they believed him to be more than that little one or they had not worshipped him To make a full choir of consent thus St. Austin Adorant in carne verbum in infantiâ sapientiam in infirmitate virtutem They adored in the flesh that Word that was made flesh they adored in that Infant the Wisdom of the Father they adored in that infirmity the mighty power of God To whom c. SIX SERMONS UPON THE BAPTISM OF OUR SAVIOUR THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him YOU shall hear a Story beginning at this Verse and so ending with the Chapter how christ did enter into his Office of Mediatorship and how he began to make himself known to be the Promised Seed who should reconcile God and Men together It was as I have read unto you at a solemn Baptism which he received from the hand of John A happy beginning for us men and for our Salvation and a Baptism as useful for the spiritual liâ—e of all Christians as the Air conduceth to our natural conservation For as the same Air which God created in the beginning is the breath which our Fore-fathers did draw and which sustains us and shall serve the Generations of men which are yet unborn So the Baptism of our Saviour it purged all true believers that have gone before us it cleanseth us according to our Faith and shall work the same good work upon our childrens children for ever It stands us under the Gospel instead of the same comfort which the Rainbow afforded unto the old world The Rainbow is a reflexion of the Sun-beams in a watry cloud and was ordained as a sign of pacification that Gods anger should no more strive with man Such a Rainbow was Christ Jesus and therefore it encompasseth his Throne round about Apoc. 4. look upon him not standing majestically in a cloud above but wading like an humble servant into the waters of Jordan beneath look upon him how he sanctifies that Element which was once a means to drown the World and now is made a means to save it look upon him in that posture as a Rainbow in the water and you may read Gods sure Covenant made with his whole Church that his anger is pacified in his well beloved Son and that he will be gracious with his Inheritance A brave beginning and worthy to be the first work of his Mediatorship which is enough to say it will be most worthy your best attention Theodorus in Aristotle would never play a part in any histrionical sport unless he might be the first that came upon the stage He thought the first entrance in any person made the deepest impression in the Spectators And surely a good onset is no small grace to all that follows The first-born were sanctified to the Lord. God smelt a sweet savour out of the first Sacrifice that Noah offered unto him a distinct mark is set upon the first miracle which our Saviour wrought at Cana in Galilee by turning water into wine And this being the first work of his Prophetical Office is transcendently observable that he came from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him Which verse is but the preparatory to that which follows and therefore it affords no more than three circumstances of the main matter which lies behind at ver 16. First It refers us to inquire into the circumstance of time Then cometh Jesus from Galilee surely it was some very fit season and opportunity Secondly After what manner he would be baptized with the Baptism of John it will be necessary therefore to examine the dignity of Johns Baptism Thirdly The place must not be omitted which was the fortunate seat where this work was done not in Galilee but in Jordan Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan c. For the first of these we need not divine or follow conjectures of our own invention how seasonable it was for the Son of God to declare himself just at this present to be the Messias that would save his people three reasons may be drawn out of express Scripture and we can have no better 1. You may read in this Chapter the men of Judea and all Jerusalem round about were baptized in Jordan confessing their sins John preacht the doctrine of Repentance before them and wrought great compunction of heart in many that heard him they were afflicted for their sins and grieved for the days that were past Then did the Son of God present himself to be baptized in Jordan In the midst of their contrition when their souls were filled with the desire of grace Then said I loe I come Poor People they began to know themselves in what miserable condition they were even sick unto death and when their bowels did yearn O is there none to deliver us Then steps in the peace of heaven and earth as who should say Is it I that you look for Is there any beside me that can cure your miseries Observe my beloved how pat the comfort of Salvation comes in after true repentance David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said unto David in the same line The Lord also hath put away thy Sin As soon as ever Stephen was besmeared with the bloud of Martyrdom then he saw the heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of God And Repentance comes but thus short of Martyrdom that it fetcheth bloud from the soul and killeth the old man with his concupiscence When tears of godly sorrow trickle down or at such time as compunction hath a bleeding heart within though the eyes be dry without then it hath an imaginary vision that it sees the Son of God making intercession for us to his Father and beckoning with his right hand to our wounded conscience that we should be comforted No man can ever say he languisht long in desire to obtain Gods grace and could not find it Let Mary Magdalen weep and wring her hands that Christ is taken away and if she turn about glad woman she shall perceive how near he is unto her He was born indeed at Bethlehem Angelis cantantibus when the Angels of heaven did sing for joy But being lost as it were to the knowledge of the world for a long space at the end of thirty years he manifests himself again hominibus plorantibus when men were broken in heart with Mortification and Repentance at the preaching of John Then cometh Jesus from Galilee c. Secondly The austerity of Johns life and the divinity of his preaching did amuze the world therefore the Priests and Levites sent to him from Jerusalem to know if he were the Christ Joh. i. 19. And another Evangelist says all the people were in suspence in their hearts whether John were the Christ Luke iii. 15. Now at this instant that the servant might no longer rob the
in the Reign of Edward the Sixth the name of Altar is throughout retained to comply with the Figurative phrase of good Antiquity and the next Edition of Liturgies to keep an wholsom form of words as St. Paul says and to give no place to misconstruction doth every where throughout call it the Lords Table And in the Injunctions of another blessed Prince whereas by order of Law Altars were to be removed and Tables placed for the ministration of the holy Communion it is said saving for Uniformity sake there was no matter of great moment so the Sacrament was duly and reverently celebrated and that the holy Table in every Church should be set in the place where the Altar stood We dare therefore and will speak according to Antiquity in the Figurative meaning of Antiquity calling it an Altar but lest the Supper of the Lord should be called the external and real crucifying of our Lord again we neither dare nor will speak after the sense of the Roman novelty to call it an Altar but we come to that holy Supper to be partakers of the Table of the Lord. These are not times to offer Sacrifice as Noah did and therefore not to build an Altar but only to commemorate that Sacrifice after which all true Sacrifices ceased and all properly called Altars fell to the ground And so much for the place which Noah sanctified he builded an Altar to the Lord. I am past the visible part of this good work I come now to the invisible part the life the soul of it And the Lord smelled a sweet savour What this delicate Odour and fragrancy was which the Sacrifice did exhale up to heaven I will not defraud you of it hereafter but I will defer it now and make my self room enough to speak of that quick sense which did apprehend this sweet Odour the Lord smelled a sweet savour A remnant or portion of living things had entred into the Ark to escape those were given unto the new World to multiply but Noah would be more severe against the sins of the World than the Lord was he would not spare so much as the merciful God had spared Nay the Lord thought it enough to overwhelm the iniquities of men with water but Noah presented Burnt-offerings on the Altar to confess that the wicked works of the World deserved likewise to be consumed with Fire A most depressing humility in the good Patriarch a most mortified Confession This won far upon the Lords compassion and changed the rugged brow of Justice into the smiles of mercy and benevolence It grieved him before that he had made man now he rejoyceth for the Remnant alive that he had preserved them As a Kingly Expositor said upon the Lords Prayer the most generous are the most gentle and a magnanimous courage is never vindicative of a wrong never retentive The time was but even now over that God had destroyed the whole World and see how placable he is from what a little pittance of true devotion he smelled a sweet savour Before the King of Ninivey had worn out his Sackcloth nay almost before he had put it on God saw their works and repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them and did it not Zachaeus did but profess to make restitution of all things ill-gotten and before he had made restitution of one peny says Christ this day yea Lord what if thou hadst said this minute is salvation come into thy house Nathan charged David with most bitter offences Lord keep us from the like David begins to reply I have sinned against the Lord it was but a beginning surely he would have said more but Nathan takes him off at a few words the Lord also hath taken away thy sin thou shalt not die It is accounted so great a matter to follow and sollicit Christ thrice together like she of Canaan that she had her Garland for it O woman great is thy faith Our loving Father will wait long for our Repentance but we shall not wait long for his Forgiveness As the Historian noted in Romulus that inveagled the Sabines with such courteous usage Quod eodem die hostes cives habuit in the Morning they came against him with hostility before Evening he had incorporated them all into his City So the Lord upon good tokens of their humiliation looked upon some in the Morning as excluses from the upper Jerusalem and presently he enroles their names in the Book of life Upon that mournful cry of David Have mercy upon me O Lord according to thy great goodness Thus Cassiodor Vox est quae nunquam discutitur sed tranquille semper auditur It is a voice which is never examined never suspended or delaid never deliberated upon it penetrates far it will be heard and it shall be answered It meets with Gods mercy as quick as a strong Perfume comes to the Nostril and therefore his complacency so ready to forgive is called smelling a sweet savour nay let me not forget that the Hebrew read it Odorem quietis the Lord smelled a savour of rest All sensible smells be it the Rose among the Flowers or Cassia among the Spices must be often put to the sense and often taken away to please it hold them long to the Nostril and they will prove faint and tedious Nullus odor sensibilis est odor quietis bodily sents are not sents of rest and quietness but to shew that our gracious Father is suddenly reconciled and long pleased very tenacious of his mercy our Sacrifice our Prayers our Alms all our Christian Offices are odores quietis their smell stays long with God they are an odour of rest he never loaths or disdains them O Lord thy placable compassions are exceeding sweet ten thousand times sweeter than the Sacrifice of Noah It should be thus with all that will follow Christ like Lord like Servants but it seems it is not David had no heart to stand to any bodies courtesie but the good God's O let me not fall into the hands of men We smother rancour in our breast like fire in touchwood or like fire in iron touch and you shall feel it burn though you cannot see it We are the Children of Eve and our great Mother you know was made of a stiff and a crooked rib we take after it too much We must be courted rather like Mistresses than Christians be wooed be presented be supplicated and after all this may be scarce obtain so much kindness as a merciful man would shew to his Beast Like the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa his humiliation he stood at doors three days barefoot for an apparition of his Holiness and the favour which all this patience and expectation procured was to stoop to the earth and to have his neck trode upon by Pope Alexander the Third a disdain which the Royal spirit of Alexander the Great did never put upon Darius Some do keep such long distance from this Doctrin that I may
gave you Sons and Daughters you give Obsides Domino Hostages unto God and if you rebel as Nathan said to David because thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child that is born unto thee shall surely die The Fathers sins are visited unto the third and fourth Generation while the Grandsire full of fourscore years of sin stays awhile behind like the rotten root of evil and sees the tender branches cut away because the root was bad and corrupted Thus is the brief sum of the second part of my Text man perished in iniquity Corporeorum incorporeorum horison says Synesius the noble Image of God Secondly That man Achan a branch of the Olive tree even Israel which God had planted But an evil branch is evil though the stock were a Cedar of Libanus Non debent gloriari sarmenta quia non sunt spinarum ligna sed vitis says St. Austin Is it any glory for the dead branches to boast they were Vine branches and not Heythorn since they are cut off and cast away Lastly Non solus periit he fell down like the Tower of Siloam and brain'd all that were about him I have but one short part to dispatch Periit his execution how that man Perished c. To search much into Achans punishment were not the way to be more learned but more tormented And he that is Ingeniosus in suppliciis exquisite in describing the ruine of any man his invention smells of tyranny Briefly thus Every man in the rank of a Subject lives under the authority of three Commanders 1. Under the Conscience of his own heart 2. Under the Laws of his King 3. Under the Commandments of God Triplici nodo triplex cuneus every knot hath a wedge to drive into it And if we displease either God or the King or our own Conscience vengeance meets us on every side Conscientia parit vermem Magistratus mortem Deus Gehennam Conscience hath a worm in store nay a Cockatrice to sting us the Magistrate bears a Sword to divide us but especially it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God In an evil conscience we die unto all joy and comfort In our trespass against the Laws of man we die unto men In breaking the Statutes of God we die unto heaven surely he deserved not to die but one death that offended three All sin is mortal yet among sins some are still-born and make no noise in the world Some are crying sins that have a voice and a voice like the Edomites that cryed against Jerusalem Down with it down with it unto the ground Like the Jews that cried Crucifie him crucifie him and doubled the files of their iniquities Like the men of Ephesus that for two hours space made a noise Great is Diana of the Ephesians When sinners do double thus God finds out more deaths than one to punish them as if judgment had ransack'd the body to find two or three souls and would not leave to destroy all the brood of the Viper Abimelech a cruel murtherer of seventy brethren was crush'd under a Mill-stone and slain with his own Servants Sword it is pity he died not seventy times It was Sauls destiny first to die by the Arrows of the Bow and then to fall upon his own Sword It was Absolons destiny to be hang'd by the head in the Oak tree and be thrust through the heart with the Darts of Joab It was Judas his destiny to cast himself from the Gallows and to be broken in pieces upon the ground And lastly it was Achans destiny to be stoned with stones and then burnt with fire Thus that man perished c. It is very likely if this notorious rich sinner had lived his Tomb should have been as costly to lie over his dead corps as his Babylonish Garment was sumptuous to cover his living body But now there is not so much honour left him for his burial as earth to earth all is turned to ashes that the winds may blow him back again out of Canaan into Egypt from whence he brougt his iniquity A fair Tomb I confess cannot prove that I died a good man but that I died a wealthy Yet some honour is to be shewed to our dead corps because a dead body is nearer to the Resurrection than a living The Egyptians embalming the dead and the Odours and Spices which the Jews were wont to bestow do condemn those uncivil Funerals which some report of Geneva and Amsterdam that bury their dead in ditches and dunghils It makes Jesuits scoff at our Religion Scis ut haeretici colant parentes sulcant coemiteria sic colunt parentes Michael the Archangel fought about the body of Moses and Prudentius played the Poet very well touching Eulalia a Virgin Martyrs body cast abroad in a frosty night to the injury of the air and before morning it was overspread with icycles like a crystal Tomb. Pallioli vice linteoli ipsa elementa jubente Deo exequias Tibi virgo ferunt And certainly there was some such thing or St. Austin would not report it that divers Miracles as healing the sick and converting unbelievers have been wrought by Gods providence at the Tombs of the Martyrs to honour their death and memory But Achan was denied this happiness and though he had two deaths yet he had not one Tomb to be buried in Only an heap of stones were cast upon him for an infamy that as Varro said Monumentum quasi monimentum a Monument for admonition that we fear God and rebel not like Achan that perished fearfully c. The Papists will not leave Achan thus and remove him from Joshuahs hands and the Valley of Achor where he suffered into Purgatory But by what proof or warrant or Enditement Expect an Exposition fit for the nimble brains of the Colledge of Jesuits Achan was stoned with stones and then he died Afterward he and all he had were burnt with fire viz. Opera ejus accensa sunt in Purgatorio he and his works were burnt in Purgatory A likely matter since Joshuah was commanded to burn him and not the Devil Do you think Columbus that found out the fourth part of the world could have found out this third place to receive souls in which is neither Heaven nor Hell The Devil is much beholding to his Advocates that have made him not only Prince of darkness but that which God never made him Prince of Purgatory Some perchance will go a thought further and pronounce a fearful sentence that this man was wiped for ever out of the book of the living That is periit at the height the Lord bless us from it But St. Chrysostom was more mild and charitable As the digging of the earth says the Father and the plowing of it may seem but churlish usage yet that is the way to make it fruitful Ita magis erat Achani salutare supplicium quam aliis impunitas So Achan might go sooner to
