delicate fruits they who overcome not eat not x Apoc. 2.17 the hidden Manna as they partake not of the Spouse her graces so neither have they any right or title to her titles They are no Temples but rather styes no dove-cotes but cages of uncleane birds no habitations for the holy Ghost but rather haunts of uncleane spirits They indeed live and move in God for out of him they cannot subsist but y Gal. 2.20 Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Rom. 8 9. 2 Cor. 6.16 God himselfe liveth and moveth in the godly God is in all places and abideth every where yet hee z Ephes 3.17 dwelleth onely in the hearts of true believers For they and they onely are the Temple of the living God Doctr. 4 Are. In the Romane Kalendar no Saints are entred till many miracles be voiced upon them after death but in Gods Register wee finde Saints in the Church on earth among the a Rom. 1.7 Romanes b 1 Cor. 1.2 Corinthians c Eph. 1.1 Ephesians d Phil. 1.1 Philippians at e Act. 9.32 Lydda and elsewhere But what Saints and how Saints by calling Saints by a holy profession and blamelesse conversation Saints by gratious acceptation of pious endeavours rather than of performances Saints by inchoation Saints by regeneration of grace Saints by daily renovation of the inward man Saints by devotion and dedication of themselves wholly to God Saints by inhabitation of the holy spirit in them which maketh them a holy Temple of the living God In this life we are f 1 Cor. 3.23 Gods for all things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods in the life to come g Apo. 21.22 And I saw no Temple therein for the Lord God almighty and the Lambe are the Temple thereof God is ours In this life wee are Gods Temple but in the life to come God is g Apo. 21.22 And I saw no Temple therein for the Lord God almighty and the Lambe are the Temple thereof ours Now God dwelleth with us and is but slenderly entertained by us but there wee shall dwell with him and have fulnesse of all things yet without satiety or being cloyed therewith Doctr. 5 The Temple Not the Temples but the Temple Gen. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the learned Hebricians from the construction of the noune plurall with a verb singular as if you would say in Latine Dii or Numina creavit gather the trinity of persons in the unity of the divine nature so from the construction here of a singular adjunct with a subject plurall wee may inferre the plurality of the faithfull in the unity of the Church For wee that are many yet are truely one many graines one bread many sheepe one fold many members one body many branches one vine many private oratories or chaplets but one Temple The parts of the Catholike Church are so farre scattered and dissevered in place that they cannot make one materiall yet they are so neare joyned in affection and fast linked with the bonds of religion that they make but one spirituall Temple They are many soules and must needs have as many divers naturall bodies yet in regard they are all quickned guided and governed by the same spirit they make but one mysticall body whose head is in heaven and members dispersed over the earth Can unity bee divided If wee are rent in sunder by schisme and faction Christ his seamelesse coate cannot cover us all The Philosophers finde it in the naturall the States-men in the politicke and I pray God wee finde it not in the mysticall body of Christ h Cyp. de simplic prel A velle radium à sole divisionem lucis unitas non capit ab arbore frange ramum fructum germinare non poterit à fonte praecide rivum prorsus arescet That division tends to corruption and dissolution to death Plucke a beame if you can from the body of the sunne it will have no light breake a branch from the tree it will beare no fruit sever a river from the spring it will soone bee dryed up cut a member from the body it presently dyeth cast a pumice stone into the water and though it bee never so bigge while it remaines entire and the parts whole together it will swimme above water but breake it into pieces and every piece will sinke in like manner the Church and Common-wealth which are supported and as it were borne up above water by unity are drowned in perdition by discord dissention schisme and faction It is not possible that those things which are knit by a band should hold fast together after the band it selfe is broken How can a sinew hold steddy the joint if it bee sprayned or broken or cut in sunder Religion beloved brethren is the band of all society the strongest sinew of Church or Commonwealth God forbid there should bee any rupture in this band any sprayne in this sinew The husbandman hath sowed good seede cleane and picked in this Kingdome for more than threescore yeeres and it hath fructified exceedingly since the happy reformation of Religion in these parts O let no envious man sow upon it those tares which of late have sprung up in such abundance in our neighbour countries that they have almost choaked all the good wheat Let no roote of bitternesse spring up in our Paradise or if it bee sprung let authority or at least Christian charity plucke it up Wee are all one body let us all have the same minde towards God and endeavour to the utmost of our power to i Eph. 4 3. preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that our spirituall Jerusalem may resemble the old Byzantium the stones whereof were so matched and the wall built so uniformely that the whole City seemed to bee but one stone continued throughout It was the honour of the k Psal 122.3 Jerusalem is builded as a City that is compacted together old let it bee also of the new Jerusalem that it is a City at unity in it selfe Doctr. 6 I have held you thus long in the Porch let us now enter into the Temple Glorious things are spoken of you O ye chosen of God yee are tearmed vessels of honour lights of the world a chosen generation a royall priesthood a peculiar people a celestiall society yet nothing ever was or can be more spoken to Your endlesse comfort and superexcellent glory than that you are Children of the Father Members of the Sonne and Temples of the holy Ghost Seneca calleth the world Augustissimum Dei Templum a most magnificent Temple of God David the heaven Solomon the Church Saint Paul the Elect in the Church and in a sense not altogether improper we may tearme the world the Temple of the Church the Church the Temple of our bodies our bodies the Temples of our soules and our soules most peculiarly the Temples of the
terris the Earth trembled the Stones clave with indignation the vaile of the Temple rent it selfe the Heaven mourned in sables the Sunne that he might not behold such outrage done upon so sacred a person drew in his beams He who suffereth all this quatcheth not stirreth not nor discovereth his divine Majesty no not when death approached When all insensible creatures seemed to be sensible of the injury offered their Maker he who feeleth all seemeth to be insensible For hee maketh no resistance at all and though he were omnipotent yet his patience overcame his omnipotency and even to this day restraineth his justice from taking full revenge of them who were the authours of his death and of those who since crucifie againe the Lord of life and trample under their feet the bloud of the Covenant as a prophane thing Whose thoughts are not swallowed up in admiration at this that he who is adored in heaven is not yet revenged upon the earth You see meeknesse in his passions behold now this vertue expressed to the life in his life and actions Actions I say whether naturall or miraculous so indeed they are usually distinguished albeit Christs miraculous actions were naturall in him proceeding from his divine nature and most of his naturall actions as they are called proceeding from his humane nature were in him wonderfull and miraculous For instance to weep is a most naturall action but to weep in the midst of his triumph and that for their ruine who were the cause of all his woe to shed teares for them who thirsted after his bloud was after a sort miraculous Who ever did the like Indeed we reade that Marcellus wept over Syracuse and Scipio over Carthage and Titus over Jerusalem as our Saviour did but the cause was far different They shed teares for them whose bloud they were to shed but our Saviour for them who were ready to shed his Luke 19.41 His bowels earned for them who thought it long till they had pierced his heart with a launce When the high Priest commanded Paul to be smote on the face hee rebuked him saying The Lord shall smite thee thou painted wall Acts 23 3. but when the Lord himselfe was smitten by the high Priests servant he falls not foule upon him but returnes this milde answer If I have done evill John 18.23 beare witnesse of the evill but if I have done well why strikest thou me The servant thinketh much to endure that from the Master which the Master endures from the servant The Apostles on whom the Spirit descended in the likenesse of fiery tongues were often hot and inflamed with wrath against the enemies of God and brought downe fearfull judgements upon them but our Saviour on whom the Spirit descended in the likenesse of a Dove never hurt any by word or deed 2 Kin. 5.27 Matth. 8.2 Luke 4.27 17.12 Acts 13.11 Acts 5.5.10 Eliah inflicted leprosie upon Gehazi by miracle Christ by miracle cleansed divers lepers Saint Paul tooke away sight from Elymas Christ by miracle restored sight to many Saint Peter miraculously with a word strucke Ananias and Sapphira down dead Christ by miracle raised many from death insomuch that his very enemies gave this testimony of him Mark 7 37. Hee hath done all well giving to the lame feet to the maimed strength to the dumbe speech to the deafe eares to the blind sight to the sicke health to the dead life to the living everlasting joy and comfort I have proposed unto you a notable example shall I need to put to spurres of art to pricke on your desires to follow it the example is our Saviour and the vertue exemplified in him meeknesse How excellent must the picture be which is set in so rich a frame such a vertue were to be imitated in any person such a person to be imitated in any vertue how much more such a vertue in such a person It is hard to say whether ought to bee the stronger motive unto us to follow meeknesse either because it is the prince of vertues or the vertue of our Prince whose stile is Princeps pacis Where the prince is the Prince of peace and the kingdome the Kingdome of grace and the law the Law of love they must certainly be of a milde and loving disposition that are capable of preferment in it If the Spirit be an oyntment as S. a 1. John 2.20 But you have an oyntment from the Holy One and you know all things John calleth it it must needs supple If grace bee a dew it cannot but moisten and soften the heart and make it like Gedeons fleece Judges 6.37 which was full of moisture when all the ground about it was dry What can be said more in the commendation of any vertue than meeknesse and of it than this that God commandeth it in his Word Christ patterneth it in his life and death the holy Spirit produceth it in our hearts our very nature enclineth us to it and our condition requireth it of us No vertue so generally commended as meeknesse Follow after righteousnesse 1 Tim. 6.11 godlinesse faith love patience meeknesse bee no brawler Tit. 3.2 but gentle shewing all meeknesse to all men Walke worthy of the vocation whereunto you are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long-suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unitie of the Spirit in the bond of peace James 3.17 18. The wisedome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits and the fruit of righteousnesse is sowne in peace of them that make peace No fruit of the spirit so sweet and pleasant as this as on the contrary no fruit of the flesh so tart and bitter as jealousie and wrath which God curseth by the mouth of b Genes 40.7 Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell Jacob but blesseth meeknesse by the mouth of our Saviour Matth. 5.5 Blessed are the meeke for they shall inherit the earth The earth was cursed before it brought forth thornes and thistles and briars which are good for nothing but to bee burned Wherefore let us hearken to the counsell of St. c Cypr. de zelo bâ—â—ore Evellamus spinas de cordibus ut dâ—â—minicum semen nos fertili fruge locupletet Cyprian Let us weed out of our soules envie wrath and jealousie and other stinging and pricking passions And of the Apostle Let no root of d Heb. 12.15 Looking diligently lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you bitternesse remaine in us that we may receive with meeknesse the engraffed Word which is able to save our soules James 1.21 Our carnall lusts are like so many serpents and of all wrath is the most fiery which will set all in a combustion if it bee not either quenched by the teares of repentance or slacked by the infusion of divine
ad rustic Eloquentiae torcularia non verborum pampinis sed sensuum quasi uvarum expressionibus redundarent For in these the presses of eloquence abound with leaves of words and luxuriant stemmes of extravagant wit but in it with spirituall senses and divine sentences as it were the juice and bloud of the ripest grapes of the Vine of Engeddi It is a point of wisedome in man who hath but little to make it goe as farre as he can and so thriftily instill it in his workes as Nature doth her influences in simples a great quantity whereof is often distilled to extract one drop of pure quintessence whereas on the contrary no plant of Paradise no branch of a plant no flower of a branch no leafe of a flower but affordeth great plenty of the water of life more precious than any quintessence that Art can force out of Nature The finers of gold Chrysost tom 5. homil 37. as golden mouth St. Chrysostome teacheth us deale not only with wedges ingots and massie pieces of gold but with the smallest portions thereof And the Apothecaries make singular use in divers confections even of the dust of gold When Alexander the great managed his affaires in Judea those whom he imployed to gather the most precious oyle of a Plin. l. 12. nat hist c. 25. Succus è plaga manat quem Opobalsamum vocant suavitatis eximiae sed tenui gutta Alexandro magnores ibi gerente toto dic aestivo unam concham impleri justum erat Opobalsamum thought a whole Summers day well spent in filling a small shell taking it as it fell drop by drop from the twigge And if a skilfull Jeweller will not grind out a small spot or cloud out of a rich stone though it somewhat dimme the bright lustre thereof because the substance is so precious shall we lose or sleightly passe by any Iota or tittle of the Booke of God which shall out-last the large volumes of the heavens for * Mat. 5.18 heaven earth shall passe away but no one Iota or tittle of the Word of God shall passe The Jewish Rabines say that great mountaines hang upon the smallest Jods in the Bible And St. b Chrys in Gen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome will not endure a devout Christian to let goe any syllable in the Scripture no nor pricke or point without observation Surely if God so carefully preserve the smallest parcels of Scripture he would have us religiously observe them Else if wee content our selves with a generall handling of the Word of life how shall wee satisfie the Apostles precept of rightly dividing the Word of God * 2. Tim. 2.15 Shew thy self a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth The word in the originall is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dichotomizing the Apostle tyeth no man to a precise Ramisticall method yet is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly cutting or dividing the Word of truth which cannot be done if any sensible part be omitted be it but a conjunctive particle as this Till in my Text which standeth like an hinge in the midst of the sentence turning the meaning divers wayes If it hath reference to the death and resurrection of our Saviour as Cajetan Avendanus conceive it hath in which he brought forth judgement unto victory by condemning the world conquering both death hell then the meaning of the whole is this He shall not strive nor cry c. he shall not offer any violence to his enemies by word or deed although he could as easily destroy them as a man may breake a reed already bruised or tread out the smoaking week of a light ready to goe out of it selfe yet he will not use this power but contrariwise carry himselfe most meekly towards them and by his mildnesse and patience both condemn their fury and conquer their obstinacy If it looke farther forward to the destruction of the City and Temple and the overthrow of the whole Jewish Nation as Theophylact and Musculus imagine expounding Till hee bring forth judgement unto victory till he execute judgement upon them that judged him and fully be revenged of them by the sword of the Romans then the meaning of the whole is Hee shall not breake the bruised reed of the Jewish Nation till by the victory of the Romans he shall execute judgement upon that Nation nor shall he quench the smoaking flaxe of the Aaronicall Priesthood till forty veeres after his death the City of Jerusalem shall bee sacked and the Temple burned downe to the ground and by the propagation of the Gospel and prevailing thereof in all places the dimme light of the Ceremoniall Law be quite extinguished But if the word Untill carry us so farre as the last Judgement to which St. Jerome St. Hilary c Guilliand comment in Mat. Qui diebus carnis suae visus est humilis benignus doctor aderit aliquando Jude◠utetur potentiá absolutâ damnavit hostes suos Guilliandus and many other learned Expositors referre it then the whole beareth this tune See you Jesus now in the forme of a servant how humble and meeke he is so farre from killing and subduing his bloud-thirsty enemies by forcible meanes that hee will not strive with them so farre from lifting up his hand against them that hee will not lift up his voice Hee will not cry nor shall his voice bee heard in the streets complaining against them so farre from wounding the spirit Cic. Catil prim Quos ferro vulnerare oportebat nondum voce vulnerat or hurting the bodies of any men that hee will not breake a bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flaxe The time shall come when you shall see this meek Lambe turned into a fierce Lion He who cryed not upon earth shall thunder from heaven He who came now to suffer in meeknesse shall hereafter come in power to conquer Hee who came in humility to bee judged shall come in Majesty to judge both quicke and dead Hee who came by water and bloud by water to wash our sinnes and by bloud to quench the fire of his Fathers wrath shall one day come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all that beleeve not the Gospel He who in all his life never brake a bruised reed a Beza in Mat. c. 12. Tum rebellia corda confringet non jam clemens humilis sed severus majestate verendus shall after his death and resurrection when he commeth to Judgement if not before rule the Nations with a rod of Iron and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell Hee who here never quenched the smoaking flaxe hee shall hereafter put out the greater lights of the world He shall darken the Sunne and turne the Moone into bloud and shake the powers of heaven and foundations of the earth and the hearts of men and behold he commeth with the clouds and all eyes shall see
