THE ROSE AND LILY. DELIVERED AT THE LECTVRE In ASHBY de-la-zouch in the County of Leicester By WILLIAM PARKS Master of Arts and curat of Chelaston in the County of DERBY 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Discendum propter docendum LONDON Printed by JOHN NORTON for GEORGE WILNE 1639. ⧠To the Right Honourable HENRY Earle of Huntingdon Lord Hastings Hungerford Botreaulx Molins and Moules and Lord Lieutenant of his Majestes County of Leicester and Rutland my Honoured Lord. Right HONOVRABLE IT is not any want of Bookes in these daies of ours wherein they doe so much abound that moves mee to publish these my weake labours nor yet any desire I have to shew myself in Print J am too sensible of mine owne imperfections to be desirous to shew them to the World But considering my engagments especially to your Honour and not willing to be altogether guilty of that hatefull sinne of ingratitude but knowing no other way to expresse my thankefulnes J have pitched upon this chooseing rather to shew my selfe a weake man then ingratefull J must confesse I had rather be silent then be seen in Print And my small fortunes had made me as dejected in person as J was in place untill it pleased your Honour to cast the beames of your countenance on mee in giving mee part of this Lecture where these Sermons were preached which made me a little erigere caput to peepe up and shew my selfe if to no other end then this to expresse my thankfulnes it were a sufficient cause to move mee to it J have heere endevoured to give unto your Honour not only what Aeschines gave unto Socrates me ipsum but even Deum ipsum for it is an unfolding of some part of those Mysteries that concerne Christ of whom your Honour is a livelie member in his Church militant and will be untill you are a full partaker of all his benefits in the Church triumphant which that your Honour may be is the prayer of Your Lordships dayly Orator and most humbly devoted Chaplaine WILLIAM PARKES The Praeface to the Reader I Will use no Praeface but onely say as Ruffinus did to Laurentius a Interopa Cyp. habetur pag. 543. Mihi quidem ad scribendum animus tam non est cupidus quam nec Idoneus scienti non esse absque periculo multorum judiciis ingemum teme exile committere And indeed when I first pend these sermons I did not intend to put them to the Presse nor to expose my selfe and them to that which the World is too full of censure But finding some part of it in the delivering of them as namely for the urging of fathers in Latine in my Sermons c. for which I have beene traduced behinde my back and perswaded to my face to leave them I could therefore doe no lesse for the justifying of my selfe and the satisfying of others then commit them to the eye as I did to the eare to see whether they deserue any Pragmaticall censure It is a true observation of Macrobius b Lib. 6. Satur that Multa ignoramus quae non laterent si veterum lectio nobis esse familiaris wee are ignorant of many things which would not be hid unto us if the reading of ancient writers were familiar with us yet such is the humor of some that nothing can please them except it be plaine and delivered ex tempore from mens owne braynes without any ground or light from any ancient fathers Though nullum est jam dictum quod non dictum sit prius c Terent Eunuch prolog There is no new thing under the Sunne d Eccles. 1.9 yet such is the condition of these Athenians that they are altogether for novelties which makes their itching eares to be delighted with new fangled teachers which preach the Chymaeraes of their owne braynes altogether neglecting the fathers of the Church If Prayers or Sermons be pend they are presently sleighted and the more paynes are taken in them the lesse acceptance have they with these men I know no reason he had to teare out the Athanasian Creed out of his bible when it was read in the Church but onely to satisfy his owne humour and as little that our Novelists have to except against our Church liturgy except it bee for that suffrage from all blindnes of heart from pride vaine glory and hypocrisy from envy hatred and malice and all uncharitablenes Good Lord deliver us which is a great part of their Religion And I know lesse reason for any to censure so rashly as to say that a pend Sermon never converted soule for I dare presume to maintaine that many have beene converted by reading and I thinke it must bee pend before it be printed and written before it be read Wee read in the Gospell e John 3. that Christ turned water into wine hee might as easily have filled the vessels with wine as made them to bee filled with water first but to signify that hee will not fill those empty vessells that come unfurnished into the pulpit and looke then for Revelations But if it were lawfull at other times to preach