body may be sayd to haue done it And whatsoeuer the body suffereth God may be sayd to haue suffred by reason of this coniunction The Angels surely were astonied heere at seeing him beneath themselues whom they did alwayes adore and worship aboue themselues The Cherubins which God commaunded to be placed at the two ends of the Arke of the couenant with their face being turned one towardes another and both looking on the mercyseate do signifie as much vnto vs as that they admyred and wondered to see a woorke of so great pietie viz. To see God made the propitiatory sacrifice of the worlde and to debase himselfe so low as to become a man But behold the prophecie as I may terme it of Adam fulfilled Man quoth he shall leaue father and mother and cleaue vnto his wife and they two shall be one fleshe Christ Iesus leaueth his Father and the Angelles in Heauen for to associate himselfe vnto his spouse in earth and as you haue heard she is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh for they are no more two but one person And this beloued is tydings of great ioy for now according to the lawes of wedlocke we may assure our selues to haue all thinges in common with him so that he shall take vpon him our sins and transgressions as his owne and we again shall be partakers of his puritie and holinesse as our owne That our debts shall be required at his hands and we be saued harmles discharged of them which is all one with that which is sayd here that a Sauiour is born vnto vs. But this by the way wee must not now forget that it is our partes and duties to forget likewise our owne people and fathers house to abandon all strange loues and to admit none into the fellowship of that spirituall bedde but to cleaue onely vnto him to honor and obey him to reuerence and loue him to keepe our chastities vnspotted our soules and bodies pure and vndefiled for him And as our nature is one with his who so is heauenly and diuine so to liue an heauenly diuine life neither louing any thing that he lotheth or lothing any thing that he loueth but that his will be our will and his precepts our continuall practises As he hath ouercome Sinne in his owne person in being conceiued and liuing without Sinne so hath he deliuered vs also from the guilt therof by suffering the punishment for vs and imputing his Righteousnes vnto vs also in that he ouercame Sin it appeareth plainely that he hath vanquished death For death is but the stipend and wages of Sinne and as it were the effect and fruite of Sinne. For if man had auoyded the first he should surely haue escaped the latter for it was not the corruption of our bodies that made our soules sinfull but the Sinne of our Soules that made our bodies corruptible And therfore if the fountaine be drie the brookes must needs be drie If the cause be taken away the effects must of necessity follow as if the Sunne be darke the Moone and the Starres can giue no light death a great while amazed al mankind I speake of the eternall and neuer-dying death of which Gregory speaking faith Mors erit immortalis defectus indeficiens finis infinitus vnto which belongeth the worm that neuer dieth when a man shall be alwayes dying and neuer dead euerlastingly hauing an end and yet no end stil decaying and neuer decayed Because his end euer beginneth his death euer liueth and his decay neuer ceaseth From which by the Law there was no Redemption which would haue brought into eternall subiection all creatures whatsoeuer if this Sauiour and deliuerer had not bin born vnto vs so that euery soule like the mothers in Ramaâ— might haue iustly sighed forth those dolefull dirges of weeping mourning and lamentation and with Iob haue cursed the dayes of their Natiuity by reason of the torments and tortures of the dead But as the Asse called Cumanus asmus getting vp and downe in a Lions skin did for a while terrifie his maister but afterward being descried did do him no good seruice So death which sometimes made afraid the wisemen of the world by his skin or sting of Eternity Nowe since our Sauiour hath bereaued him thereof seemeth contemptible euen vnto Children so that they dare boldly goe vnto it for they know it shall benifite them very much for if they be oppressed with any miseries or calamities in this life when they shall come to death they shall be discharged and death as an Asse shall beare their burdens for them yea they know that death vnto them shall bee no death but an entrance into euerlasting life and therefore they feare not God is the life of the soule as the Soule is of the bodie by sinning voluntarily the Soule lost God hir life therefore she can not now at hir pleasure giue life She would not be gouerned of God therefore now she can not gouerne the body Hauing not obeyed hir superiour why should she command hir inferiour God found his creature rebellious against him The Soule was found a transgressor of Gods law now therefore she findeth a law in hir members repugning the law of hir mind Sinne separated betwixt God and hir therefore death doth seperate betwixt hir and the body The Soule could not be diuided from God but by sin neither can the body from the Soule but by death what iniury therfore suffred she if she suffered that of hir subiect which she committed hir self against