of Heaven and all the Stars thereof Moreover Vna Sabbati litterally rendred is not the first but one day of the Week because one is the first ground to begin numbring and Theophilact says the Lords day is called the one day of the Week either because it is the only day from whence the blessing is procured for all the rest or besides it is a figure of the life to come Quando una tantum dies est nequaquam nocte interpolata when there shall be but one day for ever and no night of darkness to interrupt it Thus much of the words The matter of the Point is of a more profitable use And hence I begin that as God the Father upon the first day did begin to make this visible world of Creatures so Christ rose the same day from the dead to signifie that a new Age was then begun Resurrectio est alterius mundi spiritualis creatio says Justin Martyr The Resurrection is well called a creation of a new spiritual world On the first day of the Week God said Let there be light and he divided between the light and the darkness Verily on that wise on the first day of the Week God brought the light of the world out of the darkness of the Grave and the life says St. John was the light of men Now this infinite work to tread death under feet and to bring all flesh out of corruption into the state of immortality being more eximious than to make man in a possibility at first to die and perish therefore all Christian Churches have desisted to meet together at holy exercises upon the Sabbath of the Jews and the first day of the Week is the day appointed to sanctifie out selves unto the Lord for what reason I will now unfold and it is a case of no small perplexity And let me auspicate from the Text and Authority of Holy Scripture and these places following do conspire to verifie the Truth Acts xx 7. Paul abode seven days at Troas the seventh day of his abode was the first day of the Week then and not before it seems upon the first day of the Week when the Disciples came together to break Bread that is to partake of the Lords Supper Paul preacht unto them This seems to approve that in the Apostles time it was no more in use for their Disciples to meet upon the Sabbath but as well to honor the Resurrection as to separate from the Rites and Customs of the Jews in the Spirit of God they did convene together on the first day of the Week From Preaching and Administring the Holy Communion let us come to Collection of Alms. 1 Cor. xvi 2. Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come How can this be expounded but that distributions were made to the poor upon the first day of the Week in their most solemn Assemblies For if the meaning were that every man should set apart a share of his own gains upon that day in his private Coffers and not in the publick Treasury when their Congregations were together then Collections had been to be made from house to house when Paul was to come who desires it might be laid up in readiness as it were in one stock before 'T is pity we are faln from that good order but in the most antient Church I find that they never miss'd to carry the Poors Box about every Lords Day witness this place of St. Cyprian Locuples es dives Dominicam celebrare te credis quae Corbanam omnino non respicis Thou that art rich and wealthy dost thou imagin thou keepest the Lords Day as thou oughtest and dost cast nothing into the Treasury Thirdly as the last day of the Week when God rested from his works was called the Sabbath of the Lord so it is of much moment to the point that the first day of the Week is called the Day of the Lord or the Lords Day Rev. i. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day as it appears Rev. i. 13. John was walking on the Sea shore meditating upon holy things in the Isle of Patmos Very probable that there was no solemn meeting to praise God as it ought to have been among those Pagan Islanders otherwise John had not betaken himself to solitary Meditations but see how he was recompensed Nactus est Doctorem ipsum Deum quando fortasse deessent quos ipse doceret when he was disconsolate because he wanted Auditors to teach God preached unto him the Mysteries of the Age to come But to enforce the Text forenamed for an Argument we have but two things in the New Testament called the Lords the Sacrament is called the Supper of the Lord 1 Cor. xi 20. and this day of Christian Assemblies is called the Lords Day the Lords Prayer and the Lords House are good Phrases but our own not the Scriptures but as we keep the Feast of Passeover no more but instead thereof eat the Lords Supper so neither do we observe the Jews Sabbath any more but instead thereof we keep the Lords Day Thus far I have prest the Authorities of Sacred Scripture The Authority of the Primitive Church and so downward to this Age will convince it clearly against any that is obstinate Ignatius was St. John's Scholar and as if he had learnt of his Teacher he writes thus Let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lords Day which is dedicated to the honor of his Resurrection the Queen and Princess of all days Justin Martyr commands the same day to be kept holy to the Lord every Week in his 2. Apolog. So doth Tertullian more than once and I cited St. Cyprian before The Council of Laodicea speaks thus resolutely Anathema to all those that rest upon the Sabbath let them keep the Lords Day when they observe a vacancy of labor and do as becometh Christians The great Council of Nice doth not command the first day of the Week to be kept holy but supposeth in the 20. Canon all good Christians would admit that without scruple and then appoints other significant Ceremonies to be kept upon the Lords Day from Easter to Whitsontide I need not reckon downward after the Nicen Council because in one word I have not heard or read that it was opposed by any of the Fathers They knew that an appointed time must be allotted for every necessary Duty and certainly upon the abrogation of the Old Sabbath not Man but God did appoint a time for so necessary a thing as the religious Service of his Name Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his own Sabbath lying all that day and night in the Grave and to hold that the Sabbath which is but a Shadow is to continue is to hold that Christ the Body is not yet come yet that being laid apart let us
And though I am likely to do all this with very small Acumen and judgment yet I hope with true zeal and sincere affection to the glory of God and honour of the Church of England The Members of which Church have been reputed of all others the slackest to celebrate their own Worthies partly I conceive from the humility and modesty of their Principles and Education partly from the great multitude of incomparable Scholars therein to be commemorated that such labours would be almost infinite For which reason the Dypticks of the Ancient Church were likewise laid aside when Religion was setled and Christians grew numerous But yet if the Divines of the Church of England lived elsewhere we may well conjecture what Books the World should have had of their learning and piety For who sees not the many Volumes of Lives daily published by others wherein ample Commendations are given to idleness popularity and very ordinary deservings After an impartial reading thereof I cannot but think that our Own Church has far better Subjects and matter to write upon if we that survive wanted not ability or affection to maintain our own Cause and publish the Merits of our departed Worthies to the World Therefore out of Emulation partly and shame from a foolish Nation as St. Paul says but much more out of a profound sense of the Duty I owe to the Memory of this renowned Prelate and most of all out of hope of stimulating posterity to the imitation of the vertues of better times I have taken care to give the World this Account of our Author and not to permit his Books to be buried as it were in the Grave with his Body mortal and immortal to descend together into the same Land of oblivion Though it be no real Prerogative but an accidental and contingent thing How we are born after the flesh yet it is commendable to search into the Beginning and Causes of such things as we would throughly know and therefore the Extract and Parentage of learned and great men is usually enquired after in the first place John Hacket was born in the Parish of St. Martins in the Strand near Exeter House upon September 1. Anno Domini 1592. in the happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth of honest and virtuous Parents and of good reputation in that place his Father being then a Senior Burgess of Westminster and afterwards belonging to the Robes of Prince Henry descended from an antient Family in Scotland which reteins the Name to this day His Father and Mother were both true Protestants great lovers of the Church of England constant repairers to the Divine Prayers and Service thereof and would often bewail to their young Son after the coming in of their Countrymen with King James the seed of Fanaticism then laid in the scandalous neglect of the Publick Liturgy which all the Queens time was exceedingly frequented the people then resorting as devoutly to Prayers as they would afterwards to hear any famous Preacher about the Town And his aged Parents often observed to him that Religion towards God justice and love amongst Neighbours gradually declined with the disuse of our Publick Prayer In our Bishops opinion Parentage alone added little to any man no more than if we should commend the Stock of a Tree when we cannot commend the Fruit Mirari in trunco quod in fructu non teneas who held that the glory of our Forefathers reflected upon us was but Color intentionalis like the sparkling colour of wine upon fair