stabiliens in bonas operationes c. Saint Peter styles Christs blood the fountain of our election St. Paul the laver of regeneration St. John the price of our redemption In the 12. to the Hebrews it is an Advocate to plead for us and in the 12. of the Revelation it is a champion to fight for us and in the 9. of the Hebrews it is a Chamberlain to open the Holy of Holies unto us and because nothing that is either imperfect or impure shall ever enter there therefore in the 13. to the Hebrews the blood of Christ is said to make us perfect in every good work and in my Text it purgeth us from every evil work for here it cleanseth us from all-all-Sin Yea it not only cleanseth but whitens too as St. John shews in the 7. of the Apocalyps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They washed their Robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Many things are wash'd and wash'd clean which yet are not white more then ordinary laver and labour must go to whitening And yet it is remarkable that the Saints not only wash'd but whitened their Robes in the blood of Christ there by a Metaphor call'd the Lamb. But stay doth not the Phylosopher say that Quicquid sanguis attingit inficit foedat What ever blood touches it pollutes and defiles It is true that he saith so and he saith that which is true then may not some Embrio in the Faith both scruple and question How can blood cleanse us seeing that it pollutes all things else To this hard Question the Answer is easie for the blood of Christ doth not cleanse Physically but meritoriously we must distinguish say the Schoolmen inter sanguinem corporis Christi crucis Christi The blood of Christs body like that which runs in our Veins did naturally stain else it had not been true blood but when that true blood of his natural body was powred out on the Crosse and offered as a Sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour to God for the sins of the World this the Apostle in the first to the Colossians at the Twentieth Verse calls the blood of his Crosse and this blood of Christs Crosse is of infinite merit and this merit of his Blood is only that which in the Text is said to cleanse Us. And it cleanseth us every way for whereas Blood in Scripture is sometimes put for the guilt of sin as in the 51. Psalm at the 14. Verse Libera me de sanguinibus as it is read out of the Hebrew Deliver me from Blood-guiltinesse O God c. And sometimes for the punishment of Sin as in the 27. chap. of St. Matthew at the 25. Verse where the Blood-sucking and Blood-thirsty Jews cryed out the better to encourage staggering Pilate to sentence Christ to death His blood be upon us and our Children It is very remarkable that this Blood cleanseth us both from the guilt of Sin as our reconciliation and also from the punishment of the same as our satisfaction In this blood note the singularity of the Medicine in the extent from all sin note the Universality of the malady The first insinuates the sole-sufficiency of Christs merit and the second the all-sufficiency of the same Haec unica medicina contra omnes morbos Then though the Roman like the Assyrian Leaper dote to this day on the Abanah and Pharphar of humane Inventions such as are their holy water holy oyle spittle cream salt and sundry other purging devices yet nobis non licet esse tam disertis the holy Scripture allows us to acknowledge no other purgatory but the blood of Christ This our Jordan is better then all the Rivers of their Damascus which are indeed but so many standing ponds and stinking puddles compared with Christs Side that one living fountain discovered by the Prophet Zechary which God hath set open on the Crosse to Judah and Jerusalem to bath in for sin and for uncleannesse And the Physick being thus prepared the next thing that I am to do is to take a serious view of the Patients on whom it works and those St. John here calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us we our selves are the Patients in the Text for The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us It is a Question much controverted in the Schools An Christus aliquid pro se meruerit whether Christ merited any thing for himself but St. John here puts it out of Question that Christs blood cleanseth us as I take it in opposition if not exclusively to some others whom it doth not cleanse Such as are First Christ himself Indeed God expresly required the Levitical High Priest to offer sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people but out Evangelical High-priest Christ Jesus sacrificed himself yet not for his own sins but for the sins of the people He suffered not as a sinner but as a Saviour and shed his blood non ex indigentia sui sed ex indulgentia nostri I say then that Christs blood doth not cleanse himself for he was conceived by the Holy Ghost that is say the Learned by the manufacture and by the operation by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost saith the Angel He was conceived not by generation but by benediction saith Gab. Biel and his Virgin Mother conceived him not by spermatical effusion but by the Spirit He was begotten without carnal copulation and brought forth without mortal corruption so that he was not leaprous in the principles of nature he was no way imaginable taincted with original Sin And in the whole course of his life he was a Nathaniel a true Israelite in whom there was no guile his conversation was as sinlesse as his coat was seemlesse and being so free from original and actual sin no man could say unto him as it is in the proverb Luke 4. Physician heal thy self for he had no sicknesse no sin and consequently his blood in the Text cleansed not himself Secondly His blood cleansed not the good Angels for though they had a possibility to fall yet it was never reduced into Act and therefore they needed not the blood of Christ to cleanse them from sin but only to confirm them in grace Thirdly His blood cleanseth not the evil Angels they are irrecoverably fallen both because they fell nullo suggerente and also because they are inveterate and obdurate in their pride and malice and therefore that dangerous opinion of Origen who held that the damned Spirits shall be saved at last as it comes for ought I can see without any Warrant from God so let it passe without reverence from man Fourthly The brute Beasts as they are not capable of faith so they reap no benefit by Christs blood-shed And thus you see that the blood of Christ did not cleanse himself nor the good Angels nor the evil Angels nor the brute Beasts and if you ask whom then St. John answers flat and plain in the Text
