two observations 1. It appears in St. Matthew that the Angel called him Jesus before he was born yea before he was conceived Luke i. 31. it was Gabriels message to Mary Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus Men called him so after he was born and circumcised Idem quippe Angeli salvator hominis hominis ab incarnatione Angeli ab initio creaturae for the same Lord is the Saviour both of Angels and Men of Angels before he was born from the beginning of the world of Men in the fulness of time after he was born That is the second person in Trinity being the eternal Son of the Father did confirm the good Angels in grace that they should never fall and the same person incarnate being the Mediator of God and Man did redeem the Elect that they should rise again from their sins and reign with him in glory 2. The complete imposition of the name was at his circumcision when he first shed his Blood as if his Death had been foretold as soon as he was born it would cost him blood not a few drops of the foreskin but the very blood of the heart to be called Jesus In Circumcision he was called a Saviour at his Passion the word Jesus was wrote upon the Cross then his enemies confest he was a Saviour In circumcisione non fuit actu perfecto sed destinatione salvator in Circumcision it was told by destination what he should be and incompleatly and by inchoation what he was It was a sign of servitude and of taking the guilt of sin to be Circumcised it was a sign of ignominy and reproach to be Crucified but this name exalted him and defended him against the bad opinion of the world when he was called at the one time in the Temple and entitled on the Cross at the other Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews To drive this point no longer about the honour of the imposition of the name this is the sum Angels and Men had their several shares in the dignity to give this attribute to our Lord but the name was grounded in his own nature of exceeding mercy and in his office of reconciliation therefore God alone could give him this name Innatum est ei nomen hoc non inditum ab humana aut Angelica natura says Bernard the name was bred with him and not imposed by men or Angels A name so royally impos'd must include a great deal of excellency that 's the next point Gallio the Deputy of Achaia was a great scorner of Religion and because Paul magnified Christ and the Jews blasphemed him Gallio said it was a controversie of words and names and he would not meddle with it it was not worth the while The name of Christ was beyond Gallio's reach to judge upon it David makes a great account of that which he did villifie Thou hast magnified thy name and thy word above all things Psal cxxxvii The names of God Jehovah are his names as a Creator and yet to be magnified above all things but the name of Jesus adds above his power of creation his goodness of saving and redemption Nihil nasci profuit nisi redimi profuisset it had been unbeneficial to be created unless we had been happily redeemed His Words his Actions his Miracles his Prayers his Sacraments his Sufferings all did smell of the Saviour Take him from his Infancy to his Death among his Disciples and among the Publicans among the Jews or among the Gentiles he was all Saviour The Jews were under the condition of thraldom at this time when Christ was born under the thraldom of their enemies and the tidings of a Saviour was sweet news at such a season yet the Shepherds could not so mistake that an Infant born but that day could go out with their hosts to subdue their enemies No person upon earth hath such need of a Saviour as a sinner whether it be peace or war Pandora's box of mischiefs all the miseries that can be named are the just reward of a sinner therefore the Angel doth not specifie to the Shepherds from what calamities he should redeem them and be called a Saviour indefinitely and absolutely from all A few particulars would but derogate from the honour of his salvation he sweeps away all evil at once like a Spiders web ab omni malo he saves us from the whole mass of evil a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Jer. xxiii 7. It shall no more be said the Lord Liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought the house of Israel from the North Country the land of Chaldaea Alas both these are easie redemptions to that which calls him Jesus in the New Testament the Lord liveth who saveth his people from their sins there begins his mercy at that point to break the heavy yoke of sin from our necks to repress the dominion of the flesh rebelling against the spirit to take away earthly desires from our will and affections in a word to clear us in Gods Court that our iniquities may no more be imputed to us Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Revel i. 5. 2. He is a Saviour that delivers us from the sting and punishment of sin which is death He destroyed our death by dying on the Cross and repaired our life again by his own Resurrection 3. He is a Saviour that delivereth us from the power of Satan that although the enemy tempt and oppose vehemently yet he should not overcome his Saints Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth John xii 32. and so cast forth that he shall never renew his tyranny again For through death Chrst did destroy him that had the power of death the Devil Heb. ii 14. 4. He is a Saviour that frees us from the wrath of God and when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Rom. v. From sin from death from Satan from the wrath of God These are the four heads of our Redemption and these are the excellencies included in the name of Saviour After these things thus declared methinks the third point should fall in directly without any contradiction Methinks of our selves without bidding men should strive to do abundant reverence at the hearing of this word a Jesus a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. We have not that feeling of our sins which we ought to have nor of the wrath of God for if we had we would hear this name with greater joyfulness but the destruction is not near enough to affect us Hell and damnation are not represented before our face if those things were so nigh that we did feel their horror we would not captiously gainsay that Ceremony of the Church to vail the head and bend the knee and to
of whom it is said in my Text She brought forth c. It is a sign of very bad times when we lose pity and humanity to men and reverence to God THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE ii 8. And there were in the same Country Shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their Flock by night A Year is past since I began to handle this part of St. Lukes Gospel containing the most full and exact History of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Me thinks I am privy to your memory that you call to mind summarily what then was said upon the former Verse 1. The strange condition of the Mother that she brought forth a Son who by nature was no bearer for she was a Virgin 2. The strange condition of the Babe the first begotten Son of God was the first-born Son of flesh and bloud 3. The strange condition of the place that she laid him in a Manger Lastly The strange condition of men that there was no room in the Inn for Jesus and Mary In his name who hath given us leave and life to meet this year also in his holy Temple and for his honour and to glorifie his Son we are come again to the same place and to the same portion of Scripture to celebrate this blessed and most auspicious day of our Saviours Incarnation They that consult with the wisdom of flesh and bloud may marvel that no room of state was made ready for his birth no place taken up to receive such an Infant and his Mother or whatsoever the dwelling were any place rather than a Cratch and a Manger but there is little amends made in my Text for this humiliation and poverty For see what Stage the Angel hath chosen to declare and annunciate him unto the world the City was too rich the Temple too stately the Synagogues had too much of the Pharisees in them Kings Courts were too voluptuous therefore he assembles those together whom he found in the fields and desolate places But as mean as their condition was since an Angel from Heaven entertained conference with them we may justly imploy the exercise of this hour upon them according as they are mentioned in my Text There were in the same Country Shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night and as it followeth In which Text I see no less than seven goodly eares of corn growing upon one Stalk according to the prosperous part of Pharaohs dream For the place in which the Angel chose to publish the Incarnation here are two circumstances 1. It was in the same Country 2. It was in the Field For the time which is the third circumstance it was in the night For the persons two more They were Shepherds that 's the fourth part They were many so many as made a Plural number that 's the fifth Then there are two circumstances of their Office and diligence they watched that 's not all they watched over their Flocks and so we are ascended to the number which I propounded the Text is distributed into seven branches Pastores in eadem regione Shepherds in the same Country at the circumstance we begin There is no place upon earth to which God descended or to which his Angels approached in holy Scripture but it is significative and mystical wherefore names were given to such places by the Patriarchs and Prophets as when the voice for Heaven with held Abraham from sacrificing Isaac it was called Jehovah jireth the Lord shall be seen in the Mount From whence I deduce how these words cannot be empty of some pithy observation in eâdem Regione that the Angel appeared unto the Shepherds in the same Country It was a place between Bethlem and Hierusalem the same parcel of Ground as most agree when Jacob slept and in his sleep saw Angels ascending and descending upon the Ladder and when he awoke he built an Altar and called it Bethel the house of God Now where could the first news of Christs Nativity arive more properly than in the same place where it was first seen in a Vision Where could it be published more aptly than where it was promised to the Patriarchs There Jacob poured oyl upon the top of the stone the first anointing with oyl that we read of in holy Scripture Upon that parcel of Ground not by chance but out of providence he was proclaimed who is called Christus Domini the Christ or the anointed of the Lord. There stood the Altar which was called Bethel the first Altar that ever was called the Church of God and from whence should the news of a Saviour issue but from the holy place which is consecrated and blest to be called the house of God It was long indeed for so the yearning and the desire of the world might think before our Saviour took flesh of the Virgin Mary yet it was not unmindfulness in the Almighty He remembred the oath which he swore to Abraham nay He remembred the desolate place when he appeared to Jacob in eâdem Regione in the same Country The further I look into this apparition Brethren I see more wonder and mystery in it for the whole Country of the Jews was in the same distress and misery at this time into which poor wandring Jacob was cast when he slept by the way-side upon the hard stones for his pillow Esau hated Jacob and compelled him to abandon his Fathers house and to retire into desart places so the overflowing Romans had made themselves Lords of the Land of Jury and brought all Israel under the thraldom of their Dominion But behold as in the pinch of Jacobs extremity his soul saw the Vision of a Saviour so after the same proportion of mercy in the pinch of Israels extremity when the Romans were Lords over them their eyes saw and their ears heard the Annunciation of a Saviour each parcel of comfort landed jump as God would have it in the same model of Ground in the same Country that the Shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night Yet methinks I see another mystery Beloved for the Incarnation of our Lord stands as thick with wonders as the Heaven with Stars and it is this Was not this glorious Babe born at Bethlem Why are not the first news of his birth carried to the same City where he was born It is our discretion to suspect that news and very justly which comes not from the place where the thing was done For answer This is the secret of providence I guess which is hidden under it You know that Christ was conceived at Nazareth and born at Bethlem Lived much at Capernaum but died at Hierusalem These Towns of Nazareth and Capernaum were vulgarly at this day called Galilee of the Gentiles The truth is they were given to the Gentiles to dwell in and by them inhabited in former times they were destined to the Tribes of Israel for upon the Captivity of ten
