and could he boast then as if he had not received it Finally He was full of fasting austerity preaching all manner of works yet he relies not upon them for when we have done all we can we are but unprofitable servants These are the strongest stays of humane trust that can be built upon yet he flies from them all and runs to the all-sufficient merits of Christ for succour This was a right aim taken Ac si oculo rubricam dirigat uno this was a straight line drawn bringing his hope just upon the Lord and giver of life I have need to be baptized of thee The time hath stopt me from proceeding to the last part which shall be made the beginning of our business upon the next occasion To God the Father c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 14 15. And comest thou to me And Jesus answering said unto him Suffer it to be so now For thus it becommeth us to fulfil all righteousness IF ever such an Argument could be laid before man wherein it might become his wit to dispute it with God I think verily it fell out in this Story which I continue in that Text that I have read unto you I will not except that instance which is able to amaze any Reader when the Lord spake unto Abraham to take his only Son Isaac and
to offer him up for an whole burnt Offering I conceive very well what a straight Abraham was in and that the bowels of nature were never at such a quandary what to do Yet he yielded at the first warning and said it should be done But this trial wherein Christ assayed what his fore-runner would do when he came to be baptized is more perplexful a great deal God proved his servant Abraham what he would do for his bidding with a mortal Son that must die Here God proves John Baptist what he will do to his own immortal Son by whom he made the worlds And to take away the life of Isaac was nothing so hard a case of demur as to make the least abatement from the glory of Christ When God offered so much was it not very disputable with man to bethink him how to take But howsoever this was the greatest appearence of scruple that could be imagined yet I must lay my hand upon my mouth and say with Job How should man contend with the Almighty The way of the Lord is equal though the best Saints on earth may fail in their judgment and know not how to find it out As none of the men of Timnah could guess at the meaning of Samsons Riddle but Samson himself revealed it so none could interpret the paradox of Christ why he would be baptized but Christ himself Suffer it to be so now For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness So much as I shall narrate to you of this Story at this time consists of these two parts in general 1. How John Baptist lost himself in a doubt And comest thou to me 2. How Christ helps him out of it And Jesus answering c. John makes a question of that which Christ commanded Christ commands him again and puts it out of question The doubt of John is no pertinacious error but an admiration mixt of love and humility Comest thou to me Our Saviour accordingly deals gently with him not with the least check to betray any offence but after these two ways Sicut Dominus imperans sicut Preceptor docens First As his Lord he lays his strict command upon him Suffer it to be so now Secondly As his Preceptor he teacheth him cause for if For thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness His power to say the word and impose upon him had sufficed but he gives him reason likewise for his better satisfaction These are the particulars to be handled It is the small pittance which remains of my Text since last day how the Prophet hath lost himself in admiration Comest thou to me At which words I am now to enter my Treatise and shall soon dispatch them John puts his speech into a form of wonder how could he do less When he saw the Lord of heaven and earth put himself into the form of a sinner and into the condition of a servant Do you ever read in the Gospel that the Angels brought tidings of his low estate that he would be made flesh but that they cry out in their Preface Ecce behold as if they could not utter the message without admiration Faith is nothing else but a long continued astonishment which knows not how to utter it self because the Lord hath done such marvellous things for us But above all this exinanivit seipsum this exinanition and making himself almost nothing for our sakes it puzzles them most who are best able to consider it Something we would fain say to it and when we have brought it forth it 's nothing but wonder and exclamation So did Elizabeth the mother of this Prophet Whence is it that the mother of my Lord doth come unto me So doth the Prophet himself break forth when the undefiled came to the waters of cleansing Comest thou to me Dost thou wash my feet Says Peter to his Lord. Quis dicere poterit quantum inter hoc Tu illud mihi intersit discriminis says St. Austin O how far are those two words remote one from another Thou the great Jehovah and I an abject worm and dost thou wash my feet The self-same infinite odds John Baptist acknowledgeth between himself and the Messias The breadth of the earth may be measured the height of heaven may be taken but the distance between these two terms cannot be fathomed Thou and I Thou an incomprehensible God and I a small fragment of thy works And comest thou to me And let me add this to the rest John Baptist had greater reason than Peter to cry out at our Saviours humiliation and to say to this effect What meanest thou Lord This shape of a servant doth not become thee for Peter had seen long trial before that Christ was made poor that we might be made rich and made himself of no account that we might be exalted but John was put upon the first proof of all hence he began to depress himself and to communicate of those things which sinners did when he came to be baptized in Jordan Besides it is a greater sign of infirmity to come as it were to be cleansed among the polluted than to take the office to cleanse the defiled therefore it was a greater argument of humility to come to be wash'd in Baptism than to take a Towel and girt himself withal and to wash his Apostles feet It was no small thing therefore that made John Baptist speak like an astonisht man Comest thou to me Thus you see how not only an ordinary person such as we are but a great Prophet whose stile above all others was the Friend of the Bridegroom such a one may loose himself not only by searching into the height of Gods glory but by meditating likewise upon the depth of his humility St. Chrysostom says John Baptist should have taken the rise of his admiration a little further off not from the Baptism but from the Nativity of our Saviour The wonderful abasement was that the infinite God would be made a miserable man all other parts of humiliation fall in sweetly because he would be made in the form of sinful flesh When you consider how he would be inclosed in a Virgins womb be tempted be despised be buffeted be crucified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among so many sorrows and contempts never marvel if he would be baptized There were four things that might seem doubtful to John but to which of them may not a most answerable satisfaction be given according to the mystery of our Redemption which Christ had undertaken 1. Comest thou As who should say I am thy Messenger to go before thy face Why didst thou not send for thy servant but hast come unto him Let it suffice to say to this that the Sacraments must not be commanded except in case of necessity to wait upon us at home but we must come to them behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her Mistris
volume of thy book it is written of me that I should fulfill thy Law then said I loe I come 2. He fulfilled the Moral Law not only by giving it the right interpretation but by exact obedience whereupon he said Which of you can accuse me of sin 3. He gave life to the Ceremonies pointing to their true meaning as instead of the Circumcision of the flesh exhorting to the Circumcision of the heart 4. Whereas the judicial Law of the Jews did mention temporary and corporeal rewards and punishments Christ changed that stile of speech into spiritual and eternal No doubt but Christ did fulfil all righteousness for he came not to do his own will but the will of his Father his justice was multiformous in all the actions of his life from his Cratch to his Cross yet my Text says that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus by receiving Baptism by that one act fulfil all righteousness I know not one bad interpretation upon that Point which is rare among Expositors to be so divers in their judgments and yet all allowable One says it is meant quoad inchoationem justitiae that so it behoved him to begin the course of righteousness That was but one act of his humility but the first wherein he did manifest obedience So Baptism is the first step that we make into the Church of Christ therefore because light was the first thing that God made among his visible Creatures and Baptism is the first of his spiritual graces it hath ever been called in the Greek Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the illumination of a Christian it is the day of inauguration when we first claim right unto our title of the Kingdom because we are adopted the Sons of God Surely the ordinary gloss conceits the words otherwise but very profitably Righteousness is either Legal which consists in an exact obedience to all the Commandments of God Or else Evangelical which knows Salvation is not attained unto by the works of the Law but thus Repent and believe and thou shalt obtain remission of sins therefore Christ speaking in the person of us who are his members says to John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus must we fulfil all righteousness by calling upon men to repent and be baptized in the true faith and their sins shall be covered and blessed is that man or righteous is that man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin This was the Doctrine taught in the Church every where three hundred years past and more Omnis justitia impletur ex gratiâ All our righteousness is fulfilled through grace and not through works Ut nullus ex operibus neque ex arbitrio glorietur they are the words of the gloss to the end that none may boast of works or in the power of his own free will but acknowledge himself guilty of damnation and obnoxious to the dreadful justice of God let us fly to that grace which freely washeth away our sins Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness Chemnitius makes this apprehension of the Text. Christ did omit no means to reconcile us to his Father that we might be justified before him and this he brought to pass two principal ways 1. When he gave himself an Oblation upon the Cross to take away our sins 2. When he did institute the means and instruments to apply that meritorious satisfaction unto us on this wise therefore he did fulfil righteousness by sanctifying the Sacrament unto us which is the especial medium to apply the righteousness of faith to every one that shall be saved Another and the last sense of this word that likes me also consists in these terms By receiving this Sacrament of Baptism we are tied as far as we are able to fulfil all righteousness It behoveth them that profess the true Faith to keep themselves undefiled from the world and to be holy unto the Lord. As Rachel cried out to Jacob Give me children or else I die so a sincere faith cries out unto the conscience Let me bring forth good works or else I shall be a dying faith and altogether unprofitable Do we make void the Law through faith Says St. Paul God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. iii. 31. So it appears how righteousness buds forth from Baptism our conscience being watred with the heavenly dew of that Sacrament it makes us fruitful with good works Sed in istôc nequaquam sunt omnia will some man say Will that serve instead of all righteousness For our Saviour saith Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness God gave the word great was the company of Interpreters and his Spirit is in them all You shall hear the several consolations which they pick out from hence 1. To be a perfect teacher and a perfect doer of Gods will these are Tabor and Hermon the two fruitful hills upon which the blessing of the Lord descends To be a Teacher and not to do well is very bad like Hophni and Phinehas those dissolute Priests who polluted the holy Sacrifice To do well and not to teach is laudable and good but it is not excellent for to be an instructer and a doer is a degree of perfection beyond it Omne tulit punctum it is more blessed to give instruction than to receive therefore our Saviour was abundant in both Praeivit in exemplo quod verbo docuit He did lead the way of obedience by example and afterward did preach it to the people Blessed is he therefore that is not only a teacher but a doer of the word this is to fulfil all righteousness 2. Suum cuique there are but three heads from whence all justice is distributed and they may be drawn out of this Baptism for by receiving Baptism we are obedient to the institution of God we provide a salutiferous medicine for our own soul and by letting our light shine before men we do edifie our brother But to render that which is due to God to our own soul to our brother is to be perfect in every line of justice therefore in the universality Christ might say thus he did fulfil all righteousness 3. Says St. Austin Quid est impleatur omnis justitia Impleatur omnis humilitas The Son of God had this meaning how he fulfilled all righteousness because he condescended to the lowest step of humility for there are these three fallings as I may say one lower than another To be subject to a Superiour and not to prefer himself before an equal is justitia sufficiens sufficient humility and no want To be subject to an equal and not to prefer himself before an inferiour is justitia abundans that is not only justice enough but large and abundant humility but to be subject to an inferiour yea the most mighty God to be subject in Baptism to his Creature this is justitia perfectissima most perfect lowliness none can submit it self more and thus indeed to make the pride of base man to blush who
because he assumed such a frame such a natural body into the unity of his own Person Naturam nostram non solùm creando novit sed etiam assumendo He knows the condition of mans nature not only by Creation but also by Assumption Cyril of Alexandria did foresee an objection might rise from hence and thus prevents it What if the Word had not been made flesh Had not the Word notwithstanding perfectly known all the diseases and infirmities which hapned to that mass of flesh which it self created Yet it is answered that Christ had he never been incarnate had known the very secrets of our hearts and reins only he had not adjoyned this knowledge unto himself after the experimental manner This is the difference only which doth actuate our comfort much the more Scientiae divinae ea notitia quam effert experientia accessit That knowledge which is feeling and experimental was added to the divine omnisciency He knoweth whereof we are made he hath shared our mourning our sorrows and tentations he knows this dunghil metal of ours is full of putrefaction and he pities it To this one alluded ingenuously that Christ did anoint the eyes of the blind man with spittle and clay Joh. ix 6. Vt seipsum excitaret magìs tali spectaculo ad commiserationem That he might behold that object to stir up his commiseration You see by all this I have built upon a sure ground that our Saviour knowing experimentally the conflict of tentations what a mighty Giant this Goliah is that defies the Israel of God and how weak we are to make resistance it takes away the edge of his severity and enables him to plead our pardon before his Father So we our selves ought not be iron Judges unrelenting Censors but to look upon delinquents with a passionate regard and to pass our sentence upon offenders with this dram of moderation at least in our judgments we our selves have been tempted and know how hard it is to resist the devices of the Devil Secondly The first Adam was disgracefully overthrown by the Serpent therefore the second Adam did redeem this disgrace by overthrowing the Serpent in his own Tentations for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. iii. 8. The Scripture accommodates a Parable to make us remember it Luk. xi 22. Satan is the strong man that kept his Palace in peace for he held a Princedom over the Sons of men but a stronger than he came upon him even our Lord and Saviour and overcame him and took away his Armour wherein he trusted and divided his spoiles Dignus vindice nodus a recovery fit for him that had the greatest power in heaven and earth that the Sons of men might sing Songs of triumph not David hath killed his ten thousand but Christ hath subdued that enemy that exalted himself above all that were made after the Image and likeness of God Alexander moved Calisthenes to tell him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how a man might purchase to himself a name to be the most famous of all men Calisthenes gave him a smart answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him kill the most famous of all men I suppose he ment of his enemies and this our great Champion hath done for us by frustrating and retorting all the tentations of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils It was our nature which he so much contemned that made him contemn the Son of God and adventure upon the holiest of all with confidence to get the day all the Posterity of mankind were so baffled in Adam that when Christ walked about in the similitude of man Satan supposed it was but Veni vici Come and conquer This day therefore the reproach was taken away from us when our chief Captain shewed the way that even flesh yet not through the arm of flesh but by the Spirit should be able to subdue our Ghostly enemies Thirdly Not only our former stain and ignominy is repaired because Christ was tempted and overcame but since that time also tentations have not that irresistible force which they had before their malignity is much abated Some ancient Writers especially Origen have puzzled their wits to conjecture what loss the Devil incurs when he is foiled in a tentation One thought that the same Devil could never tempt again like a Captive that yields himself up to the Conquerour and is never suffered to bear Arms again Others had rather say that the same infernal spirit could never turn head against the same Person any more who had once got the Mastery Others thought but themselves knew no reason for it that the Devil once repelled cannot tempt to the same sin any more I wish no man to build his judgment upon such divinations Beelzebub is by interpretation the God of a Fly Chase away Flies and yet the sent which allured them before draws them back again to the corruption which they had suckt before so I take it for an allowed truth that the Devil retires not quite for any repulse but as we see it in men or beasts in any Duel the longer they are beaten the worse they fight So the more we quench the firy darts of the Devil the more we disable his despight and make him impotent If the Tempter could have foreseen that Heroick vertue in Job and in the holy Martyrs he would have recoiled away and not touch'd their person Now every man reaps the fruit and praise of his own labours but the valiant acts and victories of our Saviour are publick advantages for as his Death had a mortifying force against the Old man which is in us and a quickning force toward the New man so his Tentations had a dulling force against the Devil and a strengthening force for us to make our arms break a bow of steel Ideo tentatus est Christus ne vincatur à tentatore Christianus says St. Austin Christ did vanquish the Devil in his own tentations that we might be unvanquishable This is our confidite Joh xvi 33. Be of good chear I have overcome the world Si tu vicisti gaude quid ad nos The Father makes one return a churlish answer rejoyce your self if you have overcome what is that to us Yea Beloved this is our Interest that his skirmishing is our peace and his victory is our triumph O how he hath sanctified tentations and made them wholsom which before were rank poyson Those things which were the baits to draw us to damnation are now become the instruments of our happiness blessed is the man that endureth tentation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of life Whosoever perceives his own concupiscence allure him to do evil let him call for a Second to aid him if he be not able himself to endure the brunt I mean for Jesus Christ he will be a party in all those quarrels if you call upon him faithfully ever