Linnen or as the Sea-green and Purple in the Rainbow which are not real colours but meer shadows and reflections And that never was Pedegree so well set out as that of Noah These are the Generations of Noah Noah was a just man c. And in like manner our Blessed Saviour commends his Forerunner John Baptist not so much for his Honourable Descent and Miraculous Conception as for his pious and laborious Ministry in turning many to Righteousness This was agreeable to our Bishop's mind in comparison whereof he little valued all other Titles of Honour But in his discourse he would often give God thanks for the place he was born in viz. that he was born an Englishman and especially in the City of London He was indeed a great lover of his own Nation little England as he would term it the sweetest spot of all the Earth and say that the City of London was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very England of England Vrbs Vrbium and wish the Country were a little more sprinkled with her Flour for in his Travels he had discerned in places remote a Northern rigour and churlishness among our Villagers wanting that Southern sleekness that was usually found in Cities and great Towns the Metropolis especially And though there is no place but has in some Age been enlightned with some famous Luminary The Prophet Jonas was born in Galilee out of which said the Pharisees there arises no Prophet Yet withal it was observed in Scythia there was never born but one Philosopher but in Athens all were such So in all parts of England there have been learned men born but in London innumerable and therefore once in a pleasant discourse between Him and a learned Friend who were reckoning up the Country where many Scholars were born and could not presently tell what Countryman Mr. L. was the Bishop merrily said As the Rabbins believed when ever any great Prophet was named in Scripture and the place of his Birth not named that it was in Jerusalem so he would take it for granted by the like parity of reason since Mr. L's Country was unknown he must needs be born in London Yet in his judgment it was but a small lustre likewise that the Place where any Man was Teem'd could cast upon him but he ought rather to give Lustre to it for Places did not conciliate Honour to Men but Men to Places and that little Hippo was more ennobled by great St. Austin than great St. Austin by little Hippo. And therefore he never rejoyced so much for the City or Country wherein he was born as for the Churches sake wherein he was baptized and born again which of all others to his dying day he most loved and admired and accordingly he would often render hearty thanks to God that his Birth and Breeding was in a Reformed Church and of all others the most prudent and exact according to the Doctrine of holy Scripture and the Primitive Pattern that would neither continue in the Fulsom Superstitions of the Roman Church nor in Reforming be born down with the violent Torrent as some others were But from these lesser Circumstances of his Birth let us therefore proceed to those of his Education and Breeding which are far greater and do especially make the difference between one man and another For whereas all by Nature are born alike of the same corrupt Materials Education only like the Hand or Wheel of
a scandalous Minister had confiscated his own authority of reprehending that in others which he was guilty of himself and that the Doctrin and Discipline of our Church could never have been so contemptible but for their sakes who with their ill lives and manners made all the threatnings of holy Scripture which they preached and all the Censures of the Church which they passed or denounced ridiculous and insignificant yet withal his Lordship ever gave the people warning not to despise the chastening of their Mother for no man can lightly esteem the power of the Keys upon earth and yet be well prepared in heart to receive the judgment of God in the World to come For better amendment of whatsoever was amiss his Lordship would like St. Austin and other antient Bishops frequently sit Judg in his Ecclesiastical Courts and hasten the dispatch of all Affairs and especially if there were any thing that concerned his Clergie would always be present at the hearing of those Causes that neither his Clergie nor any by them might be wronged when he went not in person to the Court he gave ready access at his own House to all who came to complain even the meanest people who were grieved with long and tedious Suits and after hearing what they could say would sometimes send for the Chancellour and Proctors on both sides and what he could not redress at home he would oftentimes go to Court and end there throwing out many Causes that had been long depending for trivial matters and would not suffer any Causes to be entred for defamatory words or trifles without his own knowledg first to the end they might be composed without much vexation to the parties by this means his Lordship created to himself much trouble which he valued not for the great good he did by it and though less profit came to the Officers of the Court yet were they also contented believing God would better bless them for taking onely those Fees which so conscientious a Judge was willing to allow After Ordination he seldom dismissed any whom he ordain'd without rare counsel To remember they were Ordain'd to Cures not to Sine Cures the Cure of Souls the greatest of all others and wish them every day to think of the invaluable dignity and seriousness thereof and therefore in all their Preachings to avoid lightness Quia Nugae in ore Sacerdotum sunt blasphemiae as likewise all ridiculous gestures and loud vociferations empty affectation of words and phrases without weighty and ponderous sense and significancy accounting that elegant words without solid matter were but perfum'd Nonsense and that there was infinite difference between plainness and rudeness They had a duty to discharge both to the wise and unwise and therefore must take care that the learned Auditor might still learn somewhat and the unlearned Auditor might understand not only some but all His charge was that in every thing we should retain this great Principle to offer to God the very Best we have whosoever builds God an House let them build it better than their own the Ornaments thereof should be fairer than our own our Sermons there superiour to our ordinary discourses or labours in any other kind arising not from extemporary sawciness but our studied and best industry and therefore ever warned them as St. Paul did Timothy though he had the gift of Prophecying still to attend to reading as Preaching and remember St. Paul himself would not preach without Books and therefore caused them to be brought after him in all his Travels and sometimes preached the same thing the next Sabbath-day and therefore probably kept Notes He conceived it small commendations to any to pour out faster than they took in and that indiligent and over-frequent Preaching beyond the Preacher's parts or what the people 's needs required was no advantage to learning or piety especially in the obvious way of Preaching altogether by Doctrin Reason and Vse which of all Expositors of Scripture Musculus first took up and was one great means to lay the Pulpit open to the prophanations of the late times such Preaching being oftentimes so poor and easie that every Justice of Peace his Clerk thought he could perform as well as his Minister whereas a good Preacher had need be skill'd in the whole Encyclopedy of Arts and Sciences Logick to divide the Word aright Rhetorick to perswade School Divinity to convince Gainsayers knowledge of many Tongues to understand Originals and learned Authors and above all he would recommend St. Hierom's counsel Discamus in Terris quorum scientia nobis perseverabit in Coelis for otherwise all kind of learning in a Minister without good Example and innocency of life was but a jewel of gold in a Swine's snout This was his constant advice to his Clergie at Ordinations and Visitations which he duly held every third year Visitation of Churches he would maintain was no Filia noctis started up in a night of darkness and Popery but an Apostolical Institution and practised afterwards by all the Primitive Fathers and Bishops Herein his Lordship would oftentimes be the Preacher himself so that in his first Visitation Anno 1665. in his Progress in Shropshire and at Stafford from the last of May to the fifteenth of June he preached eight times in the compass of those few dayes at Bridgnorth Salop Elsmere Wem Whitchurch Drayton Hodnet and Stafford and confirmed above five thousand persons whom he required not to be tumultuarily presented but with the preexamination of their several Ministers and was in all places most joyfully received So that when he put on his Episcopal Robes he put not off his Ministerial Labours no man had reason to say his Majesty by making him Bishop had spoiled a good Preacher as it was said of Frier Giles that the Pope had marr'd a painful Clerk by making him a powerful Cardinal nor was he like Julius the third of whom the Historian complains that he had been formerly a diligent man but when he came to the Popedom never minded his Study or the Affairs of the Church more Our Bishop on the other side professed he found as many cares in his Bishops Rochet as he believed Antigonus did in his Royal Purple and if it were not for the glory of God and good of his Church had rather throw it away than hang it about his shoulders St. Paul very well understood his Office when he called it a good work not to be discharged without painful study often preaching daily hearing and determining Cases of Conscience judging in Causes Ecclesiastical repairing or building of Churches These and so many other things beside he found to do at home that all absence seemed tedious and intolerable to him abroad so that he never slept out of his Bishoprick in many years nor was willingly absent from his Flock but upon extraordinary occasions as in Parliament c. and then would often request my Lord Chamberlain