shall be our only work when we have attained to blessedness for God doth bless man by pouring his benefits upon him and man doth bless God by confessing the good which he hath received Fifthly and lastly Whereas our Saviour did abase himself to become man and emptied himself of his glory for our sakes we set upon it to do him all possible honour that we may weigh up again the Scale of his glory which himself depressed for our advancement as Peter said unto him when he went about to do that work of a servant to his Disciples Dost thou wash my feet no thou shalt never wash my feet he contended with his Lord that he would not cast himself down so far So Zachary sings a triumphal ditty to bless his poor Nativity we do all bow at the name of Jesus who bowed the heavens and came down to visit us we advance his Cross in our forehead we erect our goodliest Churches in his name we make Christmas day the high Feast of the year the great holy day of Praise and thanksgiving as if the Saints of God had conspired not to let Christ be humbled though he would be humbled So when he came to Jerusalem with the meanest pomp that could be imagined riding upon an Ass they that had loyal and zealous hearts to him combined to conduct him into the great City in as Princely a manner as they could devise laying their garments under his feet and in a manner proclaiming my very Text before him Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. The sum of this first Point is thus much O sing unto the Lord for it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God yea a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful So I have discharged the first Point that there is a comprehension of all praise in this word Blessed beside here is a comprehension of the chief divine titles the Lord God of Israel The names of the Lord do not consist in compound Epithets and magniloquous appellations The heathen did affect that bravery to set out the lustre of their Idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as the Poet Callimachus expresseth it in his Hymn of Diana she desired an hundred brave names to be given her by her Priests as many attributes as Apollo had in his Temple Some will have these to be those vain repetitions of the Heathen which our Saviour reproves Mat. vi 7. taxing them that they thought they should be heard for their much speaking Sacred titles consist not in number but in weight and no words could be more ponderous and significative and yet contracted into fewer Syllables than these the Lord God of Israel A Law-giver will prefix his most ample attributes before the Pandect of his Laws and this is the Inscription over the two Tables Deut. xx I am the Lord thy God which is all one as to say I am the Lord God of Israel And the very words of my Text seem to be a current Eulogy in Davids time as it is Psal cvi 48. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and let all the people say Amen Which names must needs contain an infinite excellency when they march in a rank together since if you take them one by one they are most dreadful and venerable He is called the Lord because he is the supreme and highest above all things so every King in his Sphere is a Lord in chief as Joab said to David Why doth my Lord the King delight in this thing He is called Elohim or God because he is set over all his Creatures to judge and revenge their iniquities therefore the Princes of the people are nuncupative Gods in Scripture because they sit upon the Throne of Judgment on earth to judge between man and man Or rather he is called God from his infinite and incomprehensible Essence Lord from his power and dominion but Lord God of Israel by application of his mercy to his Church above all the Kingdoms of the World Therefore he is to be worshipped as God eternal to be obeyed in all his Commandments as the Lord Omnipotent and be magnified and blessed for Israels sake because he loved that people above all things whom he hath chosen to be his inheritance for ever St. Austin cast out the difference on this wise that the Creator of all things is stiled God and when he gave a Law unto mankind Gen. ii 15. then he was stiled a Lord. But the observation hath an oversight in it for he is called the Lord God four times in the same Chapter before he commanded Adam to dress the garden of Eden and to keep it The Annotation would run better thus that while all things were in making in the Creation the Creator is termed God and God said let there be Light and God said let there be a Firmament so in every work throughout all the first Chapter of Genesis When the Creation was quite finished and the whole Universe of Creatures set in order then in the second of Genesis he is called Lord. From whence a question is started much agitated in the School Whether the great Jehovah may be called Dominus ab aeterno The Lord from all eternity Thou art God from everlasting that is an Article of faith never doubted of Nebuchadonosor could see that by the wonders and tokens which were wrought for Daniels sake therefore he makes a Decree that men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living God and stedfast for ever But the scruple is since he did not exercise his dominion before the works which he made were extant whether the title of Lord did not accrue unto him in the beginning of time and not from all Eternity St. Austin moved the Controversie but out of his wonted modesty passed it by undefined Tertullian against Hermogenes says It is none of the eternal Appellations of the Divine Nature for it belongs not to the Divine Essence but to the Power and the Power could not exercise it self before there was an Object created Many of the School-men are convicted in their judgment by this reason of Tertullian and hold to his opinion I think if St. Austin would have determined it he would have gone the other way and for my part I take it to be most probable that we may say God was the Lord from all eternity before the Creatures were existent and produced It is true that if we measure things by our own power or rather by our own infirmity we can command nothing but that which is and hath a being but God is the Lord of all things even before they are and when they yet are not he can command them to have a being he spake the word and all things were made he commanded and they were created Non possunt per mandatum fieri quae non erant nisi dominium praecederet things that have no being could not be
truth that the very God became a perfect man and was Immanuel God with us says David Psal viii 4. When I consider the heavens the work of thy hands the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of man that thou visitest him as who should say he that hath such rare and excellent heavenly bodies to delight in what should he do on earth what is the Son of man who is nothing but sin and misery that the Son of God should visit him O first let it be remembred with faith and thankfulness lest desolation come upon us as it did upon the Jews because we knew not the time of our visitation Luke xix 44. Secondly Let us answer the humility of our Saviour with all possible humility and say as the Centurion did Lord we are not worthy that thou shouldest come under our roof well deserved that all the succors of heaven should have fled from us and abhorred our face therefore blessed be his name for evermore that brought us peace from his Father sanctification from the Holy Ghost justification by his own merits humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in the day of his visitation as the vulgar Latin reads it 1 Pet. v. vi Thirdly Abraham made a feast to the three Angels when they visited him at his tent door Gen. xviii so let us prepare a table to entertain our blessed Lord that is come unto us not a feast of junckets and costly viands but let us receive him piously and devoutly as befitteth such a guest at his own Table Ipse est conviva convivium He is come to be feasted and he hath giuen us his own body to make us a feast and blessed be the Lord God of Israel that hath visited us and given himself to be the true spiritual food for the nourishment of our souls And so much of that act which is most conjunct with the festivity of this day Christ hath visited us yet peradventure we should esteem that work of courtesie and friendship but of no benefit at all unless it did extend it self to some further end and what can our desires wish to follow better than that which comes after in this place visitavit redemit by visiting he hath redeemed his people It is of such consequence above all things else that are needful to our well-being that St. Cyprian doth quite drown the former act in the latter and reads my Text thus Prospexit Deus redemptionem populo suo not a tittle about visiting but he hath provided redemption for his people Now captivity must be presupposed on our part because we did await and expect redemption Miseri sunt quos visitavit captivi quos redemit as I said before our soul was filled with a sore disease and therefore we were visited we were also under the captivity of sin and the Devil and lamentable were our case if we had not been redeemed Look upon the bondage out of which we were pluckt and it will make us more thankful for the freedom unto which we are called Ad servum rex descendisti ut servum redimeres says St. Austin thou didst descend to be a servant O King of Heaven to enfranchise a servant and to bring him out of thraldom Remember therefore at once for all since we all desire to have our part in this redemption we must all confess we were envassalled in a servitude So St. Austin against the Pelagians who denied the traduction of natural corruption from Adam says he How can Infants be said to be redeemed in Baptism unless they were captives before by original sin Therefore in imitation of our Saviours mercy as the Ancient Church 1200. years ago was copious in all deeds of Charity so their greatest care was to dispend their treasury to redeem captives and Paulinus a Pious Bishop as some stories say when all the stock of the Church was spent put himself into captivity to redeem a poor Christian miserably chained under the yoke of Infidels But this charitable deliverance of their brethren from temporal bondage was to shew how gratefully we should take it that Christ had redeemed all those that would lay hold of his mercies from eternal captivity Secondly As his goodness is amplified from our captivity so the redemption is the more valuable because none else could have pluckt us out of those fetters but the Holy One our Lord and Master Says David no man can deliver his Brother nor make a ransom to God for him for it cost more to redeem their souls so that he must let that alone for ever Psal xlix 7. when we had all incurred everlasting misery and mercy did so far prevail that the Divine Justice was content to forgive us the wisdom of God held the scale and arbitrated the case that when a law was broken and a mediation for pardon was entertained the best way was not to pass by the fault with a total indulgence but with a commutation of punishment And when men and Angels were unfit for that service then steps in the Son of God and undergoes the condition in his own person and became our brother flesh of our flesh that according to the Law being next of kindred to us he might redeem that which we had morgaged Lev. xxv 25. we had sinned and so needed a Redeemer and not so sinned but God the Father being placable a Redeemer would serve the turn And there the point had stuck for ever and we for ever had been helpless unless Christ had given himself a ransom for many Alius solvit pro debitore aliud solvitur quam debebatur one was the debtor and another satisfied one thing was owed to God I mean the life of sinners but another thing was payed I mean the life of an Innocent And let it make a third animadversion that the manner of our redemption doth greatly exaggerate the most meritorious compassion of the Redeemer there hath been redemption wrought by force and victory so Moses brought the Israelites with an high hand out of the slavery of Egypt There is a redemption which is wrought by intercession and supplication so Nehemiah prevailed with King Cyrus to dismiss the Jews out of the Babylonish captivity or thirdly either gold or silver or somewhat more precious is laid down to buy out the freedom of that which is in thraldom that 's the most costly and estimable way when value for value is payed or fourthly the body of one is surrendred up for the ransom of another life for life blood for blood and greater charity cannot be shewn than to bring redemption to pass by such a compensation So St. Peter extolls that act in our Saviour says he ye were not redeemed with corruptible things but with the Blood of Christ as a lamb undefiled So out of his own mouth Matth. xx 28. the Son of man came not