hir prince Nothing surely was more agreeable vnto Iustice then that death should be rewarded with death spirituall with corporall and voluntary with necessary Whenas man therfore had deserued according to either nature to suffer this double death the one spirituall and voluntary the other corporall and necessary from either of them the man-god Christ Iesus most mightily hath deliuered vs by his owne corporall and voluntary death and in that one of his hath satisfied for both of ours If he had not died corporally he had not paid our debt and if he had not died voluntarily his death had not bin meritorious But now if as it is said the merit of death is sinne and the woges of sinne is death Christ remitting and forgiuing our sinne and dying for sinners the merit is abolished the debt is discharged But how shall we knowe that Christ can forgiue vs our sinnes euen by this in that he is God But how shall wee knowe that hee is God his miracles doe prooue it for he doth the works which no no man else can doe yea God himselfe from heauen hath confirmed the same Therefore if Christ be for vs who is against vs If Iesus iustifie vs who shall condemne vs It is he and no other to whom we confesse our sins saying Against thee onely haue I sinned c. Who could better nay who could at all forgiue vs that which was committed against
which the spirit of wisedome so curiously hath expressed Sub sordido palliolo lateat sapientia Vnder a patched coate may lurke wisedome and vnder a plaine stile may mystically be contained most learned institutions so that not onely the deep Ocean sea is to bee sounded but also the shallow foords of Meander are diligently to be considered Neither do I thinke it haphazard that Christ was borne in a stable for such is the place that the Euangelists affirme that he was born in but that it was appointed by God for speciall reasons long before who doth nothing rashly but hath a reason of all his actions Ye heard before how honorable was the condition of Adam in his Innocencie being like vnto God and created in his Image But the Psalmist witnesseth man being in honor and wanting vnderstanding he was compared vnto the Beasts that perish and in natural affections became indeed a very beast and for his beastly similitude and resemblāce stood tied as it were at the manger to receiue the fodder of beasts A strange alteration beloued that he that was the possessor of Paradise the lord of the whole earth the houshold seruāt of the god of saboth the brother of the blessed and celestiall spirits and the perfect Image of the holy Trinity should so degenerate from his kinde as to become so lowe and base as a Beast But marke heere and consider the proceedings of god for whereas man being become a beast had left the Heauenly bread of Life delighting more in the fodder of Beastes Behold now that bread of Life is turned into Flesh nay into grasse which is the food of Beasts for all flesh is grasse and lieth in a racke or manger to be eaten and chewed of vs beasts Therfore let the Oxe now know his own and the Asse his masters crib Let them drawe neere to him in the stable whom they fled from in the garden Let them honor him in the manger whom they contemned in his maiesty and let them feede on him beeing grasse whom they loathed when he was bread yea let them with an eager and liuely faith ruminate and chew vpon him that they may be nourished and grow vp by him He must be receiued by Hearing chewed by Vnderstanding and disiested by beleeuing or as an other saith The eating of his flesh is a certaine hunger and desire to be incorporated into him And indeed as our sauiour sayth He that eateth the flesh of the sonne of man c. shall liue for euer A Sauiour But wherefore did Christ so debase himselfe Euen that he might be a Sauior vnto vs that he might drawe vs vnto him with the ropes of man and with the cords of his loue as Ose speaketh And therfore he leaueth no meanes vntried to bring vs vnto him no not though they be neuer so base as to be borne in a Stable There is none of vs that liue in this region of death in the infirmities of the flesh and amidst the Temptations that are commonly offered but hath need of Counsell of Help and of comfort for we are Faciles ad seducendum debiles ad operandum fragiles ad resistendum if we would discerne betwixt good and euill we are easily deceiued If we trie to do good we are quickly tyred And if we are tempted we are sudenly subdued Therfore to enlighten our blindnes to help our weaknes and to defend our frailnesse Christ was borne vnto vs. Therefore Feare not For if he be in vs who shall deceiue vs If hee bee with vs what can we not do in him that strengthneth vs If he stand for vs what need we care who be against vs seeing he is the faithful Counseller which can neither deceiue nor be deceiued seeing he is the Almightie God which is neuer wearied seeing he is the strong man that bindeth Sathan breaketh the Serpents Head and is neuer vanquished Wherefore Feare not O Adam neither flie any longer Runne not in to the bushes from the sight of thy Maker for behold hee hath sent thee this day a Sauiour Once thou wast persuaded by the serpēt to sin against God and being taken in the fact thou hadst reason to feare Yea perhaps he brandished his fiery sword against