Angel if his Superiour called him he must come instantly away These are whimsies in the head when the Devil prompts them to do some strange tricks more than ordinary Christians are able even as he would have put our Saviour upon a supernatural shall I say Nay upon a contra-natural exploit because he was the Son of God Whereas the true marks of Filiation and Adoption are these Humility awful Fear Faith that works by Love hate of Vain-glory Denying of our selves giving all honour to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost AMEN THE TWELFTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 6. For it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone THey that meditate mischief against others usually they begin with perswasion and end in hostility their first way is subtilty and their last is violence As Themistocles told the men of Andria that he had brought two great Goddesses with him to exact Tribute of that Island 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perswasion and Necessity First I pray do it and then you must do it The Devil held our Saviour play all the while he was on the Earth with the same method For a long space he laid his train privily to overcome him with Art and Tentation at length he made his assault openly to bring him to his Death and Passion Vulpes in primo congressu leo in crucifixione at this bout he made towards him like a Fox with many trim perswasions but when he stood out perswasions he rose against him like a Lion as David prophesied They would tear my soul in pieces like a lion while there is none to deliver me In this story of Scripture upon which I insist he practiseth the Arts of the Fox upon which subtil creature Gregory lends this Observation to our present matter Nunquam rectis itineribus sed tortuosis anfractibus currunt they never run straight on when they are hunted but make an hundred windings and doublings that it may be more difficult to trace them So Satan never went right on with any Proposition which he made to our Saviour sometimes he urgeth one way sometimes another comes forward and falls back practiseth like Pharaoh with Moses who profess'd he would deal subtilly with the people of Israel One while Pharaoh makes an offer to let the men of Israel go serve the Lord in the Wilderness but not their Children nor their Cattel then he changeth his Sentence and detains them all Then he gives them leave to take their Children with them but nothing else at last he gives order to let them all be gone Children and Herds and Flocks Bag and Baggage they should have all to be rid of them Beloved there can be no good meaning where there is so much alteration and inconstancy Square dealing stands upon one firm base hold fast to that without being removed Delusions and devices hop about like Ignis fatuus This holds very right on the Tempters part in my Text. You see he shifted ground from the Wilderness to the Temple and then he flies back from the Temple to the Mountains in the Wilderness He tries if he can make him despair then he falls off and ventures to make him presume Upbraids him at first that God would give him no bread Perswades with him by and by that God will give him all his Angels First he would put the working of a miracle into Christs hands command that these stones be made bread Next he refers the work of power to the Angels He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up Thirdly He assumes the doing of great matters to himself All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me He laboured with our first Parents neither to believed God nor the Word which he spake now he makes a shew that he would have Christ both trust in God and in his Angels and in his Word the holy Scripture For it is written He shall give his Angels charge c. The whole verse was thus distributed to you before First in order I propounded the demand which Satan made Cast thy self down 2. Upon what supposition If thou be the Son of God there I ended with the hour 3. Upon what Authority Why upon the warrant of the holy Scripture For it is written 4. Upon what assistance Why the best in the world which here is twofold Supreme and Instrumental The Supreme is God He will give his Angels charge concerning thee The Instrumental helps are the first Instruments of all Creatures the whole host of good Angels In their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone And first I must meditate hereupon at this time that the wicked one hath quoated the best Authority which the Church hath to justifie the lawfulness of his demand Scriptum est enim for it is written Perhaps he had never thought of Scripture at this time but that Christ put him in mind of it in the fomer Tentation and it was his old sin Ero similis altissimo I will be like the most High do every thing as Christ did not out of pious imitation but out of perverse affecting an equality And because Christ had the start of him to fly first to the Word of God therefore the Devil doth both quote Scripture and carry him to the Temple as if he would shew Religion and Sanctity double as much as our Saviour did Joab in his necessity will fly to the horns of the Altar for sanctuary as if the Lord would protect a Rebel that had set up a concurrent against his lawful King So the Devil will fly to the Scripture for a need as if there were any refuge there for him that had been a Traitor to his God Occasio fallendi est maxima ubi est maxima authoritas says St. Ambrose the most perilous way to deceive is under pretence of the greatest authority Therefore the Tempter comes like a Divine with a Psalter in his hand you know how well he counterfeited Samuel putting on the shape of that good Prophet to abuses Saul and here he counterfeits David nay therein he counterfeits the very Spirit of God A man would have thought Satan would have skipt the Book of the Psalms though he had search'd over all the Scripture beside It is the Volume of joy of consolation of alacrity the very Songs of Angels Is any man merry Let him sing Psalms says St. James Is there any use of that sweet harmony for him that lives in perpetual torment But they that mean to abuse the Sacred Text instance in those places where you would least expect to find them From the Commandment to sanctifie the Sabbath day the Pharisees wrung in their exception that it was not lawful for Christ on that day to
our left but God hath given the judgment of discretion to all Christians of mature age let them mark what the Scriptures say in clear and literal Positions Thirdly The judgment of direction is committed to Pastors and Teachers that are set over your souls And judge ye what we say says the Apostle and the Lord give you understanding Fourthly There is the judgment of Jurisdiction proper to them who are in places of pre-eminency and these may determine Controversies of Faith according to plain and evident Scripture but because they may exceed the bounds of truth it is pernicious to say that men are bound to obey those determinations with as great affections of Piety as the inerrable Word of God That place so much debated that the Church is the House of God the ground and Pillar of Truth will bear no more but that it is so by Office and Calling as every King is the Minister of Justice though some have failed in the execution of it And the Note of Cameron upon it is very witty and learned that the Jews were wont to prefix these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he proves it out of Maimonides before the grand Points of Religion and so may make a Preface to the succeeding Verse The pillar and ground of truth great is the mystery of Godliness c. It is an Interpretation to better Analogie of Faith than that which his Adversaries press out of the words The sum is our Faith is not built upon the Authority and Infallibility of the present Church if it controul an higher authority than it self the holy Scripture what remains but declines her judgment as our Saviour did his Parents Wist you not that I must go about my Fathers business And as Asa did depose his Mother Maacha though she were his Mother for erecting an Idol So we may reject the Mother which should command a relative adoration of Images of Stocks and Stones and appeal to our Grandmother which was free from such scandals Judicate matrem vestram says Hoseah to the Jews when the Synagogue was corrupt Plead against your Mother Yet so says Waldensis most prudently that the humble and obedient Children of the Church may not insolently insult upon them from whom they are forced to dissent but with a reverent child-like and respectful shamefac'dness Especially it is a naughty inference to argue the Church may err and doth trip in some errors therefore it is not to be obeyed You will not deal so I hope with your fleshly Parents avoid their errors but conserve the bond of obedience entire in all things the name of Mother charms us not to deride her nakedness and to conform to her prudent opinions with all submissive willingness I draw up the Point to this Brief Hearken to the Laws of the Church in things indifferent wherein she must not be burdensom Submit unto her Censures wherein she must not be tyrannous Hearken to her determinations of faith wherein she must not be peremptory Non dominantes fidei It hath no dominion over our faith This is the reciprocal League between the Mother and the