heart is stone enough to beat it back no soul so stubborn as to resist it neither height nor depth nor the Devil nor Sin it self can evacuate it The Recipiatis is unavoidable and the in vanum impossible And every man is a St. Paul a priviledged person not sweetly water'd with abundance but violently driven on with a torrent and inundation of Grace We must therefore find out another sense of the word Although for ought that can be said the Exhortation may concern us in this sense also and teach us to hear when God speaks to open when he knocks not to be deaf to his thunder nor to hide our selves from his lightning nor to quench the spirit nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to resist and fall cross with Acts 7. 51. the holy Ghost But in the Scripture two words we find by which the Graces of God are expressed There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the Text and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual gifts Plainly there are more common and necessary Graces which 1 Cor. 12. concur to sanctification of life to uprightness and common honesty And there are peculiar graces as Quickness of Will Depth of Understanding Skill in languages or supernatural as gifts of Tongues gifts of Healing of Miracles of Prophesie and the like These are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather gifts then graces and are distributed but to certain persons in such measure as seems best to Gods Wisdome Why men are not as strong as Samson or as learned as Solomon why they prophesie not as Jeremy and work not miracles as Paul all this is from God But why men are not righteous as Noah devout as David zealous as Elias we must find the cause in our selves and not lay the defect on God Now the Grace in the Text is none of all these but is that gratia Evangelii the Grace of reconciliation by Christ the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ commanded to be preached to all Nations And in this sense it is most frequently used in holy Scripture in the Epistles of St. Paul where we so often find it placed in opposition to the Works of the Law This is it which he so oft commends unto us This is it which he here exhorts us to receive This is it for the propagation of which he was in afflictions necessities distresses in stripes in prisons in labors in tumults which are a part of the catalogue of his sufferings in this Chapter And this is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grace and a gift too without which all other gifts and graces aut nihil sunt aut nihil prosunt deserve not that name Strength is but weakness Learning is but folly Prophesies are but dreams Miracles are sluggish all are not worth the receiving or are received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain Shall I say it is a greater gift then that robe of Righteousness with which God clothed Adam in Paradise It so far exceeds it that we dare not compare them There is a MULTO MAGIS set upon it by St. Paul Rom. 5. 15. and a NON SIC Not as the offense so is the free gift The Loss not so great as the Recovery Nay cui Angelorum What speak we of Adam To whom of the Angels did God give such a gift What a glory would we count it out of Nothing to be made an Angel a Seraphim By this gift by the Grace of Christ we are raised from Sin above the perfection and beauty of any created substance whatsoever above the Hierarchy of Angels and Archangels A Christian as he is united to Christ is above the Seraphims For take the substance of a Seraphim by it self and compare it to a Man reconciled to God by this Grace and the difference will be as great as between a Picture and a Man An Artificer may draw his own Picture but he can only express his likeness his color his lineaments he cannot represent his better part his Soul which constitutes and makes him what he is Take all the creatures of the Universe and they are but weak and faint shadows and adumbrations of Divine perfection God is not so exprest by an Angel as by a Christian who is his lively image as the Son is the image of his Father by a kind of fellowship and communication of nature The Creature represents God as a Statue doth the Emperor but a Christian as the Son his Father between whom there is not only likeness but identity and a participation of the same nature For by this gift by these promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature saith St. Peter ◠Pet. 1. 4. And as a Father takes more delight to look upon his Son then upon his Picture and Figure so God looks more graciously upon a Christian then upon any created essence then upon the nature of Angels He that gave the Gift he that was the Gift pray for us John 17. 21 22. that we may be all one and as his Father is in him and he in his Father so we may be one in them as they are one This is the Gift by which God did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle gather together and re-establish the decay'd nature of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostome knit and joyn together Heaven and Earth And as Christ spake of John Baptist Matth. 11. 14. Hic est Elias si vultis recipere He shall be Elias to you if you will receive him so Haec est gratia Dei The Gospel the Reconciliation made by Christ is the Grace of God if we will receive it Which is my next part And what is a Gift if it be not received Like a mess of pottage on a dead mans grave like Light to the blind like musick to the deaf The dead man feeds not the blind man sees not the deaf man hears not What were all the beauty of the Firmament if there were no eye to descry it What is the Grace of God without Faith The Receiving of it is it which makes it a Grace indeed which makes it Gospel If it be not received it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain An unbelieving heart turneth this bread into gravel this honey into gall and as much as in him lyes doth not only crucifie but annihilate the Lord of Life We usually compare Faith to a Hand which is reached forth to receive this Gift Without a Hand a Jewel is a trifle and the treasure of both the Indies is nothing and without Faith the Gospel is but Christus cum suâ fabulâ as the Heathen spake in reproach but a fable or relation And therefore an absolute necessity there is that we receive it For without this receipt all other receipts are not worth the casting up Our Understanding receives light to mislead her our Will power to overthrow her our Afflictions which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
insensibilis saith the Father sweet and peaceable without trouble without noise scarcely to be perceiv'd not in the strong wind to rend us to pieces not in the Earth-quake to shake us not in the fire to consume us but in a still and small voice not as Thunder to make a noise not as Hayl to rattle on the house-tops not as the Blast and Mildew to wither us but as the Rain falling sweetly on the grass or on a fleece of wooll and as the showers which water the earth and make it fruitful 3. We shall observe the Effect which this Descent produceth or the Fruit which springs up upon the fall of this gracious Rain First Righteousness springs up and spreads her self Justus florebit So some render it The righteous shall flourish Secondly After Righteousness Peace shews it self even abundance of peace And Thirdly both these are not herbae solstitiales herbs which spring up and wither in one day but which will be green and flourish so long as the Moon endureth which is everlastingly And therefore we must Fourthly in the last place observe 1. the Relation which is between these two Righteousness and Peace They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where there is Righteousness there is Peace and where there is Peace there is Righteousness 2. The Order Righteousness first and then abundance of Peace Take them all three and you shall find a kind of subordination betwixt them for no Peace without Righteousness no Righteousness without this Rain But if the Son of God come down like rain streight Righteousness appears on the earth and upon the same watering and from the same root shoots forth abundance of Peace and both so long as the Moon endureth Of these then in their Order briefly and plainly and first of the Descent He that ascended is he also that descended first saith the Apostle And he Eph. 4. came down very low He brought himself sub lege under the Law sub cultro under the Knife at his Circumeision sub maledicto under the curse sub potestate tenebrarum under the power of darkness down into the cratch down into the world and down when he was lifted up upon the Cross for that ascension was a great descent and from thence down into the grave and lower yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the lowermost parts of the earth Thus low did he come down But if we terminate his Descension