before us Try all things and prove your own heart if you understand which way you walk unto the Lord. Ephraim feedeth on the wind and followeth after the East wind wherein the Prophet deciphers them that know not what they seek after or at least how they would comprehend it Some eat and drink their own damnation because they discern not the Lords body they come by custom to the Table of the Lord not with solemn and faithful preparation these are not led by the Spirit Some lay their hand to this Plow to preach the Kingdom of Christ but never bethought them seriously what it was to bear the Ark of God upon their shoulders they took the Priests Office upon them only for the hire and wages but never examined whether they were inwardly called these were not led by the Spirit The Widows in St. Pauls days who were to continue in supplications night and day these were not to be taken into that Society which attended the Church under threescore years of age and such as had been diligent in every good work In after Ages out of more presumption than due care some were accepted to take the vow of continency upon them at the age of forty Others more dangerously admitted Virgin Votaries at the age of twenty five And now every youngling at the age of fourteen is solemnly received to be incloystered in an unmaried estate for ever before they know the hazard of their own frailty the iron bondage of such a Vow or how to avoid the continual tentations of most discontenting melancholy these took their snare upon them by fond enticements and ignorant devotion they were not led by the Spirit This was St. Ambrose his reason of this phrase 2. The next owes it self to St. Hilary Non aliter tentatus est quà m spiritûs permissu auxilio He was led by the Spirit that is he maintained this quarrel against the Devil by the permission and assistance of the Holy Spirit The Holy Ghost is not an idle Spectator but a party that leads us by the hand and holds up our hands to conquer these Amalekites as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses The Apostles were like things shut up that durst not come abroad till they were filled with the Spirit that had no heart to offer themselves to the trial of any affliction but kept out of the way But in Gods help as David says they leapt over the wall and ventured forth out of that narrow imprisonment and to make some satisfaction for that privacy when they lived as recluses they travelled boldly through all places of the world baptizing all Nations in the name of the Lord Jesus What durst they not do for the honour of God when they were led by the Spirit The Children of Israel made no scruple to pitch their Tents within the borders of their enemies if the Pillar of cloud did remove before them so wheresoever the grace of God doth carry a man Gods glory being his undoubted end without all vain delusions and carnal reservations he may be bold to venture As we read of Sampson that before he did those great and heroical exploits against the Philistines he was possessed with the Spirit of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him when he slew a thousand of the Philistines with the jaw-bone of an Ass Judg. xv 14. So it holds in the works of Regeneration Patience Obedience denying of our selves taking up the Cross of Christ mortifying the body of Sin these cannot be done unless the Spirit of the Lord do move upon us But according to the method of the Psalm first we must trust in God to pluck our feet out of the snare before he lead us in the right way and set us upon a rock of stone where we shall not be moved First lead us not into tentation that is leave us not to our selves and then bear us on Eagles wings and bring us to himself Exod. xix 4. We do not so much deprecate in the Lords Prayer that we should not come near the assault of any tentations as that we may not be drawn into the midst of them and there left unto our selves Most excellently the Apostle Heb. xiii 20. The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant he will bring us out of the Pit-falls of the Devil that is implied for it follows he will make us perfect in every good work to do his will Aristotle hath a rule in his Rhetoriques how that must needs be an excellent thing which the worst men desire they may seem to have though they want it As liberality must needs be a graceful vertue for few are so sordidly covetous but that they love to be accounted liberal So the guidance of the divine Spirit necessarily must be the most laudable principle of all humane actions for there is not so palpable an hypocrite that will confess he was led by his own Concupiscence or seduced by his Passions no he will pretend it is the fear of God and his Conscience that doth lead him in all things What wonder if Christian Hypocrites have such conceits For the King of Assyria a Most prophane Blasphemer thought it was the best way to make the same pretension when he came to pluck down the living God Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it The Lord said to me go up against this Land to destroy it And I would it were not the disgrace of these times that many such live among us who have their secret stratagems and desires to make havock of the small revenue of the Church and to pluck down the glory and dignity of it but with the same ungodly flourish that the King of Assyria made We are led by the Spirit the Lord said unto us go and destroy this as they most impudently and ignorantly call it Superstition I will give them the Prophet Ezekiels woe for their reward Ezek. xiii 3. Thus saith the Lord God woe unto the foolish Prophets that follow their own Spirit and have seen nothing These are led on by their fury to bring to pass the works of the evil one not led by the Spirit as our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Arch-leader was to overcome the tentations of the Devil The third reason is out of St. Chrysostoms Quiver and I cannot exceed beyond that at this time Non simpliciter profectus sed abductus God did inspire the Evangelists to write in this manner how Christ was led when he went into temptation rather than that he went of himself simply without more addition because no man should offer himself rashly and voluntarily to be tempted unless God did put some constraint and impulsion upon him It is a most cautilous note if you observe it for take the matter right and consider Christ in himself alone without respect of leaving an example
desiderium expletur All misery shall be excluded from our happy estate and all our desires fulfill'd And both these two are most remarkable in this Angelical Congratulation First the depulsion or sending of all manner of evil and misery from our blessed estate in these words The Angel said unto them fear not Secondly The inclusion of all those joys and solaces that can be askt that 's laid open in Evangelizo Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Privatively the messenger cashier'd all discomfort nay positively he brought great comfort which twain put together make up the complement of our final beatitude and are both deduced from the blessing of the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Christ The first general branch wherein the Angel promis'd a deliverance or award from all manner of evil that might make the Shepherds sorrowful I have done with that and there I leave it I come now to the second general branch which abounds much above the former where not only evil is dispell'd but a chearful benediction succeeds in the place Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Wherein that no title may be lost of such heavenly comfort first note the Angels Trumpet with which he proclaims his errand Ecce behold Secondly the errand consisting in no less than seven branches of benediction 1. Ecce ego says the Angel Behold I bring unto you the tearms were much amended between Heaven and us that the Angel came unto us upon a peaceable message 2. Ecce Evangelizo he was no Lawgiver that was terrible but an Evangelist 3. The sweet air of the Gospel hath some harsh tidings to take up the cross and endure unto blood and death but these were tidings of joy 4. Joys are of several sizes this is a great one nay none so great 5. Joys and great ones are quickly done this is gaudium quod erit joy that shall be and continue 6. A man may be a conduit-pipe to transmit joy to others and have no benefit himself this is gaudium vobis joy to you to every ear that hears it 7. A good nature would not engross a blessing but desires to have it diffused and so was this Gaudium omni populo joy to all people And of these severally as I have put them in a rank Before the Law was delivered at Mount Sinai the voice of a Trumpet was heard in the Camp of Israel which sounded long and waxed lowder and lowder Exod. xix 19. A Trumpet was a sign of hostility and of warlike preparation The Law indeed came like an enemy to condemn us for we were not able to stand before it but Christ who was the end of the Law made way to his own manifestation by the articulate voice of an Angel as if it had been the voice of a man to intimate that the Prince of Peace was approacht near unto us ecce behold Out of which word standing in this place I note three things admiration demonstration and attention 1. Ecce see and admire this is the greatest wonder that ever was Name any thing unto me that ever was made and I am confident to say this is stranger to mans apprehension than any thing that ever was made the Incarnation of the Son of God If you love to cast your eyes upon that which is miraculous look this way and see the greatest miracle that ever was brought to light In the beginning was the word and no word can utter how it was made flesh in time The eternal Creator was made man of the substance of a woman and yet his hands did make and fashion the substance of his Mother The word by which the world was made became an Infant in the cradle and could not speak He that bears up the pillars of the earth was born in the arms of Joseph and carried into Egypt The Infinite Majesty that hath made the bounds of heaven and earth being himself without limits or circumscription was bound with swadling clouts and laid in a manger It is not safe to proceed into many of these inquisitions lest astonishment overwhelm us St. Paul was wary and came off thus from the wonderment thereof Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh as who should say the Temple of Solomon had things of much secresie within the Veil the Ark the Cherubims the Propitiatory the most Holy of Holies the Church of the New Testament hath things as wonderful and mysterious as those arcana fidei recluse and admirable secrets of Faith the manifestation of Christ in the form of man Ipsi quoque Angelorum primati incognita says Dionysius the Primate of Angels in the triumphant Church is not able to sound the depth of it So then you see this word is a preface to an extraordinary miracle ecce behold Secondly To cry out unto the Shepherds behold is an Adverb of Demonstration things hard by make us look towards them more than those that are further off we sit still and muse upon that which we hope will come to pass but when we hear the bridegroom coming then we busle and look out The Prophet would not say barely Thy King cometh O Sion but Ecce Rex tuus behold thy King cometh O what an alteration this was when the invisible God came to an ocular demonstration and though he be now ascended up to Heaven yet he hath left his Spirit in our hearts that we may say with the Apostle Dominus prope est the Lord is at hand And though the senses of our body do not fix themselves upon him yet Faith will perceive him strongly and certainly that he is truly present Faith will assure it self how he stands at the door and knocks and how it hears his voice Furthermore let this demonstrative direction put you in mind to live so justly and inoffensively as if you did always behold God in the flesh Elias made the right use of this doctrine when he took an oath Vivit Dominus in cujus conspectuâ—sto as the Lord liveth in whose presence I stand Well says Rubanus upon it the just Prophet demeans himself as one that stands in Gods presence in this life and he shall surely keep his rank in the same place in the life to come Ecce natus says the Angel Behold the tidings of a Saviour as if nothing else had been worth our consideration and how many be there that demean themselves as if they car'd not whether they heed it or no. But thirdly Ecce behold it doth not beg but command attention when the Lord sends a messenger is it not fit to note him diligently and to ponder his sayings in your mind Philo says that those two words of Moses Deut. xxvii 9. Take heed and hearken O Israel are the sum of all the precepts in the Law Hearken O daughter and consider incline thine ear says
they prophesied and did not cease Num. xi 25. Elegantly St. Austin to favour this opinion Christ warned his Apostles not to stir from Jirusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father and that not many days thence that is 10 days after his Ascension they should receive the Holy Ghost But says the Father Christ gave this spirit not only to them but to ten times as many as the Twelve to sixscore in all Ea est fidelitas imo liberalitas Christi docens nos pauca promittere sed decuplo plura praestare this is the just dealing nay the liberality of Christ which bids us promise no more than we will perform but rather perform ten times more than you promise But whether the cloven tongues which lookt as if they had been of fire did descend upon the whole Congregation men and women may a little be doubted for they were Types and Figures that the Lord would send forth of his Servants to be bold and fervent Preachers in all Nations and women were interdicted from the public ministry of Preaching though in the beginning they were imployed in some private labours of the Word And if the women had the gift of tongues they did not utter them in this Chapter for when all were amazed to hear such diversity of languages from illiterate ones and such as never travelled some mocked and said these men are full of new wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the masculine gender And 't is not to be despised for an observation that ver 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all are said to be full of the Holy Ghost and ver 3. the firy tongues are said to sit not upon all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon each of them meaning I conjecture upon each of the Apostles but I will not strive for it In the old Missals I am sure I have not perused the latter it reads the Epistle thus omnes discipuli all the Disciples were with one accord in one place and Beza says in two antient Greek Copies he had found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Apostles and none other mentioned Certainly they were primarily intended to reap the benefit of the day For it is well noted by the first Writers that there were four things proper and peculiar to the Apostles given them for the gathering together of the Saints which were not communicable to any other Servant of Christ The first was immediate vocation from Heaven St. Paul demonstrated he was not inferior to the best of the Apostles because of that property The second was infallibility of judgment in the necessary points of faith 3. A Generality of Commission to have the care of the whole world committed to every one of them to exercise their power in all places towards all persons 4. To speak in all the tongues and languages of the world to confirm their Doctrin by signs and miracles and by the imposition of their hands to give the like miraculous gifts of the spirit to others For although the having of miraculous gifts and the power to work miracles was not simply proper to the Apostles yet to have them in a sort as by the imposition of their hands to give the spirit unto others and to enable such as they thought fit to do signs and wonders through the finger of God this was a benediction upon the heads of the Apostles from the great day of Pentecost and only upon them Simon Magus that Mammonist you may remember would have bought it of them but had a curse instead of a blessing Nay when Philip the Deacon had baptized some at Samaria the Apostles went to confirm those whom he had baptized by imposition of hands that they might receive some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost And as these graces were reserved only for the Apostolical honor in their time so were they never since passed over to any by succession Instead of immediate calling God be praised we can shew our Vocation derived by succession from the Apostles Instead of infallibility of judgment we have the direction of the Scriptures to guide us in finding out the truth instead of general Commission over the whole World we have particular assignment of several Churches and parts of Christs Flock to feed instead of their miraculous gifts and power to confer them to others we have that faith which was confirmed by the Apostles miracles And so I have declared that many even all the Believers that met together shared in the blessings of this day but the Apostles had an excellency and preeminency above them all for the government of the Church not disputing what particular irradiations and sanctifications the Blessed Virgin had which we may suppose to be incomparable beyond all others such as were fit for her to receive but they are not here revealed But of the persons hitherto I can spare no more time for that for it is worth much observation how they were prepared to receive the Holy Ghost which I handle in this order howsoever the words ly first that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first unà then unanimes they were all in one place To be altogether in one City in Jerusalem and not to stir from thence till they had received the Comforter even the Spirit of Truth to that purpose Christ laid his command upon them but they were met together not only in one City but in one house not only in one Vineyard but like Grapes they hung together in one cluster Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity In publick they consorted together Luke v. ult they were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God together in private they held fast the same friendship and amity by this says our Saviour shall they know you to be my Disciples if you love one another Whether it were the time of praying or hearing the Word or breaking of bread mark it in several places of this Chapter they did it with chearfulness and mutual friendship they were never asunder Unity in matter of circumstance in matter of place carries blessing and edification with it that we are Brethren it is the Lords doing to make men to be of one mind to dwell in one house Psal lxviii 6. We read it in our last Translation he setteth the solitary in Families that is he reduceth the dispersed into unity and outward conformity I told you and pressed it earnestly about this time the last year what an acceptable thing it was to God that when Noah and his Sons and Daughters were all the living of men and women that were left in the World that these should all praise the Lord together in outward unity with one voice and with one Sacrifice this was called a sweet smelling savour so much it delighted God this day to see the Church met together those 120 names that after Ages might know how well compacted the Primitive
Observation of days touching the very labour of the Cattel in the field and what not It was a burden as the Apostles testifie which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear yet there was sweetness in all this because it was done for the Lords sake though the task had been stricter David did well set forth the condition of the Law unto what great bondage it did captivate a man in these words Behold O Lord how that I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid a servant in extremity of thraldom and therefore it was repeated a Servant born for partus sequitur ventrem he must needs be so that was the Son of an handmaid he was born to be circumcised and to be a debtor to the whole Law Such were all they that boasted themselves to be the only freemen in the world because they were the Sons of Abraham Nay Simeon was not only such a Servant as I have hitherto described bridled under the Pedagogy of Moses Law but out of the relative terms of my Text I will shew that he was in greater subjection and aw for how doth he call the Lord here Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Lord that had power of life and death over his Vassal you shall not find it used again in all the four Evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Favorinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Lord of a bondman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a freeman that is an hired servant I have plaid the Critick enough such servants those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were anciently called so not because they were paid for their labour which they did undergo in drudgery but because they were taken by hostility and their lives were forfeited to the Conquerour who had power to slay them yet spared them and resigned them up into their hands that would lay down a ransom for them So Simeon confesseth that God had the power of life and death over him when he might have killed him out of his clemency he spared him Behold a Servant then and such as he was such were all the Jews a man under the yoke of the Law and under the power of death But behold as this day the Deliverer was born and did quite change the copy of our service Christ as God did put the Church under the servitude of the Law but being made man he hath exempted us to the liberty of the Gospel and though we shall all die through that sentence which cannot be repealed yet if we believe that he hath given himself a ransom for us and live unto righteousness we shall not die unto condemnation But that you may know what kind of servants they are that retain to that family whereof God takes the care and administration mind the character of Simeon which the Holy Ghost gives him in the verses preceding my Text for his Calling it is obscurely past over thus there was a man in Jerusalem Galatinus says out of the Rabbins that one Simeon the just was the Master of the great Doctor Gamaliel and that may very well light upon this Simeon Much hath been urged to prove him to be a Priest but to no purpose Salmeron and Tolet alledge that when a child came to be presented to the Lord the Priest took the child out of the arms of his Mother and did not restore him again till he was redeemed for five Shekles of Silver according to the Law Num. xviii but how will they prove that a Child might not light into the arms of some other incidentally as well as into the arms of the Priest Yea but Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary ver 34. that is a Sacerdotal action Nay not always old Jacob blessed Pharaoh and every Prophet is an instrument of Benediction At the last heave says Tolet it is an old tradition of the Church to paint him in a Priestly Vesture an hard refuge when they refer us for a proof to Pictures and not to the Word of God Whether the Priesthood or the Layty may challenge him for theirs I know not one thing I know that he was a just man and waited for the consolation of Israel a pious holy Father a frequenter of the Temple a man uncompounded with the world but this was his righteousness that he lookt for the blessed off-spring God and man whom the Lord would send to redeem his Saints You will say perhaps did not all the Jews expect the Messias What did he more than other men Why herein he did exceed them that they did not look for such benefits from the Messias as Simeon did such spiritual refreshment for the soul and for the spirit Then the common sort of people lookt for Christ afar off he lookt for him just at that time near at hand As Joseph of Arimathea is said to look for the Kingdom of God that is to see Christ incarnate even then in the fulness of time Luke xxiii 51. Again others waited for Christ but carelesly without any earnest affection Simeon even languisht with longing and did passionately desire it St. Austin says that he did continually pray for the coming of Christ and often repeated that of David Psal lxxxv Shew us thy mercy O Lord and grant us thy salvation and then God answered him that he would fulfill his hearts desire Nicephorus tells us a vagrant story that Simeon was reading those words Isa vii Behold a Virgin shall conceive a Son and being sollicitous what that place should mean an Angel appeared and told him he should not die till he had seen that Babe with his eyes of whom Isaiah Prophesied This is certain the Holy Ghost had given him some great assurance of it The Spirit was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 25. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only in him but upon him which signifies extraordinary assistance as when it is said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me Isa lxi You see now with what endowments of heavenly graces Simeon was enricht before he called himself the servant of the Lord. His modesty would give himself no better title yet our Saviour speaks better things of those that believed Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends c. Joh. xv 15. It is not the meaning that we shall ever out-grow the name of servant for even at the day of judgment in the time of our reward it shall be said Well done good and faithful servant But here it is we are all servants by debt and nature the Gospel stiles us friends by Covenant and Composition Before Christ was revealed God dealt with them of the Synagogue as with servants he did not reveal the mysteries of the Trinity of the Incarnation of the coming of the Holy Ghost if he did reveal them to the Prophets it was ex privilegio not ratione status it was by
commanded to be made unless he had dominion over them that is unless he were Lord over them before they were made Rom. iv he calleth things that are not as things that are therefore he hath authority as a Lord over things that are not as much as over things that are The fair conclusion of it is the actual relation of the Creatures to his dominion began in time but their subjection to his will and power is for ever therefore God is the Lord from all eternity Whatsoever distinction may be put between these names yet when we praise God let us do as Zachary doth joyn them both together when we confess him let us do so likewise as Jonas did I am an Hebrew who worship the Lord God that made heaven and earth When we say our Belief let us do the same even as the Nicene Fathers did before us I believe in one God and in one Lord Jesus Christ And if you please your selves to distinguish accurately upon such Titles because St. Paul hath said that there be Gods many and Lords many let us distinguish between them and this supreme one the Lord God of Israel who is blessed for ever more Christ says the Scripture calleth them Gods to whom the word of God came Joh. x. 34. That Scripture is Psal lxxxii 6. I have said ye are Gods and ye are all the children of the most high From thence and from my Text you may state a profitable difference 1. Dixi I have said ye are Gods he hath said it and that made them so unless he had Godded them they had had no such pre-eminence What they have it is by entitling and nuncupation 2. Dixi Dii estis there are many of those Gods not only every Prince and Ruler chalengeth it by his Crown but every Christian hath his interest in it by adoption of filiation So I cited it from the mouth of our Saviour before the Scripture hath said they are Gods to whom the Word of God came 3. Estis ye are for a while ye are and after a while ye shall go from hence and be no more seen ye shall die like men but the true God abideth for ever 4. These heathen Semi-gods these that carry that badge upon earth shall not only die like men but like sinful men for it follows in the Psalm that when they fall God shall arise to judge the earth after they have judged they shall be judged upon it hereafter how they have judged But O man thou must not reply against the God of heaven his judgments are indisputable 5. The ever blessed God is praised in every thing that pertains unto him he is praised in all places of his dominion he is praised in all his works He hath done all things well say the people of Christ but among the actions of the best men Sunt bona sunt quaedam mediocria sunt mala plura Among some good there is much evil among some flourishing sprigs of praise there are divers dead boughs of frailty 6. These Nuncupative Gods preside over Civil Governments each of them is a golden head over his own Political body but Christ only is head of the whole Church from whence the whole body increaseth with the increase of God he alone is the Lord. And it is likewise upon some remarkable appropriation that the Psalmist says the Lord is his name he bears it certainly with many notorious marks of difference from all the Lordlings in the world First The dominion of man is joyned with some servitude in the Master for he that stands in need is a servant to his own necessities and the Master stands in need of the drudgery of the labouring man as much or more perhaps than that drudge stands in need of the wages of the Master But all our service is of no use or benefit to the King of heaven I said unto the Lord thou art my God my goods are nothing unto thee Psal xvi and therefore says St. Austin God did not make the world from all eternity to shew that he did not want the help of his Creature Secondly All things serve the Lord above nothing is hidden from the Scepter of his dominion but man in the highest Office upon earth is confined to a small scantling of authority he can command the body of his Vassal but not his soul He cannot command his Grass to grow or his Trees to bear or his Cattel to encrease or the weather to be seasonable But as the people said in admiration of the Miracles of the Son of God Who is this that commandeth the Winds and Seas and they obey him Thirdly All the Lordship upon earth is subalternate and dependant from a greater command Masters do that which is just unto your Servants knowing that you also have a Master in heaven Col. iv There is but one Lord and none but he that is responsive to no other the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Our Saviour though an unscrutable Abyssus of humility assumed that unto himself Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am Joh. xiii 13. Such a Lord to whom all the Sons of men do bow and obey Such a Lord that though he were Davids Son yet David in spirit calleth him Lord The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstoole Lord of all things by the Essence of his Godhead Lord of all things in his Manhood by the Hypostatical Union but by special interest Lord of all those whom he redeemed with his most precious bloud Lord God of Israel in which numbers as soon as ever he believed Thomas concluded himself saying My Lord and my God As we have the Humanity of Christ expressed in the two subsequent actions so we have as surely his Divinity set forth in these Titles the Lord God of Israel But that God that filleth the heaven of heavens and that Lord who hath stretcht out the line of his power over the whole earth he is Canton'd in this Text to a little Region of the earth but a Molehill in respect of the extent of his Majestie the Lord God of Israel It was not with Zachary the Priest in this elegant Canto as it useth to be with other Poets who out of affectation do strain their Poetry to make honourable mention of their own Country where there was neither cause nor merit But this holy Prophet had sufficient warrant from the Spirit which cannot err to nominate him the Patron of this people rather than of any other the God of Israel and that for two reasons Propter notitiam verbi propter promissiones seminis benedicti First The Oracles of the Scriptures were committed to them and God was not truly worshipped any where but in the Synagogues of the Hebrews and therefore says the Psalmist Notus Deus in Israele God is well known in Israel there they knew him that he was to be adored that he