quicquid in buccam venerit yet is it very unfit for a Lecture in Divinity for a Lecture doth consist of a mixt auditory and must have as well meat as milke that the learned may have strength by the one as the ignorant have growth by the other Againe a Lecture as I conceave was at the first founded for the explayning of the fundamentall poyntes of Religion and the handling of controversies in the University and so are continued by men of great learning and eminence the publique professors And in Queene Elizabeths dayes as I conjecture Lectures were permitted in Parochiall Churches not commanded or injoyned for I read of Parsons Vicars and Curates in the booke of common Prayer but not of a Lecturer neither were they suffered to this end to draw eare-Christians and lip-professors together to parlee in a parlour of poynts of Divinity which they understand not and of matters of Church discipline that doe not concerne them but to build the people up in knowledge and to handle matters of controversy and then in points of controversy and explicating of difficult points of Divinity the fathers are very fit to bee urged Ob. But it is an unknowne tongue and the Apostle sayth f 1 Cor. 14 24 that edifyes not and therefore Latin is not fit to bee used I answer Ans it edifyes the learned if not interpreted but if interpreted it edifyes the Church g Arct in 1. Cor. 14. and if it were unlawfull to speake in an unknowne tongue altogether why should S. Pauls practice contradict his precept for hee writes to the Romans and Hebrewes in Greeke when Latin was the language of the one and Hebrew the language of the other Ob. But it takes up a great deale of time Ans Not so much time as many usually spend in vaine Tautologies and idle
rise againe If they had beleeved him and the stone had beene removed from their hearts as it was from the Sepulchre in stead of saying Sustulerunt Dominum w John 20 13. They have taken away the Lord they would have said resurrexit x Mat. 28.6 he is risen and indeed they contradict themselves in saying so for if he were their Lord how could he be taken away it was enough for Labans Idols to be stollen y Gen. 31.30 when Iesus appeared unto Mary she supposing him to be the Gardiner said z Iohn 20.15 Domine si tu or sir if thou have borne him from hence tell mee This Question was well asked Domine si sustulisti if you have taken him away for none could take him away but himselfe The Rose-tree though it be troden on and trampled on in the Winter yet by the heat of the Sunne by the heavenly influence without any other helpe it springs againe so though they sought to lay our Saviours honour in the dust and even trample on him yet by the power of his Divinity without other helpe he did Erigere caput lift up his head again Happily the Gardiner if it be a Garden Rose may remove some of the Earth for the Roses springing and an Angell descended a Mat. 28.2 and rolled away the stone for our Saviours rising Others did rise before Christ for Elijah b 1 Kings 17.22 raised the widowes dead sonne of Zarephath and Elisha being alive raised the Shunamites c 2 Kings 4 34 dead sonne and being dead his dead bones did raise d 2 Kings 13.21 a dead man These were great miracles which these great Prophets did but he that was anointed e Psal 45.7 with the oyle of gladnes above his fellowes did lift up his head among the rest Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi f Virgil. as much as the loftiest Cedars overtop the lowest shrubs What they did it was in nomine fide ejus saith St. Cyprian g de resur Christ pag. 48. in his owne name and by his power but he as he layd downe his life of himselfe h Iohn 10.18 so he had power to take it up of himselfe They rose to die againe but he rose to live for ever for herein the resemblance doth not hold betweene him and the Rose the Rose springeth and dyeth againe the next winter but Christ being raysed i Rom. 6.9 from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him They did not conquer death but death did at last conquer them but Christ rediit victor a mortuis inferni secum spolia trahens k Ruffinus in Hym. Apost inter oper Cypriani did rise as a conquerour from the dead carrying with him Trophyes of his triumph over death and Hell And it was he onely Qui virtute propria ut victor prodiit de sepultura saith S. Bernard l De Resurrec Christi that by his owne power could rise as conquerour out of the Sepulchre Though they laid him in the earth they could not keepe him under the earth though they did Imponere Pelio Ossam m Virg. Georg. lib. 1. v. 181. lay a great stone upon the Sepulchre but at the Spring of the resurrection he rose againe herein shewing himselfe to be the springing Rose of Sharon and so I come to the limitation of this attribute Sharon I am the Rose of Sharon Sharon is the name n Ainsworth in locum of a place or playne which was very fruitfull wherein King Davids herds of Cattell o 1 Chron. 