in his Incarnation if we interpret his Descent by NATUS EST that he was born and say no more we have brought him very low even so low that the Angels themselves must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoop to look after him that not the clearest Understanding not the quickest Apprehension nothing but Faith can follow after to behold him which yet must stand aloof off and tremble and wonder at this great sight Hîc me solus complectitur stupor saith the Father In other things my Reason may guide me Meditation and Study may help me and if not give me full resolution yet some satisfaction at least But here O prodigia O miracula O prodigy O miracle of mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the paradox of this strange Descent This is a depth which I connot foard a gulph wherein I am swallowed up and have no light left me but my Faith and Admiration Certe mirabilis descensus saith Leo a wonderful descent à coelo ad uterum from his Throne to the Womb from his Palace to a Dungeon from his dwelling place on high to dwell in our flesh from riding on the Cherubin to hanging on the Teat A wonderful Descent Where is the wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World That God should thus come down that he that conteineth all things should be compassed by a Woman that he should cry as a child at whose voice the Angels and Archangels tremble that he whose hands meted out the Heavens and measur'd the waters should lye in the cratch Deus visibilis Deus contrectabilis as Hilary speaks that God should be seen and touched and handled no Orator no Eloquence the tongues of Men and Angels cannot reach it O anima opus est tibi imperitiâ meâ O my soul learn to be ignorant and not to know what is unsearchable Abundat sibi locuples fides It is enough for me to believe that the Son of God came down And this coming down we may call his Humiliation his Exinanition his Low estate Not that his Divine nature could descend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consider'd in it self but God came down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of that gracious dispensation by which he vouchsafed to dwell amongst us For he assumed into the unity of his Person that which before he was not and yet remained that which he was Ille quod est semper est sicut est ita est For what he is he alwaies is and as he is so he is without any shew or shadow of change But yet in the great work of our redemption he may seem to have laid his Majesty aside and not to have exercised that Power which was coeternal with him as infinite as Himself And now it is no blasphemy but salvation to say That he who created man was made a Man That he who was the God of Mary was the Son of Mary That he that made the world had not a hole to hide his head That he who was the Law-giver was made under the Law And therefore in every action almost as he did manifest his Power so he exprest his Humility A Star stands over him when he lay in the Manger He rebukes the Winds who was asleep in the Ship He commands the Sea and Fishes bring tribute in their mouths but at Caesars commands he submits and pays it He strikes a band of men backward to the Ground but yields as a man and is bound and led away as a sheep to the slaughter And thus that Love which reconcil'd the World unto God reconcileth these strange contradictions a God and a Man a God that sleeps that thirsts vectigalis Deus a tributary God Deus in vinculis a God in bonds a God crucified dead and buried All which Descents he had not in natura not in his Divine Nature Neque enim defecit in sese qui se evacuavit in sese saith Hilary For He who emptied himself in himself did not so descend as to leave or loose himself But the Descent was in persona in his Person in respect of his voluntary Dispensation by which he willingly yielded to assume and unite the Humane nature to Himself And thus he was made of that Woman who was made by himself and was conteined in her womb whom the Heavens cannot contein and was cut out of the land of the living who was in truth what Melchisedec was only in the conceit of men in his time without father and without mother having no beginning of days nor end of life He was
less then his Father and yet his Fathers Equal the Son of David and yet Davids Lord A case which plunged the great Rabbies among the Pharisees who had not yet learned this wisdom nor known this knowledge of the Holy But most true it is Non fallit in vocabulis Deus God speaks of things as they are nor is there any ambiguity in his words He tells us he is God and he tells us he is man He tells us that his dwelling-place is in Heaven and he tells us that he came down into the world He tells us he is from everlasting and he tells us he was born in the fulness of time Et quod à Deo discitur totum est And what he tells us is all that can be said Nor must our Curiosity strive to enter in at the Needles eye where he hath open'd an effectual Door Indeed it was the Devils policie when his Altars were overthrown when his Oracles were silenced when he was driven from his Temples when his God-head was laid in the dust and when Pagans and Idolaters his subjects and slaves came in willingly in the days of Christs power to strive dimidiare Christum to divide Christ into halves and when Christ became the language of the whole world to confound their language that men might not understand one anothers speech And like a subtle enemy when he was beat out of the field he made it his master-piece to raise a civil dissension in the City of God Proh quanta etiamnum patitur Verbum saith the Father Good God! how much doth Christ yet suffer in his Church He came into the world and the world knew him not He came unto his own and his own received him not He comes down but as a Phantasin as a mear Creature so Anius as an adopted Son so Phocius which is in effect to say he came not down at all For if he be a meer creature the Descent is not so low And if he be adopted to this work it is rather a rise then a Descension And if he be but the Son of Mary made the Son of God and not the Son of God made the Son of Mary it is no Descent at all I do not love to rake these mis-shapen Monsters out of their dust but that I see at this day they walk too boldly upon the face of the earth and knock and that with some violence to have admittance into the Church And therefore it will behove us to take the whole armour of Faith and to stand upon our defence conservare vocabula in luce proprietatum to preserve the propriety of words entire to walk by that light which they cast and not with those Hereticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make use of those Phrases which speak Christ Man and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pass by those which magnifie him as God but to joyn together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his good pleasure and his power to say that he came into the world and to say that he created the world to say he was the scorn of men and to say he was the Image of his Father in a word ipsi Deo de se credere to believe God in that he speaks of himself And then we may turn aside and behold this great sight and make it our glory and crown to say Descendit Rex not Solomon but the King of Kings the King of Glory is come down And so I pass from the Descent or Coming down to the Manner of it Descendit sicut pluvia c. The Manner of his Descent is as wonderfull as the Descent it self It is as full of wonder that he thus came down as that he would come down especially if we consider the place to which he came the World a Babylon of confusion a Sodom a Land of Philistines of Giants who made it as a Law to fight against the God of Heaven We might have expected rather that he should have come cown as a Fire to consume us as a Tempest to devour us as Thunder to amaze us then as Rain to fall softly upon us or as a Shower to water and refresh us that he should have come down to blast and dig us up by the roots rather then to yield us juice and life to grow green and flourish Indeed we could expect no less But his mercy is above all his works and then far above our expectation far above all that we could conceive far above our sins which were gone over our heads and hung there ready to fall in vengeance upon us And rather then they should fall as hailstones and coals of fire he himself comes down like rain and as showers that water the earth Justice would have stay'd him and for him sent down a Thunderbolt but Mercy prevail'd and had the better of Justice and in this manner brings him down himself And here to shew you the manner of his coming down we shall observe a threefold Descent in uterum matris into the Virgins womb in mundum into the World and in homines into the Souls of men For as the Virgins womb was thalamus Christi the Bride-chamber of Christ wherein the Holy Ghost did knit the indissoluble knot between his Humane nature and his Deity so the World was the place where he pitcht his Tent and the John 1. 