forth fruit So this maiden Mother knew no man she did not conceive after the manner of women but by the power of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost shall over-shadow thee says Gabriel Bene dictum est obumbrabit says Gregory Vmbra enim a lumine formatur corpore i. e. A Deo Virgine The world is full of expression which says the Holy Ghost shall over-shadow her for a shadow is caused by the resplendency of Light and the opacity of a gross body standing between So Christ who is the shadow of our refuge under which we stand to couch our selves from the scorching anger of Gods wrath he was conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin that was the body the Light of Heaven and the Holy Ghost reflecting upon it Verbum fuit pater ejus auditus mater says Fulgentius Upon the word of the Salutation of the Angel and by the Ear of Mary that heard the word between these two alone he was made man and they were unto him like as a Father and a Mother St. Austin says very sweetly that this admirable Creature Mary the Mother of our Lord is in this verse like unto the Church of Christ the Church is often called a Virgin the Virgin the Daughter of Sion I but since so many faithful Sons are born unto the Church by the Preaching of the Gospel how can they be the Sons of the Church or the Church their Mother if she be still a Virgin Very fitly and conveniently as he answers Virgo est parit Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit the Church is a Virgin and yet fruitful of Children for she is like the Mother of our Lord who was a Virgin Mother Why God did make this choice I mean why he chose this Blessed Virgin of the line of David to carry her own Redeemer and ours in her Womb before all the daughters of women ask in Gods name and seek the reason but let this be the ground upon which you build Sapientia aedificavit sibi domum Prov. 9.1 Wisdom did build her self an house God did befit himself with so clean a vessel as there was not a more heavenly creature upon earth neither since nor before her and such a Virgin was the purest casket which might be found wherein to lay up the gem of the world The very body of Christ without the soul was laid up in a tomb wherein never Corps were laid before in a new Tomb and reason good for though the soul was flitted away yet the union between the Body and the Divine Nature was not dissolved and therefore his Sepulchre was a new Sepulchre which was never seasoned with man before O then when the living Body and the Godhead were united into one person very meet and requisite it was that no Child should ever take up that Womb before the Son of God the son of a sinner was not first to possess that place which was ordained for the Son of God Moreover as the Woman Mary did bring forth the Son who bruised the Serpents head which brought sin into the world by the woman Eve so the Virgin Mary was the occasion of Grace as the Virgin Eve was the cause of Damnation Eve had not known Adam as yet when she was beguiled and seduced the man so Mary had not known Joseph Et illa peperit and she brought forth her first born Son And thus you see Sapientia adificavit sibi domum wisdom did build her self an house To make some use of this point unto our selves we see how well the Womb of the Virgin Mary did fit the Birth of Christ but will you know what manner of house wisdom doth build unto her self even unto this day Our Saviour was so well pleased with a Virgin-dwelling for once that ever since he loves to abide and dwell in a Virgin and unpolluted heart Cor simplex est cor Virgineum a plain dealing heart such a one as Jacobs was a charitable well-meaning heart is a single heart that hath no guile such a one is in travel with Christ Cor duplex est cor adulterum an hypocrites heart that hath two faces and speaks with two tongues he conceives mischief and brings forth ungodliness this is an adulterous heart and as concerning the heart of the hypocrite and malicious if any man say loe here is Christ or loe there is Christ believe them not Beloved you see how curiously every feathered Fowl makes a nest to lay her young one art and reason are not able to make such a work as the ingenuity of Nature doth wherefore let it not irk you once again to hearken how to prepare a nest wherein to lay your Saviour Grace is more choice and curious than either Art or Nature Still I am resolved it must be a Virgins breast that is fruitful to bring forth Christ but in my sense Zacheus was a Virgin and perchance living in the state of Wedlock Nay Mary Magdalen was a Virgin in this acception though sometimes a Sinner given to the flesh yet Anna the ancient Widow may pass for this Virgin without a Paradox For as a Virgin is at the dispose of her Father to be given and betrothed so is the virgin soul altogether into the will of God and surely in a sort Christ himself is there for it hath conceived by the Holy Ghost Nothing is wanting that this soul so formed into obedience should be answerable unto Mary but as we read of her it must be of the house and lineage of David Saint Chrysostom said of David's heart it was volumen charitatis a volume of love and charity always chanting and singing zeal and devotion to let your heart say according to the tune of his heart My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise as if it could not be removed from God nor God from it and then it is of the house and lineage of David I have said enough I think to shew what is in some competent sort proportionable in a good Christian to the virginity of Mary that his soul may be made fit to bring forth Christ St. Bernard calls me back a little Respexit Dominus humilitatem Mariae non virginitatem Mary confessed her self that God regarded her lowliness and not her virginity Et illa peperit and the lowly hand-maid brought forth the Babe of exceeding glory Hail thou that art highly favoured says the Angel yea but thrice hail thou that art lowly minded Etiam in coelo stare non potuit superba sublimitas if we will not beware of pride by the fall of men whose examples are often seen why take heed of it by the fall of Angels Heaven would not let pride be unpunished in Lucifer but threw it lower than the earth Christ would not let great humility be unrewarded in Mary but exalted it I may say above the heavens for so you shall perceive by the second part of my Text the strange
sidepieces of the tree do resemble horns he might as well have said that the Metaphor was taken from the Altar in the Old Law upon which the Sacrifices were presented because the Psalmist says bind the Sacrifice with cords unto the horns or extremities of the Altar Into the number of these that are more elegant than litteral in their allusions let me cast in Lombard thus he an horn is an altitude above the flesh and because it grows higher than the flesh therefore Christ is called an horn rather than a buckler of salvation because our hope in him is not carnal but spiritual and it is he that gives us grace and power to overcome the flesh These and such like subtilties I think it fit rather to name than to prosecute But Theophylact hath collected the solid reasons of this Appellation into few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it betokens either the mighty power or the Kingdom of salvation An horn is the weapon and strength of that Creature out of which it brancheth and therefore it is usual almost in every book of Scripture to borrow a Metaphor from it as the Lord shall give strength to his King and exalt the horn that is the power of his Anointed 1 Sam. ii 10 and Psal lxxxviii In my name shall his horn that is his strength and fortitude be exalted and to break the horns of sinners is to pull down their pride and dominion Psal lxxiv. I spare to recite innumerous quotations which are extant every where in Scripture but in this phrase the Holy Ghost intends that according to the translation which is in our Morning Service God hath raised up a mighty salvation in the house of his servant David O puissant Lord and Saviour who is able to comprehend what infinite power did concur to this effect that the everlasting God should be incarnate and become man This birth may seem to the outward man to be nothing but a spectacle of weakness and misery Look upon an Infant laid in a Manger wrapt in swadling clouts the Son of a poor Maid espoused to a Carpenter and from these circumstances the question might be askt Where is this horn Where is this strength which Zachary hath laboured to express so emphatically I answer That the Nativity of Jesus was the greatest demonstration of the power of God that ever the world received The Virgin Mary hath commended it to be very true in her Song verse 49 of this Chapter He that is mighty hath done unto me great things And St. Basil says that the Incarnation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence of the Divine Omnipotency It is a strange efficacy of nature to conjoyn repugnant Elements in the composition of our flesh as fire and water It is yet more strange to put an Elementary body and an immaterial soul into one composition but to joyn an increated and eternal God in one union of person with these things it exceeds all other marvels Neque Adami de limo terrae formatio neque Evae de viri carne plasmatio Iesu Christi potest ortui comparari says Leo the creation of Adam from the dust of the earth the efformation of Eve from the rib of Adam both are things to astonish our weak understanding but neither of these are comparable to his Nativity that was the Son of God and the Son of Mary this is the very firmitude of the horn whereof I am to speak there are other rights and branches of it For as Gods power doth astonish us that the Word should be made Flesh so it brings our admiration to more excess that he should become a Saviour he did overcome his own justice in that act and an Orator would say he grew mightier than himself if it were possible by sparing us Certainly there is good reason in that Axiom of the School that it was more to save a sinner than to create a world The heathen had their Saviours from wasteful diseases and pestilentious contagions as Pandion and Esculapius the Israelites had their Saviours from thraldom and the peril of the Sword as Moses and Joshuah But he that delivers us from the wrath of God and from the pit of hell he is the strong deliverer he is the horn of salvation Finally The Salvation which he hath brought us hath not only set us free but it hath put vigour and animosity in us to subdue our Adversaries that held us in thraldom What the Heathen spake of another thing I may fitly apply to Christ Tu spem reducis mentibus anxiis viresque addis cornua pauperi such as were poor and in misery being fast bound in the fetters of their sins thou hast refresht them with joy and given them horns to push down their enemies The dominion of sin is abated the edge of infernal tentations is rebated Death is swallowed up in victory the Devil cries out in the Gospel that he is tormented the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church this is salvation obtained for us not by compounding with our Foes and asking their leave but by strong force and puissant victory Cornu salutare nobis sed impiis terrificum It is a soveraign horn to us but an instrument of offence against the wicked His horns are the horns of an Vnicorn with them shall he smite the heathen even the ends of the world Deut. xxxiii 17. the false flattering Prophet Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah put on horns to sooth up Ahab Antichrist is described with ten horns and seven heads Revel xvii 3. to denote that he is armed to bring destruction upon those that cleave in sincerity of truth unto the Lord. The Goat and the Ram which Daniel saw in his Vision chap. viii had terrible horns rising up between their eyes These were outragious tyrants whom God permitted to goar the innocent like mad Oxen but here 's an horn in my Text to break their malice as if it were but a slender reed The Judge that trieth the cause of the helpless against oppressors and casts them down for ever but our horn of salvation Indeed that 's his proper work to save and help his chosen it is by accident that for their sakes he wounds and offends their enemies he came not to destroy but to seek and to save that which is lost he would not the death of a sinner but that he should repent and be saved therefore it is due to be called not an horn of mischief but an horn of salvation Nor doth this word betoken his power only but his kingdom likewise as if Zachary had said God hath raised up a King of salvation to us in the house of his servant David So said St. Peter before the Council of the Scribes Acts v. 31. Him hath God lift up with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour The Chaldee Paraphrast who is very ancient agrees greatly with this for what the Psalm hath I will make the horn of David to flourish
answers it better fight single against Satan one to one in the Wilderness than fight against Satan and wicked men who will entice you to sin as fast as Satan Therefore let them take out my Lesson and eschew the frequent Societies of populous places who find the Contagion of pestilent multitudes rub some rust upon them and infect their integrity It is not the place but the corruptions of the place which the meditations of the Fathers gathered out of my Text do lead you to abandon therefore the words of our Saviour shall stand in the last place to shut up this Point Joh. xvii 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them that is the Disciples out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil So much for the circumstance of the place My Sermon thus far hath been upon the Wilderness against the handling of the next Point it is fit to ask What went we forth into the Wilderness to see Why to behold Christ fasting before he fought with the Devil Though that is not all he did there for there is much more behind yet this is enough to make it worth our labour Esurivit panis sicut defecit via sicut vulnerata est sanitas sicut mortua est vita says St. Austin By the same wonderful dispensation that the way of life was weary health it self was wounded life it self died by the same dispensation the bread of life fasted and was afterwards an hungry A sanctified fast hath two religious ends in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul says 1. To chastise our own body and to take revenge upon it 2. To put it into a good temperature for the minds sake Neither of these causes could be set before Christ in this long fast for his Flesh had never rebelled against the Spirit neither was there any inordinateness in his natural constitution which could be corrected by temperance Some therefore hold an opinion that Christ went not into the Wilderness to fast that fell out so indeed and was a necessary accessory because there was no food to be had You know the people ran after Christ into these spacious fields to hear Christ preach and not to fast with him yet there they continued three days fasting and had nothing to eat until four thousands were fed miraculously with five loaves and two fishes In like manner Moses went not up into the Mount to fast but to receive the Tables and truly this opinion is not to be contemned for St. Mark remembers that he was in the Wilderness tempted of Satan and quite omits his fasting This is prest the more zealously by some and with sufficient probability to shew upon what weak foundation they build who fetch it from hence that Christ observed the fast of forty days on purpose to constitute a yearly Lent in the Church for ever or a Quadragesimal fast for if it were by accident that Christ fasted here that can be no constitution of his intendment Nor indeed did he appoint any such thing as I will shew in just time Yet I concur not in the main sentence with those Authors for it seems to me this was purposed by Christ to go into the Desart and spend his time in Prayer and Fasting Now was the conflict at hand now was the first institution and undertaking of the greatest matter in the world the salvation of mankind and could not begin with a better Praeludium than an extraordinary Fast In this I will be directed by the interlineal gloss Jejunat ut tentetur tentatur quia jejunat He did fast that he might provoke tentations against himself and he did provoke tentations because he fasted For the better explication of the causes why he was pleased to fast I will lay down the distinction of Christs will as I find it considered in the School three ways Sicut ratio est unibilis corpori sicut est omnino conformis Deitati ratione membrorum 1. The soul is united to the body and for that union sake the will desireth the good of the whole man 2. God and man were united in Christ into one person therefore his will was subject in all things to the divine Law and pleasure 3. He was the head of the body which is the Church and therefore his will did graciously affect the prosperity of his members In these three respects there are so many causes of moment why Jesus fasted 1. Because it is profitable to conserve the whole man against tentations 2. It was the divine pleasure to provoke the Devil to give the onset by macerating and enfeebling his body and Satans foil was the greater because he was the challenger 3. He had regard unto his members to avenge himself on the Tempter by the victory of temperance who brought sin into the world through our first Parents by the sin of Gluttony Other causes I leave behind for refutation First I say it gives us a lesson to fast and withdraw the ordinary sustenance from the body when we perceive our selves in likelihood to encounter some temptation King Jehosaphat had a great battle to fight with the Ammonites and before the conflict he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah 2 Chron. xx 3. So did Esther when she undertook the great danger to go in to Ahasuerus against the Law to intercede for the deliverance of the whole Nation of the Jews she would not venture upon so great a peril unless all the Jews would fast three whole days before the Lord and neither eat nor drink Est iv 16. What should I say more out of many examples Ezra suspecting what great opposition he should find to re-edifie the Temple of the Lord he proclaimed a Fast that all the People might afflict themselves before God Ezra viii 21. And St. Basil a great Practiser of this doctrine as any was in the world which is better than a Teacher bid all his Scholars take it upon his word that Sobriety was the best Antidote in the world to expel the venom of the Devil This holy Father was so good a spiritual Physician that the Church had not a better since his time I think to prescribe a good diet for the soul Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomack poor Lazarus went fasting to heaven scarce fraught with the crums of the rich mans Table Moses did fast upon Sinah for forty days when he talked with God But the People who in the mean time did commit Idolatry sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Daniel refused the meat and drink allowed him from the Kings Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to honour his temperance and fasting the very Lions into whose Den he was cast were taught to fast and hunger and not to eat up Daniel who was thrown before them to be a prey unto their teeth Thus far he If you ask me wherein we honour God in what part it
mitigate our pronity to evil nothing but death will quite stop and repress sin in us the wisdom of God providing that as sin brought death into the world so death should utterly abolish sin out of the world So death dissolves the works of the Devil but the Resurrection dissolves the works of death It is the last thing that the Saints desire of God to be cloathed again With that request being heard they leave wishing and the end of all desires must be the crown and top of all felicity Finally to bring it home to the Person of Christ whom God raised up much was our benefit by his Death but much more by his Resurrection For lay these two in comparison together to be eased of misery and to be brought into a state of joy and gladness Is not the addition of some good thing more thanks-worthy than the taking away of some evil Why thus it stands with those two blessings which our Saviour obtained for us they are the words of St. Austin I think Sicut humiliatus est moriendo ut nos liberaret à malis ita glorificatus est resurgendo ut nos promoveret ad bona As he was humbled unto death to deliver us from the evil of death so he was glorified by rising again that he might bring us to happiness and glory And of this great work of raising up enough at this once this being the tenth of these Easter Festivals wherein I have spoken upon the same Argument and occasion before you Yet I have a little to add before I leave this first Point touching the Agent and the Patient God was the Author of this great work and Christ in his own body returned again to life whom God raised up May not the Power and Majesty of Christ seem to suffer in this that St. Peter says God raised him up For our Saviour did often give the Jews to know that he would raise himself again from the dead on the third day Destroy this Temple and I will raise it up again in three days Joh. ii 19. And without any Parabolical speech Joh. x. 18. No man taketh my life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Why then doth not the Apostle clearly attribute unto him that he was the Author of his own Resurrection Because he spake of his Humane Nature first impotently obnoxious to Passion and then powerfully restored to life The Omnipotent vertue to revoke the soul into the body again was in the Divinity of Christ not in his Humane Nature Therefore Christ declareth in those words of St. John that it is not in the power of man to reserve the soul in the body when the pangs of death are upon it but for his own part though deadly wounds should be gashed in his body yet he had power through the union of his Godhead to stay his life and not to lay it down Likewise it is far from the ability of man to re-unite his Spirit to his Flesh when it is separated but the Divinity of our Saviour kept personal union with the body in the Grave and with the soul when it is flown away therefore he could bring them together again to remain in incorruption the ancient similitude was As a man that draws a Sword out of a Scabbard holds the Sword in one hand and the Scabbard in another So the Soul was unsheathed from the body but the Divine Nature held personal union with them both And as the Weapon is fit to be put into the Case that held it yet it cannot sheath it self without the hand of the Ownor thrust it in So the Soul of Christ was restored again to the body not by any vertue or activity in the humane soul but by the Power of God Christ was made like unto other men in all things sin only excepted and re-made or raised up like other men Si homo non vicisset inimicum hominis non justè victus esset says Irenaeus The Enemy of man was overcome by a man else he would have clamoured that he was overcome by Power and not by Justice Therefore St. Paul to let us know that Christ was left in death as man to be raised up says he As by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead Him God raised up him that man Christ Jesus that was crucified the self-same body let me touch upon that and then I will go on to new matter The Resurrection of our Lord is the Samplar of ours that very same material Flesh that died was revived again in him and so it shall be in us The impious Socinians the last and one of the worst and most pestilent Sects that ever was in the Church teach that we are not bound to believe it as an Article of Faith that we shall rise again in our own bodies Why then the same dead shall not rise again for if they want one essential part and the matter is one essential part of our composition it is not the same man Matter is the principle of individuation or numerical distinction say the Metaphysicks And the old Pythagoraeans could not deny in their Paradox of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if one mans soul came by many transmigrations into another mans body it was another man But leave we the help of humane reason though that be strong on our side and come to Divinity All the Ensamples or Preludiums of the Resurrection both in Old and New Testament were of such as had life restored to them in their own body the Shunamites Child the Widows Son Lazarus the Brother of Mary and Martha the Saints that came out of their Graves in the holy City and Christ himself that came out of the Sepulchre And let any equal Auditor judge if Job were not an Anti-Socinian Job xix 26. Though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall behold for my self and mine eyes shall see and not another And is it not equity that the righteous in the same body wherein they have worshipped God they shall be glorified that the wicked in the same body wherein they have lusted after evil things they shall be punished I will name no Fathers to Patronize this cause for all concur with one voice that as God raised up Christ so he will raise us up in our own bodies With the Resurrection of our Saviour which I have handled hitherto in the first part of my Text there is adjoyned in the next place the Complement of his Resurrection the full weight and excellency of it having loosed the pains of death Solutis doloribus inferni having loosed the pains of hell so the vulgar Latine and I will now go over the divers interpretations of both readings The first which is the reading of our Translation is the right and best therefore I will begin with that First St.