thee but now it is not so He commeth not with weapons to punish but with mercy to preserue If thou saist thou heardst his voice and therefore fledst why he is an Infant and without any voyce and if he haue a voyce it is a voyce more to be pitied then feared Yea in this thou shalt know that he is come to saue thee and not destroy thee in that he fighteth for thee against such as rose against thee Thou hadst but two enemies Sinne and Death the death of the body and the death of the soule hee commeth to destroy either and to saue thee from both therefore feare not he destroyed sinne in his owne person when hee tooke mans flesh vpon him without any pollution For great was the violence that was offered vnto sinne when humane nature which was alwayes before as it were in a leprosie was found in Christ as white as snowe therefore I hope yea I am assured that he can plucke out the beame in mine eye which hath neuer a moate in his owne that he may satisfie for my sinne which was neuer defiled himselfe with any I reade of two that were called Iesus that is Sauiour who as they went before this that we speake of so I thinke they were tipes and prefigurations of him One of which brought the people out of Babilon the other brought them into Canaan both defended them from their enemies but neither saued them from their sinnes But this deliuereth vs from our sinnes bringeth vs out of bondage and placeth vs as kings in the land of the liuing Sinne had made a separation of the bodie from the soule and the soule from the bodie of both from God but Iesus hath brought them all together again yea in a far neerer coniunction then euer before For now they that were at mutual variance are now reconciled frends Yea and so reconciled that as in the blessed Deity there is a trinitie in persons but an vnitie in substance Euen so in this happy reconciliation there is a Trinitie in substance but an Vnitie in the persons And as there the Triplicitie of persons doth not breake the vnity nor the simplicitie of the vnitie doth not diminish the trinitie So heere in like manner the persons doth not confound the substances nor the substances doe hinder the vnitie of the person for the word the Soule and flesh are become one person and these three are one and this one thing is three not by confusion of the substances but by the vnitie of the person O wonderfull and superexcellent vnion who euer heard that things so diuerse should so meete together as to be one person yea soone person that whatsoeuer God may be sayde to haue done in the body the
THE RECOVERIE of Paradise A Sermon on the Incarnation and Birth of our Sauior Christ By Michael Birkhed Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousnesse and Peace haue kissed each other Psal lxxxv verse x. Printed for Nicholas Ling and Thomas Bushel and are by them to be sold 1602. To the Right Honorable Sir Tho. Egerton Knight Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England and one of hir Maiesties most Honorable Priuy Counsell IT hath bin Right Honorable well debated amongst the Learned where Learning was first professed and it is as truly recorded of many worthy Writers who were the first that did teach for to Write and surely as our forefathers did reuerence them as Gods which spake wisedome so we may extol them as men somewhat superior vnto men which inuented the arte to Write what they spake The first benefitted the persons that heard them by the latter are instructed al posterities that shall reade them the one instructed those onely that were present with them the other gaue lessons vnto all nations whatsoeuer though neuer so much distant from them And therefore very well saith a certaint Poet nowe liuing O blessed letters that combine in one All ages past and make one liue with all By you we do confer with those are gone And the dead-liuing vnto Counsell call By you the vnborne shall haue communion Of what we feele and what doth vs befall The consideration of which premises together with the respect of this ouer-fruitfull age of the Children of the Prophets the Land hauing more Church men then Churches and more Preachers then Parrishes to Preach in hath moued me though least of the Apostles yet vnwilling to hide my talent with the vnprofitable seruant to write what I haue heretofore spoken and to publish what I haue Written which I prostrate as my free-will offring at the foote of the Aulter as the poore Israelites did their Goats haire when they had no better to bring and as the Widdow did hir mite when she had nothing greater to giue And forasmuch as Curtesie is the true note of Gentilitie and Learning is best fauoured of such as are best Learned and matters of Religion of those that are Religious I haue therefore made choyse of your Honor for Patron of these papers not doubting but that in regard of Gentilitie you will curteously receiue it in respect of your Learning willingly pervse it and for the matter and subiect of it Patronize and protect it Your Lordships fauourable entertainment of this shall encourage me in greater matters hereafter to imploy my Labors vnto the memoriall of your worthines and mooue others to peruse it the more diligently being entertained of a Personage of such Honour and Iudgement Thus wishing vnto your Lordship the accomplishment of your wishes crauing pardon for my perhappes ouermuch boldnes I humbly take my leaue this first of Ianuary Your Honors to commaund Michaell Birkhed THE RECOVERY of Paradise Luke 2. 