a tree Yet Christ avoided to be slain among the Infants of Bethlem he would not be cast down the steep Mountain in Galilee nor be stoned by the Pharisees but to expiate the first sin by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree he was exalted on a tree like the Serpent in the wilderness And there is somewhat of observation in it that he suffered in an elevation between heaven and earth to purge the Region of the Air from the infestation of the Devil Who was Damnatus ad acrem tanquam ad carcerem says St. Austin thrown out of heaven to remain in the air as in a prison and therefore called by St. Paul The Prince of the power of the air Eph. ii 2. Nay Hesiod the Heathen Poet came to this knowledge by what tradition I know not that wicked spirits enemies to mankind were diffused over that Element Therefore Jesus dying upon the Cross gave up the Ghost in the air that he might cleanse the air from those flying Serpents that is from Diabolical infestations says St. Athanasius Secondly He was mounted upon his Cross as a Conquerour over that which was trodden down and trampled under feet wherein he seemed to be condemned he condemned the world wherein he took infirmity upon him he shewed invincible fortitude wherein he suffered death he overcame the power of Death From that fatal Tree which the Jews prepared for an indelible ignominy Potentia redemptoris secit gradum ad gloriam says Leo The puissance of the Redeemer made it a degree unto glory The Devil stirred up all sorts of men against him his Disciples to deny him the Jews to accuse him the Souldiers to crucifie him the Passengers to blaspheme him The more opposition the greater was the triumph For the Psalmist makes it a Song of Jubilee They came about me like bees and are extinct as the fire among the thorns Let me give it a simile from another feast coincident this year upon the day of the Passion The Patron entitled to the noble Order of the Garter sits victoriously on horse-back and the Dragon is beaten under his feet and cast upon his back So our Champion rides in triumph upon the Cross and his enemy fell before him For Christ was visibly crucified but the Devil invisibly says Origen When our Saviour was transfigured and appeared in glory then Moses and Elias spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Luk. ix 31. As if there were no fitter time to speak of his death than in that clarification because his death was the purchase of glory in that abasement he was exalted and did exalt us that believe in him in that machine and craned us up by his Cross to heaven And therefore he promised unto the penitent Thief when he was upon the Cross the joyes of Paradise because his Cross did open Paradise to all believers Two things are notorious marks that this kind of death so vile in appearance was a constructive exaltation First that the imperial Ensign of the Roman Army in the days of Constantine the Great was cast into the figure of a Cross known in ancient Authors by that obsolete word laborum it was a victorious auspice to have the flag of the Cross which was never overcome to fly before them Then it came to be extolled even to the top of the Crown of Kings A locis suppliciorum fecit transitum ad coronas Imperatorum says St. Austin Once it was infamous for a sign of a servile death now it is translated as it were from Golgotha unto the Crowns of Emperours Fructus arborem exaltat jam honor est non horror The fruit that hung upon the tree hath taken away all ignominy from the tree now the horror of it is changed into a Trophee of honour As the Serpent was lifted up so there was power and exaltation and victory in the sacrifice of our Saviour Thirdly As the Son of God was conquerant in death so he was glorified after death He humbled himself to death even to the death of the Cross wherefore God hath highly exalted him By his Cross and Passion he hath entred into heaven there to sit at the right hand of the Majesty for ever Now he is exalted in his Resurrection death hath no more dominion over him now his name is blessed and hallowed as the balm from which our salvation distilleth now his Kingdom is enlarged from Sea to Sea and the uttermost parts of the earth are his possession Now his people are gathered unto him to magnifie and praise him all Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall do him service These are the success and the consequents of his humiliation Therefore as you would not envy his greatness in his Resurrection so do not despise the meanness of his Passion Non te pigeat videre serpentem in ligno pendentem si vis videre regem in solio regnantem says St. Austin be not troubled to see him lifted up upon a Pole like the brazen Serpent if you desire to see him sit upon his Throne as King of Kings and Lord of Lords Ought not Christ to suffer these things and so to enter into his glory And let this confirm our faith and make us willing to be conformable to his sufferings The afflictive way nay the destructive way of persecution is the advancement of a Christian to be pluckt down is to be lifted up Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God Acts xiv 22. As some did swim to shore upon planks in that shipwrack wherein St. Paul was a companion Acts xxvii so being all of us in the common naufrage of sin none are more safe than they that swim out upon the Cross which God hath laid upon them If we must bid farewel to temporal prosperity let us see what Pearls of patience and repentance we can find as Job did in the dunghil of sorrow and misery If Tempests blow stronger and stronger let us strive with Elias to go up to heaven in the whirlwind what we want in the Church Militant continue stedfast in the truth and it will be supplied in the Church Triumphant But in what estate soever you are be lifted up from the earth and let your affections be above Let not Satan get the upper ground and make advantage of it against us beneath Is he in the air Then shall my heart be in heaven Is he upon an exceeding high mountain in his tentations Then will I fly up to the Sanctuary of the Lord upon the wings of a Dove For the Mountain of the Lords house is established in the top of the mountains Isa ii 2. Would he have me look upon the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them No I will look upon him who despised glory and hath purchased honour by his opprobry upon him who was lifted up like the Serpent in the wilderness Draw near now and come unto that place where this