27.29 were fed And the Prophet speaking of the flourishing of Christs Kingdome saith p Isay 35.2 that the excellency of Carmel and Sharon shall be given unto it And in this sense it shewes that Christ takes no delight in them that are barren but in them that are fruitfull in good workes and also it shewes the fruitfull estate of the Church under Christ that it is no barren Doe but a fruitfull Hind and although before his coming shee was a barren Wildernesse yet by him she was as fruitfull as Sharon But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sharon in the originall signifies q Pagnin Lexic a Field in generall as well as the Field Sharon in particular and therefore give me leave to follow the old Translation of this word which renders it I am the Rose of the Field for therein lyes hid three mysteries First he is the Rose of the Field not of the Garden Campus enim sine omni humano floret adminiculo non seminatus ab aliquo non defossus sarculo non impinguatus fimo sic omnino sic virginis alwis floruit sic inviolata integra casta Mariae viscera tanquam pascua aeterni viroris florem protulere cujus pulchritudo non viderit corruptionem cujus gloria in perpetuum non marcescat saith S. Bernard r De Adventu Ser. 2. The Field flourisheth without mans industry it is neither sowed nor digged nor dunged by man but the Flowers grow in it by the providence of God so Christ was conceived by the holy Ghost without the help of man the virgins Wombe did flourish and her chaste bowels like a Field of eternall greennesse brought forth a Flower whose beauty never saw corruption and whose glory shal never wither The flowers of the Feild ſ Doctor Guilliam 7 Gold Candlest tract of the Incaru have onely a father in Heaven that is the Sunne by whose heat and vertue they grow and a mother in earth that is the ground from whence they spring so this Flower of the root of Iesse had onely a father in Heaven God and a mother in earth the virgin He was Deus de patre homo de matre de patris immortalitate de matris virginitate de patre sine matre de matre sine patre de patre sine tempore de matre sine semine saith Saint Augustine t De Tempore Ser 23. he was God of his father man of his mother of the immortality of his father of the virginity of his mother of his father without a mother of his mother without a father of his father without time of his mother without seed Anselmus hath observed v Lib 2. cap. 8. foure waies by which man may come into the world First by the help of man and woman the common way Secondly without the help both of man and woman as Adam Thirdly of a man without a woman as Eve Fourthly of a woman without a man as Christ God made the first Adam without the help of man for God w Gen. 2.7 formed him of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrills the breath of life so God made the second Adam without the help of man but the holy Ghost overshadowed the virgin and she conceived Ergo si tunc licuit hominem sine homine nasci
The Pharisees did wonder to see Christ u Mat. 9.11 eating with Publicans and sinners but it was no greater marvell to see our Saviour Christ conversant upon earth among sinners teaching them then it was to see the Devill with our first parents in Paradice tempting them He was the Physitian of soules as you have already heard and sinners were his best patients and why then should he forsake their company No hee shuns them not but hee converseth with them and feeds with them and calls them to come to be cured Miraris Iudaee saith Chrysologus w Ser. 29. cur Christus misceatur convivio peccatorum qui propter peccatores nasci voluit non recusavit occidi Oblatras cur peccatorum Vinum bibat qui pro peccatoribus suum sanguinem fudit dost thou admire O thou Iew why Christ should eat with sinners who would bee borne for sinners and refused not to dye for them Dost thou murmure that he wil drink the wine of sinners which poured out his blood for sinners What marvell is it if hee doth eate at the table with sinners that suffered death on the Crosse for them Never did the Physitian leave the patient that hee would heale nor God forsake the sinner that hee would save It was Christs office x Mat. 9.13 not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance not the righteous for there were none so righteous that have no need of his comming Si homo non periisset filius hominis non venisset saith St Augustin y de Tempor Ser. 8. If man had not sinned the Sonne of man had not come or else not to call the righteous ironice z Chrys Hierom. apud Barrad that is not the Scribes and Pharisees which did justifie themselves and thought themselves to have no need of the Physitian but