Children between that Jerusalem and us which is the Mother of us all And as this obedience may challenge a blessing as confidently as Nazianzen is said to claim it of his Father Habes obedientem benedictionem repende I have been obedient I claim a benediction from you so the next thing to be considered our unity shall bring us blessing upon blessing Our Mother is one and though we are many yet in a spiritual Connexion we all make but one All the faithful in the world are drawn up into one Pronoun the Mother of Vs As Jacob did divide his company and substance when he came from Padan Aram into Canaan One Band of men and one Flock of Cattel was with Leah another with the Handmaids a third with Rachel but all were Jacobs So God hath scattered his Churches some in Europe some in Asia some in Affrica c. but all are Christs And these are all united to him in his Spirit in his Word and in his Sacraments as Wax that is melted incorporates it self with Wax My Dove my undefiled is but one Cant. vi 9. Therefore let us preserve one bond of Peace and one Charity even as hereafter we look for one glory and one felicity Says St. Chrysostom The Ceremony of old was to eat the Paschal Lamb in one house and to carry nothing out Significans unam esse domum quae in Christo salutem consequitur Portending that they shall have no part in the Sacrifice of Christ who are divided by contentious separation from that one Family of Christ wherein only the Lamb of Salvation is made ready to be eaten There is nothing that our Saviour did sooner suppress than the least emergent division that did arise among the Apostles The Apostles themselves did condescend in many things which might bear an harsh construction with a rash Judge to prevent a rupture as if when they were put to that Dilemma better that Truth should suffer a little than Unity O it is the ground of all other mysteries the Son of God who is one with his Father is made one with us that we might be one as he is one both with him and among our selves As Christ hath but one truth so he can have but one Society one Communion of Saints to profess it as there is but one Shepherd so there can be but one Sheepfold Joh. x. 16. Nay to straiten it yet more in the phrase of the Holy Ghost the whole body of the Faithful is as it were no more than one man So we read Ephes ii 15. He abolished in himself the enmity meaning that which was between the Jews and Gentiles for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace As who should say They of the old Leaven make a great number in their discords and diversities but they that spring from one root of Faith from Hope from one Baptism in Christ Jesus they make but one new man But what if Hereticks and Schismaticks will not suffer this unity entire and unviolated The issue is quickly cast up the unity of Jerusalem is the greater for their departure The scandal I confess is contagious to those that are without but the sounder part is the more sound for the evacuation of those bad humours Avolet quantùm volet palea levis fidei eò purior massa frumenti in horreum Domini reponetur Yet let her that calls her self the Mother take heed that she put not her Children from her for every jar and error nay nor for a Capital error unless it be joyned with an irrecoverable pertinacy Who were worse than the Galatians at the time when St. Paul wrote this Epistle What a venomous corruption was in their Churches mingling the Ceremonies of the Old Law and faith in Christ Jesus together which could never be compounded and yet the Apostle accounts
the witness is born the Eternal Father witnesseth to his Eternal Son Thou art my Son The best way to know so much concerning the eternal Generation of Christ as sufficeth for a good Christian is to speak little of it Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord says David among the Sons of God none like unto that Son who is the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father Joh. i. 18. Other Sons I will declare by and by are adopted by his grace Sons not begotten but by denomination of good liking as it is Mat. v. 9. Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God but Christ is the only begotten being of the same substance with the Father for surely that doth rightly explicate the Phrase to be in the bosom of the Father not as the Arians would evade it that to be in the bosom was to be the well-beloved of the Father God loved the world and most dearly such as believed yet where do ye read that such are said to be in his bosom It is a word by St. Chrysostoms exposition which agrees to Christ alone wrapping up much sense as it were in a Syllable that he is of the same substance the same power the same knowledge with his Father lying in his bosom and participant of all his secrets Sinus est divinitatis arcanum in quo est filius That bosom is the secret essence of the Father by which he made all things and knows all things and there is the Son To be called a Father after the manner of men rests upon three things 1. That the Son have his being from part of his substance that begets him then a Picture cannot be said to be the Son but the work of him that draws it 2. Father and Son must be of the same nature and species then the Heaven is not the Father of Flies and Gnats though the heat of the Sun begets them 3. It must be a living thing that begets another living thing in its own likeness then fire is not the father of fire though one spark kindles another But God begets a Son without these conditions and exceptions for his Son is not such another but consubstantial Not a part divided from the Fathers substance to make him but of the same substance with the Father Yet there is another ground of difference laid down by St. Austin that among us it hapneth to a man to be a Father and is contingent But in God it is no hapning accidental thing The Father was always a Father and the Son was always a Son And though he be a Father by a relative notion and not according to his substance yet nothing is said to be in God by accident as if he were mutable That peculiarity of a Son in Christ distinguisht from us is best set down by St. Paul with least curiosity Rom. viii 32. God spared not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filio proprio non pepercit we read he spared not his own Son That Translation doth not altogether satisfie me for at the third verse of the same Chapter we read God sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more emphatical he spared not his own proper Son Therefore though we be truly called Sons yet not so properly as Christ But David would be any thing though it were but a door-keeper to be in the house of the Lord so let us be stiled which way soever the Sons of God and it sufficeth Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God And tu es Filius say the Fathers upon my Text comports that the captivity and servitude of the Old Law is changed into the liberty of Sons Adoptio est similitudo filiationis naturalis Adoption makes him that was not born a Son be taken into the similitude of a Son And we have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear that was the condition of the Law but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father What an Ocean of comfort breaks into our soul upon this Meditation Five thousand Cubits higher than all the comforts of this world as the waters in the time of Noah are said to be fifteen Cubits higher than the tallest Mountains For first If we be Sons of God Christ will not refuse us to call us Brethren Yea when he was risen from the dead in his glory he sent Mary Magdalen to his Disciples saying Go tell my Brethren Secondly To be exalted to be a Son doth enfranchise us to take the inheritance of the Kingdom of heaven For if Sons then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Rom. viii 17. Thirdly If Sons it is a great word but I speak it by authority of Scripture then we are Gods Psal lxxxii 6. I have said ye are Gods and ye all are children of the most highest For God made his Son participant of our infirmity that by the merit of his humiliation we might be made participants of his Divinity And besides Consolation great names are great Engagements O what a strict exercise of holiness and obedience lies upon his soul that will be called the child of God Noli degenerare a praecelsis cogitationibus filiorum Dei Degenerate in nothing beneath that high cogitation how thou art become the Son of the most high Should I that am made partaker of divine Parentage surfet my body with meats and drunkenness Why it is loathsom in a Swine Should I satisfie my lust promiscuously against the bond of Matrimony Why it is odious in a Dog Or should the Sons of light lay snares in the dark to malice and despite the innocent O it is detestable in the Devil Be not a foolish Son to dishonour your heavenly Father It is observed in many of the noble Romans Cato Scaurus Cicero Antoninus how they were unhappy in nothing so much as that they had Posterity for their vicious branches blemish'd the glory of the root from which they sprung So a dissolute Christian makes that venerable name of Father come into contempt and reproach Mallem videre de malis editum quà m de bonis lapsum as Cassianus said It were better for a Reprobate that his Father were an Amorite and his Mother an Hittite than to be a stain to the heavenly Parentage when he is called to be a Son of God It was the motive which St. Austin pressed from the example of the Heathen if Varro was not ashamed to encourage valiant men to think themselves descended from Jupiter and Hercules or some other heathen Puppit though they belied their knowledge that the fancy of coming from such Progenitors might provoke them to great Atchievements Then a Christian is engaged to all manner of Divine and very Heroical works of godliness when his heart shall
