I kept silence my bones consumed For day and night thy hand O Lord was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer O let me confess against my self my wickedness unto thee that thou maist forgive the punishment of my sinne We have a tongue for God when we praise him for our selves when we pray and confess for our brethren when we speak the truth for their information which if we hold back in unrighteousness we yield unto that dumb Devil Where do we not see that accursed spirit He is on the Bench when the mute or partial Judge speaks not for truth and innocence He is in the Pulpit when the Prophets of God smother or halve or adulterate the message of their Master He is at the Barre when irreligious Jurours dare lend an oath to fear to hope to gain He is in the Market when godless chapmen for their peny sell the truth and their soul He is in the common conversation of men when the tongue belies the heart flatters the guilty balketh reproofs even in the foulest crimes O thou who onely art stronger then that strong one cast him out of the hearts and mouths of men It is time for thee Lord to work for they have destroyed thy Law That it might well appear this impediment was not natural so soon as the man is freed from the spirit his tongue is free to his speech The effects of spirits as they are wrought so they cease at once If the Son of God do but remove our spiritual possession we shall presently break forth into the praise of God into the confession of our vileness into the profession of truth But what strange variety do I see in the spectators of his Miracle some wondring others censuring a third sort tempting a fourth applauding There was never man or action but was subject to variety of constructions What man could be so holy as he that was God What act could be more worthy then the dispossessing of an evil spirit Yet this man this act passeth these differences of interpretation What can we doe to undergoe but one opinion If we give almes and fast some will magnifie our charity and devotion others will tax our hypocrisie If we give not some will condemn our hard-heartedness others will allow our care of justice If we preach plainly to some it will favour of a careless slubbering to others oft a mortified sincerity elaborately some will tax our affectation others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God What marvel is it if it be thus with our imperfection when it fared not otherwise with him that was Purity and Righteousness it self The austere forerunner of Christ came neither eating nor drinking they say He hath a Devil The Son of man came eating and drinking they say This man is a glutton a friend of Publicans and sinners and here one of his holy acts carries away at once wonder censure doubt celebration There is no way safe for a man but to square his actions by the right rule of justice of charity and then let the world have leave to spend their glosses at pleasure It was an heroical resolution of the chosen vessel I pass very little to be judged of you or of mans day I marvel not if the people marvelled for here were four wonders in one the blind saw the deaf heard the dumb spake the Demoniack is delivered Wonder was due to so rare and powerful a work and if not this nothing We can cast away admiration upon the poor devices or activities of men how much more upon the extraordinary works of Omnipotency Whoso knows the frame of Heaven and earth shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of frail Humanity but shall with no less Ravishment of soul acknowledge the miraculous works of the same Almighty hand Neither is the spiritual ejection worthy of any meaner entertainment Rarity and difficulty are wont to cause wonder There are many things which have wonder in their worth and lose it in their frequence there are some which have it in their strangeness and lose it in their facilitie Both meet in this To see men haunted yea possessed with a dumb Devil is so frequent that it is a just wonder to finde a man free but to finde the dumb spirit cast out of a man and to hear him praising God confessing his sins teaching others the sweet experiments of mercy deserves just admiration If the Cynick sought in the market for a man amongst men well may we seek amongst men for a Convert Neither is the difficulty less then the rareness The strong man hath the possession all passages are block'd up all helps barred by the treachery of our nature If any soul be rescued from these spiritual wickednesses it is the praise of him that doth wonders alone But whom do I see wondring The multitude The unlearned beholders follow that act with wonder which the learned Scribes entertain with obloquy God hath revealed those things to babes which he hath hid from the wise and prudent With what scorn did those great Rabbins speak of these sons of the earth This people that knows not the Law is accursed Yet the Mercy of God makes an advantage of their simplicity in that they are therefore less subject to cavillation and incredulitie as contrarily his Justice causes the proud knowledge of others to lie as a block in their way to the ready assent unto the Divine power of the Messias Let the pride of glorious adversaries disdain the povertie of the clients of the Gospel it shall not repent us to go to Heaven with the vulgar whiles their great ones go in state to perdition The multitude wondered Who censured but Scribes great Doctors of the Law of the divinitie of the Jews What Scribes but those of Jerusalem the most eminent Academie of Judaea These were the men who out of their deep reputed judgement cast these foul aspersions upon Christ Great wits ofttimes mislead both the owners and followers How many shall once wish they had been born dullards yea idiots when they shall finde their wit to have barred them out of Heaven Where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisdome of the world foolishness Say the world what it will a dram of holiness is worth a pound of wit Let others censure with the Scribes let me wonder with the multitude What could malice say worse He casteth out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils The Jewes well knew that the Gods of the heathen were no other then Devils amongst whom for that the Lord of Flies so called whether for the concourse of flies to the abundance of his sacrifices or for his aid implored against the infestation of those swarms was held the chief therefore they stile him The Prince of Devils There is a subordination of spirits some higher in degree some inferiour to others Our Saviour himself tells