since he was tempted of Satan Lord let me not fight alone lest my foes prevail against me Thus tentation begets fear and fear begets prayer and prayer calls for succour and heavenly succour will assist us to be conquerours Gregory incloseth it in his meditation Vnde pertimescit homo enerviter cadere inde accipit fortiter stare that tentation which makes a just man distrust he shall fall affordeth him occasion to set his feet upon a sure place Cast not your selves therefore into tentation Brethren but when you are in them endure them with joy and courage as it is said of the Machabees that they fought with chearfulness the battels of Israel so go on with alacrity against those innumerable evils that take hold upon you The just man triumphs with David against the powers of darkness as if he saw them already made subject unto him they are cast down and faln but we are risen and stand upright Pelopidas being environed with an Ambush alas says his Lieutenant we are faln into the hands of our enemies And why not rather our enemies faln into our hands says Pelopidas So let not the name of Satan and tentation be dreadful unto you he hath more cause to fear he shall be repulsed than you have reason to fear he shall prevail since Christ hath blunted his weapons in this conflict The Fathers call that verse the Saints Jubilee after their trial with the evil one Psal lxvi 12. We went through fire and water but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place And therefore I bequeath St. Pauls exultation to your use Thanks be to God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly Christ was tempted to give us an example how to encounter with the roaring Lion and to win the Mastery As a young Learner will observe diligently every ward and thrust that an experienced Gladiator makes so the Holy Ghost hath set down for our advertisement every passage how Christ did turn and wind the delusions of the Serpent These things had need to be scanned beloved we had need to be cunning at our fence for if the Devil sought our overthrow in Christ how much more will he do it in our selves If these things were done to the green wood what will be done to the dry But mark how the man of Gods right hand chased away the enemy mark how he demeaned himself from first to last and you are fortified with the best president that ever the world afforded Ut cujus munimur auxilio ejus erudiremur exemplo says Leo he looks upon our conflicts from heaven and helps the weaker side both by the presence of his grace and by the president of his example Observe him that we might instance in all his ways retiring into a desart from the contagion of the world observe him fasting observe him drawing his shafts out of the quiver of the holy Scripture to maintain his cause and say this is the true Charm to make the evil Serpent break as Daniel in the Apocryphal story choakt the Dragon with lumps of strong confection Christ himself could not receive increase of the Spirit either by being baptized or by being tempted for he had the fulness not of sufficiency but of abundancy before without measure but it was for the proficiency of his members that were under him And therefore the Schoolmen have a disceptation since Christ was much greater than the Angels and did far excel them in grace why he should be tempted of the Devil For we do not read that any of the Angels confirmed in grace were ever tempted One of them answers Quia Angelus non habet membra sub se quomodo Christus habet Christ is head of a body and hath members under him to give erudition unto by his example and so have not the elect Angels Wherefore if the Children of Israel lookt up by faith upon the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness that they might be healed when they were wounded how much more should we look attentively upon Christs Tentation in the Wilderness that we may not be wounded of the Serpent The Fathers in their piety say it is easier to avoid ten sins that compass us round about and have not yet taken hold of us than to recover our selves sound again from any one sin that we have committed It is the Angelical part of Christianity to take out this Lesson Prevent us O Lord from evil in all our doings There is a great deal of the old man and his ragged lining in the best repentance You may learn repentance from Christs Gospel but not from Christ himself but innocency and clearness of life and to be impregnable against tentations not Verbum Christi but Christus Verbum not the Word of Christ but Christ the eternal Word makes you cunning in that by his own example He that knows not the experience of many tentations doth not well know himself says St. Austin Nescit se homo nisi in tentatione discat se But he that knows not the experience of Christs combate will not know how to deal with tentation Fifthly Says Bonaventure very acutely he began in the ministry of the Gospel first to refute the false Doctors before he taught his Disciples the truth first to beat down the Synagogue of Satan and then to build the City of God First root up the Tares and bind them in bundles and then dress the Wheat A Bishop must be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince gainsayers Tit. i. 9. Conviction of falshood requires the greater care and diligence and the great Bishop of our souls begins with that How soon were all divinity learnt What little pains would go to Preaching and Exhortation if it were not that Heresies and Falshoods beget us a most laborious drudgery to refute them Innumerable errors are disseminated that they are like Augias his Stable so foul that they are never to be cleansed It held our Saviour forty days in the Wilderness to untie all the knots of Satan and thus we must build up Hierusalem like Nehemiahs builders with the Sword in one hand with the Trowel in the other Having the Sword of the Spirit to cut in twain the snares of the wicked one you shall the sooner build up the walls of Sion Sixthly And then I take off my hand from this Point Let no man say I am cast out from the face of the Lord because he is beset with daily tentations God had one Son that was free from sin but he hath no Son that is free from the incumbrances of Satan If there be no more in it than an outward occasion cast before you to try if you will bite which is Exterior pulsatio as a man that comes not into the house but stands without and knocks at door This is your praise in the highest respect that your vertue is impenetrable As the Lord sent a blast upon Sennacharib and made him return to his
resolution into his humane nature to fight with and to overthrow the tentations of the Devil I shall reach this doctrine unto you the better upon certain questions And first what needed this Preface of all other before this mighty work that he was guided by the Spirit What action throughout all his life did not deserve the same commendation A young Rhetorician dedicated an Oration to one Antalcidas What is the subject of your Oration quoth he Says the young Orator the praise of Hercules Fie man says Antalcidas what needless pains have you taken Who did ever dispraise Hercules So it may seem as redundant an expression to say that Christ was led by the Spirit at this time for through the grace of Union and the grace of Unction he was always conducted by the Spirit It is sufficient for answer to this that this was the first exploit of those that Christ did act to shew he was the Christ and the Mediator of God and man therefore this clause being prefixt to the formost of his actions is a title to all the rest he was led of the Spirit 2. It is not to be taken per modum inhaerentiae that he was now full of the Holy Ghost as if he had received a larger measure than he had before but by way of manifestation for the Spirit even now had visibly descended upon him in the shape of a Dove Semper fuit actus à spiritu sed jam maximè ejus vis apparuit the common gloss of the best Writers The Spirit did always lead him and dwel in him but now it did appear and put forth its strength I move another question be not offended that I move these hard things as it were by way of Catechism are the leadings of the Spirit of more sorts than one Yea these two are degrees one above another The first is general to all the Sons of God for they are all stirred up to faith and hope and good works by a divine illumination If ye be led by the Spirit then are ye not under the Law of the flesh Gal. v. 18. The second is special to the chiefest and principal Ministers of God as Kings Prophets and Apostles when Saul was anointed King over Israel the Lord gave him another heart his Spirit came upon him and he Prophesied So Christ our anointed Prophet prepared himself for a famous enterprize and he had the badge of Gods good liking The Spirit came upon him or he was led by the Spirit Suffer but one interrogatory more and it is this Did the Spirit thrust on Christ and as it were hale him with compulsion at this time So a man might hap to fall into that error by St. Marks words The Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness And the Vulgar Latine gives the same offence Luk. iv 1. Agebatur a spiritu he was pusht on by the Spirit For answer hard words are soon mollified by good construction The very Heathen could say Generosus est animus hominis magisque ducitur quà m trahitur Mans will is a free generous thing and had rather be led fairly than drawn forcibly Therefore the other Evangelists must be expounded by St. Matthew that the Spirit led him by illumination and propounding the will of his Father unto him not by violence and coaction So Cajetan Non vis significatur sed efficientia impulsus spiritus All was done by the efficacy and motion of the Spirit nothing by compulsion Some there are who care not what old Pillars of Divinity they pull down to set up their new devises that hold that Christ did obey his Father and the Divine Law with so much liberty and freedom that it were no offence to say Christ could not have obeyed his Father not have kept the Law and so by consequent have sinned and whereas it is certain he did not sin they will neither allow that the Hypostatical Union was the cause of it O strange Theologie nor yet the grace of Unction wherewith he was anointed above his fellows O strange impudency Neither of these was fundamentum impeccabilitatis And all this to maintain that because he did merit by his obedience his will was not determined to do good but left indifferent to good or evil Away with this over audatious disputing Christ could not but fulfil all righteousness I must do the works of him that sent me Joh. iv 9. All good things conducible to the work of a Mediator were necessary to be done And it was necessary Gods will being declared that it should be fulfilled of Christ although he was not necessitated by a violent determination but moved willingly and obediently unto it by a certain perswasion Non necessitatus erat sed propter illud quod necessarium erat sponte motus says Abulensis The object propounded was necessary to be done of him though he accepted it with much alacrity and desire and no way driven by constrainment Therefore this was not like Peters case Another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not Joh. xxi 18. But the hand of the Lord was with him and carried him whither he liked himself Non invitus aut captus sed sponte liberè venit says St. Hierom He was not drawn on as if his own will drew back but rejoyced as a Giant to run his course To say no more but this Oblatus est quia voluit It was his own good will that he was slain for the sins of the world it was his own pleasure not to dread death and it was as much his own pleasure to grapple with tentations And so much for that question how the Spirit did lead him into the Wilderness You shall now be partakers of the third thing why this passage is inserted into the story that he was led up of the Spirit Good reasons are rather to be esteemed by their weight than their multitude take these few to content you 1. The Spirit is said to lead him because de did not run on blindfold but knew the task which he undertook he foresaw the difficulties that he would meet and weighed them in the balance of judgment and discretion Non ignarus sed consilio ducebatur says St. Ambrose The counsel of the Spirit did enlighten him to see what he had in hand Saul thought that David was but a fool-hardy Stripling and knew not what a perilous thing it was to fight with such a Giant as Goliah Thou art but a youth and he a man of War from his youth thou art not able to go against this Philistine But David shewed the reason of his confidence the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine He had considered Gods mercies and protection therefore he was led by the Spirit into that noble action Beware to plod on like Balaam with our eyes shut never discerning what is
such excellent things which we cannot attain to perform that we may be excited to pray unto him for succour with a vehement and a flagrant devotion 4. He commands and he fulfils and he rewards crowning his own gifts and no works of ours that glory may be ascribed to his name for evermore The Synodal Epistle of all the Affrican Bishops St. Austin being one of the Society encourages me that these answers are far more reasonable than the objection Jubet Deus homini ut velit sed Dominus in homine operatur velle jubet ut facias sed operatur facere He hath charged us to will that which is good but he effecteth that willingness in man he says Do and thou shalt live his grace enables thee to do and thou shalt live for ever Let this suffice to teach you how we are led by the Holy Spirit in converting grace and I think it most comfortable to put our hope in God and not in our selves Cursed is every one that putteth his trust in man Jer. xvii 5. To dispach all I will be brief in the fifth Point how we are led by subsequent grace and sanctification which co-operates and assists us after our conversion this is that truth wherein all dissensious parts conjoyn and accord That Voluntas liberata concurrit ad bonum opus eliciendum cum gratiâ divinâ the will of man having conquered the dominion of sin by converting grace is made free and then it freely conjoyns it self with Gods grace to produce a good effect Then it lies upon our own diligence never wanting the directing vertue of the Spirit to increase the good gifts of Sanctification by acts of often doing well then we do further and promote those holy inspirations to a plentiful or unplentiful increase This is not passively to be led by the Spirit but to walk in the Spirit as it is Gal. v. 16. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh In a word this distinction reacheth over all which can be said upon this matter There are some actions which principally concern the well being of a justified man without which regeneration cannot consist these are they the turning of the heart to God a true belief a faithful conclusion of our life in the fear of God and the peace of a good conscience justifying grace doth so attend the production of these actions that the Lord in his own good time makes us able for these things willing to do and actually to perfect those necessary parts of salvation Other works of obedience as to do this or that good to shun this or that evil all these especilly and particularly considered do not concur to our saving health as to the very making or marring of it In the practice of all these particular good instances the motions and conduct of the Spirit are never wanting to them that are regenerate more or less but sufficient to have kept them blameless in every particular but in many of these we sin often and are wanting to the co-operation of grace through our own stubbornness in the will and sensuality in the affections I will conclude You see how diversly we are led by the Spirit how many sundry ways we are assoiled from Sin and Satan by the direction and efficacy of grace The natural man is able of himself to bring forth no spiritual good work The Lord doth totally and with no assistance of vitiated nature bring forth the first good preparatory grace in the will From thenceforth unto conversion this previous preparatory grace is made effectual or uneffectual by mans free-will In the act of conversion and renovation wherein all the controversie about free-will is moved the Lord doth turn our heart unto himself the will for the act being the passive subject and at the same instant it is the cause of a good action in turning it self to God in subsequent grace unto the end of our life the will being made free from the dominion of sin works together with the motions of celestial inspiration This is the sum of all If any thing be delivered too briefly impute it to the compass of the time If any thing be hard to be conceived impute it to the deep discourse of the matter If any thing be defective in the discourse give Gods grace the glory of all and impute it to my infirmity THE FOURTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 1 2. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungry MAny things were rightly applied by him that compared the success of the Children of Israel upon their entrance into the Land of Canaan with the circumstances of this combate between Christ and Satan 1. the Israelites were miraculously brought through the Red Sea so the first glorious Apparition of our Saviour which went immediately before this business was the Baptism which he received of John in Jordan 2. The Israelites pass from the Red Sea into a great and solitary Wilderness So our Saviour was led after his Baptism into the greatest Wilderness of Judaea a place uninhabited by man for he was with the wild beasts Mar. i. 13. Then the Israelites were in great distress for foot hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them And Christ had nothing to eat in that place he fasted forty days and forty nights and was afterward an hungry 4. As the Israelites were pined with hunger so they had bloudy Wars with all the Nations of Canaan many a time have they fought against me might Israel then say So many a time did the Legions of Hell attempt me might our Lord and Saviour say yea many times did the powers of darkness compass me about but they have not prevailed against me On the one side here was first the Red Sea then a journey into the Wilderness then scarcity of Food then War and fighting So on the other side here was first a Baptism then a sequestring into the Wilderness then a long Fast and then a long conflict with the Prince of Devils Moreover the men of Israel did appear in that forlorn and despicable fashion before the Canaanites that they were much scorn'd and vilified so God provided we seemed in their sight but as Grashoppers said Caleb and Josuah this drew the Kings of Canaan forth to beat them back and so were overwhelmed in their own pride and cruelty Thus in all points did our Saviour deal with Satan the Eternal wisdom against the wisdom of the Serpent He flies into the Wilderness as one abandoned of the World there he continues in great necessity as one whom none would succour not a morsel of food supplied him by God or man Adversarium non virtutis jactatione sed infirmitatis ostentione provocat thus he provokes and draws Satan out against himself not by a boasting challenge but by the appearance of
own sake and not for Gods sake he hates him Honours and affluency of all store are not contrary to Christianity nay many times God gives the one with the other and they agree together well enough But if not there is the trial whether we will be mercenary or no. What said the three generous Captives to Nebuchadonosor Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of thine hand and will deliver us but if not be it known unto thee we will not serve thy Gods that is no worship will we afford save to the Lord of Heaven though it cost us our life These were right that look'd to save nothing by their Religion but their soul Godliness is great gain says the Apostle for it gains a man in this life joy and tranquility of Spirit that he hath done that duty which belongs to his soul It is the punishment of sin for a man to know he hath sinned and to remember it to his torment so a good deed is rewarded that you can say you did it Sanctitas praemium est sancè operantis therefore follow not the Lord for the prey you look for for bread as Satan would have you the Kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink therefore where there is scarcity of all things let there be plenty of righteousness Before I come off from this Point let not one word which Jacob did speak stumble you Gen. xxviii 20. Jacob vowed a vow if God will be with me and keep me in my way and will give me bread to eat and rayment to put on then shall the Lord be my God Beloved it were a gross error to take Jacobs words absolutely as if he would have the Lord keep Covenant to give him bread and rayment or else he would not serve him What more sordid than those words in this sense Or more unworthy of Jacob But the words have respect to a Vow and to a particular worship of God as it is verse xxii First He would set up that stone for a Pillar that it might be as a Temple where the Lord should be worshipped And secondly He would give the tenth unto God of all he had He doth only covenant to sanctifie these particularities of Divine Worship to Jehovah if he found prosperity and relief in that dangerous journey Therefore I conclude this Point in defiance of Satan we must be the obedient children of God though we want bread and the most righteous are in scarcity sometimes that they may not seem to serve for an earthly reward Secondly God doth not suppeditate bread always to him that is his Son that he may loath this World and look for a recompence for all this misery not among these hard-hearted generations of men but among the habitations of the blessed Say to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Isa iii. 10. As Philostratus tells of one that desired his Son might not be Musical and therefore sent him to learn of the worst Musicians in the City that their scraping and jarring might make him not care to learn it So God provides for many whom he loves nothing but the harshness and worst entertainment of this world that they may learn to loath it Cujus bonitas non specie praesentium sed futurorum utilitate pensanda est says St. Ambrose Estimate the fatherly goodness of the Almighty not by the austere education wherewith he holds us under in this life but by the amplitude of our Patrimony in his Kingdom hereafter The beggary of vertue is grown a Proverb the Martyrology of the Saints is grown a Volume the felicity of their enemies is grown a wonder Mirabor hoc si sic abiret It is impossible but there must be another reckoning for these things the patient abiding of the meek shall not always be forgotten But as Christ said to his Disciples so may these to their enemies that have trod them under We have meat to eat that you wot not of And as Elisha said to one of the braveries of Samaria that God would fill the City with great plenty but he should be never the better Videbis sed non gustabis So may Lazarus say to the remorseless Glutton Thou shalt see the banquet which is set before me but thou shalt never taste of it The voluptuous had so much set upon their Table in the first course now that they shall never have a second Nemo transit à deliciis ad delicias rarò quisquam in hôc seculo primus est in secundo There were no alteration in the condition of naughty men if they could pass out of this life from pleasure to pleasure but many times he that is the Favourite of Fortune here shall be the least in the Kingdom of heaven that is shall be quite excluded from thence hereafter The Heathen in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did never deifie a poor man indeed they would allow it to some of their Kings and Princes that they became Stars in the Firmament and would call the Constellations after their names but they could not see whither the poor harmless man goes to a place above the Stars and where they shall shine above the Stars in glory Take courage therefore to say It is my turn to want for a while I shall be replenished hereafter he filleth the hungry with good things and the rich shall be sent empty away Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things when thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Psal ciii 5. There is a Mystery says St. Austin in joyning them two together for there is no satisfaction of good things for the righteous man untill his youth be renewed like the Eagles meaning the last Resurrection when God shall be all in all The upshot is that the Sons of God may be dear unto their Father and yet want bread for though our wages be small upon earth yet great is our reward in heaven Thirdly Though this Son of God to whom the Devil spake our blessed Saviour were innocent and yet suffered so many sorrows that hunger was the least not for any evil in himself but for our iniquities yet the best in the world beside are rebellious children and sometimes God breaks the staff of bread for their sins and whips them with the mild chastising of want and scarcity as he did the Prodigal Son to bring them home again Praestat sentire lenitatem patris quà m severitatem judicis Is it not better to feel the scourge of a Father to amend us than the Axe of a Judge to cut us off Is it not better with Lazarus to want the crums of the rich mans Table here than with the rich man to want a drop of water hereafter to cool his Tongue in hell fire If thou do evil says God to Cain sin lies at the door From whence some do truly meditate so long as an impenitent man continues in this world he
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
the Monopoly of Scepters and Diadems at his command All these things will I give thee And before whom could he have told this tale to be taken in a lye so soon as by driving this bargain with Christ as if a thief should steal Plate and offer to sell it to the owner or a Plagiary filtch a great deal out of a book and rehearse it for his own before the Author so the Tempter had rob'd Christ of that Honor and Majesty which was most properly his own I mean he rob'd him of it by the blasphemy and falshood of his tongue and then brings it to Christ to barter it away for other merchandise Autori quae autoris sunt repromittit What theft more palpable than this the Father gives all things by the Son by him He made the worlds by him He hears the prayers and supplications of the Church by him He gives us health and salvation by him He gives Rulers and Princes to go in and out before his People and yet Satan intrudes as if he were our Mediator in part at least in setling Thrones and Monarchies he was the means for those things and it was his hap I say the more to discredit his impudency to tell this tale to our Saviour from whom truly and indeed the Kings of the Earth do hold their Royalty Vtrobique regnatur per Christum he sets the Crown on their heads that wear them both in this world and in the world to come Observe it that He rides upon the white horse with many Crowns upon his head Revel xix 12. This is a Vision and this is the interpretation of it that those that honor him He will honor he settles the Royalty on whom He pleaseth not one or two Kingdoms and bequeatheth the rest to the fortune of war to the free choice of popular elections much less is any such good thing deliver'd up to our adversary the Devil Christ had many Crowns on his head for the whole earth shall stand in aw of him he lifteth up whom he pleaseth and setteth him with the Princes of his people When Wisdom proclameth that of Solomon which I laid for my first ground in this point by me Kings reign indefinitely it is to be understood of God but restrictively of Christ the second person in Trinity he is appropriatively the wisdom of the Father he is meritoriously and by way of an Impetrator the conduit pipe of all benefits to high and low rich and poor therefore we endear all our prayers to God with this conclusion per Christum Dominum nostrum through Christ our Lord. But what dulness was in the Manichaeans to fall upon such Texts as this and to build upon them that the God of Heaven made all invisible blessings and that Satan had divisum imperium cum Jove he was Lord of all visible and material things What are any of these the sooner his because he said they were deliver'd to him and to whomsoever he would he gave them Why it was as cheap in his mouth and he could have said it with the same labour that he could help whom he pleased to the Kingdom of Heaven It is the Most High that ruleth in the Kingdom of men and he appointeth over it whom he will Dan. v. 21. The cause of preservation is the cause of constitution God rules the hearts of the Subjects to obey and gives them commandment for allegeance and fidelity if any commotion be like to rise the Lord stilleth the raging of the sea and the madness of the people from God is the power of soveraignty and through his good spirit the duty of obedience but Satan stirs up seditions jealousies and cross humors in people never to submit therefore he plucks down the Kingdoms of the world and obscures the glory of them he is not the founder of order but of confusion O but sayes the Manichaean if Satan have not the total managing of these Powers beneath yet a share cannot be denied him They that govern by tyranny and injustice they that lift up themselves in their pride against heaven shall we not yield that these are of his ordination No why the Prophet Hosea says chap. viii 5. Ipsi regnaverunt sed non ex me they have set up Kings but not by me they have made Princes and I knew it not In my opinion the literal and textual answer to that place is that they chose unto themselves Heathen Idols Gods of silver and gold and forsook the Lord Howsoever this distinction giveth unto Caesar that which is Caesars and unto God that which is Gods Regnaverunt non ex me quoad viam sed quoad potestatem that evil way which they chose to follow that perverse manner by which they reigned and troubled all was not from God but he gave power to Manasses to Rehoboam to Ahab as well as unto David unto Josiah and to the best Kings that rul'd with righteousness Or as another limits it a Deo bono sunt potestates a malo Angelo potestatis ambitio the Power on earth is Gods the ambition to usurp that Power is the Devils Take that which is thine Satan and leave the rest to Christ When occasion is given to speak of a wicked Magistrate the Phrase is Hos xiii 11. I gave them a King in my anger angry I was when I gave him but I gave him though and that which He gives we must take it and keep it be it scourge be it blessing it is most foul rebellion to say the Lord shall not fasten evil upon us we will not keep that which the Lord hath given us And so much for the claim of the Giver in my Text whom we have found to have no right or title to deliver unto any one the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them Indefinitely all Kings reign by Christ good and bad but the justice of the good more peculiarly is from the grace of God the tyranny and ambition of the worst is from the suggestion of Satan and nothing about them is his but that which is worse than nothing the iniquity of Princes Now I proceed The gift was furtum theft in the highest degree that which he profer'd was not his to bestow the giver mendacium he falsified his evidencies and laid title to that which was only Gods to bestow The condition now follows to be handled which is fire and sulphur mixt together blasphemy and idolatry he requires that Christ should fall down and worship him Let me begin upon this point as Solomon said when Adonijah askt Abishag to wife Let him ask the Kingdom also Satan himself was not able to speak such another word I think for horror and impiety it exceeds that sin for ought we know by far which provokt the Lord at first to cast him out of Heaven into chains of eternal darkness For Isaiah tells us in the Parable of the King of Babylon chap. xiii the insolency of that sin consisted in these