grant at the suite and for the merit of Jesus Christ and him crucified to whom with the Father and blessed Spirit bee rendered all glory praise and thanksgiving now and for ever Amen THE TREE OF LIFE SPRINGING OUT OF THE GRAVE OR Primitiae Sepulchri A Spitall Sermon preached on Munday in Easter weeke April 22. THE THIRTEENTH SERMON 1 COR. 15.20 But now Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept Right Honourable c. Plin. in panegyr Aegyptus gloriata est se nihil imbribus coeloque debere Siquidem proprio semper amne perfusa tantis segetibus induebatur ut cum feracissimis terris quasi nunquam cessura certaret PLiny the younger writeth of Egypt that she was wont to boast how shee owed nothing to the clouds or any forreine streames for her fertility being abundantly watered by the sole inundation of her owne river Nylus A like or greater priviledge it must bee confessed this renowned City hath for a long time enjoyed in that she hath not beene indebted to any wandering clouds nor needeth shee to fetch the water of life from any forreine river or neighbour spring being richly stored by the overflowing industry and learning of her most able and painefull Preachers within her selfe filling not onely the lesser cisternes of private congregations but the greater also of these most celebrious and solemne assemblies And for mine owne part so let the life blasts of the spirit refresh me in the sweat of my holy labours and the dew of heavenly benediction fall upon your religious eares as I never sought this place nor am come hither to make ostentation of any so much as conceived gifts in mee nor to broach any new opinions of mine or any other nor to set before you any forbidden fruit though never so sweet and to a well conditioned stomacke wholesome nor to smooth or levell the uneven wayes of any who plow in the Lords field with an oxe and an asse much lesse to gaine vulgar applause or spring an hidden veyne of unknowne contribution by traducing the publicke proceedings in the State or Church but onely in obedience to the call of lawfull authority to build you in your most holy faith and elevate your devotion to the due celebration of this high feast of our Lords resurrection and by crying as loud as I am able to awake those that sleepe in sinfull security that they may stand up from the dead and Christ may give them and us all light of knowledge joy and comfort Which that I may bee enabled to performe I humbly entreat the concurrence of your patience with your prayers to God for his assistance in opening the scripture now read in your eares But now Christ is risen c. This is no sterill or barren text you heare of fruits in it and although the harvest thereof hath beene reaped by many Labourers before mee yet there remaine good gleanings for mee also and those that shall leaze after me even till the Angels shall thrust their sickle into the large field of the ripe world and reape the reapers themselves The fruit is of two sorts 1 Christs prerogative 2 The deceased Saints priviledge who in their degree participate with him Hee is above them yet with them hee is the first-fruits and they are the rest of the heape and a Rom. 11.16 if the first fruits bee holy the whole heape is holy The ground which beareth this fruit Occasio scopus is the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead which the Apostle like a provident husbandman first fenceth and maketh sure and after breaketh and layeth it downe Hee fenceth it from the beginning of this chapter to the 35. verse by invincible arguments confirming the truth of the resurrection afterwards to the end of the chapter he layeth it downe by apt and lively similitudes declaring the manner thereof And this hee doth with much vehemency and contention of arguments his zeale being kindled through blasts of contradiction by some in the Church of Corinth who directly denyed the former verse 12. and obliquely carped at the latter verse 35. Neither did these alone at Corinth as much as in them lay subvert this maine article of our faith b 2 Tim. 2.18 but Hymeneus and Philetus with others at Ephesus perverted the sense of it saying that the resurrection was past already Obser 1 Whence I first observe against Bellarmine Parsons and other Papists that the Divell tyed not himselfe as they have surmized to any rule of method ex occas in laying his batteries against the articles of the Creed in order For the resurrection of the flesh is the last article save one yet hereticall impiety as you have heard first ventured on it Howbeit the Cardinal that he might more conveniently tye all whom hee supposeth Heretickes in one chaine and thrust us into the lowest place c Bellar. orat habit in Gymnas Roâ— anno 1576. Hâ—manigeneris ostis eâ—itotus alioqui perversus ordinis perturbator esse soleat tamen non sine aliquo ordine catholicae ecclesiae veritatem oppugnate volâ—â—t c. beareth his Reader in hand that the enemy of mankinde albeit in other things hee bee a disturber of order yet in impeaching the Apostles creed hath kept a kind of order 1 For within 200. yeeres after Christ hee assaulted the first article concerning God the Father almighty maker of heaven and earth by the Simonians Menandrians Basilidians Valentinians Marcionites Manichees and severall kinde of Gnostickes 2 After 200. yeeres hee set upon the second article concerning the divine nature of Christ by the Praxeans Noetians Sabellians and Samosetanians 3 In the next age he opposed the divine person of our Saviour by the Photineans Arrians and Eunomians 4 From 400. to 800. he impugned the third fourth fifth sixth and seventh concerning the incarnation passion resurrection ascension of our Lord and his comming to judgement by the Nestorians Theodorians Eutychians Acephali Sergians and Paulians 5 From the yeere 800. to 1000. hee bid battell to the eighth article concerning the holy Ghost by the schisme and heresie of the Graecians 6 Lastly from the 1000. yeere to this present age hee hath oppugned the ninth and tenth articles concerning the catholicke Church and remission of sinnes by the Berengarians Petrobrusians Waldenses Albigenses Wicklefists Hussites Lutherans Zuinglians Confessionists Hugonites and Anabaptists Refut Were these calculations exact and observations true the Cardinall deserved to bee made Master of ceremonies amongst heretickes for so well ranking them But upon examination of particulars it will appeare that his skill in history is no better than his divinity To begin where hee endeth First hee most falsly and wrongfully chargeth the worthy standard-bearers of the reformed religion before Luther with the impeaching the ninth and tenth articles of the creede They impeach neither of them nor any other nay they will sooner part with the best limbe of
of the virgin conceived Christ quicke and accordingly brought him forth alive the wombe of the earth conceived him dead but brought him forth quicke uteri nova forma concepit mortuum parit vivum As we may behold the feature of a mans face either in the countenance it selfe or in a glasse set before it or in a picture drawne by it so wee may contemplate the resurrection either in the prophecies and types of the old law as in glasses or in the hystory of the new as it were in the face it selfe or in our spirituall resurrection from dead workes as in the picture A glasse sheweth the lineaments and proportion of a man but at a distance so wee may see Christ in the predictions visions and figures of the Old Testament as so many glasses but at a distance according to the words of that Seer c Num. 24.17 I shall see him but not neare So Hosea saw him insulting over death and hell and menacing them d Hos 13.14 O death I will bee thy death so Esay saw him risen from the dead and speaking to him sayd e Es 26.19 Thy dead shall live with my body shall they rise awake and sing ye that sit in dust So David in the Spirit saw the day of the resurrection and exceedingly rejoiced at it saying f Psal 16.9 my heart was glad my glory rejoyced my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soule in hell nor suffer thy holy One to see corruption So Adam saw him conquering death and triumphing over him that had the power of death to wit the Divell though more obscurely because at the farthest distance in the promise g Gen. 3.15 it shall breake thy head and thou shalt breake his heele the death and resurrection of Christ are mystically involved As the Poets fabled that Achilles after his Mother Thetis held him by the heele and dipt the rest of his body into the sea could bee hurt in no part but his heele so in a divine sense it may bee said of our Saviour that hee could be wounded by Sathan no where but in his heele that is in the lowest part of his humane nature his flesh This the serpent stung at his death but in his resurrection hee bruised the head thereof The Devill saith h Greg. Nyssen de resurrect ser 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nyssen in his sermon upon the resurrection going about to catch was caught for catching at the bait of Christs flesh hee was caught fast himselfe and wounded by the hooke of his divine nature Besides these predictions and promises wee have in the Old Testament the figure of our Lords resurrection in Adam a type in the scape goat a signe or embleme in Jonas and a vision in Ezekiel The figure may bee thus expounded As Adam rose out of his dead sleepe in which Eve was formed out of his ribbe so Christ after his slumber of death on the crosse in which his spouse the Church was formed out of his side as hath beene said awoke againe The type may bee thus exemplified as the scape-goate came neere to death being within the cast of a lot to it and yet avoiding it was presented alive to God to make an attonement so Christ who seemed to have beene conquered by death and swallowed up of the grave lying there three dayes and three nights yet escaped it and was presented on Easter day to his Father alive to make an attonement for all his brethren To the embleme of Jonas Christ himselfe giveth the word or Motto i Mat. 12.40 As Jonas was three dayes and three nights in the whales belly so shall the sonne of man be three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth After three dayes Jonas came out of the bowels of the whale Christ out of the heart of the earth The vision of Ezekiel is so cleare that he that runneth may see in it a praeludium of the resurrection k Ezek 37.7 8 9 10. The Prophet saw in a valley a number of dry bones moving one to the other and suddenly they were tyed with sinewes and covered with flesh and the winde breathed into them the breath of life and they stood up like an army Wee have viewed the resurrection in the prophecies and figures of the Old Testament as so many severall glasses let us now contemplate it in the history of the New as it were in the face it selfe 1 Early in the morning while it was yet darke the Angel removed the stone that so Mary and the Apostles might looke into the sepulchre and unlesse the angell of the covenant remove the stone from our hearts wee can never looke into Christs sepulchre with an eye of faith nor undoubtedly beleeve the resurrection 2 Peter and John made hast to the sepulchre but they stayed not there Mary abideth there shee therefore seeth a vision of Angels the one standing at the head the other at the feet where Jesus had lyen either to signifie that the Angels of God attend as well on Christs feet the lowest members of his mysticall body as on his head that is the chiefest in the Church or that the angels smell a sweet savour from our workes of charity and therefore the one sate at the head the other at the feete where Mary had annointed our Lord. 3 A third Angell whereof mention is made in the Gospell of Saint l Mar. 16.5 Marke sitting on the right side appeared like a young man to signifie that in the resurrection our age shall bee renewed and our bodies shall bee in their full strenghth and vigor his rayment shined like lightning to represent the clarity and splendour of our bodies that after death shall be made conformable to Christs glorious body 4 Mary Magdalene hath the honour first to see our Saviour and to bee the first Preacher of the resurrection to the everlasting comfort of all true Penitents and as by the woman death came first so the first newes of life from death was brought by a woman 5 Till Christ called Mary by name shee knew him not but supposed him to have beene the Gardiner who indeed is the Planter of the celestiall Paradise neither can we know Christ till by a speciall and particular vocation hee make himselfe knowne to us 6 Christ appeared first to single witnesses as Mary apart and Peter apart and James apart then to double Cleophas and that other disciple afterwards to the eleven Apostles and last of all to more than 500. brethren at once If Maries testimony might bee excepted at because shee was but a woman what can they say to Saint Peter what to Saint James to whom Christ vouchsafed to shew himselfe in particular If they except against them as single witnesses what will they say to Cleophas and Saint Luke two contests of one and the selfe same apparition If their paucity be cavelled at what will they say to the
departure Buried out of the said Hospitall this yeere 200 Remaining under cure at this present 304 There hath beene brought into the Hospitall of Bridewell for this yeere past of wandring souldiers and vagrant persons to the number of 1578 Of which number many have beene chargeable for the time of their being there which cannot be avoided by reason of their misery nor passed away without charge There is maintained and kept in the said Hospitall in arts and occupations and other workes and labours Apprentices taken up out of divers parishes and streets of this City to the number of 200 I have made an end of the Catalogue but you must not make an end of your good workes I have set before you a faire copy you must write after it or else this schedule will prove a hand-writing against you at the day of judgement who have had not onely many most forcible exhortations to good workes in this place but such noble and royall presidents as you see and yet have not been bettered by them You cannot want pitifull objects of mercy your pious charity hath daily Oratours the teares of orphans the sighes of widowes the groanes of the sicke and the lamentable cryes of prisoners and captives Neither is it sufficient for you now and then to drop upon the dry and thirsty ground you must stillare pluviam liberalissimam you must powre downe golden showres to refresh Gods inheritance To whom much is given much shall bee required of him In other seizements you give as you are in the Kings books but contrariwise you are in Gods bookes and hee valueth you as you give to pious and charitable uses And let mee intreat you for the love of your Redeemer from everlasting thraldome to open your hands towards the redemption of many hundreds of our countrey-men whose bodies are in captivity under Turks and Infidels their wives and children in misery at home and it is to be feared their soules in worse case Next to the redemption of these spirituall Temples of the holy Ghost I commend unto you the reparation and beautifying of his materiall Temple you have most decently and beautifully adorned and trimmed the daughters of Zion the lesser and later built Churches in this City let not your piety bee lesse to the Mother-Church dedicated to the most publike and solemne worship of God where you are fed with the finest flower of wheat and drinke of the purest juice of the grape and in the fullest manner partake of the communion of Saints which was the second inference I made from the attribute of Christ in my text whereby hee is stiled Primitiae dormientium The first fruits of them that slept 2 The second inference from the attribute here mentioned the first fruits of c. is the communion of the faithfull with Christ both in sanctification and glorification for the further manifestation whereof it will bee requisite to specifie whereof Christ is the first fruits viz. 1 Coeli for he is the first begotten of his Father 2 Uteri for he was the Virgins first borne 3 Sepulchri for hee is the first fruits of them that slept In all three the faithfull partake with him after a sort 1 In that hee is Primitiae coeli the first fruits of heaven For as hee is the naturall sonne of God so are wee the adopted sonnes of God and by his spirit made l 2 Pet. 1.4 partakers of the divine nature as hee is