minute or hour yet it was in a short space after for he tells them in his Message This day is born unto you in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. When God was to destroy a people he thought it fit to make it known unto Abraham shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do Gen. 18.17 much more when he was to save a people he would immediately reveal the thing in hand and loe the Angel of the Lord as who should say shall I hide from these religious careful Shepherds the thing which I have done for their salvation Let us compare in a word Christ manifested to the Shepherds to the Wisemen of the East to Simeon and Anna in the Temple to the Shepherds he was made known the same day that his Mother brought him forth to the Magi of the East as the most ancient do collect twelve days after upon the Feast of the Epiphany to Simeon and Anna forty days after he was born when Mary according to the Law came to the Temple to be Purified The Shepherds were Jews and he was made known incontinently to them prefiguring that the first-fruits of the Gospel should be preacht before them at Jerusalem the bread of life should first be broken to the Children before the dogs had the Crums which fell under the Table Those Easterlings that brought gifts to his Cradle of Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense they were Gentiles and the Apostles were sent to them in a little distance of time after the Feast of Pentecost when it was illustrious that all Tongues and Nations should praise the Lord in their own Language Yet again there shall be another Revelation of the Gospel to the Jews after forty days numerus certus pro incerto when the Gentiles have had their part Simeon and Anna shall enjoy them that is in the fulness of time and in an hour that we do not think of a remnant shall be collected God will gather together the out-casts of Israel and the dispersions of Sion Once it was ecce Angelus Gods Minister stood in the midst of them in this Text pointing the Messias with his finger who then was in the City of David now after much attendance after many an ecce many a long look the glory of Israel shall be revealed unto them So much for the time of this Apparition 3. Loe or behold an Angel soft a while and let us ask in the third circumstance quomodo how we should behold him a Spirit hath not flesh to be seen or bones to be felt in what fashion therefore did he alter himself surely it well deserves Ecce Angelus a note of Admiration for the manner was wonderful Beloved if the Eternal Son of God did not abhor the Virgins Womb those ministring Spirits whom he commands could not abhor the shapes of men they appeared every way in the same form and fashion wherein we walk upon earth Yet thus we distinguish them from our selves our bodies are begotten theirs were created our flesh propagated from the loins of Adam their substance made extraordinarily not according to nature but by the finger of God our soul quickens the flesh which it possesseth and makes it live their bodies which they assum'd had not vivification by the breath of life but only serv'd them for motion and representation our bodies have the instruments of outward senses to convey sensible things to the fancy and so to the understanding they had eyes and ears and other sensible organs non ut sentiant sed ut corpus perfecte representent says the great Schoolman not to exercise those senses but for an ornament and complement sake lest their bodies should seem monstrous and formidable to the beholders Finally their bodies after they had appear'd to discharge their embassage vanisht into elements never to return again into that composition but our bodies shall revive out of that dust into which they were dissolv'd and live for ever in the resurrection of the righteous Some have so commented upon the Apparitions of Angels in holy Scripture as if they had not truly taken humane shapes the better to communicate their business to men but God deluded mens eyes and bred this thought in their fancy as if they had seen that which was not visible I confess there are prophetical Visions in holy Text when the fancy of certain Prophets was perswaded it saw that which it did not see it was a Divine passion which made Ezechiel think he saw beasts with wings and wheels under their feet chap. 1. It was a mere Divine passion which made Daniel suppose he saw the powerful ram push down all other beasts with his horn on the banks of Vlai Dan. 8. These objects were conceived by none but by them single Prophets no other eye could be partaker of it Now on the contrary that 's no prophetical Apparition but a real object which is equally visible to all spectators therefore the Apparition of Angels was not imaginary but substantial for loe the Angel of the Lord was seen of all the Shepherds and the Angels which Lot entertained were conspicuous not to Lot only who was a just man but equally to all the vicious Sodomites And so much for the fashion wherein he did appear not as a spirit but in the shape of a man and therefore Ecce Angelus loe an Angel of the Lord. 4. The next doubtful question is Quo situ after what manner the Angel took his place when he came unto them the Grammarians are at odds what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should mean whether he hover'd above their heads in the air or stood in the same level near unto them Beda prevented this quarrel and accepts of both interpretations Sunt juxta nos per amorem supra nos per authoritatem they stand near unto us by their love and they stand above us by their authority Surely if Christ had not been born to reconcile us to his Father we had not been worth the coming near we had been no company for those holy Seraphins but since he vouchsafed to take flesh and blood the nature of man came into respect and reverence the enemy shall not approach to hurt it but those auxiliary troops of heaven pitch their pavilions round about it supra juxta planting themselves as a fortress for our head and as a buckler for our arm And indeed those are the chief things that need good influence and assistance knowledge and action head and hand Some are secret inventors of mischief plotters and contrivers of disturbance their brain is a mint of oppression where is Angelus superveniens the Angel above Some know their Masters will but they do not do it nay quite contrary fear or favour wrings ill effects from them where is Angelus astans they want a good Angel at their elbow Where is Michael the great Prince Qui stat pro filiis populi tui which standeth for the children of thy people Dan. 12.1 But whether