he is made a greater vassal than the poorest of his Subjects themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage 2 Pet. ii 19. What appearance of soveraignty was in the voluptuous Licinius Of whom Tacitus says Tanta torpedo invaserat animum ut si principem eum fuisse caeteri non meminissent ipse oblivisceretur Such a stupidness had possessed his mind that unless others had been mindful towards him that he was a Prince himself would have forgot it You see then there is no freedom but by killing the strength of sin and living unto God in new obedience if by one offence death reigned by one they that receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ Rom. v. 17. Sin holds the sinner under tyranny grace makes the righteous man reign in this life it is the Apostles phrase Therefore Christ who gives us freedom despised not to be called a servant to his Father Thou art my servant O Israel in whom I will be glorified Isa xlix 3. Thirdly That fawning heathen did humour his Patron for this reason Et habet quod det dat nemo largius So the Lord hath all manner of riches in store and he withholdeth no good thing from those that serve him No Master in the world is so munificent to reward his Ministers Let me borrow it from the Queen of Sheba's mouth what she said of Solomons attendants to apply it to those of Gods houshold that perform the task he sets them Happy are these thy servants that stand continually before thee being now made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life Rom. vi 22. The poor bondman among the heathen had no more wages than food for all his drudgery the more hard-hearted they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle give a bond-slave provender like a beast and he is paid for his labour Did God ever use any of his retinue that serve him so hardly They have all their meat in due season and plenteously says he in the Parable How many hired servants are there in my Fathers house that have meat enough Yet this is nothing I may say to the remainder this is but the Alms-basket of his liberality What say you to this That he gave his only Son to redeem his servant and that the Servant might be spared even that most beloved Son did undergo the most bitter death of the Cross and all this that such servants as forgot the Lord who had done so great things for them and rebelled against him might be co-heirs with Christ in his Kingdom Who would not serve such a Master If he say go who would not make speed to follow If he say do this who would not do it He hath given us such hire more than all the world beside can lay down that we will worship the Lord our God and he only shall be served I should wrong the matter I handle if this question were not moved How we should feel the comfort in our selves that we serve the Lord I answer by a Negative by an Affirmative examination Negatively when we think that we have never laboured enough in our Lords Vineyard to earn our peny Or as it is elsewhere very clearly set down to take away all boasting from our works when we have done all we can say we are unprofitable servants The Affirmative Collection may be best drawn from a saying of Christs Mat. vi 24. No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will cleave to the one and despise the other Here I gather that the two notes of a good servant are deligere adhaerere to love and to cleave fast to his Master Those Servants that loved King David such as Hushai and Ittai and Ahimaaz would take part with him to the death in Absolons rebellion those were good Servants It was love that made Jacob such a diligent Shepherd under Laban to suffer heat and frost Laban never had the like to tend his flocks A servant that takes a delight to please you may trust him with any thing both for Faith and Diligence Nemo meliùs obtemperat quà m qui ex caritate obsequitur says St. Ambrose no man will obey God better or go further to discharge his Law then he that is rouzed up by the zeal of love and charity But he that doth the Lords work without pleasure and delight doth it with unwillingness unwillingness breeds sloath and between these all their service is left-handedly performed as if it were never intended Si quid invitus facis fit de te magis quà m id facis says Prosper Whatsoever you did grudgingly without love it was drawn from you but never done by you and as if you had not been the doer you shall never be rewarded Beside deligere I said there was adhaerere a good servant was no flincher but stuck close not a Fugitive as Jonas was not an Apostate as Demas was not one that began in the Spirit and ended in the Flesh the Galatians were thought to be bewitched that did so The Bond-man in the Old Law that loved his Master though the time of his releasement was come about would be bored through the ear for a ceremony that he would never part from him St. Paul was the fast man above all we read of that was glued unto the service of the Gospel Neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yet I will end this Point in the words of one of our own Prelates a faithful Minister of God bestirs himself with respect to that one Master to whom he cleaves in all the works of his Vocation Ac si nihil aliud esset in hôc mundo praeter illum ac Deum As if there was none in the world but himself and God himself to obey and God to be served with all possible diligence This cleaving fast unto one Master doth link it self in with the next Point that the Lord God is only to be worshipped and served Let it not start your patience that I name it now the time is past I am not about to huddle it up at this time being the most copious subject and of the choicest variety in my judgment in all Divine Learning But this Doctrine you shall carry away with you at this time It is no impediment for Servants to shew all diligent duty to their Masters on earth because one verse of the Gospel says No man can serve two Masters and because my Text says of our Lord in heaven him only shalt thou serve Him only indeed in Religious Service in Divine Worship and Adoration he
Non ex authoritate sed pacto Not by any power and vertue which they have but by compacts and infernal Sacraments between them and Satan The Apostles and Evangelists did cast out Devils Non ex authoritate sed ministerio not by their own authority and strength but as ministerial instruments which God appointed over the evil Angels But Christ with absolute and independant authority lays his charge upon the Prince of Devils and he could not keep his ground against him Now let me ask you Beloved whether will you be led gently by the word of Exhortation Or be compelled violently as stubborn and stiff-necked whither you would not by the dreadful and irresistible word of indignity Let me invert those words for this motive which Christ used to Peter When thou wert young thou walk'd whither thou wouldst riotously intemperately prophanely But when Christ comes to judge thee for these things another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not Draw near to God in Prayer and in the works of mercy then Faith and Sanctification will pluck you a little nearer and nearer if your iniquities separate between the Lord and you you shall be cast afar off O who is able to endure that word Decede Depart from me ye wicked Lord whither should we go For in thy presence there is life and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore Another reason why he fled from the presence of Christ is Quia victus he was so beaten out of all falshoods and inventions by the evidence of truth that he was ashamed to appear any longer before the face of the Conquerour So St. Ambrose Etsi invidere non desinat tamen instare reformidat quia frequentiùs refugit triumphari Satans envy to hurt the Saints is never mitigated yet he loves not to deal with those that foil him often lest men should triumph over him for his fruitless endeavours If a penitent sinners humility breed joy in heaven an innocent mans stedfastness against tentations must breed envy and amazement in hell The frustrating of bad attempts against our soul will add honour to the reward which we shall have in heaven and Satan will be loth to make any man too much a Conquerour lest he get too much glory in the Kingdom of heaven for his victories If he could have foreseen that heroick vertue in Job and in the rest of the Martyrs certainly he would have recoiled away and never have touched their persons As it was said of M. Anthony that Augustus his fellow Triumvir had been so fortunate against him in all Games and Recreations that in the end he durst encounter him in nothing Formidavit genium Augusti genius Antonii There was a Genius in Augustus which did over-awe the Genius of Anthony So the Ghostly Adversary is afraid of such devout persons as Zachary and Elizabeth who walk blameless in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God if he do but see their lips move in Prayer he is suspicious of his own weakness and their fortitude that they will bruise his head Therefore St. Chrysostome likens him to a Dog that waits at Table while you feed him he stirs no◠from you shew him no kindness but kick him and spurn him from the Table and he runs away from your severity which is thus Morallized in an Apostolical rule Resist the Devil and he will fly from you Jam. iv 7. Or if he do not fly because he is overcome by you do you fly first and that is an undeniable means to overthrow him walk not in the counsel of the ungodly abhor their ways abandon the occasions which entrap your frailty fly Fornication 1 Cor. vi 18. My dearly beloved fly from Idolatry 1 Cor. x. 14. And in another passion The love of money is the root of all evil O man af God fly these things 1 Tim. vi 11. Joseph fled from his Mistresses importunity and so overcame the Devil of lust Upon which St. Austin speaks Non verendum fugere castitatis palmam desideranti obtinere It is no cowardize in him to fly away that would wear the palm of chastity Antigonus being put to disadvantage gave ground to his enemies what says an hot-spur that was near him Do you fly Not fly says Antigonus but Vtilitatem à tergo sitam persequor I only prosecute that profit or advantage which is behind me So if it be useful to avoid the baits of sin make away as fast as your feet can carry you where such evil occasions cannot overtake you For this cause some are said to leave the world and to retire unto their Prayers not that any man can go out of the world till God receive his Spirit at the last hour but because they are sequestred into a strict course of life as into another world where the old man and his concupiscence cannot find them out And so much for the second reason why the Tempter did leave Christ Quia victus he was beaten and deluded the sting of the Dragon would not enter into Christ and yet he had ended all his temptation Put the last reason to the former why he left our Saviour and the Point is done Quia idololatriae convictus because he was both guilty and convicted of Idolatry for the Antecedent suggestion If therefore thou wilt fall down and worship me all shall be thine No disputation is to be held about such blasphemy as this but take that which is thine own and be gone without any longer parly There is no Society no Communion in Christ to be held with Idolaters they must leave us or we must leave them Whether the Idolatry be Error personae a quite mistake in the person taking those things for God which by nature are no Gods this was Idolatry indeed at the worst and in the most loathed deformity or though it be but error in modo colendi an idolatrous manner of worshipping the true God whosoever are infected with either of these crimes are to be shunned much more than those in the Old Law that had the infection of Leprosie in the flesh The Children of Israel worshipped the true God in the Calf that Aaron made I have said enough of that before there was no error in the person whose honour they propounded they meant all to God but it was a misbegotten invention of their own which could not consist with the pure and sincere worship of the divine glory the superstitious manner was enough to cut them off from the Congregation of their Brethren For Moses charged the Sons of Levi not to excommunicate them but to be their Executioners a particular severity for that fault and for no other put every man his Sword by his side and go in and out from Gate to Gate throughout the Camp and slay every man his Brother and every man his Neighbour and every man his Companion and they did so All Neighbourhood Companionship and Brotherhood was to be dissolved with Idolaters
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
knew not what to say but in admiration of his mercy lift up his eyes to heaven as if these thoughts did rise up in Abrahams fancy Sarah the Mother of my Son did muse how a Child could be born unto her in her old age but she did ill to laugh because the Lord had spoke it then give me leave to ponder how this Child can live any more when the mouth of God hath spoken that he must be sacrificed for a burnt offering Nay O Lord Non unum redimis sed unitatem In this act thou dost not so much redeem this one from death as the unity of all the faithful in this one all those Nations that shall be blessed in my name wilt thou spare them all as thou sparest Isaac What are our merits What justice is in us What is man that thou wilt not visit him with indignation Thus the soul of Abraham was in an extasie to consider the mercy of God wonder had possessed him we see it in this cast of his eye that he looked up to heaven When the Lord turned the Captivity of Sion then we were like unto them that dream says the Prophet The deliverance was so fortunate so much it did out-strip their hope that they did receive it at first not as that which was done indeed but as a delightful dream As Livie relating how the Graecians were strangly strucken with sudden joy upon the day when the Romans sent them unexpected liberty says he Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur they thought it was a pleasing vision in their sleep and not the happiness of them that were broad awake So when God did really make good that Promise which the Devil pretended that he would bring about Non moriemini You shall not die The faithful Patriarch knew not how to apprehend it at the first but his eye did testifie that his soul was ravished with the mercies of the Lord. The wicked shall not end half his days the seed of the ungodly shall be rooted out eternal fire is prepared hereafter for them that shall be turned over to the Devil and his Angels there shall be much wrath and vengeance every where among the dwelling places of the unrighteous but as for Isaac and they that are born according to the Spirit Noli tangere says the Angel the hand of violence shall not come near them as the Poet in his Eclogue brings in Melibaeus wondring at the clemency of Cesar to his fellow-shepherd when all the neighbour-Cottages were burnt and wasted Vndique totis usque adeò turbatur agris So when God shall work so much destruction in the world redemption is an admirable thing where it lights John Baptist as we read it in the vulgar Latine blazeth out with two notes of astonishment one upon another Ecce Agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi Behold the Lamb of God I and again Behold him that taketh away the sins of the world In two respects it is to be wondred at without any prejudice to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fulness of our faith as I will shew by the examples of two memorable women in holy Scripture Whence is it that the mother of my Lord comes unto me says Elizabeth Why did she marvel at it Quia non sui meriti sed divini fatetur esse muneris says Beda because it was a favour of mere grace and not a recompence of merit And again the blessed mother of our Saviour astonished at the Angels message that she should conceive and bear a Son Quomodo says she How shall these things come to pass Tanquam certa de facto querit de modo fiendi as it is the common answer She was sure it should be so she marvelled how it should be so and that was a blameless admiration Both these passions did Abraham suffer he knew there was no worth in man that God should release him from condemnation he knew not the manner what should be paid for his ransom his eye did fix it self upon the throne of God to find the mystery out and so you see it was Gestus admirantis the expression of wonder and astonishment that Abraham lifted up his eyes Thirdly It is Gestus inquirentis besides that he lifted up his eyes he look'd about him from the tops of Moriah it is the demeanour of him that did seek out for a Sacrifice to be offered up unto the Lord. Reges Parthes non potest quisquam salutare sine munere says he No man was admitted to salute the Parthian Kings unless he brought some Present in his hands so because Abraham came to this Mountain to worship before the Angel of the Lord he look'd and enquired for some Oblation that he might not turn back until he had laid a gift upon the Altar Many will lift up their eyes but they list not to seek an Offering for the Lord. Such are best pleased with devotion when it comes off with as little cost as may be Nay says David when Araunah would have born his charges I will not sacrifice to God of that which shall cost me nothing An Objection is framed in the School that the Piety of the Jews was more acceptable to God than the piety of Christians because they in their daily Service were at great expense to provide beasts for the Altar we are at no such charge in our Spiritual Worship it is enough if we offer up a broken heart in mortification a thankful heart in Praise and a devout heart in Prayer But this puts not our Purse to any trial like the Oblations of the Jews To cancel and wipe out this opposition it is answered that we supply that charge of the Sacrifice of beasts In Sacrificio Eleemosynarum in the Sacrifice of Alms to the poor The hand must look about it where to give as well as the eye look upward where to be thankful A distribution to the wants of the needy it is Pro sacrificio and prae sacrificio in place of sacrifice and to be preferred before all sacrifices Mercy is a better Oblation than a Beast that is slain this day you know how much was paid for the price of your redemption but not the price of corruptible things as Silver and Gold Spare O spare some portion of that which you spend profusely in the consumption of vanity at this solemn time of redemption to redeem the distressed in Prisons that are fast bound in misery and iron Look about you as Abraham did and you shall find I assure you Arietes prehensos in Vepribus Rams shall I say Nay they have scarce any fleece upon their back but they are catch'd fast poor Souls by the horns in the Thicket thence they cannot stir unlâ—ss Abraham will take them and offer them up for an Oblation to the Lord. Above all other casts of the eye this same Gestus inquirentis pleaseth me best to look about that we may present some gift upon the Altar