begin a worse this Heavenly flame should but kindle that of Hell Thus unconceivably heavy was the revenge but what was the offence We have learned not to think any indignity light that is offered to the Son of God but we know these spiritual affronts are capable of degrees Had these Samaritans reviled Christ and his train had they violently assaulted him had they followed him with stones in their hands and blasphemies in their mouths it had been a just provocation of so horrible a vengeance Now the wrong was onâ—ly negative they received him not And that not out of any particular quarrell or dislike of his Person but of his Nation onely the men had been welcome had not their Country distasted All the charge that I hear our Saviour give to his Disciples in case of their rejection is If they receive you not shake off the dust of your feet Yet this was amongst their own and when they went on that sacred errand of publishing the Gospel of Peace These were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel This measure was not to Preachers but to Travellers only a mere inhospitality to misliked guests Yet no lesse revenge will serve them then fire from Heaven I dare say for you ye holy sons of Zebedee it was not your spleen but your zeal that was guilty of so bloody a suggestion your indignation could not but be stirred to see the great Prophet and Saviour of the world so unkindly repelled yet all this will not excuse you from a rash Cruelty from an inordinate Rage Even the best heart may easily be miscarried with a well-meant Zeal No affection is either more necessary or better accepted Love to any Object cannot be severed from hatred of the contrary whence it is that all creatures which have the concupiscible part have also the irascible adjoined unto it Anger and displeasure is not so much an enemy as a guardian and champion of Love Whoever therefore is rightly affected to his Saviour cannot but finde much regret at his wrongs O gracious and divine Zeal the kindely warmth and vitall temper of Piety whither hast thou withdrawn thy self from the cold hearts of men Or is this according to the just constitution of the old and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisdome but in a dull indifferency and chuse rather to freeze then burn How quick and apprehensive are men in cases of their own indignities how insensible of their Saviour's But there is nothing so ill as the corruption of the best Rectified zeal is not more commendable and usefull then inordinate and misguided is hatefull and dangerous Fire is a necessary and beneficial element but if it be once misplaced and have caught upon the beams of our houses or stacks of our corn nothing can be more direfull Thus sometimes Zeal turns Murder They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholesome and blessed is that zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by wisdome and charity Wisdome to avoid rashnesse and excesse Charity to avoid just offence No motion can want a pretence Elias did so why not we He was an holy Prophet the occasion the place abludes not much there wrong was offered to a servant here to his Master there to a man here to a God and man If Elias then did it why not we There is nothing more perillous then to draw all the actions of Holy men into examples For as the best men have their weaknesses so they are not priviledged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instict or speciall command which we shall expect in vain There must be much caution used in our imitation of the best patterns whether in respect of the persons or things else we shall make our selves Apes and our acts sinfull absurdities It is a rare thing for our Saviour to finde fault with the errous of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with Gods own hand I finde him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitors and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitablenesse cannot be swallowed up in zeal If there were any colour to hide the blemishes of this misdisposition it should be this crimson die But he that needs not our Lie will let us know he needs not our Injury and hates to have a good cause supported by the violation of our Charity We have no reason to disclaim our Passions Even the Son of God chides sometimes yea where he loves It offends not that our Affections are moved but that they are inordinate It was a sharp word Ye know not of what spirit ye are Another man would not perhaps have felt it a Disciple doth Tender hearts are galled with that which the carnal minde slighteth The spirit of Elias was that which they meant to assume and imitate they shall now know their mark was mistaken How would they have hated to think that any other but God's Spirit had stirred them up to this passionate motion now they shall know it was wrought by that ill spirit whom they professed to hate It is far from the good Spirit of God to stir up any man to private revenge or thirst of blood Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwinde or in the fire but in the soft voice O Saviour what do we seek for any precedent but thine whose name we challenge Thou camest to thine own thine own received thee not Didst thou call for fire from Heaven upon them didst thou not rather send down water from thy compassionate eyes and weep for them by whom thou must bleed Better had it been for us never to have had any spirit then any but thine We can be no other then wicked if our mercies be cruelty But is it the name of Elias O ye Zelots which ye pretend for a colour of your impotent desire Ye do not consider the difference betwixt his Spirit and yours His was extraordinary and heroical besides the instinct or secret command of God for this act of his far otherwise is it with you who by a carnal distemper are moved to this furious suggestion Those that would imitate Gods Saints in singular actions must see they goe upon the same grounds Without the same Spirit and the same warrant it is either a mockery or a sin to make them our Copies Elias is no fit pattern for Disciples but their Master The Son of Man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Then are our actions and intentions warrantable and praise-worthy when they accord with