relate but that he finished this life I cannot say it His years are numbred before my Text like other mens three hundred sixty five just as many years as there be days in an usual year after the motion of the Sun not that this reckoning is the term of his life but the term of that time that he conversed with men As Tertullian glosseth upon St. Pauls words I am crucified with Christ How crucified and yet live Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia by the reformation of his life not by the loss of his life So Enoch had a period when he left to be with men Per emendationem vitae non per interitum substantia By an exaltation to a better life not by the corruption of his body As the men of Israel would not let Jonathan suffer death though Saul had given Sentence against him What say they shall Jonathan die that hath wrought such great salvation in Israel So when the Spirit of the Lord had testified what a Prophet Enoch was a perfect obedient that abhorred Will-worship a stiff maintainer of Gods part against the Devil and all his Instruments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a friend a familiar acquaintance a walker with God Upon this testimony Mercy opposeth Justice and though the Lord had said to Adam and to all that were in his loyns Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return What says Mercy shall Enoch die an example of repentance to all Generations So the stroke of death was diverted that he saw not the Grave and Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him The partition which I framed upon the whole Verse was on this wise first how uncorrupt Enoch was in his ways he walked with God and secondly that he did not see corruption And this second Point which is reserved for this hours labour is to be handled in two several heads the former I will call Enoch's passage out of this world He was not The latter his reposure in another world For God took him His place was left empty among the Patriarchs below and he filled a room among the Thrones and Angels above Upon these two I shall handle many particular Doctrines before you And he was not a concise phrase you see and brevity will breed obscurity especially put this unto it that it is a form of speech which is not used again in this sense to my remembrance in all the Scripture But the sense is made plain by St. Paul Heb. xi 5. By Faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death He had a passage out of this world without any dissolution of the soul from the body In the same body that he pleased God says Irenaeus he was translated being never uncloathed of the flesh that he might put on immortality That this truth may be carried the clearer I will debate it a little with them that oppose it and with them that qualifie it Some of the Hebrew Rabbines as I find them quoted because they consult not with the authority of the New Testament think they are not convicted by the Old Testament but that they may conclude how Enoch died and was taken away in an early Age as those times went much sooner than his Forefathers As if this Verse did rather bemoan him for his untimely departure than renown him for some glorious favour which did befal him The phrase indeed if we look no farther will bear it both in sacred and in heathen Writings to say of one departed fuit he was but is not this was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair way of language to avoid an unpleasing word Yet the phrase doth not always stand in that sense but hath a double acception and both in one verse that you may the better carry it away Gen. xlii 36. Jacob there bemoans himself for the waat of two Children Joseph is not and Simeon is not the one he took to be dead indeed the other to be in fast hold and taken from his eyes removed where he could not come at him as Enoch was but no more So the Chaldee Paraphrase explains the meaning of Jacob Joseph non superest Simeon non est hic Joseph is quite lost and Simeon is not here The phrase then accords very well with that place of the Hebrews by faith Enoch was translanted that he saw not death And my Text must incline to that exposition for two reasons First that the Lord took him stands for a consequent that he was pleased in him it is the reward as you would say that he walked with God not that there is a necessary and perpetual coherency in it that whosoever walks with God should be exalted into Paradise and not see corruption but Enochs righteousness by a priviledge of favour was so requited a favour then being understood in those words it cannot be the sentence of death upon him it is impossible Secondly in this Chapter the last word that the Holy Ghost gives of Adam is Et mortuus est and he died so of Seth so of Enos so of Cainan so of all the Antecessors of Enoch wherefore unless Enoch had some other issue out of this world diverse from the rest which was by translation without death why should it be said of him so differently from all others he was not for the Lord took him So I have corrected the great error of those Hebrew Doctors who would lay Enochs honour in the dust But I suppose the general Exposition of the Jews was right and according to St. Pauls doctrine For Paul wrote to the Hebrews that he saw not death knowing the tradition was commonly so received among them and the Chaldee Paraphrast who lived straight after Christ was of the same judgment beside one of great note among them says he was disarrayed of the foundation corporal and cloathed with the foundation spiritual which words I conceive do jump with those who oppose not the Scripture that he saw not death far be it from them but they have a qualification for the meaning of it that death is taken two ways most properly for the separation of one essential part of man from the other the body from the soul a loath to depart it is a most unwelcom dissolution a punishment upon the sin of our first Father which was remitted to Enoch improperly it is no more but the separation or extinction of corruptible qualities from the soul and body one whom I named even now called it the disarraying of a man from the foundation corporal and so Enoch was purified altered made quite another man in the very moment that he was wrapt up to heaven This evacuation of corruptible qualities from the flesh is called death by some very good Authors in our own Church and so Procopius much more ancient than they Mirabili modo mortis defunctus est ad vitam coelestem translatus it was a rare and admirable kind of death he suffered
nothing different from a servant The faithful since the coming of Christ are adulti heirs come to age such I may say as have sued out their livery past pupillage past the pedagogie of Ceremonies for the yoke of Ceremonies was most troublesome that the coming of Christ which cancelled such things might the more be desired Then they beheld a Messias in types and shadows now he is manifest in his own person then Faith was obscurer now it is more clear then the Spirit was given scantily now it is poured out in full abundance Abundantia spiritus est elogium regni Christi then the preaching of Faith was included in the Kingdom of Israel now it is diffused throughout all the world Mark it now I beseech you how these three do differ The Law did terrifie and astonish there were no good tidings in that The promise of Grace and Mercy was an annuntiation of good news worth the hearing and it was fit that a promise should go before that the day of Christ might be long'd for and much desired before he came yet this did cool the comfort that hope deferred doth afflict the soul Wherefore when the desire of our eyes did come into the world to satisfie the Law for us and to satisfie he expectation of all promises then it became Evangelium good tidings happy news nothing shall be heard any more to vex us or to trouble us unless for want of Faith we would vex our selves And what ear will not listen to good tidings when old Jacob heard that Joseph was living his spirit reviv'd and Israel said it is enough Joseph my son is yet alive Joseph was advanc'd in Egypt by the wonderful providence of God that he might receive his brethren in the great distress of famine these were good tidings to Israel but is it not much better to hear of this sound out of Ephrata that Christ is come into the world to feed his brethren in the time of dearth with the bread of life O quoties quae nobis Galataea locuta est as a passionate woer longs to hear of a sweet message from the party whom he loves so the Spouse which is the Church rejoyceth to hear glad tidings from the Bridegroom that so it might enjoy his presence here that she might dwell with him hereafter for ever Calisthenes approacht towards Alexander the Great portending much alacrity in his countenance what says Alexander An Homerus revixit iterum are there any tidings to be brought which make you so merry unless Homer were alive again all that he could pitch upon for good news was if that divine Poet were alive again to record his story in a long lasting Poem O how infinitely do these good tidings surpass that ambitious fancy Christus natus est a Saviour is born to write our names for ever in the book of life St. Paul took out this lesson from hence Quam speciosi pedes Rom. x. 15. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of things The Prophet Isaiah spoke of them that foretold of the delivery of Israel out of the Babylonish captivity and if those messengers were welcome that uttered things concerning bodily felicity much more shall their coming be acceptable that solace the inward man the heart and soul Beauty is that which attracts affections to it so the Apostles are said to be beautiful because they drew the world unto them and it was proper concerning them to say how beautiful are their feet rather than their lips for they did not rest in one place but took the whole world for their circuit from City to City and because of their dangerous and painful travel by Sea and Land the Prophet said How beautiful are their feet Despise not therefore such as succeed them though much unworthy in the same errand but have them in honour for their welcome message Though Christ hath not washt our feet to make them beautiful as he did his Disciples yet the very word that we have to say doth honour our lips for they are good tidings no things in the world compar'd to the comfort of the Gospel they are good tidings c. The main drift of the Text did hang upon this word how the Angel did Evangelize that is to say bring good tidings now we are clear'd and come off from that and although there are many things in the Gospel very harsh to flesh and blood as to leave all and follow Christ to suffer persecution c. Yet these things as I noted in the third place produce joy joy of a grand size in the intention great joy joy of an infinite measure in the extension everlasting joy joy that shall be says the Text and these are now to be consider'd together and first that the Birth of Christ bids us rejoyce and be glad Can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn when such a Bridegroom is come unto them he came unto the world like ripe fruit in the fulness of time whereupon says St. Ambrose Christus tanquum maturitas advenit ut nihil acerbum nihil immaturum nihil immite sit He came when all the fruits of comfort were mellow and delicious that nothing might be sower or harsh or distastful to his beloved I alledged the Text of Isaiah before How beautiful are the feet of them that brought tidings of him The Septuagint according to some Editions read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what a spring there was in the Mountains when he was preacht whereupon says S. Cyril as the Spring chears up the hearts of men beautifies the earth and the fields after the desolating frosts of a wastful Winter so the preaching of this Nativity made every thing to flourish after the bitter blasting frosts of the Law If there were such joy at the birth of Isaac that they call'd him Isaac from laughter then let all the earth clap their hands and rejoyce when he was manifested in the flesh that made the laughter of Isaac For our more orderly proceeding I must consider joy three manner of ways 1. What true joy doth properly result from the Birth of Christ 2. What joy may be allowed and indulg'd to Christians 3. What joy is condemnable For the first that joy which doth properly result from the Birth of Christ is Risus ex serenitate conscientiae the mirth and delight of a good conscience for he that hath given us his only Son how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. viii 32. The Israelites were confident of victorious success when the Ark of God was in their Camp The Ephesians thought themselves safe and secure when they had but an Image which fell down from Heaven This was but a fiction like him that dreams of comfort and loe he is in desperate extremities but our case is most clear and happy to whom the God of Gods made his approach as one friend that visits another who