in vain against the Third Commandement and for this Christs holy name was so used in vain yea so blasphemed that his Divine works were ascribed to Belzebub the Prince of Devils We had profaned the Sabboth against the Fourth Commandement and for this Christ was fettered in the bonds of Golgotha all the Sabboth long We had dishonoured our Father and Mother against the Fifth Commandement and for this Christ to whom all honour is due was villified beyond compare We had committed Murder against the Sixth Commandement and Christs blood in the Text was shed for it We had committed Adultery against the Seventh Commandement and for this Christ as an unclean person was spit upon We had stolen against the Eighth Commandement and Christ was hanged not only with but between two Theifes for it as if he had been the greatest Malefactor We had born false witnesse against the Ninth Commandement and Christ had false Witnesses rose up against him which layed to his charge things that he knew not saith the Psalmist prophecying of Christ We had coveted our Neighbours goods against the Tenth Commandement and Christ in his Passion so emptied himself that there was nothing left in him to be coveted Thus we sinned and thus Christ suffered and in suffering satisfied and since all sin is either directly or reducibly against one or other of the Ten Commandements St. John saith well in the Text The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin and so the whole Law of God was satisfied though not rigore in the extream rigour yet vigore in the full and perfect vigour thereof Christ was our surety and if a surety pay the debt the principal is discharged But Christ in our stead and for our behoof fulfilled the Law both actively and passively for first by his active obedience he did for us all that we should do and then by his passive obedience he suffered for us all that we should suffer and so much St. Iohn insinuates here where he assures us for our unspeakable comfort that The blood of Jesus c. Yea it is worth noting that Christ shed his blood seven several times on purpose as it may be conceived to cleanse us from those seven which are commonly called deadly Sins For First In his Circumcision he bled to cleanse us from the impurity of Lust which is predominant in that part Secondly In his Agony in the Garden he was cast into a bloody Sweat that so he might breath out our ill humours contracted by Gluttony Thirdly In his Flagellation when he was whipped he bled to cleanse us from Envy the cruellest scourge in the World Invidia siculi non invenere Tyranni majus tormentum Fourthly In his Coronation when they crowned him with Thorns he bled to aswage our pride then let not us crown our heads with Rose-buds since Christ for our Sakes was crowned with Thorns ingenious malice crown to delude him Thorns to torment him Fifthly In his Crucifiction when they nailed his hands to the Crosse he bled to cleanse us from Covetousnesse and as Albertus Magnus well observes his hands were then extended open and perforated and consequently could not then retain any thing to teach us that if God hath enabled us we must give as he hath commanded liberally totally universally Sixthly In his Crucifiction when they also nailed his feet to the Crosse he bled to cleanse us from the Scurvy of Idlenesse and so to quicken our pace in the Paths of Gods Commandements Lastly when the Souldier peirced his side with a spear he bled to give vent to our anger The Phylosopher in his first Book De Anima calls Anger the Boyling of the Blood about the Heart and accordingly St. John appositely notes John 19. 34. that assoon as Christs side was opened there forthwith issued out of the wound both water and blood the two Sacraments and Seals of the New Testament saith Gregory Nyssen Exiit aqua saith St. Hierome ad abluendum fideles sanguis ad damnandum incredulos There came out Water for our ablution and Blood for our absolution Water saith St. Chrysostome ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rense us and blood ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to redeem us for without blood there is no redemption Water to cleanse us from original Guiltinesse and Blood to wash away our actual filthinesse Ex aqua frigida sanguine calido aegrotis balneum temperavit saith Gaspar Melo of cold water and warm blood our great Physician in the Text tempered an excellent bath for his sin-sick-patients Water to cool our inordinate fervour in the pursuit of all earthly things and Blood to inflame our hearts with the love of the heavenly Briefly That Water and Blood shewed a right noble temper in him and withal they teach us that if we sincerely desire Christs blood should effectually cleanse us then we must with the men of Mizpeh draw water too we must do our endevour thoroughly to wash our souls in penitential tears from all those sins which Christ hath purged away by the merit of hâ—s bloodshed He that at first made us without us will not at last save us without us for to his merit we must joyn our endevour This Physick in the Text never works more kindly then when it is applyed by the faithful with some of their own Eye-bright Water Moses at his departure out of Egypt would not leave to Pharaoh ne ungulum quidem not so much as an hoof and shall Christ be lesse faithful lesse powerful then his servant Moses It cannot be and therefore sure he will not leave the hoof of any one sinful affection in the soul which he cleanseth with his blood St. John here witnesses that he cleanseth us from all sin whether it be original or actual sin mortal or venial sin sin of omission or commission sin of ignorance or knowledge sin of weaknesse or wilfulnesse c. as there is no sin so small but the pure eyes of God the Father can see it so I will be bold to say that there is no sin so great but the pure blood of God the Son can cleanse us from it for The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin And it makes very well for the peace of the Church that this universal particle All is here expressed it may be useful at this day First against all such Consistorian Schismatiques who as if they were of Gods Cabinet counsel do so peremptorily preach and presse a fatal and inevitable decree of reprobation whereby they drive many a poor soul into despair for which Christ dyed and damne so many of their Congregation as are not of their faction fain would I know of these Sons of Thunder whether they believe the beloved Disciple St. John who was both an Evangelist a Prophet and an Apostle in his Gospel an Evangelist in his Apocalyps a Prophet and in his Epistles an Apostle if they dare say they believe him not then