sancti factum est ut quae obscura sunt in Scripturis per apertiora possunt illustrari says St. Austin God hath compounded easie places with difficile that you may have some fruit ready to reap and some to be gathered and expected hereafter unto the ends of the world As we read of Manna that it was saporous to all Palates and every man might taste in Manna whatsoever he loved to taste so the Scripture hath all good relishes in it taste and try and it wants nothing which is delightful for the soul unto salvation No Book in the world hath so many rewards for vertue no Edicts set forrh by all the Princes of the world so many punishments for iniquity no store-house among all the Papers in the world so full of consolation such lofty wisdom delivered in all simplicity such fortitude commanded with so much sufferance and patience such strict justice observed with so much equity and forgiveness is not to be found elsewhere beneath the Sun save in those Volumes of the Holy Ghost Let your eyes love to gaze upon this Fountain as the Doves in the Canticles are said to gaze upon the waters and if you will gaze upon them with a Dove-like innocency you will read them for these five ends First You see in my Text that Christ quotes them to repel the Devil He fought against the Flesh by fasting against the wicked World by retiring into the solitary Wilderness but against the Devil with the authority of the Word of God You shall seldom meet with an Apollos that is mighty in the Scripture with such a one as Antonius of Padua who was called Arca Testamenti by them that admired his cunning in the Scripture his memory was like the Ark wherein the Law of God was laid up seldom shall you find such a man but he will over-master at least the very criminal and notorious suggestions of the Devil Secondly Read them to learn Christ and his glory in them for this end our Saviour directed the Pharisees to Moses and the Prophets and the Beraeans are stiled more noble than those of Thessalonica because when Paul preached Jesus they searched the Scriptures whether those things were so Acts xvii 11. Thirdly Read them for the consolation of that glory which is laid up for you These things were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. xv 4. All the Traditions in the world beside leave the mind fluctuating and miserably uncertain into what state hereafter the soul shall be received Fourthly Read them to be instructed in the study of Piety and good Works to the glory of God Thou hast known the Scriptures from a child to make thee wise unto Salvation says Paul to his Timothy in that 2 Epist iii. 15. In all the exhortatives and Pandects of Laws which the Heathen made there was not only the omission of some excellent vertues but the permission the very institution of some notorious vices Fifthly Read the Scriptures not to engender questions as very many do but to produce Peace and to be the end of all Controversies To keep up Discords when the Law and Gospel is in our hand to decide them nay to enflame the more because we have waters from the Well of life to quench them is Satans imperial device he is now grown so cunning to wring what he list out of the sacred Text that he presumes Scriptum est shall little hurt him And to the end the Scripture may be more unapt to cut off Controversies the sharpest Controversies in the Church are raised upon the very Scripture As 1. upon the incorruption of the sacred Text. 2. Upon the validity of Translations 3. By augmenting them with Apocryphal Books that are not inspired by the Holy Ghost 4. By interposing they are an incomplete rule without unwritten traditions 5. That they prove nothing indubitably without the unanimous consent of pure antiquity 6. That all the Lay part or at least the unlearned are to be interdicted the reading and possessing them as well because of their obscure sense as because the ignorant may suck out of them the venom of Heresie 7. They jossle the Church and Scripture together which should be superiour 8. They have wrangled themselves almost into Atheism that they know no way but by an historical faith or mans testimony that this is the Writ of God Thus because the Scriptures are given to overthrow the Kingdom of Satan Satan hath done his endeavour by these bad instruments to overthrow the Scriptures But I say again Beloved let us read them not to increase the rent of the Church but to moderate contentions and to stop the gap Thus St. Austin in a sweet strain of concord to please both God and man Fratres sumus quare litigamus Non intestatus mortuus est pater c. We are brethren and therefore should not strive especially since the Will and Testament of our Father is before us to end all branglings Men fall out sometimes about the goods and inheritance of the dead but if a Will be found the quarrel is quickly taken up read how your Father hath bequeathed all things and you can ask no more Brethren we have the first and later Testament of our Father open them peruse them How do you read there Will you not stand to his Will and Ordination Why the Law will compel you As for a Father upon earth Jacet in monumento valent verba ipsius sedet Christus in coelo contradicitur testamento ejus He is rotten in his grave and yet his will given under the testimony of man quiets all suits Christ sits in heaven for ever and shall not his Testament confirmed by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost be an end of all Controversie So far I have pointed at the utility in reading and well using the holy Scripture because the Scripture is the seat of Christs Argument as I called it And more particularly he doth honour the Law so far as thrice together to quote none other but the words of Moses Moses whom above all the men in the world Satan hated as appears by his striving with the Angel about the body of Moses to advance the Text of Moses against Satan was lapides loqui not to turn stones into bread but to turn his words into stones and to cast them at him Moses is truly called Oceanus Theologiae the Ocean from whence all the Prophets since his time did borrow their divinity Aquo seu fonte perenni vatum divinis ora rigantur aquis Moses his Pen was the first that ever drew History For when Alexander the Great took Babylon his Preceptor Aristotle was most diligent to preserve and examine the most ancient Histories in the Babylonian Libraries and their Computations come short of Moses above two thousand years Moses his subject so admirable as none to be compared The Creation of the world the first foundations of
upon the death of the Testator The Covenant of the old Testament was continued by Sacrifice renewed by Circumcision altogether confirmed by effusion of bloud Well the Covenant of the New Testament is established in Baptism in the Pool of water O what a comely thing is Order God kept it in his very death the Old Law was first drawn drie in the Bloud and the New Law succeeds it in the stream of Water and I like his Meditation well that said our Saviour had first uttered out every drop of bloud from his veins ut nos ad bibendum de aquâ aeternae vitae invitaret to invite us from thenceforth to drink of the water of everlasting life Our Romish Adversaries stand much upon that which I handle now for say they if the two Sacraments had been precisely out of Christs side then St. John would have made his Relation thus A Souldier pierced his side and there came out Water and Bloud for Baptism is our beginning in the Church our first milk and after that when we know how to examin our selves as St. Paul says then we come to the Supper of the Lord just so as they would have it Aquinas a sure man of their own side compares the Sacraments in this wise Baptism is a Sacrament of the greatest necessity of the twain the Supper of the Lord is of more perfection though not of so much necessity Well then since we must aim at perfection as the Apostle says why might not Christ give the first place to that which makes us perfect and the second place to that which is first in time but lag in perfection nay rather than we should make use of this Text for no more than a yoke of Sacraments they will allow it to be a Figure of none but of the Supper of the Lord for their wine is dash'd with water in their Chalice and this Text is the Authority for it bloud and water I am sure the letter of the Scripture is on our side that use pure wine in the Eucharist de fructu geniminis I do not read that Christ gave his Disciples ought but wine to drink I deny not but some of the ancient Fathers concur with them but it is apparent I can make no better excuse they forsake the Letter and build upon an Allegory He that feeds upon the Letter of the Text feeds upon Manna he that lives by the Allegorie feeds upon licious Quails Israel may desire such curious food but God was better pleased when they were contented with Manna I have done with the Order The period of all in a word is the readiness of the Fountain which could not be stopt for a moment Forthwith came thereout bloud and water Love is no delaier no protractor of time ready to do good speedy in execution good deeds did not hang in our Saviours fingers as they do with many of us our hands unclasp to part with any thing like a lock that 's rusty and goes hard you can scarce open it Abrahams forwardness in entertaining the Angels and the dispatch that he made is as much commended as his hospitality Gen. xviii Abraham says the Text hastened to the Tent to Sarah 2. Sarah made ready quickly three measures of fine meal 3. Abraham ran to the Herd for a tender Calf 4. Abrahams young man did hast to dress it nemo piger est