me yet they are not so uncharitable to bid Anathema to any in so disputable a point I am sure St. Austin having disputed on both sides concludes he would not strive eagerly with him that should say sins were remitted in the Baptism of John meaning it did not essentially differ from the Baptism of Christ yet I will end with this third observation that in some less principal respects the Baptism of Christ doth exceed the Baptism of John I will name five distinctions 1. In formâ verborum John baptized in the name of the Messias that came after him Acts xix 4. and it was more advantage to teach it to every of the Jews as he baptized them one by one than to proclaim it to the whole multitude But Christ bade his Disciples choose another form and for that he would not take all honour to himself it must be in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 2. They differ in amplitudine nationum John medled with none but such as were within the Regions of Judea Christ bad his Disciples to except no people but to wash all Nations from their sins 3. Christs Baptism transcends Johns in varietate personarum for it sounds not to likelihood that John baptized Infants they could not confess their sins nor learn the doctrine of Repentance nor be taught the coming of the Messias such only came to him But Christs Baptism pertains to little ones and his spirit was poured out upon all flesh your Sons and Daughters shall Prophesie and your young men see visions 4. Christs Baptism hath the upper hand in gradibus efficaciae the Spirit is more operative in Baptism since Christ did go to his Father to send us the Comforter than ever it was before 5. It is greater than Johns baptism in modo necessitatis The Sacraments of the New Testament had the seeds of life in them from the first institution and they were good to the receiver but they were not imposed by necessary commandment till the old Law was quite abolished and that was at the Resurrection says Leo or at the farthest in other mens opinions at the feast of Pentecost So Johns baptism was always good never necessary Christs baptism is always good is and ever will be necessary unto the end of the world These are less principal differences the substance of both being the same for one thing yet remains to be proposed that the Baptism of John opened the gate unto everlasting life as some have shewed by an Allegorical reason taken from the place where John did baptize Christ in Jordan says this Text not a private dipping in a Chamber and of all other places of Jordan it was Bethabara Joh. i. 28. which is being interpreted Domus transitus the house of passing over even in all likelihood where Joshuah divided Jordan and passed over into the Land of Promise this is the circumstance of place which I propounded the fortunate seat where this work was done to betoken that as Joshuah brought the twelve Tribes at that very standing through the River into that pleasant Land which was promised to Abraham so Jesus will bring us through the sprinkling of water into the Kingdom of heaven AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 14. But John forbad him saying I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me IN which Text you may see that ancient Sentence verified how an ambitious man is afraid left too little honour be cast upon him and an humble man is afraid of too much Our blessed Saviour saw multitudes of Penitents coming to John to be baptized and to confess their sins Among these people whose iniquities stood in need of cleansing he steps in for one into the River Jordan not to receive Sanctification unto himself but to sanctifie the waters unto others O exceeding dignity far above all honour that ever was vouchsafed to any Prophet for to which of them was it said at any time Dip thine hand in water and anoint the head of my Son And therefore Christ was pleased to give this Character of John that he was more than a Prophet More than a Prophet not only in the Office which he sustained to be the immediate fore-runner of the Messias but more than any Prophet or Patriarch in the expression of his humility Jacob wrestled with God but it was to get a blessing from his Angel he would not be denied John the Baptist wrestles with the Son of God to decline the blessing which was brought before him and fain he would be denied His hand shrunk up and durst not attempt to pour water upon his head who is the immortal head of the Church visible and invisible both of men and Angels He thought it no sin to disobey when he was required to such a work which in his eyes appeared far too excellent for any creature Therefore conceive him modestly starting back and making this reply to our Saviour Lord why dost thou tempt thy servant Why wouldst thou put the Potter into the hand of the Clay What is it to thee to be dipt in water Whose precious Bloud shall wash away all sins and mine in the reckoning among the rest Behold this exact humility more than any Prophet exprest how John forbad him to be baptized saying I have need to be baptized c. The matter of the Text may be handled in these three several Points 1. The Baptist did declare how jealous he was of Gods honour therefore the Text says he forbad Christ to come under the Ministry of a Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he would fain have put him by thinking it ignoble for the Lord of all Lords to descend so low 2. He disables himself and makes profession of his own vileness and infirmity I have need to be baptized of thee 3. He ends with the admiration of his Saviours humility And comest thou to me Yet again I will consider him in the exercise of the three spiritual vertues Faith Hope and Charity 1. He believed this was the Christ as soon as ever he saw him and that made him interpose to forbid him stoop so low as to be baptized there was his faith 2. He confesseth that he relies upon him to be baptised with his Spirit and to be saved through his merits there is his hope Lastly he breaks out into an extasie of admiration as soon as ever he saw him like old Simeon that sung a Canticle for joy Comest thou to me O thou expectation of the World O thou desire of our eyes There was his ardent love these are his Faith his Hope his Love and remember that every tittle of his praise is the rule of your practise Set your attentions now upon the first part of the Text that John was jealous of our Saviours honour and forbad him to be baptized The interpretation of the word certainly is not so harsh as it may be thought to
is but dust and ashes Christ did empty himself of his glory and fulfilled all the righteousness of humility The fifth word of consideration is the plurality of persons spoken of in the Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness It was fit indeed for our Lord Jesus to perform all obedience to the Law in every tittle and minim that is commanded because it lay upon his person to undo the curse of the Law Surely Johns name must stand for a cipher in that work for Christ alone trod the Wine-press of his Fathers wrath neither John nor any of the Saints were made co-partner with him in our redemption By his one Oblation of himself once offered he made a full perfect sufficient Sacrifice and Oblation for the sins of the world What means this saying therefore in the Plural Thus it behoveth us Take again what the Spirit hath supplied for exposition of this word in divers manners One way it is satisfied that Christ according to that excellent power which is in him speaks of himself regally as of many Joh. iii. 11. We speak that we know and we testifie what we have seen and yet Christ only spake to Nicodemus Again it is a sweet consolation that after the taking of any Sacrament we are no more one and one and so to be reckoned single by our selves but Baptism and the Lords Supper are the very bonds of perfection and make us all members of one mystical body the Scripture is admirably accurate in this particular as 1 Cor. xii 13. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one spirit Here it appears that we are become one spirit by drinking one cup of the Lord and one holy lump because we are sprinkled with one spirit in the water in the name of the Lord so our Saviour phraseth the sentence of my Text according to this mystical union Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness One other Paraphrase is very plain and literal and perhaps therefore the more natural John was loth to put his hand unto the water to cast it upon the head of Christ his Master rectifies his error and tells him it must be done it is expedient for both Obedience is required in the Servant humility in the Lord thus it behoveth us on both sides to fulfil all righteousness Take the last conjecture of the word with you and as I approve it the most useful Christ was made righteousness and sanctification for us by shedding his innocent bloud which is testified in the water of this Sacrament He alone is the meritorious cause of our Salvation But the application of this justice is not to be expected to fall upon our heads without ordinary means and such instruments as God hath appointed Ye are Gods Husbandry says St. Paul to them of Corinth but we are labourers together with God 1 Cor. iii. 9. He regenerates by his word which is committed to the lips of sinful men he cleanseth and sanctifieth his Church by the washing of water whereof we are made dispensers therefore our Saviour hath joyned this Prophet to himself not by way of merit God forbid but by way of instrument and ministry in the work of our redemption thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness Now I shall end this Text in a word that Christ did fulfil all righteousness at this time not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a strict necessary rigour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for decency sake because it did become him Thus it becometh us c. Many abasements our Saviour did endure and became obedient in many parts of humility which could not be exacted at his hands in strict justice as he took our nature upon him but they were certain voluntary strains of lowliness which were full measure pressed down and running over As for his dolourous Passion of the Cross that could not be escaped it was the cup which he must drink to satisfie for the sins of the world therefore he preacht to his Disciples in this unavoidable expression Nonne oportuit c. Ought not Christ to have suffered and thus to enter into his glory But to stoop like one of the multitude to the Baptism of John was not of absolute necessity but a decency which did well befit his humiliation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus it becometh us c. A comliness in every one is to be observed according to his Christian calling and decency though necessity were set apart will prevail much with tractable and honest dispositions Some will bend to nothing but to that which is clearly exprest in so many words out of the sacred Text. But what if decorum require it to be done though it be not in specialty contained in Scripture but in general Maxims why surely then it cannot be neglected if we will offer up to God a perfect Sacrifice Whatsoever is fitting for an outward sanctification of a sincere heart you cannot omit it without maiming that ingenuous comliness which is required at our hands This is not my own fancy for I observe it frequently in St. Paul that he argues from that which becometh a Christian 1 Cor. xi 13. Judge in your selves is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered 1 Tim. ii 10. Let the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety not with broidered hair But as becometh women professing godliness Eph. v. 3. Fornication uncleanness let it not once be named among you as becometh Saints Where is that wrangling excuse now for all your pride and bravery Will you be stiff in your opinion that you may paint and powder and crisp and clip hair and use all those Island dog tricks about your head because the Bible doth in no place by name condemn these things Beloved if the Spirit of God had penn'd a thousand Bibles more they could not have contain'd the Catalogue of all those Peacock fashions into which you transform your selves from time to time therefore one rule stands for all that you must do as becometh women professing godliness and remember that there is a decency to be attended in Christianity I will not say to you as St. Paul did to the women of Corinth Judge in your selves if this be comly We should have wise reformation for all faults if you were made the judges who are quite addicted to vanities Who shall tell you then what is decent for Christians Will you rather believe the handmaid that attires you Or the Waiting-woman that hath wages to flatter you Or those Gallants that call themselves your servants and would have you proud that they may idolize you Will you believe these rather than the Priest of God whose soul must answer for every word he teacheth you Learn from him what it is that becometh you to fulfil righteousness Much might be enforced from hence likewise to commend unto you all the Ceremonies so exactly
Saints but would not have them forget Zeal Ne dolum habeas in columba demonstratum est ne simplicitas frigida remaneat in igne demonstratum est Guile and circumvention are to be banisht from Christianity if the Dove sit upon your head it will instill simplicity but simplicity may be chil and faint in a good cause therefore if a Pillar of fire sit upon your head it will infuse fervency There was no fire wanting in Stephen the Martyr when he did asperse the Jews with all manner of disdainful reproaches because they were stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart There was no Dove-like simplicity wanting because he prayed for them that stoned him And so far of the second point how aptly the Spirit came like a Dove upon Christ at his Baptism in cloven tongues and in fire upon the Apostles at the Feast of Whitsontide The conclusion of the Text rests now upon this Point that the figure of the Dove sweetly doth admonish us concerning many properties of the Holy Ghost It sate upon Christs head not to enrich him with any heavenly treasure which he wanted before but to derive the manifold issues of sanctification into our heart Solus injuriis se subdidit Dominus sed solus gratiam non quaesivit says St. Ambrose all manner of ignominies and buffetings all manner of injuries upon the Cross our Lord and Saviour took them to himself alone but the coming down of the Spirit that he took not to himself alone I will pray unto the Father and he will send you another Comforter Open your heart wide therefore and this Dove will fill it A dumb creature ye know and may signifie many things and because I am perswaded the Holy Ghost came down in that shape which had the largest number of significations for the advancement of piety therefore I will hold me to my task to collect all that are profitable and omit none And because it bears a similitude which will increase into many applications I will enter upon that occasion first therefore it is animal foecundum it is a bird of a most teaming fertility and whether any bird that flies doth breed oftner I am not certain I believe not many such fecundity there is always in a lively faith Like the trees of Eden always bearing fruit never without some good work either the tongue is praying or the ear is hearing or the heart is meditating or the eye is weeping or the hand is giving or the soul is thirsting for remission of sins and every pious action is like a Pomgranate in Aarons garment full of kernels to betoken it will seed farther and spread in infinitum This is faiths fertility therefore the Spirit harboured himself in the shape of a Dove Secondly The Gall is the drought of cholerical matter in mans body out of that distemper proceed anger revenge and malice but the Dove hath no gall or if Aristotle hath observed it better than others so small a one that it can scarce be perceived So the Spirit loves to inhabit in a mild and gentle soul without wrath and fury The wrath of man worketh not the will of God for his will is mercy and forgiveness The Dove will intreat for Miriam as Moses did and sheild off the revenge of David from Nabals folly as Abigail did and crave pardon of Philemon for his fugitive servant Onesiphorus as Paul did The bruised reed shall not be broken and the smoaking flax shall not be quenched therefore when James and John called for fire from heaven upon the Samaratans their check was Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of as who should say ye have forgot the coming down of the Dove Thirdly The harmlesness of that bird is notable it hath neither beak nor talons to tyrannize over smaller Creatures Sine armis extra sine felle intus the smallest flies or gnats may hum about it and take no harm for it devours nothing wherein there is life There is not I dare pronounce it a more Saint-like ornament in any Christian than a Dove-like innocency Devour not one another by greedy gaining by racking oppression by strict advantages by extortion by treacherous blind informations He that wrongfully fleeceth his neighbour of all his substance to increase his own store would eat the flesh likewise from his brothers arm like a savage Cannibal if he wanted sustenance The spoyls which you have robb'd from others perhaps they shall be found upon thy back at the dreadful hour of judgment but wil our Saviour say thou didst not learn this thou extortioner from the Dove that sate upon me Fourthly The Dove feeds cleanly not upon Carrion like Vultures Corvi de morte pascuntur Crows peck upon dead carkasses but it picks up grains of corn and the purest fruits of the field Me thinks in this propertie I see the Spirit invite us to the Table of the Lord What corn-food so pure as that which our Saviour brake and gave to his Disciples saying Take eat this is my body Non hoc corpus quod crucifigetur c. not as St. Austin glosseth my very body which shall be crucified and my very bloud which shall be spilt that was the gross understanding of the sapernaits to think our Saviour meant his fleshly body The Dove is no devourer of that fleshly body of Christ which he assumed from the Virgin Mary but it satisfies its spiritual hunger with those pure crums of bread which are the Sacrament of his body Fifthly It is impossible to teach a Dove to sing a chearful tune for nature hath ingrafted in it a solemn mourning Gemitus pro cantu and it is the Spirit that puts compunction into our spirit with groans unutterable Sometime hang up the Harps of mirth and sit down and weep You never read that God will honour your joy in his eternal remembrance you are sure he will not forget your mourning says David Psal lvi 8. Thou tellest my slittings put my tears into thy bottle are not these things noted in thy book Yea not only doth he bear them in mind and keep them in register but if some Interpreters erre not he wears them upon his head Cant. v. 2 My head is filled with dew says Christ and my locks with the drops of the night as if he wore our tears says the Paraphrast like drops of Pearl upon his head Dry eyes and unrelenting hearts are the curse of God Ezek. xxiv 23. Ye shall not mourn nor weep but ye shall pine away for your iniquities Sixthly The Holy Ghost useth the wings of Angels the wings of the wind the wings of the Dove a bird of strong flight for the Spirit is swift in operation what he doth he doth it quickly Nescit tarda molimina Abraham ran forth to meet the Angels that drew to his Tent Sarah made ready quickly three measures of fine meal Abrahams young man ran to the Herd to fetch a Calf tender and good Nemo piger est
since he was tempted of Satan Lord let me not fight alone lest my foes prevail against me Thus tentation begets fear and fear begets prayer and prayer calls for succour and heavenly succour will assist us to be conquerours Gregory incloseth it in his meditation Vnde pertimescit homo enerviter cadere inde accipit fortiter stare that tentation which makes a just man distrust he shall fall affordeth him occasion to set his feet upon a sure place Cast not your selves therefore into tentation Brethren but when you are in them endure them with joy and courage as it is said of the Machabees that they fought with chearfulness the battels of Israel so go on with alacrity against those innumerable evils that take hold upon you The just man triumphs with David against the powers of darkness as if he saw them already made subject unto him they are cast down and faln but we are risen and stand upright Pelopidas being environed with an Ambush alas says his Lieutenant we are faln into the hands of our enemies And why not rather our enemies faln into our hands says Pelopidas So let not the name of Satan and tentation be dreadful unto you he hath more cause to fear he shall be repulsed than you have reason to fear he shall prevail since Christ hath blunted his weapons in this conflict The Fathers call that verse the Saints Jubilee after their trial with the evil one Psal lxvi 12. We went through fire and water but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place And therefore I bequeath St. Pauls exultation to your use Thanks be to God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly Christ was tempted to give us an example how to encounter with the roaring Lion and to win the Mastery As a young Learner will observe diligently every ward and thrust that an experienced Gladiator makes so the Holy Ghost hath set down for our advertisement every passage how Christ did turn and wind the delusions of the Serpent These things had need to be scanned beloved we had need to be cunning at our fence for if the Devil sought our overthrow in Christ how much more will he do it in our selves If these things were done to the green wood what will be done to the dry But mark how the man of Gods right hand chased away the enemy mark how he demeaned himself from first to last and you are fortified with the best president that ever the world afforded Ut cujus munimur auxilio ejus erudiremur exemplo says Leo he looks upon our conflicts from heaven and helps the weaker side both by the presence of his grace and by the president of his example Observe him that we might instance in all his ways retiring into a desart from the contagion of the world observe him fasting observe him drawing his shafts out of the quiver of the holy Scripture to maintain his cause and say this is the true Charm to make the evil Serpent break as Daniel in the Apocryphal story choakt the Dragon with lumps of strong confection Christ himself could not receive increase of the Spirit either by being baptized or by being tempted for he had the fulness not of sufficiency but of abundancy before without measure but it was for the proficiency of his members that were under him And therefore the Schoolmen have a disceptation since Christ was much greater than the Angels and did far excel them in grace why he should be tempted of the Devil For we do not read that any of the Angels confirmed in grace were ever tempted One of them answers Quia Angelus non habet membra sub se quomodo Christus habet Christ is head of a body and hath members under him to give erudition unto by his example and so have not the elect Angels Wherefore if the Children of Israel lookt up by faith upon the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness that they might be healed when they were wounded how much more should we look attentively upon Christs Tentation in the Wilderness that we may not be wounded of the Serpent The Fathers in their piety say it is easier to avoid ten sins that compass us round about and have not yet taken hold of us than to recover our selves sound again from any one sin that we have committed It is the Angelical part of Christianity to take out this Lesson Prevent us O Lord from evil in all our doings There is a great deal of the old man and his ragged lining in the best repentance You may learn repentance from Christs Gospel but not from Christ himself but innocency and clearness of life and to be impregnable against tentations not Verbum Christi but Christus Verbum not the Word of Christ but Christ the eternal Word makes you cunning in that by his own example He that knows not the experience of many tentations doth not well know himself says St. Austin Nescit se homo nisi in tentatione discat se But he that knows not the experience of Christs combate will not know how to deal with tentation Fifthly Says Bonaventure very acutely he began in the ministry of the Gospel first to refute the false Doctors before he taught his Disciples the truth first to beat down the Synagogue of Satan and then to build the City of God First root up the Tares and bind them in bundles and then dress the Wheat A Bishop must be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince gainsayers Tit. i. 9. Conviction of falshood requires the greater care and diligence and the great Bishop of our souls begins with that How soon were all divinity learnt What little pains would go to Preaching and Exhortation if it were not that Heresies and Falshoods beget us a most laborious drudgery to refute them Innumerable errors are disseminated that they are like Augias his Stable so foul that they are never to be cleansed It held our Saviour forty days in the Wilderness to untie all the knots of Satan and thus we must build up Hierusalem like Nehemiahs builders with the Sword in one hand with the Trowel in the other Having the Sword of the Spirit to cut in twain the snares of the wicked one you shall the sooner build up the walls of Sion Sixthly And then I take off my hand from this Point Let no man say I am cast out from the face of the Lord because he is beset with daily tentations God had one Son that was free from sin but he hath no Son that is free from the incumbrances of Satan If there be no more in it than an outward occasion cast before you to try if you will bite which is Exterior pulsatio as a man that comes not into the house but stands without and knocks at door This is your praise in the highest respect that your vertue is impenetrable As the Lord sent a blast upon Sennacharib and made him return to his
corruption that is in us and to be the Sons of God Because there is mention of a good Spirit immediately before my Text that descended from heaven upon him in the shape of a Dove and all the business after my Text concerns an evil Spirit that assaulted him with many tentations therefore the quaere ariseth which of these did lead him into the Wilderness The Syriack determines it plainly Ductus â spiritu sancto he was led by the Holy Ghost And it is of more moment that certainly the Syriack Paraphrase took it from St. Luke Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that understand Grammer and the original Text do easily discern that the same word in the same sentence implies one and the same thing the latter being an effect of the former for being full of the Holy Spirit he was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness And I will parallel it plainly anon with that of St. Paul Acts xx 22 Behold I go bound in spirit to Jerusalem Moreover the Devil approached not unto him till after he had fasted forty days he began to be an hungry for he had no motive to begin his tentations till he perceiv'd he was in the distress of hunger like a weak man Therfore it was not Satan that carried him into this place where he fasted for then the tentation had begun before he had set foot in the Wilderness The case is clear to say no more of the first Point that the Spirit which led him was the influence and impulsion of the Holy Ghost The second thing to be askt is how the Spirit did lead him This can be conceived but two ways Either by inward instigation or removing him suddenly from one place to another which is called outward translocation Each way may be admitted for both are according to Analogy of Faith and both are favoured out of the Greek Text of sundry Evangelists You shall read in St. Luke Chap. iv 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was led by the Spirit which doth imply that the Holy Ghost did inwardly inspire that resolution into him and did assist continually while he abode in the Wilderness You shall read in St. Mark Chap. i. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness as if he had been transported thither in some wonderful rapture And my Text is read thus in St. Mathew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led up of the Spirit The Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sursum to lead up hath either regard to the situation of the Desart which was by far the higher ground in respect of Jordan where our Saviour was before Or else that he was exalted from the earth and carried away by the Spirit through the air untill he came unto that place where he spent forty days in Prayer Fasting and Meditation I dare not contend out of the Scriptures but that the Spirit wrought both ways upon Christ both carrying his body into the Wilderness and instigating his mind No unusual thing in the first sense for the Spirit to transport a body suddenly through the air without the motion of the feet to a place of far distance And although the whole Trinity God the Father the Son and Holy Ghost concur to that action and produce it or perhaps appoint an Angel to be the instrument yet it goes under the name of the Spirit because that Miracle impresseth a strange vertue into a material body as if it were spiritual How Enoch and Elias were translated on high in their bodies I have declared my mind not long since And surely before Elias his last translation into heaven this did befall him often times Obadiah was jealous of it 1 King xviii 13. It shall come to pass when I am gone from thee the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not What Ezekiel reports of himself I cannot say but it was rather an imaginary than a real rapture but thus he Ezek. viii 3. The hand of God took me by a lock of mine head and the Spirit lift me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem This could not be imprinted in his imagination but that it was possible to be done really And Gregory meditates well upon it Every regenerate person during the time of this mortal flesh is so lifted up between heaven and earth Adhuc ad superna plene non pervenit sed tamen ima dereliquit His conversation and his heart are not altogether in heaven but they are higher than the earth What a direct instance is that of the Prophet Habakkuk He was carrying food to the Reapers in the Land of Jury and the Angel of the Lord took him by the crown and bare him by the hair of his head and through the vehemency of the Spirit set him in Babylon Neither need this be rejected for Apocryphal since there is an example to match it Acts viii 39. The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip who was then at Gaza and he was found at Azotus which two are forty miles distance after the best descriptions of the Holy Land A Faith that is but linum fumigans a dusky faith and shines not clearly may easily admit this for if the birds can cut the air with their gross wings naturally who will not be perswaded that God can make the body of man more nimble and fit for such a motion by his supernatural power But I marvel at those Expositors who are squemishly conceited against that opinion that they did not frame this objection God doth not use to work Miracles only to shew tricks as one would say no necessity requiring Then cui bono Why might not Christ have gone into the Wilderness step by step What occasion of moment should urge the Spirit to transport him Beloved it was thus far expedient that Christ should vanish and no man know which way he was departed that he might avoid the honour which the multitude would have done him upon that voice which came from heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So in the sixth of St. John after the miracle of feeding some thousands with a little bread and a few fishes Christ perceived that they would take him by force and make him a King therefore he made a sudden departure none knew whither till his Disciples met him walking upon the Sea in a dark night and a great storm Mat. xiv 23. This is reason then sufficient to decline the people who were astonished at the testimony which was given him from heaven that the Spirit snatcht him away in a rapture into the Wilderness Why this interpretation of the word should not take with you I know not but I am sure the next must take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led by the Spirit that is the Holy Ghost did inspire this heroical
resolution into his humane nature to fight with and to overthrow the tentations of the Devil I shall reach this doctrine unto you the better upon certain questions And first what needed this Preface of all other before this mighty work that he was guided by the Spirit What action throughout all his life did not deserve the same commendation A young Rhetorician dedicated an Oration to one Antalcidas What is the subject of your Oration quoth he Says the young Orator the praise of Hercules Fie man says Antalcidas what needless pains have you taken Who did ever dispraise Hercules So it may seem as redundant an expression to say that Christ was led by the Spirit at this time for through the grace of Union and the grace of Unction he was always conducted by the Spirit It is sufficient for answer to this that this was the first exploit of those that Christ did act to shew he was the Christ and the Mediator of God and man therefore this clause being prefixt to the formost of his actions is a title to all the rest he was led of the Spirit 2. It is not to be taken per modum inhaerentiae that he was now full of the Holy Ghost as if he had received a larger measure than he had before but by way of manifestation for the Spirit even now had visibly descended upon him in the shape of a Dove Semper fuit actus à spiritu sed jam maximè ejus vis apparuit the common gloss of the best Writers The Spirit did always lead him and dwel in him but now it did appear and put forth its strength I move another question be not offended that I move these hard things as it were by way of Catechism are the leadings of the Spirit of more sorts than one Yea these two are degrees one above another The first is general to all the Sons of God for they are all stirred up to faith and hope and good works by a divine illumination If ye be led by the Spirit then are ye not under the Law of the flesh Gal. v. 18. The second is special to the chiefest and principal Ministers of God as Kings Prophets and Apostles when Saul was anointed King over Israel the Lord gave him another heart his Spirit came upon him and he Prophesied So Christ our anointed Prophet prepared himself for a famous enterprize and he had the badge of Gods good liking The Spirit came upon him or he was led by the Spirit Suffer but one interrogatory more and it is this Did the Spirit thrust on Christ and as it were hale him with compulsion at this time So a man might hap to fall into that error by St. Marks words The Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness And the Vulgar Latine gives the same offence Luk. iv 1. Agebatur a spiritu he was pusht on by the Spirit For answer hard words are soon mollified by good construction The very Heathen could say Generosus est animus hominis magisque ducitur quà m trahitur Mans will is a free generous thing and had rather be led fairly than drawn forcibly Therefore the other Evangelists must be expounded by St. Matthew that the Spirit led him by illumination and propounding the will of his Father unto him not by violence and coaction So Cajetan Non vis significatur sed efficientia impulsus spiritus All was done by the efficacy and motion of the Spirit nothing by compulsion Some there are who care not what old Pillars of Divinity they pull down to set up their new devises that hold that Christ did obey his Father and the Divine Law with so much liberty and freedom that it were no offence to say Christ could not have obeyed his Father not have kept the Law and so by consequent have sinned and whereas it is certain he did not sin they will neither allow that the Hypostatical Union was the cause of it O strange Theologie nor yet the grace of Unction wherewith he was anointed above his fellows O strange impudency Neither of these was fundamentum impeccabilitatis And all this to maintain that because he did merit by his obedience his will was not determined to do good but left indifferent to good or evil Away with this over audatious disputing Christ could not but fulfil all righteousness I must do the works of him that sent me Joh. iv 9. All good things conducible to the work of a Mediator were necessary to be done And it was necessary Gods will being declared that it should be fulfilled of Christ although he was not necessitated by a violent determination but moved willingly and obediently unto it by a certain perswasion Non necessitatus erat sed propter illud quod necessarium erat sponte motus says Abulensis The object propounded was necessary to be done of him though he accepted it with much alacrity and desire and no way driven by constrainment Therefore this was not like Peters case Another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not Joh. xxi 18. But the hand of the Lord was with him and carried him whither he liked himself Non invitus aut captus sed sponte liberè venit says St. Hierom He was not drawn on as if his own will drew back but rejoyced as a Giant to run his course To say no more but this Oblatus est quia voluit It was his own good will that he was slain for the sins of the world it was his own pleasure not to dread death and it was as much his own pleasure to grapple with tentations And so much for that question how the Spirit did lead him into the Wilderness You shall now be partakers of the third thing why this passage is inserted into the story that he was led up of the Spirit Good reasons are rather to be esteemed by their weight than their multitude take these few to content you 1. The Spirit is said to lead him because de did not run on blindfold but knew the task which he undertook he foresaw the difficulties that he would meet and weighed them in the balance of judgment and discretion Non ignarus sed consilio ducebatur says St. Ambrose The counsel of the Spirit did enlighten him to see what he had in hand Saul thought that David was but a fool-hardy Stripling and knew not what a perilous thing it was to fight with such a Giant as Goliah Thou art but a youth and he a man of War from his youth thou art not able to go against this Philistine But David shewed the reason of his confidence the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine He had considered Gods mercies and protection therefore he was led by the Spirit into that noble action Beware to plod on like Balaam with our eyes shut never discerning what is
and one mans cloathing and quite beside your expectation you shall not leave a blessing with this substance but a great curse upon your Posterity A little which the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly Satan's wily Projections were ever fatal to the undertaker but justice and righteousness shall have peace and comfort in this life and eternal glory in the life to come AMEN THE NINTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 4. But he answered and said it is written Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God WHatsoever Satan said before was not worthy of an answer and if our Saviour had held his peace as once he did when he was examined before Herod that wicked motion had deserved it Command that these stones be made bread But an answer is given in these words which are my present Tractate partly to wrack the Tempter with suspicion partly to demonstrate how weak all our objections are when God comes to answer them and partly to make the Church partaker of his wisdom that his sayings may be our Meditations from day to day and from hour to hour when we are met together in these holy Assemblies First The answer left the Tempter most irresolute and without all satisfaction Satan was loath to seem to doubt of Christ and would not ask Art thou the Son of God And yet he laboured with all cunning to discover it Therefore Christ keeps him off that he was never the nearer to find him out by this answer Dominus sic fallit ut vincat sic vincit ut fallat says St. Ambrose the Lord deluded his enemy that he might overcome him and overcomes him by strength of Scripture that he may still delude him He could have cut him off with a word saying As the Father hath life in himself so the Son hath life in himself what need this transmutation then of stones into bread to satisfie my hunger but he would not rejoyn explicitely one way or other either I am the eternal Son of God that want not bread or I am a man of much infirmity but indefinitely thus pick what he could out of it Man shall not live c. Secondly This answer declares how easily Gods wisdom will overmatch the subtilties of men since Satan himself could not maintain his own objections So the Pharisees the Herodians the Sadduces all were put to silence in the Gospel that they durst ask him no more questions and yet many men flatter themselves that although they have been revengeful malicious unjust extortioners yet let them have a fair and a just hearing at Gods Tribunal and they would be able to justifie their own Integrity according to the like which Job said Chap. xxiii 3. O that I might come even to his Seat I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me Beloved let such conceits fall off and vanish God is not mocked his wisdom is not dazled with inventions and excuses entrust your cause with Christ to plead it for you and be sure for your own part you are not able to answer one for a thousand One question and almost one word made him speechless that came to the Marriage not having on a wedding garment Christ answers to the Tempter in this place to instruct us that all his sayings are solid irrefragable and unanswerable Thirdly This answer which confounds Satan confirms the Church with manifold knowledge as namely in these several Points into which I will distribute the Text and they are three Sedes argumenti applicatio argumentum ipsum 1. The seat of the Argument or the place from whence it is taken It is written written in the holy Scripture written in the Law of Moses and particularly written in a certain place of Deuteronomy which entreats of Manna that came down from heaven 2. The Application of it is to Christ our Lord man shall not live by bread and therefore this is appliable to him as touching his humanity 3. The Argument or Text it self hath these four Doctrines three directly the last by inference 1. That man is not necessarily bound to ordinary sustinance man shall not live by bread alone 2. God can nourish man by every word that proceedeth out of his mouth that is every way that it liketh and pleaseth him 3. Nothing can nourish unless God bless it for man liveth by the word that proceedeth out of Gods mouth that is by the will of God 4. There is another life for man to look to beside this life which is sustained with bread so St. Cyprian and others collect upon the words put together Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word c. But he answered and said it is written So his responsion was not the invention of man but the very Oracle of God This was Romphea in ore out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword Rev. i. 16. This is the Sickle which cuts down all the Tares which Satan sows among the good Wheat this is the Ark of God before which all the Idols of the Philistines fall flat to the ground this is the Trumpet of Joshuah whose noise overturneth the Walls of Jerico How can our tongues sufficiently praise the holy Scripture which teacheth us to speak not with the eloquence of man but with the tongues of Angels Take it from us and we may say as Samson did if his Locks were shaved away we shall be weak as other men nay quite unable to open our lips against the Philosophy of the world but give us that weapon of the Spirit in our hand and we shall tread down our foes as the dung under our feet Satan himself cannot stand before this charge Scriptum est it is written Dimittit aures bellua centiceps Such Charms such Musick is able to make the Serpent burst in pieces We are penn'd up into the Scriptures as into our sheepfolds while we contain our selves within them there we are safe the Wolf may howl but he cannot bite us There we are in the Tower of David where we cannot be assaulted but as David acknowledgeth If my delight had not been in thy Law I should utterly have perished in my trouble Wherefore my Beloved make the holy Scriptures some part of every days business read them and as you read pray to God to interpret them read them with humility that when God sends an Interpreter you may not cavil and be wise in your own conceit but understand them read them with continual diligence that one day may teach another and your elder years may be wiser than your younger Finally read them with patience that such things as are obscure may not deter you but hold on and proceed and you shall find somewhat clear that it will dispel the mists of obscurity Consilio spiritus
the Church The first institution of Marriage the Fall of man and the Promise of Christ And God chose him above all men to receive his Commandments out of the dark Cloud for which his excellency hath been renowned above all men in all Generations But as the chief Lesson in all the Prophets is the coming of Christ in the flesh so none more express for that than Moses If you believed Moses you would believe in me says our Saviour In every of his Five Books he hath left some notable instance for this a Beacon upon an hill The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. iii. Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us in the Paschal Lamb Exod. xii The Serpent lifted up in the Wilderness even so the Son of man was lifted up Num. xxi In Leviticus all the Ceremonial Sacrifices were Types of him especially the Scape-goat But above all Deut. xviii A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me hear him This is that Prophet who is the chosen quiver out of which Christ takes his shafts Mallens doctrinâ Moses quà m miraculis pugnare Our Saviour had rather convince the Devil with Moses than with Miracles And above all the Scripture or above all other works of Moses Christ hath refuted the Devil only out of the Book of Deuteronomy at every turn that he spake unto him Whether Moses were anciently divided into a Pentateuch or five several Books whereof this is the last I concur with them that doubt it This is certain the seventy Interpreters were the first that called it Deuteronomy for the Jews gave the Five Books no other names but the first words of the Book A singular and most select piece of Scripture it is containing the whole body of godly practice and true Religion for the King for all Magistrates for the Priests and for the People It is Moses his Cygnaea cantio the last exhortation which he made before he took his leave of the world And it is supposed there is more Divination in the Spirit in the nearest enlightnings before death than at other times as if the soul were almost out of the earth and a little in heaven The great Prophet took such abundant care to preserve it and to put it into the hands of all men that it was wrote in stone for an eternal memorial Deut. xxvii 3. Every seventh year it was to be read to all the people at the solemn Feast of Tabernacles Deut. xxxi 10. The King was enjoyn'd to keep a Copy of it and read it all his days Deut. xvii 18. And after he had spoke it he wrote it and delivered it to the Priests Ruminate upon this that you shall not find such instances for the memorial of any other sacred Book and that Christ drew only out of this fountain to quench the fiery darts of the Devil and although comparisons I know are odious between one book of Gods Word and another yet some excellency will redound out of the premises to this Scripture in every mans imagination It took the name of Deuteronomy because when the Law had been delivered before this is a repetition of the Law again Nunquam nimis dicitur quod nunquam satis dicitur Moses was not ashamed to preach the same things over again no more was Paul To me says he it will not be irksome to you it will be profitable The Law had need to be repeated often for our rebellion and depravation and perhaps because the oldest men of Israel were all dead in the Wilderness for the sin of murmuring who had first heard the Law it was fit to propound it again to the new Generations That I may not be too tedious in this I will only add what St. Hierom says Deuteronomy or the second Law is a prefiguration of the Gospel or Evangelical Law Sic habet quae priora sunt tamen novae sunt omnia de veteribus So the Gospel doth antiquate no moral thing which is old and yet old things in the Law become new in Christ by the faith of the Gospel Heaps of Expositors follow this hint that Christ retorted Texts of Deuteronomy upon Satan for this reason because it affords a kind of shadow of the Gospel A weak reason for so many to be in love with since it was not God that imposed the name of Deuteronomy on that Book but men that did interpret it Why that Book was only in Christs mouth upon this occasion let no man take upon him to determine but it will teach us to search diligently for some excellent Treasure in those Lines which were thought worthy to be applied and them only by the wisdom of the Son of God And thus much for the seat of the Argument and for these words It is written Before I come to the words themselves we must pass over the second Point that the application of them is drawn to Christ The place originally is to be read thus Deut. viii 3. He humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with Manna which thou knewest not neither did thy Fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live It was Christs pleasure to have himself comprehended in this rule our case is his case he will fare as we fare he trusts in Gods blessing as we ought to trust in it in a word he answers altogether as man and not as God As the Israelites had no Corn or Harvest in the Wilderness to make bread yet they had sustenance equivalent or better which fell from above round about their Tents so Christ intimates the same providence could help him though he wanted bread which supplied the Iraelites of whose stock he was descended He could have confounded Satan with his Majesty and power but it was more tormentuous to the Adversary to be thrown off as with the weakness of mere man and his humility This is not it which Satan look'd for to hear Christ answer him by the title of man and far less did he look for it that he should get the upper hand of him in that title a triumph which is most molestious to his pride above all other punishments Here it began that he should be subject to mans nature yet it was that nature co-united in one person with God but hereafter all the band of Hell shall be turned over to the children of men who have been the children of God that they may insult over them Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world says St. Paul 1 Cor. vi 2. Nay know ye not that we shall judge Angels Not only comparatively because our works are better than theirs as the Ninivites and the Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment against the unbelieving Jews Mat. xii But directly our suffrage shall go to their eternal condemnation
than the man that rides him And in this circumstance likewise Satan was egregiously cozened to his exceeding contumely for when Christ permitted himself to be lifted up from the earth it seemed to Satan that it was his strength and power which carried him away and though much unwilling to be caught up in that wise yet being an impotent man he could not help it Thus the evil Spirit was deluded to ascribe that to his own power that came to pass by the hand of God Like the Fly in the Fable sitting upon the Axeltree of the Cart when it was moved apace took it to it self that the Cart was driven so fast and cries out see what a dust I make So this evil Angel either took up Christ in his hands in that body which he had assumed and thought it was in his power to stay him from falling or as spiritual substances in some mens Philosophy can move a corporeal thing by emanation of vertue which goes from them though they do not touch it as the intelligences move the heavens and so Satan not touching Christ at all might think it was his force and efficacy that snatcht him up from the earth to a Pinacle of the Temple But the former way is more likely as if he would shew him how the Text of David was literally meant He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up Beloved as the Divel did arrogate that he took up Christ on high by his own force and arm yet it was nothing so In like manner he thinks that all those hold their tenure of him who are exalted by wicked means he took them up to a Pinacle of the Temple he raised them up to civil honour Indeed wicked persons live as if they owed their service rather to Satan than to God for their preferment but it is the Lord that sets both good and bad in the seat of dignity the powers that be they are from God For this cause I have raised thee up he spake it to wicked Pharaoh that I might make my power known in thee Let mighty ones therefore remember they are Gods liege men and not the Devils And they that rise up like smoke from hell fire like smoke they shall vanish into nothing So I have shewed it was not in the power of Satan to carry our Lord whither he would but Christ suffered this Assumption of Satans out of patience not out of infirmity and suffered himself to be lifted up on the Cross and at last he came to the third Assumption to be received up into glory There is a third thing remains to be satisfied which every one will expect what a gazing sight would this be for all the Region over which Christ did fly and for the populous City of Jerusalem It must needs be an object upon which all men would cast their eyes and why is it not more spoken of in the Gospel and objected to our Saviour by his enemies It is no solid answer to say it hapned in the night and none were aware of it For the tentation which follows must needs be done in the clear light when he shewed the Son of God all the Kingdoms and glory of the world in the twinkling of an eye The true answer is that Satan was more over-reach'd in this surmise than in all the rest For he thought by this hovering aloft in the Air to make Christ a spectacle to all the world that men might think him some Inchantor or Magician by riding above in the clouds in the mean time says St. Chrysostome Christ made himself invisible that he was seen of no man the Devil being no way privy to it that he did abide invisible So Joh. viii ult the Jews took up stones to cast at Christ but he hid himself and went out of the Temple going through the midst of them what was this to hide himself and to go through the midst of them But to pass through the throng invisible as among others Euthymius noteth No point of cozenage and sorcery was practised more of old by the Impes of Satan than these flyings aloft these aereal supervolitations to the wonder of the world Nero Caesar was given much to Incantations and to experiments above nature especially in this kind Suetonius says that one of his Flatterers would undertake to fly up to heaven at his command but got a tumbling cast for his labour insomuch that some of the parties bloud did light upon Nero himself as he sate to behold this new sight in the Theater I will not say that this was Simon the Sorcerer spoken of Acts viii because he in the Theater did personate Icarus in sport but Simons was a solemn undertaking to confute the Doctrine of Peter and Paul by flying up to heaven So it is in the book called Clemens his Constitutions that this child of the Devil began to take his flight up on high openly before all the people of Rome and at the instant Prayers of the Apostle Peter he fell down headlong and brake his legs Because that Book is justly suspected for an adulterate work Arnobius who wrote in the Reign of Dioclesian to all the Gentiles says as much Cursum Simonis Magi nominato Christo evanuisse The flight of Simon Magus was cross'd in the name of Jesus Christ This was grown so common either by Mathematical engines or by Witchcraft that every Impostor did begin to profess it Graeculus esuriens in Coelum jusseris ibit says the Satyrist The Prince of the Air thought to amuse the world and to do stupendious works in his own Territories but he that sits on high shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision These are but foolish Antiques and Mimicks of the proper sending up of our spirit to God by desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ by having our conversation in heaven and delighting in those joys which are laid up for the Saints and by fervent Prayer which carries up the heart to God upon the wings of Zeal and Innocency so the Psalm mentions how a man may raise himself even unto the top of the holy City which is the new Jerusalem in heaven My soul flyeth unto the Lord before the morning watch I say before the morning watch And so much for the second general Point the manner of this tentation which was by Assumption Then the Devil taketh him up c. The holy City is the Locus communis the place largely taken to which he was carried out of the Wilderness and that is the ground to work upon for the third general Observation of the Text. This must needs be the Periphrasis of Jerusalem because God had a Temple no where else but there and St. Luke hath spared this Periphrasis and named the place he took him to Jerusalem and set him on a Pinacle of the Temple The eminent honour which this place had for many Sacred
violence there is no insequent time to call for grace and mercy But 3. since violence overcame them the sin was none of theirs but the Ravishers As St. Austin said of Sextus Brutus and Lucretia Duo fuerunt unus commisit adulterium the sin was wrought between two and yet one only committed adultery because Lucretia was forced But you will say and why doth St. Paul put Samson in the bedroul of the Patriarchs that had obtained the Promise if every one that is guilty of his own violent death be a Reprobate St. Austins answer is Latenter à spiritu sancto jussus est Samson had departed out of this world a Cast-away if he had not been prompted to pull down the Theater of the Philistins by some inward motions sent from God But some litigious one will say Was any sin ever committed but such an answer will make it a vertue Beloved Samsons case was not every mans for first he had extraordinary Revelations of the Spirit God did work many Miracles by his hands Secondly Samson prayed that his strength might be restored that he might be avenged of the Philistines and the Lord did give him strength for that purpose beyond the capacity of a natural man Put these together and they make a particular case that he above any other of the like sort was directed by the Spirit to pull down the house upon his enemies But in my own private judgment I have ever thought that Samsons care was not to bring certain death upon himself but only to hazard his life in a great venture which is lawful in Military Stratagems against enemies as to enter a breach upon the mouth of a Canon a Souldier may come off with safety but it is odds he dies for it A Seaman being boarded blows up the Deck he may escape himself but his chance is very hazardous and for ought any man is able to say to the structure of this house which Samson pluck'd down he saw no possibility but he might escape although he profest he would adventure to die with his enemies a mixt case it was not very hopeful nor quite desperate Howsoever St. Austins answer as I have illustrated it unto you is very satisfactory that he was moved unto it by some special instinct from God And so far upon this Point wherein I have laboured to let you see that the Devil hath not a more poysonous Arrow in his Quiver than to excite one to kill himself Bear with me if I have been copious in it Who can say enough against a sin so horrid so unnatural so unpardonable It did not content the Devil that Christ should fall from the Pinacle unless it were his own voluntary act If thou he the Son of God cast thy self down After this demand of Satans I propounded to intreat upon what supposition it was demanded If thou be the Son of God This thorn is yet in his foot and pricks him he would fain put it out of doubt whether this were the eternal and only begotten Son of God And he follows the search in these words as if he were no Infidel but by way of Concession yielded this thou art the Son of God therefore it can be no harm to thee to cast thy self down from a Pinacle of the Temple Which is as St. Paul writes If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead he was certain to atttain unto it and therefore that IF is a Particle of Modesty not of Hesitation As Ribadenira says of Father Ignatius that he halted of the wound which he received at Pampelune but so little that the most curious could scarce discern that he halted So Satan distrusts whether Christ were the promised Messias but so artificially that he would not seem to be distrustful But distrust he did and did rather presume Christ was no more than some excellent Prophet than otherwise For he knew that God could not be tempted the crafty Angel had that understanding therefore he hoped mainly he did but bicker with a man And a certain Expositor plaies wittily upon this notion that St. Matthew St. Mark and St. Luke deliver the manner of this tentation but St. John speaks not a word of it For as he collects the other three begin their Gospels with Christs temporary Generation how he was made man St. John begins thus In the beginning was the Word from the generation of God but because God cannot be tempted at all he found no place in his Gospel for this story Well because Christ eschewed the Tempters craftiness in the former bout and held him yet in suspence he lifts at him now with all his strength and thinks to be upon the rack no longer this second If thou be the Son of God shall discover all he doth not doubt it Et verbo facto est exploratio It is an exploration driven home both by word and fact 1. He took him up to the Pinacle Would he be taken along by him if he were the mighty Son of God Why not As an invincible Champion that dare fight upon any ground with his Adversary 2. The Messias was expected both at the holy City and at the Temple and he brings him unto both to see if he would acknowledge his Kingdom The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Sion Psal cx 1. And again The Lord shall suddenly come to his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in Mal. iii. 1. Yet Satan could gather nothing from this for he made himself invisible in this transportation and was not seen Hereafter at his own season the whole City and Temple shall ring of him Behold thy King cometh unto thee meekly upon an Ass 3. He popp'd in a place of the Psalm but hereafter more of that very perversly hoping Christ would declare himself and say the application of this Psalm belongs to all the holy Saints but not to me that am greater than Saints and Angels But Christ spared that labour and gave him Scripture for his Scripture 4. Upon the tentation it self he presumed it would perfectly come to light who he was For if he cast himself down thinking he should be safe as when he pass'd through the air and yet catch hurt it is as he could wish Or if he catch no hurt and cast himself down that Miracle must allow him to be the Son of God All this the wisdom of our Redeemer declined proving that mans life must not be cast into danger where there is no necessity thus you see the Devil laboured hard and yet could not resolve the Riddle that troubled him If thou be c. And now let me shew you that this vile Connexion which he hath made is against all reason and consequency If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down There is as little Logick in this Hypothetical Proposition as there is Divinity in that verse of Davids Psalm as he hath quoted in the
Spirit to a great and an high Mountain and shewed him the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God Rev. xxi 10. So the hand of the Lord brought Ezekiel and set him upon a very high Mountain to see the new City and the new Temple Ezek. xl 2. Yet these were but raptures or illuminations of the fancy after a divine manner and no more But if Satan plaid the Mimick to imitate God specially in this action there is much likeness in a case which I have not yet remembred But thus The Lord spake unto Moses Deut. xxxiv to go up to the top of Mount Nebo before he died and from thence he shewed him all the goodly Land of Promise from Dan even to the Land of Jericho which the Children of Israel should possess whom he had brought out of Egypt This is it certainly which the Tempter imitated and like a presumptuous fiend placeth not Moses a servant of the Family but Christ more excellent by far than Moses not upon Mount Nebo without the Land of Canaan but upon an hill near unto Jerusalem not to see one Territory and there to die and not enjoy it but to see all the Kingdoms of the world and to take them in possession A man may see with half an eye this was to vilifie Gods Miracles and Promises and to extol his own But that must be more copiously touch'd in the sequel Enough of the second Point the third is to this purpose by what gate or passage the Devil would bring in his Tentation and that is by the eye Ostendit illi He shews him all the Kingdoms of the World There is nothing so soon enticed and led away as the eye We are almost all like Labans Sheep every mans heart conceives as the delight of his eye doth impress upon his fancy O these fair Orbs which the Workman made to be the casements of light but they open to let in death into the soul There it began to shew it self to be an Instrument that had lost all purity when Adam and his Wife were called and hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the Trees of the Garden Whereupon says St. Austin when Adam had a pure conscience he had a single eye and loved to stand before the Lord Postquam peccato sauciatus est oculus caepit lucem formidare divinam But when his eye grew sin-sore his guiltiness would not let him look upon the divine splendour Refugit in tenebras veritatem fugiens umbras appetens Now it had rather seek out secret places and dark empty shadows than the eternal truth Here the eye began to fall from its primitive honour and ever since it became pernicious Says the Son of Sirach What is created more wicked than an eye wherefore it weepeth upon every occasion Eccles xxxi 3. St. John reduceth the whole brood of sin to these three Seed-plots all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life First there is Achans eye that lusteth after Silver and Gold and costly Babylonish Garments such eyes commit thievery upon all costly things that they behold Some would have all as far as they can look Hell and destruction are never full so the eyes of man are never satisfied says Solomon Prov. xvii But this is not all there is Shechems eye that lusteth after the beauty of Dinah Nay less than the lively Person a very Picture is able to strike the eye and dead colours can inflame it with lasciviousness Ask Ezekiel if it be not thus Cha. xxiii 16. Aholibah saw men pourtrayed upon the Wall the Images of the Chaldaeans as soon as she saw them she doated upon them and sent Messengers unto them into Chaldaea And not unusually this malignity hath extended to spiritual fornication for it is often alledged that the workmans cunning and beauty of the Image hath bewitch'd the eye and drawn the vain beholders to commit Idolatrie and these fair lights thus degenerating to be the brokers of wanton sins are called by Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Panders and Bawds to corrupt the Soul And yet there is another capitol mischief imputed to the eye by St. Austin Ad concupiscentiam oculorum pertinet nugacitas spectaculorum Gazing after all manner of vanities and spectacles of bravery filling the mind with rank effeminateness and idleness casting away most unthriftily the good hours of our life to see and to be seen The Theaters are not large enough now adays to receive our loose Gallants Male and Female but whole Fields and Parks are thronged with their concourse where they make a muster of their gay cloaths acd that day is counted the luckiest of the Week not wherein they have done God most faithful service but wherein they have glutted their eyes abroad with gaudy Gallantry Did Solomon mean such as these can you tell when he said The eyes of a fool are in every corner of the earth But I am sure they are of a condition much better than these whom Christ meant Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. v. 8. Such as are not of a very strict conscience to look to their integrity think they may easiy defend themselves against this charge for is not every thing which is visible made to be seen And more fit to be seen if it be a comly piece of Art or Nature St. Bernard brings in Eve excusing her self for looking upon the forbidden fruit Oculos tendo non manum non est interdictum ne videam sed ne comedam That is May I not cast mine eye toward the Tree I do not reach out my hand to it The Tree is pleasant to the eye and though I am forbidden to eat yet I am not denied to look at it The Father takes upon him to answer as if he had been by to talk with her Hoc etsi culpa non est culpae tamen indicium est The darting of the eye formally is not the transgression of the Commandment but it begets the transgression of the Commandment Behold the heaven and the earth and all the works of the Lord which he hath made in such manifold wisdom the invisible things may be understood by things which are seen and the well-governed eye shall teach the heart to glorifie God Wherefore mark the consequent what passions your eyes beget in your soul examine your own frailties prove your strength and your weakness keep your innocency and look your fill but turn away your eyes when you perceive that the devil shews the Object Job said his heart should not walk after his eye that his eye should not stray from reason But what if the heart chance to wander after the eye What remedy then Christ never gave a more angry Precept in all the Gospel than upon this occosion If thy right eye offend thee pull it out and cast it from thee 'T is an Hyperbole so all
will The Tongue of man the Knee the Heart nay Body and Soul together are to be purchased As you bring with one hand you shall carry away Favour and Justice in the other The access of profit carries the main stroke in every thing The Heads judge for reward and the Prophets divine for money Mich. iii. 11. They that should be most clear from this fault you see are chiefly in the reprehension No man knows with what stint he would spend or how much he would lay up therefore unless where the conscience is much refined from greediness it is a pleasure to sacrifice to our net and above all things to catch at that which comes in with so much easiness as Dabo I will give thee Hazael King of Syria must have a present even all the hallowed things that were dedicated to the Lord that he might not come up against Jerusalem Felix the Governour without a feeling would not set Paul at liberty The corruption of the times was such in Israel that men thought the Prophets as greedy as themselves and would not ask them counsel of the Lord without a gift in their hand Benhadad sent a Present of all the good things in Damascus even forty Camels burdens to Elisha to enquire if he should recover of his sickness And Saul more apparently being counselled to go to Samuel to ask which way he should return home made a stand at it saying What shall we give to the man of God There is not a present left This polling Covetousness was very ordinary no doubt in that Land when the People knew nothing but the Prophets were devourers of gifts and would not open the Oracles of God unto them without Satans complement Dabo I will give thee The giver that would corrupt another such as the High Priests that delivered Judas thirty pieces of Silver to betray his Master such a one you see by the instance of my Text doth supply the place of the Devil I am sure God gave no man wealth to this end to buy another out of his honesty the eternal Law says that vertue only should be rewarded and he that keeps the Commandments therefore to give a Pension to man or woman to be vicious is to cross that supreme fundamental Law by which heaven and earth are governed Fie that so good a vertue as Liberality should be so scornfully imitated No vertue is more often commended by God than bounty and giving but above all moral qualities it is most plausible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle hit the reason in a word it redounds to the common benefit of others more than any other vertue which begets it favour and affections Now to cast dirt in the face of this vertue Satan sets up a liberality which is of a most different condition and nothing of kin to it when the great Patrons of sin care not what they bestow upon them that serve their turn for flattery for injustice for lust for sensuality When poor Lazarus wants a draught of cold water a shower of Gold shall rain down into the Lap of Danae the wages of an Harlot are far greater for the most part than the recompence of most faithful and honest service The Egyptian Rhodope out of the gifts of her Lovers was able to dispend enough to build a Pyramis an expence so great that few Kings in Egypt could accomplish it If the Daughter of Herodias shew her self lascivious and immodest Herod will cast away half his Kingdom upon her or if that be too little he leaves her to be her own carver she may ask any thing Dabo quodcunque volueris I will give thee whatsoever thou wilt ask O that noble qualities were as sure of Patronage as Instruments of wickedness are sure of means and maintenance As Suetonius said of his Nero Pecuniae fructum non alium putabat quà m profusionem He thought there was no use of riches but waste and profusion So in the Line that Satan draws out there is no use of giving but to procure Idolatry to fall down and worship him Cursed be those hands that open themselves wide to any one man or woman to make them the child of perdition Judah gave his Ring to Thamar to hire her unto Fornication I believe he repented him with many tears of bitterness because old Jacob did so abundantly bless him but let me propound unto him that is prone to do the like will you abuse those blessings those temporary blessings which God hath given you to buy Souls for the Devil Christ hath given a ransom out of his bloud to redeem that soul from Hell and will you give Gold and Silver to buy it into Hell again Was there no poor Member of Christ whose body you might save with that money wherewith you destroy a soul He that giveth to the needy lendeth to the Lord but he that purchaseth any one to be sinful by his bounty he lendeth to the Devil This that I have spoken of was the sin of Balaac to barter and be at a price with Balaam to do an evil act to curse them whom the Lord had blessed and it is the Chapman that makes the Market woe be to the giver that tempts the weakness of man with such a forcible provocation Aureo pugillo ferreus murus frangitur says the Heathen A Hammer of Gold will beat down a Wall of Iron Yet is there nothing to be said to the receiver Shall his hand be clear that hath taken when he is called to answer Nay none more accused by the Spirit of God none more criminous They are companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after reward Isa i. 23. Neither is robbery their alone enditement but the worst of sins against the Second Table Bloud and Murder Shut not up my life with the bloud-thirsty in whose hands is wickedness and their right hand is full of gifts Psal xxvi 9. He that takes reward to do evil takes a fee to lose his own salvation Nay what toil and drudgery some will undergo to earn the wages of iniquity Minori labore margarita Christi emi poterat says St. Hierom You might accompass that invaluable Pearl in the Gospel whereof the Parable speaks that the Merchant sold all he had to buy it I say that Pearl might have been gained with less danger and industry the whole treasure of the Kingdom of heaven Espencaeus being a Romish Doctor and a most learned may be bold with his own friends who hath revealed more corruption and bribery in the Roman Court than a modest Protestant could almost believe As Pensions taken not only for the punishment of incontinence past but to lay down somewhat before-hand for the time to come What if the Visitors met with such as resolved to be chaste yet the common Levy was exacted of such a one Habeat si velit O shameless word he may use the sin if he will Then the Taxa Camerae as they call it
and confer it upon our Saviour I will look back no farther upon that which I have deliver'd already but the other half of his gift to which now I must proceed smels more rank of boasting for if it please you he will turn all the Kingdoms of the world into one Monarchy and settle it upon Christ all this power will I give thee and the glory of them This will bring his ends to pass indeed or nothing he that will not be bought with honors no not with great advancements no not with Princely Royalties to swarve from righteousness you may turn him loose against all the enticements of Hell for a Christian that is unvanquishable But the Tempter hath sound out by long experience that such pure matter is rarely to be found in the dross of this world he sees that men do seldom deny him any thing if he can accomplish the desires of their aspiring thoughts He makes good bargains of his petty promotions how much more of his greatest There are enough and too many that for a little command a vulgar title for a mean remove will turn their backs to God and their faces to Satan There are undergrowing ambitions which shall not need to be carried to the top of a mountain and have Kingdoms shewn unto them let them be lifted but to the lowest Steeple in a Diocess and they will commit Simony and forswear it To be a Ruler over thousands will shake an ambitious mans honesty very far to compass it nay to be a Ruler over ten which is the lag end of all honor some will violate their conscience rather than go without it what if it were to be but Doeg the chief Heardsman of Saul to have the greatest superiority over beasts Why Doeg was both a promoter and a blood-sucker for that contemptible promotion The twelve Disciples Christ himself walking just before them fell out among themselves into hot words and contention quis esset major which of them should be the greater If one had been the greatest as in very good sense they were all equal what should he have got by it to be the chief over eleven that had left all and were worth nothing If the Tempter be aware of this as our infirmities are not hid from him that men will tread virtue under foot to crawle up to a petty advancement then he would easily think this provocation in my Text were irresistable all this power and glory will I give thee and all the Kingdoms of the world If Balaac will say to some I will promote you to great honor as he did to Balaam all the Angels of heaven should not hinder them from going to it ambitious persons will break through the hedg of all honesty for a title of high preeminence and when their indirect courses carry them down to the deep their fancie flatters them that they go up like Elias in a whirl-wind to heaven There was nothing hanging with Christ upon his Cross except a title over his head Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews And why a great title crucified with him though he deserved that Inscription and a far greater than Pilat or all the world could invent yet above all the sins of men ambition and great titles which too often are obtained by crooked courses they deserve to be crucified Mans thoughts fly upward like the sparks from the fire Core and Dathan cannot endure to be less than the greatest Every man would be a Moses in the Common-wealth every man an Aaron in the Church Brethren forget brethren in way of Soveraignty as Joseph's brethren did consent to kill him or sell him away rather than bow unto him Absolon a Son and Subject abjures his duty to his Father and his Prince Athaliah defrauds her own child to get the supreme authority in her own hand This strugling for greatness especially for a Crown and Scepter hath occasion'd more iniquity more flagrant sins than any one storm that ever was rais'd Si violandum est jus regni causâ violandum sayes C. Caesar he would do no body wrong for less than to gain a Kingdom but he thought it impossible for a man to temper himself in that tentation that had opportunity And why should the appetite of supreme honor bewitch a man sooner than any thing else from the fear of God and draw him from it because power and glory are two such specious and attractive things which are intrinsecal to the dignity of Princes and Satan I warrant you did not forget to cast those two words in Christs way All this power will I give thee and the glory of them There is power in Princes as well to advance where they like as to punish offendors and reason good they should be serv'd with all humble reverence and have the highest glory on earth ascrib'd unto them because they are set over us for our good to maintain publick peace and true religion The power which Pharaoh had oh how it pleaseth an hauty spirit he tels Joseph what he would do for him in this phrase without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all Egypt Gen. xli 44. or that majestical terror which Nebuchadonosor put upon all that were under him nothing more greedily sought for Says Daniel to Belsbazzar The most high God gave Nebuchadonosor thy Father a Kingdom and glory and honor whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down Dan. v. 19. Satan knew that to manage such power as this is a whetstone able to set akeen edg upon any mortal appetite But if any one love to govern with a soft hand and affect not the execution of that awful power to put terror upon inferiours yet the glory with which Soveraignty is bespangled will rob a man of his heart and steal it from him Who would refuse to be a Solomon his Palace was beyond all buildings his Throne so costly that there was not the like made in any Kingdom the Meat of his Table the Attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel the Queen of Sheba had never seen or heard of the like Such pomp as this would make a man believe he had built his nest in the stars Satan thought his tentation struck home when he promised such glory as this unto our Saviour How much more was this motion most perswasive when he beleaguer'd him with this offer to pluck the fairest feather out of every Monarchy and invest him with it where there was any power or any glory fit for his wish it should be cast upon him David had a Kingdom of much power yet of little glory for his reign was full of trouble and rebellion Hezekiah had a Kingdom of much glory great treasures great magnificence in his house yet it was of small power for he was an Homager and a Tributary to the King of Assyria and he sent him word that
this power and priviledge even while he debased himself in all humility Did he not consent to the destruction of the Gadarens Swine and curse the barren Figtree Because his jurisdiction extended to any thing in the world Did he not send for the Ass and the Colt with absolute command saying no more but the Lord hath need of them Did he not charge the Souldiers to let his Disciples alone And no man toucht them All these are Arguments of indefinite authority But this Government which is most ample perfect eternal was not after a Regal way as David and Solomon were Kings in Israel It was not contrary to the Rulers of the earth usurping any power to thwart and controule theirs but a transcendent exaltation above them and above all things visible and invisible yet withal he was most obedient and subject unto them paying Tribute unto Cesar and medling with no Humane Laws to divide their Inheritance that were contentious If he had professed himself an earthly King it had hindred the work which he had in hand to perswade men to the contempt of honour and glory Yet having all power given him of his Father it argued the more humility that he made himself subject to most vile men therefore it is put into the Creed that he suffered under Pontius Pilate meaning that he took his death with patience under the authority of a most unjust Governour Therefore St. Austin endites these words as from our Saviours mouth Hear me Jews and Gentiles hear me Circumcision and Uncircumcision hear me all ye Judges of the world Non impedio dominationem vestram in hôc mundo Enjoy the Principalities of this world unto your selves I do not hinder them In the third Conclusion I determined how in most proper and safe construction we must say that Christs Kingdom was a spiritual Kingdom I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Psal ii 6. The Psalm speaks of a spiritual Sion as St. Austin notes because it is termed an holy Sion therefore it must be understood of a spiritual King His Unction was not that Coelestial and not Corporeal With my holy oyl have I anointed him with the grace of Unction Such as the Unction is such must be the Kingdom a spiritual Kingdom His Priesthood was not carnal such as Aarons was but spiritual such as Melchisedechs was Like as was his Priesthood so was his Kingdom Those whom God had given him What were they His Disciples that never forsook him those that were born again of the Spirit His Subjects were Spiritual therefore his Kingdom could not be Terrestrial The Law of Moses was carnal so it was esteemed imperfect and is disannulled the Law of Christ which is set up instead of it is the Gospel which prescribes a reasonable and an holy service Where the Law of Christ is spiritual his Kingdom must needs be within us it is a Ghostly Kingdom Finally all the good things thereof concern the Spirit grace peace of conscience remission of sins and eternal life Says Fulgentius the Gold which the wise men of the East offered him in his Cradle shewed him to be a King but not such a King as will have his Image and Superscription in the Coin but such a one as seeketh his Image in the hearts of the Sons of men After the Angel had said The Lord would give him the Throne of his Father David Mark how divinely the words are qualified in the next verse And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end He shall reign and did reign here not in regno sed in domo in no Monarchy but in a Family in the house of Jacob that is in the houshold of the Faithful for alas they are but a Family to the potent multitudes of Unbelievers One question before I shut up the Point Christ was promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob Principally to Abraham What means the Angel then to omit Abraham and Isaac and to speak of one and no more that he shall reign in the house of Jacob Why the house of Abraham had Ismael as well as Isaac but Ismael was the Seed of the bond-woman which figured those that pertained not to the freedom of the Spirit The house of Isaac had Esau as well as Jacob Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated He reigned not in all the house of Isaac But all the twelve Sons of Jacob were Circumcised all blessed all represented the Church all heirs of the Promise and because Christs Kingdom was totally spiritual in the Faithful and Elect the Angel very properly delivered his Errand that He should reign in the house of Jacob. This last part of my Sermon was very necessary to be insisted upon that our Lord Christ invested himself with no such honour as Satan tendred to him All this power will I give thee and the glory of them Yet he had a Kingly Office adjoyned both with Priestly and Prophetical Offices Those are holy Functions the Devil likes not them he never spoke of them Nay let us have the Priesthood to serve God or let us take nothing without it St. Peter tells us we shall be Regale Sacerdotium a Royal Priesthood We shall have a Kingdom and a Priesthood combined together far exceeding all the power and glory which mortal men do manage Run fervently to the end of the Race and you shall have the prize Deus vult omnes suos athletas coronari says St. Hierom God will have all that try Masteries for his sake receive the Laurel and the Crown of Victory Every Saint hath his Kingdom who is cloathed with immortality and honour to live with the Lamb of God for evermore But you will say What Abraham a King Moses a King Peter and Paul Kings Where are the Nations which they govern Where are their Subjects Regnum est ubi nulli inimico subjicimur non quia populus nobis subjicitur A full answer it is a Kingdom because all our enemies are trodden under our feet not because any of the Blessed are Liege-men and Vassals unto other In the fruition of that Kingdom a main part of the Soveraignty will be that he shall be trodden under our feet who is so impudent and audacious in my Text to offer all the Kingdoms in the world God replenish us with the Kingdom of his grace in this life and exalt us to his Kingdom of glory hereafter AMEN THE SEVENTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 9 10. All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Then saith Jesus unto him get thee hence Satan OUR natural Philosophers say very truly that a Serpent lays not her eggs one by one but they come from her in a cluster like a rope of beads and hang one at another in a string Satan deserves no better comparison than a Serpent the sins which he suggests no better comparison than the eggs
the wicked Spirit out of thy breast by speaking hatefully and reproachfully to the old man within thee and to his corruptions The rod of the wicked shall not rest in the lot of the righteous lest the righteous put forth their hands to wickedness Psal cxxv 5. And though in many things we sin all and who can say he hath not offended Yet take heed ye commit not sin with greediness as if you delighted in the servitude of iniquity nay as if you did it with that full resolution that you saw hell fire before you and yet you will not be reformed This is to gaze the Devil in the face and to have no remorse of conscience But if frailty steals upon us yet extinguish not the ardour of zeal which would fain be delivered from that captivity let it cry out I am carried away with the violence of my depraved nature and the evil which I would not that I do This is to commit sin but with such a delight as is mixt with great unwillingness The love of God still abideth in us and we cry out against the Tempter Get thee behind me Satan Though a good man be carried back sometime in his pious endeavours yet he looks towards Gods glory he minds that chiefly and he will not cast his eye off He moves not willingly toward the Devil though the Devil tread upon his heel behind him and sometimes prevails to pluck him back from God But remember how David composed himself and with that I end I have set God always before me therefore I shall not fall AMEN THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 10. For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve THE Lacedaemonians had this Lesson in the private Instructions of their State and observed it as far as they could ut nunquâm cum eôdem hoste ter confligerent by no means to give battel three several times to the same Enemy for that Enemy encountring them so often might learn to overcome them by their own wayes and stratagems Why Satan hath this advantage to try masteries the third time with our Saviour neither did Christ varie one jot from his usual manner of defence he fights with the same sling and with a stone taken out of the same brook as before scriptum est for it is written the written word is all the refuge that our Lord did seek Satan knows full well at what guard He will lye doth then the adversary speed ever the better for this can he improve that knowledge to help himself Nay but far otherwise Christ is so surely fixt upon one true ground so constant to that rock of the Divine Law which is stronger than all the waves of the sea that some against it that his adversary discern'd at last the longer he strove the more unable he was to maintain the quarrel If the tempted entrench himself within the Scriptures indignation shall vex the tempter but he shall never prevail The Devil believes and trembles at it that all the Law is irresistable and shall triumph over the enemies of the Lord but this Text after which no more was said as if more could not be spoken it contains a more strict and high command than any other portion of the Law it extends not only to transgressors to hedg them in their duty that they may not start from it but to the blessed Angels that are confirm'd in grace to the damned Devils that are incorrigible in sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worship and adoration is lookt for at all these and every particular whether they be such as are comforted under mercy or such as are tormented under the Judges fury or such as sing praises for ever before the King of glory all must bend and do him homage At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow both in the highest region of souls in the middle region of the Militant Church or in the lowest region of Hell at that name every knee shall bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Therefore Justin Martyr call'd upon all the Heathen with whom he disputed to receive this charge which my Text gives This says he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest that is the most spacious Commandment of all other a Charter between God and all his Creatures That upon which David speaks on this manner thy Commandment is exceeding broad Psal cxix 96. this is a chain to which all the works of the Lord are fastned and therefore our Saviour was sure it would bend his opposite with whom he disputed that he should not reply Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Where the Text is so clear I will not make it hard to be understood with dividing it The specials to be spoken of are these First the Lord God is to be worshipped Secondly the Lord God is to be served Thirdly He onely to be worshipped and served therefore fourthly whatsoever things they are beside to which men do offer religious worship and service let them mince and excuse it with what distinctions they please they run into flat Idolatry Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God let this be first the query upon the first point tu adorabis is there any emphasis in the Pronoun thou shalt worship Is the Commandment directed to the Tempter for that doubt I find in St. Chrisost whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Precept or a Repulse a Doctrin or a Defiance Thou shalt worship I answer it in several conclusions First the outward act of worship and adoration is enjoyned continually even to the spirits of damnation and they must perform it God hath put all things under Christs feet the Grave and Death and Hell Who is meant by Hell but Satan and his Camrades that are sunk into that place of sorrow wherefore he was bound to pay worship himself where he call'd for worship and let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. i. 6. yea and the Devil forceth himself sometimes to pay this tribute unto Christ though much against his will and content but sometimes he doth outwardly worship him that he may not fall into greater torments For as a Servant that hath run away and is taken falls down at his Masters feet that he may not be beaten so this unclean spirit having entred into a man that lived in tombs in the Country of the Gaderens when Christ came into those coasts the Devil did not keep the man close out of sight but came forth to meet Christ and worshipt our Saviour Mark v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very word in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke vii 28. he fell down in that body into which he had entred before him and he besought him very much that he would not send him away out of the Countrey Indeed it is seen by the sequel
distinction in Aquinas so well accepted by some that there are so many forms of adoration as there are kinds of excellencie for honour and worship are done to the person for the excellency which is in it Now excellency is either divine and infinite in God which deserves that adoration call'd by him latria or humane excellency which is grounded or in mens honours or in their virtues and so deserves civil and political reverence or it is an excellency less than divine yet more then humane which is in the Angels and souls of holy men departed and that claims the worship of dulia unto it self Put this into plain meaning he that can and shew me how these three are distinguisht in outward or bodily adoration I will agree that in those things we worship we do apprehend excellency three manner of wayes First there is cultus sacrosanctae religionis the religious and pious worship which we give to God for his omnipotent and most glorious excellency Secondly there is cultus civilis subjectionis the worship which we give to our superiors in authority as we live in political subjection because they are set over us for our good Thirdly there is cultus moralis reverentiae the worship of moral respect and reverence which we give to some for their good gifts and qualities although we are not under them in any political ordination All these worships are performed upon several excellencies apprehended in the persons worshipped but the act of worship it self as concerning that which the head the knee the hand or any part of the body doth execute may be the same for the distinguishing of one and another must be in the heart and mind as I proceed now to shew at large unto you The definition of divine worship must be thus framed adoratio est talis veneratio exterior quae ex corde pio religioso procedit that 's the adoration due to God and to him alone which with the exterior veneration of the body proceeds out of the pious and religious intentions of the heart If you yield any token of outward obeysance and mean it to honour him who hath made you redeem'd you sanctified you and conferred all other benefits upon you then it is raised up from civil homage and duty and is become divine worship a distinction will help the memory of them that can conceive it a little further There are three things which concur to that virtue which we call the worship of God First the act of the understanding must put forth it self to apprehend and know the glorious excellency of God that he made the whole world out of nothing and susteins all things by the word of his power Then secondly the act of the will comes in wherein we assent and apply our selves to adore his excellency to magnifie him and devote our hearts unto him Thirdly these two joyned together do urge and command the exterior act of worship which is performed by the body tanti est adorare all these must be in it if it be true adoration S. Paul speaks of some that have the forms of godliness but deny the power thereof The formal cringing and bending are but like a part play'd upon a Stage if they be sever'd from the power of godliness from the knowledg of the understanding what glory belongs to God and from the will and purpose of the heart to exalt his holy name both privately and in his holy Temple Well I can but call upon you to prepare your hearts and you will every one say I am sure my heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed The Lord knows but we that are your instructors do not whether that internal part of worship be well discharg'd by you therefore I come to that quarter of the virtue whereof men may be witnesses if it be carefully executed unto outward adoration it was upon the quarrel of outward worship that Christ here disputed with Satan God had respect to Abel and to his offering Gen. iv 4. to Abel that is to his internal piety to his offering that is to his external worship Abel had been unrespected at that time if he had not been good at both And as a plaister of cordial ingredients laid to the stomach or an unction well slickt upon the skin comforts the spirits within and makes them execute their vital functions chearfully so outward reverence helps us greatly against our dulness and drowzie infirmities The lifting up the hands and eyes make a man crave more passionately the knocking of the breast whets our repentance with indignation against our selves bowing down the head and knee imprints into us the great distance which is between God and us the uncovering the head makes that needful thought sink into our heart in whose presence we stand Glorifie God with your body 1 Cor. vi 20. Tertullian and S. Cyprian read it Portate Deum in corpore vestro Carry God in your body in every joynt and member of it It may be they met with some Greek Copy that read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Religion is compared to a Marriage there is a contract between God and our soul and this is gain'd from the similitude that the Wife is the Husbands as well in bodie as in affection and so are we the Lords As Man and Wife are but one flesh so Christ the Bridegroom of the Church did assume the whole man bodie and soul into the unity of his person He hath conjoyn'd them both unto God and let us conjoyn them both to the worship of God A Sermon cannot be spent upon a subject which doth more deserve our exhortation The Lord created a Star on purpose only to bring the Magi of the East to worship Christ and they did so even when He lay in most despicable manner before them in the Manger of a Stable and shall we be slacker to kneel before his footstool when he reigns triumphantly in the highest Heavens the Heaven and Earth the Stars and Prophets all lead us to the worship of God Scriptura mundus ad hoc sunt ut colatur qui creavit adoretur qui inspiravit so St. Cyprian The Scripture and the world are to this end that He that created the one and inspir'd the other might be worshipped It is no mean duty which made those wise men of the East take so tedious and long a journey to post in twelve days from the mountains of the East to Bethlem and that other Traveller Acts viii the Treasure of the Queen Candace came from the uttermost parts of Ethiopia to Jerusalem and all for no other end but this to worship The Scripture saies so expresly and when they had done that they went home again We had need carry a very true heart to God in these daies for many of us put him off all together with the zeal of our heart and think it will excuse us if we neither honor him with our
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
to heaven now yet it was the very same cloud which took him quite away from his Apostles upon the Ascension day Acts i. Non dubito quin ipsa est illa nubes quae suscepit eum ab oculis omnium Apostolorum The man is very confident of that opinion wheresoever he had it This he might say for certain Christ did ascend in a Cloud and we all shall ascend in the Clouds at the last day 1 Thes iv 17. We which are alive shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air Once St. Peter was so weak in faith that upon a Miracle of a great draught of Fish he cried out Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man Now he was grown so strong in love that nothing was more bitter to him than departing In a while after this accident of the Transfiguration Christ prepared the Twelve with many reasons and consolations that he must go away for if he went not away the Comforter would not come but when he did go away he would send them the Comforter even the Spirit of truth Upon these terms it was fit they should be glad to have him ascend unto his Father but having not as yet bequeathed any such promise of the Comforter it made them agast to think he should enter into a Cloud and be no more seen Beloved if God take not away the influence of his Holy Spirit from us we know he is always at our right hand though in his humane body he sitteth at the right hand of God Live justly and chastely and soberly as if the Son of God were always before your face and though he be entred into the Clouds though he be entred into Heaven your Conscience shall be comforted I must make an end of the first general part of the Text because of the time and I have put my self into a narrow strait to speak of the second the succour which Christ did administer to his three Disciples to quit them out of fear which S. Matthew hath remembred he touched them and said Arise be not afraid Though he seemed before to be going far off and as it were quite forsake them yet now he draws so near as to touch them with his hand Perhaps no more was done by Christ than the bare Letter of my Text acknowledged he did but lay the ends of his fingers upon them and if he pleased there was as much vertue in his fingers ends to quicken the Spirit of these men that sunk down with fear as there was in all Elias when he stretch'd his whole body upon the Child to bring it to life again The Angel Gabriel did but touch Daniel when he was faln upon the ground and set him upon his feet again Dan. viii 18. But behold a greater than Gabriel whose touch is more comfortable and more significative Eâ manu recreantur ad fidem I think it is St. Hieroms saying quâ creati erant ad vitam Those hands which made them and fashioned them to receive natural life the same hand did work a supernatural effect upon them and did raise them up to a boldness and assurance of a good hope in Christ Yet I will not say but that which is here called a touch may import the giving of his whole hand to assist them Postquam altos tetigit fluctus says the Poet when he meant that the Ship did sail upon the Sea Therefore to touch here may be no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manum supponere to stay with the hand and arm which we use to do to a man that is ready to sound and sink The Lord upholds all such as fall and lifteth up all those that be down Psal cxlv 14. But David explains himself in another place that all sorts of men promiscuously good and bad do not attain this favour he restrains that universal Proposition Psal xxxvi 24. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand It is said of the evil Angel I saw Satan fall like lightning Luke x. 18. The Lightning is darted out of the Clouds and never ascends again but is lost in vapour so are all those that imagine wickedly and whose heart is not stedfast in the Lord. Nescit stare superbia si ceciderit non novit resurgere says St. Ambrose Pride will catch a fall and God will leave it to shame and confusion never to recover again But a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again Pro. xxiv 16. As the young birds fall out of the Nest sometimes but the old one takes them up and carries them where they shall be safe So trust in the Lord and you shall not be cast down but his hand will be ready to catch you that you shall not be bruized All parts of mans body which are made for defence are attributed unto him for our preservation from the arm to the hand from the hand to the finger from the finger to the least touch Against great oppressions God opposeth that his arm is stretched out When he will fashion out deliverance with wonderful salvation as if a workman wrought it curiously with a Tool then the Prophets speak of the hand of God when he doth assist us suddenly and with great facility before we could think of help that is said to be done per contactum by a touch and away as in this case He touched them and said arise be not afraid These are his words who when the earth hath been fear'd with Winter makes all things to flourish again when he reneweth the year with his goodness so when the heart of man is frozen with fear by his word he makes it spring with joy His Countenance was fair and lightsome his tongue as comfortable as his face As St. Ambrose says of the Writings of St. Paul Quae Epistola Pauli non melle dulcior lacte candidior Every Epistle which he wrote was sweeter than honey whiter than milk So the beauty of Christ Transfigured was whiter than milk and his words were sweeter than the honey comb He can look frowningly and make his Foes fall down before him he can speak in Thunder and make the earth to quake the very voice which came from heaven in this next verse did confuse all that heard it This is my beloved Son hear him Vt conspectus vox Dei nos dejicit ita tactus vox Christi erigit says St. Hierom The Lord hath a voice to cast us down and a voice to raise us up again Especially Consolation shall succeed fear and that instantly when God did bring it upon us He never lead his Chosen into trouble for his sake but he brought them off again with comfort Christ had taken Peter and James and John into Mount Thabor whatsoever they suffered there it was by his conduct and for his sake it was the brightness of his
knew not what to say but in admiration of his mercy lift up his eyes to heaven as if these thoughts did rise up in Abrahams fancy Sarah the Mother of my Son did muse how a Child could be born unto her in her old age but she did ill to laugh because the Lord had spoke it then give me leave to ponder how this Child can live any more when the mouth of God hath spoken that he must be sacrificed for a burnt offering Nay O Lord Non unum redimis sed unitatem In this act thou dost not so much redeem this one from death as the unity of all the faithful in this one all those Nations that shall be blessed in my name wilt thou spare them all as thou sparest Isaac What are our merits What justice is in us What is man that thou wilt not visit him with indignation Thus the soul of Abraham was in an extasie to consider the mercy of God wonder had possessed him we see it in this cast of his eye that he looked up to heaven When the Lord turned the Captivity of Sion then we were like unto them that dream says the Prophet The deliverance was so fortunate so much it did out-strip their hope that they did receive it at first not as that which was done indeed but as a delightful dream As Livie relating how the Graecians were strangly strucken with sudden joy upon the day when the Romans sent them unexpected liberty says he Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur they thought it was a pleasing vision in their sleep and not the happiness of them that were broad awake So when God did really make good that Promise which the Devil pretended that he would bring about Non moriemini You shall not die The faithful Patriarch knew not how to apprehend it at the first but his eye did testifie that his soul was ravished with the mercies of the Lord. The wicked shall not end half his days the seed of the ungodly shall be rooted out eternal fire is prepared hereafter for them that shall be turned over to the Devil and his Angels there shall be much wrath and vengeance every where among the dwelling places of the unrighteous but as for Isaac and they that are born according to the Spirit Noli tangere says the Angel the hand of violence shall not come near them as the Poet in his Eclogue brings in Melibaeus wondring at the clemency of Cesar to his fellow-shepherd when all the neighbour-Cottages were burnt and wasted Vndique totis usque adeò turbatur agris So when God shall work so much destruction in the world redemption is an admirable thing where it lights John Baptist as we read it in the vulgar Latine blazeth out with two notes of astonishment one upon another Ecce Agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi Behold the Lamb of God I and again Behold him that taketh away the sins of the world In two respects it is to be wondred at without any prejudice to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fulness of our faith as I will shew by the examples of two memorable women in holy Scripture Whence is it that the mother of my Lord comes unto me says Elizabeth Why did she marvel at it Quia non sui meriti sed divini fatetur esse muneris says Beda because it was a favour of mere grace and not a recompence of merit And again the blessed mother of our Saviour astonished at the Angels message that she should conceive and bear a Son Quomodo says she How shall these things come to pass Tanquam certa de facto querit de modo fiendi as it is the common answer She was sure it should be so she marvelled how it should be so and that was a blameless admiration Both these passions did Abraham suffer he knew there was no worth in man that God should release him from condemnation he knew not the manner what should be paid for his ransom his eye did fix it self upon the throne of God to find the mystery out and so you see it was Gestus admirantis the expression of wonder and astonishment that Abraham lifted up his eyes Thirdly It is Gestus inquirentis besides that he lifted up his eyes he look'd about him from the tops of Moriah it is the demeanour of him that did seek out for a Sacrifice to be offered up unto the Lord. Reges Parthes non potest quisquam salutare sine munere says he No man was admitted to salute the Parthian Kings unless he brought some Present in his hands so because Abraham came to this Mountain to worship before the Angel of the Lord he look'd and enquired for some Oblation that he might not turn back until he had laid a gift upon the Altar Many will lift up their eyes but they list not to seek an Offering for the Lord. Such are best pleased with devotion when it comes off with as little cost as may be Nay says David when Araunah would have born his charges I will not sacrifice to God of that which shall cost me nothing An Objection is framed in the School that the Piety of the Jews was more acceptable to God than the piety of Christians because they in their daily Service were at great expense to provide beasts for the Altar we are at no such charge in our Spiritual Worship it is enough if we offer up a broken heart in mortification a thankful heart in Praise and a devout heart in Prayer But this puts not our Purse to any trial like the Oblations of the Jews To cancel and wipe out this opposition it is answered that we supply that charge of the Sacrifice of beasts In Sacrificio Eleemosynarum in the Sacrifice of Alms to the poor The hand must look about it where to give as well as the eye look upward where to be thankful A distribution to the wants of the needy it is Pro sacrificio and prae sacrificio in place of sacrifice and to be preferred before all sacrifices Mercy is a better Oblation than a Beast that is slain this day you know how much was paid for the price of your redemption but not the price of corruptible things as Silver and Gold Spare O spare some portion of that which you spend profusely in the consumption of vanity at this solemn time of redemption to redeem the distressed in Prisons that are fast bound in misery and iron Look about you as Abraham did and you shall find I assure you Arietes prehensos in Vepribus Rams shall I say Nay they have scarce any fleece upon their back but they are catch'd fast poor Souls by the horns in the Thicket thence they cannot stir unlâ—ss Abraham will take them and offer them up for an Oblation to the Lord. Above all other casts of the eye this same Gestus inquirentis pleaseth me best to look about that we may present some gift upon the Altar
Et fuit in toto corpore sculptus amor says a Christian Poet the thorns of the field catch the Fleece and tear off locks sometimes that is more the Shepherds loss than the Sheep but Blessed Jesus thou wert stript of thy Garments and the skin was flaid off and then the thorns were dinted into the flesh the least touch of pain was too much for thee but let not thy Cup seem too sower to thy Children the greatest dose that can be given is not too much for us Secondly as Tertullian said abstulit omnes aculeos mortis dominici capitis tolerantia there will be tribulations there will be sorrows in the world but the mortal sting is gone the thorns of all our persecutions and vexations are stuck in the Temples of our Saviour his sufferance hath blunted their sharp points that they shall not run in so far as to our heart to make our spirit sad and heavy within us quite contrary to Synesius his Art of Gardening 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he would have strong and unsavoury roots planted neer to Rose-trees that the neglected root might draw the ill sap and venom of the earth into it self and save the Rose-trees harmless but here the Rose of Sharon did save the Garlick and the wild Roots harmless and drunk up the bitter juice into it self lest God should come and root us out of his Vineyard Thirdly we read of a purple Robe put upon the back of Christ of bowing and bending to him of a Reed in his hand of a Crown upon his head alas it was thorns all these Ensigns of Majesty were put upon him in scorn What doth this mockery express Quod regnum Christi in hoc mundo ludibrio futurum sit because the Kingdom of Heaven in this world that is the Kingdom of Christ in his Church should be made a taunt and a by-word to them that sit in the Chair of the scorner the Power Ecclesiastical and the Hierarchical Dignity of it is flouted at by them that would neither allow the Head of it a Crown nor the supreme Priests their Miters but trample all Rule and Order under their feet Fourthly and lastly to end this part the place where the Ram is caught is a Thicket of thorns but what place was this afterward Quantum mutatus ab illo as I told you before from St. Hierom that the Cross was set up upon the very plot of ground where the Ram was sacrificed so upon the next part of this Hill of Moriah Solomon built the Temple for so it is 2 Chron. iii. 1. Then Solomon began to build the House of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah and why may it not be that the Jebusites who inhabited that Hill are called thorns in the eys of Israel why may not that be their Nick-name because thorns had overgrown their Habitation certainly in the Thickets of thorns there are the Walls of the Church reared up such a choice was made as the famous Antiquary of this Island hath wrote for the foundation of the Abbey which is the next to this place the ground was sometime called Thornega Thus you see we must lay our foundation in thorns we must sow in tears the higher we build from earth the further from the briars then our sorrows will be trampled down and we shall reap in joy and though thorns were a curse which was laid upon the vast World yet to plant in thorns shall be a blessing to the Church whose faith shall be refined in affliction as Gold is tried in the furnace Remember how St. Paul stil'd himself to Philemon Vinctum Christi a Prisoner of Christ not the Jews Prisoner not Festus his Prisoner not Caesars Prisoner but rejoycing in his Bonds for the Gospel a Prisoner of Jesus Christ And so far of the second General Part praesens auxilium Abrahams necessities were supplied at an instant Behold behind him a Ram caught in a Thicket by his horns In the handling of the last Part I must obey the time I called it Sacrificium succedaneum one Sacrifice answering for another or coming in the place of another And Abraham went and took the Ram and offered him up for a Burnt-offering in the stead of his Son 1. Abraham went and took the Ram so to apprehend and lay hold upon Christ that 's our duty 2. And offered him up that 's only consonant to God the Father 3. For a Burnt-offering there comes in Christs part 4. Instead of his Son there 's the redemption of the Elect I hope there comes in our part The hand of faith the good will of God the Father the full satisfaction of God the Son The full redemption of all that shall be saved With these four Points briefly we will end And Abraham went and took the Ram. It was the comfortablest hand that ever Peter felt when upon the danger to sink and perish in the Sea Christ stretched forth his hand and caught him So it was the most comfortable thing that ever Abraham caught hold of to apprehend this Ram in the Thicket partly out of natural affection partly supernatural the life of Isaac lay at the stake just before all the Sons of promise that he had and if he be cut off call him no more Abraham call him Abram again for how can he be the Father of many Nations or if that be made good in Ismael yet shall Isaac die the joy and laughter of his Father as his name goes quasi nusquam alibi gaudium ei restaret as if there were no joy without him Once Abraham had fought valiantly against five Kings when He was young 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom what a hard thing was it for him in his old age to fight against nature O had not his natural affections a brave occasion of joy to work upon when a Ram was put into his hands instead of Isaac and all this sorrow prevented but the Spirit 's comfort is the eye-sight of the Spirit into supernatural blessings hereby there was the gladness as Jacob laid hold of an Angel so did Abraham of this Ram the principal of the Flock the Leader of all the Sheep in the Pasture he was sure of a blessing before he parted with him Joabs hands may be pluckt from the Altar of refuge Sauls hand may be rent from the Garment of Samuel the Children of Bethlem may be pluckt from the arms of their own Mothers and slain before their eyes but who so apprehendeth the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ he that doubteth not as Thomas did and yet approacheth by faith so near as to put his hand into his wounds as if he would bury his sins in that Grave he shall lie safe in that Harbour and never be removed from the love of God in Christ Caius Caesar his foot slipt landing upon Affrica and the palm of his hand fell upon the ground verso in meliùs omine teneo te inquit Affrica turning it to the
loud voice Lazarus come forth AMong all the miracles that our Saviour wrought this suscitation of Lazarus or raising him up from the dead it was his true Benoni or Son of sorrow None came off with so much anxiety none cost him so dear in all the Gospel Twice he groaned in Spirit and once he wept his Passions were as variable as the life and death of Lazarus Look back to the fifteenth verse and you shall see it wrought comfortably I am glad for your sakes that Lazarus is dead Look unto the 35 verse and you shall see it wrought bitterly Jesus wept What alterations are there says St. Austin Gaudebat propter discipulos flebat propter Judeos horum fides confirmabatur horum incredulitas augebatur It joyed him for the Disciples sake that their faith would be confirmed and revived It grieved him for the Jews sake whose hearts were hardened The preparation then of this Miracle was not without sorrow but the event and sequel was worst of all For although the Counsel of the High Priests stomach'd at our Saviour long before yet they wisht his life no hurt till he had wrought this wonder which all the world were amazed at From that time Caiaphas began to talk like a Wizard That one man must die for the people and Christ must suffer Now you see good cause why our Lord might groan and weep Israel shall pass over into Canaan but Moses must die upon Mount Nebo the birth of Benjamin shall be Rachels funeral Lazarus shall be revived and Jesus crucified Yet I can tell you one thing Beloved how the Son of God shall neither groan nor weep for Lazarus but rejoyce in Spirit and be glad even at this day be glad as he stands at the right hand of God and it lies upon you to do it Did he then groan for the infidelity of the Pharisees Then sure he will now rejoyce if we believe in his works and have faith in the Resurrection Did he then weep because his own death was contrived for doing good Then he will now be comforted if you take heed that you do not again crucifie the Lord of life Tâ—llite lapidem as it is in verse 39 remove the stone the hardness of your heart and joy will follow in heaven for the conversion of a sinner Do you consider that the days past were a time of mourning and sad contrition Why here is a Text which was not preach'd without Christs mourning and lamentation Do you remember his Passion but the other day Why this is the Text which was an occasion to bring him to his Cross and Passion What do you meditate upon this day but our Saviours issuing out of the Grave Why here is Lazarus broke out of the Tomb Lazarus come forth Which words as I have read them rise up into two eminent heads like Tabor and Hermon You shall perceive that the business in my Text is a work of great dignity that is one part and a work of great Divinity that is the other part The dignity consists in these two Points 1. In that which Christ had spoken before when he had said thus And what was that He pray'd unto his Father wherefore it is dignum oratione a work worthy of a Prayer for the preparation 2. It is Dignum proclamatione it was cried with a loud voice and fit to be published to all the world The Divinity appears in these three circumstances 1. Exeat mortuus that a dead man is summoned to appear 2. Exeat Lazarus Lazarus after four days departure comes forth 3. Exeat ligatus one who was bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths walks upon his feet O strange Divinity the Monuments which were shut did open for Christ did call who had the Key of David The dead who lay in silence could hear his tongue for it was the same voice which makes the Hinds bring forth young ones and called Adam from the dust of the earth The body which lay putrified four days gave no offence in the smell Christ was at hand who is a sweet savour for us unto God The feet which were bound with Grave-cloaths could walk before him for in him we live and move and have our being Was not this excellent work worthy of a Prayer So far we have gone this day in our morning Sacrifice Was it not worthy of the proclamation of a loud voice fit to be preached that the world may hear of it and believe and be saved And that is the business which doth now take up your attentions With these two circumstances of the Miracle I must first begin the preparation of our Saviours Prayer and the promulgation of his loud voice or preaching And when he had thus said c. That is when he had prayed unto the Father Dimidium facti qui benè caepit habet And he that begins his work with Prayer as Christ did hath half dispatch'd it Vox clamantis the voice of a Crier was the fore-runner of Christ when he came upon the earth Vox orantis the voice of Prayer must be the fore-runner of our necessities when we look for any thing from heaven As the people shouted when the foundation of the Temple was laid grace grace be unto the first stone of the building so let the foundation of every thing be laid with shouting and strong Ejaculations to our God that he may say upon the moving of the first stone Grace be to the building In Gen. xii Abraham removed three times to several quarters and still before he pitcht his Tent he built an Altar to Jehovah remove not stir not enter upon no new task before you have built an Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom wheresoever you are pray and your own heart is a Temple or the Alter of Jehovah Religion is the Bow and the heart is the String but Prayer is that which bends the Bow Religion is unbent as it were and the Shafts cannot fly untill Prayer dispatch them Well might Peter who was prompt of tongue and ready to speak upon all occasions be counted a chief Apostle for Prayer which is the tongue of Religion and our Consciences Orator is the chief of all our vertues Debilem facito manu debilem coxâ pede no matter for infirmities in the feet for diseases in the hands so the dumb Devil be not in our tongues The penitent Thief had no hands to hold up they were nailed to the Cross no knees to bend for his legs were broken he had a tongue to say Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom and it did him service enough to open Paradise O the delusions of the Devil For all this that I have said you shall sooner make ignorants and vain people believe that Diseases are curable by unsignificant Charms by unhallowed mutterings than by godly Prayers As if the Devil could go further with Non-sense than a good Christian with Faith and Prayer One Talent in
Pollinctores quia pollutos ungerent But among divine Writers all do embrace this as a strong conjecture and indeed not to be denied that the Servants of God embalmed and anointed the dead both in the Old and New Testament in honour of the Resurrection So Joseph commanded the Physicians to embalm his Father So certain devout Widows washed the body of Tabitha and laid her forth in an upper Chamber Acts ix 37. Let me not omit how Christ himself did approve of that Ceremony while he was living A woman broke a box of Oyntment of Spikenard very precious upon his head and when some had indignation at it he forbad his Disciples to trouble her saying She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying Mar. xiv 8. That woman spent her cost upon him when he was alive to give her thanks Mary came to pour her Spices upon his Grave when she thought he was dead true Love is munificent to them who are dear unto it when they live but more abundantly when they are deceased Now carry your attention with you to the third part of the Text that no season was so fit to be watch'd as this which the women laid hold of The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalen This coming was upon the third day after Christ had been laid in the Grave and it was upon the same day which from thenceforth was called the Lords day wherein our holy Assemblies every week do meet together these two things are fit to be examined before I leave the Treatise of this Point From the beginning of the world was there never any thing of so great expectation as the success of this day whether that which Christ had so often foretold should come to pass that he should die and the third day he would rise again How busie were the women to come abroad and try what they could learn And I verily think the waves of the Sea rowl not about so fast in a Tempest as the thoughts of the Disciples beat within their heart and earned within them between fear and hope whether the day were like to prove glorious or uncomfortable well God did rather go beyond his own word than come a whit behind it He made this third day the most memorable Feast that ever the Sun shined upon It was a third day when Joseph released his brethren out of Prison Gen. xlii 18. On the third day in the morning after the people had come to Mount Sinai the Law of God was delivered Exod. xix 16. On the third day Esther put on her Royal Apparel and stood before Ahasuerus and desired him to be good to her Nation Esther v. 1. On the third day Abraham came to the place where his faith was tried and Isaac was restored back again alive when the sacrificing knife had been at his throat Gen. xxii 4. To come near to the mark the third day Jonas was cast safe upon the Land out of the belly of the Whale and that was the sign which Christ gave to the Jews able to convince all infidelity as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale and then came forth alive so Christ burst open the Monument the third day and appeared unto many Reason may be busie to enquire why the Son of God prefix'd such a space of time for his Resurrection before he would quicken his flesh rather than any other Certainly there is but one modest conjecture which is this he would lie no longer than some hours of a third day in the grave lest he should keep the weak faith of his Disciples too long in suspense yet sooner he would not open his monument lest his enemies the Jews should pretend he was but cast into a swoon by the sharpness of pain and not truly dead These following I will allow for ingenuous allusions and no more that our Redeemers body was bereaft of life unto the third day to appease the offended justice of every Person in Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Ghost to signifie that we were dead in sin by thought word and deed To bring unto eternal life them that believed either under the Law of nature under the Law of Moses or under the new Covenant of grace To restore the three parts of spiritual life unto us Faith hope and charity Tria sunt omnia says another three days are the sum of mans life both here and for ever A day of labour in this World a day of rest in the Grave a day of reward in the Resurrection If there be any Son of Adam that would have a fourth day Dies otii in hâc vitâ A day of ease and pleasure in this life such a one is Lazarus quatriduanus putet It may be said of him as the two Sisters said of Lazarus their Brother He hath lain four days in the ground and begins to smell Three days are all labour rest and reward these are allusions I said to the Resurrection of Christ upon the third day One thing is very observable to match this circumstance of the New Testament and an accident which fell out in the Old Even this very day wherein Christ arose and gate dominion over death the same day which was the third day after the eating of the Passeover Moses brought the Children of Israel through the Red Sea unto dry Land certainly intimating that they went through death to life and so did Christ St. Peter hath a Text 1 Epist 1.10 which doth authorize me yet to search further and more diligently about the time of this Resurrection Saies he The Prophets have enquired and searched diligently what manner of time the Spirit of Christ did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow And surely there is a great mystery coucht in the circumstance of time that the Evangelists have differently set down other observations that concurred upon the Resurrection but all of them in one phrase do agree in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that this wonder was wrought upon the first day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vna Sabbati The Jews gave such honour to their Sabbath that every day following had the denomination from it the first second and the third day after the Sabbath and so unto the sixth The Latine Church in their Liturgies hath given the same honour to Easter Day for Easter day by principallity being called Feria the Holy Day The Latines from it call the days of the week primam secundam tertiam Feriam and so unto the sixth Our vulgar English calls the first day of the week Sunday and all other days following are denominated from some of the Planets we received such Language in this Island from our Forefathers who were Paynims and knew not God but we differ from them in the intention they did it out of Idolatry to the Sun and Moon c. we to signifie that God made the Host
give him at her Brothers house at Bethany as she was wont to do she called him Rabboni and as she was wont to do she would have toucht him but where there wanted Reverence Christ corrected her mildly Touch me not But as for these Women that prostrated themselves at his feet with Adoration to worship him they had leave to touch because in heart they had tasted the fruit of life The Ark of God would not endure Vzzah's touch he died for it but the Priests that came near it with holy access had authority to touch it and it was the dignity of their Office Not to roll this stone any longer that good Saint Mary Magdalen was mistaken as if Christ lived again no otherwise than as her Brother Lazarus did to converse in the world as he had done before Touch him not with the finger of that little Faith But they that saw some greater excellency in him than before and fell low on the ground before him they may hold him by the feet Yet there is one Interpretation beside which casts no imputation at all upon Mary Magdalen and I like it the better 't is thus Christ had great use of her to dispatch her to his Disciples it being expedient to send her upon that errand yet she was loth to depart surmising that she should see him no more therefore when our Saviour would have her to insist no longer in expressing her love says he Touch me not I am not yet ascended to my Father which is to this effect I am not yet ascending or going away you shall have more time to converse with me hereafter but now it will do more good to my Disciples to hear I am risen than for you to stay and touch me depart insist no longer in these expressions of Love touch me not I am not quite going away to the Father But for these Women who made no such fond delay but laid their hands on his feet and worshipt him and rose again no such Interdict was upon them as Touch me not which is the Sum of this Point And the next thing they did confirms me that the holding his feet was unblamable and a sanctified action for they worshipt him If when the first begotten was brought into the world it is said Let all the Angels of God worship then when the first begotten from the dead came into Jerusalem his excellency proclaims it let all that behold his glorified presence worship him The wise men fell down before his Cradle and ador'd him when he lay in a poor and despicable manner and this was their wisdom to see the brightness of the Godhead in the dark Lantern of his Humanity Nay the evil Spirit having possessed the body of him that lived in the Tombs fell down before him and with a loud voice said what have I to do with thee thou Son of God most high Luke viii 28. Hell it self is not so refractory but that the Spirits of darkness confess he is to be worshipped and they did it It was not their own body but in that body over which they had command they did that function of their own accord before they were bidden Yet it was not thanks-worthy in them because they executed no more than the duty of the outward gesture I do highly commend the lowly service and inclination of the body O let down your body to the very ground before your Maker as these women did a man cannot be too reverent to his God And as a Plaister of cordial Ingredients laid to the stomach or an Unction well fomented upon the skin without comforts the spirits within and makes us more chearful in our vital operations so outward reverence helps us greatly against the dulness and drowziness of our heart the lifting up of the eyes and hands makes a man ask in prayer more passionately the knocking of our breast provokes our repentance to a more eager indignation against our selves the bowing down the head and knee makes us the better to understand the great distance between God and us the uncovering of the head fills us with that necessary consideration in whose presence we stand Glorifie God with your body 1 Cor. vi 10. Tertullian and St. Cyprian read it portate Deum in corpore vestro Carry God in your body that is bear your Religion openly in the observance and humility of your body Christ is the Husband of the Church an Husband to the Soul of every Christian now this is gained from the similitude that the Wife is the Husband 's both in her body and in her affections so we are Christ's as well in our bodily worship as in our spiritual adherence to him But because the act of worship as concerning that which the head the knee the hand do execute may be used to our superiours in civil demeanor as well as in religious usance to God it is the addition of sanctity conceiv'd in the heart and mind which makes it Religious Adoration for the complete definition of it is thus adoratio est veneratio talis exterior quae ex corde pio religioso procedit that is that 's the adoration due to God and to him alone which with the exterior veneration of the body proceeds out of the pious and religious intention of the heart If you yield any token of outward obeysance and mean it to him who hath created you who hath given you all that you have who rose from the dead that we also might rise with him then it is raised up from civil homage and it becomes Divine Worship These apprehensions were in the hearts of these women and thereupon their bodies bowed down in lowliness and so it wants not one grain of due weight but that it was the worshipping of the Lord Jesus From those things which were personally performed by the women I remove forward to all that which was personally performed by Christ and that is conteined in his action or his words his action is but in this one passage Behold Jesus met them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to overtake one or to come behind them but to meet them full but as our phrase is therefore it hath somewhat in it diverse from that Apparition which was made to Mary Magdalen and it can not be the same for he stood behind her and she turned about to look upon him but when he presented himself to these Women he met them face to face They were going to tell his Disciples and he that was no hindrance to their journey stood in their way Behold and marvel at it for the hope of the Resurrection was out of their heads they came to embalm his dead Body not to see him living Or suppose we that the Angels had lately persuaded them to that Faith that he was alive again yet to speak indifferently they had no cause to expect him in that place or any where near to Jerusalem for the Angel told them thus in the 7. verse
usage that the souls were put to One at the wheel another drawing water some rowling stones and some twining cords every corner full of fretful industry For if Satan himself take no rest shall his instruments look for ease and softness Six days thou shalt labour God requires no more Nay thou shalt labour seven days Sunday and every day alike and break the Sabbath that is the Doctrine of the Tempter I speak to them that can judge of the secresie of States and the wisdom of the world what a Labyrinth Matchiavel hath put his disciples into to learn his mysteries and principles of treachery How many Centuries of Rules to be observed Which I know not but by the Index it will ask brains to dig and delve for that invention of iniquity but pure Religion and undefiled may be comprehended in the smalest Medal Love thy neighbour as thy self All Liquors that are wholsom for the sound are for the most part simple and unmixed but how many extractions go before how many distillations and decoctions follow after to make a Poyson Cariùs venenum quà m vinum bibitur It is an easie matter to tread the Vintage and press out the juyce of the Grape in great plenty but you must attend the fire and furnace to confect a drachm of poyson So the service of Baal is but vassalage his Priests roar from Morning to Evening they lance and wound their Carkasses fodiunt ad inferos they dig to Hell but the service of the Lord passeth away with joy and melody A sacrifice of Prayer at Morning and a sacrifice of praise at Evening an heart without guile towards men a stedfast belief in Jesus Christ this is all And yet will you say the ways of the Lord are grievous The forbidden fruit you know it was not planted in the skirts of Paradise near to the hedge where any man might reach it but in penetralibus in the midst of the garden as if God had hidden sin from man but that the Serpent made him industrious to find it out Quid irâ laboriosius says Seneca Look upon the pale face of anger and envy Is not that sin a labour Consider the loathing of surfeit and drunkenness is not that sin a labour Go to the Hospitals of incontinent lascivious persons see how their marrow and their bones are consumed is not that sin a labour Will you laugh a little at the pitiful object of a covetous man No we will not sport our selves with his vanity the Lord shall have him in derision but when he denies sleep to his eyes and meat to his belly and rest to his bones to scrape in a mite more to his heap is not that sin a labour Finally let us look upon our Parliament Pioneers such another Band as Judas brought from the High Priest with Lanthorns and Staves to betray Christ three years they kept this Fox in their bosom till at last it eat out their bowels Three years O Lord they did behold thy heavens above and all that time did never think of Hell that was within them Did they not plow up the Seas to and fro in conference with foreign Nations Did they not plow up the Land with their own arm and possessed vaults with all Munition as if they had belonged to the Devils Armory When were any Gentlemen daintily bread put more to labour What use shall we make now of all these instances But cast off the bondage of iniquity be not vassals to the Prince of darkness since Christ hath made you free O but you will say the work of Godliness is very great the Gospel is a yoke the way to glory is streight and narrow So it is And no question if you look not upon the reward to come every course in the world is painful Life and death the fear of God and the power of sin all are vexation of spirit in this corruptible flesh But Beloved who gave you feet and hands Who did frame your body woven with veines and strengthned with sinews What may God Almighty say that did all this As that Roman did to his Son Non te genui Catilinae sed patriae Since you needs must work either in my Vineyard or in the Devils Dunghil turn unto him that gave you limbs to work they were not made to dig into Hell but for my imployment and my glory And so much for the tedious labour to the which the ungodly do enthral themselves Now secondly digging doth imply that they cast about for conveyance and secresie a thing that God did always reprove ever since he divided between the light and darkness The Ferret the Mole and the Cony those creatures that dig into the ground were unclean food to Gods children Lev. xi Spiritus movebatur super expansum Gen. i. the face of the world lay open before God when the Spirit moved upon it but there are an evil sort of men whose Spirit never moves upon the face of the earth but live as if they were strangers in our Horizon and traded with our Antipodes close and subtle fearful of nothing but a revelation you can scarce fathom how deep their soul lies within their body When Saul enquired for the Prophet Samuel every Maiden whom he found carrying a pitcher of water could certifie him that the Man of God did sacrifice on the top of the hill 1 Sam. ix But he was fain to enquire and search over all the Land to find out the Witch of Endor Apemantus the Cynick says Plutarch never thought himself better than in the company but of one more his Partner Timon never thought himself more chearful than when he was quite left alone The face of man will ever carry so much reverence so much of the Image of God that outragious sins will turn away and be loth to appear before it Herodotus reports of certain Indians that were wont to blaspheme the bright Sun when it rose in glory as if the nights were too short to commit filthiness Why but our very name is enough to dispel darkness from our actions We are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greeks as if men and day-children did not differ one letter and they that lurk and retire like Sisera in the Tent of Jael and live like Meteors the imperfect bodies of nature in a cloud they seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to repine at their birth and creation which hath brought them to the light Besides that the substance of our nature is more naked from the womb than any beast without hair or feathers without scales or shell to cover us like the Fishes of the Sea Besides this I say Nature hath provided that the Countenance of no creature doth betray the inward disposition so much as the face of man Then let Herod the Fox know and the profound Craftsmen of our age that God hath half opened the heart of man in the complexion of his visage as Isaac did open the two Wells in the Valley
mea c. The preservation of the innocent doth necessarily follow upon the detection of their enimies yet a question stands in my way and I must remove it both in this place and elsewhere Why God doth more often express how the treacherous-hearted are inclosed than how his Children are delivered Because their wickedness doth more deserve shame and detection than our slender righteousness can deserve preservation and therefore they are pointed at more visibly inde educet c. Here are two discomforts for all those that lay baits against the soul of the righteous 1. Inde educet thence he will take them Gods eye is never off though they dig into Hell 2. Manus ejus educet though Hell be on their side yet this hand is mightier and will break them in pieces like a Potters vessel For the first The eyes of God are upon the conspiracies of men like burning-glasses and cast a light upon those things which afterward they will consume to ashes The very Heathen says Clemens of Alexandria thought that nothing did more completely make a God than to see all things and to be seen of no man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore one says of the Crocodile that the Egyptians in that vain Idol did resemble a God Quia ex omnibus aquaticis habet oculos obtectos ut cernat nec cernatur It hath eyes so befilmed that perceives afar off and is not perceived What should we light Candles to the Gods in the day time says Seneca giving that wipe as I think to the Jews Quoniam lumine nec Dii egent ne homines quidem delectantur fuligine For neither God can stand in need of Candle-light and men can take no great pleasure in smoke In vain then shall sinners earth themselves in Vaults and make Sellers their secret Pavilions to hide their head Though Mountains were tost upon Mountains between heaven and them yet is not the eye of Gods Divinity more active than Christs Humanity Though the doors be shut to enter in and come unto them I will search Jerusalem with Candles saith the Lord Zeph. i. 12. That is not all the grave shall open and give up her dead The Grave is a place deep and hidden but Hell is a darker corner than that yet Satan himself appeared before the Lord. Job i. But above all darkness the thoughts of the heart are most obscure and the secrets of all hearts shall lie naked before him Quo fugis Encelade quascunque accesseris oras sub Jove semper eris You are as near to Gods eye in the utmost part of the Sea as standing before his Altar But secondly that the counsels of evil men may be of no effect as the eye of God is always open so is not his hand folded up in his bosom but his hand shall take them thence that hand which never any saw alone but King Belshazzar and you know what followed his Kingdom departed from him Indeed all the parts of the body which are made both for defence and offence are attributed unto God for the confusion of his enemies From the arm to the hand from the hand to the finger from the finger to the least touch if he do but touch the Mountains they shall smoke Against great invasions there is brachium Domini a stretched out arm to deliver Israel from Egypt But when he will fashion out deliverance with wonderful salvation as if a workman had wrought it curiously with a tool then the Prophets speak of the hand of God but when the Lord doth demonstrate his great affection and give us to learn some godly lesson by deliverance Verè digitus Detest hic that is a token of the finger of God His finger beloved doth always point his arm is always stretched his hand is always open And as Vegetius said of Chariots armed with sharp Sithes that at first they were made for terrour and afterward forscorn So is it with all malicious practises which are beaten a while upon the forge and Blacksmiths are busie at the fire to hammer out some Engine for our affrightment but the Lord comes down and brings victory to his Chosen that he may go up on high like a Conquerour with a merry noise and as the Lord of Hosts with the sound of the Trumpet Holy Bernard was toucht with a spice of vain ambition in a godly Exercise but recovering himself casts away Satan with these words Nec propter te hoc opus coeptum est nec propter te finietur So we may be bold to say in the name of our God touching our Religion it was neither reformed for Satans sake neither shall it be deformed by his Conspiracies Propter salutem duorum hominum duo millia porcorum perierunt says St. Austin upon Mat. viii that two men might be saved from the Devils that possessed them two thousand Swine ran headlong and perished in the Sea Much less will the Lord suffer so great a flock as he hath in this Kingdom to be yielded up to the prey of the hunter or that the wild Boar of the wood should root it up Quamvis ad inferos though he should root and dig to Hell c. When John and James would have called for fire from heaven Christ rebuked them saying You know not what spirit you are of as who should say that is not the Spirit of the Gospel O beloved they that would call up for fire from Hell what Spirit wot you are they of Why that that ever was and ever will be the spirit of the Jusuite Papalins God rebuke them Lord how often have I said with my self surely the calamity of the poor Indians is much to be lamented whom God hath delivered over into mens hands of such bloudy Religion certainly the report of those Millions whom they slew with the Sword is as true as lamentable For what would they not do against savage men that worshipped Devils and are forlorn of God who would have caused the Channels to run with bloud in that Kingdom where Christ is truly praised But the hope of the Hypocrite says Job shall be swept away like the Spiders Web. Spiders Webs you know are spun from the vapour of their own poison from within their secret bowels So are the devices of the treacherous Spiders Webs are woven in the darkest and most unfrequented corners of the house so are the devices of the treacherous Spiders Webs are long a framing with much curiosity but a feather sweeps them away in a moment so shall be the devices of the treacherous But admit that God be so careful for us and so powerful against tyrants that seek after our soul Vt te ipsum serves non respicis shall we cast all the burden of our safety upon Gods providence Because Christ is praying and watching in Mount Olive◠shall Peter sleep Is it enough to have a Sermon of Thanksgiving to day And an Anthem to sing an holy Jubilee And leave all the rest
punishment says Nazianzen is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pillar of Salt erected up like a Trophy of his vengeance and their impiety Not so the righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is enough to chastise them to be wise and wary St. Austin compares a regenerate man with Adam in innocency by an excellent parallel Adam was priviledged to be secure in all present delights and comfort while he was in Paradise and so the faithful are not but every regenerate man is sure of heaven in his greatest Agony and so Adam in his pleasant Garden was not O could an heathen man preach so much Gospel as this Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis securitatem Dei O what a royal thing it was to be corruptible as man and yet to be secure as God! Expect not then from the Lord that he should always turn aside his hand as Vlysses did from his Son Telemachus What if he make his furrow upon the back of his own Children if they lie in the way Is there no time but the instant to be saved Yes St. Paul hath declined deliverance through all Tenses 2 Cor. i. Who hath delivered us Have you forgotten it And doth deliver us Perhaps you do not feel it And will deliver us I speak not I hope to such as do distrust it Wherefore let this suffice for excussit the deliverance of Paul The third thing follows which makes it mel in cuspide honey on the point of Jonathans Spear and pleasant to be in jeopardy his eye saw his desire upon his enemy excussit in ig nem he shook the beast into the fire c. If there be Songs of deliverance as David says there are and that he was compassed about with songs of deliverance then this is Canticum salutis The Viper did not only lose her sting like the angry Bee that loseth her weapon when she pricks her Adversary and lives a Drone ever after but Paul warms his hands at the fire whose fuel was the Viper which even now would have slain him Fire indeed by the judgment of our own Laws is a death appointed for Poysoners and it is but one fire for another only dry for moist Paul was ready to be inflamed so we read in the next verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was that the Islanders look'd for and therefore good reason the beast should fall into the fire Who doth not count it a monument worth the seeing to read his jacet an Epitaph upon his Enemies Tomb The subtil Graecians would not live in fear to see the Infants of Troy survive their Father they would see every thing in ashes Et nunquam satis Trojam jacentem it is safety to escape but security to want an adversary Break their teeth O Lord in their mouths saith the Psalmist but lest new ones come up in their room smite the jaw bones of the Lions and when they shoot out their arrows let them be rooted out If Shemei had lived happily he might have cursed Solomon as well as David and if Judas had not come quickly to his end he might have betrayed St. Peter as well as Jesus Iniquity of it self is infinite says Job xxii 5. Wherefore says Aquinas Homo peccat in suo aeterno quia voluntatem habet in infinitum peccandi Every sinner hath a good will to sin for ever In circuitu ambulat says David and the way of him that goes in a circle is as new to begin to morrow as it was to day Qui vitio modum ponit idem facit ac qui è Leucade se praecipitans velit sistere says the Stoick A sinner falls down headlong and Hell hath no bottom Then God puts in his Sickle and cuts down the Tares that they may not overgrow the Wheat Be of courage then O little Flock that flies away into the Wilderness and think that the voice of the Angel unto Joseph is still in your ears Return for they are dead that sought the life of Jesus And reason good that inquisitors after the bloud of Christ wilful sinners should be cut off or else the dumb beasts were hardly dealt with the Viper knew not Paul nor the mark of God upon him she did but her kind and yet she is consumed The Lion knew not Samson nor the Judge of Israel hunger made him roar after his prey and yet he died for it Why should David wish revenge upon the pleasant grass for his beloved Jonathan How could a Figtree trespass when it bore not plenty of fruit for Christ and his disciples that it withered and deflourished utterly All these died to make up one lesson for us that nothing can offend the Saints of God without an evil recompence Some revengeful Spirit perchance would ask here whether this be an Emblem for every man to endeavour to be as fortunate as Paul was and to make away his enemy with his own hand No Beloved there is no such moral in this Text and it were unchristian to attempt it Wrath is as a Serpent revenge is like a Viper shake them off a Gods name and then if Pauls hand were not moved the finger of God will deliver us from our enemies There is great difference in this point between heathen moral men and praise-worthy Christians Junius Brutus the darling of the Romans fained himself mad before but then he was mad indeed Quando expiravit super Tarquinii filium quasi ad inseros sequeretur when he bore malice unto death against his enemy and died upon him as if he would follow him to Hell Like the young Son of Thyestes wounded by his unnatural Uncle cast the trunk of his body upon the murderer as if he would have pressed him down like a Mountain Cumque dubitasset dia hâc parte an illâ caderet in patruum cadit says the Tragedian So did not Zacharias the Son of Barachias that fell between the Temple and the Altar It may seem there rather than in another place for a Peace-offering to be reconciled to his adversary So did not Stephen who kneeled among the stones which were cast at his head like a Statue in a Monument and prayed with more devotion for his enemies than for his own spirit We must feed them that hate us I keep open hospitality for such according to our Saviours construction Si inimicus if thou have an enemy feed him whosoever he be if he hunger then wretched are they who feed themselves rather with the hunger of their enemy As Vitellius boasted in Tacitus Inimici morte spectatâ se pavisse oculos that it glutted his eyes with delight to see his enemy tormented They that feed so shall digest Gods anger till it come like water into our bowels and like oyl into our bones We must not call for fire from heaven if we love not the Samaritans but forgive them and thou shalt heap coales of fire upon their head Chiefly let my speech drop as the soft dew upon the head of
St. Austin Did you think to burn like chaff and thorns to be out with a blaze The Scripture never meant it Your torments shall belike a firy Oven Psal xxi where heat is furious without the blessing of light You shall be like the burning of Lime Isa xii where the fire encreaseth when you think to extinguish it Nay you shall be as Wax before the fire Mic. i. melted and heated but not consumed Aetna was never cold yet as if it were the stomach of the world Montes uruntur durant quid improbi hostes Domini says Tertullian Yea says the Atheist Hills are but dirt and dross without life they may last and burn Then say we the Salamander hath life and yet is not consumed in the fire So shall it be with the wicked True says the Atheist such Creatures may play in the flames because it is their nature and delight but can the wicked abide in pains unsufferable and not be consumed St. Austin in this point hath outgone their Logick says he Mirabile est dolere in ignibus tamen vivere sed mirabilius vivere in ignibus nec dolere That is the miracle above the other for the little beast to live unscorched without any pain among the burning coals rather then as the damned to continue so in torment Do you believe a vain story for the one then believe the Scriptures for the other But I leave those and many more the like Problems for the Schoolmen whose subtil heads have extracted such questions by distillation from Hell Furnace as if they did not dispute but conjure And I pass from this Song of deliverance how mischief lighted upon the Viper to Canticum Canticorum the Song of Songs even Deborahs song in this happy preservation He shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm This was not a brand snatcht out of the fire half saved half consumed Not like your bloudy Victories wherein the Conquerours may sit down and count their losses as well as the Conquered As Pyrrhus said very well when twice he vanquished the Romans but lost the flower of his own Army in the Victories Si tertio vicerimus if we overcome the third time we are undone for ever But it is Dalmaticus triumphus sine sudore sanguine The Viper left not so much smart behind it as the prick of a thorn or thistle He felt no harm How would a Stoick interpret this now Forsooth to be an obstinate contempt of grief I will not call it patience as if Paul were toucht to the quick but would not feel it So Taurus the Philosopher in Gellius excused a sick person of his Sect that seemed to groan in his disease Non est gemitus alicujus victi à dolore sed anhelitus viri enitentis vincere That is pain and disease did not make him groan as if it troubled him but he fetcht his wind short to over-master his sickness this is robusta stultitia madness not manhood and Philosophy to affect such stubborness Nature cannot but love it self and retire from pain and Reason will follow Nature And this is enough to satisfie the most curious that trouble their heads why our Saviour cast out those strong ejaculations of grief against the bitter cup Mat. xxvi Cum natura cogit etiam ratio data à naturâ cogitur As I said before Reason will follow Nature Wherefore to say that Paul felt no harm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not suffer any He had been in the third heavens and in this one act God gave his body incorruption upon earth For so says Aquinas that many worthy Saints have had a taste of heaven upon earth not only by grace in their soul but by some other excellent quality shining in these vile bodies The properties of a glorified body are thus reckoned up by the same Author first that the Just shall shine like the Sun in the Firmament that is Claritas in corpore So the face of Stephen standing before the Council was bright as the face of an Angel The second ornament is agilitas in motu to be able to fly upon the wings of the wind thus Philip was carried by the Spirit from Gaza in the Desart to Azotus suddenly Thirdly our corruption shall put on incorruption as in this one act Paul suffered on his hand and felt no harm for the last attribute of a glorified body which is called spiritualitas I do not recknon it for according to the Schoolmens interpretation it doth quite destroy the nature of a body But let us remember to keep our bodies pure and undefiled since God hath given us a taste in this life that hereafter they shall be refined in greater glory O we doubt it not but we should all prove as holy as Paul himself if we were so dear to God as to feel no harm Our luxurious Courtiers would sing Songs unto the Lord with Shadrach Mesech and Abednego if the Son of God would walk with them in the firy Furnace and in the shadow of death that they might fear none ill Our wanton Ladies yea and their Handmaids also would play upon Timbrels unto God as well as Miriam if they might tread as safe upon the ground as she did and all Israel to fear none evil in the midst of the Sea No but if our danger did not come to be felt to tangit angit I fear we would be impudent and say there was no danger Like ignorant people who presume when beasts are tamed by discipline that they have no teeth because they bite not Jonah must be wakened to see the Tempest lest he sleep it out and deny it And if Saul miss nothing else yet he must lose his pot of water that he might acknowledge his own preservation and Davids fidelity As the Shepherd in Virgil was bitten by a Gnat to espy the hissing of a Serpent and we our selves try the edge of a Razor upon the nail of our finger and so come to know that if it should miscarry it would cut our throat And this is one cause why Paul did feel no harm because we are chastened with some feeling for they that be evil and feel no harm would be too too evil and feel no benefit But let my second reason be the answer and with your patience the conclusion for this time Such Miracles and such deliverances were required in the days of St. Paul the Apostle which are not now to be expected in these our days I call it a Miracle and so it is and in the nature of the greatest Miracles Small ones are but such as either seldom be seen and so come by their name so our Saviour wondred at the Centurions faith Or those which it is no news to see nor very hard to bring about but only it is above our reason perchance to know the cause as the turning of the point of the Loadstone to the North. But this is a more noble work and therefore
Land give me also springs of water Let me not lie concealed lest I be out of remembrance and thou forget me Let me do good and communicate lest I prove but an imaginary Notion Let me offer some dutiful Sacrifice lest I lose my Saviour Noahs internal Sanctity was not honoured with this praise that it exhaled sweetness before it proved it self by a most religious action For ought we know Hell may be full of them who had many good purposes but did never execute them Yet again put a bare Sacrifice into the Balance and it weighs as little I think none will conceive my Text in a literal sense that the flesh of a Beast burnt upon the coales did send a sweet savour but an offensive smell Some are at a wonder when many Cattel were burnt together how the nostrils of the Priests and People could endure it And yet there was no miracle in it as Abulensis supposeth as if God did always by omnipotent power draw a sweet steame from the Altar and the flesh that was burnt upon it What every day Miracles and yet this never revealed to us by any Prophet in all the Scriptures The resolution is easie The Altar of Burnt-offerings was in the open Court the air carried away the stench that would offend under a covered Seiling Some excellent Perfumes were cast into the fire at the same time I have Plutarchs testimony touching the noisom vapour of heathen Sacrifices that all manner of sweet Gums were thrown together into the flame to overcome the strong Odour especially the Priest was clad in perfumed Robes which made the worst smell tolerable to him But none can be deceived with the bare Letter of the Text as if God did smell any savour It is a Figure translating the affections of a man to the divine Essence And a second Figure upon that calling delight and complacency by the name of smelling a sweet Odour And the words lying so naked to be understood I say the Lord took no pleasure in a bare Sacrifice For what is it to him to have the beasts slain and their substance consumed Or how is a wicked man made more innocent by executing vengeance upon an harmless Sheep Gifts and Sacrifices could not make him that did the Service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Heb. ix 9. When the Magi came to Bethlem and found the Babe whom they had sought they fell down and offered up their body they worshiped and offered up their Soul they were liberal of their Substance and presented their gifts But what Not Sheep and Oxen not work to imploy the Levites the Sons of Aaron Loe says St. Chrysostome in the beginning of the Gospel we find the turn of those ancient Rites whose place was supplied with Gold Mirrh and Frankincense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were not fat and fulsom like the Jewish Ordinances but pure and Intellectual Adoration Faith Obedience Charity We learn out of it that the vertue of the mind consecrates the Gift There is not any thing which St. Paul hath omitted 1 Cor. xiii but says that without the love of God all will come to nothing The opus operatum the material substance of any good work no more considered with it is a vapour that vanisheth Prayers Preaching the Sacraments in the more transitory work issuing not out of our Spirit are Consonants without Vowels it is past all skill to utter them And who would compare the best Statue with a living man Works of beneficence must be done and liberally He that hath much owes much he that hath but little ought not altogether to shut his hand Yet the richest endowment that ever was made in a pious way is a Sacrifice but of a dull smoak unless it be spiced with those good Odours of which I will now speak in the Affirmative how the Lord smelled a sweet savour First His devotion was very fragrant I begin with it because I would revive it I say revive it For it is much laid aside and takes as little with some as Jewish Sacrifice You shall not be much edified in it by our Sister Churches beyond Seas and their imitators and little will you learn of it without a Liturgy of Prayer comprized in a solemn order The Seraphical acclamations of such a pious model may carry up an Elias in its Chariot far above the clouds Humility is a great ingredient in it A devout soul the more it presseth to come near to God it keeps the greater distance from the glory of his Majesty Like a flame of a great Candle it mounts with heat but the more it ascends the more it trembles Holy Vows are inseparable from it a Vow is in the name of Devotion to bind us the faster to God Therefore it is a Bow that is strongly bent when the string is slack it is an useless Instrument Also without any force this is in the Word that a Devotee devoves his life and all he hath to maintain the honour of God after that excess of St. Pauls courage Acts xxi 13. I am ready not to be bound only but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus This is devotion which counts not its life dear but doth devove it self for the Gospel of Christ St. Austin describes it with much plainness Devotio est pius humilis affectus ad Deum It is a compound of the best internal Piety and the most lowly and prostrate humility of the body More loftily in another place Carbo ignitus flammâ divini amoris accensus A firy coal wasting away all earthy dull affections with the flame of divine love I cannot mend it In brief it is the excess of a religious fear in the heart which doth all things outwardly with most becoming reverence Apply this to the example of Noah As soon as ever he came out of the Ark he made ready some solemn Worship and none so solemn in those days as Sacrifice and none could be more bountiful at that time than one of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl Seven of all clean Creatures were taken into the Ark three Couples to multiply and the odd one to be offered up it was Caelebs animal it lived single not coupled with any Female to be the purer Oblation And these were not offered on the ground but to shew the elevation of his heart he built an Altar for it which you never read of before Lastly It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an whole burnt offering Holocausta sunt perfecta studia virtutum Origen began the Allegory and all have followed him they are whole Burnt-offerings that consume the old man and all the members of their concupiscence as much as they are able I score not out this Line to move you to the like in fleshly Sacrifices which are long since superannuated I will put the issue for your instruction upon that which the brevity of the Book of Genesis hath omitted but is necessarily understood that
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
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
if he had pleased but to grasp the Loaves or to hold them in his Palm it was a full signification that his power and liberality were eminently met together for it is that hand which openeth and filleth all things The Apostles knew where these Loaves were forth-coming but they set not their mind upon them they would not meddle with them The People were an hungry and far from home in a desart place where there was nothing but grass Two hundred penyworth of bread perchance would have staid their stomachs and Philip thought that would be too little Howsoever they had not the money to buy it Five barly Loaves and two Fishes were all they had in store and who durst take them forth and shew them openly lest they should scramble and quarrel for them The People were ready to stone Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness when they were pinched with scarcity of food Therefore some gave counsel to send them away betimes certainly suspecting a mutiny But here is an accepit which runs cross to all their imaginations Christ betakes himself to those means which they contemned instead of dismissing the Congregation he calls them closer together instead of referring them to the Villages round about he contents them amply in that barren place Instead of the Tumult which was dreaded the issue came to great applause and admiration In all their days they had never seen such a Feast as this Table in the Wilderness where every Crum became an Handful Great things became vile and vile things became great by the dispensation of Christ In his own Person the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner and in his own hand the Loaves which the Disciples refused became such a Banquet as never was prepared Lord take it first into thine own hand whatsoever we receive and then it will increase and prosper Give us our daily bread and if it be thy gift for no more than one day the vertue of it will last a year Labour not then so much to have good things as to have them of God As David did quickly cast up a chearful account of all his estate O Lord my God all the store that we have it cometh of thine hand 1 Chron. xxix 16. whatsoever drops from his fingers is sweet smelling Myrrh Cant. v. 5. but all false ways he utterly abhors and whatsoever comes in by fraud by extortion by cavillation it will consume away as fast as ever the Loaves and Fishes increased But surely the whole quaternion of Evangelists have set down this Preamble to the Miracle with such joynt consent He took the Loaves that it cannot choose but have some depth of observation in it St. Chrysostome hath reacht it so far that great numbers follow him namely that our Saviour did impatronize himself thereby to the work which followed and published himself from thence to be the Author of the Miracle It was alike easie to his Omnipotency to say the word and to make bread of nothing Or to take a little into his hand and to amplifie it into a great quantity Depend upon this what we have he can increase and what we have not he can create it is all one to him But by handling the lump and so giving vertue to the augmentation the People might behold him as the Fountain of all Power and Majesty and say with the Lycaonians God is come down unto us in the likeness of man Hear what that Father says more unto it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was very expedient that the People should be taught these two Articles of their belief that Christ came from the Father and that he was equal with the Father The one must be proved by power the other by holiness The one by taking the Loaves the other by giving thanks The one by doing all the other by calling upon God when he did all Put the case he had looked up to Heaven and furnished them with satiety of victuals out of nothing what would the multitude have said why this comes from above this is Gods doing and this Jesus is a Prophet that 's come from God O but can humane reason be brought to no better opinion of him 't is true whatsoever can be done they that are unbelievers may gain-say it yet to subdue all contradiction in them that are willing to obey the truth he took the bread and took the glory to himself to make every loaf content a thousand that they might cry out with the Centurion this is of a Truth the Son of God and it is no robbery to say he is equal with the Father So at Cana in Galilee he did not create wine when they wanted and supplied them out of nothing but he turned water into wine water of their own fetching as this was bread of their own bringing a pre-existent matter whose substance they knew to be vulgar and natural he wrought upon these sensible things before their eyes that they might impute the transmutation to his own Divinity Unto which of the Prophets therefore can you liken him in this Miracle Moses obtained Manna from Heaven by prayer and supplication Christ did this by his own hand The Widows Barrel of Meal did not waste nor her Cruise of Oyl fail it was Elias his prediction not his immediate operation Elisha bad his Servant set twenty barley loaves before an hundred men they did eat and left thereof yet for his own part he did not meddle with it because he would have the children of the Prophets ascribe all to the Word of the Lord they did according to that spirit upon them which was circumscribed and limited God had lent them a tongue to declare his noble acts but the hand which did all was far above the hand of power was radical in Heaven therefore this is a distinctive note to know the Master from his Servants he took the loaves He took them indeed but for justice sake it is fit to ask unde habuit from whence he had them A mean question many times hath found a grave resolution it may prove so in this Whence he had them Why some say the Disciples did own them for they answer him Matt. xiv 17. We have here but five loaves and two fishes The words bear it as if they were theirs because their Master was wont to carry them into desolate places and to detein them there all night it was their wonted providence to carry some small refection with them in their journey as it appears Matth. xvi 7. When our Saviour bad them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Saducees they reasoned among themselves saying it is because we have taken no bread Then they had not yet usually they do not forget it and it may be this was their provision for the present season But the votes of them are more that conceive they did belong to some other In the nineth verse Andrew says there is a Lad here
viluerunt Lesser things are admired which happen rarely the greater works of God because they are frequent are heeded carelesly Say not now but ye see cause enough why Christ did actuate this Miracle of the loaves no oftner than twice he would not stretch his Creatures beyond their natural size to please their idle curiosity And yet I will tell you of a miraculous multiplication but I do not wish you to believe that is done toties quoties as they think fit that have the Relique in their custody It is the Cross on which our Saviour was crucified you must not question the Story but that Helen found it in an heap of rubbish at Jerusalem many did desire Chips of it out of their devotion and though innumerous slices of it were cut away yet it kept its just magnitude and never varied The thing was divulged by some but none of the famous Doctors one thousand three hundred years ago One of them that is said to write extemporary Catechisms when he was a young man compares the Cross which wasted not for all the shivers that were borrowed from it to these Loaves and Fishes Another says out of his credulous good meaning that it got this solidity because the bloud of him was spilt upon it who saw no corruption And to this hour say such as get their living by this craft this holy wood is not consumed though it be abundantly imparted Is this credible that Christ did dispense this power unto any to work a Miracle when they would as if there were an Office erected to do signs and wonders Qui Bavtum non odit he that hath so strong a stomach to disgest this let him swallow such an other that out of three or four nails that pierced our Saviours hands and feet the Friers can direct you to Churches and Religious Houses where an hundred instead of four are exposed to adoration What though the Beam of the Cross did not diminish for the portions cut away yet which way did the Nails increase Did one Nail spawn another as big as it self None is so frontless to defend it But to cut off further process upon the matter It is best to bind the Legend how the Cross and the Nails have multiplied into volumes and believe them together But the sure way is not to parallel the glorious works of our Master with such Apocryphal fictions There is a great difference between Juggling and Miracles Hitherto touching the Act of his power in producing this admired work go onward to the next Point and we shall encounter his goodness Our Saviour did not use to do tricks to shew his skill but that some might be the better for him therefore his power was joyned with Beneficence Vt potestas non terreat sed amorem excitet says St. Austin That he might not astonish them with his greatness but endear them with his liberality Leaf gold is drawn out a great way and then it is fit for nothing but Ostentation So the multiplying of the Loaves and Fishes had served barely for the pomp of the eye but that the wonderful encrease thereof concluded in a benefit And first I note though the love of Christ to mankind was excessive strong unto death yet going in the Tract of reason they had little cause to look for this at his hands Alas he had no home to entertain them no Revenues wherewith to feast them no Olive yards or Vineyards to bestow upon them Could five thousand look for a Supper of his bestowing For our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might become rich that is says Nazianzen he put on the poverty of my wretched flesh that I might gain the riches of his glorious Divinity They that followed him had not their wages in Meats and Drinks in Silver and Gold but in Sanctity and Justification in peace of Conscience and in the earnest of the Spirit to be heirs of Salvation And he whose Profession it was to open the Treasures of Heaven to his Disciples and to possess naught of Earth no not so much as to set his foot upon doth he strain himself to give entertainment to so many in the Wilderness What was this but to yield as it were to the time to be beneficial to the Jews in a temporal way that by all means he might win their love He had fed their Spirit with the Word of life and satiated them one would think with the promise of eternal Joy and Immortality if they believed in his name but he knoweth whereof we are made he considereth the Worm in our corruptible appetite which is always craving He remembred that a little in hand goes a great way with them that cannot abide to have all their state in reversion therefore he distributed unto the necessity of their body though his Errand for which he came into the world was to be the Saver of Souls as you would say he stept a little out of his own way to bring them into the right way I cannot but revolve it in my fancy that the Jews were more transported with this curtesie of our Saviours than with all that had preceded Hereupon they cry out This is the Messias this is he that should come into the world Let us take him up and make him a King How ignorantly and unequally doth flesh and bloud set a price upon the works of God I durst almost say that this was one of the least good turns that ever he did them When a Miracle came off graciously indeed it had such a tang at the end of it as Son thy sins be forgiven thee or This day is Salvation come to thine house This had no such heavenly adjunct but was a frank Feast among a promiscuous company as his rain falls upon the just and unjust Well though the grudgings of this disease are become natural to us all to like the heavenly offices of the Gospel the better if Christ befriend us a little with these corruptible things yet carnal Companions are most odious to apprice things momentary before coelestial How much better doth Solomon distinguish Length of days meaning endless days are in his right hand and in his left hand riches and honour Wherefore David describes evil affected men that value earth before heaven that their right hand is a right hand of iniquity because they grasp transitory things in their right hand fixing their chiefest complacency in them which are favours of much later digress and to be received in the left And the same Metaphor is prosecuted in another sacred Song Cant. ii 6. His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me Sinistra capiti non praeponitur sed supponitur says Bernard The left hand which bestows Loaves and Fishes must be under our head not above it as if it were the top of our desires but the right hand should compass us about at the very heart To this Point but a word more Christ produced
righteousness Such a one would do no unjust thing though he saw his Pardon sealed with his fleshly eyes and were as surely confirmed in state of Salvation as an Angel of light Justus non est sub lege sed voluntas ejus est in lege says St. Austin He alludes to the Latine reading of the first Psalm a just man is not under the Law that is a strein of servitude but his will is in the Law there he finds equity and sincerity he loves them for themselves The minacles and castigations of it are without Law of which he takes no notice because his will is within Vopiscus says that after the death of Aurelian for six months there was an Interregnum no new Elect was agreed upon the People had no Prince to curb them no Tribune of whom they stood in awe yet there was no outrage committed Nam quod est in vit â optimum se quisque timebat Every man was afraid to offend himself and his own conscience These are voces libero homine dignae these are the Praises of more ingenuous men than ever Heathens could be It may be an Impreza for a perfect Christian he doth no evil out of this generous resolution for that he loves God within him not because he fears the world without him Out of Evangelical assurance though the second coming of Christ shall be with such a strange concussion that Heaven and Earth will stagger and burn for it yet a well-armed Christian hath digested the dread and wisheth for that day when the whole Creature shall be delivered from bondage it is his Exclamation Come Lord Jesus come quickly Consider in what an agony the whole Camp of the Israelites was when the Law was proclaimed with Thunder and Tempests upon Mount Sinah it will be strange to one of those to hear a good Disciple call earnestly for that day which will be so full of darkness and gloominess This is indeed the principal Crisis that we have shaken off the Spirit of bondage Non probatur perfecta caritas nisi cum ceperit ille dies desiderari There is no perfect love and by consequent no plenary excussion of servitude till we are earnest in that wish that the day of Christ were near at hand If not that terrour no not that doth pinch us then Jerusalem above is free Yet stay for one qualification more which will make the Angels to congratulate us our freedom if we observe that Proviso in our Charter nay which will please God so well that he will not only make us Citizens who were Bondmen before but Rulers over ten Cities as it is in the Parable that is account not of the good of this world as the Jew did but commit your Heart and your Treasure to the Inheritance which is above They that run far into the thought to prosper in the increment of this earth they cannot decline from being servants to the times to occasions to ignobleness to the manners of iniquity Lift up your hearts unto the Lord with an evangelical abrenunciation of the world and fling these fetters away for there is no such thraldom as that of base affections To serve a sin is worse than to serve a man by how much a man is better than a sin There are some of our Interpreters who have stated this Point not without injury to the Synagogue and the modern Jews have cause to disavow the imputation of mere carnal men as if God did set before them no more than the recompence of this lifes prosperity The Anabaptists teach that the Faithful before Christ did only taste of the sweetness of temporal blessings without any hope of eternal happiness a Censure fitter for beasts that are well pastured than for a man whose soul doth naturally heave him up to immortality chiefly it is an opinion most derogatory to such men whose Fathers did talk with God face to face Besides these Aquinas and his Scholars methinks lay out our difference but rudely Temporalia promittuntur in Veteri Testamento spiritualia in Novo The Old Testament proffers Temporal blessings and the New Testament Spiritual That were I confess the right livery at which a Bondman did stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the heathen Proverb Give the Servant that grinds at the Mill an allowance of food to sustain him and you owe him no more But if the Text of the Old Testament do move only in the circumference of this world and of this life it would scarce make good Philosophy how much less would it never pass for the Touchstone of pure Divinity Therefore without scandal to the old Jerusalem or partiality to the New the odds between us are these The Commonwealth of Israel had the sure promise made unto them of heavenly joy together with a pleasant portion upon earth if they served the Lord. The same Kingdom of heaven is more clearly promised to us but with afflictions and persecutions upon earth Their Jerusalem was in bondage because it kept the Law upon carnal Articles that it might flourish and be free Our Jerusalem is free because it will confess Christ though the more it confess him the more it should be in danger of bondage and imprisonment They were for present delight and heaven hereafter we are for present misery and heaven for ever The Apostles found it an hard matter to send the Church of Christ from Jewish Ceremonies they could not make a bank in their days but that some broke over as in the Church of Galatia No marvel since the dregs thereof are not purged out to this day Circumcision is still reteined among the Abyssines says Damianus Goez Aarons supreme Pontifical Authority is but transmigrated into the Papacy Some have been scrupulous in choice of meats but lately as if Moses did yet predominate Many are more strict than wise in numbring and keeping the hours of Sabbatical rest We that are here I hope are all very ready to condemn this Judaism and yet God knows the most of us are Jews in a greater concernment than we are aware of If we serve for heaven it is well but I am sure we are the more servile that it may be well with us upon earth We ask for the dew of heaven but we make earnest postulations for the fatness of the earth we are content to be shod with the preparation of the Gospel but not so well contented as if it be our fortune to wear the spurs of dignity These are the tricks of a Jew of an uncircumcised Jew his heart is not circumcised from ambition and vanity This is Gehazi's Leprosie which cleaves to base minds my Master is in heavenly raptures and contemns riches As the Lord lives I will run after him and take somewhat Run and let the Devil scorn you for your pains Doth Job serve God for nought To be Sanctified to be Justified to have the gifts of the Holy Ghost to receive spiritual Consolation to be the friends of God this
Elias fled into the Wilderness or took up a private Mansion in Sarepta and such secret places rather than abide in the face of Israel where the filthy worship of Baal was professed And though he had shewn himself to Obadiah yet he would not go down with Ahab to Jezreel till the whole Fry of the Priests of Baal was destroyed And which is more remarkable in Gods Judgements against that capitol sin for three years and a half no Rain had faln upon the earth in all that Land but as soon as ever those that sacrificed to Baal were slain in the very next verse says Elias to Ahab Get thee up eat and drink for there is a sound of abundance of rain You see that the Heavens did deny sustenance to the earth even untill the very hour that Idolatry was abandoned I ground my Doctrine but very seldom upon Prophesies which are not fulfilled or whose interpretation is not very evident yet for once I will be bold to cite another mans judicious conjecture that the Spirit of God in the Revelation Chap. vii doth so bury Idolatry in oblivion that he would not have it named in that Catalogue where the true servants of God are rehearsed For those holy ones who had the Seal of the living God are reckoned in the Apostolical number because they lived and died in the Faith of the Apostolical Doctrine twelve thousand out of each of twelve Tribes and the Tribes are named from the Kindreds of Israel even the Sons of Jacob yet none are said to be sealed of the Tribe of Dan and though Manasses be mentioned yet his brother Ephraim is not spoken of but Joseph the Father of them both in his place I approve that Interpreters way that says the names of Ephraim and Dan are not in this List because they were the first that let in Idolatry into the Church of God after Moses died The certainty of that is to be found in xvii and xviii Chap. of Judges Micah a man of Mount Ephraim was the first we read of that had an house of Gods and a molten and a graven Image he kept these in honour of the true God you may see that in the Chapter as clearly as your hand at noon-day that is no excuse in Chap. xviii The Daâ—tes rob this man of his Gods and the children of Dan set up Micahs graven Image which he made all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh for these Idolatries the names of Dan and Ephraim are not in the blessing of that book of life Then what agreement can be made with them or what unity in the outward profession of the faith who will worship God in Pictures and Statues and give religious honour to Creatures Moses incited Levi that such should not live Elias would not converse with men till the whole ging of those that served Baal was destroyed the Angel of God omits the names of Dan and Ephraim in the recitation of the Faithful our Saviour forbore to send the Devil packing for the two former Tentations but utterly casts him off and as one says upon my Text excommunicates him from his blessed company as soon as ever his mouth formed Idolatry Then the Devil leaveth him We use to send Spials after our enemies in battel to mark where they take up their lodging whether they march fairly from us or whether they are put to flight After the rule of this policy it may concern us you see to note whither the Adversary betook himself when he departed from Christ So that the next question is not unnecessary to be answered to what place he went upon the leaving our Saviour Some do so interpret it as if this mighty Fury before these temptations were cast out of heaven into the earth but from that time that Christ rebuked him and bad him avant further he went away from the earth to the lowest darkness And that Beelzebub was bound he should hurt the earth no more in his own person but only by his Instruments Binding is metaphorically taken to be bridled from doing mischief if not altogether yet at least in some restraint So our Lord speaks in a Parable Mat. xii 29. that in casting out Devils he entred into the strong mans house and bound that strong man and spoyled his house Bound him from tormenting those whom Christ would spare But as yet he was not bound in chains of eternal darkness No less than three of the Fathers Irenaeus Hilary and Hierom expound that in the xii of St. Matth. by this place of my Text that the strong man was bound when Christ retorted all his temptations As yet he is loose to do hurt and shall be loose for the trial of the Elect and for the punishment of ungodly doers till Christ have gathered all his Saints about him in the Kingdom of heaven The evil Angels are reserved unto judgment it is St. Peters phrase they shall find the worst at last and that they know well enough for when our Saviour dealt roughly with them and even afflicted them with some pain as it is supposed when he cast them out of men possessed they expostulate it as an injury Art thou come to torment us before the time As who should say What Tormented before the day of Judgment I like it not therefore to have it so expounded that the Tempter went from Christ to take up his lodging in Hell for ever Surely against the Passion of our Lord the Prince of darkness and all his Litter had their free exercise to stir up enemies against him more than ever Says he This is your hour and the power of darkness Luke xxii 53. And if that were done in the green tree what shall be done in the dry If they might use the Master so what exemption can the Servants expect They may rove about and hurt the world till the day of Judgment They thought they asked but their due when a Legion of them petitioned not to be sent in Abyssum into the bottomless pit of Hell at that time and not to be committed to that woe sooner than the last and dreadful day of the Lord. He had his license then when he went from Christ to go to and fro in any place of the earth and to walk up and down in it as he once answered God in the history of Job Quocunque eunt sua secum supplicia circum ferunt Wheresoever they go they carry torments about with them Envy Desperation the terrour of endless Wrath to come and unspeakable vexedness to be deprived of the vision of Gods glory These are the Plagues that cleave unto them who depart from Christ But how is it intelligible that this banished Spirit could leave our Saviour Adam when he was new faln was no wiser than a new-born babe that hid himself from God And as Adam had lost the spirit of Innocency so Jonas had lost the spirit of Prophesie when he fled away by shipping from
him whose dominion is in the Sea and his right hand in the Flouds From him therefore Satan could not go from the light of his countenance from the comfort of his face he might go Nemo loco sed iniquitate à Deo elongatur No distance of place is remote from him who is with every thing and about all things and in all things He is as much in that place which every Creature takes up as the Creature it self yet without any impediment to the locality of it but our iniquities separate between God and us and where there is the most sin there is the greatest separation But to come to the plainest and most textual answer Christs Manhood is not receptive of Omnipresency so the Devil left his Humane Nature for a season and was not near it he went away to seek out those with whom he might more probably skirmish to get a victory If I should say the Tempter went not far from thence but hovered somewhere about Judaea the conjecture were not altogether without a foundation reason leads me to think he was very inquisitive about our Saviours ways and watchful to espy what miracles he wrought what he said how he might stir up enemies and unbelievers against him and some worse than Parricide to betray him St. Luke says He left him but for a season after these temptations as if he were ever in harms-way to offend him But above all I perceive by another of the Evangelists that the brood of Hell frequented the Land of Jurie in the days of our Saviour more than all other places in the earth a Legion of them in one man many Regiments of them in others that were possessed There was their Theater to play their wicked part where the Gospel might be most offended rather than in all the world beside Therefore St. Mark says one of the Devils which he cast out besought him that he would not send him out of that Country Mar. v. 10. They should want work in unfrequented places Idolatrous Cities though most populous were their own already their quickest trade lay in Judaea at this time here grew the unwillingness to leave that Country But now it is time to leave that question to what place Satan shifted when he was commanded to leave our Saviour Give ear to the next question Whether ever he returned again It is St. Lukes meaning that we should take notice he returned again and infested our Saviour after this bout for he says his departure was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a season and no more It was but for a short truce indeed till he had cast about to rise up against Christ in another fashion not by tempting him to sin but by exercising his patience under rebukes and misery and finally to work his death by treachery He knew him by this time to be his own Lord against whom he had rebelled in whom it was impossible to imprint any blot or blemish of iniquity But because that Humane Nature which Christ had assumed into his Person was of the Seed of Abraham and therefore obnoxious to death the Devil plotted his destruction from time to time and wrought his purpose at last by putting it into the heart of Judas to betray him being not advised out of the Scripture as he might have been by reason if God had not blinded him that our Saviour by death would overcome death and pull down the mighty one from his seat by triumphing on the Cross An ordinary curse ever since upon malicious persons the ruine of those against whom they are bent falls upon their own head and crusheth them to pieces But this was the service for which Satan returned again to vex his body after a season because his soul was spotless to oppose his prosperity because he could not hurt his vertue Thus Bonaventure comprizeth it Tentavit emollire per blanditias sed modicum tempus tentabit frangere per miserias Now he tried our Saviour with fair offers after a while he will thrust at him with foul calamities Now his own hand is in the work but then his Instruments The use of it shall come home to our selves thus The Lord sometimes takes off our foe from us and gives us breathing time after temptations it is but for a season not to flatter our selves with quietness and security but to repair our ruines to keep out the batteries that will ensue It is but a refreshing after the fit of an Ague the sick day is coming again Like a calm upon the Sea while a sweet gale blows what sensible man will not have all things ready for a tempest Remember the Parable Luke xi And what the unclean Spirit said I will return into my house from whence I came Like the Assyrian Souldiers when they had once found the way into the Land of Judaea they could never be dealt withal to forget it Hezekiah or whosoever might hire them to go home again for one year but the next Summer following they were sure to make a new invasion And do not stand too much upon affiance I have conquered these and these tentations often I dare trust my self now upon the brink of these sins and shall never be thrust in to make such security more doubtful and suspicious Cassianus hath a fit similitude says he A Fox will stretch himself for dead that Poultry may come into his reach and never fear him yet if they do stalk towards him they shall find to their cost he is not past doing mischief So the Tempter will give back as if he were fled for ever but he departs only for a more seasonable opportunity and will return again with seven spirits worse than himself when you are worst prepared The holiest Fathers of the Church had flesh and frailty in them and can speak in this point as well by Experience as by Art and Meditation and this is their common verdict Quo valentius vincitur eò ardentius ad insidias instigatur If he be vanquish'd by him that is strong in faith it sharpens his edge the more to make his part good again by Art and subtilty And so much for this last Point upon the first general part Satan departed from Christ but for a season But now he is gone though like a Wolf regardant looking back upon the Flock from which he was beaten And Christ had such company in exchange that my Text bids us mark and see the succession that followed and behold Angels came and ministred unto him This Particle of wonder Behold is a Dial or Index to three things First To note a moral alteration a lewd one is dismiss'd to receive an holy train in his room here was an accursed Spirit parlying with Christ instead of him here is a volly of Angels Whosoever he be that hath taken delight in the company of wicked men and sorted himself with those that have not the fear of God before their eyes let him cast them