at once removes that which both they did and might have feared The stone is removed the seal broken the watch fled What a scorn doth the Almighty God make of the impotent designes of men They thought the stone shall make the grave sure the seal shall make the stone sure the guard shall make both sure Now when they think all safe God sends an Angel from Heaven above the earth quakes beneath the stone rolls away the Souldiers stand like carkasses and when they have got heart enough to run away think themselves valiant the Tomb is opened Christ is risen they confounded Oh the vain projects of silly men as if with one shovel-full of mire they would dam up the Sea or with a clout hang'd forth they would keep the Sun from shining Oh these Spiders-webs or houses of Cards which fond children have as they think skilfully framed which the least breath breaks and ruines Who are we sorry worms that we should look in any business to prevail against our Creator What creature is so base that he cannot arm against us to our confusion The Lice and Frogs shall be too strong for Pharaoh the Worms for Herod There is no wisdome nor counsel against the Lord. Oh the marvellous pomp and magnificence of our Saviours Resurrection The earth quakes the Angel appears that it may be plainly seen that this Divine person now rising had the command both of earth and Heaven At the dissolution of thine Humane nature O Saviour was an Earthquake at the re-uniting of it is an Earthquake to tell the world that the God of Nature then suffered and had now conquered Whiles thou laiest still in the earth the earth was still when thou camest to fetch thine own The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob. When thou our true Sampson awakedst and foundst thy self tied with these Philistian cords and rousedst up and brakest those hard and strong twists with a sudden power no marvel if the room shook under thee Good cause had the earth to quake when the God that made it powerfully calls for his own flesh from the usurpation of her bowels Good cause had she to open her graves and yield up her dead in attendance to the Lord of Life whom she had presumed to detain in that cell of her darkness What a seeming impotence was here that thou who art the true Rock of thy Church shouldst lye obscurely shrouded in Joseph's rock thou that art the true corner-stone of thy Church shouldst be shut up with a double stone the one of thy grave the other of thy vault thou by whom we are sealed to the day of our Redemption shouldst be sealed up in a blind cavern of earth But now what a demonstration of power doth both the world and I see in thy glorious Resurrection The rocks tear the graves open the stones roll away the dead rise and appear the Souldiers flee and tremble Saints and Angels attend thy rising O Saviour thou laiest down in weakness thou risest in power and glory thou laiest down like a man thou risest like a God What a lively image hast thou herein given me of the dreadful Majesty of the general Resurrection and thy second appearance Then not the earth onely but the powers of Heaven shall be shaken not some few graves shall be open and some Saints appear but all the bars of death shall be broken and all that sleep in their graves shall awake and stand up from the dead before thee not some one Angel shall descend but thou the great Angel of the Covenant attended with thousand thousands of those mighty Spirits And if these stout Souldiers were so filled with terrour at the feeling of an Earthquake and the sight of an Angel that they had scarce breath left in them for the time to witness them alive where shall thine enemies appear O Lord in the day of thy terrible appearance when the earth shall reel and vanish and the elements shall be on a flame about their ears and the Heavens shall wrap up as a scroll O God thou mightest have removed this stone by the force of thine Earthquake as well as rive other rocks yet thou wouldst rather use the Ministery of an Angel or thou that gavest thy self life and gavest being both to the stone and to the earth couldst more easily have removed the stone then moved the earth but it was thy pleasure to make use of an Angels hand And now he that would ask why thou wouldst doe it rather by an Angel then by thy self may as well ask why thou didst not rather give thy Law by thine own immediate hand then by the ministration of Angels why by an Angel thou struckest the Israelites with plagues the Assyrians with the sword why an Angel appeared to comfort thee after thy Temptation and Agony when thou wert able to comfort thy self why thou usest the influences of Heaven to fruiten the earth why thou imployest Second causes in all events when thou couldst doe all things alone It is good reason thou shouldst serve thy self of thine own neither is there any ground to be required whether of their motion or rest besides thy will Thou didst raise thy self the Angels removed the stone They that could have no hand in thy Resurrection yet shall have an hand in removing outward impediments not because thou needst but because thou wouldst like as thou alone didst raise Lazarus thou badst others let him loose Works of Omnipotency thou reservest to thine own immediate performance ordinary actions thou doest by subordinate means Although this act of the Angels was not merely with respect to thee but partly to those devout Women to ease them of their care to manifest unto them thy Resurrection So officious are those glorious Spirits not onely to thee their Maker but even to the meanest of thy servants especially in the furtherance of all their spiritual designes Let us bring our Odours they will be sure to roll away the stone Why do not we imitate them in our forwardness to promote each others Salvation We pray to doe thy will here as they doe in Heaven if we do not act our wishes we do but mock thee in our Devotions How glorious did this Angel of thine appear The terrified Souldiers saw his face like lightning both they and the Women saw his garments shining bright and white as snow such a presence became his errand It was fit that as in thy Passion the Sun was darkned and all Creatures were clad with heaviness so in thy Resurrection the best of thy Creatures should testifie their joy and exsultation in the brightness of their habit that as we on Festival-dayes put on our best cloaths so thine Angels should celebrate this blessed Festivity with a meet representation of Glory They could not but injoy our joy to see the work of mans Redemption thus fully finished and if there be mirth in Heaven at the conversion of
Jerusalem which was troubled at the report of his Birth is Christ come and all tongues are so lock'd up that he which sent from Jerusalem to Bethleem to seek him findes him not who as to countermine Herod is come from Bethleem to Jerusalem Dangers that are aloof off and but possible may not hinder us from the duty of our devotion God saw it not yet time to let loose the fury of his adversaries whom he holds up like some eager mastives then onely lets goe when they shall most shame themselves and glorifie him Well might the Blessed Virgin have wrangled with the Law and challenged an immunity from all ceremonies of purification What should I need purging which did not conceive in sinne This is for those mothers whose births are unclean mine is from God which is Purity it self The Law of Moses reaches onely to those women which have conceived seed I conceived not this seed but the Holy Ghost in me The Law extends to the mothers of those sons which are under the Law mine is above it But as one that cared more for her peace then her priviledge and more desired to be free from offence then from labour and charge she dutifully fulfils the Law of that God whom she carried in her wombe and in her armes like the mother of him who though he knew the children of the Kingdome free yet would pay tribute unto Caesar