necessary Imperative Law Sometimes it binds as when we find them frequently joyn Fasting with Prayer and where we meet with their strict Discipline that they delivered up obstinate offenders to Satan and cast them out of the Church but elsewhere their practice draws on no absolute necessity but leaves us to our prudent liberty and ties no harder as appears by their Colledges of Widows to wash the Saints feet by their Feasts of Charity c. For whereas St. Paul says That which you have heard and seen in me that do Phil. iv 9. It is a Commission that they may imitate him in any thing he did for he did nothing but things lawful yet it infers it not to be necessary to do all things as he did As a Physician may say to his Patient eat whatsoever you see me eat which is spoken by way of warrant not of necessary observation Well then since the practice of the Apostles sometimes leaves us at liberty to follow them sometimes presseth the duty upon us and we must do as they did how shall we know the one from the other In my small reading I could never find it cleared yet but you shall have my opinion of it It is a rule in St. Austin Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec Conciliis institutum sed semper retentumest c. Whatsoever is not defined by any General Council and yet is practised by the whole Church it hath been delivered from hand to hand by the Apostles Here I take the hint that some things were delivered by the Apostles for order and decency sake which were but temporary agreed only to some times and some places and every Church receiv'd them freely with their own liking but whatsoever is derived from their Exemple and is dispread over the whole Church and hath continued in all Ages so hath the observation of the Lords day that was at first grounded in the practice of the Apostles not to be received indifferently but to be admitted as a Divine Institution Now I sum up the Orthodox Truth as I take it by what right and tenure we keep the Lords day holy 1. Not by virtue of the Letter of the fourth Commandment but by the natural equity and moral contents of it and reasonable consequences deduced out of it 2. The glorious act of Christs rising from the dead did not constitute the first day of the week to be a day of perpetual sanctification but upon good congruity the Church took occasion from thence to celebrate this day unto the Lord. 3. There are no express imperative words in the New Testament immediately to command it but in general principles that we are to obey our Rulers in all things 4. and lastly It is establisht in the practice of the Apostles and so uniformly received in all Ages that it is most probable they purposed it not for an Ecclesiastical Sanction which is alterable but for a Divine Institution which is perpetual and unalterable This labour which is past hath been spent about this Day in reference to Gods making that which follows is upon the same Subject in reference to our own rejoycing we will rejoyce and be glad in it that is God hath sanctified the day and we will sanctifie it that is God hath sanctified it by ordeining it to sacred use and we must sanctify it with an holy gladness imploying it chiefly in religious conversation We must separate it from profane uses to divine we must meet in holy places we must come together about holy purposes hearken to holy things and this must be our chief delight that we keep Holy-day to the Lord. Attend the time therefore with all chearfulness and diligence which summons us to appear in the House of God 't is religionis discendae introducendae medium the only and most available means to keep Religion in life and being Our sins are very grievous I confess and there is much unjust communication in the world we do not deal usually as between Brother and Brother but as between faithless Infidels and utter Adversaries but to what extremity would our sins wax if we did not pray to the Lord in his good day to guide us with a good conscience all the week after Mark therefore that the fourth Commandment is set in the midst of the Decalogue in the end of the first Table and before the beginning of the second as if it were the common nerve of Religion take away this and we shall neither know the duties of the one Table or of the other either to God or our Neighbour It is very meet therefore and our bounden duty that we should every one set forth a large share of this Day to the honour of God in Publick Assemblies not for a spurt of time and then apply our selves to other affairs as Christ bid us go every day into our secret Chamber to praise the Lord but according to the appointment both of God and the Church the best part of the day must be surrendred up to the use of Prayer and Preaching that God may have both his Morning and his Evening Sacrifice to declare his truth in the morning and his faithfulness in the night season as David says And therefore I have noted it to my self how in every Age for at least 600 years after Christ Godly Bishops did lengthen out Service by little and little to keep us the longer at Church At first there was but an Epistle and Gospel read and the Lords Prayer said and then they went to the Communion then the reading of the Psalms was added then certain Lessons out of the Old and New Testament then came in the Litany then the Confession with divers Collects of Prayers And our own Church above all others draws out the Service with the Ten Commandments Some there are that complain we spend not the Lords day totally or sufficiently in the House of Sanctification and yet with the same breath they will complain of long Prayers and will of purpose decline Cathedral Churches and never come at them because Divine Service is continued there an hour longer at least than in Parochial Congregations But how can time be better spent than in this Holy Temple that commands all time The Sabbath was made for man under the Law and the Lords day is made for man under the Gospel yet it is called the Lords day and not mans it is made for man that is for the instruction of the Soul and the refreshing of his Body but it is his day to whose honor it is set apart for the spiritual worship of Christians in all days much more in this is terminated to God And I speak it with gladness that it is a good sign that the fire of Religion burns within our breasts when we devote our selves so much to pious Exercises on Sunday that a great number are loth to hear of external joy and gladness The more observant we are of this time the more we please God
holden of it A Resurrection Text out of the first Sermon that ever the Apostles Preached upon the Resurrection preached in their full vigour of sanctification immediately after they had received the Holy Ghost to let us know that Whitsunday was principally ordeined for this end to make Easter-day famous over all the world for when God filled Peter and all that were gathered together with that new wine of the Spirit which is mentioned in the begining of the Chapter what did it produce in the first instant what effect did immediately flow from it as an essential property read and mark from my Text onward to the end of ver 36. this is the nail altogether struck upon this is the Theme gone over and over that God had raised up Jesus the Book of the Psalms did prove it and the Disciples were witnesses of it O mystery of mysteries and wonder of Miracles the first lesson of faith the Corner-stone of the Building the most necessary Pillar of the Gospel indeed the bloudy passion of our Saviour which was delivered us in the former verse and the victory over death after that bloudy Passion which I shall instance upon in this verse these two are the supporters of all Christianity take away these two Pillars as Samson broke down those that held up the Theatre of the Philistins and you ruinate the whole Tower of Faith and demolish it to nothing Very fit it was therefore that all the tongues wherewith the Holy Ghost had endowed the Apostles with utterance to speak should concur in this one point and go no further in their first days labour namely that Christ was become the first fruits of them that slept that his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh see corruption And because this Sermon of St. Peters in the forenamed respects is such an illustrious testimony of our Lords resurrection therefore both Eastern and Western Churches have selected this Chapter of old to be the second Lesson for the Evening Prayer of this great Festival so our Liturgie reteins it which never recedes from good antiquity and where our Church hath gone before me in her judgment I thought it meet to follow her at this time in my duty and to parcel out my Text from that great variety which the Chapter affords upon this occasion in these words c. The division that I will give you upon this verse shall be easie to conceive and that will help out some things which are a little difficult in the handling of the parts First here is the Resurrection of our Saviour barely and positively affirmed whom God hath raised up Secondly the complement of it God loosed withall the pains of death Thirdly the necessity of it for it was not possible that He should be holden of death He humbled himself and became obedient to death therefore He was raised up He undertook the death of the Cross being fast bound in misery and iron but as fast as they bound him God loosed him from those pains neither were these things arbitrary accidental obnoxious to any human impediment but contrived and fixed by Gods inevitable Decree ought not Christ to suffer and so to enter into his glory says the mouth of truth and wisdom There is an oportuit upon both he must suffer and he must overcome those sufferings Oportuit the former must be and it was impossible he should fail of the latter Or you compose this Text with the Points of the former Text immediately connexed with it and see the amends made by Gods mercy for the Jews fury Ye have slain that holy one says the Apostle but what follows God hath raised him up Ye have taken and crucified him but see the alteration God hath loosened all the pains and pangs of death He must not escape your hands it was permitted unto you from above he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God And he must escape all his ghostly enemies sin and death and hell for it was impossible he should be holden of them Whom God hath raised up Since the world began there was never any thing opposed so much as this that Christ rose again the third day according to the Scriptures For what shall we think of others when the Apostles of our Lord did not only suspend their belief when tidings were