the Gospel could do no good for it was but one Talent upon the return but one single Petition will fructifie like a grain of Wheat into stalks and handfuls For as it is said of the nine Muses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 call but upon one by name and all her Sisters beside will assist the invocation so call but for one blessing piously and though you ask but for a drop much abundance of waters of comfort will gush out when the spout is opened Fear not Zachary says Gabriel when he came to tell him of the birth of John for thy prayers are heard Luk. i. 13. Why surely says St. Austin he prayed for the whole Congregation at that time and not for Children Not for Children for his Wife was old and barren he despaired of Issue What of that He prayed for the publick good and God gave him joy in particular he prayed for the Congregation as it was fit for the Father of a Flock and God made him the Father of a Son Such notice was taken of this solemn Prayer which our Saviour made for Lazarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome a Church was built from the ground in that place where the Monument of Lazarus had been before For who would not flock to pray in that place where Jesus had prayed unto his Father It was na Oratory wherby the Prelates of the highest state might learn to officiate by Christs example and execute in their place Alas of too much contempt to pray in the Congregation The proud Emperors of Rome did so perswade themselves Vt sibi viderentur Principes esse desinere si quid facerent tanquam Senatores They thought it did derogate from the Magnificence of a Prince to employ their pains toward the publick good like Senators So to mutter Mass once a year is enough for the Roman Bishop to bless the people with so much breath as to pray for them by the Book O it is too mean a Function for a dignified person What And was it a disparagement to the Son of God to pray among the people when he raised Lazarus The Arrians indeed did object against Christs Divinity in this place for making a Petition in the behalf of Lazarus Where was the vertue of his own Godhead Where was his Omnipotency Say those graceless Hereticks is it not a token of infirmity to ask that of another which we are not able to do by our own efficacy And doth this offend them that Christ should pray that he might conjoyn with us in our infirmities But to give a larger resolution to the doubt Says Martha in the 21 22 verses before Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died but I know even now whatsoever thou dost ask of God God will give it thee Christ then had no need to pray for Lazarus to support his own power but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to satisfie the desire and weakness of Martha he betook him to a prayer Says the Centurion Lord only say the word and my servant shall be healed Be it so says Christ and he went no further O says another Come and heal my daughter vouchsafe your presence to the sick person Why Christ came and healed her Could they ask any more Not only the diseases were remedied but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was done in what fashion or circumstance they pleased Will Martha have her brother raised with a formal supplication before She hath her will and Jesus prayed unto the Father It was not done then for Lazarus his sake it needed not not for Martha's sake only but for the people that stood by nay that 's not all not for them alone but for us and for as many as shall hear the Gospel preached to the ends of the world For as the beating of the wings and the crowing of the Cock raised up Peter when he was buried in the sins of the High Priests Hall so the knocking of the breast and the voice which cries unto the Lord before the morning watch is that which must raise us up from the luxurious beds of sensuality Some Orders of Mendicant Friers wander about and present themselves to the eyes of men but say not a word for an Alms to make themselves known to the ear of the charitable This is rather sharking than begging for benevolence Let them bear the badge of St. Francis but we the badge of Christ ask and pray for a quickning spirit if you would be raised up to newness of life Hezekiah having emptied his heart of some words which were well disgusted out an as if he had opened a vein in each eye to let out tears by that means saw fifteen years more after a desperate sickness Ahaziah's Child perchance had gained twice fifteen years if the Father had done as much but it lived not fifteen hours after the King had sent for Physick to the God of Ekron Like Coriolanus whom the people thought worthy of any favour if his proud heart would have stoopt and asked for favour Not long before the destruction of Jerusalem the great Gate toward the East fast barr'd and lock'd opened of its own accord says Eusebius This is good luck said the more confident Priests Deus aperuit nobis portam bonorum God hath opened unto us a gate of good fortune of his own accord Nay said the more wise Hostibus introitum patefecit He hath opened a gap for the enemy to come in and that proved to be the truest Divination Dearly Beloved if a blessing fall into your lap when you were dissolute irreligious and never thought of God to give it the gates of your heart being barr'd and fastned do you dream like the foolish people of Jerusalem that a gate of good fortune is opened of its own accord No no beware the after-clap It may be pleasant it may be rich which comes without a Prayer to usher it into the world but like a base-born child it is seldom prosperous Me thinks I should be very much afraid if God had sent me any blessing for which either in special or in general I had not earnestly prayed Whatsoever good thing you possesse and never pray'd for it I pity your title you came to it by robbery And so much for the first dignity of this work it had the preparation of a Prayer Jesus first cast up his eyes and opened his lips to heaven before he stoopt to the Corps beneath and opened the Monument before he cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth He cried with a loud voice and that is the dignity of the publication When our Saviour issued out of the Grave the third day it was done early in the morning the stone was rolled away and no noise was heard that which was done was done with wonderful silence Why doth Lazarus come out with a loud voice Nay why shall the Angel at the Great Day call the dead out of the earth with the blast
that her Lords body was gone but then Christ appears first unto her whom she took to be the Gardener Presently she goes and tells the Disciples she had seen the Lord. The other women who had fled from the Sepulcher and were amazed said nothing to any man of that which the Angel before did bid them say for they are yet incredulous and then comes in St. Lukes relation that they looked again into the Sepulcher and the two men in white whom they saw said unto them Why seek ye the living among the dead He is not here but he is risen And as St. Matthew adds he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him Then they returned and told all these things to the Eleven but they seemed to them as idle tales And as these women went to tell the Disciples Christ did meet them according to the Angels promise and saluted them and they held him by the feet and worshipped him These rumours went abroad into every mans mouth and toward the setting of the Sun Christ adjoyned himself to Cleophas and the other Disciple as a waifaring man and was known of them in the breaking of bread whereupon they return to Jerusalem and tell the Disciples Now the Disciples had a message sent them to go into Galilee and there they should see the Lord but out of fear and incredulity they durst not move out of doors Therefore on the same day at Evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst of them and said peace be unto you This was the fourth Apparition which he made on this very day A day of so many noble acts and chances that it is able alone to make an history and a history of that great moment that St. Paul writes as if a lively and effectual assent to this Article of the Creed to this one Article were able alone to make a Christian Rom. x. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And although there are other limbs of truth which make up the body of Christian Faith yet if any man ask me about Faith as one askt Christ about the Commandments which is the first and greatest Commandment So in the Point of belief if any one shall say which is the first and great Article of the Creed I would boldly reply this before any other The third day he rose again from the dead The matter then which it behoves us to speak on at this solemn Feast for the quality it is the very Essence and Elixar of our faith and for the quantity so copious that above all the narrations of the Gospel it is most venerable and delightful for the variety of the story I have passed already as the year hath come about into these Points how Mary Magdalen and the other women brought sweet Odours and Spices on the first day of the Week to embalm his body and that as they were on their way three strange motions came to pass the one in the whole Element of Earth the foundations whereof were opened behold there was a great Earthquake and then the heavens were opened for an Angel came down from thence and then the Grave was opened by the rouling away of the stone Now follows the Text which I have read in order wherein is contained this section of the story the Angel puts on a terrible appearance and removes away those that would not believe and so makes room for those that came devoutly prepared If the Band of Souldiers had staid at the Sepulcher these godly women durst not approach for fear of violent ravishment nor durst the Disciples have come near lest these hirelings should spill their bloud But to prevent all outrage the Angel put on a look like lightning and made the hearts of these miscreants faint and when they were driven off the zealous women and the Disciples were admitted to see this glorious work which the Lord had wrought and to testifie what they had seen to all the world The two verses which enter us into this part of the story may be thus distinguished The first is a description of Gods Watchman of his coelestial guard His Countenance was like lightning and his Rayment white as snow The second is a description of Pilates Watchmen and his Roman Guard For fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men Gods Angel is notified by his Visage His Countenance was like lightning and by his Rayment it was white as snow Pilates Ruffians are much betrayed by outward fear for fear of him the Keepers did shake but the inward damp of conscience was most terrible they became as dead men Of these particulars that God may be glorified and you edified You have seen the figures of many Angels and Cherubims about the Tombs of Princes and great men carved by the Art of the Statuary but all the histories of the world afford not such an instance that a very Angel sate upon a Grave-stone excepting this occurrence at our Saviours Resurrection St. Luke says that the women saw two men cloathed in white St. Mark says it was a young man cloathed in a long white garment but they were not very men that came from the dead as Moses and Elias were seen in the Mount at the Transfiguration they were true Angels in the visible shapes of men who took it now for a dignity to be seen in a body because our body was exalted to be incorruptible in the Resurrection of Christ Whether then they be called Angels or men all is one but when St. Matthew mentions one Angel and St. John reckons two when St. Mark says there was one young man in white St. Luke says there were two men in shining garments Is not this a discord No not at all There was but one Angel that spake to the women now St. Matthew and St. Mark refer us only to that person that was the speaker St. Luke and St. John labour to tell us the number of those witnesses that were present and testified of his Resurrection and they were two This is no difference when some write of the singular person of that Angel which spake and others in the plural person of those Angels that witnessed You have heard the reason why this Angel is called a man and why but one is named though there were two in place now I will put this unto it that he came to the Sepulcher neither as a man alone nor as an Angel alone but as an Angel and a Man John Baptist the fore runner of the Nativity came poorly clad with a vesture of Camels skins and a leathern Girdle about his loyns his Errand was to witness to the Son of God coming to us in great humility but this Angel who is the fore-runner of the
of Trinity disclosed his glory and power openly two wayes to their ear and to their eye by a sound unto the ear by a lightsom brightness to the eye to the ear as to the sense of faith and suddenly there came a sound from heaven c. to the eye as to the sense of love and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire c. Whereupon I will enlarge my self unto you at this time in these particulars 1. That the Holy Ghost presented himself to the Primitive Church in a visible object 2. For the principal substance of the apparition it was a Tongue 3. Lingua dispertita vel sectilis it was a Cloven Tongue 4. Quasi ignis it was a firy Tongue 5. It was lingua or ignis or spiritus insidens this Tongue or this Fire or this Spirit take which you will it is all one but it rested or sat upon each of them We begin with an Apparition representing not some Angel or other glorious creature putting on a sensible shape but the third Person of Trinity the Eternal Spirit consubstantial with the Father and the Son He offered himself as this day in a visible Figure to the Apostles and divers other believers that were gathered together in Jerusalem St. Austin in his third Book of the Trinity maintains that all the Persons of Trinity did appear in visible shapes to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament one or two upon one occasion and a third upon another occasion Tertullian and Epiphanius are stout in their opinion that none but God the Son called the Angel of the New Covenant did lay aside his invisible glory in the old times and appeared to men I will not engage my self in that quarrel but for one thing I am at certainty that when the Law was delivered at Mount Sinai the Godhead did not condescend to any apparition at all the people were forbidden so much as to imagin they saw any resemblance of the Most High says Moses Ye saw no similitude only ye heard a voice Deut. iv 12. But the Lord grew more friendly and familiar with us that profess the Gospel We have seen we have heard our hands have handled the word of life this day the new Law began at Mount Sion and we did not only hear a voice as it is in the former verse but according to my Text they saw a similitude that which was wrapt up in dark Parables to the Fathers we see that truth as clearly as it were the Sun at noon day They had the Veil before their eyes says the Apostle we behold the fair beauty of God and the Veil taken away and rent asunder they did dishonur God by worshipping visible things instead of the Invisible Creator and therefore they might not see any resemblance of him for fear of transgressions and if we worship vain things that are not Gods in this world we shall utterly be deprived of seeing his glory and lose our reward hereafter But the special intent of this apparition was to comfort the Apostles for all the tribulations that they were to sustain for as their faith was corroborated with some vision of God here so it assured them that the same faith should be rewarded with a perfect vision hereafter in the life to come He that believeth doth as it were shut his eyes and takes all upon trust that he believes yet upon such trust as cannot deceive him the trust of Divine Revelation so that he sees God as I may say though he do not see him as it is Hebr. xi 27. By faith Moses endured the wrath of Pharaoh as seeing him who is invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see him that is invisible is contrary to reason but reconciled by Divinity but if at any time the most renowned Servants of God had some glimpse of his Majesty in an apparition as it was at this time then it seals that promise unto them which they have made Matth. v. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God they shall I say for all their consolation is de futuro in hope but not in act whether this Vision of the Holy Ghost or any other before it they saw nothing to speak of in comparison of that which shall be revealed Says Epiphanius he that looks through the funnel of a Chimney may truly say that he sees the Heaven but what doth he see neither the heighth nor the breadth nor the vastness of it so he that sees some resemblance of the Holy Trinity sees somewhat of God darkly as in a Glass but he sees not so much of the immensity of his glory as he that sees the Heavens above but through the eye of a Needle To close this point what doth the Lord require from hence but that our eyes should be chast and pure and sanctified to his service because He let the benediction of his Spirit shine upon them and that amends might be made chiefly in that bodily instrument through which we have dishonoured him with wantonness and concupiscence What is created more wicked than an eye says the Son of Sirach and therefore it weepeth upon every occasion Ecclus. xxxi 13. God hath placed our eyes in the uppermost part of man to be Centenels in our Watch-Tower and to give us warning of those things that may hurt us but quis custodiet ipsos custodes unless we set a Watch upon this Watch we shall be betrayed to the sins of the flesh We live like Labans Sheep every man conceives folly as his eye beholds vain things and party coloured Seleucus King of Locrine enacted a Law to have the unchaste eyes of Adulterers pull'd out to punish the trespass in the fountain of the sin and Democritus the Philosopher pull'd out his to prevent the danger We have had an evil eye Matth. x. eyes full of adultery and then as Salâ—ucus said or rather as our Saviour said oculus eruendus an eye good for nothing but pull it out and cast it from you but as the whole man shall be made a new lump through the reformation of inward grace so that the same work may be wonderful also in our eyes the Holy Ghost cast his beams upon them at this Feast of Whitsuntide and there appeared unto them c. Hitherto I have made a general survey of the Text that it conteins an Apparition sent from Heaven in making access to particulars the first thing notorious in the Apparition is that the matter and as it were the substance of it is a tongue The whole world was mad against the truth crying out distractedly like those of Ephesus Acts xix Then there was need of the voice of a charmer to make them still and attentive with some heavenly incantation The Church was going forth in a militant order to fight the Lords Battels therefore the Lord gave a Trumpet to his Ministers to utter forth a certain sound that they might prepare themselves for the skirmish 1 Cor.