learning of the world hath busied it self about conjecture this is evident truth and no conjecture that they were Gentiles far remote from the Temple at Jerusalem which God had chosen out above all the earth for the holy place of his honour This is the reason that makes Twelfth-day so great a Feast throughout all the world because in the person of the Wise men a door of Faith was opened unto the Nations that knew not God As a Star is an heavenly body that is common to all Coasts and Climates to illuminate them so the Birth of Christ was attended by a Star because all people should partake of his Grace and Gospel Behold ye the Philistines and they of Tyre with the Morians loe there was he born Psal lxxxvii 4. As who should say it should be no prejudice to us that he was born among the Jews in the City of David for his blessing shall be with us as much as if he had been born in every Country of the Gentiles They that believe in Christ they are his Country-men They that hear the word of God and keep it they are my Mother and my Brothers and my Sisters says our Saviour The Prophet Jonas who was a Type of Christ in none of his smallest works but even in his glorious Resurrection he was sent to the Gentiles of Ninive to denote that through Christ that great Prophet whom the Lord would raise up the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven should be opened to the Gentiles But this is stale now and little thought upon because the sound of the word hath gone forth into the ends of the world for sixteen hundred years who considers this merciful loving kindness as he ought though at the first every small thing was admired and it was marvellous in mens eyes to see any partakers of the heavenly gift but the very natural branches of the stock of Abraham Christ himself wondered at the Centurions Faith for he was not of the house of Israel he was astonisht at the importunity and zeal of the Syro-phenisian O woman great is thy faith at the Samaritan who being a Samaritan was thankful when nine others were forgetful These were rare occurrences in the beginning And when St. Luke brings in his Shepherds to visit Christ in his manger he doth not say ecce pastores behold there were Shepherds of the Jews that saw the Birth of our Lord but St. Matthew lays an index of wonder upon these Gentiles Ecce Magi Behold there came Wise men of the East to Jerusalem A great change as ever was in the world to be remembred on this day with most festival Thanksgiving but never to be forgotten Every Nation loves to know above all other Antiquities when her people were converted to the Faith as our Country reckons from King Lucius the French from Clodoveus but the whole world from this day from the coming of the Wise men of the East to Jerusalem But the end of this strange work should especially be kept in mind and with that I end this point Our Saviour told the Pharisees to what end God called the Gentiles The kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Mat. xxi 43. From hence I move a little forward with their motion to the next thing observed Venerunt they came as if the Star had said unto them seek ye my face and they had answered with David Thy face Lord will I seek As soon as ever Christ was born cum natus est at that instant they set forward and made no delay Make no tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day says the Wise man Ecclus. v. 7. Remigius says that the Wise men were brought through the air by an Angel to Jerusalem as Habakkuk was taken up when he carried meat to the Reapers but what needed a Star to direct them if they had not beaten out the way of themselves the Scripture says not they were brought but they came they trod out a long journey with much chearfulness though with much distress to their wearied bodies but where the carkass is thither will the Eagles be gathered and no happiness in any place but to be with the Lord. These were honourable persons and of great account in their own Country though they were not Kings as I have adjudged it before they could have spared their own labour and have sent their servants into Judea to have brought them tidings what strange thing had happened and truly there are too many that would have excused themselves by messengers the way being so long and tedious between them and Christ If it be far to Church from our own home 't is too common to mutter at it and to maunder at a little way every one would have a Chappel of Ease at his next door as if it were fitter for Christ to come to them than for them to come to Christ You forget in the mean time that God considers your bodily labour the molestations and inconveniences which you suffer in the flesh for his word sake To do your Masters work with so much tenderness and easiness to your own person is negligence and self love and as you sow you shall reap Herod I pray you mark it at the eighth verse of this Chapter he would not move out of Jerusalem to look out Christ himself and yet Bethlehem was but six miles off but he sent the Wise men to Bethlehem and bad them search diligently for the Child and when they had found him bring him word but because he sate still himself and set others about it he never found our Saviour Oleaster ad olivam non oliva ad oleastrum veniebat says St. Austin The wild Olive must come to the natural Olive to be ingrafted into it the natural Olive must not go to the wild Olive Venite qui laboratis Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden The fountain must not come to the thirsty man but the thirsty man must come to the fountain to drink The place where the blessed babe lay the Maker of his Mother is worth the seeing to this day worth their travel that have resorted to it from West and East how much more worthy of a journey ten thousand times when the glorious Infant himself was in the place Most justly did our Saviour condemn the whole world that the Queen of Sheba came from far to hear the Wisdom of Solomon and yet the Gentiles did not flock so fast as they ought to have done when a greater than Solomon was upon the earth Tully speaks it of Crassus the Orator as I remember being lately departed we came into the Senate house to look upon the place where that renowned Senator was wont to stand What part of Bethlehem or Jerusalem or Galilee is not a thousand times more worth the viewing where any thing can be recalled to memory of Christs Birth or Miracles