14. Soul of man is the Temple of the Lord where the same quickning Spirit by the operation of Faith makes up that eternal union and conjunction between the Members and the Head And into all these he came down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom and we find the very same words in the sixth Councel of Constantinople quietly and without any noise at all like Rain which we may know is fallen by the moistures of the Fleece or Grass but not hear when it falls And first thus he came down into the Virgins womb as upon the Grass and made her fruitful to bring forth the Son of God and as into a fleece of wooll out of which he made up tegmen carnis the vail and garment of his flesh and so without noise so unconceivably that as it is an Article of our Faith and the very language of a Christian to say He is come down so it is a question which poseth the whole world and none but himself can resolve the Quomodo How he came down For as he came down and was made Man not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not by any alteration or mutation of his Divine Essence sine periculo statûs sui saith Tertullian without any danger of the least change of his state not by converting the Godhead into Flesh as Cerinthus nor the Flesh into the Godhead as Valentius no nor by compounding and mingling the Natures so that after the union there should remain one entire Nature of them both but by an invisible inconceivable ineffable union So also did the blessed Virgin
Rain upon the grass Nescio quomodo tangimur tangi nos sentimus We are water'd with this rain and we know not how We feel the drops are fallen but how they fell we could not discern And we are too ready to ask with the Virgin Mary How cometh this to pass But the Angel nay God himself telleth us The Holy Ghost doth come upon us and the power of the Most High overshadows us and that Holy thing which is born in us shall be called the Son of God Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi prosit profuisse deprehendes That the power of Gods Grace hath wrought we shall find but the retired passages by which it hath wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration Res illic geritur nec videtur The Rain is fall'n and we know not how We saw not Christ when he came down but it is plain that he is come down And he comes down not into the Phansie alone That commonly is too washy and fluid of it self and brings forth no better a Christ then Marcions a Shadow or Phantasme Nor into the Understanding alone For thither he descends rather like Light then Water and he may be there and the grass not grow He may be there only as an absent Friend in his picture But he commeth down in totum vellus into the whole fleece into the Heart of man into the whole man that so he may at once conceive Christ and yet be presented a pure and undefiled Virgin unto Christ and be the purer by this new conception And he cometh down in totam terram upon all the ground upon the whole Little World of Man that so he may be like a well-water'd Garden even a Paradise of God A strange Jer. 31. 12. complaint the world hath taken up yea rather not a complaint but a pretense a very cloak of maliciousness to hide our sins from our eyes That Christ doth thus come down but at pleasure only sometimes and but upon some men some who like Mary are highly favour'd by God and call'd out of all the world nay chosen before the world was made And if the earth be barren it is because this Rain doth not fall As if the Grace of God were not like Rain but very Rainie indeed and came down by seasons and fits and as if the Souls of men were not like the Grass but were Grass indeed not voluntary but natural and necessary Agents Thus we deceive our selves but we cannot mock God His Grace comes not down as a Tempest of Hayl or as a destroying Storm or as a Floud of many Waters overflowing but as Rain or Drops He poureth it forth every day and renews it every morning And he would never question our barrenness and sterility if he did not come down nor punish our unfruitfulness if he did not send Rains If before he came into the world this Rain might fall as it were by coasts in Judaea alone yet now by the virtue of his comming down it drops in all places of his Dominion Omnibus aequalis omnibus Rex omnibus Judex omnibus Deus Dominus As he came to all so he is equal and indifferent to all a King to all a Judge to all and a God and a Lord to all And his Grace manat jugiter exuberat affluenter flows continually and falls down abundantly Nostrum tantùm sitiat pectus pateat Let our hearts lye alwaies open and the windows of Heaven are alwaies open let us continually thirst after righteousness and this Dew will fall continually Let us prepare our hearts let us make them soft as the Fleece let us be as Grass not Stubble as Earth not Brass and the Son of God will come down into our hearts like rain into the fleece of wooll or mowen grass and like showers that water the earth And now we have shewed you this threefold Descent We should in the next place contemplate the effect which this great Humility wrought the Fruit which sprung upon the fall of this gracious Rain upon Gods Inheritance the Spring of Righteousness and the Plenty of Peace and the Aeternity of them both But I see the time will not permit For conclusion therefore and as the present occasion bespeaks me I will acquaint you with another Descent of Christ into the blessed Sacrament I mean into the outward Elements of Bread and Wine Into these also he comes down insensibly spiritually ineffably yet really like Rain into a fleece of wooll Ask me not how he is there but there he is Eia fratres ubi voluit Dominus agnosci In fractione panis saith St. Augustine O my brethren where would our Saviour discover himself but in the breaking of bread In his Word he seems to keep a distance and to speak to us saith the Father by way of Letter or Epistle but in the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud he communicates himself that we who could not see him in his flesh may yet eat that flesh we cannot see and be in some kind familiar with him I need not busie my self in making the resemblance Theodoret in one of his Dialogues hath made up the parallel between the Incarnation of Christ and the Holy Sacrament In Christ there are two Natures the Divine and the Humane and in the Sacrament there are two Substances the heavenly and the earthly 2. After the union the two Natures are but one Person and after the consecration the two Substances make but one Sacrament 3. Lastly as the two Natures are united without confusion or coalition of either in Christ so in the Sacrament are the Substances heavenly and earthly knit so together that each continueth what it was The Bread is bread still and the Body of Christ is the body of Christ and yet Christ is the Bread of Life and the Bread is the body and the Wine the bloud of Christ It is panis Domini the Bread of the Lord and panis Dominus the Lord himself who is that living Bread which came down from Heaven And to a believing John 6. 51. Virgin soul Christ comes nearer in these outward Elements then Superstition can bring him beyond the fiction of Transubstantiation For as he by assuming our Nature was made one with us made flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones so we by worthily receiving his flesh and his bloud in the Sacrament are made one with him even partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Per hunc panem ad Dei consortium preparamur saith Hilary By this Bread we are united to him here and made fit to be with him for ever And to drink this Cup the Bloud of Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens to be made partakers of the incorruptibility of God And now to conclude This quiet and peaceable committing of Christ to us should teach us the like behaviour one to another For shall he come down like rain and shall we fall like