brought of it but with some disdain rejected it For when Mary Magdalen and Joanna and Mary the Mother of James did tell the Eleven what the Angel had testified their words seemed to them as idle tales and they believed them not Luc. xxiv 11. Nay when Christ had appeared to ten of that company Thomas only being out of the way they could not all perswade him that they had seen the Lord alive Was ever any Tenet of faith so difficultly received even into the hearts of the best men Then you may be sure that when this good seed fell into worse soil it was miserably choaked with thorns A sudden and a strong Faction combined against it instantly after it began to sound abroad Acts iv 2. The Priests and the Captain of the Temple and the Sadduces were grieved at no other part of their doctrine but this That they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead Josephus says that as long as the Sadduces continued till they were all destroyed they became as horrid and savage as beasts in cruelty raging against those that affirmed the immortality of soul and body When that Doctrine spread it self abroad and came to the Philosophers of Athens Some censured Paul for a babler some for a setter forth of strange Gods Acts xvii 18. And St. Chrysostome says upon it that Anastasia which signifies the Resurrection was accounted a God which the Christians only worshipped The same Paul opening the knowledge of the Gospel before Festus and King Agrippa that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead Festus broke out in reviling at that passage Paul thou art beside thy self much learning doth make thee mad I would the opposition had gone no further but St. Austin and Epiphanius in their Catalogues of Hereticks rehearse more Adversaries against the Resurrection of Christ than any other doctrinal Point that concerns our Salvation Simon Magus wrote many books against it Basilides a venemous Dogmatist taught that Christ as he was led to be crucified vanished away by Art and Praestigiation and that Simon of Cyrene who bore his Cross some part of the way was put to death in his stead but that Jesus did never die and therefore was never raised from the dead The dross of so many Heresies was stained through these wicked wits that the Church might enjoy truth more triumphantly after such great resistance But let me go on with the Apostles question Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead He that created the soul and body
in the beauty of holiness few or none would break the publick Order and decent Customs of his Church but the whole Congregation generally rose and sate fell down or kneel'd and were uncovered together He liked Ceremony no where so well as in Gods House as little as you would in your own was his phrase but could by no means endure to see in this Complemental Age men ruder with God than with Men bow lowly and often to one another but never kneel to God He thought Superstition a less sin than Irreverence and Profaneness and held the want of Reverence in Religious Assemblies amongst the greatest sins of England and would prove it from many Histories that a careless and profane discharge of Gods Worship was a most sure Prognostick of Gods anger and that Peoples ruin When a Stranger Preached for him upon a Sunday he would often read the Prayers himself and with that reverence and devotion that was very moving to all his Auditors And upon Wednesdays and Fridays he would frequently do the like and thereby engaged many to resort better to them always assuring them God would soonest hear our Prayers in the Communion of Saints Sometimes when he had occasion to go into the City and saw slender Congregations at Prayer he would much wonder at his Countrymen that had so little love to holy Prayer but when he heard of any that would not go to Church to Prayer unless it were accompanied with a Sermon he would nor scruple to say he scarce thought them Christians and never deemed any Divine to be really famous and successful in his Preaching who could not prevail with his People to come frequently to Sacraments and Prayers He was a great lover of Psalmody and above all a great admirer of Davids Psalms so full of Divine Praises and of all Religious Mysteries great helps to Contemplation apt to beget a Divine Charity being a perfect supply for all our wants joyful to Angels grievous to Devils filling the heart with spiritual delights and a kind of representation of the Celestial felicity That he constantly call'd upon his People to be present at them and at all parts of the Churches Prayers remembring them that after our Blessed Saviour had cast our the Sheep and Oxen yet he still called His House the House of Prayer to shew that though those Sacrifices were at an end yet this should never end and therefore the Apostles themselves after his death resorted to the Temple at the Hours of Prayer He ever took great care to procure a grave and able Curate a Master of Arts at least for the instruction of the younger sort in the Church Catechism Visiting of the Sick Burial of the Dead Preaching of Funeral Sermons Christnings and Marriages These he generally left to the Curate for his Perquisits and better encouragement and would often complain that in great Parishes there was not competent maintenance to keep many Curats under the Parish Priest that might be able to live at the Altar and better discharge all private and domestick duties of piety sorrowing that herein Popish Countries were better provided for who had ten for one that wait at the Altar there more than we have among us and therefore though he would much recommend daily visiting of the Flock from house to house yet found it was impossible for one Minister to perform the Publick and Private Duties both Private Baptisms he would never countenance unless in Cases of necessity or some great convenience as being expresly contrary to the Constitutions of our Church and greatly derogatory to the dignity of the Sacrament to be dispensed in a Parlour or a Chamber and not with that Solemnity that our initiation into Gods Church required and therefore greatly commended the Lutherans who baptized none at home but the sick and the spurious Funeral Sermons though he rarely preached himself yet he defended them to be no Novelty brought in with the Reformation for John Fisher Bishop of Rochester hath one in Print for Henry the Seventh and in Edward the Sixth his time an Herse was set up in St. Pauls Church for King Francis the First of France and a Funeral Sermon likewise preached for him by Dr. Ridly Bishop of Rochester While he lived in this Parish he would give God thanks he got a good Temporal Estate Parishioners of all sorts were very kind and free to him divers Lords and Gentlemen several Judges and Lawyers of eminent quality were his constant Auditors whom he found like Zenas honest Lawyers conscientious to God and lovers of the Church of England and very friendly and bountiful to their Minister Sir Julius Caesar never heard him preach but he would send him a broad Piece and he did the like to others and he would often send a Dean or a Bishop a pair of Gloves because he would not hear Gods Word gratis Judge Jones never went to the Bench at the beginning of a Term but he fasted and prayed the day before and oftentimes got Dr. Hacket to come and pray with him This strict Judge condemned one for stealing a Common-Prayer Book out of his Church whom he could not save the Judge would by no means forgive him because of the sacredness of the place but accepted well of his Intercession and said he should prevail in another matter and when the Doctor saw he could not succeed he thanked the Judge for his severity Anno 1631 the Bishop of Lincoln made him Archdeacon of Bedford whither he ever after went once a year commonly the Week after Easter and made the Clergy a Speech upon some Controversial Head seasonable to those Times exhorting them to keep strictly to the Orders of the Church to all regular conformity to the Doctrine and Discipline by Law established without under or over doing asserting in his opinion that Puritanism lay on both sides whosoever did more than the Church commanded as well as less were guilty of it And that he only was a true Son of the Church that broke not the boundals of it either way About this time of King Charles the First 's Reign it was justly said Stupor mundi Clerus Anglicanus and whereas in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reformation Siquis's had been set up in St. Pauls If any man could understand Greek there was a Deanry for him if Latine a good Living but in the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James the Clergy of the Reformed Church of England grew the most learned of the World for by the restlessnes of the Roman Priests they were trained up to Arms from their youth and by the Wisdom and Example of King James had wrote so many learned Tractates as had almost quite driven their Adversaries out of the Pit and forced them to yield the Field So that now we were only unhappy in our own differences at home But above all the Bishop admired that People should complain in those days for want of Preaching wherein lived