as when a bow-string is snapt in twain yet both parts of the strings do still remain in the nocks of the Bow So the body of our Saviour was holy and venerable because it retained the personal union of the Godhead and the Sepulcher where it was reposed deserved the attendance of an Angel Fourthly If not an Angel who else would be believed in so great a matter as this was Tell me who could give testimony beside that would be credited The Disciples were never so tardy to conceive never so unapprehensive in any thing else as in this They knew not as yet what the rising from the dead did mean Observe the talk of Cleophas and the other Disciple Luk. xxiv 21. And guess at all the company beside They confess Christ had been a Prophet mighty in word and deed whom Pilate and the Rulers had condemned to death and crucified but we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel As who should say being he is dead there is an end of our hope we look for no more redemption from him God loves to have better witnesses than these in all his works that we may not say he takes us unprepared we were not well wrought to credulity David said it in his haste what if he had said it upon premeditation All men are liars It was not fit so fundamental an Article of faith as this was should be preatcht at first time by lying lips nay rather by an Angel who was confirmed in grace that he would not lie And how little had the authority of any man swayed Mary Magdalen to believe when albeit an Angel had told her the truth how Christ was risen yet she distrusts and runs to Peter and John with a quite contrary tale that some body had taken away her Masters body and she knew not where they had laid it and therefore because an Angel could not put that faith into her Christ took it in hand and disclosed himself Fifthly An Angel appears at the mouth of the Grave after Christ came to life again who is the first fruits of our Resurrection which is in effect to promise that we shall be exalted after death to the society of Angels Thus a worthy Author observed it before me The finding of an Angel in the place of dead bodies is for a pledge that there is a possibility and hope that dead bodies may come into the place of Angels Why not the bodies in the Grave to be advanced in heaven one day as well as the Angels in heaven to be about the Grave this day And I pray you mark it with me There are many Apparitions of Angels recorded in holy Scripture yet this one time and no more if I be not mistaken an accurate description is made what manner of Robe and Garment they did seem to wear His countenance was like lightning and his rayment white as snow in the next verse to my Text. The Holy Ghost would never have instanced in the bright colour of the Garment but to shew with what Angelical shapes we shall be cloathed in the Resurrection 6. Lastly Angels desire to be present at every thing wherein mankind is benefited that they may rejoyce with us No envy no malignity in them that we shall be made perfect in both parts of nature both in body and soul and so in that respect exceed them who are only spiritual substances For they that rejoyce when one sinner is converted how much more do they rejoyce that all mankind shall be deliver'd from the Prisons of death and beautified with immortality they fought with the Devil about the Body of Moses they will strive with death and corruption about the restauration of our bodies For God will send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect from the four corners of the earth this is meant of their Ministry to rake up our bones and dust together at the great day of the Resurrection Surgente Christo terrenis redditur coeleste commercium now Angels came down in bodily shapes because Christ had exalted frail flesh unto incorruption now they talk familiarly to Gods servants as with the tongues of men because our tongues shall be made Psalteries of the divine praise for ever I have done with the Angels descent from heaven and now I come to the third motion which was particularly about our Saviours Sepulchre He came and rolled back the stone from the door When you hear that the door of our Saviours Sepulchre was a great stone and a stone rolled upon it you must not conceive the manner by such Tombs and Monuments as we have now adaies Neither will I refer you to those types and Medals which are printed now adaies and taken from the fashion of the Sepulchre which at this day is to be seen in the Holy City and is kept by certain Orders of Friars with great reverence For with what assurance can I say it is the same Sepulchre wherein our Saviour lay when Eusebius says that in the reign of Constantine the Emperor the place was nothing but a rude heap of earth so that there was no memory remaining of our Saviours Burial place But those of the learned that seem to me to speak probably say thus Jerusalem was seated upon a rocky place so that all their chief Monuments were digged out of stony Quarries Every Family of noble reputation as the learned Casaubon notes it out of the Rabbies had a Sepulchre proper to it self with a certain number of hollow places or excavations to receive the Corpses of that Family Some say there were wont to be thirteen in every Vault some say but eight In such a Vault belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea was Christ laid a rocky stony Moument it was lest some should say he was digg'd out by some secret Mine a new one wherein never any had been laid lest they should say not He but another body rose a Tomb not belonging to himself but to another man because he neither died nor was buried for himself but for us men and for our salvation St. Cyril helps us further to know that the Monuments of the Kings of Juda and Israel were raised a little above the ground but the Tombs of all others of that Nation who were under the Princely rank were hewn out seven cubits under ground Eusebius very directly says of his Tomb it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cave but none so pat as the Prophet Jeremy Lam. v. 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me An hollow descension into a low place is called a Dungeon And as we cover a Wells mouth with planks of wood or with lead so in sundry places of Scripture it appears that they rolled great stones upon the mouth of their Caves And surely Joseph of Arimathaea barr'd this Sepulchre with a stronger stone than ordinary that our Lords body might not be abused by the malice of his Enemies
minute or hour yet it was in a short space after for he tells them in his Message This day is born unto you in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. When God was to destroy a people he thought it fit to make it known unto Abraham shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do Gen. 18.17 much more when he was to save a people he would immediately reveal the thing in hand and loe the Angel of the Lord as who should say shall I hide from these religious careful Shepherds the thing which I have done for their salvation Let us compare in a word Christ manifested to the Shepherds to the Wisemen of the East to Simeon and Anna in the Temple to the Shepherds he was made known the same day that his Mother brought him forth to the Magi of the East as the most ancient do collect twelve days after upon the Feast of the Epiphany to Simeon and Anna forty days after he was born when Mary according to the Law came to the Temple to be Purified The Shepherds were Jews and he was made known incontinently to them prefiguring that the first-fruits of the Gospel should be preacht before them at Jerusalem the bread of life should first be broken to the Children before the dogs had the Crums which fell under the Table Those Easterlings that brought gifts to his Cradle of Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense they were Gentiles and the Apostles were sent to them in a little distance of time after the Feast of Pentecost when it was illustrious that all Tongues and Nations should praise the Lord in their own Language Yet again there shall be another Revelation of the Gospel to the Jews after forty days numerus certus pro incerto when the Gentiles have had their part Simeon and Anna shall enjoy them that is in the fulness of time and in an hour that we do not think of a remnant shall be collected God will gather together the out-casts of Israel and the dispersions of Sion Once it was ecce Angelus Gods Minister stood in the midst of them in this Text pointing the Messias with his finger who then was in the City of David now after much attendance after many an ecce many a long look the glory of Israel shall be revealed unto them So much for the time of this Apparition 3. Loe or behold an Angel soft a while and let us ask in the third circumstance quomodo how we should behold him a Spirit hath not flesh to be seen or bones to be felt in what fashion therefore did he alter himself surely it well deserves Ecce Angelus a note of Admiration for the manner was wonderful Beloved if the Eternal Son of God did not abhor the Virgins Womb those ministring Spirits whom he commands could not abhor the shapes of men they appeared every way in the same form and fashion wherein we walk upon earth Yet thus we distinguish them from our selves our bodies are begotten theirs were created our flesh propagated from the loins of Adam their substance made extraordinarily not according to nature but by the finger of God our soul quickens the flesh which it possesseth and makes it live their bodies which they assum'd had not vivification by the breath of life but only serv'd them for motion and representation our bodies have the instruments of outward senses to convey sensible things to the fancy and so to the understanding they had eyes and ears and other sensible organs non ut sentiant sed ut corpus perfecte representent says the great Schoolman not to exercise those senses but for an ornament and complement sake lest their bodies should seem monstrous and formidable to the beholders Finally their bodies after they had appear'd to discharge their embassage vanisht into elements never to return again into that composition but our bodies shall revive out of that dust into which they were dissolv'd and live for ever in the resurrection of the righteous Some have so commented upon the Apparitions of Angels in holy Scripture as if they had not truly taken humane shapes the better to communicate their business to men but God deluded mens eyes and bred this thought in their fancy as if they had seen that which was not visible I confess there are prophetical Visions in holy Text when the fancy of certain Prophets was perswaded it saw that which it did not see it was a Divine passion which made Ezechiel think he saw beasts with wings and wheels under their feet chap. 1. It was a mere Divine passion which made Daniel suppose he saw the powerful ram push down all other beasts with his horn on the banks of Vlai Dan. 8. These objects were conceived by none but by them single Prophets no other eye could be partaker of it Now on the contrary that 's no prophetical Apparition but a real object which is equally visible to all spectators therefore the Apparition of Angels was not imaginary but substantial for loe the Angel of the Lord was seen of all the Shepherds and the Angels which Lot entertained were conspicuous not to Lot only who was a just man but equally to all the vicious Sodomites And so much for the fashion wherein he did appear not as a spirit but in the shape of a man and therefore Ecce Angelus loe an Angel of the Lord. 4. The next doubtful question is Quo situ after what manner the Angel took his place when he came unto them the Grammarians are at odds what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should mean whether he hover'd above their heads in the air or stood in the same level near unto them Beda prevented this quarrel and accepts of both interpretations Sunt juxta nos per amorem supra nos per authoritatem they stand near unto us by their love and they stand above us by their authority Surely if Christ had not been born to reconcile us to his Father we had not been worth the coming near we had been no company for those holy Seraphins but since he vouchsafed to take flesh and blood the nature of man came into respect and reverence the enemy shall not approach to hurt it but those auxiliary troops of heaven pitch their pavilions round about it supra juxta planting themselves as a fortress for our head and as a buckler for our arm And indeed those are the chief things that need good influence and assistance knowledge and action head and hand Some are secret inventors of mischief plotters and contrivers of disturbance their brain is a mint of oppression where is Angelus superveniens the Angel above Some know their Masters will but they do not do it nay quite contrary fear or favour wrings ill effects from them where is Angelus astans they want a good Angel at their elbow Where is Michael the great Prince Qui stat pro filiis populi tui which standeth for the children of thy people Dan. 12.1 But whether
that heavenly Host who were the first that preacht the Gospel to the Shepherds I take my self off from this discourse in which I might amply proceed lest you say unto me as one said of Hortensius that he advanc'd Eloquence to the skies craftily meaning that himself might be advanc'd as an Eloquent Orator in the commendation If we glory we will glory in our infirmities and in the Cross of Christ not presuming upon that amplification of analogy with Angels I will lay the scene of my reproof beyond the Seas but I would we were quit of the fault at home How many exalted Prelates refuse to do that office to teach Christ especially to poor Shepherds although a Cherubim of Heaven in my Text did willingly submit himself to do the work It troubled the Historiographers among our Adversaries to find out one Pope in almost 100 years that was a pulpit man when he became a Pope that was Pius V and he but rarely I may say of such men as Pliny did of those Emperours who made great suit to be Consuls and then disdain'd to discharge the Function O inscitia verae majestatis concupiscere honorem quem dedigneris dedignari quem concupieris O ignorance of duty to affect that honour which they scorn'd to execute to scorn to execute that honour which they earnestly affected Is an Angel no more than fit to preach Christ and is proud man too good for it 6. The fancies of men have assaye'd to add this for a sixth reason to the former that the noble Hierarchies of Heaven do merit some increase and addition of glory by their care and obsequiousness toward the universal body of the Church of Christ but the matter was better scann'd by Biel who therefore refutes that sentence of Lombard Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus Angelus non habuisset summam suam beatitudinem Then it would follow that the Eternal Felicity of the Thrones of Heaven did depend upon the creation of man for except there had been a Church here below to which they might administer they had wanted occasion to demerit some increase of their glory Indeed it is an opinion that savours of servility and baseness as if they that stand always before the face of God would do nothing but upon gain and advantage Alas they have no other end of their labour but that which every man should have in charity the increase and enlargement of the Triumphant Church in Heaven and therefore our Saviour Luke 12.9 threatens Apostates from the Faith thus He that denieth me before men him will I deny before the Angels of God that is before the greatest friends and well-wishers of our beatitude Lastly It is an observation not to be omitted how St. Austin compares three several ways wherein Christ was manifested to the Shepherds by an Angel to the Wise men by a Star to Simeon and Anna devout people that spent their age in the Temple by the Holy Ghost Simeon and Anna were exceeding faithful such as waited and expected every day the salvation of Israel and therefore the Holy Ghost told them secretly in their hearts as soon as the Babe was brought into the Temple that this was the Lamb of God which should take away the sins of the world The Shepherds I presume were just men but had not so much perfection in the knowledge of the Law to look for and expect a Saviour therefore an extraordinary Nuntio an Angel was sent unto them but the Gentiles utter aliens from the Faith were directed to the Manger by signs and wonders from heaven So says St. Paul 1 Cor. 14.22 Signs are for them that believe not and Prophesies for them that believe And as the axiom is in Philosophy every thing is best collated when it is fitted ad modum recipientis Now the Shepherds were Jews and were taught in the Synagogues concerning the Apparition of Angels the Magi were Astronomers and better knew the course of Stars The book of the Creature was sit to teach the Gentiles but a Divine Spirit was better accommodate to teach a Jew that they might receive the Gospel even as they had received the Law and the Law was delivered says St. Paul by the ministration of Angels And so much for the first general part all the five questions being satisfied which of the Angels this was when he came in what figure and apparition how he did apply himself to the Shepherds and lastly why men were not accepted to do this office but loe an Angel of the Lord. The order which I propounded requires now that I speak of the pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the glory of the Lord shone round about them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the glory of the Lord fitly rendred in this place by the vulgar Latin Claritas Domini a lightsome brightness or splendor which God caus'd to shine in that place making the night unto the Shepherds as clear as if it had been day So when a lightsome pure cloud did appear in the Dedication of Solomons Temple the Text says 1 Kings 8.11 The glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord therefore it was not properly that essential glory of God unto which no man in this life can approach but lux ante gloriam the consolation of a beautiful light which was the shadow and the fore-runner of Glory But it were a great trespass in Art to run into obscurity and confusion when we are to speak of light 1. Therefore I will endeavour to shew how many ways such brightsome apparitions are observable in holy Scripture 2. Why this illustrious Glory did shine round about the Shepherds When God would beautifie and adorn a thing in some excellent manner I find that in a four-fold fashion he scatters and transfuses the beams of light and splendor either upon it or about it 1. Let us reflect our remembrance upon our Saviours Transfiguration his face did shine as the Sun and his rayment was white as the light as white as snow says St. Mark so that no Fuller on earth could make a thing so white Now we know that Christ was not as yet glorified his body had not yet put on incorruption therefore Eluxit splendor à Divinitate it was the pleasure of his Divinity at this instant to alter his countenance and his garment and from the union of his Divine nature this glory did redound upon the outward parts 2. In the Resurrection when our flesh shall become an inhabitant of the heavens not only the face but all the body of man shall look in a triumphant manner like a pillar of light which unspeakable beauty shall result from the soul to the blessing and ornament of the body So I read Dan. 12.3 They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever 3. This claritude and heavenly