THE Catholique Doctor AND HIS SPIRITUAL CATHOLICON To CURE Our SINFULL SOULES A COMMUNION-SERMON Preach'd to the Right Honourable Sr. ROBERT FOSTER Lord Chief Justice of the KINGS BENCH and the rest of the Reverend Judges and Serjeants at LAW in SERJEANTS-Inne in Fleetstreet On Sunday May the 26th 1661. BY MATTHEVV GRIFFITH D. D. London Printed by W. Godbid for John Playford in the Inner Temple 1661. To the Right Honourable EDVVARD EARL of CLARENDON Lord Chancellour of ENGLAND c. MY LORD IT may seem a Paradox though it be true that this Communion Sermon was preach'd in a small Congregation viz. the Chappel in Serjeants-Inne in Fleet-street yet to a great and grave Auditory for the reverend Judges and Serjeants at Law were pleas'd there to honour me with their attention and approbation And as it is the onely staffe of my age and cheif comfort of my life that I am a servant to the truely Honorable Societies of the Temple of which the said Judges and Serjeants not long since were a considerable part so that I might not die altogether a stranger to your Lordship whom all knowing men look upon as the Quintessence and highest Extraction of those noble Societies I have assumed the confidence being over-entreated to print this Sermon to recommend herein to your Lordship a Physician in whose care and custody you may safely venture both body and soul in which respect as he is every way worthy of your Lordships cordial entertainment so my hope is that Your accustomed goodness will not onely pardon this presumption in one whose yet suffering condition can give no better evidence and assurance of his reall reverence and sincere desire to serve Your Lordship but also freely permit him to publish this peice of devotion under your Lordships name unto the people for your native Candour and supernatural Clemency have made you as the Historian stiles Titus their darling and delight Among whom not onely your Lordships countenance but connivance is enough to candy any person or action and to gain them both authority and acceptation Your Lordships infallible prudence in counselling and irresistible power in perswading out-shine all humane presidents and whosoever would now advance himself like an Oratour he must first sit a while in silence at Your Lordships feet and learn of you who are onely able to speak with as much grace and gravity as both Nestor and Gamaliel His Sacred Majesty who is under God the fountain of honour could not possibly do himself more right then by advancing you who are observ'd to discharge the high and weighty place of Lord Chancellour with so much ability and satisfaction that the Dignity it self is preferr'd in being conferr'd upon Your Lordship all whose Injunctions and Decrees are temper'd not onely Ad Justitiam but Ad pondus aequale so that though but one side can prevaile yet the other hath not the least colour to complain of any thing but the demerits of his Cause And howe're the incredible extent and irreparable expence of some Suites in Chancery have formerly turn'd both parts into Plaintiffs at last when though one seem'd to get the better yet in truth both were worsted yet now Your Lordships integrity and dexterity in determining causes render all Commencers in that Honorable Court as happy as any that go to Law which is a kind of waging war can in reason hope to be Cita mors aut Victoria laeta We need no other arguments to prove or inducements to believe that His Sacred Majesty hath at this day that extraordinary gift which the Apostle call'd The Spirit of discerning but onely this that he singled out Your Lordship as One fit and worthy to be nearest Himself If Moses in his time had been bless'd with such a Counsellor sure Jethro would never have diminish'd his Greatness by Advising him to call in so many Assistants Your Lordships wisdome is sole-sufficient to govern the vastest Empire which irrefragable truth no man can deny without the guilt and censure of gross ignorance Envy and heresie And were we not generally ingratefull if not stupid we would professedly congratulate our own happiness in the accumulation of your Honours and wish them in all respects as transcendent as your Merits But though some others like the nine Leapers that were heal'd return not thanks yet for my part the Psalmist hath taught me to say Good luck have you with your Honour Ride on till your christian progress centre in perfection in order whereunto you carry your self with so much sobriety and sweetness that those few who maligne your fortune yet cannot but love your person and all the rest think it their happiness to be commanded by your Lordship In whom as it is said of Daniel 5. 14. the Spirit of the Holy Gods light and understanding and excellent wisdome is found and consequently your Lordship deserves that Eulogie in the North which the Queen of the South gave to Solomon himself Happy are thy servants that stand alwayes in thy presence to hear thy wisdome This is all the ambition of him who here in all humility craves your Lordships patronage and vow's himself The humblest of Your Lordships Servants and truest Honourers Matthew Griffith The CATHOLIQUE DOCTOR AND His SPIRITVAL CATHOLICON TO Cure Our SINFULL SOULES 1 JOHN 1. 7. The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin THE sum of all knowledge is Divinity the sum of all Divinity is the Scripture the sum of all the Scripture is the Gospel the sum of all the Gospel is my Text and the sum of my Text is in the Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cleanseth which Verbe is a Metaphor taken from the learned and necessary profession of Physick in which there be so many sorts of purging and cleansing medicines And if you will give me leave to follow this Metaphor in dividing my Text it will fairely and without the least straining lead your Christian devotion into the serious consideration First of a Physician who is here describ'd not onely by his proper name Iesus and his Appellative name Christ but also by somewhat that is Relative His Son viz. The Son of God spoken of in the Context Secondly Of the Physick here administr'd viz. Blood The Blood of Jesus c. Thirdly Of the Operation of this Blood which is the Physick in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It cleanseth Fourthly Of the Patients on whom this Physick works viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Us. Fifthly Of the sickness which so much endangers us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin Sixthly Of the Extent of this mortal disease insinuated in the Collective All all Sin In the first you may note the transcendent diginity of this Physician for it is neither Galen nor Hipocrates nor any other meer man nor Aesculapius Apollo or any fictitious Diety nor Menecrates who affected to be stiled Menecrates Jupiter but it is Jesus Christ the Son of God In the second note the excellency of this