the first borne of heaven m Heb. 12.23 so wee are also of the generall assembly and Church of the first borne which are written in heaven 2 In that he is Primitiae uteri virginei the first fruits of a virgins womb For as Christ was borne of a virgin Mother so the Christian Church our Mother is continually in child-bearing and yet remaineth still a virgin 3 Most properly doe wee partake with him in that hee is Primitiae sepulchri for hee is n Joh. 12.24 that corne of wheat Saint John speaketh of which was sowne at his death digged deepe into the earth at his buriall sprang up againe at his resurrection and now is become the first fruits of them that slept in like manner wee are sowne at our death digged deep into the earth at our buriall and shall spring up againe at the last resurrection and bee offered as o Apoc. 14.4 first fruits unto God and the Lambe Where the first fruits are taken out there must needs bee a lumpe or heape out of which they are taken p Calvin in hunc locum In primitiis totius anni proventus consecrabatur in the first fruits the whole crop of the yeere was hallowed so in Christ who is our first fruits all true believers are sanctified as those words of our Saviour in that most divine prayer to his Father recorded import q Joh. 17.19 for their sakes I sanctifie my selfe that they also might bee sanctified through the truth If Christ sanctified himselfe for us shall not wee endeavour as hee enableth us by his grace to sanctifie our selves also for him If hee impart this his dignity to us and maketh us r Jam. 1.18 the first fruits of his creatures let us dedicate our selves unto him let us bee given to him as Å¿ 1 Sam. 1.28 Samuel was all the dayes of our lives Hee hath chosen us to bee marke I beseech you what fruits not blossomes not leaves fruits I say not stalkes not empty eares like those who make a bare profession of the truth and all their religion is in their eares bearing no fruit at all or in no degree answerable to their holiest profession If God hath made us fruits let us not make our selves ranke weeds by heresie or filthy dung by a corrupt life After the first fruits are carried away out of the field the rest of the shockes or sheafes follow of course t Theod. in hunc locum primitias universa massa sequitur Christ the first fruits is carried away long since out of the field of this world into the celestiall barne A barne farre more stately beautifull and glorious than any Princes pallace upon earth and when the harvest shall come which is u Mat. 13.39 the end of the world wee shall bee carried thither also every one in his owne order the first fruits is Christ after they that are Christs at his comming ver 23. Before I can proceed according to my desire and your expectation to the period of my discourse and end of all mens course viz. death called here sleepe I must remove sixe rubbes that lye in my way For wee read of three dead men raised in the Old Testament and as many in the New before Christ himselfe rose how then is hee the first fruits of them that slept 1 I will offer to your consideration many solutions of this doubt that you may take your choice Saint Jerome gives but a touch at it yet because it is upon the
where divers candles or torches in a roome concurre to enlighten the place the light of them remaineth impermixt as the Optickes demonstrate by their severall shadowes so all the divine graces conjoyne their lustre and vertue to adorne and beautifie the inward man yet their nature remaines distinct as their speciall effects make it evident to a single and sharp-sighted eye God was in the bush that burned and consumed not yet God was not the bush The holy Ghost was in the fiery cloven tongues yet the holy Ghost was not the tongues The spirits runne along in the arteries with the purer and refined blood yet the spirits are not the blood The fire insinuateth it selfe into all the parts of melted metall and to the eye nothing appeareth but a torrent of fire yet the fire is not the metall in like manner zeale shineth and flameth in devotion love godly jealousie indignation and other sanctified desires and affections it enflameth them as fire doth metall it stirreth and quickeneth them as the spirits doe the blood yet zeale is not those passions neither are all or any of them zeale howsoever the schooles rather out of zeale of knowledge than knowledge of zeale have determined the contrary 2 Secondly zeale is defined to bee not a morall vertue but a divine gift or grace of the Spirit the Spirit of God is the efficient cause and the Spirit of man is the subject which the Apostle intimates in that phrase i Rom. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being fervent or zealous in Spirit This fire like that of the Vestals is kindled from heaven by the beames of the Sunne of righteousnesse not from any kitchen on earth much lesse from hell They therefore qui irae suae stimulum zelum putant they who imagine the flashes of naturall choler are flames of spirituall zeale toto coelo errant are as farre from the marke as heaven is distant from the earth No naturall or morall temper much lesse any unnaturall and vitious distemper can commend us or our best actions to God and men as zeale doth The fire of zeale like the fire that consumed Solomons sacrifice commeth downe from heaven and true zealots are not those Salamanders or Pyrausts that alwayes live in the fire of hatred and contention but Seraphims burning with the spirituall fire of divine love who as Saint Bernard well noteth kept their ranke and station in heaven when the other Angels of Lucifers band that have their names from light fell from theirs Lucifer cecidit Seraphim stant to teach us that zeale is a more excellent grace than knowledge even in Angels that excell in both Howbeit though zeale as farre surpasse knowledge as the sunne-beame doth a glow-worme yet zeale must not be without knowledge Wherefore God commandeth the Priest when hee k Exod. 30.8 lighteth the lamps to burne incense though the fire bee quicke and the incense sweet yet God accepteth not of the burning it to him in the darke The Jewes had a zeale as the l Rom. 10.2 Apostle acknowledgeth and the Apostle himselfe before his conversion yet because it wanted knowledge it did them and the Church of God great hurt No man can bee ignorant of the direfull effects of blind zeale when an unskilfull Phaeton takes upon him to drive the chariot of the sunne hee sets the whole world in a combustion What a mettled horse is without a bridle or a hot-spurred rider without an eye or a ship in a high winde and swelling saile without a rudder that is zeale without knowledge which is like the eye in the rider to choose the way or like the bridle in the hand to moderate the pace or like the rudder in the ship to steere safely the course thereof Saint m Inser 22. in Cant. Bernard hits full on this point Discretion without zeale is slow paced and zeale without discretion is heady let therefore zeale spurre on discretion and discretion reyne zeale fervor discretionem erigat discretio fervorem regat Discretion must guide zeale as it is guided by spirituall wisedome not worldly policy and therefore Thirdly I adde in the definition of zeale that it quickeneth and enflameth all our holy desires and affections according to the direction of spirituall wisdome For wisdome must prescribe zeale when and where and how far and in what order to proceede in reforming all abuses in Church and State and performing all duties of religious piety and eminent charity What Isocrates spake sometime of valour or strength is as true of zeale viz. n Isoc ad Dem. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that zeale and resolution with wisedome doth much good but without it doth much mischiefe to our selves and others like granadoes and other fire-works which if they be not well looked to and ordered when they breake do more hurt to them that cast them than to the enemie Yet that we be not deceived in mistaking worldly policy for wisdome I adde spirituall to difference it from carnall morall or civill wisedome for they are too great coolers they will never let zeale exceed the middle temper of that * Vibius Statesman in Tiberius Court who was noted to bee a wise and grave Counseller of a faire carriage and untainted reputation but hee would o Juven sat 4. Ille igitur nunquam direxit brachia contra torrentem never strike a stroake against the streame hee would never owne any mans quarrell hee would bee sure to save one Such is the worldly wise man hee will move no stone though never so needfull to bee removed if hee apprehend the least feare that any part of the wall will fall upon himselfe The p Cic. de orat l. 1. Tempus omne post consulatum objecimus iis fluctibus qui per nos à communi peste depulsi in nosmetipsos redundarunt Romane Consul and incomparable Oratour shall bee no president for him who imployed all his force and strength to keepe off those waves from the great vessel of the State which rebounded backe againe and had neere drowned the cocke-boate of his private fortune Hee will never ingage himselfe so farre in any hot service no not though Gods honour and the safety of the Church lye at stake but that he will be sure to come off without hazzard of his life or estate Hee hath his conscience in that awe that it shall not clamour against him for not stickling in any businesse that may peradventure reflect upon his state honour or security In a word peradventure he may bee brought with much adoe to doe something for God but never to suffer any thing for him This luke-warme Laodicean disposition the lesse offensive it is to men the more odious it is to God who is a jealous God and affecteth none but those that are zealous for his glory he loveth none but those that will bee content to expose themselves to the hatred of all men for his names sake Hee q
blessings In which regard we may rightly terme Kings Stewards of their crownes Lords of their lands Captaines of their armies Bishops of their diocesse Pastours of their parishes Housholders of their families and every private man of the closet of his conscience and treasury of his heart For all Kings are Gods subjects all Captaines are his souldiers all Teachers are his schollers all Masters are his servants and consequently all Lords his stewards In a word there is none of so high a calling in the world that is more nor any of so low a calling or small reckoning that is lesse than a Steward of the King of kings who shall one day call not onely all men of sort but even all sorts of men to a most strict and exact account Kings for their scepters Magistrates for their swords Officers for their staves Bishops for their crosiers Souldiers for their weapons Clerkes for their pens Landlords for their possessions Patrons for their advowsons Merchants for their trade Tradesmen for their crafts Husbandmen for their ploughes calling to every one in particular Give an account of thy Stewardship Touching the third some render the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 render a reason others give an account some actus tui of thy Factorship as Tertullian others villicationis tuae of thy Bailiwicke as Saint Jerome a third sort dispensationis tuae of thy Stewardship as the Kings Translators A great difference in sound of words but little or none at all in sense for though a Factor in forraine parts and a Steward at home and a Baily in the country are distinct offices and different imployments yet to the meaning of this Parable they are all one For they all deale with other mens mony rent or goods and are all liable to an account and upon it dischargeable And in this place whether wee translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason or a reckoning all commeth to one reckoning for upon the matter to render a reason of monies disbursed by us is to give an account A carefull Steward or Accomptant in any kinde besides the casting of the summes setteth downe a reason of every parcell of mony laid out by him after this maner Item in provision so much Item in reparations Item for workmens hire Item for law sutes c. thus much Howbeit they that delight in tithing Mint and Cummin and nicely distinguishing between words of very like if not altogether the same signification observe that in precise propriety of speech wee are said to give an account how but render a reason why wee have disbursed such monies and that our account must bee of our Masters goods but our reason of our owne actions and wee are accountable onely for that we have laid out but we are answerable or to yeeld a reason to our Master as well for that wee have not laid out for his profit in due season as for that we have laid out for his necessities For hee expecteth gaine of every talent committed to us and will not onely accept his owne without advantage The things wee are to account for are contained under these three heads 1. Goods 2. Gifts 3. Graces By goods I understand the blessings of this life which the Philosopher calleth bona fortunae By gifts indowments of nature which they call bona naturae By graces divine vertues which the Schooles call habitus infusos In our booke of account Under the first head viz. goods of this world wee must write How bestowed Under the second viz gifts of nature we must write How imployed Under the third viz. graces of the spirit we must write How improved And if it appeare upon our accounts that we have well bestowed the first in holy pious and charitable uses and well imployed the second in carefully discharging the generall duties of a good Christian and diligently performing the particular workes of our speciall calling and have much increased the third by our spirituall trade with God by hearing meditating reading conferring praying and the constant practise of piety and exercise of every divine vertue and grace then our Master will say unto us Well d Mat. 25.21 done good and faithfull servant thou hast been faithfull in a little bee thou ruler over much enter into thy Masters joy But if we have kept unprofitably or wasted riotously the first the wealth of the world and retchlesly abused the second the dowry of nature or by idlenesse let it rust and rather diminished than increased the third the treasury of spirituall graces then we are to render a reason make answer for these defaults and if our answer be not the better to make satisfaction to our Lord to the uttermost farthing after we are put out of our Stewardship as the reason annexed to the command implyeth For thou maist be no longer Steward Give then an account of thy Stewardship that is of thy life whereof thou art not lord but steward to spend it in thy Masters service and lay it downe for his honour Cast up all the particulars of thy life summe up thy thoughts words and deeds redde rationem 1. Mali commissi 2. Boni omissi 3. Temporis amissi Make answer for 1. The evill thou hast committed 2. The good thou hast omitted 3. The time thou hast pretermitted or mis-pent either in 1. Doing nothing at all 2. Or nothing to the purpose 3. Or that which is worse than nothing tracing the endlesse mazes of worldly and sinfull vanities Now to proceed from the exposition of the words to the handling of the parts of this Scripture which are evidently two 1. A command Division wherein I observe 1. The person commanding God under the name of a rich man 2. The persons commanded all men under the name of Stewards 3. The thing commanded to give an account 4. The office for which this account is to bee given a Stewardship 5. The propriety of this office thine 2. A reason wherein I note 1. The Stewards discharge and quitting his office thou mayest c. 2. The time now Which particular points of observation direct us to these doctrinall conclusions 1. That God is Lord of all 2. That all men are Stewards 1. Not Lords 2. Not Treasurers 3. That all Stewards shall be called to an account 4. That the office for which they are to account is their own Stewardship not anothers 5. That upon this account they shall be discharged These conclusions resemble the rings spoken of by St. f Aug l 21. de civit Dei Austin whereof the first being touched by the Load-stone drew the second the second the third the third the fourth and the fourth the fifth For here the first point inferreth the second If God be Lord of all men can bee but Stewards The second inferreth the third If all men are Stewards all men are accountable The third the fourth If all men are accountable for a Stewardship this Stewardship must needs be their owne The fourth the fifth
