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
Christ should rise the third day and all the World was benighted in the darkness of incredulity There is no need to strain the Text so mightily and yet Chrysologus hath invented a more forced Interpretation Thus he As the day was shortned at our Saviours Passion and the Sun did set in an Eclipse a long time before the natural Evening of that season so at his Resurrection the Sun rejoyced and was so officious to attend him that he rose certain hours before the natural season of the day Therefore according to the natural rising of the Sun it was very early when Mary Magdalen came but if you consider the extraordinary appearance of that glorious Lamp upon the Earth before the time so the Sun was risen and yet it was the time of darkness This is more subtil than solid my first interpretation was the sure resolution I will ask but one question more to clear a doubt and so conclude All the Evangelists no doubt do purpose to set out the diligence and watchfulness of Mary that none have omitted to describe what an early Pilgrim she was Had they no other end in it Yes surely to express the timely Resurrection of our Lord. As David sings it Exurgam diluculo Awake my glory awake Lute and Harp I my self will awake right early But how can you then inch out the time to say resolvedly that he lay three days in the belly of the Grave Beloved you must measure the days by a Synechdoche He was buried toward Evening upon the Jews day of preparation and so lay interred some part of the Afternoon and all the night Upon the Jews Sabbath he rested in the Sepulcher all day and night upon the first day of the week he continued in the state of death some hours of the Morning and very early he came forth an eternal Triumpher he fulfilled the Scriptures therefore and withal made haste to fulfil his Promise to rise the third day Euthymius expresseth it more elegantly than I can Quod citius quà m sit constitutum efficitur potentiae est quod tardius imbecillitatis Christus non solùm promissum explevit sed etiam gratiam velocitatis addidit To be eardier than our promise is a sign of some let and infirmity To be beforehand with a Promise is a sign of power and efficacy The Promise of the Son of God was that in three days he would build up the Temple of his body again He did so and more than so soon after the third day was begun Behold the prestation of his Promise and the acceleration of his favour joyned unto it so we have seen both his truth in the Promise and his love in the speediness doing even above his Promise To whom be honour praise and glory for ever AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT. xxviii 2. And behold there was a great Earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sate upon it THE greatest matter which we preach unto you throughout all the year is that of this great Festival Christ is risen from the dead All that we preach beside holds of this in chief skore out this line and ye blot out the contents of all the Gospel St. Paul says it If Christ be not risen then is our preaching in vain 1 Cor. xv 14. You hear of what great consequence it is to preach of the Resurrection and yet I cannot tell you from any part of holy Scripture at what moment of time or after what manner our Saviour rose from the dead Thou knowest it O Son of David who dost open and no man shutteth who dost shut and no man openeth He opened the Grave nor Death nor Hell nor Pilates Seal could shut it against him He shutteth up this mystery from us when he came out of the Grave and no man is able to open it Is this the reason because his Disciples and the very best of his Chosen were incredulous upon this day and it would not enter into their hearts how he was risen from the dead though he had often foretold it and therefore he did punish them to conceal the manner of his Resurrection from them though no doubt they did much desire to know it Or was it for this respect as another says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we know not the hour when he rose from the dead neither is it possible to know the time when we shall rise from the dead Now it was obscure when he came again to life and it will be as much obscure when he will come to judge the world at the general Resurrection Or was it rather to inform us that since we receive this principal Article of our Creed plainly and not examining many needless particulars so must we receive all the Tenets of Faith naked and uncloath'd from all questions of curiosity The secret things belong unto the Lord our God Yet thus far we may dare to incroach that the Resurrection of Christ fell out within the compass of the words which I have read unto you It came to pass very early in the morning on the third day I told you so the last year at large now I come nearer to the Point For all that say any thing to the incidency of time agree in this that about the time the earthquake shook the place or about the time the Angel descended or about the time the stone was rouled away among these Circumstances one or other he awoke out of a sleep and came forth of the Sepulcher Needs then must you hear from hence some good tidings of joy and triumph The last words of my Text are memorable to this purpose that the Angel sate upon the stone Quasi fidei doctor Magister resurrectionis says Chrysologus Upon these concurrencies presently the Angel sate down like a Doctor of faith in the Chair of Authority and like a Master to teach the Resurrection Where the Angel sits him down to teach the case you will presume is worth the hearing The two things generally in which I fix my thoughts are these motus and quies a motion and a quietness Of motions there are three 1. The foundations of the Earth opened and behold there was a great earthquake 2. The Heavens were opened for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven 3. The door of the Grave is opened He came and rouled away the stone But albeit these things are turbulent in the doing great tranquility shall follow Surely the earth presently was setled and stood still for the stone was steady the Angel composed himself at rest and sate upon it To these I will add such explication as God shall give me leave to utter An Earthquake was a royal trumpet to proclaim this victory the greatest that ever was obtained against an enemy The deep murmur and hollow sound which came from beneath the earth gave notice at one blast to Heaven and
the first day of the Week We are not those that esteem one day more than another as it is the mere flux of time but we are those that must remember how God hath glorified himself in one day more than another and never so much on any as on this day The first day of the Week 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 shew the beginning of a new Age. 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 in the same sort upon the same day 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 mankind out of corruption into the state of immortality being more eximious than to make Adam in a possibility 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 hath been solemnly appointed from the Apostles even to this Age to sanctifie the name of the Lord in publick Congregations It is but a fretful question which is too much agitated now adays since the first day of the Week is designed to be sanctified to the praise of God from the Resurrection of our Saviour what time we may borrow for the use of domestical affairs and harmless recreations He that is perswaded in his conscience no part of the day must be spared from Gods Service let him so do according to the resolution of his conscience no man can be offended that he is earnest for his own part to keep the whole day unto the Lord. Again he that is perswaded that the Lord must have his due service on that day but that he is not tied to a strict Sabbatical servitude surely his knowledge is good and he may use his liberty but without scandal to his brother To the first I say be a zealous Christian in keeping the Lords day but be not a Jew in opinion To the other I say give thanks to God for the freedom to which he hath called you and that he hath eased your shoulders from the servil burden of the Jewish Sabbath but be not a Libertine in practise And this is the sum of that which I will say to the first Point that this marvellous work was done upon the first day of the Week Now the Holy Ghost hath not only satisfied us with the designation of the day but because the more particularity the more certainty therefore the Spirit hath condescended to name almost the hour of the day so that I am sure we may guess near upon the time for it was early on the first day of the Week which denotes two things that the Lord made haste to rise from the dead to comfort the Disciples and that Mary Magdalen made haste to comfort herself with coming to the Sepulcher Christ started up suddenly out of sleep like Samson before the powers of hell those Philistines were aware of him To this it may be David alluded in Exurgam diluculò Awake my glory awake Lute and Harp I my self will awake right early Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia Be not you slow in paying your debts to God God is ever before-hand in fulfilling his promises to you The words in the Second Psalm which are applied Heb. i. to our Saviours eternal Generation are referred by the same Apostle Acts xiii 33. to his Resurrection Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee I cannot pass it over that the Vulgar Latine reads it Ante luciferum genui te Before the Morning star have I begotten thee Very fitly to this Doctrine which I teach that Christ rose early this day before the Morning Star appeared Now that one Scripture may not seem to fall foul upon another these two must be reconciled how he that rose so early ante luciferum how he can be said to be three days like Jonas in the belly of the Grave The answer is you must measure these three days by a Synechdoche He was buried towards Evening upon the Jews day of preparation and so lay interred some part of Afternoon and all that night Upon the Jews Sabbath he rested in the Sepulcher all day and all night Upon the first day of the Week he continued in the state of death some hours of the Morning and very early he came forth an eternal Victor he fulfilled the Scriptures therefore and withal he made haste to fulfil his Promise upon the third day Euthymius expresseth it more elegantly than I can Quòd citiùs quà m sit constitutum efficitur potentiae est quòd tardiùs imbecilitatis Christus non solùm promissum explevit sed etiam gratiam velocitatis addidit To be tardier than our promise is a sign of some let and infirmity to be before hand with a promise is a sign of power and efficacy The promise of the Son of God was that in three days he would build up the Temple of his body again he did so and more than so soon after the third day was begun Behold the performance of his word and the sudden dispatch of his favour joyn'd unto it So we have seen both his truth in the Promise and his love in the speediness of the act doing above his promise Moreover I would have it be mark'd that as he rose early so he was sought early by Mary Magdalen The desire of Christ held her eyes waking and I believe she had took but small rest since Christ was crucified as soon as it was possible to have access to his Monument she came unto it I know not whether you are to learn it but it was not the usual manner of the Jews to bury their dead within the Walls of their Cities to a Garden you know the Corps of our Saviour was carried into the Suburbs of Jerusalem therefore she was compelled to attend till the Gates of the City were opened and passage being made she came before the break of day to the Sepulcher And believe it she sped much the better that she was such an early visitor do not imagine but the eye of the Lord unto this day is upon those that make haste to come unto the threshold of his sacred House and they are greatly deceived that think they shall find God as soon if they come late to Church as if they come early I pray you tell me is there any part of the Service so mean and unuseful that you can be content to spare it Or do you think that God is asleep and by that time the Congregation hath rouzed him up then
keep this Fast And let me tell you we do not keep the same time that our Saviour did The learnedst Calculators of time ascribe his Baptism to the sixth of January immediately he began his fast which continued to the middle of February For the most part we begin our Lent where he ended but many times later Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit that is the answer the custom of the Church hath so confirmed it So the observation hath descended to us from hand to hand and our own Church treading in the steps of pure antiquity hath admitted it Beloved the days of the year which are of especial observance are either days of joy or days of fasting and sorrow The chief day of joy is that wherein Christ rose from the dead and it appears that the Apostles appointed it for the solemnity of Christian meetings weekly and called it the Lords day but God left it indifferent to the Church to appoint themselves their own days of fasting and mourning and repentance for we owe all our gladness to God but we owe all our griefs and sorrow to our selves And indeed Fasts are things to be dispensed with to sundry persons and upon divers occasions therefore Almighty God left these things to the discretion of Authority in particular places A great tyranny is exercised in this matter when the Roman Church which is but one particular of the whole will prescribe Laws of abstinence from meats to all other Churches The lesser Churches indeed for uniformity sake were wont to have a respectful regard to the Ceremonies and Adiaphorous Rites which Imperial Cities and Patriarchal Sees did follow Not I say as if the richer and mightier Church did or could bind the smaller to the prestation of her customs but because in things honest and without exception it was meet that the noblest places should be rather imitated than descend to imitate others But O the advantages that Pride will take courtesie in a while was turn'd to necessity and the Roman Bishops did dare to challenge all Churches for Heretical that do not profess uniformity with them in all Fasts and Ceremonies But all the Inke in Italy is not enough to blot out the Canon of the Council of Chalcedon consisting of six hundred Bishops that the Churches of Constantinople because the Emperours kept their chief Palace there should have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal Priviledges with the Church of Rome And it is a Story known to all Divines when Monacha St. Austins Mother came to Millain St. Ambrose kept Institutions of Fasts divers from the Church of Rome and was never quarrelled for it Look among all the reasons of the Fathers which perswaded the fast of forty days I find not one that says itwas expedient to be kept because so it seemed good to the Roman Pontifical Authority The Institution depends upon a custom received from one to another in particular Churches A Constitution it is then propagated unto us from age to age The next quaere is whether it be a lawful Constitution That is whether the Church hath power to make Laws for appointed times and qualities of Fasting That the Magistrate may bid a Fast according to the convenience of some seasonable occasion it finds no contradiction unless perhaps some Anabaptistical fury doth oppose it So did Ezra so did Esther so did the King of Nineveh so says Joel Proclaime a Fast call a solemn assembly and in all occasions of woe and calamity to forget our food for a time and to intend nothing but spiritual exercise I know no Christian Church in the world but doth practice it But admit there be no extraordinary woe apparently like to fall upon us either by Sword Famine or Pestilence may not certain times and revolutions of the year challenge an abstinence and parsimony in our diet if the Church will have it so as Friday in every week some Saints Eves in every Month the Ember Fast as we call it every Quarter the Lenten abstinence and prohibition of some meats every year I have said enough before the Primitive Antiquity was very constant and regular in these observations de facto now I will refer you to the proofs of holy Scripture that it may be done de jure Zach. vii 5. There it appears that for the space of seventy years while the Children of Israel were in Captivity in all that space as the year turn'd about they did solemnize Fasts in the Fifth and in the Seventh Month not by Gods Law we find no such Precept but by their own Ecclesiastical Ordinances When ye fasted in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me Their hypocrisie is blamed because they did not humble themselves before the Lord as they ought but the Ordinance was irreprovable The next stone that I will move is that Text Luk. v. 33. The Disciples of John complain that they fasted and the Pharisees fasted but the Disciples of Christ did not fast What Fast is this which they object unto him For it can be no Statute of Gods Laws Who would have kept it sooner than Christ and his Disciples For he came to fulfil the Law and not to break it It could be no Fast of private devotion for it had been most injurious to cavil with Christ for pretermitting their private Fasts it follows therefore that they were Fasts publickly kept enacted by the Synagogue observed not only by the Pharisees but by godly men Johns Disciples Only Christ did dispense with his train because the Children of the Bride-chamber were not to mourn while the Bridegroom was with them and to shew that he was above the Synagogue Moreover it is very strongly probable that all the Jews were bound by their own rules and by no other to fast upon every Sabbath until the sixth hour of the day Josephus their own Historian testifies so much the Gentiles among whom they lived did deride them for it and the Scripture gives us some light for it Neh. viii 3. The ears of all the people were attentive to the Law from morning until noon-day and at the twelfth verse they were dismissed and went to meat But our judicious Hooker argues very learnedly upon Mat. xii 1. Christ walking through the fields the Disciples pluckt the Ears of Corn The Pharisees challenge them for doing that which was not lawful to be done on the Sabbath day The bodily labour to rub the Corn was no such great trespass that it should offend them wherefore nothing could displease them but the breaking of the Fast before the sixth hour and our Saviours answer doth apologize not for their bodily labour not for making bold with another mans Corn it was no theft for the detriment was not valuable but he defends them that they satisfied their hunger by the example of David when he eat the holy bread And thus the Scripture approves the Doctrine which I teach that it is lawful for the
allow God a seventh day for sanctification so much is divine in the fourth Commandment and what seventh day but the same which Christ sanctified in his Resurrection which is the new Creation of the World the same which the Scriptures point at the same which the Church hath constantly kept in all successions Salve festa dies toto venerabilis anno says Lactantius and Origen says that Manna did begin to fall down about the Tents of the Israelites the first day of the Week and in the same day you are bound to bring your Omer to gather Spiritual Manna in your holy Assemblies that your Soul may eat and be satisfied When the Proconsuls of several Provinces enquired who were Christians to punish them you shall find in the Acts of the Martyrs this was their Question to descry them Dominicam servâsti What do you keep the Lords Day The good man being persecuted answers Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and cannot intermit it Do we differ from the Jews then in nothing but exchanging day for day Yes Beloved as in sanctifying Gods name we are to go beyond them because the Spirit is given to us in more abundant measure than it was to them so in nice Points of rest and cessation from all bodily labour and exercise we are not tied so strictly as they were I wonder from whom they had their Doctrine that teach the contrary I know they will not say they had it from the Fathers I know they cannot say it justly I appeal to the best lights of this latter Age. Out of the French Reformed Churches I cite Beza Thus he The keeping of the Lords day is an Apostolical and a divine Tradition yet so that we are not tied he means by Gods Law to observe the Judaical cessation from all kind of work for to observe the Judaical rest were to change the day and not the Judaism Imperial Laws made by Constantine and other godly Princes did first interdict that no open and usual buying and selling or other Merchandise should be used for it is fit for the better sanctifying of the day that we should sequester worldly affairs and be altogether vacant to God Thus far he Out of the German Reformed Churches I will cite Paraeus This is his Argument Who first approves that the Lords day is to be kept with a decent cessation from manual labours and that it is very scandalous to pollute it with usual secular affairs but if any will run further to impose upon Christians the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish rest in their Sabbath thus he convinceth them The observation of the Jewish rest was figurative and typical and all those figures of truth were to be kept under pain of severe judgment because the figure was the pledge and Protestation of the truth which should come to pass now there being no such figurative dependence upon the sanctification of the Lords day we are tied only to such rest as shall adorn and beautifie our Worship of God upon that day I mean both our Morning and Evening Sacrifice Beware therefore to be a Jew in opinion but beware to be a dissolute Libertine in practice Violate not this day nor any the like in the whole year with Negligence Idleness Luxurious Pastimes or Riot give thy body rest that the soul may be more busie in the holy work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rest which is not imployed in the fear of God is the Mother of all wickedness I cannot end this Point better than with those words of St. Basil Let me adventure with your patience upon the next Point and I will defer the handling of the last That which I mean only to speak of is Mary Magdalens expedition her restless diligence her watchfulness without all sloath She came early when it was yet dark Every hour seemed seven to this pious Matron till she came to the body of Christ the Sabbath of the Jews was but now ended and she had much ado to refrain coming before it was done The Stars of the night had not yet run their courses when she set forth toward the Monument for it is probable she kept the Sabbath at her own Town and she dwelt at Bethany two miles from Jerusalem yet by Sun-rising when it was yet dark she was come to the Sepulcher a journey of two miles and had brought her Spices with her She had no sleep I believe fell upon her eyes for thinking of her Saviour I am sure she had no leisure to paint her face to powder her hair or to dress her self with finical curiosity We had divers I confess that came early this morning to the holy Sacrament when it was yet dark I praise them for it We have others that seldom or never find the way to Church till the Afternoon you may know by their vain Attire trickt up in Print what they were doing all the Morning At last we have their company scarce with half a thought to please God but with their whole heart to be praised of fools and to please such wanton and adulterous eyes that gaze upon them What a coil is here with this carion flesh Ye are but painted Sepulchers full of rotten bones and not worthy to come with Mary to the Sepulcher of Christ much less to come to the Communion of his body and bloud O proud mortality they that make their Looking-glass all the Text which they take out in the Morning little think that the Grave may be the Pew in the Church wherein they shall be placed before Evening Now they walk abroad so strong with sweet smells that they are able to perfume a Sepulcher with Spices in less than four days all this delicacy may turn to stink and rottenness Come early to the Sepulcher that is think of death in your young blossoming years how suddenly ye may be cut off then leave to fashion your selves after this French or that Italian dressing and spin a poor shrowding sheet which may wrap you up in the earth against the day of the Resurrection I hasten Was it yet dark when Mary came when St. Mark says punctually it was at the rising of the Sun What an intricate case some have made of this objection which is nothing in it self For the Evangelist doth not mean it was so dark that the women could not see about them for then all they reported would be taken to be fancy and not a known truth But the Sun newly rising some obscurity of darkness remains in some places especially it might be so about a Monument which was cut of a Rock in the Earth and the Monument in a Garden where shady trees do not suddenly admit light and the Garden perhaps lying under an Hill and compassed about with a Wall some dusky darkness may incloud such a place early in the Morning They shoot wide therefore that expound the darkness figuratively that the Scriptures were not opened as yet how
if other actions of our life be suitable to that Profession It is a careful strictness that we will not accept of all that indulgence which Christ hath given us and yet it is St. Pauls mind that we should stand fast to that liberty to which Christ hath called us and that truth may not be prejudiced I must tell you that in the opinion of all learned men of all Churches throughout the World excepting a few among our selves joy and gladness are allowed for a portion of this day And that when God is sanctified in our holy Assemblies at Morning and Evening the remainder may be discreetly and soberly dispensed withall Remember what I said that the day wherein Christ suffered being pretermitted the day wherein he rose from the dead was selected for the weekly season of Divine Service not because his Resurrection was a greater Benefit to us than his Passion but because it was the Feast of Joy Diem Solis laetitiae indulgemus says Tertullian we set apart Sunday for gladness and chearfulness meaning that one use of that day was to refresh us after toil yet God being first serv'd with all due attendance for Recreations when they keep you from the House of God are not only vain but sacrilegious In the most ancient Church if any profest to last on this day or to put on the weed of sorrow he was excommunicated In the last Canon of the Nicene Council all Christians are exhorted to stand praying on this day and not to kneel because it betokened affliction and humiliation It was never denied but that it might harmlesly be divided between sanctity and harmless pleasure This would never be stumbled at if you would but mark and how can you choose but mark it that Sabbatical rest was a yoke upon the neck of the Jews a bodily exercise which in all the Gospel is never urg'd upon us who are only taught that perfect way of Spiritual Worship therefore Sunday succeeds the Sabbath in point of sanctification which is spiritual not in point of vacation which is bodily and ceremonial Our day is not figurative as theirs was and therefore requires no such nice prohibitions of that wherein no internal holiness can be placed and it is all one to tie Christians to the strict rest of the Jews as to their strict day Sanctification and Joy are the contents of this day which we are to cast our eye upon Inchoatur sanctificatione porficitur glorificatione we begin in sanctification we shall end in glorification it is a day which will bring us to that day which is not divided by light and darkness but it is all light fitting our perpetual joyes for evermore And now I could wish that the hour were to begin again being to speak of Festivals or Holidays for our extraordinary Assemblies I have spoken of them heretofore as they do carry the outward countenance of that joy which remaineth for us in Heaven as they are the agnition of great Benefits received and as they are fair Landmarks to teach unlearned people the principal Articles of Faith this was a prelibation of this point of Doctrin and that which the time will give me leave to add more will not be so much as to cloy you for I will but touch upon three things 1. What days may be allowed for Festivals 2. Why they may be allowed And 3. upon what a basis they are to be disallowed For the first it is nothing so with any Festivals that I shall name as it was with the Lords day that is founded in the practice of the Apostles and he is a sorry Divine qui nescit facere legem de prophetis that cannot frame a Law out of godly practice But no other Holy-days can claim their Example Says Socrates it was the purpose of the Apostles not to enact Laws for the celebration of Feasts but to give us lessons for the instruction of a godly life and for piety Only the Feast of Easter was kept solemn while some of the Apostles were living yet that hath no evidence in Scripture as Sunday hath but in humane Histories of good approbation nay the whole preceding week before Easter was strictly observed not with cessation of bodily labour but to call Christians to Church upon every day so that the day of Christs Passion was religiously solemnized and likewise the day of the Institution of his last Supper immediately before the memory of his Passion The next grand Peast that was anciently honour'd over all the Church as appears in Tertullian was Whitsunday or Pentecost yea in all the 50 days between Easter and Whitsunday solemn Service was celebrated without cessation from labour no fasting no kneeling upon their knees all that time Halleluia was sung Morning and Evening And Ascension-day was peculiarly dignified by it self and this held till the year 466. at which time Claudianus Mamercus Bishop of Vienna in France did begin Rogation week or the Supplication of three fasting days to desire God to bless the Fruits of the earth then sprouting up and of a sudden all the world did like his custom and follow it Neither Ignatius Justin Martyr Irenaeus or Tertullian speak of Christmas-day that I can tell of but Theophilus Bishop of Cesarea doth in his Paschal Epistle and so doth St. Cyprian so that in likelihood it was kept about the year 200 and long before Constantine's days that the Tyrant Maximinus knew for he burnt the Christians in their Churches upon the Feast of the Nativity as Maximinus says So that the five Feasts of Easter Whitsunday Christmas the Passion and Ascension were most anciently kept before Constantine's Reign while the Church was under persecution and had no leisure to invent superfluity of Ceremonies These are kept and no others by the Lutheran Churches as I find in Chemnitius by the Palatinat Churches as I find in Paraeus by the Low-Country Churches as I find in Rivetus by the Churches of Scotland brought in by the pious care of King James 1618. the Churches of Geneva are a little singular and observe none but the Feasts of Easter and Christmas the Churches of Helvetia acknowledg the five great Feasts as appears by Hospinian Yet moreover after the year 300 the Feast of Christs Circumcision grew famous especially in Alexandria and the Feast of the Epiphany was most gloriously hallowed in Constantinople These are dutifully reteined in our Church together with his Presentation in the Temple and his Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel We do likewise praise God publickly upon other days upon the Feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists and all Saints not named We keep the Memory of St. Stephen the Martyr one for all and the Memory of the bloud which the Innocents shed for Christ We celebrate John the Baptists Nativity for the Scripture says many shall rejoyce at his birth Finally we solemnize a day to God in the name of Michael the Archangel to give thanks for the protection of all the
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
this celestial Embassador hover'd above their heads to shew the property perchance of a glorified body or whether he walk'd and convers'd upon the earth as man to note our fellowship with Angels by the Birth of Christ yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supervenit is one that came suddenly never lookt for at that season which construction says Beza is indifferent to both and well he doth apply the verse unto it Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora an hour of felicity came at an instant upon us which we never dream't of and so much for the manner how the Angel took his place 5. Now follows the fifth interrogatory upon which I shall stay longest why men were not accepted to do this office to manifest the Birth of Jesus but loe an Angel of the Lord. There are many reasons for that expediency which I will marshal in their order 1. As an evil Angel did co-operate to bring death into the world so a good Angel was a choice instrument to bring the tidings of salvation for why did the Son of God take flesh to repair the fall of man How did man transgress by the subtilty of the Serpent Who was the Serpent our adversary the Devil Who shall make amends for the mischief which the Devil wrought one much different in grace but of the same Essence and Nature and Creation the Angel Gabriel But you will say no fault was committed by the good Angels they were neither enticers nor abettors of Adams prevarication why should they trouble themselves true but a kind of blot did stick unto their name and for a full measure of recompence they would satisfie for that which was none of their transgression Our first disobedience was occasioned by a tree our Redemption was purchased upon the tree of the Cross We were wounded by the appetite of Eve we were healed by the Womb of Mary Here was tree for tree and woman for woman So an evil spirit tempted us to our loss and therefore a good Spirit is zealous to be an instrument of our restitution there 's Angel for Angel 2. They were exceeding busie to declare Christ unto the world many ways Concipiendum conceptum natum before he was conceiv'd to Mary when he was conceiv'd to Joseph after he was born to the Shepherds for they are willing to partake all good things unto us in the Militant Church because we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exalted to be equal to the Angels in the day of Christs second appearing Choristers of one Quire to praise the Lord and members of one triumphant Church for ever They came in humane shapes like unto men nay they are often called men in Scripture Vt demonstrent intelligibilem societatem cum iis habendam in vita futura because we shall make up one spiritual society and fellowship to sing Hallelujah hereafter I am not of their mind that say the Cherubims in many things were unresolv'd about the Mystery of Christs Nativity and that they came with these messages to instruct both themselves and us St. Peter doth not make good that fancy because he says these are things â—nto which the Angels desire to look 1 Pet. 1.12 and Dionysius roves at random who imputes it to them that they would better understand that point of Faith because it is written Isa 63. Who is this that comes from Edom but many ancient Fathers do adjudge that the Angels take delight to be present in our Christian Assemblies when we meet in this house together to offer up the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving Paul enforceth modesty to the Corinthian women in the house of Prayer because of the Angels 1 Cor. 11.10 Angelos testes habent honesti pundoris aut impudentiae as the most expound the Angels make one congregation with us and therefore they are witnesses of their modesty or impudence Where is then your reverence your bodily humiliation when you come to Gods house do all things with decency and well-beseeming devotion for the Angels are our invisible associates says holy Bernard Non ausus es illo presente facere quod me praesente non anderes Dare you do those unbecoming things where the Angels are by to witness which you durst not do for fear of censure if the Ecclesiastical Magistrate did look upon you 3. The Incarnation of Christ is I may say the perfection of all things in the world and therefore good reason that all creatures should have some participation and interest in it Men did share in him in his own sex and person women in the Womb that bare him poor men in the Shepherds great ones in the sages of the East the Beasts by the stable wherein he was born the Earth in the Gold that was offered the Trees in the Myrrhe and Frankincense and to reckon up no more the Heavens in the Star that blaz'd all the works of God even they which by natural obedience bless him and magnifie him for ever did claim some office to make one in the solemnity when their Creator was born Why surely some room was left for the Angels it was fit they should be in the train at the Inauguration of this mighty Prince and their place according to their dignity was very honourable they were Gods Embassadors and as if they had a Patent to use their office frequently they had many errands from Heaven to Mary to Joseph to the Shepherds Non satis est semel missum esse duobus aut tribus testibus stat omne verbum says St. Ambrose They came three several turns and no less that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established 4. Angelus in carnis specie Christum in carne venturum praenuntiat says Aquinas the advent of the Messenger was in some wise a commentary and explication upon the message the tidings to be open'd surpass'd the apprehension of a natural man though he were the wisest Dictator of Philosophy that the Eternal should be begotten the Infinite be contain'd in the finite that God who is a Spirit incomprehensible should be made flesh O unutterable mystery what visible inducement could be thought of to make man believe it how should the dull and ignorant apprehend this transcendent operation Behold Gods Nuntio this Angel that came to the Shepherds go no farther than him and you shall have an instance what the Almighty can bring to pass for the Essence of Gabriel was pure and spiritual not mixt with elements no bodily concretion in him yet he tells his errand to the world in the similitude of flesh and bone notifying that the Spirit of all Spirits God himself should be made flesh 5. Angels and Principalities were first upon this Ministry to preach the Nativity of Christ to honour and countenance their office who in the same calling do succeed the Angels Look not upon the poor Fishermen whom Christ did call from the Sea of Tiberius but estimate your Clergy by the excellency of