in domo caritatis not a slothful person not a protractor of time in all the House of Charity Such expedition did our Saviour make to express his love to the World he yields up his body in the flower of his age not a wrinkle in his brow not a grey hair in his head he made haste to suffer Judas says he what thou doest do it quickly as who should say I know thy heart is against me and that thou wouldest sell me into mine enemies hand yet for old acquaintance sake do me the curtesie to protract no time what thou doest do it quickly There past but a little time from midnight to midday betwixt his Attachment his Arraignment and his Execution This was a Paschal Lamb eaten in haste as God gave Moses in charge for the Lord will hasten you out of Egypt And to come to the instance in my Text his joynts were stiff and cold the moisture of his body congealed long it would be I should have thought before a few drops of liquor could come forth with much violence and chafing the flesh O but the Testator was dead his Sacraments are the Seals of his mercy wherewith he assures his Promises unto us and he would not have the World stay one whit for their Legacies capiat qui capere potest out it gusheth like a torrent and forthwith came thereout bloud and water All you that thirst for the living God be as ready to drink as he was to give else we are magis mortui quà m mortuus as dead as death it self and past recovery Repent you but instantly make restitution of all things wrongfully gotten but instantly be reconciled to your enemies stick not at it but instantly instantly I say but continue those instants unto your lives end Our Saviour compared his love towards Jerusalem to a Hen that gathers her Chickens under her wings let this Comparison be the Pattern of our love to Christ You know the Hen must not sit for a spurt and be gone then her eggs addle and the Brood is spoiled Take the application unto your conscience nourish the good motions of Gods spirit in your heart sit upon them as the Hen doth upon her Brood that they may quicken in you by a lively faith We had need to do it for as Christ was sudden and made haste to express his love so he is sudden and will make haste to judgment Surely I come quickly they are the close of our Bible Even so come Lord Jesus and prepare us for thy second coming that we who drink at thy mystical Wound here may be satisfied with thy goodness as out of a River in thy Kingdom of glory AMEN THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE PASSION GEN. xxii 13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him a Ram caught in a thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the Ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his Son THe place where this memorable Sacrifice was offered up had a name given unto it by Abraham in the next verse to that which I have read Deus in monte videbatur or Deus in monte apparuit which is interpreted God is seen or God did appear in the Mount from which name Origen raiseth this Meditation Nihil hic corporeum sentias sed quae Scripta sunt in spiritu videas Do not think in the story of this Sacrifice that you see a Ram or that you see Isaac you must apprehend it in Spirit and believe that you see nothing but the Oblation of the Son of God upon the
the first whose feet our Saviour washed to satisfie his aspiring ambition Sed quod lavit gratia inquinavit perfidia says St. Ambrose Grace would have wash'd him clean but that perfidiousness stain'd him like a Blackamore And could Judas lift up his heel against him whose precious hands had wash'd those heels in all humility Like Sciron the murderer who placed his Throne by the Cliffs of the Sea and constrained Passengers to kiss his feet whom he spurned down the Rocks and broke their necks Could those feet be swift to shed bloud Could they find the way into the High Priests Hall after they had been bathed and wiped with the hands of a mighty Prince which notwithstanding cast themselves under the Traitors feet What could the mighty God do more than to draw poor dust and ashes to him with this title Yea mine own familiar friend Thirdly and lastly the name of friend is not pluckt away from Judas because Christ stretched out his arms and was ready to receive him into friendship if he had repented Whither doth this lost man run with his thirty pieces of Silver Is there not an High Priest to go to greater than all the Priests in Jerusalem that he runs to Caiaphas to cast them before him in desperation As Tacitus said of Claudius Apollinaris a vain inconstant man Neque fidei constans erat neque constans in perfidiâ so Judas knew neither how to be faithful to Christ nor how to behave himself when he was treacherous When he had trained a Plot to betray his Lord he knows not how to make amends to renounce the treachery Had he but stood and wept among the Daughters of Jerusalem or ran to Golgotha to learn repentance from the converted thief then surely he that bore the iniquities of all the world upon his Cross would have felt no more burden if he had carried the sin of Judas And so much for the last reason because our Saviour is ready to be reconciled to every contrite man therefore he did expect this fruit from Judas and calls him his own familiar friend I proceed to the next branch of his crime He whom I trusted did lift up his heel against me But because our Saviour knew before what was in man or in the heart of man it must stand as a question to be debated why he would lay himself so low as this humility to trust in Judas 1. Bucer comparing this place of the Psalmist with the same as it is cited Joh. xiii 8. finds these words to be left out in St. John the man in whom I trusted and so rejecting Judas as never worthy of our Saviours trust applies himself to give no answer 2. Leo and Euthymius varying from some stories which cast infamy upon Judas that he slew his Father and was incestuous with his Mother to the end that he might honour our Saviours choice in the twelve Apostles inclines to that opinion that Judas was once good and worthy of our Saviours trust Yea Theophylact is willing so far to excuse the Traitor as if he did not sell his Master thinking to bring him to the death of the Cross but having had experience both at the brow of the hill when the people would have cast him down and likewise when he escaped stoning in the Temple by passing away in form invisible how it was in his power to delude his enemies I say Theophylact conceits of Judas that he did expect Christ would now have acquitted himself from the judgment of Pilate Beloved this is my rule Where men cite conjecture and not reason it is free to gainsay or incline to their authority But where the Scripture gives up a spark it is enough for us to light a Candle by Now says Christ very early after he had chosen his Apostles John vi Have I not chosen you Twelve and one of you is a Devil This methinks disables Euthymius his opinion and from the beginning there was no grace in Judas 3. The common current of Expositors confine the trust which this man had to the credit which was given him to bear our Saviours Purse of Alms and Charity What they say cannot be disallowed as improbable yet it seems Christ put little trust in such an officer for when a payment was to be made of Tribute unto Caesar the money was borrowed of a Fish and laid in the hand of his true Apostle St. Peter to disburse it 4. This is the construction of the Gloss Christ had that eye of trial over all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore it could not be verified in him that he put any confidence in so ungracious a practiser Sed membra crediderunt As Christ was persecuted in the person of the Church Saul Saul why persecutest thou me So he trusted in Judas in the person of the Church which did whilom believe in him for a true Apostle Yea Leo tells it with as much confidence as if he had seen it that no Apostle did cure more diseases or cast out more Devils than Judas and he passeth in old stories for no indiligent Preacher O how often do such false Teachers enter in passing for Seeds-men and sowing Darnel in the field So that the Church may say of such Labourers Yea mine own c. 5. St. Ambrose his judgment shall be the close of these opinions and as I conceive it carries weight Periclitari maluit judicium suum Christus quà m affectum Christ had rather we should conceive hardly of his judgment than to think he is not of the same affections with us He had undertaken our frailty and would shew it in this part of his humility He that hungred could have contented nature without meat he that slept in the Ship could have satisfied nature without a slumber he that is more inward to our heart than our own selves could have displayed the secrets of Judas openly yet it did please him otherwise to shew his agreement in civil commerce with the frailties of men St. Chrysostom preaching upon St. Paul being struck blind from heaven hath this Moral upon it Nemo meliùs videt quà m qui caecuttit No man sees better than he that hath been once blind According to which I say No man is more prudent than he that hath been once deceived Therefore that we may patiently suffer our judgment sometimes to be abused our Saviour put himself in the way to be a mirrour of that humility And his own familiar c. He that did eat of my bread Here is another Article to fill up the measure of Judas his Enditement What another obligation And yet betray his Lord I am ashamed to say there is so much iniquity in the nature of man But it is too true that a small kindness as it will work no good so it will work no hurt upon the worst men whereas a multitude of benefits provokes ingratitude to hate the Author Beneficia eo usque laeta sunt dum videntur exolvi