into mourning and never suffer you to see a joyful day more Take heed you use not your liberty for a cloke of licenciousness Take heed of mid-night revels The Shepherds were not dancing but keeping watch over their flocks The Poet Virgil hath billited the sinful joys of the world mala mentis gaudia with Famine and Poverty and the very Haggs of Hell and indeed a vicious pleasure is a devillish thing for lawful and moderate pleasure is the preservative of nature filthy and corrupt pleasure destroys the glory of our nature I mean the soul And so much for this point that the coming of Christ doth inhibit all extravagant voluptuousness but for spiritual and bodily pleasure which is lawful the Angel brought tidings of joy of great joy which shall be to all people Now I must speak of the two supporters of this joy 1. That it is great for the size 2. That it is of long continuance for the measure gaudium quod erit joy that shall be unto you Great joy says the Angel he pass'd it over without a word of comparison lest he should seem to the Shepherds to have boasted but yet he meant there was no joy like to this to attain to such felicity as to have a Saviour born Other things may make us glad this is only a vehement and intensive exultation Let a carnal man pamper his skin with gluttony satiate the desires of the flesh with filthy fornication decline all industrious labour in pleasurable idleness let him have all things wherein fortune can favour a sensual Epicure Suppose that neither War nor Famine nor Death nor Dishonour nor Poverty eclipse his content yet for all this there is a Melancholy Fiend of Hell that upon sundry frivolous occasions will fret his heart and break his sleep and make his passions jar within themselves and he hath no firm and stable argument to perswade his soul to get out of this heaviness But if any discontent creep upon him that hath set up a stedfast Faith as a pillar in his heart and hath engraven these words upon it Jesus is my Redeemer this supports the soul that it shall not be cast down but it recovers it self from all pensiveness even as David chid all anguish from his heart Why art thou so sad O my soul and why art thou so disquiet within me still trust in God for he is the help of my countenance and my God Vna est ratio vincendi inimicum laetitia spiritualis This spiritual gladness and festivity is the principal assistance to vanquish Satan and all desperate doubts with which he would perplex our conscience it is a royal joy which comforts us that we shall be heirs of a glorious Kingdom it is a sanctified joy which gives us promise that we shall not only be Kings but Priests for ever to offer up the sweet odors of our prayers to God it is a superlative joy which cries down all other petty delights and makes them appear as nothing it is endless joy of durance and lasting for ever and ever for my Text says it is Gaudium quod erit joy that shall be unto you All the joy upon earth is gaudium quod est now it is and anon it is not joy for a spirt and away Eccles vii 8. as the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of a fool Like a gol-sheave all of a flame and out again suddenly The end of mirth that is of worldly mirth is heaviness Prov. xiv 13. Times of feasting have a period every man is glutted at last he that hath his fill of sport is weary by the late of night and glad to take his rest But the joy that you have in Christ is with you all the year in all your sorrows in all your adversities it sleeps with you it grows old with you it will change this life with you and follow you into a better And my joy shall no man take from you says our Saviour John xvi 22. Christmas joy was not only for the first twelve days when the Son of God was born but for all the twelve months of twelve hundred years and many hundreds after them unto the worlds end So St. Peter doth solace us 1 Pet. i. 8. Though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Eccles xi 9. Mark I pray you how much line this Syren world gives a voluptuous man to play with Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thine heart chear thee and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but when the hook is in his jaws observe how it is twicht and snatcht up at last Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgment So that let the wicked speed never so well in his frolicks and jocundities he returns home as Theseus did with black sails of sorrow as if he had never made a saving voyage All their laughter is like the joy of Herod's Birth-day dancing and revels and offering of great gifts last for a while but before evening you shall see an alteration and when their surfeited Tables are removed away the last service in the platter is the Head of John the Baptist But the mirth which we have in the Mediator of our salvation is a song which hath no rest in it nor ever shall have a close We begin the first part here that we may sing the other part in Psalms and Hallelujahs with the Saints for ever As Christmas is celebrated part of the new year and part of the old so it is joy that is in this life and shall be in the life to come Our last peroration upon the Text is to meditate upon the persons to whom these glad tidings and great joy are directed Vobis omni populo to you and to all people And personally to those Shepherds the joy was great I do not question it for the Angel did not light upon them casually as if he took the first he met chance and fortune are words made by our ignorance things of no being in the providence of God but certainly they were pickt out rather than any others because they were men of just and holy conversation fit to receive glad tidings from Heaven they were of an humble and a lowly spirit not of a proud and stiff opinion that would dispute against the Scriptures which said Jesus was the Christ like the Scribes and Pharisees they were useful men to the Commonwealth in which they liv'd painful in their vocation and watching over their flocks by night Out of all these premises we may collect that God had a respect to them in particular unto such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven the good tidings fell upon their head They did apply the benefit of Faith to themselves and that Saviour which was born was their Redeemer And vobis Judaeis to you Jews the Text will bear that I am sure
special priviledge not by common publication that which was a secret among some few is now vulgar to all God hath disclosed his hidden treasures to us as unto friends He was their Lord so he is ours but he is also our Father They were his servants and so are we but the interest we have in Christ that hath taken our nature upon him hath made us more than servants and exalted us to be his friends Hitherto I have held your attentions to the Supplicant now the Petition of his soul comes in order that he may depart The Servant had a burden that opprest him a frail and a corruptible body and he desires the Lord to ease him of it and to take it from him For so St. Ambrose and the Syrian Paraphrast read the word optatively Dimitte O take me away from hence and let me depart And they that say it is dimittis for dimittes the Present Tense for the Future bring it up to the same sense Lord thou wilt now let thy servant depart so Origen and St. Cyprian read it for the Hebrews use to make their Petitions in the future time as thou shalt hear my prayer in an acceptable time which is a fit form of words to ask in faith and not to waver as St. James says but the word here is Metaphorical in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you would say in the native term Lord now lettest thou thy servant be unloosed as horses are taken from the Plough and set up to rest when they have drawn till Evening and are weary or to signifie says St. Ambrose that necessity compelled him to stay here Ideo dimitti poscit quasi à vinculis quibusdam ad libertatem festinaret therefore he desires to be let loose as if he had been enthraled like some Captive and now would shake off his bonds and attain his liberty This earth is not our Country therefore though we have an inbred desire to have the union of the body and soul maintained yet our willingness inclines to be uncloathed of the body rather than not go from hence when we are full of days Quis peregre constitutus non prepararet in patriam regredi says St. Cyprian that man were unnatural that affected to be a stranger and had rather travel always than settle himself at home in peace revolve in your memory the words of just men in holy Scripture and you shall find that this is common to them all to mourn and sigh because their pilgrimage was prolonged Wo is me that I am constrained to live with Mesech says David Who shall deliver me from the body of this death Says St. Paul It is enough Lord take away my life I am not better than my Fathers says Elias While the body was a Palace the soul was content to stay in it now it is become a filthy prison no wonder if it desires to be gone Let not Simeons Nunc dimittis nor this Doctrine be mistaken every mans willingness to leave this world and to die is not commended from hence but when it is joyned with patience and good internal motives especially when we find an aptness and good preparation in our selves that when we go from hence we shall be joyned to the Lord. There is no worse sign in some that God is departed from them than when they are sullen and froward with their life and care not which way they break violently out of the world so they may depart Seneca could say Mori velle non tantum fortis patiens set etiam fastidiosus potest that is not only stout men are resolved to die and such as are fortified against fear but the discontented that cannot bear his cross had rather lose himself than his peevishness good and bad upon several reasons are contented both to die and to live Sunt homines qui cum patientiâ moriuntur sunt autem quidam perfecti qui cum patientiâ vivunt says St. Austin There are some holy men that exercise their patience to be content to die there are some perfect men that exercise their patience to be content to live therefore the motives that induced Simeon to this must be sifted to make him an inoffensive nay a profitable example Salmeron the Jesuit follows a most capricious invention that this reverend Sire importuned God to put a period to his days as soon as Christ was born that he might be the first Nuncio to the Fathers that were in limbo and certifie them that the Messias was come into the world who would exalt them from that lowly condition in which they were held and conduct their souls into the Kingdom of heaven This is so extravagant that I give it you to note the man and the far-fetcht way of their expositions The true reason is that this cygnea cantio this farewel Song of his hath taught us that there is no terror in going to the Grave no sting in death since God appeared before us and became man to deliver our souls from the nethermost hell and to make our bodies like to his own most glorious body They that know not what their condition may be in the next world must needs think of death with an heavie heart and sigh and wring their hands when they feel it approaching He that could see Christ no otherwise than through the dark mists of the Law did count it somewhat an irksom thing to go out of the land of the living it was a good King of Judah that chattered like a Swallow when Isaiah told him he should live no longer But it is incredible to humane reason how it encourageth a faithful man to meet his death with chearfulness because though not in our own bodies yet in the Apostles and others we have seen we have heard and our hands have handled the word of life and that we know there is plentious redemption for us in Christ our Saviour Simeon knew the instant of his dissolution was at hand and yet he sang away the remainder of his life with joy as who should say Egredere ô anima fly away my soul fly away like a dove and take thy rest for now I see that the promises of grace and mercy are true here is Christ thy Saviour in thy hands thine eyes do see thine arms do support thy Salvation though thou departest thou shalt not go from him for he is man on earth to comfort thee and God in heaven to glorifie thee This is it which did animate Simeon to say Lord let me depart and therefore as the Patriarches in the time of the Law desired length of days upon earth that they might live to see the Messias so let us desire a joyful departure to be with him for evermore I proceed the time which he sets for the accomplishment of his Petition is presently or at that instant Now Lord now let c. Nunc ante hâc non item As who should say if I had been summoned to leave
the word of men though they call themselves the Church for the children of men are deceitful upon the weights they are altogether lighter than vanity it self To draw this Doctrine streight and even upon the Text 1. Many will alledge Simeons example and say they could willingly die if they might see this or that come to pass Pray observe that such as these seldom or never see their desire come to pass because they fabricate vain hopes to themselves without the word of the Lord. 2. When that which they long'd for doth come to pass they are content to redeem it with any Physick or cost that they may not die for all their bragging like the woman in the Fable that was miserably poor and gathering sticks for her fire and herbs for her sustenance being vexed with extreme want she bursts out into this frowardness O that death would come to me Says the Fable death did come to her to know what she would have Help me up with my bundle of sticks says she I have nothing else to say to you But this is the sum of this point all our petitions are but avaritious craving or unchristian presumption unless we say Lord let it be according to thy word And now I shall end my Sermon in that point wherein Simeon desired to end his life it is the reason upon which he stood why he would depart because he had seen that which his soul waited for before it flitted away For mine eyes have seen thy salvation which is to this effect the Redeemer is come let my fetters therefore be broken off my joy is excessive and superlative this frail flesh cannot contain it The new Wine is poured in O let the old bottles break Thou hast granted me more than ever thou didst grant to any Prophet upon earth therefore exalt me to thy Saints in heaven For all the Prophets could get no more than this answer that a Virgin should conceive Immanuel that is God with us should be born and their posterity should not fail to behold him in after ages but says St. Paul all these died in Faith not having received the promises themselves but having seen them afar off Heb. xi 13. Now this Patriarch did far exceed all the Prophets that he saw the Messias with his own eyes and none other And mark the Pleonasmus not contented to have said I have seen thy salvation He doth denote the assurance of the act that he was not deceived hisce oculis vidi I have seen him with mine eyes it is the very Jesus that shall save the world I cannot be deluded as Vlysses speaks to Circe in Homer that she should re-transform his associates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinguishing true sight from phantastical Nicephorus a most corrupt Historian hath a tale by himself that Simeon was so far stricken in years that he had been long blind and as soon as ever this heavenly babe was brought near unto him he recovered his sight and therefore he magnifies God that his eyes were restored to see the object of all objects the blessed Child Incarnate and is it likely that St. Luke would have concealed such a miracle if it had been true and would God have let us receive it from so corrupt an hand as Nicephorus The Scripture says ver 27. of this Chapter He came by the Spirit into the Temple not that he was led like a blind man There are some conjectures that rove at random likewise by what means he should discern such Divine glory in our Saviour Admit there were other Infants presented in the Temple at the same time how did he perceive that this was the Son of the most high rather than any of the rest I find one Author shoot his bolt that a celestial splendor came down from Heaven and shone round about the Child I find another Author more superstitious than this that the Blessed Virgin was compast about with a cloud of glorious light in the place where she stood and so that honour should terminate it self upon her and not upon Christ This is to trifle in a most serious matter for certainly the suggestion of the Holy Ghost within him was enough to direct him without any external cognizance and therefore Nyssen says well Blessed were the eyes both of his soul and body his bodily eyes did see the happiest sight in heaven and earth but the eyes of his soul did respect that which is invisible His bodily eyes did see God made of a woman an object more beautiful and estimable then even Paradise it self when Adam saw it at the best Nay more beautiful than the whole Revelation which S. John saw in heaven excepting Christ himself whom he saw upon his throne Abraham would have given his portion in the promised land to have seen him David his Kingdom Solomon his revenews of Ophir and therefore no wonder if Simeon triumph in it that the eyes of his body had seen him But what the eyes of his soul did pierce into is magnum auctarium an huge addition They did see his salvation and salvation cannot be comprehended but by a lively and an effectual Faith They did see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cornu salutis as old Zachary calls it in whom God had reposed all the stock and treasure of salvation But why thy salvation and not rather ours had it not been more proper to say mine eyes have seen mine or our salvation There is no difference in effect one saying is as proper as the other salutare tuum for he is the Son of God the gift of God to us the holy One conceived by the Holy Ghost and in those notions Gods salvation as David says the Lord hath made known his salvation Psal xcviii 2. Again salutare nostrum for he came to redeem us and to give himself a ransom for us and so he is our salvation As if Simeon had said this is he after whom Jacobs heart panted Gen. xlix 18. I have waited for thy salvation O Lord. This is he of whom Isaiah foretold All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God chap. lii 10. He comes with much impotency and weakness to be presented in the Temple and to be redeemed after the custom of the Law with five shekels of silver but he will redeem us both from the bondage of the Law and from the bondage of sin with the five wounds of his body If such salvation as this were only to be glanced upon perfunctorily this sage Israelite would have been contented to have seen him and rested there but forasmuch as we must incorporate our Saviour in our souls and endeavour that there be a real union 'twixt Christ and us therefore in the verse before my Text Simeon took up our Saviour into his arms and St. John makes that a great mystery of his own and his brethrens happiness that their hands had handled the word of life Quod Simeon ulnis gestavit nos fide
unto the worlds end The Schoolmen collect a threefold opening of the heaven in holy Scripture and every way through the power and act of Christ Says Ales In baptismo aperta est coeli janua per figuram in passione per meritum in ascensione per effectum 1. The gates of heaven were opened at this Baptism as in a Type or Figure that they should be opened and God will certainly make good whatsoever he did but shadow in a Figure 2. They were opened at the shedding of his bloud upon the Cross as by those means which did meritoriously procure the opening Therefore we sing in the Te Deum When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers 3. They were opened effectually when his own glorious body entred in once into the most Holy of Holies when the heads of the everlasting doors were lifted up at the day of his Ascension And where the head doth sit at the right hand of God the Members of the body having their sins washed clean away shall reign also The Earth never opened in holy Scripture but upon some Curse for the destruction of man The Heavens never opened but that some mighty Blessing might distil down upon us the probatum whereof is in the second general part of my Text for the first Miracle which we have handled did but make way unto the second And after the heavens were opened he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him That John Baptist had this Miracle so clearly in his eye that he saw the Spirit of God I find it not so material to the business of the Text as to insist much upon it For although some observe upon it that the first Witness that preach'd of the Son of God is conceited to be the first Witness that saw the Holy Ghost yet the Miracle hapned not so much for Johns sake as to lead the whole multitude into a right apprehension that Jesus was that holy One which came into the world for the redemption of Israel John was born of a barren woman his Garments very strange and uncouth no better than the skins of Camels clapt about him as they were flay'd from the beast his austerity of life stupendious his Preaching powerful high in estimation so that all the Regions round about came to him to be baptized this drew them to conceit that none could come into the world to be compared with John But Columba columbam docuit the Dove taught the Dove the Spirit taught the Church who was the Christ the Saviour of mankind by the descending of the Dove That which I will speak to this Point briefly shall be brancht out into a threefold inquiry 1. Whether this were a living bird or no more than the figurative Apparition of a Dove 2. How aptly the Spirit came in one figure upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles 3. That the figure of a Dove doth sweetly admonish us of the properties of the Holy Ghost What manner of Dove this was is not a question of such doubtful resolution as the former how the heavens were opened for treading in the path of the Scripture as I adjudge it we may find the truth For three Evangelists say that the Spirit did sit upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were a Dove then add St. Luke unto it that the Dove came in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a bodily shape and these put together me seems do strongly prove two things 1. That it was not viva columba a Pigeon out of the Dove-Coats with a living soul for to notifie that there was but the outward fashion and resemblance of such a bird in three Gospels we read it was but quasi columba like a Dove And yet that you may not take it to be mere Phenomenon a shadow to perswade the eye having no substance in truth St. Luke hath not omitted that it was a bodily shape Verae effigies columbae a body created for this service having the true lineaments of a Dove To make both these opinions good by several illustrations And first what need it to be of the true Species of Doves Was not miraculous Omnipotency as much seen to frame such a shape out of the Elements at an instant and to put motion in it to descend upon the head of Christ as if it had been a very foul It was a work which could not be effected but by the infinite and incomprehensible Trinity For the Dove was a representation of the Holy Ghost the voice which came from heaven did speak the Father only the humane nature was united only to the Person of the Son but the Dove the voice the humane nature were the works of the whole Trinity which coequally works all effects in the world You may fully conceive what natural composition this Dove had by those bodily shapes wherein the Angels or God appeared of old to the Patriarchs they were not actuated by a soul but moved about by God or his Angels for the present turn as a Ship is by the Pilot. When their Errand was dispatcht the body vanisht away into air So the use of this Miracle being accomplished at Jordan the Dove was no more seen but instantly resolved into Elements Besides that which came down upon the Disciples at Whitsontide was a cloven tongue like as of fire did ever any man say it was fire indeed So this Apparition upon the head of Christ was like a Dove But for what purpose or necessity should it be a Dove indeed For Christ was man indeed because he took upon him the nature of man to redeem it therefore the reason is forcible that the Holy Ghost should not come down in a Dove indeed because he took not upon him the nature of a Dove to redeem it Secondly I gathered from St. Luke though it had not the life of a Dove yet it had lineaments and compacture of true substance like a Dove Christ came among us bodily in the flesh wherefore says St. Austin to shew that the assumption of a corporeal nature did not make an inequality of persons in the Godhead a voice was heard from heaven in the Person of the Father as if it had proceeded from the instruments of the body and a bodily Dove did descend from heaven in the Person as it were of the Holy Ghost Likewise the coming down is the motion of a body The Spirit is every where and cannot descend to any place which was not filled with his presence from the beginning of the world but in hôc signo in this bodily shape and effigie he came down And mark Beloved the Devil is Spiritus cadens I saw Satan fall like lightning down he tumbles to the nethermost Pit and all that follow him but the Holy Ghost descends like an humble Spirit according as our Saviour bids us place our selves at
to consider upon these words and as I begin at Satans demand so I make two branches of it the Motion and the Mover The Motion is tumbling headlong to be cast down and the Mover must be himself Cast thy self down To the handling and use of these are required your ear my utterance and Gods grace to both I begin with the Motion and if the meaning of him that counselled it had been well carried it were a motion easily perswaded to him that is of an humble spirit a good man is ever ready to be directed to go and sit down in the lowest room and to be abased to the very center of humility When the heart is in good awe of God the joynts will bend unto the earth O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker This we are sure is far from Satans purpose and can be no construction of his words Optat omnes cadere qui se sentit prae omnibus cecidisse says St. Austin He would have all men fall in that sort as himself hath done with aspiring and presumption that they might never rise again The Beast in the Fable which had lost his tail made an Oration before all the Beasts of the Wood what a comly thing it was to want a tail and very useful and so concluded that they would all cut off theirs but the Fox made answer You intend not to make us decent like your self but to have us all as deformed After the same manner the Devil Preacheth unto Christ to descend from the top of the Pinacle to the bottom not to set him in the posture of an humble man but to make him arrogant like Lucifer for such a violent precipitation says he can do no hurt at all to such a one as you are a most holy one that are called the Son of God I will use Bonaventure's saying upon it Satan did interlace lofty pride with this lowly seeming motion Vt descendendo corporaeliter faceret cum superbire spiritualiter ut simul esset ascensus vanus descensus verus That he might fall down bodily and be proud spiritually and so he thrust together a frivolous presumption and a dangerous descension How much is humility abused when Pride will wear the colours of that good vertue to deceive the world There was grose ambition in Absalons stooping to steal the hearts of the people The Scribes and Pharisees would dop to the ground when they greeted their friends in the Market place The same Bishop that hath more Princely Augustious titles ascribed unto him then would fill up a Sermon by themselves subscribes himself very often Servus servorum Christ the servant of the servants of Christ As a Kite will sweep the earth with his wings that he may truss the Prey in his Talons and fly aloft to devour it So all the crouches and submissions which an ambitious man makes are to get somewhat which he seeks for and to clamber to promotion This is observed because Satan impels Christ to cast himself down not for true humility sake but upon vain glory to flutter in the Air that all Jerusalem might take notice how precious he was to the care and custody of all the Angels In the next place convert your thoughts to this see what kind of Miracles they are which the Devil delights in the working of Miracles is reduced to Gods Omnipotent Prerogative beyond the ordinary Law of Nature And Christ did often put it in act to save to revive to comfort the body to convert the soul Nay but these are no part of the Devils asking neither cure the sick nor give eyes to the blind nor raise the dead nor help up Eutiches again as Paul did when he fell from the upper window of the house to the ground none of these good offices of mercy doth he require but mitte te deorsum if you be the Son of God tumble down and confound your self Non signa humano generi salutaria sed perniciosa requirit says Bernard Do some pernicious Miracle and then you please him Beware of those men whose wit whose counsels whose directions tend to nothing but to some mens ruine and destruction Hic niger est hunc tu Romane caveto you see who is their Leader and whose steps they follow The Heathen could say how that Orator must needs have much malice in his complexion who was a better Accuser than a Defender that could sooner find a hole in his Adversaries cause than help his own Client so it is Satanissimum let me use a new word in this case he is a very Satanist upon whom that description of David lights Destruction and unhappiness is in their counsels and the way of peace they have not known The Magicians of Pharaoh could bring forth Frogs upon all the Land of Egypt as well as Aaron when he stretcht forth his rod but the Magicians with all their Inchantments could not rid the Land of those Frogs as Aaron did when he cried unto the Lord. Inchanters are permitted to work strange mischiefs but the Lord hath reserved it to himself to work strange mercies Ahitophel was exceeding wise no doubt accounted the Oracle of his age yet we know no instance of his wit in all the Scripture wherein he had his hand but in most turbulent and seditious propositions The Devil made use of his craft to serve his own turn but a wit that is sanctified with Gods grace know it by this character it had rather make than mar advance than pull down preserve than destroy reconcile than put at enmity When the voice from heaven spake to Peter as he was in a trance Arise Peter kill and eat the meaning was he should eat of such things as the Gentiles did which were prohibited before communicate with the Gentiles convert the Gentiles Now do you think that Cardinals mouth was not full of gall that made this Exposition of the Miracle Arise Bishop of Rome wage war with the Venetians and kill them because they will not obey yout Interdict Certainly this mans breath was like the strong East Wind that brought most of the grievous Plagues of the Land of Egypt I do not like such Prophets though Micaiah was wrongfully reputed such a one by Ahab that never prophesie good but evil nor such Disciples as would shew their authority by calling down fire from heaven nor such unlucky spirits that are like the malignant Planets which produce nothing but maleficous effects When Songs were sung in every Street of Greece that Philip had eraced the fair City of Olynthus O but when will he build up such a City Says a silly woman and then I would sing too An ill turn is quickly watcht for beside the venomous inclination of our own nature to do hurt You shall have the Devil to boot to help it on he counsels like an enemy no miracle which brings good with it to mankind but destruction Mitte te deorsum Cast
quâ tanta sit fides ut speret omnia tanta devotio ut Deum videatur cogere let it be strong in faith to hope all things strong in patience to persist at all times and I know not what it is not able to effect to cast mountains into the sea says Christ to be transfigured says my Text into the glory of God to bring Peter out of Prison when Herod had locked him up within a brazen Gate yet then at the dead hour of the night did the Angel bring him forth and at the same time of midnight Peter found the Church at prayer for his deliverance Acts xii 5. Well I pray you remember that when our Saviour went up into the Mountain as well to be transfigured as to pray yet the Text names this only that he went up into the mountain to pray that name stands in chief and drowns the mention of the other business as if Prayer were a greater work than that resplendent Transfiguration And what needed he to pray but to bring us upon our knees humbly and frequently before his Father and our Father As Solomons Temple had three especial Ornaments the Golden Candlestick the Table of Shewbread and the Altar of Incense so three things of principal use do correspond to these in the Church of Christ the Word Preached which doth enlighten our darkness is the Golden Candlestick which is dearer says David than much fine gold Instead of the Table of Shew-bread we have the Communion of Christs Body and Blood the Table of the Lord. And instead of the Altar of Incense we have that which is much sweeter in Gods nostrils the Incense of Prayer Now abide these three to direct us in a good way says Bernard Verbum Exemplum Oratio the Word Preached the Edifying Examples of Holy men and Zealous Prayer but the greatest of these is Prayer Ea namque operi voci gratiam efficaciam promeretur for whether they be the actions of a pious life or the words of an eloquent tongue it is Prayer which accompasseth from Gods mercy that all should be effectual I have amplified this the more because some Ignaroes out of a preposterous zeal shuffle off this Christian duty with a most wicked and a regardless negligence if any man be transfigured from such a corrupt opinion by that which I have deliver'd it is that which I aimed at and which I desire of God yea it is that which our Saviour intended when he would be occupied in Prayer at that time and in nothing else when he was transfigured in glory Now in the fourth and last general Observation upon the Text as our Lord prepared himself with much humility in Prayer so in the consequent he was exalted in much honor the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering Beloved we are all like the Children of Israel standing below the Hill and dare not go up to pry in to the mystery of the inscrutable glory Let it suffice us to enquire into three things that follow which we may safely do since all Scripture is written for our instruction They are these 1. The Final Cause why Christ was transfigured 2. The Efficient Cause from whence this splendour was derived And 3. The Effect it self alteration in his countenance whiteness and glistering in his raiment In these three I will be brief without offensive curiosity to make us not only search but find out the cause why He would be transfigured I have regard to this rule of Damascens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing that Christ did in his conversation upon earth it is to be referr'd to the good of man First then I render this reason that the Redeemer of Souls lived in great humility upon earth nay like an abject worm to attract the love of the Church now he chang'd himself into this admired excellency to encrease their faith St. Peter pronounced a Confession of faith for all the Apostles Matth. xvi which their Master did exceedingly commend Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Yet they who did see the Majesty of God to be in him and did adore it were as yet ignorant of what glorification his body was capable which was the Veil of the Godhead He had suspended all outward appearance of Divine lustre that it should not shew it self in him To this meaning you cannot well choose but refer that of the Prophet Isaias chap liii 2. He hath no form nor comliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him that is he was pleased for a season not to look like one whose body had an illustrious influence from the soul and from the union with the Godhead he did suppress it till he was pleased to make it known Psal xciii The Lord is King he hath put on glorious apparel and in another place Thou art cloathed with Majesty and honour Indeed to have a brightness in his body as great or greater than the light of the Sun was as natural to that humane nature which is united to the Godhead as it is for the Sun to shine in the Firmament The Disciples marvailed that his face should glister this one time so that no Fuller on earth could make a thing so white whereas the greater marvel is that it was not so at all times Majus miraculum fuit hujus gloriae influxum reprimere quà m eam perpetuò retinere It was a greater miracle to restrain the apparition of this glory at any time than to have it alwayes dwel upon his face for blessed souls which enjoy God always have a virtue of claritude in them which redounds of it own accord into the body Therefore well might the Psalmist say of Christ whose soul was always blessed Thou art fairer than the children of men And though at other times his brightness was discoloured by humility yet now he removed the cloud and let his Witnesses see the fair beams of his Divine honor for a little time which is the first motive of his Transfiguration Secondly by this Apparition the three Disciples saw in what form he would come to judgment It is no dreadful thing to a good man either to see or to meditate with himself in what manner Christ will come in the Clouds at the last day to call the Quick and the Dead before him The Wicked that know they have crucified him again and trampled the blood of the Covenant under their feet will run into the dust for fear of his glorious presence and call for the Hills to cover them and the Mountains to fall upon them as for the Righteous that then shall be found upon earth in whose hearts he hath sealed the promise of his Holy Spirit they shall tremble with an awful reverence but when they have gain'd their memory to recall that he cometh with his reward in his hand they will praise that pomp of Judgment and say now our labour
is at an end we shall reign for evermore And because Christ did appear in Mount Tabor no otherwise than as he means to come to Judgment therefore he did qualify the light of his face to be no greater than the light of the Sun his body which is strange to consider shall have more resplendency than that mighty Lamp of Heaven but it is not for the Wicked to behold them they shall see him shine upon his Throne but with as little comfort as sore eyes gaze upon the Sun or with as little joy as we see flashes of lightning in a terrible thunder non dat lucem videntibus sed pavorem which is not sent to illuminate us in darkness but to agast us with the apparition Of this more at large hereafter But this is the second motive of this Miracle he transformed himself into that Majesty wherein He will judge the World Thirdly He did represent himself as the Argument and Idaea of that beautiful Reward which the bodies of the Just shall have in the General Resurrection The Pharisees required a Sign and Christ told them they should have no sign but the sign of the Prophet Jonas that a body being swallowed up in death should come to life again but these few Disciples over and above the Sign of the Prophet Jonas had the Sign of Transfiguration which is the dainty and delicate part of the Resurrection Say no more but that God will be the Redeemer of his Elect yet it would amuse a man to think what should become of this vile body every member whereof hath been a thousand times an instrument of iniquity well even this very naughty flesh shall have a beam of Divine mercy shine upon it it is impossible to make it ought in this life but a sink of corruption no Fuller upon earth can make it so white as God can In these days the Soul is full of bad concupiscence and the Body is made miserable Hereafter the Soul will be full of grace and the Body shall be made delectable And mark it that the Disciples had their item not to talk of these things till Christ were risen from the dead because the Transfiguration was intended to make up the complement of our joy touching the resurrection of the Body And to sink it deeper in our hearts that this brightsom alteration did not concern the Spirit but the Body his raiment was white and glistering which is no more than the shrowd of the Body In a word God did never reveal that He could take away the essential properties of a true Body and yet keep it a true Body they that believe so much believe beside the Book but in this Miracle appeared that God can add a celestial and beauteous form unto a Body so that the Sun in all his brightness shall not come near it This is the seed of that faith which St. Paul preacheth It is sown in dishonour it is raised in honour Praise the Lord therefore in Body and Soul since both shall be invested with a Royal Dignity to make them both fit for the society of Angels But herein we exceed the happiness of Angels they are glorious Spirits we shall be glorified both in body and spirit So the Prophet Isa lxi 7. They shall possess the double in their land everlasting joy shall be with them Duplicia possidebunt their Soul filled with the vision of God their Body transfigured in glory Fourthly this wants not a granes weight of a principal cause the Son of God in the dayes of his exinanition lookt like a person for this once of divine authority ut crucis scandalum tolleret that their minds might not be cast down with despair to see the misery of his Cross who had seen his glory upon Mount Tabor Now he lookt more Angelical than a Cherubin then he lookt more ruthful than the poorest Lazarus now the greatest in heaven did speak graciously unto him then the scum of the earth reviled him he than was glorified at one time could not be compelled to shame and ignominy but from his own patience and yielding would be crucified at another Sicut luctatores corpus inclinant sayes a Father Christ wrestled with Satan and though that old supplanter the Serpent did bruise his heel yet he could not get the Mastery Christ stooped low like a Lion couching for his prey and when he might seem to be cast down this was his feat to overturn his adversary Fifthly The fifth and last Reason hath a Moral Use There is an old man with his corruptions to be metamorphosed in us all sicut Pelias recoctus as the Fable goes that Medaea bathed the body of Pelias with certain magical drugs and from a decrepit old man transmuted him into a vigorous youth This is a figment for no man spent his young years so well to deserve at Gods hands in this world to be young again but there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a renovation in the spirit of our mind God will not know us in our own form and filthiness unless we put on the Image of Christ As Jacob obtained his Fathers blessing not in his own shape but in the Garments of Esau so we must sue our blessing having put on the righteousness of Christ then the Lord will receive his servant and say unto thee as Jacob did unto Esau I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God You have heard the final cause more wayes than one why this Miracle was wrought I may speak somewhat of the efficient cause how this splendor was derived and further than so I must not proceed now because of the time Many obscure points will come to light by asking this question Whether this lightsom beauty like the Sun did appear in our Saviour's face from the beatification of his humane Soul or from the union of his Divine nature First you must understand that the great School-man Aquinas took the best end of the cause into his hand when he answered to neither of those two members but rather to the purpose of the question in this wise fuit haec qualitas gloriae sed non corporis gloriosi quia nondum erat immortalis this Transfiguration was a quality of glory but not of a glorified body because He was not yet passed death and raised up to be immortal and impassible In this distinction is covertly included that it was not such a brightness as the Soul shall communicate to the Body when it is reunited in a joyful resurrection but was created at this time by the Divine power to foretel and shadow what would come to pass with much increase in the Kingdom of God Praelibatio regui Dei fuit haec transfiguration says Cajetan this was but the Landskip or Pattern of the true happiness which shall be in the Kingdom of Heaven It was a far more excellent splendour than that of Moses or Stephen upon earth but not so perfect or proper
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
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
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
of Christ the other at his Resurrection Terra quae in passione concussa fuerat horrore jam prae gaudio exilire videtur The whole Land of Judaea did quake with horror when he hung upon the Cross but it danced for joy when he rose out of the Grave so I have rendred the fifth reason The Sixth is Allegorical and thus in brief that our hearts must be shaken and inwardly troubled with compunction and repentance before we believe stedfastly in the Resurrection of Jesus Peter preacht and they that heard him were prickt in heart and said to him and to the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do There was an heart-quake before they believed Paul and Silas prayed and sung praises to God and suddenly there was a great Earthquake then the Jaylor came in trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and said Sirs what must I do to be saved Here was an heart rent and torn a commotion in his conscience greater than an Earthquake and then he believed When Eve took and eat the forbidden fruit says an eloquent Father there was no Earthquake no horror to affright her O that the Palsie had possess'd her fingers O that her teeth had chattered that she might not have eaten but vitiis semper serviunt blandimenta All was hush and still nothing but fair allurements do minister to our vices But at Christs Resurrection the sound of an hideous noise was fierce and terrible to the ear Virtutibus austera fortia sunt amica Harsh and austere occurrencies are best agreeable to vertue Roul the thoughts of your heart up and down like a tempestuous Sea if you mean to make a fair voyage to heaven the commotion of a troubled spirit will breed eternal peace As Paul was smitten down before he believed so faith must be beaten into us with violence and therefore behold there was a great Earthquake at the Resurrection of Jesus Unto the motion of the Earth I conjoyn the next circumstance of my Text which I called the motion of the heaven it were like Copernicus his fancy in Astronomy to think that the Earth did only move and the Heavens stand still at the operation of this Miracle No the everlasting doors were set open and the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven Here is one Keeper more than the Jews look'd for about our Saviours Sepulchre one more than Pilate appointed One mighty Prince of that supernal Host whose countenance was able to daunt a Legion of the best Roman Souldiers perhaps there was a multitude with him to celebrate the Resurrection as there was a multitude that appeared in the fields of Bethlem to rejoyce at his Nativity But this Angel I may say determinately was one of the most royal Spirits that stand before the face of God for ever To make short I will not defer to give my reasons presently how sweetly the eternal Wisdom did dispose to let an Angel shew himself openly both at this place of the Grave and upon the celebration of this great day First Those ministring Spirits had been attendants upon all the parts of our Saviours humility and reason good they should be occupied upon all occasions of his exaltation and glory Since we read of Angels that gave all diligent attendance at his birth the holy Spirit of God knew that men would look for their company at the Resurrection I mean that we who know him now by faith would expect their mention upon this occasion in the Book of God Besides his Resurrection is a birth not called so because of a resemblance how man is brought to life out of the womb of his mother in natural Generation but properly in it self according to the phrase of Scripture Acts xiii 33. For Paul preaching at Antioch that God had fulfilled his Promise in raising up Jesus again says he As it is written in the second Psalm thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee So that these Phrases it seems are equivalent this day have I raised thee up from the dead and this day have I begotten thee And surely as a Father of our own Church says very well the news of his birth if God had so pleased might well have been brought by a mortal man it was but the entrance into a mortal life But the news of his Resurrection do become the mouth of an immortal Messenger because it was an entrance into life immortal Secondly The women came out of doors to embalm Christs body with a great deal of confidence they never thought how many difficulties were in their way and such difficulties as could never have been mastered if the Angel had not been sent to facilitate all things for them They mind not how the High Priests would excommunicate all those that professed to believe or do good to our Lord and Saviour they came to touch a dead body which was pollution by the Law they stand not upon that The Sepulcher was guarded with Souldiers who would permit none to come near it they would try that The Grave was sealed with Pilates perhaps with Caesars Seal which none must cancel on pain of death they would venture that The Grave-stone was exceeding heavy as much as twenty men could move says Nicephorus and barred strongly with Iron and they were out of doors and far on their way before they thought of that then they ask Quis removebit Who will roul us away this stone As who should say God will send us some assistance in so good an enterprise we will put on and hope for that and the Lord to make their Pilgrimage prosperous sent an Angel from heaven to remove away the stone Scipio Africanus besieged a City in Spain well fortified every way and wanted nothing and no hope did appear to take it In the mean time Scipio heard many causes pleaded before him and put off one before it was ended to be heard three days after and being asked by his Officers where he would keep his next Court he pointed to the chief Cittadel of the besieged City and told them he would hear the Cause there in that space he became Master of the Town and did as he had appointed He was not more confident to enter into a City rampar'd against him by his valour than these women were to enter into a Sepulcher by faith sealed and shut up but the Lord is present with couragious attempts and he sent his Angel to assist them Thirdly This shewed says St. Chrysostome that he who had been buried there was God as well as man Cum ad sepulchrum tanquam in coelo ubi Deus habitat assisterent for Angels were as officious at the Sepulcher as they use to be in heaven which is the throne of God If men be laid in their Tomb the worms attend them corruption goes to corruption But the body of Christ even when the soul had left it was still united in one person with the Godhead
exist hic exclusus intravit these two St. Austin makes to be very like being shut in the Sepulchre he came out by his own power being shut out of doors he came in by his own power Well let it be answered that Christs body did not penetrate the dimensions either of stone or door as I told you before but that a passage was made for him miraculously so that in a moment which could not be discern'd they gave way and made him entrance and though this answer like not our Adversaries I am sure they cannot refute it And is this fair dealing when St. John doth not tell how Christ came in the doors being shut from thence to pronounce how Christ is present in the Holy Communion and see their inference Christ came in to his Disciples the doors being shut ergo Christs body being in heaven the same body is in the Priests hands in ten thousand places at once and in every little crumb of the Host his whole body is present He that understands this consequence is more than a mortal creature I will run over their chiefly alleaged subtilties and dispatch all Bellarmine affirms that the corporeal substance of Christ partakes the spiritual manner of Angelical existence that is he is present in the Eucharist substantially not quantitatively And yet Aquinas and He himself confess that the substance of Christs body is not there naked or divested of dimensive quantity it hath quantity there but is not there after a quantitative manner to have quantity but not the nature of quantity is not this a flat Chimaera to be in the Host substantially but not with quantity and local dimensions I have read it from them a thousand times but could never found what it should be And shall I think those millions of godly but unlearned Souls in the Church must learn such distinctions to obtein salvation but a late Jesuit would thus illustrate it the soul of man is an whole soul in every part of the body an Angel at once in distinct ubities or places the thoughts of man may be at once in many quarters of the Earth God is in Heaven and Earth at once therefore the body of Christ may be in many Hosts at the same instant I answer there is not one of these things alleaged will fit the purpose for every Angel is definitively in a place so that being in one site he removes to another The soul is immaterial by nature and the form of the body the thought of man is an intentional motion and action and not a corporeal or spiritual thing God is every where because he is infinite but Christs humane body is finite material limited to certain place and measure and differeth from all the former things therefore it hangs not together from the pretence of those instances that the same identical body of Christ is multiplied in the Sacrament of so many thousand Altars Thus their sophistical cavils have compel'd me to go with them one mile and for the last conclusion I will go with them twain But say those subtle Writers if God can put an whole Camel in the eye of a needle may he not put the whole body of Christ in the least part of a consecrated Crum In this Objection they strain at a Crum and swallow a Camel Christ did not say that a Camel continuing in his ordinary quantity can pass through the eye of a needle but by a supposition a rich man making Mammon his God may as easily pass to Heaven But lest we may seem to be averse to Gods omnipotency I go further that there is a two-fold power in God ordinata absoluta one according to the order which himself hath fixed by his Word and Will the other according to the infiniteness of his Essence which exceedeth his Will According to the power of God measur'd and regulated by his Word and Will it is impossible that a Camel in his gross bulk should pass through the eye of needle or that the whole body of Christ can be in a bit of bread or that he is substantively present in many places at one instant We do not say that the infinite Essence of God could not have ordeined these things to be possible but he hath in every place of Scripture reveal'd that He will not have these things to be possible The power of God is his will and what He will not He cannot is the saying of Tertullian Now that God will have it possible to have the body of Christ pass through the dimensions and solidity of the Grave-stone He no where affirmeth and therefore I do utterly reject the Pontifician interpretation I have finisht what I had premeditated upon all the three motions in my Text at last we see all was composed into quiet and the Angel sat upon the Grave-stone But here I will rest my self at this time and proceed no further Almighty God roll away the stone of ignorance and stubbornness from within us and settle all these things in our hearts for Jesus Christ his sake who died for our sins and rose again as this day for our justification AMEN THE SIXTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT. xxviii 3 4. His Countenance was like lightning and his Rayment white as snow And for fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men THere is no day mentioned in all the Scripture upon which so much business and action is recorded to fall out as upon this grand day the day of our Lord and Saviours Resurrection The holy Evangelists according to the secret wisdom of the Spirit write in a confused order the sundry accidents of this day which with your patience I will set down very briefly every one in their own place Mary Magdalen and the other women bought Odours and sweet Spices to embalm the body lying in the Sepulcher and to that end came forth very early in the Morning As they hastened on the day there hapned a great Earthquake and the Angel of God rouled the stone from the Sepulcher The Watchmen who kept the Monument are sore afraid at the sight of the Angel and at the opening of the Grave they certifie the High Priests all that was done and the High Priests out-face the truth with lying and corruption Now Mary Magdalen and the women being come to the place where the body had been laid miss it and wonder at it Mary runs to Peter and John and tels them they have taken the Lord out of the Sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him While Mary was gone the Angel comforts the other women that staid behind fear not ye seek Jesus which was crucified he is not here but he is risen go tell his Disciples c. Yet these women went not far from thence But in this space Peter and John came to the Sepulcher and found the Monument empty save of a few linnen cloaths Mary Magdalen also comes back to the Sepulcher and weeps
and be utterly annihilated So an unbeliever who knows of no better condition that shall befall him than happens to Beasts that is not established in faith that though worms eat this Body in the Grave yet our Soul shall be cloathed with flesh and bone and enjoy an everlasting union in the highest places this man looks upon death as the extremity of all evils in which there is nothing but irreparable loss a thing that can admit of no consolation Resurrection is the edg of all valour and fortitude there can be no courage without it In assurance of it there is no sting there is no terror in our dissolution Says St. Paul Why stand we in jeopardy every hour why have I fought with beasts at Ephesus if the dead rise not as who should say there 's the encouragement of all that endure for the name of Christ Now these Souldiers whom the Jews obtein'd of Pilate to watch the Sepulcher were so far from apprehending this comfort that this Tabernacle of ours when we lay it down is sequesterd for a time till God restore it again out of the dust that they kept that place on purpose that there might be no resurrection According to their great demerits therefore those that were the most envious adversaries of life did shake for fear and became as dead men Fourthly the Souldiers feared exceedingly because they had been aiders to the malice of the Jews to crucifie Christ now when they saw the Sepulcher open the stone rolled away the Angel sitting upon it and by these signs the Resurrection declared that He whom they had put to death most barbarously was greater than death and Lord of the Angels their guiltiness must needs shake them to pieces and extreme horror stare them in the face When St. Peter came to that verse of his Sermon Act. ii 36. God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ The Jews that heard this they were pricked in their hearts and cried out Men brethren what shall we do St. Chrysostom says that many of those who had cried out in Pilate's Judgment-Hall Crucifie him crucifie him were at the Sermon so perhaps those Souldiers that had cast lots upon his Vesture and he that thrust the Spear into his side was at the Sepulcher The greater would be their oppressure of fear when they had been actors in the Tragedy They shall look upon me whom they have pierced Zach. xii 10. a most melancholy object to his Persecutors Eusebius says that the Jews did recall to mind that innocent bloud of Christ which they had shed upon the time that their City was besieged by Titus and that the thought thereof did so enfeeble their hands that they could not fight Although their own Historian Josephus will not impute the calamity of the City to that fault but confesseth sin did reign in Jerusalem at that time so copiously and prodigiously as the like was never in Sodom and Gomorrah but certainly the suspicion of that sin hath debased the courage and broke the heart of all the Nation of the Jews to this day St. Paul writing to the Hebrews bids them cast aside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. xii 1. the weight of their sin and I do not remember that he useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a weighty ponderous sin to any other but to them I know we ought all to be sorry and lament that Christ was crucified for our sakes for those manifold sins that we have perpetrated and solum peccatum homicida est therefore we must be crucified with Christ in mortification and be buried with him in Baptism but the personal procurers of his death were the capital transgressors their sin was died in his bloud as it were in scarlet The Son of man must die and be betrayed but wo unto that man that doth betray him and crucifie him Beware therefore that we do not crucifie to our selves the Son of God a fresh the exposition is in the words following that we do not put him to an open shame Heb. vi 6. by heinous scandalous sins to cause Christs name to be blasphemed that is to put Christ to an ignominy and as it were to crucifie him again Such crimes will leave a sting behind them that will never cease to wound your conscience especially at the hour of death The Gentiles at first could not endure the Sign of the Cross it called their sins to remembrance but how will it tear your heart within you when you call to mind that the ignominy of Christ crucified is in your Soul The Souldiers saw what abomination they had committed when an Angel beautified Christs Sepulcher with his presence and for fear of him c. Fifthly the Souldiers could not keep Christs body in the Sepulcher as they were appointed by Pilat and the High-Priests therefore they feared those that had commanded them the task an evil Instrument is ever afraid of those that do imploy him The Pharisees were angry with their Servants and Officers that they did not bring Christ unto them and lay hands upon Him Joh. vii 43. yet it was not in them to do it no man could lay hands on him then for his hour was not yet come So the Watchmen knew what offence would be taken that Christs body was taken out of the Sepulcher yet they could not stop it No servitude in the world so heavy so dangerous so full of fear as to observe a wilful unreasonable Tyrant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nebuchadonosor put his Chaldaeans and Southsayers to death because they could not tell him the Dream which himself had forgotten Dan. ii 12. It is a just reward of wicked Instruments that they were always suspected always secretly hated by those that practise with them And when I have told you but one story in that kind I could be voluminous you will say Ohe jam satis est it is enough to represent the certain perdition of them that minister to ungodly practises But thus briefly Pope Paul the fifth fell out with the whole State of Venice interdicted all their Dominions began to raise arms against them for imprisoning the Abbot of Nervase whose crimes beside many other foul offences were these three 1. He poisoned his own Brother and wrought the death of a Prior of St. Austins Order and his Servant because they were conscious of it 2. He had long time the carnal knowledg of his own Sister and empoisoned her Maid lest she should betray him 3. He caused an Enemy of his to be killed and after that empoisoned the Murtherer lest he might accuse him This is related by no Protestant Pen but by Friar Paul of Venice of the Order of the Servites Nor do I report it to let you know what kind of offender the Pope protected but to manifest how He brought all those to an untimely end that had either the privacy or their parts to work for his iniquity I do
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
more with these bodily senses than with the inerrable light of Divine Truth is an extreme indignity A grave Patrician would be grieved that the deposition of a noted Varlet should be heard against his innocency And will you hear the objections of sense and reason against that sacred evidence Thus saith the Lord that were to trust to darkness before light the Flesh before the Spirit to lying vanities before unalterable and eternal truth But to her senses this Infidel would appeal and they would instruct her sufficiently whether it had gone with Sodom so ill as it was foretold And was she sure to be satisfied by looking back I greatly doubt it a mist might rise up like the smoak of a Furnace and she conceive it to come from fire when it did not Or the Sun might shine upon the waters in the Plain and she misdoubt that the waters were become bloud as the Moabites were so mistaken Doth not a late Historian tell us of the whole Watch of a City that misdoubted a Field of thistles a far off was a Troop of Pikemen that encamped there to besiege them Was ever man more cautious according to humane rules than St. Thomas the Apostle He would trust no mans reports that his Master was risen from the dead he would see somewhat neither would he trust his own eyes he would feel too nay he would not trust his fingers ends in small wounds but he would wallow his whole hand in the rent of his side For all this wariness he might have been deluded The Syrians saw Elisha and yet wist not it was he The Sodomites felt all night at Lots door and were still to seek Old Isaac held Jacob fast and was deluded the hands are Esau's hands says he and yet they were not And will this woman trust her eye-sight and at a distance rather than Gods peremptory assertion O trust not in man trust not in these fallible humane means Our senses are bruitish Nature is corrupt Philosophy is vain but Faith leans upon that strong pillar the revelation of the Spirit from above which cannot falter and to lie it is impossible And as this woman was called an incredulous Soul because she looked back to see whether vengeance had passed upon the Cities of the Plain as the Angel of the Lord had foretold so for want of faith touching the caution which was given to her own person she fell into presumption and by presumption into death it would not sink into her thoughts that God was in earnest that as many of their Troop as looked behind them should be consumed she thought they were big words to scare timerous persons such as Prophetical men in their zeal did every day denounce against sinners yet they liv'd and rub'd on that took their own liberty to disobey for God was gracious and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise against miserable sinners Feel feel the pulse of your own conscience I beseech you tell me if it do not beat disorderly Doth it not confuse you to call to mind that this infidelity this in ipso genere hath betrayed you to the tentations of Satan more than all his snares beside that desperate courage which you assume to your selves upon some hope of impunity is it not the spur to all transgression God is gentle and of long suffering his minacies are terrible but his dearly beloved Son and our only Saviour is merciful sed exorabile numen fortasse experiar says the Heathen his loving kindness is soon entreated This is a bastard faith of our own to subvert the true faith which is begotten by the Spirit A Diabolical infusion that God doth menace out of policy that which He never meant to make us obsequious by the shadow of his scourge but remember that non moriemini was a lie 'T is the Serpents Master-piece to expel all faith and fear out of our mind for they go hand in hand together and to break our necks with confidence A barbarous beastly kind of life says Aristotle hardned the Scythians that they neither feared Thunder nor Earthquakes but it is infernal witchcraft that makes obdurate hearts believe that all the woes and curses in the Gospel are but a strong noise terrible while it is heard but comes to nothing Quotidie Diabolus quae Deus minatur levigat says Gregory God affirms the Woman doubts the Devil denies O unhappy they that think Truth it self may be deceived and give ear to a deceitful spirit If all the maledictions against Impenitents were not indubitably to be expected Christianity were but fainthearted superstition Religion nothing but panick fear Faith not the Evidence of things to come but a devised Fable and the sacred Scriptures in all penalties and threatnings a vizard of mockery But as sin brought punishment upon us so let the certain expectation of punishment bring us out of sin Remember Lots Wife the only memento that Christ fixeth upon any Story of the Old Testament The less she believed the less she feared but the less she feared the more she smarted What God hath threatned will not be declin'd by our contrary opinion Though Christ shed his bloud to save a sinner God will not lie to save a sinner No title of his Word shall fail no not to save an hundred thousand souls out of the infernal pit I am come to the utmost portion of the hour and not to the utmost of the first part of my Text by three points She fainted in well-doing she neglected mercy and was slow to save her self she contemned the benefit of preservation in respect of that which was taken from her But as Logick convinceth more than Rhetorick as the fist knit together is stronger than the hand spread abroad so all this will be most doctrinal in one point that she relapsed and sunk after she was in fair speed to obtain mercy because she fell in love with wicked Sodom again from whence God had withdrawn her This is her crime which Philo exaggerates more than once aestu refluo retrosum absorpta she was like a Ship sailing with full sails from the sinful delights of the World but the contrary winds and tides of concupiscence carried her clean back again Josephus accuseth her worse upon the same charge that though her feet came from that impious City yet her heart staid behind Et saepius tardavit vertendo se ad civitatem she stood still more than once to take her full view of that loss which she so much bemoaned nor was it at the first turning about as he says that she was turn'd into a pillar of salt The very Apples of Sodom remain as a token against her to this day which put forth at first as if they would grow to be very delicious in the taste and in conclusion they pulverize and become sooty ashes So Lots Wife ran well at first but in the midst of her course nay almost at the end she fainted and stuck fast
our charity though above the definition of our judgment And thus I would rise up into pious credulity of their salvation for our Church hath a pious credulity at their burial As the longer proportion of afflictions usually falls upon them that can more patiently suffer them and God lays his burden upon them that can best bear it so let our charity infer that he makes the bed of their sickness be long and tedious that had need of large repentance and takes them away suddenly that are best prepared St. Austin fills up this very doctrine with the instance of Lots Wife Magis est hoc exemplum eruditio nobis quà m condemnatio ipsius this Pillar of salt stood there rather for our instruction than for our condemnation And God doth often chastise his own in the flesh as well with sudden as with lingring correction to save the soul from the wrath to come Filii Aaronis castigati sunt non damnati says Gregory Nadab and Abihu were chastised and suddenly slain for offering strange fire but not damned So the old Prophet that was rent by the Lion for his disobedience lived and died an holy man in all the reputation of Israel Luther pleads thus for Lots Wife that in the general course of her life she was faithful and holy left Vr of the Chaldaeans to come away with Abraham from that sink of Idolatry and with Lot her Husband Gen. xii 5. and she stuck close to her Husband in this Exile out of Sodom Therefore it is to be credited that her former faith did not leave her though her soul had but a short moment to call for mercy I wonder the Jesuits should extenuate her sin to be but venial and yet make her a castaway For Lorinus says he would grant she was saved but that all their Authors were against him Lenior placet sententia quamvis Patronum non reperiam Nay I think the best of her in charity not by lessening her sin but by extolling Gods mercy Some of the Rabbies make a toy of it that she became a Pillar of Salt because she would not set Salt before the Angels whom she had received the night before in hospitality The Hebrews will write sometimes as if they were wiser than men sometimes scribble as if they were foolisher than children The fault was a vast one she cast away that which the Lord would have saved in regard of her self desperately of the Angel contumeliously of her Husband and Daughters scandalously of God and his favours unthankfully yet her last gasp might be illuminated by the Spirit to commend her soul into the hands of her gracious Father To which Father and the Holy Spirit together with Jesus Christ be all glory and honour AMEN A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL NUMB. xxi 7. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us I Preach of a People that travelled fourty years in a Wilderness wherein there was neither pleasure nor plenty that came in the end to the Land of rest I preach to a People that are willing according to the boundaries of our Church to number fourty days of Abstinence to be spent without plenty or pleasure to keep them in breath for true repentance that they may find rest for their Souls The People of whom I preach when they were in one of their last journeys at Salmonah I am sure in the last year of their travail were stopt by firy Serpents before they got into the Land of Promise And you to whom I preach are brought into the Land of the Living by the conduct of Joshuah the Servant of the Lord. And though we are come out of a Wilderness and are within the borders of our Canaan God be praised yet we cannot be quiet for Serpents Which puts this word into my mouth to day to avert the malice of the ungodly Pray c. The way wherein I mean to handle the Text is in two parts a Punishment for sin and a Repentance for sin The sin of the Nation must be considered in both and before both And that was murmuring as you may read it in two verses before Indeed it hath that name and another 1 Cor. x. 9 1◠Let us not tempt Christ as some of them tempted and were destroyed of Serpents neither murmur as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Yet the stubbornness and the very back-bone of their sin is murmuring That was their guilt and the same is ours and the worse in us because we offend under the grace of a better Covenant The punishment of the sin of the murmuring Israelites was annoyance by true and real Serpents strictly and in the letter they were no other On our part nothing toucheth us of that nature but we are plagued with Serpents that are far worse as will appear in their ranks and conditions hereafter to be unfolded The repentance for their sin is seen two ways First that they fly to the remedy of Prayer For the Soul which God did breath into Man cannot shake off this principle that all succour comes from above for which it must breath out it self to God Secondly that they fly to that Prayer which comes out of the mouth of Moses That Moses with whom their whole Host was just before offended he is so generally in their good opinion thank the Serpents for it that he must now be their rescue and Advocate and none but he make their peace with God Thou Moses pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us Now you see what you are to look for out of the Text and in what order and that before I come to the Punishment I must look out a sin for affliction riseth not out of the dust neither doth trouble come out of the ground Job vi 5. Gods hand sends them and Mans sin brings them And this was brought on by repining at Gods mercy and quarreling at Moses his Minister Their tongues run as if they had drunk deep of Viper wine so the Lord sent Serpents among them They that serve God for temporal things and are too eager to get them cannot choose but fall into the tentation of murmuring Such was this People not one Tribe better than another that grumbled upon the lightest thing that crossed them that it was not God that brought them out of Egypt but a trick of Moses to be a King over them But being now more impatient than ever they insist upon two things as ver 4. that the soul of the People was much discouraged because of the way And why so they were not turned aside from the Land of Promise the Journey had been long but the fourtieth year was even spent the worst was past and six moneths would give them possession They could not complain of weariness their feet never swelled Deut. viii 4. Only they were foundred in their patience and would not stay a little while till the time was come which God had
you love to hear the noise of it and which is more to hear them taxt And here is the difference between the Usurer and the Preacher Every Usurer would have no more such sinners as himself and the Preacher would have none at all But if Riches be your blessing O turn not your blessing to a curse And what greater curse than to build a house and not possess it to plant a Vineyard and not eat of the fruit of it To provide Cloathing for the body and never wear it Thus Haman cast about to put the Kings Robes on his shoulders but the Gallows prevented him Gehazi was furnished with two change of Raiments but his body was made unfit to wear one by Leprosie And Achan had provided a Babylonish Garment but it proved as fatal as his winding sheet Faithless sinner could not God provide for him except he stole a Rayment Why the Gibeonites came to him in pieced cloaths rent and thread-bare from the next Villages and his Apparel decayed not but he came to the Gibeonites in new furniture from beyond the Red Sea and the vaste Wilderness Why should he covet more change of Raiment if one Attire were so constant that no use could consume it no Moth could fret it What glory were it to be like a Peacock says Tertullian Toties mutando quoties movendo as often as she moves her self her feathers cast a new beauty and apparition The Fowls of the Air renew but certain feathers the Trees do not cast their bark only the accursed Serpent changeth his skin at appointed revolutions Jam positis novus exuviis nitidâque juventâ c. And this holy people the Children of Israel wore their Garments forty years like their skin and bone and Achan loathed it for continuance which some devotion would have kept as a Relique for the strangeness Is there any of the Israel of God among us that hath enticed strange fashions and Babylonish Garments to be brought into our Land What a question is that They do not hide it in their Tent like Achan they dare profess their names it is their boasting to have brought comliness into the Kingdom the Court admires it and yet I could adjudge with King Artaxerxes his Gardener to be the better Common-wealths man that had the Art to make Pomgranates fairer What Suetonius spake of Caligula in high disdain is become a decency in our Land Neque civili habitu neque patrio neque virili neque humano vestitus est First not modest apparel that is worn out of use nor according to his own Country fashion Who knows what that is in England Nor in the Attire of his own Sex we are come to that one Sex changes into the fashion of another Nay he went not like a reasonable man but like a beast This only remains from Gods judgment that like King Nebuchadonosor at last we should be cloathed like beasts and Eagles Anacharses a Scythian reproved for his blunt language despised the Elegancies of Athens with that Elogy Anacharses speaks Solaecisms in Athens and the Athenians speak Solaecisms in Scythia Such a Critick as he was in the Tongues such an esteem ought we to have of Rayment Every Fashion is an ornament in its own soil Achans Babylonish Garment had been unseemly and exotick in the Land of Jury And since cloathing is but the covering of our shame to be so curious and divers to hide our shame is silken hypocrisie Our Saviour put forth a Parable that Solomon in all his Royalty was not cloathed like a Lilly of the field The comparison will not enter into the eye of man that the wild Flower to day sprouting and to morrow in the Furnace was of such Orient colours as the Kings Robes But do you mark it Modest Nature had arrayed the one and Luxury the other it is Solomon not on worky days but in all his Royalty not Elias or John Baptist in their rough skins no our very bodies are comlier than the souls of beasts but the King of Israel sumptuous Cap-a-pe that was not cloathed like a Lilly of the field Give me leave to step aside into one question and I will return again Though Achan should have burnt his golden fleece in the flames of Jericho may nothing be preserved for the use of God out of the dens of pollution May not a comly Garment be put on at our Liturgy yea though it were worn in Babylon Quomodo scriptum est Shall we put it to that and so make a Canon Saul disgraced himself as basely as if he had sought Asses again because he preserved Agag and the fattest of the sheep of Amalech for a sacrifice and Achan was a common mischief that gathered up the goods of Canaan all this is true but it was done by an especial word of God and that will make no rule as the School confesseth Again Moses employed the Censors of Core and Dathan to make golden Plates for the Ark the Instruments of the rebellious for the use of Sanctity This also is too slender to make a rule for it was done by the appointment of the Lord. But when no particular revelation dream or vision is sent from God must we needs do as the Roman Army did when it won Tarentum Infaelices Divos populo Tarentino relinquamus touch none of the Gods that kept their Enemies City Or may not the Church be judge May it not spare or destroy Yes I will prove it by the Book In the first of Ezra Cyrus brought forth the Vessels of the Lord which Nebuchadonosor had put in the house of his Gods even those did he restore to Shezbazzar and Shezbazzar brought them for the service of the Lord to Jerusalem The wearing of our Surpless and other holy Robes is the thing I aim at for the comliness I call heaven to witness Such white Robes the Saints wear Apoc. xv Such our Saviour seemed to wear at his Transfiguration Mat. xvii And such alone and not the Bells and Ephod the High Priest put on to go into the Sanctum Sanctorum Lev. xvi 4. And all this the Fathers approved in the Primitive Church some of whom came so near our Saviour that almost they touched the hem of his Garment None of this is gainsaid by the Learned but the blame is that they have been polluted in a strange Land like sweet roots steep'd in Wormwood pleasant enough of themselves but they have lost their rellish Well I told you the Church of God entertain'd their holy Vessels again when the Heathen had quaffed in them to their Idols and such a Church it was that depended nicely upon Ceremonies and bodily defilings The Devil used the Scripture is the Scripture the worse for that Parrats and chattering birds are taught sometime to speak our Language shall I like speaking the worse and turn silenced Minister What shall become of all the rich endowments which the Church received in Popery Shall Superstition be bountiful and Reformation
