to take away all hurtfull things and grant them all availing ones to their salvation but especially this most availing of all the rest to send them true Prophets good and holy Priests such as may teach them as well by the exemplarity of their lives as by the veritie and soliditie of their Doctrine for as the Text commands us to beware of others so the Prayer by consequence must beg for these On the eighth Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Luk. 16. v. 3. WHat shall I doe for that my Lord taketh from me the Bailiff-ship To dig I am not able to beg I am ashamed I know what I will do that when I shall be removed from the Bailiff-ship they may receive me into their houses Vers Let my Prayer O Lord c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee propitiously the spirit of thinking alwayes and of doing what is right that as we cannot be without thee so we may live unto thee The Illustration O Beloved what an excellent Prayer is this How deep how sweet how alone able to save us if said with the same spirit that taught it and if performed as well as â—aid For if we neither think nor do amisse how can we ever sin and consequently how fail of being saved Again if we onely subsist by the preservation of Almighty God as is most true how can we presume to live unto our selves and not unto him As therefore our beeing is purely and onely by him so ought our living to be purely and onely to him not as it is God help us to our selves as if we had been our own makers or could for the least minute preserve our selves how daring so ever our comportment is as though we were our own and not God Almighties creatures Idolizing dayly to our selves sinning hourely and provoking God to undo his own handy work by damning not annihilating of us were not his mercy above our malice which malice onely can attempt our annihilation I need say no more of the excellency of this Prayer for whilest I strive to amplifie it by other words I do contract it rather then inlarge it which is more patheticall and significant in the short method it observes then any ampliation even by the tongues or pens of Angels can make it and shewes us That as God is but one simple essence in himself yet contains within him all the variety that is possible in infinite millions of creatures or worlds indeed so he can if he please contract into one word the sense and meaning of all the languages of the world and truly much is contracted in this Prayer above I shall therefore say no more in commends of it but onely shew how rarely well it suites with the Epistle and Gospell following how as it were eminentially it contains them both the former in begging first the spirit of alwayes thinking and doing right that so we may be and live to God as the Epistle adviâ—eth which you see quits us of all obligation to our selves and ties us up to the duty of a spirituall life and of a corporall death both which are petitioned in the Prayer the latter in shewing us how to prevent the danger of such like cheats to our Lord and Master which the Gospell mentions by prepossessing our thoughts with a right addresse of them to our masters pleasure and profit and consequently by preventing our actions towards him to be unjust when we acknowledge we cannot be at all but such creatures as he makes us and thence we can have no hope to be preserved by him in a wicked being which he never gave us nor can we expect he should preserve us in it so the Prayer concludes begging we may live onely to him who onely is the authour of our being The Epistle Rom. 8. v. 12. c. 12 Therefore Brethren we are debtours not to the flesh to live according to the flesh 13 For if you live according to the flesh you shall die but if by the spirit you mortifie the deeds of the flesh you shall live 14 For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God 15 For you have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear but you have received the spirit of adoption of sonnes wherein we cry Abba Father 16 For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God 17 And if sonnes heirs also heirs truly of God and coheirs of Christ The Explication 12. THis therefore is S. Paul's inference or conclusion upon the premises wherein he had said we were by Baptisme regenerate born again not of flesh and bloud but of Christ in whom the Baptized must live as he did in spirit not in flesh and so consequently are no longer debtours to flesh but to spirit and must no longer live to the flesh but to the spirit 13. By the spirit is here understood Christ and his grace not our own soules for though our bodies live by our souls yet our soules must live by Christ who is their life and we must by conformity to his will mortifie both our own bodies and soules too if we will live spiritually in and by him we must dye to concupiscence and inordinate desires for till then they are not mortified but live in us and we by them live fleshly not spiritually 14. To be led by the Spirit signifies that Christ should act in us not onely we in our selves and then we are true Sons of God when we are led by him by his holy Spirit who is our life as he was S. Paul's when the Apostle said Gal. 2.20 he lived now not he but Christ in him But here S. Austin playes prettily upon the word acting We must saith he act our selves and yet let our action be from him rather then from us for then we act well when he makes us act when our action is radicated in him and squared to his holy will So here to be led argues the impulse of his holy Spirit and the voluntary cooperation of our action too for then saith S. Austin we are led by his Spirit when we do as we ought to do 15. The spirit of servitude or servile fear was that which God led the Jewes withal fear of temporal punishments but we are led by a better spirit that of love and so must serve God for love of him rather then for fear of hell and as his adopted children rather then servants so much nobler is our condition then that of the Jewes And this spirit of adoption is no lesse then the holy Ghost himself communicated unto us as v. 6. was said on Sunday within the Octaves of Nativity For as God gave his own Deity to Christ when he made Christ the Son of God so the holy Ghost gives us himself to make us also the Sons of God by adoption in virtue of our Saviours Passion whence we have the priviledge
never served but with a commemoration made thereof upon Trinity Sunday which it alwayes falls upon and whereunto with great reason it gives place in the publick Solemnity of holy Churches service neverthelesse we are not forbidden in our private devotions to make use of the comfort which this prayer adjusted to the Epistle and Gospel proper thereunto will afford us since the Gospel and the Prayer are both read to day by way of Commemoration of this first Sunday as above and since the whole Masse of this Sunday is said at the pleasure of the Priest no double feasts occurring between this and Thursday next which is the Feast of Corpus Christi and in regard there is a world of sweet devotion in the exposition both of this Epistle and Gospel I hope it will encourage all good Christians to read both what is written upon the Blessed Trinity and this Sunday too before next Sunday come since it is but this week of all the year that they will have so much to read and which if I mistake not will seem but little neither 't is all so sweet But because the task of reading will be double I shall abridge the glosse of the Prayer and suffice my self to shew the constant connexion between this and the other parts of holy Churches Service to day by summing up the Epistle and Gospel as both teaching perfect charity while they extend it to the love of our enemies and as being both abstracted in this prayer which after an humble acknowledgment of our own weaknesse confessing all our strength is from Almighty God without whom our mortall infirmity is of no ability petitions the assistance of his grace that in doing his commands we may please him hoth in will and work And truly all his commands are included in these two precepts of charity so much insisted on both in the Epistle and Gospel namely that of loving God above all things and our neighbours as our selves which then we shall do perfectly when we love our enemies because this love will make us indeed have no enemies at all and so be as little troubled at what injury other men can do us as we should be at our selves if by chance we were causes of our own mischiefs for though we might be disturbed a little thereat yet never so much as to loose our charity or to hate our selves nor consequently can we hate our enemies if we once arrive at the perfection of that commandment which bids us love our neighbours as our selves Which that we may do this is very aptly made the Churches Prayer to day begging Gods assisting grace that in doing his commands we may please him both in work and will in work by executing his commands compleatly and perfectly in will by doing them readily and cheerfully And it is worthy our remark that on the same Trinity Sunday where we have the deepest mystery of Faith recommended by holy Church we should have also the highest act of Charity inculcated unto us that so we might see the firmnesse of our Faith to day petitioned consisted in the operation of our Love according to the same Faith and that Christian perfection is never attained till we arrive unto perfect Charity which is the nerve that links together the members of the Churches mystical body and unites them all unto their head Christ Jesus as the sinewes of natural bodies knit together the members thereof So still we see our design of connexion between all the parts of Churches Service made good The Epistle 1 Joh. 4.8 c. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Charity 9 In this hath the charity of God appeared in us because God hath sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we may live by him 10 In this is charity not as though we have loved him but because he hath loved us and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins 11 My dearest if God hath so loved us we also ought to love one another 12 God no man hath seen at any time If we love one another God abideth in us and his charity in us is perfected 13 In this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he of his Spirit hath given us 14 And we have seen and do testifie that the Father hath sent his Son the Saviour of the world 15 Whosoever shall confesse that Jesus is the Son of God God abideth in him and he in God 16 And we have known and have believed the charity which God hath in us God is charity and he that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him 17 In this is charity perfected with us that we may have confidence in the day of Judgment because as he is we also are in the world 18 Fear is not in charity but perfect charity casteth out fear because fear hath painfulnesse And he that feareth is not perfect in charity 19 Let us therefore love God because God first hath loved us 20 If any man shall say that I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyer For he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth God whom he seeth not how can he love 21 And this Commandment we have from God that he which loveth God loveth also his Brother The Explication 8. St. John in this Epistle ver 7. had said every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God now he gives the reason thereof in this eighth verse proving the same à contrario as School-men say by an argument from the contrary assertion he that loveth not knoweth not God because God is charity or love not but that we may speculatively know God without loving him but practically or experimentally we cannot know him unlesse we actually love him For example all men know speculatively that honey is sweet but they know it practically only when they taste it And though the same argument holds in all Gods attributes as in his power in his wisdome c. since he is omnipotency and omniscience yet St. John argues thus onely upon his charity because the subject he now undertakes is the commends of Charity Again between lovers love is the main thing they delight in and much more is it so betwixt God and us for he doth not onely love us and so is our lover but is himself love nay if we say he is the love by which we love him too perhaps we shall not say amisse and S. John being wholly inamoured with the love of God breaks into the recommends of charity as the vertue himself was most excellent in and wherein he would have us most to excell So for the ground-work of what this Epistle is to dilate upon we see it begins thus God is charity both Essential and Notional Essential as it is the nature of the Deity Notional as it is distinguishing the persons and so signifies personally the holy Ghost who by love proceeding from the Father and the Son is called
imperfection which is another way of verifying what St. Paul saith 2 Cor. 12.9 of vertue being perfected in infirmity then was shewed when that text was expounded 1 Cor. 12.9 upon Sexagesima Sunday St. Austin upon this text tract 7. shewes a fine progresse of Charity in perfection The fire of our charity first seizeth upon our neighbour and afterward extends it self more abroad it first helps our Brother or our kindred or friends next some stranger but at last our enemy And tract 8. Love him who is now come to dwell within you that by his more perfect possessing you he may render you also perfect 13. And this next verse shewes us a sign how to know when he is within us namely when he gives us of his Spirit of loving one another even our enemies for by this it is evident he is in us who only taught us that which onely himself could do and it followes evidently that whensoever God is in us we are in him because wheresoever God is he unites the place so to himself by his immensity as the place or subject he is in rather is said to be in him then he in it And consequently if we feel his Spirit in us that is if we love each other especially our enemies we may boldly conclude that not onely God is in us but that we also are and remain in him so long as by such dilection his Divine Spirit aboades in us 1 Cor. 6.17 he that adheres to God is one Spirit with him 14. 