our Lord who is head of the body above all the members of the body that the Scriptures did indigitate he would rise again the third day after his death and burial but neither day nor year nor age is specified of the general Resurrection when our Carkasses shall be raised up to incorruption It is a common rule and best exprest in Bernards words Dies ultimus salubriter ignoratur ut semper praesens esse credatur It is good and useful to be ignorant of the day of judgment that we may always think it to be at hand and imminent And whereas the custom hath held in all Christian Churches since the Apostles I know not any custom which hath found less contradiction for this hath found none at all to gather all persons that can examine themselves to the Lords Table at the Feast of Easter among other sound and fruitful reasons rendred this is one because it is no imprudent conjecture that God will raise our bodies out of the Grave about the same season of the year that his own body was brought back again from the dead It is fit therefore to sanctifie our vessel at this time as well to eat his flesh and drink his bloud by faith as to make our Lamp ready to meet the Bridegroom And that he may not come upon us unawares like a flash of lightning let us send up our prayers unto him with much zeal and strong intercession as St. Hierom says like a clap of thunder Another varies the meaning why the Angel had this fashion in his countenance on this wise Aspectus sicut fulgur quia omnia abscondita erunt clara This lightning in his Aspect doth betoken that our most hidden sins shall be revealed and that all things shall lie naked and open before the judgment of Christ To what purpose doth Adam hide himself in the shade of the Garden Or Jonas lie concealed under the hatches of the Ship Or Saul imprivacy himself in a Cave Or Benhadad run into an inward Chamber Doth the Adulterer look for impunity that he walks to his stallion by twilight Or the Thief that he gets his prey in the darkness of the night Nec teste quisquam lumine peccare constanter potest sayes Prudentius Some have that check of modesty in their bloud that they cannot sin with alacrity where there is any light if there be but a Candle in the room they must put it out miserable shifts and mists raised before their eyes by the Devil who can work no greater infatuation among the wicked than to puff them up with this blind error as if they had Gyges ring upon their finger that they might walk where they would and never be discerned But the lightning will pierce into every corner those eyes of Christ which are likened to a flame of fire Rev. i. 14. let nothing escape them unrevealed and as a Burning-glass transmits the beams of the Sun to shine upon those things which it will set on fire so Gods eye is upon all the works of ungodliness both to view them and to revenge them with everlasting fire If Elisha could say that his heart went along with Gehazi when he ran after Naaman to take a bribe doth not the Spirit of the Lord much more attend all secret compacts of bribery and corruption If Elias could tell Ahab all the conspiracy that He and Jezebel had closely framed against Naboth so that Ahab cried out in astonishment Hast thou found me out O mine enemy then no innocent bloud shall be spilt without witness no Inheritance craftily wrung from the true possessor but the God of Elias shall challenge them for it so that the wicked shall be astonished and say hast thou found us out O Lord and are all our misdeeds before thee To end this point let the good Christian say with David Blessed is the man whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sins are covered not so covered but that thou O God knowest them all together St. Hierom says it thus Peccata deleta per poenitentiam nunquam patefient they shall not be discovered to our shame before Men and Angels at the publique reckoning of all faults or at least their deformity and that guilt in them which calls for vengeance shall be covered and though our sins be known yet it shall be to our triumph and praise if we be truly penitent and detest that in our selves wherein we have rebelled against a loving Father And so far on the first point that the countenance of the Angel was like lightning which teacheth us that there will be great terror to the wicked at the solemn day of the last Resurrection that Christ will come suddenly like the lightning out of the clouds and that the light will discover the most hidden wickednesses of the Sons of men I call'd you know this first verse upon which I entreat a description of Gods Watchman and by that name Angels are often called in holy Scripture I saw a Watchman and an holy one come down from above Dan. iv 13. This Angel in the superior parts had an aspect like lightning and from thence downward his raiment was white as snow The times are taxt that there are some such who come to Church to see faces and to look upon gay clothes I am afraid I may believe it Why here is employment in my Text for such Auditors though they be the worst that can come to a congregation as we have lookt our fill upon the countenance of the Angel so now I refer you to look upon his clothing Look over all the Apparitions of Angels in the Old Testament and in the Gospel till you come to this place you shall never read that they had apparel or what kind of apparel they did wear This is the day for whose sake they took a new Habit a new Comportment a new Splendor and these three things are taught us in this Raiment white as snow puritas gaudium gloria First that purity belongs to all those that hope for the resurrection of the just So St. John 1. Ep. iii. 23. We know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure And although the Angel did personate this purity only in the outward superficies yet our instruction rests not in that but refers us to the purity of the heart The pattern which is set before us is far from a fair semblance without a good inside no 't is extra albedo intus Angelus great pulchritude without and within an Angel That grace to the outward eye which man saw is nothing to those internal invisible graces which only God saw Sometimes one may be compared in holy Scripture to be as white as snow and yet be impure Gehazi went out from the presence of Elisha a Leper as white as snow and therefore David knew that the purity of the
perfection of virtue that the Lord may say this my Son is like Joseph the comfort of old Israel a Plant which I set in a lucky hour it brings forth fragrant flowers of obedience of alms of charity to delight me and as old Isaac said I smell the savour of my Son like the savour of a Field which is newly mown from which all dispreading weeds and luxury are quite cut down You flow with vain delights but that is Gods contristation You please your selves with filthy communication but St. Paul says you grieve the Holy spirit Ephes iv You are sportful and merry even till calamity comes upon you but the security of Jerusalem causeth Christ to weep Properly grief and vexation are not incident to God or to the Eternal Spirit you shall know to your cost that when our voluptuous life is chang'd to howling and gnashing of teeth Angels shall sing about his Throne without ceasing but wicked men do what lies in them to put Christ to sorrow and sadness as earthly Parents eat their own heart and macerate themselves when their Children will not be ruled by their authority Comment thus I beseech you upon all your unlawful pleasures Can there be any rellish in that joy wherewith you grieve your Redeemer any sweetness in that sacriledg wherein God is impoverished Will you sing placebo to any man to grate the ear of the Most High Will you perfume your self for the Chamber of a Curtezan and stink in the nostrils of the Lord no I will abandon all my delights that He may be pleased in my mortification I will mourn continually in repentance that He may smile at it the zeal of his House shall eat me up I will burn with devotion that He may smell a sweet savour The dolor and smart of any present calamity doth not trouble a righteous man so much as that he feels the wrath of God upon him so prosperity peace health nay Heaven it self make him not so happy as to collect from the sense of his benefits that the Lord is delighted with him This is the Nuptial Song which we look for when we are married to the Lamb as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall the Lord rejoyce over thee Isa 62.5 Here it is to be admonished that nothing is so savoury and delightful which we do as what the Lord doth himself non tam delectatur ut aliquid accipiat quà m ut aliquid det his love is very bountiful and better pleased to give than to take Therefore in no place of Scripture did his joy break forth so gaudily as in the Parable where he bad his Servants kill the fatted Calf to bid his penitent Child welcom home whereupon says Chrysologus immolabat vitulum i. filium gaudebat he rejoyced in the death of his own Son for our sakes because his mercy was free to have mercy on whom He pleased in that propitiatory Sacrifice The Jews would bring thousands of Rams to the Altar at this day the Lord will have none of them because they will not bring them in the faith of that Sacrifice wherein alone He is well pleased If abundance of Oblations would have made a grateful steam to mount up to Heaven they had done it long agoe Josephus says against Appio that 5000 of their Levites took their turn every week to attend at the Altar I am sure much Sacrifice must be brought to employ so many hands but non est mihi voluntas in vobis says Malachi I have no pleasure in you nor in your gifts surely because they offered not up unto him the savour of his Son All manners of Religions do not please God that were in effect to say that all kind of smels had an odoriferous fragrancy You must plow with Gods Heifer present him with faith in the death of his own dearly beloved Son and your imperfect righteousness being perfum'd with that incense the Lord will take it for a sweet savour and call it perfect obedience Let me now make you partakers of the third Proviso that a rank stink steams from Beasts and Fowl burnt in the fire yet the piety of Noah did ascend up in a sweet smell to Heaven therefore let not such good things stink in the nostrils of men that did delight the Lord. It is Gods direction to gather tares in bundels so I will muster together the corrupt examples of those that were as senseless as Davids Idols They had noses and smelt not or at least they were so full of the putrefaction of their own sins that they complained there was an ill sent where indeed there was the fragrancy of most excellent virtue Pharaoh called Religion an idle mans Exercise says he ye are idle ye are idle and therefore ye would go into the Wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord. Michol scoff'd at David for being in an extasie of joy that the Ark was brought into Jerusalem The Pharisees disliked every good thing that Christ did and observe it I beseech you from thence they provoked the most dreadful words that ever came from Christs mouth He that sinneth against the Holy Ghost it shall neither be remitted to him in this world nor in the world to come Judas smelt no sweet savour in the ointment which a most pious woman poured upon our Saviour's head but complained quorsum perditio haec to what purpose is this waste The scoffers of Jerusalem said the Disciples were full of new wine when they preached the Name of Christ in all tongues and languages New wine at Whitsuntide was never heard of for there are scarce new leaves upon the Vine at that season I wept and chustned my self with fasting and it was turned to my reproof says the holy Penitent It is altogether a fault that we will not commend nay that we will gibe and deride at that which is very good and devout in them that are of a contrary faction Sectaries whose courses I abhor yet somethings should not be scoffed at that they are diligent to come to Church that they read the Scriptures that they are not accustomed to rash and odious swearing let not these things be reckoned with their justly condemned hypocrisie Pontificians whose errors I decry yet their observing Canonical hours of Prayer their obedience to obey Ecclesiastical Laws their desire to kindle zeal by visiting those places where our Lord and Saviour frequented let these things be separated from their Superstitions As Seneca said of Learning quicquid bene scriptum est meum est whatsoever was well written by any man he took for his own as freely as if he had invented it so I say of Religion quicquid bene gestum est meum est whatsoever is praise-worthy in any Sect I will not scoff at it but imitate it When the Pharisees boasted of some of their good deeds haec oportuit fieri says our Saviour this is well this ought to have been done and not other things left undone Holofernes could not dislike
neither thrive abroad nor at home Pyrrho haec Samnitibus I can wish our Enemies no greater harm than such corrupted minds That Pyrrhus it is in Plutarch was a rambling Warriour and cared not whom he oppressed Says Cyneas to him his best Counsellor Shall we live thus always No says Pyrrhus when we have vanquished the Romans Compotabimus in otio vivemus We will drink stoutly and live merrily His Horse would have said as much if he could have spoken that when his service was done he would stand in the Stable and eat his Provender But the end of War is Peace and the end of Peace is to die unto Sin and to live unto Righteousness These are the last words I have to say now In the justness of our Cause confidence of Faith fervour of Prayer amendment of our Lives United Hearts and in our Religious and Noble ends we commend our most serene and excellent Admiral the whole Royal and gallant Expedition which he manageth to God In whom alone is our help For there is none that fights for us powerfully and irresistably but only thou O God To which God c. A SERMON UPON PROV iii. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee THE Children of Israel were exhorted from their Prophet Moses to write the Law upon the Posts of their doors and to have Copies of it in the Fringes of their Garments as if the whole Land of Jury had been bound into one Sacred Volume to make a Bible for them This was Mandatum latissimum as David said a Commandment exceeding broad but a Proverb being by the very interpretation of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quaint speech used in every street of the City and every high way of the field it is more vulgar and common than the Law it self that thou maist be unexcusable O man when his words are gone forth into the ends of the world Now in this brief essay which I have read unto you as the Heathen were wont to set up the Image of Mercury in the turnings of high-ways to direct Passengers their journey which was called Mercurialis acervus so King Solomon in these words hath reared up a Pillar in the broad way to instruct our ignorance which is ready to turn aside and wander like the lost sheep that whithersoever we set our face we keep this Via Regia the Kings high way Let not c. Mercy and truth so excellent a workmanship that I reverse what I said before it is not like a Pillar set up for an heathen Idol but rather Solomon hath made a new Cherubin for a new Temple a Cherubin with two wings stretched out upon our soul The wings are Mercy and Truth which either bear up the body to heaven as David says My soul flieth unto the Lord before the morning watch I say before the morning watch Or if it grow laden with sin that so great a burden cannot be supported these wings can fly away alone these vertues will be gone like Elias in his firy Chariot for a wounded Conscience who can bear it But if it be true that Tertullian says Omnis spiritus ales est Every Spirit is winged to fly much more let the Spirit of every regenerate man be this Avis Paradisi that our soul may say as David the Sparrow hath found her a nest and the Swallow a place to lay her young ones even thine Altar O Lord of Hosts and being thus fledg'd Mercy and Truth shall not forsake us Out of which words I collect these parts in order The first wing of a Christian soul is Mercy He shall protect me under his wings and I shall be safe under his feathers so God was merciful unto David and mercy is a Wing Secondly The next that answers unto it is Truth For the word of the Lord is that flying roul which Ezekiel saw and the Word of the Lord is the truth it self so that Truth is a wing Thirdly Note their conjunction Mercy and Truth they are coupled together Mercy and Truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other they met long ago in Christ the head and we must not part them in his members Fourthly You must know that we may be so careless in our holy Profession that we may be stript of all the good endowments which we had Mercy and Truth may forsake us and then say we had them Lastly If we look to our part the gifts of God are without repentance ne deserant let them not depart there is a careful way whereby we may imp these wings from flying that they shall not forsake us else ne deserant were sounding brass and no true doctrine these are the five Lamps it remains I put oyl into them I begin at Mercy the fairest Omen that ever the World had in it The unmerciful brethren of Joseph consulted to put the blame of their cruelty upon the beasts we will say a cruel beast hath devoured him It is very well that they durst not profess themselves to be men who were so barbarous But neither is â—t in every beast of the field to be stony hearted The fouls of the air are gentle in their kind witness the Ravens that fed Elias and for the Cattel upon the hills the Ass forsook not his old Master the Prophet that was rent by the Lion The meanest of Creatures then have mercy by instinct of nature yea and the most glorious also dread not the Angels though they be called flaming spirits but rather consider what pity they have shewn in their Function towards the Sons of men To execute Gods wrath few do always come down as loath to be Ministers of indignation One destroying Angel appeared to punish Jerusalem one alone brought weeping news to Bochim Jud. ii Three appeared unto Abraham to bring him the joyful Message of a Son but their company grew less by one and but two of them brought tidings to Lot of the vengeance of Sodom But Elishas Servant saw Chariots and Horsemen and thousands in the Mountain to protect them To publish peace and joy heaven it self as I may so speak it was empty and there appeared a multitude of the heavenly Host to the Shepherds and sang praises unto God surely then one of their wings is Mercy But we must fetch our example further than the Angels let us go boldly to the throne of grace and fetch it from the third heavens Be you merciful with a sicut says our Saviour as your heavenly Father is merciful And if we cast our eye upon that pattern it blossoms like the rod of Aaron into these two buds condonationem and donationem First To forgive and remit sins Secondly To give liberally as God hath enabled us In the first I will thus proceed First that it is Gods nature and property to forgive secondly that man should rather forgive than God It did well deserve record