1.5 messengers of Christ 3. The dwelling of Angels is in Heaven and there is or ought to be the a Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven conversation of the Ministers of the Gospel 4. The life of Angels is a continuall b Matth. 18.10 beholding the face of God and what is the life of a good Minister but a continuall contemplation of the divine nature attributes and workes 5. The Angels gather c Mat. 24.31 the Elect from the foure windes and the Ministers of the Gospel gather the Church from all corners of the earth 6. The Angels d Apoc. 16.1 poure out the vialls of the wrath of God upon the earth and the Ministers are appointed to denounce Gods judgements and plagues to the wicked world 7. The Angels e 1 Cor. 15 52. sound Trumpets at the last resurrection and the Ministers of the Gospel at the first 8. When Christ was in an agony f Luke 22.43 there appeared an Angel strengthening him and when Gods children are in greatest extremity God sendeth the Ministers of the Gospel to g Job 33.23 If there bee a messenger with him an interpreter one among a thousand to shew to man his uprightnesse c. comfort them 9. The Angels carry the soules of them that dye in the Lord into Abrahams bosome Luke 16.22 and the Ministers of the Gospel give them their passe and furnish them with their last viaticum Now if it bee demanded why God so highly advanceth the dignity of the Ministry I answer to advance his glory He lifteth up the silver Trumpets of Sion on high that the sound of his praise may be heard the further As the visible Sunne casteth a more radiant and bright beame upon Pearle and Glasse which reflecteth them againe than upon grosse and obscure bodies that dead the rayes thereof even so the Sunne of righteousnesse casteth the fairest lustre upon that calling which most of all illustrateth his glory To other vocations God calleth us but this calleth us unto God all other lawfull callings are of God but of this God himselfe was and if it bee a great honour to the noblest orders of Knighthood on earth to have Kings and Princes installed into them how can wee thinke too worthily of that sacred order into which the Sonne of God was solemnly invested by his h Psal 110.4 Father I speake nothing to impeach the dignity of any lawfull profession make much of the Physicians of your body yet not more than of the Physicians of your soule yeeld honour and due respect to those that are skilfull in the civill and municipall Lawes yet under-value them not who expound unto you the Lawes of God At least take not pride in disgracing them who are Gods instruments to conveigh grace into your soules grieve not them with your accursed speeches who daily blesse you load them not with slaunders and calumnies who by their absolution and ghostly comfort ease you of the heavie burden of your sinnes goe not about to thrust them out of their temporall estate who labour by their Ministery to procure you an eternall It is not desire of popular applause or a sinister respect to our owne profit but the zeale of Gods glory which extorteth from us these and the like complaints against you For if Religion might bee advanced by our fall and the Gospel gaine by our losses and God get glory by our dis-esteeme we should desire nothing rather than to be accounted the off-scouring of all things on the earth that so wee might shine hereafter like precious stones in the foundation of the celestiall Jerusalem But if the Preachers and the Gospel the Word and Sacraments and the Ministers thereof Religion and Priests the Church and Church-men are so neere allies that the dis-reputation of the one is a great prejudice to the other and the disgrace of the one the despising of the other if the truth wee professe if our Religion if the Gospel if Christ if God suffer in the disgraces that are put upon our calling and the manifold wrongs that are done to it we must adjure you for your owne good and deeply charge you in Gods cause that as you looke to receive any good from him so you take nothing sacrilegiously from the Church as you hope to be saved by the Ministery preserve the dignity and estimation thereof be not cursed Chams in discovering the nakednesse of your ghostly fathers Alexander thought that he could not lay too much cost upon the deske in which Homers Poems lay and we daily see how those who take delight in musicke beautifie and adorn the instrument they play upon with varnish purfle gilt painting and rich lace in like maner if you were so affected as you should be at the hearing of the Word if you were ravished with the sweet straines of the songs of Sion ye would make better reckoning of the Instruments and Organs of the holy Spirit by which God maketh melodie in your hearts yee would not staine with impure breath the silver trumpets of Sion blowne not with winde but with the breath of God himselfe yee would not trample under foot those Canes that yeeld you such store of Sugar or rather of Manna Yee will be apt enough upon these and the like texts to teach us our dutie that we ought as Messengers of God to deliver his message faithfully and as neere as we can in his owne words as Angels to give our selves to divine contemplation and endevour to frame our lives to a heavenly conversation Let it not then be offensive to you to heare your dutie which is as plaine to be read as ours in the stile here attributed to the Pastour of Laodicea the Angell It is that you entertaine your diligent and faithfull Pastours as the i Gal. 4.14 Ye received me as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Galathians did St. Paul and as Monica did St. Ambrose tanquam Angelos Dei as the Angels of God receive them as Abraham and Lot did the Angels sent from God unto them defend them according to your power from wrong and make them partakers of the best things wherewith God hath blessed you Angelo to the Angel in the singular number chiefe Pastour or Bishop of the Church All Ministers as I shewed you before may challenge the title of Angels but especially Bishops who watch over other Ministers as Angels over men who are to order the affaires of the Church and governe the Clergie as the Peripatetickes teach that Angels direct and governe the motions of the celestiall spheres therefore Epiphanius and St. Austine and most of the later Interpreters also paraphrase Angelo by Episcopo illic constituto and verily the manner of the superscription and the contents of the letter and the forme of governement settled in all Churches at this time make for this interpretation For supposing more Ministers in London of equall ranke and dignitie as there are who would indorse a
wife embracing a stranger in bed so doth the wrath of God burne like fire and his jealousie breake out like a bright flame against such as Pigmalion-like entertaine an Idoll for him in the bed of their soule and commit fornication with it To commit fornication and to eat meat sacrificed unto Idols There is so neare affinity betwixt carnall and spirituall fornication that few defile their soules with the one but are defiled in body with the other as Jezebels scholars here who by eating meat sacrificed unto Idols were provoked to corporall uncleannesse One sinne as it breedeth so it feedeth another and as blindnesse of eyes was inflicted upon Elymas for his blindnesse of heart so God in his secret and just judgement here punished the Nicolaits spirituall with corporall fornication that as they provoked him to jealousie by familiarly and freely conversing with Idolaters so they were provoked to jealousie by their wives keeping company with adulterers Touching eating meats sacrificed unto Idols which the Spirit in this place and Saint k 1 Cor. 10.20 Paul and all the l Acts 15.20 Apostles in their decretall Epistle so strictly forbid you are to understand that the Christians in the Primitive Church in respect of their acquaintance and alliance with the heathen that dwelt among them did not sticke when they were invited by them to goe to their banquets and feasts which they kept in the Temples of their Idols when they sacrificed unto them and there they spent the remainder of such cates and wines as had beene offered to their Paynim gods The pretence which the Christians had for their resorting to these feasts was this that they knew the Idoll was nothing and therefore giving thankes to God for his creatures they did eat of all things without any scruple of conscience howsoever they had beene used and to whomsoever they had beene offered This our Saviour here reproveth the Thyatirians for and St. Paul the Corinthians in the place above alledged shewing that though the Idoll was nothing in it selfe yet sith the Gentiles did offer such things as were served-in at their Idols feast not to God but to Divels the Christians could not sit at the same tables with them rejoycing and feasting in the names of them but they must be partakers of their idolatry The maine argument he useth may bee thus reduced to forme They that eat of things offered unto Idols are partakers of the Divels table and are as it were in messe with him But none of Gods family may table with the Divell therefore all Christians ought to make conscience of accepting the heathens invitation to such feasts wherein they were to feed upon the Devils reliques Now that the servants of God may not meddle or make with the Divell or any of his instruments needs no proofe at all m 2 Cor. 6.14 For what Communion hath light with darkenesse or what fellowship hath Christ with Belial And that they that keepe gaudy dayes for the Divell and make merry with his reliques have fellowship with him the Apostle sheweth by the like examples They that eat of the sacramentall bread have their communion with Christ they that eat of the legall sacrifices are partakers of the Altar even so they that eat things offered unto Idols divide commons as it were with the Dâ—vell Thus have I glanced at all the parts of this Scripture but my principall aime was from the beginning at Jezebel set as a faire or rather foule marke in the midst of this verse I have somewhat against thee that thou sufferest Jezebel It is not onely evill to doe but also to suffer evill when it is in in our power to hinder it as I proved heretofore at large by arguments drawne 1. From the Law forbidding to plow with an Oxe and an Asse and punishing Idolaters with death 2. From the Gospell denying the service of two Masters and interdicting all fellowship and communion of light with darknesse or Christ with Belial 3. From the Spirits bill of enditement framed against the Angels of Pergamus and Thyatira for tolerating the Nicolaitans 4 From Gods threatning to cut off all such as sweare by him and by Malchim 5 From the Kings command in the parable to compell all the guests that were bid to come to his marriage feast 6. From the imputation which is laid by the Spirit upon many Kings of Israel and Judah for not taking away the high places 7. From the examples of Asa Josiah Ezechiah Nebuchadnezzar Constantine Jovian Theodosius and other religious Princes who by severe lawes restrained heresie and idolatry and constrained the true worship of God 8. From the verdict and depositions of the ancient Fathers Tertullian Cyprian Jerome Austine Leo Gregory Clemens Alexandrinus Epiphanius and Bernard who all strengthen the armes of the Magistrate and sharpen his sword against heretickes 9 From the lawes of the ancient Grecians Romanes and almost all the heathen who censured some way or other all innovation in religion and profanation of divine worship Lastly from the great danger of heresie which like a canker soone spreads over the whole body of the Church and if it bee not looked into killeth and that eternally thousands of soules breaketh the bands of nature and cutteth asunder all sinewes of humane society putteth enmity variance and implacable discords in families soweth seeds of sedition in the State reacheth dagges and daggers to subjects to assacinate the sacred persons of the Lords annointed layeth traynes in the deepe vaults of dislâ—yall hearts to blow up Parliaments and offer whole Kingdomes for an Holocaust It now remaineth that I appeach the Whore of Babylon of Jezebalisme and discover her filthy abominations and abominable filthinesse in the face of the sunne The Spirit here describeth Jezebel by three markes 1. Imposture She calleth her selfe a Prophetesse 2. Impurity She teacheth to commit fornication 3. Idolatry She alloweth eating meat sacrificed unto idols With these three crimes I dare more confidently charge the Romane Synagogue because with a whorish forehead shee seemeth rather to stand upon the justification of them than the deniall For among her religious practises shee reckoneth pious frauds as if shee verily beleeved that which heathen Varro writeth n Expedit falliâ—n religione civitates That it is expedient for men to be cheated in matter of religion And hereupon Vincentius Bellovacensis in the life of Saint Dominicke intitles one chapter De sanctâ ejus hypocrisi Of his holy hypocrisie And for impurity Casa the Archbishop of Beneventum layeth colours of eloquence upon that foule sinne which God punished in Sodome with fire and brimstone And for idolatry Gregory de Valentiâ the prime of the Schoole-men professedly pleads for it and endevours to prove it to bee lawfull out of the words of Saint Peter o 1 Pet. 4.3 Greg. de Val. de cult â—mag Quid attinebat ita detâ—rminatè cultus simulacrorum illicitos notarâ— si omnino nullos simulaâ—hrorum cultus
and presenteth their prayers and them and himselfe for them to his Father For that Thummim that is perfections is an empresse becomming none but our Saviours breast all Christians will easily grant and that Urim that is lights are an Embleme of the divine nature Plato professeth saying Lumen est umbra Dei Deus est lumen luminis Light is the shadow of God and God is the light of light it selfe For Christ his third office we need not goe farre to seeke it for the Bells of Aaron sound out the preaching of the word and the Pomegranates set before us the fruits thereof and both his entire Propheticke function If there lie any mysterie hid in the numbers we may conceive the foure rowes of shining stones answerable to the foure Beasts in the Revelation full of eyes either prefigured by foure Evangelists or the foure orders in the Church Hierarchy Apostles Evangelists Doctors and Pastors as for the twelve stones doubtlesse they had some reference to the twelve Apostles for in the 21. chapter of the h Apoc. 21.14 Revelation where these twelve precious stones are mentioned it is said expresly that in the wall there were twelve foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lambe You have heard the mysticall interpretation lend I beseech you an eare to the morall 1. First these glorious vestments and ornaments of Aaron set forth unto us the dignity of the Priests office i 2 Cor. 3.7 8. and if the ministration of the letter were glorious shall not the ministration of the Spirit be much more Yes how dark and vile soever our calling seemeth to the eyes of the world it shall one day appeare most glorious when they that turne many unto k Dan. 12.3 righteousnesse shall shine as starres in the firmament for evermore Here I cannot conceale from you that l In Exo. c. 28. Cappo one of the Popes Botchers taketh measure of Aarons garments to make massing vestments by as before him Durand hath done in his booke intituled rationale divinorum where he saith Noster Pontifex habet pro feminalibus sandalia pro lineâ albam pro balieo cingulum pro podere tunicam pro Ephod stolam pro rationali pallium pro cidari mitram pro lamina crucem just but where is the causible in Latine casula sic dicta quasi parva casa saith hee because it closeth the Priest round as it were with a wall having a hole for him to put out his head like a Lover to let out smoake signifying that the Priest ought to be like a little cottage with a chimney in it heated with the fire of zeale sending up hot fumes of devotion and letting them out with his breath at the LOVER of his mouth But I will not put them to so hard a taske as to parallel each of their vestments with Aarons all that I shall say to them for the present is this That the neerer they prove their vestments to come to Aarons ornaments the more ceremoniall and typicall they prove them and consequently more unfit to be retained now by Christians if the Apostles argument drawne from the m Heb. 10.1 vanishing of the shadow at the presence of the body be of any force therefore let the observation of Cappo passe with a note of plumbea falsitas not aurea veritas wherewith he graceth it 2. My second observation is that God both first beginneth with the breast and appointeth also the most glorious and precious ornaments for it n Exod. 28.4 The garments shall be these thou shalt make a breast-plate an Ephod c. after followeth the mitre to the making whereof blew silke onely and fine twined linnen is required with a plate of gold on it but for the breast-plate cloth of gold wrought about with divers colours plates of gold and foure rankes of the richest jewells in all the treasury of nature are appointed all this as we may piously conceive to signifie that God best esteemeth the breast and heart and not the head My o Pro. 23.26 sonne give mee thy heart Our heavenly Father preferreth enflamed affections above enlightened thoughts he cannot bee received or entertained in our narrow understanding yet will hee p Eph. 3.17 dwell in our hearts by faith if we enlarge them by love Cecidit Lucifer Seraphim stant aeternâ incommutabilitate incommutabili aeternitate the Angels which had their names from light fell like lightening from heaven but the ministring spirits which are by interpretation burning fire hold yet their place and ranke in the Court of God Let ambitious spirits seeke to shine in Aarons mitre or at least to be caracter'd in the Onyx stones on his shoulders my hearts desire was and ever shall be to be engraven in one of the jewells upon the breast-plate to hang with the beloved Disciple upon the bosome of my Saviour 3. Thirdly I observe yet again that the names of the twelve tribes which were before written in the Onyx stones upon the shoulders of Aaron are here engraven againe in the rowes of jewels hanging neere his heart which as it representeth Christ his both supporting and affecting his chosen supporting them on his shoulders affecting them in his heart so it teacheth all the Ministers of the Gospel to beare the names of Gods people committed to their charge not onely upon their shoulders by supporting their infirmity but also upon their hearts Ver. 29. by entirely affecting them above others and above all things Gods glory in the salvation of their soules If q John 21.15 thou love me saith Christ feed my sheep if you desire that Christ should beare you on his heart before his Father beare you the names of his Tribes his chosen on your hearts before him 4. Fourthly you may easily discerne that the stones as they are of sundry kindes and of different value so they are set in divers rowes 1. 2. 3. 4. which illustrateth unto us the divers measures of grace given to beleevers in this life and their different degrees of glory in the life to come All the stones that were placed on Aarons breast-plate were Urim and Thummim that is resplendent and perfect jewells yet all were not equall some were richer and above others in value as those in the second row even so all the elect are deare to our Saviour yet some are dearer than others he entirely affected all the Apostles yet Saint John who r John 21.20 leaned upon his breast was neerer to him than any of the other all the Jewels were set in gold in their embossements yet one was set above another in like maner all the faithfull shall shine as starres in the firmament yet some shall be set in a higher sphere than others for as the Apostle teacheth us there is ſ 1 Cor. 15.41 one glory of the Sunne and another of the Moone and another of the Starres