Physick for it is no ordinary English simple or Indian drugge but it is blood and not any blood neither as the blood of the Levitical Sacrifices but by way of singularity it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The blood even the blood of the Physician himself The blood of Jesus Christ his Son In the third note the admirable efficacy and operation of this blood for it is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also Catholicon an Universal cleanser In the fourth note the extreme misery of mankind since the fall express'd in the parable of the wounded Travailer and here implied in this Us which I properly call The Patient In the fifth Note the extraordinary malignity of the deplorable and almost desperate malady which is here call'd Sin For this Sin is such a sickness as can not possibly be cur'd by any other meanes then Blood nor by any other blood then that of Jesus Christ the Physician in the Text. In the sixt and last Note the vast extent and latitude of this disease express'd in this Collective All and so St. John's meaning is to assure us for our comfort that the blood of Christ cures all our sickness when he saith here that it cleanseth us from all Sin These six are the parts of all which in this order with so much brevity as can any way stand with perspicuity and I begin with him who deserves to be our first consideration viz. Jesus Christ his Son Of whom that I may speak more distinctly let your attention intention and retention keep pace with me through these two considerations The one is of our Saviours Person and the other of his Profession which in the regular prosecution of this allegory continued in the Text I call A Physician Again in opening the former consideration viz. that of our Saviours Person I shall take just occasion to speak somewhat both of his names Jesus Christ and also of his natures the divine and the humane one of which is clearly express'd and the other necessarily implied in these two tearmes His Son A word of each and first of his proper name Jesus This signifies a Saviour it is a broken Hebrew word as Criticks observe and it is our Physicians proper name and indeed it is not improper for any Physician to be stil'd a Saviour because his principal aim and end is to save his Patients that is to keep them safe and sound so that by the help and benefit of Physick They may have what all men do or should pray and labour for viz. Mentem sanam in corpore sano But the Physician in my Text is a Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for at the very imposition of his name the Angel Matth. 1. 21. made this the Exposition of the same Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins Then a Physician he was yet with this difference Other Physicians cure our bodies He our Souls they our sickness He our Sins This Jesus was a Saviour yet not like Joseph Josua Jepthah Gedeon Othoniel and some others who in Scripture are call'd Saviours too in their kind but they were onely typical and temporary Saviours they saved the people among whom they lived onely from temporal evils and enemies but this Jesus was the truth of all those types and justified to be a Saviour under Gods broad Seal as having power thereby to save his people both from Sin the root and miseries the branches from death I mean eternal which St. John calls the second death and the Devil who is said to have the power of death and the curse of the Law and the wrath of God from all which none could save us but this Jesus in the Text. Of which sweet and saving name St. Bernard descants thus Nomen Iesu lux cibus medicina est The name Jesus is both our light our meat and our medicine lucet praedicatum saith he pascit recogitatum sanat invocatum And elsewhere in his devotions he calls this Jesus Mel in ore melos in aure jubilus in corde This Jesus say others is the sick mans salve and the Souldiers sheild he solaceth the Patient and supports the deficient and encourageth the proficient and crownes the perseverant I may call this name Jesus Angelical for in the second Chapter of St. Luke at the twenty first verse I find him call'd Iesus by the Angel before he was conceived in the womb His name Christ is prophetical for the Prophets still call him in Hebrew The Messias which in Greek signifies The Christ And if with St. John in the Text we put the two names together then we have his name Evangelical for Iohn 20. 31. These things were written that you might believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you might have life He is Jesus in Hebrew to shew that he is a Saviour to the Jews and he is call'd Christ in Greek to shew that he is a Saviour to the Gentiles also And both these names are commonly given him in holy writ to shew that he is the Common Saviour of both and St. Iohn hath coupled them in the Text to signifie that the wall of separation is now broken down and so no difference between his Patients as the Apostle Gal. 3. 28. speaks plainly There is neither Iew nor Greek neither bond nor free neither male or female for ye are all one in Christ Iesus Christ signifies Annointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nomen verbale a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ungo say Criticks And this which I call his Appellative shews him to be a Physician too for he was Annointed himself that he might annoint us yea he was annointed the rather that he might as a Physician be the more successful which I take to be the meaning of that prophecy in the 61 chap. of Isaiah which our Saviour applies to himself in the 4th chap. of St. Luke The Spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore hath the Lord annointed me he hath sent me to preach good tydings to the poor to bind up the broken hearted c. Never such a Physician as this none can binde up and heal the broken hearted but He never such Physick as this Blood in the Text which he administred onely as he was annointed Yea he is not onely Annointed in himself but he is our Ointment too in the second Chapter of the first Epistle of St. John at the twenty seventh Verse and such annointment as is transient from him and immanent in us for that ointment which you have received from him as Christians dwells in you saith St. John and this inhabitation makes you to be as well as to be call'd Christians And as the precious ointment which was poured on Aarons head ran down his beard saith the Psalmist and thence to the skirts of his cloathing so Christ was not so much annointed for himself who is the head of all principalities and powers saith the Apostle and in