to be the Cabinet Counsellors both to great and petty Princes not only in Europe but beyond the Line in Peru and Goa in more Kingdoms than I think verily the Devil shew'd our Saviour The general Constitutions of their Order as we may read them in print do strictly command them in severest manner no way to meddle in State matters or in Kings affairs But verte folium I would we could see the other leaf of special instructions for in their practice the world never saw the like Corporation for stickling in all Kingdoms and Civil Governments but I leave them with him that useth to shew all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them upon the top of a Mountain Thirdly this is the Tempters way if not to shew to the eye yet to buz into mens thoughts and to possess them with strong apprehensions that they are not unlikely to get Kingdoms and Glory and Exaltation fools men with imaginations of strange fortunes and advancements as the Bramble in Jothams Parable thought it self fit to be a King over the Trees of the Wood and the Thistle in another Parable would have the Cedars Daughter married to his Son The Holy Ghost thought it fitter to deliver these senseless impossible ambitious projects of men in Parables than to speak plainly how folly and melancholy make some men suck at the Dugs of hope and fill themselves with wind and vanity Luther expresseth this madness in this phrase that every man hath a Pope in his belly It seems the truth of his saying may go far if such mean persons as the Mother of Zebedees Children the Wife of a silly drudging Fisherman could make such a Petition that one of her Sons might sit at the right hand of our Saviour in his Kingdom the other at his left Who had greater fortunes than David and who did expect less Psal 131. I do not exercise my self in great matters which are too high for me but I refrain my soul and keep it low like as a Child that is weaned from his Mother he restrained his soul and would not let it wander in ambitious speculations he weaned it as a Child from his Mother from the Earth which is the Mother of us all and from her transitory abundance But though all which Satan did shew could not move Christ one jot yet in the next point the amplitude and generality of the object I am sure is worth our admiration he sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the World and St. Luke adds that he did not carry him about in any long travail but so suddenly that it is exprest in a momentary motion in the twinkling of an eye There hath been some shame and disorder some soul blur upon every Realm and Territory in the earth therefore the Devil durst shew all and every parcel without any prejudice to his own proceedings The description of a Platonique Common-wealth an Vtopia or new Atlantis is to be found in ink and paper but never among men There have been treacheries tyrannical intrusions disinheriting the true and lawful Successors deposing of anointed Princes in every Government of the world such horrid things have passed every where to get Kingdoms by blood and violences and all kind of cruelties that Kingdoms so set forth are fit only for the Devil to shew 't is pity any History should record them qua terra patet fera regnat Erinnys as David said the whole earth is full of darkness and cruel habitation Satan hath quite marr'd this world and made it fit for himself and for his own children to look upon Omnis seculi honor est diaboli negotium says St. Hilarie that is all kind of honor is so degenerated and stained that the wicked Fiend makes it his business to represent it all unto our Saviour Nay but Satan shewed all the Kingdoms and the glory of them therefore none of their soils and deformities Very right indeed as St. Ambrose catcheth at that word ostendit regna gloriam celavit taedia labores he shewed the best outside of Kingdoms the pomp power attendance and riches but he did not represent within this pleasing object the multitudes of cares the distractions the fears and jealousies all those restless vexations that dance within the circle of a Crown and cannot be separated from Soveraignty well be it granted that these were kept out of sight I concur with St. Ambrose that they were yet I deny that he was able to shew the true and essential glory of the Kingdoms of the world for the first original beauty and integrity which they had is quite gone irreparably lost and never to be recalled All the foundations of the earth are out of frame saies the Psalmist the ancient Land-marks are removed all Nations have been invaders have been invaded every man means for his own ends and not for the publick peace is loathed if it be long kept Princes would over-rule and Subjects would but half obey how can the glory of Kingdoms be shewn when almost nothing is in that fashion wherein God ordein'd it Do you think a large Territory of Land a fruitful Soil a rich People a ruffling Gentry a war-like Nation terra potens armis atque ubere glebâ do you think I say that these are the original and essential glory of a Kingdom belike Satan would have ye believe so and since he could shew no more my Text speaks after his meaning and purpose He shewed him all the Kingdoms c. But admit he had not presumed to medle with the glory of the Earth it is enough to take up our admiration that he shewed every quarter and parcel of it yea and that in the twinkling of an eye and upon this whether miracle or delusion I will spend the time arguing two wayes in what manner this could not be done in what manner possiby it was done but since the Scripture is silent concerning the modus no man must define resolutely thus it must be done First then it must not be conceiv'd as if Satan did or could shew any thing which was not manifest to Christ before Ostensio fit quasi ignoranti to take upon him to shew the world unto Christ was to suppose there was ignorance in him before whom all things lye naked and unto whom all the foundations of the world are discovered the attempt comes to one pass as if a mortal man would teach an immortal Angel what incomprehensible glory is laid up in heaven nay the odds are far greater if I would go about to amplifie it The metaphysical Maxim is duo accidentia ejusdem speciei non possunt esse in eodem subjecto as two sweetnesses cannot be in the same lump of sugar nor two hardnesses in the same piece of steel so the knowledg of all the Kingdoms of the world was in Christs mind before in him were all the treasures of wisdom therefore the Devil could not cause any knowledge there for two knowledges of the same