10. Feare not for behold I bring you tidings of great ioy that shall be vnto all People That is vnto you is borne this day in the Citty of Dauid a Sauiour which is Christ the Lord. GReat is the Solemnitie of this feast of Christ his Natiuity but the shortnesse of the day requireth to reade but a short discourse and no maruell if the words we write be short seeing God the father made as at this time his word the subiect of this booke very short If you would knowe the shortnesse of Gods Word behold that Word which said by his Prophet I fill both Heauen and Earth which was neither Included in any thing nor excluded out of any thing but was all in euery thing euen that Word which the Heauen of heauens could not cōtaine which was from euerlasting without beginning or ending Was now included in a place swadled in cloutes laied vp in a cratch and become a child of a dayes age a long word indeed become very short and yet what length of time or multiplication of words is able to descipher the incomprehensible length and breadth thereof for euen in his humilitie his glorie is exalted and in the shortnesse of his name his name is enlarged Great are the works of the Lord as himselfe is great but greatest is that which he did in his little one Paruulus nobis venerit sed non parum attulit nō parum nobis contulit He came as a little one but he brought not a little with him it was no little benefit he did vs. It is no vnknowne thing to him that knoweth any thing how glorious was the estate of Adam in paradise being created in the Image of the God of glory liuing in a place of all kinde of pleasure vnder the shade of the tree of life with a cōpanion that was meet fit for him Inioying the sight of God himselfe whose countenance is the fulnes of al ioyes felicities nothing being forbiddē him that might any wise delight him saue onely the fruite of one tree that was in the midst of the garden the penalty if he tasted of it was the expulsing out of paradise the depriuation of his pleasures death damnation to his body soule euerlasting miseries to either amōgst the diuels in hell-fire But what followed Thy princes saith Esay were rebellious and became the cōpanions of theeues Our parents disobeyed the charge of the Almighty accompanied Lucifer in his the euery of Gods glory and so became subiect vnto the forenamed damnation Great was their fault so obstinately to haue sinned and great was the punishment that was inflicted for their sin For the Earth mourneth for it yea euen vnto the children as Zoroastes speaketh Though the father did onely eate the sowre grape yet his childrens teeth are also set on edge by it so that we were Damnati antequam nati Condemned to die euen before wee beganne to liue Glorious was mans condition beeing created in Gods Image but better had it bin that he had neuer bin created then so to haue defaced the glory of that Image But as God is the happiest and chiefest good containing all happines and goodnes in himselfe so such was his loue and fauour towards man that he would make him partaker also of that his happines and therefore presently he promised him a medicine for his malady and a salue for his sore namely that as Sathan had deiected him into the pit of hell so his sonne should erect and lift him vp into the kingdome of heauen if he would belieue in the one as he had giuen credite to the other Falshood had seduced and deceiued him and Truth must reduce and instruct him yet so that after he know the Truth hee renounce falshood and cleaue vnto the Truth this Truth was that word this word was that Sonne this Sonne was that Sauiour which was made short became little and was borne as this day in the Citty of Dauid But lest this so precious and peerelesse a Iem should
that beleeued in him which were not borne of water and bloud but of the spirit of God And so by all we may vnderstand the kinds of people as a learned father saith Non pro singulis generum sed pro generibus singulorum c. Christ died not for all of euery kinde but for the kinde of all euen for those that were of his Church and beleeued in him And in this respect saith Augustine let euery one wipe his teares from his eyes and bannish feares from his heart that doth beeleeue in this Sauiour that is sent Art thou a sinner saith he Reioyce now because a pardon is sent from the Iudge vnto thee Art thou a Gentill Reioice now because thou shalt receiue saluation with the Iewes hast thou bin a stranger from God and an Aliant from his couenant be glad now because thou mayest be ingrafted into his Body And in an other place he saith Reioyce ye Iust because it is the Birthday of your Iustifier Reioyce ye feeble and sicke because it is the Birthday of your spirituall Phisition Reioyce ye that liue in captiuity because it is the Birthday of your Deliuerer Reioyce ye seruants because it is the Birthday of your Lord Reioyce ye freemen in heauen because it is the Birthday of him that did set you free Reioyce all Christians because it is the Birth-day of Christ and to be short Reioyce all people because it is the Birthday of the Sauiour