so many spiritual Physicians define sin to be an indisposition through some distemper of the soul as the Timpany of Pride the Leprosie of Lust the Lethargy of Sloth the Dropsie of Coveteousnesse the Surfet of Gluttony the Consumption of Envy the Burning Feaver of Anger the cold Ague Fit of Fear c. Secondly Sicknesse and Sin are alike in their progresse for as the Lingring of any Sicknesse inseebles the body and so infatuates the appetite that it cannot relish any thing as it is in it self but as it seems best to the palate corrupted In like manner he that goes on in the custome of any sin doth not only weaken the powers and faculties of his Soul but so inverts and perverts the right order of the same that they cannot possibly exercise their due functions and hence it comes at last that the habituated sinner doth quite lose his spiritual palate savouring only earthly things he hears all that tends to his Recovery with a sinister respect as if with Malchus his right ear were cut off he is sensible of nothing beyond his senses plus oculo quam oraculo credit he must see and feel or he will not beleive and he understands not the things which belongs to his peace Thirdly Sicknesse and Sin are alike in their cure for what one way or course can any Physician take to cure our bodily Sicknesse which in a qualified sense is not appliable to a Sin-sick soul Galen in his method Medendi hath his Attrahentia Repellentia Apozemata Alexipharmaca Diuretica Dia-catholica c. And so in the Gospel which is but a System of spiritual Medicaments Iesus Christ who is our Physician in the Text hath several sorts of Physick which he still applies according to the quality of the persons which are his Patients and the inequality of their disorders and diseases For Sometimes he useth Attractives as in the 11. of St. Math. Come unto me all you c. Otherwhiles Reprocussives as in the 13. of St. Luke Tell Herod that Fox c. Sometimes Attenuatives as in the 23. of St. Luke Father forgive them for they know not c. Sometimes opening Physick as in tbe 16. of the Acts when he opened the heart of Lydia Otherwhiles he applies obstipantia as in the 9. of the Acts when he stop'd Saul in the heat of his career breathing out Threatning and Slaughter Sometimes he evacuates as in the 20. of St. Mathew where seeing his Disciples contest for priority he said Whosoever will be the cheif among you let him be your Servant Otherwhiles he restores as in the 5. of St. John Behold thou art made whole and withal he prescribes the convert Cripple a dyet Sin no more least c. Sometimes he administers a Cordial as in the 9. of St. Matthew Son be of goad cheer thy Sins be forgiven thee And where he meets with proud flesh to take that down he sometimes claps to a Corasive as in the 19. of St. Matthew when the youngster gloried of his having kept the whole Law c. Then it was high time to prick the bladder and so to let out the tumour and accordingly our Physician cool'd his courage Vade vende c. Go and sell all thou hast and give it to the poor c. Noe such Cordolium as this for he went away sorrowful saith the Text for he had great possessions and he was as unwilling to part with them as Cardinal Burbonius professed on his Death bed that if he might have his wish he would not leave his part in Paris for a part in Paradise Thus Jesus Christ the Physician here hath his attractive and repercussive physick his opening and stopping physick his evacuating and restoring physick his Corasives and his Cordials Briefly the blood of Christ is meerly in and of it self a Medicine for every malady There is no Soul so wounded inflamed exulcerated and impostumated but this Balm of Gilead the blood of Christ can both supple cleanse and heal it And yet he were not only fond but frantick who like some indigent and desperate Emperick would try conclusions upon his own soul because here he hath such a Catholicon as if rightly applied will infallibly cure all diseases for though St. Johns tearm in the Text be only in the singular number sin yet it is joined with the Collective all all sin which as the Learned well observe signifies as much as all sins and so I am happily fallen upon the sixth and it is the last thing considerable in the Text viz. The Extent and Latitude of our Sicknesse here necessarily implyed in all sin The blood of Jesus Christ c. Blood in Scripture is sometimes used synecdochically for the whole Passion of Christ say divers of the best Interpreters and that speculation being elsewhere true it may very well hold in the Text for St. John here opposing Christs blood to all sin sure his meaning is to shew that Christs sufferings were proportionable to our sins for as the moral Divines observe we sinned in our first Parents by casting a wanton eye upon the forbidden fruit and therefore Christ was blindfolded They sinned by giving ear to the Serpents suggestions and therefore Christs ears were vexed with Blasphemies and Crucifigies They sinned by pleasing themselves in the sweet odour of the forbidden fruit and therefore Christ suffered in Golgotha a place of ordure and stink They sinned by going to and taking of the forbidden fruit and therefore Christ was nailed to the Crosse in his hands and feet They sinned by tasting of the forbidden fruit and therefore Christ had Vinegar and Gall given him to drink They sinned by desiring the forbidden fruit and therefore Christ was peirced with a spear to the heart which is the Fountain of Desires Add to this that for our shameful sins Christ suffered a shameful punishment for our strange and unnatural sins Christ suffered a strange and unnatural punishment even a bloody sweat in a frosty night For our execrable and cursed sins Christ suffered an execrable and cursed death a Mors autem as the Apostle calls it even the most painful shameful and accursed death of the Crosse painful to his person shameful to his office reproachful to his estimation It was mors lenta violenta sanguinolenta maledicta a death appointed by the Romans for none but slaves tedeous and lingring yet sharp and vehement Briefly our sins as a Leprosie had spred over all the parts powers and faculties both of soul and body and Christs sufferings were as general for he paid our transgression of every Commandement For We had forsaken the true God against the First Commandement and for this Christ as forsaken for the time of his Father cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me We had bowed the knees to Idols and Images against the Second Commandement and for this Christ on the Crosse had some that bowed the knee in derision of him We had taken the Lords name