Rebellions Julian the Apostate reading the Bible with a malicious intention to quarrel at it said that Christianity was a Doctrin of too much patience but he could never find any place in it to object that it was a Doctrin of Rebellion If the Administration of a Kingdom were out of frame our Bishop maintain'd it were better to leave the redress to God than to a seditious Multitude and that the way to continue purity of Religion was not by Rebellion but by Martyrdom To resist lawful Powers by seditious Arms and unlawful Authority was not the Primitive and Apostolical Christianity but Popish Doctrin not taught the first 300 years but much about 1000 years after our Saviour's ascension into Heaven by the Pope of Rome the very time the Spirit of God said Satan should be let loose viz. by Gregory the VII who first taught the Germans to rebel against the Emperor Henry the fourth Yet this poison was now given the English People to drink out of the Papal Cup while they pretended quite contrary But our Bishop ever asserted this was not the way to pull down Antichrist but Protestant Religion and therefore he warn'd the Non-conforming Divines with whom he lately treated to have a care how they cried up a War and became famous only in the Congregation as Erostratus by setting the Temple on fire To prevent that fatal Bill of Root and Branch the Committee condescended to print the Liturgick Psalms in King James's Translation to expunge all Apocryphal Lessons and alter some passages in the body of the Book of Common-Prayer and certain other things which divers of the Presbyterian Divines said were satisfactory save that the furious Party of them put the Commons upon the violent way in particular old Mr. John White told many of the party who still pressed at Conferences for further Abatement of Conformity and the Laws established Time would come when they would wish they had been content with what was offered While this Committee was sitting the House of Commons having now entred upon the debate of taking away the whole Government Ecclesiastical by Bishops Deans and Chapters together with all their Revenue several Members of that House being friends to the Hierarchy mov'd that no mans Freehold might be taken away in Parliament without hearing them first speak for themselves whereupon the whole Committee imposed the Task upon Dr. Hacket forthwith to depart to his own House and Study and meet them again to morrow morning prepared to speak as the Advocate of the Church of England in the behalf of Deans and Chapters The Speech it self I found among his Papers which in regard that it was never yet published at large I have thought meet to add as follows May it please you Mr. Speaker and this Honourable House OVr expectations to be heard by Council in this great Cause hath brought us unto you most unprepared to deliver that which might be utter'd upon so copious Subject Yet since we have that favour from this Honourable House that we may be heard or some one of us in our own persons somewhat shall be offered to your prudent considerations by the meanest and most unpractised in pleading and forensecal causes of all those that attend you this day The unexpectedness to be thus employed it was imposed upon me but yesterday afternoon as my Brethren know is joyned with another disadvantage that we have not heard upon what crimes or offences of the Deans and Chapters so great a Patrimony as they enjoy is called in question that we might purge our selves of such imputations but only reports that fly abroad have arrived at our ears that Cathedral and Collegiate Churches with their Chapters are accounted by some to be of no use and convenience I aim at perspicuity and therefore I will cast what I have to say into as clear a method as I am able The use and convenience of Deans and Chapters I reduce unto two heads quoad res quoad personas first in regard of some things of great moment secondly in regard of divers persons whom I know the Justice of this Honourable House will take into consideration And first since God hath called his House the House of Prayer I shall keep a right order without derogation to any thing that follows to present them unto you as very convenient for the service of Prayer which is offered up to God in them daily both in his Morning and in his Evening Sacrifice In the antient Primitive Church as many learned Gentlemen in this Honourable House do know and as my Brethren that assist me can attest unto it the Christians did every day meet at Prayers and for the most part at the Blessed Sacrament if persecution did not distract them Then it is fit in a well-govern'd Church that there should be some places in imitation of them where daily Thanksgivings and Supplications should be made unto God And whereas it cannot be supposed but that divers remiss Christians do neglect oftentimes their daily duty of Prayer and some are forced to omit that length to which they would produce their Prayer by their multitude of business it is fit that there should be a publick duty of Prayer in some principal places where many are gathered together to supply the defects that are committed by private men And though I am sure the publick Duty of Prayer shall find great acceptance and approbation before so Christian an Auditory yet I confess I have heard abroad that the Service of Cathedral Churches gives offence to divers for the superexquisiteness of the Musick especially in late years so that it is not edifying nor intelligible to the hearers For this Objection in part I will confess it is strong and forcible in part I will mollifie it It is a just complaint Mr. Speaker and we humbly desire the assistance of this Honourable House for the reformation of it that Cathedral Musick for a great part of it serves rather to tickle the ear than to affect the heart with godliness and that which should be intended for devotion vanisheth away into quavers and air we heartily wish the amendment of it and that it were reduced to the form which Athanasius commends ut legentibus sint quà m cantantibus similiores But though these fractions and affected exquisiteness be laid aside yet the solemn Praise of God in Church Musick hath ever been accounted pious and laudable yea even that which is compounded with some art and elegancy for St. Paul speaks as if he had newly come from the Quire of Asaph requiring us to praise God in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Surely he would not have exprest himself in such variety of phrase I think if he had not approved variety of Musick in the Service of the Lord. Some will say per adventure What if this daily duty of making Prayers to God were intermitted in Cathedral Churches might it not be supplied in other Parochial Churches I have but thus much to
nothing but the ruine that came He was naturally of a very pleasant and chearful temper but sad news made his soul retire a great way further into him and quite of another humour Indeed no man was more troubled and angustiated in mind for the miseries and distresses of this Church and Kingdom I have often heard his deep Sighs and his great Complaints when he did profess he did only breath but not live I have seen the heaviness of his eyes when he spake nothing his grave and ripe wisdom made him apprehend Fears more deeply than other people did But when his Majesties sufferings in Person came no man could conjecture the load of sorrow that was upon him He would say he felt his old heart wither within him and could not but sigh away his spirit he would often repent He had done no more by Preaching and Writing to prevent it and after the Kings Death frequently desired nothing else but to depart from this world of sin and suffering crying out Satur sum omnium quae video aut audio But next to the Death of his Royal Majesty he would bewail the cutting up the pleasant Vine of the Church of England and alienating the Churches Patrimony together with those of the King Queen Loyal Nobility and Gentry whereby the whole Kingdom of England was then in the hands of unjust Possessors For the Citie 's abetting this bloudy War He was now grown to a strong aversation toward London the place where he was born baptized bred and nothing could ever move him to go thither more until the Earls of Holland and Norwich both requested his Assistance at their expected deaths The Earl of Holland was very penitent for that he had deserted so good a Master in the beginning of the Wars Norwich was very chearful in the comforts of a good Conscience He would much admire how God sometimes gives secret admonition of things contrary to all humane expectations for the Earl of Holland had many Messengers came and told him they had Votes enough and to spare for his life yet nothing would perswade him but he should die within a few days and so he did The Earl of Norwich that knew of no friends yet would not believe but he should escape and so he did After this he return'd to his Rural retirement to end his Old Age in continual Prayer and Study omitting all exercise of body whereupon he fell into a great fit of sickness and upon his recovery the famous Dr. Harvy enjoyned him two things to renew his chearful conversation and take moderate walks for exercise assuring him that in his practise of Physick since these times he observed more people died of grief of mind than of any other disease and that his studious and sedentary life would contract him frequent sickness unless he used seasonable exercise Whereupon afterwards for his healths sake he would every Morning before he setled to his study take large walks very early to make him expectorate phlegm and other cloudy and fuliginous vapours whereby he afterwards continued Vegete and healthful to the last At this time he did much good in the Country by keeping many Gentlemen firm to the Protestant Religion who were much assaulted by lurking Priests who sought to perswade them that it was then necessary to joyn with the Roman Church or else they could be of none for they saw as the others said the Protestant Church quite destroyed But the good Doctor advised them better that the Church of England was still in being and not destroyed rather refined by her sufferings God then tried us as Silver is tried in the hot fire of persecution which purifies but wastes not Then especially our Church resembled the Primitive which grew up in persecutions and as the Earth is said to be the Lords in all its Fulness so the Church of England was the Lords in all its penury and emptiness And in these lowest of times he was full of faith and courage that himself should still live to see a better world one day and would greatly blame any of the Kings Friends who despaired of seeing the time of the restitution of all things His opinion was the Youths at Westminster spun a Spiders Web that could not last long and therefore was very confident of his Majesties return and would instance in Josephs case who was sometime sold for a slave imprisoned as a Malefactor yet afterwards advanced to be Governour of the Kingdom and in David who was hunted over all the Mountains of Israel yea and forced to fly his Country too and yet after brought to the Throne and also in Caius Marius who was forced to hide himself in the Flags of a Fenny ditch from the pursuers of Sylla so that the Historian asks Quis eum fuisse Consulem aut futurum crederet Who would ever have thought him to have been Consul or should live to be Consul again And therefore when any would say There was but little hope he would answer Tum votorum locus est cum nullus est spei They ought to pray the more and Prayer was a good reserve at the last cast Accordingly he would acknowledge that his many cares for the welfare of the King and Church of England did often send him to his Prayers but gave God thanks that his Prayers did always expel his cares After a day spent in Prayer he would tell an especial Friend he found in himself a marvelous illumination and chearfulness in the Evening and that as usually thick clouds in Winter cause dark weather till they were dissolved in rain or snow but then the Sun would shew himself and the air grow pleasant again So sorrows and cares cloud the mind and soul till we are able to dissolve them into devotion and holy Prayers and then post nubila Phoebus and professed nothing more contributed to his divine joys than his often reading and meditation upon Davids Psalms which he conceived they had done very wisely who set them in the midst of the Bible as the Fourth Commandment for Religious Assemblies was by God himself in the midst of the Decalogue In those doleful days that was done in St. Paul's London which Selymus threatned to St. Peter's at Rome to Stable his horses in the Church and feed them at the High Altar whereupon our Doctor was very confident their ruine grew ripe apace and not long after hapned the death of Oliver of which being suddenly told and the manner of it he only said as Tully of a Villain Mortem quam non potuit optare obiit and that we should see within a little while all the world would stink of him and disdain his Arbitrary and bloudy usurpations and accordingly in a very short time we saw all things incline to work about the happy revolution towards the accomplishment whereof no man was more active in stirring up the Nobility Gentry Clergy and People to desire a free Parliament and Petition General Monk