rebellious terms ero similis altissimo I will be like the most high but this is more superlative a great deal let the Son of God fall down and worship me I will be a God above the Most High I do not wonder that some Expositors go about to mollifie the meaning of the words a little as it were impossible there could be a literal sense of such an horrid proposition But their endeavour me-thinks thrives not To adore Satan says one is any way to obey him and be subject unto him Adoratio Diaboli subjectionis est non devotionis He did not ask to be ador'd as if he were an eternal divine essence unto whose person the devotion of religion was to be directed but he would have Christ stoop and bow unto him and to acknowledge by that gesture that the honors and riches of the world depended on him or as another lays his meaning forth on this wise you are the Son of God that come to take my Kingdom from me do me homage for it and you shall have it without striving these are all the odds in the pretended interpretations these think he requir'd of Christ civil reverence and subjection such as great Emperors have from petty Princes that hold somewhat in homage and service under them Others much more congruously to the Scripture teach that he made a flat and plain demand to have religious adoration done unto him as to the God of this World whether he would have it done after St. Matthews phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his own person should be the object worshipt or whether in St. Lukes phrase word for word if thou wilt worship before me that is worship God above in me who am his Vicegerent to communicate riches and honor these two wayes drive at one aim and do not differ for certain he would have no less than religious service done unto him for our Saviours answer questionless was ad oppositum and He controuls the Devil for asking that religious honor which was due to God Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve He had stept thus high before the coming of Christ to be supplicated by the Heathen Romans in their Idol Vejovis that he should not hurt the fruits of the earth Before Christ dissolv'd the works of the Devil he was sought to and consulted with in the Oracles of the Greeks in those days too he was worshipt in all the Idols of the Nations the antient godly men of the Church say that the wicked fiend lurkt substantially in all graven Images which were set up and when Idolaters bowed to stocks and stones he had their homage done unto him Nay he had purchased sacrifice to himself and of the dearest and most beloved things They sacrificed their Sons and Daughters unto Devils Psal cvi 37. Satan having been puft up so long with the Devotions and Ceremonies of a bewitched people he would not go less but demands more than ever he had before when even now he was upon the time to lose all If thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine What though Satan be incorrigible And the labour is lost to review and reform that blasphemy which he hath spoken for he will never retract it and confess his fault Yet some things may fall to our profit out of this wicked saying and those things which are written for his condemnation are written for our instruction I will follow St. Ambrose for my Leader who hath noted two things remarkable from hence for our use First that the beginning of this tentation is Covetousness All these things will I give the and the end of it is Idolatry if thou wilt fall down and worship me Who would think that these two sins Covetousness and Idolatry had such great affinity between them Idolatry averts the heart of man more than any sin from the Creator The stain of Covetousness is that it converts the heart more than any other sin to the immoderate love of the creature Great sins both and yet it appears by this they differ toto genere in their formalities They do so and so many Rivers which rise not from the same Spring-head flow for many miles in several Channels and at last close into one stream Thus Idolatry which riseth out of the sins of the first Table and Covetousness which is opposite to the Commandments of the Second Table yet both these glue together after a while as if they were inseparable St. Paul binds them both like tares in one bundle Eph. v. 5. No covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ And as Pharaohs Dream was doubled twice because the thing was surely established So the Apostle doubles the same Lesson again because it was most true and most remarkable Col. iii. 5. mortifie your members upon earth Fornication Uncleanness c. and Covetousness which is Idolatry It is an Alchymy wherein Satan is skilful to turn Gold into Idolatry and Idolatry into Gold He put Nebuchadonosor to great cost and much expence of Gold to advance Idolatry But he is at fee with them that are poorer to give them Gold if they will turn Idolaters So the love of money begets the love of Idols and he laies his train in that order in my text to buy himself worship with his money All these things will I c. For Idolatry the Lord rooted out the Canaanites from the Land of their Fathers and when the Covetous shall know what affinity he hath with an Idolater it will reclaim him I hope lest he be rooted out like an accursed Canaanite from the Land of the Living Divine Expositors do sundry ways testifie to the truth of this Proposition that Covetousness is Idolatry several heads have their several opinions yet every opinion hath some sting and Acrimony in it Clemens of Alexandria begins Every mans last end he puts for is his happiness every mans happiness is his God And a money-scraper projects more for that than he doth for the grace of God Coelum apertum est Deum non quaerit aurum absconditum est terrae viscera recludit The heaven shuts not it self against them that call for grace that is easie he looks not after it the Ore is hidden in the dark veins of the earth and he will dig to Hell to find it St. Chrysostom says Id est cuique Deus quod maximè amat à quo vitam necessaria expectat He is an Idolater without an Hyperbole that will sin against Gods honour rather than offend his own heart in seeking profit from whom doth he expect relief help comfort in the time of trouble If he thinks the lining of his Purse is best able to administer these things he hath said unto his Riches you are my trust and my assurance he should have said so to God The same Father considering in another place that Christ admonisheth what a base Treasure
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