for one Starre differeth from another in glory and so shall be the resurrection of the dead 5. Fifthly looke yee yet neerer upon these shining stones and yee shall finde that they will not onely delight and lighten the eyes of your understanding but also heate and enflame your devout affections They are as twelve precious bookes wherein you may reade many excellent lessons printed with indeleble characters You see cleerly here the names of each of the Tribes in severall engraven let your marginall note be God hath from all eternity decreed a certaine number of Elect to bee saved and hee hath written their names in severall in the booke of life 6. Sixthly observe that the names of the Tribes are not written in paper nor carved in wood but engraven in solid and precious stones with the point of a Diamond never to be razed out let your interlineary glosse be None of those whose names are written in the book of life can be stricken out For there is no blotting interlining nor variae lectiones in that booke stars there are but no obeliskes the Elect therefore though they may fall grievously and dangerously yet not totally nor finally Stella cadens non est stella cometa fuit Were you beloved but embossed or enammeled in the ring upon our Saviours finger you were safe enough for no man can plucke any thing out of our Saviours hand but now that you are engraven as signets on our Saviours heart what can be your feare what may be your joy Is it so doth our high Priest set us on his heart and shall not wee set our heart on him shall we esteem any thing too deare for him who esteemeth us so deare unto him Hee who once upon the Crosse shed his heart bloud for us still beareth us upon his heart and esteemeth of us as Cornelia did of her Gracchi and presenteth us as it were in her words to his Father Haec sunt ornamenta mea these be my jewels Doth he make such reckoning of us and is it our desire he should doe so then for the love of our Redeemer let us not so dishonour him as to fill the rowes of his breast-plate with glasse in stead of jewels let us not make him present to his Father either counterfeit stones through our hypocrisie or dusky through earthlinesse and worldly corruption let us rub scowre and brighten the good graces of God in us that they may shine in us we may be such as our Saviour esteemeth us to be that is orient and glorious jewels The summe of all is this Yee have heard of foure rowes of precious stones set in bosses of gold upon Aarons breast-plate and by the foure rowes you understand the foure well ordered methodicall Sermons by me rehearsed by the jewels either the eminent parts of the Preachers or their precious doctrines by the embossments of gold in which these precious gems of divine doctrine were set their texts nothing remaineth but that the breast-plate being made you put it on and as Aaron did beare it on your hearts By wearing bearing it there you shall receive vertue from it and in some sort participate of the nature of these jewels in modesty of the Ruby in chastity of the Emrald in purity of the Onyx in temperance of the Amethyst in ardent love of the Carbuncle in invincible constancy of the Adamant in sacrificing your dearest hearts bloud and affections to Christ in passion for him if you be called thereunto of the Hematite You shall gloriously beautifie the brest-plate of our Aaron who hath put on his glorious apparrell and sacred robes and is entred into the Sanctum Sanctorum in heaven and at this time beareth our names on his breast for a remembrance before God his father and long it shall not be ere he come from thence and all eyes shall t Apoc. 1.7 see him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him then shall he say to us Lift up your heads looke upon my breast reade every one your name engraven in a rich jewell You were faithfull unto death therefore see here now I give you a crowne of life behold in it for every Christian vertue a jewel for every penitent teare Chrystall Pearle for every green blew wound or stripe endured for me an Emrald and a Saphir for every drop of bloud shed for the Gospel a Ruby and an Hematite weare this for my sake and reigne with mee for evermore Cui c. THE DEVOUT SOULES MOTTO A Sermon preached in Saint Peters Church in Lent Anno 1613. THE XXXVI SERMON PSAL. 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Right Worshipfull c. THe words which our a Luke 12.49 Saviour spake concerning the issue and successe of his preaching may serve fitly for a preface to my intended discourse upon this Text Ignem veni missurus inter vos quid volo nisi ut accendatur I come to put fire among you or rather in you and what is my desire but that by the blasts and motions of Gods Spirit and the breath of my mouth it may presently bee kindled and burne in your hearts Burne it will not without fuell take heed therefore saith b In opusc Cave ne injicias quod fumum aut foetorem ministret Bonaventure what you cast into this fire to feed the flame for if it be grosse impure and earthy matter the flame will be obscure and the fume unsavoury but if it be refined pure and celestiall the flame will be cleare and the fume a sweet perfume in the nostrils of Almighty God Nadab and c Levit. 10.1 Abihu smoaked themselves for offering strange fire upon Gods Altar but wee are like to burne in unquenchable fire if wee offer not continually the fire I am now to treat of upon the Altar of our hearts and yet it is a strange fire too for it giveth light yet burneth not or rather it burnes yet consumeth not or rather it consumes yet impaires not but dilateth and enlargeth the heart Other fire burnes blacke and marreth the beauty of the body but this contrariwise giveth beauty to the soule for as Saint d Mor. in Job l. 18. Non clarescit anima fulgore aeternae pulchritudinis nisi hic arserit in officinâ charitatis Gregory rightly observeth the soule shineth not with the brightnesse of everlasting beauty that burneth not in the forge of charity With this beauty God is so enamoured that Saint e De dilig Deo Major est in amore Dei qui plures traxerit ad amorem Dei Bernards observation is true that he is greatest in favour and in the love of God who draweth most to the love of God If we desire to know saith Saint f Aug. Enchirid ad Laurent c. 117. Austine what a man is wee enquire not what he beleeveth or what he hopeth
for but what he loveth A man may beleeve the truth and be a false man he may hope for good things and yet be exceeding bad himselfe but he cannot love the best things but he must needs be good he cannot affect grace if hee have not received some measure thereof he cannot highly esteeme of God and not be high in Gods esteeme As the love of the world maketh a man worldly and the love of the flesh fleshly so the love of the Spirit makes the children of God spirituall and the love of God partaker of the divine g 2 Pet. 1.4 nature for God is love Now saith Saint Paul that is in this life abideth h 1 Cor. 13.13 faith hope and charity but after this life of these three charity onely remaineth For when we have received the end of our faith which is the salvation of our soules and taken possession of the inheritance which we have so long expected by hope faith shall be swallowed up in vision and hope in fruition but then love shall be in greatest perfection Our trust is that we shall not alwayes walk by faith and our hope is that we shall one day hope no more we beleeve the end of faith and hope for the end of hope but love no end of our love but contrariwise desire that it may bee like the soveraigne object thereof that is eternall and infinite To leap over this large field at once and comprise all in one sentence concerning this vertue of which never enough can be said Love brought God from heaven to earth love bringeth men from earth to heaven In which regard it may not be unfitly compared to the ladder at the foot whereof i Gen. 28.12 Jacob slept sweetly and in his dreame saw Angels climbing up by it to heaven For upon it the religious soule of a devout Christian resteth and reposeth her selfe and by it in her thoughts and desires she ascendeth up to heaven as it were by foure steps or rounds which are the foure degrees of divine love 1. To love God for our selves 2. To love God for himselfe 3. To love God above all things 4. To love nothing but God or in a reference to him First to love God for our selves or our owne respect whereunto wee are induced by the consideration of his benefits and blessings bestowed upon us and continued unto us The second is to love God for himselfe whereunto wee are moved by the contemplation of the divine essence and his most amiable nature The third is to love God above all things whereunto we are enclined by observation of the difference between God and all things else The fourth is to love nothing but God that is to settle our affections and repose our desires and place our felicity wholly and solely in him To which highest round or step of divine love and top of Christian perfection we aspire by fixing our thoughts upon the all-sufficiency of God who hath in him infinite delights and contentments to satisfie all the appetites of the soule whereof the Kingly Prophet David was fully perswaded when lifting up his heart to God and his eyes to heaven he calleth God himselfe to witnesse that he desired no other happinesse than what he enjoyed in him saying Whom have I in heaven but thee These words may admit â—f a double construction 1 Either that David maketh God his sole refuge and trust 2 Or that he maketh him his chiefe joy and whole hearts delight For the first sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my refuge and strength of my confidence we are to know that in heaven and in earth there are other besides God in heaven the elect Angels and the spirits of k Heb. 12.23 just men made perfect in earth there are men and the creatures yet a religious soule reposeth no confidence in any of these First not in the creature in generall for it is l Rom. 8.20 subject to vanity not in riches for m 1 Tim. 6.17 they are uncertaine Charge the rich in this world that they trust not in uncertaine riches not in n Jer. 9.23 wisedome or strength or power nor in the favour of o Psal 146.3 Princes nor any childe of man for there is no helpe in them I will yet ascend higher even to heaven and to the Angels and soules there For whatsoever power or strength or helpe may be in them we may not put our trust in them 1 Not in the soules of Saints departed for they p Esay 63.16 take no notice of our affaires here neither have we any order to addresse our selves to them Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not q 2 Kin. 22.20 Good Josiah seeth not the evill which befell his subjects after his death 2 Not in Angels for though they excell in strength and are ministring r Heb. 1.14 Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation yet we have no charge to worship them or relie upon them for our salvation Nay wee are charged to the contrary both from God and from themselves from God Å¿ Mat. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve and t Col. 2.18 Let no man beguile you in voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels and from themselves also u Apoc. 19.10 22.9 And I fell downe at the feet of the Angel that shewed me these things and he said unto me See thou doe it not I am thy fellow servant worship God For the second sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my chiefe joy and sole hearts delight we are to know that the faithfull soule is wedded to God and like a loyall Spouse casteth no part of her conjugall affection upon any but him Love she may whom he loveth and what he commandeth her to love for him and in him but not as him if she doth so shee becommeth Adultera Christo as St. Cyprian speaketh and may not be admitted to sing in Davids quire or at least not to bear a part in this Antheme Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord No more than the life of the body can bee maintained without naturall heat and moisture can the life of grace be preserved in the soule without continuall supply of the moisture of penitent teares and a great measure of the heat of divine love wherewith we are to consume those spirituall sacrifices of prayer and praises which we are now and at all times to offer lifting up pure hands and hearts unto God To kindle this sacred fire I have brought you a live coale from the Altar of incense Davids heart sending up sweetest perfumes of most fragrant and savourie meditations This coale the best Interpreters ancient and later conspiring in their expositions blow after this manner St. u Hier. in hunc locum Neque in coelo neque in terrâ alium praeter
which is the first place we speak not so properly when we say that God hath any vertue as when we attribute to him all vertue in the abstract all wisdom all justice all holines all goodnes Goodnes is the rule of our will but Gods will is the rule of goodnes it selfe we are to doe things because they are just good but contrariwise things are just good because God doth them therfore if vertue be the load-stone of our love it wil first draw it to God whose nature is the perfection of all vertue As for beauty what is it but proportion colour the beauty of colour it self is light light is but a shadow or obscure delineation of God whose face darkneth the sun dazleth the eies of the Cherubins who to save them hold their wings before them like a plume of feathers A glympse wherof when the Prophet David saw he was so ravished with it that as if there were nothing else worthy the seeing it were impossible to have enough of so admirable an object he crieth out d Psa 105.4 seek his face evermore not so much for the delight he took in beholding it as for the light he received from it For beholding the glory of God as in a mirrour with open face we are changed into his image after a sort made partakers of the divine nature ô my soul saith a Saint of God mark what thou lovest for thou becommest like to that which thou likest Si coelum diligis coelum es si terram diligis terra es audeo dicere si Deum diligis Deus es if thou sincerely perfectly lovest heavenly objects thou becomest heavenly if carnall thou becomest sensuall if spirituall thou becomest ghostly if God thou becomest divine Let us stay a while consider what a wonderful change is wrought in the soule of man by the power of divine love surely though a deformed Black-a-moor look his eies out upon the fairest beauty the world can present hee getteth no beauty by it but seems the more ougly by standing in sight of so beautiful a creature the sun burns them black darkeneth their sight who long gaze upon his beams but contrarily the Sun of righteousnes the more we looke upon him the more he enlighteneth the eies Poulin in opusc Illum amemus quem amare debitum quem amplecti chastitas cui nubere virginitas c. maketh them fair their faces shine who behold him as Moses his did after he came down from the Mount where he had parley with God O then let us love to behold him the sight of whose countenance will make us fair lovely to behold let us conform our selvs to him who wil transform us into himself let us reflect the beams of our affection upon the father of lights let us knit our hearts to him whom freely to love is our bounden duty to embrace is chastity to marry is virginity to serve is liberty to desire is contentment to imitate is perfection to enjoy is everlasting happines To whom c. THE ROYALL PRIEST A Sermon preached in Saint Maries Church in Oxford Anno 1613. THE XXXVII SERMON PSAL. 110.4 The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Right Worshipfull c. THere are three principall attributes of God Wisedome Goodnesse Power Wisedome to comprehend all the good that can bee Goodnesse to will all that which in wisedome he comprehendeth Power to effect all that in goodnesse he willeth and decreeth for the manifestation of his justice and mercy to his creatures These three attributes of God shine most clearely in the three offices of Christ 1 Kingly 2 Priestly 3 Propheticall Power in his Kingly Wisedome in his Propheticall Goodnesse in his Priestly function For Christ by his Princely authority declareth especially the power by his Propheticall he revealeth the wisedome and by his Priesthood he manifesteth the goodnesse of God to all mankinde Christ as a Prophet in wisedome teacheth us what in his goodnesse he hath merited for us as a Priest and by his power he will bestow upon us as a King freedome from all miserie in the Kingdome of glory And on these three offices of Christ the three divine graces 1 Faith 2 Hope 3 Charity have a kinde of dependance 1 Faith holdeth on him as a Prophet 2 Hope as a King 3 Charity as a Priest For Faith buildeth upon the truth of his Prophesie Hope relieth upon the power of his Kingdome Charity embraceth the functions of his Priesthood whereby he washeth us from our sinnes in his owne bloud and maketh us a Apoc. 1.5 6. Kings and Priests unto God and his Father In this Psalme David as Christs Herauld proclaimeth these his titles First his Kingly Sit thou on my right hand ver 1. Be thou ruler in the midst of thine enemies ver 2. Secondly his Propheticall The people shall come willingly in the beautie of holinesse ver 3. Thirdly his Priestly The Lord sware thou art a Priest ver 4. To obscure which most cleare and evident interpretation of this Propheticall Psalme although some mists of doubts have beene cast in former times yet now after the Sun of righteousnesse is risen and hath dispelled them by his owne beames nothing without impietie can be opposed to it for b Mat. 22.42 43 44. there he whom David meaneth openeth Davids meaning he whom this Prophesie discovereth discovereth this Prophesie he to whom this Scripture pointeth pointeth to this Scripture and interpreting it of the Son of man sheweth most evidently that he is the King who reigneth so victoriously ver 1. the Prophet that preacheth so effectually ver 3. and the Priest that abideth continually according to the words of my text which offer to our religious thoughts three points of speciall observation 1 The ceremony used at the consecration of our Lord The Lord sware 2 The office conferred upon him by this rite or ceremonie Thou art a Priest 3 The prerogatives of this his office which is here declared to be 1 Perpetuall for ever 2 Regular after the order 3 Royall of Melchizedek First the forme and manner of our Saviours investiture or consecration was most honourable and glorious God the Father performing the rites which were not imposition of hands and breathing on him the holy Ghost but a solemne deposition of his Father with a protestation Thou art a Priest ceremonies never used by any but God nor in the investiture of any but Christ nor his investiture into any office but his Priesthood Plin. panegyr Trasan Imperium super Imperatorem Imperatoris voce delatum est nihil magis subjecti animo factum est quam quod caepit imperare At his coronation we heare nothing but the Lord said Sit thou on my right hand The rule of the whole world is imposed upon our Saviour by command and even in this did Christ shew his obedience