like the mother of him whom it behoved to fulfill all righteousnesse And if she were so officious in ceremonies as not to admit of any excuse in the very circumstance of her obedience how much more strict was she in the main duties of morality That Soul is fit for the Spiritual conception of Christ that is conscionably scrupulous in observing all Gods Commandements whereas he hates all alliance to a negligent or froward heart The law of Purification proclaims our uncleannesse The mother is not allowed after her child-birth to come unto the Sanctuary or to touch any hallowed thing till her set time be expired What are we whose very birth infects the mother that bears us At last she comes to the Temple but with Sacrifices either a Lamb and a Pigeon or Turtle or in the meaner estate two Turtle-doves or young Pigeons whereof one is for a burnt-offering the other for a sin-offering the one for thanksgiving the other for expiation for expiation of a double sin of the mother that conceived of the childe that was conceived We are all born sinners and it is a just question whether we doe more infect the world or the world us They are gross flatterers of Nature that tell her she is clean If our lives had no sin we bring enough with us the very Infant that lives not to sin as Adam yet he sinned in Adam and is sinful in himself But oh the unspeakable mercy of our God! we provide the sin he provides the remedy Behold an expiation welnear as early as our sin the blood of a young lamb or dove yea rather the blood of Him whose innocence was represented by both cleanseth us presently from our filthiness First went Circumcision then came the Sacrifice that by two holy acts that which was naturally unholy might be hallowed unto God Under the Gospel our Baptism hath the force of both it does away our corruption by the water of the Spirit it applies to us the sacrifice of Christs blood whereby we are cleansed Oh that we could magnifie this goodness of our God which hath not left our very infancy without redresse but hath provided helps whereby we may be delivered from the danger of our hereditary evils Such is the favourable respect of our wise God that he would not have us undoe our selves with devotion the service he requires of us is ruled by our abilities Every poor mother was not able to bring a lamb for her offering there was none so poor but might procure a pair of turtles or pigeons These doth God both prescribe and accept from poorer hands no lesse then the beasts of a thousand mountains He looks for somewhat of every one not of every one alike Since it is he that makes differences of abilities to whom it were as easie to make all rich his mercy will make no difference in the acceptation The truth and heartiness of obedience is that which he will crown in his meanest servants A mite from the poor Widow is more worth to him then the talents of the wealthy After all the presents of those Eastern worshippers who intended rather homage then ditation the Blessed Virgin comes in the form of poverty with her two doves unto God she could not without some charge lie all this while at Bethleem she could not without charge travel from Bethleem to Jerusalem Her Offering confesseth her penury The best are not ever the wealthiest Who can despise any one for want when the mother of Christ was not rich enough to bring a Lamb for her Purification We may be as happy in russet as in tissue While the Blessed Virgin brought her Son into the Temple with that pair of doves here were more doves then a pair They for whose sake that offering was brought were more doves then the doves that were brought for that offering Her Son for whom she brought that dove to be sacrificed was that sacrifice which the dove represented There was nothing in him but perfection of innocence and the oblation of him is that whereby all mothers and sons are fully purified Since in our selves we cannot be innocent happy are we if we can have the spotless Dove sacrificed for us to make us innocent in him The Blessed Virgin had more business in the Temple then her own she came as to purifie her self so to present her Son Every male that first opened the womb was holy unto the Lord. He that was the Son of God by eternal Generation before time and by miraculous Conception in time was also by common course of Nature consecrate unto God It is fit the holy Mother should present God with his own Her first-born was the first-born of all creatures It was he whose Temple it was that he was presented in to whom all the first-born of all creatures were consecrated by whom they were accepted and now is he brought in his Mothers arms to his own house and as Man is presented to himself as God If Moses had never written Law of God's special propriety in the first-born this Son of God's Essence and Love had taken possession of the Temple His right had been a perfect Law to himself Now his obedience to that Law which himself had given doth no lesse call him thither then the challenge of his peculiar interest He that was the Lord of all creatures ever since he struck the first-born of the Egyptians requires the first male of all creatures both man and beast to be dedicated to him wherein God caused a miraculous event to second Nature which seems to challenge
that persecuted thine innocence but limbs of this Devil And why are we then amazed to see thee touched and locally transported by the head when we see thee yielding thy self over to be crucified by the members If Satan did the worse and greater mediately by their hands no marvel if he doe the lesse and easier immediately by his own yet neither of them without thy voluntary dispensation He could not have looked at thee without thee And if the Son of God did thus suffer his own holy and precious Body to be carried by Satan what wonder is it if that Enemy have sometimes power given him over the sinful bodies of the adopted sons of God It is not the strength of Faith that can secure us from the outward violences of that Evil one This difference I finde betwixt his spiritual and bodily assaults those are beaten back by the shield of Faith these admit not of such repulse As the best man may be lame blind diseased so through the permission of God he may be bodily vexed by an old Man-slayer Grace was never given us for a Target against externall Afflictions Methinks I see Christ hoised upon the highest battlements of the Temple whose very roof was an hundred and thirty Cubits high and Satan standing by him with this speech in his mouth Well then since in the matter of nourishment thou wilt needs depend upon thy Father's Providence that he can without means sustain thee take now further tryall of that Providence in thy miraculous preservation Cast thy self down from this height Behold thou art here in Jerusalem the famous and holy City of the World here thou art on the top of the pinnacle of that Temple which is dedicated to thy Father and if thou be God to thy self The eyes of all men are now fixt upon thee there cannot be devised a more ready way to spread thy glory and to proclaim thy Deity then by casting thy self headlong to the Earth All the World will say there is more in thee then a man And for danger there can be none What can hurt him that is the Son of God and wherefore serves that glorious Guard of Angels which have by Divine Commission taken upon them the charge of thine Humanity Since therefore in one act thou mayest be both safe and celebrated trust thy Father and those thy serviceable Spirits with thine assured preservation Cast thy self down And why didst thou not O thou malignant spirit endeavour to cast down my Saviour by those same presumptuous hands that brought him up since the descent is more easie then the raising up Was it for that it had not been so great an advantage to thee that he should fall by thy means as by his own Falling into sin was more then to fall from the pinnacle Still thy care and suit is to make us Authors to our selves of evil thou gainest nothing by our bodily hurt if the Soul be safe Or was it rather for that thou couldest not I doubt not but thy Malice could as well have served to have offered this measure to himself as to his holy Apostle soon after But he that bounded thy power tethers thee shorter Thou couldest not thou canst not do what thou wouldst He that would permit thee to carry him up bindes thy hands from casting him down And woe were it for us if thou wert not ever stinted Why did Satan carry up Christ so high but on purpose that his fall might be the more deadly So deals he still with us he exalts us that we may be dangerously abased he puffs them up with swelling thoughts of their own worthinesse that they may be vile in the eyes of God and fall into condemnation It is the manner of God to cast down that he may raise to abase that he may exalt Contrarily Satan raises up that he may throw down and intends nothing but our dejection in our advancement Height of place gives opportunity of Tentation Thus busie is that Wicked one in working against the members of Christ If any of them be in eminence above others those he labours most to ruinate They had need to stand fast that stand high There is both more danger of their falling and more hurt in their fall He that had presumed thus far to tempt the Lord of Life would fain now dare him also to presume upon his Deity If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down There is not a more tried shaft in all his quiver then this a perswasion to men to bear themselves too bold upon the favour of God Thou art the Elect and Redeemed of God sin because Grace hath abounded sin that it may abound Thou art safe enough though thou offend be not too much an adversary to thine own liberty False spirit it is no liberty to sinne but servitude rather there is liberty but in the freedome from sin Every one of us that hath the hope of Sons must purge himself even as he is pure that hath redeemed us We are bought with a price therefore must we glorifie God in our body and spirits for they are God's Our Sonship teaches us awe and obedience and therefore because we are Sons we will not cast our selves down into sin How idlely do Satan and wicked men measure God by the crooked line of their own misconceit Iwis Christ cannot be the Son of God unlesse he cast himself down from the Pinnacle unlesse he come down from the Crosse God is not merciful unlesse he honour them in all their desires not just unlesse he take speedy vengeance where they require it But when they have spent their folly upon these vain imaginations Christ is the Son of God though he stay on the top of the Temple God will be merciful though we miscarry and just though sinners seem lawlesse Neither will he be any other then he is or measured by any rule but himself But what is this I see Satan himself with a Bible under his arm with a Text in his mouth It is written He shall give his Angels charge over thee How still in that Wicked one doth Subtilty strive with Presumption Who could not but over-wonder at this if he did not consider that since the Devil dar'd to touch the sacred Body of Christ with his hand he may well touch the Scriptures of God with his tongue Let no man henceforth marvel to hear Hereticks or Hypocrites quote Scriptures when Satan himself hath not spared to cite them What are they the worse for this more then that holy Body wich is transported Some have been poisoned by their meats and drinks yet either these nourish us or nothing It is not the Letter of the Scripture that can carry it but the Sense if we divide these two we prophane and abuse that Word we alledge And wherefore doth this foul spirit urge a Text but for imitation for prevention and for successe Christ had alledged a Scripture unto him he re-alledges Scripture unto Christ
day of universal Sessions They believe lesse then Devils that either doubt of or deny that day of finall retribution Oh the wonderfull mercy of our God that both to wicked men and spirits respites the utmost of their torment He might upon the first instant of the fall of Angels have inflicted on them the highest extremity of his vengeance He might upon the first sins of our youth yea of our nature have swept us away and given us our portion in that fierie lake He staies a time for both though with this difference of mercy to us men that here not onely is a delay but may be an utter prevention of punishment which to the evil spirits is altogether impossible They do suffer they must suffer and though they have now deserved to suffer all they must yet they must once suffer more then they do Yet so doth this evil spirit expostulate that he sues I beseech thee torment me not The world is well changed since Satan's first onset upon Christ Then he could say If thou be the Son of God now Jesu the Son of the most high God then All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me now I beseech thee torment me not The same power when he lists can change the note of the Tempter to us How happy are we that have such a Redeemer as can command the Devils to their chains Oh consider this ye lawlesse sinners that have said Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us However the Almighty suffers you for a judgement to have free scope to evil and ye can now impotently resist the revealed will of your Creator yet the time shall come when ye shall see the very masters whom ye have served the powers of darkness unable to avoid the revenges of God How much lesse shall man strive with his Maker man whose breath is in his nostrils whose house is clay whose foundation is the dust Nature teaches every creature to wish a freedome from pain The foulest spirits cannot but love themselves and this love must needs produce a deprecation of evil Yet what a thing is this to hear the Devil at his prayers I beseech thee torment me not