saw her and numbred her and powred her out upon all his works if Life he is the living God if Immortality he only is immortal There is none like unto the Lord our God and if we follow him we shall be rich and wise and strong we shall live and live for ever Let us then look stedfastly upon these plain words And upon the opening of them we shall behold the Heavens open and God himself looking down upon the children of men upon his children displaying his rays and manifesting his beauty to draw them near unto himself to allure and provoke them to follow after him teaching Dust and Ashes to raise it self to the region of Happiness Mortality to put on Immortality Death to put on Life and our Sinful nature to make its approaches nearer and nearer to Purity it self that where He is there we may be also My Text is a general Proposition depending upon that which our Apostle had told the Ephesians in the former Chapter And it is an Exhortation to a Duty of a high nature even reaching to Heaven it self a Perswasion to look upon God as an ensample Be yee followers of God But what must the Ephesians be enjoyned a duty where impossibility stands in the way between them and performance Not so They are Gods children and they are his dear children And as he is their Father so he will be their Patern too He will draw with his finger as it were the lines by which they must walk nay he will go before them in the way and they shall hear a voice saying This is the way walk in it I am merciful be yee merciful I am long-suffering be yee patient I forget your transgressions do yee forgive your enemies Be yee followers of me This is as if the Apostle had thus bespoken the Ephesians My task is to perswade you to forgive one another What better argument what stronger motive can I use then to tell you that you are Gods dear children If you be Children it is the glory of a child to resemble his Father But you are children and not that only but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dear children and Children strive to imitate their Parents to whom they are dear Nay farther yet you are not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dilecti but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligibiles through Christ who hath made you worthy to be beloved And the more you imitate your Father the more lovely still you appear Be yee therefore followers of God c. So now you may see here a medicinal water and not an Angel as in the pool of Bethesda but God himself moving of it and calling us to enter that we may be healed Or you may behold that great Penman of the holy Ghost drawing out as it were and setting the Ephesians a copie so legible that one may run and read it Briefly you have a Patern proposed Be yee followers of God and the Persons whose duty it was to be imitators the Ephesians who were dear children Or thus Here is a Duty enjoyned Be yee followers the Object of imitation God the Motive as you are dear children or because you are dear children 1. Because you are children 2. Because you are dear children Of these in order What the Oratour spake of his Art is most true of ours Magna pars artis continetur imitatione The greatest part of Rhetorick consists in imitation So too doth our Christian profession God hath not only fixed the two Tables for us to look upon or his Command to be our direction That indeed is via veritatis the way by which we are to walk But there is too lumen vitae He hath also placed many lights in the way the light of spiritual Understanding that we may see the way and the light of Imitation that seeing others walk in the way we may tread in their steps So Abraham shall teach his family so Solomon shall look upon King David and My son hear my voice saith Solomon So the weak Christian and he that eateth milk shall walk as it were upon the strength of him that eateth stronger meat And lest these helps should not be strong enough to uphold our weakness lest these lesser lights should be too divine to lead us God himself hath cast his rayes upon us and hath made even those Virtues which He is exemplary And indeed how much we stand in need of this help of Example in respect of our frailty our Saviour laid open when he took our nature He was disciplina morum His whole life was so as if he had descended only to be an Ensample Yea although he himself were ensample enough to have instructed the whole world yet he proposeth others The Samaritane shall instruct the Lawyer And if the Lawyer approve the Mercy of the Samaritane to the man wounded on the way our Saviour is ready with his Do you likewise If the Apostles grow proud he will bring a Child in the midst of them and if contentious to wipe out that stain he will wash their feet We are not only deprived of our former health in paradise as the Papists would have it but we are also wounded and maimed and stand in need of these crutches as it were of Precepts and Ensamples We are still going on in the paths of death and thither we would hasten with hinds feet did not God pull us back again and sometimes lead us with the cords of men with the bands of love and sometimes drive us by his threatnings and sometimes hearten us with the sight of others labouring on the way And if the opinion of some were true that Original sin consisteth most in imitation here were ample and sufficient remedy in that God leads us by ensample To this end he hath placed us in the communion of Saints a gift which we either understand not or undervalue and he hath wisely ordein'd that one Christian should be a lesson to another which he should take out and learn and teach again and then strive to improve For it is here as in Arts and Sciences Qui agit ut prior sit forsitan si non transierit aequabit He who spurred on with an holy ambition makes it his industry to exceed his patern shall no doubt become as glorious a star as he and by his holy emulation far out-shine him Only endeavour we must and not shut our eyes when God hath set his lights in his candlesticks A shame it is that Lot should be in Sodom and his Devotion be imprisoned at home with him that Davids soul should be where there are haters of peace that Peter should pass by and not so much as his shadow reach us that the lesser stars nay the Sun it self should shine and we be in darkness that it should be noon-day with us and we grope as if it were midnight The Philosopher would not speak it without a Pudet dicere without a Preface of Shame Nunquam apertiùs quà m coram
we may impute to original Sin But yet Divines generally consent that this original Sin is alike in all only it works more or less according to the diversity of mens tempers as water runs swifter down a Hill then in a Plain Again even in children we see many good and gracious qualities which by good education come to excellent effect In pueri elucet spes plurimorum saith Quintilian quae cùm emoritur aetate manifestum est non defecisse naturam sed curam In children many times there is a beam and hope of Goodness which if not cherisht by Discipline is dampt and darkned a sign that Nature was not wanting but our Care Now from whence this difference should come is not easie to discern but this we cannot but observe That be the strength of original Sin what it will yet there is no man but is more wicked then the strength of any natural Weakness or primitive Corruption can constrain For when evil Education bad Enamples long Custome and Continuance in sin have bred in us a habit of sinning cùm per secordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxere naturae infirmitas accusatur when through sloth and idleness through luxury and distemper our time is lost our bodies decayed our wits dulled we cast all the fault upon the Weakness of our Nature and our full growth in sin we attribute to that Seed of sin which we should have choaked Behold the Signs in the heaven the Sun darkned the Moon turned into bloud See Poverty coming towards you as an armed man Famine riding upon a pale horse killing with Hunger and with Death Behold the Plague destroying Persecution raging I say Behold these for to this thou wert made for this thou wert sent into the world to behold and look up upon these to look up and be undaunted nay to look up and leap and rejoyce For thy whole life is but a preparation and Eve to this great Holiday of sights If the eye of Nature be too weak thou hast an unction from the Holy one the unction of the blessed Spirit For this end ◠John 2. 