to wound them but to heal them I have learnt a distinction in another place from the same man sufficient to refute him It is this Every affliction that gainsays the pleasure and content of nature is first a punishment then it is a medicine or salve to cure you as you use it Do you not see the error that Aquinas draws upon himself If to punish one man for anothers trespass is unjust and wrongful except it be like the Acrimony of some preventing Physick then God doth evil that good may be gained from it O says Abraham God forbid that the Judge of all the world should do unjustly Now do you understand how these cunning Benjamites the Schoolmen have cast their distinctions at the truth just like Mnestheus in Virgil who shot at the Dove and mist it but cut the string in twain by which it was tied fast before Ast ipsam miserandus avem contingere ferro Non valuit nodos vincula linea rupit Now the harvest is ripe and it is time to give in the right Verdict upon the Controversie And as the Alabaster Box of Oyntment which was broken in the Gospel was burst for the honour of our Saviour but the sweet smell did refresh all the Disciples which were about it So my conclusion shall be dedicated to Gods honour and to your instruction I have many Theorems to propound unto you but all shall end in this Doctrine That excepting the first Adam the root of our corrupt nature and excepting the second Adam who being without spot or sin gave himself to the death of the Cross for the sins of all the world these two excepted every man dies propter peccatum suum for his own iniquity First I do presume that you will consent unto me that the heart of man is only evil continually And that we may call it as Theodorus did revile Tiberius Lutum saenguine maceratum mud tempered with pollution As one said of the High Court of Judges in Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you could not miss of a righteous man among them though you pickt in the dark But I say we cannot find out a good man though we sought him carefully at noon-day For the Lord himself hath looked down from heaven and we are all become abominable usque ad unum and that one is Jesus Christ Then it is confessed that the wages of sin is death Seriùs ocyùs sometimes before we were born but as suddenly as God shall call upon us to pay the common debt of nature Nemo nisi suo die moritur says Seneca My day to die was every day since I had an hour to live Silly soul do you think it an injury to die a babe To die an Ignorant of misery Did you ever hear an Infant complain of short life Nay rather did not Moses weep because he was preserved in the Ark of Bulrushes and had his misery prolonged We have heard many old men that would cry rather than sing at Nunc Dimittis when they put from shore for ever But come death quickly come heaven the sooner let all the world change in the twinkling of an eye and then come Resurrection come Lord Jesus Are the shortest Livers unkindly dealt with Non magis queri debes de repentinâ morte quam qui citò navigavit Do complain that wind and tide have brought you too quickly to your haven Give me your credit but to one thing more You are bound to answer to as painful and severe death as Gods vengeance shall inflict upon you I think I might have seen in the days of Herod when Rachel mourned for her Children one little Saints soul pincht out of the body as a cherry stone spirted between the fingers a most calm deliverance and another babe Lacerum crudeliter ora ora manusque ambas cut in pieces with a wound bigger than the body How comes this to pass for both were Infants Not because the one smarted for his Fathers Usury and Sacriledge more than the other but because God said no more Gen. iii. then man shall die But whether by fire or water peaceable or tyrannous it is free in the Lords appointment from the sixth day of the Creation to the worlds end Now let us see if we can find any thing in that which we have caught to pay Tribute unto God You cannot deny but Death and Diseases and Poverty Laethumque labosque are due to every sinner and all these in such a time as God likes best whether it be at Noontide or at Evening or in the Dawning of the day and with such measure and quantity as God hath prepared the Viols of his wrath Then why art thou disquieted O my soul and why should I fear to pay the price of those sins which are not mine The poor Subjects have lost their lives in the Kings iniquity witness David and Israel The Children for the Fathers witness Sodom and Gomorrah The Family with the Master as it was with Core and his accomplices Lastly some of all sorts did drink the same cup with Achan in his iniquity ay dearly beloved at this time God called upon them all to die who were bound to die for their own sins at any time Now let me raise you up from the long consideration of this Point as the Angel did Elias under the Juniper tree and you shall find a Cake upon the coals some few Meditations from hence that God makes the sin of one man an occasion to destroy a multitude First If the disobedience of one sinner is enough to consume many persons Lord whither will a multitude of iniquity send one man headlong Sufficient are our evil days wherein we have walked too much before after the vanity of our mind Secondly As the greatest unity of the Triumphant Church above doth consist in the glory which they enjoy together in the sight of God So our unity of the militant Church below is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer and die together Poterant nec morte râ—velli It is that which must combine the souls of Christians Thirdly Shall not this make me as careful to prevent every mans sins as mine own Shall I not offer my self to be my brothers keeper Like watchmen that compass the Câ—ty in the night not only for the safety of their own house but lest any Mansion take fire about them But especially who is a Father of Children that will not consider his sins may be as ready to destroy as his Loyns have been fruitful to bring Sons into the world Can you revile the King of Moab that sacrificed his Son Do you detest their abominations that made their Children pass through the fire to Molech Is it good in you to declaim against the severity of Brutus and Torquatus and such cruel Fathers But spare them O child of pollution or accuse thy self Are not your sins murderers as well as theirs You gave life by nature and you destroy it by iniquity When God
double condition of our sinful nature homo nec fructum servat operationis nec statum rectitudinis the rectitude of innocency is turned crooked in us and then it is impossible we should bring forth the fruit of good works The Soul stands upright when it desires to be with Christ but it is bowed down with a spirit of infirmity when our treasure is upon earth You know how Gedeon's choice Souldiers did drink of the Brook putting water in their hands and lapping like a Dog but the rest bowed down to the River to drink upon their knees ver 6. Whereupon Gregory took occasion to shew symbolically what different postures our spiritual and our carnal appetite have in partaking those things they love mundi aqua bibitur facie pronâ in terram fons aquae viventis facie supinâ we drink the waters beneath with our face bowed down to the earth we drink the waters of life with our face and eyes turned up to Heaven To him that walks in a Valley every Shrub is tall that grows upon the top of a Mountain so perhaps our pleasures seem aloft to us and not to lie so low as the bottom of a Well because we our selves do walk in the shadow of death and in the valley of corruption An ambitious man will scarce believe his soul is bowed down when he seeks for honour but rather that aspiring to a grand Title doth lift up his thoughts O that you did stand upon a Pinacle of faith and from thence look up to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith and you would then acknowledg that all these empty clouds did fly below you Why do you not expect the grace of God and pray often unto him when wilt thou make good thy promise to me O Lord which thou hast spoken to me O Lord Es lviii 14. Thou shalt delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth Sustollam te super altitudines terrae O that I could be exalted above the earth then would I not bow down my soul to draw forth vanity from this deep Well and nothing but the waters of bitterness You see what these waters are there is no permanency in them they flit away and yet we draw them from the very depth of Hell with much toil and carefulness and it is disputable with St. Austin which of the two be more commodious to man labor in hauâ—iendo affligens aut sitis crucians but after the labour of our body to draw them forth follows the greediness of our heart to be filled with them we drink them down All things were made for man the pleasures of art and wit the abundance of the whole World the Myrrh and Frankincense of one India the Gold and Silver of the other Divinity must not deny you that which is your own The great God is as liberal to us as He was to his own People but he gave them the labours of the Heathen in possession that they might keep his Laws Carnalis populus si parva non acciperet magna non credoret says Gregorianus As Caleb and Joshua brought a bunch or two of Grapes to let the people see what a rich Land it was which the Lord had promised so a Modicum is allotted to us for our present use that we may look for a real and more substantial treasure in Heaven And indeed this is the purpose of my Text to commend the Grace of God above all things but not altogether to contemn his Creatures The Crime reproved is to swallow them down like drink that runs in all our veins and is presently incorporated into our bloud and spirits as a learned Author says that a greedy heart hath animam triticeam not an heavenly spirit but a wheaten soul altogether projecting for outward means it must have bread it must have store the Barn must be thwackt full the provision must be able to serve many years such wheaten cogitations make a wheaten soul By such another Catechresis I may say out of my Text that a greedy tipling desire makes a drunken soul an unsatiated mind is as brutish a Monster as Job's Behemoth He drinketh up a river he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth David would not drink of that water which was brought from the Well of Bethel with the jeopardy of his Servants bloud therefore he poured it out to the Lord but our desires fetch such things unto us which are brought with the hazard of that which is better than life David hath shewed us the way what is to be done pour them forth unto the Lord if they be sinful pleasures by repentance if they be riches by alms and charity By all means pour them forth lest they consume us like those waters in the Levitical Law which the Priest gave to the Woman suspected for Adultery if she were defiled the waters turn'd bitter and did rot her thigh and she became a curse among all the people It is a prefiguration I do verily think of that diseaseful rottenness which doth oftentimes in these days befall Adultery And as the rottenness goes before so be sure the curse will come behind it I might be copious from this Allegory in my Text that a wanton appetite is a drunken disease but I will contract it by shewing one dissimilitude he that pours any liquor into his body it is to cherish himself but the most men drink greedily of worldly things to make others swell and heap up riches that their children may gather them So the Son often times vomits up that wealth whereof the Father surseited for you shall never purchase so much as your Posterity would sell away in the third or fourth Generation The good Father thought he said enough to discipline an avaritious fool when he bad him number his days which were very short and therefore cut shorter his covetous desires which were very long Longa nostra desideria increpat vita brevis Alas says Nabal I measure not my necessities by the span of my own life but according to the breadth and length of all my Posterity who must enjoy these things after me I shall answer it with a Paradox yet it is such a rule as I never saw many exceptions against it If your children love gains as well as you have done they will thrive though you leave them but a little If they regard not Parsimony as you have done they will break and decay though you bequeath them a great treasure Lighten your self therefore of these superfluous burdens which you carry like a Camel for their sakes that will never bear them after you And if God have given you a large Issue be you more bountiful in Alms-deeds and Charity as St. Cyprian reasons Pro pluribus placandus est eleemosynis as Job offered Sacrifices to God according to the number of his Sons and Daughters So must you offer up gifts unto the Lord
no not in Israel Nor is this a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Heathen called it an embasement of a good courage for the humble man hath the loftiest mind of all others if it be well observed for he reckons not by the magnificent pomp and praise of the World though he have no little part in it but esteems God and nothing else to be his glory and because he doth give God the glory in all things that are excellent therefore he doth invite the Spirit of Grace unto himself by a religious policy as thus Grace is no longer Grace than you confess it is conferred by meer gift and frank benevolence The proud is so arrogant in all his thoughts that he would not yield to that he thinks it was his due which could not justly or at least congruously be denied him Needs must the rain fall down from such a steepy Mountain and where will it find a place to rest but in a little Valley in a lowly heart which magnifies the love and favour of Christ for the gift of the Spirit above all things but we had no right to ask it because we were sinful we had no understanding to desire it because we were foolish it is omni modo gratuita a good turn freely bestowed in all respects why do you not see says Bernard gratia nullibi nomen suum tuetur nisi in humili the Grace of God should quite lose its nature unless it dropt upon the humble man sink down therefore like a valley to receive this water for the Lord resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. v. 5. Secondly The Spirit holds this Analogy with water it washeth away all filth from the soul and maketh the heart clean which was defiled No superstition hath lasted longer or spread further than one I shall name unto you that an external sousing of the body in water did quite take away the guilt of all those sins which had been committed by the body So Euripides as wise an Heathen as any in the pack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dive but into the Sea and it would rense away all their iniquities then the Jews encurred this errour by that corruption which the Romans brought among them especially the Pharisees who if they had walked in the streets or been in the Market presently washt as soon as they came home lest they had toucht or been toucht by somewhat unawares which was defiled by the Gentiles And if they washt all was well No marvel therefore if the savage Moriscoes have a strong fancy to this day how their filthiness is purged away if they bath in some river water every morning It is more strange that the Russian Christians in these times should attribute secret power to such an idle Ceremony but most foppish of all that the Priests of Rome would lead their whole Church into this delusion that venial sins are done away if a few drops of an hallowed casting bottel light upon the gaping people and many a shrewd knavery passeth under the name of a venial sin as it is to be seen in their Cases of Conscience Against all their errours which I have recited I lay my conclusion again nothing but the grace of God that water indeed which is above the heavens doth wash away all filth from the soul and make the heart clean which was defiled The which will appear the better by noting this preeminence in their difference Elementary water well applied takes away all impure soil that cleaves to a vessel But can it add a brightness to the Vessel better than it had in the first making No you will say that is not to be expected I but such is the operation of inward grace when it maketh clean an earthen vessel is still no better than earth when it is rensed in a River but if the Spirit from above abide within us if it wash and sanctifie this Vessel of clay it overlays it with Gold and makes it more precious by far than ever Then but a word spoken with grace and in due season is like apples of gold with pictures of silver says Solomon O how much have we need of it We are all black before God like the Children of an Ethiopian says the Prophet Amos. We have Vultus adustos faces as if they were scorched with flames Jer. xiii 8. And of others whom God did begin to loath their visage is blacker than a coal Lam. iv 8. Black will take no colour we use to say there is no help for it either by Art or Nature but if the supernatural hand be stretched out upon us then the Blackmore shall change his skin and the Leopard his spots As the bloud of the Mother after the birth of her Child keeps not the colour of bloud but becomes milk in her breasts so after we are begotten again by the Spirit and bring forth the fruits thereof our bloudy sins shall become milk and though they be read as Scarlet they shall be white as snow Isa i. 18. Yea the Prophet says of Jerusalem while it served the Lord her Nazarites were whiter than snow purer than milk Lam. iv 7. Doth not David promise as much unto himself if the Lord would renew a right spirit within him Lavabis me dealbabor super nivem Thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter than the snow As if by the Sacred Unction from heaven his soul should have a new beauty which it never had before a plain Transfiguration such as our Saviours was in the Mount so that no Fuller upon earth could make a thing so white Solomon in all his Royalty was not cloathed like a Lilly of the field But take Solomon in his repentance whereof I perswade my self and his soul was much whiter than any Lilly in the field This is a superlative vertue wherewith the water in my Text is endowed to cleanse that which was foul from every spot and to make it surpass the whiteness which it had by nature Thirdly Happy is the tree that grows by the Rivers of waters No Plant can prosper unless sap and moysture nourish it So Grace is that coelestial water which supplies the root within us it makes the conscience abundant in good works and without it it is impossible to bring forth the fruits of righteousness Mark the rain which falls from heaven and the same shower which dropt out of one cloud increaseth sundry Plants in the same Garden according to the nature of the Plant. In one stalk it makes a Rose in another a Violet divers in a third but sweet in all So the Spirit is a moistning dew which works rare effects in several dispositions and all most acceptable to God Is your Complexion Cholerick Try thine own heart if it be apt to be zealous in a good cause If it be so it is the fruit of the Spirit that works upon your constitution Is Melancholy predominant The grace of God turns that sad