life of Christ and so forth we go on with chearfulness to abandon fear The Fathers note it in the Cratch of the Manger where he was laid a place made unclean with the dung of beasts but ipsa stercora mundefecit As his presence did purifie the room albeit the filthiness of the dung so his Nativity hath cleansed as many as believed in him albeit the loathsomness of their iniquities I have but one thing to say more to this point noted as I remember by Gregory out of the Genealogy of his birth Mat. i. thrice fourteen Generations are reckoned up and but four women incidentarily put into the Catalogue Judah begat Pharez of Thamar Salmon begat Booz of Rahab and Booz begat Obed of Ruth and David begat Solomon of her that had been the Wife of Vriah No women cited in the Chapter but these four three of which had been unchast ones very Strumpets to chear up the penitent sinner that their sins and his and the sins of all that believe are done away by him by him that is above all names the Son of God who came into the world to purge us of our filthiness therefore the true mirth of Christmas is to say with David Psal xxiii 4. Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me to save me from destruction Thus far I have enlarged the Angels comfortable Preface to the Shepherds Fear not that they should not be dismayed either at the light of glory which shined about them or at their own unworthiness which was a darkness within them or at the malediction of the Law which pleaded condemnation against them for the Birth of Christ as I have shewed was a remedy to take all malignity from them Perchance if the Angel should come amongst us in these days of slumber and security he might spare that part of his Message For where 's the man that humbles himself as he ought as if there were any evil to come We are all confident and void enough from fear if that be good Therefore I come now to lay the second part of my Text to the former how we should not be afraid not with an immoderate fear not with a desperate damning fear which dogs a sullen unrepentant sinner up and down but there is a pious reverential fear which well becomes the Saints and now I proceed to speak of those particulars The Schoolmen very rightly consider fear two ways Quà donum quà passio gift of the good Spirit of God one way and another way as it is meerly a natural passion And first I will speak of it as it is a gift of the Holy Spirit Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor says Statius not so soundly that fear was the first thing in the world that made a God But I am sure that want of filial and awful fear is the first thing that will make an Atheist and perswade a man there is no God The Prophet Isaiah could say no worse of the Idols made of stocks and stones but that we should not be dismayed at their Godship they could neither do good nor hurt But if we will revereri we must vereri there can be no true worship of God without a sollicitous and most anxious care not to displease his Majesty He that is not conscientiously afraid to offend doth most of all offend When Zacharies mouth was opened and began to divine of this day Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited his people fear fell upon all that were round about him Luke i. 65. it fell upon them indeed even as the Holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles at Whitsontide Acts ii In like manner when the Widows Son of Naim was raised from the dead by the word which Christ spake Fear came upon all that were there and they glorified God Luke xvii 16. Surely they had not glorified God as they ought if that fear had not come upon them One instance more 1 Kings iii. 28. All Israel feared Solomon when they saw the judgment of God was in him And shall not all the World bow down with reverence and astonishment when they know that the power of all judgment is in God himself But as for this filial devout fear perhaps we love to hear of it for the Angels themselves cover their faces with their wings standing before the throne of the most high Isa vi as if the Majesty of God were awful and dreadful unto them And indeed a sollicitousness to do the will of God because he is good and gracious the study of the heart which is wary and circumspect not to decline from his Law if you will call this fillial fear it may become an Angel for David speaks of it as if it should endure in heaven Psal xix 9. The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever This is it to whose perfection we must aspire to live justly and soberly though there were no Hell at all but purely out of the principle of love and zeal to the honour of our heavenly Father and what a becoming thing it is unto Religion to approach to divine Prayers especially to the Table of the Lord with an awful duty as if we were afraid to speak to God or to touch the crums of his heavenly banquet Is not this better than to thrust our selves into such coelestial actions with a sawcy familiarity without fear or wit What is more comfortable than to taste of that Cup which betokens the precious bloud that was shed for our sins And yet the Greek Fathers term it usually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tremendum mysterium a mystery to be trembled at when we partake thereof Assuredly we may presuppose that when Mary took the clouts into her hand to wrap about her Infant when Joseph did assist as it were in the office of a Father when the Wisemen offered their gifts when the Shepherds came out of the fields into Bethlem and peept in where Christ was laid to see what was done every action of theirs was mixt with reverent fear and joy they stood amazed they prostrated themselves there was no more spirit left in them as it is said of the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the royalty of Solomon therefore the Angel forbids not but after this sort they should dread the Lord with a filial and reverential fear Nay I go further the Angel would not disapprove of that fear which trembles at the wrath to come and endeavours to live unblameable because God is an avenger of unrighteousness for to discredit this fear by calling it fervile and to dehort Christians from it against which stone some I know do stumble it shall not be my Doctrine I hold it not safe and warrantable If they take fervile fear in that notion in which the Sententiaries do take Attrition that is to be displeased at our sins only because judgment will follow but neither sorrowing that God is
the same end to make us magnifie God for his Wisdom Goodness and Justice Nay I add compare the Law of Works imposed upon Adam and the Law of Faith imposed upon Christians and both of them are possible to be done For the first man according to the integrity wherein he was created and by the virtue of supernatural Grace bestowed upon him might have obeyed the Commandement given if he had not turned to disobedience and by the Divine help of the same grace we to whom God hath preached the glad tidings of his Son are endewed with power to believe that we may be saved Now in a word let us lay the difference of these two one against another God gave the Law in Paradise as a King in his Justice but he gave the Gospel in Sion as a Father of Grace and Mercy according to that Law the reward had been given ex debito by debt and due say the Schoolmen but to him that believes the reward is given by mere Grace which excludes boasting He that disobey'd that Law was to look for the most strict severity of Justice so condemnation belongs likewise to the unbeliever according to Justice but perhaps it shall be temper'd with some moderation for Christs sake Finally this is the main disagreement the first Covenant made with Adam did exclude all hope of remission of sins but the second Covenant made in Christ runs in this tenour to them that live by Faith your sins shall be blotted out and your iniquities forgotten After you have understood the first point how there was a Law imposed upon Adam when he was created and endewed with original Justice you must now give ear to the next thing in order what heavy and astonishing matter is contained in that Law which was given by Moses to the Children of Israel and remember that I consider the Law deliver'd in the two Tables at Mount Sinai Seorsim and by it self separated from all the promises contained in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David These then are the remarkable differences between the Covenant written in Tables of stone and this Covenant of the New Testament in the Blood of Christ First God gave the Law at Sinai being wrath with our sins for whereas we had lost both the wisdom of our understanding and the loyal obedience of our will by the transgression of our first parent yet God impos'd his Commandement upon us and exacts such measure of holiness which we are not able to perform Therefore that Law was given in the barren Wilderness because it is not able to bring one soul unto God likewise it was delivered with signs full of wrath thunder and lightning and a dreadful noise to shew that God was full of indignation when he laid it upon us On the contrary he made the new Covenant of peace being reconciled to them that were lost or at least proffering reconciliation in his beloved Son Read this Doctrine Heb. xii from the 18. to the 24. verse Ye are not come to the Mount that might not be touched and that burnt with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which they that heard entreated they might hear it no more They could not endure that which was commanded And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake but ye are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God c. Wherefore the Gospel was presented with manifest tokens of love and benevolence Ecce Evangelizo behold I bring you good tidings 2. There 's a difference arising between the first Testament and the last from the several Mediators that came between God and the people Moses was a servant faithful in the Family and he was the Mediator of the Old Testament Christ is the Son and Heir of all he was the Mediator of the New The Law was given by Moses Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ 3. The old Covenant was ratified with the blood of Beasts but loe the New Covenant doth much surpass it which was ratified with the precious Blood of that immaculate Lamb which took away the sins of the world which is therefore called the Blood of the New Testament 4. The old Law in St. Paul's phrase contained poor and beggerly rudiments not able to bring to life It was a killing letter the ministry of death and condemnation it worketh wrath it entred that sin might abound it is like Hagar which gendreth children unto bondage Gal. iv 24. The Gospel is the power of salvation to every one that believeth a quickening Spirit it purgeth us from our sins it speaketh better things than the blood of Abel 5. That which Moses brought was an heavy burden which neither the Fathers nor the Children could bear but of the Gospel Christ saith his yoke is easie and his burden is light and in it you shall find rest for your souls Lastly the Old Testament endured unto Christ and no longer wherefore because it passed away it is called the Old the New Testament remaineth for ever so says St. Paul of our Blessed Saviour taking flesh who is not made after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life No passage or comparison can be made between them but the Law given at Mount Sinai will appear to be an harsh and most unwelcome injunction and that which doth clear us from the curse thereof is Evangelium the best tidings that ever arriv'd at the ear of man Hitherto I have consider'd the Old Testament in no respect but as it contains the killing letter of the Law but you must not mistake that the Holy Spirit hath interlaced many fast-holdings of Faith and promises Evangelical almost every where in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David Nay the Old Testament is rather Promise than Law yet it was fit the rigour of the Law should be repeated that it might more appear how necessary the promise of Grace was that we could not live without it and that every man being convicted in his conscience by the sentence of the Law we might more ardently fly to Grace for the end of the Moral Law is double to set us a rule what we should endeavour to do and to discover our own impotency unto us what we are not able to do that we may seek a remedy in the satisfaction of Christ But this I say that the darkness and obscurity of the Old Testament was enlightned with many excellent promises that the believing Israelites might be partakers of Faith and of everlasting life they had the same Gospel which we have the same Christ the same Faith the same Spirit sealing the truth of promise unto them Where is then the priviledge you will say that the tidings are better to us then unto them or far surpassing on our side every way Israel that believed in the promised seed was an heir but under age
brought with him lookt another way Titus ii 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Some few persons are culled out here for all that shall be shielded under the buckler of this Saviour unto you a Saviour is born says the Angel speaking only to the Shepherds that 's because no more were in the way But to as many as read these words and mark them the word speaks continually and is never silent the message is as properly brought to you as ever it was to the Shepherds to you a Saviour is born The Prophet Isaiah allows him to all the Sons of Adam that will lay claim unto him unto us a Child it born and unto us a Son is given Isa ix 6. 'T is a kind expression to rejoyce at the good news of another mans prosperity 't is incident to a sweet nature to do so And indeed if Angels were so enlightned with the gladsomness of our benefit that when they had said it over they could not choose but sing it also in the verses after my Text Cum de aliena gratia Angeli exultent quae nostra est stupiditas If the blessed Cherubims exult for the grace that we find in Gods eyes what stupidness is in us if our hearts do not triumph for gladness for the benefit flows unto us and not unto the Angels The Devils fretted and roared out against Christ because he came into the world for mans sake and not for their deliverance Quid nobis tibi What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God we renounce thee Mat. viii 29. The evil spirits rage that he is not theirs the good Spirits of God rejoyce that his Father hath made him all ours being secure of their own glorious estate they triumph that we shall be exalted to the fellowship of their happiness Well then to you he is born not only to the Shepherds but inclusive to all men so you have heard in the former verse his birth was gaudium omni populo joy to all people only they are excluded that exclude themselves by infidelity Facit multorum infidelitas ut non omnibus nasceretur qui omnibus natus est says St. Ambrose the infidelity of many now infidelity is properly imputed to those within the Church who had the means to believe and did not the infidelity of many is a bar that the Incarnation of Christ pertains not to all men although he was born for all men Every man therefore must strive so to love Christ and to keep his Commandements that he may feel the joy of this day particularly enter into his heart and the Spirit testifying to his spirit unto me a Saviour is born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greeks it comes of the possessive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tuus a Saviour restoreth every man to himself for a sinner is lost not only to God and the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven but he is lost to himself and to the comfort of a good conscience until Christ restore him again to joy and peace within his own heart that he may say to himself as Philip did to Nathanael I have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth c. Oportet uti nostro in utilitatem nostram de servatore salutem operari says Bernard Let us make our profit from that which is our own and let every man collect his own salvation from his own Saviour To you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings Mal. iv 2. The Sun enlightens half the world at once yet none discern colours by the light but they that open their eyes and a Saviour is born unto us all which is Christ the Lord but enclasp him in thine heart as old Simeon did in his arms and then thou mayst sing his Nunc Dimittis or Mary's Magnificat My spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour The fourth thing to be consider'd is what early tidings the Shepherds had of our Saviours birth hodie natus I do not tell it to you says the Angel after a month or after a week go to Bethlehem and search and ye shall find this is the first day that his Mother bore him This day is born unto you in the City of David c. Before the blessed seed was promised for a long while ye have had a state in reversion that Christ should come in the flesh to save his people from their sins now the act is accomplished ye have a state in being enter upon your happiness and possess it reckon from henceforth that you have your joy in hand this day the great deliverer hath taken up a poor Palace in the City of David According to a natural computation of days we forget the nights though an Infant be brought forth in the still hours of darkness yet from thenceforth we call it the Birth-day and not the birth-night of such an Infant In such accompts I know not how we speak of nothing but day for that 's the Dialect of the Kingdom of Heaven where there is day for ever and no darkness So the Shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night and after the first hour the morning began as the general conjecture runs our Saviour was born yet since a natural day comprehends darkness as well as light the Angel was pleas'd to say This day he is born This is literal and to the plain meaning yet I refrain not their allusions altogether that say the darkness was remov'd away by that radiant glory which shone round about the Angels and that the night was as clear in those parts as if the Sun had risen upon the earth therefore upon the comfort of that miraculous illumination the messenger says This day is born unto you And David by some men is made to speak to this allusion Psal cxxxviii The night is as clear as the day which was true say they at our Saviours Incarnation Others take their liberty to guess that good tidings make the night be called day and sad tidings make the day be called night Heavy misfortunes indeed have fallen out in the night for the most part Sennacheribi great host slain in the night Thou fool this night thy soul shall be taken from thee a threatning to the rich Epicure yet it holds not always But if Christ be the day-star and his Birth turns night into day it will become us as the Apostle says to walk as children of the light Curiosity hath gone too far in one question touching this part of my Text why this late day was esteemed most expedient in Gods wisdom to send his Son in the flesh four thousand years had almost expir'd since the seed of the Woman was promised to bruise the Serpents head and yet no sooner then hodie say they that will search in to all causes the Angel said to day but why he came punctually on that