semblance hath shined upon some faces when it redounded from no inward fountain as in the Transfiguration of Christ from the personal union of the Divinity or as in the beatitude of the Saints from their Glorification But God cast a beam of honour upon them from the comfort of his own presence So in the forty days that Moses was upon the Mount twice he came down to commune with the Children of Israel and there was no alteration in him he lookt as one of the other people But when the Almighty passed by him and proclaimed his mighty name in his ears then when Moses came down the skin of his face did shine and the people were afraid to come nigh him Exod. 34 30. as the purple of one ripe grape doth tincture that which is next it with the same colour so that flaming Majesty wherein the Lord appear'd did cast a new die of awfulness upon the forehead of Moses And S. Stephen the Martyr had a glimpse of the Glory of Christ which like a ray of the Sun darted upon his face and all that sate in the Council saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel Acts 6. ult 4. A lightsomness and coruscation hath been shewn from heaven not resting upon the persons nothing was chang'd about them but upon the place where they stood in the day time when it appear'd it was more glorious than the day and when it appear'd in the night it turn'd the night into day So it happened unto Paul at noon-tide as he journeyed unto Damascus hear his own testimony to Agrippa Acts 26.13 At mid-day O King I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun shining round about me and them that journeyed with me So it happened to the Shepherds upon christmas-Christmas-day as they kept watch over their flocks by night when the nights are at the darkest according to the season of the year the heavens were spread above them like a glistering Canopy the glory of the Lord shone round about them and so many ways in Scripture four in all God hath communicated light to glorifie his own works and his Saints that praise him You shall hear some opinions what kind of light this was which did spangle in the field when the Angel came unto the Shepherds St. Ambrose thinks it was some fulgure of the Stars Angels says he and Shepherds had a voice and a tongue to publish their joy but the constellations of heaven Quia voce non poterant gaudia sua officio protestantur because they could not utter their joy by a tongue they express it by their duty to start like lightning into the fields which were near to Bethlehem And whether he speak it by a figurative amplification or not I know not but the same Author hath these words Sol praeter consuetudinem in hac festivitate matutinus illuxit the Sun prevented the morning watch and peept upon the earth earlier than he should to guild all those fields with his light which were adjoyning to the Stable where Christ was born For. says he why might not the Sun make more haste than natural to offer service to the Son of God as well as stand still in the firmament to attend a petty Jesus Joshuah the Captain of the Israelites But with the leave of that holy man I conceive if the Sun had rose miraculously before the time the Scripture would have express'd it even as we find it mentioned that the Sun was eclipsed and the heavens darkened at the Passion of our Lord. Others are conceited because an Angel is a glorified creature therefore the body which he took upon him did shine triumphantly as if he had stood in a cloud of light Hence it comes says the Cardinal that among other honours which are decreed to Saints in their Canonization this is one Pinguntur eorum imagines addito certo quodam lumine in signum gloriae quam habent in coelis Their images are painted with resplendent rays about them to signifie the light of that glory which they enjoy in heaven But beloved my Text says not glory did shine about the Angel or that the glory of the Angel did hallow the place but the Glory of the Lord did shine about the Shepherds Therefore I adhere to that learned Author who says it was Claritas creata prae se ferens divinam majestatem a clarity of light newly created which bare the evident shew of no created Spirit but of a Divine Majesty and some are bold to say that this white glorious cloud which dazled the Shepherds afterward being compacted into one body it made that blazing Star which went before the Wisemen from the East unto Bethlehem and I leave it indifferent to you as you think fit to believe them But I leave to agitate this point any more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what this shining Glory was and for some profitable use and application I come to the next thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what use there was of it to celebrate our Saviours Nativity First The Lord did put on this glorious apparel even a robe of light to express the Majesty of his Son who was born to save the world Mis-conceive not his excellent greatness because he lies in a Manner but estimate him by this sign from Heaven that the glory of the Lord did shine round about to honour his Nativity Christ is obscur'd in the Stable says St. Austin but his messenger shines in the field Sic opera humilitatis apud nos contemptibilia illustria sunt in conspectu Dei so humility may appear contemptible to us but it is glorious in the sight of God In the old Testament says Hugo though Angels were sent to men upon sundry occasions yet they never came with this propertie as far as we read that glory did shine about them Nunc exorto Sole justitiae tanquam solares radii lucidi fulgentes apparent but now the Sun of Righteousness did rise upon the earth they appear conspicuous in their colours like the beams of the Sun Nothing could resemble Christ so well as this Claritas Domini the brightness and splendor of the Lord because he is the brightness of the Fathers Glory Heb. 1.3 it is a similitude which gives ample occasion unto faith to make fit constructions The Father is compar'd to the Sun in the firmament and Christ his only begotten to the light of the Sun 1. Non libere à patre procedit sed naturaliter says St. Cyril he comes out from the Father not of free choice as if the Father had power not to beget him but naturally as the light hath an emanation from the body of the Sun so that the Sun cannot choose but give light 2. The generation of God the Son is eternal even as the Father is eternal we cannot say there was a time when he was not no more then we can say there was a time when the Sun had
to feed the hungry but especially shew your thankful heart in frequenting his Church of Saints that you may hear his word gladly and obey it dutifully and reign with him eternally Amen THE TENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE ii 29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word For mine eyes have seen thy Salvation OUr Text the last year for the solemnization of this day was Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast sucked Our Text this year makes good the words of our Saviour Blessed are the eyes which see that which ye see For so the devout Simeon magnifies his own happiness that the Incarnation of Christ fell out in his days and that his eyes had seen his salvation To give him suck was more than to look upon him to bear him in the Womb far more noble than to dandle him in the Arms therefore this Text doth follow the other as the lesser happiness comes behind the greater Yet if you regard it as a testimony among those Witnesses that confest Christ was come into the world it is either equal to the first or next unto the best I bear more reverence to the Thrones that stand before the face of God than to compare him with the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. they are immortal and cannot see death Simeon had one foot in the grave and begg'd to depart in peace If they speak from heaven they command us to believe them he was a frail man obnoxious to passions and though he spake as the Spirit gave him utterance he could no more than perswade Without all controversie therefore the testimony of Angels so far as I have laid it forth is much more excellent Yet will you come now to other Collations the Angel preacht his hodie natus this day a Saviour is born to a few and to the meanest of the Laity to certain Shepherds Simeon testified that the salvation of God was come unto Israel before the best of the Priests in the audience of all those that were met together in the Temple and so his saying would go much farther than the Angels when persons of such authority and estimation received them from his mouth The Angels seem'd to restrain the fruit of Christs birth to the Jews only vobis natus this day is born unto you The Prophetical Ejaculations of this old Patriarch impart him to all to be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel With all others that witnessed of this day thus far I will contend whether they were the Shepherds or the Wise men of the East they were blessed instruments of Gods honour yet the Scripture hath not given us their names nor yet described them by any sanctified property but Simeon is named and his vertues are remembred he was a just man and a devout and he lookt for the consolation of Israel The rest were like to live and vigorous of body some could endure to watch over their flocks all night some could travel from far Countries in the depth of Winter neither of them probably near their end this man was full of days ready to give up the Ghost ready to give up his accounts to God and to answer for every idle word and at the last gasp when it was no time to dissemble he preacht that the Babe whom he then embraced was Christ the Lord. He preacht it nay he sang it likewise in a more joyful strain than any Witness that had gone before him except the Angels his words in his own language which we have not were Metrical and Poetical says Maldonat the whole tradition of the Church is so universal for it that Calvin who useth to condescend to no terms but such as are found in Scripture is content to call it the Song of Simeon If you alledge that the Magnificat of the blessed Virgin was a triumphal holy Song and likewise the Benedictus of Zachary I will not gainsay it so I rejoyn which is true that they were sung in private houses this is the first Hymn or Anthem in all the New Testament which was sung in the Publick Temple Finally That I be not tedious in my Proem this Song whereof my Text is a Moyty was uttered with such a divine gravity that at this testimony and at no other it is said that Joseph and his Mother marvailed at these things which were spoken of him ver 33 in this Chapter But to make that which they wondred at easie to be understood there are these two general parts of my Text Occidens and Oriens a Star setting and the Sun rising Simeon departing this world and Christ approaching Therefore the first verse is Epicedium a Dirge for a Funeral Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word The second verse is Genethliacon a Congratulation of a Nativity For mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Simeon would be gone because Christ was come marvelous strange indeed for if ever this world were worth the living in it was when He did live upon the earth in the form of a man To sift therefore the agreeableness of those two parts attend to these particulars First Here is a Supplicant the servant of the Lord Lord now lettest thou thy servant Secondly The Petition of his soul to depart Thirdly The time which he sets Now Lord now Fourthly he pleads that he was well prepared to depart for his heart was in peace Lord now Fifthly the assurance in which he trusted that God would grant him his desire for it was according to his word Sixthly and principally Here is the reason upon which he framed his desire why he would depart he had seen that which his soul waited for before it flitted away For mine eyes have seen thy Salvation You shall now hear the income of these if you will attend them The Supplicant stiles himself the Servant of the Lord and he that can say so much for himself may speak with boldness for the Lord will deal well with his servant according to his word Psal cxix 35. Magna humilitas sed magna simul dignitas says St. Hierom It is great humility to confess ones self a Servant but it is no little dignity to profess ones self such a Servant to be the Servant of God and not the Servant of men by vile obsequiousness nor the Servant of a mans own Passions by lust and sensuality nor the Servant of sin by giving place unto the Devil this is a freedom that excells all other liberty To serve the Lord Optabilius est quà m regnare nedum liberum esse says Philo it is to be preferred before a Kingdom how much more before that which the world calls freedom from servitude And yet I deny not but the bondage of them that served God faithfully under the Law was very great they were enthraled to Ceremonies about Meats about Apparel touching Marriages touching
special priviledge not by common publication that which was a secret among some few is now vulgar to all God hath disclosed his hidden treasures to us as unto friends He was their Lord so he is ours but he is also our Father They were his servants and so are we but the interest we have in Christ that hath taken our nature upon him hath made us more than servants and exalted us to be his friends Hitherto I have held your attentions to the Supplicant now the Petition of his soul comes in order that he may depart The Servant had a burden that opprest him a frail and a corruptible body and he desires the Lord to ease him of it and to take it from him For so St. Ambrose and the Syrian Paraphrast read the word optatively Dimitte O take me away from hence and let me depart And they that say it is dimittis for dimittes the Present Tense for the Future bring it up to the same sense Lord thou wilt now let thy servant depart so Origen and St. Cyprian read it for the Hebrews use to make their Petitions in the future time as thou shalt hear my prayer in an acceptable time which is a fit form of words to ask in faith and not to waver as St. James says but the word here is Metaphorical in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say in the native term Lord now lettest thou thy servant be unloosed as horses are taken from the Plough and set up to rest when they have drawn till Evening and are weary or to signifie says St. Ambrose that necessity compelled him to stay here Ideo dimitti poscit quasi à vinculis quibusdam ad libertatem festinaret therefore he desires to be let loose as if he had been enthraled like some Captive and now would shake off his bonds and attain his liberty This earth is not our Country therefore though we have an inbred desire to have the union of the body and soul maintained yet our willingness inclines to be uncloathed of the body rather than not go from hence when we are full of days Quis peregre constitutus non prepararet in patriam regredi says St. Cyprian that man were unnatural that affected to be a stranger and had rather travel always than settle himself at home in peace revolve in your memory the words of just men in holy Scripture and you shall find that this is common to them all to mourn and sigh because their pilgrimage was prolonged Wo is me that I am constrained to live with Mesech says David Who shall deliver me from the body of this death Says St. Paul It is enough Lord take away my life I am not better than my Fathers says Elias While the body was a Palace the soul was content to stay in it now it is become a filthy prison no wonder if it desires to be gone Let not Simeons Nunc dimittis nor this Doctrine be mistaken every mans willingness to leave this world and to die is not commended from hence but when it is joyned with patience and good internal motives especially when we find an aptness and good preparation in our selves that when we go from hence we shall be joyned to the Lord. There is no worse sign in some that God is departed from them than when they are sullen and froward with their life and care not which way they break violently out of the world so they may depart Seneca could say Mori velle non tantum fortis patiens set etiam fastidiosus potest that is not only stout men are resolved to die and such as are fortified against fear but the discontented that cannot bear his cross had rather lose himself than his peevishness good and bad upon several reasons are contented both to die and to live Sunt homines qui cum patientiâ moriuntur sunt autem quidam perfecti qui cum patientiâ vivunt says St. Austin There are some holy men that exercise their patience to be content to die there are some perfect men that exercise their patience to be content to live therefore the motives that induced Simeon to this must be sifted to make him an inoffensive nay a profitable example Salmeron the Jesuit follows a most capricious invention that this reverend Sire importuned God to put a period to his days as soon as Christ was born that he might be the first Nuncio to the Fathers that were in limbo and certifie them that the Messias was come into the world who would exalt them from that lowly condition in which they were held and conduct their souls into the Kingdom of heaven This is so extravagant that I give it you to note the man and the far-fetcht way of their expositions The true reason is that this cygnea cantio this farewel Song of his hath taught us that there is no terror in going to the Grave no sting in death since God appeared before us and became man to deliver our souls from the nethermost hell and to make our bodies like to his own most glorious body They that know not what their condition may be in the next world must needs think of death with an heavie heart and sigh and wring their hands when they feel it approaching He that could see Christ no otherwise than through the dark mists of the Law did count it somewhat an irksom thing to go out of the land of the living it was a good King of Judah that chattered like a Swallow when Isaiah told him he should live no longer But it is incredible to humane reason how it encourageth a faithful man to meet his death with chearfulness because though not in our own bodies yet in the Apostles and others we have seen we have heard and our hands have handled the word of life and that we know there is plentious redemption for us in Christ our Saviour Simeon knew the instant of his dissolution was at hand and yet he sang away the remainder of his life with joy as who should say Egredere ô anima fly away my soul fly away like a dove and take thy rest for now I see that the promises of grace and mercy are true here is Christ thy Saviour in thy hands thine eyes do see thine arms do support thy Salvation though thou departest thou shalt not go from him for he is man on earth to comfort thee and God in heaven to glorifie thee This is it which did animate Simeon to say Lord let me depart and therefore as the Patriarches in the time of the Law desired length of days upon earth that they might live to see the Messias so let us desire a joyful departure to be with him for evermore I proceed the time which he sets for the accomplishment of his Petition is presently or at that instant Now Lord now let c. Nunc ante hâc non item As who should say if I had been summoned to leave
was to be feared that he was to be admired for his excellency that he was increate immortal eternal and not like the Idols of the Heathen there was Grace and Religion other Nations knew not him therefore he puts them by as if he knew not them he is the God of Israel Secondly This whole World is made for no other end but that Christ may exalt his Dominion in it and therefore the Nation of whom he was to come according to the Flesh that is spoken of as if it belonged to God alone and all other People were quite forgotten Well therefore might Zachary say O thou God of Israel for upon the Nativity of Christ now it was fulfilled why long since he was called the God of Israel His Incarnation as old Simeon said it was the glory of his people Israel his conversation among them was their temporal protection that their enemies should not devour them while he was with them upon earth his word confirmed it that the children of the Bride-chamber should not mourn while the Bridegroom was with them Finally His appearance among them in the Flesh was their spiritual exaltation for he preacht to none other but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel But Israel doth now no longer stand for those that according to the Flesh descended out of the Loyns of Abraham as St. Paul says he is a Jew that is one inwardly Rom. ii 29. So he is an Israelite that is a true man like Nathanael that hath no guile in him he that believeth in Christ that visited and redeemed Israel And that you may know the term stands now for the Church of the Faithful and Elect St. Paul calls them that walk according to the rule of Jesus Christ the Israel of God Gal. vi 16. You know that Jacob wrestled with an Angel of God at Peniel and thereupon the Angel changed his name and called him Israel because as a Prince he had power with God and men and had prevailed Gen. xxxii 28. he prevailed over men that is over his Persecutors Esau and Laban He prevailed with God by tears and supplications and this is the exact description of all those that belong to the Church of Christ that is of the Israel of God Their outward foes shall be subdued unto them when God shall think it time to put an end to their sufferings they must overcome their spiritual Foes that is get the victory over the passions and lusts of their own flesh vanquish the Devil overcome the attractive delights of the world and then they shall be no more Jacob but Israel they shall prevail with God It is well noted by one that when the Church in holy Scripture speaks of her infirmity she is called Jacob when she speaks of her happiness she is called Israel Isa xli 14. Fear not thou worm Jacob and Amos vii 2. by whom shall Jacob arise for he is small but in a thousand places ye shall find thus saith the Lord God the King of Israel and never was the Church in more prosperity then when Christ came among us in the likeness of man then it was not Jacob the worm but it grew mighty indeed it prevailed with him that sits on high then it was fit the Song should run in the best title Blessed be the Lord God of Israel You have received the first part of the Text entirely in every particle the solemn praise of the Divine goodness now follows the reason in two most glorious acts why the God of Israel deserveth this praise For he hath visited and redeemed his people Blessed be his name for he hath visited blessed be the Lord for he hath done marvellous things We want not many of these fo rs when we ascribe excellency to the King of Heaven Fame is a good companion for Virtue I love to see them fast together let there want no praise if there be a quia visitavit a good reason for it a deserving action to advance it but to spend our good word upon them that have no merit to speak good of the covetous as David saith whom God abhorreth to cry up Absalom among the people for a little out-side formality such praise is most fulsom that 's broacht either by flattery or ignorance When renown is so ill bestowed upon the wicked it makes the righteous that they do not regard it But the object of Zachary's benediction is so gracious so full of perfection that when we say all we can in the honour thereof we shall say too little for he hath visited for he hath redeemed his people The first of these is that which makes this the double double Holy day above all the Feasts of the year visitavit he visited and it is once again repeated in this Hymn of Zachary's the day-spring from on high hath visited us ver 78. Some there be that collect the three capital works of Christs dispensation out of my Text and the verse that follows for that he visited us say they it denotes his Incarnation that he redeemed us it betokens his Death and Passion that the horn of salvation was raised up in the house of his servant David it implies his Resurrection I think these things are minc'd asunder that should not be divided but all agree that to visit is a word so proper to christmas-Christmas-day as none more namely to take flesh and to dwell among us Doth the same fountain says S. James send forth sweet waters and bitter why that 's no such marvail for this very word to visit is so diverse in holy Scripture that sometimes it relisheth as sweet as mercy can make it sometimes it is as bitter as the very gall of his anger can temper it Visitat quando flagellat quando miseretur says S. Austin God visiteth when he punisheth and he visits when he pittieth In the first acception nothing is better known than that of the Decalogue Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me And again I will visit their offences with the rod and their sins with scourges and in the Latin Translation Jer. xxvii 8. That Nation will I visit with sword with famine and with pestilence And Psal lix 5. Thou Lord of Hosts awake and visit the Heathen and be not merciful to any wicked transgressors From hence we have drawn it into our common phrase that we call the infliction of the contagious Pestilence the visitation of the Lord. God is ever present with us but when he shews himself to be present by some exterior and notable work bringing his Judgment or his Mercy in a conspicuous manner to our City or even to the doors of our own house then he is said to visit us And if it be a visitation of vengeance yet refrain not to say Blessed be the Lord God of Israel whether he send his Angel with a Sword to smite us or with a Song as at Christs Nativity
to believe in him nay if he had not given them his Body to be meat that whosoever eateth thereof might not die but live for ever they had never been his people Lord draw us and we will come unto thee visit us and we shall be healed redeem us and we shall be made free make us thy people and we will serve thee and praise thee and bless thee all the days of our life Amen THE TWELFTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION LUKE i. 69. And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David THe Spirit of God is so constant to the same matter to the same phrase of speech in Holy Scripture that there is no Text of prime Doctrine in the New Testament but likely you may fit it as it were verbatim out of the Old I put you in mind of it at this time because David hath not only comprized my Text but all this Song of Zachary into one verse Zachary having been dumb for nine months his unspeakable joy at last burst out like a River which hath been stopt and flows forth in a full gush when the Sluce is open Now whereas when he found his tongue and began likewise to Prophesie his Wife and Kindred who were the Assembly that heard him expected no doubt that in the first instance after he broke silence he would speak of John the Baptist a child of much wonder and expectation whom the Lord had sent unto him in his old age yet he did not so but he took the rise of his Prophesie from a mightier work by far he begins with the Bridegroom and then proceeds to the friend of the Bridegroom He begins with the Saviour and then speaks of the Servant he begins with the bread of life and then goes on to the voice of the Crier he was sent unto the Jews to invite them to eat of it He begins with the glorius King sprung out of the house of David and concludes with his own Son that was the torch-bearer to carry the light before him Of both these thus the Psalmist with most admirable brevity Psal cxxxii 18. There will I make the horn of David to bud I have ordained a lanthorn for mine Anointed The horn or excellency of David is Christ Incarnate the Lamp ordained for that mighty King was John the Forerunner whom the Evangelist of his own name calls a burning and a shining light 'T is St. Austins Exposition and so natural to the sense of the Psalm that it hath gained upon me to follow it Yet there is great odds between Faith in spe in re between the prenuntion and the event of these mysteries between the promise of the Sun rising and the light which shines visibly upon the world between the knowledge of Salvation which was drawn nearer to the Church in Zacharies days than it was in Davids when it was further off In the one it is faciam I will make the horn of David to bud in the other it is feci the counsel of God is actuated he hath raised up an horn David was bold to sing it forth that God would perform his Promise Zachary was more bold to speak in the Preter-tense that he had performed when it was but in fieri when the Web was yet upon the Loom Christmas day was not yet come it was half a year off before the time was appointed that a Virgin should be delivered but Zachary knowing the certain execution of Gods Word hath made Christmass day in the Text. He doth not only bear witness to our Saviour though yet an imperfect feture after three months conception as if the Child were born but as if he were in his most able growth in perfect strength of years in perfect execution of his power in the perfect glory of his Kingdom And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David Now to prepare you to receive the division of the words you may easily mark that whereas the former verse contains a general profession of Gods mercy to his Church he hath visited and redeemed his People this verse contracts it to the particular instrument through whom we are all blessed as who should say God hath given Redemption to his People yet there is no redemption to be lookt for but in Jesus Christ he hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David The principal word of the Text therefore is that which is in the midst An horn of salvation it is the Periphrasis of Christ I will begin from thence 2. I will declare how God did raise up this horn of salvation when Christ was born 3. Here is the Lineage of our Saviour according to the Flesh he was raised up in the house of David in the house of David his Servant Lastly Here is the use and fruit of his birth which belongs to us that is to as many as have the same faith in him that Zachary had when he opened his mouth to utter this Prophetical Song And hath raised up c. In the former verse Zachary says that he would bless that is praise and Magnifie the Lord God of Israel And hath he not made good his word Yes surely for the praise of the most high cannot be exalted in the tongue of a sinner more than in this attribute to call him an horn of salvation There was more obedience and faith in it I will not call it merit but I say it exprest more obedience and faith that this devout Priest should call a Child nay a feture but of three months conception as yet curdled like milk as Job says in his mothers womb the horn the strength of our salvation than for the Angels and Seraphins to sing continually before the Throne of heaven Holy holy holy Lord God of hosts the Angels extol that infinite Majesty which they behold in glory This person confest all that his tongue could utter to the honour of his Redeemer when nothing was actuated nothing yet in being to be seen and when the time came that it should be seen nothing could be more infirm in appearance Yet neither the inevidence of the object before he was incarnate nor the parvity and outward meanness of the object when he was to be incarnate do stumble his faith but he makes as great a noise to advance his dignity as words would give him leave an horn of salvation Salvation salvation is our tree of life restore the Church to that O Lord and there is Paradise enough in it though we be shut out of Paradise It is one beam and the very principal of that inward light in holy Scripture which shines in the Meridian of us Christians and makes us resolve by a secret contract between us and faith that it is the the Word of God because it treats constantly and in every part of it touching the means of salvation But the Volumes of heathen men