15. Which doctrine the Evangelist finds both so solid and so sweet that in these two verses he proves it to be as really intended by him as it is pretended taught and professed by the Catholick Church for saith he we that have seen can and do testifie that God sent his Son to save the world and by confessing Jesus to be his Son we remain in God and he in us we in him by Faith and he in us by the gift of that Divine vertue which can slow from no other source but his infinite goodnesse and bounty as St. Paul sayes Phil. 3.17 Christ by Faith dwelleth in our hearts This S. John inculcates with special regard to Ebion Cerinthus and others who at that time denyed the Divinity of Christ so for proof hereof he exposeth himself and all the Colledge of Christ his Apostles and disciples who as ear and eye-witnesses were ready to testifie the same to all the world as they all did by their glorious Martyrdomes 16. In this verse the Evangelist gives the same testimony for the charity of God being in us as he did in the fourteenth verse for Christ the Son of God being in the world that so we may be fully possessed of that Truth and inamoured on that vertue which he himself is even transported with and cannot speak but in commendations of being as it were all on fire therewith For if we mark him his words fall from him all circular like balls of fire From God he comes to Christ from Christ to charity from charity to love of our neighbours thence back to Christ again now to his charity and all to shew he moves onely in the circle or orbe of Love and cannot wheel himself out of it but windes all his speech into pleasing Meanders of that subject wherein to be lost is to be sound because who is not found in the labyrinth of charity is a lost soul and therefore St. John having gone into this Maze by the clew that leads through all the Meanders of it God himself as this Epistle began God is charity must needs come out with the same clew again which is charity both to God and man wherewith he closeth this Epistle to shew us he hath been through all the turnings and windings of love or else he could never have come out the same way he went into this re-selfing circle of charity which this verse delightfully winds us into and brings us out again for if God be charity who remains in it remains in God and God in him as a circle remains in a ring and a ring in a circle but with this difference we in him as in our increated he in us as in his created Temple where he most delights to be we rings in him as in the circle of his Immensity he circled in us as his Immensity is capable of being in a ring of creatures 17. The amorous Evangelist having told us much before how even the increated charity is perfected in our esteems by juxtaposition to our imperfections now he tells us how our created charity is perfected in us by our trust and confidence in God even when creatures may pretend most to diffide in him at the day of Judgement and he gives a strange reason for this confidence because as he is meaning as God and Christ is we also are in the world So here In this c. imports either that to this end charity was given us not to fear him our Judge who had given us the grace to love him or that really this is the perfection of charity in us that as he loved us without fear to take upon him our infirmities or imperfections and gave himself wholly into our hands to be even his Judges so we must love him by assuming as many of his perfections as we can and by freely making him our Judge without fear of receiving any hard measure at his hands if we can truly say we love him with all our hearts as he loved us when he was adjudged to death by us Or as St. Augustine sayes In this signifies it is a true signe that our charity is perfect if as the Just and Saints in heaven covet the day of Judgment so we also do that God may thereby be glorified before all the world what ere become of us because we in that case are in the world as God as Christ was in it perfectly loving and so not fearing us though he see cause enough of fear amongst so many Traytours if he had been capable of harm so if we can arrive to love God thus perfectly we may truly say we are as he was in the world without fear even of Judgment because we have no cause to fear corruption in him as he mought have had in us and therefore may come with more confidence to his tribunal then he did to ours that is may be in this world as he was without fear because we are in love for the Evangelist here proves two effects of perfect love the first is confidence in God both living and dying the second is casting away all fear 18. As in termes this verse avoucheth the second having declared the first immediately before so that as charity produceth confidence in us this confidence expelleth fear out of us and thus becomes as Aristotle sayes cause of the effect in being cause of the cause thereof But we shall do well to examine what fear it is that charity expells least by not
us in the B. Sacrament as we must fear him under his severer name of our Judge if we now fail of such equall love unto him O happy Christians who at the same time when they are bid to fear Christ are taught to love Jesus and consequently their love and fear must be as equal as Christ Jesus is to Jesus Christ But the reason why we beg this equality of fear and love is because Christ doth never leave destitute of his government those whom he instructs in the solidity of his love that is Christ our Judge will sweetly rule us if he find we do solidly love him and we were last Sunday taught the solidity of that love did consist in loving God above all things and not only our neighbour but also our enemies as our selves which lesson was then given as a preparative to this Feast now flowing in the Octaves thereof and alluded unto in this prayer teaching us in brief what the Epistle and Gospel tell us more at large The first that who loves not ought to stand in fear of that death which he abides in by not loving Nay more so confident must our Love be that we must rather not fear to dye for our neighbour then we must dare not to love him and to this we are incited by the example of Christ whose love made him dye for us that were his enemies Again we are told this love must be real and true not verbal onely and that it cannot be so if we relieve not our neighbour in his necessity when we are able so to do This argues indeed that we are not left destitute by our Governour Christ Jesus who instructs us in this solidity of love from one end of the Epistle to the other And since it is the general consent of all Expositours that the Supper mentioned in this dayes Gospel is a figure of the Blessed Sacrament sure that is a mystery as full of solid love as is expressed in the Prayer above teaching us never to go unto this Supper without equal fear and love and so the Prayer stands excellently well adapted both to the Sunday to the Feast to the Epistle and to the Gospel of the day For if we can by saying this prayer fervently obtain the equal fear and love which it petitioneth assuredly in recompense thereof Almighty God will so govern us as we shall not for humane ends excuse our selves from our duties to his Divine Majesty but shall come so religiously to the Supper of the Sacrament here as we need not fear being shut out at the last Supper of eternall rest in glory which again the Expositours will have the Sacramentall Supper to be a signe of And thus as well every sense as every letter of this Gospel is included in this most admirable prayer of holy Church The Epistle 1 Joh. 3.13 c. 13 Marvell not Brethren if the world hate you 14 We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the Brethren He that loveth not abideth in death 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer hath life everlasting abiding in himself 16 In this we have known the charity of God because he hath yielded his life for us and we ought to yield our lives for the Brethren 17 He that shall have the substance of the world and shall see his Brother hath need and shall shut his bowels from him how doth the charity of God abide in him 18 My little children let us not love in word nor in tongue but in deed and truth The Explication 13. THe Evangelist had in the precedent verses told us the difference between the children of God and those of the devil and how there was mortal enmity between the one and the other instancing in Cain killing his Brother Abel for no other cause then envy to him seeing the sacrifice of Abel was acceptable to God and his was not in regard Abel was a child of God and Cain a child of the devil and so no marvel if his offerings were not acceptable to God Almighty But the Apostle proceeds further and bids Christians not wonder if the world hate them because of their good deeds since for that reason Cain representing the malignancy of the world hated Abel who was a figure of a good Christian offering grateful sacrifice to God besides the Apostle here alludes to what he had said in his Gospel Chap. 15.18 If the world hate you know it hated me before it hated you and therefore here he concludes they should rather expect then wonder at it if they found the world did hate them since no Son can hope for love from him who hates his Father and the foregoing Verses of this Epistle were all upon our happy filiation with God But we may observe the causes remarkable why the wicked for those are understood by the world so called from the greater part thereof that are wicked indeed do hate those who are good The first is the dissimilitude betwixt vice and vertue which begets a hatred as similitude begets love and affection for we see all worldlings puffed up with pride and ambition contrariwise all good Christians are meek and humble The second is Envy for wicked men seeing they cannot arrive at purity and sanctity envy those who do attain thereunto The third because the good men do further reprehend the vices of the wicked as the holy Ghost doth inspire them in imitation of his example whose coming shall argue the world of sin as we heard John 15.8 The fourth because the world sees good men flye the company of the wicked The last because their affections are contrary one doating upon the world altogether the other wholly inamoured on Almighty God so they must needs be as opposite as two Contraries are as heat to cold as dry to moist and labour to overcome each other but with this difference that the good man labours the conversion of the bad the bad man indeavours the perversion of the good 14. The Apostle doth not here say we know by any divine Faith or certain knowledge as hereticks will needs interpret this place but onely by moral certitude we know that if we love one another for Gods sake we must needs love God much more and as by sin against him we dye so by love of him we detest sin and are by that meanes translated from the death of sin to the life of grace in this world and to the life of glory in the next So that all the certitude we have of this is the testimony of our own consciences telling us we are not guilty of any defect either in our love to God or to our neighbour Yet because St. Paul 1 Cor. 4. v. 4. no sooner said he was not guilty then he added yet in this I am not justified the Catholick Church teacheth our assurance of our being in the state of grace is onely moral not divine And three signes
next because a cloud is a type of the hidden mystery of his Deity lastly because he shall have his judiciary Throne placed in a cloud wrought out into the form of a moving chariot so that a cloud shall be both his seat and his footstool whilest in the ayr he appears to all the world below on his Throne of Judgement He shall then come in great power to shew he could have done so too when he came a weakling and alone into the world at his Nativity In great Majesty by the attendance of all the quires of Angels and blessed Saints waiting upon him 31. This verse doth not keep the order of Judgment but tells the manner True it is this shall be but not after Christ hath appeared for it shall be done before that and many other of these signs so it is put in here lest the story should come short of truth not to observe the order of the passage This gathering of the elect from all corners of the world and from heaven it self even the highest and lowest saints there argues the care God hath of them and that no distance of place can hinder them from coming to him who sends his Angels to bring them for their reward it tells us also we need not proclaim our own good deeds God sees them be they done and kept never so secret to avoid vain-glory 32. What was literally said before is now anagogically prosecuted by the example of a fig-tree which never springs but when the heat is strong that so the fruit thereof may be securely ripened and not nipt with cold and because it is a tree bearing great store of fruit so the Sun of Justice appearing the earth yields up all her fruits all the Saints thereof and presents them to the Sun that must mature them for the table of his heavenly Father when the summer of the resurrection comes 33. This example he useth to shew that however Judgement be terrible to those that are in sin yet to the just and to God himself it is as welcome as the harvest which brings in the treasure of the year and the fruit of time into the barnes of Eternity And that we may be frighted from sin we are foretold many of the calamities we see in all ages are like some of these fore-running signes to the latter day so we may religiously fear our particular Judgement at least is at hand and when all the signes are fulfilled we may be as sure the general will follow as we are sure the ripening Sun is near when the fig-tree sends out her sap from her wary root or mystically thus when in the cold winter of Antichrists persecution we see the Saints the spiritual fig-trees of holy Church put forth with confidence their leaves and buds of sanctity we may rest assured those wise figge-trees are not deceived and then it is time for sinful fools to repent themselves lest if not then it be too late for ever so to do 34. This verse onely imports that before the end of this world these signs shall be seen and this Judgement shall be unavoydable to mankind for that is it he means by this generation 35. The heavens and earth shall passe that is to say shall be changed from the present state and condition wherein they now are and whereunto they were ordained but for a time so that their after state shall be of a farre other nature liable to none of these changes which are now frequent in them according to the present exigence and series of causes Others understand by the last words of this verse our Saviour speaks here comparatively as if it were more possible for the settled course of heaven and earth to fail all at one instant then for the least tittle of Christ his word to passe unverified and this sense is not improbable being that which S. Chrysostome avows The Application 1. LOok how the Christian year begins so must it end with fear and love These were the plying virtues to the will of God that we begun the Rules of this sodality withall on Advent Sunday see the same virtues ply into the perfect circle of the year to day they bringing us to the end of our annuall devotion which began it but with this difference fear led us then unto the duty of our love now love hath brought us to the duty of our fear then we remembred our Judge that we might love our Jesus now we have loved him we need but fear him in respect of others who do not truly love him because it love bring us to the Judgement-seat we may be sure to find a loving Judge such as will never damn us It is the oracular edict of his own veracity I love those that love me and again it was the first love-lesson we were taught when charity began to march upon her own leggs on the third Sunday after Pentecost 1 Joh. 4. v. 17. Perfect charity fears not judgement meaning sure for her own particular Yet must have still a fear thereof in regard of others and she may fear too in her own behalf but that need onely be a fear she doth not love enough 2. It was no doubt with this designe our Saviour ended the frightfull story of judgement with the comfortable parable of the springing fig-tree to shew our charity that finall day is dismall onely to the damned souls to those that know not what it is to love their Jesu-Judge We see the holy Fathers make that exposition of it And we know that every creature groans for grief at the delay of that relieving day Rom. 8. v. 22. when they shall all be eas'd of their obedience to the disobeying man they are made subject to and when they shall be set to a new series and frame again to be ever consistent in their severall degrees of perfection without vicissitudes of fading to re-flourish those alterations were their punishments for mens prevarication and for working corruption in his body who by sinne had corrupted his own soul Judgement is therefore the longing of the just to see that justice done at last which is differ'd so long And indeed all present chastisement is mercy in comparison of that finall punishment which is therefore eternall because the wicked are unalterable in their malice and so force a rigorous judgement from the bowels of a mercifull Judge 3. To conclude what other sense can holy Church have of this latter day when at the preaching on that frightfull Text she makes us such a comfortable prayer as bids us beg tho greater remedies of Gods piety then his continuall graces the gifts of his glory at the day of Judgement to candy the confections of his graces to embalm the bodies of his Saints and make them uncorrupt as are their souls And all this favour she confidently bids us ask in recompence onely of our willingnesse to ripen our selves in the Sunne of his holy grace that he may make us fruits of