of all people If any man haue cause to feare or be sorrowfull still this is the cause that though Light came into the world yet he loued Darknesse more then the Light because his works should be euill And thus much of the reason of the comfort why they should not feare now to the Tidings of Ioy it selfe Vnto you is borne this day in the Citty of Dauid a Sauiour which is Christ the Lord. Wherein wee will note first the Person who was borne Secondly the Person of whom he was borne Thirdly when Fourthly where and Fiftly for what cause he was borne In the beginning of this Treatise you heard in part of the misery of Adam after his fall that whereas he had bin placed in Paradise a garden of pleasure inioying the sight and presence of God his state was comparable euen to the Angels of Heauen for though he were subiect vnto God his Creator yet was he Soueraigne ouer all his Creatures his labour was rest and his rest might haue bin continuall his paine was pleasure and his pleasure might haue bin eternall he had health without danger of sicknesse and life without feare of death the flesh and the spirit neuer striued the body obeyed the soule and the soule gouerned the body In a word neither hell nor graue death nor diuell could so much as touch or trouble him so standing as God had appointed But when he presumed to taste of that fruite that onely was forbidden him presently the case was cleane altered so that in stead of life he heard that fearefull sentence Thou shalt die the Death Then was the Earth accursed for his sake and he was thrust out of Paradise in the entrance whereof God set the Cherubines with the blade of a sword shaking to keepe the way of the tree of life so that he was faine to betake himselfe to this miserable and wretched world the kingdome of the Serpent whither could he now goe but he should meete with a curse seeing all things were accursed What might he do but lie sweating in the miserable and pittifull pangs of desperation What comfort might hee finde in his wife or his wife in him but teares and torments sorrowes and sighes crying and howling weeping and wailing groaning and gnashing of teeth Beeing so clogged with the intollerable burden of their sinnes so ouerwhelmed with the bloody floudes of Gods vengeance so pittifully and plentifully powred out vpon them now they perceiue the wages of their sinne to be death and damnation now they pine away for hunger and would be glad of the worst and sowrest apple in all Paradise now they thirst like the Hart after the water of those sweet running Riuers now they feele the want of Gods presence and amiable countenance they perceiue the Serpent to be busie about their heeles most greedily sucking their blood neither can they both finde out the meanes to shake him off or bruise his head therefore they sit like two children hauing by misfortune slaine their deere and louing father weeping and howling the one to the other they had slaine the Image of their heauenly father they had poisoned their soules with an Apple which the venemous serpent had spit vpon they feele the worme of a guilty conscience lie gnawing their bowells and all Creatures disobeyed them and rebelled against them in that they had shewed themselues disobedient rebells against their Lord and Creator But what followed The mercifull and louing Lord when we stood at this point and in a maner at defiance with him although he saw that the imaginations of mans heart would be euill and that he would alwayes beare a stiffe stomacke against him and his holy will yet did he not vtterly cast vs off but blessed O blessed be his name therefore hee hath shewne vs a glad and cheerefull countenance it greeued him that we had deserued his wrath but it would haue greeued him much more if that we had died the deserued death therefore that Iustice might haue his course and his mercy neuerthelesse might be seene ouer all his workes he was content to send the Diadem of his deitie that precious pearle his owne glory in whom was all his delight his onely begotten his best beloued Sonne euen him before whom the 24. Elders threwe downe their Crownes humbly whom the Angels magnified and all the hoast of heauen worshipped continually and to this end that he might bee borne of sinfull flesh that it being defiled with sinne might be cleansed by the seede of righteousnesse to be hungry for materiall bread that our hungry soules might be fed with the bread of life to be polluted with our spitle that we might be cleansed by his spirit to be condemned to death by vs that we might attaine vnto life by him to bee crowned with a crowne of thornes that we might be crowned with crownes of glory to sustaine our sorrowes that we might attaine his ioyes and in a word to be borne in misery to liue in beggery and to die with ignominy for his cradle was a cratch his life crossed and his kind of death accursed that mankind might be blessed but of this hereafter The person of whom he was born is most distinctly expressed and expresly designed in Luke both with the name of hir espoused Husband the Citty she dwelt in the linage and Tribe she came of and the messenger that was sent from god vnto hir All which I thinke was not superuacaniously or in vaine set downe seeing that neither a leafe from the tree nor