20. Christ came into the world for this end did he pour forth his grace that he might refresh thy spirits and clear thy eye-sight that thou mayest look up and lift up thy head For tell me Why were we baptized why are we Christians Is it not to mortifie our earthly members and lusts to dead in our selves the bitter root of Sin Is it not to spiritualize to angelifie I had almost said to deifie our Nature For we are no further Christians nisi in quantum caeperimus esse angeli but so far forth as we are like unto the Angels I may add and St. Peter doth warrant me so far forth as we are made partakers of the Divine Nature Were we not baptized into this faith I speak to Christians whose life should be a continual warfare not against Beasts but our Passions which if they be not tyed up and held in with bitt and bridle are as fierce and violent as they And a strange kind of weakness it is to talk of Weakness when we are to fight for this is to yield before we strike a stroke not to be put to flight but to run away Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt and it is no marvail if we fall by conquest who in our own opinion are already overcome Beloved are we weak in Adam Yet are we strong in Christ I can do all things saith Paul and suffer all things through Christ that strengthneth me Though many blemishes befall us by Adams sin in our understandings and in our wills yet what we lost in Adam that with infinite advantage is supplyed in Christ Are we truly Christians Then these things these fearful sights cannot hurt us If they hurt us it is because we are not Christians There is a fable that past amongst the Heathen that Vulcan offended with the men of Athens told them they should be all fools but Pallas who favoured them told them they should indeed be fools but withall that their folly should not hurt them Our case is not much unlike For though the Devil hath made us fools and weak yet Christ the Wisdome of the Father hath given us this gift that this Weakness shall never hurt us unless we will Fear not therefore why should we fear Christ hath subdued our enemies and taken from them every weapon that may hurt us He hath taken the sting not only from Sin but from those evils which are the natural issues and products of Sin He hath made Afflictions joyful Terrors lovely that thou mayest look up upon them and lift up thy head I have done with this pretense of natural Weakness and with my second part and I come now to the third and last the encouragement our Saviour giveth For your redemption draweth nigh And when these things come to pass when such terrible signs appear this news is very seasonable As cold waters to a thirsty soul so is the promise Prov. 25. 25. of liberty to those who have been in bondage all their life long under the fear Heb. 2. 15. of those evils which shew themselves unto us and lead us captive and keep us in prison so that we cannot look up When we are sold under Sin and by that sold under fears of Calamities of Death of Hell when the Heaven loures upon us and Hell opens its mouth then a message of Redemption is a word fitly spoken a word upon its wheels guided and directed by art and is as delightful as apples of Gold with pictures of silver It is that Peny in the evening which makes the Labourer bear the burden all the day How will that Souldier fight who heareth of a reserve and party at hand to aid him How will the Prisoner even sing in his chains when news is brought that his ransome is paid and his redemption near at hand It is a liberty to be told we shall be free And it is not easie to determine whither it more affect us when it is come or when it is but in the approach drawing nigh when we are free or when we are but told that shortly we shall be so And indeed our Redemption is actus individuus one entire act and we are redeemed at once from all though the full accomplishment of it be by degrees When we are redeemed from Sin we are redeemed from the Grave redeemed from the fear of Death redeemed from all fear of these fearful Signs and Apparitions redeemed by our Captain who besides the ransome he paid down hath taught us to handle the weapons of our warfare hath proposed a crown hath taught us to shake off our fetters and break our bonds asunder For to this end he paid down the ransome and if we do it not we are not redeemed no not when we are redeemed It is enough for him to open the prison-doors Certainly it is our
Person to blemish and deface his Calling and Profession Nor can our Freedom by Christ priviledge us for we must submit quasi liberi as free and quia liberi because we are free For to this end we are made free that we should work all righteousness and not make our Freedom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cloak of maliciousness that by obeying of Kings and Governours we may be the Servants of God This is the sum of these words In them there be divers circumstances observable which we cannot handle now We will therefore confine our meditations and consider the Object which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every humane ordinance which hath here its distribution into Superior and Infeferior first the King secondly those Governours which are sent by him and are his Vicegerents 2. What is meant here by Submission 3. The Motives to win us to the performance of this Duty One is drawn ab autoritate from the Authority of God himself whose Deputys Kings and Governours are We must submit for the Lords sake another ab utili from the Good and Benefit we receive from them in the punishment of evil doers and the praise and encouragement of those that do well Of these in their order and first of the Object Submit your selves to every ordinance of man What this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this ordinance of man this humane creature is there is some dispute and by divers hands it hath been fashion'd and shaped as it were into divers forms Some have tender'd it as a Law as a Constitution made by man Others have presented it as a Man though not invested with Authority and so have made every man both a King and a Subject a King to receive honour and a Subject to give it every man being bound by Christianity as by a Law to esteem every man his Superior and better than himself Some take it for the civil Power it self which though it be ordained of God and so is his creature yet it was first received and approved of men and so may be said to be a humane constitution à Deo saith St. Paul because all power is derived from God humana creatura saith St. Peter because even Nature it self hath taught men this lesson That two are better than one and that every family and every man is most safe in a collection and Society which cannot subsist but by a mutual dependance Eccles 4. 9. and a friendly subordination of parts where some are govern'd and others bare rule To reconcile all we may observe that rule in St. Augustine Turpe est disputantibus in verborum quaestione immorari cùm certamen nullum de rebus remanserit It is a thing not seemly to dwell long upon the words and to contend and criticize thereupon when the sense is plain Though we cannot separate the Power from the Man whose power it is yet it is plain by the distribution which follows that it cannot be meant of the Power but of the Man upon whose shoulders the Government lyeth For we cannot properly say of Power that it is either King or his Deputy It is very probable what a late writer hath observed that by this phrase the name of Magistrate is exprest in general and that St. Peter calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a creature as the Latines say creare consulem to make or create a Consul and that he stiles him a humane creature not that the Magistrate hath his Authority from men but because Magistrates themselves who are endowed with this Authority are men So that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath reference not to the Efficient cause but to the Subject to the Man in Authority who is the creature of God from heaven heavenly Nor indeed is it much material which sence we take but that the words will bear this last better then the other For as the man is such is his strength and as the Magistrate is such is his Power They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and bear so near a relation that they cannot subsist but together And St. Paul joyns them together and makes them one For whom he calls Rulers in one place he calls the higher Powers in another They are humane creatures as being men and formen but in respect of their power neither of men nor by men further then their consent No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the Pythagoreans say Kings and Governours are creatures of Gods making And we may say of them as the people spake of Paul and Barnabas Gods are come down to us in Acts 14. the likeness of men Now this humane ordinance or creature if you take it for the Power it self is still the same and though it be conveyed by divers subordinations unto divers yet it differs no more then Water in the chanel doth from what it was in the fountain For as the King rules in nomine Dei in the name and place of God so doth the lower Magistrate judge the innocent and punish the offendor but withall in nomine Regis in the Kings name But if we take it for the Magistrate himself then it hath degrees of Sub and Suprà 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supreme and transcendent The Rulers and Governours which are sent and appointed by him move in a lower sphere and as the Stars differ from one another in glory For as we say in Logique that the middle Species is the Genus in respect of a lower yet but the Species in respect of the Genus so Magistrates in comparison of Inferiors are publick persons and yet again but Private men in respect of him who is Supreme There is indeed a derivation but no equalizing of power Regis absolutum Dominium the Kings Dominion is absolute under God theirs who are sent concreditum delegatum dependant and by way of delegation For the King is in the Kingdom as the Soul in the Body And the Philosopher will tell us Anima est ubi animat The Soul is wheresoever it hath its operation And so is the King wheresoever he ruleth For he sends his Governours and by them conveigheth and lets forth himself into every corner of his Kingdom His house is the Tent whilst the Captain is a commanding the Province whilst the Deputy is a governing the Tribunal whilst the Judge is a sitting the Consistory whilst the Bishop is a censuring And there is no place hid from his power but his power is every where where his Laws are in force For these Governours are taken in in partem curarum to ease the King of his burden not in partem imperij to share with him in his Supremacy The King then or Emperour is still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his sublimity in the very Zenith of state and admits none to be above him or in the same altitude He is the first compassing wheel others are carried about by his motion moving as the Kings Law moves and as