to believe in him nay if he had not given them his Body to be meat that whosoever eateth thereof might not die but live for ever they had never been his people Lord draw us and we will come unto thee visit us and we shall be healed redeem us and we shall be made free make us thy people and we will serve thee and praise thee and bless thee all the days of our life Amen THE TWELFTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE i. 69. And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David THe Spirit of God is so constant to the same matter to the same phrase of speech in Holy Scripture that there is no Text of prime Doctrine in the New Testament but likely you may fit it as it were verbatim out of the Old I put you in mind of it at this time because David hath not only comprized my Text but all this Song of Zachary into one verse Zachary having been dumb for nine months his unspeakable joy at last burst out like a River which hath been stopt and flows forth in a full gush when the Sluce is open Now whereas when he found his tongue and began likewise to Prophesie his Wife and Kindred who were the Assembly that heard him expected no doubt that in the first instance after he broke silence he would speak of John the Baptist a child of much wonder and expectation whom the Lord had sent unto him in his old age yet he did not so but he took the rise of his Prophesie from a mightier work by far he begins with the Bridegroom and then proceeds to the friend of the Bridegroom He begins with the Saviour and then speaks of the Servant he begins with the bread of life and then goes on to the voice of the Crier he was sent unto the Jews to invite them to eat of it He begins with the glorius King sprung out of the house of David and concludes with his own Son that was the torch-bearer to carry the light before him Of both these thus the Psalmist with most admirable brevity Psal cxxxii 18. There will I make the horn of David to bud I have ordained a lanthorn for mine Anointed The horn or excellency of David is Christ Incarnate the Lamp ordained for that mighty King was John the Forerunner whom the Evangelist of his own name calls a burning and a shining light 'T is St. Austins Exposition and so natural to the sense of the Psalm that it hath gained upon me to follow it Yet there is great odds between Faith in spe in re between the prenuntion and the event of these mysteries between the promise of the Sun rising and the light which shines visibly upon the world between the knowledge of Salvation which was drawn nearer to the Church in Zacharies days than it was in Davids when it was further off In the one it is faciam I will make the horn of David to bud in the other it is feci the counsel of God is actuated he hath raised up an horn David was bold to sing it forth that God would perform his Promise Zachary was more bold to speak in the Preter-tense that he had performed when it was but in fieri when the Web was yet upon the Loom Christmas day was not yet come it was half a year off before the time was appointed that a Virgin should be delivered but Zachary knowing the certain execution of Gods Word hath made Christmass day in the Text. He doth not only bear witness to our Saviour though yet an imperfect feture after three months conception as if the Child were born but as if he were in his most able growth in perfect strength of years in perfect execution of his power in the perfect glory of his Kingdom And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David Now to prepare you to receive the division of the words you may easily mark that whereas the former verse contains a general profession of Gods mercy to his Church he hath visited and redeemed his People this verse contracts it to the particular instrument through whom we are all blessed as who should say God hath given Redemption to his People yet there is no redemption to be lookt for but in Jesus Christ he hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David The principal word of the Text therefore is that which is in the midst An horn of salvation it is the Periphrasis of Christ I will begin from thence 2. I will declare how God did raise up this horn of salvation when Christ was born 3. Here is the Lineage of our Saviour according to the Flesh he was raised up in the house of David in the house of David his Servant Lastly Here is the use and fruit of his birth which belongs to us that is to as many as have the same faith in him that Zachary had when he opened his mouth to utter this Prophetical Song And hath raised up c. In the former verse Zachary says that he would bless that is praise and Magnifie the Lord God of Israel And hath he not made good his word Yes surely for the praise of the most high cannot be exalted in the tongue of a sinner more than in this attribute to call him an horn of salvation There was more obedience and faith in it I will not call it merit but I say it exprest more obedience and faith that this devout Priest should call a Child nay a feture but of three months conception as yet curdled like milk as Job says in his mothers womb the horn the strength of our salvation than for the Angels and Seraphins to sing continually before the Throne of heaven Holy holy holy Lord God of hosts the Angels extol that infinite Majesty which they behold in glory This person confest all that his tongue could utter to the honour of his Redeemer when nothing was actuated nothing yet in being to be seen and when the time came that it should be seen nothing could be more infirm in appearance Yet neither the inevidence of the object before he was incarnate nor the parvity and outward meanness of the object when he was to be incarnate do stumble his faith but he makes as great a noise to advance his dignity as words would give him leave an horn of salvation Salvation salvation is our tree of life restore the Church to that O Lord and there is Paradise enough in it though we be shut out of Paradise It is one beam and the very principal of that inward light in holy Scripture which shines in the Meridian of us Christians and makes us resolve by a secret contract between us and faith that it is the the Word of God because it treats constantly and in every part of it touching the means of salvation But the Volumes of heathen men
a Lord as if his soul did divine there was a greater upon earth The Reed put into Christs hand the Crown upon his head the bowing of the Knee the Title upon the Cross these were calumnies and revilings on the Jews part but on Gods part secret mysteries of his Spirit to make his enemies afford him the Ensigns of a Kingdom Nay ipsa crux tribunal fiâ—it says Origen Upon his very Cross whereon he hanged he stood like a Judge between the nocent and the innocent All this was nothing to Caesar to challenge the chief place among malefactors One thing is worth your adnotation that because Pilate and the Roman Empire did give wrong sentence of death against Christ who did not make himself a King therefore the self same Roman Empire doth endure this malediction from God that it should endure the pride of a Bishop unto this day who calls himself the Vicar of Christ and sets himself in a Throne above their Emperour The fault was cast upon Christ but the Pope commits it To end this Point If the Jews thought him worthy of death who made himself a King they that have a Doctrine to unmake a King as they please to sport with their Crowns what do they deserve And let the Jews be Judge and not the Jesuits Callisthenes was asked how a man might be most famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him kill the most famous A fit answer for our Roman Parricides who above other Christians are rebaptized in baptismo sanguinis in the bloud of Princes Speak Pilate and you outragious murderers of the Jews do they not deserve to be crucified So now to recapitulate these false crimes objected the Temple was unviolate for any thing Christ had done the people unperverted Tribute granted Caesar honoured Venit Princeps mundi in me non habet quicquam let Pilate speak if he were not a just person How should a man be avenged of his enemies Plutarch answers by being so good that they cannot reproach his honest conversation So did our Saviour and surely it would pity any heart in the world that such a Saviour such an innocent Lamb should be slain But such a Sacrifice it behoved us to have which was holy unblameable and undefiled And to conclude this second general part of my Text be careful my brethren to keep a good conscience that when you shall crucifie this mortal body and the affections thereof as you must do daily you may endeavour to be a just person to walk in all the Statutes of the Lord that you may offer up a clean Sacrifice to God your Creator and Redeemer And so much for Pilat's true Testimony that Jesus was a just person I am innocent c. And now I betake my meditations to the last Point of all Vos videbitis you shall see to it The depravation of his own nature made him forge a lie in the first words I am innocent Conscience extorted truth in the second that his Prisoner was a just person A strange instinct brings forth this last part Vos videbitis you shall see to it Marvel no more at Caiaphas that he could Prophesie One man must die for all the people but rather marvel how Pilate should Prophesie that all the people must die for the bloud of one man As Salust said of the desperate times of Rome that men were so ill affected Vt intenta mala quasi fulmen optarent se quisque ne attingat That they wished mischiefs might fall down like a thunderbolt only every man was so careful as to pray for his own head So Pilate calls for a curse upon all Jury but first he shields his own head he is innocent You never knew a Fortune-teller skilful either in Palmistry curious Metaposcopie or of the Devils secret counsel in judicious Astrology that could read ought in his own destiny as Seneca said of the Soothsayers of Rome that undertook to tell Prodigies by the entrails of beasts Plus sapiunt in alieno jecore quam in suo That they had a better insight into the entrails of other things than into their own So we are all very cunning in vos videbitis to denounce those judgments which will befall other men but we ever misinterpret what will betide our selves Harsh judges we are of other mens faults for the most part but worse Prophets not so charitable as Elizaeus his bones to bring the dead unto life but like Micaiah unto Ahab always portending some disastrous thing to come to bring the living unto death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Grecian General said to Chryses when will we leave this ominous Prediction to be chanting some deadly Prophesie against our brethren Like Pilate against the Jews Vos videbitis You shall see to it Many Jews had Prophesied against the Abominations and Idolatry of the Gentiles Pilate is the first Gentile in Scripture that Prophesied against the Jews Alas then if the wrath of God be kindled yea but a little what is it that can save us from indignation Vos videbitis shall Israel be lost Shall Judah the first-born of God be wiped out of his mercies Is there no title for the protection of a sinner Joab is fled to the Altar what shall become of him Ask Benaiah when he cuts his thred The Altar yet is an eternal refuge for others Shall it not stand for ever Ask the Prophet who made it shake with fear as with an Earthquake that it should be thrown down The Temple is an everlasting habitation shall it not last as long as the Sun and Moon endureth Ask our Saviour if one stone shall be left upon another The people of the Land are the Sons of Abraham and Isaac is not their Covenant to endure for ever Ask St. Paul if the natural branches be not cut off and withered The Land howsoever is that plentiful Canaan fruitful by the report of Caleb and Joshuah more fruitful than report could make it Shall it not always be the Lady of the earth Ask Titus and the Romans if it be not a nest for Screech-owls and an hissing to all that shall live in the world How is the destiny of all things turned about Neither security remaining to fly unto the Altar nor the Altar remaining in the Temple nor the Temple in the City nor Inhabitants remaining in the Country but City and Country defaced unto all Posterity See Beloved how no priviledge upon earth will keep conditions with us except we keep conditions with heaven As Tertullian said of the Devils Pluvias quas jam sentiunt repromittunt When they perceive much moisture in the Air by their natural sagacity then the Soothsayers tell us we shall have rain so Satan knowing that judgment was begun already in Judaea Pilate begins to Prophesie Vos c. The murder of our Saviour should be their endless calamity The Passions of Christ were so innumerous so spiteful that to draw them unto certain heads if all were reckoned up