all the Elements at the last and great Resurrection There is a day to come when the earth shall disclose her bloud and shall no more cover her slain Isa xxvi 21. Then shall the whole earth shake and be dissolved as when one wipes a dish and turns the other side says the Prophet And therefore Diogenes the Cynick in a flout would be left above ground when he was dead for one day says he all will be turned topside turvy and then I shall lie right Haggai speaking of that great and dreadful day expresseth it by Earthquakes and Commotions Yet once is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land and I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory Such a clashing and perturbation shall precede our future happiness that the sudden change may the more affect us from extremity of amazement in the twinckling of an eye to extremity of glory Instead of many places this of Ezekiel will fit us for all Ecce commotio accesserunt ossa ad ossa Behold a shaking and the bones came together bone to his bone If it were nothing else but so many Monuments of stone cracking asunder so many Graves yawning so many Bones grating one against another this would make a strange sound in mens ears how much more when the dust shall be shaken from the very Center that the Dead since Adam may have all their limbs again When the Elements shall melt with heat and the Heavens pass away with a noise when the Impenitent shall howl the Unjust skreek out the righteous lift up their voice of thanksgiving and the Angels sing Haleluja all this together in a medley will make a strange commotion which is prefigured in the antecedent of our Saviours Resurrection Behold c. Thirdly It signifies that the Majesty of the Lord was upon the earth to defend his people that he came down and trod upon his footstool that he alone is terrible against all other terrors that may trouble us that he is present to protect all those that love the coming of our Lord Jesus When he came down to deliver the Law the earth shook even as Sinah also was moved at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob the Mountains owed that homage to tremble when the glory of the Lord was upon them And though it was dreadful yet so long as God was present in the midst of them the Host of Israel knew they were in safety So the Monuments did quiver and tremble when Christ did break forth of the Grave in triumph which did at once beget these seeming contrary passions in them that believe an awful reverence and a bold encouragement This the Fathers collect because Mary Magdalen and the other devout women were now upon their journey when the Earthquake began yet they went not back neither stopt in the way but advanced with chearfulness to the very mouth of the Sepulcher When a blazing Star appeared in the days of Vespasian says he It threatens not fatality to me but to the King of Persia who nourisheth long locks like the streaming flame of a Comet So those holy women did truly apprehend that the buzzling of the Earthquake was their protection and bad mens confusion And here a fourth reason offers it self the anger of the Lord did roar out of the earth against those Jews who thought to prevail that death should devour him against Pilate that allowed his Seal to this conspiracy and against the Souldiers that watcht the Sepulcher An unexpected judgment of which they did not dream that the earth which is a most dull and silent Element should burst into many pieces to chide their infidelity Pittacus the wise man had such confidence in the stability of the earth that it is delivered for his saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you might trust the Earth it would do you no harm but the Sea was not to be trusted Foolish wise man that understood not how terrible a vengeance the shaking of the earth is when the Lord is angry In the fourth year of Nero which was the twenty seventh year after our Saviours Passion more than one quarter of the City of Rome was beaten flat with an Earthquake and all the Inhabitants slain And six years after that three the most famous Cities in all Asia were ruin'd by this judgment Heraclis Laodicaea and Colophe The same fatality hath swallowed up the Cities of Colossus and Nice it were endless to rehearse particulars And although Christ would not interject such sadness with the joyfulness of his Resurrection-day to procure death and ruine to his enemies by this Earthquake we read of no such mischief done by it in the Text of Scripture yet I believe it is unutterable how this accident did shake and apall the Souldiers Miseri quos tunc percutit pavor mortis quando securitas vitae redditur Unhappy wretches who at that time were most of all strucken with the fear of death when Christ did give us this demonstrance to be secure of eternal life I leave it to you to consider how an evil conscience diffused chilness and quaking into all their bones They must needs reel and totter and fall down desperately to the Earth who are weighed down with the Plummets of their own guiltiness And what a miserable folly was this to tremble because they were loth to die yet their office was at this time to be mortis satellites deaths guard appointed to be adversaries to life and to hinder the Resurrection Now because the Consciences of these evil men were only wounded and no other harm done by the Earthquake therefore fifthly some say that the place round about did rather dance for joy than quake for trembling As when Israel came out of Egypt the Psalmist says The Mountains skipped like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep Surely under that Hyperbole is to be understood that the motion of the Earth did bewray some gladsome entertainment As the Disciples prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled Acts iv 31. It is expounded generally that the Earth did move with gladness and reverence because the Saints kneeled upon it Horum sub gressibus ergo laeta movetur humus says Arator And as the Child sprang within Elizabeth when the Blessed Virgin came unto her with our Saviour in her womb and says she How is it that the Mother of my Lord doth come unto me So the Earth did rejoyce and tripudiate when our Saviour came forth alive out of the belly of the Grave as who should say O dust thou shalt be ennobled and compacted into an incorruptible body And how is it that my Redeemer comes forth and lives for ever I will put no more Oyl into this Lamp than Beda's words distinguishing between the two Earthquakes the one at the Passion