and so make the Surges much more horrid than when they are caus'd by the most boisterous winds ploughing up onely the even surface of the waters but here probably the very Sands Stones and Rocks will all boil up from the deep roaring like Thunder in the ears of all Nations whatsoever And we may guess at the confusion of this sound when it shall be heard and known distinct from that of the generall summons given by the Angels in the sound of Trumpets breaking even the deepest sleep of death awaking and raising dead men from their graves 26. It is indeed an usuall effect of fear to make men pine away and look like withering plants nor is man other than a rationall plant if well considered in all his parts and though here the cause of pining seem to be the sadness of mans expectation what shall become not onely of himself but of the whole world besides yet what followes tells us this expectation is but an effect of the powers of Heaven being moved that is removed from us by having their usuall influence into earthly creatures obstructed for so we now depend upon their influencies that we see the least or shortest ecclipse of either Sun or Moon is sensibly felt in all the creatures of the earth by some present or future disturbance to their well-being insomuch that should the Sun but miss to make his annuall or diurnall revolution all the plants upon the earth would wither immediately and cause a famine over the whole universe so absolutely necessary is the Suns heat to the cold earthy nature that is cherisht by it 27. This verse will litterally occur in the 24. Sunday after Pentecost and shall be there expounded 28. We are here told the confusion of this dismall day shall not be void of comfort to the just at least while they are all advised to hold up their heads to Heaven in hope to receive the fruit of their redemption for when the Apostle tells them their redemption is at hand he means the fruits thereof since we all know the work of our redemption was the past passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and it will be here with the just thus looking up to Heaven as with the holy Patriarchs and Prophets it formerly was when with the like action Isai c. 38. v. 14. tels us His eyes were weary with looking dayly for many years together up on high in hope to see the promised Messias come from thence Thus will it fare with the just at the time when these fore-running signes portend the second coming of our Saviour in the nature of a Judge sharing out to every Just the fruits of his Redemption Glory and salvation which then was said to be at hand because all time is but a moment or instant to eternity 29. The gloss above is made good by this verse following which likens the generall Judgement of the just unto the spring in respect of the then promised fruits of their labours unto all the husband-men upon the earth onely what Analogy St. Matthew chap. 21. makes between the fig-tree and this day of Doom St. Luke doth make between that and all other trees or plants whatsoever since as every springing plant first or last brings forth some fruit or other and therewith some seed to conserve the kind or species of the plant so every Christian soul that hath but the least vegetation of grace within her bringing forth thence some spiritual fruit may hope to reap in time the seed of her salvation by it and therefore with reason should look up to Heaven though Hell do seem to meet it when all things are in this confusion The 30 31 32 and 33 Verses following in this Gospel are in a manner verbatim the same with the close of the last Sundays gospel in this book and so being there largely expounded need here no further exposition The Application 1. THerefore holy Church to day joynes a Gospel of Judgement to an Epistle of the Incarnation to let us see we cannot at a less rate than the hazard of a most rigorous Judgement omit to celebrate the holy time of Advent by acknowledging the second coming of Christ shall be to punish those eternally in the next world who have not made him a Religious welcome into this 2. And because our holy Mother found we were not apt to do our Christian duties purely out of love to God therefore having given us at least that motive first in this dayes Epistle She addes now the other of holy Fear which the memory of the day of Judgment needs must striks into us O let us now by frequent acts of holy Fear prevent the danger of our then despair yes now while every minute of Repentance is able to purchase an eternall recompence Let us I say now do that which then in vain we shall wish to have done if we now omit to do it 3. But happy they who shall prevent the latter fear with a present love by making the whole doctrine of this day the rule of their practice by so securing Man-God to be their friend that they need not fear God-man to be their Judge and doubtless that is holy Churches aime to day whilst to prevent Christ calling us to a fearfull indeed a dreadfull Judgement She calls on him to a chearfull Incarnation Praying as above by the Protection of his grace to be freed from all dangers here and by the deliverance of a happy sentence to be finally saved there On the second Sunday of Advent The Antiphon MAT. 11. ver 3. ARt thou he that art to come or look we for another Goe and report to John what you have seen the Blind see the Dead rise again to the Poor the Gospel is preached Vers Drop c. as before pag. 1. Resp Be the Earth c. The Prayer RAise up our hearts O Lord towards preparing the wayes of thine onely begotten Son that by his coming amongst us we may deserve to serve thee with purifyed soules The Illustration IN the last Sundayes Prayer we besought Almighty God to rowse up his own power and come away to those that had four thousand years expected him now to day we beseech his Divine Majesty to raise up our hearts towards him left our but lately opened eyes from the sleep of sin do close again if our raised hearts affections do not keep them open for lumpish hearts are many times the cause of sleeping eyes and indeed what hearts so lumpish as those that are addicted unto lumps of flesh to carnall and terrene desires which as they ever draw us downward so must they of necessity make us dronish and drowsie in the service of Almighty God this day therefore finding the danger of a sinfull effect we deprecate the cause thereof we pray to be rid of the lumpishness of our hearts and that we may have them vigilant active vigorous raised and rowsed up by Almighty God to high and Heavenly thoughts
Saint Mark Saint Luke and Saint Paul Now the reason why Sinai is said to ingender unto bondage is because the Law which Moses brought the people from Sinai was a Law of terrour punishment and servitude as menacing temporal punishments and corporal death to the infringers thereof and giving onely temporal rewards to the observers of it namely prosperity and plenty in the land of Canaan and this Law is therefore represented by Agar the woman of servitude and bondage whose children could not hope for better condition then that of their parent Agar Hence we may figuratively say that as Abraham Noah Moses and the rest of the Prophets of the old Law were Christians because they served God filially and freely in hope of Christs coming to redeem them so all wicked Christians are Jews serving God onely servilely that is for fear of Hell 25. This vicinity is of Similitude not of Site or Place for between Sinai and Jerusalem lyes a great distance and that tedious by the interposition of the Idumean Mountains so that this vicinity consists in the sterility of Jerusalem producing no fruits of vertue but the meer ceremonial servitude of the Synagogue as Sinai was a very barren ground again as in Sinai this steril law was given so in Jerusalem it was principally kept and as Sinai was out of the land of Promise so this legal or earthly Jerusalem was out of the Church of Christ Militant and triumphant which is the heavenly Jerusalem but lastly and perhaps most appositely to the Apostles Sense as the people who received the law in Sinai were Parents to the Jews of Ierusalem which is a natural vicinity in blood and consequently begets in the Jews the same dispositions of fear and servitude as was in their parents so Ierusalem with her children is by the Apostle called a servant here of fear and not a childe of love 26. whereas the heavenly Ierusalem the mother of Christians is free and bringeth forth children of love not of fear according to that of the Apostle c. Love banisheth or shutteth fear out of doors for in heaven there is no fear at all but a continual and fervent love which rules in that blessed kingdom The Etymology of this word Ierusalem is worthy our remark not that it is derived as Erasmus would have it of Jebus and Salem by both which names it was formerly called but rather of the Hebrew Jire which signifies videbit or shall see and of the old name it had Salem alluding to the mystery which reports unto this change of the name for example the passage between Abrabam and Isaac on the mount Sion when Isaac seeing the fire burn asked his Father Abraham where the victime was that should be sacrificed and Abraham answered God will see to that or provide it whence the mount Sion is called Moria that is to say visio Dei the sight of God as we read Gen. 22. or his provision for that which shall please his Divine Majesty and hence the city which was neer this mountain was called Ierusalem more exactly after the Hebrew written Ierusalem beginning with Iod then with He though the other be as usual as this thorough a common errour in Orthography Now hence it is easie to apply the reason why Heaven is called Ierusalem or Sion since there God hath provided most abundantly for his own glory where he hath made a glory by vertue whereof all the Saints and Angels see his most glorious face and so the Prophets words are verified saying in thy light we shall see light that is in thy light of glory we shall see thy light of Deity an inaccessible however by thy mercy it is become a visible light of comfort to all the blessed court of heaven whose bliss consisteth in the Majesty and Glory of that blissful Sight and is therefore called the beatifical Vision and it is most literally called Ierusalem because as the old Law was given upon mount Sinai so the new was given upon Sion a mount neer to Ierusalem though figuratively it hath this name from being the place of blessed vision or provision as above It is called Free for four respects it hath to freedom First Civil which is opposite to slavish Second Moral which is opposite to the servitude of sin Third Spiritual which is opposite to temporal or corporal and so serves in the freedom of the true Spirit not in the servitude of the binding Letter Fourth Heavenly which is opposite to earthly or transitory She is called fecund or fertil because out of steril Souls bred up in Gentilism she bringeth forth fruitful Christians such as abound in all vertues whatsoever 27. Whence the next verse bids her rejoyce even for this cause of her fecundity joyned to her freedom and though Isai 54. v. 1. bid her rejoyce in her sterility because out of it as out of nothing to be expected from her own barren Gentilism God by his holy Grace brought forth a plentiful Issue of the Church of Christ when the Synagogue of the Jews was antiquated or taken quite away so though she of her self be steril yet she is to rejoyce that out of her sterility springs Christianity as out of barren Sara sprung fruitful Isaac though she travail not with any Homogeneal fruit of her own barren womb yet she is in travail with the Heterogeneal the spiritual fruit of grace so her cry is to be of joy not of sorrow and why because many more are the children of the Church that was desolate when she did first fructifie then were those of the Synagogue that had a husband that was actually and long married unto God but under the notion of a punisher rather then of a rewarder whereas when Christ was espoused to this desolate Church of the Gentiles then God became husband to his Spouse under the notion of a redeemer a rewarder and a Saviour of his people again more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath an husband might be understood comparatively spoken to the time of the primitive Church unto that time of the Synagogue as who should say God hath more servants in the very first days of the primitive Church then he had in all the time that the Synagogue of the Jews did last so fruitfull was the child of the Spirit so barren that of the letter so abundant the child of grace so sparing that of flesh and bloud the reason was because Moses being but a man of flesh and blood was the first-born of the Synagogue but Christ who was both God and Man was the first-born of the Church not that therefore he was not the head and founder thereof but that in the order of Gods decree the first thought was to serve himselfe of his creatures or people regulated in the old Law by a Synagogue in the new by a Church and so by priority of nature as the Schoolemen speake the Jdaea's of Synagogue and Church were first in Gods decree