I would confess it impossible but to instance in the principal parts I will divide them into four quarters that you may see how the punishment of the Jews is proportionable to the injuries which they did unto out Lord 1. He was bound like a Malefactor and are not the Jews made Bond-slaves and Captives for ever 2. He was blinded that he might be buffeted and what is so blind as the heart of that Nation 3. He was spat upon and reviled they hated him without a cause And no people under the Sun every where more hated and disaffected Lastly He was murdered with the death of the Cross the death of malediction And according to their stubbornness and infidelity we can scarce say less in charity than that the death of malediction is faln upon them As the Prophet Amos said For three transgressions and for four I will not turn away my punishments from Israel because they sold the righteous for Silver and the poor for a pair of Shooes To be enthralled without Liberty to be blind without Light to be hated without Love to be condemned without Mercy thus I have quartered out the dismal sorrows of that Nation which spilt his bloud and speaking a word briefly of each part I will conclude this exercise First They bound the Messias and they themselves are Captives That Caesar whom they stood so much for before Pilate even he did pervert the Nation and destroy the Temple In Mount Olivet they did first lay hands upon Christ in Mount Olivet says Josephus the Roman Souldiers did first entrench themselves to besiege Hierusalem The unutterable misery of their City how it was taken and defaced is so common a story that I will not spend the time to rehearse it As the punishment of the Deluge was fifteen Cubits higher than the tallest Mountains of the earth so the punishment of that City was fifteen times greater than that mighty City Within the Walls the Famine was so great that it parched their bodies and dried up their living moisture that Children had not tears to weep over their dead Parents Nay the living had not strength enough to dig a grave to bury the dead Without the Walls their Prisoners were so paid with the same coin which they dealt unto our Saviour Ut spatium crucibus deesset corporibus cruces That the field did not afford room enough to set up so many Crosses or had there been space in the field there was not wood in the Mountains to make so many And do they not think the Cross of Christ did work in this affliction As Tertullian said to the Heathen you have sent offerings heretofore to the Temple you have bestowed gifts upon Jerusalem Nunquam nunc dominaturi nisi Deo in Christum deliquissent Nay says Josephus if the Sword of Titus had not cut them short their crimes were so unnatural and so desperate that the wrath of Sodom and Gomorrha had rained down upon them When that desolation shall come says the great Prophet whom they hanged on a tree you will call upon the Hills to cover you and the Mountains to fall upon you Sic in cavernis collibus se abscondiderunt says Beda they did lurk in Groats and Caves of the Rocks to avoid the Romans and so fulfilled the Prophesie ever since that black day O populus natus ad servitutem They have lost the remembrance of liberty They cannot say of any parcel of ground in the earth this is our field and our possession Of all the men upon the earth they are the only Nation under heaven that have neither portion in earth nor in heaven When the City was lost Adrian would never suffer them to return to see it unless it were to mourn and sorrow and then they must pay for it Sic qui sanguinem Christi vendunt jam suas lachrymas emunt They bargained for Christs bloud and they pay for their own tears Non est tutus Judaeus ad Ecclesiam confugiens says the Canon Law They only have no safety though they betake them to the protection of a Church Other men are Lords of that wealth which God hath bestowed upon them but they are Tributaries ad placitum spung'd every year as the necessity of the Prince requires Money can never prosper with them since they bought our Lord. Indeed Judas sold him the Jews did buy him and they gave him to Pilate and so the Gentile hath purchased him Other men can be avenged of the insolencies of their Adversaries and so every man lives in peace under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree but they are never quiet for violence and outrages committed against their person Ideo Judaei pacem habere non possunt quia seditionum principem eligere maluerunt says Isidor How can they hope for rest who refused the Prince of peace and chose Barrabas the Prince of seditions The next Viol of vengeance is the gross darkness of their heart ever since they blinded our Saviour If Samson be blinded and put to scorn shall he not pluck down the Theater upon the Princes and upon the People If Elisha be scoft at shall he not call for Bears to devour the Children The Disciples forsook Christ and ran away at midnight this night you shall be offended at me In nocte scandalizantur says Origen and Peter plunged himself into that fearful denial ante gallicinium before the crowing of the Cock this betokened that they sinned out of ignorance and therefore were received into favour upon repentance But for the High Priests and Elders Mane facto consilium capiunt when it was morning they took counsel against Jesus Hoc est scientes peccant in lumine says that Author They sinned by broad day-light as it were against their own conscience and they that did so much abuse the light are cast into a long darkness for ever The miraculous Eclipse of the Sun says St. Hierom an Emblem of that blindness which should possess them was not over the whole Hemisphere of the world but only in Jury For neither Graecian Astronomer nor Arabian do speak of it Wanderers they were in the Wilderness about forty years wanderers they have been in their vain imaginations almost two thousand Then they were directed as the clouds went before them now they are guided by Vapours and Pillars of smoak After our Saviours Ascension eight years were spent when St. Matthew wrote his Gospel and yet even to that day they did report and believe that his Disciples stole him away by night What when the Souldiers slept If they were broad awake says St. Austin why would they suffer the body to be so conveyed If they were fast asleep which way came they to know the conveyance Beda takes this to be not a story but a Prophesie in the Gospel that the Jews shall be so hardened in unbelief that they shall give credence to that report for ever This it is to curse themselves with such an
knew not what to say but in admiration of his mercy lift up his eyes to heaven as if these thoughts did rise up in Abrahams fancy Sarah the Mother of my Son did muse how a Child could be born unto her in her old age but she did ill to laugh because the Lord had spoke it then give me leave to ponder how this Child can live any more when the mouth of God hath spoken that he must be sacrificed for a burnt offering Nay O Lord Non unum redimis sed unitatem In this act thou dost not so much redeem this one from death as the unity of all the faithful in this one all those Nations that shall be blessed in my name wilt thou spare them all as thou sparest Isaac What are our merits What justice is in us What is man that thou wilt not visit him with indignation Thus the soul of Abraham was in an extasie to consider the mercy of God wonder had possessed him we see it in this cast of his eye that he looked up to heaven When the Lord turned the Captivity of Sion then we were like unto them that dream says the Prophet The deliverance was so fortunate so much it did out-strip their hope that they did receive it at first not as that which was done indeed but as a delightful dream As Livie relating how the Graecians were strangly strucken with sudden joy upon the day when the Romans sent them unexpected liberty says he Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur they thought it was a pleasing vision in their sleep and not the happiness of them that were broad awake So when God did really make good that Promise which the Devil pretended that he would bring about Non moriemini You shall not die The faithful Patriarch knew not how to apprehend it at the first but his eye did testifie that his soul was ravished with the mercies of the Lord. The wicked shall not end half his days the seed of the ungodly shall be rooted out eternal fire is prepared hereafter for them that shall be turned over to the Devil and his Angels there shall be much wrath and vengeance every where among the dwelling places of the unrighteous but as for Isaac and they that are born according to the Spirit Noli tangere says the Angel the hand of violence shall not come near them as the Poet in his Eclogue brings in Melibaeus wondring at the clemency of Cesar to his fellow-shepherd when all the neighbour-Cottages were burnt and wasted Vndique totis usque adeò turbatur agris So when God shall work so much destruction in the world redemption is an admirable thing where it lights John Baptist as we read it in the vulgar Latine blazeth out with two notes of astonishment one upon another Ecce Agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi Behold the Lamb of God I and again Behold him that taketh away the sins of the world In two respects it is to be wondred at without any prejudice to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fulness of our faith as I will shew by the examples of two memorable women in holy Scripture Whence is it that the mother of my Lord comes unto me says Elizabeth Why did she marvel at it Quia non sui meriti sed divini fatetur esse muneris says Beda because it was a favour of mere grace and not a recompence of merit And again the blessed mother of our Saviour astonished at the Angels message that she should conceive and bear a Son Quomodo says she How shall these things come to pass Tanquam certa de facto querit de modo fiendi as it is the common answer She was sure it should be so she marvelled how it should be so and that was a blameless admiration Both these passions did Abraham suffer he knew there was no worth in man that God should release him from condemnation he knew not the manner what should be paid for his ransom his eye did fix it self upon the throne of God to find the mystery out and so you see it was Gestus admirantis the expression of wonder and astonishment that Abraham lifted up his eyes Thirdly It is Gestus inquirentis besides that he lifted up his eyes he look'd about him from the tops of Moriah it is the demeanour of him that did seek out for a Sacrifice to be offered up unto the Lord. Reges Parthes non potest quisquam salutare sine munere says he No man was admitted to salute the Parthian Kings unless he brought some Present in his hands so because Abraham came to this Mountain to worship before the Angel of the Lord he look'd and enquired for some Oblation that he might not turn back until he had laid a gift upon the Altar Many will lift up their eyes but they list not to seek an Offering for the Lord. Such are best pleased with devotion when it comes off with as little cost as may be Nay says David when Araunah would have born his charges I will not sacrifice to God of that which shall cost me nothing An Objection is framed in the School that the Piety of the Jews was more acceptable to God than the piety of Christians because they in their daily Service were at great expense to provide beasts for the Altar we are at no such charge in our Spiritual Worship it is enough if we offer up a broken heart in mortification a thankful heart in Praise and a devout heart in Prayer But this puts not our Purse to any trial like the Oblations of the Jews To cancel and wipe out this opposition it is answered that we supply that charge of the Sacrifice of beasts In Sacrificio Eleemosynarum in the Sacrifice of Alms to the poor The hand must look about it where to give as well as the eye look upward where to be thankful A distribution to the wants of the needy it is Pro sacrificio and prae sacrificio in place of sacrifice and to be preferred before all sacrifices Mercy is a better Oblation than a Beast that is slain this day you know how much was paid for the price of your redemption but not the price of corruptible things as Silver and Gold Spare O spare some portion of that which you spend profusely in the consumption of vanity at this solemn time of redemption to redeem the distressed in Prisons that are fast bound in misery and iron Look about you as Abraham did and you shall find I assure you Arietes prehensos in Vepribus Rams shall I say Nay they have scarce any fleece upon their back but they are catch'd fast poor Souls by the horns in the Thicket thence they cannot stir unlâ—ss Abraham will take them and offer them up for an Oblation to the Lord. Above all other casts of the eye this same Gestus inquirentis pleaseth me best to look about that we may present some gift upon the Altar