Commendation and even commends that too For what are Commendations with ut a Fiat but as that Faith in St. James which bids the naked and destitute Be warmed and filled but gives them nothing which is needful And such are our Commendations for the most part no more then a sound verba sine penu pecunia as he in Plautus speaks words without profit or comfort A miracle it is to hear a charitable panegyrick But Christs Commendations end here in a miracle For as St. Augustine speaking of those words of the Gospel Stulte hâc nocte giveth us this descant STULTE Tale in quenquam Dei verbum judicium est Such a word from God as FOOL is a judgment For when God calls us Fools he passeth a sentence So may we say that O mulier with Christ is a FIAT his Commendations a Grant For what he approves he rewards and what he commends be crowns And the best approbation is her Reward the best commendations a Crown The FIAT follows close upon the Acclamation And indeed a large grant it is Yet some have strived to improve and enlarge it Origen thinks that Christ did not only heal this womans daughter but gave her power to do it herself and was so pleased with her that he was content to give her part of his Power and a hand in the miracle But a meer phansie it is without shew of sense But even our age hath coined the like That Christ did not only merit for us but by his merit purchast us a patent of meriting our selves One would think these men had slept upon Origen's pillow and dreamt the same dream these for the soul as he for the body For to what purpose is this new invention FIAT Let it be done let but her daughter be cured and the womans noyse is laid Nor can the miracle be less welcome because Christ works it himself Or let her do it yet she must do it by Christs power and so the FIAT is Christs still and we are where we were before And why should we affect to merit our selves Is it not enough that Christ will bring us to heaven Or is the Crownless welcome if our hand do not help to put it on And if our merit be not coin'd without the impression of Christ what then have we gained For the payment is his still This is nothing else but interpretationibus ludere de scripturis by false glosses to sport with the Truth and the Scripture And we may say of these additions as the Orator spake of Figures in speech Possumus sine istis vivere We can live and be saved without them Let Christ say FIAT TIBI to the Canaanitish woman and it is enough her daughter shall be made whole by that very FIAT from that very hour And let him say unto us FIAT VOBIS Be unto you as you will and we shall be dispossest of our spiritual enemies of our lusts and foul affections and as his children we shall not only have the crumbs but shall sit at his table with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and with this Canaanitish woman and shall enjoy not only quicquid volumus what we will but more then we can will or desire Which the Lord for his mercies sake set a FIAT to and grant unto us all for Christ Jesus sake To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory The Two and Twentieth SERMON PROV XII 14. A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth and the recompense of a mans hands shall be rendred unto him IN the morning you beheld David the father rejoycing and committing his joy to song LAETATUS SUM Psal 122. 1. I rejoyced In the words which I have read Solomon the son openeth the fountain of joy and points out unto you the spring from whence it flows and that is obedience to Gods will whether seen in the fruit of our Mouth we shall be satisfied by the fruit of our mouth or manifested in the fruit of our hands The recompense of a mans hands shall be rendred unto him We may add the fruit of our Minds in our thoughts for these make a character and impression in the soul and hang there like pictures saith Basil and such pictures as may put on the substance of those actions which they represent and therefore are to be esteemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as compleat works already finisht in the soul For saith Tertullian they are wrought in the flesh and with the flesh and by the flesh adeò sine opere sine effectu cogitatus est carnis actus so that a thought is a work in the flesh when it produceth no act at all Wheresoever Goodness is whether it bridle our Tongue or guide our Hand or regulate our Phansie it carries its satisfaction its recompense along with it Our songs of praises echo back again upon us the works of our hands follow us and fill us with joy and our thoughts if Goodness raise them are comforts What need we then run to and fro through the earth and seek for joy and satisfaction when it is so near us even in our mouth and in our Hands and in our minds If it may lye wrapt up in a thought much more will it be loud in our words and if our words may carry it along it will flow and abound in our good works I may say it is the reflexion of our thoughts the echo of our words and the resultance from our works and musick and melody in all The sense and sum of all that the Wise-man hath here proposed unto us in these words is this That Goodness whether in thought word or deed will satisfie us that is fill us with joy and nothing will satisfie us but goodness For the argument will hold à contrario If that which is good satisfie us then that which is evil cannot If Goodness have its reward which is satisfaction then Evil hath its wages of another nature which is death A man shall be satisfied with good but there can be no satisfaction in evil The lines then by which we are to pass are but these two first that Goodness doth satisfie secondly that nothing else can satisfie us but Goodness And that Goodness doth satisfie we cannot doubt if we know what it is and consider the nature of it and the fountain from whence it springs For it flows from God as Joy and Satisfaction do from Goodness It is a beam from that eternal Light an emanation from God himself I had almost sayd a portion of the Divinity and if I did positively say it doth not even the Scripture say as much That by it we are made partakers of the Divine Nature by escaping the corruption which is in the world by lust For of his John 1. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Ephes 1. 23. fulness we receive â—t and Grace for Grace For the free gift of Grace and Goodness the free addition
for a truth They are not of the world even as I am not of the world saith Christ John 17. 16. of his Disciples A Christian is no more of the world then Christ himself I have chosen you out of the world which is in a manner a drawing them John 15. 19. out into the Wilderness I have chosen you out of the world to hate and contemn it to renew and reform it to fight against the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that is in the world 1 John 2. 16. St. John the beloved Disciple who leaned on Christs breast was nearest to him and learned this doctrine from him exhorts us not to love the 1 John 2. 15. world nor the things of this world And not to love it here is to hate it and Hatred is as a wing to carry us away in haste into some wilderness from that thing we hate If we hate the world we shall not endure to look upon it much less to stay and dwell in it or build a tabernacle here Love not the world Fly afar off and retire not only from those sins and vices which all men know and confess to be so which are branded with a mark and carry their shame in their forhead but even from those deviations and enormities which by the profit and advantage they bring have gained some credit and repute amongst men have not only scaped the stroke of reprehension but are crowned with praise and because they thwart not the statutes of Omri and may consist with the laws of men are new Christians as it were and have the names of those virtues given them which are perfect and consummate in that obedience alone which is due to the Gospel of Christ and to the Law of God Love not the world is a sequestring a kind of deportation a banishment of us not only out of the world but out of the confines and borders of it even from that which weak Christians and not yet perfect men in Christ judge to be no part of the World Love it not look down upon it crucifie it as St. Paul did By the virtue of Christs cross I am crucified to the world The World looks Gal. 6. 