be tormented for ever and ever Non habebunt requiem die vel nocte sed cruciabuntur inaeternùm Each of the former torments is of it selfe intolerable and all of them most insufferable yet all must bee endured without all meanes of ease or hope of release the banishment is perpetuall the chaines everlasting the worme immortall the fire unquenchable No losse so great as of the Kingdome of Heaven no prison so loathsome as the dungeon of Hell no sight so gastly as of the ougly fiends no shreeking so lamentable as of damned ghosts no stench so loathsome as of the lake of brimstone no worme so biting as the remorse of conscience no fire so hot as the wrath of God but such losses never to be recovered such chaines never to bee loosed such darknesse never to be enlightened such sights never to be removed such noyse never to be stilled such fumes never to be dispelled such a worme never to be pluckt off such fire never to be quenched such torments never to be released such misery never to be ended maketh up such a punishment as exceedeth all humane eloquence to expresse patience to endure What shall I say more Who of us is able to hold out long with a vehement fit of a burning feaver or colicke or stone though lying in a sweet roome upon a soft bed having the best meanes of physicke to mitigate the paine and comfort of friends to strengthen our patience If the Physician should tell us that after a moneth or a yeere we should be out of our extreme fits he would be so farre from chearing us up that hee would neere drive us to despaire how then shall wee bee able to endure the scorching flames of the brimstone lake in the darke dungeon of Hell where we have no other comforters about us than insulting Divels or perhaps some of our dearest friends and kinred tormented with us Yet if these paines lasted but for a yeere or an age or a thousand yeeres or the duration of the world though so great misery could admit of no possible comfort yet there might bee some hope but now after many ages and millions of yeeres spent in this insufferable torment to endure as many more and againe as many more and after all this to be nothing neerer to the end than at the first day of their entrance into that place of durance O this is able to breake an heart even as hard as Adamant Happy are we that we have time to think on and means to prevent these endlesse paines for which the damned soules would give a thousand lives if they had them for their neglect thereof while the time served them they now pierce their hearts and rend their soules with these and the like lamentations Woe worth our brutish sottishnesse and beastly folly whereby for painted shewes and vanishing shadowes of sinfull pleasures we have forgone everlasting joyes and the glory of a celestiall Kingdome O that we should be so retchlesse as never to fore-thinke of the wretchednesse we are now come to O that wee should refuse the meanes freely offered unto us to escape these torments for which wee would now give the price of our dearest hearts bloud O that we might be released but for a while out of these torments If we might returne to life againe what would we not doe what would we not suffer that we might not come to this dismall place But alas all is too late the irrevocable sentence is pronounced the time of repentance is past but the time of our sorrow shall never passe All our prayers are now fruitlesse our complaints bootlesse our mourning regardlesse our griefe remedilesse our woe comfortlesse our torments endlesse If the consideration of these things move us not beloved brethren we beleeve them not if we beleeve them not we are not what we professe to be that is Christians If there be no such torments in Hell as I have in part described then which to thinke and much more to utter deserveth a thousand Hells there is no truth in the Gospel upon the expresse Text whereof I have all this while enlarged my selfe Nay yet further I shall be able to demonstrate unto you that if ye beleeve there is no Hell that ye are no men because ye have no conscience There is no conscience if no religion no religion if no God no God if no providence no providence if no justice no justice if no torments to be endured after this life by them who have violated all humane and divine lawes and received no condigne punishment in this world Nature hath given us an image of Hell in Aetna and other hills that continually burne and of the damned in the Salamander and Pyrausts that live in the fire The ancient Grecians and Romans yea the Barbarous Indians that have no learning among them yet acknowledge a kind of Hell so witnesseth the Relator of the * Hist Virgin Animae immortalitatem agnoscunt eamque putant post mortem pro meritis transferri aut ad deorum sedes aut ad ingentem sero bem igne ardentem Popogusso dictam quam in extremis mundi partibus sitam ex itimant Virginia voyage The Virginians saith he acknowledge the immortality of soules and they beleeve that after death according to their desert they are either translated from hence into the seats of the gods or are carried to a huge ditch burning with fire called Popogusso An evident argument that God hath engraven the image of Hell so deep in mens consciences to deterre them from ungodlinesse that the Divell cannot raze it cleane out though he desireth nothing more But I speake to Christians with whom this reason alone is sufficient to enforce their assent If there be no Hell Christ descended not into it nor triumphed over it If no second death Christ hath not redeemed us from it But hee hath certainly i Apoc. 20.6 redeemed all that beleeve and have part in the first resurrection Other things we beleeve because they are so this is undoubtedly so if we beleeve it O what an easie condition is this to have our debts paid for us if by faith we take the summe laid downe for our discharge and tender it unto God and be carefull to run into no more arrerages He is most worthy to lye in the prison of Hell till he pay the uttermost farthing of his debts who can have them paid for him upon so easie termes and will not Wee have looked long enough downe upon Hell and Death let us now looke up to our Saviour who triumphed over both Let the sight of the one as much raise us up in hope as of the other dejecteth us in feare let the serious meditation upon the everlasting flames of Hell kindle in us an everlasting hate of sinne and love of our Saviour who by his fasting hath famished the worme of conscience that now it shall bite no more and by his bloud hath quenched
oftentimes withhold his rod from his dearest children To speake nothing of the reliques of originall sin in us after Baptisme which like cindars are still apt to set on fire Gods wrath and like an aguish matter left after a fit still cause new paroxysmes of Gods judgements ease it selfe and rest casteth us into a dead sleep of security which we are never thoroughly awaked of till God smite us on the side as the d Acts 12.7 Angel did Peter Prosperity and a sequence of temporall blessings like fatnesse in the soyle breed in the mind a kind of ranknesse which the sorrowes of afflictions eate out Moreover worldly pleasures distemper the taste of the soule so that it cannot rellish wholsome food which evill is cured by drinking deep in the cup of teares Neither seemeth it to stand with the justice of God that they who are to triumph in heaven should performe no worthy service in his battels upon the earth It is too great ambition for any Christian to desire two heavens and to attaine greater happinesse than our Lord and King who tooke his crosse in his way to his Kingdome and was crowned with thornes before hee was crowned with glory e Lact. div instit Lactantius rightly observeth Bonis brevibus mala aeterna malis brevibus bona aeterna succedunt that we are put to our choice either to passe from momentary pleasures to everlasting paines or to passe from momentary paines to everlasting pleasures either to forgoe transitory delights for eternall joyes or to buy the pleasures of sinne for a season at the deare rate of everlasting torments Were there no necessity of justice that they who are to receive a superexcellent weight of glory should beare heavie crosses in this life nor congruity of reason that they who are to be satisfied with celestiall dainties should fast here and taste of bitter sorrowes that they might better rellish their future banquet yet it were an indecorum at least that the Captaine should beare all the brunt and endure all the hardnesse and the common souldier endure nothing that the head should be crowned with thornes and the members softly arrayed that the head should be spit upon and the members have sweet oyntments poured on them Wherefore Saint Paul teacheth us that all whom God fore-knew he predestinated to be made conformable to the f Rom. 8.29 image of his Sonne who was so disfigured with buffets stripes blowes and wounds that the Prophet saith he had no g Esa 53.2 forme in him What himselfe spake of the children of Zebedee appertaines to us all Ye shall h Mat. 20.22 drink of my cup and be baptized with the baptisme wherewith I am baptized withall By baptisme he meaneth not to be dipped only in the waters of Marah but to be plunged in them over head and eares as the ancient manner of baptisme was He who was nailed to the Crosse for us will have us take up our i Mat. 10.38 crosse and follow him He that endured so much to shew his love to us will have us in some sort to answer him in love which as it is a passion so it is tryed rather by passions than by actions in which respect we must not only doe but suffer for his sake that our love may be compleat both in parts and degrees To you it is k Phil. 1.29 given saith Saint Paul not only to beleeve in him but to suffer for his sake For he l 1 Pet. 2.21 suffered for us giving us an example Should he have suffered all for us and as he tooke away all sinne so all suffering from us carrying away all crosses and tribulations with him patience should not have had her worke among other divine vertues and graces and thereby our crowne of glory should have wanted one most faire and rich jewell Wherefore God who is all goodnesse desirous to make us partakers of all the goodnesse which our nature is capable of by the misery of his distressed members giveth matter for our charity and compassion by our continuall temptations matter for faith by conflicts with heretickes and persecuters matter for constancy by the dangers of this life matter for wisedome by our manifold infirmities and frailties matter for humility by chastenings and afflictions matter for patience to worke upon Whether for these or any better reasons best knowne to himselfe it is that our heavenly Father holdeth a heavie hand sometimes over his dearest children certaine it is that few or none of them escape his stroake he chasteneth as many as hee loveth or as wee reade Hebr. 12.6 hee scourgeth every sonne whom hee receiveth therefore all that n 2 Tim. 3.12 will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer affliction Afflictions are in our way to heaven for wee must through many o Acts 14.22 afflictions enter into the Kingdome of God Before wee sing the song of Moses and the servants of God we are to swimme through a sea of burning glasse the sea is this present life swelling with pride wan with envie boyling with wrath deep with fraud and malice foming with luxuriousnesse ebbing and flowing with inconstancy which is here said to be of p Apoc. 15.2 I saw as it were a sea of glasse mingled with fire glasse to signifie the brittle nature thereof and burning to represent the furnace of adversity wherein the godly are still tryed and purified in this world And that we may not thinke that God his rod is for those only who are habes in Christ Jesus let us set before us David and Jeremy the former a man after Gods owne heart the latter a Prophet sanctified from his mothers wombe the former laid his heart a soaking in the brine of afflictions Every q Psal 6.6 night saith hee wash I my bed and water my couch with my teares and r Psal 102.9 I have eaten ashes for bread and teares have been my drinke day and night The other cryeth out in the bitternesse of his soule I am the man that have seen * Lam 3.12 15. affliction in the rod of his indignation Hee hath bent his bow and made mee a marke for his arrowes and hath filled mee with bitternesse and made mee drunke with wormwood Verily Job sipped not of the cup of trembling but tooke such a deep draught that it bereft him in a manner of all sense and put him so far besides himselfe that he curseth the very day of his birth and would have it razed out of the calendar Å¿ Job 3 4 5 6 7. Let that day be darkned let the shadow of death obscure it let it not be joyned to the dayes of the yeer nor let it come within the count of the moneths why dyed I not in my birth why dyed I not when I came out of the wombe Yee heare the loud cryes of Gods children whereby yee perceive they feele oftentimes the smart of their Fathers rod and are
yet not willing to bee put to an infamous cruell and accursed death he became obedient to death even the death of the crosse The repeating the word death seemeth to argue an ingemination of the punishment a suffering death upon death It was wonderfull that hee which was highest in glory should humble himselfe yet it is more to bee obedient than to humble himselfe more to suffer death willingly or upon the command of another than to be obedient more to bee crucified than simply to die Hee was so humble that hee became obedient so obedient that hee yeelded to die so yeelded to die as to bee crucified his love wonderfully shewed it selfe in humbling himselfe to exalt us his humility in his obedience his obedience in his patience his patience in the death of the crosse His humility was a kinde of excesse of his love his obedience of his humility his death of his obedience his crosse of his death He humbled himselfe According to which nature divine or humane In some sort according to both according to his divine by assuming our nature according to his humane by taking upon him our miseries And became obedient It is not said hee made himselfe obedient because obedience presupposeth anothers command wee may indeed of our selves offer service to another but wee cannot performe obedience where there is no command of a Superiour parere and imperare are relatives To whom then became hee obedient To God saith Calvin to Herod and Pilate saith Zanchius the truth is to both to God as supreme Judge according to whose eternall decree to Pilate by whose immediate sentence hee was to suffer such things of sinners for sinners To death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether inclusivè or exclusivè whether is the meaning hee was obedient all his life even to his last gaspe or hee was so farre obedient that hee yeelded himselfe to the wrath of God to the scorn of men the power of darknesse the infamy of all punishments the shame of all disgraces the cruelty of all torments the death of the crosse The difference betweene these is in this that the former maketh death the limit and bound the latter an act of his obedience to which interpretation I rather subscribe because it is certaine that Christ was not onely obedient unto the houre of his death but in his death also and after his death lying three dayes and three nights in the grave Here then we have the sum of the whole Gospel the life and death of our Lord and Saviour his birth and life in the former words He humbled himselfe his death passion in the latter and became obedient unto death even the death of the crosse He humbled that is took on him our nature infirmities became obedient that is fulfilled the law for us by his active satisfied God for our transgressions by his passive obedience Obedience most shews it selfe in doing or suffering such things as are most crosse repugnant to our wil natural desires as to part with that which is most dear pretious to us and to entertain a liking of that which we otherwise most abhor Now the strongest bent of all mens desires is to life honor nothing men fear more than death especially a lingring painful death they are confounded at nothing more than open shame whereby our Saviours obedience appeares a non pareil who passed not for his life nor refused the torments of a cruel nor the