were just and righteous in their owne conceits thinking all to bee bad but themselves Like unto whom were those Heretickes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Eusebius Pamph Eccles Hist in the primitive Church that thought themselves onely to bee pure and accounted all to bee sinfull but onely those that were of their owne impure sect And these were the Fathers and predecessors of the factious Schismatickes who at this day do walke in their steps accounting all reprobates but them of their owne tribe But he calls those sinners that feeling their sins acknowledge themselves to bee sinfull But as the Lily though it grow among Thorns yet it loseth none of the whitenesse of his colour or fragrancy of its smell so Christ though hee conversed among thorny sinners yet hee reteyned still his innocency neither did hee converse with them b Jansen Concor cap. 33. to confirme them in their sinnes but to convert them from them Though hee did goe upon c Prov. 6 28. coales yet was he not burnt Though hee touched pitch d Eccles 13.1 yet was hee not defiled with it though hee had fellowship with the proud yet was not hee like unto them though hee were conversant with thornie sinners yet was hee not infected with their sins that kept on still the white Robes of his innocency therein resembling the nature of the Lily of the Valleys And now I come to the limitation of his second attribute to the first subject of the Valleys I am the Rose of Sharon c. Christ is not c Doctor Dove in Loc. the lofty Cedar but the lowly Lily not of the high Mountaines but of the low valleys that is humility it selfe Suorum Deus altissimus suorum Christus humillimus as God of all others is a patterne of Majesty so Christ of all others is a spectacle of humility Hee was an example of humility in these respects f August de Civ Dei li. 14. nascendo conversando praedicando miracula faciendo moriendo In his birth in his conversation in his preaching in his working of miracles and in his dying First in his birth Hee chose not his descent from the mighty Monarchs of Assyria Greece and Persia but of the contemptible and despised Iewes and among them hee chose not any rich Parents to bee borne of but a poore Virgin espoused to a poore Carpenter What greater abasement could there bee then that hee which thundred in the Cloudes should cry in the Cradle that hee should put off the glorious Robes of his immortalite and put on the base ragges of our mortality that hee which was cloathed with Majesty and honour should bee cloathed with swadling clowtes that hee that in Heaven was GOD not subject to his Father in earth should bee man subject to his Mother that Mary that was a sheepe should bring forth a Sheepherd that hee which was the Father or Mary should become the soone of Mary this mystery is so great and the humility so wonderfull that as Saint Bernard saith it g In vrgil Nativ is mirabiliter singulare singulariter mirabile wonderfully singular and singularly wonderfull There is so great humility in CHRISTS birth that S. Augustine saith h Ser. 18. Nat Omnis hujus nativitatis schola◠humilitatis est officina the whole Schoole of Christs nativity is a shop of humility Secondly hee shewed his humility in his conversation because though hee did no sinne i Destruct vit yet hee tooke upon him the punishments for sinne most humbly undertaking the infirmities of the body and defects of the soule that are not sinfull as to bee weary hungry sorrowfull c. And though he were Lord of all yet hee becomes servant to his owne Disciples and k John 13.5 washeth their feete telling them l Luke 22.27 that hee is among them as one that serveth Whence some m Barrad Stella conjecture that Christ did use to serve them being at meat Thirdly hee shewed his humility in his preaching because hee sought not his owne glory but the glory of him that sent him And hee tells his Disciples n John 14 10. The words that I speake unto you I speake not of my selfe And when hee chose his Disciples to preach unto the World hee chose not rich and learned men but poore simple silly Fisher-men Had Christ chosen such as Aristotle and Demosthenes to preach the Gospell they would have sayd they were so learned that they might easily convince they were so eloquence that they might easily perswade but hee chose unlearned Fisher-men to confound the learned Phylosophers that the glory might not be given to the meanes Forthly hee shewed his humility in his working of miracles because when hee did great miracles hee commands the parties on whom they were wrought not to divulge them When hee cured one of the leprosy o Mat. 8.4 and restored sight to the blind man p Marke 8 26. hee chargeth them to tell no man Mundavit leprosum Dominus jussit eum nulli hoc fateri hoc fateri docens quam esset alienus ab aura