the top of the Rocks with the Eagle if you make your nest on the ground the foot of man and beast will tread on it If you contrive it within the reach of the arm it is easily plucked down If within the boughs of a large tree it will be pelted Build high enough as the Eagle doth and then you are safe from wracks and injuries In all the whirle and revolutions of fortune this is our magnetical reduction look up to heaven And give thanks together as it follows to be handled From hence we have all that belongs to the being and to the well-being of Nature Whatsoever we want whatsoever we dread and fear it comes from above Frost and Snow Rain and fruitful seasons food for the body grace for the soul heaven supplies us with all these with more than we can ask or think How properly therefore doth this holy Office as it were take up the train of the former and come after it First he looked up to heaven and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave thanks In one of us I confess they piece well together in the person of a mortal man that lives by pension and allowance from the Lord in the person of David as it is Psal viii When I consider the heavens c. What is man that thou art mindful of him Or the Son of man that thou visitest him But it is a strange word in the mouth of Christ He give thanks Who hath obliged him by any favour Or to whose benignity is he beholding All his works praise him and his Saints give thanks unto him but he is engaged to none there must be one first cause that communicates it self to all things and receives of nothing and that is God of God very God of very God the King of glory Jesus Christ To take off this Objection with reason first Beneficium accepit in humanâ naturâ He took the form of a servant upon him and in that exinanition he was capable of a benefit to be done unto him Therefore he thank'd his Father that he would bring that to pass by his Omnipotency which he was purposed to effect by his Humane Nature Nay he did not divide himself from his Father in this giving of thanks But the Son of Mary that was flesh of our flesh gave thanks unto himself as he was God Eternal It is so through an ineffable Dispensation An Eternal Decree was ratified that Christ being made man should be glorified in working this Miracle for which Decree he gives thanks unto the Godhead for so it was decreed that Thanksgiving should precede before the Decree was executed And yet note it further because the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in the Manhood bodily Christ did not go about his work precario he did not pray that power might be given him to multiply the five Loaves into five thousand portions that was not to be craved now which was inherent in him from the beginning but being certain to effect that which he undertook he gave thanks before the effect was produced Secondly Beneficium accepit in membris It was a gracious Donative which was now about to be bestowed upon the People that were gathered together and out of a fellow-feeling to those that were his own our Saviour gave thanks for the kindness shewn to his Members And well I may say he made this grateful acknowledgment to his Father for their sakes that pertained to his body for there is not that tender-hearted man that comforts a poor Christian in his necessities but he will say as much to him In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of my brethren ye have done it unto me The Prophet David hath spoken of his love after the same manner whereby he united himself unto us Psal lxviii 18. Thou hast led captivity captive Dona accepisti in hominibus so the Vulgar Latine and it is so verbatim in the Original thou hast received gifts in men He gives all and he takes all for he takes that to himself which is distributed unto all As it was the foundation of the Spartan Commonwealth Ne scirent privatim vivere To live rather for the advancement of the publick than of the private Weale So it is a corner stone of Christian Brotherhood Ne scirent homines privatim gratias agere Not to pinch up their gratitude into that narrowness as to bless the name of God for no mercies but such as are conferred upon themselves Quomodo idiota dicet amen Let me apply that of St. Paul in a Parody he that is all for himself is that Idiot that when publick Thanksgiving is made knows not how to say Amen But as Christ gave thanks for the Members so must the Members one for another For in the Union of Faith and in the Bond of Charity all blessings diffused far and wide upon our brethren are our proper benefits Thirdly All Writers that handle my Text strike upon this Key that we are taught from hence to make some holy Preface to say Grace as we call it before we feed our body When we sit down to meat Quasi ad beneficentiae Dei concionem accedimus we are presented as it were with a Sermon of Gods benignity not in word but in deed and therefore it is Decorum that we should begin with a Prayer So did the Jews yery anciently the young Maidens whom Saul met told him so much that the People would not eat till Samuel came because he doth bless the Sacrifice and afterward they that be bidden eat We Christians have sufficient from St. Paul to make us diligent observers of this Ceremony Says he Every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer 1 Tim. iv 4 5. It is not sufficient says Theodoret upon it that the Creature of God is good but it must be sanctified also before we eat it That which was good by nature the name of God invoked upon it makes it wholsom and holy Either our body may fall into some distemper or our soul into some fearful sin unless we begin and end our refection in the name of the Lord. But the Apostle chargeth us ex abundanti that the Word of God and Prayer be conjoyned to it that is says Vatablus to attend to the reading of sacred Scripture beside the ordinary Benediction So it is in use to this day with them that lead a Regular and a Scholastical strictness and was not omitted of the very Heathen that had a grain of Philosophy in their disposition So Cornelius Nepos commends Pomponius Atticus Nunquam sine aliquâ lectione apud eum coenatum est He never supped but somewhat was read out of a learned Author before him His mind did ruminate upon Knowledge while his teeth did chew his bread lest like an horse his head should be only in the Manger And those
people was and we seek a Country in the heavens What are five Loaves and two Fishes the poor pittances of Nature to procure us felicity Some say send them to the next Village for succour to the intercession of Saints and Angels No sweet Saviour but as the eyes of a servant look unto the hands of his Master so our soul waits upon thee until thou have mercy upon us Nor did our Saviour distribute his Largess only to stop the gap of necessity For had they been runnagates David doth award them to be unpitied Let them continue in scarceness but flagrante ptetate when their hearts were set upon zeal and their ears attentive by the space of an whole day to hear the Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven then this Miracle falls out as a reward of their Piety For even as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts of Charity were wont to be celebrated among the Christians in the Primitive Church immediately after the divine Mysteries had been solemnized So when these Jews had lent their patience to a good Sermon I am sure for never man spake like him by his enemies confession the close of it was that they eat bread together joyfully with singleness of heart And I do not amiss to say that this diligence to hear and learn did attract his love to do this for them for did they importune him by Prayer Did any one among so many beseech him to shew his power and pity them no but they had done enough to open his bowels though they held their peace for first seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added unto you Hallow his name advance his Kingdom and do his will and that which follows comes in by course you cannot fail of your daily bread In this Assembly that sanctified the whole day in the Desart to wait on Christ you may imagine there were sundry of them that lived by their sweat and labour from hand to mouth Will not these be much damnified by their godliness The night was come they had earned nothing by their labour they may go home and starve yea nothing less they that had committed themselves to his providence like the fowls of the air shall fair as well as the fowls of the air For the Lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord do want no good thing Psal xxxiv 10. The Apostles not long before this accident in my Text were sent abroad without Scrip without provision without change of raiment Lacked you any thing says our Saviour the Heathen could not say that the Christians were the poorer for not working the seventh day your Trade is increasing while your shop is shut up on Holidays if you serve the Lord. Godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. iv 8. We had Brethren in diebus illis in those noble times that came near to the Apostles who durst urge the Lord upon his word in the face of Infidels that the soul of the righteous should not famish In the year 176 Marcus Aurelius was ready to give battel to the Marcomans but the day was so hot and the drought so sore that his Army fainted and could not strike a stroke The Christians that served under him to shew the glory of their great Master Jesus the Son of God joyned their Prayers together and instantly obtained so much rain as refreshed all the Roman Legions and so much thunder as consumed the Marcomans with fire and lightening I make not the Doctors of the Church my Authors for it but Dion Cassius an Heathen confesseth the accident and Xiphiline another of the same ascribes it to the Christians and that Legion which consisted of Christians was called from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thundring Legion long after The blessings of the Lord they are not viscata beneficia they do not hang in his fingers like birdlime when his Children need them but they drop like an Honeycomb without straining But men are so apt to object against this as if they stretcht their wits to make God a liar they will tell you that they have known and heard of righteous men that have been forsaken and destitute Digito terebrare Salinum contentus perages si cum Jove vivere tentas Poverty ever was and will be the obloquy of honesty Neither is bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill Eccles ix 11. Well the knot is soon untied if you do not over-reckon with God and extend his word to a greater proportion of temporal blessings than he hath promised There is a Son that grudged at his Father Luke xv quia nusquam haedum dedisset he had never given him a Kid to make merry with his friends Must every one that is a Son look for a Kid and for enough wherewith he may be merry and voluptuous no no if you have pabulum latibulum any thing to stay hunger and a Cave to put your head in God is not in your debt and you may do as well as they that have the Kid for life is oftner lost by surfeiting than by starving Every Levite that serves faithfully at the Altar must not think to wear a Mitre like Aaron as St. Hierom speaks of Praetextatus that would be baptized and become a Christian if he might be Bishop of Rome All men must not look to be requited like Valentinian that refused the Tribune-ship of Julian upon condition of Idolatry and became an Emperor They that gape for so much tenter Gods promise to the stretch of their own greediness First They seek dominion and wealth and think the Kingdom of Heaven will come into the vantage Miserable souls that do not fear lest their dignity should be their total recompence and all that ever they shall have for their service They that put themselves upon Gods providence as these men did in the Desart they shall not want but remember then that they must accept of barley loaves for current payment Peter and John had neither silver nor gold yet they had food and raiment and for the most part the most fortunate are they that be no such Camels but they may pass through the eye of the needle I will work out of the point but this little more these five hundred men that waited upon Christ had kept their Fast to the full Canonical time they had eat nothing until night therefore he distributes the loaves dissolves their fast and would not suffer them to continue it any longer than might do them good A man in the fervour of his desire will pursue that he desires so hard as he will quite forget his meat so Esau felt no hunger when he was in the chase a hunting but as soon as that was over he longed for meat upon any terms so during the whole day that our Saviour
speak the Oracles of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rational discourses 1 Pet. iv 11. So our Saviour promised his Disciples I will give you a mouth and wisdom not a mouth only but wisdom with it so that all your Adversaries shall not be able to gainsay it Luk. xxi 15. Finally the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the person of an Evangelical Priest The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should speak a word in season Isa l. 4. And so to end all let us send up our tongues of praise and thanksgiving to heaven to the gracious God that did send down the blessing of these Tongues to his Church upon earth And the same Lord Jesus exalt us to his Church Triumphant where with one song and with one voice we shall sing glory to him for evermore AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 12 13. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this Others mocking said these men are full of new wine MEntion being made in the former part of this Chapter what effects the Mission of the Holy Ghost as upon this day wrought in the Apostles the next thing which is disclosed in these two verses is what entertainment it found in the World What entertainment should it find but joy and gladness and thanksgiving it was a shower of grace that fell from Heaven and every drop of it more valuable than an Orient Pearl which made the whole earth barren and unfruitful before spring out with spiritual increase that from thenceforth the Wombs of Mothers should not bring out men but Saints It was not as upon the sixth day of the week in the Creation of the World that God did breath into man the breath of Life but upon this first day of the week he breathed into his Church the breath of Righteousness and filled it with the seeds of future Glory From the Feast of the Passover the Jews were to number seven weeks and then they kept a most solemn day called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost that 's this very day instituted to recognize how at that time they came out of Egypt from the Bondage of Pharaoh and received the Law which was delivered upon Mount Horeb. But to expunge the memory of that occasion God did superinduct a far greater blessing upon this Festival day and poured out his Spirit in a bountiful and miraculous manner upon his Disciples at Jerusalem Was there a season appointed to congratulate the deliverance of the Jews from the Captivity of the Body and doth not this Mercy exalt it self above the other that they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise to be enfranchised from the slavery of Sin and the Devil Was the remembrance of the Law a perpetual rejoycing though it were a killing Letter and is it not ten thousand times more comfortable to receive the power of the Holy Ghost which enabled them to keep the Law Did they take it kindly and chearfully to receive the Law written in Tables of Stone And is not the change a great deal better on this day to have it written in the fleshly Tables of their Heart Then the Lord gave them but one Talent and they made but small multiplication of it nay they were the Servants in the Parable and who but they that bound it up and buried it in a Napkin Lo here are five Talents delivered unto us a greater Sum than ever the Children of Men received before And answer me now in equity what entertainment the Mission of the Holy Ghost should receive in the World Not to deceive your expectation with many words the case is thus The best of the Jews that came to the God-speed of this days work profest ignorance and knew not what to make of it the worst of them exhaled envy and rancour out of their malignant minds and jeared at it And they were all amazed and were in doubt c. The parts must needs arise to these two heads Grande miraculum Grande ludibrium First a great Miracle for it wrought these three things first Amazement they were all amazed secondly Doubt they were in doubt thirdly earnest Search and Inquisition for they said one to another what meaneth this But though the greater part were thus affected and therefore it is said they were all amazed meaning the greater number yet divers turn'd it to mockery and said these men are full of new wine First the sending of the Holy Ghost was construed to be a great Miracle by all that saw the effects of it in the Apostles and in the beginning it is exprest by a passion that took away their reason for a time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were amazed then it troubled their reason they doubted and finally it exercised their reason for they asked after it Amazement is a word to express the highest and most sudden admiration that can take a man when astonishment doth seize upon the faculties of the mind and bind them up for a little space that they have no power to exercise themselves as if they were Planet-blasted The Latin word Attonitus is he that is scared with a sudden clap of thunder so that he is stupified for a while but the Greek word in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goes further for the right signification is they were beside themselves or they were in an extasie So our Saviour's Kinsmen being themselves out of their wits with ignorance thought that our Saviour was transported when he preached the Gospel and knew not what he said therefore their opinion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is beside himself Mark iii. 21. Ecstatici qui non sunt in potestate mentis they that are amazed have not their mind present for the time it is dizied and confounded so that this Miracle wrought upon the Jews after the highest pitch of admiration Let us interpret it to the best that joy did overcome them to see the riches of all goodness poured out upon the Sons of men Their Forefathers were astonisht with fear at the delivery of the Law and they are astonisht with joy at the coming of the Holy Ghost The Gift it self the Persons that received it the Operation which it did exercise in them to speak the glory of God in all Tongues and Languages all are transcendently wonderful that the wit of a natural man especially is not able to comprehend them The Gift it self in the first place is so celestial that the Lord himself is not more wonderful in all his works than in sending the Holy Ghost so hidden from the knowledg of the world so rare to be found so beneficial to mankind that he that marvels not at it is himself a Miracle Are you amazed at things which are secret and very abstruse in their nature none more close and unperceivable than this As the wind passeth by and is not perceived so God breaths the