the same end to make us magnifie God for his Wisdom Goodness and Justice Nay I add compare the Law of Works imposed upon Adam and the Law of Faith imposed upon Christians and both of them are possible to be done For the first man according to the integrity wherein he was created and by the virtue of supernatural Grace bestowed upon him might have obeyed the Commandement given if he had not turned to disobedience and by the Divine help of the same grace we to whom God hath preached the glad tidings of his Son are endewed with power to believe that we may be saved Now in a word let us lay the difference of these two one against another God gave the Law in Paradise as a King in his Justice but he gave the Gospel in Sion as a Father of Grace and Mercy according to that Law the reward had been given ex debito by debt and due say the Schoolmen but to him that believes the reward is given by mere Grace which excludes boasting He that disobey'd that Law was to look for the most strict severity of Justice so condemnation belongs likewise to the unbeliever according to Justice but perhaps it shall be temper'd with some moderation for Christs sake Finally this is the main disagreement the first Covenant made with Adam did exclude all hope of remission of sins but the second Covenant made in Christ runs in this tenour to them that live by Faith your sins shall be blotted out and your iniquities forgotten After you have understood the first point how there was a Law imposed upon Adam when he was created and endewed with original Justice you must now give ear to the next thing in order what heavy and astonishing matter is contained in that Law which was given by Moses to the Children of Israel and remember that I consider the Law deliver'd in the two Tables at Mount Sinai Seorsim and by it self separated from all the promises contained in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David These then are the remarkable differences between the Covenant written in Tables of stone and this Covenant of the New Testament in the Blood of Christ First God gave the Law at Sinai being wrath with our sins for whereas we had lost both the wisdom of our understanding and the loyal obedience of our will by the transgression of our first parent yet God impos'd his Commandement upon us and exacts such measure of holiness which we are not able to perform Therefore that Law was given in the barren Wilderness because it is not able to bring one soul unto God likewise it was delivered with signs full of wrath thunder and lightning and a dreadful noise to shew that God was full of indignation when he laid it upon us On the contrary he made the new Covenant of peace being reconciled to them that were lost or at least proffering reconciliation in his beloved Son Read this Doctrine Heb. xii from the 18. to the 24. verse Ye are not come to the Mount that might not be touched and that burnt with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which they that heard entreated they might hear it no more They could not endure that which was commanded And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake but ye are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God c. Wherefore the Gospel was presented with manifest tokens of love and benevolence Ecce Evangelizo behold I bring you good tidings 2. There 's a difference arising between the first Testament and the last from the several Mediators that came between God and the people Moses was a servant faithful in the Family and he was the Mediator of the Old Testament Christ is the Son and Heir of all he was the Mediator of the New The Law was given by Moses Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ 3. The old Covenant was ratified with the blood of Beasts but loe the New Covenant doth much surpass it which was ratified with the precious Blood of that immaculate Lamb which took away the sins of the world which is therefore called the Blood of the New Testament 4. The old Law in St. Paul's phrase contained poor and beggerly rudiments not able to bring to life It was a killing letter the ministry of death and condemnation it worketh wrath it entred that sin might abound it is like Hagar which gendreth children unto bondage Gal. iv 24. The Gospel is the power of salvation to every one that believeth a quickening Spirit it purgeth us from our sins it speaketh better things than the blood of Abel 5. That which Moses brought was an heavy burden which neither the Fathers nor the Children could bear but of the Gospel Christ saith his yoke is easie and his burden is light and in it you shall find rest for your souls Lastly the Old Testament endured unto Christ and no longer wherefore because it passed away it is called the Old the New Testament remaineth for ever so says St. Paul of our Blessed Saviour taking flesh who is not made after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life No passage or comparison can be made between them but the Law given at Mount Sinai will appear to be an harsh and most unwelcome injunction and that which doth clear us from the curse thereof is Evangelium the best tidings that ever arriv'd at the ear of man Hitherto I have consider'd the Old Testament in no respect but as it contains the killing letter of the Law but you must not mistake that the Holy Spirit hath interlaced many fast-holdings of Faith and promises Evangelical almost every where in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David Nay the Old Testament is rather Promise than Law yet it was fit the rigour of the Law should be repeated that it might more appear how necessary the promise of Grace was that we could not live without it and that every man being convicted in his conscience by the sentence of the Law we might more ardently fly to Grace for the end of the Moral Law is double to set us a rule what we should endeavour to do and to discover our own impotency unto us what we are not able to do that we may seek a remedy in the satisfaction of Christ But this I say that the darkness and obscurity of the Old Testament was enlightned with many excellent promises that the believing Israelites might be partakers of Faith and of everlasting life they had the same Gospel which we have the same Christ the same Faith the same Spirit sealing the truth of promise unto them Where is then the priviledge you will say that the tidings are better to us then unto them or far surpassing on our side every way Israel that believed in the promised seed was an heir but under age
and fell to them again seven times and no less and never made an end till his Servant told him he saw a little cloud rising out of the sea He that will give over for seven times seven repulses and will not be importunate with the Lord it were pity his desires should be successful Such constant such contrite devotion how can it choose but pierce the clouds The High Priest went once a year into the Holy of Holies with the perfume of Incense What is Incense but Prayer What is the Holy of Holies but the Kingdom of heaven O that you would believe which I am sure you ought to do that no part of Piety is so beneficial to the soul as Prayer You will remember my saying perhaps when you are upon the bed of your last sickness that Prayer is the Key to open the gate of heaven that Prayer is that address of the soul with which God appointed we should draw near unto him Now I know the most of you had rather spend your pains another way but at that last hour of anxiety unless God forsake you for your sins your heart will be intent upon nothing but upon zealous Prayer It is but a circumstance drawn into my Text from another Evangelist therefore I will pass it by with Bedes observation that Prayer is an active and a passive Benediction it draws God to us and by the same motion draws us to God as if a ship lay at Anchor tost upon the waves you may pluck the Cable with your hands and think to hale the ship to you but the Cable being of stronger tack will pluck you to the Ship The Prophet Isaiah in his Prayers was confident he could not be denied therefore he cries out O that thou wouldst burst the heavens O Lord and come down Our High-Priest Jesus offered the sweet odours of his Prayers unto his Father and loe the heavens were opened unto him The second consideration of the first Point is ended but I would you would diligently begin to practise it Thirdly I shall recite it before you how this Miracle fell out to glorifie Christ Therefore the Text says Loe the heavens were opened to him opened manifestly for the view of all beholders that were present but opened unto him because it was meant for his inauguration to honour his Mediatorship who came to redeem mankind from the curse of endless death and captivity Therefore imagine not as if the whole heavens did seem unveiled to discover all their glory but only so much of the Firmament did spangle like a Canopy advanced in state over our Saviours head as might betoken his Celestial Dignity The Father at this Baptism proclaimed him from above to be his well beloved Son and to make us understand that his love where it lights consists not in sweet words of affection only he did attire the Air in most Princely beauty to honour his well-beloved in whom he was well pleased Contrariwise at the Passion of Christ the Sun denied his light to the earth and the Regions above did never look so terrible as then with black clouds and darkness for he carried the malediction of us all upon him and it was a day of wrath and vengeance when God took punishment upon all iniquity We read of no Angel that was near to behold him at that dolorous hour upon the Cross belike it was a sight so ingrate and pitiful to behold that they withdrew themselves but at the triumph of his Baptism it is not mine but St. Austins opinion that the heavens which reach as far as the habitation of all blessed spirits were opened Vt in coelestibus esset miraculum de his quae agebantur in terris that the Angels might take this amiable spectacle into their view of those things that were done upon earth for would it not ravish the Powers of Heaven to peep into this Mystery that the Son of God should stoop so low in the River Jordan That a mortal man should hold up his hand above his head to baptize him When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from the Babylonish bondage the deliverance was so gladsom to the Land of Canaan to receive her ancient Inhabitants again that the Mountains skipped like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep When the Apostles prayed among them that were converted and had received the Holy Ghost the place was shaken where they were assembled as if the ground could have cleft for joy Acts iv 31. Then could the Heavens contain to burst themselves for joy when Christ was initiated into his Royal Office The Earth was obsequious to the honour of such as were earthly the Heavens did honour Christ at his Baptism for the second man was from the heaven heavenly Now I come to fill up the last thing considerable in this Miracle what joy and comfort the opening of the heavens affords to all them that believe in Jesus The heavens were opened the Dove descended a voice from above proclaimed the good will of the Father to rejoyce our hearts that the immortal Laver of Baptism is able to cast all those blessings upon us not that all those were not in Christ and due to him before the Sacrament For did he then begin to have the Spirit rest upon him who is of the same eternal substance with the Spirit Or was that the first time when the heavens were opened to him of whom it is said of old Heaven is my seat and Earth is my foot stool Nor did his Father then begin to call him Son for we read in the book of the Psalms Thou art my Son this day that is from all eternity I have begotten thee When God spake and answered our Saviours Prayer from Heaven Christ turns to the Jews saying This voice came not for me but for your sakes Joh. xii 30. Likewise he might expound upon the opening of the heaven this was not for me but for your sakes Restincta est aquis baptismi romphaea flammatilis quae claudit paradisum says Ratbertus A fiery flaming Sword debarr'd the way into Paradise by Gods appointment which flame is mystically quenched in the Baptism of our blessed Mediator and now as if the Angel had said I will stop the way into Paradise no more the Heavens were opened And if Marriage be called honourable inasmuch as he vouchsafed his Presence at a Marriage at Cana in Galilee then Baptism is most honourable and blessed because he was more than present at it He came in his own person from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized To what purpose should this Scripture say Loe or behold the heavens were opened Unless it were a continual opening from that time to this how could we behold it If open and immediately shut again it were not so proper to say unto us behold But if they always stand open by the meritorious Redemption of Christ then it is an apt Phrase to say Behold the Heavens were opened
spake upon all the Kingdoms of the World this could not be done in the twinkling of an eye But no man can read an Author but he will find many such hyperbolical speeches The Syrian Paraphrast translates St. Luke in brevissimo tempore Satan did it in a trice in a very short time beyond the imagination of man to think how it should be done so quickly that 's the meaning of the Holy Ghost It was his subtilty to hurry over things that Christ might have no time of deliberation but be surprized of a sudden before He could give a well meditated answer I know it may be descanted upon likewise that such things told upon relation could not move any mans appetite so well as to muster them before the eye Segnius irritant animos dimissa per aures c. therefore I say this was a mingle of tentation all that could be was shewed unto the eye and the rest was supplyed by narration Use which of these last opinions you will or if none do satisfie yet believe the Text to be true for that must be believ'd though the manner be unsearchable The Lord will come at the blast of a Trumpet and all flesh shall be gathered together in the twinkling of an eye and then all mysteries shall be opened to us among other things that are not yet discover'd how the Devil took our Saviour up into an exceeding high Mountain and shew'd him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them in the twinkling of an eye THE FIFTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 9. And saith unto him All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me BErnard meditates upon our Saviours suffering on the Cross that there were tria pungentia three sharp pointed Instruments that ran into his flesh But the first more lightly The second much more sensibly And the last made a further entrance into his body than all the rest The thorns platted on his head raced the skin the Nails went through his hands and feet But the Speare made a ruder and a deeper wound through his side into his very heart So these three Tentations of the Devil succeed one another like those tria pungentia every one had a sharper point and a greater sting to do mischief than the other but it was not possible they should stick like thorns and nails in the Son of God The tentation to make stones of bread was an advice to make bad provision for the sustenance of this life there was Spina necessitatis Satan would have prickt Christ on with the thorns of want and necessity The tentation to cast himself down from the top of the Temple was to draw him to a violent and a presumptuous death as bad as that nail if he could have fastned it which Jael struck into the head of Sisera The third tentation is a mash of all the venom which the Devil had left Peccata peccatis producta here are sins hanging upon sins one at the end of another to make up the length of a Spear In a word here is a brood of sins in a nest four apparently without all subdivisions First Peccatum habendi he offers him the sin of Covetousness to give him all the Possessions of the world Secondly Peccatum regnandi he would rub Ambition upon him and put into his hands all the Kingdoms and Power of the world Thirdly Peccatum malè credendi he would seduce him to believe that all these things which God alone brings forth from his treasure were his to dispose Fourthly Peccatum turpiter adorandi he durst ask that which is so horrid that it is able to curdle a mans bloud to repeat it that Christ would fall down and worship him Aquinas builds the gradation of these three Tentations on this sort First The evil Spirit demanded no more of Christ Quà m quod appetunt quantumcunque veri spirituales which the holiest men in the world and most endowed with the Spirit must use but to refresh and feed his body Secondly He required that which holy men ought not to do yet it is incident through frailty now and then for holy men to do it to jump down from a Pinacle out of ostentation and to be gazed upon for vain glory But he climbs up in the third tentation to such a motion as never any spiritual and holy man can commit to be bribed with wealth and honour to forsake the Lord and to adore his foulest enemy Therefore in both the former temptations he began with this preface If thou be the Son of God but he leaves out those words when he makes this Proposition in my Text for the Son of God would never commit such black Idolatry though he could give more than all yet he laies all at the stake for this venture All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Though Satans Kingdom be not divided yet his Tentations may But first I will read you my Text as St. Luke hath enlarged it that we may miss nothing which the Spirit of God hath uttered upon these words Thus that Evangelist Chap. iv 6. All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine Now I suppose we may charge these particulars upon the Text made up out of both the Evangelists First Wherein the enticement of this tentation consists why in giving in most liberal remuneration pretended Dabo I will give Secondly What and how much he will give and that is twofold As a Mammonist of Wealth he will he says put into his hands all the Riches and Possessions that the eye can see All these things will I give thee And as a Lucifer of pride he tells him that he will give him title to all the honours of the world all this power will I give thee and the glory of them Thirdly he shews Christ his evidences Quo jure by what right and authority he can make over all this unto him In these words For that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Fourthly and lastly Every Bait hath his Hook under it So this promise is laid upon a most impious condition if Christ will fall down and worship him Set your minds now upon these things and I will deliver them in their order Every tentation had some clawing provocation in it peculiar to it self now the sharpness and dangerousness of this tentation is in giving that is the first Point Dabo tibi I will give thee that is a speeding word we must confess it to the shame of the world Every one is a friend to him that bringeth gifts says Solomon All Satyrical Invectives Fables or Morals Writings of every cut and fashion are full of this that these things which Satan requires are commonly to be bought Worship Homage and what you
Child of wrath and those laudable actions were but sins or imperfections with a good gloss Will you say they desire and pray for the holy Spirit and therefore this illumination comes not suddenly but with invitation O but says the Arausican Council which handled this Point of the grace of God more copiously and Orthodoxly than ever any Council did the utterance nay the very thought of every good Prayer it is instilled by the divine irradiation of Gods help and the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Prayer and if any man say that the grace of God is bestowed upon our Prayer and Invocation and that grace did not first enable us to make that Prayer he contradicts the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostle Paul who both have these same words I am sought of them that asked not for me I am found of them that sought me not Thus that Council whereby you hear that we whose nature is rank corruption do not prepare and dispose the way to attract the blessing of heaven upon us by little and little upon congruity of Gods favour it comes suddenly and unawares when we least deserve it It must not be let alone without this addition to it which is S. Ambrose his descant on it Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia the spirit of purity and renovation is quick and sudden in the work of conversion he doth not linger and mature his good effects by soft leisure he doth not creep like a snail or as a Father of our own Church says like a Serpent Serpentis est repere Commonly motions that come from the old Serpent the Devil creep upon us and men grow bold in iniquity by degrees Nemo repentè fit pessimus was the old Proverb but where the Lord loveth the man whom he chooseth he doth in an instant take away his stony heart and give him an heart of flesh And as the Resurrection of the dead shall be in an instant so in an instant he translates him from death to life It is done with such dispatch and celerity that the gift of Prophesie nay of Sanctification is called but the touch of the lips Says the Angel to Isaiah upon the living coal which he brought from the Altar This hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Isa vi 7. The loyal Israelites that feared God and the King are called a band of men whose hearts God had touched 1 Sam. x. 26. O admirable workman says Gregory Mox ut tetigeret mentem docet solùmque tetigisse est docuisse He doth but touch and teach and the mind is reformed in a moment as soon as ever the finger of his Spirit is laid upon it An Apostolical Spirit came suddenly upon St. Matthew penitent restitution upon Zaccheus confession and grace upon the Thief on the Cross The Eunuch made haste to believe and as soon as he believed he would be baptized of Philip at the next water he came to and go no further Men must not neglect present motions of grace though suddenly rising in them Now the Lord moves my heart and now at the first touch I will obey the Spirit This is a brave and a pious resolution But if you let the grace of God knock at door once and twice and do not open it is to be feared that you will grow deaf after a while and never hear it Modo modò non habebant modum Anon and to morrow and hereafter at more leisure and as Festus said to Paul Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee these are not words of good manners to so great a King as the King of heaven Can Impenitancy or continuance in evil be good at any time Then break it off at the first pang and throw that the Conscience suffers for it The Spirit is a sudden wind he deceives his own soul that continues in a long consumption of any sin and thinks to be helpt out of it by a lingring remedy The description of the suddenness hath not been unuseful you see and we shall collect as much from that which follows that it was Flatus veniens vehemens a rushing mighty wind Methinks I see the Spirit of God set out here in his manifold strength and efficacy Is there any thing in it self so thin and poor as a puff of Air It is neither Iron nor Brass nor Bones and yet what strange effects it works Turns up Oaks and Cedars by the roots breaks the Ships of the Sea in pieces casts down Bulwarks and Fortresses so Epiphanius received it from some good hand that God overthrew the Tower of Babel with a violent wind So the principles of the Spirit seem to be very mean and foolishness to flesh and bloud the Instruments in which it wrought homely illiterate Fishermen yet the learning of five Synagogues putting their wits together was not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which Stephen spake Acts vi 10. It brings down strong Holds and high Imaginations it brings into Captivity every exalting thought to the obedience of Christ Wisdom Learning Might Majesty all have stoopt before it As the Scripture says often that the Spirit came mightily upon Samson and then his Foes were sure to fall before him so it rusheth upon some holy men with a gallant heroick zeal and then all the subtilties of Satan are not able to make a part against it No Fear can dismay them no Persecution can make them hide their head no Favour or Reward make them swerve from a good conscience no Discipline so strict that they will not undertake for the love of Christ The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Mat. xi 12. The Kingdom of heaven was among the Jews but Rapuit regnum coelorum Centurio The Centurion did as it were invade it and take it from them for upon his confession our Saviour said I have not found so great faith no not in Israel Neither is it only expedient to make it manifest that the Spirit is strong and mighty like a stiff vehement wind in actu exercito in the power of it which the Saints of God have to exercise to others but also in actu primo informante when it enters into the heart of them whom God converts it comes with a mighty force and will not be gainsaid with the opposition of our rebellious nature Neque resistere ultra potest cui velle resistere sublatum est says a Reverend Father of our own Church that is neither shall our vicious nature resist the mighty working of Gods converting grace since the first thing that such grace works is to conquer our perverseness in resisting I do not say but our will hath always a liberty and indifferency in it to do or not do To chuse or refuse but the act to resist is suspended for that time by the grace of God and though
be to God on high because he hath made peace on earth Lord let me not be at war with my own heart though all the world should defie me and set themselves against me As a continual dripping of humors upon the lungs consumes the body so a continual disquieting of mind as if viols of anger from heaven were ready to be poured upon it breeds such an anxiety in the whole man that he will wish his whole substance were dissolved into nothing O thrice happy when God sends that serenity of favour into our thoughts and cogitations to make us truly say with David Turn again unto thy rest O my soul Psal cxvi 7. This is that peace which the world cannot give This is St. Paul's confidence against all opposers Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that justifieth When the Wise men askt Where is he that is born King of the Jews Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him So sore troubled that he would not spare poor inoffensive babes who could not offend him no not his own babes as some say who were the pillars of his family when he thrust his sword into them he digged into his own bowels No man is able to express what a discomfortable mutiny this wretch had within himself No plague like a wounded disturbed spirit whereas old Simeon that saw death at the door that felt one foot in the Grave was exhilerated for all that through the joy which he had in Christ and warbled that Swan-like Dirge over his own Grave Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Wherefore if there be any of you which have a conscience sorely wounded with horror and even tempted to despair which God forbid chide it with David out of that dreadful moode Why art thou so sad O my soul and why art thou so disquieted within me Hath not Christ said there is peace between God and thee and dost thou say there is enmity foolish heart shall I not rather believe the tidings which an Angel brings than that which thou dost suggest and doth not he say Peace on earth Whosoever will not be cheared up will not be comforted will not be established with hope from this sweet proclamation which the Ministers of Heaven sang unto the Shepherds it had been better for him that he had never been born nay I speak it with reverence to God and condemnation to such a one it had been better for him that Christ had never been born because he receives not the Son of God into his heart neither believes in his Redemption Many flagitious sins do make men as execrable before God as the devil himself but he that despairs of Gods mercies as if Christ would not keep his Covenant of peace with him I may truly pronounce it against him that he is even possessed with a devil O cast forth that evil Spirit and be resolved the Lord would never have sent his Angel to sing the Hymn of peace unto men but to revive our souls and to raise them up from dust and despair because he is gracious and favourable to all penitent sinners And thus you have heard that upon the occasion of this blessed Nativity of Christs the Angels have congratulated both heaven and earth as David foretold it Psal xcvi 11. Let the heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad The congratulation to men on earth hath been unfolded in two members that there is peace above us which passeth all understanding and peace within us such as the world cannot give Thirdly It follows they sing and rejoyce for our sakes that there is peace without us and on every side a good way laid open to take away all Schisms strifes divisions debates and as Solomon says in his mystical Song the voice of the Turtle is heard in our land What a hurly burly was in the world before Christ made his Church one body out of all Languages and Nations They that professed the Law of Moses you know had no communication with those millions of millions that knew no Schoolmaster to teach them but the law of nature Among those few that were zealous of the Law the Jew forsook them of Israel of the ten Tribes for Rebels and Idolaters Among the Jews the Pharisee condemned the Sadducce for an Heretick Then the Samaritan had an antipathy both against Jew and Israelite and all these accounted of the Gentiles no other ways than as bond-slaves of the Devil Here was nothing but hate and defiance between one Sect and another over all the world until Christ broke down the wall of separation made of two one invited them all to embrace and to greet one another with an holy kiss Thus the Prophet Isaiah upon it Chap. xix 23. in his stately but dark eloquence In that day shall there be a high-way out of Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria and in that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria that is there shall be traffique and friendship and conversation together from one Nation to another over all the earth And indeed National feuds are the more odious and unchristian by how much Christ hath called all people to the sprinkling of the same water and to alike participation of his Body and Blood at the same table And it was well apprehended of one that God hath given unto men more excellent gifts in the skill of Navigation since his Son is born than ever they had before that he might shew the way how all the Kingdoms of the earth should be sociable together for Christ hath breathed his peace upon all the Kingdoms of the world Then I descend from generals to specials The Angels did not only see that our Saviour had built a wall of Charity as it were about the whole earth and made it one but that his Gospel is the love knot and band of agreement between one member and another in all particular persons It turns the hearts of the Fathers unto the Children and of the Children unto the Fathers it makes peace conjugal between man and wife for Marriage is a Mystery of Christ and his Church and the instance which the Apostle lays before us is how Christ loved his Church and laid down his life for it It attones variances between Neighbour and Neighbour for it calls upon us to forgive and put up injuries it non-suits many actions of trespass between man and man with St. Pauls sweet proposition to the Corinthians Why do ye not rather suffer wrong That jangling fellow in the Gospel that came to Jesus to give him authority for his contention Dic fratri ut mecum dividat Master bid my brother that he divide the inheritance with me our Lord put him off and would hear of no division Such motions did jar in the ear of him that was the God of reconciliation The Law of Moses either was or did seem to be vindicative an eye for an eye
the deliverance of Israel when he was born that was the Redeemer of all deliverers This is that emplaister of which Isaiah Prophesied that it should lenifie all their sores Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith our God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned Isa xl 1. And again the Lord shall comfort Zion he will comfort all her wast places he will make her Wilderness like Eden and her Desart like the Garden of the Lord joy and gladness shall be found therein thanksgiving and the voice of melody Isa li. 3. what a quick-sighted faith had Simeon that he could see so far into Christ upon what part of him did he cast his eye that he could find such a Champion in a little Infant wrapt in swadling clothes O what an heavenly light there shines before faith that the old man could espy in this little Bethlehemite that he should turn their captivity like the rivers in the South there was nothing to behold externally in Christ but contempt and weakness and poverty in those days who will distrust his protection now when there is nothing to be viewed about him but Power and Fortitude and Majesty O that men should be afraid to perish even in the presence nay even in the hand of such a Saviour He that is yet to seek for the peace of joy though death were at the door let him consume in his own infidelity Fourthly He had purchas'd peace before his departure because he had as much as could be askt his heart was satiated wirh good things a very greedy avarice had been in him if he could have askt any more And so Theophylact glosseth very judiciously upon my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that hath gained the sum and substance of all his hopes and petitions he may justly say that he can bid adieu to this world in peace So God promised to Abraham Gen. xv 15. thou shalt be buried in a good old age and thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace that is thy desire shall be filled brim full and measure running over nothing that thou canst ask in Faith but I will give it thee So Simeon possessed the complement of all felicity he had so much that he could desire no more for he that hath given us his Son will he not with him likewise giue us all things And take this to your use from hence that a wishing heart which is ever thirsting for more strugling for some addition and yet some more to that cannot be said to be in peace no more than an Hydropical man that thirsts for drink continually can be said to be in health Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops the satiating of one concupiscence begets another and that 's like a mill-horse in a circle that you can never say he is at his journeys end Therefore if you mean to be at ease and not to be wrackt with care let to morrow care for it self Fifthly And so to give this point its last allowance Origen and Irenaeus interpret my Text of that peace which Christ came to make between God and man St. Paul says that when we were darkened in our understanding walking in the lust of our own mind we were enemies with God and alas we are sure to come by the worst of that enmity for who is able to sustain his displeasure and it was no petty enmity but God did abhor us and provide all manner of scourges to plague us both in this world and in that which is to come No creatures which are noted for antipathies do shun one another at more distance than God doth abhor an impure soul and they are not sacrifices of Beasts that could make an attonement for us they were not Angels that could deprecate the Divine wrath and reconcile us they were glad to bring the tidings that an Eternal Son of an Eternal Father had done that good office for us Glory be to God on high and in earth peace it could never be well sung but at this Incarnation and therefore it could never be well said but at his Incarnation Lord now lettest thou thy servant c. You have heard of the supplicant and of his petition and the time which he sets and his good preparation of peace to go from hence and to be with the Lord. After this it is seasonable to speak of the assurance in which he trusted that God would grant him his desire for he askt nothing extravagantly and without warrant but it was secundum verbum tuum according to thy word and that word upon which he might stedfastly build is ver 26. it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death till he had seen the Lord's Christ revealed unto him But perhaps you will say why might it not be his own imagination that deluded him and no revelation from God We indeed that walk in the ordinary course of Grace may be cozened like Enthusiasts and think that our own doating fancies are inspirations from Heaven But Prophets that had extraordinary illuminations were able to distinguish between brain-sick notions and the word of God when it spake within them And Simeon you will mark it when I tell it you had a double and a double portion of the Spirit In the last days says Joel Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions These are different graces for several persons only in this Prophet they concurr'd both He had the old mans dream to reveal unto him that he should not die till Christ was manifested and he had the young mans vision to accomplish his happiness His eyes did see his salvation No doubt then he had sufficient means to prove in himself that it was the word of God that is the word of the Holy Ghost from whom he received that Oracle and hence St. Athanasius doth learnedly prove the divinity of the Holy Ghost And the plenty of this point will contribute this especially unto us that it is presumption to expect any thing to be granted us without warrant and promise received from the word of God That 's the Organ or Tongue by which the Holy Ghost speaks with us and he that puts himself upon any hazardous action without encouragement from it to bring him off with safety he makes a snare to bring himself to destruction Satan durst not be so impudent to tempt our Saviour to fall down from a pinacle of the Temple without pretence of authority from the Psalm that He shall give his Angels charge over thee and therefore we justly exclaim against Monastical Vows of perpetual Chastity and we see how frequently they apostate from their Vow and wallow in all lust and uncleanness because it is no where written if any one will take this yoke upon him I will assist him and make it light It is a miserable thing to have no other staff to lean upon then
hath redeemed his people Take the whole verse now together which is the exordium of this Prophetical Song and it contains two parts the magnifying of the divine goodness and the reason rendred why it was fit to break out into that devotion In the first here is the comprehension of all praise in this word blessed Secondly the comprehension of the divine titles the Lord God of Israel The next general member why this praise is given is drawn from two acts that God hath visited and that he hath redeemed And the Object of both those acts is it which makes it praise-worthy and thanks worth he hath visited his People First of all here is a full ascribing of all glory to God in this word blessed O how Zachary did meditate this all the while he was dumb O how much he desired all the while his utterance was stopt to bring forth these good words to the honour of his Maker He kept silence a long time from this heavenly Canticle but it was pain and grief unto him Now his mouth was opened with the key of the Holy Spirit to discourse of the wonderful works of God and it was a blessed thing that as soon as he was able to talk this was the first language that flowed from him Blessed be the Lord. Two things are the grace and dignity of our Elocutions Deum laudare verum dicere to praise the great Majesty of Heaven and to tell the truth upon Earth but why do I divide them two which will most properly fall into one For no truth so clear and evident as that the name of Christ is blessed for evermore They that speak the truth of him must speak well of him and whosoever blasphemes his honour is a Liar and an Antichrist As Hezekiah paid the Tribute which Sennacherib imposed upon him out of the Treasure of the house of the Lord and out of the Gold which over-laid the doors of the Temple 2 Kings xviii 16. so the praise of God is the chief treasure of our heart the chief thing that belongs to this holy place the very Gold of the Temple therefore when we magnifie his name we pay him Tribute out of the best thing which the Church can afford Neither is there any good business of Religion whereof we may be so confident that we are in a right course and do not swerve Our Belief may be grounded upon strong errors as it is among Hereticks Our Zeal may be transported into Faction as it is among Schismaticks Our Repentance may be slight and superficial as it is among Hypocrites We may be too forward in our Hope having no firm assurance from the fruits of a good Conscience Too free of our Charity when we do not distinguish who are fit to receive it Too prodigal of our Commendations when we do not note mens Actions whether they deserve it but be as copious as you will in magnifying your Creator and Redeemer and you are certain the work is very good most certain that you cannot tread awry Yet Satan and our own negligence are able to frame an objection against any truth which is most demonstrative What will our sluggish spirit say The honour of God doth not depend upon the fame of this World His glory cannot be raised higher than it is by our Jubilees and Songs or by our Instruments of Musick no though we could praise him as loud as claps of Thunder But for all this will you be content to glorifie him if it will bring your self to honour though it be no amplification to the Majesty of God Agreed then And first it is an high advancement that he will permit us to do him that homage though we should have no recompence for our labour it is abundantly rewarded that he will give us leave to exalt him he hath not dealt so with all people Unto the ungodly said God Why dost thou take my name within thy lips As it is an honour to the Magistrate that God hath committed the Sword of Justice to their power so it is an honour to every Christian that he hath permitted unto us to talk of his honour it is an Angels life continually to bless him and sound forth his glory Therefore that parcel of the Psalm may look this way let the praise of God be in their mouth and a two edged Sword in their hand the one is as great a priviledge belonging to us as the other to a Magistrate Secondly St. Peter grants it generally to all godly people Yè are an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices to God 1 Pet. ii 5. What is the spiritual Sacrifice but Praise and Thanksgiving Therefore let us offer up the sacrifice of praise sweetly and devoutly and all Christians shall become Priests in that respect and the holy portion of God and having offered up this visible sacrifice of praise we our selves in our hearts shall become the invisible sacrifice of God and bring oblation upon oblation unto the Altar it is nothing worth unless your own soul be the principal Oblation I press this the rather because it is so ill forgotten in the Roman Missal For they that do so often trouble your ears with their sacrifice and their Altar have not one word in their Missal that we or our souls should be a reasonable holy and living sacrifice to God Thirdly In giving glory to the Lamb and to him that sits upon the Throne we do not give but receive for no man can ascribe much praise to God but out of a large capacity of faith no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost no man can speak of the King of Kings according to his due excellency but it will procreate devotion and reverence therefore though Gods honour be in the same state that it was before yet your soul is in better state than it was before by praise and glorification Fourthly We do all agree with St. Paul that Charity is greater than the two other Theological Vertues greater than Faith that believeth all mysteries greater than Hope that expecteth all Promises and therefore greater because it shall abide with us in the Kingdom of Heaven when the other two shall vanish away So to laud and magnifie our Omnipotent Creator is far above all other acts of Religion because nothing else shall abide with us when we see God face to face There shall be no confession of Christ our Mediator for none shall deny him there shall be no fasting for man shall eat Angels food and have no need of nourishment no Alms shall be given for it is life without want and scarcity no Prayer for forgiveness of sins no hearing of the Word no sufferance of the Cross no intercession for them that suffer but the praise of God continueth and supplieth all the rest uncessantly we shall cry out Holy holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is and is to come Therefore it is called blessing of God because it
Ordination shall be necessary for us for nothing is necessary in it self but as the Lord hath decreed and made it so Wherefore this is my first Proposition That the use of Baptism is simply necessary to a true Church and where it is not in use as among Jews and Mahometans that alone is enough to defie them that they are not members of that body whereof Christ is the head It is not to be opposed that the due administration of the Sacraments is an inseparable note of the Church For the Church being an outward company of Professors that depend upon the grace of God How can it outwardly be discerned that we depend upon him unless we accustom our selves to the outward means that seal and assure his blessings unto us Touching Baptism therefore it is necessary to a company of Believers who make a Church it is so necessary that they could give no evident token of their Christianity to men if that mark of our initiation into the visible Church were omitted Though Baptism as I will shew instantly is not simply necessary for the invisible incorporation of Infants in to Christ yet it is certain that the sprinkling of water gives them that visible incition whereby they are ingrafted into him That must be our ordinary practice or else we are none of his flock he is none of our Shepherd In the description of Paradise we read of two things that were in it Pleasant Rivers of waters and Trees which did abound with fruit for sustenance So the Church in whose blessings Paradise is restored unto us hath spiritual sustenance for life in the Lords Supper and water of Regeneration in the other Sacrament Without these two it is no more it self and therefore the Church of God in general may say I have need to be baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a necessity laid upon me My next Proposition consists of these terms Suppose that there are some grown to years of knowledge able to discern between good and evil who from their birth were Paynims Mahometans altogether ignorant in the truth of Salvation but at last the light of heaven hath shined upon them and by the preaching of the Word hath wrought upon their hearts to believe such Converts must desire to be wash'd in the Sacrament of water and confess that they have need and that they would be baptized First I say they must desire it cordially and with all the affection of their mind If it be not the only Lesson of the Gospel yet I am sure it is the main drift of Christ and his Apostles to teach all men to attain to Salvation by humility Therefore to pluck down our high imaginations see the admirable wisdom of Gods Dispensations he hath made man subject to those creatures which are much beneath himself that they should be the sanctified instruments to make him partaker of everlasting life Naaman the Syrian thought great scorn at first to make use of an whole River to recover his Leprosie Now leâ—t any man should have such insolent thoughts that he would not be beholding to small things for his salvation they that will be heirs of heaven must come to a Font and be glad of a little sprinkling in token that Christs bloud will cleanse them from their sins They must kneel and fall down likewise at Gods Table to pick up the crumbs and to taste a little of his banquet of bread and wine And he that despiseth these Elements as poor rubbish for so great a purpose he despiseth God himself and his heart is not right with the Lord. It is an essential propriety of faith to long for the Sacraments even as the Hart thirsteth after the Rivers of waters And he that sets those Mysteries at a low price as if it were not material to his souls benefit whether he used them or no the Devil hath pust him up to destroy him he wants the true life of Faith and is given over to the captivity of Satan I say no more than God hath denounced against the uncircumcised Gen. xvii 13. My Covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting Covenant the uncircumcised man-child shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant Beloved if an Israelites child died before the eighth day which the Lord appointed for Circumcision that did not offend the Lord neither was the child accounted out of the Covenant but if an Israelite of ripe years or a stranger within his gates did despise Circumcision that soul was cut off in the anger of the Lord. My third Proposition touching Converts of ripe age is this that if they desired Baptism and were prevented by the suddenness of death the Lord will accept the desire of their Faith and their soul shall not suffer for the want of Baptism Two Texts in the New Testament imply a strict command that we must all be baptized if we desire to be entred into the Covenant of grace yet I will draw from them that they are not altogether without limits and mitigation Mar. xvi 16. They are our Saviours words He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark with what wariness the words are repeated not thus he that is not baptized shall perish only the other member is taken into the threatning He that believeth not shall be damned To be an unbeliever to avoid the Sacrament out of disdain and not to be prevented by necessity that is the crime which according to our Saviours words shall not be unrevenged Hear in another place what he presseth more strictly upon Nicodemus Joh. iii. 5. Vnless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Here is no time limited but it is spoken as if instantly the institution of Baptism were in force and that from thenceforth no man could plead his right to the Kingdom of heaven without it Yet we know the soonest that it took place was not till anon after his Resurrection when the Disciples had the word given Go and baptize all Nations c. For as he said elsewhere Joh. vi 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud ye have no life in you the words run in the Present tense yet he did not perfectly declare what he meant nor put in force till he eat his last Supper with his Disciples So it appears that Text before cited Vnless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit is not without limitation and the next verse clears the matter on this sort That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit where we see the Spirit alone is able to regenerate a man and not always necessarily both water and the Spirit Bernard in his 77 Epistle to Hugo writes more diligently I think than any before him in this argument He proves from the confession of the
is but dust and ashes Christ did empty himself of his glory and fulfilled all the righteousness of humility The fifth word of consideration is the plurality of persons spoken of in the Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness It was fit indeed for our Lord Jesus to perform all obedience to the Law in every tittle and minim that is commanded because it lay upon his person to undo the curse of the Law Surely Johns name must stand for a cipher in that work for Christ alone trod the Wine-press of his Fathers wrath neither John nor any of the Saints were made co-partner with him in our redemption By his one Oblation of himself once offered he made a full perfect sufficient Sacrifice and Oblation for the sins of the world What means this saying therefore in the Plural Thus it behoveth us Take again what the Spirit hath supplied for exposition of this word in divers manners One way it is satisfied that Christ according to that excellent power which is in him speaks of himself regally as of many Joh. iii. 11. We speak that we know and we testifie what we have seen and yet Christ only spake to Nicodemus Again it is a sweet consolation that after the taking of any Sacrament we are no more one and one and so to be reckoned single by our selves but Baptism and the Lords Supper are the very bonds of perfection and make us all members of one mystical body the Scripture is admirably accurate in this particular as 1 Cor. xii 13. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one spirit Here it appears that we are become one spirit by drinking one cup of the Lord and one holy lump because we are sprinkled with one spirit in the water in the name of the Lord so our Saviour phraseth the sentence of my Text according to this mystical union Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness One other Paraphrase is very plain and literal and perhaps therefore the more natural John was loth to put his hand unto the water to cast it upon the head of Christ his Master rectifies his error and tells him it must be done it is expedient for both Obedience is required in the Servant humility in the Lord thus it behoveth us on both sides to fulfil all righteousness Take the last conjecture of the word with you and as I approve it the most useful Christ was made righteousness and sanctification for us by shedding his innocent bloud which is testified in the water of this Sacrament He alone is the meritorious cause of our Salvation But the application of this justice is not to be expected to fall upon our heads without ordinary means and such instruments as God hath appointed Ye are Gods Husbandry says St. Paul to them of Corinth but we are labourers together with God 1 Cor. iii. 9. He regenerates by his word which is committed to the lips of sinful men he cleanseth and sanctifieth his Church by the washing of water whereof we are made dispensers therefore our Saviour hath joyned this Prophet to himself not by way of merit God forbid but by way of instrument and ministry in the work of our redemption thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness Now I shall end this Text in a word that Christ did fulfil all righteousness at this time not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a strict necessary rigour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for decency sake because it did become him Thus it becometh us c. Many abasements our Saviour did endure and became obedient in many parts of humility which could not be exacted at his hands in strict justice as he took our nature upon him but they were certain voluntary strains of lowliness which were full measure pressed down and running over As for his dolourous Passion of the Cross that could not be escaped it was the cup which he must drink to satisfie for the sins of the world therefore he preacht to his Disciples in this unavoidable expression Nonne oportuit c. Ought not Christ to have suffered and thus to enter into his glory But to stoop like one of the multitude to the Baptism of John was not of absolute necessity but a decency which did well befit his humiliation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus it becometh us c. A comliness in every one is to be observed according to his Christian calling and decency though necessity were set apart will prevail much with tractable and honest dispositions Some will bend to nothing but to that which is clearly exprest in so many words out of the sacred Text. But what if decorum require it to be done though it be not in specialty contained in Scripture but in general Maxims why surely then it cannot be neglected if we will offer up to God a perfect Sacrifice Whatsoever is fitting for an outward sanctification of a sincere heart you cannot omit it without maiming that ingenuous comliness which is required at our hands This is not my own fancy for I observe it frequently in St. Paul that he argues from that which becometh a Christian 1 Cor. xi 13. Judge in your selves is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered 1 Tim. ii 10. Let the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety not with broidered hair But as becometh women professing godliness Eph. v. 3. Fornication uncleanness let it not once be named among you as becometh Saints Where is that wrangling excuse now for all your pride and bravery Will you be stiff in your opinion that you may paint and powder and crisp and clip hair and use all those Island dog tricks about your head because the Bible doth in no place by name condemn these things Beloved if the Spirit of God had penn'd a thousand Bibles more they could not have contain'd the Catalogue of all those Peacock fashions into which you transform your selves from time to time therefore one rule stands for all that you must do as becometh women professing godliness and remember that there is a decency to be attended in Christianity I will not say to you as St. Paul did to the women of Corinth Judge in your selves if this be comly We should have wise reformation for all faults if you were made the judges who are quite addicted to vanities Who shall tell you then what is decent for Christians Will you rather believe the handmaid that attires you Or the Waiting-woman that hath wages to flatter you Or those Gallants that call themselves your servants and would have you proud that they may idolize you Will you believe these rather than the Priest of God whose soul must answer for every word he teacheth you Learn from him what it is that becometh you to fulfil righteousness Much might be enforced from hence likewise to commend unto you all the Ceremonies so exactly
appointed by the best of Reformed Churches I mean this of England God be glorified for his grace towards us We do not urge them so peremptorily as to say thus it is necessary to be a Christian but thus it becometh us to serve the Lord and that which is decent in Gods house I say again will ever prevail with tractable and godly dispositions You cannot hear or meditate too much upon that of St. Paul Phil. iv 8. Whatsoever things are just or venerable whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report and let me add whatsoever things become us these things do and the God of peace shall be with you Amen THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 15 16. Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water AT these words John Baptist hath changed his mind you may perceive but not his humility It was his perswasion that it could not behove him to minister the Sacrament to his Saviour But since Christ would have his hand to do that duty he puts himself upon the office and performs it Whether did he refuse at first or come on at last with greater humility Nay the further we go in the actions of the Saints of God they will manifest unto us that they are better and better For is it not more lowliness to obey when he was taught a reason for it than to tremble and to start back at the presence of Christ because he was confounded at his coming to Baptism and was not taught a reason Every vertue is so much the better rooted when it knows the true cause of its own rectitude In this John said very well at verse 14. which I have handled lately I have need to be baptized of thee Though he were a most bright vessel of honour yet he did feel a defect in himself how far he wanted the grace of God to open his eyes a little clearer and his desire was secretly fulfilled the spirit of illumination did slide into his heart and made him to understand about what work of ignominy our Saviour came into the world and would begin from hence to do after the custom of a despicable sinner O glorious God that at the same instant did baptize him of whom he was baptized Quomodo creavit Mariam creatus est à Mariâ sic dedit baptismum Johanni baptizatus est à Johanne As he made the Virgin Mary his mother and was made man of the substance of the Virgin even so he baptized John with the Spirit and was baptized of John in water Nothing was ever done in the Church which was eminently noble and eximious but with an opinion that a Spirit from heaven was sent to reveal it So in old Legends they report that the Angels of God did whisper divine Oracles into St. Ambrose that Doves were sent from heaven to infuse holy wisdom into Basil and Gregory that the soul of Paul was sent to gild over the Writings of Chrysostom with Eloquence nil sine numine So the Spirit before he appeared in a bodily shape upon our Saviour entred by his invisible power into the heart of this great Prophet and he that before denied to baptize his Master because he was humble is now ready to baptize him because he is more humble for after Christ had spoken Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized c. That which is here described in the Baptism of our Saviour comprehends three things 1. As the Naturallists call it here is removens prohibens that which did prohibit the effect is removed away John resists no more Then he suffered him 2. Here is the effect it self Jesus was baptized 3. That this beginning was but a preparatory to greater matters which should follow therefore he went up straightway out of the water First I must insist upon this consideration that the obstacle of Johns doubting is taken away then he suffred him The woman of Samaria because she knew not our Saviour gave him no water to drink John Baptist because he knew him to be God immortal gave him no water to be baptized An ignorance very inoffensive was in them both and so they were easily corrected with a word for they that wander for want of knowledge and not for want of obedience are easily brought into the way when they are taught the truth Moses did soon put off his shooes when he knew the place whereon he stood was holy ground Mary Magdalen took our Saviour for the Gardener when he was risen from the dead but she fell presently at his feet and worshipt him when she knew it was the Lord. Peter did demur and hesitate what to do when the sheet was let down before him with all manner of four footed beasts but straightway learnt that nothing was common or polluted which the Lord had cleansed John was loth to take the honour upon him to pour water upon our Saviours head but you see he need not be bidden twice when the Lord commanded he did wisely consider what was injoyned him by the divine authority rather than what did become his own unworthiness and did as he was bidden without any more repugnancy Vera est humilitas quam non deserit comes obedientia So I think St. Austin there dwells an humble mind you may be sure which is associated with tractable obedience Aristotle falling into the praise of that sententious judgment which in some men is very exhortative that weaker capacities should hearken to such mens opinions without any manner of contradiction for their eye is fixt upon a true ground and principle for whatsoever they deliver therefore where age and experience and prudence meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you ought to submit to their bare dictates and sayings no less than if they were the most forcible demonstrations This was most wholsom counsel for the ignorant for they will learn more a thousand times by believing their Teachers than by framing their wit to a captious inquisitive course admitting nothing for good unless their own line can fathom it John Baptist was a right Scholar to make a good proficient whose reason was confounded and knew not what Christ did mean yet because it was his Masters will he was obsequious against the grain of his own reason Then he suffered him The praise which S. Chrysostom gives to this holy man is thus in a negative expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he yielded quickly he was not immoderately contentious for the Holy Spirit makes us mild and apt to consent the adverse Spirit makes us unquiet and vexatious to our neighbours As God describes the refractory Israelites who did ever resist their Prophets Isa xlviii 4. I know that thou art obstinate and thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow is brass This obstinacy you see in the Prophets phrase is a sign of an iron age and I pray God we be not
us that we may be condemned and Christ upbraided on this wise See these Servants of yours see those Children of men how full of all iniquity they are for whom you have shed your precious bloud These slanders and foul detractions of his though we do not hear them yet I have satisfied you so far herein out of my Text because his name imports them But we do feel it to our hurt and molestation that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tempter as it is in the third verse of this Chapter The word it self I would not have you think it is altogether evil for even God is said to tempt man Non ut ipse sed ut ij quos tentat se cognoscant says St. Austin not that he may bring any thing to light which was unmanifested to him but that our own effects may be known to our selves and to all the world as Deut. xiii 3. The Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul but the vulgar Latin reads it Vt palam fiat to make it known that you love him Again one man may tempt another to find what excellency is in him as the Queen of Sheba came to prove Solomon with hard questions besides there is a good Tentation wherein a man is bound to prove and to try himself Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves 2 Cor. xiii 5. In all these acceptions the Word is innocent but there is an abusive Phrase for man to tempt God as if we had not good experiment of his power and goodness but would search it further but let not us tempt Christ as some of them tempted and were destroyed of Serpents 1 Cor. x. 9. Lastly the word Tentation taken for allurement and provocation to sin is proper to Satan and to Satans instruments Among military rules this is one in all Authors it brings some advantage with it to study the nature and condition of our enemy I will beat a little upon that advice I have met with some who have humm'd and haw'd at it whether there were any Devils or no as if it were a thing that were disputable Perchance these give credit to nothing further than their outward senses apprehend after the manner of beasts or like the Sadduces that held there was neither Spirit nor Angel because they could see none If you ask them if Christ did not cast out divers Devils from those that were possessed their evasion is perhaps those might be enormous sins But could sins which are no substance but qualities cry out and tear a man and run into the Swine and confess Christ This is such an opinion says a late Writer Ac si oves putarent fabulam esse de lupis as if the Sheep should think Wolves were but a tale there were no such creatures that sought to devour them St. Austin brings in such an unbeliever objecting How should I overcome Satan How should I repel him whom I cannot see or perceive Well enough says the Father Facile habent remedium se ipsos interius vincant de illo foris triumphant overcome the instigations of evil motions within and you triumph over the Devil without None hath described the puissance of our ghostly enemies more tragically than St. Paul Eph. vi 12. We wrastle not against flesh and bloud but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses in high places Every word of this description is Vae vae Woe be to them that are not strong to resist Our Adversaries in their essence are Spirits in their form invisible in their designs wicked in their power rulers of this world in their subtilties dealers in darkness in their place they have the higher ground much above our reach they hover in the air in high places The Prophet Isaiah demonstrated the weakness of the Egyptians That their horses were flesh and not Spirit Isa xxxi 3. The odds are the more against us that our adversaries are Spirit and not Flesh Daemonum tanto major nequitia quantò natura nobilior says Aquinas The more noble is the nature of hellish Fiends the more dangerous is their wickedness The more fleshly is our nature the more weak our resistance An Epicuraean will say perhaps that gives himself over to all licentiousness it is not in me to withstand the assaults of the Devil why should I go about it since I am made of a corruptible Elementary substance which cannot hold out against a spiritual wickedness But to make all such sinners inexcusable God hath made us a recompence and we have as good help on our side to say the least of it as they have of theirs partly by the help of his assisting grace partly by the Ministry of good Angels Some there are likewise that cry out man is unequally dealt withal because the Princes of darkness have that odds of us in their multitude they boast that their name is Legion Dionysius called the Areopagite as I read it in Aquinas reduceth the damnation of all sinners to this Multitudo Daemonum est causa omnium malorum the world is so over-laid with numbers of Devils that from thence ariseth all damnation I would not set so much by that single authority if St. Hierom had not said Communis est doctorum opinio this is the common received opinion of the Doctors Aer iste coelum terram medio dividens plenus est contrariis fortitudinibus The whole Element of the Air between heaven and earth is full of Diabolical troops that rise up against our soul and oppose our Salvation Howsoever this is but opinion and I am sure the Scripture doth no where put us in the perplexity of such a terror And that of Anthony the Eremite is confessed to be but a dream that he saw all the space between heaven and earth full of Satans snares to catch the souls of men Against these dreams and opinions I set the saying of Elisha on the one hand There are more that be with us than against us And the promise of our heavenly Father to the Children of Israel on the other hand One of you shall chase a thousand and two of you shall put ten thousand to flight Howsoever in all distress of tentation here is our refuge in this or the like Prayer Wilt thou suffer the destroyer O Lord to prevail against me Wilt thou permit him to say there there we have devoured him God spake once and twice that power belongeth unto God Semel atque iterum ob firmitatem once and twice because that truth is strongly established He that hath said unto the proud waves of the Sea hitherto shall ye go and no further He doth say unto Satan Hitherto shalt thou tempt and no farther It is not for the Devils deserving but for the wicked mans undeservings that God doth give him his
you Without me you can do nothing so our Saviour Had he said without me you can do little or without me you can do no excellent thing or without me it will be hard and difficult for you or without me you can perfect no good work then there had been some evasion for a man to trust in his own abilities but to say without me you can do neither much nor little greater things nor inferiour things with ease or with difficulty neither finish nor begin this chops off all boasting in the powers and industries of the natural man Without me ye can do nothing The Eunuch plainly felt this impotency and when Philip askt him Vnderstandest thou what thou readest Says he How can I unless some man should guide me As the sick person complained at the Pool of Bethesda he wanted some man to put him in when the water was troubled Verè homo fuit illi necessarius sed homo ille qui Deus est Says St. Austin He wanted a man indeed to cure him but no other than he that is God and man Jesus Christ So the Eunuch wanted no other man to guide him but he that was made the Son of man that we might be made the Sons of God And upon those words of the Eunuch thus St. Hierom. We come not to walk in the paths of life Sine praevio monstrante semitam Without celestial aid to prepare the way and go before us Let me strike these two strokes more upon this point and I have done with it first when I say nature is so unfit to produce any good so indisposable to attain the Kingdom of heaven let no man say Why should I strive then against the stream of my inbred corruptions I will give my self over to work all filthiness with greediness This is a devillish resolution But rather say I will be very instant in prayer with my God that he will take away this heart of stone and give me an heart of flesh For in the like case the Tongue can no man tame it is an unruly evil full of deadly poyson Jam. iii. 8. So St. James It is not his meaning that we should suffer this unruly evil to do what it list and permit it without any manner of reformation but with all contention of heart to implore the divine assistance that this member of unrighteousness may become an instrument to serve the Lord. Secondly Those Nations whom we perceive to be led by the viciousness of their own nature and not to be led by the spirit we cannot say without great error and obstinacy that these are appointed to everlasting life if the heathen had sufficient means of salvation what priviledge had we in the Church who have the Word and Sacraments and the infusions of sanctification to make them profitable Thou knowst Lord why these do sit in darkness and in the shadow of death Bonus es in beneficio certorum justus in supplicio ceterorum says St. Austin Thou art very good to those to whom thou art gracious thou art very just to those that are punished This is St. Pauls doctrine up and down Eph. ii 12. It cannot be controuled He describes the wretched estate of the Gentiles before salvation appeared unto them We were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world How can it be affirmed that they want not help to bring them out of this captivity of sin When St. Paul says Spem non habentes they have no hope This is the condition of nature which is not aided by the Spirit 2. Now I will unfold how we are led by initiating or preventing grace when we are first made partakers to taste of the hope of a better life In this Point I will annex the explication of two things First That there is such an initial preparatory grace in them that are not yet justified and converted 2. That in the first entrance of it the Spirit doth produce it in us solely and entirely the will of man conferring no strength at all Concerning the former of these two conclusions I say there are many good internal effects wrought by the power of the Word and the illumination of the Holy Ghost which enter into the hearts of them that are not yet converted as some knowledge of the divine will sense of sin fear of punishment grudgings of sorrow some earnings to be delivered some hope of favour This is a middle state between natural corruption which is altogether enmity with God and between perfect regeneration when we are called to adoption of Sons I marvel this should not be easily admitted for these reasons The Philippians had fellowship in the Gospel St. Paul calls this the beginning of a good work in them and he trusts God would perform and finish it Phil. i. 6. Yet more clearly Heb. vi 4. he shews there are antecedent portions of grace in many before they are converted and made heirs with Christ yea in such as never were ingrafted lively in Christ he calls it thereby the name of illumination tasting of the heavenly gift tasting of the power of God tastings of the Word of God and in some wise being made partakers of the Holy Ghost Yet these having but these first preparations of grace may backslide crucifie the Lord of life and put him to an open shame The similitudes which are used to shew how grace doth possess the soul do plainly shew as much 1. As in natural generation there are many previous dispositions which go before the introduction of the soul into the matter So there must be many antecedent preparations of the divine blessing before our spiritual regeneration that we be born again and become the Sons of God 2. Gratia se habet ad animum sicut sanitas ad corpus Grace doth raise up the soul from sin as health doth affect the body and bring it out of sickness but there is a middle state of recovery before health be perfectly regained so there is a previous illumination and good direction in the mind and will which go before our conversion that we be actually made the living members of Christ Some are afraid to call this grace and yet they cannot avoid it for they are compelled to call it auxilium Dei a special help of God flowing from his providence Sometimes they abhor not the name but say it is gratia reprimens an assistance of God whereby such as are not converted may repress the occasions or commissions of some heinous sins Either they allow it to be as much as true grace or no better than nature for many evils may be avoided and repress'd by nature no good thing can be done without grace It is therefore that internal calling wherewith God doth seriously invite those to repentance and belief in Christ who have the tidings of salvation brought unto their ears I say I speak of those only who are
good effects Then the will of man according to that free liberty it hath which is helped toward good works not taken away doth all things with that indifferency that it may cast away this initial grace or embrace it work fruitfully with it or unfruitfully This is that qualification and condition of grace which some wicked ones are said to resist this is that Spirit which other sensual men are said to grieve They will not understand they will not be gathered together they will not follow their Leader through the servile liberty of their own concupiscence It is this first pittance and portion of a good life that many are said to begin in the Spirit and to end in the flesh In the work of conversion though a man hath power to resist it being founded in the natural liberty of the will yet no man doth actually resist the grace of conversion yet this grace of preparation many do resist out of the pravity of their will in which respect they are said to quench the Spirit I cannot speak so much as I might in this subject but because the understanding of Gods favour and justice and the provocations of our own duty depend much upon it therefore I will give you some short rules and corollaries to bear away 1. I do not say all men but as many as are invited by the preaching of the Word are made partakers of some preparatory grace for as a Vein and Artery run together in the body natural to convey bloud wherein the life consists so the Word preacht and some measure of supernatural grace go hand in hand in the mystical Therefore St. Paul says We are Ministers not of the Letter but of the Spirit It is told to no man in vain that Christ died for him the possibility of apprehending the benefit of that sacrifice is offered him if he do not hinder the work of God 2. In this previous grace and for the good use of it we apply unto you the exhortations comminations invitations of all the Prophets and Apostles giving you truly to wit that God hath given you the means to be saved if you do not reject them The last end at which we drive in all our Sermons is your conversion and regeneration that is the Crown of all diligence in this world but the immediate and next end that we labour is that men and women do their diligence to make good use of this preparatory grace 3. This grace of preparation before convertion is shorter in some than in others God did presently hasten the conversion of Paul of Lydia of the Jaylor Why may he not do what he will with his own And give a Peny to them that have laboured one hour as soon as to them that have laboured ten But usually there is large trial and with some this preparatory grace continues alone till anon before they end their life 4. God forsaketh no wicked man within the Church till he hath quenched this grace and interrupted the chain of those means which were prepared for his conversion Prius quam deseratur neminem deserit multos desertores saepe convertit says Prosper which is in part thus Englished 2 Chron. xxiv 20. Because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you Solomon was an excellent Divine as well as a Philosopher Prov. i. 24. Because I have called and ye refused ye have set at nought my counsel they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord therefore I will mock at their calamity but though he forsakes none untill they forsake him yet he forsakes not all that forsake him So said Prosper Multos desertores saepe convertit Peter and Judas both did reject this grace of preparation and fall from it yet the one hath efficatious grace given to convert him the other hath not This inequality is from the pure pleasure of God and no man can sound the depth 5. Some are much more largely watered with this heavenly dew of preparatory grace all may drink their fill but some have their cup brim full some are endued with more patience proved with fewer tentations Yet none can justly grudge why hath he five talents and I but three Why doth God stand longer at the door to knock for him than he will for me God is not bound to follow men with all manner of grace 6. If these works of preparation be not hindred if this grace be not quenched God will follow the soul with saving grace Not that any man in the world did ever use this precedaneus help so well but that it deserved to be taken from him How many sins do we incur How stubborn how disobedient is the heart of every man Here we might be for ever forsaken according to our misdeeds but the Lord will accept of small endeavours as great accomplishments In a word the good use that we can make of this gift of God is no way meritorious to salvation the ill use of it in those that perish is demeritorious and makes them justly undeserving to be called to salvation This I am perswaded is the true doctrine of this Point to stop the mouth of them that are lost and to shew the plenteous riches of Gods mercy in the vessels of Election Fourthly I labour for the easiest notions I can invent to make these intricate things plain the fourth Point will require an intelligent Auditor with what great and mighty power the Spirit doth lead the children of God in converting grace I have spoke of the first preparation of grace and the will prepared so I must speak distinctly of the act of renovation and the will renewed and the nature of renovation or conversion is best conceived in these six heads 1. What this converting grace adds above that preparatory help 2. God doth work it alone and the will doth passively receive it 3. It doth infallibly attain its effect 4. It is no violent compulsion upon the will 5. It is more than a moral perswasion 6. This is not repugnant to the Promises to the comminations or to the exhortations of God First It adds this above preventing initial grace that it doth but dispose a man to life but after this act we may say justly this man is born of God That is common to them that are lost who quench the first beginnings of divine assistance by their own evil will this is only given to the elect servants of Christ God works by several quantities and doses of Sanctification 1. That they can resist if they will as in Adam before his Fall 2. In others that they will not though they can as in those in whom he doth conserve his preparatory grace 3. In others that they will not nor cannot in the introduction of that act as in them whom he doth actually convert 4. In others that shall never can nor will as in the Angels and Saints of heaven God foresaw if he should only give this grace of preparation all
nature Non agunt sed aguntur So in the act of renovation we are not fellow-workers but are led and carried whither the Spirit will And as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. viii 14. 4. We know divine mysteries best by negative expressions and therefore I go on fourthly that this immission of efficacious grace is no violent compulsion upon the will Compulsion I said was a word of hostility and not of favour When God doth his work in us throughly energetically that it shall not fail by a Catachresis it is called a coaction So it is said in the Parable to them that were sent to bring in the blind and the lame Cogite intrare compel them to come in I say this is a Catachresis so Prosper the great director of this way that I take Hanc abundantiorem gratiam ita credimus potentem ut negemus violentam We believe this eminent abundant grace worketh with great power but not with violent compulsion For because of those previous preparations I spake of which make us know and have some desire of heavenly things God saves no man against his will therefore it is no violent attraction for no man is ordinarily saved that hath positive repugnancy though in the momentary act of conversion he doth add no auxiliary co-operancy Nay so far is this most abundant benediction of the Spirit from offering coaction and force to the will that the will of a regenerate man doth instantly shew its complacency and turn it self to God This efficacious motion is infused from God and in the same moment exercised and put into act by man for to that end it was inspired by God that man should produce the act of believing and adhering to Christ This is an Altitude for faith to look upon Voluntas est subjectum istius volitionis causa suae volitionis in eodem instanti I think verily the not marking of this hath caused much debate that the will of man in the act of conversion is the subject upon which God works faith and it self the cause which doth produce the act of faith in the same instant They have my suffrage that say how these two cannot well be divided in time one from another Gods operation converting a sinner to be his Son and the act of believing in that man converting himself to God no object can be for a moment in the will but it must affect it one way or other but in order of nature Gods inspiration is first to be conceived and then mans embracing and assent Thus it appears the agitation of this divine motion is not by force and compulsion but with a sweet and fatherly attraction and the effect is no way rough and against nature but above it For to limit and determine the indifferency of the will is not the destruction of free will but the perfection witness the Saints and Angels who are confirmed in grace that they cannot sin If the Son make you free then are ye free indeed which is thus expounded by the Apostle Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. Fifthly I annex that the powerfulness of this converting grace is not well expressed when it is entitled but a moral perswasion The hearts of Kings and surely of all other men whose power is less free are in the hand of God and he inclineth them which way he will perswasions may labour upon the affections it is the scope of an Orator but the most flexanimous Rhetorician that ever spake cannot be said to have the hearts of his Auditors in his hands that is a phrase out of humane capacity What moral perswasion was there in this Christ called Peter and Andrew James and John and Mathew from the receit of custom and they left all and followed him Shew me any ground here for moral perswasion that is probable allegation of reason Not a word more spoken than follow me or perhaps I will make you fishers of men few words God knows But a mighty efficacious impression was secretly instilled into the heart there it was it must needs be that celestial irradiation which made them leave all to follow Christ whose outward appearance was most contemptible and his society according to the wisdom of the world most dangerous Perswasion can but propound an end and as every man is affected so he likes the end which is offered We that disperse the Word have the Office to perswade you to the Kingdom of heaven but God forbid he should bring us no further The Devil can suggest and perswade likewise and prevail above his Makers perswasions as it appears Gen. iii. therefore ascribe the honour due unto the Lord that his Spirit is more efficacious to produce good than Satan to produce evil therefore his work consists not in perswading but in governing and inclining the heart Finally To dispatch this Point I said this potent and infallible assistance of converting grace doth well consist with the Promises and Threatnings and Exhortations of holy Scripture There are other matters objected against this but at the last you will find all sticks at this knot For after some wrangling in the end it is confest God can restrain the liberty and indifferency of the will and make it bring forth what act he please and it must be allowed that the taking away that liberty to work either good or evil is not the destruction but the perfection of the will The angry question is Whether the removing away that liberty and indifferency from the will in the act of conversion can consist with this order that a man shall be commanded to convert himself to God upon the condition of eternal life and upon the commination of Hell fire Now I must tell you this was the very thing that Pelagius quarrelled St. Austin for saying Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis Give me to do what thou commandest O Lord and then command what thou pleasest But take all my answers like grapes upon a cluster 1. They that make this objection know we are commanded to have the first grace of illumination and they acknowledge it is freely and merely wrought by God Why then do they stumble at converting grace that conversion should be commanded us and God altogether cause it and yet allow it in preparatory grace 2. Doth not the Scripture frame our tongue to speak thus Make you a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. xviii 31. there is a command I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you Ezek. xxxvi 26. there he doth execute in us what himself commanded It is to be magnified and admired not to be disputed of when God will work that good by his Spirit within us which he might in rigour without that extraordinary help exact of us 3. Whither will Divinity be tost about if this be not certain That our just and omnipotent Lord commands
much infirmity No mans counsel at hand to comfort him for he was in the Wilderness nothing to strengthen his feebless for he was fasting and hungry much abated in the vigour of his body Christus non solùm provocat sed velut arma ministrat hosti says St. Austin this might seem as if he did lend his enemie weapons to overcome him But what the Apostle said of himself through the grace of Christ Christ might more truly say of himself by his own power When I am weak I am strong as will appear in the sequel This is premised to let you know that the present matter which I have in hand consists herein to unfold with what outward infirmity Christ addressed himself to this terrible bickering with the Devil and that in four Points 1. From the place it was the Wilderness the greater solitude the more dangerous the tentation 2. He was fasting the more feeble the body the more flat and dull are the operations of the Spirits 3. The continuance of the fasting was as great as ever was read Forty days and forty nights a large while to get nothing for bodily sustenance 4. The consequent is he was afterwards an hungry Though the divine power had underpropt nature a long time yet nature was now left to it self still the more advantage for the enemy This Wilderness whatsoever it was for a barren desolate place it deserves my labour to survey it because it received this guest for forty days our Lord and Saviour A worthless and therefore a nameless piece of ground unprofitable to bring store into the Barn but profitable to yield some pious meditations Some devout Christians who lov'd to visit those Countries and Regions which Christ frequented have given it a name which it holds in Cosmographical descriptions to this day Quarantena quaranta implying no more than Christs continuance there for forty days There are other small Desarts in Palestina the Desart of Maon the Desart of Ziph the Desart of Judaea this was distinguished from all these by being called the great Desart where there was no habitation They that retired thither unless they brought their provision must resolve to keep a fast At this day our faithful relators say nothing grows upon the ground but a few Dates and Christ was there at such a time when the trees did bear nothing His Baptism at Jordan is calculated to fall out at Twelfth-tide and his departure into the Wilderness being next after his Baptism those forty days were in the Months of January and February when above all other seasons the Trees of the field a few excepted have not so much as Leaves to hang upon them The Devil could not have offered the first tentation in the Cities or Villages or in the fruitful grounds neighbouring to any habitation a bare Heath that yielded nothing but Flints did occasion this Proposition Command that these stones be made bread The first emergent observation from hence is noted in the interlineal gloss Tunc maximè instat Diabolus ad tentandum cum viderit solitarios The Adversary doth especially take hold of a man to tempt him upon a melancholy solitariness beware of those sad oppressing thoughts which a man loves to keep to himself alone take advise of them whose judgment can direct you and whose charity can comfort you When you feel instigations of iniquity grow upon you the chief thing which Satan desires is that you would smother them and not reveal them that you would break off conversation from all your friends and avoid Society He knows his advantages when he gets a man into a wilderness I mean a melancholy retirement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Euripides one hand can fight but weakly As a Dear that is struck knows by instinct what a danger it is to be single and therefore will heard himself if he can so do not separate your self from the face of men upon tentation that is the way to betray your soul but unite your force against the Tempter by mixing your self with good men and praise the Lord as David said in the great Congregation Quae facilitas Quae securitas Quae jucunditas est habere cum quo aequè audeas loqui ut tibi As I read it in a certain work that carries St. Austins name What felicity What security What hearts ease it is to talk to another with as good confidence as thou wouldst unto thy self Two are better than one as Solomon shews it in a threefold similitude 1. If one fall dangerously into a pit a good companion will lend him his hand to raise him he that is alone hath not another to help him up 2. If two lie together they have heat St. Hierom makes an Allegory of it between David and Abisag Frigidiores ferventiorum societate in virtute incalescent They that are colder in Piety will be warmed by their Society that are more fervent in charity 3. If one prevail against one two shall help him united force is a strong safegard 2 Sam. x. 11. Joab divided the battel between him and Abishai his brother Says Joab to Abishai If the Syrians be too strong for me then thou shalt help me but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee then I will help thee Thus judgment will order the battel in our spiritual warfare I will not trust to my self alone lest tentation press me sore but I will have succours at need We are not like Eagles which never flie in a flush but one by one because no bird is so strong that it can prey upon it But we are compared to sheep that must be led to the Pastures in a flock and take heed of stragling This Doctrine is no way repugnant to that which I shall deliver by and by that it is profitable to abandon the contagion of the wicked world neither do I disrespect those tractates of the Fathers which extol the benefit that some have found by retiring for a while in to an Hermitage or the Cell of an Anchorite A few examples of some admirable men that have sped well in that fortune ought not to be a leading Card that it should be a condition of life to which weak ones should be exhorted What was good in a very few in times past says one with a good distinction it was Secundum preeminentiam gratiae non secundum congruentiam naturae It sorted well with the pre-eminence of the extraordinary grace which they had but it was not agreeable to the ordinary complexion of humane nature A man sequestred into a Desart and Solitude as he cannot always have his affections intent upon Prayer and divine Meditations so his vacant idle hours which must be very many will proffer him innumerable imaginations of the worst condition Grant says Chrysologus that for many hours he think of God yet for almost as many he hath nothing to think of but himself Si nihil excellens in seipso reperit tristatur de seipso
Receiver Also we apply general Promises to our selves by the word of absolution For although God only pardons sins yet he hath promised to his Priests if our hearts be well disposed to admit their work Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis What they loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven but the special motive is the inward testimony of the Holy Ghost speaking in the conscience of true believers by the effects of grace This last is it which is opposed by some namely that there is no assurance ordinarily begot by the Testimony of the Spirit to a mans private spirit that he is the child of God But this I will prove This is not denied that this is the faith of the Gospel on which we lay hold for eternal life whosoever truly believeth on Christ he shall be saved and cannot a man infallibly infer but I do through Gods grace truly believe in Christ Cannot a man search into his own heart that he doth receive Christ not only in his judgment by a firm willing and unfained assent but also by an earnest desire to be made partaker of him and by a setled resolution to acknowledge him to be his Saviour Surely the mind is not ignorant of its own actions when it understandeth when it assenteth it knoweth it self to assent when it desireth it knoweth it self to desire when it resolveth it knoweth it self to resolve Much more is it able to examine it self being holpen by the Spirit of God I may boldly say the Letter of the Scripture is not more plain for any point of Divinity than for this Rom. viii 16. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God Either we can feel this witness and make use of it or to what end is it given And why else are we bidden to feel and try that good work of the Spirit if it be in our selves Examine your selves whether you be in the faith 2 Cor. xiii 5. The true sorrowful penitent hath not less comfort now than if Christ were still upon the earth But to some of them while he lived in Jury it was graciously spoken Daughter be of good chear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be confident thy sins are forgiven thee And again I have prayed Peter that thy faith may not fail he let Peter know so much that he might enjoy that comfortable perswasion They that oppose frame this retorsion Some of the most excellent Saints as Peter and Paul knew that Christ did live in them and that they were living members of his body for whom God had received the Crown of life yet this they attained unto not by the ordinary strength of faith but by extraordinary revelation No such matter for says St. Peter Give deligence to make your Calling and Election sure This exhortation were frustrate to stir up our diligence for that work if certitude of salvation come only by extraordinary revelation and St. Paul protesting that neither life nor death could separate not himself only but us many more of the Elect from the love of God draws his perswasion from such reasons as were common to him with all the Saints Rom. viii 32. to the end of the Chapter Because God hath not spared his own Son for our sakes because with him he would freely give us all things because Christ is risen from the dead because he sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us And now I will draw up my meaning in this first conclusion 1. Nothing but true faith can breed this particular application that any regenerate person should have affiance for his own salvation 2. That true faith doth not attain it in all but is kept back in many by tentations afflictions weakness want of instruction 3. Every good Christian ought to endeavour to get this assurance 4. Many without presumption have that stedfast and infallible comfort of Christs mercies applied unto themselves 5. In all that are truly justified it hath a sure foundation to beget it if they would well examine it Let no man therefore cavil upon any of these Points single unless he remember them all together The second conclusion follows the Holy Ghost doth beget this certitude of salvation in some measure in the faithful by causing them to examine what good fruits they have produced already from a lively faith and do firmly resolve to produce hereafter Let a well-guided conscience search how contritely we have repented us of those sins which we have committed What good works we have brought forth I mean good in their kind according to the manifold imperfections of our frailty examine whether they were done to be praised of men for fear of the Magistrate for fear of infamy or for Gods glory Whether we would not willingly leave all we have life and all rather than lose our integrity Examine all these things after Gods Word and not after the fashion of the world and what strong and serious resolutions you have for the time to come and upon strict inquiry if you find a good account then conclude I feel the Lord dwell in me by his holy Spirit I feel by these good effects he will not forsake me If any look for Enthusiasms as if God should whisper this to them in their ear they are much deceived Mark by what Index St. Paul directs us by the marks of sanctification There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And St. John clean throughout his first Epistle Hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments And by this we know we are translated from death to life if we love the brethren St. Austin thus upon it for an interpreter Let every man enter into his own heart and if he find there brotherly charity let him be secure for he is passed from death to life I confess it and I admonish you upon it it is no such easie thing as the most imagine to try and find out whether our charity be rooted in a lively faith And in examination of particular actions from whence it must be manifested there may be much deceit much mistaking this causeth doubtings and fears and suppositions and intermissions of confidence Yet this is a possibility to sound the depth of a mans own heart and so St. Austin pleads on my side again A man may know the charity wherewith he loveth his brother better then he knoweth his brother Some there are and not a few who would cloy the Doctrine of special faith with this absurdity That many are encouraged thereby to run on in all manner of iniquity as if it were no matter how many and how grievous sins they committed so long as they were assured by this special application of Christ that all their sins were remitted But mark this second conclusion and it is abundantly enough to put to silence this cavillation
than the man that rides him And in this circumstance likewise Satan was egregiously cozened to his exceeding contumely for when Christ permitted himself to be lifted up from the earth it seemed to Satan that it was his strength and power which carried him away and though much unwilling to be caught up in that wise yet being an impotent man he could not help it Thus the evil Spirit was deluded to ascribe that to his own power that came to pass by the hand of God Like the Fly in the Fable sitting upon the Axeltree of the Cart when it was moved apace took it to it self that the Cart was driven so fast and cries out see what a dust I make So this evil Angel either took up Christ in his hands in that body which he had assumed and thought it was in his power to stay him from falling or as spiritual substances in some mens Philosophy can move a corporeal thing by emanation of vertue which goes from them though they do not touch it as the intelligences move the heavens and so Satan not touching Christ at all might think it was his force and efficacy that snatcht him up from the earth to a Pinacle of the Temple But the former way is more likely as if he would shew him how the Text of David was literally meant He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up Beloved as the Divel did arrogate that he took up Christ on high by his own force and arm yet it was nothing so In like manner he thinks that all those hold their tenure of him who are exalted by wicked means he took them up to a Pinacle of the Temple he raised them up to civil honour Indeed wicked persons live as if they owed their service rather to Satan than to God for their preferment but it is the Lord that sets both good and bad in the seat of dignity the powers that be they are from God For this cause I have raised thee up he spake it to wicked Pharaoh that I might make my power known in thee Let mighty ones therefore remember they are Gods liege men and not the Devils And they that rise up like smoke from hell fire like smoke they shall vanish into nothing So I have shewed it was not in the power of Satan to carry our Lord whither he would but Christ suffered this Assumption of Satans out of patience not out of infirmity and suffered himself to be lifted up on the Cross and at last he came to the third Assumption to be received up into glory There is a third thing remains to be satisfied which every one will expect what a gazing sight would this be for all the Region over which Christ did fly and for the populous City of Jerusalem It must needs be an object upon which all men would cast their eyes and why is it not more spoken of in the Gospel and objected to our Saviour by his enemies It is no solid answer to say it hapned in the night and none were aware of it For the tentation which follows must needs be done in the clear light when he shewed the Son of God all the Kingdoms and glory of the world in the twinkling of an eye The true answer is that Satan was more over-reach'd in this surmise than in all the rest For he thought by this hovering aloft in the Air to make Christ a spectacle to all the world that men might think him some Inchantor or Magician by riding above in the clouds in the mean time says St. Chrysostome Christ made himself invisible that he was seen of no man the Devil being no way privy to it that he did abide invisible So Joh. viii ult the Jews took up stones to cast at Christ but he hid himself and went out of the Temple going through the midst of them what was this to hide himself and to go through the midst of them But to pass through the throng invisible as among others Euthymius noteth No point of cozenage and sorcery was practised more of old by the Impes of Satan than these flyings aloft these aereal supervolitations to the wonder of the world Nero Caesar was given much to Incantations and to experiments above nature especially in this kind Suetonius says that one of his Flatterers would undertake to fly up to heaven at his command but got a tumbling cast for his labour insomuch that some of the parties bloud did light upon Nero himself as he sate to behold this new sight in the Theater I will not say that this was Simon the Sorcerer spoken of Acts viii because he in the Theater did personate Icarus in sport but Simons was a solemn undertaking to confute the Doctrine of Peter and Paul by flying up to heaven So it is in the book called Clemens his Constitutions that this child of the Devil began to take his flight up on high openly before all the people of Rome and at the instant Prayers of the Apostle Peter he fell down headlong and brake his legs Because that Book is justly suspected for an adulterate work Arnobius who wrote in the Reign of Dioclesian to all the Gentiles says as much Cursum Simonis Magi nominato Christo evanuisse The flight of Simon Magus was cross'd in the name of Jesus Christ This was grown so common either by Mathematical engines or by Witchcraft that every Impostor did begin to profess it Graeculus esuriens in Coelum jusseris ibit says the Satyrist The Prince of the Air thought to amuse the world and to do stupendious works in his own Territories but he that sits on high shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision These are but foolish Antiques and Mimicks of the proper sending up of our spirit to God by desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ by having our conversation in heaven and delighting in those joys which are laid up for the Saints and by fervent Prayer which carries up the heart to God upon the wings of Zeal and Innocency so the Psalm mentions how a man may raise himself even unto the top of the holy City which is the new Jerusalem in heaven My soul flyeth unto the Lord before the morning watch I say before the morning watch And so much for the second general Point the manner of this tentation which was by Assumption Then the Devil taketh him up c. The holy City is the Locus communis the place largely taken to which he was carried out of the Wilderness and that is the ground to work upon for the third general Observation of the Text. This must needs be the Periphrasis of Jerusalem because God had a Temple no where else but there and St. Luke hath spared this Periphrasis and named the place he took him to Jerusalem and set him on a Pinacle of the Temple The eminent honour which this place had for many Sacred
these things and come to that heavenly Banquet without these preparatory steps and so you shall eat and drink your own damnation It is fit likewise that all our life should be a meditation of our death to number our days one by one as we go down to the grave No says the Tempter jump down from the Pinacle to the bottom it is a melancholy cogitation never think of it till it comes do not go down fair and softly with fear and trembling but defer all your repentance to the last hour and then commend yourself to God And none are more in fault in this kind than they who begin at the top of the golden Chain at Election and Predestination and straight leap into the assurance of their Glorification they are Predestinated to his Kingdom therefore theirs is the Adoption of Sons theirs is the inheritance without more ado Soft and fair this is a jump from one end to another without steps there must be a ladder of practice to come to these things or your boasting may be in vain and you may fail of that Salvation wherein you falsly glory Examine your Love if it be sincere examine your Repentance if it be very mournful and make you most resolute to be a new Creature Examine your Faith if it be stedfast and immovable prove it by such fruits as will grow upon a living tree and then God hath given you leave to rise up upon these degrees to ascend in these effects from one to another till you lay hold of the highest Link and say with the Prophet I am thine O save me I am thy Child by Adoption and Grace and thou art my Father who hast elected me before the foundations of the World But beware of these desultory motions to fall down from aloft and not pass by such steps and stairs as God hath ordained And so much for this motion to which the Tempter perswaded Christ Jace teipsum deorsum Cast thy self down Next let us see how the Tempter would have Christ take his fall from the Pinacle of the Temple why he would have it to be his own voluntary act Cast thy self down And subtilly continued to palliate this horrid Vice as if it had been humility Humility must be home-born flow from our own willingness without the least compulsion or constraint Cast thy self down For they that are pressed down and would get higher if they could they are not humiles but humiliati it is their cross fortune not their mortified affections that they are not upon the top of a Pinacle But as I have said already you can taste no such thing as pious humility in the Devils counsel But first as St. Hierom shews he doth much betray his own weakness in this to commend the execution of this tentation to Christ himself and not to take it into his own hands He can perswade he cannot precipitate a man whether he will or no. Nemini potest nocere nisi ipse se deorsum miserit It is not in his power to throw you down if you will save your self No Sorcerer no worker with familiar spirits had ever the power to hurt the meanest Magistrate in the Commonwealth that examined them or any Officer of correction that did chastise them His Dominion is inhibited that he can take away no mans life by hostile violence It is one of the flowers of Gods own Royalty that life and death are before him only he giveth breath and he calls it away when he pleaseth And as Satan cannot hurt the body of man but by our own consent and by our own permission so he must ask us leave and work it by our own perverse will if he ensnare our soul in any iniquity He cannot break open the door no nor so much as draw the latch but if he find the door open and the room swept and garnished then he enters in Luk. xv Some ungodly ones think they have made a fine excuse when they cast their faults upon the Devil If you have blasphemed or reviled it was he I wiss that was the cause of it if you have spilt bloud it was he that did direct your hand to this hainous fact if you lived in malice it was he no doubt that crossed you from many purposes to be reconciled what cares he to let you run on in these excuses You deceive your selves your Debts increase and I am sure he will never pay the score for you I allow it unto you that he is as subtil to cast scandalous objects in your way as malice can make him as forward to excite you to all evil as diligence will suffer him as vigilant as a restless spirit can be to divert you from all good But what of all this If you will not lend him your own free-will to practise with he is quite excluded All those Antecedents are but invitations to evil not compulsions Malorum immissor non impulsor If you will not cast your self down head-long he cannot thrust you into wickedness In this Text he confesseth that the last and complete power is in our selves to hurt our selves and not in him all precipitations are his counsels but our own motions Cast thy self down Then the Tempter could not cast our Saviour down it is his restraint and weakness moreover he would not though he could For Nullum praecipitium nisi voluntarium est praesumptio No tumbling cast had born the guilt of presumption with it unless it had been voluntary and of his own doing And now I am come to the most horrid part of this second Tentation wherein Christ was provoked to destroy himself with his own will to be guilty of his own murder the most irremediable sin as much as I can perceive that can be committed Though he would not come down from the Cross and save himself but was led with all patience as a Lamb unto the slaughter yet his death was inflicted upon him by Pilates Souldiers he was not his own Executioner The Jews never spake more despightfully against him than when they asked Will he kill himself because he says whither I go ye cannot come Job viii 22. No let Satan put such desperate resolutions into the heart of Judas the Traytor to make himself away And some Historiographers would perswade us that the Devil obtained this very request of him which he moved to Christ to cast himself down from some lofty Pinacle St Matthews words must be true that he hanged himself and St. Lukes words must be true that falling down headlong he burst asunder in the midst Acts i. 18. Theophylact says the bough of the tree bended to the ground upon which he hung and since he could not dispatch his life that way he brake his neck down a steepy Mountain and burst in twain And now all Ages call him Reprobate as well for this desperate conclusion of his life as for betraying Christ There were some Hereticks of whom I think one Petileus was the Author
this lower Region God hath committed the Children to the nurture of the Parents the Woman to the safeguard of her Husband the Subject injured to the justice of the Magistrate the Sick and Impotent to the refection of them that are whole the Poor and Naked to the liberality of the Rich. Every weak and distressed is appointed his Protector by Gods Ordinance that is strong and whole and that Patron that looks not to those poor Clients with whom he stands incharged let him take heed that himself wants not a Patron when he looks for Christ to be his Advocate But when a whole Nation of true Believers nay when a whole world of Christians have been persecuted all at once Who looks to that God And will give them the wages of wicked Servants that should have been nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his precious Portion and yet had their chief hand in the Tragedy against it And because the whole earth sometimes fails of their duty towards the Church therefore the Lord hath his Angels in store as the last and infallible refuge that the less we are beholding to the Earth we may acknowledge our selves the more beholding to Heaven If Davids bowels earned for a rebellious Son and gave all the Captains charge Deal gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalon Verily the Lord will put his Ministers upon that good Office to be a Wall of protection to his obedient Sons Aut eripient periculum aut eripient animam Either they will take your afflictions from you or take you from your afflictions The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and will deliver them And though the Devil meant nothing less than truth in his Sermon since he would needs preach let us lay hold of this for a true ground that the good Angels are very certain to keep their charge as they are commanded they are like the diligent Souldiers under the Centurions authority He says unto one go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh But their charge is set and appointed them it is not in their own free choice to lend their assistance where they please So the Schoolmen draw many questions to this Principle Non sunt liber â potestate praediti sed ministri ad nutum Domini The reason is twofold First All things must be done in order and without direction and appointment whom the Hosts of heaven should guard how far and at what time the Discipline would be altogether confused in that heavenly custody Secondly The knowledge of those blessed Spirits is finite they are not present at all our troubles which we suffer on earth they being far remote in heaven they know not the groanings of the heart it is out of their Sphere to apprehend what succour is needful for Infants that cannot moan themselves that cannot ask it of all these things they must be made acquainted and then their Province is allotted unto them by the especial Commission of God Wherefore as they are given by nature and grace to love Mankind so by a special Mandate and charge they are bound unto it Peter imputes his deliverance out of Prison to the Angels Ministry but principally to the Lords word and authority he doth not say that the Angel pull'd him out of danger of his own motion but now know I that the Lord hath sent his Angel and hath delivered me from the hand of Herod and from the expectation of all the people Acts xii 11. It was a good speech of Jonathans 1 Sam. xiv 6. There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few Had he but added one thing more the speech had been complete and full of faith there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few or by none at all Then to what use serves the Auxiliary custody of Angels when the strength of all protection is in God alone without the subordinate performance of any Creature To dissolve this Question into many Answers First They that say their Creed and understand it that God is the Father Almighty and have the Theorie that his vertue by it self is all-sufficient yet when it comes to the experience and practice they will boggle and be much unconfident of their own security if some powers which are ordained of God and more familiar to us than his infinite Essence be not promised to relieve us in the day of our Visitation Israel had great cause to have strong affiance in him that had brought them out of the Land of Egypt yet a weak Plant had need of a Prop to be bound unto it and therefore their Charter was thus enlarged Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared Exod. xxiii 20. This was ex abundanti somewhat given above that which needed for the rudeness and infirmity of our faith Secondly The Ministry of those blessed Spirits is used here below not for the defect of the supreme power but to shew his Majesty and Dignity as earthly Princes have their Stipatores some bands of Noble Gentlemen to stand about their Person rather for Pomp than necessity Yet it begets obsequiousness and awe unto their Majesty Pavorinus a man of rare skill in Learning whensoever Hadrian the Emperour discoursed with him condescended in all things to let the Emperour overmatch him and when his friends thought it too much obsequiousness Favorinus thus excused himself I will permit him to be more learned that hath thirty Legions of Souldiers under his command So the imployment of that heavenly Host lends no assistance to God but proclaims him that hath so many terrible Ministers to command to be most dreadful and glorious and who is able to stand before his Host Thirdly The Angels and Saints shall make up one Triumphant Church in heaven the whole body of things in heaven and things on earth being gathered under Christ the head therefore they are knit together in these good Offices of defence and guardianship as a taste of that unity which shall be complete hereafter And indeed it is through Christ that these parts are recollected together which were disjoyned before It pleased the Father to reconcile all things unto himself in him whether they were things in heaven or things in earth He is that Ladder upon which Jacob saw Angels ascend and descend and so Christ speaking of that reconciliation which he had wrought told the High Priests Hereafter ye shall see the heavens open and Angels ascending and descending Fourthly Aquinas doth thus excogitate There are two ways wherein man stands in need of help to have grace infused into him and to be guided and assisted in perfecting that which is good Deus immediate hominem inclinat ad bonum infundendo ei gratiam God only and immediately doth infuse supernatural grace into the heart Sed inveniendae sunt
Saviours triumph I will break the words into these two even parts The Decession of Satan and the succession of the good Angels As there is but one Comma in the Grammatical reading so there is but one part divided from the other Then the Devil leaveth him there is the decession of the evil Spirit And behold Angels came and ministred unto him there is the succession of the good To these somewhat now directly and distinctly Then the Devil leaveth him I will propound four Questions to it and answer them in their order When Satan left Christ Why he left him To what place he went upon the leaving And if ever he returned again after he had left him All these have reference to this Text and to the Antecedents of this tentation as I will declare in their severals The first question When he left him Is answered by St. Luke Chap. iv 13. when the Devil had ended all the temptation He had run out his line and tried all his strength our Saviour stood it out till his Enemy tilted the very dregs of his Gall and drew them out He that undertakes an ill cause cannot except but the hearing of it was very fair if he may plead out his matter till he can say no more so the Tempter cannot say he was cut off before he came to a period he was provided of better Arguments but he was stopt from proceeding he could not make these cavils for shame for his departure was not commanded untill he ended all his tentation Like the Martyrs of old who lived and died in the best times of grace it is recorded in their Diptychs that their patience did weary their very tormentors So the innocency of Christ did weary the malice of the Devil to assault it his constancy to Gods honour did nonplus the Blasphemer that he knew not which way to turn him or upon what occasion to ground another temptation St. Ambrose says that Satan had run over all manner of wickedness in those three motions which go before my Text And that the Scripture would not have said he had ended all his mischief Nisi in his tribus esset omnium materia delictorum unless all naughtiness were couched in the triple mystery of iniquity which preceded And to make this interpretation good out of the mouth of two Witnesses St. Austin concurs in these In Diaboli tribus propositionibus tota iniquitas in Christi tribus responsionibus tota justitia All kind of sin is thrust together in the Devils threefold Propositions and all kind of justice is comprehended in our Saviours threefold answers St. John says that there are three roots which supply matter to all the fruits of impiety the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life I know it may be fetcht about and some wits have tried it that the three former devises of Satan do belong to this division Gluttony or commanding stones to be made bread is that which is otherwise called the lust of the flesh Ambition or vaulting from the Pinacle of the Temple to be gazed upon stands for the pride of life Covetousness which would be owner and possessor of all things in the world is ascribed to the third general sin which is the lust of the eye thus some of the Fathers have fitted these three particulars of tentations and the three seed plots of sin in St. John one to one I will not say how properly a searching wit may compass in any thing But all the three ways of Tentation are exactly to be observed from hence from no part of Scripture more exactly and so he may be said to have ended all his tentation For some are tempted through infirmity some through ignorance some are emboldned in open and prophane malice to defie the Lord. When it was motioned that he should make stones of bread he laid siege as he thought to his hunger and infirmity which could not well withstand it when he incited our Lord to fall down from a Pinacle of the Temple it was to make him destroy himself through ignorance expecting in vain that Angels should come between him and harm to succour him Lastly when he urged Christ to fall down and worship him he required a sin of most obstinate malice and flat Idolatry By Infirmity by Ignorance by Malice these are all the ways that the Tempter works therefore having run through all these it may pass for current that he had ended all his temptation I infer but one thing from hence that those Spirits are become merely diabolical and poysoned all over with hell that spare no kind of sin that they can commit but defie the Lord as far as the Devil can thrust them on such as swear all kind of Oathes in their wrath commit all kind of extorsions in their Covetousness defile themselves with all kind of lust and drunkenness in their intemperance Herods cruelty had no stint he slew omnes infantes all the Infants of two years old in Bethlem Israel went a whoring after strange Gods till they had committed all kind of Idolatry and made them high places upon every Mountain says the Prophet Thou hast spoken all manner of lies that may do hurt O thou false tongue says David Though the Character which I shall give was Neroes it agrees to all them who sin as much as life and strength and means and opportunity will suffer them He grew by degrees so infinitely wicked that nothing can be fathered so horrible upon him which his sutable manners would not render credible Nothing can be pleaded for such but that they deserve an infinite punishment who would sin in infinitum if they could When they have ended all the sins they can commit they shall be commanded to their own place of eternal woe as Satan was when he had ended all his temptation The question why he left Christ is the next in order to which I will answer many ways First quia jussus he was bidden depart and therefore there was no staying for him Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him fly before him The Lord hath set every thing in its place and order and what is there which he cannot root up and displant again If he say unto this Mountain be thou cast into the Sea it shall be carried away with the breath of his mouth Or unto Adam get thee hence out of Paradise or unto any Nation be thou carried away into a strange Land or unto the whole heaven and earth pass away and be gone they shall pass away and be rouled up as a garment And to come to the likeness of this very case in my Text when Christ threw out sundry evil Spirits with a word the Jews were amazed and spake among themselves saying What a word is this For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean Spirits and they come out The Magicians and Sorcerers can cast out Devils
of them and behold Angels came and ministred unto him From this note or preface of attention I pass on to their person that came to minister unto Christ and they are Angels As the Philistins stood on a Mountain on the one side and Israel on a Mountain on the other side and there was a Valley between them from whence both the Armies might behold their two Champions David and Goliah fight it out So I dispute not against their conjecture that say the good Angels stood gazing from one prospect and the bad Angels from another to mark which way the Victory of this Duel would incline between Christ and Satan On the good Angels part this is certain we are put to no trial by our enemies visible or invisible but they come gladly to the speed of it and look upon us both with compassion and admiration We are made a spectacle unto the world and to Angels and to men says St. Paul As the Heathen did flock in multitudes to the Theaters to see the Christians cast unto wild beasts to be eaten which was no little part of their persecution that their enemies fed their eyes in sport with their misery So the blessed powers of heaven came to behold the same spectacle to compassionate that cruelty and to fortifie the sufferance of the Saints And if they can be content to be present at the skirmishes of the Scholars can it be supposed they would be away at this time when the Master of the fence was to play his Prize Beloved to put this further sometimes the Angels gave attendance to Moses Law and the Law it self was delivered by a Mediator in the hands of Angels But their study and delight was such in the Gospel of Christ that they gave all diligence to learn and understand it in all the mysteries St. Paul says that he was a Minister to preach the grace of God and to teach the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ says he To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. iii. 10. A most observable Text of Scripture that the Angels of heaven are the learneder for noting those passages which are taught touching the Mysteries of our salvation in this Church on earth And St. Chrysostom the loudest Trumpet of that Apostles glory among all the Fathers cries out See if Paul be not an Evangelist as well unto Angels as unto men This is marvellous and not to be admitted as if the good Angels knew not the Incarnation of Christ before and the calling of the Gentiles For how could they be ignorant of those divine Lessons which were so obvious and common in all the Prophets Admitting then that the whole substance of that Doctrine was known unto them long before yet many circumstances were revealed unto them by the actions and passions of the Church in after-time What then Was Paul or are we able to explain any thing for the better capacity of Angels No certainly Non addiscunt per Ecclesiam docentem sed per ea quae geruntur in Ecclesiâ Those principal intellectual spirits do not profit by the preaching of our Ministry but by things managed experimentally in the Church which were not so clear in Prophesie or speculation as when time revealed them They knew that Christ should bruise the Serpents head but when they saw it actually performed in repelling the three antecedent temptations then the mystery of God was made known unto them experimentally by the Church Those significations of the Gospel which the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven even those things the Angels desire to look into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stoop down and look into as Peter and John stoopt to look into the Sepulchre that is bowed down in humility to look into the great mystery of the Resurrection They are not inanes speculatores fond and curious gazers but most observant and most humble learners they will stoop unto the knowledge of the wisdom of God And that the Angels did note and pry into all things which our Saviour did in the dispensation of his Mediatorship the posture of the Cherubins upon the Ark is no unsignificant Figure Says God The faces of the Cherubins shall be toward the mercy seat Exod. xxv 20. As if the Angels did never cast their eye off from Christ our Propitiator from the Mercy Seat but did continually desire him in the fulness of time to have mercy upon Sion So I have made it known that such diligent attendants who listned faithfully to all the occurrencies of the Gospel must needs be at hand when Christ had ended his combate vvith the Devil And so ready at hand that it is noted these Angels are not said to descend from heaven as if they had been far off in another world but to come and minister which betokens a near attendance They came and ministred unto him And now Satan sees more by the event by this officious service of the Angels than he could extort by all his temptations Homo est quem ipse tentat Deus cui ab Angelis ministratur He must be a man that suffered such temptations but he must be a God that had such Ministers Christ came not to be ministred unto but to minister Mat. xx 28. That is in St. Pauls words He took upon him the form of a servant Phil. ii 7. For the very form of a man is the form of a servant Yet this servant thinks it no robbery to be equal with that God to whom all the powers in heaven and in earth do bow and obey But wherefore came the Angels now Do they come to bring assistance when the Devil was vanquished and had left our Saviour This were as the Adagie goes Post bellum auxilium Choraebus brought succours to the Siege of Troy when the fray was ended They miss of the right intention that think the Angels came for this end It was not to strengthen him against his enemy that was beaten and vanquished but to minister and stand before him for these reasons First possibly to spread a Table for him in the Wilderness and bring him meat because he had now fasted forty days and forty nights without intermission Not as if he could not be supplied without their provision but it was his pleasure they should attend upon his diet to let his enemy see there was another way to feed his body than to make stones of bread And this was it it may be that plurally many Angels came to minister unto him Had they been required barely to provide him necessaries one Angel could have brought enough of sustenance to give one man a meal but because this was intended not for any necessary relief towards his person but to shew his excellency above those heavenly hosts Behold a multitude stood round about him and Angels came and ministred unto him Secondly they might come to comfort him after
pass away undiscern'd But all might not behold in Mount Tabor what manner of splendour a glorified body should have What was the reason of the impediment Damascen thinks the greater part did stay behind that Judas might not see the beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven who was reserv'd for chains of endless darkness This answer is personal the next is very plain and literal Vt mysterium secretius ageretur many witnesses are not fit to keep a secret and Christ call'd out a paucity to stand by at this Solemnization because he would have it conceal'd till he was risen from the dead He bad them tell no man in those days what they had seen for what reasons it seemed fit unto him to have it carried so privily for a while I promise to unfold when I come to treat of the 36. verse of this chapter The third reason is very pat though it be figurative though there were very good men left below the Mountain yet this partition of three in one consort that did see his glory nine in another knot who were left out doth betoken multi vocati pauci electi that many are called and few be chosen Moses took up no more than Aaron and Hur when he went up to Mount Horeb to talk with God Christ took no more than the fourth part of the Apostles when He went up to Mount Tabor that God the Father might talk to him Major pars remanet terrae adhaerens the more numerous part of men cleave to the earth below Elias sits alone upon Mount Carmel like a Sparrow sitting alone upon the house-top The valleys are too full of them that mind earthly things Two men went up into the Temple to pray vel duo vel nemo when there is a throng abroad without the Temple O curvae in terris animae so much heaven to receive us for it is of an incomprehensible capacity so little earth to possess for it is but a drop of water and a crumb of dust in respect of the world above yet we strive to enlarge our possessions upon earth which will not hold many rich inheritors at once and neglect Heaven which would contain us all and afford every one a Kingdom to reign with God So far I have collected what I knew fit to be observ'd upon the three Disciples who did associate our Saviour It followeth in the third part of the Text Christ prepar'd himself for his Glorification with great humility facta est inter precandum species ejus vultus altera c. as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered Christ need not pray to his Father as if He that was God and Man in one person could not bring all things to pass without a prayer That was Martha's error the Sister of Lazarus Joh. 11. I know now whatsoever thou askest of God He will give it thee but Christ doth intimate in the same chapter that without asking the Father did always hear him yet through the whole course of his being abased upon earth He did make requests unto God upon all occasions that the Head might fulfil all that righteousness which his Members should perform The matter of his prayer who is able to recite it what it was since either He prayed in spirit and did not lift up his voice or else prayed a part that the Disciples did not hear Or if they did hear yet they have not imparted the relation of it in the Gospel This I may safely say there is a Prayer which would make a very convenient Collect at such a time Joh. xvii 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Surely it sounds well to reason that he prayed for that which He obtained before He stir'd from that place namely that his Divinity might cast a splendour through his body in a most amiable and visible form and that a type of the glory of the life to come might be revealed to these three Apostles even so the same thing must be continually in our supplications that the glory of Christ may be spread far and wide from Nation to Nation which is the large of that Petition which himself taught us Thy Kingdom come And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered O the wise God that would have the glory of transfiguration fall upon himself at no other time but in the fervor of prayer Miserable men are those that desire not to be transfigured and to cast off the old man but more miserable that think to be transfigured without continual prayer An Hypocrite would seem to be a transform'd man Satan would appear to have transform'd himself into an Angel of light Hypocrites and Devils all love to make a shew of transfiguration but they did never pray to God to change their inside which is nothing but filthiness and to be renewed in the spirit of their mind or if Hypocrites do pray it is with such a faint desire as if they had rather be denied than speed they are not instant with God they are not constant or if you will have a good thing impressed in a rough word they are not pertinacious tamdiu orandum quamdiu transformemur in viros alios hold on and cease not to pray till you be changed into new men As a Distiller keeps his extractions at the Furnace till he see them flower and colour as he could wish so as long as we feel the reliques of the old Adam remaining especially while we feel them reign and get the dominion over us we must ply our Saviour day and night with a restless devotion and a flagrant importunity and I am sure while we pray not the fashion of our countenance but the fashion of our heart shall be altered What a molesting Suitor would Gorgonia the Sister of Nazianzen have been to any Prince upon earth She was not troublesome to God yet says Nazienzen she should protest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she would make him asham'd to deny her and never rise up from her knees till the light of his countenance shin'd upon her S. Hierom loved his Nebridius of whose perseverance in Prayer he testifies certè sic semper erat orans Deum ut illi quod optimum esset eveniret he was an uncessant Petitioner to God so that nothing befel him but that which was fittest for him I opened my mouth and drew in my breath for my delight was in thy Commandments says David Psal cxix 131. in which verse is to be understood that Prayer is the very breath of the spirit without which the spiritual man can no more live than the natural man can live without the breath of air The lungs must be always cooled with the Element of air and faith must always be enflamed with the breath of supplication Will you hear the ample commendation of a true Prayer comprized in two words In
is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one who hath the preeminence in all things the Master who is over all and above all which is Jesus Christ I mean not as it is alleaged out of Bartholus and some of the impudent Canonists that Christ as he was God and Man was Lord of the whole World Monarchically and Peter after him and by Peters right the successive Bishops of Rome by which fetch those branded Flatterers entitle their Popes to the direct right of all the Kingdoms of the earth indeed the Devil promised our Saviour all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them and since He refused it then the same Devil by the mouth of those Canonists profers it again to try though He will none of it himself if some other in the name of a Vicegerent will take it for him This is not the meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that he is our Master in Heaven and Earth the Head to which all the Body is fitly knit by joynts and bands Colos ii 19. Joints and Bands Beloved neither of those words is idle or superfluous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commissurae the joints are all those blessings and benefits which are bestowed upon us and knit unto us Christ by reciprocal gratitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juncturae are all those offices of Christian charity which bind the Members one to another all things which belong to the Communion of Saints and hold us together under the Head which nourisheth us with his influence Now it is a very ill disjunction which some make to argue upon the two natures of Christ according to whether he is our Master and our Head If you name the one or the other alone you will confuse your own Creed and know not what to believe for all the conditions belonging to a Head are in neither but in both First it was fit the Church should have such an Head which is agreeing and conformable to the Body which is knit unto it a spiritual Head and fleshly Members are not consonant to make an unity Therefore Christ and his Church are said to be like Man and Wife which are one flesh Ephes v. 31. But the Head of the Church must be fit to nourish every part of the Body with spiritual blessings and make it increase with the increase of God this can come from none but the Divine and Infinite who can give spiritual life alone and quicken them which are dead in their sins this He can do as he is Magister Verbi Magister Spiritus who but Christ is Master of the Word preacht and who but the same Christ is Master of the Spirit which gives power unto the Word You see then it is no complemental Name which is given to Christ in courtesie but a Title of due Royalty and condign Authority when we call him Master Master says Peter it is good for us to be here Upon the same Bank of earth you may gather Flowers and Weeds the Flowers are set by art in the Garden the Weeds are the natural offspring So in this same speech which the Apostle uttered in a rapture of love and delight here are good conclusions to be approved and bad contents to be reprehended but the errors arise naturally out of the words the good conclusions are rather forc't than natural yet they deserve the precedency in my discourse and this is the begining that when Peter started out of sleep and saw Christ in glory it pleased him at the heart bonum est says he this is good and he never spake truer in his life The bravest Nations in the World when they have been at the height of their Empire have took more pride and delight in Theatrical Shews and Magnificent Spectacles of Triumphs than in any other pomp for the satisfaction of the eye when it meets with a right object is above any other pleasure But all other things in the world are Counterfeits to right Jewels in respect of the Object of Divine Glory when the eye gets that to gaze upon the Soul dilates it self with such greediness to be filled with it that it would be infinite to receive it O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of Hosts Psal lxxxiv David takes up his verse and goes no further to express it but leaves off with indefinite admiration And Theodoret refused to comment upon those words non tam explicandus sensus quam intimo sensu degustandus the sense and meaning of that Verse is not to be expounded but to be rellished and tasted by our affections We have stoln a name from virtue and called our Riches our Goods but beware to steal from Heaven as Prometheus did and to call the fruition of any thing upon earth good if the delights of the earth could speak they would say unto you why do you call us good nothing is good but to dwell in the Tabernacle of the Most High One day in thy Courts says the Psalmist is better than a thousand The days of this Life are called Thousands of days the Life of Glory is called One day These are called Thousands for the mutability that 's called One for the unchangeable eternity says St. Austin Howsoever it is true in this sense the shortest salutation of those supernal joys is more satisfactory Canis ad Nilum a touch and away than the longest saciety of these transitory exhilarations Two great Prophets rise from the dead to represent the glory of the life to come three living Disciples Peter especially are ravisht with it si mortuis non credideris saltem viventibus credas either believe the dead or the living which you will it is a good thing to see Christ in the Majesty of his glory Mark those words says Tertullian with special note quae fingendi non habent arbitrium extemporary acclamations wherein a man hath no leisure to invent dissimulation so out of the first pure passion of his mind which could not be forged St. Peter cried out when he saw the Glory of Christ bonum est it is good We cry out of the times now adays and the Age we live in but the more unthankful we for we do or may live more happily by far under the New Testament than the Jews did under the Old Every vision of Majestical glory did exceedingly terrifie the antient Israelites When the Lord came down upon Mount Sinah with triumph and with the sound of the Trumpet the people removed and stood afar of and durst not come near it now the Gospel hath expelled this fear so far that the Spectators did not shun the glory of Christ when they saw it but desired they might continue upon the place where it was for ever Deus se magis amandum exhibet quà m spectandum says one upon it God doth exhibit himself in the New Testament rather to be loved than to be dreaded and doth not now intend our terror but our comfort The glory of the Gospel
and Saviour was God from everlasting and by him the worlds were created his hands had made and fashioned every one of these malicious Jews when their substance was yet imperfect in their mothers womb shall he not disdain then as well as Sophocles to contest in judgment with his own Creatures Ask Job if it be fit for God to come in judgment like the Son of Man No let his patience speak for his humility His fasting forty days for his sobriety his miracles and healing the sick for his charity his cleansing of the Temple of buyers and sellers for his zeal to the House of God Let Judas speak before he goes to his own execution let the Wife of Pilate speak and her vision let the Ruler himself speake his conscience and if these be silent the stones shall speak but let Jesus hold his peace and taciturnity it self shall prove him a just person Indeed I have seen a great evil under the Sun I do honour our Courts of Justice for my part and the municipal Laws of the Realm but I cry out shame upon this fault that it is grown an art among pleaders to be a good Accuser He that can aggravate a crime well is in good hope to be a thriving Practiser Alas if Accusers were charitable Innocents should not need to pay so dear for learned Counsel to defend them That which might be dispatch'd by yea and nay is grown a volume and if it be wyre-drawn by Statute upon Statute it will fill five hundred sheets of Paper Brethren this ought not to be so for pity sake let it not be so costly a matter to be a just person The truth of the Lord says David Psal xii Is like Silver purified seven times in a furnace of fire But this custom is grown so chargable that the truth of an honest man must be purified seven times in Silver If we had less eloquence among pleaders and more plain dealing a just person might come before Magistrates either as our Saviour prepared his Apostles Care not what to say The Holy Ghost shall direct you in an answer or else the Judge might find the defendant to be innocent as Pilate did esteem our Saviour when he answered not to his Accusers but stood dumb before him But hear a second reason more forcible than the former from the unanimous consent of all the Fathers Christ held his peace when his just dealing was suspected before Pilate Ne passionem suam impediret Lest upon manifestation of his good life his Passion had been hindred And what would he not suffer suspicions infamies imputations rather than the work of our Redemption should become void Though he went leisurely on foot from one City to another to preach the Gospel yet he would needs ride to Jerusalem to suffer nay rather than his Cross should be left behind or come tardy after he would carry it part of the way upon his own shoulders unto Golgotha There passed but a little time from midnight to mid-day betwixt his Attachment his Arraignment and his Execution as if his feet had stood upon thorns until his head was crowned with them After the manner of men who expect verily to be gathered to their Fathers his Grave was provided before he was dead in Josephs Garden Why did he not take Judas to Mount Olivet Why did he not carry him with Peter and James and John and cast him into a dead slumber in the Garden nay mark the Commission which he had for his Enterprise fac citò do it quickly as if he had been sent like Ahimaaz to outrun the rest of the Servants and to be the first that should betray him I had like to have said Judas was not the only one that did betray him let me speak it with reverence did he not betray himself when he gave up his life saying Whom seek ye I am he Take all the lump together so forward of his journey so mindful of his Cross so hasty to dismiss Judas so well provided of a Grave who would not presume that he would suffer his back-biters to revile him and say nothing David made this Cause both a Psalm and a Prophesie a Psalm of remembrance and a Prophesie of wonder I held my tongue and spake nothing I kept silence yea even from good words but it was pain and grief unto me His heavenly tongue should it have pleased him to touch the string of defence and apologie would have made the Judges to license his life and to fall down and worship him the Servants would have said to their Masters as the High Priests did sometimes to their Servants when they were astonisht at his speech and words What are you also taken to say more than this had he but shed a few tears when they smote him on the head as Moses did in the Ark of Bulrushes some mild spirit as merciful as Pharaohs Daughter would have rescued his life from the power of the Enemy So I have given you two observations warrantable why so just a person should neglect to purge himself of his accusation First the Enditements were grosly slanderous and therefore he would not speak Secondly he would endure such contradiction of sinners as the Apostle speaks rather than purchase deliverance from the Cross to hinder our redemption The consideration hereof will bring forth two Sons more unto Jacob a double speculation arising from the former First that Jesus could have hindred these bloody passions But secondly out of endless compassion he had set us as a Seal upon his hand and as a Signet upon his right arm and love was strong to death Passus est quia voluit He would not hinder them Posse nolle nobile He could have hindered his death The Jews were so far from thinking that such a feeble man in outward appearance could deliver himself that they did not think when He was fast and nailed that God could deliver him He trusted in God let him deliver him if He will have him Insultando quod non fieret non credendo quod factum esset says St. Austin not supposing that God could rescue him but braving him with that which was impossible O fools and slow of heart this was not the unruly Sacrifice impotent to help it self bound with cords to the horns of the Altar but such a Prisoner as St. Paul was Act. xvi who might have sprung out of prison when the doors were opened by the Angel but yet contented himself in bonds without liberty or enlargement Give me leave to forespeak your attention and I will discourse unto you briefly in the conclusions of the Schoolmen how the humanity of our Saviour might have been exempted from death and passion First had it pleased him to discover his Glory as he did at the Transfiguration in Mount Tabor would He but charm the Jews from their furious outrage with one graceful word what Devil durst have laid hands upon him Tun ' homo audes occidere Caium
of Christ the other at his Resurrection Terra quae in passione concussa fuerat horrore jam prae gaudio exilire videtur The whole Land of Judaea did quake with horror when he hung upon the Cross but it danced for joy when he rose out of the Grave so I have rendred the fifth reason The Sixth is Allegorical and thus in brief that our hearts must be shaken and inwardly troubled with compunction and repentance before we believe stedfastly in the Resurrection of Jesus Peter preacht and they that heard him were prickt in heart and said to him and to the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do There was an heart-quake before they believed Paul and Silas prayed and sung praises to God and suddenly there was a great Earthquake then the Jaylor came in trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and said Sirs what must I do to be saved Here was an heart rent and torn a commotion in his conscience greater than an Earthquake and then he believed When Eve took and eat the forbidden fruit says an eloquent Father there was no Earthquake no horror to affright her O that the Palsie had possess'd her fingers O that her teeth had chattered that she might not have eaten but vitiis semper serviunt blandimenta All was hush and still nothing but fair allurements do minister to our vices But at Christs Resurrection the sound of an hideous noise was fierce and terrible to the ear Virtutibus austera fortia sunt amica Harsh and austere occurrencies are best agreeable to vertue Roul the thoughts of your heart up and down like a tempestuous Sea if you mean to make a fair voyage to heaven the commotion of a troubled spirit will breed eternal peace As Paul was smitten down before he believed so faith must be beaten into us with violence and therefore behold there was a great Earthquake at the Resurrection of Jesus Unto the motion of the Earth I conjoyn the next circumstance of my Text which I called the motion of the heaven it were like Copernicus his fancy in Astronomy to think that the Earth did only move and the Heavens stand still at the operation of this Miracle No the everlasting doors were set open and the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven Here is one Keeper more than the Jews look'd for about our Saviours Sepulchre one more than Pilate appointed One mighty Prince of that supernal Host whose countenance was able to daunt a Legion of the best Roman Souldiers perhaps there was a multitude with him to celebrate the Resurrection as there was a multitude that appeared in the fields of Bethlem to rejoyce at his Nativity But this Angel I may say determinately was one of the most royal Spirits that stand before the face of God for ever To make short I will not defer to give my reasons presently how sweetly the eternal Wisdom did dispose to let an Angel shew himself openly both at this place of the Grave and upon the celebration of this great day First Those ministring Spirits had been attendants upon all the parts of our Saviours humility and reason good they should be occupied upon all occasions of his exaltation and glory Since we read of Angels that gave all diligent attendance at his birth the holy Spirit of God knew that men would look for their company at the Resurrection I mean that we who know him now by faith would expect their mention upon this occasion in the Book of God Besides his Resurrection is a birth not called so because of a resemblance how man is brought to life out of the womb of his mother in natural Generation but properly in it self according to the phrase of Scripture Acts xiii 33. For Paul preaching at Antioch that God had fulfilled his Promise in raising up Jesus again says he As it is written in the second Psalm thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee So that these Phrases it seems are equivalent this day have I raised thee up from the dead and this day have I begotten thee And surely as a Father of our own Church says very well the news of his birth if God had so pleased might well have been brought by a mortal man it was but the entrance into a mortal life But the news of his Resurrection do become the mouth of an immortal Messenger because it was an entrance into life immortal Secondly The women came out of doors to embalm Christs body with a great deal of confidence they never thought how many difficulties were in their way and such difficulties as could never have been mastered if the Angel had not been sent to facilitate all things for them They mind not how the High Priests would excommunicate all those that professed to believe or do good to our Lord and Saviour they came to touch a dead body which was pollution by the Law they stand not upon that The Sepulcher was guarded with Souldiers who would permit none to come near it they would try that The Grave was sealed with Pilates perhaps with Caesars Seal which none must cancel on pain of death they would venture that The Grave-stone was exceeding heavy as much as twenty men could move says Nicephorus and barred strongly with Iron and they were out of doors and far on their way before they thought of that then they ask Quis removebit Who will roul us away this stone As who should say God will send us some assistance in so good an enterprise we will put on and hope for that and the Lord to make their Pilgrimage prosperous sent an Angel from heaven to remove away the stone Scipio Africanus besieged a City in Spain well fortified every way and wanted nothing and no hope did appear to take it In the mean time Scipio heard many causes pleaded before him and put off one before it was ended to be heard three days after and being asked by his Officers where he would keep his next Court he pointed to the chief Cittadel of the besieged City and told them he would hear the Cause there in that space he became Master of the Town and did as he had appointed He was not more confident to enter into a City rampar'd against him by his valour than these women were to enter into a Sepulcher by faith sealed and shut up but the Lord is present with couragious attempts and he sent his Angel to assist them Thirdly This shewed says St. Chrysostome that he who had been buried there was God as well as man Cum ad sepulchrum tanquam in coelo ubi Deus habitat assisterent for Angels were as officious at the Sepulcher as they use to be in heaven which is the throne of God If men be laid in their Tomb the worms attend them corruption goes to corruption But the body of Christ even when the soul had left it was still united in one person with the Godhead
all Saints must be glad at those news all hail to this day for all the Feasts and Sundays of the year borrow their festivity from Easterday This is the day which the Lord hath made c. It is an easie thing to make us break out into carnal and voluptuous joy but it is not easie to make us apprehend spiritual joy Christ spake the good word unto the women all hail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejoyce There is somewhat in original sin which makes us great misdeemers it is not one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that will set us right though Christ himself pronounced it there were some signs which betrayed these parties that they were sore afrighted they said nothing for ought appears and therefore it is likely they were strucken dumb with the astonishment their countenance I suppose changed and every joynt of them shaked when they held him by the feet and therefore the gracious Lord adds be not afraid We may put it at large thus I come as a friend I have saluted you with peace and joy therefore be not afraid of me as if I were an enemy So Josephs Brethren being mistrustful of some great evil were enheartned by Josephs Steward Peace be unto you fear not Gen. xliii 23. The comfort of the salutation was reinforced by this consolation that there was no cause to fear When reason hath repulsed the fallacies of our passions by good arguments fear will diminish by little and little But here 's a case wherein reason could afford no succour for what could reason conceive touching the resurrection of the dead It is a dreadful thing to mans wit let it be never so dispassionated to see one come alive out of the Grave for it is a most natural thing for a man to tremble when he sees an accident far above nature therefore the exhortation must proceed from Christ and supernatural grace in such an instance as this Fear not The Angels said as much unto them before in the same syllables he is risen and be not afraid Comfortable speeches indeed yet they did not take it required a greater Doctor than they to inculcate that Lesson Christ preacheth it and it took effect they did remit of their fear for the Angels spake unto the ear and Christ unto the heart And when the conscience is enlightned by grace it cannot choose but see that the greatest avoider of fear is to know that Christ is risen from the dead Death is called the King of terrors by Job as being the strongest of earthly fears and yet this is quite assuaged in them that have an assured hope of joyful resurrection Wy boastest thou thy self thou Tyrant that thou canst kill the body death is not extinction but an intermission of life My bones shall be covered again when worms have eat my flesh and with mine eyes I shall see my Saviour It is the Whetstone of fortitude in battel and in all dangers scelus est rediturae parcere vitae who but a base mind will dastardly preserve that life which shall return again An application of the Holy Spirit will make a good Christian as stout as a Lion setting the most valiant object of the Resurrection before him Though the Pharisees would hate them to death that should testifie how Christ was raised in power though the Scouts of the High Priest were abroad to note them in the black book that travell'd about that errand though the Souldiers were grim and cruel and would spare none that should refute their falsehood that the Disciples had taken away the Body while they slept yet these weak women dare do any thing to confront the evil world since Christ had said unto them be not afraid After this they have a Commission to dispatch and depart Go tell my Brethren they must not stay and dispute it Lord whither should we go thou hast the words of eternal life send us not away from thee for in thy presence there is the fulness of joy If the Blessed Virgin was not happy that her paps gave him suck but that she heard the word of God and kept it then it was no happiness to see Christ or to touch his feet but to do his will and obey it It was not a time to feed still upon this gladness and to stay with him but go and impart it There was a season when Mary Magdalen was commended for sitting still at his feet and choosing the better part but now blessed are the feet that stir and walk upon this errand to bring glad tidings of salvation As the Samaritan Woman did well not to stay with Christ but it was better to go into the City and to tell her kindred that she had found the Messias Beside their Commission was a special dignity to go from him and to bring a Message to the Disciples neither did they pretext as Moses did we are ignorant women slow of speech let Aaron rather be sent unfit for the preaching of these mysteries Christ knew what sufficiency and aptitude was in them better than themselves and therefore they must undertake to go to the chief Princes of the Church to them that succeeded Aaron in his Bishoprick The Apostles lurkt at home for fear so that Christ was fain to find out new Apostles to preach him these Daughters of Jerusalem And as their Commission had dignity in it so it was very pleasing and full of sweet address to those that sat disconsolate Go tell my Brethren they that run away from him and forsook him did not look it may be for so sweet a Title No doubt their hearts did catch at it as soon as ever they heard it like those that came from the King of Syria thy Brother Benhadad The Angels did not give them this style but plainly thus Go tell his Disciples and it was well considering their fault that they did not lose the name of Disciples but Christ exceeds the Angels in loving kindness and is not ashamed to call them Brethren Hebr. ii 11. But the more he advanceth his Servants in title the more ought they to depress themselves the more he calls us Brethren the more let us cast our selves down before him as Servants to the Mighty Lord. This also they learnt into the advantage that now Christ was risen in immortality he had not put on another body or chang'd his nature he is still as we are in his fleshly substance and therefore calls his Disciples Brethren And this we are taught likewise that he doth acknowledg them for his Brethren after he appeared in glory even as Joseph claimed kindred of his Brethren in the top of his honour Haughty men will forget their old acquaintance when they rise unto promotion but in true morality amicitia non dissolvitur per fortunae accessionem a true friend will persist a friend though he ascend to a noble accession of fortune Christ being made the greatest that ever was upon earth calls these Fishermen his
of First-fruits which at this time by the Levitical Sanctions were waved to the Lord are rendred after the spiritual gloss of our Church to be amor Dei proximi the love of God and the love of our Neighbour and these must be weaved or heaved up after their manner what 's that why our integrity and piety must shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father that is in heaven Beloved here 's the difference they gave first-fruits of earthly things this day unto God but this day we celebrate the memorial how God gave First-fruits of heavenly things unto man In Rom. viii 23. St. Paul speaks of the first-fruits of the spirit in a diminutive sense as the inchoation of grace the enlightning of faith the hope of better things that what he hath begun in us he will perfect but the first-fruits of the spirit which the Church reapt this day was that which sanctified the whole lump for ever after for this last correspondency and for the other forenamed the Apostles in a most acceptable time expected the Holy Ghost when the day c. A most delicious gift poured out from God in the very strength and deliciousness of the year A festival time it was you have heard and such a Festival as brought a Concourse of many Nations to Jerusalem so it appears in this chapter I have my authority from St. Ambrose that the Lord had this time much in mind to do it honor many years before for some Jewish Tradition hath encouraged him to say that the certain season when the Angel came down to the Pool of Bethesda to trouble the water that whosoever stepped in first might be made whole of his disease it was but once a year and that once was the Feast of Pentecost Mark how the Lord design'd out that day for his Angelical Miracle I will not engage my self into that Chronological question whether our first Whitsunday when the Holy Ghost appeared in firy tongues was the very Pentecost of the Jews or rather the day after To the latter opinion many incline upon that slight reason because St. Luke writ this Story of the Acts 28 years after Christ's ascension into heaven and then the Jews Pentecost was abolished the doubt is much uncertain wherefore I let it pass But I can assure you that in very ancient times of the Christian Faith yea in the most ancient if Clement his Constitutions were warrantable this day was kept with as high honour and devotion as the zeal of our Forefathers could excogitate Says Eusebius lamenting that his Master Constantine the Emperor died at the same time if I should call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holiday of Holidays we should not erre He adds that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it had honour done it seven weeks together This in my apprehension refers us to three things First the Church was wont to sing that chearful Anthem of Alleluia every Sunday from Easter to Whitsuntide an arbitrary Ceremony at the discretion of every particular Church and our Church of England since the Reformation continued the custom according to the first Liturgies set forth in Edward the sixth his Reign to sing or say alleluia from Easter to Whitsuntide at Morning Prayer 2. By the ancient Prescript no Fasts were bidden all those seven weeks nothing but joy and exultation was heard and practiced 3. During all that space they did not kneel at time of Prayer but stand upright looking towards Heaven from whence the Holy Ghost descended Nefas erat de geniculis adorare in Tertullian's time these were ancient Rites and Prescriptions to magnify this day in the beauty of holiness But whereas Eusebius adds that Christ ascended into Heaven the very same day the Holy Ghost descended this was his oversight though not his alone who would not pick the right sense Act. i. 3. that Christ was seen of his Disciples but fourty days speaking of the things of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore on the fourtieth day he was taken from them into Heaven and ten days after the plentiful showers of grace did rain down upon the Church the time is so precisely noted says Isidor Palcusiot to refute that proud Heretick Montanus who said the great promise of the Holy Spirit was not fulfill'd at the Feast of Pentecost but long after in his days This is the glorious day which the Lord hath made wherein he summ'd up the complement of all his benefits as the sixt day was the complement of the Creation All other preceding mercies were but words to this the Holy Ghost is the Seal or Signature of those words to make the deed the stronger in quo signati estis Eph. iv 30. in whom ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Rejoyce in this day and keep it holy before the Lord not in decking the body in full diet in sport in idleness but in thankfulness in purity of mind in spiritual consolations in the feast of a good conscience and ever set before you at such seasons what Gregory said Quid prodest interesse festis hominum si contingat deesse festis Angelorum What profit is it to keep holiday with men if we should be excluded from keeping holiday with Angels for evermore So much for the time of the Holy Ghosts coming I repent me not that I have been long in it for it was most material The persons that received this power from on high are next in the way of my discourse omnes all of them Many there are that understand this note of Universality collectivè not as meant of all that were present but of all the Apostles The whole Church was gathered together for the Election of a new Apostle that 's apparent in the former chapter and the lot fell upon Matthias The number of names together were about an hundred and twenty Among these there were divers women Mary the Mother of our Lord is expresly mentioned for one of them these continued together in prayer and supplication even until the time that the Holy Ghost did fill the Room Now I would put the case into this distinction whether the spirit came down upon them all upon them all in some great measure no question but not upon them all with the same virtue and power and illumination Many talents of rare perfections were distributed among all the Believers that were present men and women for else Peter had not applied the place of the Prophet Joel so pertinently ver 17. of this chap. In the last days I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh your sons and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions St. Hierom leans to this side and says that the mighty gift of grace was given to all that believed even as God took the spirit of Moses and gave it to the 70 Elders and it came to pass when the spirit rested upon them
they prophesied and did not cease Num. xi 25. Elegantly St. Austin to favour this opinion Christ warned his Apostles not to stir from Jirusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father and that not many days thence that is 10 days after his Ascension they should receive the Holy Ghost But says the Father Christ gave this spirit not only to them but to ten times as many as the Twelve to sixscore in all Ea est fidelitas imo liberalitas Christi docens nos pauca promittere sed decuplo plura praestare this is the just dealing nay the liberality of Christ which bids us promise no more than we will perform but rather perform ten times more than you promise But whether the cloven tongues which lookt as if they had been of fire did descend upon the whole Congregation men and women may a little be doubted for they were Types and Figures that the Lord would send forth of his Servants to be bold and fervent Preachers in all Nations and women were interdicted from the public ministry of Preaching though in the beginning they were imployed in some private labours of the Word And if the women had the gift of tongues they did not utter them in this Chapter for when all were amazed to hear such diversity of languages from illiterate ones and such as never travelled some mocked and said these men are full of new wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the masculine gender And 't is not to be despised for an observation that ver 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all are said to be full of the Holy Ghost and ver 3. the firy tongues are said to sit not upon all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon each of them meaning I conjecture upon each of the Apostles but I will not strive for it In the old Missals I am sure I have not perused the latter it reads the Epistle thus omnes discipuli all the Disciples were with one accord in one place and Beza says in two antient Greek Copies he had found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Apostles and none other mentioned Certainly they were primarily intended to reap the benefit of the day For it is well noted by the first Writers that there were four things proper and peculiar to the Apostles given them for the gathering together of the Saints which were not communicable to any other Servant of Christ The first was immediate vocation from Heaven St. Paul demonstrated he was not inferior to the best of the Apostles because of that property The second was infallibility of judgment in the necessary points of faith 3. A Generality of Commission to have the care of the whole world committed to every one of them to exercise their power in all places towards all persons 4. To speak in all the tongues and languages of the world to confirm their Doctrin by signs and miracles and by the imposition of their hands to give the like miraculous gifts of the spirit to others For although the having of miraculous gifts and the power to work miracles was not simply proper to the Apostles yet to have them in a sort as by the imposition of their hands to give the spirit unto others and to enable such as they thought fit to do signs and wonders through the finger of God this was a benediction upon the heads of the Apostles from the great day of Pentecost and only upon them Simon Magus that Mammonist you may remember would have bought it of them but had a curse instead of a blessing Nay when Philip the Deacon had baptized some at Samaria the Apostles went to confirm those whom he had baptized by imposition of hands that they might receive some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost And as these graces were reserved only for the Apostolical honor in their time so were they never since passed over to any by succession Instead of immediate calling God be praised we can shew our Vocation derived by succession from the Apostles Instead of infallibility of judgment we have the direction of the Scriptures to guide us in finding out the truth instead of general Commission over the whole World we have particular assignment of several Churches and parts of Christs Flock to feed instead of their miraculous gifts and power to confer them to others we have that faith which was confirmed by the Apostles miracles And so I have declared that many even all the Believers that met together shared in the blessings of this day but the Apostles had an excellency and preeminency above them all for the government of the Church not disputing what particular irradiations and sanctifications the Blessed Virgin had which we may suppose to be incomparable beyond all others such as were fit for her to receive but they are not here revealed But of the persons hitherto I can spare no more time for that for it is worth much observation how they were prepared to receive the Holy Ghost which I handle in this order howsoever the words ly first that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first unà then unanimes they were all in one place To be altogether in one City in Jerusalem and not to stir from thence till they had received the Comforter even the Spirit of Truth to that purpose Christ laid his command upon them but they were met together not only in one City but in one house not only in one Vineyard but like Grapes they hung together in one cluster Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity In publick they consorted together Luke v. ult they were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God together in private they held fast the same friendship and amity by this says our Saviour shall they know you to be my Disciples if you love one another Whether it were the time of praying or hearing the Word or breaking of bread mark it in several places of this Chapter they did it with chearfulness and mutual friendship they were never asunder Unity in matter of circumstance in matter of place carries blessing and edification with it that we are Brethren it is the Lords doing to make men to be of one mind to dwell in one house Psal lxviii 6. We read it in our last Translation he setteth the solitary in Families that is he reduceth the dispersed into unity and outward conformity I told you and pressed it earnestly about this time the last year what an acceptable thing it was to God that when Noah and his Sons and Daughters were all the living of men and women that were left in the World that these should all praise the Lord together in outward unity with one voice and with one Sacrifice this was called a sweet smelling savour so much it delighted God this day to see the Church met together those 120 names that after Ages might know how well compacted the Primitive
opened that the Word should run swiftly throughout all the world when good tidings were diffusive great joy unto all people The sound came flying upon the wings of the wind that there was neither Speech nor Language upon the earth but their voices were heard among them The Law made a great din when it was published there came thunder with it and the noise of a Trumpet louder and louder Yet this noise was spread in the Desart of Sinai in a desolate and uninhabited Region But this sound which hapned when the Gospel was authorized to be preached in every Nation it had audience in the most populous place of all Judaea in the City of Jerusalem As who should say it was a communicable sound which should be received into the Imperial Cities of all Kingdoms I draw this only observation from it to your holy practice that the Lord loveth fragorem vocis not a whispering silence but an exalted voice a loud exclamation to praise him Open confession of Gods name is an effect individually connex'd with a true lively faith so says David Psal cxvi I believed and therefore I spake There are three things hateful to God which jar against it 1. Hypocritical profession when the protestation of the mouth is not rooted in the heart 2. Abnegation of the Faith whether they deny the truth for fear or for resolved Apostasie 3. There is another way to sin against the confession of the Faith and that is malum silentium not to glorifie God openly in our profession when it concerns his honour in whose person the Psalmist speaks I kept silence yea even from good words but it was pain nay it will be pain and grief unto them St. Paul complains of those Christians that were of Rome in his days that none would openly declare themselves of his side in the time of persecution At my first answer none stood with me but all forsook me I pray God it may not be laid to their charge 1 Tim. iv 16. The Lord would not have it lurk only in the secrets of our breast that we are Christs Disciples but that it should resound abroad to his glory for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation And let Gods service be performed on all sides on the Priests part and on the peoples with fervor and strength of voice like the sound of many waters You may pray tacitly in the heart but sure the holy Spirit came not from heaven like a vehement sound to teach you to fumble in the mouth and scarce to open your lips when you are in Prayer Prayer is a calling upon God Call upon me in the time of trouble Psal l. Nay a roaring for very disquietness of heart says the same Prophet in another place Our humble Petitions are called Vituli labiorum Heb. xiii Their lips will offer their sacrifice aloud if the true incense of zeal do burn within for our Saviour says Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A troubled soul I grant it sometimes cannot utter it self sometimes a dumb-born Prayer is very powerful as Hannah the Mother of Samuel is the great instance of it but in the ordinary way assuredly the more strength of voice we put to our Supplications the more we shake off the drowsiness of the flesh the more we stir up the grace of the holy Spirit which loves that the Eccho and chearful sounds of the voice should ascend up to heaven But the Scripture doth not leave at this that there came a sound from heaven it goes further and tells us the manner of the sound that it was like unto that noise which is caused by a vehement wind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the wind had blown but it was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Oecumenius that you might not imagine the holy Spirit to be a corporeal breathing like the vaporous substance of the wind therefore the quasi is very significant that it had but the similitude of the wind Yet it is very inquirable why like that more than any thing else If we had been left to guess what sound it was why might not we have imagined it to be the purling of some soft streams Or the humming of Bees about their Hive Or the voice of harpers playing with their harps Rev. xiv 2. None of those it was but as the fragor of the wind And when God declares his vertue in some sensible object you must perswade your reason there is some great relation between the sign and the thing signified Did not our Saviour illustrate unto Nicodemus our Regeneration or new Birth from the blasts of the air Joh. iii. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the voice thereof and knowest not whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit Yet more feelingly when he did infuse into his Apostles the power of the Holy Ghost bequeathing them that great Sacerdotal priviledge Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained Was it not conveyed by blowing upon them like the wind by insufflation Joh. xx 22. He breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost Now I will tell you together where both the mystery and the use of it do consist First As the breath which we send forth comes from the warmth of our Lungs and of our bowels within so the Spirit proceedeth from the substantial love of the Father and of the Son What was the meaning then of that sensible expiration But that as the breath which he vented out came from his Humane Nature so the Holy Ghost which he breathed on his Disciples came from his Divine Nature And this must follow to give it you by the way that Christ is very God for who but God can communicate the Holy Ghost For it was Gods Promise that He and none but He would pour out his Spirit upon all flesh Isa xliv And it stands as well proved that the Holy Ghost is God for the prime and supreme power to remit sins is the Holy Ghosts he was given to the Disciples for that end and none can forgive sins but God alone Secondly Christ communicated his spiritual gifts by breathing to shew that he even the same Lord was the Author both of our temporal and eternal life For in the Creation the Lord breathed into mans nostrils the breath of life Gen. ii 7. But this life shall pass away and the body shall crumble into dust Why behold the breath of the Lord will go forth again to cause a joyful Resurrection as it is in the Prophets vision of the dry bones Ezek. xxxvil 5. Thus saith the Lord unto these bones Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live Yet if this body wherein sin reigns and inclines it only to
utterance ALL the joy which we celebrate for the famous acts of Christ is irksom to the Devil and the particular Solemnities which we keep are grievous to those that shut their eyes against the truth Upon the yearly day of our Saviours Nativity the Jew is sad and displeas'd because he believes not that he that was born of Mary a pure Virgin was the Son of God and the Messias whom their Fathers lookt for that should sit upon the Throne of David for evermore Upon the high Feast of his Resurrection the Sadducee gnasheth with his teeth because he denieth that the dead can be raised to life So upon this triumphant Feast wherein we abound with comfort for the sending of the Holy Ghost the Pelagian is malecontented who is an enemy to the efficacy of Grace and the more cause we have to maintain the dignity of it and to be throughly disciplin'd what the Holy Ghost hath wrought for our Soul because the Church is miserably soured of late in all places with the leaven of Pelagius Again as all the parts of our Saviours Mediatorship were several degrees to advance our Salvation and like the several steps of Jacobs Ladder to bring us nearer and nearer to Heaven so in this comparison the sending of the Holy Ghost is the loftiest degree and as it were the top of the spire which is next neighbour to the Kingdom of Glory for as man in his first creation had but an incomplete being till the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so man in his reparation was but incompletely restored till Christ did send the Comforter to infuse into him the breath of sanctification This day therefore is the concluding Feast of all the great days wherein we rememorate the noble works of our Lord and to go further this Text is the upshot of all the blessings that were conferred upon the Church in this happy day Christ took our nature upon him that he might die for our sins he suffered and was crucified that he might reconcile all such to his Father as would repent and believe repentance and faith to please God cannot enter into the heart of the natural man by his own abilities a power from Heaven must be the means to bring that about which is so repugnant to our corrupt nature Traverse over the mystery of our Redemption and you shall find that the work is at a stand till supernal grace poured in do draw it forward as Physicians say that spiritus est ultimum alimenti the last concoction and the most refined part of our nourishment is that which makes the spirits so the donation of the Holy Spirit is the accomplishment and final resolution of all the benefits which we partake in Christ And the last payment collated by that precious liberality to enrich the Church for ever is here in my Text nay indeed it was but a preparation before the talent of grace was not tendred till now That which was set forth in figure in the former verses is here exhibited in real substance Before a rushing wind made a noise here was the very thing imparted which was shadowed by the wind before certain firy tongues made a glittering that sat upon their head now their own tongues became most fluent and voluble with wonderful eloquence In brief to the exact building up of the Church two things were requir'd which are not wanting but abound in this verse First that the Lord should speak unto the Heart Secondly that he should speak unto the Ear by an invisible word and by a visible He spake invisibly to the Heart when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost he spake visibly to the Ear when his Ministers began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Nay more to gather a Society together whose Labours should be dispread over all the world it was expedient that the Lord should confer both ordinary and extraordinary Gifts upon them His ordinary Blessing and indeed nothing is blest without it is some quantity of Sanctification his extraordinary Blessing is twofold to send such as are not lightly sprinkled but filled with the Spirit and to speak with divers Tongues that their sound may go forth into all the World Yet again to shew the Amplitude of Gods allowance to his Primitive Church he makes a double provision first for every Disciple as he is one Member of this Body and so all and every one of them were filled with the Holy Ghost and then he provides for all the Members of his Body junctim in one union and communion they began c. so that here 's the inward and the outward blessing the ordinary and the extraordinary the particular and the universal The inward ordinary and particular blessing is this that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost If you look for the provision with which the Primitive Church was stored look for it in this Chapter and you will find out upon judicious survey that there are three things which make it plenteous with all manner of store Pastores Verbum and Spiritus First certain Pastors allotted to the sacred Function to guide the souls of the People 2. the Word of life which is put into their mouth to be preacht unto all Nations 3. The Spirit of grace accompanying the Word to make it fruitful and prolificous in the hearts of them that hear it and obey it That some were ordeined Pastors and Bishops to teach and rule the Church that 's clear the Apostles met together in Jerusalem with one accord as Christ had appointed and the Cloven Tongues which came from Heaven sat upon each of them that was their Commission to take their Bishoprick upon them that the Word was delivered unto them which they should preach and Elocution to impart that Word to every Kingdom and Language that 's as clear Eight times in this one Chapter St. Peter quotes the Scripture of the old Testament and with divers tongues according to the capacity of all the Nations and Languages that were met together and that the Holy Ghost was infused with much abundance at the same time that 's as clear and pregnant as the rest 't is twice gone over in my Text both in the beginning and in the end they were filled with the Holy Ghost and the Spirit gave them utterance A Church without lawful Pastors is but a Synagogue of Schismatiques a Pastor without a Tongue is but an Idol Shepherd or a dumb Dog a Tongue without the power of the Spirit is but sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal As St. Paul said of the three grand Theological Virtues Now abideth Faith Hope Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity so I say of these necessary parts that constitute the Church the Ministry the Word and the Spirit but the chiefest and most excellent of these is the Spirit In some strange manner God may have a Church without a consecrated Priesthood as when Adam and
Eve were first placed in Paradice he may have a Society of holy Servants without the Word taught and proclamed by the organ of a Tongue as the Angels are illuminated to know his will by immediate inspiration but with reverence let me speak it I cannot see which way the Lord can have a Church without the Gift of the Holy Spirit God may be known by his wonderful works and effects without his special grace but can he be present in the soul of man and make it blessed by knowing his Divine will to please him without his special grace Praesens est in quantum praesentem facit beatitudinem if he make all his good to pass before us it must be by these means I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious Exod. xxxiii 19. Those creatures that seek no higher perfection nor greater good than a temporal being and that which is found within the compass of their own nature they may attein thereunto by the strength of nature without any other help but Men and Angels that seek an infinite and Divine good that is everlasting happiness which consisteth in the vision of God they cannot attain their wished end which is so much removed from them and so far above them unless they be lifted up unto it by a supernatural force of grace Eternal felicity is the Haven to which they sail and it is no ordinary wind but the stiff gale of the Holy Spirit that must bring them to the Port of endless glory that is they cannot ascend of themselves they may be lifted up to the Vision of God especially Man since his woful fall they are the words of the tenth Article of our Church can have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing him that he may have a good will and without the same grace working with him when he hath a good will Natural habilities and inclinations at the best reach no further than to dispose all things well for the honor and preservation of the natural being but when we are put to it and become content yea and rejoyce to lay down our life for Christs sake which is the abolition of the natural being this vigor and strength must come from a supernatural influence that is from the fire of the Spirit which is predominant above the breath of nature This hath given you satisfaction I suppose that it did more import the Church to receive the Spirit than any other benefit I draw forward to a more distinct inspection of it and the first scruple about which I find a difference is this Whether the very Person of the Holy Ghost be meant in this place or only certain impressions of his Gifts and Graces I will streighten my self to a short answer both the Person of the Holy Ghost was here and the virtue of the Holy Ghost that which sat upon the head of each of them in cloven tongues as it were was the infinite Majesty of the third Person of Trinity in that apt and visible similitude but that which filled them was not the very essence but the operation of the Spirit Implet non seipso formaliter sed dono quod producit say the Schoolmen he that filleth all things with his presence cannot be said formally to fill one thing more than another but he that blows where he listeth with his inspiration is said to fill those whom he sanctifies not with his essence but with that inspiration The Founder of School Divinity is noted for one error above the rest that he makes the Grace of God to be no effect of the Holy Spirit but the essence of the very Spirit to purifie the thoughts and mind He stuck too litterally to St. Austin and so wandred from the right way For thus that Father preaching upon my Text Christ was present with his faithful Servants this day not by his Visiting Grace but by his Personal Majesty atque in vasa non jam odor balsami sed ipsa suba sacri defluxit unguenti their vessels were not only perfumed with the odour of the sweet Ointment but that fragrant Balsam the very Unction it self did flow abundantly into them To this it is most proper to rejoyn that St. Austin meant it of the extraordinary Apparition of the Holy Ghost upon this day not of his ordinary inspiration For in the same Sermon he says that the immortal Spirit is vicarius successor redemptoris the Deputy to succeed our Saviour in the Church now he is gone away on high But how is he Christs Deputy not as if by his personal communication he wrought his gifts in us but thus quod Salvator inchoavit peculiari virtute Spiritus Sanctus consummat the faith which Christ did begin in his Apostles by teaching them daily the Holy Ghost did perfect by the special virtue of sanctification No Text doth more evidently convince that the infinite and increated essence of the Spirit is to be distinguisht from the finite and created qualities which he infuseth then those words Jo. vii 39. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those are all the words in the Text for the Holy Ghost was not yet we make it up for the Holy Ghost was not yet given But stand we to the words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost was not yet This will never hold without differencing the third Person of Trinity from his sanctifying effects the Person was before and had no beginning but nondum erat manifesti muneris efficacitate says Theophylact as yet he was not revealed in his plentiful efficacity The close of the Point is thus the very Person of the Holy Ghost came down into the place where they were gathered in an external visible form and his effects or efficacy was breathed into them in wonderful gifts But concerning those gifts wherewith they were filled there 's another scruple whether they were saving graces such as are collated upon them that are the Elect of God or whether they were only miraculous assistances as Prophecies Gifts of Tongues Gifts of Healing and the like which are impressions indeed of the Holy Ghost not that they sanctifie him which hath them but they are given to men for the confirmation of the holy Faith That which brings this into doubt is a Tradition that hath no good founder that some Apostates and Revolters as Nicolas the Deacon from whom the Nicolaitans are derived were some of this Assembly that are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost and it is not to be contradicted but that gratiae gratis datae habilities to work miracles may be in those that make shipwrack of a good conscience Yet that Exception though it may hold in others yet it is not to be applied to
speak the Oracles of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rational discourses 1 Pet. iv 11. So our Saviour promised his Disciples I will give you a mouth and wisdom not a mouth only but wisdom with it so that all your Adversaries shall not be able to gainsay it Luk. xxi 15. Finally the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the person of an Evangelical Priest The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should speak a word in season Isa l. 4. And so to end all let us send up our tongues of praise and thanksgiving to heaven to the gracious God that did send down the blessing of these Tongues to his Church upon earth And the same Lord Jesus exalt us to his Church Triumphant where with one song and with one voice we shall sing glory to him for evermore AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 12 13. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this Others mocking said these men are full of new wine MEntion being made in the former part of this Chapter what effects the Mission of the Holy Ghost as upon this day wrought in the Apostles the next thing which is disclosed in these two verses is what entertainment it found in the World What entertainment should it find but joy and gladness and thanksgiving it was a shower of grace that fell from Heaven and every drop of it more valuable than an Orient Pearl which made the whole earth barren and unfruitful before spring out with spiritual increase that from thenceforth the Wombs of Mothers should not bring out men but Saints It was not as upon the sixth day of the week in the Creation of the World that God did breath into man the breath of Life but upon this first day of the week he breathed into his Church the breath of Righteousness and filled it with the seeds of future Glory From the Feast of the Passover the Jews were to number seven weeks and then they kept a most solemn day called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost that 's this very day instituted to recognize how at that time they came out of Egypt from the Bondage of Pharaoh and received the Law which was delivered upon Mount Horeb. But to expunge the memory of that occasion God did superinduct a far greater blessing upon this Festival day and poured out his Spirit in a bountiful and miraculous manner upon his Disciples at Jerusalem Was there a season appointed to congratulate the deliverance of the Jews from the Captivity of the Body and doth not this Mercy exalt it self above the other that they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise to be enfranchised from the slavery of Sin and the Devil Was the remembrance of the Law a perpetual rejoycing though it were a killing Letter and is it not ten thousand times more comfortable to receive the power of the Holy Ghost which enabled them to keep the Law Did they take it kindly and chearfully to receive the Law written in Tables of Stone And is not the change a great deal better on this day to have it written in the fleshly Tables of their Heart Then the Lord gave them but one Talent and they made but small multiplication of it nay they were the Servants in the Parable and who but they that bound it up and buried it in a Napkin Lo here are five Talents delivered unto us a greater Sum than ever the Children of Men received before And answer me now in equity what entertainment the Mission of the Holy Ghost should receive in the World Not to deceive your expectation with many words the case is thus The best of the Jews that came to the God-speed of this days work profest ignorance and knew not what to make of it the worst of them exhaled envy and rancour out of their malignant minds and jeared at it And they were all amazed and were in doubt c. The parts must needs arise to these two heads Grande miraculum Grande ludibrium First a great Miracle for it wrought these three things first Amazement they were all amazed secondly Doubt they were in doubt thirdly earnest Search and Inquisition for they said one to another what meaneth this But though the greater part were thus affected and therefore it is said they were all amazed meaning the greater number yet divers turn'd it to mockery and said these men are full of new wine First the sending of the Holy Ghost was construed to be a great Miracle by all that saw the effects of it in the Apostles and in the beginning it is exprest by a passion that took away their reason for a time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were amazed then it troubled their reason they doubted and finally it exercised their reason for they asked after it Amazement is a word to express the highest and most sudden admiration that can take a man when astonishment doth seize upon the faculties of the mind and bind them up for a little space that they have no power to exercise themselves as if they were Planet-blasted The Latin word Attonitus is he that is scared with a sudden clap of thunder so that he is stupified for a while but the Greek word in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goes further for the right signification is they were beside themselves or they were in an extasie So our Saviour's Kinsmen being themselves out of their wits with ignorance thought that our Saviour was transported when he preached the Gospel and knew not what he said therefore their opinion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is beside himself Mark iii. 21. Ecstatici qui non sunt in potestate mentis they that are amazed have not their mind present for the time it is dizied and confounded so that this Miracle wrought upon the Jews after the highest pitch of admiration Let us interpret it to the best that joy did overcome them to see the riches of all goodness poured out upon the Sons of men Their Forefathers were astonisht with fear at the delivery of the Law and they are astonisht with joy at the coming of the Holy Ghost The Gift it self the Persons that received it the Operation which it did exercise in them to speak the glory of God in all Tongues and Languages all are transcendently wonderful that the wit of a natural man especially is not able to comprehend them The Gift it self in the first place is so celestial that the Lord himself is not more wonderful in all his works than in sending the Holy Ghost so hidden from the knowledg of the world so rare to be found so beneficial to mankind that he that marvels not at it is himself a Miracle Are you amazed at things which are secret and very abstruse in their nature none more close and unperceivable than this As the wind passeth by and is not perceived so God breaths the
is a great tyranny to teach that they immediately bind the conscience whereas they bind only mediately as coming from the lawful Magistrate they bind for good order sake and to avoid scandal and no otherwise If they bound immediately why are some ancient Feasts quite put down as solemnizing the 50 days between Easter and Whitsuntide Lastly To thrust many abuses together our Adversaries please themselves in bodily rest and going gaudily in opere operato without faith and repentance Let there be holiness within or it is a folly to keep holy-day without they think God gives more grace at such times than other that their prayers are sooner heard at such times that the Devil flies from them at those seasons which must proceed from this Tenet harsh in the very words that there is a sanctity inherent in this day whereas the Church cannot make a day holy in it self but per metonymiam adjuncti in regard of those duties which we are to perform to God Holiness becometh Gods House holiness becometh his People And God grant we may so order our days here that we may sing with the Angels Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is and shall be for evermore AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE CORONATION 1 SAM ii 30. Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed THis solemn Festival which you keep this day Right Honourable Right Worshipful c. shall give you I trust among other good works that plentiful reward which is in the first part of my Text God will honour you because you honour the Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ Our Saviour was contented to take three Disciples into Mount Tabor and no more that they might view the glory of his Transfiguration but behold a greater Mystery than that Christ is risen from the dead and therefore all your Tribes and Companies are gathered together not for once and no more but three days in their order for the more solemn consummation of that great Feast which indeed is the chief Pillar and the strength of our Faith Beloved since this day as you all know is but one of the followers of the principal Feast what could I choose to speak of more fitly than that which shall instantly follow upon the grand Resurrection when all that are dead shall arise out of their Graves and appear in Judgment and that is no other than this Sentence pronounced from the mouth of Gods Messenger Them that honour me c. For as Empedocles said that two things made this world at the first Lis amicitia that is to say Union and Separation So when we shall all appear before the face of the terrible Judge Union and Separation shall make two great parts of the next world some set on the right hand some cast off unto the left them that honour me I will honour there is the union of the blessed with Christ as he reigns in glory And they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed there is the separation of the Chaff from the Wheat they shall be made a scorn and a reproach and the Lord shall have them in derision You see then and every ordinary capacity may discern that I must not cast my Text into one mould as Moses made two Trumpets of Silver of one whole piece Num. x. For in this portion of Scripture as sometimes in the womb of Rebekah Jacob and Esau two Nations are divided and the one people shall be mightier than the other Of them therefore that honour God and shall be honoured let us speak distinctly by themselves and in the first place their pre-eminence deserves it and two things will fall naturally into that discourse which chiefly augment the celebrity of this day 1. The happy Inauguration of a most illustrious and a gracious King 2. These Penons and Triumphs of your charity which are placed before mine eyes God maintain the Kings honour and give him the necks of his Enemies under his feet God maintain the prosperity of your famous City under his just and careful Government and God comfort the Widow the Diseased and the Fatherless under the refreshing of your charity Salus Regis Salus Populi as we truly say that the safety of the King is the safety of the People So I may as truly say Salus Civitatis Salus Pauperum the safety this City is the comfort and refuge of the poor and needy To knit all these together Salvation to the King the Kings blessed Government to the State the charity of the State to the afflicted and those that are in want I say to bind all these fast in one I have chosen this Text to compass them about Honorantes Honorabo Them c. Which words that they were spoken to Eli the High Priest a person of quality and esteem is not to be doubted and that the Message was sent from God is as clear and never controverted but by whom the Message was brought I do not read in the Text and therefore it was never resolved Yet among many reasonable conjectures I am not against theirs that think an Angel was sent on purpose to give the charge for Angels let us speak after the manner of men are Faeciales Coeli the Heralds of Heaven and can best skill of dignities and promotions in heavenly places The blessed Virgin Mary her self was to learn of them that she was highly favoured of God and therefore Honorantes Honorabo deserves to be an Angels Message Besides Eli the High Priest was the first and chief Master in Israel Then God might pick out such an Instrument why not Who was above Eli in wisdom and might be able to teach all the Priests in the world and that was an Angel But it skills not who did utter it since the Spirit of God did endite it not for Eli alone no Scripture was written for one mans sake it serves the turn most fitly to all them that are mighty in Dignity or mighty in Substance And as Pyrrhus spake of the Senate of Rome that it was Senatus regum every man in it looked like a Prince and a Commander and as Zeba and Zalmunna said of the Sons of Gideon that every one look'd like the Son of a King So there is an Excellency nay some divine Majesty in every of these words and so I will divide them First Here is Honor in Deo an Honour residing in God Secondly Honorabo I will Honour that is Honor à Deo Honour communicated and diffused from God Thirdly Honor propter Deum Honour for Honour a Covenant established to the advancement of our glory if we glorifie God To begin with these parts in order and least we should strain courtesie and expect at Gods hands whether He should honour us first or we do Honour unto Him Let Honor in Deo the Honour due unto God have the first place and before all other in this discourse If we were enjoyned to magnifie and
St. Austin Did you think to burn like chaff and thorns to be out with a blaze The Scripture never meant it Your torments shall belike a firy Oven Psal xxi where heat is furious without the blessing of light You shall be like the burning of Lime Isa xii where the fire encreaseth when you think to extinguish it Nay you shall be as Wax before the fire Mic. i. melted and heated but not consumed Aetna was never cold yet as if it were the stomach of the world Montes uruntur durant quid improbi hostes Domini says Tertullian Yea says the Atheist Hills are but dirt and dross without life they may last and burn Then say we the Salamander hath life and yet is not consumed in the fire So shall it be with the wicked True says the Atheist such Creatures may play in the flames because it is their nature and delight but can the wicked abide in pains unsufferable and not be consumed St. Austin in this point hath outgone their Logick says he Mirabile est dolere in ignibus tamen vivere sed mirabilius vivere in ignibus nec dolere That is the miracle above the other for the little beast to live unscorched without any pain among the burning coals rather then as the damned to continue so in torment Do you believe a vain story for the one then believe the Scriptures for the other But I leave those and many more the like Problems for the Schoolmen whose subtil heads have extracted such questions by distillation from Hell Furnace as if they did not dispute but conjure And I pass from this Song of deliverance how mischief lighted upon the Viper to Canticum Canticorum the Song of Songs even Deborahs song in this happy preservation He shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm This was not a brand snatcht out of the fire half saved half consumed Not like your bloudy Victories wherein the Conquerours may sit down and count their losses as well as the Conquered As Pyrrhus said very well when twice he vanquished the Romans but lost the flower of his own Army in the Victories Si tertio vicerimus if we overcome the third time we are undone for ever But it is Dalmaticus triumphus sine sudore sanguine The Viper left not so much smart behind it as the prick of a thorn or thistle He felt no harm How would a Stoick interpret this now Forsooth to be an obstinate contempt of grief I will not call it patience as if Paul were toucht to the quick but would not feel it So Taurus the Philosopher in Gellius excused a sick person of his Sect that seemed to groan in his disease Non est gemitus alicujus victi à dolore sed anhelitus viri enitentis vincere That is pain and disease did not make him groan as if it troubled him but he fetcht his wind short to over-master his sickness this is robusta stultitia madness not manhood and Philosophy to affect such stubborness Nature cannot but love it self and retire from pain and Reason will follow Nature And this is enough to satisfie the most curious that trouble their heads why our Saviour cast out those strong ejaculations of grief against the bitter cup Mat. xxvi Cum natura cogit etiam ratio data à naturâ cogitur As I said before Reason will follow Nature Wherefore to say that Paul felt no harm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not suffer any He had been in the third heavens and in this one act God gave his body incorruption upon earth For so says Aquinas that many worthy Saints have had a taste of heaven upon earth not only by grace in their soul but by some other excellent quality shining in these vile bodies The properties of a glorified body are thus reckoned up by the same Author first that the Just shall shine like the Sun in the Firmament that is Claritas in corpore So the face of Stephen standing before the Council was bright as the face of an Angel The second ornament is agilitas in motu to be able to fly upon the wings of the wind thus Philip was carried by the Spirit from Gaza in the Desart to Azotus suddenly Thirdly our corruption shall put on incorruption as in this one act Paul suffered on his hand and felt no harm for the last attribute of a glorified body which is called spiritualitas I do not recknon it for according to the Schoolmens interpretation it doth quite destroy the nature of a body But let us remember to keep our bodies pure and undefiled since God hath given us a taste in this life that hereafter they shall be refined in greater glory O we doubt it not but we should all prove as holy as Paul himself if we were so dear to God as to feel no harm Our luxurious Courtiers would sing Songs unto the Lord with Shadrach Mesech and Abednego if the Son of God would walk with them in the firy Furnace and in the shadow of death that they might fear none ill Our wanton Ladies yea and their Handmaids also would play upon Timbrels unto God as well as Miriam if they might tread as safe upon the ground as she did and all Israel to fear none evil in the midst of the Sea No but if our danger did not come to be felt to tangit angit I fear we would be impudent and say there was no danger Like ignorant people who presume when beasts are tamed by discipline that they have no teeth because they bite not Jonah must be wakened to see the Tempest lest he sleep it out and deny it And if Saul miss nothing else yet he must lose his pot of water that he might acknowledge his own preservation and Davids fidelity As the Shepherd in Virgil was bitten by a Gnat to espy the hissing of a Serpent and we our selves try the edge of a Razor upon the nail of our finger and so come to know that if it should miscarry it would cut our throat And this is one cause why Paul did feel no harm because we are chastened with some feeling for they that be evil and feel no harm would be too too evil and feel no benefit But let my second reason be the answer and with your patience the conclusion for this time Such Miracles and such deliverances were required in the days of St. Paul the Apostle which are not now to be expected in these our days I call it a Miracle and so it is and in the nature of the greatest Miracles Small ones are but such as either seldom be seen and so come by their name so our Saviour wondred at the Centurions faith Or those which it is no news to see nor very hard to bring about but only it is above our reason perchance to know the cause as the turning of the point of the Loadstone to the North. But this is a more noble work and therefore