time Therefore not St. Austin but some other forgetful Author said in 29 Serm. de Temp. that Christ was magnified for a fourth renowned work also upon that day namely for the first miracle of the loaves and fishes Concerning the first three I have authority enough in ancient Writers and three such miracles to be celebrated in the offices of one feast are enough to give it a principal reputation So gladsom a festival it was chiefly to sing praises to the Lord for the calling of the Gentiles that if either King or Potentate withdrew himself from Church on this day it was enough to tax him for a Pagan and that he did abhor the Gospel Therefore such as write of Julian the Emperour and his deep hypocrisie note in him that for many years he would come in all Princely pomp to Gods house at this feast lest he should have seemed openly and directly to have renounced all Christianity I have told you in what price and estimation this Festival was held of old because nothing was so precious to the Gentiles as their own salvation Therefore I hope you will do the day that common right to give diligent ear to some portion of the Scripture while I entreat upon it with what persons and miracles and other circumstances the preamble of our calling and illumination began In the Epistle for the day if you mark it we forget not Pauls kindness that he was a prisoner for us Gentiles Eph. 3.1 it is worth our thanks and remembrance much more is it worth the recitation in the Gospel what Christ became for our sakes a condition far meaner than for an Apostle to become a prisoner Paul from a sinful man became a diligent Apostle Christ being God came unto us in the shape of a sinful man of an impotent Babe and was bound though not in fetters yet in swadling clouts laid up in a Manger as contemptible a corner as a gaol and being all innocency reputed for our sakes worse than Barrabas the greatest scandal of the prison of him St. Paul did preach and the Prophets did preach and the Stars did preach and these Wise-men did preach that we Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of the same promise in Christ I have been copious upon the descent and stock and other qualities of these wise men upon their coming upon their journey so long and perilous from the East to Jerusalem Three things do equally divide my whole matter the doings and the sayings of these Pilgrims and the occasion of both For their doings and sayings to be equally regarded upon this Text I find that I concur with St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see the vertue of these Wise men both to come so far and to speak so far to come from home for Christs sake and to speak so home for Christs sake Where is he that is born c. The occasion of all is now to be handled Now when Jesus was born which is opened by two circumstances of the place that was in Bethlem and of the time In the days of Herod the King Now their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or boldness of speaking the truth is drawn to two heads by the Fathers Vnum quaerunt unum asserunt say they but here is one question and two assertions The confident question Where is he that is born King of the Jews The assertions first What God had wrought for them We have seen his Star in the East Secondly What God had wrought in them And are come to worship him And in the beginning I take the occasion in hand Now when Jesus was born Is that the Axel upon which all the business of these Eastern Travellers turns it self No wonder if that beget a great holy day for Christs birth is the occasion of all the holy days in the year If you keep some days festival for the Evangelists you know how they deserve it because they were his Penmen and Recorders if other times are celebrated for the Martyrdom of the Apostles because they were his Witnesses the Innocents of Bethlehem were slain in his quarrel and Michael and all the Angels fight for the Church because Christ is the head both of things in heaven and of things in earth All our joy all our triumphs all our glory move from hence and from this occasion Now when Jesus was born But to what end was all this hast Why should they make forward to see the Child as soon as ever he was born What could they report of him when they returned home but that they had seen an Infant His Tongue was not apt to speak as yet nor his hands to shew any proof of strength and mightiness They might have spared their labour one would think till he had been well grown to years of action and perfection nay but the Star calls them forth and will not let them loiter if they omit this opportunity God knows whether ever they have the benefit of a Star to usher them again The Lord above did know and the new Creature this strange Star did preach it and the hearts of the Wise-men were enlightened to understand it that there was occasion enough to call all the heathen or at least the wisest of the heathen or at least the Princes of the West I say to call them from the ends of the world to Judea to see this little Bethlemite lately born yet greater than all the Angels though they spring not from fleshly generation to see him suck at the breasts of Mary for a few drops of milk who feeds every living thing with plenteousness to see him supported in a Mothers arms who sustains the whole world by his power and founded the Elements upon nothing to see him cast his eyes about and newly peep out of those lidds of flesh to whom all things lie naked and discovered even the darkness of the pit and the secrets of the heart of man Nothing can be said nothing can be thought of this birth but is so mysterious and incomprehensible that the silly Shepherds who could not ponder those Magnalia Dei those Metaphysicks which the Angels told them made known abroad the things which they had heard concerning this Child but as for these Wise-men that could delve into a Mystery when they saw the young Child they fell down and worshipped him and presented him with their Treasures but we do not read of one word they spake either at Bethlem or when they returned home to their own Country the thing was ineffable and perhaps they praised God in silence and admiration that such a Child was born but could not utter it Such as would travel for wisdom had enough occasion for their journey were it never so far to behold the very Nativity though abstracted from the blessing that grows unto it Oritur origo rerum that he should have any kind of being in time who is Ens entium the cause and fountain of all
East to Judea these have many more reasons to eâ—ince that it was no natural Star As first that all other Stars appear unto the world by night this had a most bright complexion as well by day as by night Ignatius says or some in his name that it exceeded the Sun and Moon in splendor And Prudentius says as much for Poets will speak loftily Quâ—e solis rotam vincit splendore ac lumine it went beyond the body of the Sun in light and lustre Secondly It had not the motion of other Stars sometimes rising sometimes setting but guided the Magi in a straight line from Persia or Mesopotamia to Jerusalem Thirdly Other Stars finish their course that is whirle about the Orb in twenty four hours this pass'd but few degrees in many days from the East unto Judea Fourthly This Star disappeared at a moment as soon as ever they were received into Jerusalem and so long as they staid there I believe two or three days till they were just upon departing it shined not again Hoc non agit motus sideris sed virtus plena rationis It must not be the motion of a natural Creature but the vertue of a supernatural finger that was so punctual Yet Gregory Nyssen doth so maintain it to be an usual Star of the highest Orb that he prevents all these objections namely that it came out of the Sphere for a time and hung in the air to do homage to Christ and he that caused the Sun to stand still or go backward for Joshua's or Hezekiah's sake could make a Star to go what motion he pleased for his Sons sake Perhaps such as stick fast to the Peripatetick Philosophy would have the body of the heavens suffer no such violence as a Star to be missing in it for a time And therefore Aquinas against all exceptions concludes it to be a flame of light newly created for this purpose Fuit corpus densum multùm habens de lumine specialiter ad hoc opus ordinatum A solid body fit to receive much light ordained on purpose for this Ministry Whether it was made of some pure celestial matter or earthly concretion that they profess not to know but leave it to him that framed it Nor do they presume to deliver any certainty touching the Figure of it as whether it stream'd like a blazing Star or no yet of all things else they will not permit it to be called a blazing Star for those Meteors so they were wont to call them appear against the Death of Princes not against their Nativities But one Frier among others fell out with his wits that gives us his own fancy for an undeniable truth that this Star was cast out into the Figure of a child bearing a Cross and that it portended his blessed Mother should be called the Star of the Sea Thus he scarce modestly considering the heathen called their Venus the Star of the Sea but I am sure ridiculously What kind of created body it was fitly that 's certain formed for this purpose either we shall know hereafter in the Kingdom of heaven or at least have no curiosity to desire to know it that 's the best resolution Others stray further from the words of the Text and say that the Scripture speaks according to the opinion of the Wise-men who considering the Figure of it and the light it gave call it a Star but indeed it was no Star What then Why the Holy Ghost now appearing in the shape of a Star to manifest to Christ as once in the shape of a Dove when he revealed him at his baptism by Jordan As if nothing were worthy to make this Infant known unto the Gentiles but the Holy Ghost What share the holy Spirit had in this manifestation shall be toucht upon anon Others observing that an Angel told the Shepherds in the field the tidings of the Incarnation do most approve that this light which shew'd as if it were a Star was a very Angel of glory going before the Magi from the East to Jerusalem in a resplendent visible form For Angels are called Stars Rev. i. 20. And again Who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire Psal civ This opinion hath St. Chrysostom to favour it that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an invisible heavenly vertue taking this shape and figure upon it And Theophylact more clearly in the same key 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine and Angelical vertue appearing in the fashion of a Star And one of our late Writers is more punctual how it should come to pass to be an Angel that when an Angel spake words about the Incarnation of Christ to the Shepherds the glory of the Lord shone round about him and these Wise-men of the East seeing that heavenly and Angelical glory shining afar off apprehended it to be some new Star and withal either by tradition or illumination at the present were taught that it call'd upon them to go and seek the Messias in Judea Yet this last opinion will hardly be made good for when they went out of Jerusalem that light appeared again very near unto them at that time and yet they call it a Star and not an Angel In one word had it been an Angel why should the Evangelist have concealed it that an heavenly Minister conducted the Gentiles to Christ whereas the Scripture tells it without all circumlocution that a multitude of the heavenly Host appeared unto the Shepherds watching over their Flocks by night I incline therefore to the letter that it was a Star or luminous body created for this purpose And marvel not if the Point be so ful of doubts and uncertainties for every circumstance about the calling of the Gentiles is the mighty mystery of God And so much for that Point In the next place we are left as much uncertain about the appearance of the Star as about the substance For the Question is propounded whether it made but one Apparition only to the Wise-men and being seen but once gave them sufficient notice to go into Judea or whether it guided them day by day night by night step by step till they came to Jerusalem The former opinion is not empty of reason the latter likewise stands upon reason and is much more countenanced by Antiquity The Scripture hath left it undecided and so both parts may enjoy their liberty and are fit to be heard They that incline to the first way that the Star at one shining taught the Magi to go into Judea are moved for these causes First because they say we have seen his Star in the East they do not add that it hath conducted us to you in the West and in all likelihood the Evangelist would have spoke of it if the Jews had seen it as well as they And in as great likelihood if such a flaming Meteor had appeared upon that Horizon all the way they went from Persia to Jerusalem the wonder would have been
unto the worlds end The Schoolmen collect a threefold opening of the heaven in holy Scripture and every way through the power and act of Christ Says Ales In baptismo aperta est coeli janua per figuram in passione per meritum in ascensione per effectum 1. The gates of heaven were opened at this Baptism as in a Type or Figure that they should be opened and God will certainly make good whatsoever he did but shadow in a Figure 2. They were opened at the shedding of his bloud upon the Cross as by those means which did meritoriously procure the opening Therefore we sing in the Te Deum When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers 3. They were opened effectually when his own glorious body entred in once into the most Holy of Holies when the heads of the everlasting doors were lifted up at the day of his Ascension And where the head doth sit at the right hand of God the Members of the body having their sins washed clean away shall reign also The Earth never opened in holy Scripture but upon some Curse for the destruction of man The Heavens never opened but that some mighty Blessing might distil down upon us the probatum whereof is in the second general part of my Text for the first Miracle which we have handled did but make way unto the second And after the heavens were opened he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him That John Baptist had this Miracle so clearly in his eye that he saw the Spirit of God I find it not so material to the business of the Text as to insist much upon it For although some observe upon it that the first Witness that preach'd of the Son of God is conceited to be the first Witness that saw the Holy Ghost yet the Miracle hapned not so much for Johns sake as to lead the whole multitude into a right apprehension that Jesus was that holy One which came into the world for the redemption of Israel John was born of a barren woman his Garments very strange and uncouth no better than the skins of Camels clapt about him as they were flay'd from the beast his austerity of life stupendious his Preaching powerful high in estimation so that all the Regions round about came to him to be baptized this drew them to conceit that none could come into the world to be compared with John But Columba columbam docuit the Dove taught the Dove the Spirit taught the Church who was the Christ the Saviour of mankind by the descending of the Dove That which I will speak to this Point briefly shall be brancht out into a threefold inquiry 1. Whether this were a living bird or no more than the figurative Apparition of a Dove 2. How aptly the Spirit came in one figure upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles 3. That the figure of a Dove doth sweetly admonish us of the properties of the Holy Ghost What manner of Dove this was is not a question of such doubtful resolution as the former how the heavens were opened for treading in the path of the Scripture as I adjudge it we may find the truth For three Evangelists say that the Spirit did sit upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were a Dove then add St. Luke unto it that the Dove came in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a bodily shape and these put together me seems do strongly prove two things 1. That it was not viva columba a Pigeon out of the Dove-Coats with a living soul for to notifie that there was but the outward fashion and resemblance of such a bird in three Gospels we read it was but quasi columba like a Dove And yet that you may not take it to be mere Phenomenon a shadow to perswade the eye having no substance in truth St. Luke hath not omitted that it was a bodily shape Verae effigies columbae a body created for this service having the true lineaments of a Dove To make both these opinions good by several illustrations And first what need it to be of the true Species of Doves Was not miraculous Omnipotency as much seen to frame such a shape out of the Elements at an instant and to put motion in it to descend upon the head of Christ as if it had been a very foul It was a work which could not be effected but by the infinite and incomprehensible Trinity For the Dove was a representation of the Holy Ghost the voice which came from heaven did speak the Father only the humane nature was united only to the Person of the Son but the Dove the voice the humane nature were the works of the whole Trinity which coequally works all effects in the world You may fully conceive what natural composition this Dove had by those bodily shapes wherein the Angels or God appeared of old to the Patriarchs they were not actuated by a soul but moved about by God or his Angels for the present turn as a Ship is by the Pilot. When their Errand was dispatcht the body vanisht away into air So the use of this Miracle being accomplished at Jordan the Dove was no more seen but instantly resolved into Elements Besides that which came down upon the Disciples at Whitsontide was a cloven tongue like as of fire did ever any man say it was fire indeed So this Apparition upon the head of Christ was like a Dove But for what purpose or necessity should it be a Dove indeed For Christ was man indeed because he took upon him the nature of man to redeem it therefore the reason is forcible that the Holy Ghost should not come down in a Dove indeed because he took not upon him the nature of a Dove to redeem it Secondly I gathered from St. Luke though it had not the life of a Dove yet it had lineaments and compacture of true substance like a Dove Christ came among us bodily in the flesh wherefore says St. Austin to shew that the assumption of a corporeal nature did not make an inequality of persons in the Godhead a voice was heard from heaven in the Person of the Father as if it had proceeded from the instruments of the body and a bodily Dove did descend from heaven in the Person as it were of the Holy Ghost Likewise the coming down is the motion of a body The Spirit is every where and cannot descend to any place which was not filled with his presence from the beginning of the world but in hôc signo in this bodily shape and effigie he came down And mark Beloved the Devil is Spiritus cadens I saw Satan fall like lightning down he tumbles to the nethermost Pit and all that follow him but the Holy Ghost descends like an humble Spirit according as our Saviour bids us place our selves at
corruption that is in us and to be the Sons of God Because there is mention of a good Spirit immediately before my Text that descended from heaven upon him in the shape of a Dove and all the business after my Text concerns an evil Spirit that assaulted him with many tentations therefore the quaere ariseth which of these did lead him into the Wilderness The Syriack determines it plainly Ductus â spiritu sancto he was led by the Holy Ghost And it is of more moment that certainly the Syriack Paraphrase took it from St. Luke Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that understand Grammer and the original Text do easily discern that the same word in the same sentence implies one and the same thing the latter being an effect of the former for being full of the Holy Spirit he was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness And I will parallel it plainly anon with that of St. Paul Acts xx 22 Behold I go bound in spirit to Jerusalem Moreover the Devil approached not unto him till after he had fasted forty days he began to be an hungry for he had no motive to begin his tentations till he perceiv'd he was in the distress of hunger like a weak man Therfore it was not Satan that carried him into this place where he fasted for then the tentation had begun before he had set foot in the Wilderness The case is clear to say no more of the first Point that the Spirit which led him was the influence and impulsion of the Holy Ghost The second thing to be askt is how the Spirit did lead him This can be conceived but two ways Either by inward instigation or removing him suddenly from one place to another which is called outward translocation Each way may be admitted for both are according to Analogy of Faith and both are favoured out of the Greek Text of sundry Evangelists You shall read in St. Luke Chap. iv 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was led by the Spirit which doth imply that the Holy Ghost did inwardly inspire that resolution into him and did assist continually while he abode in the Wilderness You shall read in St. Mark Chap. i. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness as if he had been transported thither in some wonderful rapture And my Text is read thus in St. Mathew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led up of the Spirit The Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sursum to lead up hath either regard to the situation of the Desart which was by far the higher ground in respect of Jordan where our Saviour was before Or else that he was exalted from the earth and carried away by the Spirit through the air untill he came unto that place where he spent forty days in Prayer Fasting and Meditation I dare not contend out of the Scriptures but that the Spirit wrought both ways upon Christ both carrying his body into the Wilderness and instigating his mind No unusual thing in the first sense for the Spirit to transport a body suddenly through the air without the motion of the feet to a place of far distance And although the whole Trinity God the Father the Son and Holy Ghost concur to that action and produce it or perhaps appoint an Angel to be the instrument yet it goes under the name of the Spirit because that Miracle impresseth a strange vertue into a material body as if it were spiritual How Enoch and Elias were translated on high in their bodies I have declared my mind not long since And surely before Elias his last translation into heaven this did befall him often times Obadiah was jealous of it 1 King xviii 13. It shall come to pass when I am gone from thee the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not What Ezekiel reports of himself I cannot say but it was rather an imaginary than a real rapture but thus he Ezek. viii 3. The hand of God took me by a lock of mine head and the Spirit lift me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem This could not be imprinted in his imagination but that it was possible to be done really And Gregory meditates well upon it Every regenerate person during the time of this mortal flesh is so lifted up between heaven and earth Adhuc ad superna plene non pervenit sed tamen ima dereliquit His conversation and his heart are not altogether in heaven but they are higher than the earth What a direct instance is that of the Prophet Habakkuk He was carrying food to the Reapers in the Land of Jury and the Angel of the Lord took him by the crown and bare him by the hair of his head and through the vehemency of the Spirit set him in Babylon Neither need this be rejected for Apocryphal since there is an example to match it Acts viii 39. The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip who was then at Gaza and he was found at Azotus which two are forty miles distance after the best descriptions of the Holy Land A Faith that is but linum fumigans a dusky faith and shines not clearly may easily admit this for if the birds can cut the air with their gross wings naturally who will not be perswaded that God can make the body of man more nimble and fit for such a motion by his supernatural power But I marvel at those Expositors who are squemishly conceited against that opinion that they did not frame this objection God doth not use to work Miracles only to shew tricks as one would say no necessity requiring Then cui bono Why might not Christ have gone into the Wilderness step by step What occasion of moment should urge the Spirit to transport him Beloved it was thus far expedient that Christ should vanish and no man know which way he was departed that he might avoid the honour which the multitude would have done him upon that voice which came from heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So in the sixth of St. John after the miracle of feeding some thousands with a little bread and a few fishes Christ perceived that they would take him by force and make him a King therefore he made a sudden departure none knew whither till his Disciples met him walking upon the Sea in a dark night and a great storm Mat. xiv 23. This is reason then sufficient to decline the people who were astonished at the testimony which was given him from heaven that the Spirit snatcht him away in a rapture into the Wilderness Why this interpretation of the word should not take with you I know not but I am sure the next must take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led by the Spirit that is the Holy Ghost did inspire this heroical
him we obey under the commination of hell fire if we be slack in our duty We are servants commanded to our task he did the works of him that sent him as a Prince receives the dignity of a province from his Father to administer it to his honour and if he had refused it it could not turn to his prejudice therefore both Angels and men owe as much obedience for their own part as they can perform but the dispensation of Christs humility was not imposed but freely undertaken and by that vertue and title meritorious In the last place therefore all the effects of Gods will are pleasing unto him to be done and so it is pleasing unto God to have us humble our souls sometimes before him with fasting and mourning but a good duty is wronged when the more rigid defenders of merit of condignity say that there is an equivalency and proportion between the studious keeping of some appointed Fasts with other voluntary afflictions and the reward of eternal life Is it not enough to say that our imperfect obedience pleaseth God and shall be rewarded according to his own promise and free grace Will it not satisfie us to go to heaven by mere mercy and undeserved liberality Beware to gild your works by the name of merit why should the ungodly make such proud boasting Dip them in the name of free remission of sins by the bloud of Jesus Christ and God will give glory to us his adopted Sons because we give all glory to the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 2. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungry LET it not trouble my Auditors because I shall speak at this time of that Fast which our Saviour kept forty days this is not the proper season I confess and if any man be ready to say as one Philosopher in Laertius quipt another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why do you handle a matter that behoves us in a time that doth not behove it My answer is If I pickt out this for a single Text at this time my oversight were unpardonable but you know I take the parts of this Story in order and must follow my subject as it hapneth to be discuss'd Indeed our Church which doth always follow the steps of pure Antiquity hath appointed this portion of Gospel to be read yearly upon the first day of Lent For the memory of any great thing is better preserved when it is remembred solemnly about the time that it hapned So God said to the Children of Israel upon their coming out of Pharaohs bondage Remember this day continually in your generations Exod. xiv 3. And upon a great memorandum thus the Lord said to Ezekiel Son of man write the name of the day of this same day the King of Babylon set his face against Jerusalem this same day Ezek. xiv 3. And many have cited Nazianzen when they commend a word spoken in season Ex verbo illud potissimum quod est tempori convenientissimum That which best suits the time is best spoken out of the Scripture I subscribe to this wise direction and I do not violate it now out of neglect or contempt but upon apparent necessity that I may leave no gaps in this Scripture which I handle about our Saviours conflict with Satan but fill up the exposition of every verse as I proceed with such meditations as I am able to afford I come therefore to the remainder of this verse which is due unto you to be explained and it consists in two things The continuance of our Saviours fast and the consequent The continuance that he fasted forty days and forty nights the consequent that he was afterwards an hungry The one is a supernatural elevation the other is a natural condition In the first he shewed his divine vertue in the second his humane infirmity Upon the former the Devil feared he was the Son of God upon the latter he perswaded himself he was no more than a mortal man Whether is more strange that having flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone he should make his appetite forget to ask for sustenance so long Or being the Son of God who filleth every living thing with food himself should hunger and want In the first we admire him Be thou exalted Lord in thine own strength In the second we love him because he was made poor that we might be made rich in both we magnifie him Attend to these particulars and first that he had fasted forty days Forty days and forty nights not now a day and then a day at several times for that is easie and ordinary but all at once without intermission The Grammarians have medled with this Point to confirm it by this rule Jejunavit quadraginta dies non diebus quia tempus continuum ferè quarto casu ponitur Nouns of time expressed plurally in the Accusative case do betoken such a distance of time continued and not interrupted Therefore Christ observed a continuation of fast from the first day to the fortieth no man I think would understand it otherwise and if any were so captious St. Luke would not suffer him for his words are in those days he eat nothing Luk. iv 2. There is no efficacy in numbers said the wiser Philosophers and very truly but some numbers are apt to enforce a reverent esteem towards them by considering miraculous occurrencies which fell out in holy Scripture in such and such a number So Tolet in a sort magnifies this number of forty days that it is numerus mysteriis significandis accommodatus a number coincident very often to the greatest mysteries and noblest works of God Forty days it rained upon the earth in the days of Noah when God cleansed the great sins of the world by water Caleb and Joshuah returned from searching of the Land of Canaan after forty days Num. xiii 26. Christ continued upon earth forty days among his Disciples after he was risen from the dead before he ascended into heaven The Ninivites were forewarned that they should be consumed after forty days if they did not repent and turn unto the Lord. Thus it came to pass for what reason we cannot tell but God knows why his Providence doth so exactly and so often keep that measure of time in great signs and wonders Non potest fortuitò fieri quod tam saepe sit says one whom I never find superstitious in numbers It falls out too often to be called contingent and the oftener it falls out the more to be attended Yet it is the safest conclusion and hath least impertinency in it to say that Moses fasted forty days at the institution of the Law and Elias as long at the restauration of the Law so Christ kept even with them and fasted just as long as they before the publication of the Gospel As Jonas was three
days and three nights in the belly of the Whale so shall also the Son of man be in the lower parts of the earth as if Christ had been studious or rather would teach us to be studious to keep the pattern as near as we can of the good Generations that went before us I would be sorry such ignorance should be in any here to make a question whether Christ could have continued to fast not only for the space of so many days but all his life without the corruptible aliments of meats and drinks But if he had produced his abstinence from all food longer than Moses and Elias for the space of many months or many years it would have been incredible to many that he had been perfect man of the substance of his Mother and Heresies would have had strong grounds for delusions that he had not a fleshly but a celestial body How much better did his humility condescend to the likeness of his own Prophets And because he came but in the shape of a servant he would not exceed all example or outgo the miraculous fast of his fellow-servants he would have the world take knowledge of him to be a mighty Prophet at least no ways inferiour to the best that ever lived therefore he fasted forty days and forty nights like Moses and Elias But in this the one is as divers from the other and as much excels the other as can be imagined Moses and Elias were preserved by Gods mighty arm that their natural complexion might subsist without sustenance but Christs vertue was in himself and of himself absolute independent they were kept safe by an external power Christ by his own Godhead and by no derivative vertue Such glorious miracles are rather to be adored with admiration than to be followed with imperfect imitation And because a large field of controversie lies before me in this Point touching the observation of our Lenten temperance for forty days whether that ordinance were regulated by the example of Christ I will lay down three several heads of opinions in their order and bring you by degrees I hope to the truth of the controversie 1. I will enquire whether Christ did intend to ordain a prefixt time of abstinence in the Church for forty days by his example 2. If that be not so sound to hold yet whether it were an Apostolical Tradition 3. If that can neither be proved yet whether it be a laudable Ecclesiastical Constitution To the question of the first enquiry many of the greatest Doctors in the Church of Rome answer that the observance of the Quadragesimal Fast binds all Christians from our Saviours example So Cardinal Bellarmine Non verbis praescripsit hoc jejunium Christus sed exemplo praecepit we have no such ordinance in express words throughout all the Scripture to say do thus but it is an ordinance from Christs example And Maldonat the Jesuit though Lent be not founded upon Christs Commandment yet it is founded upon his Example and that is enough to say it leans upon divine Authority Beloved it behoves not us to lay burdens upon mens shoulders which God himself hath not imposed Whatsoever is commended to us for decorum and order sake we do it for conscience sake but whatsoever is no more but indifferent in it self and is obtruded upon us sub opinione necessitatis as necessary and irrefragable from divine Authority when it is not so we reject it Stand fast in the liberty wherewith God hath made you free says St. Paul Gal. v. 1. So St. Cyprian in the like case opposing them that invented traditions of their own and called them Gods Ordinances Periculosum est in divinis rebus ut quis cedat jure suo It is of a dangerous consequent to yield any thing to be a divine injunction which is not Therefore advising upon these rules I give a flat Negative upon the first question the Quadragesimal Fast is not necessarily to be observed from Christs example The old rule of divinity is a sure one Imitamur in moralibus admiramur in miraculosis in miraculous works we adore Christ with admiration in Moral Institutions we will follow him with imitation He anointed the eyes of the blind man with spittle and clay contraries to the cure according to nature and therefore we magnifie him is it not a most Heterogeneal Mimick from hence to make a mixture of spittle and oyl to an Infant baptized as if the Apostles had wanted ceremony to the Sacrament when they baptized with nothing but water If any man love me he will keep my sayings says our Lord but he never added If any man love me he will tie himself to my example where I never prescribed him to follow me For my part that which hapned to St. Peter works exceedingly upon my understanding in this case when he saw his Master walk upon the Sea as upon a solid Pavement he desired he might do the like and to let him know such miracles are to be lookt upon with the veneration of faith he sunk into the waters and was in peril of his life To stop every cranny of objection that can be made I read that the examples of Christs mighty works are sometimes pressed upon us to be drawn into an Analogical imitation 1 Pet. ii 21. Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps How is that Being reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not and as he died for us so we should offer our selves up to him as spiritual Sacrifices and as he died and rose again the third day so we should die unto sin and rise again unto newness of life From hence says Maldonat this is right our case for we take not upon us to eat nothing for forty days as Christ did but we keep a canonical temperance for forty days Imitamur quia sequimur quamvis non assequimur This is no more than the Analogical imitation Those other imitations of some similitude have a precept in the Book of God and this hath none Therefore let them teach that their imitation being not Scripture proof is but a voluntary and a diaphorous Constitution of the Church and the Church of England will never be their adversary For so it is frequent in the Writings of good Antiquitie to alledge Christs example for their observance of the forty days fast not according to the Roman Tenet at this day that Christ established it necessarily in all places from that time forth unto the end of the world but they alledged Christs example to countenance their voluntary and Ecclesiastical Sanctions What can be more direct on my side than St. Chrysostome Homil. 47. in Mat. Christ did not say as I fasted forty days so do ye follow me in fasting but learn of me because I am meek and lowly and ye shall find rest for your souls Surely if he had given any particular order for fasting in the New Testament the