thirty he drew in his head and in the fulness of ripe years he came to be baptized in Jordan Dion accounts it an happiness in Trajan that he began to govern the Roman Empire in his staid years I think he was then forty years old Vt neque per juventutem quicquam temere aggrederetur neque per senectutem languesceret that he was neither rash in execution by the heat of youth nor slow and timorous by the infirmity of age But the sacred story of the Scripture will give us instances that accord more aptly with our Saviour Joseph was thirty years old when he began to govern Egypt as who shoul say he was in the flower of abilities Joseph rul'd in another mans right David the best King of Israel in his own and he was thirty years old when be began to reign in Judah But because our Saviour offered himself to be known in my Text not in his Kingly but in his Priestly Office to be baptized for the washing away of our sins therefore the the best application will be to find the manner and custom of the Priests in the old Law and then for your satisfaction consult with the fourth of Numbers and it is ten times exprest in that Chapter that the Levites were to wait upon the work of the Tabernacle from thirty years upward and not before and at that very age Christ came to the waters of Jordan to be anointed an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech From this example some Canons have issued out in ancient Councils that none should take the Orders of a Priest before this age wherein our Saviour began to preach Afterward some years were abated for taking Priesthood yet peremptorily it was defin'd and never recalled that I know by any other Council that none should be allowed for a Bishop under the age of thirty So the Church of England hath appointed and commanded in the Book of Ordination of Priests and Consecration of Bishops which Book is confirm'd and ratified by Act of Parliament and yet it is sometimes dispensed withal in Rome that Children may hold the Title of the richest Archbishoprick in the world Viderit utilitas judge whether it be meant for the honour of God or for the profit of man Nazianzen urgeth it stiffly that the measure of this age of Christ is to be respected in every man before he negotiate in sacred Function to teach the Word of God Gregory collects the same from my Text Perfectae vitae gratiam non nisi perfectâ aetate praedicavit He taught his Disciples how to obtain the perfect life of glory when himself was gone on in his race to the perfect life of nature and like a good Master-builder he directs Novices as St. Paul calls them 1 Tim. iii. 6. to forbear a while and to give place to well-season'd Timber to make Pillars for the Church of God I have heard of a more satyrical similitude but a very true one that the Kine which gave milk drew the Ark to Bethshemesh and the young Calves were shut up in their Stalls at home I could not but give this instruction by the way taken from the complete age wherein our Saviour began to execute his Priestly Office There is a rub cast in my way by the Anabaptists which I must remove and so conclude this Point an exception against the Baptism of Infants because our Saviour was baptized in his manly stature Nay rather this collection is to be warranted that the children of faithful Parents are to be baptized in infancy even as Christ was circumcised an infant the eighth day And if any be converted to the Faith in their grown years it is not too late to come to that Sacrament for the washing away of their sins because Christ himself and many multitudes of elder people were baptized of John Surely Circumcision in the old Law doth so expresly answer to Baptism in the Gospel both being the first seals of the righteousness of faith that it stands uncontroulable that little ones are to be baptized as well as they were circumcized and the Ordinance of Circumcision being once appointed to belong to Infants the Holy Ghost hath spared the labour to appoint any other age for the Baptism of Christian Children as if no reasonable man could make a question of it And as all Israel that came out of Egypt men women and children were baptized that is had the figure of Baptism in the Cloud and in the Sea through which they marcht and escapt the pursuit of Pharoah so in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile Bond nor Free Male nor Female Young nor Old no difference of Nations Age or Sex but all are baptized unto the Remission of sins Our Saviour suffered his disciples to doubt somewhat concerning Infants for our better resolution for when they rebuked such as brought Babes unto him Jesus called them and said Suffer little Children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God Suffer them to come why we cannot put them into Christs arms where he sits in glory how shall they come unto him then unless we present them in the Sacrament Besides that which follows presseth further Theirs is the kingdom of heaven it is not theirs by such right as the Angels hold their place in heaven because they are free from sin And how can it be theirs since they are dead in Adam unless it be theirs by the seal of some Covenant And that is the Fountain of Regeneration I call them regenerate in that Fountain for as Christ blessed them when he took them up in his own arms so he blesseth them in our arms and if they be blest they are regenerate And so likewise they are made believers but after what sort they believe I know not St. Austin hath two opinions The first on this wise Accommodat mater Ecclesia aliorum pedes ut veniant aliorum cor â—t credant c. The Church our mother helps babes with other folks feet to bring them to the Font with other mens hearts to believe with other mens tongues to confess the truth so he means they are called Believers by the faith of the Congregation till they come to age to know Christ themselves His other opinion grants that Infants themselves are believers even as faith is in men that sleep who do not perceive it Aqua forinsecus exhibet sacramentum gratiae spiritus sanctus intrinsecus operatur beneficium gratiae The water sprinkles them with the outward Sacrament of grace and the Spirit breaths upon them the inward blessing of grace I see no cause why we may not apprehend this and assent unto it 1. It is as easie to apprehend they have a faith which they cannot use as to know they have an intellectual reason which they cannot employ And to facilitate our assent one urgeth it modestly thus it was passing strange that
followed Remigius in this fancy for it delivers that the Devil took him up to a place which had been often infected with vain-glory In Cathedrâ doctorum multos deceperat inanis gloria many of the Pharisaical Doctors who sate in the Chair of Moses to teach the people loved the praise of men more than the praise of God and were infected with vain-glory But this opinion will quickly vanish when it is rationally opposed For the Pulpit out of which Solomon prayed and left it for the use of teaching was but five Cubits high above the people and it was within the outward part of the Temple and it was fit to be no higher that the voice of the Teacher might come clearly to the Auditory But surely the place from whence our Saviour was egg'd to take his leap was an exceeding Altitude And I find that the height of the Temple was one hundred and twenty Cubits 2 Chron. iii. 4. There is no probability that their Rabbins sate so far aloft above their Auditory to preach unto them I think the second Temple wanted sixty of that till Herod finished it with Altitude and Glory Others having look'd upon exact delineations of the Temple deliver that the Roof of the Temple was built flat after the manner of all the Jewish buildings and as all private houses were commanded by the Law to have a Battlement about them to keep them from danger that walk'd upon the top of the Tarras so the Temple had a Battlement about it adorned in several spaces which perhaps were made like Wings and call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pinacles How those Battlements were capable for Christ to stand upon they describe not but I am sure according to Josephus no man could set his foot upon the flat Roof of the Temple Quod aureis verubus horrebat acutissimis ne ab insidentibus avibus pollueretur says he it was stuck thick with gilded Spires as sharp as Needles that the birds of the Air might not mewte upon it and defile it We Christians dare do all unseemliness against the Walls of our Churches no reverence of the place will deter us but the Jews were so careful that they would not endure the Fowls of the Air should lay their dung upon the top of the Sanctuary Thirdly others draw out Models of the Temple having at each corner lofty Spires higher than all the rest I know not whether David alludes to them when he speaks of Polished corners of the Temple Psal cxliv. 12. and upon one of these I think in best propriety of phrase and matter Jesus was placed as upon an Altitude conspicuous to all the City though as I told you before our Saviour declin'd that intention of Satans and made himself invisible The observations from hence shall be two First that the Devil chooseth the highest place he could find And secondly the most divine place of all where to pitch the ground of his tentation Upon the first I mean not so much the local elevation of the place to which I could add that Satan loves to ascend on high to build up a sin as high as Babel and that David was aloft walking on the house-top when he fell into unlawful love with Bathsheba let this pass for as great sins may be practised in the lowest corners of the earth but I mean after the figurative Exposition of the Fathers they that have clambered up to some high Pinacle of Fortune they whom God hath made eminent in any gifts of Art or Nature let them take heed that Satan stand not at their right hand to puff them up with Arrogancy If you despise those whom you see beneath you whether it be a Pinacle of the Kingdom or a Pinacle of the Temple upon which you stand remember by that mark that you must needs come thither of the Devils setting Many that have designs upon promotion think the bird is catcht when they are advanced they are as sure as a Ship in the Haven which need fear no tossing when if they understood their own condition well it concerns them to be more vigilant of themselves and of their affections than ever The wiliness of the Tempter hath made it as hard a thing to moderate a great fortune Servare modum rebus sublata secundis as it is to guide a Ship Royal under all the Sails Therefore St. Austin said upon my Text Non est laus stetisse in pinnaculo sed stetisse non cecidisse It is no such cunning thing to stand upon a Pinacle but to stand sure and not fall there is the cunning The Historian says true many were thought fit to govern till they were trusted with Government for this evil Angel hath such inveterate malice against all those that bear rule and title that it is very rare to find a man so well affected to Gods glory to the Church to the publick good when he sits at the Stern to govern as when he was a private man Divers that had true hearts to all good purposes when they stood upon the same level with the common people are quite metamorphosed by that time they get up to the top of a Pinacle Satan passed them over in the throng but he joyns close to them when they are exalted S. Pauls was a rare temper and to be found but among men of most divine graces that could stand safe any where and not pollute his conscience I know both how to be abased and how to abound Phil. iv 12. God is very abundant in his mercies to endue some with that spirit that they are as humble as just as conscionable upon a lofty Pinacle as upon the lowest Pavement But more usually those Potentates whom the Scripture records have fallen into the snares of destruction Joab was resolved he could not be great enough without the fall of Abner nor Naaman but by pretence of Idolatry nor Sanballat but by hindring the work of the Temple nor Felix but by Bribery no nor Nicodemus himself but by some dissimulation If every good Saint hath his Angel Guardian as certainly every honourable Magistrate hath an evil Angel of hostility to oppugn him every high Pinacle hath his Satan Lastly Observe how the wicked One would pollute no common place but the very house of God he setteth him on a Pinacle of the Temple Many times when a City is taken by the enemy some strong Castle or Fort holds out which is not won so easily The Church is Gods Castle his Tower of defence against all spiritual iniquities and Satan would not only take possession of the holy City but of the best Fortress which God held in it and brings Christ to be tempted upon the top of the Temple All places are pervious unto him he is shut out of none you shall find him says Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Exchange of Merchants upon the Bench of Judges in the Temple of the Priests And above all places on earth if he
of the Serpent and nothing can be truer than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or application that one sin is never hatcht alone especially if it be a great one but it hath a train to follow it God challeng'd his people that they had broken the bond of marriage between him and their soul not with one adultery and no more but the Prophet chargeth Jerusalem fornicata es cum multis amatoribus thou hast committed fornication with many lovers that is with many sensual pleasures Upon this consideration virtue is compared to salt have salt in our selves sayes Christ to his Disciples of which you cannot take up one corn alone upon your knifes point but many grains will cleave together and upon the same respect wickedness is compared to the sands of the sea one mote is very rarely severed by it self sand is a Noun Collective which supposeth many motes of dust for there is not any sin but respectively to divers parts of disobedience it may be call'd by divers names David emplung'd himself into many crimes what with Bathsheba what with Vriah what with Joab whom he made his evil instrument Peter fell into three denials one after another He that will praise the Lord as he ought in the uprightness of his life must honor him upon a ten-stringed Lute upon all the Commandments and he that wilfully fails in one instance will put every string out of tune for he that committeth one sin is guilty of the whole law These funiculi peccatorum cords of vanity sins entwisted one within another come into my mind from this third Tentation in my Text so that Tertullian is justified in his saying by this practice multiplicia spiritus incitamenta jaculantis the rebellious spirit hath more than one shaft for his bow a quiver full at least as it is Psal xi 2. For lo the ungodly bend their bow and make ready their arrows within their quiver For what sin hath not the Devil committed in these words All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me furtum perduellio mendacium blasphemia they are all here in the height of their offence Furtum the largest theft that ever was committed he would give all the substance in the world to Christ but then he must rob the right owners Perduellio a most foul attempt of treason he would give him all Kingdoms and honour but then he must depose all just and lawful Princes Mendacium not a plain lie but a very monster of untruth as St. Luke hath it in large for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Lastly Blasphemia a blasphemy that vies beyond all the rest if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine Now I have added to make up my Text at this time how easily God doth cut off all these heads of Hydra at once with his revenge and justice for this short rebuke of Christ is enough to controul the Devil with all his sins about him Get thee hence Satan or as St. Luke Get thee behind me Satan The words then which I have read amount to four parts the Gift which I have entirely dispatcht the Giver the Condition the Repulse The Gift furtum both to rob private men of their peculiar and Kings of their Royalty The Giver mendacium a lye without all shame that all the honors of the world were at his dispose The Condition blasphemia he bargains that Christ should earn all this by falling down to worship him But the Repulse is justitia Gods vindicative justice Get thee hence Satan words of anger and revenge as I will shew anon but first I will disclose what a great giver Satan would make himself All these things will I c. Twice as it appears in the two former Tentations the Devil used all his cunning to discover if Christ were the Son of God and since our Saviour would not reveal what He was Satan is the more bold to make himself the Son of God as if he were that holy one to whom the Father had committed all power in Heaven and in Earth All these things will I give thee This will be the easiest way to sift this saying wherein the wicked one usurps to himself that he advanceth to all honors to consider what likelihood of truth there is in those words by accident and secondly what great unlikelihood Marvel not that I give it for a conclusion granted that there is some colour and likelihood for Satan to say this is deliver'd to me and to whomsoever I will give it for he is the Prince of the power of the air that spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience and whosoever is successful in promotion by iniquity the Devil did sway the event so far that he calls himself their Benefactor Abimelech and Zimri got Kingdoms by treachery Joab wrought himself into Abners honor to be Captain of King Davids Host by murder Jason and Menelaus in the book of Machabees strived one against another for the High Priest-hood by Simony there are not so many names of honour as there are sins crying sins sins died in scarlet that have purchast them The infelicity of it is so general of such long continuance and so desperate against all hope of redress that Satan speaks as if he had forgot that this power was ever out of his hand For upon the event we may lament it but cannot deny it he brings the basest instruments into private favour with mighty men he bestows offices he presents to Churches Difficile est Satyram non scribere no abuse in the world will provoke a suffering spirit sooner than this to be satyrical nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es we may be asham'd and our ambition blush for it that the most hateful of all Gods creatures should have cause to boast that all manner of dignities and titles depend on his beneficence yet the world is not so bad but that he is a shameless slanderer in that saying far be it from us to number the righteous with the wicked to bestain all dignified persons with an evil reproach as he doth to condemn all the worthies of David that wickedness was their original because sometimes Satan hath a predominant faction among them He was a great Prince indeed in the Emperor Tiberius his Court scarce any advancement escapt him but went through his hands ad Consulatum non nisi per Sejanum aditus neque Sejani voluntas nisi scelere quaerebatur Every one that would be Consul us'd Sejanus for his preferment and every one that would have preferment Sejanus us'd him for some criminous villany Thus the eloquence of the Historian exaggerates the naughtiness of the times yet a little after when things grew much worse rather than mended in the reign of Nero Paul had many friends and Christ had many faithful servants even in Caesars Houshold The Spirit of God in the holy Scripture doth but very rarely amplifie