14. down upon me with scorn and contempt and indignation And the world is crucified unto me I look down upon it with the like scorn and contempt I pass by it and revile it and wag my head I look upon it as upon a dead corpse which I must not touch as upon a crucified thief who is expos'd to shame To conclude this As Christ withdrew himself from the City and multitude into the Wilderness so doth the Christian withdraw himself from the World He is not of the World he is chosen out of it he loves it not but looks upon it as upon a dead carrion and crucified carkase a loathed object an abomination which threatens not only the ruin of the Temple but even of Christianity it self And this will be more evident if we consider the nature either of Man that is led or of the Spirit that leadeth us Man being elemented and made up in this world to look towards another and the Spirit of God being a lover of Man a lover of the image of God and ready to lead him out For first as Man when he builds a house first sits down and consults what use he shall put it to so God the Creator of the world who made the world for mans sake made up Man also to be made an ensample of his Wisdome and Goodness made him to worship him chalked out his way beckon'd and called lowd after him to follow him in that way that so at last as it were by so many steps and degrees by the example of his Son and the conduct of his Spirit he might bring him out of the world unto himself I have made thee I have created thee I have formed thee for my Isa 43. 7. glory saith God by his Prophet to communicate my goodness and wisdome to make thee partaker of the Divine nature to make thee a kind of God upon earth by which according to thy measure and capacity thou mayest represent and express God In homine quicquid est sibi proficit There is nothing in Man which is not advantageous to him which may not help to carry him through this world to the region of Happiness We cannot doubt of his better part his Soul for that being heavenly and a spark as it were of the Divine nature cannot but look upward and look forward too upon its original must needs be ashamed and weary of its house of clay and be very jealous of the World which is but a prison and hath greater darkness and heavier chains to bind and fetter the Soul it self And therefore when it looks on the World and reflects and takes a full view of it self and considers that huge disproportion that is between the World and an immortal Soul you may find it panting to get out As the hart panteth after the rivers of water so panteth my soul after thee O God saith David and When shall I appear before the living Lord Now was David recollected and retired into himself now was he in his wilderness communing with his own heart We cannot doubt of the Soul whilst it is a soul and not made fleshy immersed and drowned in sensuality If it be not led by the Flesh but lead it self out of the world it will and return to its rest to its retirement But then even the body being thus animated with such a soul may help forward the work Glorifie God in your 1 Cor. 6. â—0 body saith St. Paul Not only withdraw your Souls but your Bodies also out of the world For as God breathed in the Soul so his hands have made and fashioned the Body and in his book are all our members written He made Psal 139. 16. the whole man both Soul and Body and built it up as a Temple of his blessed Spirit And if the Soul be the Sanctuary the Body is the Porch and his hand moves from the inward parts to the outward from the Sanctum sanctorum to the very door and entrance What is there almost in this our retirement from the World which is not done by the ministry of the body Our Fasting our Prayers our Alms haec de carnis substantia immolantur Deo these are all sacrificed to God of the substance of the flesh What is Martyrdome That certainly is a going out of the world And this advantage we have above the Angels themselves We can dye for Christ which the Angels cannot do because they have no bodies So that you see the end for which Man was made and sent into the world was to be ever going out of it His natural motion and that which becomes him as Man is to move forwards Which motion is
Bernard The Spear that opened his side is made a Key to open his bowels and compassion the materials of this Garment a Key to open his Wardrobe as well as his Bed-chamber Wilt thou make a Feast of Christ Thou must make a Garment of him too Wilt thou feed on him Thou must put him on also as the Apostle speaks For we cannot imagine that our Salvation is finis adaequatus the Rom. 13. 14. sole end of Christs sufferings That we should be partakers of his glory 1 Pet. 5. 1. that is one end indeed the very Feast but there is another that we should 2 Pet. 1. 4. be partakers of his divine nature that is the Garment Called to glory and 2 Pet. 1. 3. vertue Not to vertue without glory that were against the Goodness of the King Nor to Glory without virtue that were against his Justice Take our Election We are chosen to obedience through sanctification of the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 2. Take our Redemption We are delivered that we might serve him without Luke 1. 74. fear Take our Calling We are called unto holiness In all our passages 1 Thes 4. 7. in all our approaches to happiness an eye is to be had to the Garment as well as to the Feast For though every step to heaven be a type of our eternal station there and our Garment of Grace a fair representation of our robe of Glory yet is not every step Heaven nor Grace Glory Christ as he is the Foundation to build upon so is the Way to walk in As he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the price of our redemption so he became so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might be a patern of sanctity for us to take-out and follow that we may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy and unblamable The Garment is the condition and certainly no hard one For it is facilis parabilis easie to be procured Difficultatis patrocinium praeteximus segnitiei If thou think it hard to work or wear it it is because the fashion likes thee not We may boldly say Nothing makes Christianity more difficult than the conceit that it is difficult We should more freely run the ways of Gods commandments if we did not laborem singere in praecepto too oft imagine a Lyon in the way What need we any further witness The guests that came with this man shall rise-up in judgment against him It was as hard for them to procure or wear the Garment and yet they did not complain of the condition Thus have we pleaded against this unprovident Guest drawn articles out of this Interrogation and set a QUOMODO upon each several circumstance QUOMODO How to a King How a Subject a Beggar to a King How being so graciously invited How to such a Feast How to such Place Lastly QUOMODO INVESTIS How without a garment so fit a garment so glorious a garment How camest thou in hither not having on this wedding-garment All these Motives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest and most winning able to rowse up Stupidity it self able to awake our most dull and dead affections the Majesty of a King to awe him his Invitation to win him the Feast to delight him the Place to entice him the Garment to affect him a King to awake his Fear the Invitation to kindle his Love the Feast to raise his Desire the Place his Admiration and the Garment his Diligence And yet see not any of these not all these could move him but to the King he is irreverent to the Invitation stubborn to the Feast contumelious at the Place prophane and the Garment he esteemed not All these Irreverence Ingratitude Stubbornness Profaneness Neglect Contempt Rebellion meeting and concentring themselves in a disobedient and unbelieving heart are represented unto us under Nakedness and the Want of a Garment And indeed this is all Peccatum infidelitatis quae tenentur omnia peccata saith Aquinas Infidelity is the abridgment and summary of all For if the Gospel be hid to me I am in darkness and cannot discern the King from a common person nor his Invitation from a complement nor his Feast from husks nor his Table from the table of Devils nor Bethel from Bethaven And therefore our Saviour sayes If I had not come and spoken to them they should have had no sin John 15. 