speak the Oracles of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rational discourses 1 Pet. iv 11. So our Saviour promised his Disciples I will give you a mouth and wisdom not a mouth only but wisdom with it so that all your Adversaries shall not be able to gainsay it Luk. xxi 15. Finally the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the person of an Evangelical Priest The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should speak a word in season Isa l. 4. And so to end all let us send up our tongues of praise and thanksgiving to heaven to the gracious God that did send down the blessing of these Tongues to his Church upon earth And the same Lord Jesus exalt us to his Church Triumphant where with one song and with one voice we shall sing glory to him for evermore AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 12 13. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this Others mocking said these men are full of new wine MEntion being made in the former part of this Chapter what effects the Mission of the Holy Ghost as upon this day wrought in the Apostles the next thing which is disclosed in these two verses is what entertainment it found in the World What entertainment should it find but joy and gladness and thanksgiving it was a shower of grace that fell from Heaven and every drop of it more valuable than an Orient Pearl which made the whole earth barren and unfruitful before spring out with spiritual increase that from thenceforth the Wombs of Mothers should not bring out men but Saints It was not as upon the sixth day of the week in the Creation of the World that God did breath into man the breath of Life but upon this first day of the week he breathed into his Church the breath of Righteousness and filled it with the seeds of future Glory From the Feast of the Passover the Jews were to number seven weeks and then they kept a most solemn day called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost that 's this very day instituted to recognize how at that time they came out of Egypt from the Bondage of Pharaoh and received the Law which was delivered upon Mount Horeb. But to expunge the memory of that occasion God did superinduct a far greater blessing upon this Festival day and poured out his Spirit in a bountiful and miraculous manner upon his Disciples at Jerusalem Was there a season appointed to congratulate the deliverance of the Jews from the Captivity of the Body and doth not this Mercy exalt it self above the other that they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise to be enfranchised from the slavery of Sin and the Devil Was the remembrance of the Law a perpetual rejoycing though it were a killing Letter and is it not ten thousand times more comfortable to receive the power of the Holy Ghost which enabled them to keep the Law Did they take it kindly and chearfully to receive the Law written in Tables of Stone And is not the change a great deal better on this day to have it written in the fleshly Tables of their Heart Then the Lord gave them but one Talent and they made but small multiplication of it nay they were the Servants in the Parable and who but they that bound it up and buried it in a Napkin Lo here are five Talents delivered unto us a greater Sum than ever the Children of Men received before And answer me now in equity what entertainment the Mission of the Holy Ghost should receive in the World Not to deceive your expectation with many words the case is thus The best of the Jews that came to the God-speed of this days work profest ignorance and knew not what to make of it the worst of them exhaled envy and rancour out of their malignant minds and jeared at it And they were all amazed and were in doubt c. The parts must needs arise to these two heads Grande miraculum Grande ludibrium First a great Miracle for it wrought these three things first Amazement they were all amazed secondly Doubt they were in doubt thirdly earnest Search and Inquisition for they said one to another what meaneth this But though the greater part were thus affected and therefore it is said they were all amazed meaning the greater number yet divers turn'd it to mockery and said these men are full of new wine First the sending of the Holy Ghost was construed to be a great Miracle by all that saw the effects of it in the Apostles and in the beginning it is exprest by a passion that took away their reason for a time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were amazed then it troubled their reason they doubted and finally it exercised their reason for they asked after it Amazement is a word to express the highest and most sudden admiration that can take a man when astonishment doth seize upon the faculties of the mind and bind them up for a little space that they have no power to exercise themselves as if they were Planet-blasted The Latin word Attonitus is he that is scared with a sudden clap of thunder so that he is stupified for a while but the Greek word in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goes further for the right signification is they were beside themselves or they were in an extasie So our Saviour's Kinsmen being themselves out of their wits with ignorance thought that our Saviour was transported when he preached the Gospel and knew not what he said therefore their opinion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is beside himself Mark iii. 21. Ecstatici qui non sunt in potestate mentis they that are amazed have not their mind present for the time it is dizied and confounded so that this Miracle wrought upon the Jews after the highest pitch of admiration Let us interpret it to the best that joy did overcome them to see the riches of all goodness poured out upon the Sons of men Their Forefathers were astonisht with fear at the delivery of the Law and they are astonisht with joy at the coming of the Holy Ghost The Gift it self the Persons that received it the Operation which it did exercise in them to speak the glory of God in all Tongues and Languages all are transcendently wonderful that the wit of a natural man especially is not able to comprehend them The Gift it self in the first place is so celestial that the Lord himself is not more wonderful in all his works than in sending the Holy Ghost so hidden from the knowledg of the world so rare to be found so beneficial to mankind that he that marvels not at it is himself a Miracle Are you amazed at things which are secret and very abstruse in their nature none more close and unperceivable than this As the wind passeth by and is not perceived so God breaths the
his Story of the Jesuits affairs makes his Protoplast Ignatius Loiola to be so fortunate in carrying all the substance of the Scripture in his mind that had the Scriptures been utterly lost a thing perchance which he wisht for Ignatius could have delivered all points of faith without book I would you were all as truly such as Orlandine fain'd and imagin'd him to be I would you were such as that Antonius of Padua who by those that admired his cunning in the Scriptures was called Arca Testamenti the Ark wherein the Law of God was laid up to be kept I would you would make them your inheritance as David did Thy testimonies have I claimed as mine inheritance for ever Like righteous Naboth though Ahab and Jezebel the Devil and the flesh would extort that Inheritance from you sooner die than part with it but when you are so oblivious and forgetful of all holy things Gods blessings your own repentance and the sweet relish of the Scriptures is it not a sign that you despise the Lord Thirdly contempt is seen in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to take it to heart not to be wounded with compassion when Sion is wasted and Gods honour is trampled under feet Like Gallio the Deputy in the 18. of the Acts that professed he sat in judgment to take up discords of civil peace but if a controversie come before him about the Law of God let it be right or wrong he would not meddle with it But Lot was grieved and afflicted with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites 2 Pet. ii 7. though Persecutions of bloud be not upon our land and O Lord be gracious still and for ever to keep them from us yet a righteous man suffers some persecution in his soul when filthy conversation jets about before his eyes Phineas was inflam'd with zeal to see Adultery in the Congregation and slew both Zimri and the Moabitess Num. 25. Ezekias rent his Garments and put on sackcloth when he heard the blasphemy of Rabshekah against the living God Horror hath taken hold on me says David because of the wicked that forsake thy Law Psal cxix 53. there is not such a Sacrifice offered up unto God says St. Ambrose as a zealous conscience that is eaten up as it were and consumed because the fear of God is imminish'd among the Sons of men nay says he take away zeal for Gods honour and you take away the office the excellency nay the very nature and substance of an Angel Old Polycarpus went always right with the true Doctrine of the Church but because Hereticks grated his ears with their unsavoury opinions he cries out Deus bone in quae tempora me reservasti at haec audiam Good Lord why do I live to hear such pestilent speeches against thy glory Beloved upon these your Festival days of pomp and ostentation give ear a little to the calamities which the Protestant Church doth suffer at this day under the hands of Tirants that do not love the purity of our Gospel Our Brethren that suffer the least share of their fury are threatned and besieged a most Valiant and Illustrious King through the covetousness and mutiny of his own Forces much weakned and dejected the florishing Inheritance of the Rhene quite rent away from the true and ancient Possessors Can O can you forget when the Tribe of Benjamin was as it were quite cut off with the edg of the sword that the Eleven Tribes remaining came to the House of the Lord and abode there till Evening and lift up their voices and wept sore and said O Lord God of Israel why is this come to pass in Israel that there should be to day one Tribe lacking in Israel The Country Palatine was a strong Pillar to uphold the happy proceedings of the Reformed Churches our Confederacy is now much weakned in that damage Away with Sports and Revels and gaudy Pastimes a Tribe it wanting this day in Israel let us mourn for it in our Prayers and engage our fortunes for it in the field He that doth not condole for the great blow given to the Church doth he not slight the miseries of Sion and depise the Lord Hearken now to the fourth sign of scorn and contempt which consists in this to speak ill of those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are precious to God and of high esteem as when Hezekiah called the brasen Serpent Nehushtan a lump of Brass which the people did superstitiously adore it is manifest that Hezekiah did despise the vanity of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the saying is speak that which may be lucky and fortunate both to your selves and others let the Praises of God and his Saints be in your mouths the Lord delights to have their names exalted and magnified See what a commemoration S. Paul hath made of the faithful departed Heb. xi he passeth not over one without some Encomium of his zeal and piety nay our Saviour gave Mary Magdalen his blessing that wheresoever the Gospel was preached in all the world it should be reported to her honour what costly ointment she had poured upon his head and should we be so froward as some are to put down the solemn Holy-daies which are allotted to the memory of the Evangelists and Apostles upon whose foundation I mean their doctrin and not their person the Church is built throughout the world I fear that God would be offended at us and impute it to our disdain that we despised him because we grew weary to revive the memory of his Saints Many are willing that Bartholomew or any other Apostle should hold a Fair in the City for the quick uttering of Wares and Merchandize but they would not have the Church opened upon a solemn day for St. Bartholomews My Brethren both may be well done but the last of the two much better than the other for I hope you will know St. Bartholomew was a Churchman and not a Merchant Another fault there is let it lye upon the score of private persons and not upon the whole Church The adoration which the Church of Rome ascribes to the Blessed Virgin Mary the Invocation of Saints which they maintain St. Peters Supremacy and the Popes Succession in his person which they defend as their life these opinions are false and superstitious but none of those noble persons have therefore deserved ill at your hands that in the heat of the controversy we should insult over St. Peters faults or make havock of the Reliques of the Saints or speak slightly of that incomparable vessel the Virgin Mary and mince her title of Blessed when the sacred Hymn says that all generations shall call her blessed leave this to the railing Jew who in disdain calls our Saviour not Ben Mariam the Son of Mary but Ben Aariam the Son of her that is vile as smoak As for such backbiters of the glorious Children of God like as the smoak vanisheth so shall
confess that we owe both our life and our substance to the Eternal Majesty yet our thankfulness could return nothing to him but it is spilt and consumed to nothing Unto these two blessings which the Jews did enjoy by his mercy long life and rich means to maintain it sanguis adeps we have received two blessings ten thousand times richer first that the Most High did offer up his Son on the Cross for our sakes and then he did as it were sacrifice the Holy Ghost unto Man sending him down in cloven tongues as it had been of fire these are sanguis and adeps the best bloud and the best fat or unction in the world O let us not forget his honour and goodness to make continual mention of it and since the Father hath sacrificed as it were the Son and the Holy Ghost to us let us sacrifice our selves to the holy and individed Trinity both bloud and fat both life and fortunes both soul and substance Secondly by slaying a Beast in Sacrifice the humble Penitent did confess his unworthiness and the guiltiness of his sins which made him deserve to be quite consumed by the anger of the Lord even as the flesh of a Sheep or Goat was burnt in the fire As the Ninevites in their humiliation cast ashes upon their heads that such a spectacle of desolation might speak their mind that they and their City did justly deserve to become ashes and desolation Such a Ceremony in the Injunctions of Penance hath often been imposed upon infamous Delinquents to hold a wax Candle lighted in their hand before the people which was a silent confessing that as the Taper wasted away with the flame so their iniquities made them fit to be burnt in Hell fire but that they hoped the Lord would be merciful The old Manichaeans therefore and the modern Anabaptists had small reason to reject the Books of Moses because he delivered a form of Religion which consisted much in the slaughter of Birds and Cattle I am sure Christ allowed that old way while it was a way to be very laudable both by his Precept Luke v. 14. He bad the Leper whom he had cured Go thy self to the Priest and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded and by partaking no doubt every year as well as at his last Supper of the Paschal Lamb a Rememorative according to the present point in hand that the Children of Israel should confess how their first-born deserved to have been slain as well as the first of the Egyptians were and as well as that Lamb was whereof they eat if justice had been strictly executed upon them as it was upon the Egyptians Certainly this was no small profit arising out of Sacrifice which made a contrite man discern his own sins and unworthiness wherein he compared himself with the Beast that perished And this was wont to be done in the Law by one annual Ceremony more solemn than ordinary wherefore St. Paul says in those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year Heb. x. 3. and in the usual Sin-offering which came often to the Altar according as such as were laden with sins did unburden their conscience And I will interpose one thing in a touch and a way to convince their obstinacy that hold it no way material for the peace of their mind to have the absolution of their sins pronounced unto them by the lips of the Priest such a one for ought I can see in this opinion thinks himself to make a Church alone without the Communion of Saints yet as he is convinced by the power of the Keys committed to the Apostles and their Successors under the Gospel so the Lord did refute him by the Ceremony of the Sin-offering under the Law for one part of the Sin-offering was burnt to God an the Priest had the other part ad significandum quod expiatio peccatorum sit à Deo per ministerium Sacerdotum to prove symbolically that God did remit sins by the ministry of his Priests and therefore God had the main share and the Priest the remaining portion of the Offering But alas though this second reason were very useful to the Jews while they were like Elementary Children fed with Signs and Figures yet now we Christians have other principles stronger meat for what need we confess our unworthiness and what punishment we deserve over the Carkass of a Beast when we see much better what penalty remains unto us if God would be extreme to mark what is done amiss who spared not the life of his only Son when he bore the person of our transgressions And there 's the third reason which is the full and complete use of all the ancient Sacrifices it was to prefigure the immolation the bloudshedding the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ those were the Parables of the Old Testament as I may call them and Christs Death was the intepretation of them all Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world says John the Baptist Agnus qui redemit oves the Lamb that redeemed all the Sheep which hear his voice Behold the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world Revel xiii 8. says John the Divine slain personally under Pontius Pilate but slain representatively from the beginning of the world in the immolation of all those beasts whose blood by faith did embrew the Altar The bloud of Bulls and of Rams the slaughter of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice did all belong to the acknowledgment of the same reckoning which at last was fully discharg'd by the bloud of Christ those were but like petty sums to pay the Interest in the mean time at last the Principal the whole Debt was discharg'd by that most Royal ransom of our Saviour In a word all those bloody Oblations were like John Baptist forerunners of Christ Indentures sealed with bloud that the Redeemer would come and die for his People Not the least Sparrow which was offered for cleansing but might move our Saviour to say unto the Jews If yes believed in Moses ye would believe also in me Now for as much as the Holy Ghost hath made us able to interpret obscure things since the comming of Christ how fluent and facil are these meditations to us to discern our Lord in every clean offering which was offered up by Noah in every Lamb which came to the office of the Sons of Aaron with great difficulty did the Patriarchs pick out that construction When we read of a Sacrifice we see as much in it as if Christs Passion were represented on a Stage Bernard made a pious and an eloquent gradation how faith gathered strength by degrees being a little spark with those that were ordinary Believers before the Law then a candle under the Law lumen in laterna no more as David said in his daies thy word is a Lantern unto my feet and a light unto my paths then like a flaming Beacon in