most proper time to have setled it had been when the people told him the Disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast often but thine do not But then he utters no more but this in general When tbe Bridegroom is taken from them they shall fast Here is no direction for time or manner all that is left free to the sound discretion and occasions of the Church They do but dally with Scripture that collect from the forenamed words when the Bridegroom is taken from them they shall fast therefore the sixth day of the week in every week must be a day of fasting and abstinence because on the sixth day of the week the Bridegroom was taken from them and died upon the Cross What more insolid than this For by collections from Irenaeus and others it is evident that even the Roman Churches did ceremoniously keep the fast of Satterday long before they observed a portional abstinence upon the sixth day of the week But let me not make you lose the head of my argument by this Parenthesis that Christ being demanded why his Disciples did not fast he leaves an indefinite answer with them The days will come when the Bridegroom is taken from them that they shall fast but for allotting any particular time not a tittle of Commandment Let this be added that when the ancient Fathers call their quadragesimal Constitution an imitation of our Lords fast there is no hurt in the Word if it mean not that his example was a necessary pattern to be followed I say they alledge also for the convenient observing of that institution how Moses and Elias fasted forty days in the old Law and indeed they might lay hold upon one as well as upon another for Christ made his Fast even with theirs to shew that the Gospel which he brought did not dissent from the Law and Prophets But the illation is good in this wise as the Jews were held to no necessary imitation of Moses and Elias no more is there any necessary obligation to hold the Christians that they should punctually observe a portional abstinence according to the time of forty days that our Saviour fasted So I have put off the first conclusion with good confirmation I think on our part Now I have to do with another sort that hold our Lenten temperance to be an Apostolical tradition hereby they burden the consciences of men that a partial fast of forty days is not merely derived unto us by Humane Laws but by Apostolical Authority a Sanction which came from men immediately inspired from God and therefore to be strictly held as any other Dictate of the holy Gospel And they that break Lent are condemned as Prevaricators of the divine Law But these opinionists are of two sorts the one Sect far more severe and unreasonable than the other who not only defend that a convenient abstinence is to be kept for forty days by Apostolical Authority but that even the abstinence from the flesh of beasts for that time and changing our diet into Fish and other Viands is by Apostolick command But their reasons are far worse than their opinion making a distinction as if one meat were more sanctified than another whereas all things are alike unpolluted to him that eats Gods Creatures with thanksgiving and a resolved conscience and with temperance But thus the Friers flash out that the Seas were never cursed for the sin of man the earth was cursed for his sin therefore the food of the Sea is better allotted for times of sorrow and repentance than what Than the flesh of the Cattel yea by this reason than the herbs of the Garden yet the feeding upon herbs and roots was ever accounted the clearer abstinence Such another imagination is this that Christ fed upon Fish after his Resurrection so he did upon an honey Comb and yet the Bees gather the fruits of their labours from the flowers of the field and not from the weeds of the water Such another rotten Argument is this that all Flesh was destroyed in Gods anger in the Deluge but Fishes were saved alive in the water You need require from me no better confutation of this cause than the naming of these reasons for who will not resolutely say that such frippery as this never came from Apostolical judgment The Decretals of the Pope a work wherein I am sure the Church of Rome can have no wrong done it but those Decretals attribute unto Telesphorus that he was the first that commanded the Clergie for seven weeks before Easter to refrain from the food of flesh this is but barely said and not proved but if it were proved all the Apostles were dead before Telesphorus was born therefore no way probable to be an Apostolick direction And indeed I find certain glances in the Fathers that the Clergy did admit of this institution before the rest of the people did which makes it more firm that it was Abstinentia cibi secundum Ecclesiae regulam an abstinence from some kind of food by a meer Ecclesiastical imposition to try their obedience Surely they may name ten places out of antiquity before they alledge one to the purpose that is for the commutation of their ordinary diet from flesh into fish Some quote Serapion in Socrates that entertained a Guest hard before Easter and being destituted of all provision except a piece of dried salted flesh he set that before the stranger who scrupulously refused it and said he would not break Lent because he was a Christian Serapion answers To the clean all things are clean eat it because you are a Christian From hence I collect 1. That Lent was kept by a Canonical Ordinance two hundred years after Christ in Serapions days 2. That to abstain from flesh was the Civil Law of the time as it is with us but so easily dispensable that you may conclude it was no Apostolical Ordinance I will adjoyn one place of St. Austin most falsely quoted by Salmeron the Jesuite 1 Tim. iv St. Paul says it was the Doctrine of Devils to forbid meats Faustus the Manichean infers then Moses in the Old Law wrote the Doctrine of Devils No says St. Austin Quadragesima â vobis sine vino carnibus non superstitiose sed divinâ lege servatur 1. You Manichaeans abstain both from wine and flesh in Lent 2. You observe it as from a Divine Law that was the error of the Manicheans to receive it as from divine Law it was not the Tenet of the Orthodox Christians the Church of Rome it self will stand for me in this quotation because no man is restrained from drinking of wine during that fast no not by their Injunctions So I have enough discovered their groundless opinion who take upon them to defend that abstinence from flesh in Lent is an Apostolical Constitution Therefore some state the matter in these words that although the prohibition of some meats for forty days be corroberated by Ecclesiastical Law and
to them since some of their own do ingenuously confess of our Divines that we are Purioris antiquitatis retentissimi most retentive of purer antiquity In a word there is no necessity by Gods Word to keep a Lent of forty days therefore those Churches are not condemnable But because the use hath been propagated to us in so many Ages both in the Greek and Latine Churches I presume to say that our custom is more justifiable and more laudable One thing for the last relish the Quadragesimal Fast is grounded upon long custom of time upon Ecclesiastical Constitution and Political Confirmation therefore it is not like one of the arch Precepts of the Law fac vives do this and live man was made for those vertues of Faith and Charity to which Gods Laws do immutably bind him but the Lent was made for man and not man for it The Libertine is too scandalous that tusheth altogether at this Ordinance but they that terrifie weak consciences that do not punctually observed it at all times are too rigorous that I may not say too Pharisaical who lay such heavy burdens upon mens shoulders under pain of damnation The Laws of the King which belong to the especial good of the Kingdom or for advancement of piety cannot be broken without manifest incurring of a great offence before God but the Laws of Fasts concern not the main substance of Religion or the necessary welfare of the Common-wealth therefore according to the indulgence of the Supreme Magistrate it may well be thought that they are not rigorously to be understood but civilly that is we are to give heed unto them that we do not break them with open contempt or scandal or out of the humour of a Libertine or any such neglect for then it is sin unto thee But where such food cannot sufficiently be supplied or if infirmity grow upon us or where some honest or reasonable cause shall be offered neither contempt being in our hearts nor scandal given by our neglect they that do contrary are not held neglecters of their duty or contemners of the Magistrate As upon Feast-days we dispense with mens necessities for bodily labour so upon Fasts respect is had to our weakness lest we should suffer harm in doing good Thus much hath been spoken upon the continuance of Christs Fast forty days and forty nights I will be brief in the consequent He was afterwards an hungry The Devil is exceeding subtil and works much upon advantage no greater advantage for his tentations than penury and necessity Yet Christ would hunger when he was to be tempted as who should say I am in that plunge which the Devil wisheth and yet let him do his worst I know not how Satan came by the knowledge that he was an hungry unless Christ discovered himself by searching for food and making enquiry where it might be expected and finding none This is manifest his appetite was destitute and in some distress all the time of the forty days going before he was sustained by the divine vertue that he should not hunger afterwards he suffered nature to have its course This only may be thought a little strange that after Moses and Elias had ended their fast of forty days we do not read in Scripture that they were an hungry why should the Holy Ghost leave it written that there was more infirmity in Christ than there was in them Because no more is spoken of Moses and Elias than to shew how the divine vertue did manifest it self upon them but our Saviour did exhibite a proof that the vertue of God was in him and the infirmity of man Only remember that Christ had satiety and hunger in his own power to manifest them when he pleased Qui Dominus est totius terrae Dominus est naturae suae says St. Austin He that was Lord of the whole Earth know it and mistrust it not he was Lord also of his own nature it was in his power to lay down his life when he pleased therefore it must be in his power to hunger when he pleased Hunger and thirst pain and sorrow were as naturally in Christ as they are in us but with two marks of difference First Christus non contraxit defectus naturae sed assumpsit Christ took such defects upon him he yielded to undergo them but we do merit and contract them to deserve infirmity and to assume infirmity are two divers things Secondly Impotencies of nature do command us we cannot command them If we have watch'd and fasted any long time sleep and meat are tribute which nature calls for and must be paid but our Saviour had them under subjection quantum quando quomodo to take them not out of necessity but voluntarily in no measure but when he pleased at no time but when he thought fit in all respects according to his own wisdom and appointment Now to that God who was made poor that we might be made rich that was made exceeding sorrowful that we might rejoyce that did hunger and thirst that we might be filled with good things be Praise and Honour AMEN THE SIXTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 3. And when the Tempter came to him he said If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread OF four things hard to be understood one says Solomon is the way of a Serpent upon a stone or rock Via colubrina super petram Proverbs for the most part have some dark allusion in them rather than a literal meaning and so hath this Satan is the Serpent Christ is the Stone Tentation is the way of the Serpent and nothing more obscure than the way of that Serpents tentation upon this elect precious Stone in Sion the chief Stone in the corner as the Prophets call him Concerning this Verse which I have read it is debated by learned Authors what fetch the Tempter had Some say his scope was to satisfie his own distrust and to find out whether Christ were the very Son of God he found no sin in our Saviour he heard the voice from Heaven at his Baptism he had learnt what John Baptist testified of him behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world this was enough to convince all the Furies of Hell and to put it out of doubt yet Satan was extreme unwilling to be perswaded of that which would put him to so much sorrow and for all this he is no further than if If thou be the Son of God Some say the Devils drift was to draw Christ to offend God with some capital iniquity and if this project could possibly have succeeded the redemption of mankind had been utterly marred for no Sacrifice would serve our turn but a Lamb without spot that is undefiled Surely some sin or other was part of the intendment in this first Tentation because it is evident he counselled Christ to sin against heaven in the Tentations following Therefore in this
first onset the Devil was not only an Explorator to sent it out what Christ was but an evil Counsellor to allure him furthermore to disobedience Exploravit ut tentaret tentavit ut exploraret says St. Ambrose Yet I must resolve you before I do any thing what sin it was which the wicked one did drive at Many are so curious to suit this Tentation in every Point with the tentation of our first Parents and what need that be so exactly sought for That they give sentence it was the sin of Gluttony and nothing else to which he was prompted Yes surely to some other sin as well as that and much rather than that for if Satan had required no more than to make Christ dissolve his fast and eat he would have brought him bread and not put him to it to make bread of stones Moreover there is small likelihood that one should sin much in Gluttony by eating bread And especially I would have you mark that Christ answered the Devil out of the Scripture not by a Text which should exhort to sobriety but to rely upon Gods providence in all things Man liveth not by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Wherefore if Gluttony be one skirt of the matter yet certainly according to Christs answer the sin mainly proposed was to make him distrust in God and to satisfie his wants by unlawful means And thus I have premised for your better understanding the drift of this wicked Fiend what mischief he would draw on by the words of my Text. If he had other secret policies which we cannot reach peradventure he had then let us say with the Spirit of God We have not known the depth of Satan Rev. ii 24. But now I have made you able to conceive how my Text may be broken into conspicuous parts The Tempter came to Christ for two ends Vt cognosceret ut corrumperet 1. To know Christ 2. To Corrupt him To corrupt him two ways principally by Infidelity consequently by Gluttony In the first we must watch Satan as a spie and beside the words of espial two circumstances shall be enquired into 1. When Satan made this address 2. How he made this address in what shape and fashion For the tempter came coming is a bodily motion And he said unto him speaking proceeds from corporeal instruments These little circumstances have some weight in them but the burden of the first part comes after where Satan plays the spie and explorator If thou be the Son of God c. And when the Tempter came to him is it not very natural to move this question upon those words When the tempter came to him Whether all the days that he continued in the Wilderness Satan was at his right hand to make him stumble at some stone of offence or whether the wicked Fiend approached not unto him till the forty days were ended there is the scruple And perhaps there is truth on both sides so I would judge it if it were left to my arbitration What more plain than St. Lukes narration He was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness being forty days tempted of the Devil So that it will agree with the Scripture that there were certain light skirmishes of Tentations between Christ and the Adversary all the while he was in the Desart but such faint assaults that they deserved not the relation Origen is of this judgment and this is his saying As the World could not hold the Books if all things were written which Christ did so the World could not hold the Books if all his Tentations were recorded Why not altogether probable that he passed not one day in the Wilderness without some Diabolical affront since his whole life was full of those hellish indignities Witness that praise which he gives to his Disciples Luk. xxii 28. You are they that have continued with me in my tentations his tentations were continual This is one part of Christs Passions and sufferings which the World takes little notice of the impostures of the Devil doing him molestation without ceasing Well might the Greek Liturgie urge him in their Prayers with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By thine unknown torments sweet Jesu have mercy upon us Gall and Vinegar were not so untastful to his mouth as the offensive objections of Satan did grate upon his ear Nec in aurem tantûm Christi injectae sunt sed penetrarunt cor ipsum perfoderunt animum ejus says a late one Nor were these Tentations harsh only to the ear but their hainousness pierced his very heart Conceive thus much if a solacism rudely spoken is able to move the patience of a polite Grammarian then Blasphemy continually spoken by the wicked Angel must needs be a great contristation to the Son of God This is pleaded on the one side that in all the forty days some petty light tentations were darted by the Devil against our Saviour And on the other side again this is truth and reason the red Dragon did not begin his main battel nor did he propound those three infamous desperate Propositions upon which we entreat till the forty days were ended So I will alledge St. Cyprian to balance the Authority of Origen Postquam quadraginta dierum abstinentiam consummavit accessit Diabolus After our Lord had gone through the abstinence of forty days then the Tempter came unto him It is as fairly seen as the light that there was no ground for the first tentation till the long fast was absolved and Christs hunger did press him sore and call for sustenance then he provokes him to contrive for bread by any means in the world rather than want it Away with this tedious fasting and satiate your appetite Signum panis petit qui signum jejunii pertimescit the eloquence of Chrysologus Satan could not abide this miracle of fasting he had rather see him juggle for bread So the first question when the evil one came is now no more doubtful unto you He came oftentimes before with some weak provocations but at the end of forty days he put his Plough as deep as he could into the ground and harrowed up all the subtilties of Hell to prevail against him that is invincible Now for the shape and figure in which the Tempter came to our Saviour that is another circumstance of inquiry and very briefly upon it In his own substance you know Satan is a Spirit and this was the Arch-spirit of infernal darkness for surely says St. Austin the Regiment of Hell would trust no inferiour Goblin to try masteries with the mighty Son of God Yet there is no likelihood that he did offer himself now unto Christ in his invisible spiritual nature Undoubtedly he did exhibite himself in an humane body like some charitable good man that came to condole with our Saviour and was right sorry he had no sustenance I commend his ingenuity that
of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sometimes Simpliciter assumere not Assumptum transferre barely to take along in company not to transport or transpose in the taking as Christ took up Peter and James and John into the Mountain where he was transfigured that is he made them his Associates but their own feet did bear them The Verb indeed will bear both significations and more fit a great deal that in this place it should bear the latter and not the former For first the great Wilderness which is generally allowed for the place where our Saviour was tempted is distant from Jerusalem a journey of two days supposing all the way should be trod on foot now all the three tentations were dispatch'd in part of one for Christ fasted forty days and no longer and the Tempter did not settle to his work till upon the end of the Fast Secondly If Christ had gone up stairs to the top of the Temple what means the Scripture to say that the Devil set him on a Pinacle Or thirdly with what authority or favour did our Lord get up unto the top of that holy place since none but the Priests came so far as into the Temple or sanctuary and the people were admitted no further than the outward Porch Fourthly If there had been stairs to ascend to the Pinacle and Christ had pass'd up that way then there had been no colour for this presumptuous Proposition Cast thy self down c. the answer had been very obvious no I will return back the same way I came I forsake this opinion therefore because it cannot be defended against these objections that Christ did only go along with Satan to the holy City The third opinion which being opened and inlarged will much better shew the mischief and subtilty of this tentation is thus Then Satan did transport our Lord from the Desart wherein he fasted to the highest Battlements of the Sanctuary This will appear hard at the first to the infirmity of some Auditors So Gregory did suppose it would trouble some when he wrote the truth Aures humanae audire expavescant Some mens ears for a while will be unwilling to hear it till the scruples be removed But when you shall understand how much the patience the wisdom the power of Christ did surmount hereby how at every turn he over-reacht Satan in his own contrivances you will grant the Exposition to be sound delightful and profitable Mark I beseech you doth it appear a thing not to be assented unto that Christ would fly through the Air with Beelzebub the greatest enemy of God That seems uncouth but this will allay the horror of it Remember Satan was permitted at this time to use all his engines to provoke our Saviour to sin if Christ had refused him to cut a passage through the Air with him as far as the principal Pinacle of the Temple it would have left him confident that our Lord durst not hazard himself to that tentation Let him do the best he can or he will never confess himself utterly conquered Nemo victus est quandiu pugnare vult No body is quite beaten as long as he offers to fight again and if he were not beaten at all his own weapons the wicked Fiend would say he had not lost all his glory Origen therefore brings in the Devil to say you have well answered about my Proposition for making bread of stones but will your courage serve you to go with me to the highest Tower of the Temple And then in his phrase Christ answers Duc quò vis tenta ut placet sustineo quae suggesseris Come your ways I will not stay behind see I am ready for you at all suggestions What ready to be put into his hands and be carried Even so says Gregory it was his Fathers will and his own patience and humility Quid mirum est si se permisit ab illo duci qui se pertulit ab ejus membris crucifigi It is nothing strange to adventure himself to be taken up by Satan knowing by his own power and vertue his passage should be safe when as none will deny but he suffered himself to be led to Caiaphas to Pilate to Herod to Mount Golgotha by those that were the members of the Divel to be buffeted to be scourged to be crucified Now this opinion certainly seems not rigid to the understanding Auditor and yet to mollifie it more St. Chrysostome and many his learned followers say this miscreant came not to Christ in his own most ugly Diabolical shape but was now transformed into such a glorious humane shape as the Angels of light were wont to assume when they came from God And upon this fair appearance he closeth with him The Angels of God are your guard and custody and loe I am an Angel of light that will conduct you with all diligence and tenderness This is the first deception which Satan swallowed he thought he was so perfectly trasfigured that Christ did not know him like the Ass in the Fable having put on a Lions skin he thought the Countrymen would not know him by his long ears but our Saviour let his enemy play with his new disguise as if he pass'd without discovery O how easie it is for the sharpest wit when it would be wiser than God to be more ignorant than a beast God did open the eyes of Balaams Ass to know a true Angel then what should hinder the Son of God to know a counterfeit But secondly Is not this a matter to be stumbled at To be taken up and born away implies a kind of power and superiority in him that beareth another for his vertue must exceed the others As the Angel had authority over Philip when he lifted him suddenly from Gaza in the Desart to Azotus Acts viii And Habakkuk was in subjection to that Angel who took him up by the hair of the head and carried him into Babylon Beloved All such transportations are not alike some earthly bodies indeed are removed miraculously and violently from one place to another conferring no vertue of their own to the motion but suffer themselves to be moved by some spiritual efficacy applied unto them as in the fore-named instances of Habakkuk and Philip and in Paul who was wrapt up he knew not how into the third heavens Again some bodies make use of another thing to bear them as a Chariot or any Instrument so the Psalmist says of God himself that he came flying upon the wings of the wind and in this sense St. Austin justifies that Christ was neither violently nor imperiously carried by Satan but moved himself by his own vertue and let the Devil assist as an Instrument Says the Father Si dicas meliores sunt qui portant quam qui portantur ergo jumenta meliora sunt hominibus If you litigate that the bearer is better than him that is born then you shall confess that the beast is better
distinction in Aquinas so well accepted by some that there are so many forms of adoration as there are kinds of excellencie for honour and worship are done to the person for the excellency which is in it Now excellency is either divine and infinite in God which deserves that adoration call'd by him latria or humane excellency which is grounded or in mens honours or in their virtues and so deserves civil and political reverence or it is an excellency less than divine yet more then humane which is in the Angels and souls of holy men departed and that claims the worship of dulia unto it self Put this into plain meaning he that can and shew me how these three are distinguisht in outward or bodily adoration I will agree that in those things we worship we do apprehend excellency three manner of wayes First there is cultus sacrosanctae religionis the religious and pious worship which we give to God for his omnipotent and most glorious excellency Secondly there is cultus civilis subjectionis the worship which we give to our superiors in authority as we live in political subjection because they are set over us for our good Thirdly there is cultus moralis reverentiae the worship of moral respect and reverence which we give to some for their good gifts and qualities although we are not under them in any political ordination All these worships are performed upon several excellencies apprehended in the persons worshipped but the act of worship it self as concerning that which the head the knee the hand or any part of the body doth execute may be the same for the distinguishing of one and another must be in the heart and mind as I proceed now to shew at large unto you The definition of divine worship must be thus framed adoratio est talis veneratio exterior quae ex corde pio religioso procedit that 's the adoration due to God and to him alone which with the exterior veneration of the body proceeds out of the pious and religious intentions of the heart If you yield any token of outward obeysance and mean it to honour him who hath made you redeem'd you sanctified you and conferred all other benefits upon you then it is raised up from civil homage and duty and is become divine worship a distinction will help the memory of them that can conceive it a little further There are three things which concur to that virtue which we call the worship of God First the act of the understanding must put forth it self to apprehend and know the glorious excellency of God that he made the whole world out of nothing and susteins all things by the word of his power Then secondly the act of the will comes in wherein we assent and apply our selves to adore his excellency to magnifie him and devote our hearts unto him Thirdly these two joyned together do urge and command the exterior act of worship which is performed by the body tanti est adorare all these must be in it if it be true adoration S. Paul speaks of some that have the forms of godliness but deny the power thereof The formal cringing and bending are but like a part play'd upon a Stage if they be sever'd from the power of godliness from the knowledg of the understanding what glory belongs to God and from the will and purpose of the heart to exalt his holy name both privately and in his holy Temple Well I can but call upon you to prepare your hearts and you will every one say I am sure my heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed The Lord knows but we that are your instructors do not whether that internal part of worship be well discharg'd by you therefore I come to that quarter of the virtue whereof men may be witnesses if it be carefully executed unto outward adoration it was upon the quarrel of outward worship that Christ here disputed with Satan God had respect to Abel and to his offering Gen. iv 4. to Abel that is to his internal piety to his offering that is to his external worship Abel had been unrespected at that time if he had not been good at both And as a plaister of cordial ingredients laid to the stomach or an unction well slickt upon the skin comforts the spirits within and makes them execute their vital functions chearfully so outward reverence helps us greatly against our dulness and drowzie infirmities The lifting up the hands and eyes make a man crave more passionately the knocking of the breast whets our repentance with indignation against our selves bowing down the head and knee imprints into us the great distance which is between God and us the uncovering the head makes that needful thought sink into our heart in whose presence we stand Glorifie God with your body 1 Cor. vi 20. Tertullian and S. Cyprian read it Portate Deum in corpore vestro Carry God in your body in every joynt and member of it It may be they met with some Greek Copy that read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Religion is compared to a Marriage there is a contract between God and our soul and this is gain'd from the similitude that the Wife is the Husbands as well in bodie as in affection and so are we the Lords As Man and Wife are but one flesh so Christ the Bridegroom of the Church did assume the whole man bodie and soul into the unity of his person He hath conjoyn'd them both unto God and let us conjoyn them both to the worship of God A Sermon cannot be spent upon a subject which doth more deserve our exhortation The Lord created a Star on purpose only to bring the Magi of the East to worship Christ and they did so even when He lay in most despicable manner before them in the Manger of a Stable and shall we be slacker to kneel before his footstool when he reigns triumphantly in the highest Heavens the Heaven and Earth the Stars and Prophets all lead us to the worship of God Scriptura mundus ad hoc sunt ut colatur qui creavit adoretur qui inspiravit so St. Cyprian The Scripture and the world are to this end that He that created the one and inspir'd the other might be worshipped It is no mean duty which made those wise men of the East take so tedious and long a journey to post in twelve days from the mountains of the East to Bethlem and that other Traveller Acts viii the Treasure of the Queen Candace came from the uttermost parts of Ethiopia to Jerusalem and all for no other end but this to worship The Scripture saies so expresly and when they had done that they went home again We had need carry a very true heart to God in these daies for many of us put him off all together with the zeal of our heart and think it will excuse us if we neither honor him with our
wrong opinions that offend against it For whatsoever things they are to which men do offer religious worship and service beside the Lord let them distinguish that they do it improperly with a less religious worship with reference to Almighty God let them slick it over with what gloss of wit they please I am on the Lords side and in his behalf I plead that they run into some kind of Idolatry But first plainly and affirmatively without rubbing against the adversary's errors that God only is to be worshipped and served In the first place I must not conceal from you this word upon which we stand so much and good reason for it but this word Only is not to be found in that verse which is quoted by our Saviour Deut. vi 13. the margent of your own Bible and indeed all Expositors ancient and modern hold that to be the very Scripture which Christ doth here apply and thus you find thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name I but 't is not written there thou shalt serve him only Hath He added to the word put case He should add to the word as in this instance He did not but put case He should it were free for him but for none else to do it He may do what He will with his own After Moses had finished the Law and the Lord had said thereupon cursed is he that addeth unto it yet the book of the Psalms and the Prophets were put to it and after all these the Gospel and the whole New Testament was added yet none of those were the patches of mans wit but the increase and supply which God himself gave to his own eternal Oracles Yet I give not this answer as if Christ had thrust one syllable into the Law to give it more sense and authority than it had before He came to fulfil the Law but not to overfil it For first Christ said nothing but that which is written if not here yet in another Prophet and one spirit is in all the Prophets consult with Samuel 1 lib. chap. 2. v. 3. Prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only that 's down right as my Text hath it I need not give it a grain to make up weight Then there 's for Satan he cannot say but he was refuted with very Scripture Secondly let us keep unto those words of Deuteron for surely those were intended and the word only is there in effect the next verse makes it good that it could not be excepted Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him Well but will God admit any partner otherwise we must serve him alone just so for it follows ye shall not go after other Gods of the Gods of the people that are round about served him and no other God whatsoever Why then it is a clear aequipollencie in Logick thou shalt serve him only The Devil is most perverse and litigious yet he never denied it Thirdly be satisfied yet further that the 72 Translators so called having the right understanding of the Text that God commandeth all glory and worship and divine service to himself without comperes or sharers they render the Hebrew in those Greek words which our Saviour quoted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him only shalt thou serve Now all do yield that the five books of Moses were translated by those 72 Jews of great learning whom Eleazar the High-Priest sent to Ptolemy Philadelphus for that purpse So much both Philo and Josephus acknowledge though they speak of no more Occasion is taken from hence by some to cry up that Greek Translation of the Old Testament because our Saviour alledgeth these words as those Septuagint have made them up and not as they are in the pure original Hebrew I will not stand upon this Theme any long time but say much in brief First that St. Paul layes a firm ground how the Jews had the Oracles of God committed to them it was one of their National Privileges therefore their tongue is the matrix and fountain from whence we are to expound what the Holy Ghost hath delivered in the Old Testament I deny not but the Jews themselves might use the Copies of the Greek Language for there were many of them and some conjecture that where we read of certain Hellenistae Greeks that came to our Saviour in the Gospel they were those Jews that rather used the Greek Translation than the Hebrew perhaps being more easie to their capacities for their common speech in those daies was Syrian and Hebrew was taught in Sholes as we teach Latin therefore some suppose there was a Faction of Hellenists among them they and the Scribes who damned all Scripture which was not in their own Hebrew tongue being upon all occasions at hot variance So you find there was a murmuring of the Graecians against the Hebrews Acts vi 1. To return to my conclusion some Jews did not abhor to read their own Law in the Greek tongue yet these were but a Faction for when St. Paul saies the Oracles of God were committed to them and by way of high privilege he must mean it of that idiom which their Fathers spake wherein it was first wrote and whereof their learned men for the present were the Doctors Secondly though the Hebrew was and is the authentique language for that part of Scripture yet there was a most venerable Translation of it into Greek which our Saviour the Evangelists and Apostles used it kept the sense yea the words of the Hebrew for the most part so exactly that our Saviour who taught the Law according to it did say one jot or title of the Law should not perish St. Hierom says if that Translation had been purely extant he would have spared his own pains and not have undergone so laborious a task to turn the whole Old Testament out of Hebrew into Latin Thirdly that pure Greek Translation was used by our Saviour though not in Greek words but in Syriac not as preferring it or matching it with the original authentique Hebrew but partly because it was most frequent and most known for they all spake the Greek tongue in all the hither parts of Asia after Alexander the great had exalted the Graecian Monarchy partly to import that a door of faith was now opened to the Gentiles and that they should reap those heavenly things since the Jews thought themselves unworthy of them Fourthly this Greek Translation which at this day goes under the name of the 72 is of far less value and authority than that which was so honour'd with our Saviours mouth for I will believe St. Hierom in this case being a most exact Linguist rather than those Fathers that took languages upon trust but thus He. Germana illa antiqua translatio corrupta est violata ac pro varietate regionum diversa feruntur exempla That old genuine Translation was corrupted and violated and several Copies of it