of the eighth the next immediately is the Plague of Frogs So is ours croaking in the dirty ditches of the Netherlands which by the Rod of Moses and the Prayer of Aaron will be sent away to remain only in their own River Ver. 9. And when they are remanded to their own sinks and Marshes God deliver us from the Plague of Locusts in the Apocalyps that overspread this Land Before I shut up the sorrows of Nehemiah I consider what will be said by some that we are in no distress as Jerusalem was no foreign Foe hath brought us under the malice of an unthankful stock of men hath not so much as shaken our welfare Our Walls are the same which the Oracle commended to the Athenians Walls of wood well-built Ships maintained and multiplied for the honour and safeguard of the Island The Gates of Jerusalem before they were burnt down were their Courts of Justice for their Elders sate in the Gate when they did right between party and party And such Gates we have standing inviolate in their ancient dignity and priviledge that the poor may not be oppressed by him that is too mighty for him O happy if we knew it and were thankful that our Walls of defence and fortitude and our Courts of Justice are unimpaired and flourish Yet for all this as Nehemiah heard words that astonished him so foul blasts and tempests beat sore upon our ears which if God help not may drive us upon the Rocks Where can you converse abroad and not hear such talk as may provoke a Godly man to fast and mourn and pray before the God of Heaven My ears are grated with our modern Scepticks disputants against the Creation of the world out of nothing against the sacred authority of the Scriptures against the immortality of the soul of man While such dispute it sharply the Devil sits in the Chair to moderate Such sawcy petulant pedling wits dishonour God and these triumphing days wherein we live Besides what filthy obscene language is in the tongues of our Gallants What customary swearing What little reverence to that holy Name which should not be prophaned in a syllable What harmony is so sweet as to have incorrupt Religion and nothing else maintained in this Nation so wonderfully cleansed now for the space of about one hundred and twenty years from absolute superstition If Popery then be slickt over with cunning words if such jet about in every corner as will extol that Babylonish trumpery and reproach our Reformation to our face will it not stir us up to a publick bewailment and mourning in the sight of God Put to these base detractions of right worthy Patriots who deserve all honour for the present and a glorious memory hereafter and heap up all with malignant whisperings ungrateful murmurings and the whole riff-raff of vain talk are not these fore runners of a likely woe if we do not seek our heavenly Father betimes If we do not keep in our evil tongues God will ring his judgments into our deaf ears And though our enemies have not a spark of goodness in them whereby they should deserve to be Lords over us yet there may be so much wickedness among us that it may be our punishment to be kept under by them I am not afraid of the puissance of other Kingdoms for any store of vertue that I can hear is among them the whole World is out of frame and set upon mischief But we may expect the heavy hand of the Lord among us where he hath sown so much pure Gospel and reapt so little obedience So I have passed over the first part of my Text the cause of Nehemiahs humiliation applied to our selves And it came to pass when I heard these words c. His humiliation shall now be offered to your instruction in five passes or degrees beginning with his posture of sorrow that he sate down I call it a posture of sorrow for so it is in this place In cases of great heaviness it doth not signifie to repose the body in a seat of ease but to sink down to the ground and to sit upon the earth His legs could not bear the weight of his sorrows and he cast himself upon the ground You shall have some Texts of Scripture to confirm it Job overladen with misery sate down among the ashes Chap. ii 8. The King of Ninivey in dread of Gods anger rose up from his Throne covered himself with Sackcloth and sate in ashes Jon. iii. 6. And when the evil day of Captivity was coming the Daughter of Sion sate upon the ground Lam. ii 10. So that in the first place you see Nehemiah began at the right end abasing himself to this vile Element upon which we tread and expounding the Lords word in his own practice Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return In the seasons of joy and prosperity it is hard to bring a man into a right meditation what he is Then his imaginations are upon a Pinacle or he is flying in the air I hope therefore you will take out this Lesson better a great deal upon this day of common affliction Now I trust you will perceive that this Tabernacle of flesh in all the spangles and trappings of pride is but a muckhill or such rubbish as we stop our nose at in the dung cart or at the best that which the cleanly will not endure in their Chambers dust Therefore affliction is most natural to us which brings us to our proper Center and makes us sit upon the earth As who should say we are but Worms creeping upon the ground enter not into judgment with thy servants who are nothing in thy sight O where can we find so fit a place to receive us considering the abundance of iniquity which is in us as the bare ground Is there any pure metal in us Are we not all dross And whither should that be cast but into the high ways Do we not dishonour the name of Christian and turn the grace of God to wanâ—onness And if the salt have lost his savour is it good for any thing but to be cast out and trodden under foot But alas we are ill prepared for this godly exercise of affliction There is no thought in this Age of sitting down upon the ground Our ears are deaf to our Saviours Lesson Luk. xiv 10. Go and sit down in the lowest room That is a Parable and we lust not to know the meaning David says Psal xl 2. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me that I am not able to look up but our iniquities do take such hold upon us â—hat we do nothing but look up Was ever ambition so forward as in these times What striving what streining to come aloft Yet if aspiring after Promotion brought no other mischief but this one to the soul it were enough to condemn it that it carries a man into a strange Land quite into another Region far distant from humility or
it is 1 Cor. vi 11. But ye are washed but ye are sanctified In that sacred Laver we are sprinkled with the bloud of Christ and so made Saints Sancti quasi sanguine tincti it is a bloud which purifieth from uncleanness for of old they that desired to be purified did dip some part of their body in the bloud of the Sacrifice Baptism is Pactum vitae purioris cum Deo a Covenant with God to lead a pure and unspotted life a sequestration of that which is holy from all profane abuses it is jus gentium says Tully a national and received Law throughout all the world Vt ne mortales quod Deorum immortalium cultui consecratum est usu capere possint that no man usurp that for common uses which was consecrated to the service of the immortal Gods so that a Saint is as much as one that is washt and made clean in Christ and engaged unto holiness all the days of his life 3. For the confession of the true doctrines sake which flesh and bloud could not reveal unto us but our Father which is in heaven our reward was to be called the faithful the faithful of the circumcision Acts x. 45. and in many places beside This continued our note of distinction more than any other in ancient Liturgies and so remains in some of our own Collects as grant we beseech thee merciful Lord to thy faithful people pardon and peace And it stuck more close to the Church than any title in St. Cyprians days as appears by these words Quid Christiana plebs faceret cui de fide nomen est What should Christian people do in this case whose name is given them from the Faith So I have represented to you that in the earliest days of the Gospel the Disciples were called Brethen from their sincerity of love Saints from the purification of Baptism Faithful from that Orrhodox truth which they professed and hope in Christ which St. Paul hath put all together in one verse To the Saints and faithful Brethren in Christ which are at Colosse chap. i. ver 2. But as St. Paul says By honour and dishonour by evil report and by good report we approve our selves the Ministers of Chrisft And they that scoffed at the way of salvation did load us with contumelious taunts that they might soil our Profession The first bitter arrow that our Enemies shot forth was to call us Nazarens Tertullus the spruce Orator was aware of that and charged St. Paul that he was a ring leader of the Sect of the Nazarens Act. xxiv 5. Surely they delighted the more in this Nickname because of that opprobrious by word can there any good come out of Nazareth St. Hierom says that the spiteful Jews had no other term for the Christians in his days and how in that term they cursed us thrice every day in their Synagogues Now when they thought to gall us both with their curse and their venemous scorn Epiphanius says that the Apostles liked it well enough to be called Nazarens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their intention was to put the name of Nazareth upon him where the Angel Gabriel saluted the Blessed Virgin and where she conceived Christ and they were contented It seems so for because they held it no disgrace Julian the Emperor would not call them Nazarens but Galilaeans and proclaimed it says Nazianzen that they should plead or be empleaded by no other name throughout all his Dominions the name of