give thanks for this is the will of the Lord 1 Thes v. 18. If the Scripture had not said it natural ingenuity would lead you to the duty St. Ambrose says that Noahs Sacrifice was a free-will offering it was not commanded Qui debitum gratiae ut à se exigatur expectat ingratus est If you expect a Process to be served upon you to be thankful it is a kind of ingratitude for it wants the sweet savour But I will degree it to the highest to make my Doctrine useful As one Wave of the Sea drives on another and the latter puts on the next in a continual flux so the souls yearnings to thanksgiving take hand in hand and that which goes before plucks on that which follows after it A consultation must be called about it as David did What shall I render to the Lord The Soul asks it self the question and needs no Monitor as Elisha made it his own motion to the Shunamite in requital of her hospitality Behold thou hast been careful for us what shall be done for thee Proceed now What doth consultation produce Why the voice of joy and melody I will sing and give praise O but lip labour may be fruitless a Pharisee can say Lord I thank thee Prove it more than by some bountiful retribution bring presents unto the Lord that ought to be feared Let them be many and liberal such as God doth expect who gave us all and looks for no nigardly proportion in return O but again a Pharisee will give as well as pray Yes but he will boast and pride himself in it then wrap your thankful present in lowly confession O my God my goods are nothing to thee For what is the light beholding to them that look upon it Or what doth a Fountain get of a thirsty man that drinks of it Then that which brings up the rear and puts on the rest before it is a heart big with holy thoughts thankful for the grace of the holy Spirit above all things that stirs it up to be thankful and is ashamed of its own impotency that it is able to make no better retribution Therefore David changeth giving into taking What shall I give I will take the Cup of salvation As who should say fain I would render unto the Lord fain I would be thankful but that 's impossible on even terms all the Cattel are his upon a thousand hills If I can give nothing I will take somewhat for his sake I will take any thing in good part I will suffer any thing that the Lord doth lay upon me so you may compound these many things into a redolency to make a sweet savour to the Lord. This generous and well bred quality of gratitude is ever in good men where those few are to be found Few alas for God knows and benefactors find it that mercy and bounty are Pearles cast before Swine and that they are requited with malice revilings treachery from those whom they have bribed enough and estated in all they have No Rogues mark burnt upon the shoulder or face are so infamous as this character upon some that no benefits will win them no good turns will purchase them The Parable of the ten Lepers bids you expect nine bad for one good so it was among them that Christ healed Mundita cute leprosi corde healed of their Leprosie still sick of unthankfulness cured in the outward skin corrupted in their heart Where are the other nine says our Saviour Are they lost that they returned not to give thanks Yes certainly quite lost De ingratis quasi ignotis loquitur Christ makes as if he did not know them That is the fatall doom to have it pronounced by him Depart from me I know you not The next thing that follows is to be cast into the stinking Dungeon because the Lord did smell an ill savour from an unthankful Generation Hear now the fourth principal answer what the sweetness of this savour was it was Noahs charity that he desired to appease Gods wrath toward all flesh then living and to beseech his mercy to all Generations that should succeed Josephus the best reporter of the Jewish Traditions says it was the end of this Sacrifice to be a solemn Litany for the reparation of the drowned world and that it might no more be destroyed with an universal deluge My Text doth much concur if you read it word for word after the original that God did smell an odour of rest Quia fecit Deum quietum ab indignatione says the Gloss by this propitiatory offering he made the divine justice quiet or cease from indignation And mark what mercy in this Verse immediately follows the sweet savour I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake and in the next Chapter the Rainbow is instituted for a promise and Sacrament of future safety I will confirm it with apt words out of Luther Delectatus est Deus perdendo genus humanum nunc iterum delectatus est augendo God was delighted in his justice before to destroy all people and now his mercy will be delighted to increase mankind again It is fairly seen now as the light that Noah entreated God by Sacrifice to be favourable to his Sons and Daughters to their off-spring to the whole increase of the New World and this was part of the sweet savour For God commends this zelum protensum zealous love that extends it self to all its neighbours round about to the whole body of Christs Church to all men living to all Generations to come as Tully in his Lelius writes like an honest man Non minoris mihi curae est c. I have as much care that this Commonwealth should flourish when I am dead as while I am alive Hezekiah's affections were too much contracted to himself when he said Is it not good if peace and truth be in my days 2 Kings xx 20. Moses is called Gods Elect his chosen Servant for standing in the gap to save all the people Nehemiah is very famous for he raised up the ruines of his Nation Ecclus. xlix 13. If forraign wits do not mistake us English they defame us sharply that we want publick spirits and are commonly careless of the common good But I doubt we are worse than they make us For it is not as they have heard that we intend our private wealths before the general wealth of the Kingdom no it is our private pleasure our private luxury that we project at rather than the honour of our Nation and Country This is a strong Garlick smell fit to be looked to and to be turn'd into a better savour with a great deal of redress and reformation It is an unnatural baseness to prefer our selves before the prosperity of the Land that bore us The seat of our Ancestors the receptacle of our Children and Progeny to come where we breathed the first breath of life whose dust which the wind blows about is the
Wound consists in five degrees of humiliation 1. He sat down 2. He wept 3. He mourned certain dayes 4. He fasted 5. He played before the God of Heaven That God that gives many Medicines to heal the sickness of the Body hath provided these sacred Remedies to heal the troubles of the Soul I rise up now from the first step Nehemiah was sore perplexed to hear what the Land had suffered Upon which I begin with this Observation that he was in great anguish not for any evil which he saw but with bad tidings and grievous reports as it is just before my Text The Remnant of Israel were in great affliction and reproach the Wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the Gates burnt with fire This is short and sowr yet far short of the total of their tribulation Howsoever Nehemiah saw none of this he was at Babylon when these Tragedies were acted at Jerusalem he heard of their distress but was not upon the place to behold it yet the noise that came to his ears did strike his heart that he sat down and wept So open your bowels and condole like Christians when you hear of one anothers miseries though they be far from you else God will draw them nearer I will name the remotest to you the mournful condition of the Servants of Christ in Hungary Dalmatia Greece and Candia under the Mahumetan cruelty though these are a thousand leagues from you yet joyn them close to you in your Prayers and Compassion Let me come home we are not upon the Seas to day with our illustrious Duke and valiant Country-men we are not in peril of Wracks and Storms and roaring Canons as they are but let our Prayers walk upon the Seas unto them as Peter assayed to go to Christ that as they hazard their lives for us we offer up our Souls to God for them To descend to lower Objects you do not see the hard food of the Poor his sorry Table his dry Morsels you do not see the comfortless Lodging and Dungeon of the Captive These are the Blessings of Wealth and Liberty Yea but do you not consider it sometimes and bewail and extend your hand to relieve it if not some of us may know what hunger and captivity mean if the report of those things in others do not cause you to melt in charity Nehemiah did not see much evil yet the report toucht him near and he sat down and wept My next Observation is that as he did not see the evil of the Land of Judah so he could not feel it If all Jerusalem had been burnt to ashes it had not broke him in his fortune nor eclipsed him in his honour He was a Courtier in the Palace of Artaxerxes his Cup-bearer a dignified Officer no weeping news could diminish his greatness Had he been a self-lover like too many of these dayes a cunning Courtier that had no end but to provide for himself then he would have measured all fortune by his own Last and unless his own person had been toucht the Shoo should not have wrung him But here was one reteining to the holy Court indeed to the Court of Heaven his own prosperity did disrelish with him because Gods anger was upon the Land to which he owed his life He did like a good man to involve himself in the publick fortune And what joy could he take in his Honours with Artaxerxes when reproach had spread upon the Country that bred him and upon the Church of God in which he lookt for salvation He that makes light of common danger with tush they are on the Seas I am on the Land I shall shift for one that man is the fairest mark at whom God will suddenly shoot with a swift arrow because he is in love with his own security Nehemiah could have shifted for one but that did not content him When it is best with our selves then it is safest to fear then to seek the Lord and to beseech him for the welfare of our selves and others Health and plenty and ease have not yet forsaken us yet the blasts of bad rumours and presages are about us When you hear such words it is time to mourn and fast and pray before the God of Heaven Hitherto I have treated that Nehemiah bewailed the sufferings past my next observation is upon another matter that when by Gods hand the repair was very hopeful it grieved him that the mischievous attempts of envious unlucky Neighbours did all that they could to stop the remedy which is just our case God sent this Tirshata this mighty man to build up the holy City again out of the ruines under which it was covered but it grieved their Neighbours over the next River Chap. ii 9. as ours are over the next Seas that there came a man to seek the welfare of Israel Ver. 10. Mark their conditions who they were Sanballat of Samaria and Samaria had long been the nest of Rebellion Tobiah the servant an Ammonite a man servile low born of base extraction Geshem the Arabian and the Arabians were great Thieves by Land as our Foes are Arabians upon the waters These Samaritans Ammonites Arabians Rebels and Thieves basely descended maligned the prosperity of Jerusalem when it began to flourish again under Nehemiah And note their shifts and half witted devices to oppose him First They fell to mocking and scoffing Chap. iv 1. Scurrility is to be expected from such as are bred up in the rudeness of a populacy Secondly At the eighth verse of the fourth Chapter they made ready to fight him but hearing his preparations shewed their teeth and never proceeded Thirdly Chap. vi 8. they raised scandalous reports against the Ruler and the People and how our Maligners would desame us with broaching lies Europe and all the world are witness Fourthly At the thirteenth verse of that Chapter they hired Prophets to Prophesie against Nehemiah to put him in fear and if we would be discouraged by such fictions they have not been wanting These were troubles which fell upon the noble heart of Nehemiah to see that blessing which God had begun by his industry cross'd and check'd by an ignoble and servile Generation So may our renowned Prince and General say in disdain at this upstart bog of men whose Noble Person is of more value than all their Provinces estimated at a rackt value Et mecum certasse ferentur Unless England had given them being and a power to resist they had not been able this day to have resisted the meanest of the Captains of my Lord the King To dispatch this Point though our Kingdom hath no resemblance to Pharaoh and the Egyptians God be praised yet our Plagues and those of Egypt have some parallel in their order Their first Plague was the Plague of bloud so was ours but God hath delivered us from the continual slaughters of a most impious and rebellious War Pass from the end of the seventh Chapter of Exodus to the beginning
with all Christian Churches throughout the World We write our selves Christians and nothing else The name of Protestant as it was ever harmless so properly it concerned but the pleading of some grievances upon one day when a Diet of the Princes was held at Spire and when Sects were sprung up among Christians to be a Protestant was no more than to be a good Christian If our ill-willers call us by any other by-word the sin is theirs we have not the tongues of wicked men in a string that they shall give us no attributes but such as are worthy of us Non sumus Pauliani non sumus Petriani sumus Christiani Pastors must beget Children to Christ and not unto themselves therefore we are neither of Paul or Cephas but the Off-spring of Christ say the Divines of Doway and I would their deeds were suitable to their Annotation More smartly St. Hierom if you take the name of Marcionite or Valentinian you cease to be a Christian Not so will some say I can take the name of some excellent man upon me as a subordinate Servant to Christ But Ignatius goes on if you do take the name of man upon you you do lose the name of the Lord. A whole hour is not enough for all that can be said upon this point but this is enough for them that will learn how the faithful of the Circumcision and the Uncircumcision were in danger to be divided therefore they were both enclosed in the identity of one blessed name And c. So I have shewn what my Text speaks of fell out in a ripe season and a profitable opportunity now all times are capable of that which follows what this name imports and what it imposeth Our dear Redeemer having wedded the Church unto himself and having given it an interest in his precious bloud here and a lively hope to possess his glory hereafter it was meet that his Spouse should be called by his name and then either from Jesus or from Christ Jesus He was called for his Divinity for He that is Man could not save us from our sins unless He were the offended Party as well as the Ransom God and Man Christ he was called from being Man for he was anointed to execute the Offices of his Mediatorship in his humane nature Now judg in your selves whether we that are partakers of flesh and blood should have our nomination from his Godhead or from his Manhood rather only the Jesuit some Divine creature I warrant you is not contented with the common name of Christian but after much opposition of Courts of Parliament in France or Consistories in Rome he calls himself by the dear remembrance of the Epithet in which our salvation is sealed unto us But save us good Lord from such Saviours What will suffice them whom the Roialty to be called a Christian will not suffice In quo omnium sublimium nominum communionem adipiscimur says Nyssen whereby we have our share in all Titles that have sublimity in them as he that holds the fastning links of a Chain in his finger draws on all the rest to use the same Fathers Similitude The Heathen that looked for the signification of the word in their own learning and not in the Scriptures surnamed us Chrestiani à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say benign and gentle So Tertullian Cum perperam Chrestianus a vobis pronunciatur de suavitate vel benignitate compositum est when you miss our right name and pronounce us Chrestians it imports sweetness and benignity It seems there was a placidness and facility of nature in the Disciples which was far from giving just offence and won it self the affections of others And is not much better than a jarring harshness which is prone to discords and contentions The spirit of wisdom it courteous and humane Wisd vii 23. Yet this fell short of the true notation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who knows it not is unctus The Anointed not every Anointed but The Anointed as if it were written in capital letters whom the old Testament in the same sense calls the Messiah and the Hellenists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Caninius says that the wrathful Jews who will not own him for their Messias call him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not unctum but delibutum as you would say not anointed but stained and besmeared To whom I rejoyn videbunt quem transfixerunt they shall see him whom they have pierced with their blasphemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Anointed of the Lord He is our Chief from whom we derive our nomination He was a King as the Psalms stile him Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion and so anointed He was a Priest a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech and so anointed He was a Prophet that Prophet whom God promised to raise up to Israel among their Brethren Deutr. xviii and so anointed Ter Christus a triple anointed a triple Christ that sacred one to whom God giveth not the Spirit by measure but he is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows and so is an infinite Christ from his superabundant unction we are replenished of his fulness we have all received some drops have trickled down from the head to the skirts nay to the feet and ancles to the lowest parts of the body and by the power of his Christhood we are transformed to be Christian Aptly hath St. Bernard ratified all this from that of Solomon Cant. ii 3. Oleum effusum nomen tuum Thy name is as ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee Christianus then to put good Greek into bad Latin is all one with Vunctianus anointed with the sprinkling of water in Baptism for the remission of sins and therefore Crism or Oil hath been applied as a significant Ceremony to the Infant baptized not only abroad but in our own Church I mean since it was reformed After this of Baptism follows the Unction of true Doctrin Ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know all things 1 Joh. ii 20. To these is added the Unction of Grace that we may be a sweet savour of life unto life and above all these the bloud of Christ is anointed upon the posts of our doors that the Destroyer may pass by and spare us and all these Lines meet in this one Center to call us Christian Is it not a grievous case that this Name so musical to the ear so melodious to the heart should be almost obscur'd to bring in another Catholick a word to be very well approved of it finds more acceptance with some than Christian These words of St. Luke in my Text are not more authentick with them hardly so much as those of Pacianus Christianus mihi nomen est Catholicus cognomen illud me nuncupat istud ostendit Christian is my name Catholick my surname the indignity is