this day is called White or Low â—unday because in the Primitive Church those Neophytes that on Easter Eve were Baptized and Clad in white Garments did to day put them off with this admonition that they were to keep within them a perpetuall candor of Spirit signified by the Agnus Dei hung about their necks which falling downe upon their breasts put them in minde what Innocent Lambes they must be now that of sinfull high and haughty men they were by Baptisme made Low and little children of Almighty God such as ought to retaine in their manners and lives the Paschall Feasts which they had accomplished * And thus we see an ample performance of our designe taking this Prayer in the true sence it hath The Epistle Ep. 1 Joan. cap. 5 v. 4 c. 4 Because all that is borne of God overcommeth the world And this is the victory which overcommeth the world our Faith 5 Who is he that overcommeth the world but he that beleeveth that Iesus is the Sonne of God 6 This is he that came by water and bloud Iesus Christ not in water only but in water and bloud And it is the Spirit which testifieth that Christ is the Truth 7 For there be three which give Testimony in heaven the Father the word and the Holy Ghost And these Three be One. 8 And there be Three which give Testimony in earth The Spirit Water and Bloud And these Three be one 9 If we receive the Testimony of men the Testimony of God is greater because this is the Testimony of God which is greater that he hath testified of his Son 10 He that beleeveth in the Sonne of God hath the Testimony of God in himselfe The Explication 4. THe Evangelist had in this Epistle and in the immediate verse before told us The love of God consisted in keeping his commands and that his commands are not heavy and this for divers reasons because compared to the grievous weighty precepts of the old ceremoniall Law they are nothing in a manner difficult at all For there were as Rabbi Moses did reckon them in his third Book two hundred and eighteen affirmative and three hundred sixty five negative precepts of the old Law which in the Law of Grace are reduced unto ten and those no other then even any reasonable man would exact of a creature towards God and of one man towards another for a quiet civill and honest neighbourhood and though to corrupted nature mortification may seeme hard yet to sound nature it is sweet and appetible at least as medicine is unto the sick person and as grace is the balsame that renders our corrupted nature sound againe so taking grace into the consideration as a help more powerfull then any impediment it is most true the Commandements are easie to a gratious soule to any one that hath in him the fear or love of God whence the Evangelist inferres that as by grace we are borne a new to in and of God so by this regeneration our feeble nature is made able enough to overcome all the world all the enemies and obstacles man hath betweene him and heaven which is the inheritance of Gods children whence Saint Bernard saith excellently well in his first Sermon upon this day it is an argument of our heavenly regeneration or new birth when we overcome temptations as therefore we are first borne children of God by Baptisme wherein we receive the infused vertues of Faith Hope and Charity so by contrition and confession after actuall sinne we are as it were new borne to God by his holy grace conferred on us againe and bringing back with it all those vertues and graces we had lost by reiterated sinnes But we are specially to note that this Text saith every thing that is borne of God overcommeth the world not every man because it is not by any naturall thing in man that he doth overcome sinne but by that which is supernaturall to wit Grace Faith Hope Charity and whence the Apostle saith immediately and this is the victory which overcomes the world our Faith by the victory he meanes the cause of our victory or the overcommer it selfe of the world whereupon Saint Leo Saint Cyprian and others said oftentimes a faithfull soule is farre greater then the world and one who is in heaven looks upon the earth as on a contemptible point so that it was most truly said of Saint Marke cap. 9. verse 23. All things are possible to him that beleeveth nay we see a strong and lively Faith hath in it a kinde of omnipotency when it commands as it were that to be done which none but God can do And what was it that brought the Infidell world and all the Monarchs thereof to the subjection of the yoke of Christ but Faith how then every way waâ— it true that Faith is the Victory or the Victrix rather that overcomes the whole world for by Faith we captivate our stubborne wils to reason and so quell as well the inward as the outward enemies to Christ and how doe Martyrs else by dying conquer death as Christ did on the Crosse but by dying for the Faith and in the Faith of Christ 5. None else indeed can doe it for in beleeving this we are forced to oppose all other that deny it and if in that opposition we lose our lives rather then our Faith we get the Victory of all the world that persecutes us for it and of death it selfe for he that beleeves this hopes in Iesus and hoping cals upon him and calling him to aide loves him and loving him takes courage to defie all his Enemies which are the world the flesh and the devill and in scorning them gets force to resist them and in resisting obtaines grace to overcome them 6. This is the Messias that Ezechiel cap. 36. v. 25. and Zachary cap. 13. v. 1. foretold should come in water and bloud alluding to the water of holy Baptisme and to the bloud he shed upon the Crosse and to verifie this both bloud and water issued out of his pierced side as he hung upon the Crosse as also of teares and bloud in his circumcision in his Prayer in the garden and in his whipping at the Pillory in memory of all which in the sacrifice of the Masse water is mixed with the wine that is to be consecrated By the Spirit testifying Christ to be verity is understood the holy Ghost descending and confirming the Apostles in grace and in beliefe of all that Christ had said unto them as if not onely a true man but God and man had told them and consequently verity it selfe for God is no lesse then very verity So Saint John rests not content to have given us the double Testimony of bloud and water without he had added also the sumnity or height of all Testimony the pure Spirit of Almighty God Nor are they out of the way that understand this place to be meant also of the testimony of the
shewing him the features and deformities of his soule according as he is truly in himselfe good or bad for that is the property of a glass to represent truly the object which is set before it and the Apostle in effect here says those that run to Churches or to their ghostly Fathers to hear onely what they say and do not put in execution their Counsels are like a man note t is not said a woman too too frequently looking there seeing his native his natural countenance not then his painted face in a glaâ—s for what indeed follows of this meer sight nothing but what is said in the next Verse forgetfulness which cannot tend to perfection and such an introspection men make into their souls by reading or hearing the word of God if there they persist and do not study to perfect themselves thereby and truly the Law or Word of God is rightly called a Glass because it represents to us that image of perfect creatures which God would have us to be it tells us what reward our Vertues shall have what punishment our Vices 24. The reason why a man sooner forgets his own face then anothers is because he never sees his own but by reflected Species in a Glass which are therefore weaker and less vigorous then if they came directly to his eye as those of another mans countenance do both directly and more frequently seen by any man then his own So no wonder if a man see and consider himself never so exactly for a time that he soon forgets himself and covets to see himself again whereas he much more perfectly remembers the Face and Features of anothers person then his own Now though it be needless for a man to look much into a material Glass which can onely shew him the outward man yet it is very recommendable for him to look into the spiritual Glass of Gods Word to read or hear that often thereby to see what is wanting to that ornament of Grace or Vertue which should render him a perfect image of our Saviour Jesus Christ but besides this often looking on himself he must be doing and practising upon himself namely adding this Vertue taking away that Vice or else he onely looks and forgets what he see or what he should make himself to be Note there are three kindes of hearers of Gods word the lazy the active the contemplative the first heare onely and forget indeed contemne the next heare and obey the third heare and dye imbracing it with all the powers of their soules and never let goe their imbracement again many are the Analogies betweene a glass and the word of God for first as in a glass is seene not a picture of a thing but the thing it selfe by a reflected species though not by a direct one soe by the word is seene the wil of God nay God himself since the word of the minde is seene by the word of the mouth as in a glass Againe as flat or plaine glasses represent the species equall to the object but convex or round glasses represent them less then they are and both the further off the weaker they represent them so the word of God plainly sincerely and without any crooked intention hearkened unto or read represents truly the will of God unto us but if we make this word a convex glass one swollen up with a bulk of pride or ambition to wrest it to our crooked senses then it represents the wil of God abridged shortned or lessened not entirely and plainely as it is in it selfe whence preachers must learne to be sincere and faithfull in the exposition of holy writ Againe as concave or hollow glasses placed against the Sun are apt to cast a heat and burne whatsoever combustible matter is neere them so the word of God looked on with an humble eye a dinted heart wherein it makes the hollow of a sweet impression sets on fire all the inordinate appetites to sinne burns up all the stubble of vicious inclinations and renders a soule burning bright in flames of love to Almighty God 25. By this verse it is cleer that the word of God is the glass here alluded unto because the Law of perfect liberty is that word of God the Law and life of Jesus Christ whereby we are made children of God not slaves to empty ceremonies onely as they under the slavish Law of Moses were he that hath looked fixedly not slightly into the glass of perfect liberty and hath remained in it not made a forgetfull hearer this man shall be blessed in his deed because his deed shal deserve a blessing by being such as this glass represents it should be note by perfect liberty is not here understood liberty to doe what we list so we beleeve aright as Luther hence pretended but first by liberty is here understood that which freeth us from the servility of the Mosaical Law next that which freeth us from the slavery to sinne and the devil thirdly that which freeth us from compulsion or feare but leaves us free to doe wel out of pure love to God not for fear of hel fourthly that liberty which by resurrection we shal have from death when we arise to life everlasting further by the close of this verse saying that man shall be blessed in his deed is meant he shal have the blessing here of grace in the next world of glory and that his blessing shal be given to his doing not to his contemplating what is to be done 26. By this place Saint James alludes to what he said in the nineteenth verse of this Epistle of being quick to heare and slow to speak and not to be angry for by the laxity of the tongue the hands are as it were tyed up from action and those men seldom do wel that are alwayes talking or vaunting in many words the little good they doe in deeds so that one kinde of doing the Law is a religious silence for religion imports as much as a binding up of the Law which consisteth in observing or doing it not in talking of it by the word bridling our tongues is insinuated as if the tongue were an unruly beast alwayes running away from reason unless bridled in thereby by seducing his heart is understood making it erre for a talking man seldome deceives others but often himselfe since they see the sin of petulance in his heart and so regard as little what he saith as himself doth what he speaks who is never doing wel whilest he speaketh too much or ill and such a mans religion is truly vaine by religion is here understood either that vertue of religion which makes a man render all his actions good towards God and his neighbor and is the first of moral vertues as charity is the first of divine ones or true Christianity profession of the true faith for even that is vaine if it be not made avayling by good workes annexed thereunto though here the Apostle his genuine sense is
fearing Judgment we fall into the errour of heretiâ—ks who presume they are certain of their salvation By fear therefore is here meant despair such as dejected consciences use to have whereas none such enters into those that have perfect charity Secondly he alludes to that fear which in Eccles 5 v. 5. we read of even for remitted sins be not without fear which yet a perfect lover needs not fear but this is said to imperfect lovers of God Thirdly he means servile fear such as makes us serve God meerly for fear of hell not filial fear for that is compatible with nay essential unto perfect love as we read Eccles 1.28 who is without fear namely filial cannot be justified because who ever truly loves is ever afraid to offend his beloved Fourthly this fear is worldly or humane such as men have to loose their estates or friends affections when to preserve these temporal trifles they hazard the losse of eternal blessings Fifthly this fear is scruple whereas perfect charity abandons all scruples and proceeds freely and frankly in her Actions according to that of St. Paul Rom. 8.15 You have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear but the spirit of adoption of sons wherein we cry Abba Father Lastly Charity banisheth all fear of punishment although it allowes fear of the fault that may deserve punishment for the soules in Purgatory are not troubled at their pains so much as they are to have deserved them by their faults which they are even willing to expiate so when he concludes this verse saying fear hath pain he means fear in these senses as above such as is said of war that the fear of war is worse then war it self and all fear which brings pain is opposite to charity that brings ease and content along with it not solicitude nor anxiety which shuts up mens hearts whereas perfect charity opens and dilates them 19. 20. 