to beg the Kings leave to let him go home before the end of the Session sometimes in frosty Winter weather to be like the good Pastor among his Sheep where they might hear his voice at Christmas and the other great Feasts and accounted silence a Womans vertue but not a Bishops who if sickness and great Affairs molested not was still bound to labour in the Word and Doctrine and held it a mistake to prefer Governing before Preaching whereas it was ever contrary as appeared by 1 Tim. 15.17 Let the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine and therefore the Bishop alwayes preached and the Presbyter never before him but when deputed or in his absence so that when he was sometimes told by his friends that he was now Miles emeritus and might lawfully lay aside his Preaching pains in his extreme old age he would by no means consent but still lay-by his other Studies upon Saturday afternoon and retire to his preaching Meditations and for the most part preacht once upon Sunday mornings both to profit others and to warm himself Three Sundays at least every Month he would preach up and down his Diocess and not only in his chief City of Lichfield or near to his own Cathedral but like to a benign Star would irradiate all places within his Orb He would often take Coach and go more than seven miles sometimes nine or ten upon Sunday morning and yet be at Church before most of the Parish and go home again to dinner and yet alwayes have the full Service of the Church before Sermon and many times afterwards rectify disorders in Churches and sometimes differences about Seats or Pews This Custom he continued till he died often mentioning the words of Bishop Andrews who was wont to institute all his Ministers in curam meam tuam and therefore thought he must no more hide his Talent in a Rochet than they might theirs under a Cassock Thus was his diligence equal to any of the Ancients and his success answerable reducing multitudes in all places to piety and conformity with the Church of England almost like another Gregorius Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neocaesarea a great and populous City who when he came thither found but seventeen Christians and when he died gave God thanks he left but seventeen Pagans This great success did owe it self not only to his frequent preaching and diligent study but to his eximious piety and perpetual prayer Formerly he had taken great pains in the Study of Antiquity and for Ecclesiastical History especially he was inferior to very few no man could give a better account of the Travels of the Apostles after the day of Pentecost and the Conversion of the World by the Primitive Christians and for the History of the Reformation after the second Pentecost no man I think could give the like Narrative how miraculously in all places it was effected In our own Church there was nothing whereof he was ignorant all the Councils and passages of the Reformation from the first beginning or Matrix thereof he perfectly understood But of late years he would say his Studies were not to be more wise and learned but more holy and good and therefore laid aside Polemical Divinity wholly and his principal study were Cases of Conscience Canon Law and the Liturgies of the Antient Church in which he was very skilful yet would often complain he found this last an unlearned study and much against his own nature who was a lover of Philology and Rationality But he much wondred that any learned men could contrary to the practice of the whole Church lay aside all use of Liturgies even against the sense of Calvin himself who wishes there might be in every Church an uniform Liturgy for preservation of Unity and prevention of Vainglory and other inconveniencies from which it should be unlawful for Ministers to depart but especially in our Church where so many young men are ordain'd he wondred any wise man would be against a set Liturgie and refer all the Service of God to free Prayer and would assert that it was more easie to marr than to mend the Book of Common-Prayer and therefore we ought not to adventure the one for the other but in regard the Minister of the Parish was permitted to compose a Prayer of his own before his Sermon he thought no Sectary had cause to complain Bidding of Prayer before Sermon he never practised and said no more did Dr. Ravis and Dr. Fletcher Archbishop Whitgift's Chaplains afterwards Bishops who drew up the 55. Canon whom he knew very well and often heard preach and always used a Form of their own and no Bishops Articles ever examined or found fault with it and was certainly used by St. Ambrose in Antiquity and therefore in the Convocation 1640 it was carried for a Form And although it was his mind that all Students were not to be tied up to Canonical hours but such only whose Devotion need not be interrupted by necessary study and employment yet he would rarely intermit them himself unless want of health or very extraordinary business constrained him In a morning he would rarely permit any to visit or disturb him but held that time was made for God rather than for men as the Historian says of Charles the fifth Manè frequentior cum Deo quà m cum hominibus sermo therefore the first thing after his sleep was his private Devotion with reading of the holy Bible Psalms and Chapters then gentle walking for health then Study then Publick Prayer then Private Prayers again before Dinner presently after Dinner to his Private Prayers again and then to his Study unless Ecclesiastical Affairs or sutable Company prevented him for an hour or so and of all sorts of Prayer he would especially abound in thanksgiving using St. Paul's words often In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God and wish that our Common Prayer had more Forms to that purpose and would sometimes wonder that when the world had been so cloyed with Religious Orders Predicants Humiliats Oratorians Mendicants and many other titles yet there was never any called Eucharistici a Congregation appointed to give God thanks for all the good things wherewith this World is replenished In the Evening of every day Recount thy own actions and the divine preservations was his rule to others and customary to himself and to pray for the pardon of the one and praise God for the receit of the other And in all his Prayers day and night he was a continual sollicitor for the peace of the Catholick Church All his counsels like Melanchton's were ever moderate and he often wished such a Form of Prayer were composed that all Christians might joyn in being a great Enemy to sharpness and violence in the matters of Religion and would often use Erasmus his words Mihi adeò est invisa discordia ut
than the man that rides him And in this circumstance likewise Satan was egregiously cozened to his exceeding contumely for when Christ permitted himself to be lifted up from the earth it seemed to Satan that it was his strength and power which carried him away and though much unwilling to be caught up in that wise yet being an impotent man he could not help it Thus the evil Spirit was deluded to ascribe that to his own power that came to pass by the hand of God Like the Fly in the Fable sitting upon the Axeltree of the Cart when it was moved apace took it to it self that the Cart was driven so fast and cries out see what a dust I make So this evil Angel either took up Christ in his hands in that body which he had assumed and thought it was in his power to stay him from falling or as spiritual substances in some mens Philosophy can move a corporeal thing by emanation of vertue which goes from them though they do not touch it as the intelligences move the heavens and so Satan not touching Christ at all might think it was his force and efficacy that snatcht him up from the earth to a Pinacle of the Temple But the former way is more likely as if he would shew him how the Text of David was literally meant He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up Beloved as the Divel did arrogate that he took up Christ on high by his own force and arm yet it was nothing so In like manner he thinks that all those hold their tenure of him who are exalted by wicked means he took them up to a Pinacle of the Temple he raised them up to civil honour Indeed wicked persons live as if they owed their service rather to Satan than to God for their preferment but it is the Lord that sets both good and bad in the seat of dignity the powers that be they are from God For this cause I have raised thee up he spake it to wicked Pharaoh that I might make my power known in thee Let mighty ones therefore remember they are Gods liege men and not the Devils And they that rise up like smoke from hell fire like smoke they shall vanish into nothing So I have shewed it was not in the power of Satan to carry our Lord whither he would but Christ suffered this Assumption of Satans out of patience not out of infirmity and suffered himself to be lifted up on the Cross and at last he came to the third Assumption to be received up into glory There is a third thing remains to be satisfied which every one will expect what a gazing sight would this be for all the Region over which Christ did fly and for the populous City of Jerusalem It must needs be an object upon which all men would cast their eyes and why is it not more spoken of in the Gospel and objected to our Saviour by his enemies