shame of an ignominious death that he might fulfill his fathers will in laying down a sufficient ransom for all mankinde Even the death of the crosse As the sphere of the Sun or Saturn c. is named from the Planet which is the most eminent part of it so is the passion of Christ from his crosse the crosse was as the center in which all the bloody lines met He sweat in his agony bled in his scourging was pricked in his crowning with thornes scorned and derided in the judgement hall but all this and much more hee endured on the crosse Whence we may observe more particularly 1 The root 2 Branches 3 Fruit. Or 1 The cause 2 The parts 3 The end of all his sufferings on it 1 Of the cause S. a Aug. l. 3. de Civ Dei c. 15. Regularis defectio non nisi in lunae fine contingit Austin demonstrateth that the Eclipse of the sun at the death of our Saviour was miraculous because then the Moon was at the full Had it bin a regular Eclipse the Moon should have lost her light and not the Sun so in the regular course of justice the Church which is compared to the Moon in b Cant. 6.10 Scripture should have been eclipsed of the light of Gods countenance and not Christ who is by the Prophet Malachy stiled c Mal. 4.2 Sol justitiae the Sun of righteousnesse But as then the Sun was eclipsed in stead of the Moon so was Christ obscured in his passion for the Church he became a surety for us therfore God laid all our debts upon him to the uttermost farthing The Prophet Esay assureth us hereof d Esa 53.4 5. He bare our infirmities carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him by his stripes we are all healed O the wonderfull wisdom justice of God! the just is reputed unjust that the unjust might be reputed just the innocent is condemned that the condemned might be found innocent the Conquerer is in bonds to loose the captive the Creditor in prison to satisfie for the debtour the Physitian taketh the bitter potion to cure the patient the Judge is executed to acquit the prisoner What did the welbeloved of his Father deserve that he should drink the dregs of the vials of wrath why should the immaculate Lamb be put to such torture in the end be slain but for a sacrifice why should the bread of life hunger but for our gluttony the fountain of grace thirst but for our intemperancy the word of God be speechlesse but for our crying sin truth it self be accused but for our errors innocency condemned but for our transgressions why should the King of glory endure such ignominy shame but for our shameful lives why should the Lord of life be put to death but for our hainous and most deadly sins what spots had he to be washed what lust to bee crucified what ulcers to bee pricked what sores to bee launced Doubtlesse none at all our corrupt blood was drawn out of his wounds our swellings pricked with his thornes our sores launced with his speare our lusts crucified on his crosse our staines washed away with his blood It was the weight of our sins that made his soule heavie unto death it was the unsupportable burden of our punishment that put him into a bloody sweat all our blood was corrupt all our flesh as it were in
was exalted according to both natures according to his humane by laying down all infirmities of mans nature and assuming to himself all qualities of glory according to his divine by the manifestation of the Godhead in the manhood which before seemed to lie hid But this seemeth not to be so proper an interpretation neither can it be well conceived how that which is highest can be said to be exalted but Christ according to his divine nature is and alwaies was together with the Holy Ghost most high in the glory of God the Father It is true which they affirme that the Deity more manifestly appeared in our Saviour after his resurrection than before the rayes of divine Majesty were more conspicuous in him than before but this commeth not home to the point For this manifestation of the Deity in the humane nature was no exaltation of the divine nature but of the humane As when the beames of the Sunne fall upon glasse the glasse is illustrated thereby not the beame so the manifestation of the Deity in the humane nature of Christ was the glory and exaltation of the manhood not of the Godhead I conclude this point therefore according to the mind of the ancient and most of the later Interpreters that God exalted Christ according to that nature which before was abased even unto the death of the Crosse and that was apparently his humane For according to his divine as he could not be humbled by any so neither be exalted as he could not die so neither be raised from death Having thus parced the words it remaineth that we make construction of the whole which confirmeth to us a principall article of our faith and giveth us thus much to understand concerning the present estate of our Lord and Saviour That because being in the forme of God clothed with majesty and honour adored by Cherubins Seraphins Archangels and Angels he dis-robed himselfe of his glorious attire and put upon him the habit and forme of a servant and in it to satisfie for the sins of the whole world endured all indignities disgraces vexations derisions tortures and torments and for the close of all death it selfe yea that cruell infamous and accursed death of the Crosse therefore God even his Father to whom he thus far obeyed and most humbly submitted himselfe hath accordingly exalted him raising him from the dead carrying him up in triumph into heaven setting him in a throne of Jasper at his right hand investing him with robes of majesty and glory conferring upon him all power and authority and giving him a name above all names and a stile above all earthly stiles King of Kings and Lord of Lords giving charge to all creatures of what rank or degree soever in heaven earth or under the earth to honour him as their King and God in such sort that they never speake or thinke of him without bowing the knee and doing him the greatest reverence and religious respect that is possibly to be expressed In this high mysterie of our faith five specialties are remarkable 1 The cause Wherefore 2 The person advancing God 3 The advancement it selfe exalted 4 The manner highly 5 The person advanced him Begin we with the cause Wherefore That which was elsewhere spoken by our Saviour h Luk. 14.11 He that humbleth himselfe shall bee exalted is here spoken of our Saviour hee humbled himselfe to suffer a most accursed death therefore God highly exalted him to a most blessed and glorious life We are too well conceited of our selves gather too much from Gods love and gracious promises to us if we expect that he should bring us by a nearer way and shorter cut to celestiall glory than he did his onely begotten Son who came not easily by his crowne but bought it dearly with a price not which he gave but rather for which hee was given himselfe His conquest over death and hell and the spoyles taken from them were not Salmacida spolia sine sanguine sudore spoyles got without sweat or blood-shed for he sweat and he bled nay he sweat blood in his striving and struggling for them Wherefore if God humble us by any grievous visitation if by sicknesse poverty disgrace or captivity wee are brought low in the world let us not bee too much dejected therewith we are not fallen nor can fall so low as our Saviour descended of himselfe immediately before his glorious exaltation The lower a former wave carrieth downe the ship the higher the later beareth it up the farther backe the arrow is drawn the farther forward it flyeth Our affections as our actions are altogether preposterous and wrong in the height of prosperity we are usually without feare in the depth of misery without hope Whereas if we weighed all things in an equall ballance and guided our judgement not by sight but by faith not by present probabilities but by antecedent certainties we should find no place more dangerous to build our confidence upon than the ridge of prosperity no ground surer to cast the anchor of our hope upon than the bottome of misery How suddenly was Herod who heard himself called a god and not a man deprived of his kingdome life by worms and no men whereas David who reputed himselfe a worm and no man was made a King over men Moses was taken from feeding sheepe to feed the people of God but on the contrary Nebuchadnezzar from feeding innumerable flockes of people shall I say to feed sheepe nay to be fed as a sheepe and graze among the beasts of the field O what a sudden change was here made in the state of this mighty Monarch How was hee that gloried in his building of great Babel brought to Babel that is confusion he that before dropp'd with sweet ointment feasted all his senses with the pleasures of a King hath the dew of heaven for his oyntment the flowry earth for his carpets the weeds for his sallets the lowing of beasts for his musick and the skie for his star-chamber How great a fall also had the pride of Antiochus who riding furiously in his chariot against Jerusalem was thrown out of it on the ground and with the fall so bruised his members that his flesh rotted and bred wormes in great abundance i 2 Mac. 9.8 9. Hee that a little before thought that hee might command the waves of the sea so proud was he beyond the condition of man and weigh the high mountaines in a ballance was now cast on the ground and carryed in an horse-litter declaring unto all the manifest power of God So that the wormes came out of the bowels of this wicked man in great abundance and while hee was yet alive his flesh fell off with paine and torments and all his army was grieved with the stench The k Xen. Cyr. paed l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. King of Armenia who had beene formerly tributary to Cyrus understanding that that puissant Prince was engaged
complexa gremio jam reliquà naturà abdicatos tum maximé ut mater operiens nomen prorogat tiâ—ulis c. Pliny calleth the earth our tender mother which receiveth us into her bosome when wee are excluded as it were out of the world and covereth our nakednesse and shame and guardeth us from beasts and fowles that they offer no indignity to our carkasses Now because it is to small purpose to bestow the dead in roomes under ground if they may not keep them Abraham wisely provided for this for hee laid downe a valuable consideration for the field where the cave was Were laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a summe of money As Abraham here bought a field out-right and thereby assured the possession thereof to his posterity so by his example the Synagogue under the Law and the Catholike Church under the Gospel especially in dayes of peace secured certaine places for the buriall of the dead either purchased for money or received by deed of gift and after they were possessed of them sequestred them from all other and appropiated them to this use onely by which sequestration and appropriation all such parcells of ground became holy in such sort that none might otherwise use or imploy them than for the buriall of the dead without sacriledge or profanation As the holy oyle ran from Aarons head to his body and the skirts of his garments so holinesse stayeth not in the Chancell as the head but descendeth to the whole body of the Church and the Church-yard as the skirt thereof Mistake mee not brethren I say not that one clod of earth is holier than another or any one place or day absolutely but relatively only For as it is superstition to attribute formall or inherent holinesse to times places parcells of ground fruits of the earth vessell or vestments so it is profanenesse to deny them some kind of relative sanctity which the holy Ghost attributeth unto them in Scripture where wee reade expresly of holy ground holy daies holy oyle and the like To cleare the point wee are to distinguish of holinesse yet more particularly which belongeth 1. To God the Father Sonne and Spirit by essence 2. To Angels and men by participation of the divine nature or grace 3. To the Word and Oracles of God by inspiration 4. To types figures sacraments rites and ceremonies by divine institution 5. To places lands and fruits of the earth as also sacred utensils by use and dedication as 1. Temples with their furniture consecrated to the service of God 2. Tithes and glebe lands to the maintenance of the Priests 3. Church-yards to the buriall of the dead Others come off shorter and dichotomize holy things which say they are 1. Sanctified because they are holy as God his name and attributes c. 2. Holy because they are sanctified 1. Either by God to man as the Word and Sacraments 2. Or by man to God as Priests Temples Altars Tables c. Of this last kind of holy things by dedication some are dedicated to him 1. Immediately as all things used in his service 2. Mediately as all such things without which his service cannot be conveniently done and here come in Church-yards without which some religious workes of charity cannot be done with such conveniency or decency as they ought The Church is as Gods house and the yard is as the court before his doore how then dare any defile it or alienate it or imploy it to any secular use for profit or pleasure To conclude all Church-yards by the Ancients are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dormitories or dortories wherein they lye that sleep in Jesus Now it is most uncivill to presse into or any way abuse the bed-chamber of the living and much more of the dead What are graves in this dormitory but sacred vestries wherein we lay up our old garments for a time and after take them out and resume them new dressed and trimmed and gloriously adorned and made shining and Å¿ Mar. 9.3 exceeding white as snow so as no Fuller on earth can white them These shining raiments God bestow upon us all at the last day for the merits of the death and buriall of our Lord and Saviour Cui c. THE FEAST OF PENTECOST A Sermon preached on Whitsunday THE LXIII SERMON ATCS 2.1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all together with one accord in one place SAint a Hom. in die ascens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome comparing the works of redemption with the works of creation observeth that as the Father finished the former so the Sonne the later in six dayes especially in memorie whereof his dearest Spouse the Catholique Church hath appointed six solemnities to be kept by all Christians with greatest fervour of devotion and highest elevation of religious affections These are Christ his 1. Virgin birth 2. Illustrious Epiphanie 3. Ignominious death 4. His powerfull resurrection 5. His glorious ascension 6. His gracious sending downe of the holy Ghost The day of 1. His incarnation by which he entred into the world 2. His manifestation on which he entred upon his office of Mediatour 3. His passion on which he expiated our sinnes 4. His resuscitation by which he conquered death the grave 5. His triumphant returne into heaven on which hee tooke seizin and possession of that kingdome for us 6. His visible mission of the holy Ghost in the similitude of fiery cloven tongues on which he sealed all his former benefits to us and us to the day of redemption This last festivall in order of time was yet the first and chiefest in order of dignity For on Christs birth day hee was made partaker of our nature but on this wee were made partakers after a sort of his in the Epiphany one starre onely stood over the house where hee lay on this twelve fiery tongues like so many celestiall lights appeared in the roome where the Apostles were assembled on the day of his passion he rendred his humane spirit to God his father on this hee sent downe his divine spirit upon us on the resurrection his spirit quickened his naturall body on this it quickened his mysticall the Catholique Church on the ascension he tooke a pledge from us viz. our flesh and carried it into heaven on this hee sent us his pledge viz. his spirit in the likenesse of fiery tongues with the sound of a mighty rushing wind After which the Spouse as Gorrhan conceiveth panted saying b Cant. 4.16 Awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon my garden that the spices therof may flow out let my Beloved come into his garden eat his pleasant fruits The wind she gasped for what was it but the spirit and what are the fragrant spices shee wishes may flow but the graces of the holy Ghost which David calleth gifts for men in the eighteenth verse of the 68. Psalme the former part whereof may furnish the feast we