holy Angels and herein the Bohemian Churches accorded with us as I see in their Confession yet these Ordinances we uphold because they are beautiful to Religion and contein nothing repugnant to faith and good manners not by any long antiquity as I was able to speak for the former Feasts For Polydor Virgil was most unadvised when he wrote that these Feasts were kept from the Apostles times one distinction is to be ruminated upon that there were some hundreds of years past between the keeping of such Feasts in Private places and universally over all the Church Where any Apostle or Saint flourisht in his life or seal'd the Faith with his death that particular Place or City did celebrate his Festival it gain'd no further as very anciently the Bishop of Smyrna wrote that Polycarpus his day was at hand and he would call the people together to celebrate it devoutly For the universal acceptance of them in all Churches the most will acknowledg that it began at the soonest in the sixth Age under Gregory the Great but with the best search that I can make I cannot perceive that Publick Holidays were kept in the names of Peter and Paul Andrew and John till in the Ninth Age at a Council gathered at Mentz by Charles the Great and some Festivals dropt in straglingly long after as in the names of St. Thomas St. Bartholomew and St. Luke in the Twelfth Age so that it is no great antiquity which upholds those Saints dayes but these reasons following First that we may give thanks that the Church had such examples and be stirred up to the imitation of their vertue 2. As the Scripture hath not commanded such days so it hath not forbad them and in things honest and laudable we must obey them that are set over us in the Lord. 3. A solemn Fast may be proclaim'd to avert Gods Judgments Joel ii 15. and if God allow a meeting of rest upon some new occasion of a doleful event will he not permit piety to triumph with joy and gladness when the whole race of mankind doth or may participate the benefit 4. As there is nothing repugnant in Scripture so there is something very consonant to it For though the Jews were directed like Children in all their Ceremonies yet the whole Nation being delivered from the Plot of Haman Esther and Mordecai ordained a Feast in memory of it Esth ix 21. and we must not think they meant to make it a Merry-wake but a time to praise God In the Jewish Ritual they had a set Service for it as one says and it is vainly put off that this was a Divine Law and not an Ecclesiastical because it is entred into the Scripture For do they find that God sent word by any Prophet no such thing Mordecai suggested it Esther sollicited it Ahasuerus a Heathen King ratified it and so it went current with the People Again Jo. x. 22. our Saviour went up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of the Dedication and was not that Feast a voluntary Sanction of the Synagogue it must be confest for when Antiochus had profaned the Altar of the Temple 1 Mach. iv Judas Machabeus instituted a perpetual Feast toward the end of November to dedicate it again unto the Lord. The principal grudg of some wrangling men is against the Feasts of the Saints not against the Feasts of Christ and that because they have been Idolatrously abused in the Church of Rome their common Maxime is adiaphora non necessaria horrendâ idololatriâ polluta sunt abolenda I will explain them Things necessary to Religion though abused are not to be abolisht as the Word and Sacraments but adiaphorous things abused with no less than Idolatry must for ever be laid aside and these have caused Pilgrimages upon opinion of merit Invocation of Saints Worship of Reliques This foundation is false for by this slight the Devil would blow up all our Ceremonies and we should not have one left Our Churches must be pluckt down and the Bells hang no longer in the Steeple for they have been exorcised and baptized I yield that a Ceremonious Ordinance polluted with Idolatry is to cease if the abuse can not be taken away as Hezekiah could not stop the people from worshipping the brazen Serpent but when manifested good comes and evil is but suspected the former wrong being redrest what equity is there to cast it off I should fight with many other such objections but want of time will part that fray and I shall meet with them all to the capacity of the understanding by shewing upon what abuses Holy-days are to be disallowed 1. It is impious to institute them immediately to the honor of the Saints Some of the Children of our own Mother have scandalized us for that fault and yet Card. Bel. doth acquit us but we cannot acquit him for he delivers it roundly that the honour of the day doth immediately and terminatively belong unto the Saints but we enstile the day by their name for their memorial sake as some called their Moneths by the names of their Emperors but in those days we do only worship God 2. It is very lewd to employ them to vanities Interludes idleness and not the service of God take heed the Lord do not say I will turn your Feasts into mourning Siccine exprimitur publicum gaudium per publicum dedecus says Tertulliam 3. To abound with excessive number of Holy-days is a fault likewise it cannot consist with charity to lay so many injunctions and burdens upon mens consciences It made St. Austin cry out Tolerabilior esset Judaeorum conditio the Jews were less vexed with Observations than Christians Clemangis complained of the excessive number in the Roman Church and especially that they read the Legends of Saints upon those days and not the Scriptures Numerositas festivitatum cives decet non exules says one his meaning is to keep many Holy-days was fitter for Heaven than for Earth 4. As a needless multiplication though for good Saints and good occasions is bad so to appoint them for false Saints and bad occasions is ten times worse their Corpus Christi day instituted by Vrban IV. an 1264. upon a forg'd Miracle is most disallowable they carry the Host in Procession to have a Creature adored A solemn day is kept by them for the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin into heaven which hath no probable Author till Damascens time in the year 800. There 's another a great deal later for her Immaculate Conception as if she were sanctified in the womb and had no original sin Some are consecrated to Saints that for ought we know never were as Christopher Hypolitus some to such as never were Saints as Ignatius Loyola the Founder of the Jesuits a man compounded of nothing but vain-glory dissimulation and subtlety Canus their own Bishop could say we honour the memory of divers for Saints on earth whose souls are tormented in hell 5. It