22. St. Augustines gloss is Magnum aliquod peccatum sub generali nomine vult intelligi That this general name of Sin did include some great sin some sin paramount And that sin is Infidelity This makes the Gospel as killing as the Law and the bloud of Christ as vocal and loud for vengeance as that of Abel The Infidelity of the guest was far worse than that of a stranger We see here it brought the King to his QUOMODO to question the Guest and to silence him with a question so to question him that he was to seek for an answer Of whose Silence we shall say no more at this time but what St. Ambrose spake of AMA It was negotiosum silentium a busie vocal silence Conscientia loquebatur ubi vox non audiebatur His Conscience cryed aloud against him when Shame and Sorrow had shut up his lips But he is placed here in this parable for an ensample to us on whom the ends of the world are come that if we will not be muzzled and tongue-tyed if we will have no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no linguarium no muzzle to shut up our lips and stop our mouths at the coming of this great King at that great day of Judicature we be careful now to keep our garments to reverence the King to run when he calls to make haste when he invites to delight in the Feast to fall down in his Courts and to worship in the beauty of holiness To this end let us consider that God who made us after his own image cannot endure to see our souls naked or clad with rags and to be clothed with rags is Nakedness Disobedience is Nakedness by this our first parents were bereaved of the image of God deprived of their glory and made subject to shame Idolatry is Nakedness Moses saw that the people were Gen. 3. 7. Exod. 32. 25. Ezek. 16. 8. Hos 2. 3. Rev. 3. 17. naked after they had worshipped the molten calf So Hypocrisie which is a mask and disguise is Nakedness Thou sayest thou art rich but art poor and naked There is no shame in the world but this to be found naked Let us therefore cast off the cloke of Hypocrisie and Dissimulation and put-on the robe of Sincerity God desireth truth in the inward parts in the hidden parts Psal 51. 6. at the heart-root in the secret and closed parts And then if it do eructare se in superficiem as Tertullian speaketh evaporate and breath it self forth in the outward man and make every part and member of us a weapon and instrument of righteousness
out prayers as in an humble embassage to crave Gods aid and auxiliary forces For as God hath his army to fight against his enemies his Locust his Caterpillar and his Palmer-worme so hath he his army to defend those Joel 2. who are under his protection his Angels and Archangels who are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Hebr. 1. 14. Nor can we think but that this army is stronger than all the troops of the Prince of darkness and that God by these is able to curb and restrain the violence and fury of Satan Nor could we hope to resist our spiritual Enemy sine naturae potioris auxilio but by the aid and assistance of those creatures which are of a more excellent being Therefore Justin Martyr tells us that God hath given the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a care and providence over us Tertullian that they do universam paraturam hominis modulari elegantly and aptly and harmoniously order and govern the whole course of our life And no question though we perceive it not they do many good offices for mankind they rowse up the Melancholick comfort the Poor chide the Wanton moderate the Chollerick They are very ready to defend us there where we are the weakest and to dull the force of every dart which is thrown at us We will not now question Whether every man hath his Angel-keeper Which Basil so often and other of the Fathers affirm or Whether children in age have their tutelary Angels which our Saviour seems to intimate or children in understanding men of weaker capacities in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this doubtful and uncertain combat where there is so little light and so much danger have their Angels to defend them from the sleights and enterprises of Satan or How the blessed Angels minister for us We are sure they pitch their tents about us and do many offices for us though we perceive it not We have an author who writes of the Meteors it is Garcaeus I mean who was of opinion that whereas many times before great tempests there is wont to be heard in the air above us a great noise and rushing the cause of this was the bandying of good and evil angels the one striving to annoy us with tempests the other to preserve us from danger The truth of this I know not But as about Moses 's body so about every faithful person these do contend the one to hazard the other to deliver Therefore we may well pray that as the Devil inspires us with evil thoughts so the good Angels may inspire us with good and that if Hell open her mouth to devour us Heaven would open its gate that from thence there may descend the influence of Grace to save us And nemo officiosior Deo there is none more officious than God Who is not afar off from our tears but listens when we call is with us in all our wayes waits on us ponders our steps and our goings and when we are ready to fall nay inter pontem fontem in our fall is ready to help and save us And officiocissima res est gratia his Grace is the most diligent and officious thing in the world quasi in nostram jurata salutem as if it were our sworn friend and were bound by solemn oath to attend and guard us When doth the Devil roar and we hear not a kind of watch-word within us NO LITE TIMERE Fear it not all this is but noise And when doth he flatter and we hear not a voice behind us NO LITE PRAESUMERE Be not too bold it is the Devil it is thy utter Enemy And in all time of tribulation in all time of our wealth this Grace is sufficient for us But further yet in the last place we beg Gods immediate Assistance his Efficacious and Saving Grace that he will not only send his Angels but make us Angels to our selves For no man can be delivered from evil nisi in quantum angelus esse coepit but so far forth as he is become an Angel yea nisi in quantum Deus esse coepit but so far forth as he is become a God partaker saith St. Peter of the divine nature and endued with wisdom from above Therefore we must pray with Solomon for an understanding heart for the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of counsel for the assistance of Gods holy Spirit which is Christs Vicar here on earth for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual wisdome which may make us wise unto salvation that we may have eye-sight and fore-sight and over-sight that we may see and fore-see and over-see that evil which is near at hand and about us in all our paths that we be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Peter speaks purblind stricken with gross darkness like the Sodomites to stumble at the threshold nay in montes impingere as St. Augustine speaks run upon evils never so palpable visible mountainous evils and see them not enter the gates of our enemies as friends and think our selves at Dothan when we are in the midst of Samaria We read that the men of the first age knew not what Death meant or what it was to dye but fell to the ground as men ly-down upon their beds when they are weary or rather fell to the ground like Beasts not thinking of Death or what might follow And indeed the reason why we fall so often into Evil is because we see it not know not what it is not what it means as if to sin were nothing else but to lye down and rest nothing else but to satisfie the Sense and to please the Appetite as if Sin were as natural as to eat Therefore we pray Lord open our eyes that we may see it and so fly away and escape And as we pray for Sight so we do for Foresight For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus The Understanding is the Eye and the Far the Eye to see afar off and the Ear to listen and give notice of danger yet at some distance to know the signs of Sin as we do of the heavens to say This Bread may â—e gravel this Beauty deceitful and this Wine a mocker This rage of Satan may praise the Lord and this his fawning may make me dishonor him This his war may work my peace and his truce may be but a borrowed space of time to undermine me Magna tentatio est tentatione carere It may be a great tentation to be without one and a great evil not sometimes to taste of evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Understanding and a good mind and much forecast lead us to a paradise of bliss Scelera consilia non habent It is easie to rush upon evil but we cannot avoid it without forecast and counsel And therefore in the third place we desire not only an Eye which may see and foresee but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks