Priest Christ Jesus entred after his death and there appeareth for us the curing of all bodily diseases by the word of Christ the healing of all spirituall maladies by his word preached Now if other miracles were significant and enunciative how much more this of tongues Verily he hath little sight of celestiall mysteries who cannot discerne divine eloquence in these tongues diversitie of languages in the cleaving of them and knowledge and zeale in the fire As S. John Baptist was so all the dispensers of Gods mysteries ought to z Bernard in verb. Christi Ille erat lucerna ardens lucens lucere vanum est ardere parum lucere ardere perfectum bee burning and shining lamps shining in knowledge burning in zeale There are three reasons assigned by learned Commentators why the Spirit manifested himselfe in the likenesse of fierie tongues 1. To shew his affinitie with the Word such as is between fire and light the Word is the true light that enlighteneth everie one that commeth into the world and here the Spirit descended in the likenesse of fire 2. To shew that as by the tongue wee taste all corporall meats drinks and medicinall potions so by the Spirit wee have a taste of all spirituall things 3. To teach us that as by the tongue wee speake so by the Spirit wee are enabled to utter magnalia Dei the wonderfull works of God and the mysteries of his kingdome It is not yee that a Matt. 10.20 speake saith our Saviour but the Spirit which speaketh in you which Spirit spake by the month of the Prophets that have beene since the world began Our mouthes and tongues are but like organ-pipes the breath which maketh them sound out Gods praises is the Spirit And those that have their spirituall senses exercised can distinguish betweene the sound of the golden bels of Aaron and of the tinckling b 1 Cor. 13.1 Cymball S. Paul speaketh of for sacred eloquence consisteth not in the enticing words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the Spirit and power The fire by which these tongues were enlightened was not earthly but heavenly and therefore it is said As of fire Christ three severall times powred out his spirit upon his Apostles first c Vers 1.16 Matthew the tenth at their election and first mission the second is d Vers 22. John the twentieth when he breathed on them and said Receive yee the holy Ghost and thirdly in this place At the first they received the spirit of wisdome and knowledge at the second the spirit of power and authority at the third the spirit of zeale and courage As many proprieties as the naturall Philosophers observe in fire so many vertues the Divines will have us note in the Spirit given to the faithfull they are specially eight Illuminandi of enlightening 2. Inflammandi of heating 3. Purgandi of purifying 4. Absumendi of consuming 5. Liquefaciendi of melting 6. Penetrandi of piercing 7. Elevandi of lifting up or causing to ascend 8. Convertendi of turning For darknesse is dispelled cold expelled hardnesse mollified metall purified combustible matter consumed the pores of solid bodies penetrated smoake raised up and all fuell turned into flame or coale by fire 1. Of enlightening this Leo applyeth to the Spirit 2. Of enflaming this Gregory worketh upon 3. Of purifying this Nazianzen noteth 4. Of consuming this Chrysostome reckons upon 5. Of melting this Calvin buildeth upon 6. Of penetrating this S. Paul e 1 Cor. 2.10 The Spirit searcheth all things pointeth to 7. Of elevating this Dionysius toucheth upon 8. Of converting and this Origen and many of our later writers run upon 1. Fire enlighteneth the aire the Spirit the heart 2. Fire heateth the body the Spirit the soule 3. Fire purgeth out drosse the Spirit our sinnes 4. Fire consumeth the stubble the Spirit our lusts 5. Fire melteth metals the Spirit the hardest heart 6. Fire pierceth into the bones the Spirit into the inmost thoughts 7. Fire elevateth water and fumes the Spirit carrieth up our meditations with our penitent teares also to heaven 8. Fire turneth all things into its owne nature the Spirit converteth all sorts of men and of carnall maketh them spirituall These operations of the Spirit God grant wee may feele in our soules so shall we be worthy partakers of Christ his body and by him be sanctified in body and soule here and glorified in both hereafter To whom c. CHRIST HIS LASTING MONUMENT A Sermon preached on Maundy Thursday THE LXVI SERMON 1 CORINTH 11.26 As often as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup yee doe shew the Lords death till he come WHen our Saviour was lifted up from the earth to draw all to him and his armes were stretched out at full length to compasse in and embrace all true beleevers after he had bowed his head as it were to take leave of the world and so given up the ghost a souldier with a a John 19.34 speare pierced his side and forthwith came there out water and bloud Which was done to fulfill two prophecies the one of b Exod. 12.46 Moses A bone of him shall not be broken the other of c Zech. 12.10 Zechary They shall looke on him whom they pierced as also to institute two d Chrysost Cyrillus Theophilact in hunc locum Damascenus lib. 4. de fid c. 10. Aug. l. 2. de Symb. c. 6. tract 9. in Johan Sacraments the one in the water the other in the bloud that ran from him the one to wash away the filth of originall sinne the other to purge the guilt of all actuall The hole in Christs side is the source and spring of both these Wells of salvation in the Church which are continually filled with that which then issued out of our Lords side For albeit he dyed but once actu yet he dyeth continually virtute and although his bloud was shed but once really on the crosse yet it is shed figuratively and mystically both at the font and at the Lords board when the dispenser of the sacred mysteries powreth water on the childe or wine into the chalice and by consecrating the bread apart from the wine severeth the bloud of Christ from his body In relation to which lively representation of his sufferings the Apostle affirmeth that as oft as we eate of that bread and drinke of that cup wee shew the Lords death till he come In the Tabernacle there was sanctum sanctum sanctorum a holy place a place most holy so in the Church Calendar there is a holy time all the time of Lent and the most holy this weeke wherein our blessed Saviour made sixe steps to the Crosse and having in sixe dayes accomplished the workes of mans redemption as his Father in the like number of dayes had finished the workes of creation the seventh day kept his e Bernard in dic Pasch Feria sexta redemit hominem ipso
of sinnes is peculiarly attributed to the Spirit and by a metonymie termed the Holy Ghost Barradius bringeth us an answer out of the schooles that z Barrad in harmon Evang. remission of sinnes is a worke of Gods goodnesse and mercy now workes of goodnesse are peculiarly attributed to the holy Spirit who proceedeth as they determine from the will of the Father and the Sonne whose object is goodnesse as workes of wisedome are attributed to the Sonne because hee is the word proceeding by way of generation from the understanding of his Father This reason may goe for currant in their way neither have I any purpose at this time to crosse it but to haste to the period of this discourse in which that I may better discover the path of truth in stead of many little lights which others have brought I will set up one great taper made of the sweetest of their waxe The Holy Ghost is sometimes taken for the person of the Comforter which sealeth Gods chosen to salvation sometimes for the gifts effects or operations of the Holy Ghost as it were the prints of his scale left in the soule these are principally three 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall power or authority 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue or ghostly ability to worke wonders and speake with divers languages 1 Is common to all them that are sanctified 2 Is peculiar to Christs Ministers 3 Restrayned to the Apostles themselves and some few others of their immediate successors z Joh. 3.5 Exceâ—t a man be borne of the water and of the spirit 1 Regenerating grace is termed the holyGhost 2 Spirituall order or ministeriall power is called the Spirit or holy Ghost in this place and Luk. 4.18 Esay 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the Gospell c. 3 Miraculous vertue is called the holy Ghost Act. 2.4 And they were filled with the holy Ghost and spake with divers tongues 1 The Spirit of grace and regeneration the Apostles received at their first calling 2 The Spirit of ecclesiasticall government they received at this time c. 3 The Spirit of powerfull and extraordinary operation they received in the day of Pentecost 1 In their mindes by infallible inspiration 2 In their tongues by multiplicity of languages 3 In their hands by miraculous cures Receive then the Holy Ghost is 1 A ghostly function to ordaine Pastors and sanctifie congregations to God 2 Spirituall gifts to execute and discharge that function 3 Spirituall power or jurisdiction to countenance and support both your function and gifts Thus have I opened the treasury of this Scripture out of which I now offer to your religious thoughts and affections these ensuing observations And first in generall I commend to the fervour of your zeale and devotion the excessive heat of Christs love which absumed and spent him all for us flesh and spirit His flesh he offereth us in the Sacrament of his Supper his spirit hee conferreth in the sacred rite of consecration His body hee gave by those words Take eate this is my body his spirit hee gave by these Receive ye the holy Ghost a gift unestimable a treasure unvaluable for it was this spirit which quickned us when wee were dead in trespasses and sinnes it is this spirit which fetcheth us againe when wee swoune in despaire it is this spirit that refresheth and cooleth us in the extreme heat of all persecutions afflictions sorrowes and diseases to it we owe 1 Light in our mindes 2 Warmth in our desires 3 Temper in our affections 4 Grace in our wils 5 Peace in our consciences 6 Joy in our hearts and unspeakeable comfort in life and death This is the winde which bloweth a Cant. 4.16 Blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits upon the Spouse her garden that the spices thereof might flow out This is the breath which formeth the words in the cloven tongues this is the breath which bloweth and openeth all the flowers of Paradise This is the blast which diffuseth the savour of life through the whole Church This is the gale which carryeth us through all the troublesome waves of this world and bringeth us safe to the haven where we would be And as the Spouse of Christ which is his mysticall body is infinitely indebted to her head for this gift of the spirit whereby holy congregations are furnished with Pastors and they with gifts and the ministery of the Gospell continually propagated so wee above all nations in the world at this day are most bound to extoll and magnifie his goodnesse towards us herein among whom in a manner alone this holy seed of the Church remaineth unmixed and uncorrupt not onely as propagated but propagating also not children onely but Fathers Apostolicall doctrine other reformed Churches maintaine but doe they retaine also Apostolicall discipline laying of hands they have on Ministers and Pastors but consecration of Archbishops and Bishops they have not And because they want consecrated Bishops to ordaine Pastors their very ordination is not according to ancient order Because they want spirituall Fathers in Christ to beget children in their ministery their Ministers by the adversary are accounted no better than filii populi whereas will they nill they even in regard of our Hierarchy the most frontlesse Papists must confesse the children begot by our reverend Fathers in the ministery of the Gospell to be as legitimate as their owne For albeit they put the hereticke upon us as the Arrians did upon the Catholike Fathers calling them Athanasians c. yet this no way disableth either the consecration of our Bishops nor the ordination of our Priests not onely because we have proved the dogge lyeth at their doores and that they are a kinde of mungrils of divers sorts of heretickes but because it is the doctrine of their Church b See Croy in his third conformity Whitaker in fine resp ad demonstrat Sanderi Rivet procem de haeref q. 1. Cath. orthod that the character of order is indeleble and therefore Archbishop Cranmer and other of our Bishops ordained by them if they had afterwards as Papists most falsly suppose fallen into heresie could not lose their faculty of consecration and ordination The consecration of Catholicke Bishops by Arrians and baptisme of faithfull Christians children by Donatists though heretickes is made good as well by the decrees of ancient as later Councels determining that Sacraments administred even by heretickes so they observe the rite and forme of words prescribed in holy scripture bee of force and validity Praysed therefore for ever bee the good will of him that dwelt in the bush that the Rod of Aaron still flourisheth among us and planteth and propagateth it selfe like that Indian fig-tree so much admired by all Travellers from the utmost branch whereof issueth a gummy juyce which hangeth
lately celebrated with a fit antheme Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivitie captive the later may supply this present thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits even the God of our salvation for on this day Christ received gifts for his Church the gifts of faith hope and charitie the gift of prayer and supplication the gift of healing and miracles the gift of prophecie the gift of tongues and the interpretation thereof Verily so many and so great are the benefits which the anniversary returne of this day presenteth to us that as if all the tongues upon the earth had not beene sufficient to utter them a supply of new tongues was sent from heaven to declare them in all languages The new Testament was drawne before and signed with Christs bloud on good Friday but c Ephes 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed to the day of redemption sealed first on this day by the holy spirit of God Christ made his last Will upon the crosse and thereby bequeathed unto us many faire legacies but this Will was not d 1 Cor. 12.4 5 8. There are differences of administrations but the same Lord and diversitie of gifts but the same spirit For to one is given by the same spirit the word of wisdome unto another the word of knowledge by the same spirit administred till this day for the e And 2 Cor. 3.8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious ministration is of the spirit Yea but had not the Apostles the spirit before this day did not our Lord breathe on them John 20.22 the day he rose at evening being the first day of the weeke saying Receive yee the holy Ghost The learned answer that they had indeed the spirit before but not in such a measure the holy Ghost was given before according to some ghostly power and invisible grace but was never sent before in a visible manner before they received him in breath now in fire before hee was f Calv. in Act Anteà respersi erant nunc plenè imbuti sprinkled but now powred on them before they received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before authority to discharge their function but now power to worke wonders before they had the smell now the substance g Aug. hom de Pent. Nunc ipsa substantia sacri defluxit unguenti cujus fragrantia totius orbis latitudo impleretur iterum adfuit hoc die fidelibus non per gratiam visitationis operationis sed per praesentiam majestatis of the celestiall oyntment was shed on them they heard of him before but now they saw and felt him 1. In their minds by infallible direction 2. In their tongues by the multiplicity of languages 3. In their hands by miraculous cures S. Austine truly observeth that before the Apostles on this day were indued with power from above they never strove for the Christian faith unto bloud when Satan winnowed them at Christs passion they all flew away like chaffe And though S. Peters faith failed not because it was supported by our Lords prayer Luke 22.32 yet his courage failed him in such sort that he was foyled by a silly damsell but after the holy Ghost descended upon him and the rest of the Apostles in the sound of a mightie rushing wind and in the likenesse of fierie cloven tongues they were filled with grace and enflamed with zeale and they mightily opposed all the enemies of the truth and made an open and noble profession thereof before the greatest Potentates of the world and sealed it with their bloud all of them save S. John who had that priviledge that hee should stay till Christ came glorifying the Lord of life by their valiant suffering of death for his names sake In regard of which manifold and powerfull effâ—cts of sending the spirit on this day which were no lesse seene in the flames of the Martyrs than in the fiery tongues that lighted on the Apostles the Church of Christ even from the beginning celebrated this festivity in most solemne manner and not so onely but within 300. yeares after Christs death the Fathers in the Councels of h Concil Elib c. 43. Cuncti diem Pentecostes celebrent qui non fecerit quasi novam heresem induxerit pumatur Eliberis mounted a canon thundring out the paine of heresie to all such as religiously kept it not If the Jewes celebrated an high feast in memory of the Law on this day first proclaimed on mount Sinai ought not we much more to solemnize it in memory of the Gospel now promulgated on mount Sion by new tongues sent from heaven If we dediâ—â—â— peculiar festivals to God the Father the Creatour and God the Sonne the Redeemer why should not God the holy Ghost the Sanctifier have a peculiar interest in our devotion S. i Serm. in die Pent. Si celebramus sanctorum solennia quanto magis ejus à quo habuerunt ut sancti essent quotquot fuerunt sancti si veneramur sanctificatos quanto magis sanctificatorem Bernard addeth another twist to this cord If we deservedly honour Saints with festivals how much more ought wee to honour him who maketh them Saints especially having so good a ground for it as is laid downe in this chapter and verse And when the day of Pentecost was come As a prologue to an act or an eeve to an holy day or the Parascheve to the Passeover or the beautifull gate to the Temple so is this preface to the ensuing narration it presenteth to our religious thoughts a three-fold concurrence 1. Of time 2. Of place 3. Of affections Upon one and the selfe same day when all the Apostles were met in one place and were of one minde the spirit of unity and love descendeth upon them Complementum legis Christus Evangelii spiritus As the descending of the Sonne was the complement of the Law so the sending of the spirit is the complement of the Gospel and as God sent his Sonne in the fulnesse of time so he sent the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the fulnesse of the fiftieth day When the Apostles number was full and their desire and expectations full then the spirit came downe and filled their hearts with joy and their tongues with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnifica Dei facta the wonderfull works of God vers 11. That your thoughts rove not at uncertainties may it please you to pitch them upon foure circumstances 1. The time when 2. The persons who They. 3. The affection or disposition were with one accord 4. The place in one place 1. The time was solemne the day of Pentecost 2. The persons eminent the Apostles 3. Their disposition agreeable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The place convenient in an
but very soone fals from it For though no man take it from him death will quite strip him of it But the gifts of God are not such or like to the gifts of Princes For neither man nor time nor circumstances of actions nor reason of state nor the Divell himselfe nay nor death can deprive him of them or put him by them You see how the smoaking flaxe being blowne kindles the heat of our zeale and enflameth us on the purchasing the estate of grace by the price of Christs bloud Feele now I beseech you in the second place what warmth it yeeldeth to a benummed conscience and a soule frozen in the dregs of sinne That the bruised reed shall not bee broken nor smoaking flaxe be quenched is a doctrine of singular comfort and use yet must it be very discreetly handled and seasonably applyed to such and such onely as are heavie laden and bruised with the weight and sense of their sinne and through inward or outward affliction smoake for them and are as Arboreus speaketh extinctioni vicini neere to be utterly quenched through inundation of sorrow To tell a presumptuous sinner in the height of his pride and heat of his lust and top and top gallant of his vaine glory Rectus in Curiâ that he stands straight in the Court of heaven is in the state of grace and can never fall away from it or become a cast-away is to minister hot potions to a man in a burning fever which is the ready way to stifle him and as soone to rid him of his life as of his paine hot cordials and strong waters are to be given in a languishing fit and a cold sweat when the patient is in danger of swouning It is the part saith S. a Aug. de bono persev c. 22. Dolosi vel imperiti medici est etiam utile medicamentum sic alligare ut aut non prosit aut etiam obsit Austin of a deceitfull or unskilfull Physician or Chyrurgian to lay a wholsome salve or plaster so on that it doe no good nay rather that it doe hurt Having therefore made a most soveraign salve out of the words of my Text for the sores of a wounded conscience I am now to shew you how to use and when to apply it viz. in deliquio spiritus in a spirituall desertion or dereliction As wee sometimes feele in our bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deliquium animae a trance and utter failing of the vitall spirits so is there also in the soule of a faithfull Christian sometimes deliquium spiritus an utter fainting and failing in all the motions and operations of grace when God either to humble him that he be not proud of his favours or to make him more earnestly desire and highly esteeme the comforts of the Gospel withdraweth the spirit from him for a season during which time of spirituall desertion he lyeth as it were in a swoune feeling no motion of the spirit as it were the pulse-beating taking in no breath of life by hearing the Word nor letting it out by prayer and thanks-giving void of all sense of faith and life of hope ready every houre to give up the holy Ghost In this extremity we are to stay him with flagons comfort him with the apples in my Text and as his fit of despaire more more groweth on him in this sort and order to minister and give them unto him 1. When he lamenteth in the bitternesse of his soule after this manner There was a time when the face of God shined upon mee and I saw his blessing upon all that I set my hand unto but now he hath hid his face from mee and shut up his loving kindnesse in displeasure hee bloweth upon all the fruits of my labours and nothing prospereth with mee my estate decayes and my friends faile mee and afflictions and calamities come thicke upon me like a S. Bas de patientia conc 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 1.14 16 17 18. waves of the sea riding one on the neck of the other or like Jobs messengers one treading on the heeles of the other and the latter bringing still worse tidings than the former Apply thou this remedy Many * Psal 34.18 19. Matth 9.12 1 Tim. 1.15 are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all he keepeth all his bones so that not one of them is broken 2. If hee goe on in his mournfull ditty saying I am farre from being righteous therefore this comfort belongeth not unto mee Apply thou this salve The whole need not the Physician but they that are sicke This is a faithfull saying and by all meanes worthy to bee received that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Matth. 9.13 I am not come saith Christ to call the righteous but sinners to repentance 3. If hee reply Oh but I cannot repent for I am not able to master mine owne corruptions Vitiis meis impar sum I cannot shake off the sin that hangeth on so fast I am like one in the mudde who the more he struggleth with his feet to get out the deeper he sinketh and sticketh faster in the mire Apply this recipe Yet bee of good comfort because thou delightest in the Law of God touching the inward man thou strivest against all sinne and because thou canst not get the upper hand of some of thy bosome corruptions thy life is grievous unto thee Thou cryest with the holy Apostle Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of death Thou hungerest and thirstest after righteousnesse and Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousnesse Matth. 5.6 for they shall be filled 4. If hee sinke deeper into the gulfe of desperation and say I feele no such hunger nor thirst in me Custome in sinne hath drawne a kall over my conscience and I am not now sensible of any incision Reach thy hand to him and support him with this comfort Bee of good cheare good brother for it is certaine thou hast some sense because thou art sensible of thy stupidity and mournest in thy prayers and art vexed for this thy dulnesse and blessed are they that mourne Matth. 5.4 for they shall be comforted 5. If he yet sinke deeper and lower crying Alas I cannot mourne my hard heart will not relent my flinty eyes will not yeeld a teare for my sins what hope then for me Answer him great as great as thy sorrow which is by so much the fuller because it hath no vent None grieveth more truly Hierom. Tom. 1. epist Mutus clinguis ne hoc quidem habens ut rogare possit hoc magis rogat quod rogare non potest than hee who grieveth because hee cannot grieve A man that is borne dumbe or hath his tongue cut out when hee maketh offer to speake moving his lips but is not able to bring forth a word beggeth
ad rustic Eloquentiae torcularia non verborum pampinis sed sensuum quasi uvarum expressionibus redundarent For in these the presses of eloquence abound with leaves of words and luxuriant stemmes of extravagant wit but in it with spirituall senses and divine sentences as it were the juice and bloud of the ripest grapes of the Vine of Engeddi It is a point of wisedome in man who hath but little to make it goe as farre as he can and so thriftily instill it in his workes as Nature doth her influences in simples a great quantity whereof is often distilled to extract one drop of pure quintessence whereas on the contrary no plant of Paradise no branch of a plant no flower of a branch no leafe of a flower but affordeth great plenty of the water of life more precious than any quintessence that Art can force out of Nature The finers of gold Chrysost tom 5. homil 37. as golden mouth St. Chrysostome teacheth us deale not only with wedges ingots and massie pieces of gold but with the smallest portions thereof And the Apothecaries make singular use in divers confections even of the dust of gold When Alexander the great managed his affaires in Judea those whom he imployed to gather the most precious oyle of a Plin. l. 12. nat hist c. 25. Succus è plaga manat quem Opobalsamum vocant suavitatis eximiae sed tenui gutta Alexandro magnores ibi gerente toto dic aestivo unam concham impleri justum erat Opobalsamum thought a whole Summers day well spent in filling a small shell taking it as it fell drop by drop from the twigge And if a skilfull Jeweller will not grind out a small spot or cloud out of a rich stone though it somewhat dimme the bright lustre thereof because the substance is so precious shall we lose or sleightly passe by any Iota or tittle of the Booke of God which shall out-last the large volumes of the heavens for * Mat. 5.18 heaven earth shall passe away but no one Iota or tittle of the Word of God shall passe The Jewish Rabines say that great mountaines hang upon the smallest Jods in the Bible And St. b Chrys in Gen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome will not endure a devout Christian to let goe any syllable in the Scripture no nor pricke or point without observation Surely if God so carefully preserve the smallest parcels of Scripture he would have us religiously observe them Else if wee content our selves with a generall handling of the Word of life how shall wee satisfie the Apostles precept of rightly dividing the Word of God * 2. Tim. 2.15 Shew thy self a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth The word in the originall is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dichotomizing the Apostle tyeth no man to a precise Ramisticall method yet is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly cutting or dividing the Word of truth which cannot be done if any sensible part be omitted be it but a conjunctive particle as this Till in my Text which standeth like an hinge in the midst of the sentence turning the meaning divers wayes If it hath reference to the death and resurrection of our Saviour as Cajetan Avendanus conceive it hath in which he brought forth judgement unto victory by condemning the world conquering both death hell then the meaning of the whole is this He shall not strive nor cry c. he shall not offer any violence to his enemies by word or deed although he could as easily destroy them as a man may breake a reed already bruised or tread out the smoaking week of a light ready to goe out of it selfe yet he will not use this power but contrariwise carry himselfe most meekly towards them and by his mildnesse and patience both condemn their fury and conquer their obstinacy If it looke farther forward to the destruction of the City and Temple and the overthrow of the whole Jewish Nation as Theophylact and Musculus imagine expounding Till hee bring forth judgement unto victory till he execute judgement upon them that judged him and fully be revenged of them by the sword of the Romans then the meaning of the whole is Hee shall not breake the bruised reed of the Jewish Nation till by the victory of the Romans he shall execute judgement upon that Nation nor shall he quench the smoaking flaxe of the Aaronicall Priesthood till forty veeres after his death the City of Jerusalem shall bee sacked and the Temple burned downe to the ground and by the propagation of the Gospel and prevailing thereof in all places the dimme light of the Ceremoniall Law be quite extinguished But if the word Untill carry us so farre as the last Judgement to which St. Jerome St. Hilary c Guilliand comment in Mat. Qui diebus carnis suae visus est humilis benignus doctor aderit aliquando Jude◠utetur potentiá absolutâ damnavit hostes suos Guilliandus and many other learned Expositors referre it then the whole beareth this tune See you Jesus now in the forme of a servant how humble and meeke he is so farre from killing and subduing his bloud-thirsty enemies by forcible meanes that hee will not strive with them so farre from lifting up his hand against them that hee will not lift up his voice Hee will not cry nor shall his voice bee heard in the streets complaining against them so farre from wounding the spirit Cic. Catil prim Quos ferro vulnerare oportebat nondum voce vulnerat or hurting the bodies of any men that hee will not breake a bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flaxe The time shall come when you shall see this meek Lambe turned into a fierce Lion He who cryed not upon earth shall thunder from heaven He who came now to suffer in meeknesse shall hereafter come in power to conquer Hee who came in humility to bee judged shall come in Majesty to judge both quicke and dead Hee who came by water and bloud by water to wash our sinnes and by bloud to quench the fire of his Fathers wrath shall one day come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all that beleeve not the Gospel He who in all his life never brake a bruised reed a Beza in Mat. c. 12. Tum rebellia corda confringet non jam clemens humilis sed severus majestate verendus shall after his death and resurrection when he commeth to Judgement if not before rule the Nations with a rod of Iron and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell Hee who here never quenched the smoaking flaxe hee shall hereafter put out the greater lights of the world He shall darken the Sunne and turne the Moone into bloud and shake the powers of heaven and foundations of the earth and the hearts of men and behold he commeth with the clouds and all eyes shall see
thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction death with death and the grave with destruction Howbeit destruction here as it is applied to Israel seemeth not so much to signifie destruction in the vulgar acception that is the pulling downe of the houses or sacking of townes and villages as the dissolution of the state and downefall of the Kingdome of Israel and therefore the point herein to be seriously thought upon is the Soph Pasuck full point and fatall period of all earthly States Societies Common-wealths and Kingdomes All naturall things carry in their stile Corruptible all humane in their stile mortall all earthly in their stile Temporall to distinguish the first sort from things supernaturall which are incorruptible the second sort from things divine which are immortall the third sort from heavenly which are eternall The things which are seene saith the h 2. Cor. 4.18 Apostle are temporall but the things which are not seene are eternall It is the royall prerogative of him who i Apoc. 19.16 17.14 hath written upon his thigh and on his vesture King of Kings and Lord of Lords that his Kingdome is bounded with no limits nor confined to time the eternity whereof is proclaimed in holy Scriptures by five noble Heralds two Kings two Prophets and an Archangell The two Kings are k Psal 45 6. Thy throne O God is for ever David and l Dan. 4.32 Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion Nebuchadnezzar The two Prophets are m Cap. 17.14 His kingdome is that which shall not be destroyed Daniel and n Micah 4.7 The Lord shall reigne from henceforth even for ever Micah The Archangell is o Luke 1.31 32 33. Horat. car l. 1. od 3. Semotique prius tarda necessitas leti corripuit gradum Gabriel whose trumpet soundeth most shrill and giveth a most certaine sound Behold thou shalt conceive in thy wombe and bring forth a sonne and shalt call his name Jesus ver 31. He shall be great and shall be called the sonne of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David ver 32. And he shall reigne over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shal be no end ver 33. Of all other there shal be For all politike bodies are in some sort subject to the condition of natural bodies As these so they have their beginning or birth growth perfection state decay and dissolution And as the statures of men in this decrepit and feeble age of the world are much diminished and their life shortened so even States and Empires fall short of their former greatnesse and are like sooner to arrive to their period naturall end or to speake more properly civill death and dissolution called in my text destruction Some who have taken upon them to calculate as it were the nativitie of the world and erect a scheme of all the living have set the utmost day of the duration of the one and life of all the other to fall within foure hundred yeares according to an ancient tradition of the Jewes fathered upon the house of p Melancthon in Chron. l. 1. p. 10. Sex millia annorum mundus duo millia inane duo millia lex duo millia dies Messiae propter peccata nostra quae multa magna sunt deerunt anni qui decrunt Elias The world shall last sixe thousand yeeres two thousand thereof there shall be a vacuitie or emptinesse two thousand the Law shall continue and the dayes of the Messiah shall make out two thousand more of which if any be lacking by reason of our many and grievous sinnes they shall be lacking The Cabalists favour this conceit and labour to wierdraw it out of the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis where because they finde sixe Alephs or A's which in numerall characters signifie so many thousand yeares conclude the duration of the world from the first creation to the end shall make up just that number of yeeres And many also of our Christian Chronologists streining the letter of q 2 Pet. 3.8 One day with the Lord is as a thousand yeeres and a thousand yeeres as one day St. Peter too farre allot precisely sixe thousand yeares for the continuance of the world at the seventh thousand they beleeve we shall all begin to keepe our everlasting Sabbath in heaven For the period of particular Kingdomes Gasper q Pâ—ucer praesat in Chron. Carion Hanc periodum lege quadam sancitam divinitâ—s magnis Impeâ—iis fatalem esse universales mutationes afferre ostendunt omnium temporum historiae Peucerus observeth that it seldome or never exceedeth 500. years which he proveth by these instances following From the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt to the building of the first Temple we finde much about five hundred yeeres run out the first as also the second Temple stood thereabouts the Assyrians ruled in Asia so long Athens was ruled by Kings Rome by Consuls just so many yeers From Augustus to Valentinian the last five hundred yeeres are reckoned all which time the seat of the fourth Monarchy of the world was fixed at Rome The Church of Rome in a sort continued in her puritie for five hundred yeeres After the Papacie and superstition grew to the height in the westerne parts before the thousanth yeere and five hundred yeeres after the happy reformation begun by Martin Luther Yet neither that tradition of the house of Elias nor the observation of Peucerus are of infallible certaintie r Acts 1.7 which the Father hath 〈◊〉 in his owne power It belongeth not to us to know times and seasons and though often God hath translated Kingdomes within the limits of five hundred yeeres yet not alwayes some have lasted longer as the Monarchy of the Assyrians some farre shorter as the monarchy of the Persians and after them of the Grecians The Christian Kings of Jerusalem finished their course within a hundred yeeres Men may probably ghesse at the circumvolution of great Empires and Kingdomes but neither can the Astrologers certainely foresee by the course of the starres nor Å¿ Bod. de rep l. 4. c. 2. ex Plat. pol. 8. Platonicks define by the accomplishment of the nuptiall number nor Politicians foretell by their intelligence with forreine States nor Magicians determine by conference with their familiar spirits but the Prophets of God onely forewarne by inspiration from him who hath decreed before all time the dayes of man and continuance of families and periods of Kingdomes and ages of the world and lasting of time it selfe That which Belshazzar saw t Dan. 5.25.26 a hand writing upon the wall all Princes and States may see and read in the records of heaven kept in holy Scripture Mene Mene thou art numbred thou art numbred thy yeares are summed thy dayes are appointed thine houre is set Be thou as great and glorious as Nebuchadnezzars Image
and hee layeth all the blame either upon bad servants or theevish neighbours or racking Land-lords or hard times or some losses by sea or land but never looketh into his owne heart where the true cause lyes be it covetousnesse or distrust of Gods providence or a quarrelling disposition or pride or idlenesse or luxurie or sacriledge Another is still whining that hee cannot get or keepe his health and he imputeth this either to his crazie constitution by nature or ill ayre or over much labour and study whereas indeed the cause is his ill diet his sitting up all night at Revels his powring in strong wines and spending the greatest part of the day in Tavernes his intemperancy or incontinency All other sinnes are without the body but hee that g 1 Cor. 6.18 committeth fornication sinneth against his owne body First against the honour of his body for thereby he maketh the members of Christ the members of an harlot next the strength health and life of the body which nothing more enfeebleth empaireth and endangereth than greedily drinking stolne waters and coveting after strange flesh A third is troubled in minde and hee feeleth no comfort in his conscience the good spirit hath left him and the evill spirit haunteth him and scorcheth his soule with the flashes of Hell fire and hee ascribeth this to some melancholy bloud or worldly discontent or the indiscretion of some Boanerges sonnes of thunder who preach nothing but damnation to their hearers whereas the true cause is in himselfe hee grieveth the spirit of grace hee turneth it into wantonnesse and quencheth the light of it in himselfe and therefore God withdraweth this holy Comforter from him for a time When h Just hist l. 1. Zopyrus qui sibi labia nares praecidi curasset queritur crudelitatem Regis Zopyrus had cut his owne lips and nose he gave it out that the Babylonians had so barbarously used him such is the condition of most men they disfigure their soules dismember their bodies by monstrous sinnes and yet lay the whole blame upon others i Mat. 10.36 The enemies of a man saith our Saviour are those of his owne house So it is so it is saith S. k Bern med c. 13. Accusat me conscientia testis est memoria ratio judex voluptas carcer timor tortor oblectamentum tormentum inde enim punimur unde oblectamur Bernard in mine owne house in my proper family nay within my selfe I have my accuser my judge my witnesse my tormentor My conscience is the accuser my memory the witnesse my reason the judge my feare the torturer my sinfull delights my torments l Camerar med hist cent 1. c. 20. Plancus Plautius hiding himselfe in the time of the proscription was found out onely by the smell of his sweet oyles wherewith hee used luxuriously to anoint himselfe m Eras adag Sorex ut dicitur suo indicio Sylla hearing some displeasing newes was so enflamed with anger that streining himselfe to utter his passion he brake a veine and spitting bloud died Remember the words of dying Caesar when hee felt their daggers at his heart whom he had saved from the sword Mene servare ut sint qui me perdant O that I should save men to doe mee such a mischiefe O that wee should harbour those snakes in our bosomes which if wee long keepe them there will sting us to death A strange thing it is and much to bee lamented that the soule should prescribe remedies against the maladies of the bodie and yet procure nourishment for her owne diseases What are the vitious affections we feed and cherish within us but so many pernitious infections of the minde What is anger but a fit of a frenzie feare but a shâ—king feaver ambition but a winde collicke malice but an apostem faction but a convulsion envie but a consumption security but a dead palsie lust but an impure itch immoderate joy but a pleasing trance of the soule These are the greatest causes of our woe not onely because they disturbe the peace of our conscience and set us upon scandalous and dangerous actions but also because they draw upon us heavie and manifold judgements From which if we desire to be freed that they prove not our utter destruction let us First confesse our sinnes with David to be the fuell of Gods wrath and the fountaine of all our miseries n Psal 51.4 Against thee thee onely have wee sinned and done this and that and the third and many more evils in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and cleere when thou art judged and with o Salv. l. 4. de provid Sive miseâ—ae nostrae sint sive infirmitates sive eversiones c. testimoniâ— sunt mali servi boni domini quomodo mali servi quia patimur ex parte quod meremur quomodo boni domini quia ostendit quid mereamur sed non irrogat quae meremur Salvianus Whatsoever our miseries are or afflictions or persecutions or overthrowes or losses or diseases they are testimonies of an evil servant and a good master How of an evill servant Because in them we suffer in part what wee deserve How testimonies of a good master Because by them he sheweth us what wee deserve and yet layeth not upon us so much as we deserve Secondly let us compose our selves to endure that with patience which we have brought upon our selves Tute in hoc tristi tibi omne exedendum est Thirdly let us forsake our beloved sinnes and then God will take away his plagues from us let us be better our selves and all things shall goe better with us let repentance be our practise and a speedy reformation our instruction so Gods judgements shall not bee our destruction Now O Father of mercy and tender compassion in the bowels of Jesus Christ who hast shewed us what wee deserve by our sinnes and yet hast not rewarded us according to our iniquities take away our stony hearts from us and give us hearts of flesh that thy threats may make a deepe impression in us and that wee may speedily remove the evill of our sinnes out of thy sight that thou maist remove the evill of punishment from us so our sinne shall not be our destruction but thy mercy our salvation through Jesus Christ To whom c. THE CHARACTERS OF HEAVENLY WISEDOME A Sermon preached before his Grace and divers other Lords and Judges spirituall and temporall in Lambeth THE EIGHTH SERMON PSAL. 2.10 Be wise now therefore O yee Kings be instructed yee Judges of the earth Most Reverend Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. THe mirrour of humane eloquence apologizing for his undertaking the defence of Murena against Cato the elder pertinently demandeth a Cic. pro Muren A quo tandem Marce Cato aequius est defendi Consulem quam a Consule who so fit a patron of a Consull as a consull himselfe The like may be said in
have no opinion of his wisedome but to know that undoubtedly he knoweth nothing at least as he ought to know Justinian though a great Emperour could not avoid the censure of folly for calling his wife by the name of Sapientia because saith Saint Austin nomen illud augustius est quam ut homini conveniat because the name of wise and much more of wisedome in the abstract is too high a title for any on earth to beare What greater folly then can be imagined in any man or woman to assume wisedome to themselves whose greatest wisedome consisteth in the humble acknowledgement of their follies and manifold oversights Therefore Lactantius wittily comes over the seven wise masters as they are called whom antiquity no lesse observed than Sea-men doe the seven Starres about the North Pole When saith he n Lact. â— 4. divin institâ— 1. Sicaeterâ— omnes praeter ipsos stulti fuerâ—nt ne illi quidem sapientes quâ—aneâ—â— sapiens veâ—e stâ—ltorum judicio esse potest there were but seven wise men in all the world I would faine know in whose judgement they were held so in their owne or the judgement of others if in the judgement of others then of fooles by their owne supposition empaling all wisedome within the breasts of those seven if in their owne judgement they were esteemed the onely wise of that age then must they needs be fooles for no such foole as he who is wise in his owne conceit This consideration induced Socrates to pull downe his crest and renounce the name of a wise man and exchange Sophon into Philosophon the name of Sophister into Philosopher of wise into a lover of wisedome with which title all that succeeded him in his Schoole of wisedome contented themselves When the o Sphinx Philosoph c. 7. Gryphus Milesian Fishermen drew up in their net a massie piece of gold in the forme of a Table or planke there grew a great strife and contention in Law whose that draught should be whether the Fishermens who rented the fishing in that river or the Lords of the soyle and water In the end fearing on all hands lest this Altar of gold should melt away in law charges they deferre the judgement of this controversie to Apollo who by his Oracle answered that it neither appertained to the Fishermen nor to the Lord of the Mannor but ought to bee delivered as a present to the wisest man then living Whereupon this golden Table was first tendered to Thales the Milesian who sendeth it to Bias Bias to Solon Solon in the end to Apollo whom the heathen adored as the God of wisdome By this shoving of the Table from wise man to wise man and in the end fixing it in the Temple of Apollo they all in effect subscribed to the judgement of him who thus concludes his Epistle To p Rom 16.27 1 Tim. 1.17 To the King immortall invisible the onely wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever God onely wise bee glory for ever And questionlesse if wee speake of perfect and absolute wisedome it must bee adored in heaven not sought for on the earth Hee alone knoweth all things who made all things hee comprehendeth them in his science who containeth them in his essence Yet ought we to seeke for the wisedome here meant as for treasure and although wee may not hope in this life to be wise unto perfection yet may we and ought we to know the holy Scriptures which are able to make us q 2 Tim. 3.15 wise unto salvation In these we find a fourefold wisedome mentioned 1. Godly 1. Godly wisedome is piety 2. Worldly 2. Worldly wisedome is policy 3. Fleshly 3. Fleshly wisedome is sensuality 4. Divelish 4. Divelish wisedome is mischievous subtlety 1. Godly wisedome is here meant as the words following make it evident Serve the Lord with feare and reason makes it yet more evident For the Prophet needed not to exhort Princes to worldly wisdome the point of Policie is too well studied by them nor to fleshly wisdome for they mostly take but too much care to fulfill their lusts and maintain their Port and provide for their temporall peace and safetie As for divellish wisedome which makes men wise to doe r Jer. 4.22 evill so holy a Prophet as David was would not so much as have taken it in his lips unlesse peradventure to brand it with the note of perpetuall infamie The wisedome therefore which he here commendeth to Kings is a godly a holy and a heavenly wisedome A wisedome which beginneth in the feare of God and endeth in the salvation of man A wisedome that rebuketh the wisedome of the flesh and despiseth the wisedome of the world and confoundeth the wisedome of the Divell A wisedome that advertiseth us of a life after this life and a death after this death and sheweth us the meanes to attaine the one and avoid the other Morall or civill wisedome is as the eye of the soule but this wisedome the Spirit here preferreth to Kings is the eye of the spirit Ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus where the Philosopher ends there the spirituall Physician begins The highest step of humane wisedome is but the lowest and first of divine As Moses his face shined after he communed with God so all morall and intellectuall vertues after we have communion with Christ and he commeth neere to us by his spirit receive a new lustre from supernaturall grace Prudence or civill wisedome is in the soule as a precious diamond in a ring but spirituall wisedome is like Solis jubar the Sunnes rayes falling upon this Diamond wonderfully beautifying and illustrating it Of this heavenly light at this time by the eye-salve of the Spirit cleering our sight wee will display five beames 1. The first to beginne with our end and to provide for our eternall estate after this life in the first place For here we stay but a while and be our condition what it will be it may be altered there wee must abide by it without any hope of change Here wee slide over the Sea of glasse mentioned in the Å¿ Apoc. 15.2 And I saw as it were a sea of glasse Apocalyps but there we stand immoveable in our stations here we are like wandring starres erraticke in our motions there we are fixed for ever either as starres in heaven to shine in glorie or as brandirons in hell to glowe in flames Therefore undoubtedly the unum necessarium the one thing above all things to be thought upon is what shall become of us after we goe hence and be no more seene The heathen saw the light of this truth at a chincke as it were who being demanded why they built for themselves glorious sepulchres but low and base houses answered because in the one they sojourned but for a short space in the other they dwelt To this Solomon had an eye when hee termeth the grave mans t Eccles 12.5 Man goeth
not to make satisfaction so long as he held the sterne right and guided it by the compasse in like maner though our actions and good intentions miscarrie in the event we are not to be blamed if we steered our course by the compasse of Gods word though the barke be cast away as St. Pauls was the lives of all in it shall be safe and our temporall losses shall alway turne to our spirituall and eternall advantage Yea but God is in heaven we are upon earth how may we come to have speech with him or open our case to him or receive answer from him The Jewes had two meanes to receive answer from him either by the mouth of the Prophets when the spirit was on them or from the Priests when they had put on the breast-plate of judgement we have no such meanes now to enquire the will of God neither are visions nor dreames by which men in former times understood the pleasure of God now either frequent or undoubted oracles of truth yet have we still meanes to advise with God both by prayer and consulting the holy Scriptures Of the former St. James speaketh Å¿ Jam. 1.5 If any man lacke wisedome that is counsell and direction in his affaires let his aske it of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shal be given him But let him aske in faith nothing wavering c. Of the second the Prophet David t Psal 119.24 Thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellers in the Hebrew men of my counsell Having now composed the presse what remains but to clap it to the sheets and labour by a word of exhortation to print some of these rules in your harts Be wise now c. Be wise 1. In the choice of your wisdome 2. Be instructed in the means of your instruction make choice of the wisdome that commeth from above from the Father of lights not that which commeth from beneath from the Prince of darkness receive instruction from the spirit not from the flesh from God not from the world so shall you be wise unto salvation and instructed to eternal life Be your selves clients and sutors to God before your clients and sutors have accesse unto you ask counsel of him before you give counsell to them and content not your selves with the waters of the brooke or rivelet but have recourse to the u Cic. de orat l. 2. Tardâ— est ingeniâ— rivulos consectari fontes rerum non videre fountain Now the fountaine of all law is the wisedome of God as the wisest of the heathen Law-givers in effect acknowledged it Zamolxis ascribing the lawes he delivered to the people to Vesta Zoroaster to Hormasis Trismegistus to Mercurie Lycurgus to Apollo Solon to Minerva Numa to the Nymph Aegeria Minos to Jupiter If time be well spent in searching records of Courts and evidences of conveyances and titles of lands how much better in searching the holy Scriptures which are the records of heaven the deeds of Almighty God and evidences of our salvation Who would not search where he may be sure to find treasure In Scriptures you may be sure to finde it wherein all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge are hid the treasures of naturall Philosophy in Genesis of morall Philosophy in Exodus Deuteronomie and Ecclesiastes of the Politickes in the Judicials of Moses and the Proverbes of Solomon of Poetry in the Psalmes of History in the bookes of Chronicles Judges and Kings of the Mathematickes in the dimensions of the Arke and Temple of the Metaphysickes in the bookes of the Prophets and the Apocalyps Doe you desire that the tree of your knowledge in the Law should spread farre and neere and that all men should shade themselves under your boughes Water the root of the tree which beareth up your lawes and sendeth sap and life to all the branches thereof and that is true religion for x Psal 111.10 the feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisedome and a good understanding and care have all they that follow after it First to look to the maine chance and provide for their eternall estate in another world next to learne certainly that they are in state of grace here thirdly to observe where they are weakest and there to strengthen themselves against the assaults of the enemie fourthly to make use of the historie of the world and comment upon the speciall workes of Gods providence lastly to entertaine God his Prophets and Apostles for their learned counsell to direct them in all their suits in the Court of heaven and managing all their weightiest affaires on earth so shall they be sure to attain that which David so earnestly sought of God by prayer saying y Psal 73.24 Guide me by thy counsell and after that receive me to thy glory To whom c. THE JUDGES CHARGE A Sermon preached at the Readers Feast in LINCOLNES Inne THE NINTH SERMON PSAL. 2.10 Be instructed or learned yee Judges of the earth Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. AT the siege of Tarentum a Aelian de Var. hist l. 5. when the Citizens were driven by extremitie of famine to the point of yeelding themselves into the hands of the Romans they were strangely relieved by the charity of their neighbours at Rhegium who every tenth day fasted themselves and sent in their provision for that day to the Tarentines In memory of which reliefe they kept ever after a feast which they called Jejunium oâ— Festum jejunii the Fasts feast or a feast grounded on a fast Such is the Feast bid at this time in this place gained by a long prescription out of the Lent Fast It may rightly be called Festum Jejunii the Feast of the Fast a Feast of the Law beside if not contrarie to the Law of Feasts appointed by the Church Wherein yet I conceive according to the right meaning of the first founders of this exercise and Feast the Ecclesiasticall cannons of the Church and locall statutes of these houses doe not harshly clash one against the other but rather like strings tuned alike and dexterously touched make a perfect chord and strike full unisons both intending Festum Jejunii the one a spirituall the other a scholasticall the one an Evangelicall the other a Legall Feast in the time of Fast For the Church appointeth more frequent exercises of pietie and devotion Prayers Lectures and Sermons which are the soules dainties at this time than any other season of the yeere And agreeable hereunto in the Universities which are the Nurseries of Religion and Arts and in these noble Seminaries of justice and knowledge in the lawes the most solemne and profitable exercises for the proficiencie of students whether readings disputations or determinations have beene time out of minde and are yet performed in the Lent wherein the eye of the soule is the more apt and single for the contemplation of divine and humane knowledge by how much it is
Ministers of God but by the hand of their laye Elders or Borgomasters for feare of overlaying the Queenes vesture with rich laces of ceremonies they rip them off all cut off the fringe and pare off the nappe also But because the Spouse of Christ as things now stand is more afraid of losing her coat than of her lace or fringe I leave these men as unworthy upon whom more breath should be spent and come to the particular rite or ceremony of breathing used by our Saviour Hee breathed on them Here every Interpreter aboundeth in his owne sense q Barrad in Evang Flatus domini potestatem quam dabat remittendi peccata adumbrabat ut enim flatu nubes toâ—o aere pelluntur sic flatu domini id est Spiritu sancto peccatorum nubes disperguntur juxta illud Esa 44. delevisti ut nubes iniquitates nostras Barradius his sense is that this breathing shadowed forth the ghostly power of remitting of sinnes which Christ gave to his Apostles For as by a blast of wind clouds are driven out of the aire so by the blast of God that is the holy Spirit the clouds of our sinnes are dispersed according to the words of the Prophet Esay cap. 44.22 I have blotted out as a thicke cloud thy transgressions r Maldonat in Johan Christus per insufflationem declarare voluitipsam Spiritus sancti naturam est enim veluti flatus patris filii Maldonate his sense is that Christ by this visible ceremony of breathing declared the nature of the holy Ghost who is the breath of the Father and the Sunne Å¿ Musculus in Johan Commodè Spiritum per flatum dedit cum illis muneris Apostolici potestatem daret pendebat enim illa a verbis oris ipsius Musculus his sense is that Christ fitly used the ceremony of breathing when he invested the Apostles into their function because it hath a dependance upon the words of his mouth because it is a power of the word it was therefore given by breathing on them t Calvin harm Cumarcana inspiratione posset Christus gratiam conferre Apostolis visibilem flatum addere voluit ad eos melins confirmandos symbolum autem sumpsit à vulgari S.S. more qui Spiritum confert vento Calvin his sense is that Christ added this ceremony of outward breathing upon them to confirme their faith in the inward inspiration the symbole or signe hee tooke from the common custome of the Scripture which compareth the spirit to winde u Athana in Joh. In sufflando dedit animam quae est principium vitae naturalis Spiritum qui est principium vitae spiritualis ut idem quicreator agnosceretur renovator Athanasius his sense is that as God in the creation of man breathed into him his soule which is the beginning or principle of the naturall life so Christ here breathed into the Disciples his spirit which is the beginning or principle of the spirituall life that wee might know that the same God who is the author of the naturall life is also the author of the life of grace and that hee who first created the spirit of man reneweth all the faithfull in the spirit of their mindes But the most naturall genuine and generally approved reason and interpretation of this rite and ceremony is that which is given by Saint Austine and Saint Cyrill viz. that Christ by breathing on his Apostles when he gave them the holy Ghost signified that the person of the holy Ghost proceeded from him as that breath came out of his mouth For although Theophylact infected with the present errour of the Greek Church jeareth at this interpretation yet neither doth hee nor can hee give so apt and fit a one and in this regard Cardinall Bellarmine justly taketh him up for sleighting the judgement of two of the greatest pillars of the Church Verely saith he Theophylact is to be jeared at by all of the Latine Church if hee flout at Saint Austine and of the Greeke Church also if hee flout at Saint Cyril for what interpretation so naturall what reason so proper can be given of coupling this ceremony with the words Receive yee the Holy Ghost that is giving the holy Ghost by breathing as this that the holy Spirit proceedeth from his person And so I passe from the mysterious rite of breathing to the sanctified forme of words Receive yee the holy Ghost Not the person nor the substance of the holy Ghost for that errour the Master of the sentences was long agoe whipt by his schollars Sanctified the Apostles were by receiving the Spirit but not deified What then received they at this time some gift of the holy Ghost that takes not away the doubt but makes it untieth not the knot but fasteneth it rather For as Pythagoras when the question of marriage was put to him in his flourishing age answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not yet when in his decaying and withering age hee replyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not now so if the question be of the ordinary gifts of the holy Ghost it may be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostles were not now to receive them because at their first calling they were seasoned with that heavenly liquor But if the question be of the extraordinary gifts of the holy Ghost or a fuller measure of the ordinary it may be replied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were not as yet to receive them For Christ * Joh. 16.7 must first ascend before he send the holy Ghost To take this pearle out of the eye of my text many medicines have beene applyed Theodoret thus offereth to remove it Our Saviour Joh. 16.7 said not that hee would not give the holy Ghost before his ascension but that he would not send him before at this time saith that Father Christ gave the holy Ghost secretly with grace but then he sent him in a visible shape with power x Calvin in Joh. Sic datus fuit Apostolis spiritus hoc loco ut respersi fuerint duntaxat ejus gratia non plena virtute imbuti Calvin helpeth it with a distinction of the receiving the holy Ghost in different degrees now the Spirit was but sprinkled as it were upon them but in the day of Pentecost it was powred out on them now they were gently breathed on and refreshed as it were with a small gale then they were all blowne upon as it were with a mighty winde y Chrys in Joh. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint Chrysostome thus expedites the difficulty some say that Christ gave not the holy Ghost at this time but that by his breathing on his Apostles he made them capable or fit to receive him but wee may safely goe farther and say that the Apostles at this time received some spirituall grace or power not of working wonders but of remitting sinne If you further aske why the power of forgiving sinnes or which comes all to one why remission
eleven Apostles or to more than five hundred brethren that saw him all at one time nay what to more than five millions of Confessors and Martyrs signing the truth of it with their blood and shewing the power of it as well by the wonders which they wrought in his name as the invincible patience wherewith they endured all sorts of torments and death it selfe for his name I might produce the testimony of Josephus the learned Jew and tell you of Paschasinus his holy Well that fils of his owne accord every Easter day and the annuall rising of certaine bodies of Martyrs in the sands of Egypt and likewise of a Phoenix in the dayes of Tyberius much about the time of our Lords resurrection rising out of her owne ashes m Lactant. in Poem Ipsa sibi proles suus pater suus haeres Nutrix ipsa sui semper alumna sibi Ipsa quidem sed non eadem quia ipsa nec ipsa Eternam vitam mortis adepta bono But because the authours of these relations and observations are not beyond exception I will rather conclude this point with an argument of Saint n De civit Dei l. 22. c. 5. Haec duo incredibilia scil resurrectionem nostri corporis rem â—am incredibilem mundum esse crediturum idem dominus antequam vel unum horuÌ„ fieret ambo futura esse praedixit unum duorum incredibilium jam factum videmus ut quod erat incredibile credeâ—et mundus curid quod reliquum est desperatur Austines to which our owne undoubted experience gives much strength The same Spirit of God saith hee which foretold the resurrection of Christ foretold also that the doctrine thereof should bee publickly professed and believed in the world and the one was altogether as unlikely as the other But the latter wee see in all ages since Christs death and at this day accomplished in the celebration of this feast why then should any man doubt of the former The Apostles saw the head living but not the mysticall body the Catholike Church of all places and ages We have read in the histories of all ages since Christ and at this day see the Catholike Church spread over the whole face of the earth which is Christs body how can wee then but believe the head to bee living which conveigheth life to all the members I have set before you the glasse of the resurrection in the figures of predictions of the Old Testament and the face it selfe in the history of the New may it please you now to cast a glance of your eye upon the Image or picture thereof in our rising from the death of sinne to the life of grace All Christs actions and passions as they are meritorious for us so they are some way exemplary unto us and as none can bee assured of the benefit of Christs birth unlesse hee bee borne againe by water and the Spirit nor of his death unlesse hee bee dead to sinne nor of his buriall unlesse hee have buried his old Adam so neither of his resurrection unlesse hee bee risen from dead workes and continually walketh in newnesse of life See you how the materiall colours in a glasse window when the sun-beames passe through it produce the like colours but lesse materiall and therefore called by the Philosophers intentionales spiritales on the next wall no otherwise doth the corporall resurrection of Christ produce in all true believers a representation thereof in their spirituall which Saint John calleth o Apoc. 20.5 the first resurrection Saint Paul p Heb. 6.1 repentance from dead workes Sinnes especially heinous and grievous proceeding from an evill habit are called dead workes and such sinners dead men because they are deprived of the life of God have no sense of true Religion they see not Gods workes they heare not his Word they savour not the things of God they feele no pricke of conscience they breath not out holy prayers to God nor move towards heaven in their desires but lye rotting in their owne filthinesse and corruption The causes which moved the Jewes so much to abhorre dead corpses ought to be more prevalent with us carefully to shunne and avoid those that are spiritually dead in sinnes and transgressions they were foure 1 Pollution 2 Horrour 3 Stench 4 Haunting with evill spirits 1 Pollution That which touched a dead corpse was by the law uncleane neither can any come nigh these men much lesse embrace them in their bosome without morall pollution and taking infection in their soules from them 2 Horrour Nothing so ghastly as the sight of a dead corpse the representation whereof oft-times in the Theater appalleth not onely the spectatours but also the actours and yet this sight is not so dreadfull to the carnall man as the sight of those that are spiritually dead I speake of foule notorious and scandalous offenders to them that feare God Saint John would not stay in the same bath with Cerinthus and certainely 't is a most fearefull thing to bee under the same roofe with blasphemous heretickes and profane persons who have no feare of God before their eyes 3 Stench The smell of a carkasse is not so offensive to the nostrils as the stench of gluttony drunkennesse and uncleannesse in which wicked men wallow is loathsome to God and all good men 4 Haunting with evil spirits We read in scriptures that the men that were possest of the divel came q Mat. 8.28 out of the tombs and graves and we find by dayly experience the like of these rather carkasses than men that the devill hankereth about them and entereth into their heart as he did into Judas filling them with all wickednesse and uncleannesse After they have exhausted their bodies with incontinency their estate with riotous living and have lost first their conscience and after their credit they fall into the deepest melancholy upon which Sathan works and puts them into desperate courses r Psal 73.19 O how suddenly doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Me thinkes I heare some say wee heard of places haunted by evill spirits in time of popery are there now any such not such as then were solitary houses ruined pallaces or Churches in which fearefull noyses are said to have beene heard and walking spirits to have beene met For at the thunder of the Gospell Sathan fell like lightning from heaven and hath left those his old holds but places of a contrary condition such where is the greatest concourse of people I meane profane Theaters disorderly Tavernes Ale-houses places of gaming and lewdnesse yea prisons also which were intended for the restraint of wickednesse and punishment of vice are made refuges of Malefactors and schooles of all impiety and wickednesse Quis custodes custodiet ipsos As in the hot sands of Africa where wilde beasts of divers sorts meet to drinke strange monsters are begotten which gave occasion to that proverbe Å¿ Eras
scorching heat would consume them in such sort that they could never come to maturity This Apologue shall serve for my Apologie if I presse you at this time with all the interest I have in your love nay with all the power that I have as a Minister of Christ Jesus to contribute something to the necessity of your brethren You know well the grapes I told you of which send to you as the grapes in Babel did to the vines in Judea to impart unto them some of your sap and to shade them under your well spread boughes or else they will undoubtedly wither and perish I beseech you in the bowells of Christ Jesus come not behind but rather goe before others in pious bounty and Christian charity So the good will of him that dwelt in the bush make you all like the tree in the first Psalme planted by the rivers of waters that bringeth forth his fruit in due season and his leafe shall not wither and whatsoever he doth it shall prosper THE STEWARDS ACCOUNT A Sermon preached in the Abbey Church at WESTMINSTER THE XXI SERMON LUKE 16.2 Give an account of thy stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward Right Reverend right Honourable right Worshipfull c. THat I may give a better account of the mysteries of saving truth and you of the blessings of this life whereof God hath made us Stewards in different kindes I have chosen for the subject of my serious meditations and the object of your religious consideration this parcell of sacred Scripture which admonisheth us all to looke to our severall accounts to examine and cleare them that wee may have them ready and perfect when our Lord and Master shall call for them from every of us by name and in particular saying Give an account of thy stewardship The words are part of a Parable which resembleth the tents of Solomon vile and blacke without but full of precious things within For on the out-side we reade nothing but a narration of an unjust Steward or crafty Merchant who being called to an account and justly fearing to bee turned out of his place upon it in time provideth against the worst and taketh a course to make himselfe whole by cheating his Master but in the in-side there are many beautifull Images of divine doctrines drawne by the pensill of the holy Ghost which I purpose to set before you after I have opened the vaile of the letter by shewing you 1. What are the goods for which the Steward is to reckon 2. Who is the Steward charged with these goods 3. What manner of account he is to give Touching the first the learned Interpreters of this mysterious Parable are at strife and if I may so speake in law about the goods left in the hands of this unfaithfull Steward Some put temporall blessings only and worldly wealth in his account Others by goods understand the Word and Sacraments principally wherewith the Ministers of the Gospel are trusted But Bonaventure lighting one candle by another expoundeth this Parable by the other Parable of the five talents and taketh the goods here committed to the Steward to bee those five talents delivered to every man to trade and negotiate withall for God his Master and thus hee telleth them 1. Naturae 2. fortunae 3. potentiae 4. scientiae 5. gratiae the first of nature the second of wealth the third of power the fourth of knowledge the fifth of grace By nature hee understandeth all the naturall faculties of the minde and organs and instruments of the body By wealth riches and possessions By power offices and authority By knowledge all arts and sciences By grace all the gifts of the spirit and supernaturall infused habits such as are faith hope and charity c. whereunto if hee had added a most precious Jewell which if it be once lost can never be recovered viz. our time hee had given a true and perfect Inventary of all the goods for which the unfaithfull Steward in my Text is called to an account Touching the second about whom there is as great contestation and variety of opinions as about the goods themselves Gaudentius maketh a Steward of the Divell who justly deserveth the name of an unjust servant for wasting his lords substance that is spoyling his creatures and robbing him of his chiefest treasure the soules of men But if the Divell bee the Steward who is the accuser of this Steward doubtlesse he can be no other than the Divell whose stile is the a Revel 12.10 The accuser of the brethren is cast down which accuseth them before the Lord day and night Accuser of the brethren The Divell therefore is not the Steward here meant whom God never set over his family nor trusted him with any of his goods since he became a Divell Tertullian conceiveth the people of the Jewes to whom the Tables and Pots of Manna and Oracles of God were committed to be the Steward 's called to an account in my Text for the abuse of these holy things If wee follow this Interpretation neither the Parable nor the Text any way concerneth us Christians therefore Saint Ambrose Saint Chrysostome Saint Augustine Beda Euthymius and Theophylact enlarge the Stewards Patent and put all rich men in the world in it who are advised to make friends with the unrighteous Mammon they have in their hands that when they faile their friends may receive them into everlasting habitations Lastly Saint Jerome and others put in hard for the Ministers of the Gospel to whom they assigne the first place in the Patent as being Stewards in the most eminent kinde and so stiled both by our b Luke 12.42 Who then is the faithfull wise Steward whom his lord shall make ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season Saviour and his c Tit. 1.7 A Bishop must be blamelesse as the Steward of God 1 Cor. 4.1 Let a man so account of us as Stewards of the mysteries of God Apostle To reconcile these opinions and make a perfect concord of seeming discords I understand by the great husband or rich man in the Parable Almighty God whose house is the whole world all things in it his wealth Men indued with reason and understanding are his Stewards whom he hath set over this great houshold to governe the rest of his creatures and employ the riches of his goodnesse to the advancement of his glory These are all accountable unto him the Jewes peculiarly for such things as hee bequeathed to his children by the Old Testament the Christians for such things as he hath bequeathed to them by the New the unregenerate are to reckon with him for the gifts of nature the regenerate for the graces of the spirit the rich for his wealth the noble for his honour the mighty for his power the learned for his knowledge every man for that hee receiveth of the riches of his mercy in spirituall temporall or corporall
their sight in those darke roomes which they lost when they were suddenly brought forth into the open ayre by the over bright reflection of the Sunne beames from a wall new white-limed Which I speake not to detract from dignity or obscure glory or disparage nobility or dishonour worldly preferments or honours in them whose merits have been their raisers For these honourable titles and dignities are the lustre of eminent quality the garland of true vertue the crowne of worldly happinesse and to the lowly high favours of the Almighty The marke I aime at is to give some content to them whose places are inferiour to their vertues and advice also to those whom God hath or shall raise to great places and high preferments Let the former consider that there can be no obscurity where the Sunne shineth that he is truly honourable not alwayes whom the Prince putteth in high places but he upon whom God lifteth the light of his countenance that it is sufficient that hee seeth their good parts from whom they expect their reward that the more retired their life is the lesse exposed to envie and more free from danger that the fewer suters or clients they have to them the more liberty they have to be clients to God the lesse troubles they have about their temporall estate the better they may looke to their spirituall and secure their eternall lastly that the lesse they are trusted with the easier their account shall be at the great audit On the other side let those who have degrees accumulated and honours and preferments heaped upon them seeke rather to diminish their accounts than to increase their receipts and pray to God daily for lesse of his goods and more of his grace that they may make a better account at the last day and then receive a Kingdome in Heaven for a Stewardship on earth Beloved brethren you see your calling you are Stewards not Lords thinke upon it seriously that you may be every day you shall be one day called to a strict account for all that you have or enjoy This was the first point of speciall consideration I recommended to you from the nature of our office which is here called a Stewardship The second was that wee are not Gods Treasurers but his Stewards and that our imployment is not to gather up and keep but to expend and distribute our Masters monies for the maintenance and reliefe of his poore servants according to their severall necessities And looke whatsoever we lay out in this kinde shall be allowed upon our accounts and put upon our Masters score who acknowledgeth it to bee his owne debt o Mat. 10.42 Whatsoever you doe unto any of these little ones you doe it unto mee You clothe mee in the naked you feed mee in the hungry you relieve mee in the distressed you visit mee in the imprisoned you ransome mee in the captive you cure mee in the wounded you heale my pierced hands and feet with the oyle which you poure into their wounds Thrice happy Stewards wee if wee can so handle the matter that we may bring our Master indebted to us for the interest of his owne mony For he p Prov. 19.15 who giveth to the poore lendeth to the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay it him againe So exceeding bountifull is he that he giveth us aboundantly to pay our fellow-servants and payeth us double for giving it them After our Saviour had healed the man with a q Marke 3 5. withered hand to shew that it was whole he commanded him to stretch it forth in like manner if wee desire to shew and make a sensible proofe that the sinewes of our faith are not shrunke that the hands of our charity are not withered we must stretch them out and reach our almes to the poore which we will be more willing and ready to doe if we reflect often upon our office shadowed out under this Parable which is to bee Stewards not Treasurers of Gods manifold blessings Secondly if wee consider that wee lay out nothing of our owne but of our Masters purse And thirdly that whatsoever we lay out for him upon earth we lay up for our selves heaven according to that rule of Saint r Leo ser quod Thesaurum coâ—dit in coelo qui Christum pascit in paupere manus pauperis gaâ—aphylatium Christi Leo Hee layeth up treasure in heaven who feedeth Christ in the poore the poore mans hand is Christs boxe This branch of our duties which is to be alwayes fruitfull in good workes extendeth farther than the expending of monies or good usage of the blessings of this life For all the members of our body and faculties of our foule and graces of the spirit are paâ—â— of our Masters goods and must bee imployed in his service and occupied for his profit Besides all these wee are accountable to him for our time which wee may not wastefully and prodigally lavish out in sports and pastimes but so thriftily expend upon the necessary workes of our calling that we may save a good part to consecrate it to exercises of piety and devotion whereby wee may multiply the talent of grace committed unto us There is no covetousnesse commendable but of time of which yet most men and women are most prodigall Å¿ Senec. ep 1. Quem mihi dabis qui aliquod pretium tempori ponat qui diem aestimet c. spenders Any jewell that is lost may be found yea though it bee cast in the sea as Polycraâ—es his ring was which a fish in his mouth brought backe into his Kitchin Yea the treasure of grace and pearle of the word which the rich Merchant sold all that hee had to buy yea God himselfe after we have lost him may bee found if we seeke him in time onely lost time can never be recovered Wherefore that wee may not lose any moment of the time allotted which is so precious but put it to the best use for the increase of our talent of knowledge I passe from the Stewardship of the things of this life to the account we are to give of this Stewardship In which that we may more readily and safely proceed first I will set up a great light secondly remove some rubs out of the way The light shall bee a cleare confirmation of the truth of the point out of the Scriptures which are most evident and expresse both for the unavoidable necessity and strict severity of the last judgement Wee professe in our Creed that Christ who now sitteth at the right hand of his Father in heaven shall from thence come to judge the quicke and the dead and wee have sure ground in Scripture to build this article upon For t Acts 10 42. there wee reade that Christ is ordained of God to bee Judge of the quicke and the dead and that u Rom. 14.10 we shall all stand before his judgement seat nay that wee x 2 Cor. 5.10
giving sentences or making decrees The Judges among the Romanes when they acquitted any man cast in a white stone into an urne or pot according to that of the Poet Mos erat antiquis niveis atrisque lapillis His damnare reos illis absolvere culpâ And likewise the Citizens of Rome in choosing their Magistrates wrote his name to whom they gave their voice in a white stone By allusion to which two customes I conceive the Spirit in this place promiseth to every one that shall overcome the lusts of the flesh by the Spirit the assaults of the Devill by faith and the persecutions and troubles of the world by his constancy calculum absolutorium suffragatorium an infallible token of his absolution from death and election to a crowne of life an assurance of present justification and future glorification Thus I take the Quid nominis to bee cleare the greatest controversie is about the Quid rei what that gift or grace is what that signe or token what that proofe or testimony whereby our present estate of grace and future of glory are secured unto us Some ghesse not farre off the truth That it is testimonium renovatae conscientiae the testimony of a renewed conscience For as the eye in a glasse by reflection seeth it selfe looking so the conscience by a reflection upon it selfe knoweth that it knoweth God and beleeveth that it beleeveth in Christ and feeleth that it hath a new feeling sense and life The eye of faith in the regenerate seeth himselfe sealed to the day of redemption and observeth the print of the seale in himselfe and the image of the heavenly which it beareth I shall speake nothing to disparage this testimony of conscience which affordeth to every true beleever singular contentment in life and comfort in death The nearer the voice is the briefer and more certainely wee heare it and therefore wee cannot but distinctly take that deposition for us which conscience speaketh in the eare of the heart And yet wee have a nearer and surer voice to settle our heart in the knowledge of our spirituall estate the testimony of Gods Spirit which is nearer and more inward to our soules than our soules to our bodies and the witnesse thereof may be as great or a greater joy to us than if God had sent an Angell to us as hee did to Daniel to shew unto us that wee were beloved of him or an Archangel as hee did to the Virgin k Luke 1.28 Mary to salute us Haile thou that art highly favoured of God If any demand as shee did not out of any doubt but out of a desire of farther information quomodo that is how doth the Spirit testifie to our spirits that we are the sonnes of God To speake nothing of elevations of Spirit and raptures and speciall revelations which are not now so frequent and so certaine as in former ages I answer The Spirit testifieth this unto us two manner of wayes by Motions or Words Effects or Deeds By words so are the expresse words of Saint l Prolog card vert 1. Dicuntur tibi verba quaedam arcana intrinsecus ut dubitare non possis quin juxta te fit Cyprian As when lightning breaketh the cloud and the suddaine splendour thereof doth not so much enlighten as dazle the eyes so sometimes thou art touched with I know not what motion and feelest thy selfe to bee touched and yet seest not him that toucheth thee there are inwardly spoken unto thee certaine secret words so as thou canst not doubt that hee is neare thee even within thee who doth solicite thee yet doth hee not let thee see him as hee is These secret words Saint m Serm. 1. in annunc Hoc est testimonium quod perhibet Spiritus sanctus dimissa sunt tibi peccata tua Bernard uttereth This is the testimony or record which the Spirit beareth unto thee Thy sinnes are forgiven thee I take it the meaning of the words of these Fathers is not that the holy Ghost doth sound these formall words in our bodily eares but that as God once n 1 Kin. 19.12 spake in a still small voice so in it still hee speaketh to the faithfull by the Spirit verbis mentalibus by mentall words or notions by which hee continually inciteth us to good restraines us from evill forewarneth us of danger and comforteth us in trouble And whilest wee listen to these notions or rather motions of the spirit within us wee heare this testimony often and distinctly But when wee give eare to the motions of the evill Spirit and entertaine him and delight in his society and thereby grieve and despite the Spirit of grace hee being thus grieved by us speaketh no more words of comfort in us but withdrawes his gracious presence and leaveth us in horrour of conscience and darknesse of minde In this time of spirituall desertion wee thinke wee have lost this white stone though indeed wee have not lost it but it is hid from us for a while for afterwards wee shall finde it having first felt the Spirit moving upon the waters of our penitent teares and in our powring out our soules before God assisting us with sighes and groanes that cannot be expressed then after we renewing our covenant with him our sins are blowne away like a thicke mist and light from heaven breaketh in againe upon us and with this light assurance and with assurance peace and with peace joy in the holy Ghost Yea but a weake Christian may yet demand How may I bee assured that my stone is not a counterfeit that my gold is not alchymy that my pearle is not glasse that my Edenis not a fooles Paradise that this testimony in my soule is not a suggestion of Sathan to tempt mee to presumption and thereby drowne mee in perdition The Spirit of God commanding mee to o 1 Joh. 4.1 Beleeve not every spirit but try the spirit whether they are of God Try the Spirits whether they are of God or no implyeth that there are Spirits which are not of God how then may I certainly know that this motion within mee is from the good and not rather from the evill Spirit By this if it accord with the word and the testimony of thine own conscience but if it vary from either thou hast just cause to suspect it If any Spirit shall tell thee that thou art lockt in the armes of Gods mercy and canst not fall from him though thou huggest some vice in thy bosome and lettest loose the reines to some evill concupiscence give that Spirit the lye because it accordeth not with the word of God testifying expressely that p Eph. 5.5 no whoremonger nor uncleane person nor covetous man which it an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdome of God and of Christ For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously
And by o Luk. 1.68 69 74. Zachary in his Hymne Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which hath visited and redeemed his people And hath raised up an horne of salvation for us in the house of his servant David That we being delivered from the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare And by St. Paul p Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage againe to feare And by q Luke 12.32 Christ himselfe Feare not little flocke for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the kingdome This latter feare because it excludeth confidence in God is excluded it selfe but the former not onely standeth with certainty of perseverance in grace but mightily supporteth it For even for this end God promiseth to put that feare in the hearts of all true believers that r Jer. 32.40 they may not fall away from him Whereupon Tertullian acutely inferreth playing upon the double sense of the Latine word securus * De cult Jerâ—n Qui secutus est non est solicitus qui est solicitus potest esse secutus Hee that is secure that is carelesse of the meanes of his salvation is not solicitous or watchfull but hee that is solicitous or watchfull may bee secure that is free from all feare of unavoidable danger The last objection which our adversaries make against the doctrine delivered is taken out of the worme-eaten evidence of the ancient Pelagians as wee may see in Saint Å¿ Ep. ad August Dicunt lapsis curam resurgendi adunt sanctis occasionem teporis offerri eo quod electi nulla negligentiâ possint excidere Hage conference p. 12. c. Prosper They viz. the Pelagians upbraid that all care of rising out of sinne is taken away from those that are lapsed that to holy men is ministred an occasion of slacknesse in their devotion or lukewarmnesse inasmuch as the Elect according to our doctrine cannot fall away by any negligence howsoever they behave themselves that consequently this doctrine taketh away all praiers obsecrations obtestations exercise of mortification care of the means of renewing our covenant with God and watchfulnesse over all our wayes But wee answer with the ancient t Aug. de correp grat Prosp resp ad obâ—ect Vincent Fathers that the certainty of the end no way derogateth from the necessity of the means of salvation which on Gods part are admonitions threatnings promises commands counsels punishments and rewards on our part continuall prayer watchfulnesse progresse in godlinesse unfained desire of and earnest striving for perfection After Christ prayed for S. Peters faith that u Luk. 22.32 I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not it might not faile Peter was assured of his perseverance yet Christ commandeth him with the rest * Mar. 14.37.38 Christ saith to Peter Simon sleepest thou couldst not thou watch with mee one houre watch pray lest yee enter into temptation to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation watchfulnesse therefore and assurance are not incompatible None ever had greater assurance of their salvation than the Apostles after Christ cheared their hearts x Luk. 10.20 In this rejoice not that spirits are subject unto you but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven yet our Saviour admonisheth them to y Luk. 12.35 stand with their loynes girt about and their lights burning and to take heed to themselves z Lâ—k 21.34 lest at any time their hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkennesse and cares of this life and so that day come upon them at unawares Questionlesse after Christ had given to Saint * Act. 27.24 Paul the life of all them that were in the ship with him hee was assured of their safe arrivall yet when the shipmen were about to flye out of the ship under colour as though they would have cast anchor Paul said to the Centurion and to the souldiers except these abide in the ship you cannot bee saved None may otherwise receive or apply to themselves the promises of grace and remission of sinnes than they are tendred to them in holy Scripture but in them they are propounded unto all upon condition of repentance faith holinesse of life new obedience and perseverance in it to the end To beleeve therefore the remission of sinnes and to bee assured of Gods favour notwithstanding wee hold on our sinfull courses is not spirituall confidence but carnall presumption Assurance of salvation is an effect of a lively faith which a Gal. 5.6 worketh by love and consequently all that have it the more they are assured of Gods love to them in Christ the more their hearts are enflamed with love towards God and their neighbour also for Gods sake the more zealous they will bee of his glory the more thankefull for his mercy the more desirous to please him the more fearfull to offend him the more carefull to obey him the more wounded with godly sorrow for their incurring his displeasure and the more ready to turne unto him by unfained repentance Admit what they so much clamour against us for that the adopted sonnes of God are in no feare or distrust that their heavenly Father will disinherite them yet neither may they nor can they presume hereupon wilfully to provoke him because they know that hee hath many sharpe roddes to chasten them with besides as temporall plagues painefull sicknesse irrecoverable losses terrours of conscience and spirituall desertion To conclude the certainty of our beliefe that wee shall undoubtedly arrive at the celestiall Canaan is no reason why we should flacke but rather mend our pace thither Thus having wiped out the spots and blots which the ancient and latter Pelagians have fast upon the white stone we shall more easily be able to discerne the characters engraven in it and read The new name Wee receive many new things from our Saviour 1 A b Mat. 26.28 new Testament signed with his blood 2 In this new Testament a new c Heb. 8.8 Covenant 3 In this new Covenant a new d Joh. 13.34 Commandement 4 To obey this new Commandement a new e Ezek. 36.26 heart 5 And answerable to this new Heart new f Mar. 16.17 Tongues 6 And consonant to these new Tongues new g Apoc. 14.3 Songs Behold h Apoc. 21.5 I make all things new a new i 2 Pet. 3.13 heaven and a new earth and a new k Apoc. 21.2 city and in it new l Eph. 4.24 inhabitants to whom the Spirit here promiseth a m 2 Cor. 5.17 new name upon which the Interpreters have many new conceits Alcazar the Jesuite whose profound head the Pope lately graced with a Cardinals hat in his prolixe commentaries upon the Apocalyps falling upon the words of my text will needs have this new name to be some derivative from Jesus as Jesuitae or Jesuati or the like For this name Jesus as out
hee cannot enter into the kingdome of God hee gave credit unto it as all must doe who look for the inheritance * 1 Pet. 1.4 incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them a 1 Pet. 1.3 for all those are begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ not with corruptible seed but with incorruptible and after they are begotten they are born again of water and the Spirit b 1 Pet. 2.2 as new born babes they desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow therby and as they grow c 2 Cor. 4.16 the old man decayeth in them and the inward man is renewed daily Inregard of which great alteration and change wrought in them by the Spirit of regeneration was it that the holy Father when hee was solicited by the Mistresse of his affections in former times claiming ancient familiarity with him put her off saying Ego nunc non sum ego I am not the man thou takest me for thou art indeed thou remaining still in thy unregenerate estate but I am not I. And unlesse wee all feele and observe in us d Rom. 12.2 a transformation by the renewing of our minde that wee may prove what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God we cannot challenge to our selves this new name whereunto the Saints of God have yet a second right by the e Rom. 8.15 Spirit of adoption Adoption as f Sum 1. p. â— 93. Art 4. Adopâ—o filiorum Dâ—i est per conformitaâ—em ad â—maginem filâ—â— natur lis â—nperfâ—â—tè pudeâ— pâ—â— gâ—â—tiam perfâ—câ—e per glorâ—â—m Aquinas defineth it is by conformity to the image of the naturall sonne of God imperfectly by grace here and perfectly by glory hereafter But this great Schoole-man it seemeth was no great Lawyer nor dived deepe into the nature of Adoption which he here counfoundeth partly with sanctification which is our conformity in part to Christ by grace and partly with glorification which is our perfect conformity to him when our sanctification is consummate in heaven In precise truth adoption is not by our conformity to the image of Christ but our conformity to the image of Christ is by the spirit of adoption Adoption saith g Sen. controv Ad pâ—â— est â—â—siâ—tâ— quae benefiâ—â— naturae juris imitatur Seneca is a most sacred thing containing in it an imitation of nature civilly giving them sonnes whom nature hath left childlesse and it may be briefly defined a legall supply of a naturall defect whereby they who can beget no children yet make heires to propagate their names to posterity ut sic abolita seculis nomina per successores novos fulgeant According to which definition God cannot be properly said to adopt any children though he give them the titles of sons and make them coheirs with Christ for adoptio est fortunae remedium is provided as a remedy and comfort of those who are destitute of children and want heires God wanteth none neither doth hee adopt for his contentment but for our solace and comfort In civill adoption the son begotten is not adopted the adopted is not begotten Nulla viro soboles imitatur adoptio prolem But in the divine adoption it is otherwise For God adopteth no sonne by grace whom hee regenerateth not by his Spirit Moreover in civill adoption the ground is either consanguinity or affinity which moved Julius to adopt Octavius or if neither eminencie of vertue and similitude of disposition which induced Nerva to adopt Trajan But in the divine h Pliâ— panâ—gyr Nulla adoptati cum adoptato cognatio nullâ—â—â—cessitudo nisi quod uterque optimâ—s â—rat dignâ—sâ— alter â—ligi alter eligere adoption on the contrary God adopteth not us because of any kindred or alliance in us to him antecedently but he sent his sonne to take our nature upon him and become kinne to us that for his sake hee might have some occasion to adopt us Men adopt those in whom they see worth but God first loveth and giveth worth that he may more worthily adopt and they whom he so adopteth by the grace which he conferreth upon them procure to themselves a third right to this title of sonnes by imitation of their father This imitation consisteth in walking after the Spirit as he is a Spirit in following after holinesse as he is most holy in loving mercy as his mercy is over all his workes in purifying our hearts and hands as he is purity it selfe in doing good to those that deserve ill of us as he causeth his i Mat. 5.45 sunne to rise upon the good and the bad and his raine to fall upon the just and the unjust lastly to aspire to perfection as he is perfection it selfe In the holy language of Scripture rather expression of vertue than impression of feature maketh a sonne all that through faith prevaile with God are accounted of the seed of Israel and all beleevers the sonnes of Abraham and because the unbeleeving Jewes did not the workes of Abraham Christ denyeth them to be his children k John 8.39 If yee were the children of Abraham yee would doe the workes of Abraham Whereupon l Serm. 125. in Evang. Qui genitotis opeâ—â—â—n facit aâ—â—aâ— genus Chrysologus inferreth He that doth not the workes of his Progenitors in effect disclaimeth his linage Constantine the great tooke not such joy in his sonne Constantius because he favoured him in his countenance as because he m Nazarius in panogyr Praestantissimum Principem hoc maximè juvit quod in primoribus annis ductae sunt lineae quibus virtutumsuarum effigies posset includi saw in his tender yeeres an assay and as it were the first draught of his owne vertues On the contrary the Roman Censors tooke such a distast at the sonne of Africanus for his debauched life that they tooke a ring off his finger in which the image of his father was ingraven because he so much degenerated from his fathers excellent vertues they would not suffer him to weare his fathers picture in a ring whose image he bare not in his minde neither will God suffer any to beare his name and be accounted his sonnes who beare not his image who resemble not his attributes in their vertues his simplicity in their sincerity his immutability in their constancy his purity in their chastity his goodnesse in their charity his holinesse in their piety his justice in their integrity Regeneration is wrought in the heart knowne to God onely adoption is an act sped in the court of heaven which none knoweth on earth but he that receiveth an exemplification of it by the Spirit but imitation of our heavenly Father by a heavenly conversation proclaimeth us to all the world to be his sonnes The title thus cleared the next point is the perpetuity thereof represented unto us by the engraving the new name in the white
faire havens in heaven let us perfectly learne our way and all points of the Compasse and carefully steere by the Card of Gods Word and keepe in the streight and middle way of Gods commandements neither declining to the right hand nor to the left 6. Sixtly doth Satan play the crafty Merchant and cheate us with counterfeit stones for jewels with shewes of vertues for true graces let us also imitate the wisedome of Merchants who will bee perfect Lapidaries before they deale in pearles and pretious stones let us study the difference between true and seeming graces and pray continually to God that we may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement that wee may bee able to discerne things that differ and try Spirits whether they are of God or no. 7. Lastly doth Satan play the temporizer and time all his suggestions let us also in a pious sense be time-servers let us performe all holy duties in the fittest season let us omit no opportunity of doing good let us take advantage of all occasions to glorifie God and helpe on our eternall salvation If wee heare a bell toll let us meditate on our end and pray for the sicke lying at Gods mercy if wee see an execution let us meditate on our frailty and reflecting upon our owne as grievous sinnes though not comming within the walke of mans justice have compassion on our brother if wee see Lazarus lying in the street let us meditate upon the sores of our conscience and our poverty in spirituall graces and extend our charity to him finally sith wee know at what time Satan most assaulteth us let us be best provided at those times especially at the houre of our death let us follow the advice of Seneca though a Heathen r Sen. ep 2. Quotidiè aliquid adversus mortem auxilii compara cum multa percurreris unum excerpe quod illo die concoquas lay up store for that day every day gather one flower of Paradise at least that even when the fatall houre is come and the stench of death and rottennesse is in our nostrils we may have a posie by us in which wee may smell a savour of life unto life which God grant c. SERMONS PREACHED AT SAINT PAULSCROSSE OR IN THE CHURCH THE BELOVED DISCIPLE THE XXX SERMON JOH 21. 20. The Disciple whom Jesus loved which also leaned on his breast at Supper IF wee must abstaine from all appearance of evill in our civill conversation much more certainly in our religious devotion For God is most jealous of his honour which is all he hath from us for all we hold of him Praef. Apolog. fest eccles and the streight rule of religion will in no wise bend to any obliquity on either side either by attributing any true worship to a false or any false worship to the true God From both which aspersions hee that seeth not the Liturgy established by law in the Church of England to bee most cleare and free either is short-sighted or looketh on her through a foule paire of spectacles and thereby ignorantly imagineth that dust to bee in her sacred Canons and Constitutions which indeed is not in them but sticketh in his glassie eyes let him but rub his spectacles and he shall see all faire and without any the least deformity or filth of superstition as well in the Service appointed for the Lords day as for the Saints feasts For though wee adorne our Calendar with the names of some eminent Saints and make honourable mention of them in our Liturgy as the ancient Church did of her Martyrs a Austin de civ Dei l. 22. c. 10. non tamen invocamus yet wee call not upon them wee lift not up our hands wee bow not our knees wee present not our offerings wee direct not our prayers wee intend not any part of religious worship to them sed uni Deo martyrum nostrum but to their God and ours as Saint Austine answereth for the practice of the Church in his time Which may serve as a buckler to beare off all those poysonous darts of calumny which those of the concision cast at that part of our Church-service wherein upon the yeerly returne of the Feast of the blessed Virgin the Archangell Apostles Evangelists Protomartyr Innocents and All-holy-ones wee remember the Saints of God but in no wise make Gods of Saints sanctificamus Deum non deificamus Sanctos wee blesse God for them wee worship not them for God Although our devotion glanceth by their names yet it pitcheth and is fixed upon the Angel of the covenant and sanctum sanctorum the holy of all holy ones our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ On the blessed Virgins anniversary wee honour him in his Mother on Saint John Baptists wee honour him in his forerunner on Saint Michaels we honour him in his Archangel the Captaine of his celestiall squadron on the Apostles wee honour him in his Ambassadours on the Evangelists wee honour him in his Chroniclers on Saint Stevens wee honour him in his Martyr on S. John the Divine his day wee honour him in his beloved Disciple who also leaned on his breast at Supper 1 The Disciple 2 The Disciple beloved 3 Beloved of Jesus 4 In Jesus bosome All Christians are not Disciples this is the Disciple all the Disciples were not beloved this is the beloved Disciple all that are beloved are not beloved of Jesus this is he whom Jesus loved lastly all whom Jesus loved were not so familiar with him or neare unto him that they leaned on his breast this was his bosome friend and as the text saith at supper leaned on his breast Every word is here a beame and every beame is reflected and every reflection is an intention of the heat of Christs affection to Saint John Divis 1 A Disciple there is the beame 2 Ille the or that Disciple there is the reflection 1 Beloved there is the beame 2 Beloved of Jesus there is the reflection 1 Leaning there is the beame 2 Leaning on his breast there is the reflection It is a great honour to bee a Disciple but a greater to bee the Disciple a great honour to bee beloved a greater to bee beloved of Jesus a great honour to leane on such a personage a greater to leane on his breast Thus I might with an exact division cut the bread of life but I choose rather after the manner of our Saviour to breake it and that into three pieces onely viz. John his 1 Calling in Christ 2 Favour with Christ 3 Nearenesse unto Christ 1 His calling in Christ The Disciple 2 His grace and favour with Christ whom Jesus loved 3 His nearenesse unto Christ who also leaned on his breast The Disciple The Spouse in the Canticles setting out her husband in his proper colours saith b Cant. 5.10 My beloved is white and ruddy that is of admirable and perfect beauty or white in the purity of his conversation and
be no other than grace and he who hath a greater measure of grace must needs more love the Fountaine of grace Christ Jesus As Jesus therefore more loved John so John more loved Jesus hee followed him boldly to the high Priests hall hee never denyed him once as Peter did thrice hee with his mother attended him at the crosse and from that day tooke the blessed Virgin to his owne home and therefore though Christ promised the keyes of heaven to Peter first yet hee gave Saint John a greater priviledge to leane on his breast Which leaned on his breast Of Saint Johns leaning on Christs breast foure kindes of reasons are given 1 A civill by Calvin 2 A Morall by Theophylact. 3 A mysticall by Saint Austine 4 A tropologicall by Guilliandus Though saith a Calv. in Harmon Calvin for a servant to lye on his masters breast may seeme unseemly yet the custome of the Jewes being not to fit at table as we do but at their meales to lye on beds or carpets on the ground it was no more for Saint John to lye on Christs breast than with us to sit next to him unlesse with Theophylact we conceive that Saint John upon the mention of our Lords death and that by treason tooke on most grievously and beginning to languish through griefe was taken by Christ into his bosome to comfort him or wee interpret with Saint Austin and others of the Ancients Sinum Christi Sapientiae secretum the bosome of Christ the cabinet of celestiall jewels or treasury of wisedome and inferre with Saint Ambrose from thence b In psal 118. Johannes cum caput suum super pectus domini reclinaret hauriebat profunda secreta sapientiae That John when hee laid his head to Christs breasts sucked from thence the profound secrets of wisedome and with c Beda in Evang Johan Quia in pectore Christi sunt omnes thesauri sapientiae scientiae reconditi meritò super pectus ejus recumbit quem majore caeteris sapientiae scientiae singularis munere donat Beda That Christ revealed to Saint John as his bosome friend more secrets and that the reason why his writings are more enriched with knowledge especially of things future than the rest is because he had free accesse to Christs breast wherein all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge were hid Moreover as d Guil. com in Johan c. 21. Guilliandus observeth S. John lay upon Christs breast for the same reason that Moses appointed in the law the breast of all sacrifices for the Priest to teach us that wisedome and understanding whose seat is the breast and heart ought to be the speciall portion of the Priests Among so many ingenuous reasons of this gesture of Saint John if wee leane to Saint Austines opinion the use wee are to make of it is with reverence and religious preparation to read and heare all the bookes of holy Scripture and especially Saint Johns writings who received those hidden and heavenly mysteries in Jesus his bosome which Jesus * Joh. 1.18 No man hath seene God at any time the onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father hath revealed him heard in his Fathers bosome All Scriptures are given by e 2 Tim. 3.16 divine inspiration and are equally pillars of our faith anchors of our hope deeds and evidences of our salvation yet as the heaven is more starry in one part than another and the seas deeper in one place than another so it is evident that some passages of Scripture are more lightsome than others and some books contain in them more profound mysteries and hidden secrets and most of all S. Johns Gosspell and his Apocalypse wherein by Saint Jeromes reckoning the number of the mysteries neare answereth the number of the words quot verba tot sacramenta If wee like of Theophylact his reason wee are from thence to learne not to adde affliction to the afflicted not to vexe them that are wounded at the heart but to stay with flaggons and comfort with apples those that are in a spirituall swoune and by no meanes to withhold from them that faint under the burden of their sinnes the comforts of the Gospell to support them especially considering that hee as well killeth a man who ministreth not to him in due time those things which may hold life in him as hee that slayeth him downe right Lastly if wee sticke with Calvin to the letter it will discover unto us the errour of many among us that contend so much for sitting at the Communion and a table gesture as they speake whereas Christ at his last Supper neither sate nor used any table at all In eating of the Passeover wee read f Mat. 26.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 14.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 22.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christ with the twelve fell down or lay downe after the Jewish manner which was nearer to kneeling than sitting But what gesture precisely hee used in the delivery of the holy mysteries it is not expressed in Scripture most probable it is that he kneeled or at least that the Apostles kneeled when they received the sanctified Elements from him For no doubt they who in the first ages immediatly succeeded the Apostles received the Communion as the Apostles maner was and that they kneeled the heathen cavill against them that they worshipped bread and wine maketh it in a maner evident For had they sate or stood in the celebration of the Sacrament the Gentiles could have had no colour to cast an aspersion of bread-worship on them but because in receiving the sacred elements of bread and wine they kneeled downe and religiously called upon God the Paynims conceived that they adored the creatures of bread and wine And they among us who cannot distinguish betweene kneeling at the Sacrament and kneeling to the element bread worship and the worship of Christ in religiously and reverently participating the holy mysteries of his body and blood are as grossely ignorant in Christian rites as the ancient heathen were Verely did they consider seriously who it is that under the forme of bread and wine offereth unto them his body and blood even Christ himselfe by his Spirit and what they at the same time in a thankfull love offer to God their bodies for a holy and living sacrifice and what then they receive a generall pardon of all their sinnes under the seale of the King of heaven I perswade my selfe their hearts would smite them if they strived not to receive so great a benefit from so gracious a Majesty as in the most thankfull so in the most humble manner But it is not the position of your bodies but the disposition of your mindes which in this rare patterne of my text I would commend to your Christian imitation The best keeping the Feast of a Saint is to raise him as it were to life by expressing his vertues and
blessed Virgin the babe a Luke 1.41 sprang in the wombe of Elizabeth so I doubt not but that at the reading of this text in your eares the fruits of your devotion which are your religious thoughts and zealous affections leap and spring for joy in the wombe of your soule for now is the accepted time the time of grace now is the day of salvation the day of our Lords Incarnation As the golden tongued Father spake of a Martyr Martyrem dixisse laudâsse est to name a man a Martyr is to commend him sufficiently so it may be said of this text to rehearse it is to apply it I need not fit it to the time for the time falleth upon this time and the day upon this day now if ever is this Now in season If any time in all the yeere be more acceptable than other it is the holy time we now celebrate now is the accepted time on Gods part by accepting us to favour now is the day of salvation by exhibiting to us a Saviour in our flesh let us make it so on our parts also by accepting the grace offered unto us and by laying hands on our Saviour by faith and embracing him by love and by joy dilating our hearts to entertain him with all his glorious attendants a troupe of heavenly Souldiers singing b Luke 2.14 Glory be to God on high on earth peace and good will towards men c Esay 49.13 Sing O heavens and be joyfull O earth and breake forth into shouting O ye mountaines for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon the afflicted Keepe this holy day above others because chosen by God to manifest himselfe in the flesh bid by an Angell and by him furnished both with a lesson and with an Anthem also Well might the Angell as on this day sing glory in excelsis Deo c. for on this day the Son of God out of his good will towards men became man and thereby set peace on earth and brought infinite glory to God in the highest heavens Well may this be called by the Apostle d Gal. 4.4 The fulnesse of time or a time of fulnesse which filled heaven with glory the earth with blessings of peace and men with graces flowing from Gods good will The heavens which till this time were as clasped boxes now not able longer to containe in them the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind burst open and he whose name is e Cant. 1.3 an ointment poured forth was plentifully shed upon the earth to revive the decayed spirits and heale the festered sores of wounded mankind Lift up then your heavie lookes and heavier hearts yee that are in the midst of danger and in the sight nay within the claspes of eternall death you have a Saviour borne to rescue you Cheare up your drouping and fainting spirits all ye that feele the smart and anguish of a bruised conscience and broken heart to you Christ is borne to annoint your wounds bruises and sores Exult and triumph ye gally slaves of Satan and captives of Hell fast bound with the chaine of your sinnes to you a Redeemer is borne to ransome you from spirituall thraldome Two reasons are assigned why festivities are religiously to be kept 1. The speciall benefits of God conferred upon his Church at such times which by the anniversary celebration of the dayes are refreshed in our memories and visibly declared to all succeeding ages 2 The expresse command of God which adjoyned to the former reason maketh the exercises of devotion performed at these solemnities duties of obedience It cannot be denied that in this latter consideration those feasts which are set downe in the booke of God have some prerogative above those that are found wrtiten onely in the Calendar of the Church But in the former respect no day may challenge a precedencie of this no not the Sabbath it selfe which the more to honour him whose birth we now celebrate resigned both his name place and rites to the f Athanas hom de semenie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords day and if we impartially compare them the worke wrought on this day was farre more difficult and the benefit received upon it greater than that to the memory whereof the Sabbath was at the first dedicated It was a greater miracle that God should be made a creature than that he should make all creatures and the redemption of the world so farre exceeds the creation as the means by which it was wrought were more difficult and the time larger the one was finished in sixe dayes by the commandement of God the other not in lesse than foure and thirty yeeres by the obedience of Christ the one was but a word with God the breath of his mouth gave life to all creatures the other cost him much labour sweat and bloud and what comparison is there betweene an earthly and an heavenly Paradise Nay if wee will judge by the event the benefit of our creation had beene none without our redemption For by it we received an immortall spirit with excellent faculties as it were sharpe and strong weapons wherewith wee mortally wounded our selves and had everlastingly laid weltring in our own blood had not our Saviour healed our wounds by his wounds and death and raised us up againe by the power of his resurrection To which point Saint Austine speaking feelingly saith Si natus non fuisset bonum fuisset si homo natus non fuisset If hee had not beene borne it had beene good for man never to have beene borne if this accepted time had not come all men had beene rejected if this day of salvation had not appeared wee had all perished in the night of eternall perdition Behold now is the accepted time In this Scripture as in a Dyall wee may observe 1 The Index 2 The Circles Certaine Behold Different 1 The larger 2 The narrower The accepted time The day of salvation To man in generall it is an accepted time to every beleever in particular it is a day of salvation Lynx cum cessat intueri cessat recordari Because we are like the Lynx which mindeth nothing no longer than her eye is upon it the Spirit every where calleth upon us to looke or behold Behold not alwayes or at any time but now not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not time simply but season the flower of time not barely accepted but according to the originall well accepted or most acceptable not the day of helpe or grace but a day of salvation As in the bodies which consist of similar parts the forme of the whole and the forme of every part is all one for example the whole ocean is but water and yet every drop thereof is water the whole land is but earth and yet every clod thereof is earth the
the writer of them such was the story of Genesis before the Floud whereof Moses could bee no otherwise infallibly enformed than by Gods revealing them unto him 2. Of things to come which is properly termed prophecy and this may be either 1. By instinct when men or women fore-tell things to come not knowing the certainty or being fully perswaded of the things themselves 2. Per raptum or ravishing of Spirit when they fore-tell such things whereof they are infallibly assured either 1. By voice as Moses was 2. By dreame as Daniel 3. By vision as Esay Ezekiel Zechary and other Prophets By instinct I am easily induced to beleeve that many especially before their death may fore-tell many things that come to passe shortly after and I deny not but some also may per raptum as I am perswaded John Hus did before his martyrdome in those words which are stampt in the coyne of those dayes yet to be seen Centum revolutis annis respondebitis Deo mihi after a hundred yeeres you shall bee called to an accompt for these things about which time they were openly challenged for them by Martin Luther and other zealous Reformers Yet are wee not to build our Christian faith upon any prophesies save those only which holy men have set downe in Scripture as they were guided by the holy Ghost Among which this is to bee ranked which Saint John received not from man or Angel but from e Cap. 1. V. 9 10. Jesus Christ not per instinctum but per raptum as himselfe testifieth I John which also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ was in the Isle of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ I was in the spirit on the Lords day and heard behind mee a great voice as of a Trumpet Note wee herein that Saint John received this revelation in his exile or banishment to teach us that Gods servants may be banished out of their native soyle and the Court of Princes but not out of the Catholicke Church or the presence of God Secondly Saint John received this prophesie as he was in the spirit to intimate unto us that this booke is of a spirituall interpretation Thirdly he received it on the Lords day to lesson us that God most blesseth our meditations on this day and that they must bee at peace with him and free from worldly cares and businesse who expect revelations from him For the title of the booke of Apocalypse or Revelation it is taken either from the manner whereby it came to Saint John before mentioned or from the matter herein contained which is mysticall hidden and for the most part of things future very obscure before the event and issue manifest them not from Saint Johns manner of expressing them for that for the most part is very intricate For as Plato sometimes spake of an obscure example Exemplum O hospes eget exemplo You had need to illustrate your example by another example so of all the bookes in Scripture the booke of Revelation most needs a revelation and cleare exposition in which as Saint Jerome hath observed Quot verba tot Sacramenta there are neere as many mysteries and figures and aenigmaticall expressions as words for this is the booke spoken of in this booke f Apoc. 5.1 sealed with seven seales answerable to the seven letters enclosed in it directed to the seven Churches of Asia to Ephesus Smyrna Sardis Pergamus Philadelphia Laodicea and Thyatira which names are as it were a small table and short draught of the lineaments of these Churches As Irenaeus his peaceable temper and Lactantius his milkie veine and Eusebius his piety and Chrysostomes golden mouth and contrariwise Jacobs subtilty and Edoms cruelty and Nabals folly and Seneca his end Se necans and Protesilaus his destiny were written in their names g Ovid. ep Protesilae tibi nomen sic fata dedêre victima quod Troiae prima futurus eras so the speciall and most noted vertues and vices in these Churches may bee read by the learned in the Greeke tongue in their names I dare not affirme that the holy Ghost either imposed or made choice of these names to intimate any such thing especially because these names were given to these Cities before they gave their names to Christ Neither doe we reade that these names at the first were put upon these Townes by men endued with a Propheticall spirit but by their Heathen Founders or Governours yet is the correspondency between these names and the condition of these Churches at the time when Saint John as Christ his amanuensis wrote these letters to them very remarkable and they may serve the learned as places in artificiall memory to fixe the character of these Churches in them 1. By the name Ephesus so termed quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying remission or slacking they may bee put in minde of slacking or back-sliding wherewith the Spirit upbraideth this Church h Cap. 2. Ver. 4. Thou hast left thy first love remember whence thou art fallen and repent 2. By the name Smyrna signifying lacrymam myrrhae the dropping or teares of myrrhe they may be put in mind of the i Ver. 10. cup of teares which this Angel was to drinke Yee shall have great tribulation for ten dayes 3. By the name Pergamus quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying beyond or out of the bounds of marriage they may be put in mind of the Nicolaitans abounding in this Church who were great abusers of k Ver. 15. marriage Thou hast them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate 4. By the name Sardis quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying fleshly they may be put in minde of many in this Church that were l Cap. 3. Ver. 4. fleshly given for as we reade This Angel had but a few names which had not defiled their garments 5. By the name Philadelphia signifying brotherly love they may bee put in minde of this vertue whose proper worke it is to cover multitude of sinnes which because it was eminent in many of this Church the Spirit covereth all her infirmities and rebuketh her openly for nothing but contrariwise commendeth her and promiseth because she m Ca. 3. Ver. 10. had kept the word of his patience to keep her from the houre of temptation 6. By the name Laodicea quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the righteousnesse or customes of the people they may bee put in minde of the condition of the common sort in this Church and else-where who are well conceited of themselves though God knowes for little cause they imagine that they are very forward in the way that leades to eternall life that they are rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing when indeed in their spirituall estate they are
and easilier spell the letters of the Gospel he vouchsafed to worke them in embroidered silkes and engrave them in gold silver and such precious treasure as fill the rowes in my text Thus much concerning the legall Hieroglyphicks we learne by St. Paul who in his Epistles to the Galathians Corinthians and Hebrewes expounding divers types and stories of the old law spiritually satis ostendit caetera quoque ejusdem esse intelligentiae b Hieron ep ad Fabiol teacheth us plainly that the rest are of the same nature and admit of the like interpretation And hereto S. c In Cant. hom 1. Origen fitteth the words spoken to the Spouse in the Canticles Faciemus tibi similitudines auri cum puncturis argenti we will make thee golden resemblances of true things cum * With certain points rayes notes or sparkles of spirituall meaning puncturis argenti id est scintillis quibusdam spiritualis intelligentiae According to which allusive interpretation of that allegorizing Writer the gold it selfe of the Altar was but a similitude of the true gold d Apoc. 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou maist be rich profered by our Saviour to the Angell of Laodicea and the precious stones named in my text are but similitudes of that precious stone to which St. e 1 Pet. 2.6 Peter pointeth Behold I lay in Sion a chiefe corner stone elect precious whereupon St. f Jer. in Ezek. de gemmis coro Reg. Tyr. 28.13 Jerome sweetly inferres that all the Jewels mentioned in my text are to bee sold by the wise Christian Merchant to buy that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pearle of great price mentioned in the g Mat. 13.46 Gospel Omnes istae gemmae Prophetarum Apostolorum sunt quae comparatione Christi venduntur in Evangelio ut ematur preciocissima Margarita h Mart. ep l. 5. Sardonychas Smaragd ' Adamantas Jaspidas uno Portat in articulo stella Severe tuus O Severus thou settest out thy mistresse most richly with every joint in her fingers laden with Jewels Rubies Emralds Jaspers and Diamonds but pardon me if I beleeve there are more gemmes of art in thy verses than of nature on her fingers Multas in digitis plures in carmine gemmas Invenies inde est haec puto culta manus Behold here in Aarons breast-plate all those and many more precious stones in all twelve bearing the name of the twelve Patriarkes set in ouches of gold and tied to the golden rings of the Ephod a sacred vestment which Aaron and his successours were to put on before they gave judgement when the people asked counsell of God So much of the pectorall is cleerely set downe in this booke but that Aarons breast-plate of judgement was a perfect astrolab is but Abenezra his fantasie without judgement refuted by Tostatus Likewise that together with the names of the Patriarkes there was engraven in every stone the name of some Starre or Angel ut confirmaretur memoria tribus apud Deum is but a muddie talmuddie tradition implying ridiculously and impiously that God needeth or useth the helps of artificiall memorie i Antiq. Judaic l. 3. c. 9. Per duodecimas gemmas quas in pectoâ—â—â—â—ontifex insuâ—â—◠〈◊〉 in bello â—â—â—toriam Deus pronunciare solebat Nam priusquam exercitus se moveret tantus fulgor ex iis emicabat ut toti populo facilè innotesceret adesle Deum opemque iis esse allaturum Josephus telleth us a faire tale and Baronius graceth his annals with it of an unusuall and marvellous lightning of some of these gemmes which clearly foreshewed victory to the people when they asked counsell of God by the Ephod before they went into warre a strange kinde of propheticall illumination not by the irradiation of the Spirit into their mindes but by the scintillation and lustre of stones to the eye But the Scriptures silence in a matter of such note and Josephus his owne confession that for the space of two hundred yeares before his time there was no such new kind of soothsaying not by the aspect of the heavens but of the Priests breast not by twinckling starres but by sparkling stones giveth us just cause to suspect the truth of this narration and much more of an appendix thereunto which we find in Suidas and Epiphanius that the Diamond in the second row of stones as it cleerely foreshewed victorie by the extraordinary glare of it so it portended bloody slaughter by suddenly turning into a red colour and finall desolation by changing into blacke For in the booke of Judges we have the manner of Gods revealing future events to the Priests when they had on the linnen Ephod set downe not by mute signes but by created voyce and therefore St. l Qu. 117. in Exod. Austine accounteth the former relation to be a meere fable Fabulantur quidam lapidem fuisse cujus color sive ad prospera sive ad adversa mutaretur Howbeit sith the m Ca. 18. v. 24. Author of the booke of wisedome affirmeth that the glorie or as others translate the memorable acts of the patriarches were engraven in the foure rowes of stones whether in the choyce of these jewels respect were not had to such as fittest resembled by their beautie or vertue something memorable concerning the Patriarch or his posteritie whose name it bare I determine not absolutely on either side First because neither the Jewish nor the Christian Interpreters agree in the reckoning of the stones or the order of the Patriarches names engraven in them The Thargum of Jerusalem and the Chaldee Paraphrase expresse them after this manner Upon the 1 Sardine was graven 1 Reuben Sonnes of Leah 2 Topaze 2 Simeon 3 Smaragd 3 Levi 4 Chalcedonie 4 Judah 5 Saphir 5 Issachar 6 Sardonyx 6 Zabulon 7 Hyacinth 7 Dan Of Bilhah Rachels maid 8 Chrysoprase 8 Napthali 9 Amethyst 9 Gad Of Zilpha Leahs maid 10 Chrysolite 10 Asher 11 Beryll 11 Joseph Of Rachel 12 Jasper 12 Benjamin Others differ in translation of the stones and conceive the names of the Patriarches to have beene graven in them according to the order of nature according to which after Judah they place Dan and then Napthali after Gad then Asher after Issachar then Zabulon then Joseph and Benjamin The Author of the vulgar translation which the Councell of Trent defineth to be authenticall thus ranketh the stones in the foure rowes In the first 1 Sardius 2 Topazius 3 Smaragdus In the second 4 Carbunculus 5 Saphirus 6 Jaspis In the third 7 Ligyrius 8 Achates 9 Amethystus In the fourth 10 Chrysolitus 11 Onychinus 12 Beryllus The Kings Translatours thus In the first 1 Sardius 2 Topaze 3 Carbuncle In the second 4 Emrald 5 Saphire 6 Diamond In the third 7 Alygure 8 Agate 9 Amethyst In the fourth 10 Beryll 11 Onyx 12 Jasper Secondly because Aben Ezra a great Rabbin ingenuously confesseth that there is no certainty to
and presenteth their prayers and them and himselfe for them to his Father For that Thummim that is perfections is an empresse becomming none but our Saviours breast all Christians will easily grant and that Urim that is lights are an Embleme of the divine nature Plato professeth saying Lumen est umbra Dei Deus est lumen luminis Light is the shadow of God and God is the light of light it selfe For Christ his third office we need not goe farre to seeke it for the Bells of Aaron sound out the preaching of the word and the Pomegranates set before us the fruits thereof and both his entire Propheticke function If there lie any mysterie hid in the numbers we may conceive the foure rowes of shining stones answerable to the foure Beasts in the Revelation full of eyes either prefigured by foure Evangelists or the foure orders in the Church Hierarchy Apostles Evangelists Doctors and Pastors as for the twelve stones doubtlesse they had some reference to the twelve Apostles for in the 21. chapter of the h Apoc. 21.14 Revelation where these twelve precious stones are mentioned it is said expresly that in the wall there were twelve foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lambe You have heard the mysticall interpretation lend I beseech you an eare to the morall 1. First these glorious vestments and ornaments of Aaron set forth unto us the dignity of the Priests office i 2 Cor. 3.7 8. and if the ministration of the letter were glorious shall not the ministration of the Spirit be much more Yes how dark and vile soever our calling seemeth to the eyes of the world it shall one day appeare most glorious when they that turne many unto k Dan. 12.3 righteousnesse shall shine as starres in the firmament for evermore Here I cannot conceale from you that l In Exo. c. 28. Cappo one of the Popes Botchers taketh measure of Aarons garments to make massing vestments by as before him Durand hath done in his booke intituled rationale divinorum where he saith Noster Pontifex habet pro feminalibus sandalia pro lineâ albam pro balieo cingulum pro podere tunicam pro Ephod stolam pro rationali pallium pro cidari mitram pro lamina crucem just but where is the causible in Latine casula sic dicta quasi parva casa saith hee because it closeth the Priest round as it were with a wall having a hole for him to put out his head like a Lover to let out smoake signifying that the Priest ought to be like a little cottage with a chimney in it heated with the fire of zeale sending up hot fumes of devotion and letting them out with his breath at the LOVER of his mouth But I will not put them to so hard a taske as to parallel each of their vestments with Aarons all that I shall say to them for the present is this That the neerer they prove their vestments to come to Aarons ornaments the more ceremoniall and typicall they prove them and consequently more unfit to be retained now by Christians if the Apostles argument drawne from the m Heb. 10.1 vanishing of the shadow at the presence of the body be of any force therefore let the observation of Cappo passe with a note of plumbea falsitas not aurea veritas wherewith he graceth it 2. My second observation is that God both first beginneth with the breast and appointeth also the most glorious and precious ornaments for it n Exod. 28.4 The garments shall be these thou shalt make a breast-plate an Ephod c. after followeth the mitre to the making whereof blew silke onely and fine twined linnen is required with a plate of gold on it but for the breast-plate cloth of gold wrought about with divers colours plates of gold and foure rankes of the richest jewells in all the treasury of nature are appointed all this as we may piously conceive to signifie that God best esteemeth the breast and heart and not the head My o Pro. 23.26 sonne give mee thy heart Our heavenly Father preferreth enflamed affections above enlightened thoughts he cannot bee received or entertained in our narrow understanding yet will hee p Eph. 3.17 dwell in our hearts by faith if we enlarge them by love Cecidit Lucifer Seraphim stant aeternâ incommutabilitate incommutabili aeternitate the Angels which had their names from light fell like lightening from heaven but the ministring spirits which are by interpretation burning fire hold yet their place and ranke in the Court of God Let ambitious spirits seeke to shine in Aarons mitre or at least to be caracter'd in the Onyx stones on his shoulders my hearts desire was and ever shall be to be engraven in one of the jewells upon the breast-plate to hang with the beloved Disciple upon the bosome of my Saviour 3. Thirdly I observe yet again that the names of the twelve tribes which were before written in the Onyx stones upon the shoulders of Aaron are here engraven againe in the rowes of jewels hanging neere his heart which as it representeth Christ his both supporting and affecting his chosen supporting them on his shoulders affecting them in his heart so it teacheth all the Ministers of the Gospel to beare the names of Gods people committed to their charge not onely upon their shoulders by supporting their infirmity but also upon their hearts Ver. 29. by entirely affecting them above others and above all things Gods glory in the salvation of their soules If q John 21.15 thou love me saith Christ feed my sheep if you desire that Christ should beare you on his heart before his Father beare you the names of his Tribes his chosen on your hearts before him 4. Fourthly you may easily discerne that the stones as they are of sundry kindes and of different value so they are set in divers rowes 1. 2. 3. 4. which illustrateth unto us the divers measures of grace given to beleevers in this life and their different degrees of glory in the life to come All the stones that were placed on Aarons breast-plate were Urim and Thummim that is resplendent and perfect jewells yet all were not equall some were richer and above others in value as those in the second row even so all the elect are deare to our Saviour yet some are dearer than others he entirely affected all the Apostles yet Saint John who r John 21.20 leaned upon his breast was neerer to him than any of the other all the Jewels were set in gold in their embossements yet one was set above another in like maner all the faithfull shall shine as starres in the firmament yet some shall be set in a higher sphere than others for as the Apostle teacheth us there is ſ 1 Cor. 15.41 one glory of the Sunne and another of the Moone and another of the Starres
but remorse of conscience for some hainous and grievous sinnes whereby Gods image in us is defaced our credit stayned our profession scandalized and Gods anger provoked against us This remorse is found both in the godly and in the wicked but in the one it is cured or at least eased with seasonable comfort in the other this continuall biting of conscience is without any ease or hope of cure and therefore it driveth them to blaspheme God and curse themselves sometimes to lay violent hands upon their own bodies and apply a remedy worse than the disease In the godly and penitent it breedeth a loathing and detestation of sinne and a speedy recourse to the Physitian of their soules with sighes and groanes that cannot be expressed For as Lactantius writeth that the ashes of a burnt viper are a present remedy against the sting of the viper so the remaines of sin in the conscience viz. remorse and shame are a present remedy against sinne as wee may see in David c Psal 51.3 I know mine owne iniquity and my sinne is ever before mee d Psal 38.4 5. Mine iniquities are gone over my head they are a burden too heavie for me to beare my wounds stink and are putrefied through my foolishnesse and in Solomon who upon experience of the unfruitfulnesse of sinne indited that excellent Sermon delivered in the booke of the Preacher the premisses wherein are e Eccl. 1.2 Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit and the conclusion f Eccl. 12.13 Feare God and keepe his commandements for this is the whole man and in the Jewes who when Saint Peter set before their eyes their crucifying the Lord of life their saving a murtherer and murthering their Saviour were g Act. 2.37 pricked in heart and said Men and brethren what shall wee doe And in the h 2 Cor. 7.8 9. Corinthians in whom remorse of conscience like the dart of Jason wrought a strange cure whereat the Apostle much rejoiced Though I made you sorry saith hee with a letter I repent not Nay I rejoice not that yee were sorry but that yee were sorry to repentance for godly sorrow causeth repentance to salvation not to bee repented of For behold this thing that yee have beene godly sorry what great care it hath wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what feare yea what zeale in all things ye have shewed your selves to be pure in this matter For this cause Saint Paul in his Epistles often rubbeth up their memory to whom hee writeth with the consideration of their former unregenerate estate as the Corinthians i 1 Cor. 6.9 Know yee not that the unrighteous shall not inherite the Kingdome of heaven Be not deceived Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor wantons nor theeves nor covetous nor drunkards nor extortioners shall inherite the Kingdome of God and such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are cleansed but yee are sanctified but yee are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus And the Ephesians k Eph. 5.8 Ye were sometimes darknesse but now yee are light in the Lord l Eph. 4.17 18 19. This therefore I testifie unto you that yee walke not from henceforth as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having their understanding darkened and being deprived of the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart which being past feeling have given themselves to wantonnesse to worke all wickednesse with greedinesse The Angel bid Tobias to unbowell the fish and take out the gall as being usefull in medicine and a speciall meanes to recover his eye-sight The story is Apocryphall but the application of it is Canonicall and agreeable to the doctrine of the inspired Scriptures If wee unbowell wordly pleasures and carnall delights and take out the gall of them that is seriously thinke upon the bitternesse which they leave behind them it will prove a soveraigne remedy against our spirituall blindnesse A reason of this observation wee neede not fetch farre wise men by others fall prevent their owne but even fooles learne a lesson from their woefull experience m Eras Chil. Piscator ictus sapit the fisherman who hastily thrust his hand into his net to take out a fish and was stung by a Scorpion was ever after wiser Remorse of conscience if no Balme of Gilead bee seasonably applied to it to asswage the paine is farre worse than the sting of a Scorpion which made Cain roare My punishment is greater than I am able to beare which forced Judas to hang and Nero to stab himselfe Julian the Apostata to teare his bowels and throw them into the ayre saying Vicisti Galilaee The greatest bodily torments that can be devised have beene borne chearfully by many Martyrs but a troubled spirit saith the wise man who can indure Pro. 11.14 This observation is not more pregnant in the proofe than poignant in the use both for tryall and instruction For if the experience of the unfruitfulnesse and shamefulnesse of sinne bee a speciall curbe of sinne in the regenerate they surely who are not perswaded hereof who taste no bitternesse in the forbidden fruit who can thinke of their former sinnes not only without griefe and remorse but also with some delight and contentment were never thoroughly converted For there can be no vivification without precedent mortification no mortification where the old man is yet alive There is a strugling in the soule in the travell of our new birth between the flesh and the spirit as there was in the wombe of Rebecca at the time of her labour between Jacob and Esau Every one that is renewed in the spirit of his mind n Rom. 7.22 23. delighteth in the Law of God as touching the inward man and therefore cannot approve the law of the members rebelling against the law of the mind He that truly returneth to God and placeth his chiefe happinesse in his union with him cannot but be offended grievously at the remembrance of those things that made a separation between him and his God The weeds that have taken deep root cannot bee plucked up without stirring the earth Such are the weeds of sinne rooted in our heart they cannot be plucked up without tearing and breaking it through contrition That heart which hath never bin so broken up was never thorowly weeded Wherefore beloved Christians if ye desire to know whether ye are in the way of life whether ye are effectually called whether ye are in the state of grace whether ye have any part in the promises of salvation loe here is a touch-stone to try your spirituall estate When ye recall your former profanenesse and uncleannesse and worldlinesse and maliciousnesse to mind is the remembrance of these sinnes grievous unto you is the burthen of them intolerable are ye pricked in heart with the sting of conscience
Athenian Priest answered to those that would have had her curse Alcibiades Priests saith shee are appointed to blesse not to curse to pray for people not against them Notwithstanding if the Church meet with a Simon Magus set in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity or an Elymas that will not cease to pervert the right waies of God or an Alexander that mightily withstandeth the preaching of the Gospel shee may brandish the sword of the Spirit and cut such off from her visible assemblies for a time till they make their peace with God by repentance and with the Church by confession and humble submission to her sacred Canons 3. Men neither inspired by God nor authorized by the Church yet may and ought to pray against the kingdome of Sathan and members of Antichrist in generall and all whosoever stop the free passage of the Gospel or hinder the advancement of Christs Kingdome For we cannot love God but we must needs love them that love him and hate them that hate him even with a perfect hatred As wee must blesse them that blesse him so wee may and ought in generall to curse all that curse him In warre wee may aime at the Standard and shoot at the Flagge and Ensignes but it is against the law of armes to levell at any particular man in like manner we may shoot out of zeale fiery darts of execration at the Standard of Sathan and levell at the Flagge and Colours of Antichrist but wee may not curse or doome to the pit of hell such a nation city assembly or man in particular 1. Because God only knoweth who are his he that is now a great persecuter or a scoffer at the truth may be in time a zealous professor and it is a fearfull thing to curse the children of blessing 2. Because it is very difficult if not impossible for any in this kinde to curse but that malice and desire of revenge will mingle themselves with our zeale and thereby wee shall offer with Nadab and Abihu strange fire 3. Because we are commanded to pray for our enemies who the more they have wronged us the more they stand in need of our prayers For the greater injury they offer us the more they hurt themselves they wound us in body but themselves in soule they spoyle us of our goods but they deprive themselves of Gods grace they goe about to staine our good name but by detraction and false calumniation they worse staine their owne conscience they may worke us out of favour with Princes and great men but they put themselves out of favour with God thereby Yee heare how execrable a thing cursing and execration is and yet what so common I tremble to rehearse what wee heare upon every sleight occasion O remember from this Memento in my Text that unlesse yee were inspired as the people here were and knew that those whom yee curse were hated of God as these Edomites were by cursing others yee incurre a curse and by casting fire-brands of Hell at your brethren yee heape hot burning coales upon your heads And so I passe from the curse to the parties cursed The children of Edome The Edomites or Idumeans were of the race of Esau Jacobs elder brother who comming home hungry from hunting and finding his brother seething pottage grew so greedy of it that he bargained with him for a messe at the deare rate of his birth-right This red broth bought at such a price was ever after cast in Esau his dish and from it hee was called r Gen. 25.30 31 32 33. Edome and all his posterity Edomites or Idumeans as if yee would say red or bloudy ones Such was their name and such were they a bloudy generation of the right bloud of Esau For as he sought the life of his brother Jacob so they ever plotted the ruine and destruction of the Jewes their brethren and in the day of Jerusalems fearfull visitation when the Babylonians had taken the City and put all in it to the sword and robbed the Temple and ransacked all the houses and left nothing but the wall their unnaturall brethren the Idumeans in stead of quenching or at least allaying the fury of the Babylonians by their praiers and compassionate teares cast oyle into the flame and set them in a greater rage against them and instigated them to a further degree of cruelty even to pull down all the houses and sacke the walls saying Raze it raze it to the ground For which their inhumane and savage cruelty against the Church of God God remembred them in due time and rewarded them as they had served their brethren to fulfill the prophecies of Å¿ Jer. 49.7 8 9 10 11 12. Jeremy and Obadiah t Obad. ver 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. For thy cruelty against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee In the day that thou stoodest on the other side in the day that the stranger carried away captive his forces and forreiners entred into his gates cast lots upon Jerusalem even thou wast as one of them But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger neither shouldest thou have rejoyced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of their distresse Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crosse wayes to cut off those of his that did escape neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remaine in the day of distresse For the day of the Lord is neere upon all the heathen as thou hast done so it shall be done unto thee thy reward shall returne upon thine owne head Behold a notable example of divine justice in meting to the wicked their owne measure and punishing them with that where with they offended The Edomites proved false to the Jewes their brethren and their neerest friends prove false to them They received a wound ver 7. from the men of their confederacy even from them that ate their bread Non expectato vulnus ab hoste ferunt Remember O Lord the Edomites but destroy the Babylonians Though the Edomites dealt most cruelly with their brethren the Jewes yet the Jewes are not so farre transported with passion against them as not to put a difference between them and the Babylonians By the way wee may note the condition of Christs dearest Spouse in the world both Edomites and Babylonians forraine and domesticall enemies those that are neere and those that are farre off conspire against poore Jerusalem and bring her as you see upon her knees crying to heaven for revenge and by the spirit of prophesie promising Cyrus good successe in his enterprise against Babylon O daughter of Babylon that is City of Babylon by an elegant Hebraisme as tell the daughter of Sion that is tell Sion We reade of a twofold Babylon in sacred Scriptures of the one in the Old Testament the other in
be imagined either in fire or tongues the meaning therefore is no more than it abode or rested on them Thus have I peeled the barke let us now sucke the juice we have viewed the engraving on the outside of the cup let us now drinke the celestiall liquor and rellish the spirituall meaning couched under the letter The later Commentatours for the most part like Apothecaries boyes gather the broad leaves and white flowers that are found on the top of the water but the ancient like skilfull Indians dive deep to the bottome and from thence take up pearles 1. They observe that God useth signes to strike our senses thereby to stirre us up that we may give more heed to that which he then fore-warneth us of or at the present worketh in us Of signes in Scripture wee find three sorts 1. Irae of Gods anger as extraordinary earth-quakes fire and brimstone falling from heaven and other prodigious events 2. Potentiae of his power or rather omnipotency as miracles 3. Gratiae of grace and favour and these were 1. Significantia tantum such as signified or prefigured grace only as types 2. Obsignantia such as seale unto us and actually exhibit grace as sacraments The first sort are praeter naturam the second contra naturam the third supra naturam The signes here were transeunt only as the burning p Exod. 3.2 bush the q Mat. 3.16 dove in the likenesse whereof the spirit descended and therefore could not be sacraments in the proper acception of the word yet are they to be reduced to the third kind of signes signa gratiae Strange accidents for the most part fore-shew strange events and as many signes are miraculous so many miracles are significant In Sicilie the sea water began to sweeten a little before the deposing the cruell tyrant r Plin. nat hist l. 2. c. 97. Eo die quo pulsus est Dionysius regno mare dulcescebat in portu Dionysius in like manner Domitian dreamed that he saw a head of gold rise up upon the nape of his necke which fore-shewed that a better head of that Monarchy should succeed him Before the civill war between Caesar Pompey there were seen two ſ Plin. l. 2. nat hist c. 83. In agro Mutinensi duo montes inter se concurrebant crepitu maximo assultantes mountaines running one at the other in the field of Mutina and to shew that Caesar should have the better at the beginning of the warre there grew in the Capitoll on the sudden a laurell tree at the foot of his statue Before the destruction of Jerusalem there was seen a starre in the skie like t Joseph de bel Jud. l. 7. c. 12. Supra civitatem stetit sydus simile gladio per annum perseveravit a drawne sword perpendicularly hanging over the City And not to build upon the sandy foundation of humane Histories the sacred Story affordeth the like Before the true bread descended from heaven Manna rained from heaven upon the Israelites The water issuing out of the rocke that was strucke fore-shewed the fountaine for sinne and uncleannesse which was opened when the side of Christ the true rocke was struck and pierced by the speare of the souldier the drowning of Pharaoh and all his host in the red sea the destruction of the Divell and all our ghostly enemies in the bloud of our Redeemer the going backe of the Sunne in the diall of Ahaz the setting backe the finger in the diall of Hezekiahs life the appearing of a new starre to the Sages the rising of a new light in the world to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of the people Israel the eclipse of the Sunne at Christs death the obscuration of the divine majesty in the Sonne of God for a time the great draught of fish which Saint Peter tooke after Christs resurrection the happy successe of him and the rest of the Apostles who were fishers of men and caught many thousands at one draught in the net of the Gospel There fell scales from S. Pauls eyes before God drew from the eyes of his understanding the filme of ignorance and blind zeale and here before the Apostles were filled with the holy Ghost and spake with divers tongues the roome where they aboad was filled with a mighty rushing wind and there appeared in the aire fiery cloven tongues But what did the suddennesse of it betoken Suddenly The Fathers read three lectures upon this circumstance teaching that the motions and operations of the Spirit are 1. Speedy 2. Free 3. Come and gone in an instant The first is read us by St. Ambrose Spiritus nescit tarda molimina the Spirit is quicke in operation As the lightening passeth in an instant from East to West because it findeth no resistance so the worke of grace in the heart is suddenly done especially for the reason given by St. Austine Because no hard heart can repell or refuse it for the first worke of grace is to take away the stone out of the heart which being taken away it presently receiveth the Spirits impressions Who more averse from the Christian faith than St. Paul yet in an instant by a vision from heaven he is changed from persecuting Saul to preaching Paul At one Sermon of St. Peter many thousand soules were gained And in Dioclesians time after the edict set up in the market place for the utter extirpation of the Christian Religion the whole world on the sudden turned Christian When God knocketh by effectuall grace the iron gates of the hardest heart flie open on the sudden The second lesson is read by St. Gregorie That grace is free and not procured by any merit of ours Here was no matter of this winde nor naturall cause of this sound no more can there be assigned any meritorious cause in us of supernaturall grace Who can cause the sunne to rise or the wind to blow or the deaw to fall much lesse can any procure by his merits either the beames of the sunne of righteousnesse to shine or the gales of the spirit to blow or the deaw of grace to fall upon him Therefore the Synod at Diospolis condemnes them for Heretickes who affirmed Gratiam Dei secundum merita hominum dari that the grace of God is given according to mans merits And the Synod at Arausica pronounced an Anathema against such as teach that man beginneth and God perfects Whosoever say they teach that to him that asketh seeketh knocketh c. u Concil Arausic c. 6. Si quis sine gratiâ Dei credentibus volentibus pulsantibus c. grace is given and not that by the infusion and inspiration of the holy Spirit this is wrought in us that we beleeve aske or knocke gain-sayeth the Apostle demanding what hast thou that thou hast not received The third lesson is Origens That good motions are as suddenly gone as they come The Spouse in the Canticles on the sudden findeth
Joh. 6.10 11 12 13. multiplyed the loaves and fishes hee gave this sensible and undeniable proofe of the truth of this miracle both by saturitie in the stomacks of the people and by substantiall remnants thereof in the baskets When they were filled saith the Evangelist hee said to his disciples Gather the fragments that remaine that nothing be lost Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above to them that had eaten Cloven tongues The holy Ghost which now first appeared in the likenesse of tongues moved the tongues of all the Prophets that have spoken since the world began For the l 2 Pet. 1.21 prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Of all the parts of the body God especially requireth two the heart the tongue the heart whereby m Rom. 10.10 man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and the tongue whereby he maketh confession unto salvation the heart to love God the tongue to praise him Out of which consideration the Heathen as Plutarch observeth dedicated the Peach-tree to the Deitie because the fruit thereof resembleth the heart of man and the leafe his tongue And to teach us that the principall use of our tongue is to sound out the praises of our maker the Hebrew calleth the tongue Cobod that is glory as My heart was glad n Psal 16.9 30.13 57.9 Buxtorph Epit radic and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my tongue also Hebrew my glory also rejoyceth They who glorifie not God with their tongue may be truly said to have no tongue in the Hebrew language and verily they deserve no tongues who make them not silver trumpets to sound out the glory of God And if such forfeit their tongues how much more doe they who whet them against God and his truth whose mouths are full of cursing and bitternesse direfull imprecations and blasphemous oathes These have fierie tongues but not kindled from heaven but rather as S. o Chap. 3.6 James speaketh set on fire of hell and their tongues also are cloven by schisme faction and contention not as these in my text for a mysticall signification Cloven Some by cloven understand linguas bifidas two-forked tongues and they will have them to be an embleme of discretion and serpentine wisdome others linguas dissectas slit tongues like the tongues of such birds as are taught to speake and these conceive them to have beene an embleme of eloquence For such kinde of tongues p Hieroglyph l. 33. Pierius affirmeth that the Heathen offered in sacrifice to Mercurie their god of eloquence and they made them after a sort fierie by casting them into the fire ad expurgandas perperam dictorum labes to purge out the drosse of vain discourses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tongues parted at the top but joyned at the roote and they represented saith q In Act. Quia in proximo debebant dividi in omnes terras Gorrhan the dispersion of the Apostles which after ensued into all countries These tongues were not of fire but As it were of fire The matter of which these tongues consisted was not grosse and earthly but aeriall or rather heavenly like the fire which r Exod. 3.2 Moses saw in the bush for as that so this had the light but not the burning heat of fire It is not said of fires in the plurall but of fire in the singular number because as the silver trumpets were made all of one piece so these twelve tongues were made of one fierie matter to illustrate the diversitie of gifts proceeding from the same spirit And it sate Sitting in the proper sense is a bodily gesture and agreeth not to tongues or fire yet because it is a gesture of permanencie or continuance the word is generally used in the originall for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ſ Chrys in Act. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to abide or reside and so it may expresse unto us the continuance of these gifts of the Spirit in the Apostles and may put us in minde of our dutie which is to sit to our preaching and continue in the labours of the ministrie Give t 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15. attendance saith the Apostle to reading to exhortation to doctrine Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecie with the laying on of the hands of the presbyterie Meditate upon these things give thy selfe wholly to them that thy profiting may appeare to all Upon each of them Whether these tongues entred into the mouths of the Apostles as Amphilochius writeth of S. Basil or rested upon their heads as S. Cyril imagined whence some derive the custome of u Lorinus in Act. c. 2. imposition of hands upon the heads of those who are consecrated Bishops or ordained Priests it is not evident out of the text but this is certaine and evident that it sate upon each of them It sate not upon Peter onely but upon the rest as well as him S. Chrysostome saith upon the * Chrys in act c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hundred and twentie that were assembled in that upper roome those who say least affirme that it rested upon all the Apostles For howsoever the Papists take all occasions to advance S. Peter above the rest of the Apostles that the Roman See might be advanced through him as Hortensius the Oratour extolled eloquence to the skies that hee might bee lifted up thither with her yet the Scripture giveth him no preheminence here or elsewhere for Christ delivereth the keyes of heaven with the power of binding and loosing into all x Matt. 18.18 Whatsoever ye binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever yee loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven of their hands he breathes vpon them all John 20.21 22. and sendeth them with as full commission as his Father sent him All their names shine in the y Apoc. 21.14 foundation and gates of the heavenly Jerusalem and here in my text fierie cloven tongues sate upon each of them And there appeared unto them c. As in the Sacrament of Christs body so in these symbols of the spirit we are to consider two things 1. The signes or outward elements 2. The thing signified by them Of the signes yee have heard heretofore hold out I beseech you your religious attention to the remainder of the time and yee shall heare in briefe of the thing signified by them Miracles for the most part in holy Scripture are significant the cloudie pillar signified the obscure knowledge of Christ under the Law the pillar of fire the brighter knowledge of him in the Gospell the renting of the veile at the death of our Saviour the opening of the way to the Sanctum Sanctorum into which our high
for it But I never yet read or heard of any that sinned with a high hand but his owne heart smote him with feare For where sinne is of a deepe die not washed out with penitent teares there is guilt where guilt is there must needs be an expectation of condigne punishment and where this expectation is continuall feare The sinners conscience tells him that his fact is unjust and God is just and therefore in justice will give injustice his just reward either in this life or in that which is to come As Antipho through a disease in his eye thought that he had his owne Image alwayes before him so he that hath charged his conscience with any abominable or very foule and bloudy crime seeth alwayes before him the ougly image of his sinne and hideous shape of his deserved punishment Hae sunt impiis assiduae domesticaeque furiae m Cic pro Rose Amer. these are the ghosts that haunt wicked men these are the furies that follow them with torches and scorch them with flashes of hell fire these suffer them not non modo sine cura quiescere sed ne spirare quidem sine metu these make them flie when no man pursueth them cry when no man smiteth-them quake when no man threatneth them languish in a cold sweat when no fit is upon them n Juvenal sat 17. frigidamens est Criminibus tacitâ sudant praecordia culpâ When o Cic. ib. Sua quemque fraus suus terror maxime vexar suum quemque scâ—lus agitat suae malâ— cogitationes consâ—ientiaeque animi terrent they are alone and quiet out of all other noise they heare their sinne cry for vengeance At which huy and cry they are so startled that though many be sometimes free from the cause of their feare yet they are never free from feare of danger Every shadow they take for a man every man for a spie every spie for an accuser As in a fever the greater the fit is the more vehement the shaking so the more horrid the sinne is the more horrible the dread The sinne of the Jewes in giving consent to the saving of a murderer and the murther of the Saviour is beyond comparison and therefore their feare beyond measure As a child that hath committed some great fault and expecteth to bee fleaed for it cryeth to his master What shall I doe Or a passenger suddenly benighted when he perceiveth that he is riding downe a steepe rocke cryeth to all within hearing Oh what shall I doe Or a patient that is in a desperate case feeleth unsufferable paine and apprehendeth no meanes of ease cryeth to his physician What shall I doe Or a seafaring man in a storme in the night when he heareth the water roare and feareth every moment to be swallowed up in the sea cryeth to the Pilot What shall we doe In this perplexitie in this fright in this agonie are the Jewes in my text and from hence is this speech of distracted men What shall we doe This their feare ought to strike a terrour in us all who have our part in their guilt for we by our sinnes have and doe provoke the Father grieve the Spirit and even crucifie againe the Sonne how can wee then but feare when we heare Gods threats against sinne when we see daily his judgements upon sinne when wee remember our Saviours sufferings to satisfie Gods justice for sinne How dare we draw iniquity with cords and sinne with cart-ropes How dare we kicke against the pricks How dare we make a covenant with death and league with hell How dare wee hatch the cockatrice egge How dare wee lie at the mouth of the Lions den Let no man say in his heart when he plotteth wickednesse or committeth filthinesse in the darke no eye seeth mee and therefore what need I feare for hee that hath eyes like a flame of fire pierceth the thickest darknesse and discovereth every hidden roome in thy house and corner in thy heart hee seeth thee in secret and will reward thee openly if thou by smiting thine owne heart prevent not his blowes as the Jewes did in my text saying What shall we doe This interrogation riseth from three springs or heads 1 Feare of punishment 2 Sorrow for sinne 3 Hope of pardon A man in feare driven to an exigent being now at his wits end saith with himselfe What shall I doe likewise a man overwhelmed with cares and ready to be drowned in sorrow as hee is sinking cries Oh! what shall I doe or what will become of mee The fruit of sin is sweete in the mouth but bitter in the stomacke like poison given in a sugred cup it goeth downe sweetly but it kindleth a fire in the bowels it tickleth the heart in the beginning but it prickes it in the end it is pleasure in doing it is sorrow when it is done Saint Bernard speaketh feelingly Sinne after it is perpetrated leaves in the soule a sad farewell amara foeda vestigia where the divell hath set his foote there remaines after he is gone a foule print and a stinking sent Though the sinner use all meanes to dead the flesh of his heart though he make it as hard as flint or the nether milstone yet conscience writeth in it as with the point of a Diamond this sentence of the eternall Judge of quick and dead p Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth They that stabbed Caesar afterwards turned the point of the same dagger upon themselves so it is certaine that no man by sin grieveth Gods Spirit but he woundeth himselfe with sorrow If the sprayning a veine or dis-locating a bone or putting a member out of joynt or distempering the bloud be a pain to the body how much more is the distorting the will the disordering the affections the quenching the light of reason by sinne a torment to the soule There is no man that hath not lost his senses but hath sense of great losses what losse comparable to the losse of Gods favour and love the comforts of the spirit and the treasures of his grace Though a sinner should gaine the whole world by his sinne yet would hee be a loser for at the present he hazzardeth and without mature repentance he loseth his owne soule To speake nothing of losse of time by idlenesse of wit by drunkennesse of strength by incontinencie of health by intemperancie of estate by prodigality of credit and reputation by lewdnesse and dishonestie besides the guilt of sinne and losse by it there is great folly in it which vexeth the mind and discontenteth the spirit of a man his thoughts perpetually accusing him in this manner This thou mightest have done and here thou befooledst thy selfe and thou hast brought trouble and shame upon thee thou mayst thanke thy selfe for all the mischiefes that have befalne thee Yea but ye may object Are sinne and sorrow such individuall companions is there no sorrow but for sinne