have they both a Prophet an Evangelist and an Apostle in the Text in expresse tearms refuting them for he saith that the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin and if so then there is no mans case whatsoever so desperate but if he take this spiritual Catholicon it will cure him Secondly This Collective All is comfortable against the Enormity of Sin for if Christs blood cleanses us from all sin then there is no sin whatsoever in its own nature unpardonable and if any shall object that our Saviour speaking of the sin against the Holy-Ghost in the 12. of St. Matthew saith it shall never be forgiven neither in this World nor in the World to come I answer with the Ancients that this impossibility of pardon is not exparte gratiae Divinae but pervicaciae humanae proculcantis sanguinem Jesu sanari renuentis When Cain had murthered his Brother Ibel who was both a Virgin and a Martyr and a Type of Christ in the consciousnesse of so horrid a fact he cryed out My sin is greater then can be forgiven but St. Augustine in an holy impatience was so transported with the consideration of Cains desperate conclusion that he gave him the Lye Mentiris Cain saith he Cain thou lyest thy sin is not greater then can be forgiven for God wants not mercy enough to forgive thee hadst thou but grace enough to beg forgivenesse If thou perish it is thy own fault who by wilfully rejecting the Medicine that should heal thee dost obstruct thy own mercies The Apostle speaking of all obstinate obdurate and impenitent sinners calls them Vessels of dishonour and it is with them as with an empty vessel cast into the Sea where though there be water enough to fill it yet it still remains empty because it hath not a capacity for want of a vent or hole to take the water in at Thirdly this Collective All plainly discovers that there is no need at all of humane purgations and satisfactions for if Christs blood cleanseth us from all sinne then there is nothing left for Masses Diriges Trentals purgatory and the like goulden-tail'd doctrines to do and by consequence down falls the Dagon of Popish puppets and the trinkets of their indulgence-mongers which like so many Laplanders do in truth sell nothing but winde The Pope sends them forth for filthy lucres Sake to make merchandise of mens souls Lastly this Collective All refells and refutes the dangerous errour of the Donatists and Novatians qui negarunt lapsis paenitentiâ—m salutem for if Christs blood cleanseth from all Sin then without question those sinnes are necessarily included which men commit after regeneration and conversion The good Samaritan I mean this Physician in the Text doth not deal with our sins as the unjust Steward in the Gospel did with his summs when the bill is an hundred to set down fifty for we are not solvant even fifty would as utterly undo us as if they were ten thousand talents St. John here speaks fully saithfully and satisfactorily to all troubled and trembling consciences The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin yet take heed that out of these sweet and saving premisses you draw not a fond and false conclusion They that presume to sinne because hâ—re they have such a salve as will cure all sores â—a spe frâ—â—â— saith St. Bernard sperando percunt They are not Bees but of a Spider like nature who suck that poyson out of these saving flowers That one dead Flie is enough to infect this whole box of so precious ointment Shall we Sin and Sin heaping Peleon upon Ossa that grace may abound God forbid saith St. Paul Rom. 6. 2. There 's no reason saith Tertullian that Man should be the worse because God is better Martials Flie play'd so long under a tree till at last it was wrapt in Amber and so congeal'd in the drops that fell from the boughs Sic modo quae f … vita contempta manente funeribus facta est nunc pretiosa suis I close with the moral The best men on earth are but wormes saith the Princely Prophet in the 22 Psalm at the sixt and we see by experience that some kind of worms do turn Flies then let us who are but worms by nature learn by grace to imitate his Flie let us Oh let us be ever hovering about the tree of Christ's Crosse till we be wrapt and embalm'd and entomb'd in the precious amber of his fresh-bleeding wounds who as our Physician bled himself to death that we his Sin sick patients might live the life of grace here and the life of glory in the Heavens and this he grant us who hath so dearly bought us even Jesus Christ the righteous To whom with God the Father and the thrice blessed Spirit be ascrib'd as most due is all glory power and praise now and for ever FINIS Sermons and other Peices of Divinity Printed and Sold by JOHN PLAYFORD at his Shop in the Temple THE Great Work of Redemption Delivered in four Excellent Sermons Preached at St. Pauls and at the Spittle in the year 1641. First by Dr. Soames on Good Friday Second by Bishop Morton on Easter Day the Third by Dr. Potter Bishop of Carlile on Easter Munday Fourth by Dr. Westfield Bishop of Bristol on Easter Tuesday St. Pauls Thanksgiving A Sermon Preached in the Abby Church of Westminster before the House of Peers By James Buck D. D. A Sermon Preached on the 30. Day of January being the Day on which his Sacred Majesty King Charles the First was murdered the Text Lam. 4. 20. By John King Dean of Tuam in Ireland The Martyrdome of King Charles the First or his Conformity with Christ in his Sufferings In a Sermon Preached at Bredah before his Sacred Majesty King Charles the Second By the Right Reverend John Lord Bishop of Down Considerations touching the Liturgy of the Church of England In Reference to his Majesties late Gracious Declaration concerning the same By the Right Reverend John Gauden D. D. and now Lord Bishop of Exeter Souls Life or Pious Meditations for Devout Christians Written by the Religious and Harmonious Richard Portman Cheif Organist of His Late Majesties Royal Chappel to which is added his Pious Meditation on the Divine use of Musick