Devotion is not guilty of this but fear There is no grace in the suit of Devils but nature no respect of Glory to their Creator but their own ease They cannot pray against sin but against torment for sin What news is it now to hear the profanest mouth in extremity imploring the Sacred Name of God when the Devils do so The worst of all creatures hates punishment and can say Lead me not into pain onely the good heart can say Lead me not into temptation If we can as heartily pray against sin for the avoiding of displeasure as against punishment when we have displeased there is true Grace in the Soul Indeed if we could fervently pray against Sin we should not need to pray against Punishment which is no other then the inseparable shadow of that body but if we have not laboured against our Sins in vain do we pray against Punishment God must be just and the wages of sin is death It pleased our Holy Saviour not only to let fall words of command upon this spirit but to interchange some speeches with him All Christ's actions are not for example It was the errour of our Grandmother to hold chat with Satan That God who knows the craft of that old Serpent and our weak simplicity hath charged us not to enquire of an evil spirit Surely if the Disciples returning to Jacob's Well wondred to see Christ talk with a woman well may we wonder to see him talking with an unclean Spirit Let it be no presumption O Saviour to ask upon what grounds thou didst this wherein we may not follow thee We know that sin was excepted in thy conformity of thy self to us we know there was no guile found in thy mouth no possibility of taint in thy nature in thine actions neither is it hard to conceive how the same thing may be done by thee without sin which we cannot but sin in doing There is a vast difference in the intention in the Agent For on the one side thou didst not ask the name of the spirit as one that knew not and would learn by inquiring but that by the confession of that mischief which thou pleasedst to suffer the grace of the Cure might be the more conspicuous the more glorious So on the other God and man might doe that safely which mere man cannot doe without danger Thou mightest touch the Leprosie and not be legally unclean because thou touchedst it to heal it didst not touch it with possibility of infection So mightest thou who by reason of the perfection of thy Divine nature wert uncapable of any stain by the interlocution with Satan safely conferre with him whom corrupt man pre-disposed to the danger of such a parlee may not meddle with without sin because not without perill It is for none but God to hold discourse with Satan Our surest way is to have as little to doe with that Evil one as we may and if he shall offer to maintain conference with us by his secret Tentations to turn our speech unto our God with the Archangel The Lord rebuke thee Satan It was the presupposition of him that knew it that not onely men but spirits have names This then he asks not out of an ignorance or curiosity nothing could be hid from him who calleth the Stars and all the hoasts of Heaven by their names but out of a just respect to the glory of the Miracle he was working whereto the notice of the name would not a little avail For if without inquiry or confession our Saviour had ejected this evil spirit it had passed for the single dispossession of one onely Devil whereas now it appears there was a combination and hellish champertie in these powers of darknesse which were all forced to vaile unto that Almighty command Before the Devil had spoken singularly of himself What have I to doe with thee and I beseech thee torment me not Our Saviour yet knowing that there was a multitude of Devils lurking in that breast who dissembled their presence wrests it out of the Spirit by this interrogation What is thy name Now can those wicked ones no longer hide themselves He that asked the question forced the answer My name is Legion The author of discord hath borrowed a name of war from that military order of discipline by which the Jews were subdued doth the Devil fetch his denomination They were many yet they say My name not Our name though many they speak as one they act as one in this possession There is a marvellous accordance even betwixt evil spirits That Kingdome is not divided for then it could not stand I wonder not that wicked men do so conspire in evil that there is such unanimity in the broachers and abettors of errors
the leg when they intend it at the head so doth this Devil whiles he drives at the Swine he aimes at the Souls of these Gadarens by this means he hoped well and his hope was not vain to work in these Gergesens a discontentment at Christ an unwillingnesse to entertain him a desire of his absence he meant to turn them into Swine by the losse of their Swine It was not the rafters or stones of the house of Job's children that he bore the grudge to but to the owners nor to the lives of the children so much as the Soul of their Father There is no Affliction wherein he doth not strike at the heart which whiles it holds free all other damages are light but a wounded spirit whether with sin or sorrow who can bear Whatever becomes of goods or limmes happy are we if like wise souldiers we guard the vital parts Whiles the Soul is kept sound from impatience from distrust our Enemy may afflict us he cannot hurt us They sue for a sufferance not daring other then to grant that without the permission of Christ they could not hurt a very Swine If it be fearfull to think how great things evil spirits can doe with permission it is comfortable to think how nothing they can doe without permission We know they want not malice to destroy the whole frame of God's work but of all man of all men Christians but if without leave they cannot set upon an Hog what can they doe to the living Images of their Creator They cannot offer us so much as a suggestion without the permission of our Saviour And can he that would give his own most precious blood for us to save us from evil wilfully give us over to evil It is no news that wicked spirits wish to do mischief it is news that they are allowed it If the owner of all things should stand upon his absolute command who can challenge him for what he thinks fit to doe with his creature The first Fole of the Asse is commanded under the Law to have his neck broken What is that to us The creatures doe that they were made for if they may serve any way to the glory of their Maker But seldome ever doth God leave his actions unfurnished with such reasons as our weaknesse may reach unto There were Sects amongst these Jews that denied Spirits They could not be more evidently more powerfully convinced then by this event Now shall the Gadarens see from what a multitude of Devils they were delivered and how easie it had been for the same power to have allowed these Spirits to seize upon their Persons as well as their Swine