that Christ scorn'd his homage and bad him come out of the man and he durst not but obey him you see then this Commandment stretcheth even to things beneath the earth Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God Secondly I put this to my answer that for the other clause to serve God only the Tempter's malice is irremediable he hath turn'd away from obedience so stubbornly that he is wholy possest to defie the Kingdom of Heaven yet God may call upon him to serve him only from time to time requiring that reasonable service which he might have discharg'd by those faculties wherewith he was created before he marr'd them A Servant that hath mony given him to buy necessaries for his Master's use may be urg'd to make good those things though he hath negligently lost or lavishingly consum'd the whole sum which was put into his hand and utterly disabled himself to take up the merchandise so there is no injustice in God to claim fidelity and service continually from those apostate evil spirits although they are incorrgible and can afford no better submission than murmuring and blasphemy Yet after both those full satisfactions I had rather say nothing was Satan's in these words but the Repulse and the Commandment is wholly ours and for our instruction for where the Law is given it is given to be a School-master to bring them unto Christ and none but we men whose nature he took have purchase in Christ and a lively hope in the redemption of his most precious blood No devotion or duty to God is expected from Satan though it may be commanded my Text requires but that which Christ calls an easie yoke and a light burden and all the Sons of the Free-woman are made to bear it Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve The Holy Ghost speaks to us men and to no other if we know these things happy are we if we do them First then let us beat upon the knowledge of the Commandment which requires you hear worship and service service that is to have a general care to be obsequious and pliant to all Gods holy will and worship which is all external veneration which becomes the creature towards such a Lord who is of an infinite Majesty or if you will observe these two titles in my Text Lord and God and divide these two parts of Religion between them O God we will bow and kneel and fall down before thee can a man be too reverent to his God and O Lord all that thou command'st us we will endeavour to do can a man be servant enough to such a Master who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords But Dominum Deum tuum adorabis Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God of that by it self in the first order which is that point of Religion that is principally opposed to the Devils temptation And upon this it is to be noted that Christ hath rather expounded the Law of Moses than kept the very word of it the words are thus extant Deuteron vi 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him And is that rendred to the true sense will some object thou shalt worship the Lord are fear and worship so much the same that they may be called by the same name even so beloved for it is but an easie Metonymie to take the effect for the cause especially such a proper effect as flows naturally from the cause and cannot be parted for as St. Paul said Shew me thy faith by thy works so do I say shew me your fear by the fruits if it be not a dead fear you will fall down and worship The Servant that fear'd fell down and besought his Master Matth. xviii 16. they that fear the Lord will be humble they that are humble will worship often on their knees toward his Holy Place And I never knew any Sectaries busie the Church with objections why they would have licence not to prostrate themselves in lowly gesture at some offices of divine service but they drew their argument from this that then at such an occasion it was not meet to express fear but boldness and confidence They that speak against due reverence cannot choose but speak irreverently For thus some stand stoutly upon it that they would not kneel when they receive the consecrated elements of the holy Communion because kneeling is a gesture of inferiority and abasement now in that Sacrament we are to act the parts of Christs Guests in imitation to resemble our co-heirship with him in his Kingdom therefore they will not lose their right of fellowship with Christ by kneeling but take the benefit of their fortune and sit down I pitty weak ones that are so seduced in conscience but it is a most foul oversight in the seducers that have learning and knowledge to thrust out humility at that time when they know how that sacred Supper is the most absolute type of Christs wonderful humiliation This comes of it when they will imagin any part of Religion disjoyned from the fear of God for when they have blasted fear presently they say we will not worship That Woman Luke vii who was a sinner sometimes but had her sins forgiven and was now a co-heir with Christ yet still she stood behind him fearing to be too bold and kist his feet and bowed down to the ground in token of adoration The Text saies moreover she loved much to poize that other Text of St. John 1 Ep. iv 18. Perfect love casteth out fear but love is never perfect till we reign with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven I will yet be a little larger how the fear of God and the outward worship of God are knit together it must be so because our Saviour in my Text hath so interpreted Moses The common distinction rightly understood will be the best help to this doctrin There is a finer and a courser fear the courser is called a servile fear as when servants do their work lest they should be chastised and were it not for the rod that hangs over them perhaps they would let it alone yet this is it which David commends that you may not think it utterly disgraced by being called servile Stand in aw and sin not this was in the antient Israelites and it made their Prophets and their Prophets Children obedient and because it produced a good effect search and you shall find it came from God Rom. viii 15. You have not received again the spirit of bondage to fear therefore the fear which imports bondage comes from the spirit of God as Paul said which way soever Christ be preached it is well so which way soever God be served it doth well and it is a pleasant thing to pass to Heaven by much fear even by the gates of Hell Carni opus est timore spiritui fiduciâ the flesh must be dejected with fear and the spirit must be raised up with hope and confidence
Saviours triumph I will break the words into these two even parts The Decession of Satan and the succession of the good Angels As there is but one Comma in the Grammatical reading so there is but one part divided from the other Then the Devil leaveth him there is the decession of the evil Spirit And behold Angels came and ministred unto him there is the succession of the good To these somewhat now directly and distinctly Then the Devil leaveth him I will propound four Questions to it and answer them in their order When Satan left Christ Why he left him To what place he went upon the leaving And if ever he returned again after he had left him All these have reference to this Text and to the Antecedents of this tentation as I will declare in their severals The first question When he left him Is answered by St. Luke Chap. iv 13. when the Devil had ended all the temptation He had run out his line and tried all his strength our Saviour stood it out till his Enemy tilted the very dregs of his Gall and drew them out He that undertakes an ill cause cannot except but the hearing of it was very fair if he may plead out his matter till he can say no more so the Tempter cannot say he was cut off before he came to a period he was provided of better Arguments but he was stopt from proceeding he could not make these cavils for shame for his departure was not commanded untill he ended all his tentation Like the Martyrs of old who lived and died in the best times of grace it is recorded in their Diptychs that their patience did weary their very tormentors So the innocency of Christ did weary the malice of the Devil to assault it his constancy to Gods honour did nonplus the Blasphemer that he knew not which way to turn him or upon what occasion to ground another temptation St. Ambrose says that Satan had run over all manner of wickedness in those three motions which go before my Text And that the Scripture would not have said he had ended all his mischief Nisi in his tribus esset omnium materia delictorum unless all naughtiness were couched in the triple mystery of iniquity which preceded And to make this interpretation good out of the mouth of two Witnesses St. Austin concurs in these In Diaboli tribus propositionibus tota iniquitas in Christi tribus responsionibus tota justitia All kind of sin is thrust together in the Devils threefold Propositions and all kind of justice is comprehended in our Saviours threefold answers St. John says that there are three roots which supply matter to all the fruits of impiety the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life I know it may be fetcht about and some wits have tried it that the three former devises of Satan do belong to this division Gluttony or commanding stones to be made bread is that which is otherwise called the lust of the flesh Ambition or vaulting from the Pinacle of the Temple to be gazed upon stands for the pride of life Covetousness which would be owner and possessor of all things in the world is ascribed to the third general sin which is the lust of the eye thus some of the Fathers have fitted these three particulars of tentations and the three seed plots of sin in St. John one to one I will not say how properly a searching wit may compass in any thing But all the three ways of Tentation are exactly to be observed from hence from no part of Scripture more exactly and so he may be said to have ended all his tentation For some are tempted through infirmity some through ignorance some are emboldned in open and prophane malice to defie the Lord. When it was motioned that he should make stones of bread he laid siege as he thought to his hunger and infirmity which could not well withstand it when he incited our Lord to fall down from a Pinacle of the Temple it was to make him destroy himself through ignorance expecting in vain that Angels should come between him and harm to succour him Lastly when he urged Christ to fall down and worship him he required a sin of most obstinate malice and flat Idolatry By Infirmity by Ignorance by Malice these are all the ways that the Tempter works therefore having run through all these it may pass for current that he had ended all his temptation I infer but one thing from hence that those Spirits are become merely diabolical and poysoned all over with hell that spare no kind of sin that they can commit but defie the Lord as far as the Devil can thrust them on such as swear all kind of Oathes in their wrath commit all kind of extorsions in their Covetousness defile themselves with all kind of lust and drunkenness in their intemperance Herods cruelty had no stint he slew omnes infantes all the Infants of two years old in Bethlem Israel went a whoring after strange Gods till they had committed all kind of Idolatry and made them high places upon every Mountain says the Prophet Thou hast spoken all manner of lies that may do hurt O thou false tongue says David Though the Character which I shall give was Neroes it agrees to all them who sin as much as life and strength and means and opportunity will suffer them He grew by degrees so infinitely wicked that nothing can be fathered so horrible upon him which his sutable manners would not render credible Nothing can be pleaded for such but that they deserve an infinite punishment who would sin in infinitum if they could When they have ended all the sins they can commit they shall be commanded to their own place of eternal woe as Satan was when he had ended all his temptation The question why he left Christ is the next in order to which I will answer many ways First quia jussus he was bidden depart and therefore there was no staying for him Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him fly before him The Lord hath set every thing in its place and order and what is there which he cannot root up and displant again If he say unto this Mountain be thou cast into the Sea it shall be carried away with the breath of his mouth Or unto Adam get thee hence out of Paradise or unto any Nation be thou carried away into a strange Land or unto the whole heaven and earth pass away and be gone they shall pass away and be rouled up as a garment And to come to the likeness of this very case in my Text when Christ threw out sundry evil Spirits with a word the Jews were amazed and spake among themselves saying What a word is this For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean Spirits and they come out The Magicians and Sorcerers can cast out Devils
the Torturer Is John Baptists head so soon forgotten that it could be suspected of this Herod he would pitty Christ could it be imagined so chast a person could find good usage before such a man whose Marriage was incestuous This was like the removing of the Prophet Jeremy from the Kings Prison to the Dungeon of Malchal Jer. xxxviii But thus it was fit to be say the Fathers to toss Christ between Annas and Caiaphas Herod and Pilat that he might be reviled by four slanderous Judges as his glory should be revealed in the Gospel by four Evangelists yea Pilat and Herod interchangeably made another mystery flat against themselves For Herod clad our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a white shining Robe says St. Luke as the Ancients read it Pilat did alter the colour and made it purple says St. Matthew to express against their own corrupt proceedings that he was candidus innocentiâ rubicundus martyrio that his Soul was white with innocency and his Body died purple with passion according to that which Solomon spoke mystically of Christ I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lilly of the Valleys the White Lilly of the Valleys in his sanctified life the Red Rose of Sharon in his bloody sufferings There is a superstition in some men and perchance it is all the Religion which they have they will not put their own finger into an ill Cause but they make no scruple to sollicit and procure it by their Instruments This was a piece of Statism which Saul observed against David let not my hand do him hurt but let the hand of the Philistins be upon him Like our lascivious Gallants who call them Bawds and Panders who deal for other mens sins and are Officers for these voluptuous Markets but to enjoy that sin which their Instruments compounded for as they think it is no stain to their reputation So Pilat in my Text shifts our Saviour from his own Tribunal Justice forbid that He should hurt him but he removes him into Herods Court to receive his Sentence from a Tyrant Alas then this was not enough to make Pilat innocent But thirdly his Apologie stands upon one point more for perceiving the insatiate rancour of the Jews that nothing would content them except they had revenge upon the Body of Christ he stript him naked and scourged him that his stripes might give satisfaction and his life be saved Debilem facito manu debilem coxa pede vita dum superest bene est says Mecaenas a smart in the hand or in the head may be patiently taken to save our vitals 'T is true that such pitty is in the wisdom of the Judg when a lesser offence is compared with a greater but it is more injustice to chastise an innocent like a petty malefactor than to punish a petty Malefactor like a notorious Offendor The Jews cried out that if he spared his life but I say if he race his skin he is no Friend to Caesar but as it happens unto some Beasts that if they taste of blood it puts a thirst into them to make them raven and devour every prey that they catch So the drops that trickled from his shoulders put a ravenous appetite into the Jews to thrust a Spear into his side as deep as to his heart to make a passage for a greater effusion the very nakedness of his body when he was stript to be scourged and to be crucified says St. Austin was irksom to a modest man Obtenebratus est sol ut celaret pudicitiam creatoris in nudo corpore says the Father but to take such a scourging that Pilat himself shook his head to behold the man Et fuit in toto corpore sculptus amor says a Christian Poet that the testimony of his love was enameled or engraven in every part of his body to fall into the hands of such Executioners that did over-do their Commission and would gratifie the People in their Function as much as their Master had done in his Sentence before them will this defence hold water to make Pilat innocent Then let us hear his fourth Allegation When he had made a Protestation of Christ's integrity but it would not be believed when he had tempted Herod to end the Trial but the Cause was returned to his own Court when scourges were applied to take off the edg of his Enemies cruelty yet nothing was heard but crucifie him in the voice of the Multitude he casts about to save him by the priviledg of the Passover choose you who shall be released Barabbas that seditious Murderer or Jesus that is called Christ Is it come to the choice and the People made Arbiters then no doubt Christ must prepare for the Altar and Barabbas shall be hircus emissarius the Scape-goat let to run away into the Wilderness Et mecum certasse feretur may the Son of God say shall the Joy of Heaven and Earth come in scrutiny with Barabbas but we have no quarrel against him Non reprehendimus O Judaei quod per Pascha liberastis nocentem sed quod occidistis innocentem says St. Austin If you have a mind O ye Israelites to save a sinner at the Passover spare not to shew mercy who can be offended at it But if that be a business fit for the day it cannot be a good work to kill an innocent Upon what occasion the custom was grounded to acquit a Thief at the Passover it is not upon record Some are confident that it was very ancient in memory of their own deliverance out of the Land of Egypt some think it was later begun after the Roman Conquest upon this occasion Their Cities of Refuge were quite taken from them because the crimes of blood and death were translated from the Law of Moses to the Tribunal of Caesar wherefore this courtesie was instead of a recompence to release unto them one Prisoner at the Passover Now I strike at Pilats hypocrisie for this custom says Lyra was not ex imperiali sanctione sed consuetudine the surrender of one Malefactor was not strengthened by the Imperial Law but by courtesie Why did not Pilat then confine the Roman mercy to this just person but leave it indifferent as well for him as for the benefit of a Murderer There is no such Beast in the World as Demetrius and the City of Ephesus broke loose into a mutiny what they choose or what they refuse the greater part are always ignorant take the people in this wild phrensie and they would like the company of Barabbas before any man such an hair-brain would make a Ringleader fit to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be crucified Had Antiochus the chief Enemy of their Nation been living and set up against our Saviour surely the voice had gone not Him but Antiochus wherefore to propound Christ and Barabbas it was a delusion and will not hold to make Pilate innocent Give him water now to wash his hands manus lavet