It is no solid answer to say it hapned in the night and none were aware of it For the tentation which follows must needs be done in the clear light when he shewed the Son of God all the Kingdoms and glory of the world in the twinkling of an eye The true answer is that Satan was more over-reach'd in this surmise than in all the rest For he thought by this hovering aloft in the Air to make Christ a spectacle to all the world that men might think him some Inchantor or Magician by riding above in the clouds in the mean time says St. Chrysostome Christ made himself invisible that he was seen of no man the Devil being no way privy to it that he did abide invisible So Joh. viii ult the Jews took up stones to cast at Christ but he hid himself and went out of the Temple going through the midst of them what was this to hide himself and to go through the midst of them But to pass through the throng invisible as among others Euthymius noteth No point of cozenage and sorcery was practised more of old by the Impes of Satan than these flyings aloft these aereal supervolitations to the wonder of the world Nero Caesar was given much to Incantations and to experiments above nature especially in this kind Suetonius says that one of his Flatterers would undertake to fly up to heaven at his command but got a tumbling cast for his labour insomuch that some of the parties bloud did light upon Nero himself as he sate to behold this new sight in the Theater I will not say that this was Simon the Sorcerer spoken of Acts viii because he in the Theater did personate Icarus in sport but Simons was a solemn undertaking to confute the Doctrine of Peter and Paul by flying up to heaven So it is in the book called Clemens his Constitutions that this child of the Devil began to take his flight up on high openly before all the people of Rome and at the instant Prayers of the Apostle Peter he fell down headlong and brake his legs Because that Book is justly suspected for an adulterate work Arnobius who wrote in the Reign of Dioclesian to all the Gentiles says as much Cursum Simonis Magi nominato Christo evanuisse The flight of Simon Magus was cross'd in the name of Jesus Christ This was grown so common either by Mathematical engines or by Witchcraft that every Impostor did begin to profess it Graeculus esuriens in Coelum jusseris ibit says the Satyrist The Prince of the Air thought to amuse the world and to do stupendious works in his own Territories but he that sits on high shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision These are but foolish Antiques and Mimicks of the proper sending up of our spirit to God by desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ by having our conversation in heaven and delighting in those joys which are laid up for the Saints and by fervent Prayer which carries up the heart to God upon the wings of Zeal and Innocency so the Psalm mentions how a man may raise himself even unto the top of the holy City which is the new Jerusalem in heaven My soul flyeth unto the Lord before the morning watch I say before the morning watch And so much for the second general Point the manner of this tentation which was by Assumption Then the Devil taketh him up c. The holy City is the Locus communis the place largely taken to which he was carried out of the Wilderness and that is the ground to work upon for the third general Observation of the Text. This must needs be the Periphrasis of Jerusalem because God had a Temple no where else but there and St. Luke hath spared this Periphrasis and named the place he took him to Jerusalem and set him on a Pinacle of the Temple The eminent honour which this place had for many Sacred
great things for them Why because they obeyed not his word They knew it was not their Idol but the Lord who had deliver'd them yet they are said to have forgot the Lord because they worshipped him after their own inventions and did not obey him Next to this weigh but the actions of Micah of Mount Ephraim Jud. xvii he that can but spel words and put them together shall find his Mother dedicated her silver to the Lord for her Son to make a graven Image Micah had these Images for the honour of God and having those abominations still profest himself a Priest of the Lord therefore this must be his crime that he worshipped God in his Images Cajetan and Abulensis are of that judgment that where the Idol hath a peculiar name as Baal Ashteroth the people seduced served the very Idol but where the Idol had no peculiar name as in my instance of Micah's Images and the Calf that Aaron made there they served the true God in the Idol If this be not directly the Popish Doctrine the Sun hath no light in it To be even with their evasion every way the very Heathen as well as they could apprehend the eternal God by the light of nature worshipt him in their Idols and Penates few or none of them thought the matter of an Idol to be a God Seneca says says that by Jupiter standing in the Capitol with lightning in his hand they understood the Preserver and Governor of all things the Maker of the world Mark now nether the Jewish nor Heathenish Idolaters did any more than worship the true God in or before or with their Images Give them audience by the way how they profess both moral and natural Philosophy for their defence Moral first how he that honoureth the Image of the King honoreth the King himself this is called St. Athanasius and St. Basil's morality and so it is but Lord how little to the case The Arrians contended that glory was to be given to one eternal God but if one were the person of the Father another of the Son there were two Eternals to be glorified those Fathers answer the Son is the Image of the Father the express image of his person and the brightness of his glory and he that honour'd that Image of the King honour'd the King himself Is there not main difference between the carved Image which stands for Christ's manhood and between his personal filiation wherein He is the Image of his Father The outward Image stands for Christ by humane imagination it hath no eminent undeniable right to present him but Religious Adoration is founded upon that Union which is personal substantial relative by divine ordination And for the moral rule he that honours the King will honour his Image it holds only in negative honour a good Subject will not deface the Kings Picture in a despiteful spleen against the exemplar no more do we dishonour the Images of Christ and the Saints unless where flagrant Idolatry is committed to them then with good zeal they may be burnt or defaced to do God honour against the Creature Is their natural Philosophy any sounder 't is Aristotle's Idem est motus in imaginem exemplar his meaning is the abstractive understanding considers the abstracted notion of a material thing and the thing it self at once the verbum intellectus as it is called the intellective word and the real thing understood at once This is all he says but they have made a matter of it that when I see Christ's Image and rememorate Christ upon it and then worship him I must worship the Image together with him To deliver you quickly out of these thorny passages I say there cannot be the same motion of the mind towards this Image and the Exemplar for the mind is fixt upon the Image as upon a Sign and upon an Object much inferiour to the Exemplar The Image is a thing create Christ uncreate they confess a respective difference that Christ is adored simply and for himself the Image in regard of similitude and reference to the principal The Image is not the terminus of worship for it self but for Christs sake therefore the motion of mans heart toward Christ and the Image cannot be one but divers When I desire the means because of the end here are two distinct actions and motions of the will to wit election of means intention for the end But with them the worship of Christ and his Image is one and the same physical act of the body at once they talk that it is virtually twofold but if they hold there is the same motion of the mind too to both at once that will make it complete idolatry No marvail you see if you have quite lost the second Commandment out of some Portresses and Breviaries when they have found it again in their larger Missals they will not keep it When men have rampar'd witty shifts against truth it is in vain to tell them from S. John Babes beware of idols or from St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What agreement hath the Temple of the Lord with idols they will tush at it and say they mean the Idols of Pagans St. Pet. 1. Ep. c. iv v. 3. speaks against lusts excess of wines revellings abominable Idolatries Speaks he not against the lust and drunkenness and riot of Christians verily and as manifesty against Christian Idolatries But if they toy with the Scripture that is against them let them point to that Scripture that doth license their religious honour done to Images for faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God What not one Text to suit for them then belike it holds of Tradition nay Suarez says neither Scripture nor Tradition hath commended it but invaluit ex praxi consuetudine ecclesiae practise and custom hath allowed it How easily if time did not shorten me could I shew that for the first 500 years neither the Image of Christ or his Saints were set up in any Church so little was the practise of worshipping them on foot A little of antiquity will spend but a little time says Origen Who having his right wits after the Commandment of God will look upon Images to pray to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or by the sight thereof offer prayers thereby to him that is resembled St. Austin upon the 113. Psalm hath a full Sermon of it these few words are the pith quis adorat vel orat intuens simulacrum who is he that doth either pray or worship looking on an Image who is he marry an Idolater Procopius hath a memorable passage that from twenty Generations after Adam the Son did ever survive the Father which is most natural but Thare buried his Son Haran who was the first that made Images and God made him an example for doing a work so hateful to him I will confine my self to one instance more Serenus Bishop of Marseilles offended that some