exhalation transpassant from man to man because the first sin was the biting of a Serpent Thirdly By the object of the Serpent we not only see the Author of all sin and the infectious venom of it but likewise a cunning craftiness which Satan hath entailed to the mystery of iniquity lying in wait whom he may deceive There is nothing that will lurk more subtilly to do an ill turn than some sort of Serpents or steal an opportunity more warily Then why should not all plots and mischievous arts of cunning be as hateful as an hissing Adder Nay why not as odious as Beelzebub himself the Prince of Devils Some such there are that have their sharpness of wit from no better founder than the old Dragon that have no measure in their dissimulation no trust in their word no fidelity in their oath no remorse no distinction in conscience whom they ruine and these are counted useful and fit for employment I do not altogether blame the Turks for reputing natural Ideots to be Saints I am sure they are Saints in comparison with such cunning Merchants But a true Christian is somewhat compounded out of the better part of them both as it is Rom. xvi 19. I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen inoffensiveness tempered with much intelligence The simplicity of the Dove mitigating the subtilty of the Serpent To say all in a little Sin is supported by Stratagems but Justice by grave knowledge Therefore love wisdom because it comes from God Practise innocency because it comes from Christ Hate subtilty because it is the badge of the Serpent abhor mischief it is the work of the Devil This is for the general we all see what sin is in the Image of the Serpent More particularly the Israelites saw their own sin in that spectacle wherewith they provoked the Lord Num. xxi 4. The people were not turned aside from the promised Land but were wearied with a long journey and in their bitterness they spake against God and Moses They that serve God for temporal things will quickly murmur when they want rest and ease If the ground be not soft under their feet they think it tedious though it should bring them to heaven Beside they loathed Manna it was too light for their hot stomachs and it did not satisfie Somewhat else they would have yet they could not tell what themselves As they that are not contented with the bread that comes down from heaven shall be gnawn with the worm of superstition that will never give them quiet but these are the hints that provoked them to speak against God A little painfulness was repined at as a great deal of misery and a great benefit was repined at as but a little favour Now they that whet their tongues like Serpents was it not meet they should be stung with Serpents They that spat Poison against their Maker did they not deserve a poisonous castigation Or will they dare to murmur any more when they see their punishment cast in brass and abiding for a durable monument If we murmur against him whom we are bound to praise and love is not that disloyalty So did the Israelites If we murmur at small evils that may be tolerated is not that impatiency So did the Israelites If we murmur at good things for which we should rather give thanks if we murmur at Manna the precious nourishment of the soul is not that abominable ingratitude So did the Israelites And what should this sin be likened to but an Aspe or a Viper No Serpent is so much a Serpent as a grumbling spirit that is ever murmuring at God and Moses And this is the first use of the Brazen Serpent to turn unto it as a book wherein we read our sins Peccatum peccati cognitione curatur For the first cure to be applied unto sin is to make a recognition of it with an humble and a contrite spirit so did the truest Penitent and the greatest sinner King David I know my transgressions and my sin is always against me The next contemplation upon this brazen Image is not immediately to step from sin unto the remedy for the vengeance due unto sin is to be considered between them both Behold the bitter pain which Christ endured upon the Cross and it accuseth us that the disobedience was monstrous which must be expiated with so much sorrow Quà m gravis sit peccati conditio prodit remedii magnitudo says St. Austin How great the guiltiness of sin was appears in the magnitude of the remedy And no less it is apparent how insufferable that wrath was which we escaped because he sustained so much wrath that bore it in our stead Note the malediction which we had merited in the maledictive death which our Saviour did undergo and then it will be a pleasant thing to go to heaven as it were by the gates of hell But there is nothing more dangerous than deliverance out of danger if we forget the jeopardy I will bring this clearly out of the matter we have in hand The Creatures that annoyed the Israelites were Serpents For a serpentine sin deserved a serpentine punishment I will send the teeth of beasts upon them with the poison of the Serpents of the dust Deut. xxxiii 24. The teeth of other beasts might have procured a dismal slaughter but because a Serpent was accursed above every beast of the field the wounds that they made did superadd unto death the meditation of a curse and that their judgment was compounded with malediction And this was prosecuted in the figure that the brazen Serpent was lifted upon a pole to keep in mind that sting of the Law Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Therefore you cannot deny that this is a looking-glass of Justice before we come to mercy As Christ crucified is a type of condemnation to unbelievers but a sacrifice of salvation to those that trust in his Redemption Oleaster says that the first Epithet that God gave to this Figure was to call it a Fiery Serpent Num. xxi 8. because a fire of Coals did continually burn within it that first it might strike dread and horror into all that saw it before it healed the impotent The fire of hell was annexed to that grace and blessing which came from heaven as if the sword of justice had been put up in the Scabbard of mercy but they were never asunder Lose not your self in applying mercy and nothing but mercy to your conscience lest it befall you as it doth with a Bee that is drowned in its own honey But correct presumption and confidence by converting to some remarkable objects of indignation When Achan that troubled the Land was executed They raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day says the Holy Ghost Josh vii 26. God doth not suffer grievous punishments to vanish as shadows but he makes them
of First-fruits which at this time by the Levitical Sanctions were waved to the Lord are rendred after the spiritual gloss of our Church to be amor Dei proximi the love of God and the love of our Neighbour and these must be weaved or heaved up after their manner what 's that why our integrity and piety must shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father that is in heaven Beloved here 's the difference they gave first-fruits of earthly things this day unto God but this day we celebrate the memorial how God gave First-fruits of heavenly things unto man In Rom. viii 23. St. Paul speaks of the first-fruits of the spirit in a diminutive sense as the inchoation of grace the enlightning of faith the hope of better things that what he hath begun in us he will perfect but the first-fruits of the spirit which the Church reapt this day was that which sanctified the whole lump for ever after for this last correspondency and for the other forenamed the Apostles in a most acceptable time expected the Holy Ghost when the day c. A most delicious gift poured out from God in the very strength and deliciousness of the year A festival time it was you have heard and such a Festival as brought a Concourse of many Nations to Jerusalem so it appears in this chapter I have my authority from St. Ambrose that the Lord had this time much in mind to do it honor many years before for some Jewish Tradition hath encouraged him to say that the certain season when the Angel came down to the Pool of Bethesda to trouble the water that whosoever stepped in first might be made whole of his disease it was but once a year and that once was the Feast of Pentecost Mark how the Lord design'd out that day for his Angelical Miracle I will not engage my self into that Chronological question whether our first Whitsunday when the Holy Ghost appeared in firy tongues was the very Pentecost of the Jews or rather the day after To the latter opinion many incline upon that slight reason because St. Luke writ this Story of the Acts 28 years after Christ's ascension into heaven and then the Jews Pentecost was abolished the doubt is much uncertain wherefore I let it pass But I can assure you that in very ancient times of the Christian Faith yea in the most ancient if Clement his Constitutions were warrantable this day was kept with as high honour and devotion as the zeal of our Forefathers could excogitate Says Eusebius lamenting that his Master Constantine the Emperor died at the same time if I should call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holiday of Holidays we should not erre He adds that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it had honour done it seven weeks together This in my apprehension refers us to three things First the Church was wont to sing that chearful Anthem of Alleluia every Sunday from Easter to Whitsuntide an arbitrary Ceremony at the discretion of every particular Church and our Church of England since the Reformation continued the custom according to the first Liturgies set forth in Edward the sixth his Reign to sing or say alleluia from Easter to Whitsuntide at Morning Prayer 2. By the ancient Prescript no Fasts were bidden all those seven weeks nothing but joy and exultation was heard and practiced 3. During all that space they did not kneel at time of Prayer but stand upright looking towards Heaven from whence the Holy Ghost descended Nefas erat de geniculis adorare in Tertullian's time these were ancient Rites and Prescriptions to magnify this day in the beauty of holiness But whereas Eusebius adds that Christ ascended into Heaven the very same day the Holy Ghost descended this was his oversight though not his alone who would not pick the right sense Act. i. 3. that Christ was seen of his Disciples but fourty days speaking of the things of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore on the fourtieth day he was taken from them into Heaven and ten days after the plentiful showers of grace did rain down upon the Church the time is so precisely noted says Isidor Palcusiot to refute that proud Heretick Montanus who said the great promise of the Holy Spirit was not fulfill'd at the Feast of Pentecost but long after in his days This is the glorious day which the Lord hath made wherein he summ'd up the complement of all his benefits as the sixt day was the complement of the Creation All other preceding mercies were but words to this the Holy Ghost is the Seal or Signature of those words to make the deed the stronger in quo signati estis Eph. iv 30. in whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Rejoyce in this day and keep it holy before the Lord not in decking the body in full diet in sport in idleness but in thankfulness in purity of mind in spiritual consolations in the feast of a good conscience and ever set before you at such seasons what Gregory said Quid prodest interesse festis hominum si contingat deesse festis Angelorum What profit is it to keep holiday with men if we should be excluded from keeping holiday with Angels for evermore So much for the time of the Holy Ghosts coming I repent me not that I have been long in it for it was most material The persons that received this power from on high are next in the way of my discourse omnes all of them Many there are that understand this note of Universality collectivè not as meant of all that were present but of all the Apostles The whole Church was gathered together for the Election of a new Apostle that 's apparent in the former chapter and the lot fell upon Matthias The number of names together were about an hundred and twenty Among these there were divers women Mary the Mother of our Lord is expresly mentioned for one of them these continued together in prayer and supplication even until the time that the Holy Ghost did fill the Room Now I would put the case into this distinction whether the spirit came down upon them all upon them all in some great measure no question but not upon them all with the same virtue and power and illumination Many talents of rare perfections were distributed among all the Believers that were present men and women for else Peter had not applied the place of the Prophet Joel so pertinently ver 17. of this chap. In the last days I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh your sons and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions St. Hierom leans to this side and says that the mighty gift of grace was given to all that believed even as God took the spirit of Moses and gave it to the 70 Elders and it came to pass when the spirit rested upon them