Christian says the same Father it grated his ear some Divine Majesty was in the syllables that it put horror into his conscience but for his own quiet and their wrongs he thought it better to call them Galilaeans his slanderous intention was all that was ill in it for the appellation it self was not slanderous an Angel of God directed his Message to them in that form Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven Act. i. 11. But here was the secret gibe one Judas of Galilee a Firebrand of sedition had lodged an ill opinion in many of the Jews who were born in that Region that such as paid Tithes to God were not to pay Tribute to Cesar neither ought they to call any one their Lord but him that created Heaven and Earth In plain meaning he and his Consorts of Galilee were errant Rebels and though none were so far from faction and disobedience as these modest Disciples yet to perswade the World that they had an Anti-monarchichal grudg in their bosom this Apostate called them Galilaeans Lastly because the Orthodox Champions of the Church confounded the obstinate Gentiles with certain verses cited out of the Books of the Sibyls therefore in despite they invented the name Sibyllistae and pointed at us for the Disciples of those Prophetesses the Sibyls whereas it was their own doing to make us urge them with those proofs since they would not believe the Old Testament and the Prophets of the Lord. I cannot forget how Albertus Pighius played such a wise part or rather a far worse being the first that called our Reformed Divines Scripturarios Scripture-men because they grounded all their Doctrin upon the written word of the holy Scriptures yet in my judgment Sibyllist was not so ill a scoff as Scripturarian Now you know from that which hath been spoken what good Titles adorned the Primitive Saints and how their Enemies drew their name with a black coal in terms of scurrillity the bad appellations vanished away by the brightness of their vertue the good ones were like a scanty Robe too short to cover all their excellency they bore the Cross of Christ gladly and triumphantly wherefore this eximious Inscription was given them which is here in my Text all other names were but as a trail of golden beams to beautify this which includes them all Christian 'T is very much that no Author is mentioned here who was so lucky to impose this name which will be glorious no doubt in all the World as long as the Sun and Moon endure Carthusian hath his opinion that Infidels were the Inventers in disdain at Christ whom that pious Generation worshipped Comestor imputes it to the converted Greeks and Gentiles to the end that they and the believing Jews might have one common cognizance There are more than enough that think it may proceed from St. Peter whose first Episcopal See was at Antioch and then they think they have engrossed all Christians to be under the Pastoral charge of him and his Successors his Successors at Rome they mean and not at Antioch Turrian the Jesuit is far more reasonable sayiâ—â— that the Nomenclator is not known but that the name was ratified by a Synod of Apostles for he mentions a Synod held at Antioch in which these three Canons passed 1. That none should be circumcised for Baptism was the true Circumcision made without hands 2. That all Nations that believed might be collected into the Catholick
upon their bare knees to procure them that happiness to be readmitted into the union of the body of Christ Rowl those words in your conscience which Christ spake to the Apostles Whatsoever ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and it would gripe you as if the knot were tied about your Heart to be shut out of the Fold of Christs Flock by the Sentence Ecclesiastical They that are set over your soul have not the use of the material Sword but the words of Discipline that proceed out of their mouth are sharper than any two-edged Sword Having in readiness to revenge all disobedience says St. Paul 2 Cor. x. 13. In promptu habentes What so ready upon all occasions as the Tongue If this Mother be offended by the impenitency and contumacy of her degenerous Sons she will suddenly smite them with such a wound as nothing can heal but her own forgiveness and the grace of God But a Mother is soon intreated if the Child seek her with tears and lowliness It is a gentle caution which Bernard gives to them that sway the authority in spiritual censures Discite subditorum matres vos esse non Dominos studete magis amari quà m metui si interdum severitate opus sit materna sit non tyrannica Let not your severity be tyrannical but with the compassion of a Mother Thirdly Forasmuch as the Church is our Mother we must carry that venerable duty towards her that great heed must be had to her determinations of Faith not as if it were the rule of truth that is the prerogative of Sacred Scripture but because it holds out the rule of truth and the Ministry thereof is the condition subordinate under God to find out truth My Son forsake not the teaching of thy Mother says Solomon Prov. vi 10. Means he our natural Parent only Nay says Mercer Potes ad Ecclesiam si velis referre You may refer it to the Church if you will And a good reason why that not only it may be but most aptly it should be applied to our mystical or spiritual Mother for the blessings reckoned up in that place to those that will be taught by the wisdom of their Mother are so many as they are not like to be the fruits of obedience to a natural mother only To make my self way the sooner out of this vast Point by distinctive conclusions First If we call that Jerusalem that Church our Mother which St. Paul doth here the most Primitive Church which includes the Apostles Evangelists it is bootless to dispute in a thing so evident that it is to explain the sense and decide the meaning of all Articles of Faith for the Apostles spake as God did give them utterance who is the Author of all hidden and heavenly truths and we are to rest in him as the fountain of all illumination Secondly Excluding the Apostles Evangelists and others conversant with them who were immediately inspired to know all truth which makes a perfect Christian in their own person take the Vniversal Church from their days unto this time and I conceive that the uniform practice and general judgment of all Gods servants that went before us is a certain and undoubted explication of all those Points contained in Scripture that concern our salvation We are taught in the Articles of our Creed that this Church is a witness which we ought to listen unto I believe the holy Catholick Church It hath the promise that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Also Isa lix 21. This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds Seed from henceforth and for ever This is a Promise that the Church dispersed in all places and continued in all times shall keep the trust of saving truth inviolably So Tertullian so Vincentius Lir. upon this subject Quod apud multos unum est non est erratum sed traditum says the former That which is uniformly taught by many much more by all is no lie but a truth delivered by that Church to which God hath entailed his blessing that it shall not forsake it I do not say yet that this Vniversal Church is absolutely free from error but from such error only as would shake the stability of faith Some things that may be unknown without prejudice were ever concealed But the whole Church that is and was is so free from error and ignorance that it knows and possesseth all the truth which Christ hath revealed The Churches are the Golden Candlesticks in the midst whereof the Son of God did walk Rev. i. 12. Thirdly take the Church for all those Christians that are now presently living in the world and among those there will ever be some whom God will preserve from pernicious Error yet those some are not necessarily and always such as are in place of Authority or palpably notorious that we may have recourse unto them In a populous Congregation I have heard a Psalm sung quite out of tune by the greater part and those few that sung tunably could not be heard for a long time till at last their good harmony gained a considerable number to listen unto them and to imitate them So false Doctrine may spread far and the soundest judgments be silenced in the Plurality of opposition If their tunable Notes beget good Musick in others it is the working of God which is stronger than the violence of men But from hence I collect that there is no man living nor any Society of men living which hath such indubitable authority from God that they may pronounce a judicial definitive Sentence to oblige and convince the Consciences of others in Controversies of Religion To relie upon one mans Oracle it were a ready way indeed if it were a certain But that man whom we mean is of such little credit with those that cry him up that he cannot make his Partisans submit unanimously to him in his own cause And for general Councils the great Army of Jesus Christ his pitch'd battel since the former may be corrected by the later and have been corrected their judgment is so awful as may quel the resistance of private men but not so irrefragable upon their decision as to tie their Conscience You will say then hath God provided no certain and external judicial authority to Umpire differences of Religion in this or that present Age I answer First he hath given the complete and perfect Rule of Faith in holy Scripture which hath spoken so plainly in things necessary to be believed that it needs no Gloss to make it plainer As Aristotle says That Laws which are penn'd with the best wisdom do leave but little to the will of the Expounder Secondly We are not Brutes that know not our right hand from