whole Series of the Creatures were subordinate and subservient to his absolute will and command Secondly Howe're other Physicians may cure some diseases yet they cannot cure all some maladies being in their own nature incurable but nothing was impossible to Christ he could cure all Comers And therefore St. John Baptist pointed at him and painted him to the Life with an En Ecce Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the Sin of the World Joh. 1. 29. Sin is the procreating cause of all Sicknesse in the Third of the Lamentations at the Thirty ninth Verse Man suffers for his Sins And this Physician taking away the cause the cure must needs follow Thirdly Though other physicians may sometimes be instrumental to hasten health yet never could any of them prevent death Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis Their Cure is at most but a Reprieve no Goal-Delivery Interdum medica plus valet arte malum but this Physician in the Text is not only Morbifugus but also Mortifugus He alone Tryumphs over Death and the Grave as in the prophet O death I will be thy death O grave I will be thy Victory Christ by his Death hath both taken out and taken away the sting of Death so that now like a Serpent without a sting Deaths Malice is Toothlesse The Death of the Saints in Scripture is called but a dissolution a departure a sleep a resting in hope till Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life shall awake them Fourthly Other Physicians can only cure our bodies which are but one constituting part of man and the worst of the two but Christ both heals and saves the whole man yea all mankind if they will take his potions and live according to his prescriptions which must be observed and strictly too upon pain not only of Death but of Damnation Lastly Other Physicians use Phlebotomy and let their patient blood to cure them but Christ himself was let blood to save us So malignant and pestilential was the burning Feaver of our sins that if our Physician had not bled to Death we could not possibly have lived either the Life of Grace on Earth or the Life of Glory in the Heavens And so I have done with the first main part viz. The Physician in the consideration of whom because I have so enlarg'd my self I will handle all the rest with Laconick brevity The second thing considerable here is the Physick which this Physician administers and this saith St. John here is Blood for so stand the Words The Blood of Jesus c. The ancient Physicians had an excellent Receipt which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was a mixture of many bloods but why was this wast why such a mixture and of so many bloods when as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Blood in the Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soveraign Medicine for every Malady Nam cum me pulsat turpis aliqua cogitatio saith St. Augustine when any unclean thought assaults me I straight recul to the wounds of my Saviour when I stumble and fall foul through any strong infirmity the Meditation of my Saviours wounds raiseth me up yea when the Divel either openly like a roaring Lyon or privily like a subtile Serpent lyes in wait to devour me I both flye to and hide me in the holes of the Rock my Saviours wounds and I am safe Briefly there is none so catholick a remedy as the Blood of Christ for this contains in it vertually all the parts of Physick such as are Sweatings Vomits Unctions Minutions Potions Diets Watchings Exercises Clysters Cauterizings c. The spiritual Sweatings are sharp Agonies breathed out in brinish tears of true Compunction The Vomits are civil and religious publick and private general and particular confessions The Unctions are powerful and sweet smelling prayers The Minutions are Contributions to the necessity of the Saints The Potions are self-denyals and bearing Christs Crosse with many the like bitter potions The Dyets are religious fasts keeping under the Body and bringing it into subjection The Watchings are preparations against allurements to Sin and the Temptations of Sathan The Exercises are the practice of piety and the conscionable labours of men in their Callings Civil and Christian The Clysters are meeknesse longanimity and easinesse to pardon injuries and indignities The Cauterizings are Stigmata Jesu to bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus and all kind of persecution for Righteousnesse Sake All these are called and counted Soveraign remedies in their kind and yet I must tell you that they are neither soveraign nor remedies any farther then they derive their virtue and energy from the Blood of Christ which alone makes all our christian endevours sweet and acceptable to God as God himself testifies in the 3. chap. of St. Matthew at the 17 verse This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased As if he had said This singularly is eternally my substantially son naturally beloved transcendently in whom as in a common man I whom it once repented that I had made man am now well pleased with all men But we usually judge of the goodnesse of Physick by its operation and therefore I hasten to speak something of that yet that I may not make more hast then good speed let me sweeten your mouths after your taking this purge with that pious ejaculation of St. Augustine Inspice vulnera Christi pendentis c. Oh see the Wounds of Christ hanging on the Crosse the blood of him dying the price of him redeeming Caput habet inclinatum in Cruce ad osculandum c. His head is inclined on the Crosse to salute us his arms are stretch'd abroad to embrace us and his whole body is there exposed to redeem us And thus from the consideration of this Physician Jesus Christ his Son and his physick Blood I come now to enquire how this his physick works and this St. John shews in the very next word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cleanseth It is purging Physick for it cleanseth which is our next consideration The Epigrammatist wittily jeers a Patient that had taken such Pills as did not work Cepisti pilulas hodiè sed non operantur and he tells him withall that he might safely take such Pills on the Lords day they would not break the Sabboth sure because they would do no manner of work And as it is their sin who commonly take Physick on the Lords day so they were justly punished if the Physick so taken should not work But howe're bodily Physick sometimes works not kindly and sometimes not at all when God blesseth not the means because we abuse them yet the blood of Christ this Physick in the Text is wondrous operative it hath many and sundry admirable effects for it is Unguentum nostrae aegrotationis say the Fathers ornamentum nostrae conditionis munimentum protegens contra tentationes fulcimentum