exhalation transpassant from man to man because the first sin was the biting of a Serpent Thirdly By the object of the Serpent we not only see the Author of all sin and the infectious venom of it but likewise a cunning craftiness which Satan hath entailed to the mystery of iniquity lying in wait whom he may deceive There is nothing that will lurk more subtilly to do an ill turn than some sort of Serpents or steal an opportunity more warily Then why should not all plots and mischievous arts of cunning be as hateful as an hissing Adder Nay why not as odious as Beelzebub himself the Prince of Devils Some such there are that have their sharpness of wit from no better founder than the old Dragon that have no measure in their dissimulation no trust in their word no fidelity in their oath no remorse no distinction in conscience whom they ruine and these are counted useful and fit for employment I do not altogether blame the Turks for reputing natural Ideots to be Saints I am sure they are Saints in comparison with such cunning Merchants But a true Christian is somewhat compounded out of the better part of them both as it is Rom. xvi 19. I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen inoffensiveness tempered with much intelligence The simplicity of the Dove mitigating the subtilty of the Serpent To say all in a little Sin is supported by Stratagems but Justice by grave knowledge Therefore love wisdom because it comes from God Practise innocency because it comes from Christ Hate subtilty because it is the badge of the Serpent abhor mischief it is the work of the Devil This is for the general we all see what sin is in the Image of the Serpent More particularly the Israelites saw their own sin in that spectacle wherewith they provoked the Lord Num. xxi 4. The people were not turned aside from the promised Land but were wearied with a long journey and in their bitterness they spake against God and Moses They that serve God for temporal things will quickly murmur when they want rest and ease If the ground be not soft under their feet they think it tedious though it should bring them to heaven Beside they loathed Manna it was too light for their hot stomachs and it did not satisfie Somewhat else they would have yet they could not tell what themselves As they that are not contented with the bread that comes down from heaven shall be gnawn with the worm of superstition that will never give them quiet but these are the hints that provoked them to speak against God A little painfulness was repined at as a great deal of misery and a great benefit was repined at as but a little favour Now they that whet their tongues like Serpents was it not meet they should be stung with Serpents They that spat Poison against their Maker did they not deserve a poisonous castigation Or will they dare to murmur any more when they see their punishment cast in brass and abiding for a durable monument If we murmur against him whom we are bound to praise and love is not that disloyalty So did the Israelites If we murmur at small evils that may be tolerated is not that impatiency So did the Israelites If we murmur at good things for which we should rather give thanks if we murmur at Manna the precious nourishment of the soul is not that abominable ingratitude So did the Israelites And what should this sin be likened to but an Aspe or a Viper No Serpent is so much a Serpent as a grumbling spirit that is ever murmuring at God and Moses And this is the first use of the Brazen Serpent to turn unto it as a book wherein we read our sins Peccatum peccati cognitione curatur For the first cure to be applied unto sin is to make a recognition of it with an humble and a contrite spirit so did the truest Penitent and the greatest sinner King David I know my transgressions and my sin is always against me The next contemplation upon this brazen Image is not immediately to step from sin unto the remedy for the vengeance due unto sin is to be considered between them both Behold the bitter pain which Christ endured upon the Cross and it accuseth us that the disobedience was monstrous which must be expiated with so much sorrow Quà m gravis sit peccati conditio prodit remedii magnitudo says St. Austin How great the guiltiness of sin was appears in the magnitude of the remedy And no less it is apparent how insufferable that wrath was which we escaped because he sustained so much wrath that bore it in our stead Note the malediction which we had merited in the maledictive death which our Saviour did undergo and then it will be a pleasant thing to go to heaven as it were by the gates of hell But there is nothing more dangerous than deliverance out of danger if we forget the jeopardy I will bring this clearly out of the matter we have in hand The Creatures that annoyed the Israelites were Serpents For a serpentine sin deserved a serpentine punishment I will send the teeth of beasts upon them with the poison of the Serpents of the dust Deut. xxxiii 24. The teeth of other beasts might have procured a dismal slaughter but because a Serpent was accursed above every beast of the field the wounds that they made did superadd unto death the meditation of a curse and that their judgment was compounded with malediction And this was prosecuted in the figure that the brazen Serpent was lifted upon a pole to keep in mind that sting of the Law Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Therefore you cannot deny that this is a looking-glass of Justice before we come to mercy As Christ crucified is a type of condemnation to unbelievers but a sacrifice of salvation to those that trust in his Redemption Oleaster says that the first Epithet that God gave to this Figure was to call it a Fiery Serpent Num. xxi 8. because a fire of Coals did continually burn within it that first it might strike dread and horror into all that saw it before it healed the impotent The fire of hell was annexed to that grace and blessing which came from heaven as if the sword of justice had been put up in the Scabbard of mercy but they were never asunder Lose not your self in applying mercy and nothing but mercy to your conscience lest it befall you as it doth with a Bee that is drowned in its own honey But correct presumption and confidence by converting to some remarkable objects of indignation When Achan that troubled the Land was executed They raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day says the Holy Ghost Josh vii 26. God doth not suffer grievous punishments to vanish as shadows but he makes them
took away all power from it against penitent sinners and so preserved Adam and other just men from that place of torment his Judgment is right but if his Sentence be flat for the other meaning that any of the damned were redeemed of those pains that so he loosed the sorrows of Hell then we forbear to give him credit But you shall hear him in the right anon Secondly there are more than many that think they have found their so much contended for fire of Purgatory in my Text for neither the Schoolmen nor almost any other of the Church of Rome do take the word Hell in the Creed properly and litterally as they ought for the Hell of the Damned it is their Doctrine that Christ went virtually thither but not locally no in their common Tenent he descended but to the Limbus of the Fathers or to the place of temporal sorrows where some were deteined for a while for the satisfaction of some venial sins Therefore Bellarmine having laid his conclusion at first that Christ descended to the nethermost Hell afterward went from it and held with their common way that in his substantial presence he went at the most no further than Purgatory This Pill being commonly swallowed among men it purgeth this fancy out of divers of their Authors that Christ redeemed not the damned out of Hell but He released many by a Plenary Indulgence out of Purgatory This is nothing else but to make the Scriptures chime according to that idle conceit that runs in their brains And thirdly Aquinas shuts this opinion out of doors to take in another to wit that to loose the pains of Hell was to loose the pains of the Patriarchs and Fathers who were sequestred in a Receptacle of ease but not admitted into any joys of Heaven till Christ had first ascended but what pains had these that were to be mitigated if they lived in quiet refreshment and in no pain at all he answers that they were full of sadness and affliction of mind because their deliverance was so long stopt and Christ staid so long before He came in the flesh to release them But I rejoyn if they were in such a state as they describe dato non concesso they might be full of desire and expectation but without any molestation or anxiety All these opinions which I have rankt formost as they miss the meaning of the Text so neither are they right according to analogie of faith But the last Paraphrase of the words though it rove from the meaning of the Text yet it is sound according to analogie of faith 't is thus that Christ loosed the sorrows of Hell not as if ever He had felt the sorrows of Hell in himself and shook them off but He subdued Satan for our sakes and delivered us from those pains with which we should have been held and captivated And herein St. Austin speaks to this point most intelligently that it is easie to understand how these sorrows were loosed to set us free quemadmodum solvi possunt laquei venantium ne teneant non quia tenuerunt as the snares of Hunters may be untied not to redeem that which is caught but that they may never catch any thing No man will ever deny but that we may be as well delivered from that torment which is deserved as from that which is inflicted and to prevent the Devil that he should not tyrannise over us is to loose and break in sunder the fetters that he had prepared for us and enough to make us confess with David Thou hast brought my soul out of hell thou hast kept my life from them that go down into the pit The three headed Monster that fights against us is the strength of Sin and Death and Hell put together Sin must not reign Death must no more sever Soul and Body Hell must have no power to receive and torment us all these must be vanquished or else Satans Kingdom is not quite destroyed and Christ subdued them all but the greatest and most perfect Conquest that He made whereof we most triumph in this life is that He overcame Hell or loosened the sorrows of Hell For Sin doth remain in us here though the force be broken Death also prevails against our body though it shall be but for a time but here is the fulness of our Redemption and of Christs Victory that Hell is absolutely conquered and shall never lay hold of them that believe And I must go one step further with them that follow this interpretation wherein my judgment favours them for true Doctrine that Christ did locally go down into Hell when He loosed the sorrows of Hell for his Elects sake Christus inferos adiit ne nos adiremus says Tertullian Christ went into Hell that we might never come thither and Fulgentius is a great light to this Article of the Creed It was fit that the Son of God being without sin should descend as far as man had faln by sin and so He freed all the faithful of the world from the beginning to the end that they should never come thither I will fill the Scale with no more authorities than St. Austin's this is his Sentence it was convenient that Christ should descend into Hell to procure us freedom from Hell as it behoved him to die and to rise again the third day that we might not die for ever but rise from death Some that affect not this way of Christs local descending into Hell rejoyn thus that no man denies but Christ delivered us from the power of darkness and that He spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly but it is not certain by what means this was done by his Divinity or by his Humanity or both by the vertue of his Sufferings Death Burial Resurrection or by the real Descending of his Soul in that place nay one Lutheran Confession is not averse to think that He went thither both in Body and Soul in the very moment of his Resurrection I believe by the penetration of the gross body of the Earth they would bring in some succour to help forward their Consubstantiation The most equal way to try this is the express Letter of the Scripture the clearest exposition of the Apostles Creed and the greatest consonancy of reason The Testimonies of Scripture most firmly to be insisted on is Ephes iv 9. That he ascended what is it but that he first descended into the lowest parts of the earth I know this may well be expounded that Christ was humbled to be a man upon earth in the form of a Servant But if the learned and pious Fathers that were of old may be the Judges of the interpretation And who fitter the lowest parts of the earth are the nethermost Hell Beza hath cited a parallel place out of the Psalms to make these words of the Apostle agree unto the Incarnation of our Lord Psal cxxxix 15. My substance was hidden
can we spend our time more profitably than to speak of time as it is to be referred and allotted to the glory of him that made all time But that I may leave no part of my Treatise naked but cover that which I shall run through with some portion of my Text I must put you to call to mind what I delivered in general in two Sermons that these words excel both in the Letter and in the Spirit In the Letter they are part of a Psalm which was sung for Davids sake and for that Festival which the People kept to God for his Inauguration when he was made King over Israel In the Spirit they reach to Christ as David in most of his Psalms had more regard to Christ than to himself and that with two interpretations By some the whole Age of the Gospel is entituled the day of Christ for through the Gospel the terrours of Sin and Death and Hell are broken and we are comforted on every side to rejoyce and be glad By others among all Evangelical days the Feast of the Resurrection is pickt out by way of eminency for never did the Sun shine upon any day wherein we had more cause to triumph and be joyful than when the Son of God having been crucified for our sins did rise from death the third day to conquer mortality and corruption that we might live forever These Points being dispatcht in their proper season what is left to be handled Two things of great moment Beloved First the Resurrection of Christ did not only sanctifie that one day wherein he rose but occasion was taken from thence to sanctifie the first day of every Week to the Lord because Christ rose on the first day Hence I am your debtor to shew how this and every Sunday is the day which the Lord hath made and we must rejoyce and be glad in it Secondly Forasmuch as an holy day was appointed that all Israel might worship Jehovah for that precious benefit that so good a King as David was reigned over them therefore the Ordination of Festival days to profess thanksgiving for the high and excellent works of God becometh the Church for so good a sanction and becometh the righteous to be joyful in them Then of the Lords day for our ordinary Assemblies in Gods House and of holy Festivals for our extraordinary Assemblies these are the matter of my ensuing Discourse which I will follow upon the touchstone of truth and for the benefit of your edification Concerning the day which we keep weekly in the name of the Lord I must speak of it two ways in reference to Gods making and our rejoycing in reference to the Divine Sanction and out Sanctification The Divine Sanction of the day must be traversed in four Points 1. What ground we have for keeping the Lords day in the fourth Commandment 2. What ground we have for it from the Resurrection of Christ 3. What ground we have for it in the Gospel from the Precept of Christ or his Apostles And 4. What ground we have for it from the practise of the Apostles and from the practise of the Church in all ages In this piece of a Sermon I will deliver you my mind upon this Controversie which now adays makes voluminous disputes First It is manifest that the Fourth Commandment hath another air and Constitution in it than the other Nine Those Nine being consonant to the light of natural reason so that they bind the Conscience without a Law-giver this is neither principle or necessary conclusion of natural reason in such a clear manner as that a judicious man shall be forced upon understanding the terms to yield assent unto it And I wonder that any one should stumble so grosly to say that it is natural Law to keep every seventh day that is the last day or the first day of the Week holy when the distribution of time into Weeks is arbitrary and not natural This Commandment therefore having a composition in it diverse from the rest it hath somewhat in it particular to the state of the Jewish Synagogue and somewhat that binds the Christian Church For it doth not stand for a Cypher in the two Tables at this time as if the force of it were expired but there is somewhat in it which is Moral and obligeth mankind unto the end of the world The enforcement of the seventh day in strict and Sabbatical rest is out of date as well as the rest of the Pedagogical Ordinances of Moses But there is this Kernel within the shell that holy Assemblies are for ever to be called together at fit and convenient times to praise the Lord nay further reason and gratitude cannot imagine a more fit and convenient time than the constant solemnizing of a Seventh day nay than the constant observation of this Seventh day the first day of the Week Therefore I determine that we ground the keeping of the Lords day upon the fourth Commandment not upon the Letter of it for that were Jewish but upon the natural equity or moral contents of it We recede from the Letter as much as can be for they rested and we work on their Sabbath but to rest on the seventh day and to work on the seventh day cannot flow out of the same Statute For the moral equity we give all diligence to obey it and he that rejects the Lords Day or violates it transgresseth the Fourth Commandment because though neither that day there mentioned nor the determination of a Seventh day is absolutely commanded yet it is deduced out of it by consequence It is enough to have general and common Rules for Ecclesiastical Orders of time and place under the liberty of the Gospel And God gives us the light of discretion to draw out special rules at what time in what place with what Decorum and Order to meet together and if the governance of this discretion be not observed the Spirit of the Lord is disobeyed The Lord hath not given over his interest in our time but that we must allot some days and hours to his Service as it were for the redemption of all our time which is due unto him Neither hath he given us a vagrant liberty to serve him when we will but the out-goings of the Morning and Evening must praise him and we must often throng together at solemn times to worship him To go further though the Commandment hath not prefixt us a day for it prefixt no definite day but the Sabbath to the Jews yet it hath given us light what ought to be done by way of prudent Constitution viz. that we of the Evangelical Kingdom should grievously sin if we did not voluntarily devote as much time to the honour of God as the Jews were bound to do And then since the Lord did enforce why that day was enjoyned to them it was the day wherein the Lord did rest from his work and it was most pious that they should remember the benefit