these many Agonies he had with the powers of darkness Ad solatium refero so Calvin on my Text. When he prayed earnestly in the Garden to have the Cup pass from him there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven strengthening him Luke xxii 43. This was their promptness to do all dutious offices to the Son of God Non ex necessitate sed ex officio not for necessity as if he wanted such as they but out of bounden obsequiousness Toward us their care and charity is truly necessary and their friendship to succour us in our conflicts is the mercy of God as the Angels took up Lazarus to heaven after much want and poverty into Abrahams bosom Thirdly they ministred unto him may be well interpreted they worshipped and adored him For when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. i. ult that is their Ministry is for the praise and glory of God whether it be that they sing Alleluja to him in heaven or help his Saints upon earth all is one the one work or the other are both of them their Liturgies For they minister only to Christ or for their sakes that shall be heirs of the Promise as St. Paul said He sustained all things for the Elâ—ct 2 Tim. ii Therefore it is an over-curious yea and false distinction to put degrees between Angels that some laud the Lord continually before his Throne some minister to his Church and nothing for the foundation of it but this Prophetical place Dan. vii 10. Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him There they stood indeed only to be sent away of the Lords Errand when he should dispatch them For what Scripture can be clearer than the foresaid place Are they not all ministring Spirits Let the Sectaries of Thomas limit it and distinguish upon it an hundred ways but the Context of the Chapter will never bear it For first the manner of the Apostles bringing it out nonne omnes Are they not all so An Interrogation as if that were a common notion and never doubted Secondly in the precedents it cannot be shifted but that he speaks of them all excepts none To whom of the Angels did God say thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Thirdly if he did compare Christ but with one part and not with all the Angels the Hebrâ—ws would have excepted against the main scope of his Epistle that Christ was not more excellent than all creatures above all comparison Let it be grounded then for the conclusion of all against the fancies of the Pseudo-Dionysius all are ministring Spirits In ministerium Christi propter homines lent unto us out of pitty and charity but attending Christ out of homage and duty His they are so we call them now by faith and such we shall perceive them to be by Vision at the last day Mat. xvi 27. The Son of man shall come in the glory of the Father with his Angels AMEN VII SERMONS UPON The Transfiguration OF OUR SAVIOUR THE FIRST SERMON UPON The Transfiguration LUKE ix 28 29. And it came to pass about an eight dayes after these sayings he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering BECAUSE St. Luke doth more completely narrate all the circumstances of our Saviours Transfiguration than the other Evangelists therefore I have chosen to entreat out of his words upon that glorious miracle I confess he that reacheth this mysterie must ascend with Peter and James and John he must climb up to an exceeding high mountain of speculation which toucheth the very heavens But why should that confuse you Dearly beloved when there is so much pure glittering and illumination upon the mountain our Saviour's face shined with glory for his Gospel is perspicuous Moses ane Elias the Law and Prophets were clear and lightsom and the cloud which overshadowed the place I mean the virtue of the Holy Ghost will embrighten all obscurity There is hope then out of the explication of this story that you shall all be transfigured from darkness into light and from ignorance perhaps in some part into the knowledge of the truth And whereas I have purposely destined this work apart for this time of the year I think I have begun it in the ripest opportunity I find among antient Liturgies that the miracle of the Transfiguration was the Gospel appointed for the second Sunday in Lent the reasons were two partly to exhort all Christians in strictest times of penitence to be transformed into new men partly because it is certain this strange accident fell out in the beginning of the Spring not long before our Saviour's Passion for Moses and Elias came to tell him a short while before his death what he should suffer at Jerusalem Yet again I find in the old Latin Calender that some Churches kept a Feast in memory of the Transfiguration upon the sixt day of August But this was done upon a fancy they call it a Tradition that when Christ bad his Disciples not to tell as yet of those things they saw upon the mountain till a more convenient time they obeyed and revealed it not in five months following till the sixt of August and upon the publication of these things at that season they did consent to honour the memorial of the day with the celebration of a Feast Without prejudice to those ancient customs be it spoken I have a surer ground to stand upon that this is the proper time to preach upon it soon after the great Feast of our Saviour's Resurrection is accomplished My authority is Matth. 17.9 As the three disciples came down from the mountain Christ charged them saying Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead And beside it shall appear in due order that the principal scope of the Transfiguration was to learn us what the excellency and glorification of a body shall be that is raised from the dead But because it is fit to work in the Lord's Vineyard at any hour of the day and to dress this Tree of Life the holy Scripture in every bough and branch at any instant and occasion of time therefore cutting off that Preface I will mark out those things which are fit to be handled severally in the words now read unto you and they be four quando quibuscum quâ humilitate quâ gloriâ at what time Christ was transfigured what associates he took with him with what humility he prepared himself with what glory he was dignified The Time is noted by three circumstances dicta dies iter 1. After some sayings he had uttered 2. About an eight dayes after those sayings 3. When he had gon up to a mountain In
Cross To this end our Church hath made this Chapter one of the Lessons for this day the first that was read in Morning Service and I have warrant that the practice was ancient because I find it was so in St. Austins days for excusing himself that he had not expounded this Scripture to his Auditors all the time of Lent He gives this reason In Vigiliis Paschae propter Sacramentum dominicae passionis reservatur it was ordained to be handled upon a Good Friday because of the mystery of our Saviours Passion There is a Text John viii 56. which Christ alledgeth to the Pharisees Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Which of his days Or when did he see it It is not mentioned I confess and that makes a variance among Expositors St. Austin glosseth upon it that Abraham and all the Prophets had a Revelation of the Incarnation St. Hierom conceives it to be that day when the mystery of the Trinity was opened unto him Gen. xviii Tres vidit unum adoravit He saw three Angels and worshipped but one But divers whom I could name especially St. Ambrose that wrote whole Books upon the story of Abraham say that my Text was the glass wherein he saw that joyful day Vidit diem immolationis in Ariete He saw the day wherein Christ was crucified for our Redemption in this Ram that was burnt upon the wood instead of Isaac and shall not the Children of Abraham look so far into this Type to see the Oblation for our sins which is past and gone already when Father Abraham so many years before did discern the day to come Elevemus oculos as it is specified of him in my Text let us lift up our eyes and look about and we shall find it plainly dividing the whole Text into these three parts 1. Here is Studium sollicitum a careful and a sollicitous heart upon the matter Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked 2. Here is Presens auxilium help at an instant in the best opportunity behold behind him a Ram caught in a Thicket by his horns 3. Here is Sacrificium succedaneum one Sacrifice answering for another or coming in the place of another as it is in the words following and Abraham went and took the Ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his Son Every one of these shall be subdivided as we handle them in order the leading part of the three is Studium sollicitum the carefulness and sollicitousness of Abraham That he lifted up his eyes and looked Isaac was not nearer to be slaughtered when the Sacrificing knife was at his throat than we were to be condemned when God was wrath with all the Posterity of Adam for the disobedience of that one man but the timely voice of mercy was heard from heaven the Angel of the Covenant appeared as if he had said Miserebor cujus miserebor the remnant of the Election are appointed to be spared Isaac shall live God hath spoken it and he shall not see destruction then at the instant when the Angel bad Save the Child and lay no violent hands upon him then Abraham lifted up his eyes So that the first emergent observation is this It was Gestus benedicentis The gesture of him that blessed the Lord because his mercy was revealed Indeed if God had not said that Isaac and in him the promised seed should live our countenances would look like death and be cast down as Cains was guiltiness would not let the sinner look towards heaven for corruption cannot enter into these incorruptible places our transgressing Parents withdrew from the Lord into the thicket of the Garden and could not abide to appear Nuditatem non audebant ostendere talibus oculis quae displicebat suis They durst not shew their shame and nakedness to such glorious eyes which was irksome to themselves Hezekiah turned his face to the wall when his doom was told him that he must die and not live And our Saviour doth insert that passage into the story of the Publican surely afflicted for his sins that he would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven all did not please him that he saw there be it never so glorious a body As St Basil spake like an eloquent Orator in his Homily concerning Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Rose was a delightful flower but it made him ashamed to use it because that thorns and pricks grew upon it Gods curse for the sin of man So the firmament of heaven sheweth the chief handy-work of the Maker yet to some it is a dreadful sight because the God of vengeance will shew himself from thence when he comes to judge the earth As David said to Absalon the Son of his displeasure let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face So the severity of God said unto man In terram reverteris turn again into your own place from whence you came into dust and clay but you shall not lift up your head to stand before me in the Kingdom of my glory O but mercy begg'd the life of Isaac Et levavit oculos And Abraham lifted up his eyes Anatomists say that there is one Nerve more descending from the brain to the eye of man than in any beast that it may turn up it seems with greater readiness and facility Now to stand gazing up into heaven a thing which the Angel reproved in the Disciples Acts i. 11. but as if the voice of the tongue and the affection of the heart were encircled in the eye to laud and magnifie his name that remitted vengeance and spared our soul from death I appove the old Philosophy Visus fit intramittendo species but allowing this divinity Visus fit extramittendo gratias if nothing else yet an eflux of thanks goes out of the eye when we look up to heaven At the cxx Psalm begin those Psalms of David which are called the Songs of degree And see by what steps he marcheth up in those degrees to the Mercy Seat of God In the cxx Psal I cryed unto the Lord in my distress there his voice ascended In the cxxi I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills there his eye ascended cxxii Our feet shall stand in the gates of Jerusalem there his feet ascended cxxiii Unto thee lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens at every other step or degree his eyes are cast up for Christ hath not only opened the Kingdom of heaven but also opened our eyes and put courage into all believers to look up unto the Kingdom of heaven and therefore as I said it is gestus benedicentis the gesture of him that blesseth the name of the Lord. Secondly It is gestus admirantis an expression of wonder and astonishment Abrahams heart was full so overcome with the loving kindness of the Lord that he stood dumb and
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
faciem Because in this life we see darkly as in a glass but hereafter we shall see God face to face As concerning natural Causes and Effects says Aristotle we see into them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Owles eyes by day that discern nothing clearly but as concerning the Mysteries of Godliness we look upon them as Moses did upon the Land of Canaan when Jordan was between we are in one Country and see afar off indistinctly the prospect of another As Rebecca took away her vail when Isaac came toward her that she might see his face so this vail shall be taken from the Church which is the Spouse of God when he draws near unto it Now Lazarus his Napkin is about our face O that thou wouldst rent away this vail O Lord that we might see thy glory Behold as the eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistress even so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us AMEN THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN XX. I. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the Sepulcher and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulcher THis is the day which the Lord hath made and thus begins the Gospel appointed for this great day of the Lord. A Gospel of which I may say it is full even to the brims of Divine Meditations For here are those two Christian Pillars that uphold the Church of God such as shall never be removed Fides Fidelis the faith of the Elect and relatively an elect Vessel that receiv'd the faith a principal Article of our Creed that Christ rose again the third day from the dead and a very illustrious instance of Mary Magdalene who was brought to believe in that Article 1. The Faith which must be believ'd to sanctifie our contemplations 2. The Faithful that did believe to bring us to a godly practice So the Spirit of God hath led Mary Magdalene to the Sepulcher to see that Christ was risen from the dead and the self-same Spirit hath led us to see the love and piety of Mary Magdalene And as this devout woman hath obtained a place of memorial for her name among the blessed of the New Testament because the example of her zeal did shine before us So our names shall find a place among those that are recorded in the Book of Life such honor shall they have that follow after My Text begins a story concerning that first witness to whom our Lord and Saviour's Resurrection was revealed Now upon so much of the Story as is recorded in this verse five things shall be handled First the Condition of that Witness before whom our Lord did first appear after he came out of the Grave Mary Magdalene 2. You may note the Constancy of her love that she remembred him after death and came unto his Sepulcher 3. It is to be ascribed to her Faith that she chose the right season the first day of the week 4. The Expedition which she made is a token of restless diligence that she came early when it was yet dark 5. An Accident of admiration encounters her that she seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulcher No Witness more classical for Gods use than Mary Magdalene a repentant Sinner No love more expressive than to shew affection even after death no season so fit to be watcht as the same which Christ foretold how the third day he would rise which fell out on the first day of the week no fruit that doth better become Faith and Love than vigilant diligence without sloth Repentance Love Faith Diligence shall ever be thus requited that God will shew them a sign from Heaven beyond their expectation The condition of the person is the first thing that we encounter Mary Magdalene cometh unto the Sepulcher She came not alone but other Associates did bear her company such as were devout women and loved our Lord. But our Evangelist knew a reason that she alone was worth the mentioning instead of all besides and upon her name only his Narration runs that Mary Magdalen came unto the Sepulcher The Scripture hath not forgot some of those that were her Associates in other Gospels St. Matthew says Mary Magdalen went forth as it began to dawn and the other Mary St. Mark names three Mary Magdalen and Mary the Mother of James and Salome St. Luke speaks of an indefinite number but every Divine Writer begins with Mary Magdalen she and Joanna and Mary the Mother of James and other Women that were with them But this Woman in my Text was more fervent and passionate in the cause she incited all the rest to go with her to the Sepulcher wherefore she is remembred by our Evangelist in a kind of singularity above all the rest John himself was the Disciple of Love and was careful to eternize her name in this story which did abound in Love above all her Fellows Some antient Writers knew not how so good a Work could be done wherein many religious Women conspired together without the most Blessed Mary the mother of our Lord. Rather than it should turn to her disesteem to stay behind Sedulius Nyssen and Nicephorus were willing I think to mistake that the Woman whom St. Matthew calls the other Mary was the Holy Virgin The disadvantages which this Opinion brings with it were not thought upon that another name should stand before hers to be past over with such an easie mention as the other Mary and not the mother of our Lord a thing which especially St. Luke useth not to forget And what an instance of moment were this that among all others our Lord did first appear to Mary Magdalen after he was risen from the dead Surely his mother had been partaker of that sweet Vision as soon as any if she had been in place to behold him Bernard invents a reason to satisfie himself though perhaps it will not satisfie all men why the Blessed Virgin did willingly absent herself from coming to the Sepulcher the first day of the Week because her Faith abounded more than all the rest She was constantly persuaded that Christ was risen upon the third day even as he had spoken before and she would not go to the Sepulcher to seek the living among the dead But if any man should cast a doubt that the Holy Scriptures would not have concealed such a superexcellent strain of Faith in the Blessed Virgin if she had believed the Mystery of the Resurrection when the Disciples and all other were mistaken besides that none of the Church did perfectly understand the Scriptures until the Holy Ghost fell down upon them at the Feast of Pentecost I say if any should cast in such a doubt I know not how it would be resolved I have no Warrant to affirm any thing in this point neither doth the Scripture
all the Elements at the last and great Resurrection There is a day to come when the earth shall disclose her bloud and shall no more cover her slain Isa xxvi 21. Then shall the whole earth shake and be dissolved as when one wipes a dish and turns the other side says the Prophet And therefore Diogenes the Cynick in a flout would be left above ground when he was dead for one day says he all will be turned topside turvy and then I shall lie right Haggai speaking of that great and dreadful day expresseth it by Earthquakes and Commotions Yet once is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land and I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory Such a clashing and perturbation shall precede our future happiness that the sudden change may the more affect us from extremity of amazement in the twinckling of an eye to extremity of glory Instead of many places this of Ezekiel will fit us for all Ecce commotio accesserunt ossa ad ossa Behold a shaking and the bones came together bone to his bone If it were nothing else but so many Monuments of stone cracking asunder so many Graves yawning so many Bones grating one against another this would make a strange sound in mens ears how much more when the dust shall be shaken from the very Center that the Dead since Adam may have all their limbs again When the Elements shall melt with heat and the Heavens pass away with a noise when the Impenitent shall howl the Unjust skreek out the righteous lift up their voice of thanksgiving and the Angels sing Haleluja all this together in a medley will make a strange commotion which is prefigured in the antecedent of our Saviours Resurrection Behold c. Thirdly It signifies that the Majesty of the Lord was upon the earth to defend his people that he came down and trod upon his footstool that he alone is terrible against all other terrors that may trouble us that he is present to protect all those that love the coming of our Lord Jesus When he came down to deliver the Law the earth shook even as Sinah also was moved at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob the Mountains owed that homage to tremble when the glory of the Lord was upon them And though it was dreadful yet so long as God was present in the midst of them the Host of Israel knew they were in safety So the Monuments did quiver and tremble when Christ did break forth of the Grave in triumph which did at once beget these seeming contrary passions in them that believe an awful reverence and a bold encouragement This the Fathers collect because Mary Magdalen and the other devout women were now upon their journey when the Earthquake began yet they went not back neither stopt in the way but advanced with chearfulness to the very mouth of the Sepulcher When a blazing Star appeared in the days of Vespasian says he It threatens not fatality to me but to the King of Persia who nourisheth long locks like the streaming flame of a Comet So those holy women did truly apprehend that the buzzling of the Earthquake was their protection and bad mens confusion And here a fourth reason offers it self the anger of the Lord did roar out of the earth against those Jews who thought to prevail that death should devour him against Pilate that allowed his Seal to this conspiracy and against the Souldiers that watcht the Sepulcher An unexpected judgment of which they did not dream that the earth which is a most dull and silent Element should burst into many pieces to chide their infidelity Pittacus the wise man had such confidence in the stability of the earth that it is delivered for his saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you might trust the Earth it would do you no harm but the Sea was not to be trusted Foolish wise man that understood not how terrible a vengeance the shaking of the earth is when the Lord is angry In the fourth year of Nero which was the twenty seventh year after our Saviours Passion more than one quarter of the City of Rome was beaten flat with an Earthquake and all the Inhabitants slain And six years after that three the most famous Cities in all Asia were ruin'd by this judgment Heraclis Laodicaea and Colophe The same fatality hath swallowed up the Cities of Colossus and Nice it were endless to rehearse particulars And although Christ would not interject such sadness with the joyfulness of his resurrection-Resurrection-day to procure death and ruine to his enemies by this Earthquake we read of no such mischief done by it in the Text of Scripture yet I believe it is unutterable how this accident did shake and apall the Souldiers Miseri quos tunc percutit pavor mortis quando securitas vitae redditur Unhappy wretches who at that time were most of all strucken with the fear of death when Christ did give us this demonstrance to be secure of eternal life I leave it to you to consider how an evil conscience diffused chilness and quaking into all their bones They must needs reel and totter and fall down desperately to the Earth who are weighed down with the Plummets of their own guiltiness And what a miserable folly was this to tremble because they were loth to die yet their office was at this time to be mortis satellites deaths guard appointed to be adversaries to life and to hinder the Resurrection Now because the Consciences of these evil men were only wounded and no other harm done by the Earthquake therefore fifthly some say that the place round about did rather dance for joy than quake for trembling As when Israel came out of Egypt the Psalmist says The Mountains skipped like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep Surely under that Hyperbole is to be understood that the motion of the Earth did bewray some gladsome entertainment As the Disciples prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled Acts iv 31. It is expounded generally that the Earth did move with gladness and reverence because the Saints kneeled upon it Horum sub gressibus ergo laeta movetur humus says Arator And as the Child sprang within Elizabeth when the Blessed Virgin came unto her with our Saviour in her womb and says she How is it that the Mother of my Lord doth come unto me So the Earth did rejoyce and tripudiate when our Saviour came forth alive out of the belly of the Grave as who should say O dust thou shalt be ennobled and compacted into an incorruptible body And how is it that my Redeemer comes forth and lives for ever I will put no more Oyl into this Lamp than Beda's words distinguishing between the two Earthquakes the one at the Passion
as when a bow-string is snapt in twain yet both parts of the strings do still remain in the nocks of the Bow So the body of our Saviour was holy and venerable because it retained the personal union of the Godhead and the Sepulcher where it was reposed deserved the attendance of an Angel Fourthly If not an Angel who else would be believed in so great a matter as this was Tell me who could give testimony beside that would be credited The Disciples were never so tardy to conceive never so unapprehensive in any thing else as in this They knew not as yet what the rising from the dead did mean Observe the talk of Cleophas and the other Disciple Luk. xxiv 21. And guess at all the company beside They confess Christ had been a Prophet mighty in word and deed whom Pilate and the Rulers had condemned to death and crucified but we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel As who should say being he is dead there is an end of our hope we look for no more redemption from him God loves to have better witnesses than these in all his works that we may not say he takes us unprepared we were not well wrought to credulity David said it in his haste what if he had said it upon premeditation All men are liars It was not fit so fundamental an Article of faith as this was should be preatcht at first time by lying lips nay rather by an Angel who was confirmed in grace that he would not lie And how little had the authority of any man swayed Mary Magdalen to believe when albeit an Angel had told her the truth how Christ was risen yet she distrusts and runs to Peter and John with a quite contrary tale that some body had taken away her Masters body and she knew not where they had laid it and therefore because an Angel could not put that faith into her Christ took it in hand and disclosed himself Fifthly An Angel appears at the mouth of the Grave after Christ came to life again who is the first fruits of our Resurrection which is in effect to promise that we shall be exalted after death to the society of Angels Thus a worthy Author observed it before me The finding of an Angel in the place of dead bodies is for a pledge that there is a possibility and hope that dead bodies may come into the place of Angels Why not the bodies in the Grave to be advanced in heaven one day as well as the Angels in heaven to be about the Grave this day And I pray you mark it with me There are many Apparitions of Angels recorded in holy Scripture yet this one time and no more if I be not mistaken an accurate description is made what manner of Robe and Garment they did seem to wear His countenance was like lightning and his rayment white as snow in the next verse to my Text. The Holy Ghost would never have instanced in the bright colour of the Garment but to shew with what Angelical shapes we shall be cloathed in the Resurrection 6. Lastly Angels desire to be present at every thing wherein mankind is benefited that they may rejoyce with us No envy no malignity in them that we shall be made perfect in both parts of nature both in body and soul and so in that respect exceed them who are only spiritual substances For they that rejoyce when one sinner is converted how much more do they rejoyce that all mankind shall be deliver'd from the Prisons of death and beautified with immortality they fought with the Devil about the Body of Moses they will strive with death and corruption about the restauration of our bodies For God will send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect from the four corners of the earth this is meant of their Ministry to rake up our bones and dust together at the great day of the Resurrection Surgente Christo terrenis redditur coeleste commercium now Angels came down in bodily shapes because Christ had exalted frail flesh unto incorruption now they talk familiarly to Gods servants as with the tongues of men because our tongues shall be made Psalteries of the divine praise for ever I have done with the Angels descent from heaven and now I come to the third motion which was particularly about our Saviours Sepulchre He came and rolled back the stone from the door When you hear that the door of our Saviours Sepulchre was a great stone and a stone rolled upon it you must not conceive the manner by such Tombs and Monuments as we have now adaies Neither will I refer you to those types and Medals which are printed now adaies and taken from the fashion of the Sepulchre which at this day is to be seen in the Holy City and is kept by certain Orders of Friars with great reverence For with what assurance can I say it is the same Sepulchre wherein our Saviour lay when Eusebius says that in the reign of Constantine the Emperor the place was nothing but a rude heap of earth so that there was no memory remaining of our Saviours Burial place But those of the learned that seem to me to speak probably say thus Jerusalem was seated upon a rocky place so that all their chief Monuments were digged out of stony Quarries Every Family of noble reputation as the learned Casaubon notes it out of the Rabbies had a Sepulchre proper to it self with a certain number of hollow places or excavations to receive the Corpses of that Family Some say there were wont to be thirteen in every Vault some say but eight In such a Vault belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea was Christ laid a rocky stony Moument it was lest some should say he was digg'd out by some secret Mine a new one wherein never any had been laid lest they should say not He but another body rose a Tomb not belonging to himself but to another man because he neither died nor was buried for himself but for us men and for our salvation St. Cyril helps us further to know that the Monuments of the Kings of Juda and Israel were raised a little above the ground but the Tombs of all others of that Nation who were under the Princely rank were hewn out seven cubits under ground Eusebius very directly says of his Tomb it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cave but none so pat as the Prophet Jeremy Lam. v. 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me An hollow descension into a low place is called a Dungeon And as we cover a Wells mouth with planks of wood or with lead so in sundry places of Scripture it appears that they rolled great stones upon the mouth of their Caves And surely Joseph of Arimathaea barr'd this Sepulchre with a stronger stone than ordinary that our Lords body might not be abused by the malice of his Enemies
exist hic exclusus intravit these two St. Austin makes to be very like being shut in the Sepulchre he came out by his own power being shut out of doors he came in by his own power Well let it be answered that Christs body did not penetrate the dimensions either of stone or door as I told you before but that a passage was made for him miraculously so that in a moment which could not be discern'd they gave way and made him entrance and though this answer like not our Adversaries I am sure they cannot refute it And is this fair dealing when St. John doth not tell how Christ came in the doors being shut from thence to pronounce how Christ is present in the Holy Communion and see their inference Christ came in to his Disciples the doors being shut ergo Christs body being in heaven the same body is in the Priests hands in ten thousand places at once and in every little crumb of the Host his whole body is present He that understands this consequence is more than a mortal creature I will run over their chiefly alleaged subtilties and dispatch all Bellarmine affirms that the corporeal substance of Christ partakes the spiritual manner of Angelical existence that is he is present in the Eucharist substantially not quantitatively And yet Aquinas and He himself confess that the substance of Christs body is not there naked or divested of dimensive quantity it hath quantity there but is not there after a quantitative manner to have quantity but not the nature of quantity is not this a flat Chimaera to be in the Host substantially but not with quantity and local dimensions I have read it from them a thousand times but could never found what it should be And shall I think those millions of godly but unlearned Souls in the Church must learn such distinctions to obtein salvation but a late Jesuit would thus illustrate it the soul of man is an whole soul in every part of the body an Angel at once in distinct ubities or places the thoughts of man may be at once in many quarters of the Earth God is in Heaven and Earth at once therefore the body of Christ may be in many Hosts at the same instant I answer there is not one of these things alleaged will fit the purpose for every Angel is definitively in a place so that being in one site he removes to another The soul is immaterial by nature and the form of the body the thought of man is an intentional motion and action and not a corporeal or spiritual thing God is every where because he is infinite but Christs humane body is finite material limited to certain place and measure and differeth from all the former things therefore it hangs not together from the pretence of those instances that the same identical body of Christ is multiplied in the Sacrament of so many thousand Altars Thus their sophistical cavils have compel'd me to go with them one mile and for the last conclusion I will go with them twain But say those subtle Writers if God can put an whole Camel in the eye of a needle may he not put the whole body of Christ in the least part of a consecrated Crum In this Objection they strain at a Crum and swallow a Camel Christ did not say that a Camel continuing in his ordinary quantity can pass through the eye of a needle but by a supposition a rich man making Mammon his God may as easily pass to Heaven But lest we may seem to be averse to Gods omnipotency I go further that there is a two-fold power in God ordinata absoluta one according to the order which himself hath fixed by his Word and Will the other according to the infiniteness of his Essence which exceedeth his Will According to the power of God measur'd and regulated by his Word and Will it is impossible that a Camel in his gross bulk should pass through the eye of needle or that the whole body of Christ can be in a bit of bread or that he is substantively present in many places at one instant We do not say that the infinite Essence of God could not have ordeined these things to be possible but he hath in every place of Scripture reveal'd that He will not have these things to be possible The power of God is his will and what He will not He cannot is the saying of Tertullian Now that God will have it possible to have the body of Christ pass through the dimensions and solidity of the Grave-stone He no where affirmeth and therefore I do utterly reject the Pontifician interpretation I have finisht what I had premeditated upon all the three motions in my Text at last we see all was composed into quiet and the Angel sat upon the Grave-stone But here I will rest my self at this time and proceed no further Almighty God roll away the stone of ignorance and stubbornness from within us and settle all these things in our hearts for Jesus Christ his sake who died for our sins and rose again as this day for our justification AMEN THE SIXTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT. xxviii 3 4. His Countenance was like lightning and his Rayment white as snow And for fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men THere is no day mentioned in all the Scripture upon which so much business and action is recorded to fall out as upon this grand day the day of our Lord and Saviours Resurrection The holy Evangelists according to the secret wisdom of the Spirit write in a confused order the sundry accidents of this day which with your patience I will set down very briefly every one in their own place Mary Magdalen and the other women bought Odours and sweet Spices to embalm the body lying in the Sepulcher and to that end came forth very early in the Morning As they hastened on the day there hapned a great Earthquake and the Angel of God rouled the stone from the Sepulcher The Watchmen who kept the Monument are sore afraid at the sight of the Angel and at the opening of the Grave they certifie the High Priests all that was done and the High Priests out-face the truth with lying and corruption Now Mary Magdalen and the women being come to the place where the body had been laid miss it and wonder at it Mary runs to Peter and John and tels them they have taken the Lord out of the Sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him While Mary was gone the Angel comforts the other women that staid behind fear not ye seek Jesus which was crucified he is not here but he is risen go tell his Disciples c. Yet these women went not far from thence But in this space Peter and John came to the Sepulcher and found the Monument empty save of a few linnen cloaths Mary Magdalen also comes back to the Sepulcher and weeps
Resurrection assists a work which was most noble and therefore at all points Visage and Garment he is exceeding glorious the Angels that appeared before Abraham and Lot had no eminent note of honour in their outward shape and so passed for mere men but Angels at this opportunity would be known to be Angels and therefore this spiritual Embassadour is not diminished in his Majesty by appearing in the figure of man for his Countenance was like lightning c. God could and can send forth his Angels in what form and disguise he pleaseth and this Messenger is strangely appointed terrible in the aspect else all over amiable there is dreadfulness in his face and gladness in his garment And this diversity refers us to seek out that there were two different effects to be brought to pass In terrorem reprobis in blandimentum bonis says Gregory here were unbelieving Souldiers to be dismayed and such a countenance would make the proudest of them all to stoop and here were faithful women to be comforted therefore the raiment was like a Bridegroom that came to call these women like the five wise Virgins into his Chamber This is the more notable in the observation because you never read that the women did see this flash of lightning in the visage of the Angel they saw a young man sitting in white in a long white Robe St. Mark St. Luke and St. John have not one word in their context that these good souls saw any thing but amiable consolation But that lightning which sate upon his countenance was an object to daunt the wicked and was presented only to the Keepers that watcht the Sepulcher In a great passion of anger the eye will look like a forge of wrath as Tully said of Verres Ardebant oculi toto ex ore ejus crudelitas emicabat and so the Poet of his Alecto Flammea torquens lumina indignation did sparkle out of their eyes like fire Even so this Apparitor that came from heaven did personate vengeance and destruction which a man may read in this visible evidence His countenance was like lightning Consider and make this use of it if one Angel was so dreadful at the Resurrection of Christ what fear and astonishment will come upon the wicked at the general day of the Resurrection when they shall see the Father sit upon his Throne and thousand thousands of Angels ready to execute vengeance round about him Alas a flash of lightning is quickly gone and past but thunder will follow this lightning to cleave the hearts of Infidels in pieces that workt wickedness and will not believe St. Hierom says that this was the Trumpet which kept him waking that he slept not in death for by the grace of God this meditation sounded always in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead out of your graves and come to judgment Think what a day that will be when all flesh shall come to answer in their own person before that Bar what they have done in their body whether good or evil The Prophet Amos speaks of some that were dispisers of all justice and charity and yet thought the disquisition of that day would go so well with them that they long'd for the trial Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light Amos v. 18. Every good Angel will be an affrighting spectacle to the ungodly for they shall be known to be the mowers that have the charge to take the Tares and to burn them in unquenchable fire and if their presence be unsufferable to the guilty the Majesty of God which they have so much dishonoured will infinitely increase their perplexity The face of Moses who was but a Minister of the Law was not to be look'd upon by the Israelites until he had cast a veil before his skin Who then will be able to endure him who is the Judge of the Law unless he speak for us to the Father who is the propitiation for our sins Adulterers Extorsioners prophane persons live so securely as if they distrusted no such matter as a dreadful reckoning at the second coming of Christ Apollodorus gave a commonitory supplication to C. Caesar not to be present in the Senate that day when his life was sought by a strong conspiracy which had he read the danger had been prevented but he shuffled the Paper into his bosome and never regarded it which cost him his life So the sacred Scripture is put into the hands of the ungodly let them read it if they will and understand that vengeance abides those that continue in any grievous crime the countenance of Gods Angels is like terrible lightning and is set against them to divide them in twain In Rev. iv 8. the four beasts which is by many expounded the four Evangelists cease not to cry day and night Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is qui venturus est and which is to come all this the impenitent shuffle off till at last destruction shall take them unawares Again the Angels countenance was like lightning not only to portend that there shall be great terrour at the general day of the Resurrection especially among accursed Reprobates such as these were that kept the Sepulcher but beside lightning is a sudden unexpected glance to note that the last day of the Lord will come very suddenly and give no warning But this is warning enough to a provident man that Christ says he will come very suddenly and give no warning Our Saviours resolutions in all other points of Divinity are very copious direct and punctual yet touching the coming of the Son of man to judge the world whensoever his Disciples or any others askt him that question all that he did ever reply in the Gospel was most unsatisfactory as I may say and full of ambiguity Vt Magister aliquid docuit ut Magister aliquid non docuit says St. Austin that which was fit to be known he taught them like a Master and that which was fit to be hid like a Master he concealed it And he would have that day concealed that it might come unexpectedly like a flash of lightning for many reasons For there are some evil servants in the Gospel that if you perswade them the Lord will delay his coming will waste and mar all and beat their fellow-servants there are others as St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians that will be shaken in mind and troubled if you say that the day of the Lord is at hand To prevent that neither the one shall be secure nor the other troubled we know not when his Apparition in the clouds shall be but with great suddenness it shall be as when lightning breaks out of a cloud and glides from the East unto the West whereof no man was aware before he saw it This is one of the priviledges of
it will be time enough for you to come in and joyn in Prayer O ye loyterers Do you know the hurt of it when ye lose the opportunity of one minute to serve the Lord Pliny in his Letters to Trajan reports of the Christians that they had Ante lucanos congressus they met together before day to read the Scriptures to pray and sing Psalms I confess there was great reason for it then because they held their Assemblies when their Enemies were in bed that they might not know of it But I am sure since the Apostles time never were so many miracles wrought as at those early Vigils And that I may conclude this Point with one use more Mans life is but a day and what part of life is the early morning of that day but Youth If you will do well unto your own souls seek out Christ betimes when the Sun of Reason begins to dispel the darkness of ignorance in your tender age Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth and God will not forget thee nor forsake thee in thy old Age. Some Fiend of hell made that Proverb Angelicus juvenis senibus Satanizat in annis as if the Child could be taught too soon to choose the good and to refuse the evil as if young holiness were obnoxious to become old iniquity I will ask you Why do we Catechize the younger of both Sexes in Lent but to teach them to seek Christ early against Easter I will come to a less matter why do we ever paint Angels with the faces of young men or Children but that youth is a fit stock upon which we should ingraft the heavenly vertues and holiness of Angels If Mary Magdalen gained by rouzing her self up early to seek Jesus Christ seek him then I beseech you when he may be found that is with the most timely opportunity I have done with the circumstances which were but Preambles to the substance of the Text that substance may easily be discerned from all the rest for the Kernel taken out of the words is this that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalen As it is said of St. Thomas the Apostle so of her she believed more than she saw yet according to the dimness of faith which was in those times unless she had seen she had not believed If Christ as soon as he was risen had ascended immediately unto heaven if no Witnesses had been left behind that could say they saw him and eat with him and conversed with him the words of truth would have wanted credit with the world because our wisdom is rather carnal than spiritual Therefore says St. Peter Acts x. 40. God raised him up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but unto Witnesses chosen before of God This made the Apostles set their Seal to the confirmation of it Luk. xxiv 34. The Lord is risen indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say in good earnest he is risen and hath appeared unto Simon Now let no man contradict it for Peter hath seen him with his eyes But let me tell you the bodily eye ought not to come in for his part to peep into those mysteries into which Faith doth search The secrets of the Kingdom of heaven which we believe are invisible and incomprehensible But Christ considered it was but New Moon with the Church now it was but Tyrocinium Ecclesiae the fresh-man-ship I may say of Christian Religion and the young graft must be held with Props from the shaking of the winds which are needless to be used to an old Tree whose root is fastned The Apostles and sundry women and divers brethren did see Christ after he was risen this was milk for babes but now we must believe that which we have not seen and the vision of God and of his Son shall be the reward of faith in the Kingdom of glory Last of all he was seen of me also says St. Paul as of one born out of due time 1 Cor. xv 8. Then look not to see him manifest in his fleshly presence any more till he comes in judgment For the Apostle seems to me to say plainly that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last of all that shall see him in that manner So having setled the ground-work that he appeared I draw on to consider by what degrees he appeared and that is suppeditated to us with much variety out of the twentieth Chapter of St. John's Gospel The last year you know I handled that part of sacred story fit for the day how this woman having complained to the Disciples that the body of our Lord was stoln away Peter and John ran hastily to see the wonder and she would not be left behind she follows them to see what they could make of it they found it true as she had related and departed full of great admiration This poor Wretch alone continues at the Monument and resolves not to stir till she have better satisfaction Quantum bonum est assiduitas perseverantia says Theophylact Shall not assiduity and perseverance reap plenteous fruits of comfort Yes no question yet because she was a narrow-brim'd vessel observe how God pours his favours into her as it were by spoonfuls that she might not be overwhelmed with the excellency of revelations She that had often lookt into the Sepulchre and was sure the body she sought was not there I know not by what divine instinct she looks in again Whether it were as Tully said of Crassus the Orator says he we came into the Capitol to please our selves with looking upon that Bench in the Senate where that famous Citizen was wont to sit So she looked in now with a resolved mind that it would delight her to view the place where her Saviour had been interred though nothing else were to be discerned But loe she spied that there she did not look for two heavenly Ministers all in white the Grave which always before was the den of worms was now become the throne of Angels And it came so to pass first to refer us to that which shall befall all the Sons of God our bodies shall be buried by the Ministry of men as Christs was by Joseph and Nicodemus but we shall be raised out of the dust at the last day by the Ministry of Angels Secondly says St. Hierom in his Epistle to Hebidias this was enough for all parties if they would think upon it wisely that the body of our Lord was not stoln out of the Grave by any malicious Adversaries because the place was so well guarded with the custody of Angels And thirdly Jesus appeared by these as by his Proxies they stand in his stead for a while to tell Mary to tell the other women He is not here he is risen But behold she looked for a greater than these for him of whom it is said When he bringeth his first-born into the world he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him
the dead and the resurrection of the soul from sin in this interview between himself and Mary Magdalen All men shall be restored to life good and bad for the Son of God redeemed the whole nature of man this day from the corruption of the Grave and the Devil did utterly loose jus mortis the dominion of death because our Saviour being an Innocent was put to death over whom he had no dominion But the glory of Christs victory was to conquer two at once Hell and Death So the Prophet Hosea cries out in form of triumph O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory and from his own voice Revel i. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead behold I am alive for evermore and have the keys of Hell and of Death So in his own person he shewed that he had conquered Death in the person of Mary Magdalen that he had conquered Hell Beloved this great day is Christs Festival and it is the Holiday of every penitent sinner because first he appeared to such an one to Mary Magdalen For our sakes both the Keys are turn'd and for our sakes both the Gates are opened that our bodies may escape the curse of corruption and that our souls may be delivered from the judgment of Hell through Jesus Christ the first fruits of the dead and that first appeared to an humble Convert AMEN THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT xxviii 9 10. And as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them saying all hail and they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him Then said Jesus unto them be not afraid go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me YOU may call to your remembrance that my subject upon Easter-day the last year was How Christ was first seen after he rose again from the dead of one whom he had raised before from the death of sin he appeared first to Mary Magdalen And in this Text other women have the next turn to see him appear in order of story That Sex it is apparent had the honour of the day in the first and second bout that the power of God might be seen in the weaker Vessels The women brought sweet Spices to embalm his body and they encounter that which was sweeter than all the Spices in the world the Vision of the Lord who came forth from the dark places of the dead to life again There is not the weakest capacity among you but must needs observe that the relations of these things are very diversly set down in the four Evangelists And there is not the learnedst capacity among men that can distinctly unfold how they should be reconciled I suppose the Primitive Church I mean the Disciples that were taught by the Apostles and other Scholars taught by them were informed of the true Exposition how every thing hapned in its order but the tradition is lost And they who boast they have kept the Traditions of the Church faithfully are not able to give us a clear rule how to refer these confusions to a certain order St. Paul 1 Cor. xv rehearseth sundry ways how Christ was seen of many after he rose from the dead yet he utterly omits how he was seen of these devout women St. John Chap. xx speaks of the famous interview between our Saviour and Mary Magdalen and no more Our Evangelist in the beginning of this Chapter mentions Mary Magdalen and the other Mary that is the Mother of Zebedees children he goes no further St. Mark quotes another woman that is Salome St. Luke names also one Joanna she was the Wife of Chusa Herods Steward and indefinitely he folds it up that there were other women whose particular cognisance is not revealed And divers things are related divers ways of these which may be reconciled as divers ways without jar or contradiction The stiffest knot in the dissention is that although St. Luke and St. Mark record how the Angels appeared to the women and spake unto them of Christs rising yet they do not say that Christ was seen of them St. Mark relates that he was seen of Mary Magdalen So doth St. John they go no further St. Matthew holds him to Mary Magdalen and to one other Mary that is all Yet he involves at large that as the women not those women only went to bring tidings to the Apostles of what they had seen and heard Christ did meet them by the way For the perplexity of these Narrations some do argue that none of the women saw him this day risen from the dead but Mary Magdalen and that when this Scripture says that he did appear to the women plurally yet it is a Synechdoche speaking that of many which was verified but in one for but one saw him instead of all her companions This is not so probable for it would work better if this truth were manifested by a multitude of Witnesses Others also consider that Mary Magdalen saw him alone and was controuled at that time not to touch him therefore it must be another Apparition when divers women did touch him and worship him Some say therefore that in a very little compass of time Mary Magdalen saw him twice this day unless there were two Mary Magdalens as St. Ambrose would have it first alone and then immediately with her Consorts Yet that seems not so congruous I can say no more against it that two Apparitions should be granted to her in a few moments Therefore without any pertinacy in rejecting the conjectures of others I conceive this second Apparition of Christ which we have in hand to be made to Mary the Mother of James Joanna and Salom with other devout women of Galilee when Mary Magdalen was lately departed from them to tell her errand to the Disciples Laying my ground upon that opinion I deduct these parts out of the Text First I will treat upon it what proceeded from the women Secondly what proceeded from Christ Touching the women again I will handle first what they did before they saw Christ secondly what they did after they had seen him Before they saw him they went to tell his Disciples somewhat After they had seen him 1. They came to him 2. They held him by the feet 3. They worshipped him That which belongs to Christ is contained in his Action and his Words His Action is thus expressed Behold Jesus met them His Words are first a Salutation All Hail 2. A Consolation Be not afraid 3. A Commission Go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee 4. A Promise There they shall see me These are the several talents which God hath committed to me in this and now I will employ them for my Masters profit The women before they had seen our Saviour went to tell his Disciples that must be our beginning They went and went to and fro sundry times upon this occasion It could not choose but be observed by the eyes
Brethren Lastly as their Commission had dignity and sweetness in it so they were sent with profitable tydings to tell the Disciples they must go into Galilee and there they should see the Lord. What ailed them I may say that they were not already gone into Galilee for Christ had told them Mat. xxvi 22. When I am risen again I will go before you into Galilee Nay albeit the Women repeated this unto them they did not stir What though they would not go with him to his Cross would not they remove into Galilee when they were warned by Christ and now readmonished by the Women What might it be that hindred them shall I tell you what I think they had forgotten what Christ said and the tydings of the women made them keep closer to that place where they were Can it be that these women saw him in Jerusalem then surely say they the Lord will appear unto us in this City though we do not travel into Galilee But why did the Lord appoint the great intercourse between him and his Disciples in Galilee First it was remote from Jerusalem where much danger was there he might discourse with his Disciples with more privacy and security Secondly the Apostles were all Galileans and for their sakes he did this honour to their Country Thirdly to eject Satan out of his possession for it was a place of much sin called a place of darkness and the land of the shadow of death Isa ix 2. Fourthly there were many Disciples in Galilee and Christ had intended a famous meeting to appear to them all at once as some say on Mount Thabor where he was transfigur'd and that here it was where he was seen of more than five hundred Brethren at once Be it as it would be he promiseth they should see him there and he was better than his promise for upon this day at Even they saw him at Jerusalem Here is nothing that savours of any old grudg or displeasure no repealing of the former promise because they had forsaken him in the Garden but a confirmation of all loving kindness passed and an exceeding favour superadded that their souls might not be tortur'd with that long procrastination not to see him till they went into Galilee he prevented the time and appear'd to them in their own Chamber before they slept To this Christ who is faithful in promises and gracious in loving kindness be all glory AMEN THE NINTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT. xxviii 13. Say ye his Disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept IN the Parable where the King made a Marriage for his Son and I may truly apply it this day was the glorious Nuptial of the Son of God but in that Parable the Servants went out for Guests into the high ways and gathered together all as many as they found good and bad So the Evangelists have filled up the story of our Saviours Resurrection with all kind of Circumstances of Saints and Reprobates truth and fictions good and bad It is agreed by them who have exactly wrote an harmony of the Gospels that Christ made five Apparitions and no fewer all of them upon this triumphant day after he was risen from the dead to the devoutest of all others men and women that loved the Lord. The first to Mary Magdalen The second to the other Women that were going from the Sepulchre to tell the Disciples what the Angels had said unto them The third to Peter Luc. xxiv 34. The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon 1 Cor. xv 5. Seen of Cephas then of the Twelve The fourth to Cleophas and the other Disciple toward the setting of the Sun to whom he was known in the breaking of bread The fifth to the Disciples late that night Whereas they had received a Message to go into Galilee and there they should see the Lord yet out of fear and incredulity they moved not out of doors Therefore on the same day at Evening being the first day of the Week when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst of them and said Peace be unto you And howsoever some of those portions of Scripture are read for the Gospel to morrow some for next Sunday yet all those five Apparitions hapned upon this one day He appeared so often to the best of those that loved him but the relation of his Resurrection was made also on this day to the worst of those that hated him The Angels spake it to the Women in the hearing of the Souldiers that he was risen to life the news went from bad to worse the Souldiers tell the High Priests and Elders what they had heard and seen the High Priests again sophisticate the news and tell them fraudulently to Pilate for the Souldiers safety then Pilate and the High Priests agreeing together fill the whole Nation of the Jews by their cunning with incredulity Look not therefore to hear me speak at this time of those good Saints to whom the mystery of Christs Resurrection was the savour of life unto life but of those wicked Infidels who by their own impiety made it unto themselves the savour of death unto death There is not one good person within the compass of the story whereof my Text is a part It is Manipulus zizaniorum If ever according to the Parable God sent his Angel to gather the worst Tares in one bundle by themselves here they are The High Priests prevaricating with God and his Angels the Souldiers corrupted Pilate the Governour misperswaded the people wholly seduced bad is the best Yet St. Matthew and no other Evangelist hath interserted this piece of treachery among the other sweet Narrations of this most happy day And for these causes if St. Chrysostome hit it right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truth will have the better audience when it passeth through the mouths of most contrary Authors say not that his Disciples and such Women as had Christ in admiration spread these things abroad for the malignant Souldiers speak the same 2. That we may see that very hour when God did first smite the Jews with that vertiginous spirit to hearken to Cabalistical Legends to the doating dreams of the Rabbines as they do at this day that is in St. Pauls Phrase to profane and old Wives Fables For indeed this Text is a mere Romancy as arrant a Jewish Fable as ever was told A Conspiracy so full of rotten Fictions that nothing is true in it all but that it is a Conspiracy and that it is a Fiction 1. Then we must bolt out the Confederates Gebal and Ammon joyn together the High Priests the Elders and the Souldiers 2. The way of Confederacy is by putting a forged Tale in the Souldiers mouths they must avouch any thing that the Priests suborn Ye shall say 3. The Plot is collaterally against the Disciples for being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
four times and no less they did most grosly abuse that Talent which the Lord had given them 1. They gave Judas thirty Pieces of Silver to betray his Master 2. They were at charges to bribe a Multitude with swords and staves to take our Saviour in the Garden 3. They set a Watch to look to the Sepulchre expence was drawn from them for that use And 4. They gave large money to have the Souldiers say as it is in my Text His Disciples came and stole him away by night Pecuniam quae in usus templi data fuerat vertunt in redemptionem mendacii says St. Hierom which I would English They took a part of Gods portion to see the Devil One says that this is a note of the Antichrist Proditur venturus armatus pecuntis a Tradition goes that he shall be full of money able to bribe abundance to take his part so that they shall maintain falshoods and errors against their own conscience Not unlikely to be true and I am sure the mystery of Antichrist began betimes even on this very day and let us all take notice of it to whom the Resurrection of our Saviour is sweet and precious what an horrid and Antichristian sin Bribery is both in the Giver and in the Taker that the Devil did fly to that sin rather than any other thereby to subvert the glory of God and the dearest consolation of all Christians the Resurrection of Jesus As Brimstone will smell in Wollen so all sorts of Bribery intended to the prejudice of truth and innocency smell of that abominable corruption which put the Chief Priests and the Souldiers into this deep confederacy that shall be succinctly handled now I have made the rest that follows more easie to be understood by opening the condition of the persons that carried the plot between them The way of the Confederacy follows by putting a forged Tale in the Souldiers mouths they must say any thing that the Priests suborn Say ye There is a threefold lie says St. Austin 1. Vain Fiction which doth neither harm nor good Quod fit merâ mentiendi libidine a mere trick of scurvy custom without any bad intention yet this is a sin 2. There is a lie which hurts one party to help another and that is a greater sin than the first 3. Tale est quod nulli prodest obest alicui there is a lie which is pernicious to some and beneficial to none that is worst of all such stuff was this that was perswaded to the Souldiers Roman Souldiers were wont to be commended for their fidelity above all Military men in the world In Rom. militibus rarò fides suit desiderata They were very trusty and true in the praise of all Histories and God gave them grace to bring truth with them as far as from the Sepulchre to the Council Chamber of the High Priests but there they lost it there they were bought out of it and to this day the Jews if they could would make us unsay all the truth that we tell them O beware of such as turn away their ears from the truth and give heed unto Fables especially note those for the enemies of Christ like these in my Text that will hire others to forge to dissemble to forswear these are they that drive the Devils Market and they must look for the reward from him he is their father the father of lies and liars But what reward shall be given thee thou false tongue Even mighty and sharpe Arrows with hot burning coals We detest Baudes and Pandars very justly the wicked dealers for other mens filthy Lusts Ought not they to be as much detested I think they ought that are other mens hirelings and Instruments to vent their falshoods and dissimulations Anthimus Bishop of Nicomedia was enquired after to be put to death for being a Christian and being found had the courtesie offered him by the Serjeants that they would tell the Tyrant that sent them they could not find him they were resolved to be so kind and Anthimus had his leave to make an escape but the thing wrought in his conscience and rather than they should tell a lie for his sake he went after them and offered himself to suffer death But Sisera was not so streight-laced as we use to say he would have been content nay he desired Jael If any of the Persuers askt for such a man to say no man was there This is the case which of all others may seem most plausible whether one might be entreated to tell an untruth lawfully to save the life of another that is followed by an enemy St. Austin quickly resolves it you must not do a wicked thing to save your own life much less doth it urge you to corrupt your own soul to save another mans body So he doth extoll Firmus Bishop of Tagastum Firmus nomine firmior voluntate into whose house a fearful person fled for fear of Assassinates and being asked for him Respondit nec mentiri se posse nec hominem prodere he answered he must not lie and he would not betray a man to them that thirsted for his bloud and from this answer he would not be beaten with many wounds O take not away from me thy truth says David not Eloquence nor a shrill voice like a Symbal nor a musical warbling as sweet as a Syren none of these are the honour of a mans lips truth goes beyond them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Synesius A word truly spoken is nobly born falshood and lies are beggarly begotten that is either out of foolish easiness or out of fear or out of base reward as when the Souldiers had the Bribe in their hand they must say any thing that was put into their mouths Say ye Say ye Why let such as they are talk their pleasure But who would believe them A lie hath a kind of croaking harshness in it at any time especially from such reporters as these I am induced to suppose that the High Priests were half jealous of them that all was not Gospel which they related about the Angels appearing and the body risen and would they have the people trust them more than they did But here was Gods judgment upon that stiff-necked Nation though these were heathen men without God in the world vile Mercenarie witnesses of no credit yet their tale was received of the Jews as if Moses had brought it and it is reported commonly to this day says St. Matthew If St. Matthew meant at that day when he wrote his Gospel that was eight years after says Theophylact. Justin Martyr says that in his days more than an hundred years after it was taken up among the Jews for a true story and that they wrote Letters to their Countrimen over all the world to assure them it was so and no otherwise But in holy Scripture that phrase to this day notes the durance and long continuance of a thing