hid but shewed its manifest lustre I say was never hid yet nothing repugns to the nature of a true Church but it might disappear and be enclouded from the sight of most men in mists and storms of Heresies and Persecutions Let not the Antagonists dissemble and they know the discord is at another point namely whether the main Principles of saving truth being reteined and taught famously in a Church which is otherwise very corrupt in divers Doctrins whether those that distaste and in heart renounce such over-added Superstitions are always distinct and culled out from the rest so that nominately they may be discerned from the more potent Faction We affirm and are sure of what we affirm by uncontroleable experience that the Israel of God do not always profess their Faith and Religion in Congregations apart but many times they continue in the external Fellowship and common Society of corrupt Believers and these have been so suppressed by the tyranny and subtlety of great ones who have laboured to obscure them that as for the present they have been little set by so they have had small or no reputation in History to commend their name to after Ages Much might be said and invincibly formed for this out of Ecclesiastical Annals I appeal to one Instance above their Monuments which beget nothing but humane faith The Master Builders of Jerusalem about the time of our Saviour's Incarnation reteined the sum of the Law but admixt with it most impure Divinity and partly by their cunning and partly by their supercilious Authority there was no open distinct Assembly of the People which concurred not with them Joseph and Simeon and Zachary men not carried away with their fraud were but here a berry and there a berry upon the top of a bough and if it hapned thus to Jerusalem below where lies the odds who can tell that it may not sometimes be the condition of the Christian Church which is Jerusalem from above Now far be it from this Remonstrance of the paucity and obscurity of the sincere Church as if it inclined to a schismatical disjunction Nay Simeon and Zachary had rather hold communion with the Synagogue of their times which was much departed from the Truth but then they were not compelled to subscribe to the prevailing errors of the Scribes and Pharisees Jerusalem is not Jerusalem if it be not a building well compacted together of them that hold society as much as in them lies with all those that have received the Mark of Christ in their forehead We are called a spiritual Building and living Stones 1 Pet. ii 5. Stones that lie scattered are troublesome to the Passenger and dangerous to stumble at joyn them to others for the erection of a Building and then you have employed them to their most physical property As in a Wall one stone supports another so when we cleave fast together and bear one anothers burdens God will dwell within us Where two or three are gathered together there am I in the midst of them Says Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians we are Stones squared by the Line of the Holy Ghost and raised up by Charity from Earth to Heaven And when the Holy Ghost doth dispose us to supply our fit place in the Structure then we are living stones Lapides mortui nihil possunt per se nisi cadere says Hierom to that of St. Peter a dead stone hath no motion of it self but to drop out of the Wall of the House and to fall down as who should say there is nothing but decay and death in division as on the contrary there is prosperity and life in unity But as Pliny tells of Theophrastus that he taught in his Philosophy that there were some stones that by nature brought forth other stones as it is in Plants and Trees so the stones that build the Walls of this Jerusalem must bring forth that which is fit for the ornament of the Building but if they do very wicked things fitter for the Tower of Babel than for the Temple of Christ they they shall be plucked out of the Building like accursed stones upon which the spot of leprosie appeared and the Priest shall cast them into an unclean place without the City Levit. xiv 40. Jerusalem consists in external communion but they are not worthy of it And so ends the first point It was not enough in St. Pauls Judgment to denominate the Spouse of Christ from the best Habitation for earth is but earth be it never so much a selected portion therefore he carries her aloft in his praise and adds that it is Jerusalem which is above an heavenly City Heb. xii 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it had not its original here but fell down from the starry Firmament A notion fit for the most oratorious style of the Prophet Isaiah says he It shall come to pass in the last dayes that the mountain of the Lords House shall be established on the top of the Mountains To which the Rabbins give a childish interpretation that toward the time when God shall finish all things Mountains shall be piled upon Mountains Thabor upon Sinah Sinah upon Carmel and Sion upon them all as the Poets feign that the Giants threw Pindus and Pelion on the top of Ossa how low they creep in their understanding that do not stretch that description to Heaven Let such Blind-worms lick the dust as the Psalmist says but we must find out certain Raptures rather than Expositions how the Seat of Christ's Kingdom where his Servants do him homage in praise and holiness is not beneath but above First because Christ our Head is ascended into Heaven and governs all things beneath from thence sitting at the right hand of his Father As a King upon whose safety the weal of the Kingdom depends is said to carry the lives of his people with him when he adventures his person into danger so our Souls do hang upon Christ our Redeemer in him we live and move wheresoever he goes he draws us after him if he be lifted up on high so are we also by vertue of concommitancy it is his will and we have his word for it that where he is there should we be also When we pray unto him if our spirit do not issue out from us and prostrate it self before him in Heaven that Petition sollicits faintly and is not like to speed because it comes not nearer to him who is our Advocate with the Father When we come to his holy Supper unless we carry up our heart unto him by strong devotion and presume that we see that very Body which was crucified for us before our eyes we pollute the Sacrament for want of faith There are such joints and bands which knit the body unto the head as mortal reason cannot express but through faith and love we are often with him by invisible ascensions but most assured be we that there he intercedes for us
Jerusalem our Mother hath indulgence to appoint all external administrations of holiness It is no small ease as I have shewed it to be disingaged from the incumbrance of the old Ceremonies but that which comes next in order is so essential to our happiness that from thence we may say truly and from nothing else the Lord turned the captivity of Sion The time is past when salvation was offered to them turned the captivity of Sion The time is past when salvation was offered to them that did the works of the Law O those were days of bitterness and desperation the Covenant is renewed unto us in another form through the promise of mercy to them that believe in Jesus Christ Now Sin that great Tyrant shall have no dominion over us for we are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. vi 14. Mark the two Covenants and the severe exaction in the one and the mild temperature of the other the one comes blustering like the whirlwind and breaks down Mountains before it the other is the still voice which beats sweetly upon the ear of Elias the one hath nothing but dayes of trouble and reproach the other is a continual Jubilee of rest and peace The Law may be compared to those wretched men that work at the Oar in a Gally they strein their sinews and their strength to plow the waves and yet they meet with such strong tempests that they cannot recover the Haven but the Gospel is a Ship whose sails are spread with faith and hope and the winds of mercy blow them fairly on that the Passengers are carried as in a dream to the Port with speed and tranquillity Hear them both speak Rom. x. 5. for that 's the clearest Scripture I take it for their distinction The righteousness of the Law saith the man that doth these things shall live by them but the righteousness which is by faith speaketh on this wise if thou shalt confess the Lord Jesus thou shalt be saved The man that doth these things shall live but the Lord looked down from Heaven and found no such man upon all the earth Be the imperfections in our manners that are not scandalously culpable yet the law hath not pardon for them that which must be weighed in Gods Balance it must not want a scruple Correct the wandring of your eye bridle your tongue watch your heart â—r servent in prayer be vigilant against tentations yet there is that repugnancy to the Law that unruliness in this body of death that the evil which you would not you shall do and then the Law turns to be that Adversary in St. Matthew which delivers you over to the Tormentor till you have paid the utmost farthing This was not only a bondage under a churlish Nabal that would not be satisfied with such diligence as a Servant could perform but the condition of a beast whose qualities cannot excuse him totally but that sometimes he shall be spurred and beaten Yet none were ever born that can impeach the Law of rigour no not in the equity of humane reason if you will examine them from first to last it will come but into the Margent of our Enditement that our actions have not been so pure and holy and fervent as the bounty of the Divine goodness towards us requires turpitudes of life abominable desires of the heart bruitish intemperance scalding malice unclean passions will fill up our accusations O what a perturbation what unquietness of consciences what a hell of fear it is to know that our Arraignment is just and to have nothing but the Law that inexorable letter of condemnation to comfort us Imus imus praecipites we should feel our selves tumbling down and see no bottom Sin is so ponderous that if the Ship had not been lightned of Jonas it had sunk the Heaven could not hold the Devil and his Angels from falling the Earth could not support Core and Dathan but it is more massy and leaden upon the conscience than in all the Elements What need I to tell you that God did give the Law in an angry form upon Mount Horeb or that he delivered it to Moses a Servant to bring to note the bondage of the Letter I have looked back enough to this let me bring you from this Ergastulum this Prison of Works into the Courts of Gods House into Jerusalem above which is free Jerusalem at the time when this Epistle was written to the Galatians was in bondage two ways in Civil servitude under the Romans in Legal servitude under Moses a miserable case that they should not feel the oppression they were in under Moses car'd not for a Deliverer nay did as much as in them lay to curse their Deliverer Christ that came to set them free they used him as a Servant in crucem servus they crucified him which was a most servile punishment Thus their stupidness in their bondage did make for our freedom and thereby was consummated the Covenant of Faith that we might believe in him who died to be a propitiation for our sins O what a pleasant condition it is what a free what a Princely state of life to wait upon Gods mercy and to be subject to the Ordinance of Faith Upon it depend Pardon Forgiveness Reconciliation Grace Adoption of Saints the Inheritance the Kingdom the Promise of everlasting life With how much diffidence did the Lawgiver intercede in the behalf of Israel Forgive the sin of the people if not blot me out of the book of life To supplicate forgiveness is a message sent from Faith but the Law plucks it back with this distrustful Omen if not if there be no hope then is my confusion before me for ever This is noted in the Generation of Ismael the Son of the Bond-woman Says Sarah to Abraham Go in to Hagar it may be I may obtain children by her This is the Law which despairs and doubts whether God will be gracious but Faith never speaks so faintly looks for no denial how unworthy soever to obtein its Petitions Publicans invite Christ home Adulteresses wash his feet Thieves recommend themselves to be received into his Kingdom and all this not because they are free from the Law but from the Covenant of it which is the bondage of the Law Had their conscience misdeemed that they must be saved by Works they had run away like Bond-men from an austere Lord their tongue had been tied that it durst not wag but light shining in their hearts revealed unto them that Jerusalem was free that the Inheritance came by the Promise of Grace they flock unto him who is the Mediatour of a better Covenant who vindicates his Portion from the bands of Sin and Death and Hell and hath given power to his Ministers to bring those that seek for mercy out of the prison and servitude of Satan for whatsoever they loose upon Earth shall be loosened in Heaven Hold here and stir not from this rock put not the point to
apt to be separated I suppose an Epicure may lose his conscience in a mist for a little while and dispute it like a Galenist that the soul is nothing else but the temperature of the first qualities and so in death extinguished but can you imagine that the Spirit it self doth not often give him the lie and say within his breast you do me wrong I am immortal Verily I believe that they that put it off doubtingly and would be uncontrouled in their voluptuousness it may be it is not so are often tormented with the other part of the opinion it may be it is so If you will hear this truth upheld out of holy Scripture there is no resistance or cavillation against it Because I will not tie my self to every Text which chimes that way I will choose compendiously where others have made choice before me The Sadduces being stiff opposers against the separated existence of the Spirit and yet commending themselves in the Holy Patriarchs from whose Loyns they descended our Saviour selected that Scripture above all other to convict them which would catch them in their own net I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living How was God the God of Abraham unless he lived And in what did Abraham live but in his soul which was divorced from the body Irenaeus admires that any one should doubt of the souls perseverance after death since the enarration is so â—lear that the rich man saw Lazarus in joys when himself was tormented St. Hierom sets his rest upon those words Mat. x. 22. Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill the soul St. Austin recommends the words of Stephen to nick the Point without all contradiction Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Si animus moriturus esset causae nihil foret cur animum potiùs quà m corpus commendaret Aquinas against the Gentiles lays his strength upon that place of St. Paul 2 Cor. v. 8. We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with God One quotation were enough then how forcible are all these together He must be a beast in understanding that knows not that the souls of good men are Angels in reversion There are others that profess so much faith that the soul hath a state of happiness in reversion to those that die in the favour of God But that it comes not to any gust of this happiness till the end of the World For the soul say they falls asleep when the body perisheth that is it dies together with the body and when the flesh shall be quickned again and gathered out of the dust then the soul shall live again when both it and the body shall be exalted in the Resurrection I do not create Monsters to fight with all St. Austin found such Hereticks in his days he calls them Arabians who taught it every where that the Soul had no being after death till in the consummation of the World they both obtained together a joyful Resurrection Nay these Tares were sown long before St. Austin lived Irenaeus took the pains to root them up in his Age and he confutes them out of my Text says he how did St. John see the souls of the Martyrs who had been slain for the Testimony of Christ if the Soul should cease to be till the final Resurrection And if a Caviller shall say it doth not cease to be but it lies quiet and senseless in a trance Irenaeus blunts the point of that objection because in the next verse they desire vengeance for their bloud that was shed but principally because in the eleventh verse they are clad in white garments which are cognizances of their joy and glory and doubtless they wear them not sleeping but waking And do not think that I rake in the ashes of ancient Heresies that are quite forgotten For the Anabaptists in their Theses Printed at Cracovia Anno 1568 have this position We deny that any Soul hath a separated being after death that was a devise invented by the Papists to maintain Invocation of Saints and Purgatory this is Popery trimly reformed and according to that Proverb of the Jews they cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils And even at this day a new Generation of Vipers risen up at Racovia in Polonia do pledge the Anabaptists in the same cup namely that there is a futurition of glory for the soul when the whole Fabrick of man shall be redintegrated again in the Resurrection but they profess they cannot tell whether in the mean time there be any such thing extant as a separated soul yet St. Paul says he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ And yet Christ told the good Thief that day he should be with him in Paradise And yet the Souls of just men departed do follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Rev. xiv 4. These instances are more perswasive I am sure than that which they pretend that the Just do rest from their labours What rest in Gods name do they dream of They are not in a profound trance without motion or action as Adam was cast into a deep sleep when Eve was taken out of his side but it is a rest when the Spirit doth acquiesce in the Vision of God as David said Turn again unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath rewarded thee There are some that I must afford a little Patronage who are accused to lean to the Anabaptists in their opinion that do nothing less It was allowed for 1400 years as a Problem wherein Christians without breach of charity might have Latitude to dissent granting that the soul after the dissolution from the body was received into the joys of heaven whether it be not sequestred in some distance from the highest heaven where the invisible God doth chiefly reign in Power and Majesty till the whole Body of the Saints be accomplished It is well known what way St. Bernard took Nec sancti sine plebe nec spiritus sine carne That such as die before us shall not see the Beatifical Vision of the holy Trinity without us nor without their own body and that an integral Beatitude is not given but to an integral person And Calvin hath taken his freedom to be of the same mind says he Christ himself only is entred into the supreme Sanctuary of Heaven Et solus populi eminus in atrio residentis vota ad Deum defert and he alone commends the Petitions of the Saints to his Father whose Spirits attend in the outward Courts Those over-awing Fathers of the Florentine and Tridentine Councils have defined it indeed as an irrefragable Article of Faith that the Saints enjoy the most perfect Vision of God immediately after death What is that to us who will not lose our moderation in indifferent points for their