with mourning I wept and chastened my self with fasting says David A pensive mind will seldom have a hungry stomach True sorrow will make a man forget to eat his bread Some will not deny that there is an harmony between Fasting and Mourning not to be broken but they cannot abide to come under the penance of Fasting and then they shut mourning out of doors because it wants its Mate But the Libertine maunders Fasting what is that to the advantage of Repentance The Kingdom of Heaven is not meat and drink If we eat we are not the worse and if we eat not we are not the better And what God hath given us freely why is our liberty abridged that we may not use it when we will I answer None is more firmly enfeoffed of any thing than the Husband is of the Wife and the Wife of the Husband And yet they may keep asunder with consent for a time that they may give themselves to Fasting and Prayer 1 Cor. vii 5. So the Lord hath given us the earth and the fulness of it but it is expedient sometimes as on this day to abstain from meats that the Spirit may be the stronger to work by the subjection of the body It is a means both upon the extraordinariness of it to make us look exactly into the bottom of our conscience as also to elevate the mind and to make it more capable of heavenly thoughts As we see it in St. Peter he fasted and fell into a trance and saw that Vision happy for us the calling of the Gentiles Act. x. So Daniel eat no pleasant bread nor drank Wine for three weeks and he was the better composed for those Prophetical Revelations which were imparted to him Dan. x. 2. It is not the bare abstinence from meats take it alone by it self that pleaseth God but as it is in conjunction with other holy duties as to dispose the body to Chastity and to heighten up the mind to the contemplation of heavenly things That you may know the right Fast from the wrong there are three to one in whom there is no profit at all Jejunat justus mendicus hypocritá parcus says the old verse 1. The Hypocrite abstains from meats and looks sadly not that he may cast himself down before God but that he may exalt his name among men 2. The Niggard fasts and torments his body to spare his Purse 3. The poor man fasts because he hath not wherewithal to relieve his hunger These are not within the compass of Religion But fourthly the devour man fasts to give his soul the true bias of penance and mourning and to testifie before heaven and earth that nothing shall comfort him but the mercy of God whom he hath offended I will come to particularise in the Sphere of our Nation First if there were no other sin among us but woe and alas we abound with a great deal more but if we had no other fault yet the strange intolerable luxury brought in in these consuming days the great mystery of Cookery utterly unknown to the laudable hospitality of our fore-fathers this wanton aromatical Ambergriece-diet what should I call it Doth it not deserve to be expiated by a Publick Fast Doth it not require that we should set aside all manner of food for one day till Even As good men and temperate were ashamed to eat for necessity because costly Palats are so profusely lavish in superfluity Let us confess and declare in act that we deserve not that which God hath given us let us subscribe by this humiliation that we have forfeited that right and dominion which we had in the Creatures and that we are not worthy so much as to gather up the Crums under our Masters Table Secondly We dwell in a Land upon which the heaven doth cast its most propitious influence it is the true Ganaan of the Western world flowing with so much plenty that I have oftner heard it grumbled at that it brought forth too much than that it brought forth too little Either it brings forth all manner of store or all manner of store by commodious Navigation is brought into it Ex te provenient vel aliunde tibi And how unthankful have we been for this most bounteous sustenance How slack in our acknowledgment that God hath opened the windows of heaven to rain down plenty upon us Is it not fit therefore that we should do justice upon our selves forbear and touch no more food untill we have sanctified a Fast and made an attonement for our ingratitude and press'd it upon our selves to be more thankful Thirdly The poor and needy have been neglected by us They have been almost famished when we have surfeited and they have wanted that which the rich mens Dogs have devoured O therefore chastise your bodies with hunger at this once that you may avenge the injuries which you have done to the poor upon your own flesh Cornelius the Centurton fasted and gave Alms whereupon says St. Austin Cornelius when himself fasted fed others who had no meat that their replenishing might make his Fast the more acceptable to God So this day you must feed the poor out of your own bellies and whatsoever you spare from your meal spend it on them and you shall feed your Saviour in them And as â—asting is a pious occasion thereby to ask pardon of God for our Gluttony our unthankfulness to God our hard heartedness to the poor so fourthly I would it might work some good amendment upon our most scandalous drunkenness I proâ—eâ—s I have little hope that that sin is corrigible among us For I believe verily I make my account right that we spend three hundred Cups of Wine in these days in this Kingdom for one that was spent when I was a Child Therefore â—o dehort from this debauchery I shall but put new wine into old bottels religious instruction before old unreclaimable Drunkards These bottels are stopt and will never receive my Doctrine They had rather be Swine than Men Horse-leeches that are always sucking at corruption He that cares not by over quaffing himself to lose his reason the most precious thing that is in the soul of man he is so drowned in intemperance that till he hates that Vice and casts it off he deceives himself if he thinks he can set any true valuation upon the grace of God But O that this holy Fast might reclaim those in this most conspicuous place or the whole Kingdom who are prone to be overwhelmed in the dead Sea of drink That you would fear least God should take you away when you are so pitifully overtaken That you would remember how they who enflame themselves with Wine now shall hereafter want a drop of water to cool their tongues in hell fire Yet for all those who forget themselves in that or in any other manner we keep this Publick Fast to remember God in their behalf Publicum jejunium est solemnis professio reatus they