it from the Persians remember how powerful and wonderfully God made the Philistins restore the Ark again but far from any purpose to have it religiously worshipped The material Figure of the Cross was never in common use till Constantine's days then it was reared up as the Trophy of Christ who had subdued all things to himself Indeed the transient Sign of the Cross stricking their hand or finger thwart through the air was in great use in very ancient times that you know being a transient whiffing of the hand could not be adored but they used it to keep safeguard over every member of their body and to drive away Devils They had some cause I suppose to make an operative sign of it in those days when God was present with them by miracles Our reason and experience tells us that now they are ceased so that we step not after them in that imitation And being but an adiaphorus Ceremony they are too blame that affect it in our Church further then where it is commanded in Baptism for I do ever guide my self in this case by that rule which St. Austin saies St. Ambrose taught him use such Ceremonies and no other as that particular Church hath appointed wherein you are there are no banks to keep us in order if that be contradicted This may suffice to be spoken against them that deceive themselves in voluntary humility and worship toward the Cross of Christ to maintain which superstition the Pontificians contend sharply with words to uphold the next Idolatrous Tenet they have fought against us cruelly with fire and sword 't is their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their adoring the Bread or Wafer-cake consecrated but they say transubstantiated in the Lords Supper This opinion is their Basilisk that hath murdered so many holy Martyrs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that set their hearts against it To make their Divinity seem devout and plausible it walks upon two crutches First it claims right from the new Philosophy of Transubstantiation saying that Christ in his whole manhood is carnally and corporeally there under the species of the Elements Secondly that the Lords Supper is not only a Sacrament wherein Christ gave himself in bread and wine to his Disciples but also a Sacrifice offering himself under those Elements or their species to his Father at that time upon which far-rooted error the Priest doth offer Christ every day to God in the Mass and having it in his belief that it is an Expiatory Sacrifice both for quick and dead all that are present fall down at the Elevation and worship the Hostia But if there be neither Transubstantiation nor any such external Expiatory Sacrifice in the Lords Supper their practice without more question is confessed Idolatry I will not take a large swing to dispute upon such copious matters but briefly by what conjecture or divination can the wit of man make a Sacrifice of it Did Christ do any more than give thanks and bless the Elements and then brake and gave to his Disciples to eat and bad them do the like for ever in remembrance of him upon which of these clauses can a Sacrifice be grounded St. Paul says it is appointed unto men once to die so that is by death Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Attend saies the Adversary He offered himself but once the Priest may offer him oftner nay but if he offered himself to his Father in his last Supper and again at his death upon the Cross He must offer himself twice and that 's repugnant to Scripture But we are told the Paschal Lamb was both Sacrament and Sacrifice it is not denied yet thus it is truly resolv'd As the Paschal Lamb was ordeined to be eaten in remembrance of Deliverance and Redemption so it answers to the Lords Supper but as the Beast was a bloody Sacrifice slain to God so it answers to Christ on the Cross the Scripture confirms it for when Christ was dead before the Souldiers came to break his legs the Type of the Paschal Lamb is called to mind not a bone of him shall be broken But were it a Sacrifice as it is but the Commemoration of a Sacrifice yet it proves not adoration it hangs all upon the slender thread of Transubstantiation which will quickly break as when a spark of fire lights upon a thread of Flax. For St. Paul calls it bread five times in one Chapter after Consecratian This doth not evince us say the Romanists for there are examples to match this that many things converted into new substances carry their former names Aarons rod which became a serpent is yet called a rod. Adam saith of Eve she was bone of his bone The Governor is said to taste of the water which was made wine so St. Paul calls the Host bread because it had been bread yet after consecration it is not Well I say these instances are not matches First Eve was made out of the bone the serpent of the substance of the rod the wine of the substance of water and therefore propter materiam ex quâ they are called Synechdochically what they had been but is Christs body made of the bread productivè so they were wont to speak indeed then it is not that Christ who was made of the substance of the blessed Virgin for their Christ is made out of bread No now they philosophize that it is adductivè all the substance of bread is annihilated and Christ's body fills that place which it had Secondly in the rod in that bone in the water when the substances were changed new accidents resulted from the new form but here are the accidents of bread and wine palpable to all the senses Surely if God by his omnipotency would cause the colour and taste and scent and moisture and thickness of bread and wine to be there without their substances He would have given that gift to the faithful receivers that they should have tasted none of those creatures to contradict his mighty work which were a far less miracle than the other And how can they so abstract but they shall terminate religious worship to the external species of bread if they look upon it and thereby remember Christs Passion and fall down to glorifie him for his benefits so will we but they profess Christs body to be in the Priests hand and there they worship him then the accidents of the Elements which remain are part of the Object which they adore a man may idolize meer colours I am sure where there is no substance as a Rainbow which is nothing but shadows of colours by reflexion may be idolized The word which we hear preacht is to be reverently received yet not adored now the Sacrament is but verbum visibile the Gospel of faith as well made visible to the eye as audible to the ear and God forbid but we should receive it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul saies worthily with due expression of outward
our Saviour from his Miracles No man can do these miracles that thou dost except God be with him ver 2. Now the mactation of the Paschal Lamb had nothing in it but that which was ordinary in the external work but the use of the brazen Serpent was a mighty miracle Secondly As many Lambs were killed as there were housholds to eat them whereas there was but one Serpent made which comes nearer to the just resemblance that the Son of God by his one Oblation of himself once offered up made a sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the world Thirdly The Lamb was presented as other Viands are in a dish The Serpent was set up aloft as an Ensign a clearer pattern of the exaltation of the Cross Fourthly In the consumption of the Lamb God did embalm the memory of his great mercy and keep it fresh how he passed over the houses of the Israelites and did not kill them as he killed the Egyptians But the Serpent was set up for the cure of those that were bitten with Serpents In the former Type the people were sound and whole in the latter Type they were stung and sick and they that are whole do not perceive so well that they have need of the Physician as they that are sick Lastly He that did feed on the Paschal Lamb did eat by faith And he that look'd on the Serpent did see by faith But though faith is the evidence of things not seen yet the eye is more of kin to faith than the â—aste because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bodily mind as the Heathen said and our most heavenly sense In a word there were many other Figures of Christs sufferings but not any so plain as this for the use and application of it that none but true believers can be saved by his sufferings To the full satisfaction therefore of that which is concerned upon this day here you have Christ upon his Cross two ways both in the Old and in the New Testament For the Old Testament in the best and most exact Figure for the New Testament in a direct and literal prediction The figure contains these parts first the symbolical thing a Serpent Secondly The posture of it it was lifted up Thirdly The place in the Wilderness Fourthly The end for which Sicut Moses as Moses lifted it up The Prediction of the New Testament is to fulfil the Figure And that denotes 1. The Person the Son of Man 2. His inglorious glory must be lifted up 3. Here is a sic for the former sicut a correspondence with the manner and the end of the Figure so must the Son of Man be lifted up First Here is Christ crucified in the Old Testament in a symbolical sign which is a Serpent When his body hung upon the Cross it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Luke calls it a sight for all the People to look upon that were present for outwardly it was the deed of wicked men But there was profundum crucis as St. Austin observes part of the accursed Tree was under ground for the stronger fastning the end and use of it which came from God which is discovered to them that search by faith is thus in a short sum a remedy against that punishment which our sins had deserved therefore to make a compleat survey of this Serpent first we must look upon it for our sins sake secondly for our punishment and thirdly for our remedy And first by the object of the Serpent we see sin in the Author Satan is traduced openly in this memorial for that Tempter that perswaded our first Parents to eat of the forbidden fruit It is his contumely to see himself disguised in so base a creature as God would not permit him to come in the form of a better creature but in this vile shape to do the office of a murderer so he is exposed to all Ages in the pourtract of that shape that his pride may see it self in a vaste distance of declension an Angel in Creation a despicable worm in his own mischievous Assumption But as St. Athanasius doth well observe there was a Serpent the Instrument and there was the Devil the Ingeneer two several natures compacted in some sort into one person and joyning in one stratagem to cast man out of Paradise So God and man two natures in one person met together in our Redeemer to reduce us unto the favour of God and to repossess us in a better Paradise And as the Language of sin was first taught through the mouth of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden so that it may never be forgotten it is continued in the dumb shew of a Serpent that was set up in the Wilderness Secondly By the object of the Serpent we see sin in the infection and contagion of it It is the biting of an Adder not perilous only to that part which is wounded but dispreading all over even to the vital parts of the body Every drop of bloud soaks in the malignity of that which is next unto it till there be no soundness remaining So one part of our body being tainted with the poison of sin traduceth its corruption to another if the ear be tickled with filthy talk the loins will be unchaste If the eye be wanton the heart will suffer and wax impure If the body pride it without the soul cannot be humble within every sense and faculty about us is a gangrene to another and if you give up one member you give up all to be instruments of uncleanness There is yet more contagion in the tooth of the Serpent by committing one transgression you are at the brink of the pit to fall into another the second offence makes the way smooth and slippery for the third Peccatum quod per poenitentiam non deletur mox suo pondere ad aliud trahit says Gregory Every sin that meets not with the Antidote of Repentance hath an operative and a venemous nature to fetch in another evil spirit like unto it self An high mind carries us to wrath and wrath to revenge and revenge to malice and malice to murder Thus it runs on like a spark in the stubble and unless grace extinguisheth it it is as unquenchable as the fire of hell Beside there is yet another Serpentine and pestilentious derivation in the works of darkness one sinner is a thousand sinners more in the dangerousness of his Leprosie one Absalom is an host of Rebels one Ring-leader is a shole of Hereticks one Jeroboam is a Kingdom full of Idolaters one incestuous person endangered the whole Church of Corinth with fornication says St. Paul and he was the occasion of his Proverb That a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump A drop of Poison mars a glass of Nectar Serpunt vitia in proximum quemque transiliunt contactu nocent says Seneca Stand far off from those that are impious they have a catching disease about them there is an infectious
minute or hour yet it was in a short space after for he tells them in his Message This day is born unto you in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. When God was to destroy a people he thought it fit to make it known unto Abraham shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do Gen. 18.17 much more when he was to save a people he would immediately reveal the thing in hand and loe the Angel of the Lord as who should say shall I hide from these religious careful Shepherds the thing which I have done for their salvation Let us compare in a word Christ manifested to the Shepherds to the Wisemen of the East to Simeon and Anna in the Temple to the Shepherds he was made known the same day that his Mother brought him forth to the Magi of the East as the most ancient do collect twelve days after upon the Feast of the Epiphany to Simeon and Anna forty days after he was born when Mary according to the Law came to the Temple to be Purified The Shepherds were Jews and he was made known incontinently to them prefiguring that the first-fruits of the Gospel should be preacht before them at Jerusalem the bread of life should first be broken to the Children before the dogs had the Crums which fell under the Table Those Easterlings that brought gifts to his Cradle of Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense they were Gentiles and the Apostles were sent to them in a little distance of time after the Feast of Pentecost when it was illustrious that all Tongues and Nations should praise the Lord in their own Language Yet again there shall be another Revelation of the Gospel to the Jews after forty days numerus certus pro incerto when the Gentiles have had their part Simeon and Anna shall enjoy them that is in the fulness of time and in an hour that we do not think of a remnant shall be collected God will gather together the out-casts of Israel and the dispersions of Sion Once it was ecce Angelus Gods Minister stood in the midst of them in this Text pointing the Messias with his finger who then was in the City of David now after much attendance after many an ecce many a long look the glory of Israel shall be revealed unto them So much for the time of this Apparition 3. Loe or behold an Angel soft a while and let us ask in the third circumstance quomodo how we should behold him a Spirit hath not flesh to be seen or bones to be felt in what fashion therefore did he alter himself surely it well deserves Ecce Angelus a note of Admiration for the manner was wonderful Beloved if the Eternal Son of God did not abhor the Virgins Womb those ministring Spirits whom he commands could not abhor the shapes of men they appeared every way in the same form and fashion wherein we walk upon earth Yet thus we distinguish them from our selves our bodies are begotten theirs were created our flesh propagated from the loins of Adam their substance made extraordinarily not according to nature but by the finger of God our soul quickens the flesh which it possesseth and makes it live their bodies which they assum'd had not vivification by the breath of life but only serv'd them for motion and representation our bodies have the instruments of outward senses to convey sensible things to the fancy and so to the understanding they had eyes and ears and other sensible organs non ut sentiant sed ut corpus perfecte representent says the great Schoolman not to exercise those senses but for an ornament and complement sake lest their bodies should seem monstrous and formidable to the beholders Finally their bodies after they had appear'd to discharge their embassage vanisht into elements never to return again into that composition but our bodies shall revive out of that dust into which they were dissolv'd and live for ever in the resurrection of the righteous Some have so commented upon the Apparitions of Angels in holy Scripture as if they had not truly taken humane shapes the better to communicate their business to men but God deluded mens eyes and bred this thought in their fancy as if they had seen that which was not visible I confess there are prophetical Visions in holy Text when the fancy of certain Prophets was perswaded it saw that which it did not see it was a Divine passion which made Ezechiel think he saw beasts with wings and wheels under their feet chap. 1. It was a mere Divine passion which made Daniel suppose he saw the powerful ram push down all other beasts with his horn on the banks of Vlai Dan. 8. These objects were conceived by none but by them single Prophets no other eye could be partaker of it Now on the contrary that 's no prophetical Apparition but a real object which is equally visible to all spectators therefore the Apparition of Angels was not imaginary but substantial for loe the Angel of the Lord was seen of all the Shepherds and the Angels which Lot entertained were conspicuous not to Lot only who was a just man but equally to all the vicious Sodomites And so much for the fashion wherein he did appear not as a spirit but in the shape of a man and therefore Ecce Angelus loe an Angel of the Lord. 4. The next doubtful question is Quo situ after what manner the Angel took his place when he came unto them the Grammarians are at odds what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should mean whether he hover'd above their heads in the air or stood in the same level near unto them Beda prevented this quarrel and accepts of both interpretations Sunt juxta nos per amorem supra nos per authoritatem they stand near unto us by their love and they stand above us by their authority Surely if Christ had not been born to reconcile us to his Father we had not been worth the coming near we had been no company for those holy Seraphins but since he vouchsafed to take flesh and blood the nature of man came into respect and reverence the enemy shall not approach to hurt it but those auxiliary troops of heaven pitch their pavilions round about it supra juxta planting themselves as a fortress for our head and as a buckler for our arm And indeed those are the chief things that need good influence and assistance knowledge and action head and hand Some are secret inventors of mischief plotters and contrivers of disturbance their brain is a mint of oppression where is Angelus superveniens the Angel above Some know their Masters will but they do not do it nay quite contrary fear or favour wrings ill effects from them where is Angelus astans they want a good Angel at their elbow Where is Michael the great Prince Qui stat pro filiis populi tui which standeth for the children of thy people Dan. 12.1 But whether
it in his wrath that the mothers womb should bring forth children in sorrow yet he never recalled his former Sentence of grace but that fecundity should be a benediction As a rich harvest is joyfully received when the Valleys stand thick with Corn and a rich Autumn is most welcom when the trees bow down their arms to reach us fruit So Children and the fruit of the womb are a most desired Heritage that cometh of the Lord. Old Jacob anon before he departed out of the world poured out the strength of his prayers upon Joseph and this benefit he did impropriate to him Gen. xlix 25. The God of thy fathers shall bless thee with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb But it had been better for us that all women had been barren if the Saviour of mankind had not been inclosed in the womb of Mary All fruitfulness is to be congratulated but hers especially Blessed is the womb c. Thirdly I make no scruple to affirm it that this was the very thought and fancy of the woman that uttered these words that the Mother was most honoured full of fame and glory who had a Son that spake so divinely and wrought such heavenly Miracles It is a great recompence which God gives to careful Parents upon earth when their off-spring live soberly and temperately to be their comfort and honour Do you question it but that Rebeckah was pleased above all contents which the earth could afford when Jacob whom she tendered as her hearts darling was so just and diligent in the fear of the Lord Do you suppose that Bathsheba knew not how many eyes of favour were upon her how many tongues did congratulate her when her Solomon was the wisest of all the Kings of the earth that sate upon a Throne With what exultation did Olimpia speak often of her Son Alexander and his Monarchy How did Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi please her self when certain strangers noted her for a plain Matron that wore no rich or gaudy dressings as the fashion of the Roman Ladies was in those days but when her hopeful Sons came home she told her Guests those were her Cabinet of Jewels Hi sunt mei torques haec mea monilia And this is the reward on earth of all Paternal care and anxiety Spes surgentis Iuli that solace which you take in the ingenuous obedience of children as we call it towardliness And the neglect of their breeding a mischief which is seldom recovered if the Plant be marred in the first setting and tendance I say that neglect is a manifest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a plain want of natural affection which is a denying of the faith But the fear of the Lord which is instilled into Children from their Infancy is not only the Childrens but even the Parents happiness The rare endowments that appeared in Christ made a certain woman here cast the praise of it upon the Mother Blessed c. And thus far in the Litteral sense as far as flesh and bloud could reveal unto her But if she could have seen into the Scriptures as the holy Spirit hath enabled us to see into them there are other grounds of more Evangelical observation And first let it be noted that the blessedness which is attributed to the womb that bore our Saviour redounds to all the members of his mystical body Even as upon that saying of our Saviour to St. Peter Blessed art thou c. Mat. xvi St. Austin says that the words should not have a full and illustrious sense unless they were referred to the whole Church So this saying in my Text were maimed and imperfect unless we enlarged it thus to all Believers blessed and thrice blessed are all the Sons and Daughters of God through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ who was he that came down into this wretched world to make it almost equal with heaven it self Let the Earth be glad and let the Hills rejoyce let the Sea make a noise and all that is therein What a flower of Jessai did the earth bring forth instead of thorns and briars What a Day-star did shine upon our Hemisphere which was justly threatned with eternal darkness What Prince of peace was this which visited us when we were at war and defiance with God and our selves and with all the Powers of Heaven What purity was this which mixt with our uncleanness What Omnipotent that descended to our weakness What Immortal that would be dishonoured with our corruption and mortality All treasures of Wisdom are hid in his age of nonage all Strength in his infant infirmity all Riches in his state of poverty all Righteousness in him that was accused of iniquity all Freedom from bondage in him that was wrapt up in swadling clouts all Felicity in him that was encompassed with weakness and misery These are the fruits of his Nativity these are the benefits of his birth and infancy The Eternal Father did more for us when he made him flesh than when he made the heaven and the earth beside without his Incarnation the Earth had been our Curse all the Elements our Plague the Heaven above our Envy and the Hell beneath our portion for ever But as soon as ever the Babe who is blessed for ever did open the womb our fetters were broken in sunder the kingdom of darkness spoyled no Malediction remained in the Law any longer no curse in death Hoc est Christianae fidei fundamentum quia unus per quem ruina alius homo Christus per quem structura This is the foundation of Christian faith this is the scope of all the Scripture this is the ground work of all hearts ease and consolation that one man was our ruine and another man was our reparation As the Apostle says Heb. ii 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation we deserve to mourn if we do not magnifie God for this joy we deserve to be miserable for ever if we prefer not the blessing we received this day for the very crown of our happiness Though you now see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. i. 8. One man in a family having a fortunate advancement makes his whole blood and kindred fortunate with him how much more shall Christ make all mankind happy being made one of us accedens ad nos per id quod assumpsit ex nostro liberans nos per id quod mansit ex suo He is come near unto us all by that nature which he assumed of ours and he hath redeemed us all by that glorious Deity which was ever his own Finally there was a concurrency of all sorts of blessedness in this most mysterious Incarnation The Mother pure from all carnal copulation and incorrupt in her Virginity the place comfortable to the worst sinners because he chose his habitation among beasts in a stable and an ostery for the common resort of all
the Feast Go and sit down in the lowest room but litterally descension is infallibly the motion of a body And otherwise the wonder had herein consisted not that such a Dove was seen but that such a strange spectacle appeared to John and to all the multitude which was not to be seen John did see the object it did not phantastically in a shadow deceive him as if he saw it And it is a touch worthy to be observed by the way that my Text says he saw the Spirit which is a clear Metonimy of the sign for the thing signified for in truth he saw no more than the outward sign of the Spirit To call the holy Spirit by the attribute of the Dove is a Sacramental signification not an essential mutation just such a form of speech as when Christ brake bread at his Last Supper and said unto his Disciples This is my body I proceed to that which follows how aptly the Spirit came in one figure at this time upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at this day of Pentecost upon the Apostles If I would rake old Heresies out of their dead embers to refute them here I had occasion The Arians extorted from hence that Christ did receive the mighty gift of Sanctification at this Baptism and other admirable graces of the Spirit which he had not before If they were worth the refuting I could tell them Joh. i. 14. As soon as ever the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us he was full of grace and truth On the contrary the Macedonian Hereticks men of corrupt minds did make a difference of dignity between Christ and the Holy Ghost as the body of a man was more excellent which belonged to Christ than the body of a Dove wherin the Spirit sate upon him Then belike if an Angel should come in the shape of a man or of an Eagle which is more glorious than a Dove he should also have the preheminence But the blindness of the error came from hence that they did not distinguish how Christ took upon him the nature of a man but the Holy Ghost did not assume the nature of a Dove Let these blasphemies go let them rot and consume with the Authors which invented them the Father the Son and the Spirit are all one in Glory equal in Majesty coeternal Upon occasion of Baptism the Master sent forth his Disciples saying Go and baptize all Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Can I pass by the surpassing wit of St. Austin upon that place Non in nominibus sed in nomine patris ubi unum nomen est ibi unus Deus Not in the names but in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Where there is but one name and no more there is but one God and no more As in like argument St. Paul Gal. iii. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ Let me return into my own path which I am to beat that Christ had one sign of the Holy Ghost coming down upon him and the Apostles had another Upon which diversity thus I find the Fathers exercising their wits in several meditations First The Spirit sate upon our Saviours head in the shape of an whole entire creature in no other figure but a tongue upon the Apostles which is no more than a little part of the body for we receive the grace of God by scantlings and pittances and small measures the whole Spirit flowed into Christ in all abundance In like manner Gregory shews the odds between his fulness and ours in Analogy between the head and other members of the body A body hath the sense of touching only and no more the head is the continent of all the five senses Ita membra superni capitis in quibusdam virtutibus emicant ipsum caput in cunctis virtutibus flagret So the Saints have several gifts and ornaments divided among them some in one kind some in another but the head of the Church hath all flourisheth with all those vertues united in himself which are parted among his members Secondly The tongues of holy men and Prophets did often promise grace and reconciliation to the world and therefore a tongue did sit upon them as it were a Crest of Armory a Dove when time was did actually exhibit that God was pacified and appeased when he had been wroth I mean the Dove which returned to the Ark with a dry Olive branch in her mouth in token that the waters were dried up and that Noah and his Family might come forth with safety Therefore a Dove most properly did belong to Christ Most properly I say but more transcendently says St. Chrysostom now than ever The first Dove did comfort the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that punishment was taken away this Dove is a sacred pledge that grace and blessings shall be bestowed upon us Now it appeared not to bring one man and his family safe into the possession of the earth but to bring all Believers safe into the possession of heaven Thirdly The Spirit came not to Christ in fire for he was full of Zeal nor yet in the shape of a tongue for full of grace were his lips But discite quia mitis learn of me because I am meek and gentle therefore says Bernard the Dove came to testifie the placidness of the Lamb. Quod agnus in animalibus columba in avibus such as the Lamb is among the beasts of the field such is the Dove among the fouls of the air Fire is stern and formidable Christ would have none of that that which sorts with consolation to recreate a trembling conscience was his peculiar choice therefore the third Person descended like a Dove and sate upon him Fourthly The tongues wherein the Apostles received the grace of God were cloven and divided not to signifie a rent and a division Linguarum distantiae non sunt schismata but because there is a diversity and a dispreading about of the gifts of God Then comes down one single Dove to honour Unity Spiritus sanctus divisus in linguis unitus in columbâ says St. Austin it was pride which caused that diversity of tongues it was the Holy Ghost through the humility of Christ which sanctified that diversity Quod turris dissociaverat Ecclesia collegit Babel the Tower of pride scattered the world the Church which is the Tower of humility gathers the world together But the Dove was the Ensign of our Saviours Kingdom standing for the unity of the Spirit which is the bond of peace Fifthly The Holy Ghost was made manifest to the Chruch first in a Dove at the feast of Christs Baptism afterward in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide to betoken it is the same Spirit which requires innocency in the
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
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
them all therefore God ordained him to be the dungeon of misery in these words Behold I have made thee this day as an iron Pillar and a brazen Wall Jer. i. 18. So Christ endured the merciless wrath of his persecutors as if he had been scourged and crucified not in flesh and bloud but in brass or iron What a raging heat there is in a furnace of brass So Christ complains in his Agony as if he had been a molten furnace Lam. iii. 13. From above hath he sent fire into my bones and it prevaileth against them Therefore God appointed Moses to make a fiery Serpent Num. xxi 8. It seems the Serpent was like a Censor of brass and the fire of Incense was put into it that it might be a sweet savour unto the Lord ascending up with the prayers of the Congregation Or what is fitter to express the two natures of God and Man in one person than brass when it gloes with fire The Humane body without and the fire of the Divinity within these are the Ingredients of that Mediatour who bruised the head of the old Serpent took away our reproach and abolished our Iniquities Therefore the fire was as necessary for our use as the Brass the Brass that is the Manhood to suffer but the Fire that is the Godhead to make the sufferings of infinite price and inestimable value But that which we translate as the seventy two have guided us a fiery Serpent is Saraph in the Original which if it signifie fire it is Coelestial fire for from thence comes the word Seraphim the highest order of Angels who are inflamed with the zeal of charity O how much of that fire was in the Serpent that healed us What a Grove of love was in his heart which no eye nor thought can penetrate Who could have passed through so many thorns and nails so many scoffs and derisions but that his love was like fire that could not be quenched Lord if thou hadst not loved me thou hadst not been born for me But if thou hadst not loved me more than thy self thou hadst not died for me thy humility bore all thy patience overcame all but love sate at the Helm of the Ship and that commands all O thou sweet Tyrant says Nazianzen how strong are thy fetters with which thou tiest the Son of God And so I have done with the Serpent for his own frame and composition for the present use of it and for the Mystery I come to the Posture it was exaltation for Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness For else how could six hundred thousand men and more have recurrence unto it in their necessity to look upon it if it had not been lifted up Justin Martyr who had reason to be skilful in these things being a Samaritan by birth says that Moses having fastned the Serpent to along Pole erected it upon the top of the Tabernacle and then the remotest person might easily glance upon it for every Tribe keeping the distance of two thousand Cubits that is an English mile from the Tabernacle Josh iii. 4. and the doors of all their Tents opening inwards towards the Tabernacle their eye-lids could not open but they must see that object which was the Mast of the Ship or the Spire of the Steeple upon the Church of the Tabernacle Others consider it as an Ensign or Banner as if God had prepared to fight for Israel against the spiritual wickednesses in high places But if we fall into the slumber of Metaphors we shall meet with nothing but dreams It was disposed by the most High that the remedy to which the people were bidden to look should be exalted that the interiour thoughts of the heart might fly to God for succour after the president of the exteriour contemplation Israel might stoop to the earth to gather Manna for the sustentation of their body but they must look towards heaven for their preservation and to be delivered from death and hell I see nothing but corruption under me salvation and immortality are on high above me Translate our meditations from the sign to the thing signified and a Serpent elevated upon a Pole was Christ hanging upon the Cross It is his own exposition Joh. xii 32. And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me This he said signifying what death he should die He calls not that most ruful death his ignominy or his confusion or his humiliation but a lifting up a promotion an exaltation Can you devise a more chearful word for so sad a business Three ways he was lifted up Vt victima ut victor ut mediator In the manner of his death as a Sacrifice in the triumph over death as a Conquerour in his glorification to sit at the right hand of God as a Mediator First The manner of his death was ordained that he should hang upon a tree wherein pain and reproach and malediction might fall together like so many bitter waters in one torrent The magnitude of the pain refers unto numberless considerations Begin from hence that his body was weak and enfeebled with Agonies with watchings with scourgings with bearing his Cross then this torn and bruised body was stript naked so that his raw wounds took air and their smart was much augmented After this began the execution his feet and hands were pierced with nails where the quickest sense of the body doth most resent offence his Nerves and Arteries were crackt and distended his body hanging upon its own weight his arms were pluckt out to his little ease and great vexation further than their natural longitude But the further they were stretcht the greater Emblem it was that he was ready to embrace us His feet were pluckt down and fastened to a Pedestal to let us know he will not go from us till we depart from him The concurrence of so much torment parch'd the roof of his mouth and made him thirst and that thirst of his cannot be quenched but by our faith and repentance which is liquidated with tears All these concurring forced his life from him that he gave up the Ghost But tantò mirabilior resurrectio quantò mors certior Since his death was so certain that none could choose but know his Resurrection is more triumphant that none can choose but admire it And as the pain was excessive so the ignominy of that death was superlative Pone crucem servo To hang on a Cross was a death for servants not for Freemen and Citizens Paul a Citizen of Rome was beheaded Peter one reputed a vile person was crucified It was the destiny of none but slaves till Constantine in honour to our Saviour did utterly forbid it to all Malefactors Yet he whose service is perfect freedom endured it that he might abrogate the thraldom of sin by the chastisement of bondage and lead captivity captive Add unto all this the malediction of that death for cursed is every one that hangeth on
Chrysostomes judgment upon it is that when Christ came out of the Grave death it self was delivered from pain and anxiety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death knew it held him captive whom it ought not to have seized upon and therefore it suffered torments like a woman in travel till it had given him up again Thus he But the Scripture elsewhere testifies that death was put to sorrow because it had lost its sting rather than released from sorrow by our Saviours Resurrection Secondly Cajetan understands by the loosening of the pains of death the undoing or taking off those penalties which he suffered in triduo mortis in those three days while he lay asleep in the Sepulchre But what penalties are those in his construction Why one thing irksom unto him was that the body and soul should be divided in sunder the other that the very place of hell to which his soul descended is in it self ordained for torment Et mora in inferno erat paena infamiae as another said any stay or delay in hell was a derogation to his honour and for the body resting in the Grave though then it have no sense of smart yet for that while it is sub mortis victoriâ imperio under the charge and Empire of death There is somewhat near to truth in this Exposition as I will manifest by and by and somewhat clean mistaken For all the sorrow and punishment of Christ was finished in his death that was the consummation of all his penal sufferings Wherefore his body was not kept in the Grave much less his soul made progress to Hell to bear any penalty revenge or sorrow for our sakes or to satisfie for our sins but to fulfill all righteousness to confirm our faith that he was truly dead and to captivate the Devil Therefore his Resurrection did not cut off or mitigate any sorrows which he sustained in death I cannot consent to Cajetan if he mean the contrary But if he take not sorrows in a proper signification but Metaphorically for the bands of death as the Syrian Paraphrast reads it Solvens funes mortis loosening the cords or twists of death so I think it to be the very marrow and true sense of the Text that God raised up his Son not Christ but God the sense continuing in the same person having loosened or unbound him from that death wherein he was detained three days But if it agree to the Person of Christ that he loosed the pains of death though it be a little violence to Grammer me thinks then thirdly it comes to this interpretation that Christ had paid you know that is solvere too he had undergone he had satisfied the pains of death or a most painful death So Beza says it may be taken here Dolores mortis pro morte dolorum The pains of death for a death full of pains even all that spight and malice could wreck upon him Andradius likewise in his defence of the Tridentine Faith agrees with Beza that Christ after he had given up the Ghost and paid the debt of Nature upon the Cross was acquitted or exempted from the sorrows of death that is from a death full of sorrows sorrows that were not only deeply impressed into the body as far as whips and thorns and nails could reach but exceeding anguish and pain of mind sighs and horrors that we can not conceive Thus far only we may peep into it that God was represented to him most â—ngry at our sins that He felt the malediction of his wrath lying upon him for our sakes especially that He was troubled to shed his bloud for so many ungrateful wretches that had no regard of it these were the sorrows of death that compassed him about but that He should put on the horror of our guiltiness so far and suppose himself to stand in our person at his Fathers Tribunal even to the forgetting of himself to the confusion of his reason to the pangs of desperation as if He felt hell about him whatsoever a grave and worthy Author says to this point upon my Text and in other places I draw my consent from it Exceeding sorrows both of body and mind gat hold of him but they were loosened and finished upon the Cross But will some man say why doth St. Luke speak of these in order after his Resurrection I answer that Christ satisfied the wrath of God to the full upon the Cross and paid that debt for which He was our surety to the utmost farthing Thereby He loosed the deadly sorrows yet it did not appear so well that He had loosed those sorrows till the time He rose from the dead therefore the victory over those sorrows being estated as it were in his rising again St. Luke ascribes it to his resurrection I have not spared you see to open this third and most common opinion unto you yet I rather satisfie my self in this Interpretation that as it was Gods work to raise up Christ so it was his act to loose the pains of death solvere i. e. irritum reddere all that the pains and sharpness of death could do was to divorce his Soul from his Body and God did frustrate and dissolve all that by uniting them again in the Resurrection And according to this true reading of the words which I have hitherto beaten upon the Expositions are easie and full of consolation full of consolation I say for neither could the Scripture say that the sorrows of death were all paid neither had it been possible for Christ to have got out of the Grave if there had been any one sin though the least in the world unsatisfied The other reading is strange to the Original yet admitted by all them that are bound even to the errors of the vulgar Latin Translation and often quoted and cited for great authority in some Controversies solvens dolores inferni having loosed the pains of Hell 'T is true that Irenaeus and some others of good credit of old do use the same and our Criticks tell us of one antient Greek Copy that concurrs with them and a learned Bishop of our own Church reconciles the seeming difference on this wise that by death in that place is meant not the first but the second Death the second Death you know is eternal punishment in Hell fire and in his opinion it comes all to one pass to say having loosed the sorrows of death and having loosed the sorrows of hell This will be examined by and by but first I will premise how some have blundered themselves in this reading St. Austin in that famous Epistle of his to Evodius propounds it though very faintly that it is not improbable that the Soul of Christ went into Hell in triduo mortis and carried away with him some that were there tormented and if none other were released yet at least Adam was If the Father can be expounded to mean that Christ blotted out the hand-writing against us harrowed Hell and
from thee and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth But St. Paul doth not use to obscure plain Doctrin with strange Poetical Phrases and Estius hath requited Beza with another place out of the Psalms to confirm my Doctrin Psal lxiii 9. Those that seek my Soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth that is the enemies of the innocent should go into the place of the damned The other Testimony of Scripture for I will press no more is Psal xvi 10. and rehearsed by St. Peter in this Chapter Thou shalt not leave my Soul in hell c. What pains some men have taken to no fruitful end that I know to make these words bear any sense rather than that which is literal no man that marks their diligence must deny but the Soul in divers Authors is taken for the Body and Hell for the Grave and so they patch it up Thou wilt not leave my life in the Sepulcher but why should literal Scripture be so eluded St. Austins rule is that when the literal sense of the Text sounds somewhat that is sinful or impossible then discreet and learned Interpretations must mollifie the letter but it is not to be suffered where good divinity is conteined in the letter as there is in this the meaning is as no flesh in the Sepulcher was ever free from corruption but only Christs so no Soul in Hell was ever supported and assisted by God and not forsaken but only Christs So Fulgentius most divinely anima immunis à peccato non erat subdenda supplicio carnem sine peccato non debuit vitiare corruptio Christs Soul knowing no sin went not to Hell to pay any debt of punishment for an innocent could not be obnoxious to those flames and torments and his Body never executing any evil act could not be tainted with corruption and putrefaction Is it not therefore consonant to reason to stick to the letter of Scripture when it bears an Orthodox exposition of faith and whether we say that Christ being free among the dead to walk whither he would his Soul being separated in death first shewed it self to the Saints in Joy to their exceeding comfort then to the Unbelievers in Hell to their woe and confusion or whether we say He descended that such as believed may never be thrust into that infernal Prison or rather that He brought his triumph over death with him before the face of Hell and brought those unruly spirits under his yoke entred upon the strong mans house and spoiled his house as it is in the Parable Matth. xii All these ways are agreeable to Gods word and to be admitted without contention Thus far upon Scripture attended by reason Indeed Stapleton says that two Articles of the Creed are not to be found in Scripture this of Christs descent in to Hell the other of the Catholick Church I confess in his sense they are not to be found in Scripture but in ours they are But last of all attend what light the very Creed it self will give to the confirmation of this Doctrin The ground that a learned Father of our own Church lays I take to be most rational Thus take these words properly and not figuratively as it is fit in a short abstract of faith next let them have a sense different in matter from all other Articles or else they were a superfluous repetition then let every Article keep a true consequent order of time one after another or else it would make a strange confusion and all other Expositions will give place Some of the Romish and some of our own part have taught that when Christ was crucified he susteined the pains of Hell but observe against them how this Article should come in most preposterously after his death and burial which was in time before Others make this sense of it that he was dead and deteined in death others to be no more but that he was buried but according to these opinions there shall neither be property of phrase nor difference of matter in this Article from them that went before To be dead and buried are as plain speeches as be in all the Creed and should these be explained by an enigmatical Phrase to descend into Hell rather to obscure than to explain the former Observe how our Church of England hath differenced it from death and burial art 3. As Christ died for us and was buried so also it is believed mark that 's another point that He went down into Hell And the thirtieth Article of the Church of Ireland doth not satisfie me that this line is in one comma I know not whether by the negligence of the Printer He was buried and descended into Hell I cannot come to the third part of my Text and I have done as much as the time will permit upon the second only let me add let weak capacities be no ways discomforted though they cannot explicitly understand the meaning of this controverted Article of the Creed Christs descending into Hell they must believe that Christ vanquished the Devil for our sakes that 's necessary both for their comfort and salvation And all Articles of Faith are not equally necessary and fundamental Gregory Valenza and many others I think not imprudently hold that the main and necessary points for unlearned simple people to believe are the great works of God remembred in the principal Feasts of the year Christs Nativity his Passion Resurrection Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Ghost And though this Article of the Descent into Hell contein an excellent mystery of Faith yet it comes not near the excellent knowledg and use of the former Suarez the Jesuit writes confidently that if by an Article of Faith we understand a Truth which all faithful people are bound explicitly to believe so he did not think it necessary to reckon it among the Articles of Faith The Nicene Creed in our Common-prayer Book hath left it out Ruffinus says that after 400 years it came into the Latin Church and like enough for St. Austin expounds the Creed five times and Chrysologus of Ravenna ann 440. six times and never glance it For that Creed called the Apostles was not so drawn up by the Apostles for ought we can find in good antiquity but called so because it conteins the sum of all Apostolical Doctrin one part of it was laid too after another and this I believe was the last addition of all Therefore it is a main arm of faith that Christ loosed the sorrows of death and a Truth it is no doubt though not of such prime consequence that He descended into Hell to loose those sorrows for our liberty but the main Pillar of Faith is the first Comma of my Text that God raised up Jesus from death and it was impossible He should be holden of it AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN xi 43. And when he had thus spoken he cried with a
sleep was to rescue from the power of the Grave Blessed are these days Beloved to whom much is given the Book is unclasped the Mysteries are open we are now as well instructed that the dead shall rise again as that the Trees shall put forth in the Spring which stood upon the ground like withered trunks in the Winter Or that the day shall break in the Morning when it is but the first crowing of the Cock and darkness upon the face of the earth but until Christ was risen and ascended and that the Holy Ghost had filled them with an Evangelical Spirit the Resurrection from the dead was a language they understood not The ancient Church had a Ceremony to light but one Candle on the Altar on Easter Eve all the rest standing by it were put out to signifie that the whole faith of the Resurrection of the Son of God for that time was only in the Virgin Mary and in no other Apostle Fides explicita resurrectionis in solâ virgine remansit was a common opinion and surely the Resurrection from the dead was one of the latest Articles which was explicitly believed And at this time they were but ill prepared to make good Believers no face is well seen in a troubled water and no mystery of faith can sink in deep when the mind is fearful Alas say they Master spare thy self it is death for you and us to go into Judaea let Lazarus sleep his Sisters will be careful to awake him Fear is but an evil Counsellor There was resolution in our Saviour such as you might expect from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah And as when Syracusa was oppressed Dion bethought himself how he might safely attempt to succour them at length most generously broke off that demur Me de meipso consulere non decet pereuntibus Syracusanis It was too late to consult how he might save himself when his dear Countrymen the Syracusians perished So it was out of time to tell our Saviour of sparing himself when Martha was discomforted Mary wept Lazarus dead and gone let them take up stones to cast at him but first tollite lapidem take away the Grave stone that his friend may live again Like Homers bird that fed her young ones and was her self an hungry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Christ like the loving Dam will hatch the young ones in the Shell yea in the Tomb though himself be taken Though it is sure they will shortly cry out let him be crucified yet will he come to Judaea and cry with a loud voice Lazarus come forth But as the stone is in the Plum so the most difficult question is inmost and now to be handled Four days the body of Lazarus lay without life and sense the soul was parted But where did the soul rest in quatriduo mortis What place had it to rest in for four days until it returned to the ancient habitation St Paul was wrapt into the third heavens there all knowledge is to be had all mysteries to be expounded and yet he knew not how he came thither whether in the body or out of the body he leaves it altogether uncertain And shall I tell you but a worm upon earth what became of another man when Paul in heaven knew not what became of himself Look among the bold conjectures of the Schoolmen and as the old man said of his Advocates who did rather puzzle him than instruct him in his cause Incertior sum multò quà m dudum The farther you go on with their Problems the further you are from resolution And so many places have they allotted to receive souls that Adrian may well make a doubt Animula vagula blandula quae nunc abibis in loca it is hard to say by their rules at which end of the Town a soul should go out to take a journey Origen would say that all souls were created fzrom the beginning of the world and are sent in their turns to take bodies upon them as God disposeth That the soul of Lazarus when it flitted out being to be presently united to the flesh again returned to the place where souls expected to be committed into bodies as if it were a new birth not a Resurrection This favours of Plato rather than of the Scripture and therefore I rather dismiss it as a Fable And yet it helps not much to say his soul was translated to the place where Enoch was first reserved and then Elias Enoch's translation was not as they imagine in a solitary Tabernacle where he was reserved by himself in the outward Courts of heaven for then was Adam in a better estate in Paradise God did make him an helper to keep him company Surely if Enoch were not among the blessed that did see God face to face he was more happy upon earth when he walked with God Gen. v. wherefore there was no such thing as recessus Enoch if these conjectures fail not What other Closet have they thought upon to hold the soul of Lazarus Why Infants which die unbaptized mark the argumentation who are charged with no fault but Original sin which in their Divinity is but the privation of grace that should have been conferred are allotted to a place called Limbus infantum where they are not in torment but are excluded from seeing the glory of God a punishment like unto their sin not of sense but of loss and privation Yea but how know you that Lazarus was unbaptized One of an holy Family much endeared to the love of Christ it were strange if he had neither gone out to John into the Wilderness to partake of the Baptism of Repentance nor could be so much beholding to the Apostles to give him the Baptism of Christ Shall I press it further The foreskin of his flesh was circumcised after the manner of the Jews and the Circumcised were in the Covenant as well as the Baptized What say you now Doth not Limbus Infantum smell of a forgery But what think you of the commodity of Purgatory thither run many of the later Expositors and say that the soul of Lazarus went before them Like the Quadrature of a Circle so is this cleansing Lake a thing of much discourse and no appearance As Geographers when they do not know what inhabitants possess a Country they fill the empty place with the Pictures of Lions and Tigers and wild beasts so the Papists not knowing what kind of coast this Purgatory is replenish it with hideous Ghosts and tormented Spirits But surely if Lazarus had been removed among those souls of little ease would Christ have delayed his comming to the fourth day Since the Schoolmen grant that the pains of Hell are no greater than those of Purgatory only that there is more comfort in these because they shall have a determinate ending Nay Martha was an unkind Sister and so was Mary that never spake for his deliverance from pain if these pains be so unsufferable Some
And with a little motion with a turning about he was just behind her and now first she got the sight of him She got the sight of him but loe here is another degree of his appearance before he was clearly revealed he was presented to her in such a fashion that as yet she knew not that her blessedness was so near her She mistook him it is hard to say how for the Gardener that dress'd those grounds But how came this ignorance upon her I do not believe that Christ carried a rake and spade in his hand like a Gardener as vulgar Pictures make bold to set him out He might offer himself in a poor habit and without any upper Garment like one that was not far from home and being so early in the ground these circumstances would suit so well to no man as to the Gardener Very well this conceit might have taken her if our Lord had been a stranger to her knowledge But this is marvellous she sought none but him she knew no mans person in the world so well as him and yet the first glimpse he is any body but himself he is a Gardener How comes this I have it for you I think out of two Texts of the Gospel In the 12. verse of this chapter it is said that after Mary had seen him he appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in another form to two of them by the way Yet concerning the same parties we read Luke xxiv 16. Their eyes were holden that they should not know him We may collect thus much out of both these put together that in those forty days wherein Christ walked upon the earth after he was risen he seemed by his Divine power to wear many sorts of Garments but he wore none for a glorified body needs not the coverture of Apparel and the eyes of those that saw him had not the power to perceive who he was until such time as he saw fit to disclose himself And take it for very truth that I say their outward senses had no power to judg of their object but when he pleased for as I will shew in good time by and by Mary talkt with him and did not know his voice till he opened her ears When he thought it due time and not before her eyes and ears recovered their faculties But I confess the question doth yet depend upon a little more resolution why Christ would let her continue a while deluded that she knew not who he was I answer she deserved not to partake of more favour she loved much indeed but we cannot say that she believed much She believed no more than the High-Priest would have all the world believe that his body was stoln out of the Sepulcher Since therefore she was more zealous in her love towards Christ than all others he appeared unto her but because she would not believe in his resurrection no not for the testimony of the holy Angels therefore for a little space he hid himself from her contriving that in his body now which he doth continually in the sending of his Holy Spirit a little love shall have some reward but he will come and dwell with them and be known of them that believe without wavering As yet he passeth with this woman for a Gardener and that was no unhappy error it was he that did sow the seeds of faith in her heart and planted repentance in her soul that it might grow up and prosper to amendment of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she supposed him to be a Gardener it is true in the allegory but not in the letter Take heed that our carnal affections do not impress Christ into our thoughts otherwise than he is When we are full of earthy low flat cogitations we frame a God of a strange fashion to our selves As Mary Magdalen giving no trust to the Angels that he was risen from the dead took him for no better than the Gardener But to strike up this point to the head whatsoever Christ seemed to her he was himself without all transformation he had now a glorified body he did not change the form and lineaments of his body it was the poison which the Manichaeans suckt out of this Text says St. Hierom that forasmuch as the Lord seemed to this woman diverse from himself he was diverse from himself and had a phantastique body not made of flesh and bone of the seed of the woman ridiculous he contiued very God and very man in the unity of one person the same man Jesus Christ that was born of the Virgin But his wisdom did contrive it so as to reveal himself to this party by degrees First by his Proxies the Angels Secondly by the shape of a Gardener now thirdly he threw the Veil aside and shewed himself clearly as he was unto her and she that desired but to find him dead found him living for ever The manner the manner of it I say is that which is well worthy of a godly eare to mark it for which I still refer you to the 20. of St. John Our Saviour when he came in presence gave her occasion of discourse on this sort woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou Good expressions both of a most passionate love weeping and seeking Yet to seek did befit her diligence but to weep was out of date at this time and convinced her of a reproveable weakness It was no day to spend tears upon which offered occasion of eternal joy and shall so continue a day of gladness every week while the world endures But says St. Austin she that wept for her Brother Lazarus and obteined his resurrection with tears she makes assay if by weeping she could obtein the resurrection of Christ But whatsoever may be thought her infirmity in weeping it was gracious in Gods eyes when it was joyned with seeking Doubtless says St. Paul God is not far from every one of us Act. xvii 27. yea but he is always near at hand to those that seek him not far from any but thou Lord never failest them that seek thee Psal ix 10. Mary had done as much as diligence could express she had wept as much as grief could express now Joseph could not choose but make himself known to his Brethren now Jesus would hold the woman in suspence no longer but he chang'd the accent of his voice and spake so tunably that she knew him at the first word he said no more but Mary as God said unto Moses Thee have I known by name and then she turned and said Rabboni as who should say I know the voice of my Master and I am thine Handmaid It sounded well in her mouth to call him Rabboni or Master now he was alive for she continued to call him Lord when she took him for lost and that he was no better than one of the dead When all ignominy had been cast upon him when none would own him for a Lord yet she reserves his title to him they
afraid yet they stept forward and came unto him Nay to come unto him in this glorified state Peter girt his fishers Coat about him and cast himself into the Sea and swam unto him Note it that these good women recoiled from the Angels when they saw them and gave back their countenance was like lightning and dismal to the beholders But when Christ was before them they come unto him nearer and nearer Let them that have a mind to such superstition talk of Angels and Saints for their Mediators and Intercessors But Lord give me leave to come directly to thee and to thy Child Jesus there is my comfort and my confidence Securtus loquor ad Dominum meum quà m ad aliquem sanctorum I think it is St. Austins I can pour out my mind more safely unto Christ my Lord than to any of the Saints St. John came too near to the Angel when he fell down to worship him But make up more and more to your Saviour you can never come too near to him Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Whither do you fly away for fear of your sins Do you not hear that he calls for us That fear which keeps you from him is not reverence but despaire it is not humility but infidelity Are you distrustful that you may be too forward Not a whit if you believe and repent Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace Heb iv 16. Come unto him in this life says St. Chrysostome and he is a throne of grace Hereafter we dare not come unto him for then he is a throne of justice Well their next action shews that they must come and come very near to do that which they did for they held him by the feet Hold fast devout Matrons you were before like waves of the Sea tossed about with suspicions and uncertainties you were carried hither and thither with doubtful fears whether Christ would come again from the dead as he promised on the third day but now you have your hand upon the Anchor upon his feet hold them fast and your faith shall no more be shaken You touch his flesh you feel the pulse of his veins his joynts and bones are under your fingers You have explored that he is no Phantome or Delusion the true and the same body committed to the Sepulchre is alive again All this your sense suggests unto you because you hold him by the feet But the times of this happiness are passed away no expectation now of enclasping him about the feet but Mitte fidem in coelum tenuisti says St. Austin Extend your Faith into heaven and you shall touch him there Secondly They that held him by the feet had the occasion to honour those parts of his body which had been pierced with Nails for our sakes upon the Cross And I doubt it not but to shew themselves thankful for his death they did offer to lay their modest lips upon his wounds As when Paphnutius his right eye was pluck'd out for being a constant Christian the Emperour Constantine kissed the hollow pit from whence the eye was taken in reverence to his sufferings Thirdly Take it in the most simple and plain sense to take him by the feet was one of the most observant forms of lowliness that could be expressed So did that Shunamite demean her self to Elisha when her soul travelled with agony and desire to have her Son revived to life Mary