21. These three last verses are as it were recapitulatory and winding up the clew or threed of this amorous discourse which lead us into the delightful maze of love and hath brought us out again according as we heard in the exposition of the sixteenth verse adding here it is not only a counsel but a command from God that we love one another that we love our neighbour lest men should pretend it were enough to love God onely whereas indeed all the scope of St. John in this Epistle hath been to draw us to a love of one another by shewing how God hath loved us all without respect of persons and taught us to love even our enemies lest we should excuse our selves from that complement of perfect dilection which is a friendly loving of our enemies to shew we have no enemies at all but our own sins the onely things if we may so call them that we are or can be allowed not to love and indeed may perfectly hate them nay the more we do hate them the more we shall love our neighbours as finding we have no enemies of any but of our selves Note the Evangelist tells us we are lyers to say we love God if we love not our Brother because love is a passion leading us by the eye to the embracements of the objects that we see before our eyes if therefore a man looking upon God Almighties picture which himself hath made as he confesseth like himself and do not love that picture which he sees how can he love the prototype or original thereof God himself whom he sees not And truly the Logick of this discourse is convincing because love is first rooted in the object seen if therefore we do not love that object of God which we do see how can we without a blush be so impudent so irrational as to say we love the object which we do not see at all as well a blind man might tell us he sees and loves darknesse which is nothing but a privation of sight and light The Application 1. HAving now given for respect to the B. Trinity the religious preference this day to our first Act of Faith when according to the order of holy Churches services charity is held forth unto us as the chief vertue we are to exercise without intermission from hence forward untill Advent Sunday see now with how strong a flame of love the beloved disciple of our Lord opens his loving heart to day whilest his whole Epistle to us from the very first verse to the last is nothing else but a continual eruption of the burning charity within his loving breast O how necessary is it then for us to strike out of our flinty hearts some sparks of love at least to day who knowes but in time with frequent lesser acts we may at last produce the greatest that of love unto our enemies see how the eleventh verse above doth animate to this bidding us love each other as Christ hath loved us Alas what was there in us but enmity to him when he began to love us were we not all at that time children of wrath Search then beloved out to day the man or men you least affect nay those if any be that bear you hatred and so are brothers of wrath shew but a smiling countenance to them in testimony that you look upon them as Jesus lookt on you when least you loved him when most you hated him indeed then shall you best apply the present Text to your emolument 2. Do not say you hate dissimulation that you cannot smile on him you love not or on him that hateth you lest you seem base and abject minded lest you make your enemy insult the more to see you fawn upon him Fie fie beloved these are but the subtle arts of him that is our common enemy by these devices he deludes us into hell and robs us of our best inheritance this is to do as holy David sayes To search excuses for our sins 3. Say rather with St. Paul I can do all things in him that strengthens me say though this be against thy own corrupted nature yet it is most sutable to his who took upon him thy infirmity that he might help thee with his fortitude Hope then in heavens helping hand hope in the Holy Ghost hope in his holy Grace he came but lately with a magazin of Love to leave thee store enough to love thine enemies if thou canst not at the first both smile and love do thee but that and hope he will do this who can do more the holy Ghost I mean shew by the deed thou hast a wish at least to do it willingly that he may by his holy grace give thee a will to execute this hard command of his to love thine enemies as he hath loved thee frankly freely willingly Let no man say this is a good but not a proper counsel now When is it more proper Then when we pray as above that we may do it Then we best apply the Text to us when we apply our selves
cast an eye into their own consciences And since we are aptest still to be thus rash over enemies therefore the perfection of charity was under the notion of mercy premised before this subject of rash judgement was fallen upon by the Evangelist 42. The Evangelist neatly winds up all the bottome of doctrine this day intended to us upon the button of mercy which then lieth smoothest when it is shewed towards our enemies and then indeed we shew both mercy to them and discretion towards our selves when we spare censuring their little faults by introspection into our own much greater besides we run upon impossibilities when we pretend to see moats in other mens eyes that have beams in our own which take away all our sight from us and therefore in this verse the Evangelist askes how we can with any front or confidence go to looke moats in our neighbours eyes that have beames in our own The intent of this question is to make us absolutely forbear all rash judgement since we see the sight of our own reason is quite taken from us by our irrationall trespasses against the Law of God for upon the matter every sinne is an act against nature because it propends to the nothing out of which our nature was educed when we were created to be alwayes doing something in honour and glory of our Creatour And least we should not apprehend the Evangelist to be in earnest when he beats down this common errour of the world this correcting others in things we are our selves more faulty in then they this tyrannizing over our enemies by taking advantage of their small faults he calls it plain hypocrisie in us to go about censuring any body else untill we have purged our selves of all faults especially of all that are greater then those we hypocritically reprehend in others as if we were free from any such who yet abound in many far greater then they are which we rebuke our neighbour for To conclude by this Art the Evangelist cuts off all rash judgement for ever since he forbids it till we have lesse faults then those we find in others which no pious soul will ever judge of it self and consequently she will forbear all rash judgement which being commonly practised upon our enemies under the mask of hypocrisie to rectifie their errours then we shall hope we may begin to love them when we see we must not reprehend them rashly as for the most part men are prone to do So adding these instructions of perfect dilection which the Gospel affords to the former given us in the Epistle the doctrin proves compleat and we if perfect in it shall hope to be perfect as God is perfect who sent us his sacred Son to perfect us in such heavenly doctrine as this is The Application 1. WE have seen sufficiently the drift of the Expositours upon this present Text how they all conclude under the notion of mercy to recommend unto us the love of enemies and that no doubt because the strongest act of Faith should be accompanied with the most perfect act of charity as in the Illustration above was observed but the rather because as this day closeth up the Feast of Pentecost by making the Octave thereof sacred to the B. Trinity so we being supposed to have received newly the Holy Ghost into our Hearts should at this time especially give demonstration of it by producing the best act of charity thereby to shew how strongly his holy peace doth operate on our rebellious wills 2. And then assuredly we shall be able to work by the holy Ghost most strongly when we put all our Hope in his assistance when we acknowledge our own impotency and have recourse to his Omnipotency and when we humbly beseech his goodnesse to give us his holy grace that our first act of love after his departure from us may be such as aymes at least at the highest charity which is the love of enemies 3. It is St. Austins special counsel and that which commonly all ghostly Fathers give their Penitents that we set upon the amendment of our lives by proposing to our selves some one vertue which we will endeavour to perfect in us and by that meanes to conquer the opposite vice thereunto no way doubting if we can arrive to the perfection of any one vertue though we spend our whole life therein but that we shall dye Saints and get the victory of all sin whatsoever by being perfect masters of any one vertue If we will give holy Church leave to choose for us and surely she is best able to make the best choyce behold to day she chooseth charity for the vertue she would recommend and the best act of charity the love of enemies why should we be faint-hearted be it that beloved what if we begin imperfectly to do as we are bid even against our wills we shall in time be willing doers of God Almighties will herein If with holy Church we now begin to practise that for which we pray to day to perfect our actions by the perfection of our wills by doing good willingly for the love we bear to God and his Commandements On Sunday within the Octaves OF Corpus Christi The Antiphon Luk. 14.21 GO out quickly into the high wayes and streets of the city and compell the poor and feeble blind and lame to come in that my house may be filled Alleluja Alleluja Vers He hath fed them with the fat of wheat Alleluja Resp And hath filled them with honey out of the rock Alleluja The Prayer MAke us O Lord equally to have both a continual fear and love of thy Holy name because thou doest never leave them destitute of thy government whom thou doest instruct in the solidity of thy Law The Illustration WIth great reason this Prayer begs that we may equally fear and love the name of God since it is a Prayer as well adapted to the day of our Lord being the second Sunday after Pentecost as unto the now flowing Feast of the Blessed Sacrament in the Octaves whereof we are at present And since all Sundayes are dayes set apart for the service of God we do most properly on this day pray that we may ever sayntifie his holy name with equal fear and love unto the same which is as much as to say we should never receive the Blessed Sacrament now exposed in all Churches where Catholick Religion is freely practised but that we should as well have a regard to the fear we ought to have of Christ our Judge as to the love we ought to bear to the name of Jesus our Lord and Saviour who is most properly so called now because in the Blessed Sacrament we are in a manner actually saved by having heaven come down to us even before we are able or fit to go up to heaven And therefore this prayer beggs we may as equally at least love God under his best of names that of Jesus by which he is now exposed unto
be reall and not verball onely to be operative not idle or lazy for here the tongue is opposed to truth as dissimulation to sincerity and the word to the work as empty air to a purse full of money or as froth is to beer or wine To conclude hence we are taught further that we must not onely be effectually charitable but also we are bound to be affectionately so for it little avails to give alms unlesse we also love the poor whom we relieve and therefore love them because we relieve Christ in them and unlesse we give thus we sell our selves for popular applause by giving away our substance to purchase the empty air the shadows of vain commends and so lose a divine blessing as to the children of God to get a morall one as to be esteemed humane fathers of the world The Application 1. HItherto it hath appeared how exactly holy Church recommends unto us the practise of charity and truely this dayes Epistle confirms us in the same practise while it runnes wholly upon the subject of love so high that it seems to exceed even the last sundayes act of charity commanding then to love our enemies because now it exhorts us to do more then love them when v. 16. it invites to die for them also if need be which yet a true love of enemies involves as our Saviour did for us to shew his love unto us 2. And least we should pretend to love and not do it really see how the master of this Art S. John Evangelist in the last verse of this Epistle bids us take heed we do not feign the part we ought to act in earnest for he tells us 't is not enough to say we love unlesse we do it too no he obligeth us to love in deed to love in truth lest we seem to mock Almighty God by giving out we mean to act the best part of his sacred sonne his loving unto death those he pretended once to love according to that of the Evangelist Christ when he loved his people he loved them to his end that is he died for love of them 3. Hence we may safely say those are unworthy of the gift of love who have not in their hearts and eyes the holy fear of God as truely those can never have who dare to mock his sacred sonne by their dissembling love that is not reall No Christians no we are not yet in heaven where we cannot erre here we must carry fear before our eyes lest losing it we lose our labours too for without this holy fear we cannot work out our salvation nor can we hope to please his heavenly majesty unlesse we fear his power who is as well our Governour as our God and as we must love his Deity so we must fear his Government Whence it is holy Church most properly prayes to day as above The Gospel Luke 14. v. 16. c. 16. But he said to him A certain man made a great supper and called many 17. And he sent his servant at the houre of supper to say to the invited That they should come because now all things are ready 18. And they began all at once to make excuse The first said to him I have bought a farm and I must needâ— go forth and see it I pray thee hold me excused 19. And another said I have bought five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee hold me excused 20. And another said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come 21. And the servant returning told these things unto his Lord. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant Go forth quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and the poor and feeble and blind and lame bring in hither 22. And the servant said Lord it is done as thou didst command and yet there is place 23. And the Lord said to the servant Go forth into the wayes and hedges and compell them to enter that my house may be filled 24. But I say to you that none of those men that were called shall taste of my supper The Explication 16. THis parable is almost the same that was mentioned Mat. 22.2 only there in a different way time and place as under the name of a dinner and here it is brought in under the name of a supper And there are divers senses made upon this supper Some call it a parable of the Incarnation life and death of Christ and thus S. Matthew seems to take it calling it a dinner as to the Church militant and a supper to the Church triumphant Others apply this parable unto the Blessed Sacrament and those make God the Father master of this feast his sacred Sonne the feast it self made of his blessed body and bloud and in favour of this opinion the holy Church at this time reads this Gospel as alluding to the flowing feast of Corpus Christi But yet for all that the literall sense of this Gospel alludes to the last supper of heavenly glory for that is the true supper which ends the laborious day time and begins eternall rest that never shall have end so though many may be cast out of doors after the dinner of the Church militant yet none can be cast out after they once enter to this triumphant supper And for that cause the most genuine sense of this place alludes as S. Gregory saith hom 36. to the society of eternall sweetnesse and glory Where note that great signifies here all the degrees of greatnesse such a supper as none could be greater either for the rarity of the dainties and banquets thereof or for the splendour and duration of it whereof S. Paul 1. Cor. 2. v. 9. sayes Eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard neither hath it ascended into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him And to this supper he called many by many are here understood no lesse then even all the Jews who were the true Church and people of God and were called by the Patriarchs and Prophets by John the Baptist by Christ himself while he lived amongst them 17. But by his servants whom he sent are properly meant the Apostles left by him to convert these Jews as well as other nations And by the bower of supper here mentioned is understood the resurrection of our Saviour for then and not till then were all things ready for this great supper of glory because then he brought with him from his grave a multitude of blessed souls who therefore were in Paradise as he promised the thief to be that very day he died because they were in his impassible presence that is to say when he was pleased to allow his body the benefit of all the gifts due to glorious bodies so though they were not in the finall place of eternall rest untill they did ascend with him to heaven yet they were set at the table of glory with him and were carried