world and therefore Dulia a petty Worship will serve for them to cross this absurdity I confess that God is honourable alike as in one Appellation so in another but our eternal happiness is granted unto us by this Appellation more than any other But when as Samuel came to anoint one of the Sons of Jessai for a King Eliab was beautiful in his eyes and so was Abinadab and so was Shammah but God would have the Horn of Oyl poured only upon the head of David So let every tongue confess that the names of Jehovah Elohim Immanuel and Christ are reverend and glorious and worthy that our knees should stoop unto them as low as Earth and our lips carry them as high as Heaven But Peter hath wrought Miracles by the Name of Jesus and Paul hath preach'd glorious things of the Name of Jesus therefore my Soul and Body shall be prostrate to that Name especially which is wonderful and holy The neglect of this is an undutiful omission yet I reckon it not in the place of the greatest sins But the greatest reproach and dishonour which the Name of God doth suffer is in the mouth of the Swearer and Blasphemer that is the Tongue whereof St. James speaks that is set on fire from Hell Yea and Nay the trial of all truth is accounted in this dissolute Age precise and simple communication What God is he that you swear by so often Is it not he that gave you breath and can stop your breath at a moment Whose Bloud is that you swear by Even that Bloud which should wash away your sins is unto you an occasion of more pollution Whose Wounds are these you swear by Even those Wounds wherein you should bury your sins make them live unto condemnation as St. Hierom said Ipse aer constupratur scelestis vocibus that ribald obscene talk did adulterate the air So I may say of Oaths that are vomited up from the superfluity of sin Ipse aer profanatur scelestis vocibus the Air is prophaned and unhallowed by abusing the Name of God Lord to what an excess this windy airy sin of Swearing is come to I think for one reason the Devil may be called the Prince of the Air because he is the Prince of such blasphemous language And so much for the Honour due to the Name of God But secondly to Honour his Name and to disobey his Word is to imitate those disloyal Subjects of the Emperour Maximilian they called Maximilian scornfully Regem Regum a King of Kings it was because the Nobles that were under him lived like Kings without subjection or obedience Or it is to make such a God to our selves as the Church of Rome makes Bishops in the East the one is called Bishop of Antioch another called Bishop of Jerusalem and Title enough they have if that would maintain them but nothing else Keep your Masters Commandments and love his Ordinances to do them and then God is Honoured Concerning Obedience read and observe the life and death of Saul he would sacrifice to God and that of the fattest Cattel among all the Flocks of the Amalekites Why this was Honour one would think No it was not juxta Verbum Domini according to the word which was brought unto him by the mouth of Samuel and God prefers Obedience before Sacrifice This is the reason says Aquine in Sacrifice we offer up the flesh of a beast but in Obedience we offer up our own will unto God The Jews did so much esteem the killing Letter of the Law that they wore it as the chief ornament of their Vesture in the Fringe of their Garments as Frontlets before their eyes and about the wrists of their hands mark but that before their eyes for meditation about their arms for practise and execution There is a rule in Physick says a learned Bishop Per brachium fit judicium de corde The Veins come from the heart to the hand and there Physicians take their Crisis by their Pulse and motion So it is in Divinity you must make conscience of your knowledge by your practice and obey the word David held the word of God super mille pondo auri argenti above thousands of Gold and Silver Solomon esteemed the Law to be as bright as the Sun in the Firmament Praeceptum Domini lucidum illuminans oculos You have heard of Idolaters that have worshipped the Sun and Moon Much more let true Believers reverence the Law of God which is brighter than the Sun in the Firmament for so Elias thought and he covered his face with a Mantle as soon as ever the Lord spake as if the voice of the Lord were eyes sufficient to see by and he needed not the eyes of this body But far above Kings and Prophets and all the Sons of men the holy Angels are so ready to do Gods will that you shall scarce once read in Scripture that they were bid to go of Gods Errand but before you could say Do this they were gone to dispatch the Lords Employment Surely as it was a great abasement for the Word which was God to be united to the flesh of man so it is a great Honour for man who is but flesh to be united in obedience to the Word of God To contract my self in this Point Remember what manner of Law it is that we should obey St. Paul says it is sancta justa bona holy in respect of God that gave it just toward all men in civil commerce good for our selves to live in peace and safety What yoke then is more easie than the yoke of that Law which is holy and just and good Now in the third place as the Air which we hear sounding in our ears by concretion says Philosophy becomes clear water and may be seen so the Word of God which we hear preached unto the Ear in the holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper becomes verbum visibile a visible word in wine and water Honour one and honour the other for though they be twain in the administration yet in effect they are but one and the same one in application of our Saviours merits and the mercies of God one in fruit and efficacy to wash away our sins and to cleanse our Soul For as the bright Constellation which we call the Morning and Evening Star is one and the same So Christ in Baptism is the Morning light which illuminates Infants anon after they peep into the world and Christ in his Last Supper is the Evening Star Vltimum viaticum a light to shew every man the right way out of the world that is going to Heaven As one said of Prayer that it was due unto God when we rise and when we go to bed as a Morning and an Evening Sacrifice and therefore it might be called Clavis diei sera noctis the Key to open the day and the Bolt to lock in the night So I may say of the two Sacraments that they
usage that the souls were put to One at the wheel another drawing water some rowling stones and some twining cords every corner full of fretful industry For if Satan himself take no rest shall his instruments look for ease and softness Six days thou shalt labour God requires no more Nay thou shalt labour seven days Sunday and every day alike and break the Sabbath that is the Doctrine of the Tempter I speak to them that can judge of the secresie of States and the wisdom of the world what a Labyrinth Matchiavel hath put his disciples into to learn his mysteries and principles of treachery How many Centuries of Rules to be observed Which I know not but by the Index it will ask brains to dig and delve for that invention of iniquity but pure Religion and undefiled may be comprehended in the smalest Medal Love thy neighbour as thy self All Liquors that are wholsom for the sound are for the most part simple and unmixed but how many extractions go before how many distillations and decoctions follow after to make a Poyson Cariùs venenum quà m vinum bibitur It is an easie matter to tread the Vintage and press out the juyce of the Grape in great plenty but you must attend the fire and furnace to confect a drachm of poyson So the service of Baal is but vassalage his Priests roar from Morning to Evening they lance and wound their Carkasses fodiunt ad inferos they dig to Hell but the service of the Lord passeth away with joy and melody A sacrifice of Prayer at Morning and a sacrifice of praise at Evening an heart without guile towards men a stedfast belief in Jesus Christ this is all And yet will you say the ways of the Lord are grievous The forbidden fruit you know it was not planted in the skirts of Paradise near to the hedge where any man might reach it but in penetralibus in the midst of the garden as if God had hidden sin from man but that the Serpent made him industrious to find it out Quid irâ laboriosius says Seneca Look upon the pale face of anger and envy Is not that sin a labour Consider the loathing of surfeit and drunkenness is not that sin a labour Go to the Hospitals of incontinent lascivious persons see how their marrow and their bones are consumed is not that sin a labour Will you laugh a little at the pitiful object of a covetous man No we will not sport our selves with his vanity the Lord shall have him in derision but when he denies sleep to his eyes and meat to his belly and rest to his bones to scrape in a mite more to his heap is not that sin a labour Finally let us look upon our Parliament Pioneers such another Band as Judas brought from the High Priest with Lanthorns and Staves to betray Christ three years they kept this Fox in their bosom till at last it eat out their bowels Three years O Lord they did behold thy heavens above and all that time did never think of Hell that was within them Did they not plow up the Seas to and fro in conference with foreign Nations Did they not plow up the Land with their own arm and possessed vaults with all Munition as if they had belonged to the Devils Armory When were any Gentlemen daintily bread put more to labour What use shall we make now of all these instances But cast off the bondage of iniquity be not vassals to the Prince of darkness since Christ hath made you free O but you will say the work of Godliness is very great the Gospel is a yoke the way to glory is streight and narrow So it is And no question if you look not upon the reward to come every course in the world is painful Life and death the fear of God and the power of sin all are vexation of spirit in this corruptible flesh But Beloved who gave you feet and hands Who did frame your body woven with veines and strengthned with sinews What may God Almighty say that did all this As that Roman did to his Son Non te genui Catilinae sed patriae Since you needs must work either in my Vineyard or in the Devils Dunghil turn unto him that gave you limbs to work they were not made to dig into Hell but for my imployment and my glory And so much for the tedious labour to the which the ungodly do enthral themselves Now secondly digging doth imply that they cast about for conveyance and secresie a thing that God did always reprove ever since he divided between the light and darkness The Ferret the Mole and the Cony those creatures that dig into the ground were unclean food to Gods children Lev. xi Spiritus movebatur super expansum Gen. i. the face of the world lay open before God when the Spirit moved upon it but there are an evil sort of men whose Spirit never moves upon the face of the earth but live as if they were strangers in our Horizon and traded with our Antipodes close and subtle