Neither did God this without a just purpose of their castigation His Judgements are righteous where they are most secret Though we cannot accuse these inhabitants of ought yet he could and thought good thus to mulct them And if they had not wanted Grace to acknowledge it it was no small favour of God that he would punish them in their Swine for that which he might have avenged upon their Bodies and Souls Our Goods are furthest off us If but in these we smart we must confesse to finde mercy Sometimes it pleaseth God to grant the suits of wicked men and spirits in no favour to the suitors He grants an ill suit and withholds a good He grants an ill suit in Judgement and holds back a good one in Mercy The Israelites ask meat he gives Quailes to their mouths and leannesse to their Souls The chosen vessel wishes Satan taken off and hears only My grace is sufficient for thee We may not evermore measure favours by condescent These Devils doubtless receive more punishment for that harmfull act wherein they are heard If we ask what is either unfit to receive or unlawfull to beg it is a great favour of our God to be denied Those spirits which would go into the Swine by permission go out of the man by command they had staied long and are ejected suddenly The immediate works of God are perfect in an instant and do not require the aid of time for their maturation No sooner are they cast out of the man then they are in the Swine They will lose no time but passe without intermission from one mischief to another If they hold it a pain not to be doing evil why is it not our delight to be ever doing good The impetuousnesse was no lesse then the speed The Herd was carried with violence from a steep-down place into the lake and was choaked It is no small force that could doe this but if the Swine had been so many Mountains these spirits upon God's permission had thus transported them How easily can they carry those Souls which are under their power to destruction Unclean beasts that wallow in the mire of sensuality brutish Drunkards transforming themselves by excesse even they are the Swine whom the Legion carries headlong to the pit of perdition The wicked spirits have their wish the Swine are choked in the waves What ease is this to them Good God that there should be any creature that seeks contentment in destroying in tormenting the good creatures of his Maker This is the diet of Hell Those Fiends feed upon spight towards man so much more as he doth more resemble his Creator towards all other living substances so much more as they may be more usefull to man The Swine ran down violently what marvell is it if their Keepers fled That miraculous work which should have drawn them to Christ drives them from him They run with the news the Country comes in with clamour The whole multitude of the Country about besought him to depart The multitude is a beast of many heads every head hath a several mouth and every mouth a several tongue and every tongue a several accent every head hath a several brain and every brain thoughts of their own so as it is hard to find a multitude without some division At least seldome ever hath a good motion found a perfect accordance it is not so infrequent for a multitude to conspire in evil Generality of assent is no warrant for any act Cōmon Errour carries away many who inquire not into the reason of ought but the practice The way to Hell is a beaten road through the many feet that tread it When Vice grows into fashion Singularity is a Vertue There was not a Gadarene found that either dehorted his fellows or opposed the motion It is a sign of people given up to judgment when no man makes head against projects of evil Alas what can one strong man do against a whole throng of wickednesse Yet this good comes of an unprevailing resistance that God forbears to plague where he findes but a sprinkling of Faith Happy are they who like unto the celestial bodies which being carried about with the sway of the highest sphere yet creep on their own waies keep on the courses of their own Holiness against the
contenting thy self in this that thou hast a Master to whom the land and water is alike Yet I hear not a check but a Call Come The suit of Ambition is suddainly quashed in the Mother of the Zebedees The suits of Revenge prove no better in the mouth of the two fiery Disciples But a suit of Faith though high and seemingly unfit for us he hath no power to deny How much lesse O Saviour wilt thou stick at those things which lie in the very road of our Christianity Never man said Bid me to come to thee in the way of thy commandements whom thou didst not both bid and inable to come True Faith rests not in great and good desires but acts and executes accordingly Peter doth not wish to goe and yet stand stillâ— but his foot answers his tongue and instantly chops down upon the waters To sit still and wish is for sluggish and cowardly spirits Formal volitions yea velleities of good whiles we will not so mucâ—â—â— step out of the ship of our Nature to walk unto Christ are but the faint motions of vain Hypocrisie It will be long enough ere the gale of good wishes can carry us to our Haven Ease slayeth the foolish O Saviour we have thy command to come to thee out of the ship of our natural corruption Let no Sea affray us let no tempest of Temptation withhold us No way can be but safe when thou art the End Lo Peter is walking upon the waves two hands uphold him the hand of Christ's Power the hand of his own Faith neither of them would doe it alone The hand of Christ's Power laid hold on him the hand of his Faith laid hold on the Power of Christ commanding Had not Christ's hand been powerfull that Faith had been in vain Had not that Faith of his strongly fixed upon Christ that Power had not been effectual to his preservation Whiles we are here in the world we walk upon the waters still the same hands bear us up If he let goe his hold of us we drown if we let goe our hold of him we sink and shreek as Peter did here who when he saw the winde boistrous was afraid and beginning to sink cried saying Lord save me When he wisht to be bidden to walk unto Christ he thought of the waters Bid me to come to thee on the waters he thought not of the windes which raged on those waters or if he thought of a stiffe gale yet that tempestuous and sudden gust was out of his account and exspectation Those evils that we are prepared for have not such power over us as those that surprise us A good water-man sees a dangerous billow coming towards him and cuts it and mounts over it with ease the unheedy is overwhelmed O Saviour let my haste to thee be zealous but not improvident ere I set my foot out of the ship let me foresee the Tempest when I have cast the worst I cannot either miscarry or complain So soon as he began to fear he began to sink whiles he believed the Sea was brass when once he began to distrust those waves were water He cannot