up sitting at this feast into the great presence-chamber of the sacred Trinity the Empyreall heaven and after his Ascension his servants the Apostles went round about the world to invite more and to tell them the great supper of glory was now ready for all that would go to it such way as thâ—se inviters would lead them namely in the high rode of professing and observing the faith and law of Christ 18. By all excusing themselves is here literally understood the Jewish nation whose eye was no further bent upon religion then as they expected a Messias that should make them all rich so grosly they understood the heavenly riches promised by the Messias as they believed them to be temporall estates And therefore here the first excuse is made by plea of necessity to looke after worldly wealth represented by the purchased village which was said to be newly bought by him that was content to sell the kingdom of heaven for a patch of earth But Saint Gregory hom 36. in Evang. notes the ill manners of this civility when the excusant sayes I pray thee have me excused for he calls it pride in the action though it seems humility in the voyce because he disdained heaven and preferred earth 19. The second excuse insists upon an other notable addiction of the Jewes to worldly wealth namely their huge great stocks they gloried in upon their grounds which we read Abraham Isaack Jacob and Job abounded in and which were looked on as the greatest blessings God could give so in regard of earthly stocks of Cattle they contemned the greater stock of Glory in the next world But St. Gregory in the place last cited will have these five yoak of oxen allude to our five senses distracting us from all heavenly objects 20. St. Gregory cited as above understands this place of carnall sinne the greatest impediment between a soul and glory of all others for here the excuser askes no pardon but boldly sayes he cannot come it seems he that could not wish he were able was wholly unable as well as he was absolutely unwilling while he did not say he would come another time as the former excuses might import but absolutely professed he could not come he had sure as little will as power and therefore he might have added he neither could nor would Though others more favourably say this place alludes onely to the excessive use of the lawfull marriage-bed which then is used in excesse when it is made a pretence to hinder us from the service of Almighty God And S. Ambrose expresseth much to this sense in few words saying The love of earthly things is like a birdlime upon the spirituall wings of our souls hindring her flight up to heaven But S. Augustine applies these three excuses to the three things that include all sorts of worldly pelf concupiscence of the flesh concupiscence of the eye and pride of life The first excuse reports to the pride that man had to see himself Lord of a Mannour The second to concupiscence of the eye to see a rich stock of cattell cover his grounds The third to concupiscence of the flesh that made this his excuse from going to heaven as if he did not hope for greater pleasure there and indeed riches and pleasure are the chief impediments mortalls have between them and eternall blisse 21. This place of the Parable alludes to Christ speaking of himself as servant to his heavenly Father and telling him the Rich men of the Jewes were all so transported with the love of the world as they gave no ear to the invitation of the eternal word calling them to everlasting rest and glory and that then his Father bid him apply himself to the poorer sort of Jewes which to effect was done when S. Matthew Chap. 21. 31. sayes to the Pharisees Scribes Doctours and high Priests rejecting Christ The Publicanes and whores shall go before you in the Kingdome of God as also the last shall be first and the first the last Others think this verified in the choyce Christ made of Fisher-men for his Apostles and of other poor Mechanicks rather then of Scribes and Pharisees as 1 Cor. 1.27 God chose the infirm things of this world to confound all the strength thereof and fooles to confound wise men and this to encourage the most contemptible creatures on the earth to aym at as great riches as heaven can afford if they live according to the rule and law of Christ 22. And here our Saviour urgeth his heavenly Father since all the poor people amongst the Jewes are not able to fill up the Court of heaven that as yet there may be more invited and then he went aside from the Jewes to the Samaritans and Gentiles converting them and so inviting of them to his heavenly Glory which is the Supper here spoken of 23. But we are here to note that Christ looked upon these Gentiles in respect of his beloved people the Jewes as he would do upon men that have no poor beeings in Townes or Villages but are forced to shelter themselves under the banks on high wayes and to covet the loane of hedges for their shelter from winds and weather and therefore being himself after his resurrection to ascend to heaven he sent his Apostles over all the world to find out such poor Gentiles as these who in respect of the Jewes were not held worthy in Gods sight to be esteemed as Masters of Townes Villages or houses but were like vagabonds yet these not filling heaven neither see how he makes provision for relapsed Christians also as men equally miserable with such vagabonds and those he will have by Ecclesiastical censures nay by penal lawes to be even compelled or forced to return to their belief again which yet is not a course used to any but revolted Christians such as once were in the lap of the true Church by holy Baptisme and they indeed as having once been children and Subjects of the mother Church of Christ may upon revolt be compelled back again whereas Pagans Jewes or Infidels cannot be thus forced by penal lawes but must in a sweet way be gained to a right belief through perswasion not compulsion 24. This verse is onely the excluding those from eternal glory who being invited to it will not leave temporal riches and pleasures to purchase the Kingdome of heaven but willingly wallow in the mire of worldly wealth rather then they will leave that to enjoy eternal felicity and glory The Application 1. AS this Gospel in the sense of the Expositours alludes to the Blessed Sacrament whose Feast is now flowing so is it fit we should observe therein such lessons as we are bound to learn and put in execution for our more worthy receiving which we may for brevity sake reduce to two the one a reverential awe or holy fear of unworthinesse the other a fervent act of love and charity because in this Sacrament is not onely the body and bloud of
our Saviour Jesus Christ but the Majesty and power of Almighty God indeed all the three persons of the B. Trinity so that to requite the love of him who made his Body be our food we are bound to come unto this Sacrament with acts of charity and to avoid the danger of unworthy receivers we are obliged to come unto it with all the fear and trembling we can that is to say by going first to confession and purging our conscience not onely from such sins as we are guilty of but even from inordinate affections to things that are not sin since we see in this Gospel those who had onely such affections were excluded from the Supper that was a Type of this holy Sacrament 2. Again since it was an act of the highest wisdome the second Person of the B. Trinity to contrive himself a Tabernacle in the soules of men wherein his infinite glory might take delight to dwell in hearts that had but a care to keep themselves in his good grace as the Priest sayes to day in holy office Wisdome hath built her self a House meaning amongst other senses Jesus Christ hath made himself a Tabernacle in humane soules that worthily receive the B. Sacrament it is but requisite we shew some zeal to his wisdome as well as to his Love namely that we bring with us to this heavenly banquet such a holy fear as may give testimony we aym at a reverence to his infinite wisdome while we shew a sign that we begin at least our selves to be wise by the best argument of humane wisdome holy fear according to that of Eccles 1. The beginning of wisdome is the fear of our Lord. 3. Nor will it be against the main scope of Christianity which is now continually to perfect charity in us while we joyn other vertues with our acts of love because though love must ever be included in all we say or do yet there is no vertue therefore to be excluded but any one or more may well go hand in hand with charity nay she indeed should never go alone being the Queen and Soveraign of all other vertues so they do but usher her where ere they go in her company as to day we are taught to lead our charity into the Church with a holy feare of our Lord. For which purpose we pray to day that we may come unto this holy Sacrament with equal fear with equal love and that for the reasons alledged in the Prayer as was said in the application of this dayes Epistle On the third Sunday after Pentecost The Antiphon Luk. 15.8 WHat woman if she have Ten groates if she have lost one groat doth she not light a Candle and sweep the house and search diligently untill she hath found it Vers Let my prayer O Lord be directed Resp Even as Incense before thee The Prayer O God who art the Protectour of those that hope in thee without whom nothing is valid nothing holy multiply we beseech thee over us thy mercy that thou being our ruler thou our guide we may so passe by the temporal goods of this world as not to loose the eternall of the next The Illustration SEe how in this excellent Prayer are summed up the contents of the Epistle and Gospel of the day how exactly do we in the beginning of this prayer observe the counsel given us in the Epistle humbling our selves under the mighty hand of God when we implore his protection over us confessing that without him nothing is valid nor holy in us and that we have no other title to his protection neither then his multiplyed mercies towards us upon which mercy we cast all our care all our hope and in confidence thereby to have him our ruler him our guide we commit our selves to the combat against all our enemies which we are to encounter in our passage through this alluring world beseeching his Divine Majesty that by our sober vigilancy over our own actions day and night accompanying his never failing conduct we may maugre opposition obtain the victory and receive the crown of Glory which this prayer petitions Behold it also as well adjusted to the Gospel For who doth not clearly see that whilest he shall not with the Publican hang upon our Saviours lips to hear his counsels and commands but runs his own wayes with the murmuring Pharisee he is presently a lost sheep and falls into sin if not to heresie as this parable imports and so in stead of onely passing by the pleasures of this world as the Prayer above adviseth he contrariwise dwelling on them in the swing of his own inordinate desires indangers his loosing heaven unlesse the good shepherd leave his flock in the desert by his being content for a time to see them want the comfort of his presâ—nce and consolation whilest he runs after his lost sheep and with much care finding him out brings him with joy back again to the Catholike Church if he were gone quite out of it or to Sacramental pennance if he were plunged into the mire of other grievous sins not schisme nor heresie But to come more home to our purpose whenâ—e is all this trouble to our Pastour but because the sheep do not with zeal and fervour say this prayer above do not hope in God but in themselves do not flye the roaring and the ranging lyon but run into his Jawes do not content themselves to feed in the pleasant pastures of holy conversation but run a hunting after the food of vain and worldly pleasures and consequently plunge themselves headlong into hell unlesse by the mercy of this heavenly shepherd they be reduced to an amendment of their lives and at last rewarded with eternal glory Whereunto it will hugely conduce to repeat this prayer often with such relation as we see it hath to the other parts of this dayes Service that so the sheep may do as the Pastour sayes This is the end of all preaching This the end of all prayer The Epistle 1 Pet. 5.6 c. 6 Be ye humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in the time of visitation 7 Casting all your carefulnesse upon him because he careth for you 8 Be sober and watch because your adversary the devill as a roaring lyon goeth about seeking whom he may devour 9 Whom resist ye strong in Faith knowing that the self same affliction is made to that your fraternity which is now in the world 10 But the God of all grace which hath called us unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus he will perfect you having suffered a little and confirm and establish you 11 To him be Glory and Empire for ever and ever Amen The Explication 6. THis verse exhorts to resignation unto the Divine Will in all occasions especially of adversity No marvel the hand of God is here called mighâ—y when it is omnipotent See how we are wooed into our own felicity when we are exhorted to humility and