fearful of nothing but a revelation you can scarce fathom how deep their soul lies within their body When Saul enquired for the Prophet Samuel every Maiden whom he found carrying a pitcher of water could certifie him that the Man of God did sacrifice on the top of the hill 1 Sam. ix But he was fain to enquire and search over all the Land to find out the Witch of Endor Apemantus the Cynick says Plutarch never thought himself better than in the company but of one more his Partner Timon never thought himself more chearful than when he was quite left alone The face of man will ever carry so much reverence so much of the Image of God that outragious sins will turn away and be loth to appear before it Herodotus reports of certain Indians that were wont to blaspheme the bright Sun when it rose in glory as if the nights were too short to commit filthiness Why but our very name is enough to dispel darkness from our actions We are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greeks as if men and day-children did not differ one letter and they that lurk and retire like Sisera in the Tent of Jael and live like Meteors the imperfect bodies of nature in a cloud they seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to repine at their birth and creation which hath brought them to the light Besides that the substance of our nature is more naked from the womb than any beast without hair or feathers without scales or shell to cover us like the Fishes of the Sea Besides this I say Nature hath provided that the Countenance of no creature doth betray the inward disposition so much as the face of man Then let Herod the Fox know and the profound Craftsmen of our age that God hath half opened the heart of man in the complexion of his visage as Isaac did open the two Wells in the Valley
that Judith and her Maid should pray together every night make a conscience therefore what you condemn and reprove it out of judgment flout not at tolerable things out of levity There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 2 Pet. iii. 3. These say the ancient Expositers were the Gnosticks that traduced the faithful for living chastly and austerely to avoid the judgment to come and to inherit a Crown of life But what are these scoffers in the very word of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as play the child and no better Such were the Massalians that condemned Fasting I and Baptism because they said all good things might be brought to pass by Prayer And the Arrians that were ill affected to singing of Psalms because the Orthodox used it much and they that can find no just fault with the decent Habit that our Church-men wear and yet bespatter it with ill words because some of our Opposites do wear the like Livery Vestitum non nuditatem patris rident C ham laughed at the nakedness of Noah but these not at the nakedness but at the Garments of their spiritual Fathers judg between them and Cham then who was the greater scoffer Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are lovely or of good report the Lord applauds them and says they have a sweet savour if the detestation and scorn of evil men shall light upon such things their smell will be more aromatical to the Lord like those Allies of herbs that give a better sent when the foot doth trample upon them Anciently the wages of virtue was praise at least but the saying was it might be praised and in the mean time starve for cold now it may starve and be quite obscur'd it is so coldly praised but in the last annotation of my Text I will raise up the righteousness of the just to some comfort and expectation for we are sure our good works find grace in the eyes of our heavenly Father and He is present at them all as the sense is near at hand to that it smells both his presence and his liking and his remuneration are all in this Allegory that when Noah offered a clean Sacrifice the Lord smelled a sweet savour Nehemiah's eye was almost never off from the building of the Temple and the work was therefore rid out of the way with incredible expedition So the Lord having a present sense of every thing that man doth well it will make man if he have sense of Gods presence instant devout patient sow plentifully that he may reap abundantly It is a great motive to be watchful to say Dominus venit the Lord is coming what will you say then to Dominus videt Dominus audit Dominus odoratur the Lord sees you the Lord hears you the Lord smells your savour nihil illustre nisi coram in oculis Caesaris says Tacitus the mirth of the Roman Theaters was flat and their pomp nothing illustrious unless Cesar were a spectator so the spirit of a Christian would be obtuse and nothing so well excited to be dutiful but that we know all the thoughts words and works of piety are within the look of God and that He is such a looker on as St. Austin speaks of qui spectat certantes adjuvat invocantes whose aspect doth fortify and animate our strength like Plants that open themselves to the Sun and revive when his light is cast upon them Nay if you be in perfect charity ye dwell in God and God in you there can be no closer conjunction that 's nearer than the object to the eye or the sent unto the nose Yet this is more measure superadded that the great King of Heaven both knows our works and tribulation which is to smell our savour and He loves and likes it also He calls it a sweet savour If we had such a Master as Nabal was so crooked and unpropitious that none could speak to him or please him if we served under the Lord as Jacob did under Laban who had nothing but murmuring and persecution for all his fidelity then we might cross our arms and say we had lost our oil and our labour but our service is full of benevolence and encouragement Euge bone serve well done good and faithful servant every title chimes alacrity Duo cum faeciunt idem non est idem the same work being done by two several hands so much only shall take as comes from Gods chosen Ministers and so much as came from an unacceptable person shall be clean discountenanced Nazianzen tells a story that Gallus and Julianus the two Nephews of Constantius built a Temple where Mamantis the good Martyr had suffered so much as Gallus was the Founder of stood all that Julian was at charge for fell to the ground the wisest of men of that age concluded God accepted the dedication of Gallus but not of Julian Saul sacrificed at Gilgal and came under the ban of Samuel for doing it Samuel sacrificed at Bethlem and the savour was so sweet that it run down from Samuel unto the skirt of Jesse the Lord accepted of the offering and David was then anointed King in token of a sweet savour Finally the love and complacency of God is not a bare affection like mans amor Dei non in affectu sed in effectu situs est Where God is said to love or to smell some sweetness in a thing this is not to affect it theorically but to effect some good for it As Aeneas said of his followers Nemo ex hoc numero mihi non donatus abibit all that pleased him in his Games should have a reward for their labour so every one whose works exhale a sweet odour to God the dew of his liberality shall drop down upon them God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewed toward his name Heb. vi 10. The best sent that is though it have that in it which is truly sweet hath some vapor that is faint and fulsom in it so the best actions of men which are good verily and properly called have yet some ill adjunction in them or somewhat that is imperfect but that which St. Paul speaks of the works of charity may be referred to all the works of the light if there be a willing mind it is accepted according to that which a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. viii 12. More pressely to the cause In some sense all the creatures and their natural operations do please God but in a supernatural order nothing doth please him but that into which he hath put supernatural bonity and those effects He doth not only love and like but will remunerate them with this sober restriction bona opera non habent condignitatem ad proemium coeleste sed quandam ordinabilitatem That is good works have no intrinsecal worth or
Noah sent up clean Prayers to God with the Oblation of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl For while Zachary burnt Incense in the Temple the whole multitude were Praying without at the time of Incense Luk. i. 8. And Solomon gives us light what was done at Sacrifice he spread out his hands to heaven in Prayer and dedicated the fat of the Peace-offerings to the Lord. Nay more the Evening Sacrifice burnt all night upon the Altar and the Priests continued in the Temple till morning at Prayer You that by night stand in the house of the Lord lift up your hands in the Sanctuary and bless the Lord Psal cxxxiv. 2. I know not what company they had at the Prayers of the Sacrifice by night or day very little if their devotion were no greater than ours I read in the Ages upward what a thrust there was in their Churches at the daily service of Prayer which concourse is quite disused in our days and unless the office of Prayer be pieced out with a Sermon in all places you shall find a most contemptible paucity and yet we should know that in a Sermon God sacrificeth to us not we to him Let me be bolder with you they are scarce worthy to be called Prayers as they are most negligently handled The Priest reads I will not say how dreamingly sometimes the People gape about and have other business in their heads Some chop in at the latter end cannot spare leisure to all Some answer to one line and hold their peace at ten Some stand more upon their ease than to stand up or bow down when they should with reverend gesture What can there be in such Prayers as these to call them a sweet savour Our sins stink in the nostrils of God and are odious you confess that and miserable man have you no better than such careless shuffling Supplications to sweeten them They were Wisemen that took out Myrrh and Frankincense when they came to Christ Ad faetorem stabuli excludendum to correct the ill savour of the Stable where he lay but contrary to all reason when our heart is dung and our ways more filthy than Augias Stable we yawn out heedless heartless undevotioned Prayers to mend the matter O is it not to us that he speaks by the Prophet Amos v. 21. I despise your Feasts I will not smell in your holy Assemblies I will borrow a piece of a Sermon from St. Bernard to make up this Point Stand before the Lord chearfully reverently devoutly Non pigri non oscitantes non parcentes vocibus non praecidentes verba dimidia Be not drowsie let not your attention slip