Conventicles which are the obstructions of Vnity and the decay of Allegeance and Loyalty They that live far from Court may perhaps see their danger sooner than the wisest that hear it and scarce hear all reports which threaten danger It is easie to spit out a spark but not a flame When Pliny in his Proconsulate in Asia wrote to Trajan that he found the Christians meeting in secret corners before day then they had no Churches and to be a harmless people that sung Psalms to Christ that confederated not to kill not to commit Adultery and the like Budaeus upon the Pandects is my Author that Trajan wrote to Pliny that he did not like to have them gather together in that privy sort for it might tend to conspiracy That thereupon the Christians certified of the Emperours jealousie refrained their meetings though as yet they had no publick places to assemble in for the Worship of Christ But try our Christians that meet in hugger mugger in houshold Congregations I doubt you will not find that inoffensiveness and modesty among them which was in our Primitive Brethren who would sooner observe the Edict of a Pagan Prince than these will the Defenders of the Faith Look upon this Point once more Noah called all that were about him together to the solemn Worship of God A good Spring sets all the Wheels a going with a true and an equal motion and it was fit this good work should be carried on in his person The Father of the Family the Master of the Houshold the chief Priest of the Church in Sacred causes the Supreme Magistrate in Civil causes in any of these respects but much more in all together he was to give a good example to his Relatives A good example let us look to it to whom it most belongs is a sweet savour to many far and wide to the whole World in the Twelve Apostles Upon which Gregory runs out in this exuberant eloquence The Apostles were flowers of all sweet smels as the flower of the Grape Doctrina praedicatorum inebriat mentes audientium their Doctrine did inebriate their Auditors with the Cup of Salvation there was in them the flower of the Olive in the sweet works of mercy the flower of the Rose in the crimson bloud of their Martyrdom the flower of the white Lilly in some by Virginity in all by pureness and chastity and the flower of the Violet in lowly growth or humility Holy conspicuous men are flowers of Paradise whose odours and colours are delectable an orient colour in their own conscience within a fragrant odour in their good name to those that are without Justus lilium est in se candidum sed proximo odoratum A just man is a Lilly that hath inherent whiteness to himself but sweet as a Rose to his neighbour by the edifying of his example that others may see his good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven It is happy to live well thrice happy to lead well like Cesars Souldiers that were called an Army of Commanders St. Basil says that some in his time did sprinkle sweet Ointment upon the Wings of tame Pigeons and sent them abroad like our coy Ducks to fetch in the wild Flocks that they might take delight in them and follow them home So as he applies it the good Odour which may be sented from them that are exemplarily vertuous attracts the wild and dissolute to the Dove Coats or the Collections of the Saints of God All that have done eminently to abandon Profaneness suppress Superstition revoke Sacriledge discourage the Factious suppress Hereticks and Contentious Kings Potentates Prelates shall be renowned as Josias was that famous restorer of Religion there remembrance shall be sweet as honey in all mouths and as Musick at a banquet of wine Ecclus. xlix 1. Enough now of this Point that Noah before all necessaries of life and nature took care for the instauration of true Religion begun in a most divine unity and setled it by his great example Therefore the Lord smelled a sweet savour The third thing which in the Affirmative interprets the phrase of my Text is That God is mightily delighted with Oblations of thankfulness Noah had a very small stock of Creatures with him to begin a new Generation and when they came forth of the Ark none were appointed to be slain but had their Exeatis with this blessing Be fruitful and multiply on the earth Yet the Patriarch knew by faith how he that had preserved them so miraculously could multiply their paucity and the sooner if somewhat were gratefully repayed to God Let Elias have a little of a little and the Widow shall have the more These few Beasts and Fowls I speak of were the Reliques of the Old World and the Seminary of the New Now how well did a Sacrifice come in to divide between these two Points of Religion To give thanks for the remainder preserved and to bespeak their increase for the time to come So God is justly acknowledged in both his titles Servator reliquiarum multiplicator seminarii the conserver of the little remainder the multiplier of the total Seminary O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious The most material exception that a good man can make against the shortness of life is that we want space to run over all the benefits we have received Woe be to them that have time and spare little for such Meditations Some man who is not very practical in this duty will say question me not whether I praise the Lord for his great mercies for my Redemption for my Salvation How can I forget it Or had I been in Noahs case escaped a common Deluge I would have offered a Sacrifice I see God must buy our gratitude dear if he will have it and many times when he pays well for it he goes without it For some do premeditately except against the Publick Thanksgiving of women delivered from the peril of Childbirth as if it savoured of Jewish Purification The time is to come when such shall know that it is better to be a thankful Jew than an unthankful Christian This was St. Austins Divinity Liberata est uxor tua à periculo partus benedicis Dominum When thy Wife is delivered and well recovered thou wilt say The name of the Lord be praised The like will any man almost do that is come off from a bloudy Battel a raging Tempest a burning Feaver a malicious Conspiracy that he may not appear a rank Atheist But the Lord as I said buys such thanks at a great rate Do you think he gives common blessings like a vantage above the dozen which you shall not pay for Is it nothing that the Sun doth shine upon us and not burn us That the Seas flow and ebb again and not overwhelm us That the Cattel of the field feed us and not devour us Nothing should befal us without a retribution of praise In every thing
in holy Scripture both how the Devil tempted Christ to see if He were God and how the Pharisees brought a case before him to try if He were Messias Cast thy self down from the Pinacle of the Temple says Satan if thou be the Son of God No that were cruelty against his own person and charity begins at home Then the Pharisees brought a sinner before him taken in adultery Joh. viii Their fingers itcht to be casting stones at her but he would not suffer them And this mercy proved him both to be Messias and the Son of God If men and Angels had kept good we had only known the friendship of God what it was and not his anger that was natural unto him We provoked justice violently and wrung it out of his hands And as the King of Israel said to Elisha when his enemies were inclosed within his power Shall I smite them my Father shall I smite them No says the Prophet but set bread and water before them So Justice said to God when we had transgressed Shall I smite them Shall I consume them at once O no says our Saviour but set bread and wine before them the Sacrament of his body and bloud which being eaten by faith will save our souls Christ wept but twice in all once over his friend Lazarus that was a natural grief and once over Jerusalem that sought his bloud that was a coelestial passion Nay though he went but a foot pace from one City to another to preach the Gospel yet he would needs ride to Jerusalem so to make haste to suffer longing till the work of our Redemption was finished St. Ambrose says he groaned as well to have the bitter Cup come quickly as to have it pass away and grew weary of delay till He had paid the Hand-writing which was against us There passed but a little time from midnight to midday betwixt his Attachment his Arraignment and his Execution as if his feet had stood upon thorns until his head was crowned with them Now tell me how you will look upon this Christ O ye malicious hearted whose feet are swift to shed bloud in Duels and fierce Encounters your hatred and his pitty your desire to destroy your enemies and his good will to recover them and bless them they savour undoubtedly of two sort of Serpents Christ is the Brazen Serpent lifted up who cured the infirmities of the People they are like the fiery Vermin which stung Gods Travellers in the Wilderness And when God was put to it to punish see how Mercy wrestled with Indignation Ah I will be avenged of mine enemies says the Prophet Isaiah he sighed because he must be wrathful as it was said of the mild Emperor Vespasian Indoluit quoties debuit esse ferox When he destroyed Sodom with an heayy wrath his justice came down but in slow drops of fire but his mercy is a full torrent like Jordan in a time of Harvest it brought Israel to a Land flowing with milk and honey for his mercy endureth for ever His goodness is swifter than Eagles for in six dayes he framed the World and all that is therein But he took forty days to destroy one City of Nineveh and then he spared it When he was first angry with man he did but walk in the cool says the Text to chide Adam but the Father of the Prodigal you know who I mean ran in haste to meet his Son and pardon him when he was yet far from him Finally it is written in Mat. xxv that benediction is from God Come ye blessed of my Father But malediction and cursing are not from him Go ye cursed but not cursed of my Father no such word in the Text he has no hand in that It was Gods Dialogue with Jonas Shouldst thou grieve that the Gourd of herbs is decayed and should not compassion touch me much more for this mighty People true Lord but if thou pardonest man for sin who in thy sight is but as a flower of the field less than the Gourd of Jonas should not man much more remit the offence of his Brother which is done against him I say much more it behoveth man and I will hold my self to that For first there is somewhat in our eyes that blinds them it is pulvis humanitatis the dust of our humane nature that makes us when we are the most sharp censurers of other mens faults not to discern truly the filth of their sin but the eyes of the Lord are bright as a couple of flaming Torches in the Revelation and offences appear before them more ghastly and tragical than our dim Candle half put out can enlighten us to perceive For instance hereof To morrow there is a Feast unto Jehovah says Aaron but the Lord could see that the Feast was luxury they rose up to play and the Sport was flat Idolatry So Saul could discern no harm in himself but a little foolish pitty when he spared Agag but the flaming eye saw it was Rebellion as foul as the sin of Witchcraft And is the Lord merciful to our transgressions when they cry unto him like the sound of many waters and should not Man much more acquit the World of every offence done against him for as much as we conceive not what is evil because our selves are evil Secondly among men a gift pleaseth the eyes and a recompence is a safe correcting of an injury but that were peccatum bis tinctum a sin died in scarlet to think to blot out sins before the Lord with the Fruit of our Body or with Rivers of Oil And can this God be reconciled then and should not man much more be merciful Beloved in the third place We are all full of our own infirmities Who knows whose turn it may be next to fly unto the Altar for a pardon Two that grind in the same Mill and two that walk in the same Field nay Barnabas and Paul fellow Labourers in the same Gospel may daily stumble one at another Our communication together cannot choose but be offensive as the earth licks up the water and the water devours the earth but who is the churlish Labourer to whom God cannot say Friend I do thee no wrong O can the just one have mercy upon us and should not offenders between themselves sinners unto sinners much more be charitable But there is one thing more in mercy than forgiveness alms and bounty to do good and distribute to be Oil and Physick to the wounded like the good Samaritan this is also a full Plume in the Wing of Charity like that other Mat. xxiii how often would I have gathered thee under my wings as a Hen doth her Chickens but thou wouldest not Beloved God hath suffered his fire to be unmerciful to sweep away the Habitation of the fatherless and innocent that our hands might build it up again And we shall not only build up houses of clay the reward