meant a servile one neither such as servants are in towards their Masters but a filial one such as Children are in towards their Parents For then we best fear Christ when we love him most so by the fear of Christ is here understood also the love of him which makes us subject our selves to those superiours whom he hath placed over us Note lastly though superiours may and must bear a commanding hand outwardly over their Subjects yet they may and must to be perfect be even subject that is think themselves inferiour to their own Subjects in the sight of God as if God were better pleased with the Subjects obedience then with the superiours commands for this latent subjection is compatible even with open superiority and in this sense the Apostles words requiring all perfection in both parties may exhort to an absolute mutual subjection unto one another in the fear of Christ The Application 1. SAint Paul in the three first Verses of this Epistle exhorts the Ephesians to a wary and wise walking because the dayes are evil And least they should not understand what he meant by this he concludes those are wary and wise steps which are made according to the will of God In the fourth Verse he dehorts from Drunkenness and Riots but allows Repletion with the spirit In the three last Verses he shews evident signes of spiritual repletion as singing forth the praises of God and giving him thanks in the Name of his sacred Son who hath set us in so sweet a way of government as that our subjection to one another is without all fear but that of offending Jesus Christ 2. What can our charity cull out of this but that she ought to day so warily so wisely to walk as if she were passing some narrow stony Lane full of Thorns so that every step she made must be with hazard of a trip or stumble if not of salling too or at least of running a thorn into her foot and crippling her self And such she may presume the passage is when either the stone of scandall lies in her way or the briar of vainglory in her own actions that are good and laudable for in such occasions she must first by prayer indeavour to understand the will of God which never allows of scandalizing others under the fairest pretext that can be made of doing good He that says Wo be to the world from scandals knew it was not onely the ruine of him that gave it but of all that took it And when we read that to God alone is due all honour and glory we are forbid to arrogate either of them to our selves for that were to set up a Pew or seat for the Devil in the Quier of Jesus Christ and to sing the Dirge of our own damnation instead of praising and glorifying God for having done that good work in us which he is ready to crown with our salvation if we shall religiously ascribe all praise to him all blame to our selves To conclude then we are rightly subject to man according to the will of God when we dare displease the first to please the last saying with the Apostle If I should yet seek to please men I were not the servant of God meaning in those things onely where man commands against the will of God 3. But holy Church is not content to point us out our way to tell us what we are to do she further is solicitous to beg of God that he will give us grace to do as we are taught and this she begs to day so artificially as if she hop'd to prevent all sin by asking pardon for it ere it were committed under pretence that God would never suffer right believers to be other then faithfull lovers too exact performers of his holy will so far as in them lay Yet because our Beings are forc'd out of the Nothing that we were before God made us Be therefore all our actions so far as they are ours tend to the Nothing that we were for which cause holy Church gives it for granted all we do must needs be Nothing for so we may well call sin and therefore without scruple she begs a pardon for mistreading even in her most wary walking she begs a peace before the war be made to shew she makes a war against her will at least while she sins of frailty not of malice and thence petitions that being by the grace of God purg'd from the guilt of all offence she may serve his divine Majesty securely with a contented soul such as freed from fear of any thing but sin and flying that can like the early Lark rise from the earth singing the praises of Almighty God Say now the Prayer above and see if it import not full as much as this The Gospel Iohn 4. v. 46. c. 46 And there was a certain Lord whose Son was sick at Capharnaam 47 And having heard that Jesus came from Jury into Galilee he went to him and desired him that he would come down and heal his Son for he began to die 48 Jesus therefore said to him unless you see signes and wonders you believe not 49 The Lord saith to him Lord come down before that my Son die 50 Jesus said to him go thy Son liveth the man believed the word that Jesus said to him and went 51 And as he was going down his servants met him and they brought word saying that his Son lived 52 He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he was amended and they said to him that yesterday at the seventh hour the Feaver left him 53 The father therefore knew that it was in the same hour wherein Jesus said to him thy Son liveth and himself believed and his whole house The Explication 46. SAint Irenaeus will have the Centurion of whom Saint Matthew speaks in his eighth Chapter to be this Lord whom here Saint John mentions but it is more probable to be another because that Centurion did believe by the motive of this precedent cure and seeing Christ ready to go to his servant stopt him and said he needed not give himself the trouble of that labour but it would suffice if he did command the cure by a word of his mouth Matth. 8.8 whereas this Lord presseth Christ to go Again that Centurion asked the cure of a Palsie this Lord of a Feaver That Christ going and almost coming near him cured this he did not go unto nor stir towards Hence this must needs be a different cure from that and was indeed precedent to it as we said above 47. Note this Lord went from Capharnaam to Cana in Galilee fourteen Leagues off out of the fame he had heard of Christ his great cures but not believing this was done by any other then humane means he asked him rather as a famous Doctour then as otherwise qualified to come unto his son and cure him or if he did believe he could cure by touching the diseased yet he did not
eternall glory and by our cooperating with him give us the rewards of his own operations in us whom he makes labour in his vineyard here a while that he may set us in eternall rest at his own heavenly table where though he be pleased to delight in us yet we shall be the onely gainers by enjoying him for he gets nothing but to be content that we get all by being but willing to present our selves to him as the humane subjects wherein he is pleas'd to produce the divine work of our salvations while he is satisfi'd to call us his fruit that he may be our food for all eternity Thus we are taught in the prayer above and may saying it with the same spirit that made it saint our selves as is desir'd we should by the holy Ghost who gave us this sainting prayer for that holy purpose FINIS On VVhitsunday The first Prayer O God who on this day hast taught the hearts of the Faithful by the Illumination of the holy Ghost grant unto us in the same spirit to relish those things that are right and ever to rejoyce in his Consolation The Secret SAyntifie we beseech thee O Lord our offered gifts and mundifie our hearts by the Illustration of the Holy Ghost The post-Communion LEt the infusion of the Holy Ghost O Lord purifie our hearts and fertilize them by the inward aspersion of his heavenly dew On Trinity Sunday The first Prayer ALmighty everlasting God who hast granted to thy servants in confession of the true Faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of Majestie to adore unity we beseech thee heartily that in the firmnesse of the same Faith we may ever be defended from all adversity The Secret SAyntifie we beseech thee our Lord God by the invocation of thy holy name the Hoste of this oblation and render us thereby unto thy self an eternal present The post-Communion GRant O Lord God that the receiving of this Sacrament and the confession of the sempiternal Holy Trinity and of the undivided unity thereof may avail us to the health both of our body and soul On the first Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God the strength of those that trust in thee be mercifully present to our prayers and because without thee mortal infirmity is of no ability grant the assistance of thy grace that in doing what thou dost command we may please thee both in word and will The Secret VOuchsafe appeased we pray thee to accept of these our offerings dedicated to thee O Lord and grant that unto us they may afford perpetual help The post-Communion BEing filled with so great gifts grant O Lord we beseech thee that while we receive these wholsome boones we may never cease from praising thee On Sunday within the Octaves of Corpus Christi being the second after Pentecost The first Prayer MAke us O Lord equally to have both a continual fear and love of thy holy name because thou dost never leave them destitute of thy government whom thou doest instruct in the solidity of thy Love The Secret MAy this oblation sacred to thy name purifie us O Lord we beseech thee and from day to day carry us to such actions as conduce unto our heavenly life The post-Communion NOw that we have received thy sacred gifts we beseech thee O Lord that together with frequenting this mysterie the effect of our salvation may increase On the third Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God who art the Protectour of those that hope in thee without whom nothing is valid nothing is holy multiply we beseech thee over us thy mercy that thou being our ruler thou our guide we may so passe by the temporal goods of this world as not to loose the eternal of the next The Secret LOok we beseech thee O Lord upon the offerings of thy suppliant Church and grant that what we are to receive may by perpetual sanctification prove unto the health of thy believing people The post-Communion MAy thy holy things O Lord received quicken us and prepare us being expiated for thy everlasting mercy On the fourth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee that by thy order our course in this world may be peaceably directed and that thy Church may enjoy a quiet devotion The Secret BE pacified O Lord we beseech thee having received our oblations and propitiously compell unto thee our even rebellious wills The post-Communion MAy the received mysteries O Lord purifie us and by their bounty defend us On the fifth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God who hast prepared invisible good things for those that love thee infuse into our hearts the desire of thy love that loving thee in all things and above them all we may attain unto thy promises which surpasse even all our desires The Secret BE O Lord propitious upon our supplications and take unto thee benignely these offerings of thy servants of both sexes that what every one hath presented in honour of thy name may profit all of us to our salvation The post-Communion WHom thou O Lord hast filled with thy heavenly gifts grant we beseech thee that we may be cleansed from our hidden sinnes and delivered from the snares of our enemies On the sixth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God of powers to whom all belongs that is best ingraft in our breasts the love of thy holy name and grant in us the increase of Religion that thou mayest nourish those things which are good and being so nourished maintain them by the practise of pietie The Secret TAke unto thee O Lord benignely these oblations of thy people and be propitious upon our supplications and that no ones desires be frustrate no ones request in vain grant we beseech thee that what we ask faithfully we may obtain efficaciously The post-Communion WE are O Lord full with thy gifts we beseech thee grant that we may be cleansed by their effect and defended by their help On the seventh Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer O God whose providence is so disposed as it never can be frustrated remove we humbly beseech thee all things that are hurtfull and grant whatsoever may be beneficiall unto us The Secret O God who hast concluded the diversity of the legall hosts under the perfection of one sacrifice receive the same from thy devout people and sanctifie it as thou diddest the offerings of Abel that what every one tenders thee in honour of thy Majesty may avail to the health of us all The post-Communion MAy thy medicinall operation clemently free us from our perversities and bring us to those things that are right On the eighth Sunday after Pentecost The first Prayer GRant us O Lord we beseech thee propitiously the spirit of thinking and doing what is right that as we cannot be without thee so we may live unto thee The Secret REceive O Lord we beseech thee what of thy
any legall servitude imposed on man as punishment of his sins against God for this servitude tooke hold on the Individuals of humane nature not of the nature it selâ—e and since our Saviours Individuall person was one with that of God the second person of the Blessed Trinity he was not a Servant by any legall servitude falling on his person and so even his humane nature though servile as a creature was not yet servile as a sinfull man because he had not the least guilt of sinne in him and thus we see in captives humane nature is no slave though the man that is taken be made so when then we say humane nature was corrupted in Adam we doe mean every childe of Adam received a contagion or corruption from him and yet humane nature in the line of a creature to God was not corrupted so as to be a less perfect creature then it was before for that had been to corrupt the Essence not the Persons of mankinde whereas sin onely corrupted his State and not his Essence the Persons contracting Humane Nature and not the Nature of man it self for if so Christ being man made of that Humane Nature must have been corrupted in that nature at least which yet he was not By the Similitude of man in this verse we are to understand literally the external shape of man not the accidental or phantastical as the Hereticks said but the substantial and real shape though St. Augustine takes it here as for the predicament of habit which consists in Garments or Clothing and likens Christs Humanity to be as a Garment covering his Divinity or as Iron is made fiery or as Gold is made a Statue and even in that Sence the thing is as true as it is ingeniously expressed by St. Augustine By being made as man is not to say onely like man and not to be truly such but like here signifies to be so like as it is the very same as if a Statue should from a dead Stone be made move as a man moveth eat as a man eateth speak as a man speaketh why still by every one of these gradations the Statue becomes more like a man then it was before and when at last it had all the Faculties of a man it became as man indeed that is to say not onely like but really and truly man In this Sence our Saviour was said to be as man as if we said though he were truly God yet he did not appear to be so but appeared onely to be as man which truly he was as well as he was God 8. This humility was not an Act of God the Son to God the Father for so there is no commanding Power in the one over the other but of his Humanity both to his own Divine Person and to his heavenly Father too by dying on the Cross in vertue of this command Christ did humble himself as low as could be in regard no death was so vile and contemptible as that on the Cross was in the esteem of man in those days though since even for reverence no man is executed in that kinde so Christs Humility made this contempt become reverentiall 9. For the which Act of Humility and Obedience God hath exalted him his Humanity for his Deity could not be exalted and given him a name Here we are to note Calvins pervisity who took such a hatred against the Church for the Doctrine of merit that he hence denied Christ the honour of meriting this Exaltation by his Humiliation but says that for which is to be taken consecutively or consequently not causally as who should say after his Humility God rewarded him by exalting of him but not for his Humility or for the merit thereof which yet is an abominable Impiety and Heresie whereas we allow Christ by his Death not onely to have merited for mankind redemption whereof himself had no need who was from his first Conception Blessed by his Hypostatical Union but even for himself the Glory of his Body and the endowments of a glorious Body the highest place in Heaven above Saints and Angels nay the very setting at the right hand of God the Power to Judge all the world and the dominion over Heaven and Earth which were not onely due to him as united to his Deity but as merited by his Passion further he merited to have a name that is above all names and such a name it was when Christ was called God and the