from you when God is praised leave not all the Prayers to the Priests care but every one make up his part do not mangle and chop Gods Service let your Spirits go with every word when you hear an Hymn or Psalmodie think of nothing else but that which is sung You are not allowed a good thought at that time if it be extravagant much less a worldly a malicious a wanton cogitation Pare away these superfluities that you may say My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Thus far that the devotion of Noah was very Aromatical in the sweet savour of his Sacrifice Secondly the care that this Patriarch had for the instauration of Religion above all things is like Mary's sweet Ointment which she poured upon our Saviour it shall be spoken of so far as the Word is Preaced in all the world Bethink you as well you may when Noah put forth his head out of the Ark to tread upon the earth which could afford him nothing but room to walk upon with how many thoughts he was distracted What house to put his head in where to be provided of Food and Raiment where were all the necessaries and comforts of life to be had How should he rake up a New World out of the Ruines of the Old All these instances and more than these were thoughts to take up a wise man and yet he laid all these under his feet and built an Altar upon them to institute a true form of Divine Worship in the first place that all the World might follow it Why it is evident that his heart gave him in charge to look to Religion above all the necessaries of life and to forget all things even himself till he had remembred God Abraham was a Pilgrim and it is ever observed in this Book of Genesis or with little exception that he never removed to any new place but first he built an Altar to the Lord. At the first quiet Station which the Children of Israel had vvhen they came out of Egypt Moses sanctified the first-born to God David was no sooner confirmed a King but he brought the Ark into its resting place We stand before a great God that will not be served with the second or third part of our care The Jews were rebuked that built houses for themselves when they were returned from Captivity and let the House of the Lord lie waste Christ did reprove it that the young man that was called to follow him should put in another thing between First let me go and bury my Father Can you find out any first before God that is the first and the Last Piety and Sacred Offices are sweetly managed when you give them the flower of your care and the pre-eminence before all things The day will shine prosperously on you if you give the first hour after you rise from your bed to Prayer The whole Week is blessed because the first day is the Lords-day to call holy Assemblies together The Heathen Romans began the Laws of the twelve Tables with a sanction of Religion Deos castè adeunto In all Commerce Confederacies Treaties let the honour of God be the prime and Master respect And all other fine devices will prove but counterfeits of wit to such sacred Policy Another thing makes this repair and settlement of Religion precious and highly valued for the unity and conformity of all parties present at it It was the first solemnity performed to God after the Floud that the Company before they dispersed might agree in one outward form of Divine Worship I do not know whether such a complete consent of all persons in the Earth was ever seen before or since the days of Noah Therefore it must needs afford an excellent savour There was no Idolatry in the world no different ways no divisions I am for this and I am for that This little Flock was at unity in it self the old Patriarch his Sons and Daughters agreeing in one Prayer and in one Sacrifice O rare and heavenly One Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts in the tongues of all the Angels is the most Angelical part of the Angels Ministry That is in heaven but the sacred Concord that I preach of was on earth An obedience running all one way no separations no
our Rulers have left us in the way of a good life and changed their own for a better We owe duty to our Rulers in all things honest and lawful in obeying Rites and Ceremonies indifferent in Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical Illis imperii jus concessum est nobis relicta est obsequii gloria But where God controuls or wherein our liberty cannot be enthralled we are bound ad patiendum and happy if we suffer for righteousness sake Now that the obedience of the Rechabites was lawful and religious and a thing wherein they might profitably dispence with freedom and liberty the third part of my Text that is their Temperance will make it manifest for in this they obeyed Jonadab non bibemus c. To spare somewhat which God hath given us for our sustenance is to restore a part of the plenty back again if we lay hands upon all that is set before us it is suspicious that we expected more and accused nature of frugality And though the Vine did boast in Jothams Parable that it cheared up the heart of God and Man though it be so useful a Creature for our preservation that no Carthusian or Coelestine Monk of the strictest Order did put this into their Vow to drink no Wine yet the Rechabites are contented to be more sober than any and lap the water of the Brook like Gideons Souldiers Which moderation of diet though as I said in the beginning as it is an extreme and as it is a Vow for ever to drink no Wine I do not urge it to your imitation yet it did enable them to avoid Luxury and swinish drunkenness into which sin whosoever falls makes himself subject to a fourfold punishment First The heat of too liberal a proportion kindles the lust of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Poet calls it elegantly Wine is the milk of Venus Lot who was not consumed in Sodom with the fire of Brimstone drunkenness set him on fire with incestuous lust in Zoar. The Brimstone trickled down like rain but Luxury broke in upon him like a breach of the Sea And as Epaminondas said Modicum prandium non capit proditionem Treasons were never plotted at a frugal Table so Fornications and Adulteries were never hatcht in Cups of water but then they steal upon us where our Bowls are crowned with superfluity In jejuniis in castitate 2 Cor. vi What St. Paul hath coupled let us not divide fastings go first then follows pureness and chastity Secondly How many brawls and unmanly combates have we seen Nay how much bloud spilt under the Ensign of a Tavern Ivy bush Memento te sanguinem terrae bibere says Androcides in Pliny Wine is but the bloud of the earth and bloud toucheth bloud says the Prophet Hosea Antonius vino gravis sitiebat sanguinem says Seneca When Antonius his head turned round with drink he thirsted for the bloud of his enemies After Riot follows strife says St. Paul Rom. xiii I will fill them with wine and dash them one against another says the Prophet Jeremy Chap. xiii It is a sweet thing that men must fall at odds and stand nicely upon their terms of Honour in their drink when no man can disgrace them so much as their own intemperance which hath made them beasts Is that a time to strive for Mastery when they are the vilest servants upon earth to their own brutish appetite Thirdly Superfluity of drink it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the draught of foolishness Such a misery in my opinion that I would think men had rather lose their right arm than the government of their reason if they knew the Royalty thereof Wine and the foolishness of Idolatry were in the Feasts of Belshazzar And let St. Austin in his Epist 64. be well discussed and it will be found that quaffing which was used to be celebrated every year at the Tombs of the Martyrs was the first thing that brought in Offerings and Prayers for the dead a most erroneous Doctrine St. Basil calls Wine-bibbers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Idols of the Gentiles for as David describes Idols in the Psalms so they have eyes and see not ears and hear not hearts and understand not Lastly Whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sobriety is the sustentation of that which decays in man drunkenness is the utter decay of the body It was all the excuse that Callisthenes had for himself when he refused Alexanders drinking Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had rather want your Feast than stand in need of Aesculapius And when I see new Taverns multiply the next thing I look to see is to have more Apothecaries set up and more Physicians practise among us That then which bereaves our bodies of health and our minds of reason that which puts fury into our hands and fire into our breasts is that it which is grown the mean mans Recreation and the great mans Solemnity O ye Galatians who hath bewitched you Satisfie me in one question and I will ask no more To rob a man of his Garment or his Purse would you not think it dishonourable for you to do And Theft to be punished by the Kings Laws But I pray you which is the greater robbery to force or flatter your Friend to kindness whereby he loseth his reason which is the Vessel of Gods grace or to bereave him of a little money which is the instrument of fortune Whosoever hath been guilty of this crime to seduce another into weakness if his heart do not burn within him for shame know that Foelix the corrupt Governour was more conscionable for Foelix trembled when Paul did preach of temperance Of all other sins surfeiting of meats and drinks is a transgression of private flattery for every costly junquet is to content nature to perfect nature to strengthen nature and poor nature is as innocent of these things as the Idol Bel that had the name indeed but tasted not the Kings Provision Cum corpus impinguo hostem adversus meipsum nutrio says St. Bernard To cram up our body too much is to maintain a civil Rebel within our own skin and bone Si contenti erimus naturâ tam supervacuus est coquus quà m miles says Seneca In Peace what use have we of Souldiers God forbid but their service should be rewarded nobly but then we have no imployment for their service So if we go no further than the sustenance of mere Nature we shall have no use of Cookery Beasts and Fishes and the Fowls of the Air find that at hand which is fit for their sustenance Non fuit noverca natura ut homo sine tot artibus non possit vivere was Nature a Stepdame to man only that no less than two hundred Arts and Trades may be reckoned before his Table can be furnished Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomach he sunk like a Ship over-laden with Traffick but Lazarus went fasting to heaven scarce fraught with the crums of