King Agrippa's leave almost a Christian was three parts an Atheist Such a glimmering light of zeal is like a Morning mist which quickly vanisheth away and it is Christus suffuratus as the Souldiers said Christ stoln away and pilfered out of our heart I know not how He that never saw the Sea is as near his journeys end to pass it over as he that wades but to the ankles The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundation of this house and his hands shall finish it Zach. iv 9. that was a blessing from the Lord. To be of Caesars mind Nil actum credens cum quid superesset agendum to think nothing done when any thing was undone that was a Spirit to make a Conquerour My love is a bundle of Myrrh Cant. xiii As if she were like Seleucus shafts which could not be broken in the cluster Such a bundle of Myrrh is in St. Peter 2 Epist i. 5. Give all diligence and add to your faith vertue to your vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance to temperance patience to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to all these charity What will all these serve the turn when they stand as thick as corn in harvest Yes says the Apostle Si abundaverint if they abound in you they will make you you shall not be barren and fruitless Thus then Truth and Mercy will forsake us if we do not further the gift of God take away the single Talent and give it to him that hath ten more The next way to make our heart cast this happy brood and to miscarry when it travels with Truth and Mercy is admotione contrarii by taking part both with God and Belial Asahal was not more nimble than St. John to fly away when he spied Cerinthus the eldest Son of Satan in the same Bath with him and therefore do not think to make your soul an Ark for the clean and unclean beasts to lie together A little frosty air is so forcible that it bursts the clouds and forceth out the hot exhalation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is spirted out between the fingers and gone before you can think of it Beloved that field in Israel was hated like Aceldama which was sown with divers seeds and Nehemiah cursed the children that spake one half in the Hebrew Tongue and another part in the Language of Ashdod Covetousness is so wealthy and it thrives so fast that it easily purchaseth the whole heart of man and whom at first you entertained like a foreiner to have one moyety in your heart it buys the whole possession over Mercies head Veios migrate coloni and so casts it forth And likewise so incompatible is truth with the least falshood that the haters of the Lord were found liars at our Saviours arraignment when he spake nothing Is it not strange Very strange That Christ should come before unrighteous Judges be impeached by malicious Adversaries all this while hold his peace and yet the Witness not agree Will you know the reason There came two false Witnesses Mat. xxvi Averring that this fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and to build it again in three days There is another tale told Mar. xiv We heard him say I will destroy this Temple made with hands and will build another without hands But what said our Saviour in very deed You shall find his saying Joh. ii 19. Neither I can destroy with the former nor I will destroy with the latter But vos solvite do you destroy and solvite templum hoc the Temple of his body and in three days I will raise it up You cannot clap good and bad together but with waxen pins if you move them a little they fly asunder the wax melteth and it confounds the Chariot and his Rider For what agreement hath light with darkness or the Temple of the Lord with Idols Touching the third manner and the last how a quality may cease to be desitione subjecti when that faileth wherein it is it hath no place only in Truth and Mercy Other things indeed we can expect to remain no longer than the house of our body lasteth beauty ceaseth with the bloud and strength faileth with the sinews nay tongues shall cease and knowledge shall vanish away but mercy and charity abideth for ever Yea and truth also but veritas in visione not in fide Truth in the clear vision of God and not darkly in faith In a word as Joseph furnished his Brethren both with food for their travel and Corn to keep house with in the Land of Canaan So there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. James gifts for our Pilgrimage in this life and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts to abide with us in our Country above perfect gifts descending from the Father of lights So some endowments drop away with this house of flesh but after glorification this voice shall no more be heard in our ears let not Mercy and Truth forsake thee But this uncomfortable deserant that Gods gifts may forsake us is to view Jacob but as a Criple halting and failing in his combate but nè deserant let them not forsake thee shews Israel wrestling with the Angel and keeping God as I may speak it with reverence fast unto him with a chain of Faith To begin therefore with Mercy there are two ways to keep a firm possession of it by Meditation and by Petition The Meditations also shall be twain and very short ones for the time sake First Consider that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers call it the deep engagement of our Charity in the Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our brethren and no otherwise Lord what a deep curse do we bring upon our soul if this be not said in earnest Secondly Consider the compassion of all the Members in that mystical body whereof Christ is the head He that is hard hearted against a Christian is cruel against a part of himself Nero might fill the streets with the slaughtered bodies of the Saints For why he was none of ours but a Lion in the Sheepfold but a little bitterness a disdaining contempt a reviling malediction the neglect of the misery of a Christian at the hands of a Christian is more unnatural It was St. Basils counsel and most elegant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that as he that looks upon the sore eye of another man may chance to provoke the rheum in his own eyes so our eyes should grow feeble and conceive tears when we see the tears of our brother If we chance to offend against Mercy and to forget one of these Meditations it is very likely that it will stop at the other but if both fail then we must fly unto uncessant Prayer and Petition That is Anchora sacra for the last refuge let us fall down before his footstool and confirm Gods grace to our soul as Elias made the heavens of brass I do not mean so
disputation but to inward examination how you look to be freed from the fire of Hell when you shall stand before the Judgment Seat of God Will you trust to inherent righteousness and say it will be well for me this good I have done Or to the imputed justice of Christ which is true and perfect justice and pleaseth the eyes of God O there is no ground can be laid for peace and salvation but in his righteousness that justifieth a sinner They that carp at this take them from their sentences and quodlibets and search what they say in their Books of Devotions Manuals of Prayer Graduals of love and repentance Meditations of Death then nothing comes from them but O Lord deliver us O Saviour redeem us O Son of God remember not that which is past then they never fly to the bloudy Altar of the Law but to the Sanctuary of the Gospel In a word whosoever refers his justification in any part to a legal righteousness is yet in bondage but Jerusalem which is above is free It is this Covenant of Faith that turneth away the captivity of Jacob. Now under the Discipline of Faith the Spirit attracts us by love and meek perswasions it doth not threaten and bend the fist at us as the Law did and that 's the third part of bondage which our Jerusalem hath escaped it is not awed with compulsion and fear but it follows the direction of the Spirit with gladness which is the next step to the state of Angels It is not good for a Child to be too much scar'd by Praeceptors and Governours such nipping weather is an enemy to a flourishing Spring Then imagine what a shivering Ague it was to the Israelites Sons of God but not yet come to age as St. Paul describes them to struggle with so many austere Statutes as Moses gave them Scourgings loss of eyes loss of limbs burning stoning forfeiting the life of a man for the trespass of a beast losing the right hand for a casualty a moral man that knew not the strictness of Gods Judgments would say for a trifle Add unto these so many pollutions circumstantial natural that could not be helpt to be expiated with continual cost and labour add above all these that noise of Malediction louder than thunder Cursed is he that doth not continue in all the words of this Law to do them amidst these terrours that came so thick as they were good to bridle stubbornness so many generous resolutions of the mind that would have put forth must needs be suffocated The Angel of God when he came with a message from heaven and would have it intelligently received likely he began with this Preface Fear not Nay God did deliver this People from the fear of Pharaoh and his Host before ever he would give them a Law to serve him Men that are held to their Tasque by minacies Magis aguntur quà m agunt He that doth a thing out of love is carried to it by an internal complacency he is a self mover and the action is his own he that goes forward to his Tasque because the scourge is behind him the action is not his own raptatur ad obsequium his will rows against the stream but the Tide is so strong that it carries him with it by Coaction And that harvest of obedience which is reapt with the Sickle of stern dominion and threatning when all is done it is not worth the bringing into the barn For it keeps a man that he dares not break out into a scandalous transgression of the Law Is not that all The External Act is smooth and conformable to justice But what reformation is there all that while in the heart It is not fear but love which takes upon it to cure the concupiscence which is in the mind If there be no better School-master than fear the body may worship God alone and the mind remain an Idolater A longer declaration of this there needs not We all know that a Palsie of fear will shake Judgment out of the wit The Oratour that pleaded upon peril of his life Lugdunensem rhetor dicturus ad aram he would pronounce but badly and surely much of the imperfections of the Jews may be imputed to this that the Law did subject them to the Spirit of Bondage It is the Spirit of the New Testament which turns us about and sets us free from the superciliousness of the Law and it would have us please the Lord for his mercies sake and out of the sense of his goodness it exhorts us that our service should grow out of his favours and our duty out of his bounty and benefits so shall there be alacrity and readiness in the soul to all manner of vertue as well as passive obsequiousness in the body The Schoolmen observe it rightly that filial fear which is the freedom and ingenuity of obedience riseth out of the love of God but servile fear which is a plain captivity of Spirit riseth out of the love of our selves The Servant who goes through his Tasque that he may not suffer correction would do as much as may keep his skin whole that is for love of himself A Son that honoureth his Father and rejoyceth to hear his voice seeks his Fathers glory that he may receive of his glory and this is purely out of the love of God No wonder therefore if this hath redounded to far more fruits than ever the tree of the Law did bear which was pelted and beaten For as one hath noted it well Gods Church hath increased more by the love of God than by the terrour which he sent in the old time but when persecutions were rife it increased more by the terrours of men than by their love The use of it is that we serve God as those that are past the Spirit of bondage reverently with fear and chearfully without fear Faith is the great promoter of reverential fear and breeds in us an awe of Gods Majesty and a dread of his glory as the Cherubins do cover their faces with their wings before him This is clean and pure refined in the flame of love caused neither by sin nor punishment but it reflects upon the baseness of our own substance the Creature compares its own vileness with the infinite excellency of the Creator and so approacheth with all due distance of humility But Faith again cools the inflammation of servile fear with the water of Baptism wherein we were sprinkled with the bloud of Christ It teacheth us to decline offences with all care and study not to escape punishment but out of gratitude to him who hath done so great things for us It ingenders an ardent sollicitousness to be unblameable not because the wrath of the Lord is terrible when he is displeased but because his Mercy and Redemption deserve to be recompenced with all manner of obedience Labour for that integrity which is expected from one that is free from sin but a servant to