if he had pleased but to grasp the Loaves or to hold them in his Palm it was a full signification that his power and liberality were eminently met together for it is that hand which openeth and filleth all things The Apostles knew where these Loaves were forth-coming but they set not their mind upon them they would not meddle with them The People were an hungry and far from home in a desart place where there was nothing but grass Two hundred penyworth of bread perchance would have staid their stomachs and Philip thought that would be too little Howsoever they had not the money to buy it Five barly Loaves and two Fishes were all they had in store and who durst take them forth and shew them openly lest they should scramble and quarrel for them The People were ready to stone Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness when they were pinched with scarcity of food Therefore some gave counsel to send them away betimes certainly suspecting a mutiny But here is an accepit which runs cross to all their imaginations Christ betakes himself to those means which they contemned instead of dismissing the Congregation he calls them closer together instead of referring them to the Villages round about he contents them amply in that barren place Instead of the Tumult which was dreaded the issue came to great applause and admiration In all their days they had never seen such a Feast as this Table in the Wilderness where every Crum became an Handful Great things became vile and vile things became great by the dispensation of Christ In his own Person the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner and in his own hand the Loaves which the Disciples refused became such a Banquet as never was prepared Lord take it first into thine own hand whatsoever we receive and then it will increase and prosper Give us our daily bread and if it be thy gift for no more than one day the vertue of it will last a year Labour not then so much to have good things as to have them of God As David did quickly cast up a chearful account of all his estate O Lord my God all the store that we have it cometh of thine hand 1 Chron. xxix 16. whatsoever drops from his fingers is sweet smelling Myrrh Cant. v. 5. but all false ways he utterly abhors and whatsoever comes in by fraud by extortion by cavillation it will consume away as fast as ever the Loaves and Fishes increased But surely the whole quaternion of Evangelists have set down this Preamble to the Miracle with such joynt consent He took the Loaves that it cannot choose but have some depth of observation in it St. Chrysostome hath reacht it so far that great numbers follow him namely that our Saviour did impatronize himself thereby to the work which followed and published himself from thence to be the Author of the Miracle It was alike easie to his Omnipotency to say the word and to make bread of nothing Or to take a little into his hand and to amplifie it into a great quantity Depend upon this what we have he can increase and what we have not he can create it is all one to him But by handling the lump and so giving vertue to the augmentation the People might behold him as the Fountain of all Power and Majesty and say with the Lycaonians God is come down unto us in the likeness of man Hear what that Father says more unto it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was very expedient that the People should be taught these two Articles of their belief that Christ came from the Father and that he was equal with the Father The one must be proved by power the other by holiness The one by taking the Loaves the other by giving thanks The one by doing all the other by calling upon God when he did all Put the case he had looked up to Heaven and furnished them with satiety of victuals out of nothing what would the multitude have said why this comes from above this is Gods doing and this Jesus is a Prophet that 's come from God O but can humane reason be brought to no better opinion of him 't is true whatsoever can be done they that are unbelievers may gain-say it yet to subdue all contradiction in them that are willing to obey the truth he took the bread and took the glory to himself to make every loaf content a thousand that they might cry out with the Centurion this is of a Truth the Son of God and it is no robbery to say he is equal with the Father So at Cana in Galilee he did not create wine when they wanted and supplied them out of nothing but he turned water into wine water of their own fetching as this was bread of their own bringing a pre-existent matter whose substance they knew to be vulgar and natural he wrought upon these sensible things before their eyes that they might impute the transmutation to his own Divinity Unto which of the Prophets therefore can you liken him in this Miracle Moses obtained Manna from Heaven by prayer and supplication Christ did this by his own hand The Widows Barrel of Meal did not waste nor her Cruise of Oyl fail it was Elias his prediction not his immediate operation Elisha bad his Servant set twenty barley loaves before an hundred men they did eat and left thereof yet for his own part he did not meddle with it because he would have the children of the Prophets ascribe all to the Word of the Lord they did according to that spirit upon them which was circumscribed and limited God had lent them a tongue to declare his noble acts but the hand which did all was far above the hand of power was radical in Heaven therefore this is a distinctive note to know the Master from his Servants he took the loaves He took them indeed but for justice sake it is fit to ask unde habuit from whence he had them A mean question many times hath found a grave resolution it may prove so in this Whence he had them Why some say the Disciples did own them for they answer him Matt. xiv 17. We have here but five loaves and two fishes The words bear it as if they were theirs because their Master was wont to carry them into desolate places and to detein them there all night it was their wonted providence to carry some small refection with them in their journey as it appears Matth. xvi 7. When our Saviour bad them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Saducees they reasoned among themselves saying it is because we have taken no bread Then they had not yet usually they do not forget it and it may be this was their provision for the present season But the votes of them are more that conceive they did belong to some other In the nineth verse Andrew says there is a Lad here
especially overtop the Mountains and his voice delighteth to shake the Cedars of Libanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. says Plutarch Among Mariners not one that dies a quiet death among ten but among evil Kings not one among ten thousand As their life is infectious unto many so is their doom dreadful unto many and that is the second reason why he was smitten Thirdly The people were not altogether free from chastisement I am sure not free from terrour in Herods castigation Look now upon him that was your Idol look ye Sidonians upon the empty cloud which you did blow into the air nay above the heavens with the breath of your mouth How is it vanished and come to nothing Imagine Beloved with what astonishment the whole Assembly was dissolved if their Consciences were not as full of Worms as Herod's body Fourthly Says St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To enlarge the Fathers meaning Clemency and Justice when they meet together attend how they may punish few and save many Vt poena ad paucos metus ad omnes perveniret Wherefore judge in your own reason if Herod had been spared and a great Assembly punished they all were sure to perish he perchance might be amended but if Herod suffer the Malediction one man feels the smart and the whole Assembly may repent and be saved Fifthly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the same Father Let the Rabble go home in peace for this time they were not all white for harvest upon that day but behold the end Where is Caesarea now Or who almost knows the Sidonian They have learnt to know by dear experience that Thunder and Judgment is the Voice of God and not an Eloquent Oration The Sum and Doctrine of this Point is thus much First It is dangerous for a Magistrate it is certain Judgment for men whom God hath blessed with honourable and plentiful fortunes to defile themselves with scandalous vices You have Plenty in your Houses What need you to be unjust Your State is able to subsist by it self What need you to flatter You may have Families and Wives and Children Why should you be Adulterers Your Provision is not scanty Why do you eat and drink in excess as if they were things which you had not daily It is not for Princes to drink Wine that is not unto Drunkenness says the Prophesie of Lemuel which his Mother taught him A nullo periculo fortuna principum longiùs abest quà m ab humilitate The worst thing which happens to a magnificent life is that it is not obnoxious unto humility Secondly It is no less dangerous when a whole Kingdom and City or any collected multitude set their face against heaven Judgment may seem to have forgot them as these Sidonians departed safely in my Text but in time the Lord will root out such a Nation Well then when the flattering Assembly had deserved a vengeance Herod only carries it to his grave What shall I say As the Child that threw a stick at the dog which barked at him and hit his Mother-in-law who had long afflicted him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I meant the Dog but it is well as it is says the Child so that Princes may see they have no priviledge to be flattered whatsoever the People deserved Gods judgment fell not amiss upon Herod and he was smitten Tantus periit the second thing follows Tantus à tanto he was smitten by an Angel of the Lord. If these men says Moses concerning Core Dathan and Abiram If these men die the common death of all men if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me Strange Wickednesses procure strange kinds of Death If the Earth will not avenge them the Angel of the Lord will come down and fight Do the Trees of Paradise deserve to have a Cherubin set before them with a flaming Sword And shall not all the Host of heaven stand about the Majesty of the Most High and see the honour of his name preserved But there is a controversie whether this Angel were not one of the evil Spirits now commanded to inflict a disease upon Herods bowels For say they it were as great a torture for the Devil to punish Herod for Pride as for Herod to suffer it because it calls their own sin to remembrance for which they are fettered in chains of darkness And Josephus gave the occasion to this opinion augmenting the story of Herods death with this circumstance that an Owl at this very moment perched upon the silken strings of his Canopy which the King took to be a Presage of his death and was no doubt a tenour substituted by Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Homer says a Bird of fatal Praediction and such a one is said to have affronted Innocent the Third as he was declaring his own Title in the Council of Lateran For my part I am not averse to believe Josephus in this part of the Story because in all other points he doth follow the Evangelist And the sight of some uncouth Creature is able to put an evil Conscience into a perplexity worse than death Every thing is dismal to a guilty mind like Archimedes his Engines dreadful to the Romans if a Timber-log or Cable-rope did but shew it self upon the Walls of Syracusa But though the relation of the Owl be true the Spirit of God would not mention it in holy Scripture lest it should encrease our ignorance who are superstitions to be afraid of the crossings and apparitions of beasts and such other casualties Let it be then that this evil Vision affrighted Herod yet it is more likely that the Angel was one of the blessed which smote him that he died For although the good Angels are sometimes called evil ones ab effectu as the Psalmist says of the Israelites that God sent evil Angels among them yet the unclean Spirits are never stiled by this honourable compellation to be called the Angels of the Lord. And give me leave to please my self a little in this conjecture God would not permit vengeance of death to be executed against a King by any power inferiour to an Angel of light It is the priviledge of their Unction their immediate subjection to God alone which exempts them from the hand of all other authority yea from the fury of infernal Spirits Wherefore the Jesuits own tender conscience which is as soft as Flint dare not say that a King is obnoxious to death till some unnatural Sentence of deposition go before Which resembles methinks the very first passage in Aristophanes You dare not strike me says Charion the Servant having a Crown upon my head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says his Master I will first take your Crown from you so first the Jesuits lay down rules of Arts to depose Princes and then their Devil ships say that you may use them as you will Well though Herod deserved the worst
the old Greek Proverb goes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in every Pomgranat there are some corrupt kernels so there are some wicked ones in every Church 4. As the seeds of the Pomegranat are of a bloudy colour so the Robes of the Apostles and others the best kernels of the Church were red in the bloud of Martyrdom but made white in the bloud of the Lamb. The sum is in the whole Pomgranat in the lump we are the Body of Christ but take us one by one and consider us as sometimes we were darkness and now light in the Lord and that this fire was kindled in us all from the Altar of Christ Jesus and by them that minister at it so Jerusalem which is above is the Mother of us all For the most proper work of a Mother is to bring forth Children and the most proper work of a good Mother is to bring them up And because of these two Solomon in the same Canticle hath used this appellation which my Text doth I will bring thee into the House of my Mother that is the Church And though he were the greatest King one of them that ever the Earth saw yet it is no disparagement to him to call that his Mother which God calls his Spouse I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and faithfulness Hos ii 19. The Bridegroom hath taken this Bride unto him and their Offspring are multiplied and happy are those and none but they who are the legitimate Children of this sacred Marriage The Font of Baptism is the Womb of the Church the Spirit that moves upon the waters to sanctify them is the Father and from these two are brought forth the Sons of the Most High that shall dwell in glory for evermore And because of this indissoluble connexion between the Holy Ghost and this Spouse who is always present with it St. Austin notes that she must not only be a fruitful Mother in abundance of issue but also a pure Virgin because she knows none other Husband Ecclesia virgo est parit Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit the Church is both a Virgin and a Mother like the Mother of our Lord although a Mother yet of unquestioned virginity St. Ambrose runs more division upon the same string on this sort Sancta Ecclesia immaculata coit◠foecunda part◠virgo est castitate mater prole the holy Catholick Church keeps her Bed immaculate and yet her Offspring is innumerous a Mother by perpetual propagation and yet a Virgin by perpetual chastity Parit nos non dolore membrorum sed gaudio Angelorum nutrit nos non corporis lacte sed Apostolorum she is delivered of us with no pain or sorrow but with the joy of the Angels in Heaven she feeds us not with the breasts of a woman but the Milk of the Apostles which is better than Nectar to the Soul and the Manna that comes down from Heaven It is yet more admirable what God hath wrought upon this Jerusalem by demonstration of the Spirit and of power We are the dispersions of the Gentiles that are now the People of the Lord we were as a Strumpet that went a whoring after Idols and God hath betrothed this Church unto him and made it an unpolluted Virgin I deny not but lament it that there are some Christian stations affected towards Idolatry which renews the infamy of our ancient whoredoms But whatsoever our Mother is now our Grandmother was chaste and pure in Hegesippus dayes Take it in that sincerity of practice and Doctrin and then you may see the mighty works of Christ to turn an Harlot into a Virgin and a Virgin into a Mother Magna est sponsae singularis dignitas meretricem invenit virginem fecit says St. Austin this is the great and singular dignity of the Bride which hath prepared her self to meet the Bridegroom that comes from Heaven he hath changed her whoredom into virginity and multiplied her virginity into foecundity that she is the Mother of us all You see the Mother through whose Ministery every Christian is born again of water and of the Holy Spirt neque parcit unigenito pro sic genito the Father did not spare his only begotten Son that we might be thus begotten But is there no more that belongs to a Mother than to bring forth yes says Clemens Alexandrinus and I quote him because he speaks of the Church every thing that brings forth is obliged by nature to supply nourishment unto that which it brings forth I am not so rigid but I will grant that in cases of weakness and divers accidental indispositions that which nature doth ordinarily urge and provide for may be dispensed but this rule is born with every Female that which is so fruitful as to be a Mother should be so careful as to be a Nurse And so is the Church Not only Moses the Law-giver carried the People of Promise as a nursing Father carrieth his Child Num. xi 12. by tenderness by ordering their steps by breeding them in good Precepts and Laws but the Apostles were much more laborious to feed the Christian Proselytes with the Word of life that they might grow up from grace to grace unto the stature of perfect righteousness I have fed you with Milk says St. Paul to the newly converted Corinthians 1 Cor. iii. 2. and he suppeditated stronger meat to them that could digest it And for all manner of sweetness and forbearance he behaved himself gently among the Thessalonians as a Nurse cherisheth her Children 1 Thes ii 7. Every Rule and Doctrin which is delivered sincerely and in truth is Milk to those that thirst to drink of the Well of salvation Honey and Milk are under thy tongue says Solomon speaking of this Mother and Nurse Cant. iv xi Milk is a pleasant food so is the Gospel to them that have a spiritual taste there is no Aloes or bitterness in it but to them that have a carnal palat It is Antalcidas his answer in Plutarch to one that asked how he might speak that which might be accepted says he Si loquaris jucundissima praestes utilissima if you will deliver that which is most pleasant and season it with that which is most profitable so that which is sucked from the Breasts of this Parent arrides the taste with sweetness and it is as profitable as sweet and called Milk because it is a most growing nourishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Naturalists as they were accounted plain and innocent above all other People so they did excel for health and magnitude of body Be admonished therefore that such Christians as wax not better and better take some other thing for their nourishment than the Milk of the Church which doth not prosper in them If you do not grow and add virtue to virtue you have chosen a Nurse with dry breasts and whose complexion is diverse
apt to be separated I suppose an Epicure may lose his conscience in a mist for a little while and dispute it like a Galenist that the soul is nothing else but the temperature of the first qualities and so in death extinguished but can you imagine that the Spirit it self doth not often give him the lie and say within his breast you do me wrong I am immortal Verily I believe that they that put it off doubtingly and would be uncontrouled in their voluptuousness it may be it is not so are often tormented with the other part of the opinion it may be it is so If you will hear this truth upheld out of holy Scripture there is no resistance or cavillation against it Because I will not tie my self to every Text which chimes that way I will choose compendiously where others have made choice before me The Sadduces being stiff opposers against the separated existence of the Spirit and yet commending themselves in the Holy Patriarchs from whose Loyns they descended our Saviour selected that Scripture above all other to convict them which would catch them in their own net I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living How was God the God of Abraham unless he lived And in what did Abraham live but in his soul which was divorced from the body Irenaeus admires that any one should doubt of the souls perseverance after death since the enarration is so â—lear that the rich man saw Lazarus in joys when himself was tormented St. Hierom sets his rest upon those words Mat. x. 22. Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill the soul St. Austin recommends the words of Stephen to nick the Point without all contradiction Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Si animus moriturus esset causae nihil foret cur animum potiùs quà m corpus commendaret Aquinas against the Gentiles lays his strength upon that place of St. Paul 2 Cor. v. 8. We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with God One quotation were enough then how forcible are all these together He must be a beast in understanding that knows not that the souls of good men are Angels in reversion There are others that profess so much faith that the soul hath a state of happiness in reversion to those that die in the favour of God But that it comes not to any gust of this happiness till the end of the World For the soul say they falls asleep when the body perisheth that is it dies together with the body and when the flesh shall be quickned again and gathered out of the dust then the soul shall live again when both it and the body shall be exalted in the Resurrection I do not create Monsters to fight with all St. Austin found such Hereticks in his days he calls them Arabians who taught it every where that the Soul had no being after death till in the consummation of the World they both obtained together a joyful Resurrection Nay these Tares were sown long before St. Austin lived Irenaeus took the pains to root them up in his Age and he confutes them out of my Text says he how did St. John see the souls of the Martyrs who had been slain for the Testimony of Christ if the Soul should cease to be till the final Resurrection And if a Caviller shall say it doth not cease to be but it lies quiet and senseless in a trance Irenaeus blunts the point of that objection because in the next verse they desire vengeance for their bloud that was shed but principally because in the eleventh verse they are clad in white garments which are cognizances of their joy and glory and doubtless they wear them not sleeping but waking And do not think that I rake in the ashes of ancient Heresies that are quite forgotten For the Anabaptists in their Theses Printed at Cracovia Anno 1568 have this position We deny that any Soul hath a separated being after death that was a devise invented by the Papists to maintain Invocation of Saints and Purgatory this is Popery trimly reformed and according to that Proverb of the Jews they cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils And even at this day a new Generation of Vipers risen up at Racovia in Polonia do pledge the Anabaptists in the same cup namely that there is a futurition of glory for the soul when the whole Fabrick of man shall be redintegrated again in the Resurrection but they profess they cannot tell whether in the mean time there be any such thing extant as a separated soul yet St. Paul says he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ And yet Christ told the good Thief that day he should be with him in Paradise And yet the Souls of just men departed do follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Rev. xiv 4. These instances are more perswasive I am sure than that which they pretend that the Just do rest from their labours What rest in Gods name do they dream of They are not in a profound trance without motion or action as Adam was cast into a deep sleep when Eve was taken out of his side but it is a rest when the Spirit doth acquiesce in the Vision of God as David said Turn again unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath rewarded thee There are some that I must afford a little Patronage who are accused to lean to the Anabaptists in their opinion that do nothing less It was allowed for 1400 years as a Problem wherein Christians without breach of charity might have Latitude to dissent granting that the soul after the dissolution from the body was received into the joys of heaven whether it be not sequestred in some distance from the highest heaven where the invisible God doth chiefly reign in Power and Majesty till the whole Body of the Saints be accomplished It is well known what way St. Bernard took Nec sancti sine plebe nec spiritus sine carne That such as die before us shall not see the Beatifical Vision of the holy Trinity without us nor without their own body and that an integral Beatitude is not given but to an integral person And Calvin hath taken his freedom to be of the same mind says he Christ himself only is entred into the supreme Sanctuary of Heaven Et solus populi eminus in atrio residentis vota ad Deum defert and he alone commends the Petitions of the Saints to his Father whose Spirits attend in the outward Courts Those over-awing Fathers of the Florentine and Tridentine Councils have defined it indeed as an irrefragable Article of Faith that the Saints enjoy the most perfect Vision of God immediately after death What is that to us who will not lose our moderation in indifferent points for their
Non ex authoritate sed pacto Not by any power and vertue which they have but by compacts and infernal Sacraments between them and Satan The Apostles and Evangelists did cast out Devils Non ex authoritate sed ministerio not by their own authority and strength but as ministerial instruments which God appointed over the evil Angels But Christ with absolute and independant authority lays his charge upon the Prince of Devils and he could not keep his ground against him Now let me ask you Beloved whether will you be led gently by the word of Exhortation Or be compelled violently as stubborn and stiff-necked whither you would not by the dreadful and irresistible word of indignity Let me invert those words for this motive which Christ used to Peter When thou wert young thou walk'd whither thou wouldst riotously intemperately prophanely But when Christ comes to judge thee for these things another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not Draw near to God in Prayer and in the works of mercy then Faith and Sanctification will pluck you a little nearer and nearer if your iniquities separate between the Lord and you you shall be cast afar off O who is able to endure that word Decede Depart from me ye wicked Lord whither should we go For in thy presence there is life and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore Another reason why he fled from the presence of Christ is Quia victus he was so beaten out of all falshoods and inventions by the evidence of truth that he was ashamed to appear any longer before the face of the Conquerour So St. Ambrose Etsi invidere non desinat tamen instare reformidat quia frequentiùs refugit triumphari Satans envy to hurt the Saints is never mitigated yet he loves not to deal with those that foil him often lest men should triumph over him for his fruitless endeavours If a penitent sinners humility breed joy in heaven an innocent mans stedfastness against tentations must breed envy and amazement in hell The frustrating of bad attempts against our soul will add honour to the reward which we shall have in heaven and Satan will be loth to make any man too much a Conquerour lest he get too much glory in the Kingdom of heaven for his victories If he could have foreseen that heroick vertue in Job and in the rest of the Martyrs certainly he would have recoiled away and never have touched their persons As it was said of M. Anthony that Augustus his fellow Triumvir had been so fortunate against him in all Games and Recreations that in the end he durst encounter him in nothing Formidavit genium Augusti genius Antonii There was a Genius in Augustus which did over-awe the Genius of Anthony So the Ghostly Adversary is afraid of such devout persons as Zachary and Elizabeth who walk blameless in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God if he do but see their lips move in Prayer he is suspicious of his own weakness and their fortitude that they will bruise his head Therefore St. Chrysostome likens him to a Dog that waits at Table while you feed him he stirs no◠from you shew him no kindness but kick him and spurn him from the Table and he runs away from your severity which is thus Morallized in an Apostolical rule Resist the Devil and he will fly from you Jam. iv 7. Or if he do not fly because he is overcome by you do you fly first and that is an undeniable means to overthrow him walk not in the counsel of the ungodly abhor their ways abandon the occasions which entrap your frailty fly Fornication 1 Cor. vi 18. My dearly beloved fly from Idolatry 1 Cor. x. 14. And in another passion The love of money is the root of all evil O man af God fly these things 1 Tim. vi 11. Joseph fled from his Mistresses importunity and so overcame the Devil of lust Upon which St. Austin speaks Non verendum fugere castitatis palmam desideranti obtinere It is no cowardize in him to fly away that would wear the palm of chastity Antigonus being put to disadvantage gave ground to his enemies what says an hot-spur that was near him Do you fly Not fly says Antigonus but Vtilitatem à tergo sitam persequor I only prosecute that profit or advantage which is behind me So if it be useful to avoid the baits of sin make away as fast as your feet can carry you where such evil occasions cannot overtake you For this cause some are said to leave the world and to retire unto their Prayers not that any man can go out of the world till God receive his Spirit at the last hour but because they are sequestred into a strict course of life as into another world where the old man and his concupiscence cannot find them out And so much for the second reason why the Tempter did leave Christ Quia victus he was beaten and deluded the sting of the Dragon would not enter into Christ and yet he had ended all his temptation Put the last reason to the former why he left our Saviour and the Point is done Quia idololatriae convictus because he was both guilty and convicted of Idolatry for the Antecedent suggestion If therefore thou wilt fall down and worship me all shall be thine No disputation is to be held about such blasphemy as this but take that which is thine own and be gone without any longer parly There is no Society no Communion in Christ to be held with Idolaters they must leave us or we must leave them Whether the Idolatry be Error personae a quite mistake in the person taking those things for God which by nature are no Gods this was Idolatry indeed at the worst and in the most loathed deformity or though it be but error in modo colendi an idolatrous manner of worshipping the true God whosoever are infected with either of these crimes are to be shunned much more than those in the Old Law that had the infection of Leprosie in the flesh The Children of Israel worshipped the true God in the Calf that Aaron made I have said enough of that before there was no error in the person whose honour they propounded they meant all to God but it was a misbegotten invention of their own which could not consist with the pure and sincere worship of the divine glory the superstitious manner was enough to cut them off from the Congregation of their Brethren For Moses charged the Sons of Levi not to excommunicate them but to be their Executioners a particular severity for that fault and for no other put every man his Sword by his side and go in and out from Gate to Gate throughout the Camp and slay every man his Brother and every man his Neighbour and every man his Companion and they did so All Neighbourhood Companionship and Brotherhood was to be dissolved with Idolaters