Magdalen her penitent and humble prostration is reduced to this when she washed our Saviour's feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head The most expressive Poet notes it that it was the best garb for a passionate Suppliant Et genua amplectens effatur talia supplex So when the tongue of these devout women did cleave to the roof of their mouth in a sudden astonishment and they could not bring out one word not so much as Rabboni all that Mary Magdalen could say ex tempore yet their dumb actions were instead of a voice There was much Congratulation and Thanksgiving and Prayer contained in this gesture They held him by the feet One great scruple troubles all Expositors upon this Point why Mary Magdalen was repulsed from him Joh. xx 17. with Touch me not and yet these women were not repulsed but admitted to hold him by the feet They that make no first and second Apparition but say that Mary Magdalen and these women did not see him at two times but altogether at once are confounded very much in their answer and resolve it that Mary Magdalen did touch him as well as they which doth not appear and that these persons were interdicted when she was though St. Matthew hath passed it over in silence and that is a conjecture which hath no expression in the Word of God Musculus a man of good judgment otherwise hath failed most of all in his opinion I think for he says that this beavie of good women did not lay hands upon his feet but offered it and it is a phrase of Courtship in this Complemental Age that such as give a visit of humble respect to a great person say that they come to kiss his hand though they do not use that particular Ceremony so these stooping low to worship him are said to hold him by the feet though they did not go so far in their salutation as the Letter expresseth But here is a word too strong for that evasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they held him it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not lightly to touch but to seize upon him as strongly as their grasp could hold Let not the truth then be denied let two Apparitions be granted and at the first time Mary Magdalen was denied leave to touch him and these had permission to hold him fast What was in it that the favour was so unequally granted Why first there was nothing did repugn but that a mortal hand might touch his glorified body without offence They that went to Emmaus and met him by the way are reported to have constreined him to go no further which imports at least they held him in a friendly manner by the Arm he invited all the Disciples to feel if he had not an elementary Composition of Body Flesh and Bone and S. Thomas put his whole hand into his Side and wallowed it there and Christ felt no pain at all Then simply there was no Offence to touch unless some circumstance in the act make it irregular and so it is supposed that Mary Magdalen though a vessel of great holiness yet she had forgot that Christ was past the times of humiliation when he was a worm upon earth now he had taken his Kingdom and his Glory upon him after he was risen from the dead and yet she came familiarly to him upon the old acquaintance and would have given him such a Welcome and Embracement as she was wont to
Adversary But why should the Messias do all the Creatures that honour to be esteemed clean Hath God care of Oxen The Jewish Rabbi ventur'd not upon that question but Irenaeus answers it omnia purificata sunt per sanguinem Christi Christ hath set the Church at liberty to be debarred from nothing which God hath made and the uncleanness of the beasts is now accounted cleanness because our filthiness is washed away and made clean in his most precious bloud That which was commonly usurped among the Gentiles throughout all the world was branded for unclean and therefore Peter said Lord I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean but now the stile is chang'd and that which is most common is most clean Our riches are made clean by being scattered abroad and communicated in charity the Word of God is most clean and undefiled whose sound is gone forth into all Worlds Prayer and Preaching are best when they are performed in the Congregation and are most publick The holy Eucharist is cibus communis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Communion of the body of Christ and yet it is so pure a food that being eaten by faith it purifieth the heart and conscience above all things To the clean all things are clean but because we live in the contagion of the evil World and he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled and because our own heart is an impure fountain from which the streams of bitterness do continually flow Cleanse the thoughts of our heart O Lord by the inspiration of thy holy Spirit that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy Name by Christ our Lord. AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON NOAH GEN. viii 20 21. And Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord and took of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl and offered burnt offerings on the Altar And the Lord smelled a sweet savour THis is our Sacrifice which we offer unto God at this time to preach of Sacrifice and Preaching hath a great similitude with the Law of the Peace-offering Deut. xxvii 7. Thou shalt offer Peace-offerings and shalt eat thereof and rejoyce before the Lord thy God So we are come together to speak unto the honour of God and to make our selves perfect in his ways and Testimonies to do them We offer unto the honour of our Saviour and eat of our own Offering which is the very condition of a Pacificatory Sacrifice Now that I may bring nothing unto the Altar but that which is pure and clean the Lord grant that he will circumcise my lips and put a right Spirit into my Meditations Among the Beasts such a one was clean that parted the Hoof and chewed the Cud upon which St. Chrysostome deviseth this interpretation to divide the Hoof is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide the Word of God aright in St. Pauls Phrase To chew the Cud is to ruminate upon sacred things to roul them in our understanding and to examine them maturely not to admit or swallow down Divine Mysteries rashly with slight and undiscoursed credulity That we may chew the Cud in this Fathers sense I take these words upon which I have lately spoken again into my mouth to make further proof what is contained in them And lest confusion should make all that is to be said unprofitable I will divide the Hoof after the condition required in a clean Sacrifice I have declared before that there are two principal branches to be noted in the Text the material part and the formal the body and the soul of that Divine Worship which Noah offered unto the Lord. In the material part again are two contents the Gift and the place which sanctified the Gift The Gift was an whole burnt-offering of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl the place was the Altar which he made and Noah built an Altar to the Lord. These are the visible body of the work The invisible part or the soul consists herein that the Lord smelt a sweet savour and that hath two members in it sensum and sensibile first the sweet Odour which did exhale from the Sacrifice what it was secondly a quick sense that took it the Lord smelled a sweet savour I did not dispatch all the material part when I first handled these words for accounting it a less fault to be abrupt than tedious I proceeded upon no more than the consideration of the bare Gift a Burnt-offering of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl At this time I have measured to go a little further without prolixity I shall speak God willing upon the place that sanctified the Gift and Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord and upon the quick sense which did apprehend the sweet Odour it was even he who is present at every part of clean devotion and delighteth in it the Lord smelled a sweet savour From whence I will meditate 1. That the time was but new over that God destroyed almost the whole World see how soon he is pleased after his great wrath and with what small seeking 2. When we do any thing well there is joy in heaven 3. Many pious offices which stink in the Worlds opinion are sweet before God 4. There is no greater encouragement to do well than that we are sure it finds grace in the eyes of our heavenly Master it is sweet in his nostrils and he will reward it Of these as I have divided them And Noah builded an Altar c. The whole Earth had been overwhelmed for a long space with the waters of the Deluge in plain terms it was all under malediction but Noah builded an Altar of the tuâ—f and mold of the earth and so brought it again into good use and service and sanctified the whole Element to the Lord. Truly God that revealed unto Noah that he should make an Ark and be saved in the common Calamity deserved to have an Altar erected at his hands that thereon he might adore his Saviour The Jewish Rabbines are so punctual in their curiosities that they go about to tell us the very Plot of ground on which this Altar was raised and many things more of great fame to happen in the same place I am sure you will say the report is very strange if it be credible But this Ben-Maimon adventures to say that it is a Tradition by the hand of all where David built an Altar on the Threshing Flore of Araunah Solomon built a Temple and Abraham made ready there to offer up Isaac and Noah built this Altar in the same standing when he came out of the Ark that there was the Altar where Cain and Abel did first offer before Noah nay that the first man did offer an Offering there soon after he was created and yet he goes further our Wisemen say Adam was created out of the very earth of the same place There is no mediocrity in these mens conjectures and therefore I give them over without commending them Wheresoever