whither should they dig but into Hell Which Phrase of the Prophet Amos may be grounded upon these four Reasons Sinners dig into Hell 1. Propter infinitatem peccati Iniquity is infinite like Hell and hath no bottom The waves of ungodliness will take a man in the first conceit to the ankles in the delight unto the knees in the act unto the middle in the custome to the neck in the contumacy the stream will go over our soul When we set foot into any bad action who knows his journies end Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aevum The Romans had an order in their Court to cut off a suit of intricate debate and called it Ampliùs when they would thereafter determine more of the matter Such an Ampliùs was in Davids Adultery such an Ampliùs in St. Peters denial Like a Cylindrus rouled down an hill so is the sin of our heart if you once let it go who can stop it As it is said of fluxus puncti that the least point may run into infinite so can Satan malleate transgressions broader and broader and bring in seven devils more where there was but one before and draw out as it were one Oxe hide into many thongs to compass a City 2. This Phrase doth note sterilitatem peccati the unfruitfulness of sin They that dig would find it foundation they that dig into Hell miss their aim and find none As when one that sleeps thinks he eats but when he wakes his appetite is hungry So worldlings have nothing but in a dream and when they awake they grasp nothing That World which the Devil promised to our Saviour could be but some phantastical representation because he shewed it in the twinkling of an eye Sin is like the tombe of Queen Semiramis that talks of a treasury to be hid within it but he that digs into it shall lose his labour and be laught at for his covetousness Satans Sophistry never had good conclusion and when you gather his harvest all is but Tares Wherefore out sins are compared to the hairs of our head and the sands upon the Sea shore What are the hairs of our head Neither bloud nor marrow but the excrements of our body What are the sands of the Sea But the barren wash which the Land hath spued out Such are the Sins that intangle us But for such sinners as we have to deal with there is to day a third reason why they dig into Hell Propter similitudinem cum damnatis for their resemblance to the evil spirits and the damned Those unhappy souls says Aquinas in whom all good must needs be extinguished Volunt ex invidiâ omnes illud malum perpeti quod ipsi patiuntur they desire that all the world may sink into the same Lake of fire with themselves And whereas the rich man requested to have some body sent to convert his brethren Ay says that learned Doctor he knowing that a remnant must necessarily be saved out of the root of envy had rather his own should escape harmless than another though they least deserved it but absolutely they wish the damnation of all Our Parliament underminers how like are they to these envious prisoners of darkness In whose eyes no life found grace to be preserved neither King nor Progeny Judah nor Levi Nobles nor Communalty the Reformed nor the Romish They did not thirst for one draught but for a bath of bloud Again says Ales the Fiends of Hell are so malicious Vt synteresis in iis extincta sit that the light of well-guided reason is extinguished in them And his Argument is this Quia in gohennâ se vellent esse potiùs quà m non esse ut pugnent contra Deum They had rather remain so tormented than be quite abolished that the red Dragon and his Angels might fight against God Was it not thus with those Romish Priests the main actors in this intended Tragedy who chose to lurk within this Island in despight of Laws awd terrour only to stir up Treason and Rebellion rather than to take fair leave granted to depart and to pack for ever Lastly There is a fourth reason noted by Lyra why some are said to dig to Hell because they use Sorceries and inchantments vain miracles to deceive and in the power of Antichrist strong delusions When a Thessalian Strumpet was accused to Olympias for inchanting her husband Philips affections she hath a smooth painted face and an alluring tongue says Olympias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there needs no other Witchcraft Neither will I accuse the Roman Church for dealing with familiar Spirits yet deluding Miracles are the next wall to Witchcraft but golden Promises and ambitious Titles Have been their Sorcery to entice away some discontented persons from us and then they glory in their victory and conversion It is well known you may get Fish enough with poisoned baits but what are those fish good for when you have them All that came to the Inchanteress Circe she won them to be her own a slender purchase when they degenerated into Hogs and Asses Neither let it move you beloved to hear a Jesuit boast that they have won the flower of our Gentry and Clergy at several times and left the ignorant part behind When the Athenian Orator called the Lacedaemonians unlearned true indeed says Plistonax we are the only Greeks that have learnt no ill manners from you It is our own case God be praised who of all Nations are least seasoned with the Tridentine Leaven But let them use their arts and inveagle them who were lost from the begining dig into Hell yet surely there is no inchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel says Balaam Num. xxiii 27. Were our foes spiritual powers of darkness in high places as they are but men yet for our comfort first says St. Austin Devils can do no more than God permits Quare nec propitiandos nec timendos existimamus They are not worth our fear or our courtesie never flatter and claw them with kindness to bind their hands Secondly Upon the speech of the Prophet Elisha to his Servant Plures nobiscum sunt Hugo concludes that we have the better side and that the number of good Angels exceeds the bad And Aquinas is not without a reason for it Sin says he is against the natural inclination of an Angel Ea verò quae contra naturam fiunt in paucioribus accident but in the effects of nature in any kind it is never seen but that nature doth more often hit than miss Thirdly Our Countriman Ales gives us this courage Thirdly That although the Divel who began the quarrel but with a Serpents sting and in these last days is grown more fierce and will end it with a Lions paw yet Major est Christi gratia ad ligandum quà m fuit priùs the virtue of Christ is more efficacious now than ever before to bind him fast What shall I say then since the worst
that was snatcht away unpreparedly without all sense of death It is true she had no Will to make she had no Legacies to bequeath for all was lost She had no house to set in order with Hezekiah for her Habitation was consumed with fire and brimstone yet she had a Soul to set in order which was ten thousand times more than all beside And although I will define nothing rashly against her for this judgment sake for I have learnt that modesty to let God only judge his own servants yet this momentary destruction of Lots Wife I am sure is worth both this and many hours meditations Quod cuivis cuiquam that which hapned but once since the world began to this one person may happen in some kind every day to any man Saul was desperately driven to seek to raise Samuel from the dead and appear before him this instance in my Text is one that never went down to the grave among the dead that she might always be in the remembrance of the living how she looked back to Sodom and became a Pillar of Salt Which words I divided formerly into such terms as might both respect the Contents of the Text and be expedient places for your memory Therefore I called the two principal branches an Epitaph and a Tomb. The Epitaph thus But his Wife looked back from behind him The Tomb which this Epitaph respects in that which follows And she became a Pillar of Salt If God made Epitaphs the stones of the Church should not be guilty of such flattery as they are for none of the offences of Lots Wife are left out in these few words but she is accused and very justly of these particulars as I shewed before 1. Of disobedience that she would not observe the precise Commandment of God in every motion of her body 2. Of great folly and blindness of heart that she would reject God and the preservation of her own life upon such easie conditions as to hold still her head 3. Of a Spirit most unattentive to learn for Lot went before her constantly and stedfastly the example was in her eye every step from Sodom to Zoar yet she would go her own ways 4. Of incredulity an incredulous soul Wisd x. 7. Either she did not believe that Sodom should be consumed as God had sent word or else she thought it would not be the worse for her though she turn'd about and lookt upon it 5. She relapsed and fainted in well-doing and desired to live again among those wicked sinners from whom God had withdrawn her This was opened in the first part The second is as strange for a Tomb as this was for an Epitaph A Christian Poet wrote thus Enigmatically upon it Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver sepulchrum tamen cadaver intus That she was made a Carkass that had no Sepulchre nay that she was made a Sepulchre that had no Carkass or rather that she was both Carkass and Sepulchre And to conform my self to the resolution of this Riddle I will consider this punishment inflicted from God two ways in reference to her self as to the Carkass and in reference to that into which she was turned as to the Sepulchre She that was punisht 1. Was one of those very few that professed the name of God among thousands that were unrighteous 2. She was one of four that were brought out of Sodom and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. 3. She was well nigh pass'd all danger and suffred shipwrack in the very Haven 4. She did wilfully cast her self away at the last cast therefore we read she was lost but not that she was ever bemoaned After this in reference to the Pillar of Salt 1. I consider it as a new punishment the like was never heard 2. As a sudden or momentaneous punishment 3. As a miraculous and most supernatural punishment 4. As a mortal punishment but not as a final destruction Of these in order The Lord told Abraham in the former Chap. that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was very great and therefore He was come down to see how grievous their sin was That which called him down to execute vengeance was not the iniquity of Lots house that little Family was all the remnant He had there to call upon his name but the filthy sins of the other Canaanites that abounded with rank and unnatural pollutions And the Angel tells Lot in this Chapter they were come to spare him and his but the Lord had sent them to destroy that City because the cry of it was waxen great before the Lord. They confess their Commission was given them to punish none but those Children of perdition that were aliens from all fear of God And yet behold one that was in the Catalogue of them that professed the Worship of God she offended and the hand of Gods fury is stretched out upon her She became a pillar of Salt Says one upon it Par est ut judex priùs suam domum examinet quà m alienam A Magistrate that will reform abuses let him make his own house the first example of reformation and then his Justice may more confidently call any to account that are not so near unto him St. Paul grounding upon that equitable case deciphers a good Bishop to be one that ruleth his own house well for if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God 1 Tim. iii. 5. This brings it to our apprehension directly why this person in my Text was chastised with no less than death because God would shew his justice upon his own Family where they sinned that unconverted Reprobates might expect nothing but the utmost of severity For if these things be done in a green tree what shall be done in a dry Luk. xxiii 31. There is no sort of anguish no calamity of any name or magnitude Captivities Famines Diseases that doth not shew it self as soon within the bowels of the Church as in any part of the World beside For a small trespass is taken more unkindly at their hands where grace abounds than a great profanation from the Heathen who were left as forsaken as the Mountains of Gilboa in Davids curse upon whom no dew of heaven did fall A small sin in Judah is as bad as an Idol in Samaria A lukewarmness or faintness of Religion in Laodicaea as bad as Paganism in those Regions that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death Therefore the first stroke of indignation shall light upon their sins from whom the Lord did expect the least offence and the most obedience Slay utterly both young and old both Maids and Children and begin at my Sanctuary says God Ezek. ix 6. You hear that the sword of vengeance shall be drawn forth first against the Sanctuary that is the pollutions of the Sanctuary Christ will sooner take his scourge
blessing as the High Priests did Aceldema to bury the accursed treasure this is scandalous to the weak consciences which are without What will the Heathen say Are these the peculiar Nation whom the Lord hath chosen And woe unto the World because of scandals Mark how many Ages how much ground our Saviour compasseth in vaè mundo one Age is but an hour-glass of time these will lie in our memory for ever like the pain in the Shunamites head caput dolet it may be our death Vae mundo the pale horse wounded but the fourth part of the earth Apoc. iv but scandals may cover all the four Quarters like the flies of Egypt O you that live in Canaan upon holy ground on Faery Land as we call it whose vices the weakness of some would be proud to imitate why will the Lord reckon not only with the Goats on his left hand but with the Sheep of his right hand in one mighty day since in particular the last minute of every mans life is the first minute of his trial Why is there one day of judgment since there have been a thousand long ago both for glory and condemnation Because though corruption have seized upon thee in the Grave and so much of thy dust remain not as may offend a tender eye yet thy sins may live and he that looks upon them may conceive spots like the Flocks of Jacob. I do not excuse those tender ones that turn a sore eye more carefully from the Sun which would make it smart than from an ill example that will cast a dark shadow upon the soul The man in the Comedy that made Jupiter his leader to commit Fornication says St. Austin Nullo modo peccasset si Catonem imitari maluisset quà m Jovem But yet it was a fault in you that removed not the stone as the Angel did but cast it in the way against which he stumbled It is a good Meditation that the soul of that man let it consult with it self will never attain to a perfect peace that made another sin I am reconciled unto God in Jesus Christ Could I wish any more Yes I shall ever be unresolved whether he be reconciled unto God by repentance whom I entangled by my occasion David in his one sin polluted Bathsheba with his bed Vriah with drunkenness Joab with cruelty David asked forgiveness I find it in his Penitential Psalms I never read that Vriah did so or that Bathsheba did the like I hope the best I never find it where Joab did repent I fear the worst And could David be at peace if Joab perished The Tyrants of Thrace think themselves never secure in their Thrones but by the destruction of their kindred and brethren but unhappy are the Saints of God if they rob his Kingdom of any that should reign for company And how is that done Never worse than by that scandal which christens sin with a name as the Sodomites Simon Magus the Nicolaitans all Masters of Heresies woe unto such as are the Parents of transgressions Like Achan that perished not alone in his iniquity The second part of his iniquity is disobedience the Canker-worm that eats into the heart of Soveraignty Thine eyes shall not spare the City all shall be accursed put not your hand unto the spoils lest you trouble Israel this was a Proclamation From Joshuah their Prince but Laws could not be heard in the noise of the Battel Should I ask these unnecessary burdens of a Commonwealth whether the most riotous Malefactor expects not the protection of the Law to belong unto him I know he would claim it And why not the obedience of the Laws The Earth and Water of our Country do no longer pertain unto us than our duty and allegeance doth deserve them And to say truth obedience is no less necessary for the happiness of the Subject than for the prosperity of the Prince It is true that Epaminondas said when the Thebans praised his Government and said they were happy that he ruled so well Not so says Epaminondas the Commonwealth is happy because you obey so well And as fit to this purpose is that pretty Emblem of a Graft flourishing when it was bound about to the stock Per vincula cresco as if the bonds of Government made the Kingdom flourish The World was never so unruly and therefore never more unlucky than under the Emperour Maximilian whom his Subjects called by a nick-name Rex Regum a King of Kings because the People lived Lawless rather like Emperours than Subjects Nazianzen says that the two sins of Julian did you ever hear of worse were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostacy of faith against God and a mutiny of Rebellion against Constance the Emperour I do not wonder at it if He that fell out first with God then transgressed against the King the Lieutenant of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and the King are knit together by an invisible copulation Plutarch called the Discipline of Sparta a most flourishing Commonwealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Exercitation of obedience And our Saviour who was made obedient unto death prefers factus obediens before factus ad mortem his word was Obedience is better than Sacrifice that is more honourable than death Because says Aquinas in Sacrifice we give up but the flesh of beasts but in Obedience we offer up our own will The love of the Centurion to his Servant was wonderful to make such means to Christ by all the Elders of the Jews for his recovery but he deserved it by that description of his Souldiers I say unto one go and he goeth to another come and he cometh and to my Servant do this and he doth it Yet you know not the rebellion of Achan until we examine it by the fifth Commandment of the Law There God blesseth the true Spartan Discipline which stands demurely before Government like the Sacrifice bound with cords to the horns of the Altar Honour thy Father and Mother c. Indeed it is a blessing most emphatical that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Why Canaan was that Land and cursed Cham the worst thing that escaped the Floud the Father of Canaan this ungracious Son made himself sport with his Fathers nakedness which he should have covered Would he not do the duty of a Son He shall do the duty of a Servant nay of a Servants Servant a Servant of Servants shall he be Noah did speak it in Prophesie And indeed Israel won him and wearied him out of Canaan the fruitful habitation And could Achan think to enter upon this Inheritance fulfilling the same sin ipso facto which dispossessed the Canaanite Shall God and Heaven change for the worse Shall the Lord cast out the disobedient and plant in the rebellious No if Adam be turned away an Angel must come into Paradise I will not say the Oratour said wrong