Son of God the name of the Messias so famous in this world lastly the name of Jesus and Redeemer of all mankinde which name though it were given him in circumcision yet it was not divulged to all the world till he was crucified so then he was truly said to have merited that name of Saviour and many times names are given to foretell what such men will merit before they dye thus was the Blessed Name of Jesus given to Christ foretelling how richly he would deserve to be called Saviour of the world 10 In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow because this name is greater then ever any other was for Jehovah which signified God creating and was the greatest that ever had before been heard of is not so great as God redeeming and that is meant by the name of Jesus whence the Church boldly says it had nothing availed us to be born unless to have been redeemed had made our birth availing to us So it is a greater abuse to blaspheme the name of Jesus then the name of God because God gave us more Grace and Benefit by our Redemption then he did by our Creation and Jesus includes both God and Saviour which God alone doth not whence the very Angels who were not redeemed bow their knees to the name of Iesus as convertible with that of God and therefore all mankinde hath much more reason so to do for the Devils they would refrain to honour it perhaps if they could but as it is they cannot since if no otherwise they must adore Man in the Person of God ever since Iesus took Humane Nature upon him 11. And every tongue not onely all Nations upon the Earth first or last shall confess that our Lord Iesus is in the Glory of his Father but every tongue of Angels and Devils as well as of Men and by saying he is in the glory of God the Father is understood more then that he sâ—tteth at his right hand namely that he is equal in Glory to God the Father since Iesus is not onely Man but joyntly God withal So that the summity or highest pitch of Iesus his praise is indeed this that the Man Iesus being God as well as Man is though as man much inferiour yet as God even equal to the Heavenly Father in Glory Power Majesty Goodness and all the other Attributes Divine which are given to Almighty God The Application 1. MOrtification Prayer and Alms-Deeds Perseverance in good Purposes The Fear of God and Holy Poverty were
the good works that help to Sanctifie the First weeks Fast of Lent Chastity of Body and Purity of Soul The Second The Love of Enemies Declining evil Talk and evil Company Hearing the Word of God keeping it in our Hearts and Speaking forth the Praises of our Lord The Third Alacrity of Soul joyn'd with Contrition Decency and Order in the Rights of Holy Church and the Fruit of Joy if not all the other twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost after Communion the Fourth Compassion and a perfect Resignation to our Saviours Passion Integrity and Innocency of Life The Passion Week Adde now to these this Holy Week to make the Fast Compleat Patience Humility and Obedience besides the Contempt of the World recommended in the following Gospel so shall we do as we are taught this holy Time of Lent and as we Pray we may to share in the Joyful Resurrection according as we Fasting thus condole with Jesus in his Sacred Passion 2. Let not the first Verse of this Epistle stagger us beloved seeming to require not onely these three Vertues from us for the accomplishing our Holy Fast but those in some degree of perfection answerable to the like Vertues in our Blessed Saviour so that it is his Invincible Patience his Profoundest Humility and his most Prompt Obedience we are to imitate His Patience St. Paul 2 Thes 3. presumes to bid us pray for saying Our Lord direct our Hearts in the Charity of God and in the Patience of Christ His Humility himself bids us imitate Matth. 11. v. 29. Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart His Obedience we come neerest to at greatest ease in loving one another since he says Joh. 15. ver 12. This is my Precept That you love each other as I lov'd you and this obedience we bring neerest home to his when as he dy'd for us all in obedience to his heavenly Father we dye for one another in Testimony of our obedience to this his Precept as all Martyrs do or when we rather choose to dye to Nature by not sinning then to Grace by breaking our obedience to his least Commands 3. Thus shall we with a general view see what we ought to have been at this time of Lent and with a particular regard behold our present duty proper to this Holy Week that being dead to sin we may live to Grace that being buried with Christ we may rise with him to Glory since onely they deserve to share with him in the Joy of his Resurrection who by imitating of his Vertues are partakers with him in his bitter Death and Passion According as we pray above we may The Gospel Matth. 21. v. 1 c. 1 And when they drew nigh to Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto Mount Olivet then Jesus sent two disciples 2 Saying to them Go ye into the town that is against you and immediately you shall finde an Ass tyed and a Colt with her loose them and bring them to me 3 And if any man shall say ought unto you say ye that our Lord hath need of them and forthwith he will let them go 4 And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet saying 5 Say ye to the daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh to thee meek and sitting upon an Ass and a Colt the fole of her that is used to the yoke 6 And the Disciples going did as Jesus commanded them 7 And they brought the Ass and the Colt and laid their garments upon them and made him sit thereon 8 And a very great multitude spread their Garments in the way and others did cut boughes from the trees and strewed them in the way 9 And the multitudes that went before and that followed cryed saying Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord. Hosanna in the highest The Explication 1. NOte that St. Mark Mark 11. ver 2. and St. Luke Luke 19. ver 29. relating this Passage mention Bethania which yet is here omitted the reason they speak of it was for that Bethania Bethphage and Ierusalem are all three neer together and St. Iohn Cha. 12. v. 1. makes mention of our Saviours Supping the night before in Bethania so they name the place whence he came as well as those he passed by and went unto Jerusalem whereas St. Matth. mentions onely those places he passed by which were Bethphage and Mount Olivet before he came unto the valley of Josaphat which lay just in view of the City through which valley runs the river Cedron As for Bethphage it is so called as signifying the Mouth of the valley because it is placed just at the entrance into Iosaphat and is as it were the mouth thereof so it is called the House of the Mouth in the Hebrew Tongue because through a little narrow passage out of Bethphage close by the Mount Olivet they go into the valley of Iosaphat and then at a Golden gate in to the Temple which stands without the City of Jerusalem Hence Bethphage is thought to be the place where the Priests of the Temple living all provisions for Sacrifices were made ready Lambs Goats Oxen Pigeons Turtles and the like and therefore Christ was pleased to pass this way through the Golden gate into Jerusalem to shew he was the lamb of God who came to be sacrificed for the sins of the people and that it was his sacred Person whom the Paschal Lamb did prefigure As also for this cause he came from Bethania when he had a little before raised Lazarus from his grave and passed now triumphantly through the valley of Josaphat into the earthly Jerusalem to declare that in the same valley he was to come much more triumphantly as Judge over all the dead who should at the latter day be raised and carrying the Blessed onely with him into the heavenly City of Jerusalem would leave the wicked to eternal confusion as those who now conspired his death after this Triumph were to be left over to utter destruction both â—â—ey and their famous City what two Disciples were sent is not certain some say Philip and Peter some Peter and John it boots little who they were though the two latter are more likely because they were those for certain that went afterward to provide the Pascal Lamb which Christ did eat with his Disciples 2. Whether Christ spake these words between Bethania and Bethphage or after he came past Bethphage is uncertain if before then probably he meant by the Town against you Bethphage if after then he meant some little village by it for certainly all agree it was not meant of Jerusalem because in the Latine it is called a little Castle 3. In this verse is shewed both the Deity of God and his Dominion or power over all things the first that he could see things absent the second that he could command them to be presently brought unto him without any contradiction onely
spend the time present and to come religiously but even to redeem the time past which they had misspent or else it needed not to be redeemed but that he did account it quite lost unto them who had not spent it well Now the best way to redeem past time ill spent is to be sure that every instant of time be not onely well imployed but that in it over and above some good deed be superadded more then rigorously we are bound unto with intention to redeem time past thereby and this may be done by prayers mortification almes contrition and tears laid down upon the account of misspent time before so that as we secure every instant of present time by doing good all the while it flowes away from us we shall likewise redeem our lost time past if we produce an act of sorrow for it and let our repentance for not having done well heretofore accompany our well doing for the present Note the dayes are not said to be evil that there is any malice or iniquity intrinsecal to time which is no other thing then the suns motion and this we may call the measure of al other movings but that the malice of an evil action which takes up time whilst it is in doing is of so malignant a nature in the sight of God that it renders the doer of it and the time wherein 't is done ungratefull to his divine Majesty and consequently as that man is evil who doth ill so that time is accounted evil also which is spent in evil doing and since there is no man that doeth good of himself no not one Ps 13.3 therefore the Apostle reflecting on what we do of our selves sayes absolutely the dayes are evil are rendred such by our evil deeds And that they may be good he exhorts us in the following verse 17. That we become not unwise in wasting time by following our own imaginations but wise in studying to understand what is the will of God namely to spend our time in acts of virtue not in idlenesse or sinfull courses 18. And for instance that this was his true meaning the Apostle gives us warning above all others of that idlenesse and wicked course of life which drunkards spend their time in who seem to drink off their own damnation by every cup of drink they take in any notable excesse or as if they did begin a health to the devil and he to pledge them swallowed the drinkers of his health up into the pit of hell This seem to be affirmed by the instance of the effect that follows drunkenness or rather by the description of it what it is when S. Paul saies it includes riotousnesse in it self it exposeth men to all sort of sin and we know whither the great master of Ryots Dives went immediately to hell so do all his followers that die guiltie of that soul-swallowing-sin of drunkennesse for few there are who once give way to this absorbing vice that ever leave it off because it brings them to wantonnesse quarrels and what not besides so consequently great is the danger of it and therefore the Apostle names it here as the greatest or one notorious mis-spending of time principally to be avoided by Christians But if your thirst be such as you must alwaies be quenching of it and so endanger being drunk loe S. Paul gives you a safe and lawful cup whereof he allowes you to drink your fill the cup of spirit not of material liquours but such as the Apostles drank when their hearers thought them drunk Act. 2.13 14. though they were not so save onely that by the plenitude of the holy Ghost of the cup of grace they did seeme to be like drunken men 19. Alwaies talking both in Church and house at home and abroad of the Almighty God of heaven or of heavenly things as if the wine of grace had set our tongues a running so as we could not hold our peaces and yet to shew what cup it was we were filled with our talk ought to be spiritual even singing as commonly drunkards do but differently from them spiritual hymnes and canticles praising Almighty God for our spiritual inebriation and this even in our hearts as the Apostle adviseth which argues our heads are not to be full of drink but our hearts full of love that is our soules full of grace So here we see the difference between brutish and spiritual drunkards the one is feeding full the other fasting the one prating the other preaching the one howling the other singing the one wallowing in the mire of sin the other swimming in the sea of grace and see one more admirable difference that even while our tongues are silent our hearts and soules are singing the praises of Almighty God when they are drunk in spirit This the Apostle saies in plain tearmes while he bids the Ephesians and in them us Christians sing in our hearts which may be done not onely while we hold our peaces but while we waking pray mentally nay while we sleep or which is more while we are extatically rapt in a deep contemplation more benumming our outward senses then soundest sleep can do and in such a circumstance was S. Paul himself when he was rapt to the third heavens and said of himself he knew not whether his soul were in or out of his body 2 Cor. 12.2 but well he knew that his heart was singing praise and glory to his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to Almighty God And the best evidence of our being thus spiritually drunk is when we are alwayes chearfull in our countenances and speeches whatsoere befall us in our persons sickness or health peace or persecution favour or frowns of Princes or the like 20. Giving God the Father alwayes thanks for all in the Name of Jesus Christ good or bad that shall betide our persons that is to say taking good as encouragements to deserve better bad as punishments to terrifie us from continuing to do ill And while the Apostle bids us live alwayes giving God the Father thanks in his Sons Name who gave him the best be alludes unto the double title by which God requires these continual thanks at our hands first as he is God and Master of all goodness secondly as he is our Father incessantly imparting part of his inexhaustible goodness unto us 21. By being here subject to one another is not understood denial of all superiority as some would fondly infer but the speech is indefinite not determining how many shall be subject and how many command yet absolutely commanding Subjects to obey their Superiours Children their Parents in the fear of our Lord for fear lest our Lord punish those that break this command not by the penance which superiours here impose upon the offenders but by eternal or at least far greater purgatory punishments to be inflicted on them by our Saviour the Judge of all the Universe then any this world can afford And yet by this fear is not