a little extemporary acquaintance and no more with that to which they say Amen Next let every man preach that challengeth he hath the gift sorrily God knows and then he knows that Preaching will come to nothing as well as Prayer Beware that you let not our great Adversary subvert all Piety and Religion by these encroachments bad men may mock holy Ordinances but God is not mocked Fear the Lord reverence his ways receive the blessings of the Spirit with thanksgiving and praise rule the Tongue to glorifie him that made it to set forth his honour that gives it utterance AMEN THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE CORONATION PSAL. cxviii 24. This is the Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and he glad in it THE words which I have selected to preach upon are part of a Psalm which excels both in the Letter and in the Spirit rich in the litteral sense copious in the spiritual the Kingdom of David set forth magnificently in the one the Kingdom of Christ glorified in the other Sometimes the ditty of the Song points directly at the Throne of David and sometimes at Christs Triumphs over his Death and his victorious Resurrection I cannot choose between them both but think of the Country of Mesopotamia the fruitful Garden of the world girt about with waters the Rivers did flow in and out in all quarters of the Land and the Land was much more pleasant for the windings and intricate Maeanders of the Rivers So this Hymn hath a most delightful alternation in it skipping often from Christ to David and from David to Christ with sundry melodious changes as if it purposed to make the Reader lose himself if he did not curiously note the Narration There hath been much ado among Expositors whether the Psalm should concern them both or only one of them choose you which you will Some refer it all to David and to the rejoycing of the People in his behalf that they saw him happily inaugurated King of Israel after he had been long kept back by the House of Saul and many other potent Enemies The Jewish Rabbins make no other construction of it and they follow the Chaldee Paraphrast who doth thus read the 22. verse of this Psalm the Builders did reject the youngest of the Sons of Jessai and would not let him reign over them but he hath deserved to be received for their Prince and Governor therefore we will keep holy day and rejoyce Thus Vatablus and Isidore Clarius and many others of this latter Age have dived no further than into the superficies of this Scripture that is into so much and no more than concerned the Monarchy of David But they did not see into the bottom that lookt no further for the Antient Fathers of the Church not one but all have discover'd so manifest a Prophesie concerning our Saviour that nothing can be clearer It is a general rule that David in most of his Psalms had more regard to Christ than to Himself in this more eminently than ordinary so that the New Testament is full of the application Pick out the 22. verse The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner according to three several Gospels our Saviour demonstrates that himself was the Stone which the Scribes and Pharisees refused but God had exalted him to be the Head of the Church both ih Heaven and Earth St. Peter proves as much in the audience of many thousands of the Jews and none of them did contradict him Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified this is the Stone which is set at naught of you Builders which is become the head of the corner ver 26. of this Psalm Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord I doubt not but all the loyal hearts of Juda and Jerusalem did congratulate David in those words when he entred into the Royal City but all the Multitude of the People applied them to the Advent of the Messias Hosanna to the Son of David blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Matth. xxi 9. And indeed St. Hierom says that the Jews in their Liturgy of old were wont to read this Psalm in their Synagogues for the Messias sake and did put it among those Prayers in which they did heartily desire the coming of Christ the Lord Nay says Cajetan the 17. verse can become the mouth of no mortal man but it is the voice of the immortal Son of God to say I will not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Therefore those Authors that had the most judicious Palat have acknowledged that sometimes Davids matters are brought into this Psalm and sometimes Christs nay sometimes both of them in one verse as in my Text. The begining of the Psalm says St. Chysostom was a Celebration for the setting on the Crown upon the head of the King of Israel but ex improviso mutavit argumentum in a sudden extasie the Prophet changeth his argument and speaks of Christ nay says Euthymius if a man will be acquainted with the stile of the Propets let him remember that this is their custom intercidere solent sermones in rem aliam transire ne adversarii manus injiciant they use to break off abruptly and fall from one thing to another lest if the Enemies of the Truth did understand them they would make away those holy Writings to the irrecoverable loss of the Church of Christ This was necessary to be premised that you might know what to look for out of my Text namely David's Day in the Letter and Christ's Day in the Spirit In the Case of David no man doubts what day is pointed at surely it is the day of his Inauguration when after much resistance made by his Enemies at last he did enjoy the Scepter of all Israel quietly and peaceably and there was an Holy-day instituted to remember it with sacred Solemnity The Lord had made that Day happy unto David and the People did celebrate it in a joyful and religious manner I need not to tell you how proper that construction of my Text is to this Day wherein God hath settled our Anointed Sovereign over all the Kingdoms of his Father and I trust you profess your due thankfulness to God for his most pious and religious Reign and that we have great cause to rejoyce and be glad in it But which is that among all the days of Christ which God did make more transcendently than the rest there 's a little scruple in that point I find one or two refer it to the day of his Nativity but their reasons are weak and they are no considerable number to be followed St. Hierom and St. Austin are in the right I think for they apply it to the whole time of the Gospel wherein the terrors of the Law are broken and all things are most sweet and pleasant to penitent Believers Behold now is the acceptable Time now is the
mind but unless we intermix the solemn Service of God at those times and spend some hours with godly profit in the Church it is but the Feast of Fools or perhaps worse the Feast of Epicures So the Prophet mentions some Swinish Carousers that thought they did solemnize their Kings Day in a jovial manner with drinking healths till they lost their wit and their health In the day of our King the Princes made him sick with flagons of wine Hos vii 5. Such Tospots celebrate a Feast to the use of the Devil and not to the Glory of God But it was unto that Glory that this Song and this Day which is chanted and this Joy which is so chearfully profest are all dedicated This is the Day which the Lord hath made c. But how hard a thing it is to draw men and women with their good will to Church for some have stretcht all their wits and their learning to defie our Church because it hath appointed Holidays for solemn occasions of Prayer and Thanksgiving and the greatest part of the Kingdom not out of opposition but out of negligence and slothfulness doth omit the due observation which belongs unto them You give your selves over at such times to cessation from work it may be to Sports and Games and Interludes the Fields shall be all day full of loose persons and the House of the Lord empty It is true that rest from labour becoms an Holiday yet the very vacation from labour is not simply pleasing to God but the better to follow Religious Service and beware to confound rest and idleness as if they were all one they are idle whom the painfulness of action causeth to avoid that labour whereunto God and Nature bindeth them they rest that either cease from their work when they have brought it to perfection or else give over a meaner labour because a better and more worthy is to be undertaken therefore though some part of an Holiday is indulged to put gladness into the life of them that are toiled with continual work yet the substantial character of the day is to meet together in our Religious Convocations and to adore the Name of the Lord. I shall not be able at this fag end of the hour to traverse this point as I would some satisfaction I will give you now God willing and defer that which remains to a more spacious occasion My Doctrin which I lay down is this that it is lawful for any Church to celebrate what Feasts it will so all be done with order and edification And I say more that every Church ought to set apart Solemn Times to remember annually the extraordinary works of God though such designed and determinate Days are not commanded in Holy scripture And I put to this moreover that God doth accept what the Church in due consideration doth voluntarily consecrate to Religious use I will put two parts of my Proposition together that this was lawful to be done and that it ought to be done Nature did teach the Heathen God taught the Jews and Christ by his own practice while he was upon earth taught us that to meet at Extraordinary Times for the celebration of Excellent Things was just and righteous One doth eloquently and very truly commend the various fruit of keeping such Sacred Times in this full Encomiasticon Festival days are the Splendour and outward Dignity of our Religion forcible Witnesses of ancient truth agnizing of great Benefits received Provocations to the Exercises of Piety Shadows of our endless felicity in Heaven First I will begin at the last of these That there must be great consolation in the due keeping of an Holiday if you rightly understand it because it represents the joy which is laid up for us in the Kingdom of Heaven and it is a most comfortable expectation when the very outward countenance of that which we are about on Earth doth prefigure after a sort that which we tend unto in the everlasting Habitations Bear but this in mind that the Rubrick days in the Almanack do prefigure that celestial condition wherein being mixed with Angels we shall sing Haleluia to the Lamb for evermore having no worldly toil or vexation to distract us and this would make us most chearful to bear a part in a solemn Congregation The Kingdom of Heaven was but darkly revealed to the Jews in the Old Testament and yet to bear in mind the glory which is laid up for the Godly they devoted a portion of every Day to the Divine Service in the Morning and Evening Sacrifice a portion of every Week upon the Sabbath a portion of every Moneth upon the New Moon a portion of every Season of the Year the Passover in the Spring the Feast of Pentecost in the Summer the Feast of Tabernacles in the Autumn and in latter Ages the Feast of Dedication in the Winter Every seventh Year was a Solemn Year for the Cessation of all Plowing and Sowing and that 's a contracted Age Every Fiftieth Year was most solemn for the memorizing of the Grand Jubilee and that 's a long protracted Age. If they did so often represent their longing to be at rest in heavenly places much more doth it concern us under the Gospel who are nearer neighbours than they to that future glory Secondly such gandy dayes are most meet for the agnizing of great benefits received I esteem the more of this reason because it is St. Austins Ne volumine temporum ingrata obreperet oblivio by Festival Solemnities and set Days we dedicate and sanctifie to God the memory or his chief benefits lest unthankfulness and forgetfulness should creep upon us in the course of time Nor is it enough to remember some notable favour upon one day and no more with great pomp and splendor for the revolution of time will obscure that as if it had never been the constant habit of doing well is not gotten without the custom of doing well without an iteration of holy Duties Beside such as are weak and tottering in faith might imagin that we did set no high price upon the Nativity of our Lord upon his Passion his Resurrection his Ascension and upon the Coming of the Holy Ghost if we did not extol him for them with some outward and eminent acts of glory Thirdly the principal Articles of Faith are nailed fast to our memory by clothing great Feasts with some transcendent tokens of joy and holiness At the Feast of Christmas every simple body is put in mind that Christ took our nature upon him and was born of a pure Virgin On Good Friday even Babes and Children are taught that he died upon the Cross to redeem us from eternal death Easterday proclaims it that our Saviour rose again in his own Body from the Grave and will raise up our Flesh at the last day to be like his own glorious Body Ascension day or Holy Thursday rememorates every year that He is gone up into Heaven to
upon the Jews until times of reformation Heb. ix 10. Nay whereas the Jewish Sacraments were nicely tied to days as the Child must be circumcised on the Eighth day and the Paschal Lamb must be eaten on the Fourteenth day of the First Month these Ceremonies being expired and Christ giving new Sacraments in their place Baptism and the Lords Supper no days are punctually prescribed for the use of them but in all Ages it hath been left to the liberty of the Church and that liberty hath been used piously and prudently without all manner of Scandal For there are no particular Laws for Circumstantial observations of what time and place with what Garments with what Liturgie of Prayers The reason is Christ hath called us to liberty and we are not hedged in such streights as the Jews were Yet if the right of the day be founded in any Apostolical Precept it is all one as if it were the immediate voice of God for they had the Spirit of Christ and they had his Commission Mat. xxviii 20. Go and baptize all Nations teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you If they have taught us any thing this way it is commanded by Christ Now in all the Epistles Apostolical there is but one place that hath any seeming to speak Imperatively 1 Cor. xvi 1. Concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye Vpon the first day of the Week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him c. Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Constitution from St. Paul but about what Not for Church Assemblies to meet together on the first day of the week He doth not say when you are together give to the poor but let every one lay somewhat by him And that imports that they were to deduct somewhat from their gains in their private Family Apud te repone domum tuam fac Ecclesiam lay by your Alms at home and make your own house the Church says St. Chrysostome But admit that this were a solemn day as I will not stand in it but it was as well for religious Assemblies as for charitable Contributions yet St. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the order he took was for Alms and not for appointment of the Lords day that must come in by way of Practice of which I shall speak by and by and not by way of Precept Shall I conclude then that no Commandment can be found in the New Testament which will reach to the imposition of this day Not so neither It is enough if we have general warranty for it though not particular The Church hath ratified it to be kept holy in all Ages And Christ hath confirmed their act to be most obligatory He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me None can appoint a day but God by way of excellency or original authority but the Fathers of the Church being appointed Rulers by Christ may do this by delegate and derivative authority and by vertue of their Commission It is as slender as a rush to object that the Lord is the immediate founder of that holy time because it is called the Lords day If it be Gods own immediate assignation point it out Neither is there any impediment but that the Church may give the name Lords day to any holy day as well as a Bishops Consecration of some fair structure may cause it to be called the Lords house or as the laying on of his hands may make one that is a Lay-man be called a Minister of our Lord Jesus Christ But you will say it were a faster tye to hold that the Injunction is immediately from God then mediately from the Church Beloved Saul was appointed a King immediately from God and Hezekiah came not so to the Crown as Saul did but by succession of bloud Yet were not the People as much subject in conscience to Hezekiah as to Saul I trow they were So Aaron was called by God to be the High Priest Zadok was put into the place by Solomon he reigning under God And was not Zadok to be obeyed in his Priesthood as well as Aaron It is a common but a dangerous error to think that pious Ordinations are but weak and impotent if they be conveyed by the mediation of the voice of the Church Whereas if they be convenient means to the better fulfilling of the Commandment of God they are subordinate to the Divine Law nay they are incorporate into it and become sacred and venerable And remember that the Composers of them are sacred Persons and authorized to that Office by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and the Commission of Christ The last Member of our enquiry is what ground we have for sanctifying this day in the name of the Lord from the practice of the Apostles and from the practice of the Church in all Ages And this tenure as I conceive will prove so strong that it will make it not only a firm Ecclesiastical Sanction but also a Divine Institution There are manifest footsteps that the Apostles were occupied in Sacred Offices upon this day that is uncontroulable The first day of the Week the Disciples came together to break bread that is to celebrate the Supper of the Lord and Paul preached unto them Acts xx 7. I know that Paul taught every day of the Week sometimes Acts xix 9. But this preaching joyned with the breaking of bread and that eye which the Church in all Ages hath cast upon this place as a pattern fit to be followed it makes it eminent and remarkable Again the first day of the Week being signed out in the Churches of Corinth and Galatia for relieving the poor it may well be inferred that it was the practice of the Apostle and Apostolical men to exercise Religious duties upon that day then the day was graced with this name of dignity to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day Rev. x. 10. For though it may be put off that the recurrent day wherein Christ rose is called by St. John the Lords day yet that evasion is taken off because Apostolical men who no doubt did keep the sound form of words did use the very same word while the Apostles were living and immediatly after Ignatius whose felicity it was to be St. Johns Scholar says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let every one that loves Christ keep the Lords day holy And as he speaks so did all others that were near his age The practice of the Apostles is so pregnant for it in Scripture that all the Fathers of the nearest times unto them call it their Institution and Tradition So doth Irenaeus St. Basil and a multitude of the same rank To put this Point home because it especially concerns the Doctrine which I have in hand it may be truly opposed that the practice of the Apostles doth not always make a
holy Angels and herein the Bohemian Churches accorded with us as I see in their Confession yet these Ordinances we uphold because they are beautiful to Religion and contein nothing repugnant to faith and good manners not by any long antiquity as I was able to speak for the former Feasts For Polydor Virgil was most unadvised when he wrote that these Feasts were kept from the Apostles times one distinction is to be ruminated upon that there were some hundreds of years past between the keeping of such Feasts in Private places and universally over all the Church Where any Apostle or Saint flourisht in his life or seal'd the Faith with his death that particular Place or City did celebrate his Festival it gain'd no further as very anciently the Bishop of Smyrna wrote that Polycarpus his day was at hand and he would call the people together to celebrate it devoutly For the universal acceptance of them in all Churches the most will acknowledg that it began at the soonest in the sixth Age under Gregory the Great but with the best search that I can make I cannot perceive that Publick Holidays were kept in the names of Peter and Paul Andrew and John till in the Ninth Age at a Council gathered at Mentz by Charles the Great and some Festivals dropt in straglingly long after as in the names of St. Thomas St. Bartholomew and St. Luke in the Twelfth Age so that it is no great antiquity which upholds those Saints dayes but these reasons following First that we may give thanks that the Church had such examples and be stirred up to the imitation of their vertue 2. As the Scripture hath not commanded such days so it hath not forbad them and in things honest and laudable we must obey them that are set over us in the Lord. 3. A solemn Fast may be proclaim'd to avert Gods Judgments Joel ii 15. and if God allow a meeting of rest upon some new occasion of a doleful event will he not permit piety to triumph with joy and gladness when the whole race of mankind doth or may participate the benefit 4. As there is nothing repugnant in Scripture so there is something very consonant to it For though the Jews were directed like Children in all their Ceremonies yet the whole Nation being delivered from the Plot of Haman Esther and Mordecai ordained a Feast in memory of it Esth ix 21. and we must not think they meant to make it a Merry-wake but a time to praise God In the Jewish Ritual they had a set Service for it as one says and it is vainly put off that this was a Divine Law and not an Ecclesiastical because it is entred into the Scripture For do they find that God sent word by any Prophet no such thing Mordecai suggested it Esther sollicited it Ahasuerus a Heathen King ratified it and so it went current with the People Again Jo. x. 22. our Saviour went up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of the Dedication and was not that Feast a voluntary Sanction of the Synagogue it must be confest for when Antiochus had profaned the Altar of the Temple 1 Mach. iv Judas Machabeus instituted a perpetual Feast toward the end of November to dedicate it again unto the Lord. The principal grudg of some wrangling men is against the Feasts of the Saints not against the Feasts of Christ and that because they have been Idolatrously abused in the Church of Rome their common Maxime is adiaphora non necessaria horrendâ idololatriâ polluta sunt abolenda I will explain them Things necessary to Religion though abused are not to be abolisht as the Word and Sacraments but adiaphorous things abused with no less than Idolatry must for ever be laid aside and these have caused Pilgrimages upon opinion of merit Invocation of Saints Worship of Reliques This foundation is false for by this slight the Devil would blow up all our Ceremonies and we should not have one left Our Churches must be pluckt down and the Bells hang no longer in the Steeple for they have been exorcised and baptized I yield that a Ceremonious Ordinance polluted with Idolatry is to cease if the abuse can not be taken away as Hezekiah could not stop the people from worshipping the brazen Serpent but when manifested good comes and evil is but suspected the former wrong being redrest what equity is there to cast it off I should fight with many other such objections but want of time will part that fray and I shall meet with them all to the capacity of the understanding by shewing upon what abuses Holy-days are to be disallowed 1. It is impious to institute them immediately to the honor of the Saints Some of the Children of our own Mother have scandalized us for that fault and yet Card. Bel. doth acquit us but we cannot acquit him for he delivers it roundly that the honour of the day doth immediately and terminatively belong unto the Saints but we enstile the day by their name for their memorial sake as some called their Moneths by the names of their Emperors but in those days we do only worship God 2. It is very lewd to employ them to vanities Interludes idleness and not the service of God take heed the Lord do not say I will turn your Feasts into mourning Siccine exprimitur publicum gaudium per publicum dedecus says Tertulliam 3. To abound with excessive number of Holy-days is a fault likewise it cannot consist with charity to lay so many injunctions and burdens upon mens consciences It made St. Austin cry out Tolerabilior esset Judaeorum conditio the Jews were less vexed with Observations than Christians Clemangis complained of the excessive number in the Roman Church and especially that they read the Legends of Saints upon those days and not the Scriptures Numerositas festivitatum cives decet non exules says one his meaning is to keep many Holy-days was fitter for Heaven than for Earth 4. As a needless multiplication though for good Saints and good occasions is bad so to appoint them for false Saints and bad occasions is ten times worse their Corpus Christi day instituted by Vrban IV. an 1264. upon a forg'd Miracle is most disallowable they carry the Host in Procession to have a Creature adored A solemn day is kept by them for the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin into heaven which hath no probable Author till Damascens time in the year 800. There 's another a great deal later for her Immaculate Conception as if she were sanctified in the womb and had no original sin Some are consecrated to Saints that for ought we know never were as Christopher Hypolitus some to such as never were Saints as Ignatius Loyola the Founder of the Jesuits a man compounded of nothing but vain-glory dissimulation and subtlety Canus their own Bishop could say we honour the memory of divers for Saints on earth whose souls are tormented in hell 5. It
seen in the Emblem of a Fool that thought to fly aloft and had a Plume of Feathers in one hand to carry him up like a birds wing but there was a stone in the other hand The word was Non tam pluma vehit quam grave mergit onus So vain ostentation is but a Feather to lift a man on high Gods wrath is like a Milstone to weigh him down and to lay his honour in the dust In a corrupt Age he may perhaps be advanced that had rather be great than good but because much of greatness consists in the opinion that men have of them as well as in the title Honor in honorante the world was never so bad yet to hold him great in the common estimation that had no conscience to be good Want of Piety want of the fear of God doth eclipse the most generous qualities of Nature and Morality and make them contemptible Solomon wrote most choice Philosophy upon the Plants of the earth from the Hyssop on the Wall to the Cedar in Lebanon yet Posterity neglected to preserve those Monuments of his wisdom though they were the Labours of a King because Lust and strange flesh made his wisdom despicable Julian a man of rare moral qualities for an Emperour Vlpian the greatest Lawyer Galen the greatest Physician Plotinus the greatest Platonist Porphyrie the greatest Aristotelian to descend lower Aretine the quaintest wit of Italy we vilifie the men and set a mask upon their good parts as God did upon Jeroboam that he made Israel to sin because their Religion was Atheism and Profanation I have told you before that Eli the High Priest was the man shot at in this Text not for any personal crime of commission in himself but for a sin of omission because he did not reform or else severely punish the unpriestly behaviour of his two Sons Hophni and Phineas One part of disgrace that fell upon him is in the third Chapter following my Text and the first Verse Sermo domini erat pretiosus in diebus istis the word of the Lord was precious in those days there was no open Vision that is Cessaverunt responsiones divinae Propheticae in illo tempore Prophesie and Divine Revelations were well nigh deceased in those times for the wickedness of the Sons and the indulgence of the Father Moreover in the next verse to my Text God says he will cut off his arm and the arms of his Fathers house that is the Succession of the Priesthood should be removed from that naughty Generation Afterward it is denounced that there shall not be an old man in his house Alas Counsel must needs perish when Age and Experience doth not govern Thus you see that for want of bridling nay for want of deposing and not utterly cutting off of scandalous Sons of his own body Eli the High Priest should be so despised that is his Succession should fail the wisdom of old men should not support him and divine Revelations had utterly forsaken him Tell this to the Bishop of Rome to him that would be the sole High Priest of the Church of Christ Are there any Christians in the world more riotous more lascivious than his Sons the Cardinals And by your leave it is often seen that some of them are his Natural Sons Is there any Father more facile and connivent than he That it seems will ever hearken to the counsel which Nicholas Archbishop of Capua gave to Pope Leo the Tenth Ne quid omnino reformantur at any hand whatever the Lutherans said to mend nothing How can we then refrain to despise them as the Lord said the house of Eli should be despised Can we believe that Succession hath not been long ago cut off from the chair of the Scorners Shall we delude our selves that the Revelation of Truth is among them Or that the Oracles of infallible illumination are not more precious among them than they were in the days of Eli's declination They take upon them the Honour of Eli I know they are guilty of the faults of Eli and of crimes much more flagitious was the Scripture written for any one mans sake Shall not the infamy also of Eli be inflicted upon them As my Text says They that despise me shall be lightly estâ—med Yet it were happy for the despisers of God if this were only their doom to be inglorious in this life and a scorn of men as I said before that the best Saints of God had marks of ignominy branded upon them Stephen died in the name of a Blasphemer Naboth died in the name of a Traitor St. Paul who was entertained by the Corinthians instar Angeli as an Angel of God passed among the Jews and Tertullus for a pestilent fellow but as Aulus Gellius said of the Epithete illaudatus that more was meant by it than not to be worthy of praise it was as much in true sense as innominandus Neque unquam nominandus one that should never be named or mentioned so to be lightly esteemed in this place is to be put out of Gods Check to have their names raced out of the book of life when the Saints carry Palms in their hands and Crowns upon their heads who have made their red Robes white in the bloud of the Lamb they shall be cast out of doors among the foolish Virgins with a Non novi vos Depart from me for I know yâ—u not Can any thing be made more vile and abject than not to know it Others will say perchance Lord thy hands have made us and fashioned us by thee have we been upholden ever since we were born how can it be that thou that knowest all things shouldst not know what we are In Mat. xxv when Christ spake in the person of a Judge how he would challenge the uncharitable for not refreshing him in Hunger nor in Prison nor in Nakedness they make answer as if God either knew not their thoughts or knew not them throughly or knew not what he said Domine quando te vidimus esurientem Lord when did we see thee in hunger Therefore God puts this derision upon them at the judgment since you think I am mistaken in you Non novi vos be it so as you would have it I know you not Which interpretation puts me in mind of the last Point and the very height of these mens miseries for to be cast aside as an ignoâ—e person is a most light esteem but being utterly forlorn and miserable then to be made a â—lout and derision it passeth all other scorn and contumely Says the Lord Prov. i. 26. I will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh So he seems to triumph and insult over the Devil and his Angels Isa xiii How art thou faln from Heaven O Lucifer thou son of the Morn In the Second Psalm there is mention of as great a Faction banding against the Lord as could cluster together the Heathen
hand when so malicious a burden hung upon it yet I do not see how he shook off the Viper but I believe and know that it was the voice of the Lord which shaketh the wilderness yea the Lord that shaketh the wilderness of Cades Excussit What no more words concerning this great deliverance So great a work contracted into so small an Epitome If the Children of men work deliverances and strange ones too the relation will ask a Book perchance a Volume or a Legend to record it but it is a blessing so frequent with God that the world would not hold the Books of his preservations if it were not for excussit and tetigit he touch'd the sore and dixit he said the word as short as may be And yet to shake off a beast is such a sudden rescue in the turning of an hand that it is a most complete and more comfortable salvation Monstra superavit priùs quà m nosse possit as Seneca said of Hercules that he slew a Serpent before he knew what a Serpent was What a gentle cure it is As easie as a slumber For the most part it is sickness enough to be diseased with remedies Like as a Philosopher said being made whole after much Physick that it was with him as with a pestilent air cleansed by a clap of thunder And I make a doubt whose fortune was the worse whether the poor womans that took Physick but twelve years together for an issue of bloud or the sick man 's that in thirty eight years sought after no help but from the Pool of Bethesda Wherefore this is the sweetest mercy not to cast off the Viper by loathsom Potions but with no more hurt than Aaron cast forth his rod before Pharaoh from his hand which became a Serpent Gen. vii 10. This deliverance from a Viper makes good the Promise of the Lord Mar. xvi If you take up Serpents they shall not hurt you But as God was the chief Author so Paul had the glory of the execution What Paul himself and no other Indeed there was scarce a friend by to do it for him Hasty Souldiers that even now would have killed him and pitiless Barbarians and Malefactors his fellow Prisoners none of these were likely to relieve him the honour was his own to shake off the beast and yet enquire among all the other Apostles and you shall not find that any one was made an instrument to preserve himself St. Peter could not enter into the High Priests Hall but by a Damosel nor get out of Prison but by an Angel The ignominy was cast upon our Saviours self He saved others himself he cannot save He saved others bear with him in that I pray you though he did not save himself and perchance could not St. Peter As it was said of Mucianus the Roman Facilius erat ei dare imperium quà m accipere it was easier for him to advance another man to the Empire than to exalt himself so God hath ordained to the end that Charity might abound in all things even in the gift of Miracles to give the Apostles the power of healing not to cure themselves but to cure their Brethren No man must buy long life at so base a rate as Herodicus did of whom Aristotle reports that he rended nothing all his days but his own health Of many examples we have but this one in holy Scripture where the Physician did cure himself Paul then did heal himself But advise we well with every circumstance about the Text and then I ask did he not heal the infirmities of many more Yes and there were more Vipers than one in Melita so many Barbarians as thought in their heart but they were cruel thoughts that Paul was a murderer so many Vipers every evil censure against our neighbour it is Venenum charitatis the poyson of our charity shake it off a Gods name before it fasten Qui istoc credis de homine potes facere even for this hard opinion of Paul I doubt Melita had many murderers Yea I am perswaded that this their uncharicableness did more afflict St. Paul than any evil Serpent could as a more tender affection touch'd the heart of Romanus the Martyr to see the cruelty of Heathen Tyrants than to feel his own pain Quod lancinamur non dolet dolet quod error pectori insedit suo Thus the sin of the Barbarians hung upon the heart of the Apostle the Viper only upon his hand but one excussit did serve for both the beast was cast into the fire and then the uncharitable thoughts did vanish Well I see there was some divinity in those hands which were so often lifted up to God in Prayer those hands which wrote such divine Epistles to so many Churches those hands which consecrated the two famous Bishops Titus and Timothy those hands which gathered Alms for the poor Saints at Jerusalem O those hands were blessed no Serpent could envenom them The first office that the courteous fire did afford to Fructuosus the Martyr was to burn the cords which bound up his zealous arms which fain he would lift up to heaven Non ausa est cohibere paena palmas in morem crucis ad patrem levandas solvit brachia qâ—a Deum precentur so sung Prudentius And St. Hierom writes that Julian the wicked took up the body of John the Baptist and burnt it to ashes but his Head wherein the voice of a Crier spake and the Finger wherewith he pointed out Ecce agnus Dei Behold the Lamb of God those could not be consumed And I dare report it after so many Writers that the heart of our most reverend Cranmer was preserved by Gods Providence from the fire in honour of his integrity like the three Children in the Furnace O why should we doubt when God doth thus miraculously save the particular member of our body from harm but that the whole man in the whole entire body our corruptible shall put on incorruption If some should answer to these examples as Diagoras in Tully said to one that presented many Pictures before him of those who had escaped Sea-danger by calling upon Neptune Nusquam esse pictos qui in mari perierant naufragium fecerant There were more examples of them if they could be seen who were drowned in the Sea and yet called upon Neptune So perhaps many faithful men may be named who were not always fortunate in their deliverance Beloved what deliverance do you mean All this while you do not reckon how many miseries they prevent who are dispatch'd by one is it no excussit Do we shake off no small store of mischief when the soul doth uncase it self of this body of sin that with good King Josiah we may not see the evil to come Death is like the Angel set before the Garden of Eden which with one blow lets him that passeth by into Paradise When sinners and uncircumcised feel the wrath of God their
Land give me also springs of water Let me not lie concealed lest I be out of remembrance and thou forget me Let me do good and communicate lest I prove but an imaginary Notion Let me offer some dutiful Sacrifice lest I lose my Saviour Noahs internal Sanctity was not honoured with this praise that it exhaled sweetness before it proved it self by a most religious action For ought we know Hell may be full of them who had many good purposes but did never execute them Yet again put a bare Sacrifice into the Balance and it weighs as little I think none will conceive my Text in a literal sense that the flesh of a Beast burnt upon the coales did send a sweet savour but an offensive smell Some are at a wonder when many Cattel were burnt together how the nostrils of the Priests and People could endure it And yet there was no miracle in it as Abulensis supposeth as if God did always by omnipotent power draw a sweet steame from the Altar and the flesh that was burnt upon it What every day Miracles and yet this never revealed to us by any Prophet in all the Scriptures The resolution is easie The Altar of Burnt-offerings was in the open Court the air carried away the stench that would offend under a covered Seiling Some excellent Perfumes were cast into the fire at the same time I have Plutarchs testimony touching the noisom vapour of heathen Sacrifices that all manner of sweet Gums were thrown together into the flame to overcome the strong Odour especially the Priest was clad in perfumed Robes which made the worst smell tolerable to him But none can be deceived with the bare Letter of the Text as if God did smell any savour It is a Figure translating the affections of a man to the divine Essence And a second Figure upon that calling delight and complacency by the name of smelling a sweet Odour And the words lying so naked to be understood I say the Lord took no pleasure in a bare Sacrifice For what is it to him to have the beasts slain and their substance consumed Or how is a wicked man made more innocent by executing vengeance upon an harmless Sheep Gifts and Sacrifices could not make him that did the Service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Heb. ix 9. When the Magi came to Bethlem and found the Babe whom they had sought they fell down and offered up their body they worshiped and offered up their Soul they were liberal of their Substance and presented their gifts But what Not Sheep and Oxen not work to imploy the Levites the Sons of Aaron Loe says St. Chrysostome in the beginning of the Gospel we find the turn of those ancient Rites whose place was supplied with Gold Mirrh and Frankincense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were not fat and fulsom like the Jewish Ordinances but pure and Intellectual Adoration Faith Obedience Charity We learn out of it that the vertue of the mind consecrates the Gift There is not any thing which St. Paul hath omitted 1 Cor. xiii but says that without the love of God all will come to nothing The opus operatum the material substance of any good work no more considered with it is a vapour that vanisheth Prayers Preaching the Sacraments in the more transitory work issuing not out of our Spirit are Consonants without Vowels it is past all skill to utter them And who would compare the best Statue with a living man Works of beneficence must be done and liberally He that hath much owes much he that hath but little ought not altogether to shut his hand Yet the richest endowment that ever was made in a pious way is a Sacrifice but of a dull smoak unless it be spiced with those good Odours of which I will now speak in the Affirmative how the Lord smelled a sweet savour First His devotion was very fragrant I begin with it because I would revive it I say revive it For it is much laid aside and takes as little with some as Jewish Sacrifice You shall not be much edified in it by our Sister Churches beyond Seas and their imitators and little will you learn of it without a Liturgy of Prayer comprized in a solemn order The Seraphical acclamations of such a pious model may carry up an Elias in its Chariot far above the clouds Humility is a great ingredient in it A devout soul the more it presseth to come near to God it keeps the greater distance from the glory of his Majesty Like a flame of a great Candle it mounts with heat but the more it ascends the more it trembles Holy Vows are inseparable from it a Vow is in the name of Devotion to bind us the faster to God Therefore it is a Bow that is strongly bent when the string is slack it is an useless Instrument Also without any force this is in the Word that a Devotee devoves his life and all he hath to maintain the honour of God after that excess of St. Pauls courage Acts xxi 13. I am ready not to be bound only but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus This is devotion which counts not its life dear but doth devove it self for the Gospel of Christ St. Austin describes it with much plainness Devotio est pius humilis affectus ad Deum It is a compound of the best internal Piety and the most lowly and prostrate humility of the body More loftily in another place Carbo ignitus flammâ divini amoris accensus A firy coal wasting away all earthy dull affections with the flame of divine love I cannot mend it In brief it is the excess of a religious fear in the heart which doth all things outwardly with most becoming reverence Apply this to the example of Noah As soon as ever he came out of the Ark he made ready some solemn Worship and none so solemn in those days as Sacrifice and none could be more bountiful at that time than one of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl Seven of all clean Creatures were taken into the Ark three Couples to multiply and the odd one to be offered up it was Caelebs animal it lived single not coupled with any Female to be the purer Oblation And these were not offered on the ground but to shew the elevation of his heart he built an Altar for it which you never read of before Lastly It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an whole burnt offering Holocausta sunt perfecta studia virtutum Origen began the Allegory and all have followed him they are whole Burnt-offerings that consume the old man and all the members of their concupiscence as much as they are able I score not out this Line to move you to the like in fleshly Sacrifices which are long since superannuated I will put the issue for your instruction upon that which the brevity of the Book of Genesis hath omitted but is necessarily understood that
spoken of the punishment of Lots Wife as in reference to a Carkass now I proceed to speak of it in reference to that into which she was turned as to the Sepulchre She became a Pillar of Salt Exemplum sine exemplo that is the first thing I collect out of it it is new and singular without any thing to match it The justice of the Lord may say upon this in the words of the Prophet Isaiah Remember ye not the former things neither consider the things of old behold I will do a new thing Isa xliii 19. To kill a Transgressour with such a death as never any died before must needs be remarkable Moses bid the Israelites mark it in Core Dathan and the rest of that Rebellion that they had incurred a great displeasure Num. xvi 29. If these men die the common death of all men if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me but if the Lord make a new thing c. then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. Sceleratius commissum est quod est gravius vindicatum says St. Austin Great impiety went before when it was revenged with such great severity But that is not all for surely there is a kind of singularity in the sin where there is such a singularity in the judgment as to slay the Delinquent in that manner as was unheard of to all former Generations You will say there was nothing new and singular in this womans sin disobedience unthankfulness infidelity relapsing these are common cases vulgar faults committed a thousand times over I grant it but do you ever read that God was so soon forgotten by any one while the memory of so great a deliverance was fresh and warm and while an Angel of the Lord was present and before her eyes to aw her and instruct her Never did any sinner so wilfully cast their life away and therefore never was any humane creature so strangely congealed into a lump of Salt Core and his band of Rebels were swallowed quick into the lowest Pit Ne terram contaminarent sepulchro says St. Ambrose that the interring of such odious corpses might not defile the earth and since that time many others have been so devoured by the open jaws of the ground in an Earthquake But the Grave did never admit the dead body of the sinner there it was left between heaven and earth never the like done before or since because she wavoured and doubted whether she should still look up to heaven or look back to that portion of earth from whence she was escaped It was a Statute of grace and mercy that the body of a Malefactor put to death should be buried soon after his execution The Gibeonites indeed when the Sons of Saul were delivered up to them did use them after their heathenish manner and let them remain for a publick spectacle many months after they were hanged on a tree but God was more pitiful as it is Deut. xxi 23. If a man have committed a sin worthy of death and be put to death his body shall not remain all night upon the tree thou shalt in any wise bury him that day that the Land be not defiled The monument of Gods curse was not to remain visibly in that place but burial was to abolish the curse from appearing in the Lords Land This is the particular instance in all the Scripture this of Lots Wife where God did leave the Malefactor slain to be seen above ground for many Ages after I think I have proved it a new and unheard of punishment For the righteous Judge hath new kind of blessings for some holy ones that were never known before and he hath new kind of revengeful Arrows in his Quiver for his rebellious enemies such as were never felt before A new kind of sustenance shall be found out for Elias in the Wilderness a new kind of remedy to cure Hezekiahs sickness a new way to save Jonas in the belly of a Whale a new form of Gaol-delivery for Peter out of Herods Prison And as men are full of new inventions and excogitate unheard-of Pride and Luxury fresh ways to serve the Devil which were never known before so God doth fill the earth with new Plagues to correct them Novae febrium terris incubuit cohors strange symptoms of Fevers rage oftentimes which put Physicians to a new study That murrion or Morbus vervecinus Anno 1580. of which thousands died in Germany and Italy was a new infliction of mortality never wrote of by any Artist in former Ages The Sweating sickness called the English sweat over all the world was first inflicted upon England in the Reign of Henry the Seventh Our Histories are silent if there were any such Malady among us in former Ages And I need not to remember you that Columbus his return out of West India brought the first contagion of deserved loathsomness upon Fornicators which for reverence to your ears I will not mention It is the singularity of our sins which is justly requited with such singularities of chastisement It is too vulgar that every little Cross will make us fall into a bitter expostulation An quisquam hominum est aequè miser Was there ever the like that hapned to any man None so wrongfully defeated for want of justice none so perfidiously betrayed by false friends none so continually afflicted with recurrent sickness These discontents are nought and peevish there is none but the Son of God can justly complain Was ever any sorrow like my sorrow But if you be truly perswaded that your calamities are new and unheard-of lay it to your conscience and examine your self upon it that you are made an example like Lots Wife because of some unparallel'd and matchless disobedience Yet some kind of new punishments rise out of natural causes so did not this for it is miraculous and supernatural to be turned into a Pillar of Salt The Heathen have many devices in their elaborate Fictions of Men and Women metamorphosed into Plants and Stones indeed into all kind of Creatures Celestial and Terrestrial and surely that which provoked their busie wits was to tell some things as strange in fiction as this story in my Text is infallible truth Nay this narration of Lots Wife how she look'd back to Sodom and so perished set their inventions so much on work that the heathen grounded a particular Fable upon it how Orpheus had Pluto's license to bring his Wife Eurydice out of hell if he kept this condition not once to look back upon her till he had brought her safe to earth out of those shades of darkness but he could not refrain out of fondness to cast back his eyes upon her and so lost his longing Blessed are they that have the spirit of understanding for you see that the best use that the heathen made of sacred Scripture was to turn it to the worst And as these Poetical heads
she nor any Unbeliever can know till they have tasted the good gift of God Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Go now and ask our Saviour Art thou greater than our Father Jacob that gave us this Well The Well was Jacobs perhaps but not the water he digged the Cystern but God gave the Spring that flowed into it this might have been alleged But what profit had come to the winning of a Soul if Christ had made comparisons between himself and his Servant It was his purpose at this time not to wrestle with Jacob but with the Woman of Samaria he came not to diminish the honour of his Saints but to magnifie the power of the Holy Ghost Petit potum ut det potum He met with one that was backward in courtesie and would not draw a Pitcher of water to cool his thirst yet he is forward in mercy and profers living water to quench the flame of her sins He drops by little and little upon her stony heart until he opened that hard rock that waters of salvation might flow out And first his Doctrin bred admiration in this Woman then a desire to learn then a sudden spark of faith which confessed that Jesus was the Messias then confusion for her sins then repentance and surely then godly sorrow and then tears and so she drew those waters before she was aware after which our Saviour thirsts above all others the tears of unfeigned repentance She denied him to take the pains to draw a draught out of Jacobs Well but he enforced her to draw out more precious liquors than those were from the bottom of her heart These are the words now read unto you which wrought that great effect and did pierce into her soul And let me say of that weak Instrument by whose tongue the Lord at this time doth make an offer unto you of that immortal Fountain as sometimes Gregory did when he exhorted many great persons to the contempt of the World and invited them to eat and drink with Christ in his Kingdom Etsi ego ad invitandum indignus appareo sed tamen magnae sunt deliciae quas promitto I am most unworthy to bid you come unto these waters and drink but the delicious Fountain which I promise to them that thirst after righteousness is worthy to invite you To handle it succinctly and to your edification there are four Branches of the Text to be propounded 1. The Subject to which all is to be referred is a water of a most different condition from that which is mentioned in the former verse 2. Who is able to draw it none but Christ it is a water that he gives and none beside him 3. How it is to be taken even as a soveraign and a delightful Receipt for the health of the Soul and the very soul of health it must be drunk 4. The exceeding benefit and virtue which amounts to that value that the whole World hath not riches enough to purchase it if it were to be bought for whosoever drinketh of it he shall never thirst To begin with these and the Touchstone upon which all other parts of the Text shall be tried is this What this mystical water is which our Saviour prefers so much before Jacobs Well Christ calls it living water at the tenth verse of this Chapter that 's a sweet Epithet indeed and yet it hath a more amiable description in the words that follow my Text a Well of water springing up unto everlasting life These are names of much elegancy and much obscurity but that we find a clear explanation of them in the seventh Chapter of this Gospel ver 38. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive So the Scripture hath written upon this water what it is that you may know it from any other it is the gift of Grace that cometh from above that sanctifieth our hearts and cleanseth us from all our sins it is the working of the Spirit which knits us unto Jesus Christ and makes us Heirs of Salvation God the Holy Ghost doth abase himself to be resembled to many of these inferior things for our understanding No man can miss to remember how the Spirit did appear in cloven tongues as it were of fire Acts ii 2. In another place Jo. 3.8 he is likened to the air The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that is born of the spirit And here his name passeth down a descension beneath that and is termed water only the earth is too base an Element whereunto the Holy Spirit should be compared leave that to man and to his corruptible constitution The Fire the Air and Water have some infinitude in them after a sort quod suis terminis non continentur says the Philosopher they are diffusive bodies which are not properly bounded or circumscribed in any Figure as the Earth is therefore all their names are borrowed to signify some disposition of the Divine Spirit toward us whose Vertue is most diffusive and whose Majesty incomprehensible But in each of the Testaments Old and New the first time that we read of the Holy Ghost he was joyned unto the Waters in the first day of the Creation the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Gen. i. 2. and upon the first manifestation of Christ that he shewed himself abroad to be the Messias of the World the Spirit sat upon his head when he was baptized at Jordan in the shape of a Dove And it is not vain to consider that when the Holy Ghost came down in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide yet St. Peter applies the place of the Prophet Joel to that occasion which speaks as if it had been water effundam spiritum In the last dayes I will pour out of my spirit to all flesh By that which is said already I have brought it to this the Scripture doth very much aim at this Comparison to be considered why the vertues and operations of the Holy Ghost are called Water and the choice of the Comparison I think are these particulars First as waters poured upon Hills will not stay upon their tops but runs down to the lowest places and fills the Valleys beneath so the Graces of God descend to the lowly and humble in heart and abide not with the proud Nay David says it will be the better for it if it be but a little Valley a diminitive thou makest fruitful the little Valleys thereof with the drops of rain Centurio quantò humilior tantò capacior says Bernard the Centurion lay very flat and low at our Saviour's feet and where was there a man that had a larger portion of the heavenly benediction for Christ said of him I have not found so great faith
find whose ambition is pained like a woman in travel till it bring forth a bigger fortune who covet forty that it may beget an hundred and drive on an hundred till it make a thousand and so forth you may say that these have lickt of the Devils hony and if they might have their own will they would burst their belly Now to conclude all To say that this Wilderness-ful of people had as much as they could eat out of two or three Omers of corn out of a little that a poor Lad perhaps had gleaned it is marvelous in our ears Yet take all and it goes much beyond this for the Fragments which remained did fill twelve Baskets Yea says the common Gloss there are Speculations of Divinity with secret Traditions which the rude unlearned people cannot digest these the Apostles and their Successors keep close in their own baskets it may be this note is of that kind therefore I pass it over and let them reserve it to themselves The plain truth is that was done 1. Ad miraculi evidentiam it could not have been evident that all were filled unless somewhat had been left 2. It was done ad miraculi claritatem to make it exceed above any thing that could be compared It was beyond Manna that would not keep if any of it were laid up this did It was beyond the meat which the Ravens brought to Elias he had but a morsel at once to serve necessity It was beyond the Widows meal and her oil they increased no more after the rain fell but here was an increase after an universal satuâ—ity 3. When this miraculous Feast was done a great deal superabounded to admonish them they must not think to live always upon Miracles 4. As the beginning of this noble work was a lesson against covetousness and thrust us on to distribute so the end of it is a lesson against Prodigality and bids us lay up that which remains 5. Let them to whom it belongs do the due work of Evangelists and though they earn but little here the remainder will be great which comes hereafter God will give to each Apostle a Basket full nay a Barnful in the Kingdom of Heaven Both Cedrenus and Nicephorus take them as they be relate what precious Monuments these baskets were in after Ages it is thus Constantine intending the splendor of his own City brought from Rome the largest Pillar of Porphyrite stone Upon the top he set an Image of Brass praised for the best Piece in the world it was the Statue of Apollo in old Troy In a Vault under the Base he laid up as his choicest Reliques an Axe with which Noah made the Ark and these twelve Baskets in which the Fragments were carried away of the Loaves and Fishes Why these more than any other Reliques Nicephorus says nothing to it you shall have my conjecture He chose the Relique belonging to the Ark rather than any other to preserve the City standing upon the Sea from Inundation He chose these twelve Baskets as a deprecation against Famine I will dispatch Other mysteries I could enumerate upon this which was over and above all that was eaten One thing I must not omit which hath busied divers to no great purpose that when five thousand eat of five Loaves and two Fishes twelve Baskets remained when four thousand eat of seven Loaves and a few Fishes but seven Baskets remained What is this to us if Christ would shew the riches of his Liberality unequally where he pleased But what if it cannot be decided for all this at which Feast most was remaining The twelve Baskets are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were such as you might dandle in your hand the Jews carried them under their arm in the days of Juvenal the Poet. The seven Baskets are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as big as Paniers There is a large difference between Amos his little basket of Summer fruit and the basket wherein St. Paul escaped out of a Window at Damascus that is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Acts. Now you see that seven Dossars may come to more than twelve Hand-baskets But I determine nothing mighty was the power of our Lord Jesus in both and his Liberality never to be forgotten Nay the increase which he gives us year by year is so plentiful as our latest harvest can testifie that no memory so short but will remember it no heart so ingrate but accepts it with all thankfulness no tongue so slow but will praise him AMEN A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL UPON S t LUKE'S DAY ACTS xi 26. And the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch SAint Luke the Pen-man of this Book of Scripture hath a threefold interest in this Text in every principal word of it an interest He was a Disciple by calling whether one of the 70 is a disputable question an Antiochian by birth and a Christian by his Title Then who could better put these three together than himself that the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch It is not expedient doubtless to glory but if we should glory we should speak the truth that the Congregation of the Church hath reaped more honor by this Record than all the Grandees of the Earth can shew for themselves in their best Charters and Monuments Civil Histories will confess that earthly things of what pomp and splendor soever they receive little grace from their first original for either the evidences of their beginning are obscure consisting upon such weak proofs as cannot command us to believe them The Inscription of an old piece of money coined who knows why And the Characters of a broken Stone digged up who knows where These are the Models that Cities and Kingdoms do greedily embrace and thrust upon you for your best Memorials If the Evidences be more authentical then ten to one but their novelty will disparage them for what is it to reckon upon one or two Ages past a thing may be quickly famous but it must ask longer time to be venerable Finally if Antiquity and clear Evidence do both concur quando haec rara avis est which lights but seldom what mean and contemptible beginnings shall you find of those Nations and Republiques upon whose glory the Heavens have shined with most propitious influence The Persian Dynastie once so rich and puissant look back to the Founder and it was a Child exposed in the Woods taken up by the charity of a Shepherd and fostered a while by his poverty They that laid the foundation of Romes greatness and had the heart afterward to think how to conquer the whole Earth were at first but a Crue of Thieves I will not displease to call to mind upon what slight and almost ridiculous occasions Titles of brave estimation did first grow into credit it holds in them all that Almighty God willing to advance Religious honor above Secular hath blurr'd the Secular honor with one of these three diminutions vel
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
these Galatians in the common Brotherhood mater nostrum the Mother of us Bad Christians and weak Christians and Christians mis-led into Errors are still Christians retaining to the common Mother till they lose their legitimation by damnable Heresies accompanied with obstinacy But there must be a forbearing one another in love if we endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. iv 3. Now here I might end having no further to go in the Text if I did follow the Vulgar Latine Translation whose reading is Jerusalem quae sursum est libera quae est mater nostra Being content to say that Jerusalem is our Mother and not annexing that it is the Mother of us all But the Vniversality of the Church must not so slip from us It is the reading of the Greek Copies of the Syriack of St. Hierom and therefore to be preferred before the Vulgar Latine which hath curtail'd the verse Nay in reference to this omnium that Jerusalem is the Mother of such a multitude of us all it follows in the next words Rejoyce thou barren that bearest not the desolate hath many more Children than she that hath an husband A most remarkable thing in the power of God to fill the world with such an omnium in a short space out of Twelve Apostles It is all one to Christ to be glorified in many or in few and truth must not be carried by the number but by the dignity and weight of witnesses It is no ill passage in Pope Nicholas I. his Epistle to Michael the Emperour Numerus pusillus nec obest ubi abundat pietas nec multiplex prodest ubi regnat impietas But let the World choose whether they like a cause which is countenanced by many or by few we can refer our selves to either I mean to the greater or to the lesser number Says St. Austin we are a little flock as Lambs in the midst of Wolves and yet again it is true many shall come from the East and West and sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of God Multi pauci pauci in comparatione perditorum multi in societate Angelorum We are few and we are many We are few in proportion to them that are rejected and yet we shall make a mighty train to follow the Lamb being joyned to innumerous Societies of Angels The Citizens of this Jerusalem are all the Saints that have been and are now and shall be hereafter and surely these surpass the Stars of heaven for multitude We admire nothing more for multiplicity than the drops of rain or the drops of dew and therefore David prophesied that the Children of the Church should exceed by Millions and Thousands like the dew that overspreads the earth From the womb of the morning is the dew of thy youth Psal cx That is the sense of the Learned take Cajetan for all the rest the Generation of the faithful shall not be as a Mother brings forth two or three children but as the Morning that yields innumerous drops of dew Bucanan turn'd his most elegant verse to this strain Non roris imber ante lucem argenteis tot vestit arva gemmulis And he is imitated and emulated in our English by a Poet of our own he says the Servants of Christ shall be arayed in Ephods not so few as the pearls of morning dew hanging on the herbs and flowers And if the family of Christ hath not many names added daily unto it the sin lies at our own doors Jerusalem is the Mother of all and it is her part to invite all to take their share in the coelestial inheritance and to apply the Promise to every man as far as the sound of the Gospel can reach Christ died to redeem thy soul if thou wilt repent and believe I end with Solomons Prayer O that thou wert my brother that sucked the breast of my Mother O that ye were all such as I am says St. Paul except these bonds O that all and every person on earth would learn the way of eternal life Jerusalem hath amplitude to receive them she is the Mother of us all And heaven hath amplitude to receive them which is the City to which we tend for ever AMEN A SERMON UPON REVEL vi 9. I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the VVord of God and for the Testimony which they held INtending to speak somewhat according to the subject of the Day about the Church Triumphant in Heaven this Book is the most proper place to seek a Text out for that occasion surely it is so For that is the reason that the Epistle for the Day is selected out of St. John's Revelation rather than any other Scripture A door was opened in Heaven and he was carried thither in Spirit to peep into the Cabinet Counsels of the Most High Concerning therefore the things above and that little which is revealed to this World beneath how can we satisfie our selves better than out of his illumination As in the Parabolical Story of Lazarus and the Rich man Christ hath as it were unlockt Hell to let us see what the damned Spirits do so in this Book and in this Text above all other Sections of this Book he hath opened the Curtains of Heaven to let us see what the blessed Saints do But to go on soft and fair to the matter which I am to handle I confess it is no season yet to make hast because I am stopt with two objections First the Contents of this Prophesie have such an abstruse and mystical sense that the best Clerks in all Ages that have known most are commended for their moderation that they have said least unto it Whom would it not deter to meddle with it If he consider that the parcels of this Prophesie are all belonging to that Book with the seven Seals in the fifth Chapter And no man in heaven or in earth was able to open the Book no man able to read in it or to look into it There is but one thing that can help me out of the tanglings of this difficulty and that one thing will do it Namely that the whole Loom is not spun with one thread Among the hard and inexplicable passages there are some interlinings to refresh the Reader with facility In which sort my Text hath been ranked by the most Writers And reason good For at the opening of the first Seal in this Chapter will you mark it one of the Beasts invited St. John to the attention of some profound matter saying Come and see At the opening of the Second Seal because mystery upon mystery succeeded another Beast gave him warning to be very considerative saying come and see So at the opening of the third and fourth Seal all alike But when the Lamb doth open the fifth Seal in the exordium to my Text the voice did bid him no longer come and see there needed no such