heaven out of the fire than some out of their feather-bed The soul is in the body as the Lamps were in Gideons Pitchers break the Pitchers and the Lamps will shine and then begins the Victory What Seneca said of the state of Rome under Caesar the Dictator Respub sub eo stare non potuit sed cecidit in sinum boni principis the same is competent to the state of man We cannot hold out long we shall sink under the burden of sin Sed cecidit homo in sinum boni principis repent and we may fall into Abrahams bosom When Scipio led his Army against Carthage and his Scabberd fell off from his Sword his Souldiers were dismayed at it as a sign of ill fortune This is nothing says Scipio for I have my Sword still in my hand and that I must fight with So let the body fall into the dust or ashes keep the Soul clean make it white in the bloud of the Lamb by Faith and then all is safe It is the soul that first must taste of glory St. Austin asks why the Devil made so much of his darling Sylla that in all his life he was scarce perplexed with any misfortune The Father replies Timuit magis Diabolus nè corrigeretur Sylla quà m nè vinceretur The Devil cared not if he had burst his neck but he was afraid his vertue would be greater if his felicity were less Wherefore if Achan did give God the glory as Joshuah did instruct him all might go well with his soul though iste periit his body were consumed The Romans were wont to Deifie their Emperours on this sort Their bodies were placed in a pile of wood and at the top of the Hearse an Eagle was kept close untill the flame had taken hold of the body and then the Eagle was suffered to fly away to heaven So leave we the body of Achan in the Pile of wood yet in the mercies of Jesus Christ his Soul might take the wings of the Morning as David says and after all his tedious Pilgrimage live in rest for ever Nothing should make me mistrustful and doubt of his salvation but his too late repentance Is this a time to leave off sin when we must leave off life and can sin no more Poenitentiam dare possumus securitatem non possumus Do you then come to play the Huxters for mercy as if the Market were cheapest at the latter end of the day The Son of man will come to judgment suddenly as swift as the lightning The Resurrection shall be suddenly at one blast of the Archangels Trumpet Corruptio fit in momento the soul will not creep but fly out of the body suddenly Shall all things be sudden but mans repentance If you love your Country and wish it victory against all her enemies if you tender your Children and Allies and desire their safety nay if you love your Gold and Silver and cast about to leave a good inheritance beware to draw the anger of God Vnius ob noxam furias upon so many innocent souls have peace in Jesus Christ and let Achan perish alone in his aniquity AMEN A SERMON Preached before the KING at WHITE-HALL the 5. of April 1665. UPON THE SOLEMN FAST To crave a Blessing of GOD for his MAJESTIES NAVAL FORCES NEHEM i. 4. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain dayes and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven WE have many Solemn dayes in the year to remember the noble Works of our Saviour But the Church hath set forth no proper day to mind us how He will come to judgment in the end of the World Is not that an oversight will some say that there is no red letter in the Calender to bring the Object of that mighty Judgment before us that it may not be forgotten Hear the reason and I know you will excuse it All the beneficial Works of our Saviour came to pass upon certain days of the year whose revolution is known or easily guessed at and those days are exactly kept with holy diligence But for the Day of Judgment it is kept secret so that the Angels of Heaven are ignorant of it Therefore to keep one solemn day recurrent every year for an admonition that such a dreadful hour is to come were in a sort to prescribe God to an appointed time who must not be prescribed If any press it further and say Shall we then have no solemn opportunity to learn that capital Lesson that Christ will come in the clouds with power and great glory to call the Earth before him Far be that omission from us For to what end servs a publick Fast but to prepare us all to hear that voice Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye forth to meet him This is the day wherein every tender conscience should feel the Ax laid to the root of the Tree Now the whole Kingdom stands as it were at the Bar to be arraigned before the Majesty of God We come to call our selvs to judgment before Christ calls us to prevent him Here we are met not to justify our selves O God forbid but to confess the evil we have done that we may not suffer the evil we have deserved They are mighty sins which we come to deplore not only the iniquities of this place though great and exemplary not the sins of the great City alone though it abound in people and wickedness but the innumerous contagious crying sins of this Nation of this England for which and whose pardon we come to make our mournful supplication Now to teach you to stear your course by a Godly instance I lay my matter among the Servants of God in the Land of Judah of whom I could have told you that when they were in fear of bad Neighbours round about them kept a general Humiliation for all the People Nehem. ix 1. The People fasted in sackcloth and cast ashes upon their heads But I know where I am and I will rather instruct you from the Pattern of Nehemiah called the Tirshata a mighty Prince among the People who was so zealous for the prosperity of his Country that you can scarce match him with all that went before him Moses was the Grandfather of Israel that brought them out of the Captivity of Egypt Nehemiah was their Co founder or Foster father who repaired the ruins of the Captivity of Babylon The Text shews what he did in the beginning of his zeal to appease the anger of the Lord. In two general parts I will discover his piety which I call the wound of his heart and the cure of that wound the occasion of his humiliation and the humiliation it self The wound of his heart was given by evil tydings It came to pass when I heard these words which afflicted him two wayes first for the ruins which the Land had suffered secondly for the impediments of its reparation The care of the
is the portion which comes unto us and for which our Covenant is called the Gospel of glory For tribulations which did not accord with the Jewish Oeconomy if they be not above our strength we must not only expect them but rather invite them then avoid them Vre seca hic ne parcas Domine ut in aeternum parcas Prove me chastise me bruize me like sweet Gum till thou beest pleased with my savour pitty me not in these momentary afflictions that thou mayest spare me for ever As the soul is free from the prison of the body when it is dissolved in death so it is most free from the faeces and earthiness of the body when it is not wedded to the desire of transitory things Mushrooms that have no savour when we have enjoyed them but a day Briefly Jewish servility is an unbeliever like St. Thomas Nisi mittam digitum Let me touch let me feel let me grasp my handful or it is in vain to obey the Lord Christian liberty is ingenuous and heroical it hath swum out of this dead Sea in whose mud the unregenerate do stick and if the Lord will give us himself let Ziba take all The greater is our freedom because we know we need not the aids of fortune I have heard that a Cardinal being elected to be Pope his former State is rifled because his new dignity will supply him in abundance Just so when the Spirit comforts us that we are called to a Crown of glory pardon the similitude it is no worse than as Christ hath compared himself to a Thief that comes in the night but our confidence of our new Election to that Inheritance makes us easie to part with that which others keep for a while and leave it in a moment And thus when freedom hath struck inward to our affections pardon us if we speak despicably of the Jews for our Jerusalem alone is free The whole Charter of Jerusalems freedom is dispatcht Though the hour were to begin again I would not stick at the next question how we came by it We all know the procurer and what he did to gain it for us it is a flower that grew out of the bloud of Christ We were not protected as Joshuahs Spies were by a common woman nor set at large as Samaria was by the tidings of Lepers our Deliverer is more honourable to us than our freedom the Son of God was made a Servant that we Servants might become Sons As God made nothing in nature but by his Son by him he made the Worlds so he did nothing for the restauration of the World without him He is all in all He hath freed us from the bondage of shadows by taking a body From the Covenant of Works by satisfying his Fathers Justice From the dread of fear by the sweetness of his Mercy From the sordid desire of earthly things by the operation of his holy Spirit The purchase of our Freedom was carried in this sort so that the Jesuit à Lapide borrowed a fit name to call it by you know from whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift of a King of David our King Imagine by a Prosopopaea that you saw the Devil and Sin and death defying us in the same words that Goliah did the Camp of Israel If you be able to fight with us and to kill us we will be your Servants but if we prevail against you then you shall be our servants and serve us Then David our Champion slew these Giants of Gath in our quarrel and from thenceforth we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his purchased people as St. Peter says St. Austin says that by nature we were Pharaohs bondmen that is Satans and when we forsook him and fled away to serve God in the Wilderness he followed after us but no further than the Red Sea Quid est mare rubrum Vsque ad fontem Christi cruce sanguine consecratum What is the Red Sea that divided us from him The Fountain of Baptism consecrated to save us by the Cross and Bloud of Christ Bernard alludes to the words of Jacob and says that the Church is that portion which Christ won from the Amorite with his Sword and with his Bow Gladio praedicationis arcu incarnationis With the Sword of his Doctrine with the Bow of his incarnation where the shaft and the string make but one Instrument as his Godhead and Manhood make but one Person Thus he hath snatcht us from our Enemies that were made Lords over us and from the hard bondage wherein we were made to serve Isa xiv 3. Having seen the Copy of our Freedom and knowing how we got it it is a Lesson fit to conclude with that every mans memory may carry that away at the least how we should use it No blessing hath been more abused than this Under colour hereof the Galileans would be free from Tribute the Nicolaitans from the bond of Marriage the Gnosticks from all Justice and Temperance the Clerks of the Roman Church from the Courts of the Civil Magistrate and the Anabaptists from all Moral Duties No says St. Peter to all these As free but not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God It was St. Austins by-word Dilige Deum fac quod vis You are free therefore love God and do what you will If ye love him keep his Commandments We are not so soon loosed but we are tied again both freed and bound at once Liberando servos nos facit says the same Father in Joh. viii We must recompence his goodness with our imperfect obedience it is the Law of Gratitude it is the Bond of Nature As we commonly say that nothing is more dearly bought than that which comes by gift so we owe the greater service to him of whom we got our freedom Nay we are bound to endure all for his sake Neque hoc facit stupor sed amor nec deest dolor sed contemnitur says Bernard We feel the pain as much as they that curse and rage in their sufferings but our love unto Christ doth overcome it A Free-man that will thrive follows his Trade as close as any Apprentice though not by austere compulsion So our Freedom will not make our hands slack from working if we mean to lay up a treasure in heaven Every piece of Land they say holds of some Lord so every man retains to some Lord either we serve God or sin and Satan If we count it Freedom to take our swing in all voluptuousness pity their frensie that can stir no where but as their intemperate appetite commands them and yet mistake themselves to live without controul who are the Vassals of the Devil While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption 2 Pet. i. 19. Tully objects to Clodius that he set up the Picture of Liberty in his house in the habit of a Strumpet Says that approved Senator
to wound them but to heal them I have learnt a distinction in another place from the same man sufficient to refute him It is this Every affliction that gainsays the pleasure and content of nature is first a punishment then it is a medicine or salve to cure you as you use it Do you not see the error that Aquinas draws upon himself If to punish one man for anothers trespass is unjust and wrongful except it be like the Acrimony of some preventing Physick then God doth evil that good may be gained from it O says Abraham God forbid that the Judge of all the world should do unjustly Now do you understand how these cunning Benjamites the Schoolmen have cast their distinctions at the truth just like Mnestheus in Virgil who shot at the Dove and mist it but cut the string in twain by which it was tied fast before Ast ipsam miserandus avem contingere ferro Non valuit nodos vincula linea rupit Now the harvest is ripe and it is time to give in the right Verdict upon the Controversie And as the Alabaster Box of Oyntment which was broken in the Gospel was burst for the honour of our Saviour but the sweet smell did refresh all the Disciples which were about it So my conclusion shall be dedicated to Gods honour and to your instruction I have many Theorems to propound unto you but all shall end in this Doctrine That excepting the first Adam the root of our corrupt nature and excepting the second Adam who being without spot or sin gave himself to the death of the Cross for the sins of all the world these two excepted every man dies propter peccatum suum for his own iniquity First I do presume that you will consent unto me that the heart of man is only evil continually And that we may call it as Theodorus did revile Tiberius Lutum saenguine maceratum mud tempered with pollution As one said of the High Court of Judges in Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you could not miss of a righteous man among them though you pickt in the dark But I say we cannot find out a good man though we sought him carefully at noon-day For the Lord himself hath looked down from heaven and we are all become abominable usque ad unum and that one is Jesus Christ Then it is confessed that the wages of sin is death Seriùs ocyùs sometimes before we were born but as suddenly as God shall call upon us to pay the common debt of nature Nemo nisi suo die moritur says Seneca My day to die was every day since I had an hour to live Silly soul do you think it an injury to die a babe To die an Ignorant of misery Did you ever hear an Infant complain of short life Nay rather did not Moses weep because he was preserved in the Ark of Bulrushes and had his misery prolonged We have heard many old men that would cry rather than sing at Nunc Dimittis when they put from shore for ever But come death quickly come heaven the sooner let all the world change in the twinkling of an eye and then come Resurrection come Lord Jesus Are the shortest Livers unkindly dealt with Non magis queri debes de repentinâ morte quam qui citò navigavit Do complain that wind and tide have brought you too quickly to your haven Give me your credit but to one thing more You are bound to answer to as painful and severe death as Gods vengeance shall inflict upon you I think I might have seen in the days of Herod when Rachel mourned for her Children one little Saints soul pincht out of the body as a cherry stone spirted between the fingers a most calm deliverance and another babe Lacerum crudeliter ora ora manusque ambas cut in pieces with a wound bigger than the body How comes this to pass for both were Infants Not because the one smarted for his Fathers Usury and Sacriledge more than the other but because God said no more Gen. iii. then man shall die But whether by fire or water peaceable or tyrannous it is free in the Lords appointment from the sixth day of the Creation to the worlds end Now let us see if we can find any thing in that which we have caught to pay Tribute unto God You cannot deny but Death and Diseases and Poverty Laethumque labosque are due to every sinner and all these in such a time as God likes best whether it be at Noontide or at Evening or in the Dawning of the day and with such measure and quantity as God hath prepared the Viols of his wrath Then why art thou disquieted O my soul and why should I fear to pay the price of those sins which are not mine The poor Subjects have lost their lives in the Kings iniquity witness David and Israel The Children for the Fathers witness Sodom and Gomorrah The Family with the Master as it was with Core and his accomplices Lastly some of all sorts did drink the same cup with Achan in his iniquity ay dearly beloved at this time God called upon them all to die who were bound to die for their own sins at any time Now let me raise you up from the long consideration of this Point as the Angel did Elias under the Juniper tree and you shall find a Cake upon the coals some few Meditations from hence that God makes the sin of one man an occasion to destroy a multitude First If the disobedience of one sinner is enough to consume many persons Lord whither will a multitude of iniquity send one man headlong Sufficient are our evil days wherein we have walked too much before after the vanity of our mind Secondly As the greatest unity of the Triumphant Church above doth consist in the glory which they enjoy together in the sight of God So our unity of the militant Church below is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer and die together Poterant nec morte râ—velli It is that which must combine the souls of Christians Thirdly Shall not this make me as careful to prevent every mans sins as mine own Shall I not offer my self to be my brothers keeper Like watchmen that compass the Câ—ty in the night not only for the safety of their own house but lest any Mansion take fire about them But especially who is a Father of Children that will not consider his sins may be as ready to destroy as his Loyns have been fruitful to bring Sons into the world Can you revile the King of Moab that sacrificed his Son Do you detest their abominations that made their Children pass through the fire to Molech Is it good in you to declaim against the severity of Brutus and Torquatus and such cruel Fathers But spare them O child of pollution or accuse thy self Are not your sins murderers as well as theirs You gave life by nature and you destroy it by iniquity When God