justly say as Abraham did to the rich Glutton there is a great gulf between you and I. I mean those that turn away their face from pitty and reconciliation never to look upon it I say lay down your enmities upon the first motion of peace they say no not upon the last summons of death I conclude from my Text that all displeasure must quickly be scattered they consult with the black book of their own Satanical malice and say it shall never be mitigated How many wedges must be driven in before this knotty heart will cleave Cleave and yield without delay or the use of that logg shall be to be cast into eternal fire You are all in haste will some object and stubborn hearts are as slow to lay down their enmities would not a moderation do well What 's that Why this is called discretion and moderation not to embrace too soon after a falling out to press our adversary down and drive him to affliction that he may be the more beholding to reconciliation Is this the wisdom of the world I am sure it is enmity with God and this is such a Paradox to foster malice for a while I know not for what pretensed ends to wind up all with chariry at the last as if a wound would be the better for rankling All that time which the Devil gains of you to stand out and exclude charity is to harden your heart that you may never relent and he that is not mollified to disgorge all mallice at the preaching of one Sermon if I mistake not the manifold threatnings in Holy Scripture as I am sure I do not he will be worse and worse after the preaching of an hundred Esau indeed had spent all his spight at last and fell upon Jacobs neck and kissed him but did not that curse remain both upon him and upon his House Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated In Ecclesiastical Stories that which befel Saprisius is a Sermon alone to put you on speedily to be at perfect peace with all men unless you have resolv'd not to break your Covenant with Hell Sapricius was a Church-man of great note and name but an errand Boanerges a Son of thunder he had a quarrel against one Nicephorus a Lay person Nicephorus desired his friendship Sapricius would not It fortuned that Sapricius preaching the Doctrine of Christ with much diligence was attacht by Pagan Officers to suffer Martyrdom As he was led to Execution Nicephorus then took his time to pacify him This venemous Priest even at that hour refused him and turned away his face God above was angry took away his good spirit from him and even at the point of death Sapricius revolted denied his Saviour for hope of life and Nicephorus that stood by weeping and had besought reconciliation with tears took his Girlond from him and suffered Martyrdom in his place I know Sapricius could have said as much for himself as any witty rankerous person whatsoever he loathed not Nicephorus upon revenge but he had justice on his side to detest him for divers injuries he had received Avoid Satan and all such Apologies Justice is the Garland of all Virtues Revenge is the most stinking weed of all Vices What a wide mistake is here He that should call black white must needs have a great fault in his eyes and he that will call revenge justice must needs have a foul blot in his conscience I will not rob the other points of the Text of that time that is due unto them otherwise much more might be said and very profitably for look for this doom and sentence from God no charity no Christianity no mercy no salvation So much malice so much devil Therefore depart from me ye malicious into everlasting fire c. The Lord smelled a sweet savour mark then in the next place what welcom entertainment this is for all the fruits of a godly life when we do any thing well there is joy in Heaven the delight of the Lord is in his Saints and in them that fear him Because the old world was full of wickedness and in every part but like a corrupt Dunghil therefore it was every whit drowned and made a loathsome Kennel of waters All these wicked Generations had left a stink behind them fulsom as mortified carrion therefore the perfume of Noahs piety was very expedient to air the new world that the Lord might be delighted with a better savour But in this phrase there are many figures to be unfolded many shells to be broken before I come to the kernel 1. Here is one Figure to translate bodily senses to the Divine Essence which is incorporeal 2. Though it were spoken of a man yet there must needs be another Figure to say He smelt sweetness from that wherein you mean he took delight and complacency wherein he rejoyced 3. Here is another Figure to speak of Gods immutable Essence as of things created to which somewhat happens in time that was not in them before Angels and Men may be partakers of some good news to day which were not in being before from whence they feel a new branch of comfort and exhilaration but do you ween that any savour was sweet unto God at this time and kindled a new act or a new affection in him which he had not before O no he knows our infirmity that we are Children and cannot speak of him as we ought therefore He lets us talk of him as a man that we may learn to honour him as God But the true notion how God is pleased with the sweet odour of that which Noah did then or that we do now is in this Maxim of the School Ab aeterno laetatus est Deus simul semel unico actu de toto ordine punitionis praemiorum There is one immutable joy and delight in God which never changed never did fall or rise by addition or diminution of parts and degrees with this one eternal act he delights himself in his own justice and in his own mercy and in the shadow of his glory which is his Church and this must last and persevere in the same constancy for ever But because the speculation of this truth is far more abstruse than the forms of ordinary speech with which we are familiar the Lord leaves it unto us to make use of that joy which he takes in our faith and zeal as if at that instant when Noah offered a good Sacrifice He smelt a sweet savour So Luke xv 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce with me for I have found the piece of silver which I lost and in the same chapter when the lost Child came home again the Father tells his elder Son It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy Brother was dead and is alive again Now I bring my motive to you and lay it down at the door of your conscience Contend and strive for that
Visions that he could take no notice for the present that he lived or had a body but his Spirit was quite abstracted from the senses and lifted up to converse with supernatural speculations Now to sum up this Point touching the modus how John saw the souls of the blessed you shall hear how St. Austin made no scruple of the like case The Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream How did Joseph see an Angel when his eyes were shut Nay rather says the Father how could he have seen an Angel if his eyes had been open So the more the senses of this Prophet were bound up the less communication he had with his mortal nature the more capable he was to see the secrets of God It were no digression at all to tell you at large in this place that St. John was not every body when he saw the Mysteries of the Ages to come in an holy trance Examine him from the time that he was the beloved Disciple while his Master Jesus Christ was upon the earth behold him in his other cognizances that he was an unspotted Virgin a patient Confessor An Evangelist that sored higher than his fellows an Eagle in his Gospel but a Dove in his Epistles where every line is enchased with Jewels of love the aged Patriarch who had long survived all the Apostles the Oracle that resolved all the Churches in their Controversies Finally that supereminent man that left not his like behind him and since his days his equal did never rise up after him Put all this together and mark what a sanctified Vessel this was to see the souls under the Altar and all those things which the Angel told him should come to pass in the days to come What wretch can think himself so prepared as he was to receive these Prophetical graces of God With how many favours of God is a Vision qualified to make it a perfect illumination Let it deter any one that is not possessed with the spirit of Arrogance to think that he is possessed with the spirit of Divination Quia videre non possumus audiamus says St. Austin There is no hope that we vile sinners should see such Visions it is our blessedness that we hear of them What laughter doth it give our Adversaries that this caution is not observed among us we had proof of it lately and almost year by year every hair-brain'd Schismatick that out of pride thinks himself more holy than others fancies that he is a Prophet These filthy dreamers presume they have learnt all that the Scriptures can teach them and therefore like apt Scholars they must be promoted to an higher Form to learn supernal Revelations As the Romanists are excessive in forging lies for their Saints sakes so these are excessive in forging lies for their own sakes both are liars both are Legendaries It was a gift which St. Austin says his Mother Monica had that she could distinguish inter Deum revelantem animam somniantem she knew when God gave her a supernatural inspiration in her sleep and when it was but a common dream By what mark or token could she do this Nay none at all Nescio quo sapore quem verbis explicare non poterat she could not express by what relish of the soul she made a difference between them Of whom have our modern Wizzards it is too good a name if I do not put frentique to it I say of whom have these phrentique persons learnt the trick of Divination Since they that were Prophets upon earth could not teach another how to be a Prophet If St. John knew how he saw this Theory in heaven it was his priviledge alone or with some very few more But God doth not carve a Prophet out of every Christian And so much de modo videndi which is the first Point Take the object now to your attention which he saw an object too subtil to be discerned by a bodily creature but disclosed to this Apostle in his Rapture in the excellency of Revelation he saw the souls of the blessed in heaven It could not out of Tertullians mind as I told you before but that he thought the soul when it was separated from the body had some bodily figure and dimension in it Those polite heathen men indeed whom he had perused did speak grosly in the point as if the Soul after it left this world did flit about the Elysian fields in the form of a thin cloud witness that fancy of the best Poets Infelix simulacrum atque ipsius umbra Creüsae And it is no injustice to excuse such Authors for though the substance of the Soul be incorporeal yet it is impossible for one of us to conceive a Spirit or an Angel but by the help of some corporeal Idea it is a true Metaphysical rule Nihil intelligimus in hôc statu sine verbo materiali in intellectu we understand every thing in this life by some material expression within our selves yet we are able by the undeniable proofs of Art to transcend the narrowness of our own fancy and to affirm that the soul cannot choose but be immaterial that it is not circumscriptive in any place though it have a determined and defined subsistence But this is no time to Philosophize and our Saviours words will carry it clear without the help of Humane Arguments Handle me and see a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have Luk. xxiv 39 which is thus in effect there is no corporeity in a Spirit And the Sixth general Council held against the Monothelites hath these weighty words Nascitur Deus humano corpore animam rationalem incorpoream habens The Son of God had an humane body with a reasonable and incorporeal soul I dismiss that Point it shall not hold you longer There are those that doubt it in their heart or at least they live as if they doubted it whether their soul hath a second state in reversion after this life Can there be any exception against such a Witness as St. John that was taken up into heaven to relate the truth to all Generations upon earth Why he saw the souls of the Saints in a triumphant and immortal condition after they were uncloathed of the body There cannot be an Apparition of that which had ceased to be that were a delusion Not one natural Writer that had a sound brain but maintained that the soul did survive the body and that it was at best liberty when it was released from the prison of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle that the Mind or Spirit can subsist by it self not mixt with any composition not affected with passions They could not search far enough why it should be so they never discovered that the dissolution of the soul from the body was brought into the world after Adam was created for the punishment of sin but their dim Candle gave them light to see that the soul was