he but out of as great or greater pride so our adversaries the Papists may be justly taxed for exterminating one errour the errour of consubstantiation by bringing in another as bad the errour of transubstantiation which putteth accidents without subjects quantity without dimensions bodies without place and what not l Sueton in Calig Utinam populus Romanus haberet unicam cervicem Caligula wished that all his enemies had but one necke that hee might cut them all off at one blow the three heresies now mentioned have all but one necke I will therefore smite off all their heads at once with the sword of the Spirit Christ was like unto us in all things sinne onely excepted if so then was hee circumscribed with quantity and confined to one place at once then not in many places as the Papists teach and much lesse in all places as the Eutychians and Lutherans beare us in hand he is But to leave the confutation of these heresies and draw neere unto our present occasion Christ never came to any place but hee left behinde him some print of his Majestie or pledge of his love he touched no where but he wrought some miracle or shewed some mercy If the presence of the Arke which was but a type or shadow brought a blessing to Obed Edome how much more shall the presence of the body the truth himself make the place happie wheresoever he resideth Jesus never commeth without salvation with him and therefore when he entred into the house of Zaccheus he laid Hodie huic domui salus contigit this day salvation m Luk. 19.9 is come to this house The approach of the Sunne is the spring and joy of the yeare even so the approach of Christ is the bloâ—â—oming of the trees and opening the flowers of Paradise it crowneth â—oth the Church and Common-wealth with spirituall and temporall blessings as it were garlands one upon the other Yea but how may his approach be obtained who can intreat him to come neare us what load-stone can draw his love to us I answer Our love our faith our hope our devotion n James 4.8 Draw neere unto God and hee will draw neere unto you Draw neere unto him by faith accedit qui credit faith layeth hold on him Draw neere unto him by hope hope relieth upon him Draw neere unto him by love love embraceth him and o Psal 73.28 adhereth to him Draw neere unto p Esa 29.3 him with your lippes by prayer with your q Eccles 5.1 eares by listening to his Word draw neare with your whole body by presenting your selves at his table and worthily participating the holy Sacrament Thus if ye draw neere to him he will draw neere to you and comming neere to you as he did to Jerusalem hee will fixe his eyes on you And so I passe to the second step 2. Vidit he beheld it There is comfort when the Physician commeth to visit his patient there is hope when an expert Chirurgeon vieweth a dangerous wound David thought it enough to say Looke r Psal 25.18 upon mine affliction and miserie and Å¿ Psal 84.9 Looke upon the face of thine annointed and Lord lift t Psal 4.8 thou up the light of thy countenance upon us God never casteth his eye upon any but he settleth his affection upon him and hee never settleth affection upon any without an intention of blessing them As Christ cured mens bodies with a word so their soules with a looke Hee looked upon Peter and presently he repented he looked upon Zaccheus and presently he was justified hee looked upon Saint Matthew and presently hee was called Why then was Jerusalem no better for this gracious aspect because she shut her eyes against the true light When Christ looked to her she turned away from him when he wept for her she laught at him when hee sought to save her shee plotted his death and destruction Yet were not the beams of Christs eye cast in vaine upon this City for the spirituall Jerusalem as Saint u Orig. in hunc locum Origen telleth us that is the faithfull in Jerusalem were the better for them for they observed our Saviours eye and kept his teares in a bottle and laid up his words in their heart and being fully perswaded of the truth of his prediction concerning the destruction of the City and Temple when forty years after Titus began to lay siege to it they left it and fled to Pella and thereby escaped all those miseries and troubles which our Saviour could not foretell with drie eyes The Philosophers and Physicians are not yet agreed utrum visio fiat extramittendo vel intromittendo whether in the act of seeing the eye casteth out beames upon the object or receiveth species from it The question is easily resolved here for Christ both cast out a beame of his affection out of his eye on the City and received also the species or image of it into his eye at once he looked upon her with a twofold eye 1 The eye of sense 2 The eye of Prophesie To the eye of sense Jerusalem appeared most beautifull glorious and happy environed with strong walls adorned with magnificent buildings stored with people abounding in wealth and furnished with all sort of munition but to the eye of prophesie shee appeared in another hiew with her walls sacked her houses burnt her turrets demolished her young men slaine her virgins defloured her priests sacrificed her streets piled with carkasses and her channels running with gore bloud u Vir. Aenead 2 Quis talia fando Temperet à lachrymis This most lamentable spectacle though a farre off drew teares from our Saviours eyes And so I passe to the third step which is the wettest of all 3. Flevit super eam He wept over it In the water of Christs teares we may see after a sort the face both of his humane and divine nature In that they were teares issuing from the troubled fountain of sorrow in his heart they prove him to be a true man but in that they represented the weeping and mourning that should ensue after his death in Jerusalem they demonstrate him to be true God for x Tertul. apol argumentum divinitatis veritas divinationis the certainty of divination is an argument of divinity Neither were these teares onely indices naturae evidences of his nature but pledges of his love and as y Orig. in Mat. Omnes beâ—titudines quas in Evangelio locutus est suo firmavit exemplo Origen noteth instances of his doctrine touching the blessednesse of mourners Christ exemplified every point of his doctrine in himselfe he taught that the poore in spirit are blessed and none so humble in heart as hee hee taught that peace-makers were blessed who so great a peace-maker as he who is our peace and reconciled heaven and earth hee taught blessed are they that suffer for righteousnesse sake and none ever suffered so much
the daughter of my people Such was Saint Pauls g 2 Cor 11.29 Besides those things that are without that which commeth upon mee daily the care of all the Churches who is weake and I am not weake who is offended and I burne not Of the same temper was Saint Cyprian I h Cypr. ep 16. Compatior condoleo fratribus nostris qui lapsi pâ—rsecutionis infestatione prostrati partem nostrorum viscerum secum trahentes acrem dolorem suis vulneribus intulerunt Et l. de laps Cum plangentibus plango cum deflentibus dâ—fleo cum prostratis fâ—atribus me quoque prostravit affectus sympathize and condole with you for those of our brethren whom the cruelty of persecution hath overthrowne and laid upon their backs the wounds which they have received no lesse paine mee than if part of my bowells had been plucked out of my body And againe I mourne with them that mourne and weep with them that weep and am cast downe with them that are fallen This sympathy is a more noble worke of mercy and charity towards our afflicted brethren than bounty it selfe he that spendeth his affection upon his brother in his distresse doth more than hee that reacheth unto him an almes for the one giveth somewhat out of his purse the other out of his bowells on the contrary want of naturall affection is ranked with the worst of all vices i Rom. 1 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being filled with all unrighteousnesse wickednesse covetousnesse maliciousnesse full of envie murder debate back-biters haters of God disobedient to parents covenant breakers without naturall affection implacable unmercifull Doubtlesse they are monsters in nature that want bowells nothing more provoked God in k Salvian de Dei gubern l. 6. Confundebatur vox morientium vox bacchâ—ntiâ—â—m vix discerni poterat plebis ejulatus qui fiebat in bello sonus populi qui clamabat in circo Salvianus his judgement to double his stroaks upon the French when the Goths came in upon them than that they had no sense or feeling of their brethrens calamities The voice of the dying could hardly be distinguished from the clamours of those that were drunk at the same time when the people without the City cried out for feare of the enemy the people within the City shouted at their sports It is not safe for any to feast when God calleth to fast to sing when God calleth to sigh to brave it in gorgeous apparrell when God calleth to sackcloth Whose heart quaketh not at that thunder-clap in the Prophet Esay l Esay 22.12 13 14. And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And behold joy and gladnes slaying oxen and killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine And it was revealed in my eares by the Lord of hosts surely this iniquity shall not bee purged from you till you die The sinne wherewith God charged the old world before it was over-flowne with a deluge of water and Christ in the Gospel chargeth the new which shall be over-flowne with a deluge of fire is the same wherewith hee here chargeth the Jewes that they knew not that is tooke not notice of the time of their visitation m Luk 17.26 27 28 29 30. As it was in the dayes of Noah so shall it be also in the daies of the Son of man They did eate they dranke they married wives they were given in marriage ntill the day that Noah entred into the Arke and the floud came and destroyed them all Likewise also as it was in the daies of Lot they did eate they dranke they bought they sold they planted they builded but the same day that Lot went out of Sodome it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all Even so shall it be in the day when the Sonne of man shall be revealed The meaning is they went on in the ordinary tract of their businesse as if there had been no judgement toward as also did the inhabitants of Jerusalem at this time whom when Jesus saw so neere the brink of destruction and yet so carelesse he wept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he considered what he was to suffer for that City and what that City afterwards was to suffer because of him his griefe ran over the naturall bankes his eies The same organ is ordained for seeing and weeping to teach us that weeping should not be without seeing nor sorrowing without understanding The cause why we weep not for the desolation of our Jerusalem neere at hand if this our present fasting and repenting in dust and ashes remove it not is because wee see not the evills that hang over our heads wee see them not because we put them farre from us or hide them from our eies The infant while it lieth in the darke prison of the mothers wombe never quatcheth nor weepeth but as soone as ever it commeth out of the womb into the light it knits the browes and wrings the eyes and cries taketh on even so the childe of God whilest he is yet kept in the darke of ignorance in his unregenerate estate never crieth to his Father nor weepeth for his sinne but as soone as the light of grace shineth upon him hee bewaileth his grievous misery and never thinketh that he hath filled his cup of teares full enough The spouts will not runne currently if we pump not deep If then wee would have the spouts which nature hath placed in our heads run aboundantly with teares of repentance we must pump deep we must dive deep into the springs of godly sorrow which are the consideration of our owne sinnes and the afflictions of Gods people Were Jesus now upon earth in his mortall body and should behold this Kingdome as he did the City of Jerusalem and take a survay of all the evills we doe and are like to suffer could he thinke you refraine from teares would he not second his teares with groanes And so I passe to the fourth step 4. Ingemuit he sighed saying If thou knewest or Oh that thou hadst knowne The Greekes in their Proverbe give it for a character of a good man that he is much subject to sighing and free of his teares n Eras chil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am sure the best man that ever was as hee wept more than once so hee sighed often When he opened the eares of the deafe and dumbe and when the Pharisees seeking of him a signe tempted him he o Mar. 7.34 Looking up to heaven he sighed and saith unto him Effata be thou opened Mar. 8.12 sighed deeply in his spirit and when he raised p John 11.38 Jesus therefore groaning in spirit commeth to the grave Lazarus stinking in the grave and againe in my Text. And this he doth not as God for immunity from passion is a prerogative of the divine nature but as Calvin
humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse therefore they who desire to be affected and liked of him must be like affected to him and not exalt themselves above others in pride but rather abase themselves below them in humility not behave themselves as lords over the faith of others but rather demeane themselves as servants for Christs sake not pursue ambitiously the glory of this world but account it the greatest glory to partake with Christ in the infamy of the Crosse How unfit and incongruous a thing is it in contention to preach the Gospel of peace in rage and choler to treat of meeknesse in malice and hatred to exhort to Christian love and reconciliation in pride to commend humility in vaine glory to erect the Crosse of Christ that is to deny the power of it in so declaring it Yet if they will needs bee ambitious if their affections are so set upon glory and honour that nothing can take them off let them take the readiest course to compasse their desire which lyeth not in the higher way they have chosen by advancing themselves but in the lower way which Christ took by abasing himselfe For glory is of the nature of a Crocodile which flyeth from them that pursue it and pursueth them that flie it as S. b Hom. 7. ad Philip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysostome excellently declareth it Glory saith he cannot be attained but by eschuing it if thou makest after it it maketh away from thee if thou flyest from it it followeth thee if thou desirest to be glorious be not ambitious for all truly honour them who affect not honour as on the contrary they hold a base opinion of such as are ever aspiring to honour and that for the most part without desert Two weighty reasons wee have in this verse to incline all Christian minds to obedient humility or humble obedience a patterne of it and the reward thereof he humbled himseâ—fe so low therefore God exalted him so high Of the patterne most lively drawne in the life and especially the death of our Saviour I have said something already and shall more hereafter yet can never say all As Socrates spake of Philosophy that it was nothing but meditatio mortis a meditation upon death we may of Divinity that it is in a manner nothing else but meditatio mortis Christi a meditation on Christs death for the learnedest of all the Apostles would be knowne of no other knowledge that he had or much esteemed but this I c 1 Cor. 2.2 desire saith he to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified d Lib. 7. nat hist c. 2. Genâ— Astoma radices florum secum portat longâ—ore itinere ne desit olfactus Pliny describeth unto us a strange kind of people in Africa that had no mouthes but received all their nourishment at their nostrils which is nothing else but sweet smells and fragrant odours who if they are to take any long journey provide themselves of great store of flowers and sweet wood and aromaticall spices lest they starve by the way I will not warrant the narration because I know it is a case over-ruled in Aristotles philosophy that smells nourish not but the application I can make good out of the Apostle who calleth the Gospel and the Preachers thereof odorem vitae ad viâ—am a savour of e 2 Cor. 2.16 life unto life Though the naturall life be not yet the spirituall is nourished by odours savours And howsoever we are not in our bodies yet in our soules we are Astomi and like those people of Africa recâ—ive nourishment from sweet trees and roots The sweet root we are alwayes to carry about us is the root of the flower of Jesse the savoury wood we are to smell unto is the wood of the Crosse that is the tree of life in the midst of our Paradise It is the ladder of Jacob whereby we ascend into heaven it is the rod of Aaron that continually buddeth in the Church it is the Juniper tree whose shade killeth the Serpent it is the tree which was cast into the waters of Marah and made them sweet no water so bitter no affliction so brackish to which the Crosse of Christ giveth not a sweet rellish But to proceed from the effâ—ct of Christs passion in us our comfort and salvation to the effect of it in himselfe his glory and exâ—ltation expressed in the letter of my Text Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him Wherefore Although there can be no cause given of Gods will which is the cause of all causes yet as Aquinas teacheth us to distinguish there may be ratio rei volitae a reason of the thing willed by God for God according to the counsell of his owne will setteth divers things in such an order that the former is the cause of the latter yet none of them a cause but an effect of his will For example in that golden chaine drawne by the Apostle Whom he hath f Rom. 8.29 predestinated those he hath called whom he hath called he hath justified whom he hath justified he hath glorified predestination is a cause of vocation vocation of justification justification of glorification yet all of these depend upon Gods will and his will upon none of them In like manner God hath so disposed the causes of our salvation that Christs incarnation and humiliation should goe before his glory and exaltation the one bee the meritorious cause of the other yet neither of them is causa voluntatis divinae exaltantis but ratio exaltationis volitae neither of them a cause of Gods will exalting but the former the reason of Christs exaltation as willed by God God Though Christ rose of himselfe and as himselfe speaketh reared up the temple of his body after it was destroyed ratione suppositi yet ratione principii it is most true God raised him up and therefore the Apostle saith else-where that he was g John 2.19 raised by the right hand of God that is divine power but because this divine power was his owne and essentiall to him as God he may be truly said also to have raised himselfe Hath highly exalted Above the grave in his resurrection above the earth in his ascension above the heaven in his session at the right hand of his Father In the words highly exalted there is no tautologie but an emphasis which is all one as if he had said Super omnem altitudinem exaltavit super omnem potestatem evexit he exalted him above all highnesse he gave him a power above all powers and a name above all names Him It is desputed among Divines whether this him hath reference to Christ considered as God or man that is to say whether he was exalted according to his humane nature only or according to the divine also Some later Expositors of good note and by name Mr. Perkins on the Creed resolve that Christ