Us. First us and only us for all that the Son of God incarnate did or said or suffered was for us men and our Salvation Christ was not born for himself for unto Us a Child is born sayeth the Prophet Isaiah and unto Us a Son is given given to Us given for Us He did not live for himself for the Text saith that he went about doing good and hearing evil and regium est audire male cum bene feceris Neither did he dye for himself for he was smitten for our sins saith the same Isaiah and bruised for our Transgressions The Chastisement of our peace was laid upon him And therefore being dead justly was he buryed in an others Sepulchre who dved for the sins of others He was a Jesus a Saviour not for himself but Us he was The Christ annointed a King a Priest and a Prophet and all and only for us a King to protect and govern us a Priest to pray blesse and offer sacrifice for us a Prophet to direct and instruct us whose redemption was in his passion our absolution was in his condemnation our release from the curse was in his Crosse our satisfaction for sin was in his sacrifice our cleansing was in his blood our mortification of the flesh was in his burial our reconciliation was in his descention our newnesse of Life was in his Resurrection our immortality in his conquest and the fulnesse of our joy in his Kingdome Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes Thus this Master-Bee made Hony not for himself but Us. Sic vos non vobis nidificates aves Thus this Bird of Paradise prepared his Nest a rest not for himself but Us. Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves Thus this Red Heyser the truth of that in the Type bare the Yoke not for himself but Us. Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves Thus this Lamb of God was led to the slaughter where he was not only fleic'd but flead yet not for himself but us and us only And as for us and only us so in the next place let me tell you that the blood of Christ cleanseth us and us indefinitely all of us for St. John the Baptist proclaims that he took away the sins of the World Joh. 1. 29. and lest any straight laced consistorian Schismaticks should restringe the words to their own beleiving faction St. John in the 2. chap. of his first Epistle General at the 2. verse explains himself If any man whosoever sin any sin whatsoever we have an Advocate with the Father even Christ Jesus the Righteous who is a propitiation for all our sins and not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole World And totum est extra quod nihil est And to evince this Truth St. Paul in the second chapter of his second Epistle to the Corinthians at the 15. verse saith in expresse tearms that Christ dyed for all And in Heb. 2. 9. we read that He tasted Death for every man And in this latitude St. Augustine took the meaning of God himself to be for glossing upon those words of St. Peter in the 10. chap. of the Acts at the 34. Verse he asserts Apud Deum nulla personarum acceptio qui seipsum excipit seipsum decipit And to the same effect St. Bernard cryes out devoutly as he is wont Non horruisti Domine peccatricem Lachrymantem non Chananaeam supplicantem non Publicanum exorantem non Latronem confitentem non mulierem in adulterio non Davidem in homicidio non sedentem in telonio non discipulum negantem non discipulorum persecutorem And of this judgement in effect were all the Ancients Then to draw all these scattered lines to their Centre The blood of Christ here cleanseth yet neither himself nor the good Angels nor the evil Angels nor the brute Beasts but us and only Us and all of us and yet for close of this point I add one thing not to be omitted viz. That as in this us we cannot but observe the Communion of Saints Omnes enim summi medii infimi in peccato pariter nati codem sanguine purgati so in this Nos Us we must not forget the particularity of the benefit which all and every of us must apply to himself with St. Paul in the first chapter of his first Epistle to Timothy at the 15. Verse This is a faithful saying and by all means worthy to be received that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners Quorum ego primus saith he of whom I am chief and each of us must in this kind be of the Quorum Yea every of us must with St. Thomas have the finger of his particular faith in the hole of Christs side crying as he did My God and my Lord for no Deus without meus This particular application saith Martin Luther is sanguis fidei The Life-blood of Faith This blood in the Text is Physick as I told you ere while and now I tell you again that this like all other Physick benefits none but such as take it and they that take it must be sure they keep it for it is a purge not a Vomit if they cast it up again if they disgest it not by the fervour of their devotion yea if they disperse it not as by so many Veins through the whole body of their conversation then do they spill Christs precious blood like water on the earth and they shall be severely censured at last among those professed Enemies of the Crosse of Christ that trampled the blood of the New Testament under their Feet And thus from the consideration of this Physician and his Physick and the operation thereof and the Patients on whom it works I hasten now to say somewhat of our Disease which St. John here calls sin which though it be a shameful painful and loathsome Disease yet are we not left as men altogether without hope of help since the knowledge of the Disease is the first step to the cure and we know what sin is in the general we know it to be radically all kinds of evil a Cameleon that assumes the shape of what ever is next it fiet enim subito sus horridus atraque Tigris squammosusqne Draco c. a meer Sphinx for Riddles and impostures and because sin is a general notion and Dolosus versatur circa universalia sath the Phylosopher therefore that I might the better continue the â—llegory here and you might more distinctly conceive what sin is I presume to call it a Sicknesse and that you will so count it in three respects viz. in respect of the Cause of the progresse and of the Cure I say First Sicknesse and Sin are caused alike for Physicians desine sicknesse to be an indisposition through some distemper of the body as a Windy Cholick or a Watry Dropsie or a Fiery Ague or an earthly Melancholy c. And by the same rule and reason Divines who are