for the profit of my Soul rather than upon all the eloquence and wit in the world There is more to be learnt by meditating upon his Passion seriously and devoutly one day than by ripping up all other needless questions through the whole year Si Christum discis satis est si caetera nescis Si Christum nescis nihil est si caetera discis Says the Old Verse If you have learnt Christ crucified for thy sins do not bewail thy ignorance simple Soul though thou knowest no more if thou hast not learnt his sufferings and that with his stripes thou art healed bewail thy knowledg great Master of Arts and Sciences though except that one thing thou hast learned all And what though you fix your speculations upon Christ himself yet all is in vain that you can preach of Christ until you set your notions afloat upon his blood and sail down to this out of all that he was crucified for our transgressions If you be not enemies to his Cross you will easily agree with the truth of the whole Gospel if you do not agree with his Cross as with the only cause by which we obtain salvation you will be an enemy to all the truth of the Gospel Turn this key right that we are justified from our sins by his blood shedding and all is open wrench the door with any other key as if we would pick open the lock of Heaven gates with our own sufferings and righteousness and all is shut Surely St. Paul did pattern his preaching by this Copy of Moses and Elias 1 Cor. ii 2. I determined not to know any thing among you saving Jesus Christ and him crucified Secondly Yes indeed this was fit communication for Paul to impart nothing else to the Corinthians who did abound with the Greek Philosophy and eloquence and it sorted the better to speak of nothing but the sorrows of our Lord while fears and persecutions and death did daily environ them but in my next Observation it shall appear that this discourse was well chosen rather than any other at the Transfiguration of glory here was nothing upon the Mountain but celestial joy and in the height of this joy no other talk to entertain the time but about a Cross and about a woful tribulation If our sorrow be not enlightned with some joy it will turn to a melancholick desperation so if our joy be not dampt with the sadness and seriousness of some sorrow it will fly out into excess and presumption The Graecians did not allow their frisking Lydian Musick to be playd without the gravity of the Dorique Instruments which they called in one name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So David tun'd this mixture upon his Harp Psal ii 11. Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce unto him with reverence Surely Peter and the other Apostles thought they were past all the bitter storms and frowns of the world where the place whereon they stood was more bedeckt with beauty than ever they had read of Paradice as if God had rained down Heaven upon Earth their mind was filled with this saying and their lips in the next verse spake nothing less Give us the Kingdom which is prepared for us give us the fruition of thy glory Nay hold and take this before Priùs de calice cogitate quà m de regno Drink of my cup before you reign in my Kingdom hear Moses and Elias preach of my Cross before you be enthronized among the Elders to sing praises unto the Lamb for evermore But was this a gratulatory Oration fit for the Prophets to make to Christ in the brightness of his Excellency did He love to hear of this above any thing that He should die an ignominious death at Jerusalem yes it was as the most pleasant thing to our Saviour and none so acceptable to be spoken of When a poor woman annointed his head with ointment in the house of Simon the Leper he defends her for it against the indignation of his Disciples says He In that she poured this ointment on my body she did it for my Burial I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how I am straitned till it be accomplished Luke xii 50. never was such haste made to any place as he made to Mount Calvarie there past but a little time from midnight to midday betwixt his Attachment his Arraignment and his Execution as if his feet had stood upon thorns until his head were crowned with them The content he took in those torments is thus laid forth in St. Paul who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross Heb. xii 2. A certain Author makes an elegant comparison between that triumph when Christ rode upon an Ass to Jerusalem and between this triumph of the Transfiguration on Mount Thabor Infesto palmarum illacrymat considerans mala nostra in hoc festo mirabiliter exultat recolens mala sua Though he was then received with Palm branches and shoutings yet he wept upon Jerusalem to consider their sins at this Feast he is all glorious and rejoyceth for our sakes to hear the commemoration of his own sorrows And thirdly it must not be forgotten how Moses and Elias were those chosen Orators which spake of his decease that he should accomplish at Jerusalem all that was mystical in the Types and Shadows of Moses Law all that was darkly delivered in the deep style of the Prophets concerning this passion is explained against the teeth of the Jews Moses and Elias came to interpret themselves Moses say the Fathers saw what medicine and healing was in the cross when he lift up the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness to cure the people that were stung and wounded and Prudentius in a sweet versifying way that Moses learnt how all spiritual foes Death Satan Sin and Hell should be vanquisht by the Cross when by the stretching out of his hands the Amalekites were destroyed in Battel by the Children of Israel Passis in altum brachiis sublimis Amalech premit crucis quod instar tum fuit Again they make the same Commentation upon Elias that he laid his body upon the Childs body his hands upon the Childs hands which he brought to life again even as Christ did stretch himself out upon the Cross and hath quickned us being dead in our sins having forgiven us all our trespasses Colos ii 13. and not us only who have been born since the time that his blood was actually shed but all those who lived with the Fathers under the Law and from the beginning of the world who did believe to escape eternal death by the blood of that Sacrifice which should be offered up upon the Tree of malediction A strange Medicament that the drops of this sacred bloud should cure so many millions before it self was extant If an Herbalast say he will make a Panacaea a rare juice of salutiferous roots the next year can it cure this Spring yet the Remedy of the Cross
Spirit of grace into the Soul and is not discerned there it sanctifies there it reforms there it changeth the mind and yet we cannot understand what manner of quality it is a thing of no appearance and yet of infinite efficacy Our senses are the Cinque-ports of all humane knowledg if any thing come into us either it must enter by those passages or we have no means to know how it should enter without those passages But when we feel the agitation of grace in our heart nothing is left us but to say Lord how camest thou hither We know not which way thou camest The Jews were sealed outwardly in the Body with the Mark of Circumcision whereby every man knew his Brother but our Mark is privily imprinted upon the Soul the Holy Spirit whereby we are sealed unto the day of Redemption whereby God only knoweth his Elect. God knows it the Conscience of the faithful feels but if we go about to consider what manner of Essence or Influence it is it will amaze us that we cannot understand it Again do you wonder at things which are rarely found then marvel to see how sparingly the Grace of God doth grow upon the Earth To whom hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed and who hath believed our Report The Sun illuminates half the World at once with his Light and leaves the other half in Darkness but the tenth part of the Sons of Men are not beautified with the Light of Grace nay the sixth part of the Earth hath not heard whether there be an Holy Ghost It strikes me with Admiration how so many do want the Heavenly Calling for the Ravens and the Sparrows do not want the comfort of their daily Food Naturas rerum minimarum non destituit Deus the smallest things that be God doth not leave them destitute yet there are Millions of men and women that continue in a barbarous and unrepented life So that it turns to be the Subject of Admiration to find out those few that are the small Remnant of Jacob. Christ himself marvelled at the faith of the Centurion a Commander and so submissive a Gentile and so devout an Example seldom seen and the Lord did marvel at it So he lifted up his voice in Acclamation to the Canaanitish womans praise O woman great is thy faith a denied Supplicant and so constant a disgraced Supplicant and so patient Seldom doth the Grace of God inhabit where it proves so well But O love the Saints and magnifie God in their good success Such as serve God truly in spirit are no usual sight therefore the coming down of the Holy Ghost was matter of Amazement But above all the Effects and Benefits of it are so beneficial to mankind that it amounts to the highest admiration It opens unto us the meaning of the Scriptures without which the Eunuch may read but he knows not the interpretation it teacheth us to pray with zeal and faith without which our words are but babling it makes us hear the Word of God to our edifying and salvation without which it is lost in stony or thorny ground it puts the tast of Christs Body and Bloud into our mouths when we receive the Sacrament without which we eat and drink our own damnation it comforts us though we find the horror of sin in our conscience and tribulation in the world without which the vengeance of God and the wrath of man would overwhelm us it seasons our actions with piety and obedience without which nothing that we can do but is corrupted with the root of bitterness it intenerates the most stony Hearts it hath civilized the most barbarous Nations it hath brought in Nurture and the Use of Laws and Discipline among them that lived by nothing but rapine and robbery it hath made the Flesh of Man which was a Cage of uncleanness to be the Temple of God Upon whomsoever the Spirit of Grace doth rest the Lycaonians may say of them without offence Gods are come down unto us in the likeness of Men. You may justly extol it with a boundless Praise and a boundless Praise must needs close in with an Extasie of admiration You would bless your selves with wonder to see a mighty Cure wrought upon the Body by the Finger of God a Cure above nature and is it not more astonishable to see a supernatural Cure wrought upon the desperate Diseases and Distempers of the Soul If one that is born blind be made to see O then they cry out Never was the like seen from the beginning of the world Consider your selves I pray you in the better part are we not by nature blind and ignorant groping in darkness and cannot find a true step to Heaven The Spirit is eyes unto the understanding it makes us walk in marvelous light so that we shall not dash our foot against the stones and ruins of tentations which of these two is the greater Miracle To cast out a Devil from him that is possessed would make the Earth ring of the mighty virtue Doth not Grace cast out a Legion of Devils from the Soul To skip over all other instances but one no Miracle which Fame did publish with a lowder Trumpet than to raise the Dead chiefly to raise up Lazarus that had been four days dead Why a continuance in sin is the death of the Soul and no Paradox it is to say it is an immortal death Yet Christ rolls away the stone of impenitence under which it is buried looseth our hands and feet which were bound with the cords of Satan calls us forth from the Grave of Custom renews our spirit and makes us live unto holiness and you being dead in sins and trespasses hath he quickned Colos ii 13. So you see how hard it is to know the Spirit how rare to find it for totus mundus in maligno positus how copious and infinite in his Effects and Benefits it is above our capacity to measure it and most worthy of amazement to admire it Now as we know the Gift of the Holy Ghost better than these Jews so it is the more admirable to us by how much we know it the better but the persons of the Apostles were better known to the Jews than to us and that circumstance they fell upon as a strange thing which they could not dive into why the Lord did put so great a Treasure into such homely Vessels There was not a Moses among them skill'd in all the Learning of the Egyptians not a Joshua in all the cluster that could lead a Battel not a Samuel that had worn a Linnen Ephod from his childhood before the Lord not a Rabbi not a Pharisee not one of polite Education It is that which confounded the Multitude at the 7. verse Behold are not all these which speak Galilaeans There was some reverence done to them in that Character they might have said are not all these Fishermen Publicans and Ideots Truly if there were nothing else these
humour into devotion and Prayer Is your Temperature Sanguine and chearful I can tell what that will do if this living water feed it the mind will be bountiful easie to remit injuries glad of reconciliation comfortable to the distressed always rejoycing in the Lord. If a man be Phlegmatick and fearful there is a trial likewise what God can bring forth from such a nature How wary will the Conscience be to give no offence How pitiful How penitent How ready to weep over its own transgressions Finally in every Age of the life old or young in every condition of fortune regal honourable or servile this living water where God pleaseth incorporates it self into it and makes it grow and fructifie according to that use and purpose for which it was planted It is water then which doth increase and vegetate every Plant which our heavenly Father hath planted but with much disparity from our common waters as you may apprehend by divers instances For first pour all that you can draw from your fountain upon a tree that is quite dead and your labour is lost it will never spring again but most wretched were the state of man if the water which Christ gives did not bring us to live again when we were quite dead in corruption And you being dead in your sins hath he quickned c. having forgiven you all your trespasses Col ii 13. All the Sons of Adam beside our earthly mortality are under the infliction of a double death by nature it is a spiritual death to be bereft of grace It is an eternal death to be guilty of hell fire We are St. Judes fruitless trees bis mortuae once were enough but we are twice dead pluckt up from the root yet if the light of Gods countenance shine upon us we shall sprout again and wax green like a Cedar in Libanus What a sapless tree was Zachaeus before the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life as we do well call him in the Nicene Creed did bring salvation to his house You might as soon have squeezed water from a Pummy stone as charity from a Publican before his conversion yet though he were dead in covetousness as soon as He began to live in him he scattered abroad and gave unto the poor As the Father said of his Prodigal Child being now come home into his bosom This thy brother was dead and is alive again So let every penitent soul confess my root was dried up how should it come to spring again but by some influence from heaven I was a withered tree that cumbered the ground how am I exalted like Aarons Rod to bring forth Buds and Almonds I was a sensless stone and God hath raised me from thence to be a Child of Abraham Take another instance of diversity in every Plant that lives water is the means to make it bear but in every Plant it makes it bear such fruit and no other as was first grafted upon it it causeth a Fig-tree to bring forth Figs and a Vine to be laden with Grapes But if the fruit were sowre and unpleasant by nature water it while your arms ake it will never help it But this water in my Text which is so worthy of our Saviours praise it will make you gather Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles Indeed it should do so but our Preaching is no better with many than River water gushing upon a Crab-tree the more we teach the more you are laden with your own natural fruit Pride Luxury Intemperance Faction Malice and Incontinency are as rife as ever they were nothing grows upon the stock for all the labour that is spent but sowre Wildings that set the teeth on edge it seems the chief ingredient is wanting the blessing from above you mind other things and then the chief pipe of all will be stopt by which the Spirit should enter into our soul There are some and I would they were but few that put in Bill and Answer as it were against Gods plea they urge their personal infirmities and natural inclinations and think that God can ask no more I am dull of understanding says one and what I am taught I cannot bear it away I am suddenly transported with indignation and I cannot suffer I am retentive of a wrong and cannot easily be reconciled All these are in the same tune with those ill manner'd Guests in the Gospel we cannot come I pray you have us excused Humilitas sonat in ore superbia in actione To plead excuse is a form of humility but in effect it is an open arrogancy Spend this breath of excuse in Prayer and Supplication and cry out often and affectionately drop down upon this heart O Lord drop down upon it and it shall bring forth fruit quite against the grain of your custom quite against the bias of nature The high-minded shall be humble as a Lamb The implacable shall forgive his brother seventy times seven times The Impostor shall make restitution the Bravaries of the time shall confess and amend their vanity Loe this is an alteration which nothing can produce but living water from natural sterility of good to supernatural fruitfulness Origen confounds Celsus with this Argument that the Christian Religion must needs be the power of God and not of man For in all Kingdoms where it had success it did civilize the most barbarous Nations It did mollifie and intenerate the most stony hearts It brought in Justice and good Laws among them that lived by Rapine and Robbery A strange fruit to be found upon such wild Plants Could it otherwise come to pass than because they were watered from above I think you will like this Doctrine best in the Prophet Isaiahs expression Chap. xi 6. under the Kingdom of Christ so it goes before The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid. The Calf and the young Lâ—on and the Fatling shall feed together and a young Child shall lead them All that place is noted by Eusebius for a Prophesie to be meant of the conversion of the Gentiles whose brutishness and savage life was changed into good nurture and sweet conversation Ye were darkness but now ye are light in the Lord. O blessed are ye when that which is natural and inbred to our disposition drops off and grows no more Then if ye be planted by the River of God ye shall bring forth your fruit in due season and look whatsoever you do it shall prosper Take a third instance of diversity Our Elementary water helps a Plant to bring forth one kind fruit at one season of the year and this is a blessing of Gods left hand to fill us with the plenty of the earth but the water which is the blessing of his right hand hath this excellency to make the same tree bear all manner of spiritual fruit and at all times and seasons never unfurnisht never empty A moral temperate man may be unjust A
glory of God and the firmament shews his handy work About beatitude or final felicity there have been great disputes whether it should consist in action or in contemplation but the best resolution of the problem is that praise consisting partly in contemplating the great goodness of the object to be praised partly in the fruit of the lips which sends forth that honour our blessedness shall consist in giving land to the Holy Trinity and unto the Lamb that sits upon the Throne for evermore Vidisti vilia audi mirifica says St. Ambrose upon these words that which the Shepherds saw with their eyes was a little Infant poorly brought forth into the world and cast aside neglectfully in a corner of a stable but that which they heard with their ears was strange and admirable both that all the tongues of men should glorifie this child and that the Angels who by nature had no tongues assumed bodies for that hour that they might speak with such a mouth with such a voice with such a dialect and language as men use to do and fill the world with praises of his name who made himself an improperium a derision and scorn unto many to take away our infamy and therefore worthy to be praised The Devil feigned the tongue of man to delude our first Parents that they should be made like unto God the good Angels also frame a voice in the air like unto the tongue of man to dissolve the works of the Devil and to teach us that God is made like unto us Let the Serpent hiss at it this heavenly host which consists of our friends and protectors doth sing it out and warble it Coelesti quadam ineffabili modulatione says the ordinary gloss with a celestial harmony far transcending all humane musick and above all possible Relation A Nurses lullaby will sing a Child out of crying and frowardness and make it still but it had need be a singing Angel nay the concent and harmony of all the Angels that should chear up our hearts with the gladness of a Saviour and wipe away all tears from our eyes when before we knew our selves dead in sins and trespasses And it is good to take it at the best sense great comfort it is that these holy Ministers of Heaven came with singing and exultation It was a sign that there was a great change wrought in the world and favour and propitiation come about to the full desire of our heart Angels have been sent with fire and brimstome as against Sodom and Gomorrah with wrath and reproof to make all the children of Israel to weep Judg. ii with a Sword and with the noisom Pestilence when David had sinned in numbring the people but all this horror and dreriment is cast aside by the birth of Christ says St. Chrysostom and Angels come with Anthems and Carols of praise Thus the Lord hath put a song of thanksgiving into our mouth for he hath done marvellous things If Asaph and that Choire did lift up their note with all sorts of musical instruments in the Old Law while the Sacrifice was burning upon the Altar I am sure we have much more cause not in imitation of Asaph but of the Angels to praise the Lord with Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Luther I know not upon what reason unless it were because the Angels in my Text did begin the Gospel with melody he makes Psalmody to be one of the notes of the Orthodox Church of Christ The voice of man certainly is to praise God in its best tunes and elegancies and the reasons why musical notes are most fit and necessary amidst our Christian Prayers are these four 1. Rules of piety steal into our mind with the delight of the harmony The Agathyrsians even to Plato's days were wont to sing their Laws and put them in tune that men might repeat them in their Recreations 2. It kindles Devotion and fills the soul with more loving affections Make a chearful noise to the God of Jacob says David As the noise of Flutes and of Trumpets inspire a courage into Souldiers and enflame them to be victorious so the Psalms of the Church raise up the heart and make it leap to be with God as if our soul were upon our lips and would fly away to heaven 3. An heavy spirit oppresseth zeal and that service of God is twice done which is done with alacrity and our Christian merriment by St. James his rule is singing and making melody to the Lord. When our Saviour and his company were sad the night before his Passion to put away that heaviness they sung an Hymn when they went to Mount Olivet 4. To sing some part of Divine Doctrine is very profitable because that which is sung is most treatibly pronounced the understanding stays long upon it and nails it the faster to the memory It was a Law of Numa among the Romans Nihil oportet in transcursu à diis petere sed ubi vacat est otium we must ask nothing of God by snatches but with sober deliberation And as our Parochial singing of Psalms is very sweet and requisite wherein all or most of the Congregation bear a part so it doth well become Princes Courts and Episcopal Churches to have more curious and sumptuous musick of several Instruments and a skilful Choire appointed to execute it It is semblable to that of my Text where the Angels sung the Service and the Shepherds gave them audience If some wayward humors say this Choiral Musick hath no relish with them it doth not help them in the practice of Religion they understand it not I answer they accuse themselves of many faults in their own complaint 1. That they understand not that which they have by roat if they would mark it 2. They are malicious that would deprive them of that sweetness who are much affected with it 3. It is arrogancy in a high nature to wish that their own ignorant immusical unfashion'd humour should be a prescription to a whole Church To conclude all I come from publick Church Musick to our private delight in holy Songs S. Hierom testifies that in his days as they walkt about the Market as they sailed in Ships as they were busie at Work they sung some holy Ditties It is our solace at home our recreation abroad says St. Basil Neither is it irksome to any but to the evil spirit for the evil spirit went out of Saul when David played upon his Harp and David was no profane Minstrel but a Divine Singer But I read of two sorts of Hereticks that quarrel'd it the Arrians dislik'd singing of Psalms because the Orthodox Christians did use it and the Manicheans because they condemn'd the whole Old Testament Insani sunt adversus medicamentum quo sani esse potuissent They are furious to find fault with that which would have healed their fury But we have learn'd to praise the Lord with our best skill with our
chief counsellors of Persia and with greatest trust that can be had to conjectures we may say they made a Voyage from Persia to Jerusalem to see our Saviour Now the nearest confines of Persia are but 200 leagues from Jerusalem and the Camels of those Countries as good Authors testifie upon their own experience will travel forty leagues a day by which proportion it may be collected how possible it is to come in twelve days from the most Eastern parts of Persia to Jerusalem In Divine matters even the smallest things should be diligently sifted therefore I would not let this circumstance go till I had vindicated it from obsâ—â—rity and now these Travellers deserve their commendation and we their imitation They liv'd in honour and safety in their own Country but Patria est ubicunquè est Christus that 's a man's Country and his home where Christ is reverently worshipped and where the fear of God is in the place Hearken O daughter and consider incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house What is honour and safety to a man at home if true Religion be abroad God be thanked we have both therefore these honourable persons leave their own Country as Abraham did I will not extol their faith more than his or his more than theirs comparisons are odious they could not come from the East to Judea but by Arabia Petrea a most rocky cumbersom Country and by Arabia deserta a most thievish murdering Country and from the heavens above they could have no better comfort at this time of the year but either bitter frosts to travel in or foul winter weather and to continue thus for twelve days together it was a great proof of zeal and patience that would run through all difficulties to be satisfied in this one question Where is he that is born the King of the Jews twelve days journey do I speak of nay twelve furlongs are a great matter for persons of quality to come to Church if it mizzle with a little rain or the air be sharp or the place throng'd or any slight inconvenience to keep them away and yet I must tell you these were Wise men that came to Christ through thick and thin through dread and danger strid over all molestations therefore unless you will have me leave my Text I cannot call them wise that will spare themselves from Gods service for every trifle of inconveniency The cape from whence they came affords one short note more that they were Easterlings for in that capacity they were not only Gentiles but of such Gentiles as had provok'd God to anger more ab antiquo dierum from many ages before than any other Nation They were not only Gentiles but sinners of the Gentiles as St. Paul says Gal. ii 15. The tower of Babel was built in the East that tower whose builders erected it as it were in defiance of heaven from thence came tyranny with Nimrod that opprest his people and as Histories tell us the first invention of Images sprung from those parts in that Tomb which Belus made for the untimely departure of his Son and from the Mountains of the East came Balaam and the false Prophets that loved the wages of iniquity I cannot say it confidently as St. Chrysostom doth that these wise men were the best of all those sinners in the East 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that these were better composed to believe than any other It is manifest this Eastern part of the world was as full of sins as any and the Scripture placeth nothing in their person that they had better morality than their fellows it was the Lords free mercy and compassion that the Star of his Grace should shine upon them and that they were selected above many thousands where all of them some in greater measure some in less deserved to sit in the shadow of death and to die in eternal condemnation and when Christ was scarce born we see the largeness of his grace that it was diffused to the furthest parts of the world and the freeness of his grace that he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance A blessed Birth by which many were made alive unto God who were dead in sins and trespasses A blessed apparition by which the day-spring from on high hath visited us A blessed Incarnation by which the wicked mass of our nature is sanctified A blessed calling of the Gentiles by which all Tongues and Languages do praise the Lord from the East unto the West from the North unto the South O praise the Lord all ye kindreds of the earth for he hath done marvellous things for us in giving us his Child Jesus to be our sanctification and redemption Amen THE FOURTEENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION MAT. ii 1 2. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem Saying where is he that is born King of the Jews For we have seen his Star in the East and are come to worship him SInce the Lords day and the Feast of the Epiphany do light together this holy day is sure to be observed with frequent Assemblies in all Christian Churches as it is at this time in this place But in former Ages and in the most devout times when religious men studied for the fittest occasions to praise the Lord this Epiphany which we call Twelfth-day though it fell upon any day of the week was kept with the presence of the noblest persons with as much outward honour with as solemn service with as many testifications of zeal and joy as any day in the year For to crown it with more blessings than one the memory of three illustrious manifestations of Christ were celebrated upon this feast First that which is rememorated in our Church and no more the bringing of the Gentiles to Bethlem to see the Lord by the assistance of a Star 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's the most renowned apparition Secondly The Baptism of our Saviour was computed to this day when the Holy Ghost gave testimony who he was descending upon his head in the shape of a Dove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the honour of these two memorable accidents Nazianzen calls it festum sanctorum luminum the feast of sacred lights or illuminations for Baptism is called our illumination Thirdly The miracle of turning water into wine was remembred together for the third manifestation of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. John says this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Canae of Galilee and manifested forth his glory Leo and Chrysologus speak of these three glorious works to be solemnized at this one time and Bernard a much later man than they goes no further Tres apparitiones Domini legimus unâ quidem die sed non uno tempore factas We celebrate three mighty apparitions of our Lord all in one day though they fell not out all in one
is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one who hath the preeminence in all things the Master who is over all and above all which is Jesus Christ I mean not as it is alleaged out of Bartholus and some of the impudent Canonists that Christ as he was God and Man was Lord of the whole World Monarchically and Peter after him and by Peters right the successive Bishops of Rome by which fetch those branded Flatterers entitle their Popes to the direct right of all the Kingdoms of the earth indeed the Devil promised our Saviour all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them and since He refused it then the same Devil by the mouth of those Canonists profers it again to try though He will none of it himself if some other in the name of a Vicegerent will take it for him This is not the meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that he is our Master in Heaven and Earth the Head to which all the Body is fitly knit by joynts and bands Colos ii 19. Joints and Bands Beloved neither of those words is idle or superfluous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commissurae the joints are all those blessings and benefits which are bestowed upon us and knit unto us Christ by reciprocal gratitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juncturae are all those offices of Christian charity which bind the Members one to another all things which belong to the Communion of Saints and hold us together under the Head which nourisheth us with his influence Now it is a very ill disjunction which some make to argue upon the two natures of Christ according to whether he is our Master and our Head If you name the one or the other alone you will confuse your own Creed and know not what to believe for all the conditions belonging to a Head are in neither but in both First it was fit the Church should have such an Head which is agreeing and conformable to the Body which is knit unto it a spiritual Head and fleshly Members are not consonant to make an unity Therefore Christ and his Church are said to be like Man and Wife which are one flesh Ephes v. 31. But the Head of the Church must be fit to nourish every part of the Body with spiritual blessings and make it increase with the increase of God this can come from none but the Divine and Infinite who can give spiritual life alone and quicken them which are dead in their sins this He can do as he is Magister Verbi Magister Spiritus who but Christ is Master of the Word preacht and who but the same Christ is Master of the Spirit which gives power unto the Word You see then it is no complemental Name which is given to Christ in courtesie but a Title of due Royalty and condign Authority when we call him Master Master says Peter it is good for us to be here Upon the same Bank of earth you may gather Flowers and Weeds the Flowers are set by art in the Garden the Weeds are the natural offspring So in this same speech which the Apostle uttered in a rapture of love and delight here are good conclusions to be approved and bad contents to be reprehended but the errors arise naturally out of the words the good conclusions are rather forc't than natural yet they deserve the precedency in my discourse and this is the begining that when Peter started out of sleep and saw Christ in glory it pleased him at the heart bonum est says he this is good and he never spake truer in his life The bravest Nations in the World when they have been at the height of their Empire have took more pride and delight in Theatrical Shews and Magnificent Spectacles of Triumphs than in any other pomp for the satisfaction of the eye when it meets with a right object is above any other pleasure But all other things in the world are Counterfeits to right Jewels in respect of the Object of Divine Glory when the eye gets that to gaze upon the Soul dilates it self with such greediness to be filled with it that it would be infinite to receive it O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of Hosts Psal lxxxiv David takes up his verse and goes no further to express it but leaves off with indefinite admiration And Theodoret refused to comment upon those words non tam explicandus sensus quam intimo sensu degustandus the sense and meaning of that Verse is not to be expounded but to be rellished and tasted by our affections We have stoln a name from virtue and called our Riches our Goods but beware to steal from Heaven as Prometheus did and to call the fruition of any thing upon earth good if the delights of the earth could speak they would say unto you why do you call us good nothing is good but to dwell in the Tabernacle of the Most High One day in thy Courts says the Psalmist is better than a thousand The days of this Life are called Thousands of days the Life of Glory is called One day These are called Thousands for the mutability that 's called One for the unchangeable eternity says St. Austin Howsoever it is true in this sense the shortest salutation of those supernal joys is more satisfactory Canis ad Nilum a touch and away than the longest saciety of these transitory exhilarations Two great Prophets rise from the dead to represent the glory of the life to come three living Disciples Peter especially are ravisht with it si mortuis non credideris saltem viventibus credas either believe the dead or the living which you will it is a good thing to see Christ in the Majesty of his glory Mark those words says Tertullian with special note quae fingendi non habent arbitrium extemporary acclamations wherein a man hath no leisure to invent dissimulation so out of the first pure passion of his mind which could not be forged St. Peter cried out when he saw the Glory of Christ bonum est it is good We cry out of the times now adays and the Age we live in but the more unthankful we for we do or may live more happily by far under the New Testament than the Jews did under the Old Every vision of Majestical glory did exceedingly terrifie the antient Israelites When the Lord came down upon Mount Sinah with triumph and with the sound of the Trumpet the people removed and stood afar of and durst not come near it now the Gospel hath expelled this fear so far that the Spectators did not shun the glory of Christ when they saw it but desired they might continue upon the place where it was for ever Deus se magis amandum exhibet quà m spectandum says one upon it God doth exhibit himself in the New Testament rather to be loved than to be dreaded and doth not now intend our terror but our comfort The glory of the Gospel
faln into it for where almost shall you find that men had not rather themselves should overcome than a good cause Always more studious of victory than of truth When Christ askt the Pharisees whether the Baptism of John were from heaven or from men though they could not deny it was from God yet they would not say so that the quarrel between them and Jesus might be endless Timentes lapidationem sed Magis timentes veritatis confessionem says St. Austin they were afraid to be stoned of the people for their obstinacy but they were more afraid to confess the truth What a fond affected glory is this Men account it among the flowers of their reputation not to be conquered in an arguement though it be never so absurd Like the two Harlots before Solomon nothing in their pleadings but clamour and reiteration the one said Nay but the living child is mine and the dead is thine the other said Nay but the dead is thine and the living is mine This is it which hath pluckt the Church of Christ into so many Schisms and Heresies that proud wits when they are in the wrong will never sit down quiet as if they were convicted and which is the calamity that our sins have justly deserved the Church must stay for peace till Sophisters and contentious have nothing to say that is when they shall be brought before the Tribunal of God and have not one word to answer for the crime of their invincible obstinacy Of pertinacious busie-bodies that will not be convicted when their errors be made apparent there are many sorts How stiff we are in civil brabbles never condescending to pacification every corner of the Kingdom is full of examples Do you know what you mean by that common Proverb of violence You will not lose your will though it put you to cost Not lose it said you O that you knew what will this is that you stand upon and you would never keep it It is the fuel of all cruel provocation the Gum that stiffens your anger the infernal fury that makes deadly fewds the defiance of love and charity the cross-bar of brotherly agreement nay it is Satans best advantage to make you miserable like himself in everlasting fire Is this that will for whose sake you will spend your estate to maintain it Is it not enough to lose your soul but that you will pay costs for damnation The heathen Greek Authors were very tart in their Proverb when they spoke of them that contended only for contention sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they strived for no more than the shadow of an Ass And Lucian who is a profest flouter says it is upon this occasion An Athenian was to ride to Delphos and hired an Ass to carry him In the heat of the day he reposed himself behind the Ass and made benefit of the shadow to keep his body from the Sun the Owner that went along to bring back the beast would not suffer it but demanded to sit in the shadow himself for he let out his Ass but not the shadow the Contention says Lucian went so far that it came into the Court. This is the Story somewhat light I confess but good enough to warn brabbling persons that they strive not about the shadow of an Ass Away with obstinacy therefore which is the endless repulse of godly Union and let truth prevail for what should prevail but that which is stronger than all things The greatest Learning in the world must be a slave to Faith and the greatest Majesty in the world must be a slave to Reason Plato writes to Dion the Ruler of Syracusa Pervicaciam tanquam solitudinis parentem fuge Fly obstinacy and wilfulness it will beget you a solitary melancholy life for all your friends will forsake you Creon in Sophocles would follow his own mind hearken to no admonition and so brought all to ruine Tiresias speaks to him not to be stiff and stubborn for it was ever the fore-runner of great calamity and hath these two similitudes First When a torrent of water breaks into a place the little Willows that bend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are not removed they that will not give way are rooted out of their place 2. When the Pilot of a ship will not turn his sail to the winds nor observe how to let a turbulent wave pass by him he splits his vessel therefore the conclusion of the Point shall be with Solomon An haughty spirit goes before a fall and it savours much more of a Christian mildness to be easily drawn off from our own imaginations than to hold a stiff opinion in our teeth in despite as it were of all wise perswasions To be wedded to our own will and fancy is very bad in temporal affairs but an inflexible perverseness is ten times worse in spiritual purposes It was a just invective wherewith St. Stephen reviled the Jews Vncircumcised in hearts and ears you do always resist the Holy Ghost First the heart is uncircumcised full of swelling and pride Such a distempered heart pollutes the ear and will not hear of wholsom Doctrine and when the ear is not tractable to receive the truth then follows the resistance of the Holy Ghost The great opposers both of Law and Gospel in holy Scripture were Sorcerers men that were bewitched as St. Paul says of the Galathians that they would not obey the truth such as could not endure to hear there was any divine wisdom revealed from above which was above their own magical Philosophy and as some of our adversaries have said blasphemously that they had rather err in some things with their Pseudo-Catholick Church than be in the right Cause with the Reformed So those Magicians when their senses were convicted that the finger of God was with Moses and the Apostles yet had they rather err in their own hellish way than go uprightly in the way of God Simon the Sorcerer what did he see in Peters Apostleship to oppose it Elymas the Sorcerer what did he hear from Pauls mouth to contradict it Only they must not seem to be overcome lest their name should be diminished among such as admired them God did smite the Magicians of Pharaoh with blains for resisting the truth and yet you never read that they repented twice their skill prevailed to imitate Moses and to do wonders like unto his in the third Plague they failed and were not able to perform it Moses turned the waters into bloud they did the like Moses brought abundance of Frogs upon the Land the Magicians did so with their inchantments At the third time Moses smote the dust of the ground and made it become Lice over all the Land of Egypt at this the Magicians were at a gaze and could not perform it St. Austin notes upon it In signo tertio defecerunt fatentes sibi adversum esse spiritum sanctum They failed in the third sign as who should say the Holy Ghost the third
So the Father is the Voice the Son is the Word the Spirit proceeding from them both is the Truth and these three are all one and undivided So you see why the Father is resembled in the signification of a voice I must adjoyn also how well this doth express the comforts of a Gospel The Law was a dead Letter litera occidit by the strength of sin it killed us all because we were not able to perform it The Gospel is viva vox a quickning living voice such a one as quickned Lazarus when he was four days in the Grave The Law was heard in Trumpet and Thunder upon Mount Sinai Now comes a still voice such a one as would not scare a Dove away now comes Musick from heaven now comes obsecro vos that fair spoken language of the Apostles I beseech ye brethren This is such a winning allicient voice that the words that proceed from it are rather kisses than words therefore the Church speaking to the praise of the Gospels sweetness begins the song on this wise Cant. i. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth The first time that ever we read of Gods voice in the Old Testament you shall hear what Adam says upon it Gen. iii. 10. I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid But at the first time that you read of Gods voice in the New Testament it is made smooth and soft to our ear with This is my beloved and here I am well pleased What else to be concluded from hence But that an evidence and manifestation of faith shall be discovered to all men As when one telleth his mind to his Friend not by messengers or by Script but face to face Thou spakest sometimes in dreams and visions to thy people But says the Lord I will speak with my Servant Moses mouth to mouth Num. xii 8. So by the revelation of the Gospel we are all become as precious to God as Moses was and the Lord talketh with us as one doth with his friend face to face And with all succinctness that is the sum of the second Point Neither must I insist long upon the third thing noted which is the great Authority that this voice doth carry because it came from heaven and Loe a voice from heaven The Oracles of the Gentiles were wont to come out of hollow Caves and Rocks The Law of the Hebrews was delivered from the top of a smoaking hill but as Judges and great Magistrates were wont to publish their Laws from their Throne of State so doth God deliver the Law of Faith from Heaven and that Firmament above it is the Throne of God When the Earth opens it is to swallow Chore Dathan and Abiron When the Heaven opens it is to pour out consolation The Gospel reckons up three times that the Lord spake from heaven above and at each time it had the same Theme to magnifie the Saviour of the World The first time at his Baptism the second time at his Transfiguration the third time anon before his Passion when the Son begg'd earnestly Father glorifie thy name the Father answers him I have glorified it and I will glorifie it again Joh. xii 28. And that you may be assured how that celestial voice continues to speak unto us in the accent of comfort John tells us he heard a voice from heaven saying Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord Rev. xiv 13. Bode no evil with your tongue to any since the Lord out of his habitation speaks nothing but love and benediction towards us The voice of God is an open heaven but as for the curser and reviler his throat is an open sepulchre Sursum corda The tidings of Salvation come not from beneath they hover above our head therefore lift up your heart lift up your understanding and you will easily perceive that every part of sacred Scripture is a voice from heaven I know unless the inward testimony of the Spirit prevail upon your soul and induce it to believe all external Arguments from the judgment of the Church in all Ages from harmony of truth from fulfilling of Prophesies and whatsoever else will be insufficient to perswade you Yet if any thing more than other will puzzle the refractory it is this that in every part and scope it sounds like a voice from heaven far otherwise than the books of humane learning That which drives our labours and studies only to the glory of God that which propounds no other reward but the fruition of God that which talks of no acts and monuments but such as belong to God this must be divine and from above Nec vox hominem sonat Surely it must be a voice from heaven But do the Heathen thus in any of those three parts of their Sciences either in their Moral Institutions or Natural Disquisitions or Historical Narrations In their Histories they write to honour men in their Philosophy to know the World in their Moral and Politick Axioms to make a just and a noble Patriot for his Country No Tract throughout all mans wit and learning but only in the sacred Scriptures like a voice from heaven Perhaps here and there a Sentence of theirs may soar aloft but as Kites flie high yet still look down to the Carion upon the Dunghil So the stile of the Heathen may rise up in some things as it were in the clouds but from thence they look down how they may be famous and popular And that is no better than a blast of vanity sure it is no voice from heaven Beloved this is a most illustrious opening of the Gospel that the heavens assumed a tongue and began to speak wherefore it is for good reason that our Saviour had that diction so often in his mouth He that hath ears to hear let him hear Let me be bold to add he that hath a tongue to confess let him praise the Lord. As we delight to have the Lord speak to us so it delighteth the Lord to have us speak to him And as the Father did vouchsafe to send his voice from heaven to earth so let our lips be full of Prayers that we may send our voice from earth to heaven God is not an Eccho nothing but empty voice we read of his face and his presence and his right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore And as Absalon though he were a disloyal Son yet he did wishly desire to stand before his Father Says he to Joab wherefore am I come from Gerar to Jerusalem if I may not see the Kings face So the rebounding of the voice from heaven is to enflame our affections that we may see his face in heaven So shall it be their fair lot and inheritance who are Fìlii dilecti complacentes Sons Beloved in whom he is well pleased These are the Testimonials due to Christ and flowing from Christ to us which now I come to handle The fourth annotation is the Person to whom
the Church The first institution of Marriage the Fall of man and the Promise of Christ And God chose him above all men to receive his Commandments out of the dark Cloud for which his excellency hath been renowned above all men in all Generations But as the chief Lesson in all the Prophets is the coming of Christ in the flesh so none more express for that than Moses If you believed Moses you would believe in me says our Saviour In every of his Five Books he hath left some notable instance for this a Beacon upon an hill The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. iii. Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us in the Paschal Lamb Exod. xii The Serpent lifted up in the Wilderness even so the Son of man was lifted up Num. xxi In Leviticus all the Ceremonial Sacrifices were Types of him especially the Scape-goat But above all Deut. xviii A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me hear him This is that Prophet who is the chosen quiver out of which Christ takes his shafts Mallens doctrinâ Moses quà m miraculis pugnare Our Saviour had rather convince the Devil with Moses than with Miracles And above all the Scripture or above all other works of Moses Christ hath refuted the Devil only out of the Book of Deuteronomy at every turn that he spake unto him Whether Moses were anciently divided into a Pentateuch or five several Books whereof this is the last I concur with them that doubt it This is certain the seventy Interpreters were the first that called it Deuteronomy for the Jews gave the Five Books no other names but the first words of the Book A singular and most select piece of Scripture it is containing the whole body of godly practice and true Religion for the King for all Magistrates for the Priests and for the People It is Moses his Cygnaea cantio the last exhortation which he made before he took his leave of the world And it is supposed there is more Divination in the Spirit in the nearest enlightnings before death than at other times as if the soul were almost out of the earth and a little in heaven The great Prophet took such abundant care to preserve it and to put it into the hands of all men that it was wrote in stone for an eternal memorial Deut. xxvii 3. Every seventh year it was to be read to all the people at the solemn Feast of Tabernacles Deut. xxxi 10. The King was enjoyn'd to keep a Copy of it and read it all his days Deut. xvii 18. And after he had spoke it he wrote it and delivered it to the Priests Ruminate upon this that you shall not find such instances for the memorial of any other sacred Book and that Christ drew only out of this fountain to quench the fiery darts of the Devil and although comparisons I know are odious between one book of Gods Word and another yet some excellency will redound out of the premises to this Scripture in every mans imagination It took the name of Deuteronomy because when the Law had been delivered before this is a repetition of the Law again Nunquam nimis dicitur quod nunquam satis dicitur Moses was not ashamed to preach the same things over again no more was Paul To me says he it will not be irksome to you it will be profitable The Law had need to be repeated often for our rebellion and depravation and perhaps because the oldest men of Israel were all dead in the Wilderness for the sin of murmuring who had first heard the Law it was fit to propound it again to the new Generations That I may not be too tedious in this I will only add what St. Hierom says Deuteronomy or the second Law is a prefiguration of the Gospel or Evangelical Law Sic habet quae priora sunt tamen novae sunt omnia de veteribus So the Gospel doth antiquate no moral thing which is old and yet old things in the Law become new in Christ by the faith of the Gospel Heaps of Expositors follow this hint that Christ retorted Texts of Deuteronomy upon Satan for this reason because it affords a kind of shadow of the Gospel A weak reason for so many to be in love with since it was not God that imposed the name of Deuteronomy on that Book but men that did interpret it Why that Book was only in Christs mouth upon this occasion let no man take upon him to determine but it will teach us to search diligently for some excellent Treasure in those Lines which were thought worthy to be applied and them only by the wisdom of the Son of God And thus much for the seat of the Argument and for these words It is written Before I come to the words themselves we must pass over the second Point that the application of them is drawn to Christ The place originally is to be read thus Deut. viii 3. He humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with Manna which thou knewest not neither did thy Fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live It was Christs pleasure to have himself comprehended in this rule our case is his case he will fare as we fare he trusts in Gods blessing as we ought to trust in it in a word he answers altogether as man and not as God As the Israelites had no Corn or Harvest in the Wilderness to make bread yet they had sustenance equivalent or better which fell from above round about their Tents so Christ intimates the same providence could help him though he wanted bread which supplied the Iraelites of whose stock he was descended He could have confounded Satan with his Majesty and power but it was more tormentuous to the Adversary to be thrown off as with the weakness of mere man and his humility This is not it which Satan look'd for to hear Christ answer him by the title of man and far less did he look for it that he should get the upper hand of him in that title a triumph which is most molestious to his pride above all other punishments Here it began that he should be subject to mans nature yet it was that nature co-united in one person with God but hereafter all the band of Hell shall be turned over to the children of men who have been the children of God that they may insult over them Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world says St. Paul 1 Cor. vi 2. Nay know ye not that we shall judge Angels Not only comparatively because our works are better than theirs as the Ninivites and the Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment against the unbelieving Jews Mat. xii But directly our suffrage shall go to their eternal condemnation
laugh with them that are merry but to make them voluptuous and exceed fly as low as you will and as high as you will Which alteration you shall find between that tentation which is past already and that which is now begun Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City and setteth him on a Pinacle of the Temple In which words are to be noted four things Ordo Modus Locus communis Locus proprius First The order of these tentations that this is the immediate and next tentation to the former for then the Devil took him Secondly The manner is by assumption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he took him up 3. The more common place to which he took him it was to the holy City Jerusalem 4. Here is the peculiar and proper place he setteth him on a Pinacle of the Temple These are the parts of that Argument which at this time lies before us Now this is the reason why I make the order of these tentations one and the first part of the Text at this time because St. Luke puts this tentation in the last part which St. Matthew accounts the second and this which St. Matthew reckons for the second St. Luke refers it last For after Christ had refused the motion to make bread of stones it follows according to St. Luke The Devil took him up into an high Mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world in a moment of time but our Evangelist gives his Narration the accent of time Tunc assumpsit then he took him up into the holy City Because therefore St. Matthew shews the Connexion of order it is believed generally that he hath the perfect consequence of the story One says that in some old Copies of the Greeks St. Luke concurs passage by passage with St. Matthew Jansenius a learned Author it seems had found some such thing and I believe so had St. Ambrose for whereas he wrote Commentaries purposely upon St. Luke yet he keeps no other order but the self-same which is found in St. Matthew Howsoever this is no jar or contradiction between the holy Writers but a variety which begets many good Meditations when we think upon it First Aquinas did thus excogitate upon it Quandoque ex inani gloria venitur ad cupiditatem quandoque ex cupiditate ad inanem gloriam The tentation upon the Pinacle was directed to beget vain-glory the tentation upon the Mountain tended to beget immoderate coveting of worldly things Now for these two there is no choice in the precedency for sometimes vain-glory would support it self by coveting in excess and sometimes a covetous affection drives a man into the itch of glory Secondly All sins are not equal yet there are some capital sins that in several respects are of an equal deformity between themselves and then they take their turn in holy Scripture one interchangeably to be set before the other Murder and Adultery Adultery and Murder are flagrant crimes and in some comparisons one is the greater trespass against our brother in some comparisons the other Thou shalt do no murder thou shalt not commit adultery so Moses ranged them in the Law to the Jews Thou shalt not commit Adultery thou shalt not kill Rom. xiii 9. So St Paul disposeth them writing to the Gentiles Indeed in the Hebrew Murder is first forbidden for being is simply better than well-being but in the 70 Translation Adultery is first forbidden for comparatively well-being is better than being St. Matthew therefore following the Hebrew says Christ did thus rehearse the Commandments to the young man Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit Adultery Mat. xix 18. St. Luke following the 72. cites our Saviour saying to the same man Do not commit Adultery do not kill Luk. xviii 20. So Pride in some cases is worse than Covetousness and therefore our Evangelist entreats first upon the tentation to Pride in some cases Covetousness is worse than Pride and so the other Evangelist writes first of that tentation which instigated unto Covetousness Thirdly St. Luke laid those two tentations together which were commenced in the Wilderness and Mountains and then with less confusion to the Readers apprehension speaks of that which fell out in the City and upon the Temple Many times the Scripture by anticipation brings in the history of a thing before the precise time wherein it was done as Mat. xxvii In the description of our Saviours Passion this accident is brought in that many dead bodies of the Saints arose and appeared in the holy City to many and yet it came not to pass upon the Passion day but when Christ was risen from the dead This Maxim is of good direction to the wise that can understand it Ordo artificialis in narratione rerum saepe est utilior ad intelligendum quà m ordo naturalis To transpose things in an history artificially is many times better for our understanding than the plain natural order But this tentation as it is sorted in St. Matthew is well placed both by the natural truth of the history and by the artificial method of it And thus much briefly to make this Point even between these two most divine Evangelists I put on to the next thing which is most strange in this tentation and verily to be admired the manner of it to which Christ did submit himself it is by Assumption by carriage through the air Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy City It was a good Spirit which led him into the Wilderness to the exercises of Fasting and Prayer and Contemplation the very same which sate upon his head at Baptism in the shape of a Dove Now here is another Spirit retaining to the contrary faction who is ready not only to lead him but even to carry him through the Air to the most conspicuous Turret in all the City of Jerusalem Some of the ancient and pure stock of Writers were so loath to preach this Doctrine in the Church that Satan did bear up Christ between Heaven and Earth for fear of offending weak ones that they made other constructions of it which will no abide the test St. Cyprian expounds it as if all this had been done by Vision and Imagination But will Cyprian say that Christ was urged to cast himself down to the ground putativè not really but in imagination Or will he grant that our glorious Champion did vanquish his Adversary but in fancy and opinion Exilis esset Christi victoria Then Christ had but little to boast of and the Scripture would never have recorded this act as the most famous of all victories Beside these many other Interpreters in a more rational way confess this was a conflict truly and apparently fought and that the Devil really took him up Pedibus ductum non volantem he went along from the Wilderness up to the top of the Pinacle on his feet upon the Devils provocation And this opinion they maintain upon the meaning
unnecessary daring Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God then Cast thy self down from a Pinacle of the Temple is unauthorized albeit the Promise goes He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee c. To dispatch this out of hand the misconstruing the Word of God is the beginning of all strife the true Allegation of it is the end of a Controversie Therefore upon the surging of Heresies the holy Fathers were wont to convene in Councils or great Assemblies Positis in medio sacris Scripturis the holy Scriptures ever lying in the midst they were the Center of all their opinions and by them they built up the Church in unity which was divided before By them the Faithful stopped the mouths of Lions that they could rore no more And as Socrates says when Babylas the Martyrs bones were buried near to the Oracle of Apollo the Oracle spake no more so the clamours of all Satanical men are husht by the sound of the two silver Trumpets By one blast of the Trumpet Satan was outed from his first tentation and by another blast in these words from a second tentation Rursus scriptum est Again it is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God I pass from these few gleanings in the first part of the Text to the full sheaves in the second A Medicine works upon a Disease to expel it partly by similitude partly by contraries So our Saviour provided an Antidote against the Devils pernicious counsel partly by similitude giving him like for like Again it is written partly by contraries resisting presumption with modesty with fear and reverence Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God This Precept is so full of cases and instances that it is like a thick over grown Wood and the ambiguities so many that I can light upon no man that hath made a clear path to go through and the reason is that there are such multiplicious significations in this phrase to tempt God that you cannot describe it in one Proposition The great Schoolman was fain to shuffle it up thus Tentare Deum est explorare an Deus sciat velit aut possit id quod ei proponitur To tempt God is to enquire unnecessarily what God hath folded up in his Knowledge or laid up to do in his secret Will or comprehended in his mighty Power You perceive plainly this is not to draw one straight Rule but to spread an ambiguous thing into many branches I am purposed therefore to impart my apprehensions upon the point unto you on this wise First how many ways God may be tempted without offence Secondly how many ways it is sin to tempt him Thirdly wherein the trespass doth consist to tempt the Lord. From hence the ordinary hearer shall learn some instances for his share and the intelligent Auditor may apply all cases which I must omit for brevity to these general Rules The first Doctrine to be pass'd over is how many ways the Lord may be tempted without offence One and the prime instance is when we cannot help our selves by any natural means where all the possibilities which humane Providence can imagine have failed us therein to cast our burden upon the Lord and to look for some extraordinary deliverance from his protection is a tentation of Faith and not of Presumption This Psalm xci from whence Satan drew his Text to inveigle our Saviour He shall give his Angels charge c. I say this Psalm goes very far to strengthen my observation for if you mark it those perils from which the most High hath promised to deliver us are not such things which we may avoid Proprio Marte by our own Arm but they are things quite out of our own defence as the snare of the Hunter the Pestilence the flying Arrow What good can we do our selves against such invisible mischiefs If we had means to help our selves thank God for that supply but his Omnipotency is for that time discharged But the Promise of the Psalm doth extend to them who fly to extraordinary Providence when ordinary industry will not serve the turn Luther says very well therefore that the Contents of that xci Psalm are not for every mans humour now adays he means it is not for those who will expect what the Lord is able to do for them in some strange way when necessity doth not thrust them upon it to have such expectation The usual similitude of the School is this he that gallops an horse only to mark how swift he is of pace Tentat equi virtutem he doth it to find out the metal of the horse but he that puts him to his speed upon a journey doth it not to find out the worth of the horse but to rid the way for his business So one man leaves the event of his affairs totally to Gods especial succour that he may try his goodness or his omnipotency another man flies to the same goodness and omnipotency because necessity hath inclosed him about the former tentation cannot be approved the latter cannot be condemned I will fit the Point with an example to make it easier Every sickness is not unto death and therefore the Lord hath appointed Drugs for the maladies of the body Altissimus creavit medicinam says the Son of Syrach The most High hath created Medicines and a wise man will not despise them therefore they chose an ill matter to commend who praised St. Agatha that she would never take any remedy for the infirmities of her body Habeo Dominum Iesum qui solo sermone restaurat universa this was rash adventuring Far otherwise that woman in the Gospel diseased with an Issue of bloud twelve years and had spent all her means upon Physicians when no receipt of mans skill would do her good she put her faith in a Miracle and came near to touch Christ to explore if she should be cured by laying her finger upon the fringe of his Garment and so it came to pass First the course of Nature had failed and then the Lord blessed her for relying upon a supernatural Medicine When we have nothing and see nothing like to fall unto us we may resolutely say with Abraham God will provide and as Jehosaphat said There is no strength in us to stand against this great multitude now we know not what to do our eyes are toward thee 2 Chron. xx 12. This is the declaration of the first instance that it is no unlawful tempting of God when it is not wantonness or curiosity but the last and most extreme necessity that puts us upon it The next instance is thus framed such as had commandment or Prophetical instinct from God to ask a sign from heaven or to look for some wonderful effect these did not offend by unlawful tentation The Disciples when they were sent abroad two by two to preach in several Cities had a Rule given them by Christ To take no provision with them for their journey they did so
to place safe enough in their own Country Once indeed they were scared with a great tempest upon the Lake of Genezaret which might have faln out upon any other occasion and then they cry out desperately Lord save us we perish But upon their haughty demand Christ askt them Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of It was a cup of wormwood and tribulation such as Moses and Elias drank of to the very lees and those are they that appear with him in glory those are they that sit in his Kingdom the one at his right hand the other at his left Their countenances have been sad now they smile for ever they have worn sackcloath and ashes and mingled their drink with weeping now they appear bedeck'd with Majesty For if none might enter into King Ahasuerus Gate cloathed with sackcloath Esth iv 2. Then much more all that are deigned the presence of the King of heaven shall shine triumphantly in glory Thirdly The objects of Moses and Elias standing conspicuously before the face of these three men would instill into them the imitation of their holy life and impectorate to them those good examples whereby they themselves should become mirrours and examples to after Ages Their Justice their Prayers their Temperance their Constancy to true Religion their hatred of Idolatry all these were texted in their face all their noble acts were remembred by seeing them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Chrysostome The history of the Saints warms out hearts within us to read it Historiae sacrae inspectio est quasi compendium resurrectionis ante oculos habere says one To entertain our time in reading the Sacred History is to cast our eyes upon a model of the Resurrection But to be brought in place where there was an ocular Apparition of Moses and Elias was to gain both a model of their Resurrection and a Chronicle of their History It is a good thing to call the dead into consultation with the living where God promiseth to send the former and the latter rain to the earth many apply it mystically to this purpose The Examples of the Patriarchs and Prophets well digested into our use are the first showers of rain or the dew of the morning The Examples of Christ and his Apostles and such as have shined like burning lights since their days are the latter rain or the dew of the Evening but these drop down one after another and fill the Church with spiritual encrease No observation more appertinent than this which I find attributed to St. Hierom. Moses was first inspired to write the Book of Genesis which contains the acts of the old World before he published Exodus which contains the Law A fair method which came from heaven First instructed to write the History of Antiquity before he Penn'd a Pandect of Laws for the use of Posterity lest he should rashly proceed to teach the Children before he had wisely learnt the Examples of the Fathers I will set my rest upon this Text of Scripture that there is not a pithier Precept in all the Sacred Volume Deut. xxxii 7. Remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee It is a very satisfying thing when a truth comes to us by a good descent as the Poet bragg'd of his stories Quae Phoebo pater omnipotens mihi Phoebus Apollo God did inspire Moses and Elias to know what sufferings his Son should undergo at Jerusalem they preach'd it before the Disciples the Disciples to their Scholars they to the next and so from Generation to Generation it is an Heir-loom to the latest Posterity Alta mysteria per majores ad alios debent devenire Let great mysteries be devolved from the mouths of famous forerunners such as Moses and Elias The Devil himself was ashamed of upstarts when they came to be broachers of their own fancies Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye Sometime it is as hard to know who were the broachers of new Doctrine as to understand the Doctrine it self As Tiberius scoft at a conceited Roman proud enough but of no good Parentage Curtius Rufus videtur mihi ex se natus Curtius Rufus did beget himself he had no Progenitors So ignominious it is to press any thing for current which is a brat of yesterdays invention and doth not bear a pass from the example of our fore-fathers Beware of novel Doctrines and observe it when you will if they do not beget new Vices as a Mill-stone new-peck'd fills the meal it grinds with more gravel than one that is smooth with use Therefore gather such Manna as fell very early in the Morning Enquire for the old I mean for the oldest way but habete salem be sure it be salted with Apostolical Doctrine and then it will not be tainted with corruption That we might not only fetch our Examples so far as the Apostles but a reach beyond them likewise here were two old Sires of great authority and veneration that came to Mount Thabor Moses and Elias Fourthly I had occasion the last day to make a difference between these two Saints thus far that the body of the one was always living the body of the other that is of Moses came from the dead which is an improvement to the truth of that Article of our Creed that Christ shall bring all to judgment both the quick and dead before him The dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds How many applications may be deduced from thence likewise that the dead and the living came to teach that Christ should die upon the Cross and live again unto the glory of the Father Or thus to teach us Mortification and Vivification that we should die unto sin and live unto God But referring your memories back to that which is past I stay my self upon this Notion that Moses and Elias come from the other world unto this to let us see and that it is undeniably true that there is a life remaining after this is ended and of a much happier condition a life of glory It is the complaint of them who dispute stifly for their own infidelity Nullus de mortuis resurgit None come from the dead to teach us that are living but since we mean the Apparitions of them that should come from the other world they should say none come from the living to us who in comparison to them may be called the dead But to answer to the meaning of the objection words may be reformed with ease Have none been sent with tidings to us from the habitation of the other world Yes twice apparently to go no farther At the first bout Moses and Elias from Mount Thabor at the second bout a witness without all exception our blessed Saviour who rose the the third day from
much therefore in Origen to amplifie an Error so far There may be Perversus error in excusando perversa delectatio in accusando A dangerous partiality in excusing a fault and a dangerous delight in accusing Pascasius Ratbertus doth very well to impute all to his amazement yet he also conceives him more amazed than I can imagine namely that waking out of sleep Putabat quod resurrectionis speciem solutus carne per extasin jam videret He thought he was out of the body and that in an Extatical phancy he beheld the Resurrection I apprehend him not so much deluded Bellarmine is so dim sighted when he list that he can find nothing in all St. Peters words to be called a sin no not when he would have enjoyed Heaven upon Earth and said Master it is good for us to be here Licet in tali excessu mentis errate potuerit Petrus certe peccare nullo modo potuit Though Peter might err in this extasie yet he could not sin for he knew not what he said Indeed Paul had been a blasphemer and a persecuter Yet he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief 1 Tim. i. 14. Though he did those things through ignorance yet those things were sins for why did he obtain mercy but because he had been a sinner So it betokens a sin that Peter said he knew not what Our Saviour told James and John they askt they knew not what Mar. x. 38. Was there not a trespass for all their ignorance They that crucified our Saviour knew not what they did Luke xxiii 34. Was it not a bloudy sin for all their Ignorance St. Paul says of false Teachers they understood not what they said nor whereof they affirmed 1 Tim. i. 7. God will pardon slips of ignorance that they shall not be judged with Hell fire but we must not excuse them so far that they shall not be judged for sins Therefore of all Opinions their moderation sounds to my ear most judicious that make this error of Peters a small sin because it proceeded from vehement love but yet a sin because it proceeded from precipitated ignorance Excellently Optatus against Parmenian touching some other slips of this Apostle Ipsius Sancti Petri beatitudo veniam tribuat si illud commemorare videar quod factum constat legitur Let not blessed Peter think amiss if I shew him offending where the fact is manifest and recorded in holy Scripture The Gloss took the right estimation of Peters words upon this hint that Christ gave him no answer again it was frivolous and inordinate he spake and Christ gave him no reply to approve it yet it was no impious speech therefore he gave him no sharp rebuke to condemn it St. Ambrose descants upon it many ways and gives this close Proximum indulgentiae est quod de excessu venit pli amoris That which comes from the excess of love is pardonable and will obtain indulgence As Poets and Orators make men speak strangely strong lines as some odd brain'd men call them so fear admiration joy rapture drew these words not well weighed from the Apostle And though we shall give account of every idle word yet the word of God hath taught us that not only where sins are of small growth but even where sin abounds grace will abound much more through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN THE SIXTH SERMON UPON The Transfiguration LUKE ix 34. While he thus spake there came a Cloud and overshadowed them and they feared as they entred into the Cloud UNruly passions can yield no cause why they are stirred up but our own natural impotency they surprize us of a sudden before we can meditate why we did admit them and therefore are obnoxious to many questions why they should be so but it is not easie to afford a reasonable answer Says David Psal xxvii 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation whom then shall I fear The Lord is the strength or protector of my life of whom then shall I be afraid He could pose himself to ask why he should be fearful yet he could not be rid of fear It is apparent in his Psalm that there were two arms of comfort to embrace him Light and Protection and the Gloss doth branch them thus illuminatio spectat ad animi consilia salus ad removenda corporis pericula that Light is to direct the counsels of the mind that Protection is to remove away all hurt and offence from the body Had not Peter all this before him that David speaks of and after the most ample manner that ever was seen upon earth and yet he was so weak in heart that his fear was exceeding strong Peter might truly say the Lord was his light for here was a Cloud to illuminate him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bright Cloud says St. Matthew it was Gods Cloud above any other and God was in the Cloud as it is manifest in the next verse then he might truly say the Lord was the protection of his life for the Cloud overshadowed him and so he was safe as a Bird under the feathers of the Almighty but if you ask him with the Psalmist Of whom then shall I be afraid he is not able to reply In the compass of this accident of the Transfiguration I find him thrice exceeding fearful every time upon a new object and occasion but you must find out this by looking narrowly into the History as all the three Evangelists have related it Observe St. Mark and he implies that Moses and Elias appeared who preacht of our Saviours Sufferings as I have told you before Peter and the other two Disciples heard it and trembled at it so much that he spake distractedly says St. Mark He wist not what to say for they were sore afraid Then St. Luke as I have read it before you in my Text notes that they were perplext at another bout when the Cloud appeared and that Christ and Moses and Elias entred into the Cloud St. Matthew reveals another thing that troubled them how a voice from Heaven was heard This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him When the Disciples heard it they fell on their face and were sore afraid I have met with no Expositor who hath observ'd these three distinct occasions and eruptions of their fear yet they are all apparent to him that will examine it And I mark it how every new passage of admiration in this Miracle took them with a quivering till at the third time Christ encouraged them therein St. Matthew hath helpt us with a passage which the others have omitted Matth. xvii 7. Jesus came and touched them and said arise be not afraid Therefore piecing that addition in St. Matthew to this Text in St. Luke which I must do to handle all occurrences in this Transfiguration faithfully the parts will arise to these two the Fear of the Disciples and their Succour In the first part I will
light enough for being secret any more The sootiest Coal when it flames is a very visible object and when once Christ brings our works to the great Conflagration of the last day then they shall no more lie hid but be revealed both to our shame and to our condemnation The next thing of observation in this cloud was that it overshadowed them So they saw a diminishment of that light which was in Christs body transfigured by little and little and it somewhat took off the amazement of the Apostles by abating the splendor which troubled them by little and little but of that enough before All that have taken pains to expound this miracle do generally accord herein Obumbratio Dei est symbolum divinae protectionis Where God doth cover any thing with a miraculous shadow it promiseth that the Divine Protection is round about it Leonidas the Grecian was told that his enemies came marching in such full Troops against him that their Darts when they threw them up would cover the light of the Sun Leonidas puts it off with this stout courage Tum in umbrâ pugnabimus then will we fight in the shade A couragious word and made very fit for a Christians mouth Believe in the Lord and we are all under his custody and defence beseech him to stretch his wings upon us and the Holy Ghost will overshadow us In umbrâ pugnabimus to that shadow we betake our selves to shun the fire of anger and the heat of concupiscence under that shadow will we fight against our Ghostly enemies We have two Regenerations or new births a spiritual an eternal The spiritual Regeneration which begets us again to life when by nature we were dead in sin is Baptism At that Sacrament the Holy Ghost came in the shape of a Dove to resemble innocency The eternal Regeneration is the Resurrection of the body and I have often told you that the Transfiguration is a model of a body risen from the dead and at that mysterious work the Holy Ghost came in a cloud that overshadowed them to signifie protection and safeguard in eternal security Beloved the protection of the holy Spirit consists not in Walls and Bulwarks but in a shadow in a refrigerium that comforts the heart and of all protections it is the strongest and the surest I do not say it is a resisting defence that we shall not be hurt that we shall not be spoyled that we shall not be killed then let Peter have staid where he was still and kept out of harms way for ever but the shadow of the Holy Ghost is an Antidote against the fury of the world it possesseth a stout Christian Champion with patience that he cares not to be hurt And what can trouble him who is strengthned in the inward man that he is above the malice of the world He that can overcome his own weakness is a great deal too hard for his enemies strength Gather us under thy grace O Lord as the Hen doth gather her Chickens under her wings and though heaven and earth should knock together our shadow would save us from destruction Fond fear the furthest from reason of all our passions Why did not the Disciples know their own strength and assurance when this cloud did overshadow them Did not the Lord declare that he took them into his protection And yet they were affraid But we are all so guilty now we deserve the effects of wrath that we distrust God to be angry when he takes upon him to save us Like a man that chooseth a runnagate Arabian to convoy him in the Desarts wore afraid of his convoy than of his enemies But we do ever deal with our gracious Father as if he were persona malae fidei one that broke truce and to be suspected We are jealous of his love jealous of his providence jealous of his protection The Proverb says That a friend wrongfully suspected turns an enemy And if we will not believe that God will be our Saviour we shall know he will be our Destroyer Be not affraid as his Disciples were when his merciful cloud did overshadow them I must suppose and I wish I may not be deceived that you have not forgot how I entreated at large that Moses and Elias preached at large upon our Saviours decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem that put the Disciples which heard it into a passion and no more of that again for brevity sake Another wave of fear came upon the neck of that in this Miracle when the Lord with his own voice spake in honour of his Son from heaven You must expect to hear of that upon the handling of the next Verse though after some pause of time perhaps when God shall give a fitting opportunity but that which occasioned them to fear in my Text was that all that good company whose presence delighted them so much was entring into the cloud and they were afraid they should part one from another Our last English Translation which I confess is a very accurate one and I seldom disagree with it yet in this place it is able to confound the Reader thus we have the words They feared as they entred into the cloud Who would not think this were the meaning that they feared as themselves entred into the cloud Yet it is not so for the Greek hath cleared it by using two several Pronouns in this verse the cloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overshadowed them the Apostles Peter John and James but they feared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is plainly spoken of others not of themselves and we might thus have translated it to make all clear They feared when those entred into the cloud Euthymius refers those to be only Moses and Elias the common Exposition is that Christ also was one of those and when Peter and the other two saw their Master and the two Prophets enter into the clouds and themselves left apart they were afraid perhaps they should be quite separated from Christ and those glorified Saints I told you before how loath they were to part with Moses and Elias but it went a thousand times more against their mind to part with Christ A Cloud was a very suspicious thing that it was prepared to take him away for ever especially if the Cloud were advanced above the ground above the top of the Mountain as Clouds usually are then if Christ had entred into it those who were present would surmise he is going up on high for ever Moses his body was taken away God knows how and till this day no man knows what became of it Elias went away in a whirlwind many sought for him but he was not to be found And why might not the Disciples being in a great fear have this Cloud in a jealousie that it came to take away their Lord There is a certain Commentator of eight hundred years antiquity by name Ratbertus Paschasius who says that although this Cloud did not take him up
Marium says the Consul Marius and so daunted his Executioner Thus then our Saviour had escaped their hands divinitatem publicando 2. Where were the Legions of Angels that did attend him That Host of Princes who solemnized his Nativity with peace on earth and good will towards men would have recanted and sung a song quite of another nature to guard him from his passion And thus our Saviour had escaped exercitum producendo Durandus tries his skill for a third reason thus corpus in se mortale ad immortalitatem perducendo If you ask what he means by it I will enlarge his mind Our bodies do decay and decline every day more and more unto corruption necessarily because it is past the cunning of any mortal man to know precisely to a crum of bread what nourishment is best to fulfil the place of that which decays daily in our body but as for Christ scivit in alimento quantum necesse fuit sumere ad restaurationem deperditi He having the treasures of all wisdom hidden in him needed not the advise of any man to instruct him how the decays of nature being justly repaired could preserve his mortal body in a sound constitution for everlasting Scotus thinks this reason too weak and so do I also For although Christ had this inspection to discern wholsom from unwholsom in all the works of nature yet consumption and dissolution would happen to his body from two things The first prejudice to his health would be impuritas alimenti the earth and all the fruits thereof yield not such strength and vertue as they did before the Floud of Noah Si Adam habuisset alimentum nostrum mortuus fuisset senio says the same Schoolman very boldly if Adam in his best estate had been fed with such meats as we are and none besides age had brought him to his Grave Again there is potentiae nutritivae debilitatio that gentle heat which gives warmth to the faculty of concoction would have gone out like a candle in the socket and therefore it stands for a conclusion in his Divinity that a medicinal intelligence of herbs and fruits and other viands had not drawn out our Saviours life unto immortality There is a fourth reason how Christ could have restrained all agony and passion from his body for ever and it is without exception Death in a reasonable creature is the wages of sin they are relatives secundum esse so that a man may say here is a sinner and therefore a dead man here is the Tomb of a dead man and therefore the Grave of a sinner The next conclusion cannot be parted from the former for if Sin and Death be acus filum if one do draw the other after it then there must be some miraculous disposition in that mans body who is no sinner but innocent as an Angel of light and yet obnoxious to death as a vile transgressor Where then lies the miracle in the substance of our Saviour why thus the whole Manhood was united to the whole Godhead in the Union hypostatical but the influence the grace and priviledg of the Divine nature was not diffused over the flesh nay it cast not the celestial beams upon all the parts of his Soul till after the resurrection but it shined only upon the superior faculties of the will and understanding The strength then of our Samson did lye in capite in the Divine nature which he would not use to immortalize his Body before the Resurrection Potuit relaxare influentiam divinae naturae ut in inferiorem portionem redundarâ—t sayes Biel. It was a miracle then that He could confine the influence of his Godhead for a time to the superior faculties of the Soul and I think you will confess that there was no miracle done by necessity or compulsion but upon this presumption that the flesh was left unassisted of the Divinity there follows a threefold necessity of his death and dissolution The first is called necessitas naturae nature would have dropt away when it grew mellow ripe according to the course of humane constitution The second is called necessitas coactionis supposing the malice of the Jews and his obedience to unjust Authority he must have suffered by necessity of compulsion The third is called necessitas finis a necessity of death lay upon him from Gods eternal Decree to accompass the happy end preordeined which is mans Redemption But what is the fruit of this Doctrine now where are the sheaves to fill our bosom you will say now I doubt it not that Christ had power to lay down his life and to take it up Then enlarge your hearts to receive St. Austins Meditation Amplius tenemur Christo quod liberè voluit pati quà m quòd necessario Our engagement had been less if Christ had suffered by absolute and imperious necessity but we praise our God the more we bless him we magnifie him we give thanks unto him with the greater affection because our Sacrifice is of choice and liberty But I pass from the consideration of the mighty power which was in our Saviour Had he rejoyced like a Giant to run his course what death could have seized upon him had our Samson awoke out of sleep and shook himself no fetters could have held him But if you will lay your ear to the sweetest harmony that ever was tuned ad aquae lene caput sacrae if you will give attention to the soft and still bubling from whence sprung all our salvation voluit in a word he would not plead his innocency before Pilat he would be offer'd up he would be crucified It is a memorable accident which Plutarch doth report of a Sacrifice in Lacedaemon The Priests were in great distress for an unspotted Beast to be slain Satan no doubt desiring to supply them with fuel to kindle their Idolatry an unspotted Heifer swam over the River and laid it self down before the Altar I know not the truth of this Story but sure I am that I know a Sacrifice which will fit the Parable For when wrath had faln upon Mankind throughout all Generations and a burnt-Offering was wanting to appease the Lord to the end that Isaac and the Sons of Promise and Election might escape the blow of death the chief Ram of the Flock vir gregis even Jesus Christ thrust his horns into the Thicket and entangled his strength in the guilt of our sins so Isaac was saved and the Ram was sacrificed Voluit would he suffer was there no remedy but to cut off the Head to save the Body had not Christ humbled himself so far as to the death of the Cross yet had not our Redemption been finished by the ignominy of his poor Nativity the lowliness of submission to his Parents the pang of his Fastings the horror of his Agony in the Garden might not all other reproaches have ransomed his life This curious Question the Schoolmen ask therefore let them resolve it First says Biel
glory Put thy fear into us all that we do not crucifie our Lord anew by Blasphemies by Vncharitableness by an Impenitent heart lest we be brought into the bondage of sin lest our heart wax gross and want understanding lest we lose thy favour as thine own Israel did upon earth lest we lose the light of thy countenance in heaven for ever O Lord hear us and be merciful to us for his sake who died upon the Cross c. THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE PASSION JOHN xix 34. But one of the Souldiers with a Spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out Bloud and Water WE cannot meddle with any part of our Saviours Body this day but we shall touch a wound and the greatest of them all without controversie is this in my Text. Thomas might put a finger in where the nails had entred but where the Spear had opened his side Christ bad him thrust in his hand Of Evils be sure to choose the least as David did but of Blessings such were all the wounds of Christs Passion wisdom without art will lead our meditations to the greatest And as Lot chose the Plain of Jordan to dwell there before all the Land of Canaan besides because it had variety of Springs of waters so this wound was the moistest and had the most plentiful issue of all the five it gushed out into two streams of blood and water I have not found such a passage in the Meditations of the Ancients that they came to drink at the hands or feet of Christ although the bloud trickled down from them also But it is usual with them in their Allegories to speak unto their Soul as if they laid their mouth unto the side of our Lord and did draw at it for the Fountain of everlasting life Did they suppose said I that they laid their lips there Nay Bernard could not satisfie his desire till he found a way to lay his heart upon the place and at length thus he hit upon it he believed as he had received that this Souldiers Spear entred at the right side of our Saviour Now says he that Elisha stretcht his living Body upon the dead Corps of the Child to raise it again to life it is a figure that Christ should apply his Body to our body which is dead in sin that it might live unto God his mouth which bled with buffeting upon our mouth that hath been full of deceit and bitterness his brows enameld with the pricks of thorns upon our heads which have contrived mischief and malice his hands which were riveted with nails upon ours that they may be washt in innocency his feet upon ours that have trod in the crooked ways of the Serpent then the Orifice of this Wound laying his right side to our left shall ly directly upon our heart and cure that part which disperseth iniquity to all the body The other three Evangelists exact in most circumstances of the Passion have all omitted this violence done to the dead Body of Christ surely had they wrote like meer men you might have thought the long story of these sufferings to be so lamentable that they could not for very compassion draw it quite out to an end John says in the next verse that he saw it done and that he knows he speaks the truth Amatus amans vulnera Domini the beloved Disciple that loved the wounds of his Master and would not let one of them be unrecorded this is the last wound that the Son of God received and therefore it is recorded by the last Evangelist The whole Story is comprized in this one verse and it will yield us these two points the malice of the living and the blessing that came from the dead The malicious action conteins four circumstances 1. Who was that evil person who did offer ignominy to the Body of Christ one of the Souldiers 2. What was the violence he offered he pierced him with a spear 3. Upon what part of his Body this fury did light upon his side 4. When he smote him you shall find by the thirtieth verse when he had given up the ghost In the second general branch which is the blessing that came from the dead there is the mystical opening of the Fountain of life wherein I consider first the two streams severally Bloud and Water 2. Their Conjunction Bloud and Water together 3. Their Order first Bloud and then Water 4. The Readiness of the Fountain that gushed out the stream could not be stopped no not for a minute forthwith there came out Bloud and Water Of these in their order Vnus militum one of the Souldiers did a despiteful fact upon the Body of Christ The Romans having the whole Nation of the Jews under their subjection at this time did gratifie them notwithstanding in many things to prevent rebellion and to satisfie their Law which forbids their dead to hang upon a tree after Sun-set lest the Land should be defiled Pilate gave them leave to take away the Bodies this day crucified from the Cross Wherefore to dispatch the Malefactors that they might be taken down two Thieves had their legs broken in whom there was life remaining It seems the chief Centurion would not be more rigid than the Law to do any further despite to Christ when he was dead already yet the cracking of his bones to splinters was the chief thing the Jews intended but one of the Souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certainly says the Father for a fee to please the people thrust a spear into his side I doubt me that those who delighted in war bore no good will unto our Saviour His birth was destinated by providence unto the days of peace his Name was the Prince of Peace his Doctrin was utterly against the Sword qui gladium sumpserit gladio ferietur now see what comes of it when he is faln into the hands of Souldiers Joab and the mighty men of the Camp were all for Adoniah and all against Solomon Adoniah was like to live in the field as his Father David had done but Solomon's hand must spill no blood that it may build up a Temple The Emperor Probus let a word of meekness slip from him equus nascetur ad pacem he hoped to have horses brought up to do service in peace and not in war and the Captains of the Host cut short his dayes and so it far'd with the great Preacher of Peace Christ had as good be guarded by one of the Pharisees as by one of the Souldiers As Aristotle said of Bees and Swallows Nec feri sunt generis nec mansueti they were neither reckoned among those creatures that were wild nor those that were tame but of a middle sort Such was the condition of these Spear-men somewhat ruder than civil men somewhat tamer than Savages but violent in their disposition as they are pleased or provoked Yet I am not of Tertullian's mind to
of our Saviour with Eutyches and thought the Son of God to be passive to have been scourged and crucified Which opinion when one of his Sectaries would have propounded to Philarchus an Orthodox man Philarchus did thus ingeniously put him off and told him that he had haste of other business and could not intend him for even hard before he had received Letters that Michael the Archangel was dead That is a Fable replies the Eutychian an Archangel is not subject to frailty and mortality Is not an Angel replies Philarchus And would you perswade me that the Deity of Christ is mutable and obnoxious to change Ejus latus then did not concern the nature of God and for the nature of man the part being bereaft of a soul as well he might have smote his Spear upon the trunk of the Cross Well might Isaiah say that he was a Lamb dumb before the Shearers could any Lamb be more dumb His teeth were set his mouth closed up as the world thought for ever and yet is Christ in the hands of the Shearer I will scourge him says Pilate and let him go What Pilate Think you that such Adversaries will be answered with a scourging Though you crucifie him they will not let him go Who knows what immanity had been shewn if Joseph had not hasted to take down the body The living it was wont to be said the living are they at whom malice shoots and not the dead Livor post fata quiescit Nay such as could never obtain a good report from the world while they lived among us fame hath renowned them when they were laid in their graves As Theodoret said of St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was more desired after his death than when he dayly lived among them Our Saviour was not so lucky his Persecutors are the same first and last both while he breaths and when his Soul was departed in his Examination they change his Raiment and put a Reed in his hand and then they mock him As he was drawing on and at the last gasp of life they say he call'd upon Elias as if he had prayed to Saints and then they mockt him and when he bowed down his head like fruit which is mellow ripe and droping off from the Tree then a Souldier thrust a Spear into his side Most savage men they sport themselves with that flesh which is the eternal glory of our nature And what cause was in it that Christ would suffer this after passion what fruit was there of such a Wound for the School-men say the Church was not redeemed with the bloud which came out of this Wound neither was it washed clean with this water quia post mortem non est locus meriti after the Epilogue of his bloudy Agony that he cried out all was finished no part of his Passion say they was meritorious What need we subscribe to so much curiosity but the fruit even of this Wound was threefold First to shew that Christ doth compassionate and hath a fellow-feeling with the Members of his Church unto the ends of the World Think you that he never was wounded since he was taken down from the Cross yes he was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the World and is a Lamb that will be wounded unto the ends of the World Why did you not feed me and cloath me you uncharitable Matth. xxv Why do you persecute me Saul Acts ix he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Zach. ii O what a tender thing it is not only to be in the body but in the very eye of Christ in the apple of his eye are not the bowels as tender as the eye perchance more tender Therefore a Christian Poet said of Savanorola the Martyr that Christ did beg to have his own Bowels sav'd that they might not be consumed with fire Parcite sunt isto viscera nostra rogo 2. If they have called the Master Beelzebub what will they call the Servants if they have ignominiously abused the dead Body of Christ then certainly Tyrants will dishonour the dead Bodies of his Servants But what were Wicklif or Bucer or Fagius the worse for it We that live feel the indignity done unto them says St. Austin but they have no feeling of it themselves no passion affecteth the dead for this disgrace but we are they that are affected with compassion Lysimachus in Tully threatned Theodorus to crucifie him and to let his body rot upon the Tree meâ nihil refert humi ne an sublimis putrescam says Theodorus a poor revenge what is it to me whether my body rot under ground or above ground If Heathen men were so resolute that accounted the body quite lost then will we be much more couragious whose Saviour was so despitefully handled in times past and who have hope of the Resurrection in times to come 3. The art of patience and sufferance it is instar omnium none so useful as it to them who must take up the Cross would you be ready for the fiery Trial as Paul was when he was wrapt up into the third Heavens whether in the body or out of the body he knew not would you pass by your torment in the flesh as Christ did this wound which he never felt Consepeliamur cum Christo let us die with Christ let us be buried with Christ Colos ii 12. If two sleep together they have heat says Solomon but how can he be warm that is alone True says St. Ambrose si duo dormiant if you sleep with Christ your faith will be warm your courage warm Frigidus est qui non moritur cum Christo he shall be bitten with frost he shall be nipt with every storm that doth not sleep that doth not die with Christ Give me any other reason if you can why the Martyrs went oftner to death with Psalms in their mouths than with tears in their eyes but because they were dead unto the World And what is it to them that are dead though a Souldier thrust a Spear into their side I have done with the first general Part conteining four Circumstances of the Malice of the living Now let us lay our mouth to the sacred Stream the blessing which issued from the dead forthwith came thereout bloud and water This is the Honey-comb that came out of the Carkass of Samson's Lion this is it even the price of our sins which is the bloud of the Lamb. At Evening you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red as you shall find it prognosticated Matth. xvi How is it made red or how doth the day grow clear rubet coelum Christi sanguine says St. Austin our Redeemer hath dipt his bloud upon the Sky as upon the door posts Exod. xii and then the day is clear the Sun of consolation shines upon us When an Offering for sin was offered up the Priest was commanded to dip his finger
through him might be saved And indeed the best that we can say of the Figure is That it was harmless and no very Serpent But it were dotage to suppose that the material thing had any secret vertue of restauration no more than the Figure of the Cross upon the post-fact is operative a superstition which our Church hath justly disclaimed He sent forth his word and he healed them says David it was Gods Word and Promise that cured them and not the brazen Element But Christ conteined remedy in himself and in his all-sufficient Sacrifice For the Son of righteousness did arise with healing in his wings Mal. iv 2. What hath he not healed if we will lay the plaisters of his Passion to our sins By his Poverty he hath condemned Covetousness by his charitable Prayers for his enemies implacable malice by the price for which the holy One was bought and sold Sacriledge by his Crown of thorns Ambition by the humility of his Cross Pride by his Gall and Vinegar Luxury by his Patience Impatience by his infinite Love Envy all his torments were preservatives against poison every part of him is sanity And that not only because this Figure was unvenomed but chiefly because it was a dead lump and not a living Serpent Mortuus serpens vivos superabat says Macarius The living Serpents were charmed by the dead one that they had no power to kill The bloud of Christ purgeth us from our sins and his death was our victory against death that we might live for ever It was well done of Nicodemus to spare no cost to imbalm his body It was piously done of Mary Magdalen to pour her precious Ointment upon his head against the day of his burial for therein we became the savour of life unto life and his Funeral was our immortality As Samson found his honey comb in the Carkass of the Lion so the Church finds sweetness in the bitterness of his Passion Caiaphas did not feel the vigour of his own Prophesie it slipt from his tongue and not from his heart That it was expedient that one man should die for the sins of the people His Successors contradict it obstinately to this day and controul it thus How can he save us that is crucified I return them an answer from my Text How could a dead lump of Brass expel their poison that were wounded If they depended upon a thing inanimate for the life of their body wherefore do they not attend the mystery that they must depend upon a Saviour put to death for the life of their Soul Attenditur serpens ut nihil valeat serpens attenditur mors ut nihil valeat mors says St. Austin The Jews look'd upon a Serpent to be freed from Serpents and Christians look upon death to be delivered from death There is one analogy more to be collected out of the unity of the Figure One Serpent was lifted up for the general preservation of all the Camp of Israel Not twelve distinct ones according to the number of their Tribes and much less no uncertain multiplication according to the number of their Families Nulla salus sine unitate The hope of health and remedy is founded in unity Our Gods are not Plural our Redeemers are not many they that have divers Saviours have never a Saviour They that have tutelary Martyrs for almost every Church and Patron Saints distinctly for every Kingdom they have so many Serpents lifted up and they look so many ways that their wounds stink and are corrupt through their foolishness and they prosper no way We have one head to which the body is knit one Shepherd to guide the Flock one corner stone in the building one Serpent in the Wilderness One Mediator between God and man the man Jesus Christ An infinite vertue can admit of no co-partnership I tremble at their infidelity that frame Scholastical Cases out of their own brain how others are subservient to the Son of God in the work of our Redemption But he says I have trod the wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me Isa lxiii 3. Whether an Israelite chanced to be stung in the head or in the face whether upon the breast or in the lower parts of the body one Serpent upon the Pole was enough to heal all So we have sins original and actual of commission and omission of ignorance infirmity and presumption of thought word and deed Vndique morsus we are stung from the crown of the head to the soul of the foot But as all are dead so one died for all that they which live should not live unto themselves but unto him that died for us and rose again Now for the material part out of which this Figure was carved it was not wrought in stone The Law was written in Tables of stone but grace and mercy are of another complexion It was not Silver or Gold though they in some sort are most correspondent in nature with Serpents for they are the bane of godliness and justice but we were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb undefiled It was erected in the strong and durable substance of Brass For one Generation passeth away and another cometh but the vertue of Christs Cross is perpetual and endures for ever It is not my excogitation but Isidors In serpente mortuus in aere aeternus Dead as the Serpent upon the Pole but durable as the Brass because the benefit of his death continues always Therefore his bloud is called The bloud of the everlasting Covenant Heb. xiii 20. Sooner shall all the brazen Pillars and Monuments upon earth be resolved into dust than one jot of this Covenant should be violated the merit of his Passion makes intercession for us continually before his Father and never ceaseth Behold our Pardon is engraven in Brass never to be blotted out it is too strong to be dissolved I look not upon that which is fluxive and changeable but upon a propitiation in Brass Yet not upon the Altar of Brass lest the Israelites should think that their own Sacrifices of Sheep and Oxen did help them but upon the Serpent of Brass to let them perceive that it was the Sacrifice of Christ that healed them Beside could a Statue of Brass endure more injuries than were laid upon the tender body of our Saviour Could an Anvile sustain more stripes and blows When Job began to sink under the pressure of his afflictions says he Is my strength the strength of stones Or is my flesh of brass He was a man that had the courage to suffer much yet he had not a brazen body infirmity made him sink and wish for death but Christ endured for our sakes as a man of brass I pray God we have not hearts of steel that do not consider it Above all the Prophets Isidore doth well to call Jeremy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most passive of
betray me by the warning of the sop by rebuke and confusion Judas betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss though the treachery was permitted yet these were impediments though not such as would take place with a Reprobate Secondly God is no idle Spectator upon the actions of men whether good or bad where he permits the Devil to draw us into temptation his hand is not quite taken off from our sins but that he moderates our offences and that many ways as stopping our sins at such a quantity and excess that they shall go no further they that had power given them to kill Christ had not power to break his legs a bone of him could not be broken and the Lord sets other moments of time than the sinner casts about for himself as no man could lay hands on Christ yet the Pharisees fingers itcht at him because his hour was not yet come Therefore thirdly it must hang together with that which goes before that God disappoints a wicked man of that which he intends in his naughtiness and brings it about to his own glorious ends As Joseph said to his Brethren Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good Gen. l. 20. Deus cogitavit id ipsum in bonum convertere Junius adds that unto it God did provide to convert it unto good Neither is our faith endangered hereupon to suspect God as the cause of sin because he draws his own ends out of evil that He may do and yet be no Author of sin but abhor it because He is Lord of those Creatures that sin and rebel against him and the Creature can no more exempt it self from his dominion because it is sinful then because it is sinful it will escape his Law or dissolve it self to nothing So then the antecedent Doctrin is summ'd up into this Thesis If you ask in these terms what was the cause of Christs death the answer is it was Gods Decree and eternal Statute for as much as He loved us with an everlasting love and would not spare his own Son to pull us out of destruction Again if you ask who was the cause that Christ was buffeted spot upon crowned with thorns crucified the answer is the Devil and his Instruments but when the Lord foresaw how their cruelty and blasphemy would abound his Counsel did direct moderate confine their sin and his loving kindness towards us that He might shew us plenteous redemption did permit it The ancient Fathers of the Church thought this the truest and most inoffensive conclusion to refer the injurious slaughter of Christ not to Gods ordination but to his permission You heard Leo's judgment before to whom St. Austin agrees The Jews enacted a sin which the righteous Lord did not compel them to do for no sin doth please him sed facturos esse praevidit quem nihil latuit but this was foreseen of him to whom nothing is concealed Yet St. Chrysostom more clearly that the scope of this part of St. Peters Sermon to the Jews is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was not their rage and violence which could have prevailed against Christ if God had not permitted it for as He did not command the evil Spirit to seduce Ahab and his flattering Prophets but the Devil offering himself and being most desirous to do that mischief God gave him leave and would not inhibit him so the Jews were not authorized or ordained or stirred up from God to shew that prodigious hatred to his Son but He yielded him up to their fury and did not deliver him therefore Christ did not say Father why hast thou given me up into their hands but my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Surely this is the scope of my Text and I believe they shoot wide from the mark that collect from hence that St. Peters meaning was either to excuse their heinous trespass or else to comfort their wounded conscience because Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God no all the comfort which was administred is vers 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins There is no comfort under the Sun no balm in the world for a miserable sinner but repent and believe that there is abundant mercy in the satisfaction of Christ Jesus and for excuse that little extenuation of their fact which could be made is chap. iii. ver 17. Ye desired a Murtherer and killed the Prince of Life but I wote that through ignorance you did it as did also your Rulers these are plain and divine Allegations and there is no colour to help the greatness of their sin either from the determinate counsel or from the foreknowledg of God not from the determinate counsel for they had not an eye in the crucifying of Christ to comply with Gods counsel but to satiate their own spleen and hatred for impious men may execute that which God is content should come to pass and yet they do nothing less than obey God for obedience is not grounded upon the thing done but upon the readiness and duty of the will in doing beside was there any Law that commanded the High-Priests to crucifie our Saviour for God doth ever reveal his will in some Law No such Law I am sure therefore no obedience in this bloudy work of the Jews For no man can be said to obey that doth not know the will of the Lord neither doth direct his actions by the Rule of any Commandment And what had they to do with Gods secret counsel They had not the least glimpse of it Therefore my Text chargeth them home Ye have taken him and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him It is an error to amaze a man that reads it in the Popes Canon Law that because it was the counsel of the holy Trinity and the obedience of Christ to humble himself unto death even unto the death of the Cross therefore the Jews had sinned deadly if they had not crucified him It was well rejoyn'd by one that he wondred how the dumb and dead Paper did not stand up refusing to take that ink wherewith such an abominable blasphemy should be printed whereby the immaculate Lamb of God in whom there was no sin is affirmed to be justly and worthily condemned But will the fore-knowledge of God and that permission which followed it plead any part of their pardon Nothing less his fore-knowledge compels no man into the way of perdition God fore-sees iniquity in us because we will be evil but we are not made evil because he foresees it There have been always some in the world whom the Devil hath blinded with pernicious error making them dream of inevitable Fate and Destiny chiefly knitting this fallacy to fool themselves that Gods fore-sight cannot be deceived therefore such sins as he foresaw they would fall into are not to be declined St. Austin reprehended one of his Colledge
word of the power of Christ which coupled again those parts divorced the soul and body not by breathing a new life into the body but by breathing out a loud voice Lazarus come forth Such as had been but banished their Country in the days of Caesar the Dictator and were restored again by the grace of Augustus and Antony were called Charonitae as if they had been wasted back again into this world when they were quite extinguished Those Roman Potentates would be esteemed Gods of another world that could unlock a man from the fetters of banishment needs then must he be greater than the Kings of the earth whose authority can break the bars of death and bring the Prisoners forth from the captivity of corruption The Scythians says Lucian swear by these two Idols as the Gods of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Wind and by the Sword Hic spirandi est autor ille mortis The one gives breath to live the other takes life away Now that which gives life and that which takes away life can be no less than a God say the very Scythians These heathen knew no more of Gods power than to give life and to take away life Had they known what it was to restore life again that would have been the chief power of divinity even in their estimation Majus est restituere quà m dare quantò miserius est perdidisse quà m omnino non accepisse It is more admirable to restore the soul again than to create it at the first because it is more miserable for the body to have lost a soul than never to have received it The great Clerks the Athenians could not tell what to make of the infinite power of the Resurrection It is pretty that St. Chrysostome observes upon them Acts xvii when Paul preached unto them and mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Resurrection of the dead they thought this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been a God the unknown God at whose Altar they did worship Evil men can abuse that which is good God can make good employment of that which is evil Death upon the first sin was named to be a punishment It is Meritoria in Martyribus and I may say Gloriosa in resurgentibus it is made an instrument of great reward unto the Martyrs and the passage to an Article of faith to believe in the Resurrection We call them that are dead in the Lord Abraham and Isaac and Jacob alas there are no such now Abraham dissolved into dust is no longer Abraham the soul cannot be called Abraham only the whole man both soul and body but so sted fastly do we trust the dead shall rise again Quod defunctorum animas nominibus suppositi appellamus says Thomas We speak of the dead as if they were now alive because they shall live again even as Christ spake to the corps of Lazarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as to a Corps but as to one living not as to one that was dead but as to ears that could hear Lazarus come forth And it is well says the Father that among all the Corpses in the dust Christ pickt him out by name as who should say now I will have none but Lazarus to come forth others shall appear in their time otherwise all the Legions of the dead had come to light and stood thick upon the earth from the East unto the West Indeed the souls under the Altar cry our Quousque Domine fain would they stand before him like Enoch and Elias so eager they are and vehement instantly to have tongues to speak and hands to hold up and knees and heads to bow as if they were not contented that their days to come for those things were days of eternity We shall meet together all in the same Livery cloathed with bodies of youth according to the measure of our Saviours Age Eph. iv Alexander out of a surly Magnificence Soli Antipatro Phocioni salutem scripsit in Epistolis never wrote in the top of his Letters I wish you long life and prosperity but only to Phocion and Antipater But God will direct his voice to every member of his Church one summon shall call forth Abraham and Isaac and all the world which at this time begins for a relish of faith but with this person alone Lazarus come forth And thus much for the first thing wherein the power of his Divinity appeared Mortuus excitatur a dead Man was raised Now that Lazarus after four days was raised that he which was bound came forth of the Grave is discourse for some other time Thus much only in a word upon the present occasion The next thing that you shall read concerning Lazarus after he was raised is this he sate at Supper with our Saviour in the second verse of the next Chapter Why behold the Supper of the Lord there is the next place where you are to meet with Christ after you are risen from your sins and the preparation of this Table to replenish your hungry souls with grace is as great a testimony of our Saviours Divinity as to raise up Lazarus Tu das epulis accumbere Divum it is the highest power of God which he confers to his Church upon earth to give them leave to meet together before the food of Angels As Manna melted away with the Sun-rising and new store fell upon earth the next morning which is a kind of Resurrection so you that have quenched Gods Spirit that have melted away his grace and let it putrifie for want of good employment this is the Morning this is the Season to gather a new Omer full that you may cherish and increase your faith Which that you may do c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN xi 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths and his face was bound about with a Napkin THis is an Easterday Text notwithstanding that the party intreated of is Lazarus for as John Baptist was born a little before the birth of Christ and John was the Forerunner of his Nativity so Lazarus rose from death but a little before Christ rose and was the Forerunner of his Resurrection The Jews Passover was nigh at hand so you shall read in the 55. verse of this Chapter certainly it was not long before Christ the true Paschal Lamb was offered upon the Cross that this Miracle was done Feriâ sextâ ante Dominicam de Passione says one the Friday before Passion Sunday which is nine days past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom he put them into admiration with this work before this great day of admiration came Nor have we a Praeludium only how our Saviour should conquer death in this Chapter but you shall resent and perceive some resurrection wrought upon every person that had interest in this story First the news of Lazarus death was brought unto Christ beyond
wouldst make an Advocate It is in his own power to raise up thy Brother after four days Two days our Saviour abode beyond Jordan after Lazarus was dead and after he set forward to Bethany he made two days Journey of it before he came to the place all this while the Prisoner was fast lockt up under the Gates of Death Belike Lazarus could not be released till Christ came unto the Cave where he was laid No such necessity Beloved Vbicunque Christus steterat patebant inferi Hell must open her mouth in any place where Christ did set his foot nay in any place where he should but say unto the Grave I will be thou opened Therefore another Reason must be given why Lazarus staid until the fourth day for his Enlargement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom Jonas and Lazarus both were Servants they must not jump with Christ in the same Privileges in every thing then the Servant should be equal with his Master Jonas came out of the Whales Belly the third day so did Christ out of the Tomb but Jonas was alive and Christ was dead there was the Difference between the Servant and the Master Christ rose from the dead and so did Lazarus but Christ the third day and Lazarus the fourth there 's the Difference between the Master and the Servant The Resurrection of the dead is an Article of the Creed ingendred in the heart by a very strong Faith 't is mirabilium mirificentia as one says The astonishment of all admiration and when it shall be reported by the Women that an Angel told them it the best of them all will doubt Thomas and many more will flatly deny it What deny that Christ could quicken himself the third day when he raised up Lazarus the fourth Lazarus was unto Christ as Aaron's Rod was unto Aaron The Sedition of Dathan and Abiram opposed Aaron and would not acknowledge him to be the High Priest That shall be tried says the Lord and Aaron's Rod which was a dry stick budded buds and bloomed blossoms as if it had been living more than all the other Rods of the Tribes of Israel So Lazarus was laid up in the Cave like the Rod of Aaron in the Tabernacle and when his life was restored the fourth day it proved that Christ could build up the Temple again in three days which they had pluckt down before What shall we say then That the Resurrection was more wonderful in Lazarus by one day than in Christ himself Nothing less For Christ was raised up by his own power and Lazarus by the power of Christ Christs death was violent his very heart as some think was digg'd through with the Souldiers Spear Lazarus his death was natural and no principal part of his body was wounded or impaired Si aliud videtur vobis mortuus aliud videtur occisus if it be one thing to die in the peace of nature and another thing to be made away by violence Ecce Dominus utrumque fecit here are examples of both that returned to life Christ the third day from the death of violence Lazarus the fourth day from the death of nature both are from the Lord. As a Servant said of an unlucky day wherein all things went cross huic diei oculos eruere vellem he vished the Sun had never shined upon it So this fourth day hath not a little troubled Satan Upon the fourth day Gen. i. 14. God set lights in the Firmament to what end to divide the day from the night and the light from the darkness Periisti Satana this is a fatal day with the Devil who would have mingled night with day and darkness with light but now his works are discovered The fourth year hath been as climacterical unto him and as much out of his way in the 13. of St. Luke and the 7. verse These three years says the Lord of the Vineyard I have lookt for fruit and find none now I will cut down the Vine nay says the Dresser of the Vineyard stay but this year also and the fourth there are hopes it will bring forth grapes and please the Lord. To say thus much for our Evangelist St. John the fourth Evangelist gave the shrewdest blow to the stratagems of Satan and hath so prov'd the Divinity of Christ almost in every verse that Ebion and Cerinthus were confounded and Heresie is proved a lyar to her face for ever Even so was this number critical unto death in the Resurrection of Lazarus three days he was given for lost and upon the fourth day Christ cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth There is a moral sense besides that whereof I have spoken and that is like fine flower boulted out of the Letter and it yields like the bread which our Saviour broke to the multitude and will satisfie thousands Death was the reward of sin In that Lazarus was dead and buried I read the Parable of a sinner upon his Sepulcher In that he was four days dead he must be magnus peccator says St. Austin no small offender can be meant by that but a grievous sinner Where have you laid him says Christ O what a dreadful question is that Lord know me for one of thy children but know me for a sinner rather than not know me at all Let it not be said unto me Depart from me I know you not Projectus sum à facie oculorum tuorum says David in the person of a castaway I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes Perditum nescit ubi sit it is Gods language he pretends he sees not them he knows not them that were lost Adam where art thou says God O Adam that question had confounded thee if Christ had not answer'd for thee Loe I come Where are the other nine says Christ of the Lepers de ingratis quasi ignotis loquitur ungrateful men were not in Christs Book he knows not what becoms of them nor whither they wander so to enquire of Lazarus as if he knew not where he was laid is to set him forth as the similitude of a great sinner ubi posuistis where have you laid him nay but this agrees not perchance with his Sisters message He whom thou lovest is sick and again See how he loved him Yes it agrees full well Si peccatores non amaret Deus de coelo non descenderet it was out of a most compassionate love that God descended from heaven to save sinners Behold he lov'd him and yet Lazarus stands for the Parable of a sinner That foundation is laid and then you shall know the better what is meant by lying four days in the Sepulcher First we are all dead born man as soon as he sees the light his heart is in darkness he brings the seeds of original sin with his frail flesh into the world and then he is dead one day 2. Nature hath dictated a Law unto us The Gentiles are a Law unto themselves sais St.
Paul and when we do those things which Nature her self is asham'd at and blusheth then we are dead the second day 3. God gave us a Law by Moses for the spark which he had kindled in nature was almost put out and it was time to dig that into stone which was worn out in flesh and he that violates the Law of Moses is dead the third day 4. Sin is grown strong by the Law Precept upon Precept made us the worse corruption in the soul is like an ill affected body it desires that most which is forbidden And therefore Christ gave us Legem Evangelii a short Lesson Repent and believe which is called the Law of the Gospel and if we violate that Law it is the fourth day of death and we begin to stink in the Sepulcher What an hard task hath Christ what a troublesome work have we put him to to diminish the power of original sin to rectifie the impairs and decays of Nature to satisfie for the Law but above all to mollifie a stony heart that will not believe to quicken an unrepentant heart this is dignus vindice nodus Martha and Mary sent to Christ when their Brother was sick to come and help now he had more need of Christ quatriduanus est this is the Parable of a sinner that will not believe the Gospel Help Lord and raise us up for who else can do it but the Lord Five Miracles you shall meet with in this Gospel of St. John four of which are recorded by no other Evangelist every one is greater than another but this is the Master-piece The first was turning of Water into Wine at Cana in Galilee Christ at the first conversion makes us quite other men than we were before cold water becoms warm and chearful wine 2. Follows the scourging of the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple that signifies contrition and compunction of the heart when theevish fancies such as steal away our soul are cashiered from the holy place 3. A man was healed at Bethesda that had been sick of an infirmity 38 years Custom in sin and want of devotion is a sore languishing sickness it is more to cure them than to cast the den of theeves out of the Temple 4. A man born blind was restored to his sight he that languished 38 years had enjoyed health before but he that was born blind was never better and it exceeded all the rest to dispel ignorance and blindness quando synteresis extincta est when the light of the conscience was quite put out But fifthly what talk we of sickness or blindness the dead man the Graves Tenant for four dayes dead by original sin dead by imperfection of nature dead by disobedience to the Law dead by unbelief and want of faith in Christ dead four days is raised up Tollite lapidem says Christ away with the stone removete legis pondus gratiam praedicate away with the burden that lies heavy upon him preach grace and remission of sins unto him and he shall live Behold another Moral of the same Authors in the Sermons de tempore if they be St. Austins Sin when it is made very sinful grows up by four degrees titillatione consensu facto consuetudine 1. By delighting in the suggestions of sin not but that suggestions of sin are sin but I speak of the growth of sin and not the root 2. By consenting to those delights 3. By committing the evil whereunto we consented 4. By continuing in the custom of delight and consent and committing evil Delight is the rotting of the seed in the ground Consent is the blade Commission of evil is the grown fruit Custom is the root that fastens it to the ground the seed may quickly be pickt up the blade may be blasted the fruit may be cut down but the root lies deep hidden you must plow and turn up the earth and dig deep before you can get it out In the 3 former parts the waves of ungodliness are coming up but custom is the inundation of iniquity the stream that goes over our head It was said of one Mandrabulus that the Oracle of Apollo pronounced against him that he grew worse and worse For out of a thankful mind for all his happiness received the first year he offered up a Gold Cup he repented him of his cost and the next year it was a Cup of Silver yet he thought he was too bountiful and the third year it was a Boul of Wood the fourth year he thought he had been thankful enough and gave just nothing Now says Apollo is Mandrabulus as bad as He can be So the heart which pleaseth it self with vicious cogitations is much corrupted yet God may still have the better part The heart that makes a bargain with Satan to do injustice is half the Devil 's yet the Body is not defiled with the act The body also may be an instrument of uncleanness then the heart is even lost and gone yet it may detest the fact and return unto the Lord. But when custom hath as it were sealed the Covenant to the Devil and delivered up the Deed the case is very desperate all the heart is in the enemies hand Lazarus is under a Grave-stone four days Difficilè surgit quem moles malae consuetudinis premit he will hardly swim above water again that is cast into the bottom of the Gulf with a Milstone of evil custom about his neck Yet Christ can quicken him as he did Lazarus I do not deny it but let no man treasure up sin as it were to prepare himself to repent of such a mass of iniquities but let no man dispair of that repentance if frailty have overtaken him If you feel your self incline to presume of repentance says St. Austin oppose against it the uncertain hour of death if you feel your self incline to despair of repentance oppose against it the abundance of grace Moderation is the best When sin doth post from delight to consent from consent to act from act to custom yet after four days says Christ Lazarus come forth So much of that circumstance Lazarus quatriduanus that being four days dead he was raised up to life It follows to be considered Lazarus ligatus he was bound hand and foot with grave-cloaths and his face with a Napkin He was laid like a pledge in the grave and bound for security Christ was willing to release him some bonds he cancelled himself and some he left to be untied by others As for the bonds of death God did bind them and unloose them as for the bonds of the grave-cloaths let them unknit them that made the knot God did unty that which God bound let men unty their own work and then they are sure there can be no deceit As if our Saviour had said I know you will say of Lazarus as you did of the man born blind This is not he Will you deny it But here is your own
Egyptians hasted away the Israelites at midnight to be gone let them go with their Jewels and Riches which they had borrowed for if they staid they were afraid to lose lives and all Thus much of the literal sense that Lazarus came forth bound and that instantly says the Latin vulgar Translation Now for the Moral which is the Use of this Point wherein thus I will proceed 1. What it is to come forth 2. What it is to be bound 3. Concerning the binding of the feet and hands 4. Concerning the binding of his face with a Napkin Briefly of these that we may make such haste from the Text as Lazarus did from the Tomb. What is it to come forth Do we first question that Poenitet surgit Confitetur prodit says Burgensis To repent of sin is to rise from it to come forth is to confess it which was hid before When Jonathan and his Armour bearer appeared to the Philistines the Philistines derided them saying See how the Hebrews come out of the holes where they hid themselves So profane men will laugh at you if you betray your self so much unto any man as to confess your sins and imperfections but God is well pleased when you do not disguise your self in hypocrisie When the Publican smote his breast Arguebat aliquid quod latebat in pectore says St. Austin He pierced his own heart and gave it vent to draw out that acknowledgment God be merciful to me a sinner Why hast thou eaten of the tree that I forbad thee says God to Adam What is this that thou hast done says he again to Eve He calls both them to an account that they may make an humble confession and be pardoned Serpens persuasor qui non erat revocandus ad veniam non est de culpâ requisitus says Gregory but the Serpent was never questioned It was bootless for him to confess and give an answer because God never thought to pardon him To accuse our selves of great disobedience what is it but to magnifie his mercies who remits our sins Si nos accusemus Deum laudemus bis Deum laudamus says St. Austin Then if we condemn our selves and praise him what is it but to give double praise unto his name As gall and bitter humours come off from the stomach with great distaste unto the mouth So it doth not please our Palat it offends our tongue to bewray those vices which our heart would fain conceal I but all this while Lazarus is in the Tomb he is close kept and stinks said Martha While you would not be known of that which is past Non te Domino sed dominum abscondis tibi You do not keep your self close from God but you keep God from your self You take a course a woful course that you may not see his face that sees all things in the world but you cannot bring it about that he who sees all things in the world may not see you I have not covered my transgression says Job as Adam did by hiding my iniquity in my bosom a testimony of a sound conscience howsoever his body was diseased Vir iste magnus in virtutibus suis mihi certè etiam sublimis apparet in peccatis says Gregory Job was a man of eminence in his vertues but I renown him in his very sins because he opened them to him that will have mercy The confession that we speak of is thus amplified further in my Text that Lazarus came forth when another called him Many take a pride to descend to so much humility as to impeach themselves but if another condemn them and provoke them to acknowledge their faults they deny it with indignation You must not say that he is a Swearer though himself comfesseth he is a Blasphemer You must not say he is Intemperate though he confess himself to be Luxurious You must not say that he is uncharitable though himself confess that he hates his enemies thus while we arrogantly defend our selves against reproof it is manifest that we did accuse our selves but out of arrogance or for fashion sake or out of hypocrisie In this vitious Age I admire Chastity and Justice and charitable works but considering the stubborn imaginations of mens hearts I do not so much wonder at those vertues as I do admire the humble confession of a sinner when he is chid and reproved by him that hath the charge of his soul It is not so hard to shun some sins before they are committed as to cry guilty when they are committed And therefore to teach us to come out of the close dens of sin by confession Christ says Gregory did not say to this man revivisce but prodi foras not Lazarus live again but Lazarus come forth Secondly Let us learn what it is to be bound it is to be plunged in sin like Simon the Sorcerer who was in obligatione iniquitatis In the bond of iniquity Acts viii 23. As debtors are in bonds to pay what they owe or else to yield their bodies to imprisonment Wherefore our trespasses are called our debts in the Lords Prayer Mat. vi Lex a ligando It is good to keep the Law of God there is no greater freedom in the world but they that take freedom to have their own swing and to do what they list are held unto the greatest slavery in the world Man is born like a wild Asses Colt says Job The wild Ass is not bridled and he taketh his pastime where he will in the Wilderness but such beasts as are of use and service must be tied unto the Yoke So the natural man gives his lusts and desires what they ask no command controuls him but he is held with the cords of his own sins saith Solomon Prov. v. And who is such a Vassal as he that can deny the lust of his own concupiscence nothing Herod was bound by promise to Herodias and so he could not save the head of John Baptist who might have cut off the head of Herodias had he been a free man Judas had taken Press-money of the Devil and he must betray his Master More than forty men had bound themselves by oath to kill St. Paul O what a Tyrant is Satan He binds Kings in chains and Nobles with links of Iron And when the hand of one Ruffian might have killed a silly weak Apostle he knits above forty men with one knot to eat nothing till they had dispatch'd him as who should say You shall starve if you will not be Murderers God hath set bounds unto the Ocean Sea and hath said unto it Hither thou shalt go and no further Can any man say so to his own lusts thus far I will sin and no more You fools that gaze upon beauties and put your feet into unchaste doors and say that you will go no further into wantonness You doating Covetous that think it nothing to corrupt your selves with one base reward and say
come unto the Sepulcher it was for the consolation of their Antecedent grief It was to shew them a difference between their bringing forth a child to life and Gods resuscitating our dead bones It was expedient to have a testimony from such harmless Witnesses And Mary Magdalen is supereminently named above them all for she was a most contrite penitent and Christ died for their sins and rose again for their Justification It is my course now according to the Propositions of my Text to remove forward to the meditation of her love which was so constant even after death that she came unto the Sepulcher of our Lord. A faith though it be never so weak never so languishing yet it will produce some effect which is worth the noting For instance as I cannot maintain but there was a defect in this womans faith so according to that little faith no man shall deny but there was a great deal of love As concerning faith it is apparent that she mistook the Scriptures in two things First that she thought to find Christ's body in the Sepulcher as if it were possible he could be held of death longer than the third day The Angel gave an item to the women that their coming was a vain labour Why seek ye the living among the dead Remember what he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee He did foretel it so expressively how he would rise from the Grave after three days that all his enemies took notice of the saying but those women were hard of belief or else they had forgot it Secondly It was Maries error and common to all her Partners to bring Spices to anoint our Saviours body the other Evangelists express that they came with such preparations purposing to apply them to the Corps that it might not putrifie It seems they understood not David Thou shalt not suffer thine holy One to see corruption It was not thought upon as it fell out that the flesh of Jesus was not like ours which is rank and sinful his was pure and undefiled which had never deserved to suffer rottenness and putrefaction And they ignorantly come to the Sepulcher with Spices to embalm him that his body might not be polluted But is there no way to excuse this forgetful and deceived faith It is a good mixture of praise and dispraise which a certain Author puts together It was an error not to be defended to think that Christ was held of death and lay still in the Sepulcher but because the custom to anoint dead bodies was an assured hope that the flesh should rise again to immortality therefore setting their particular error aside touching the person of Christ in general their respect was full of faith and honour and devotion toward the Resurrection of the body which general notion of so good an Article of faith won them pardon for this particular incredulity But I said before concerning this little faith no man must deny but she shewed a great deal of love As Thomas noted into what danger our Saviour imbarked himself when he told his Disciples Lazarus is dead and we will go unto him Let us also go and die with him says Thomas So there was Souldiers abroad to watch the Sepulcher Spies in every corner from the High Priests to mark who did confess and honour our Saviour to go to his Tomb was in effect to say let us go and die with him we care not for our lives True love esteems it sweet to suffer for his sake to whose memory their affection is constantly devoted And why did she address unto the Sepulcher A stone was rouled upon the mouth of the Grave and it was sealed with Pilates Seal she could see nothing but she drew near to that which she loved to see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome It did her good to walk in that Garden where the body of the Son of God was laid such a Garden which inclosed him who was the Flower of Jessai saies the Prophet This was a Paradise to overmatch that Garden which was once in Eden by how much the second Adam risen here from death to life was better than the first Adam who fell there from life to death This was such a place as could not chuse but strike her with reverence as Moses stood before the bush which burnt with fire and the bush was not consumed so Mary came to stand before the Sepulcher where that divine body lay the first fruits of them that ever rose from the dead the Spear had entred his heart the whips and thorns had torn his flesh yet by his own power he lived again the bush was not consumed Think with thy self if thou wert now kneeling by that Cave of the earth where thy Saviours body lay what abundance of tears it would make thee shed for thy sins What a desire of heaven it would beget in thy soul What a contempt of this loathsom earth I do ever rise up from those relations which I read or which Pilgrims make of those places with a mortified heart Certainly Helen the Mother of Constantine St. Hierom and Paula made an admirable use to enflame their zeal by frequenting this very place which Mary did And my knowledge and Religion are in a dream or else Devotion without superstition is the most heavenly thing in the world We come into the Capitol sayes Tully only to please our eyes with looking upon that Bench in the Senate where the renowned Orator Crassus was wont to sit So Mary Magdalen came with a resolved opinion that it would give her great consolation to come near that place where Joseph had interred her Saviour St. John's History is brief and hath made him omit this clause of the Story remembred in St. Luke That they came with Spices which they had prepared with sweet spices that they might anoint him says St. Mark Why Joseph and Nicodemus had bought an hundred pound weight of Myrrh and Aloes and wrapped them with the body of Jesus was not that enough Pardon them if they over-do their part Amor non credit satis esse factum nisi ipse faciat says one cordial love thinks all is not done that should be unless it self be at the doing This chargeable spicing and anointing the dead was in use among the Gentiles for so they interred their deceased friends who are men of renown and Nobility So the Greek Poet reckons this Ceremony in the Funerals of Patroclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Virgils Misenus Corpusque lavant frigentis ungunt Donatus the Grammarian gave no other reason but this Ut cadavera mortuorum citiù◠flammam conciperent To make the Carkasses consume to ashes the faster when they were put upon a pile of wood to be burnt Although others gather out of the Heathen that they esteemed it Piety to wash away all filthiness from the Câ—rpses of the deceased and the Officers that took the care of such things were called
Pollinctores quia pollutos ungerent But among divine Writers all do embrace this as a strong conjecture and indeed not to be denied that the Servants of God embalmed and anointed the dead both in the Old and New Testament in honour of the Resurrection So Joseph commanded the Physicians to embalm his Father So certain devout Widows washed the body of Tabitha and laid her forth in an upper Chamber Acts ix 37. Let me not omit how Christ himself did approve of that Ceremony while he was living A woman broke a box of Oyntment of Spikenard very precious upon his head and when some had indignation at it he forbad his Disciples to trouble her saying She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying Mar. xiv 8. That woman spent her cost upon him when he was alive to give her thanks Mary came to pour her Spices upon his Grave when she thought he was dead true Love is munificent to them who are dear unto it when they live but more abundantly when they are deceased Now carry your attention with you to the third part of the Text that no season was so fit to be watch'd as this which the women laid hold of The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalen This coming was upon the third day after Christ had been laid in the Grave and it was upon the same day which from thenceforth was called the Lords day wherein our holy Assemblies every week do meet together these two things are fit to be examined before I leave the Treatise of this Point From the beginning of the world was there never any thing of so great expectation as the success of this day whether that which Christ had so often foretold should come to pass that he should die and the third day he would rise again How busie were the women to come abroad and try what they could learn And I verily think the waves of the Sea rowl not about so fast in a Tempest as the thoughts of the Disciples beat within their heart and earned within them between fear and hope whether the day were like to prove glorious or uncomfortable well God did rather go beyond his own word than come a whit behind it He made this third day the most memorable Feast that ever the Sun shined upon It was a third day when Joseph released his brethren out of Prison Gen. xlii 18. On the third day in the morning after the people had come to Mount Sinai the Law of God was delivered Exod. xix 16. On the third day Esther put on her Royal Apparel and stood before Ahasuerus and desired him to be good to her Nation Esther v. 1. On the third day Abraham came to the place where his faith was tried and Isaac was restored back again alive when the sacrificing knife had been at his throat Gen. xxii 4. To come near to the mark the third day Jonas was cast safe upon the Land out of the belly of the Whale and that was the sign which Christ gave to the Jews able to convince all infidelity as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale and then came forth alive so Christ burst open the Monument the third day and appeared unto many Reason may be busie to enquire why the Son of God prefix'd such a space of time for his Resurrection before he would quicken his flesh rather than any other Certainly there is but one modest conjecture which is this he would lie no longer than some hours of a third day in the grave lest he should keep the weak faith of his Disciples too long in suspense yet sooner he would not open his monument lest his enemies the Jews should pretend he was but cast into a swoon by the sharpness of pain and not truly dead These following I will allow for ingenuous allusions and no more that our Redeemers body was bereaft of life unto the third day to appease the offended justice of every Person in Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Ghost to signifie that we were dead in sin by thought word and deed To bring unto eternal life them that believed either under the Law of nature under the Law of Moses or under the new Covenant of grace To restore the three parts of spiritual life unto us Faith hope and charity Tria sunt omnia says another three days are the sum of mans life both here and for ever A day of labour in this World a day of rest in the Grave a day of reward in the Resurrection If there be any Son of Adam that would have a fourth day Dies otii in hâc vitâ A day of ease and pleasure in this life such a one is Lazarus quatriduanus putet It may be said of him as the two Sisters said of Lazarus their Brother He hath lain four days in the ground and begins to smell Three days are all labour rest and reward these are allusions I said to the Resurrection of Christ upon the third day One thing is very observable to match this circumstance of the New Testament and an accident which fell out in the Old Even this very day wherein Christ arose and gate dominion over death the same day which was the third day after the eating of the Passeover Moses brought the Children of Israel through the Red Sea unto dry Land certainly intimating that they went through death to life and so did Christ St. Peter hath a Text 1 Epist 1.10 which doth authorize me yet to search further and more diligently about the time of this Resurrection Saies he The Prophets have enquired and searched diligently what manner of time the Spirit of Christ did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow And surely there is a great mystery coucht in the circumstance of time that the Evangelists have differently set down other observations that concurred upon the Resurrection but all of them in one phrase do agree in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that this wonder was wrought upon the first day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vna Sabbati The Jews gave such honour to their Sabbath that every day following had the denomination from it the first second and the third day after the Sabbath and so unto the sixth The Latine Church in their Liturgies hath given the same honour to Easter Day for Easter day by principallity being called Feria the Holy Day The Latines from it call the days of the week primam secundam tertiam Feriam and so unto the sixth Our vulgar English calls the first day of the week Sunday and all other days following are denominated from some of the Planets we received such Language in this Island from our Forefathers who were Paynims and knew not God but we differ from them in the intention they did it out of Idolatry to the Sun and Moon c. we to signifie that God made the Host
not pity them that may foresee this and yet will be other mens instruments to facilitate their damnable projects I do not pity these Souldiers that would attend the High Priests service against the Lord and against his Christ and now are weary of their service they shook for fear and became as dead men Lastly to end all the wicked have fair warnings these fears and quiverings are good Tutors and admonitions when the house gives a crack before it falls the Inhabitants may shift for their lives and he that will not mend by terror and minacy let his end be misery A standing water that is never troubled hath no commotion in it must needs corrupt so an even fortune that is not acquainted with frowns and afrightments is most incommodious for a Christian but he that will make good use of fear though he shake and cannot stand he shall fall into the arms of mercy But these impious Watchmen were no longer mortified than the Angel lookt upon them There was no serious affection of sorrow in them Sicut mente alienati expavescunt ad momentum simul tamen obliviscuntur se timuisse As a phrentique is awed for a while with his Keeper but flies out into wild fits as soon as he turns his back so this Roman Garrison who may represent the whole condition of Reprobates a little terrified but never amended they had a qualm of guiltiness came over them but they did not search into the true cause and original and as soon as ever they had communicated with the High-Priests and Elders their impudence was encouraged their hands bribed and their tongues bought at a price to publish abroad the most wrongful the most sinful the most senseless forgery that ever was invented therefore since they were no better for that terror which a good Angel struck into them it is to be much presum'd that the Lord did turn them over to evil Angels to be tormented for ever Dearly beloved that which stands before us this day is not an Angel of the ordinary Hierarchy but the Angel of the Covenant Christ our Lord in the Sacrament of his blessed Body not cloathed gorgeously but in the poor Elements of Bread and Wine And let us come to these with joy and not with terror not as dead men unless it be unto sin and living unto God and yet bring store of fear and reverence with you The Greek Fathers call this Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mysteries of dreadfulness lest we should not receive them in a clean vessel and with all due preparation O I beseech you remember you come to receive Christ who is risen and sitteth at the right hand of God wherefore come out of the Grave of your sins from your long accustomed crimes wherein you have been buried not four days with Lazarus but many years and then we shall encompass Christ in his glory with Troops of Angels for evermore AMEN THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MARK xvi 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the Week he appeared first to Mary Magdalen out of whom he had cast seven Devils ALL that concerns this most Christian Festival may be referred to two words Christus resurrexit apparuit that Christ rose from the dead and that he appeared after he was risen That he rose from the dead on this day there were good tokens of it the earth trembled the Stone was rolled away the Monument was opened the Souldiers that kept watch upon the place were dismayed and fled away the body was not to be found in the Sepulcher and Angels of light heavenly Spirits that would consent to no fraud or sin ministred in the Grave where the body had lain Who were the Witnesses that could testifie to all this that it was very true A Catalogue of people some of one condition some of another The whole Corps du Guard of the Souldiers though they were corrupted to tell a lie the Women that brought sweet Odours and Spices to embalm him and lastly two of his own Disciples Peter and John who saw what God had done and returned from the Monument with some little faith but with great extasies of wonder and joy indeed with a concurrence of all these passions that no man can well tell what to call it See my Beloved here was the grand Article of Faith come now to the birth yet all this that was passed was not able to bring it forth It put Christ therefore I will not say to the trouble but to the exercise of five several Apparitions upon this day 1. He was seen of Mary Magdalen 2. Of Peter although we meet not with the manner how Peter saw him but the Apostle Paul says he was seen of Cephas then of the Twelve it was his happiness by himself alone to behold him alive again upon this day Luk. xxiv 34. The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared unto Simon 3. He manifested himself to the cluster of those Women that came to anoint his body 4. He discovered himself to those two that were going to Emmaus 5. He came in the presence of all the Disciples at Evening when the doors were shut These were the Cinque Ports I may say of his sweet manifestation at this season And it falls out very well to my purpose that my Text says the first that saw him after his victory over death was Mary Magdalen For this will make even with Eve upon whose disobedience I have preach'd so often I have shewed unto you divers times how by a Woman came the first vengeance of death now I shall shew you if God please how by a woman came the first notice of the Resurrection from the dead and both hapned in a Garden In a Garden life was forfeited unto death And in a Garden life was recovered from death But death was threatned to Eve towards the darkness of the Evening he that conquered death made shew of his victory openly to this holy Woman early in the Morning And this is Davids Song accomplished Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the Morning The Text offers much to be spoken of I cannot reach at all but I will select so much only as will serve for the continuance of an hour First here are circumstances of time which shew a coherence between the Resurrection and Apparition of our Lord. The Apparition as well as the Resurrection was upon the same day On the first day of the Week and much about the same time of the day very early in the Morning Secondly The Apparition it self was made to Mary Magdalen who is described that she had the first fruits of Christs love for the present he appeared first c. And 2. she that was the object of his great mercy for the time past for it was she out of whom Christ had cast seven devils Unto these particulars are required your Attentiveness and my labour To begin then These great marvels hapned on
the dead and the resurrection of the soul from sin in this interview between himself and Mary Magdalen All men shall be restored to life good and bad for the Son of God redeemed the whole nature of man this day from the corruption of the Grave and the Devil did utterly loose jus mortis the dominion of death because our Saviour being an Innocent was put to death over whom he had no dominion But the glory of Christs victory was to conquer two at once Hell and Death So the Prophet Hosea cries out in form of triumph O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory and from his own voice Revel i. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead behold I am alive for evermore and have the keys of Hell and of Death So in his own person he shewed that he had conquered Death in the person of Mary Magdalen that he had conquered Hell Beloved this great day is Christs Festival and it is the Holiday of every penitent sinner because first he appeared to such an one to Mary Magdalen For our sakes both the Keys are turn'd and for our sakes both the Gates are opened that our bodies may escape the curse of corruption and that our souls may be delivered from the judgment of Hell through Jesus Christ the first fruits of the dead and that first appeared to an humble Convert AMEN THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT xxviii 9 10. And as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them saying all hail and they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him Then said Jesus unto them be not afraid go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me YOU may call to your remembrance that my subject upon Easter-day the last year was How Christ was first seen after he rose again from the dead of one whom he had raised before from the death of sin he appeared first to Mary Magdalen And in this Text other women have the next turn to see him appear in order of story That Sex it is apparent had the honour of the day in the first and second bout that the power of God might be seen in the weaker Vessels The women brought sweet Spices to embalm his body and they encounter that which was sweeter than all the Spices in the world the Vision of the Lord who came forth from the dark places of the dead to life again There is not the weakest capacity among you but must needs observe that the relations of these things are very diversly set down in the four Evangelists And there is not the learnedst capacity among men that can distinctly unfold how they should be reconciled I suppose the Primitive Church I mean the Disciples that were taught by the Apostles and other Scholars taught by them were informed of the true Exposition how every thing hapned in its order but the tradition is lost And they who boast they have kept the Traditions of the Church faithfully are not able to give us a clear rule how to refer these confusions to a certain order St. Paul 1 Cor. xv rehearseth sundry ways how Christ was seen of many after he rose from the dead yet he utterly omits how he was seen of these devout women St. John Chap. xx speaks of the famous interview between our Saviour and Mary Magdalen and no more Our Evangelist in the beginning of this Chapter mentions Mary Magdalen and the other Mary that is the Mother of Zebedees children he goes no further St. Mark quotes another woman that is Salome St. Luke names also one Joanna she was the Wife of Chusa Herods Steward and indefinitely he folds it up that there were other women whose particular cognisance is not revealed And divers things are related divers ways of these which may be reconciled as divers ways without jar or contradiction The stiffest knot in the dissention is that although St. Luke and St. Mark record how the Angels appeared to the women and spake unto them of Christs rising yet they do not say that Christ was seen of them St. Mark relates that he was seen of Mary Magdalen So doth St. John they go no further St. Matthew holds him to Mary Magdalen and to one other Mary that is all Yet he involves at large that as the women not those women only went to bring tidings to the Apostles of what they had seen and heard Christ did meet them by the way For the perplexity of these Narrations some do argue that none of the women saw him this day risen from the dead but Mary Magdalen and that when this Scripture says that he did appear to the women plurally yet it is a Synechdoche speaking that of many which was verified but in one for but one saw him instead of all her companions This is not so probable for it would work better if this truth were manifested by a multitude of Witnesses Others also consider that Mary Magdalen saw him alone and was controuled at that time not to touch him therefore it must be another Apparition when divers women did touch him and worship him Some say therefore that in a very little compass of time Mary Magdalen saw him twice this day unless there were two Mary Magdalens as St. Ambrose would have it first alone and then immediately with her Consorts Yet that seems not so congruous I can say no more against it that two Apparitions should be granted to her in a few moments Therefore without any pertinacy in rejecting the conjectures of others I conceive this second Apparition of Christ which we have in hand to be made to Mary the Mother of James Joanna and Salom with other devout women of Galilee when Mary Magdalen was lately departed from them to tell her errand to the Disciples Laying my ground upon that opinion I deduct these parts out of the Text First I will treat upon it what proceeded from the women Secondly what proceeded from Christ Touching the women again I will handle first what they did before they saw Christ secondly what they did after they had seen him Before they saw him they went to tell his Disciples somewhat After they had seen him 1. They came to him 2. They held him by the feet 3. They worshipped him That which belongs to Christ is contained in his Action and his Words His Action is thus expressed Behold Jesus met them His Words are first a Salutation All Hail 2. A Consolation Be not afraid 3. A Commission Go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee 4. A Promise There they shall see me These are the several talents which God hath committed to me in this and now I will employ them for my Masters profit The women before they had seen our Saviour went to tell his Disciples that must be our beginning They went and went to and fro sundry times upon this occasion It could not choose but be observed by the eyes
Article of truth in all the Gospel to do their friends a favour Secondly See how soon the wicked forget into what great fear they were put it was but even now that they quaked and became as dead men at the Apparition of an Angel their sin was before their eyes that they should watch his Sepulchre of whom the Prophet had said Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption the guiltiness of this took all their courage from them yet within two hours after at the most they are deeper in the same wickedness than ever they were before as if the terrible admonition they had early in the Morning had been seven years since or before mans remembrance So let the Plague or Famine or Sword of the Enemy be removed from a Nation in one year nay in one month you shall see the sins of wont and custom as high and as rise as if that People had never been beaten with such calamity When Moses had interceded to God to rid away some sore judgment from Pharaoh after a little pause he was never the better But when Pharaoh saw there was respite he hardened his heart Exod. viii 15. So the Souldiers seeing there was respite and that the revenging Angel did not follow them at the heels fall immediately in a little space into a fouler service than before Thirdly As the saying is very true Facinus quos inquinat aequat great men lose much of their superiority and power when they match themselves with their underlings in a bad deed the basest servants are their equals when they have made them consorts in their iniquity The High Priests lost all their veneration in the esteem of these Souldiers when they were guilty one to another of a mutual Confederacy They should and would have been as fearful to do any wicked thing in the presence of the High Priests as in the presence of an Angel but now they carry no awe at all to them who had forgot their reverence to their God Fourthly We read at verse 11. they were but some of the Watch that concurred in this devillish stratagem against Christ and his Disciples but the Chief Priests are indefinitely named not some of them but the whole Fraternity for none are excepted So divers Synods of Christian Priests and Bishops have with one mouth protested against the Faith with one Pen subscribed to Heresie so that the unity of Priests let some say what they will is not always a token of Gods Spirit upon them but sometimes of Satanical Confederacy Of the Souldiers who watch'd the Sepulchre but one part only came into the City and of that part it may be but a few of the chief sticklers consented to evil the rest perhaps were like those two hundred in Jerusalem who were called by Absolon to Hebron of whom the Scripture witnesseth That they went in their simplicity knowing nothing Among this Band of Souldiers and among those that were tempted to tell the forgery he that writes the Calendar of the Greek Saints Simeon Metaphrastes nominates one Longinus and brings him in for a Saint on the Fifteenth of March the next day after Christ was crucified Metaphrastes hath patched together this Legend of him that it was he who pierced our Saviours side with a Spear and that a drop of the bloud which streamed out fell upon the eye of Longinus whereof he had lost the sight before by some mischance and this drop of bloud restored him to the sight yea and to the eyes of his mind presently to confess Christ and believe How will the next story hang with this That for all his conversion and belief he was by appointment of Pilate one of them that watch'd the Sepulchre of Christ surely all those were evil instruments and the Angel handled them accordingly by striking a fear into them like dead men But proceed we for Metaphrastes says that Longinus and two more with him refused the evil ways of the High Priests stiffly avouched the truth of the Resurrection for which he incurred the great hatred of Pilate and the Jews and when they despited him for it he gave up his Souldiers Cassock and Belt would serve the Romans no more went into Cappadocia to preach the Gospel and became a Martyr But that you may know Metaphrastes is no sure Author for Canonizing of Saints Baronius at the end of this and another story I shall tell you anon bids the Reader beware says he As Paul admonisheth prove all things hold that which is good But before I leave this first Point of my Text mark that which is most apparent how the Chief Priests and Souldiers pieced together why the Elders and the Council gave large money to the Souldiers like Claudius his Witnesses of whom Tully says they knew him to be a man of no faith for they would not speak one word of his side till their hire was in their Pocket Emitur à custodibus argento resurrectionis silentium The Jews gave money to the Souldiers to keep the truth of the Resurrection in silence and by so much the more is the Resurrection of Christ grown so famous because this Bribery is so infamous they offer a little Silver to them that will conceal it God doth infinitely out-bid them and offers the Kingdom of Heaven to them that preach it and publish it For the Pharisees who no doubt were the principal in this action were most greedy of gain and loth to part with their substance especially by the lump wherefore they would never have given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 large money much more than they covenanted for when they hired a Cohort to watch the Sepulchre I say they would never have given so much to the Souldiers to stop their mouth if there had been any probability left to out-face the truth no certainly if it had been possible they would have brought them in for carelesness or treachery but the matter was clear it could not be answered so they must poyson the whole Band with money or the truth would come out to their shame and infamy O what folly there is in the wisdom of the wicked What prudent man would ever hope that a Multitude would keep counsel That among so many Witnesses none would blab it out in a corner That no Scoffer in the ranks would take their money and laugh at them for their impiety Or that God would not raise up some other faithful Witnesses though all these did continue in Perjury It was a Proverb once in the Christian Church that it had Golden Priests when it had Woodden Chalices that is a brave Clergy in the times of poverty and persecution but when Riches flowed in that they had Golden Chalices they had for a great part but Woodden Priests I find this most true in the Synagogue of the Jews that in this Age they had more wealth than they knew how to use well for in these three last Chapters of St. Matthew
of Trinity disclosed his glory and power openly two wayes to their ear and to their eye by a sound unto the ear by a lightsom brightness to the eye to the ear as to the sense of faith and suddenly there came a sound from heaven c. to the eye as to the sense of love and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire c. Whereupon I will enlarge my self unto you at this time in these particulars 1. That the Holy Ghost presented himself to the Primitive Church in a visible object 2. For the principal substance of the apparition it was a Tongue 3. Lingua dispertita vel sectilis it was a Cloven Tongue 4. Quasi ignis it was a firy Tongue 5. It was lingua or ignis or spiritus insidens this Tongue or this Fire or this Spirit take which you will it is all one but it rested or sat upon each of them We begin with an Apparition representing not some Angel or other glorious creature putting on a sensible shape but the third Person of Trinity the Eternal Spirit consubstantial with the Father and the Son He offered himself as this day in a visible Figure to the Apostles and divers other believers that were gathered together in Jerusalem St. Austin in his third Book of the Trinity maintains that all the Persons of Trinity did appear in visible shapes to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament one or two upon one occasion and a third upon another occasion Tertullian and Epiphanius are stout in their opinion that none but God the Son called the Angel of the New Covenant did lay aside his invisible glory in the old times and appeared to men I will not engage my self in that quarrel but for one thing I am at certainty that when the Law was delivered at Mount Sinai the Godhead did not condescend to any apparition at all the people were forbidden so much as to imagin they saw any resemblance of the Most High says Moses Ye saw no similitude only ye heard a voice Deut. iv 12. But the Lord grew more friendly and familiar with us that profess the Gospel We have seen we have heard our hands have handled the word of life this day the new Law began at Mount Sion and we did not only hear a voice as it is in the former verse but according to my Text they saw a similitude that which was wrapt up in dark Parables to the Fathers we see that truth as clearly as it were the Sun at noon day They had the Veil before their eyes says the Apostle we behold the fair beauty of God and the Veil taken away and rent asunder they did dishonur God by worshipping visible things instead of the Invisible Creator and therefore they might not see any resemblance of him for fear of transgressions and if we worship vain things that are not Gods in this world we shall utterly be deprived of seeing his glory and lose our reward hereafter But the special intent of this apparition was to comfort the Apostles for all the tribulations that they were to sustain for as their faith was corroborated with some vision of God here so it assured them that the same faith should be rewarded with a perfect vision hereafter in the life to come He that believeth doth as it were shut his eyes and takes all upon trust that he believes yet upon such trust as cannot deceive him the trust of Divine Revelation so that he sees God as I may say though he do not see him as it is Hebr. xi 27. By faith Moses endured the wrath of Pharaoh as seeing him who is invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see him that is invisible is contrary to reason but reconciled by Divinity but if at any time the most renowned Servants of God had some glimpse of his Majesty in an apparition as it was at this time then it seals that promise unto them which they have made Matth. v. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God they shall I say for all their consolation is de futuro in hope but not in act whether this Vision of the Holy Ghost or any other before it they saw nothing to speak of in comparison of that which shall be revealed Says Epiphanius he that looks through the funnel of a Chimney may truly say that he sees the Heaven but what doth he see neither the heighth nor the breadth nor the vastness of it so he that sees some resemblance of the Holy Trinity sees somewhat of God darkly as in a Glass but he sees not so much of the immensity of his glory as he that sees the Heavens above but through the eye of a Needle To close this point what doth the Lord require from hence but that our eyes should be chast and pure and sanctified to his service because He let the benediction of his Spirit shine upon them and that amends might be made chiefly in that bodily instrument through which we have dishonoured him with wantonness and concupiscence What is created more wicked than an eye says the Son of Sirach and therefore it weepeth upon every occasion Ecclus. xxxi 13. God hath placed our eyes in the uppermost part of man to be Centenels in our Watch-Tower and to give us warning of those things that may hurt us but quis custodiet ipsos custodes unless we set a Watch upon this Watch we shall be betrayed to the sins of the flesh We live like Labans Sheep every man conceives folly as his eye beholds vain things and party coloured Seleucus King of Locrine enacted a Law to have the unchaste eyes of Adulterers pull'd out to punish the trespass in the fountain of the sin and Democritus the Philosopher pull'd out his to prevent the danger We have had an evil eye Matth. x. eyes full of adultery and then as Salâ—ucus said or rather as our Saviour said oculus eruendus an eye good for nothing but pull it out and cast it from you but as the whole man shall be made a new lump through the reformation of inward grace so that the same work may be wonderful also in our eyes the Holy Ghost cast his beams upon them at this Feast of Whitsuntide and there appeared unto them c. Hitherto I have made a general survey of the Text that it conteins an Apparition sent from Heaven in making access to particulars the first thing notorious in the Apparition is that the matter and as it were the substance of it is a tongue The whole world was mad against the truth crying out distractedly like those of Ephesus Acts xix Then there was need of the voice of a charmer to make them still and attentive with some heavenly incantation The Church was going forth in a militant order to fight the Lords Battels therefore the Lord gave a Trumpet to his Ministers to utter forth a certain sound that they might prepare themselves for the skirmish 1 Cor.
of Devils are but Gods Serjeants not executioners by their own power Since Michael and his Angels are the better number and more couragious since Christ hath the key of the bottomless pit to bind the binders Quamvis ad inferos fodiunt though they dig into Hell Sion shall dwell in safety Having dispatched the Action and the Object it is to be examined what use these Fugitives can make of Hell Why 1. To escape danger and betake themselves to safety says Hugo 2. To inchant and complot against the innocent says Lyra. Beloved let your patience stay a little and only see what the wicked would have Every creature under the Sun hath a natural inclination and propensity to save it self and to avoid that which may destroy it The Lamb yeaned but yesterday makes hast from the Wolf the Chicken newly hatch'd hides it self from the gliding of the Kite As for Sinners and Reprobates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are so foolish that when destruction doth threaten them they dig into Hell for Saviours Like a runnagate servant that was well-nigh overtaken and ran away to hide him in a Mill Vbi te occuparem nisi in pistrino says his Master it is the very place I wisht to find you in Somewhat like to that which Phocion said of his bitter enemy Aristogiton whom he visited in prison Vbi congrediare cum Aristogitone libentiùs quà m in carcere In all the world the jail was the fittest place to encounter Aristogiton So these Fugitives have chosen their rendezvous where God would have them fodiunt ad inferos c. It was the Elogy of Heraclitus the Philosopher Vivis esse unum omnibus communem mundum all that are awake know they live in one world together Dormientes in peculiarem mundum divertere men that dream and are in sleep every one in his phancy is in a world by himself Give me leave to turn the River into my own Channel The godly man that knows his sins and trespasses knows he is in that world where God may take vengeance of him But the presumptuous sinner as foolish as the man that dreams thinks his life secure and that he is in a new-found world where God cannot find him out Whom God destines out to destroy it is his providence to make them find out a place instead of preservation for their own destruction I will begin with Catesby and his fellow Assassinates They lived in plenty amongst men and in favour with their Prince but being uncertain what might befall them they devise a stratagem to advance their heads that they might never be removed why in this was Gods providence to overwhelm them in their own cruelty So one of the Cassii being perfidious to his own Nation and luckily discovered fled to the sanctuary of a Temple his own Father sentenced to have the door damm'd up and so to starve him there was his Sanctuary Among five Kings of Canaan that were discomfited Josh x. in all likelihood some or all might have escap'd by flight but they take a Cave at Makkedah over their head and there they are inclosed Jonah was sick with fear and durst not walk upon the ground when God was displeased at him then to make all sure he prepares for shipping A strange resolution as if the Sea had not as many deaths as there are winds that blow from all the corners of the world as many graves as there are billows surging How often have we seen our friends like superstitions Gamesters shift their ground and remove into fresh air and pleasant dwelling for their health who have laid down their Carkass in that dust where they look'd for recovery In manus tuas Domine in manus tuas Into thy hands O Lord into thy hands alone we commend all we have Heaven is the only treasury where we may cast our two Mites safely as the Widow did I mean our soul and body This then is the first part of folly in these profligate persons to dig for Saviours into Hell But secondly they are a kind of men who cannot build except they pluck down they purchase nothing but by other mens ruins therefore they undermine they would settle Religion by undermining the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have had experience of such ill neighbours alas when we did stand before their faces they did design us unto death and we may say as David did living with Saul in his phrensie As the Lord liveth there was but a step between us and death Circa serpentis antrum positus diu non eris illesus says Isidor here lurks a Serpent and there a Viper and who could tread any where and not be bitten Quid gloriaris tyranne Faithless men why do you boast so much of your refined wits that you can do mischief When Songs were sung in every Town of Greece how King Philip had defaced the fair City Olynthus But when will he build up such another City says a silly woman That would be cared for Take away conscience and dispense with the Word of God and every soft Spirit and silly man could cheat as much as any promoter It was never otherwise from the beginning of the world but that a bloud-thirsty rabble have always treacherously opposed the new setling or reviving of the faith The Israelites began to be a visible Congregation in Egypt to call upon God let us deal subtilly says Pharaoh and cut off the Male Children there was one plot The next change of their State was in Captivity but finding favour in a strange Land and growing to a competent number of religious souls Haman had like to have cut them off in the twinkling of an eye there was another plot The next change after the Captivity was the Incarnation of our Saviour Sweet Babe no sooner is he born but Herod calls for the wise men privily to destroy him there is a third plot Anon after our Saviours Ascension Ceremonies are evacuated and Paul preacheth the Gospel then their heads were busie to pluck down the Cedar and plant the Heath-thorn and more than forty men bind themselves with an oath to take away his life Here are four plots and since that time there have been four thousand An honourable story for our reformed Sion and if we glory let us glory in our infirmities that for a long time the Monasteries of Friers the Colledges of Jesuits and the Consistories of Cardinals have been nothing but Conventicles to conspire against us They seem to practise as against the eldest heirs of Gods Inheritance and they like younger Brothers by wile and by guile would fain succeed us So I have let you see the two ends why the wicked spend their time about this fearful object which is Hell First For their own safety and therein they deceive themselves Secondly To undermine others and therein God will deceive them The frustrating of their end is the last part of my Text in these words Inde educet eos manus
being caught up into the clouds to live with God for ever Their judgment is right that he was disarrayed of all malignant qualities sin and mortality which belong to the soul or body But I wonder they should call these by the name of death for it was no otherwise with Enoch than it shall be with all men and women whom Christ shall find upon earth at his second coming St. Paul says they shall not die but they shall be changed that changing is no death for change and death are membra dividentia in the Apostle and cannot be confounded Now I have brought you out of all incumbrances of wrong opinions to the clear truth Enoch was not How He ceased not absolutely to live but he ceased to live any longer in a corruptible Tabernacle he prevailed above the sentence which was pronounced against Adam by the Judge of quick and dead Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return Mortality came from disobedience against the Commandment neither is it possible for any mere man to attain to such a measure of obedience as to deserve immortality do not imagine this holy Saint was without sin so that death could claim no dominion over him St. Chrysostome who speaks much for Enoch how the Lord rewarded his integrity with incorruption says no more but that he received Gods Law not that he kept it inviolably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God kept him alive that received the Commandment that received it willingly and with an earnest heart to keep it But how was that Statute dispensed with you will say it is appointed to men once to die and after that comes judgment Heb. ix 27. An easie dispensation will serve for that for it was no otherwise with this man than it shall be with all the earth at the last day when the Inhabitants of the world shall not be uncloathed of skin and bone but be changed into an incorruptible perfection in the twinkling of an eye But that you may not wonder at Enochs case as if justice had connived and forgot it self remember this rule in St. James There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy Jam. iv 12. Mark that there are Judges constituted under the Law and it is not in them to save life where the Letter of the Law condemns for the Law governs them and not they the Law but there is a regent and principal authority whose clemency is above the Law That speech of Senecaes is as trivial as any Proverb Occidere contra legem nemo non potest servare nemo praeter te Every Varlet can kill a Citizen against the Law none but the Supreme Magistrate can save a Citizen against the Law You see then by what rectitude of justice Enoch might be exempted from death albeit we were all sentenced to become dust and clay out of which we were made because God is the most supreme independent Judge of all the world and may mitigate the severity of his own decrees Why should not his mercy preserve where it will And if he will preserve who can destroy Is there any curse but he can turn it into a blessing Where the Lord pleaseth to sweeten a bitter cup Poverty shall not be grievous nor ignominy dishonourable nor sickness painful nor life mortal A thousand fell before this Patriarch and ten thousand at his right hand but he was impassible and did not die He was not for the Lord took him Because the Septuagint Translators concur with St. Paul in one reading it is due to my Text to let it be known how they have enlarged this concise phrase And he was not in their words is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was not found And Clemens the Scholar of St. Peter and Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was not found that he ever died He appeared not and yet the Lord killed him not so the Chaldee Paraphrase For as St. Jerom said figuratively of the sweet end that Nepotian made that he did Migrare non mori And St. Bernard as much of Hubertus that he did Abire non obire Those pious men might rather be said to have gone a journey out of the way than have died so very properly and without a Metaphor it was true of Enoch that he did not die but was retired out of the way where he could not be found It seems he was much sought for as certainly good men will quickly be missed Antigonum refodio as the honest mans saying was he would have scrap'd the just King Antigonus out of his Grave when he was departed Though Elias was manifestly taken away into heaven yet the Sons of the Prophets besought Elisha that fifty strong men might go seek him lest the Spirit of the Lord had cast him upon some Mountain or into some Valley I could not blame them to wish they might find him again So says one upon that inquisition was made for Elias Enochus cum raperetur fortasse diu inquisitus fuit It may be Enoch was much inquired for in many places after God had took him Selneccerus says that the Lord exalted him up into the clouds Coram totâ Ecclesiâ praecipuis Patriarchis a great Congregation of men and the chief Patriarchs looking upon it Bolducus the Capuchin more particularly yet both altogether uncertainly using their own divinations Tulit eum Deus in nube in quâ apparebat ministranti God took him away in a cloud wherein he appeared as Enoch ministred unto him in the time of Sacrifice If this were done before a throng of Witnesses they might think it no more than a rapture for a little time as Paul was taken up into the third heavens for a small space and afterward restored to the Church They might search and hope to enjoy him again but he was not found the more was their loss that they wanted him the more was his happiness that he was quite gone and wanted nothing But Luther is of opinion that he was retired alone to walk with God in Prayer and sweet Meditations and then the Lord lifted him away to the habitations of the blessed when none were privy to it Seth and all the other Fathers of the Church knew not what was become of him his Son Methasalem and his Family look'd for him with sad hearts as Joseph and Mary sought for Jesus sorrowing no doubt they suspected the malice of the Caiâ—ites they thought he was slain like innocent Abel and privily buried Perhaps it was not revealed in a long time after what was become of him But as the Romans were highly discontented with the loss of Romulus their Founder and would not be satisfied till Proculus swore he saw him carried away into Heaven So when the Patriarchs had sate down sorrowing because they found not the very Gem of the Church the righteous man Enoch it made their gladness the greater when they knew the Lord had translated him alive into Paradise Now I proceed The benefit of it
man were frustrate then God riseth up in his greatness goodness and Majesty expels the wonder of a vengeance by a wonder of healing removes the punishment of the body by a blessing of salvation and drives away the Serpents by Christ I have now spoken enough to the Sin of Israel which was Murmuring and to the Punishment of their Sin by Serpents That was their grief and not ours Now by way of application I must tell you of those Serpents which we must pray unto the Lord to take away from our selves And those are three the Serpent Satan the Serpent Sin and the Serpent Man when he changeth himself from manhood into such a beast The first that may justly be called a Serpent is Satan For it is all one to say the Serpent beguiled Eve and Satan beguiled her 'T is frequent to involve the principal cause in the name of the instrument The Devil indeed is not so much as named Gen. iii. but necessarily to be understood Though his name lie in silence his effects bewray him for none else is left to father the wickedness God can tempt none to sin the good Angels wish us good and no harm there were none of humane generation on earth but Adam and Eve themselves bruitish creatures could not contrive it None is left to own it but the Serpent called the Devil and Satan who deceiveth the World Revel xii 9. Therefore God did not say to the creeping worm why hast thou done this as he charged our first Parents for that Creature did not do it As the words which a man says that is possest are not his own but the spirits that is entred into him so the evil that is attributed to the Snake was not his doing but the Devil 's that managed it Take warning therefore of the malice of that evil Fiend who never forgave himself that injury but seeks continually whom he may devour Be watchful of him for we wrestle not against flesh and bloud but against the Rulers of the darkness of this World Eph. vi 11. He makes out matter of tentation by the words that often fall from our mouth notes our usances searcheth into all our inclinations there is no passion nor frailty wherein we lie open to assault but he knows it As David was more afraid of the counsel of Ahitophel than of all the Host of Rebels that followed Absolom so all that the wicked world can muster together is not so dangerous as the methods of Satan Fast as you are able pray that God would bruise him under your feet So did Paul three times when the Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him Paul had much grace grace that was sufficient for prayer Holiness becometh the House of Prayer and holiness becometh the mouth of Prayer What have they to do with Prayer that have no fellowship with holy Practice To come before God with a lapful of sins and a mouthful of prayers is a motley Sacrifice And in Fasting and Prayer watch your wandring heart that the Devil steal it not away with idle fancies when you pray against him which will flutter in your mind like motes in the Sun But challenge him of Sacriledg that he hath rob'd you of your devotion follow him with hue and cry and he will fly away from you Let there be any thing that we are more eagerly set upon to obtain than all the rest we will never start aside never run out of the circle when we come to that Petition And this Petition is as useful as any That the Lord would take away the old Serpent from us If Satan be a Serpent so is sin Partus sequitur ventrem such as the Dam is such is the Issue Then secondly pray unto God against Serpent sin The mortifying of it is called crushing a Cockatrice in the egg and Solomon says of drunkenness it bites like a Serpent and stings like an Adder Prov. xxiii 32. To begin with original sin 't is fitly called by Tertullian Plaga antiqui serpentis the biting of the old Serpent And many good Authors delight themselves for good cause to note it on the accident that I preach of that the people in the Wilderness did pray that the Lord would take away the Serpents from them yet he did not and for all that their Prayer sped well For God gave means to as many as were stung to be healed by looking on a Serpent that was lifted up So we are all wounded with a loathsom disease from our Mothers womb and remain wounded Baptism and Prayer make the wound less howsoever still it is a wound but God hath provided how to cure the guilt of it by intuition of faith looking on Christ who bare our sins upon his Cross And as the living Serpents were charm'd by the dead one that they had no power to kill so sin that lives in us is weakned that it shall not condemn by the Son of God that died to save us And as this sin is one by likeness in us all so one Saviour crucified for the sins of the World is sufficient to help us all The Israelites had not distinct Serpents erected after the number of their Tribes much less many more according to the number of their Families but one Serpent lifted up and but one Mediator between God and Man Aim by that level and you hit the mark The hope of remedy is founded in unity Our Gods are not plural our Redeemers are not many they that have divers Saviours have never a Saviour They that have tutelary Saints for every day for every disease Patron Martyrs for every Kingdom almost for every Parish have a serpentine swarm of superstition But as our wound is one in all so one Jesus is rich in mercy unto all Likewise a serpentine corruption is notorious in all our actual and wilful sins For the biting of a poisonous worm is not only perillous to that part of the flesh in which it fixeth its tooth but every drop of bloud draws in the malignity of that which was next unto it till there be no sound part remaining So one member of the body being tainted with the venom of sin traduceth corruption to another If the ear be tickled with filthy talk the loins will be unchast if the eye be wanton it will run into the heart Observe it by another propagation when you commit one sin you are at the brink of another the second offence makes the way smooth and slippery for a third Any transgression not presently physicked with the antidote of repentance will fetch in so many that they will sink you into the bottomless pit Yet there is another serpentine dispreading in the works of the flesh One sinner is an hundred sinners in the catching infection of his leprosie one Absolom is an Host of Rebels one Ringleader a shole of Schismaticks one Jeroboam a Kingdom full of Idolaters one incestuous Corinthian a leaven that will leaven the whole lump Therefore
Altar And what service of the King is so honourable as an Embassie And which attribute of God is more noble than his justice Now an Altar and an Embassage appertain to the occasion of this Text and the justice of God to the Exposition There was an Altar set up by Gad and Reuben and half Manasseh a great one to see to in the tenth verse a pattern of the Lords own Altar in the 28. which was as strange in those days when all the light of the Church moved but in one Sphere as to see a Parelius or a second Sun in the Firmament This new devotion of theirs kindled a jealousie in the Ten Tribes that possessed the Land of Canaan beyond the River Jordan and after some advice to reform the Church they stumble upon these two ways First to pluck down the Altar was the like done no where Never in our Land First pluck down the Churches and then reform the Religion Next that there might be hands enough to pluck it down all Israel meet at Shiloh to fight it out Another strange course I pray observe it to try the truth not in Moses chair but in the field and He should carry the day whose Sword was sharpest and brethren would sacrifice brethren upon their own Altar for Idolatry Yet this hath a fair shew and seems to be like the renouned justice of Timoleon that redeemed his Brother taken captive in his Country quarrel whom he slew soon after with his own hands for usurping tyranny But to be slow to wrath is to make haste to heaven and sometimes a soft word breaks not down Altars but the very bones says Solomon St. Peter cut off but one silly servants ear with Ecce duo gladii but when Jesus spake it overturned them to the ground every man and Miscreant So this holy Nation send Phinehas the Son of Eleazar and Ten Princes more the flower of the Nobility to play the Orators before it come to bloudshed and make this the close of the Message to leave the most moving affection behind it that the Idolatry of two Tribes and more would envenom all the children of Israel round about since the trespass of one man was the ruine of God knows how many Did not Achan the Son of Zerah trespass and wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel and that man perished c. Beloved now we know the man that bears the burden of the Text and that Altar which was blameless and innocent one poor distinction broke up all the Army it was an Altar of Witness and not of Sacrifice And you have seen the Embassie presenting and prevailing for Peace and true Religion A word or two to shew what is meant by non solus he perished not alone There are divers stories of Gods vengeance in that word built one above another as may easily be discerned if I resolve all the Text into Achans Funerals First here is a grave digged and that is iniquity So speaks the Kingly Prophet effodit puteum he digged a Pit that is says another Prophet he plowed iniquity Secondly see the corps of Achan first oppressed with stones and then consumed to ashes for he was both stoned and burnt the one representing a Sepulchre and the other the dismal fire of Hell this is that man perishing But not alone his Children were the sad mourners that followed their Father and died with him both root and branches Nor these only but thirty six Israelites slain and offered up to the vengeance of God inferiae Achanis as I may term them after the heathen phrase And give me leave to go on to make a miserable pomp his Cattel went along to be sacrificed bellator equus even all he had as if his Oxen had jogged the Ark of God they are consumed in fire Lastly you are here beloved to look on and judge of such a spectacle to decline the trespass that for your part and God grant it be so He may perish alone in his iniquity Lego historiam ne fiam historia Where could I alledge Scripture so wonderful to shew the mystery of Gods justice least we speak unadvisedly with our lips why art thou so wrath with the sheep of thy Pasture Non nostrum onus our shoulders were not made to bear our Fathers sins As Lipsius embraced the reproof of Scaliger saying Te judice placebit paenè ipsum damnari so we must not only kiss the Son lest he be angry but even kiss the very anger of the Son He was figured to be the Serpent that stung the Israelites but it was a brazen Serpent Serpens sine veneno no poison no rancor of malice in him Judicia Dei occulta esse possunt injusta esse non possunt says St. Austin Strike once upon this rock of justice and I dare promise a fountain will issue out from thence of fear and reverence not to provoke the Lord by sins and trespasses for if He threaten shall He seem as one that mocks Shall the Infant put his finger upon the hole of the Cockatrice Wherefore to make this our use and fruit of hearing at this time First to adore the flaming Sword of justice Secondly to shun the stroak the wages of ungodliness First that the Tombs of sinners may be Altars of Gods righteousness and then that the zeal of God may be dreadful unto man let these be the parts of this discourse First We must put the cause formost the cause of all the wrath that follows and that both general it is iniquity and with an instance his iniquity Then follows the subject not only answering to each part of the cause man and that man but a subject it is ex abundanti you would think as if mischief had been kindled like piles of wild-fire for it spreads about to strangers and home-born to the reasonable and to the dumb nay to the quick and dead that man not alone is a troop of them which were consumed Thirdly here is an affection brought in by the cause you wot of before into this plentiful subject alas let us not call it an Affection let us use no Art it is perishing The Cause Iniquity the Subject Achan but not alone the Affection that he perished you see I have made a demonstration of the Text. Now let not any man make it a fallacy to deceive his own soul doth not the cause deserve severe arraignment Then blaspheme not as the wicked do He seeketh an occasion to punish Cruda est cicatrix criminum oletque ut antrum Tartari says the Divine Prudentius in the subject Did one hair of an innocent person fall to the ground Then murmur not against God turn thy wrath upon the sinners and the heathen which have not known his name But is it too much to perish for all this Was the chastisement beyond measure Then let us say we are vexed and sore smitten then indignation lieth hard upon us like Rehoboams Scorpions Remember how the
Father Vasarenes as Agathias reports the Soothsayers foretold that his Mother should bring forth a Male child and he was crowned in her Womb his honour began the soonest I ever read of any and his guiltiness of sin and obligement to Gods wrath began as soon as the soul did inform the body If ever there were a Paradox in the world which Turks and Infidels hitherto have shamed to maintain it is the contrary to this doctrine that some iniquity is not the cause of perishing before the wrath of God Peribit in iniquitate it was ever good Divinity before Mariana and some Jesuits have perswaded desperate cast-aways to be saved by iniquity Saved did they say And for working abomination O are not the tender mercies of the wicked cruel St. Paul comforted our Mothers in their travel that the woman should be saved by bearing Children into the world they teach Reprobates to purchase a Saintship by murdering such whom the world is not worthy of Slaughter and bloudshed says our Philosopher Rhet. 1. lib. are not fit to make a question for discourse because it was never disputed by some either to be lawful or tolerable Nay in the second Eth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing can make Murder a good action much less Treason But this was the pity of a Philosopher and Alexanders Courtier not the stomach of a Jesuit and a grand Inquisitor If all the Saints should appear before God with the Instruments of their Piety Moses with the two Tables Aaron with his Rod David with his Psaltery Dorcas with the Garments of her Charity would you look for a Priest among them girded with a bloudy knife Or a Villain provided with fire and Gunpowder Who would look for it Except as when the Sons of God stood before the Lord Job i and Satan also was among them Nay heaven and earth shall pass away before Peribit in iniquitate become Apocryphal before the Wormwood of sin become the Palm of immortality Thus much for the cause in general but what offence his iniquity did give the sin of Achan will ask a peculiar and a larger trial You are deceived if you think it was but Larceny or greedy pilfering if a Thief steal he shall restore fourfold says the Law or seven fold says Solomon when stealing grew worse and worse that was the most of it But God saw more pernicious faults in Achan for his justice is not fidelis in minimo sharpest against small offences like the Popes Decretals which enjoyn a Priest forty days penance if he spill one drop of the Cup of the Lords Table and but seven days penance for Fornication But hainous was the fact of Achan first in scandal that an Israelite preserved so long in the Wilderness one that fought the Lords Battels and came always home with victory that he should be the first that trespassed among the Canaanites the heathen that would blaspheme the living God Secondly In disobedience that Joshuah his noble General made the head of all the Tribes by Gods appointment and Moses good liking and Eleazars Unction could not command to be obeyed Thirdly In faithless covetousness That since Manna did fall no more from heaven about their Tents the Lord did heed his people no longer every man must catch what come to his hands so Achan took the accursed c. Here is scandal to them that were without within themselves contempt of the Lord and his servant Joshuah in his own heart an inordinate desire to grow rich and sumptuous I do not make Achans fault the greater that Gods vengeance may be more plausible as St Austin spake of disgracing Cacus to honour Hercules the more Nisi nimis accusaretur Cacus parum Hercules laudaretur but remember my scope is all one with S. Pauls Interrogatories With whom was he grieved And to whom did he swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest If there be any delight in comparing sins as the Prophets use to dash the Idols of Jerusalem with the Idols of Samaria me thinks the first transgression of the Garden of Eden and the pleasant Land of Canaan almost another Eden are very semblable Eve walking in Paradise saw the fruits and her eye enticed her to take that which was forbidden and then she hid her self out of Gods sight So Achan treading upon the soil of Canaan saw a Babylonish Garment and his eye enticed him and he took it when it was forbidden and accursed and hid both the Garment and his sin from the sight of Joshuah But those are impudent crimes like the forehead of an Harlot that leave their memory to the evil world to be the first examples of transgressions cursed be that sin for it festers into scandal and unhappy shall be their end that fly from the Lord till they be left as a Beacon on the top of a Mountain and as an Ensign on a Hill says the Prophet Isaiah Many offences had never been committed or else brought forth by a worse Generation long after unless an evil Author had made the way known and easie for our corrupt nature therefore the first that gathered sticks and broke the Sabbath the Shilonites Son the first that cursed impious Gehazi the first that took sinful wages for the gift of God Ananias and Saphira the first dissemblers in the Primitive Church Achan the first Malefactor in the Land of Canaan these had their portion suddenly and drunk the Cup of Gods fury unto the dregs thereof I know not how fatal it is but since the small trenches of Rome were filled with too much bloud of Rhemus anon after they were digg'd massacres and persecutions have never departed from that unlucky building As the heavens are spread above us and seem to speak like the Statue of the King of Egypt In me quis intuens pius esto So the ground whereon we tread sometimes quakes and seems to be too holy to be defiled But if ever there were an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or incongruity of place to say unto sin exiforas this is no ground for sinners was it not the Land of Promise A small sin in Canaan was greater than a fornication in Egypt a trespass in Jerusalem is worse than an Idol in Samaria Had this deed been done in the Wilderness or in the paths of the Red Sea it had been more tolerable as one speaks of Pompeys obscure death in Egypt a thousand Leagues from Rome Procul hoc ut in orbe remoto abscondat fortuna nefas the offence had not been so notorious But the Angels themselves do wonder in a field of choice Wheat Vnde zizania Lord whence come Tares Will you resolve the Prophet Jeremy the same question He makes very strange fidelis civitas How is the faithful City become an Harlot To use the Lords own Sacrifice with the Sons of Eli for Riot and Extortion his own Supper for drunkenness with the bad Corinthians to employ the soyl of his own
Sacrilegious It is unadvised Martinism and nothing else that frowns against the sumptuousness of the Church Build up an Ark a Gods name out of the spoils of Egypt we are not warned to destroy with Achan O let him perish alone in his iniquity This shall serve to be spoken for the first part of my Text the iniquity which betrayed Achan unto the vengeance of God which iniquity consisted of scandal against all the Host of Israel disobedience against Joshuah covetousness against his own foul the subject of the punishment follows And first if we dare look upon our own death and are not afraid to see our own bloud spilt homo periit I must tell you man perished in iniquity Do you call to mind what Mordecai said to Esther Think not that thou shalt escape in the Kings house there is no sanctuary in earth but that all must die or all men must be changed says St. Paul For as it was written upon Hectors Tomb Non Hector illic Troja sed tumulo jacet so we may endite upon the Grave of Adam homo periit here lies Man and his Posterity Surely if the Jews returning from Captivity could not chuse but shed tears to see the building of the Second Temple having remembred the glory of the First So who can look upon mankind in the state of misery without pity and compassion that can remember him in the days of peace and innocency Should we consider what variety and new delights Adam and Eve had before them to meditate upon the beauty of their own original righteousness the Tree of the Garden wherein all the beasts of the Forrest do move Heaven and Earth spick and span new to look upon and we may say as Epaminondas did concerning a worthy Captain that died in the Camp at Leuctra Quomodo vacavit huic in tantis negotiis mori How could this man spare any leisure to sin and die A strange misfortune Adam was set to dress the Garden of Eden and proved the first weed thereof in his own person wherefore Joseph of Arimathea built his Tomb like a birds nest in his Garden in remembrance that a trespass committed in a Garden was the first occasion of Tombs and Epitaphs and is it not usual to this day to cast up our Graves after the similitude of beds in Gardens In the state of innocency our meditation should have been only concerning the immortality of the Soul and Body but now we are constrained to study this Lesson as much as any for our healths sake homo periit how Man comes to die and read learned Lectures upon our own Carkases and Anatomies And it is not in vain that we place the heavy remembrance of an Anatomy before our Almanacks as if we were to prefix that Memorandum for a Diary before every day of the year homo periit that our flesh is come unto corruption and that our days are consumed in vanity Yet the fear of common calamity is most often forgot in every mans private security To tell you that man is come to destruction it is but a name and a sound and a second notion and seems to be nothing to us in particular We sit in our glory among Gods threatnings like King Solomon in his Throne among dead Lions which could not bite us But point out at Achan or Saul or any sinner set apart for the view of the World and it will work upon us Mark it if it be not true for who ever put on sackcloth or cast ashes upon his head for St. Peters Prophecy that all the World and the works thereof should be burnt with fire and the Elements melt away with heat But if Jonas denounce fire against one City and say Nineveh shall be destroyed then Nineveh will prevent those ashes which her Enemies would bring upon her and fulfil Jonah's Prophesy in the ashes of repentance O come not to view Gods Judgments as vain people do to the execution of some Malefactor that know who it is must suffer and that they shall stand by and fare no worse but to behold it but look upon Gods threatnings as upon some curious Picture which in thy fancy seems to look upon thee only and have such a touch of conscience at iste periit that man perished as King Belshazzar had in his Feast of wine when Gods hand wrote upon the Wall he perswaded himself that index digitus the finger pointed at no other but himself alone Now let us go one step lower to Pilates Ecce homo behold the man Behold Achan the Son of Zerah that man perished not alone in his iniquity Achan that had out-lived the corruption of his young years and was grown in age able to go to warfare to have many Children to know how to steal from God and dissemble with Joshua doth his hoary head go down with peace into the Grave King David reprieved Shemei his bitter Enemy unto the Reign of King Solomon Solomon reprieved him till his fault was almost out of mind Quem saepe casus transit aliquando invenit did his head go down with peace into the Grave Like the Web of Penelope all that hath been wrought in the year may be ravelled out in a night Crescant says God to the Tares Matt. xiii nay let them grow and sprout up and then cut them down and cast them dry into the fire Secondly He that was spared among all the dangers of the Wilderness is consumed in the City He that could escape the Pilgrimage of fourty years is doom'd to die in Canaan He that was not devoured in the fire of Taberah is burnt in the Valley of Achor As Aristotle speaks of Homers Poetry when he set up Walls for Troy in one Book and pluckt them down in another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murum Peoeta quem finxit delevit So God can deal with us set us up or pluck us down but we are less than Walls They that walk in the night preserve the flame of their Torch or Candle from winds and Casualties abroad which notwithstanding they put out when they return to their home So Achan that walked over the Sea when the Bridg was under water and liv'd among Scorpions and was not consumed in the Sedition of Dathan nor slain in the Battels of Moab yet in portu naufragium the Vessel is not cast away in the Ocean Sea but in the Haven and his light is put out at home in the long expected Canaan Thus Judgment follows Judgment as Antigonus said when he spoiled Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alexander cut down the rich ears of Corn and he pluckt up the Stubble after him so the Armies of rebellious Sinners had been mown down in the Wilderness Achan and some few more were pluckt up like Stubble when Judgment seemed to pass them over Note this thirdly in Achans person mischief did light upon him not in the hunger and thirst of the Wilderness not in his poverty but having compiled much riches
and comes a fresh to view and mend with a second or third fancy what the first did mistake So if we could lay aside our selves and then resume our substance again we might spy out faults which now we discern not nor acknowledge As who should say lay down your body in the dust take it up again in the Resurrection like a Picture cast aside then I know we shall learn where the fault lies But self love must not be the judge whether God doth punish one man for anothers iniquity Secondly The superstition of the Heathen encreased this error There was a bloudy opinion among them called Succidaneum sacrificium if you have heard of it wherein one may lay down his life unto the Gods to redeem the danger of another Antinous the great Minion to Hadrian the Emperour cut off the remaining days of his own youth to recover Adrian from a desperate feaver And Philumena passing the love of women spent her heart bloud as a Cordial Julap to recover her husband Aristides Now upon what presumption did they stand A Principle they had for it but manifestly against God and the Gospel that every man was Lord of his own life to employ where he would for himself or for another Vitam approbare aliis quisque debet sed mortem sibi Let us live to have the good liking of other men but let us die as we like it our selves And this made them esteem what a conscionable thing God had given man when he gave him life Hoc est unum quare de vitâ queri non possum neminem tenet No man need keep it longer than he would quite contrary not only to Gods Law but the good Philosophy of Plato It is better to die than to live says he but love not thy sell so well to do thy self that benefit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stay till some other do so good a turn for you But O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken ought not Christ alone to suffer for the sins of others The just for the unjust The plowers plowed upon my back and made long furrows Here is plowing and making furrows as if there were seeds sown in the wounds of Christ of which we may reap thirty sixty and an hundred fold according to the measure of our faith So then the Doctrine of the heathen is both against Nature and against the Sacrifice of Christ Wherefore these must not be our judges whether God doth punish one mans person for anothers iniquity But Ventum est ad Triarios the third rank of Adversaries are the School Divines left-handed Benjamites able to cast a distinction at an hairs breadth Whose Doctrine when it is good is like the Moon at the Full light and entire but perchance spotted But when their Doctrine is false it is like the Moon in the Wain full of horns and distinctions Give me leave to make proof of it in this cause which I have in hand First Say they iniquity is visited upon those Generations which did not commit the fault Si communitas favet unius delicto minimè verò si ignorat If many concur to favour the sin of one man that man shall not perish alone in his iniquity It is true and God hath spoken Lev. xx If the people do not punish the man that giveth his seed to Molech c. But what was this to Achan Did he reveal hâ—s fault to thirty six Souldiers or to his Children Very unlikely that a close sin should be known to so many Very likely that among his Children some were Infants that knew not what it was to sin and yet he perished not alone c. Durandus divides the case thus One is liable to judgment for the trespass of another in divino judicio non in humano Man must not adjudge man to condemnation for the trespass of another but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Gods good will it may be done Doth Durandus say so But so doth not Ezekiel The soul of the Son is mine as the soul of the Father that soul which sinneth shall die Ezek. xviii 4. Mark what the Prophet says Before his judgment every soul shall escape that is innocent before his judgment that made the soul meaning God and not the Magistrate In Verse 25. Are not my ways equal Nay are not your ways unequal My ways you hear the Text. God is defended from this injustice and not the Magistrate Thirdly Some deliver their opinion in this distinction In temporali paenâ non in aeternâ A modern affliction which lasts but for a time may chastise the Son for the Fathers iniquity but not an eternal condemnation For although our bodies may answer for our Parents being the fruit of their Loyns yet my soul is not engaged to any but to God alone Besides the wounds of the body in this life are like the cutting of the bark of the tree to inoculate a Bud which may bring forth fruit But In inferno nemo te Laudat Domine there is no repentance no remorse in Hell So that the Christian use of Gods chastisements is lost in eternal torments but not in temporal O take heed of this opinion to put a draught of gall and vinegar to our Saviours mouth when his lips upon the Cross were full of mercy My meaning is do not impeach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gentleness of Christ to say he doth exact a momentary punishment upon a guiltless person For this were to say that Adam was not only the Root and publick person of all mankind but that all other Parents have the same state of prerogative That which Pelagius did impudently deny in original sin is true in actual sins Qui remisit Tibi peccata tua non imputabit aliena Fear not to bear the burden of thy Fathers sin when if thou come unto Christ he will refresh thee of thine own A fourth refuge is on this wise Affliction doth befall a man sometimes Ex antecedenti pro alieno peccato formaliter pro suo Take an instance to understand it by a Minister neglects his Flock a Father the education of his Children Now the mischief of this neglect may redound to the hurt of God knows whom So that though the Ministers fault went before their destruction yet ignorance and blindness in their own neart is the proper cause of the curse which lies upon them which is all that I labour for in this present controversie The last assault made by the Schoolmen deserves your observation for the Authors sake it is Aquinas And his opinion is like fluctus decumanus the tenth wave and more troublesome than all the rest Vnus punitur pro altero modo medicinali non paenali As who should say the Arrows of God are shot from heaven as out of a well-drawn bow against the capital sinner Some that stand in the way are wounded with the Arrows head yet not out of purpose
from your holy Mothers Lacte gypsum miscet as the old Proverb is the World is a Stepmother whose Milk is infected with poison no redress for such but as it was said of the Shunamites Child when he complained of his head Take the Child unto his Mother as St. Peter exhorts desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby the end of it is to grow and encrease not to stand at a stay true Piety never thinks so well of it self as if it needed no augmentation that 's Pharisaical hypocrisie He that gets nothing loseth much he that doth not add to his talent will forfeit it and lose it Says Bernard did not all the Angels which Jacob saw upon the Ladder that reached up to Heaven either ascend or descend Inter ascensum descensum inter profectum defectum nullum est medium There is no medium between proficiency deficiency between going backward or forward Either you are continually mending in all parts of Religion by the fatness of this milk or you will consume away like a shriveled Changeling But the Nurse will not be wanting in suppeditating milk if you are not wanting to your self in the wholsom concoction And now to end this Point I pronounce unto you that you can expect no greater miricle from God than to have such a Mother and such a Nurse First Were you not dead in Adam and then this Mother took you into her womb and brought you forth alive most stupendious Nay must you not die unto sin and be crucified to the world before you could be born again Quid difficilius cognitione quà m ut homo nascatur moriendo says St. Austin And what is the effect of her nourishment but continually to draw you from death to life Et amplius est suscitare semper victurum quà m suscitare iterum moriturum says he Was it miraculous in Elias or in the Apostles to raise the dead unto life that should die again How much greater is it to raise them unto life that shall never This benefit begins with the Church as our Mother and continues with us through her Ministry as our Nurse This is that Jerusalem whis is the Mother of us all Thus far I have drawn out before you the blessing of the Mother upon those whom she brings forth now while this benefit is fresh in our memory it is good time to shew what obedience the Children do owe to this Mother That is to her Laws to her Censures to her Determinations To her Laws of outward Order to her Censures of Discipline to her Determinations of Faith For the first to tread lightly in their steps that have gone before me Prudence and Reason find out what is fit for the well reigling and comly demeanour of them that are knit together in any body And when authority is joyned unto it and imposeth it it is a Law There must be an Order agreed upon touching our manner of union and living together in Commonwealths And grave and well-governed men are most nice to see those fashions of order inviolably observed And is not this equally to be heeded nay much more in our Ecclesiastical Oeconomy For the persons to whom we associate our selves in the Church are not only holy men but God and Angels Shall we not have Laws of agreement to go all one way and to do the same thing in Rites and Ceremonies Can there be such that would not be ashamed to see distraction and confusion in the holy Sanctuary Is there any possibility of drawing a Congregation together without Rules and Advertisements to proceed thus and thus in the administration of the Lords Service And for those Rites which are in force among us hath not this Church proceeded with most sanctified moderation to ease Christian people of that superfluity whereof they complained at the extirpation of Popery and to retain such only as were most expedient and carry no shadow of scandal but to them that are hot and contentious Since we must have Orders of Decency his wits are broken that thinks otherwise why not these which are established and to which your consent is included by reason of them that were Agents in your behalf and present at their confirmation for we were alive in our Predecessors and our Successors shall live in us It skills not what Vtopia some have framed in their own heads In positive Laws mens private fancies must give way to the higher judgment of the Church which is in authority a Mother over them And do not say you are an obedient Child since you do that which your heavenly Father requires why not also what your spiritual Mother requires Since the one bids nothing repugnant to the other I hope there is none in this Climate but explodes the Anabaptists opinion that all Christian Liberty is lost if any Laws be imposed upon the people but the Gospel of Jesus Christ Beside what is required for order and good carriage in the Church God hath given the power to settle it What is done is done by his leave and by that light of Nature and Reason given to frame such Constitutions and therefore do not prevaricate as if God were not disobeyed in that obstinacy which conforms not It is commendable and necessary for every man single to profess the substance of true Religion contained in the Scriptures But it is also required at their hands to observe the Circumstances and Decencies of it comprehended in positive Laws when they are in society with others It was in a Circumstance and a Ceremony that St. Paul checks the Corinthians What despise ye the Church of God 1 Cor. xi 22. You cannot call Jerusalem your Mother with a sober reverence if you decline her Piety and Authority in Constitutions indifferent Secondly The power and the wisdom of the Church meeting together must use the rod though unwillingly towards them that must be made examples to others by shame and punishment For such as will not be softned with love and the Spirit of meekness Shall I come to you with a rod says the Apostle Dread the anger of your Mother provoke not her displeasure to smite you with Abstentions Anathemaes Excommunications Remember how the incestuous person was swallowed up with desperation when her Censure was upon him If Esau lift up his voice and wept when he had not the blessing of his Father what sorrow will it beget in a Child that is not past feeling or leadenly stupid to have the curse of his Mother The ancient forms of humble Penants used by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so disused that their custom will seem strange to be repeated When they were sequestred from the Prayers and Sacraments of the holy Church for scandalous and flagitious actions they cast themselves down before the entrance of the Church groveled upon the ground full of tears and lamentations and besought every Christian that passed by