sink whiles he trusts the power of his Master he cannot but sink when he misdoubts it Our Faith gives us as courage and boldness so success too our infidelity laies us open to all dangers to all mischiefs It was Peter's improvidence not to foresee it was his weakness to fear it was the effect of his fear to sink it was his Faith that recollects it self and breaks through his infidelity and in sinking could say Lord save me His foot could not be so swift in sinking as his heart in imploring he knew who could uphold him from sinking and being sunk deliver him and therefore he saies Lord save me It is a notable both sign and effect of true Faith in suddain extremities to ejaculate holy desires and with the wings of our first thoughts to flie up instantly to the throne of Grace for present succour Upon deliberation it is possible for a man that hath been carelesse and profane by good means to be drawn to holy dispositions but on the suddain a man will appear as he is whatever is most rife in the heart will come forth at the mouth It is good to observe how our surprisals finde us the rest is but forced this is natural Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh O Saviour no evil can be swifter then my thought my thought shall be upon thee ere I can be seized upon by the speediest mischief at least if I over-run not evils I shall overtake them It was Christ his Lord whom Peter had offended in distrusting it is Christ his Lord to whom he sues for deliverance His weakness doth not discourage him from his refuge O God when we have displeased thee when we have sunk in thy displeasure whither should we flie for aide but to thee whom we have provoked Against thee only is our sin in thee only is our help In vain shall all the powers of Heaven and earth conspire to relieve us if thou withhold from our succour As we offend thy Justice daily by our sins so let us continually relie upon thy Mercy by the strength of our Faith Lord save us The mercy of Christ is at once sought and found Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him He doth not say Hadst thou trusted me I would have safely preserved thee but since thou wilt needs wrong my power and care with a cowardly diffidence sink and drown but rather as pitying the infirmity of his fearful Disciple he puts out the hand for his relief That hand hath been stretch'd forth for the aide of many a one that hath never ask'd it never any ask'd it to whose succour it hath not been stretched With what speed with what confidence should we flie to that soveraign bounty from which never any suitor was sent away empty Jesus gave Peter his hand but withall he gave him a check O thou of little faith why doubtedst thou As Peter's Faith was not pure but mixed with some distrust so our Saviours help was not clear and absolute but mixed with some reproof A reproof wherein there was both a censure and an expostulation a censure of his Faith an expostulation for his Doubt both of them sore heavy By how much more excellent and usefull a grace Faith is by so much more shamefull is the defect of it and by how much more reason here was of confidence by so much more blame-worthy was the Doubt Now Peter had a double reason of his confidence the command of Christ the power of Christ the one in bidding him to come the other in sustaining him whiles he came To misdoubt him whose will he knew whose power he felt was well worth a reprehension When I saw Peter stepping forth upon the waters I could not but wonder at his great Faith yet behold ere he can have measured many paces
be insensible of so great an evil Where death hath once seized who can but doubt he will keep his hold No lesse hard was it not to grieve for the losse of an only Childe then not to fear the continuance of the cause of that grief In a perfect Faith there is no Fear by how much more we fear by so much lesse we believe Well are these two then coupled Fear not believe only O Saviour if thou didst not command us somewhat beyond Nature it were no thank to us to obey thee While the childe was alive to believe that it might recover it was no hard task but now that she was fully dead to believe she should live again was a work not easie for Jairus to apprehend though easie for thee to effect yet must that be believed else there is no capacity of so great a Mercy As Love so Faith is stronger then death making those bonds no other then as Sampson did his withes like threds of tow How much naturall impossibility is there in the return of these Bodies from the dust of their earth into which through many degrees of corruption they are at the last mouldred Fear not O my Soul believe onely it must it shall be done The sum of Jairus his first suit was for the Health not for the Resuscitation of his Daughter now that she was dead he would if he durst have been glad to have asked her Life And now behold our Saviour bids him expect both her Life and her Health Thy daughter shall be made whole alive from her death whole from her disease Thou didst not O Jairus thou daredst not ask so much as thou receivest How glad wouldest thou have been since this last news to have had thy Daughter alive though weak and sickly Now thou shalt receive her not living only but sound and vigorous Thou dost not O Saviour measure thy gifts by our petitions but by our wants and thine own mercies This work might have been as easily done by an absent command the Power of Christ was there whiles himself was away but he will goe personally to the place that he might be confessed the Author of so great a Miracle O Saviour thou lovest to goe to the house of mourning thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted What a confusion there is in worldly sorrow The mother shreeks the servants crie out the people make lamentation the minstrels howl and strike dolefully so as the eare might question whether the Ditty or the Instrument were more heavy If ever expressions of sorrow sound well it is when Death leads the quire Soon doth our Saviour charm this noise and turns these unseasonable mourners whether formal or serious out of doors Not that he dislikes Musick whether to condole or comfort but that he had life in his eye and would have them know that he held these Funeral ceremonies to be too early and long before their time Give place for the maid is not dead but sleepeth Had she been dead she had but slept now she was not dead but asleep because he meant this nap of death should be so short and her awakening so speedy Death and Sleep are alike to him who can cast whom he will into the sleep of Death and awake when and whom he pleaseth out of that deadly sleep Before the people and domesticks of Jairus held Jesus for a Prophet now they took him for a Dreamer Not dead but asleep They that came to mourn cannot now forbear to laugh Have we piped at so many Funerals and seen and lamented so many Corpses and cannot we distinguish betwixt Sleep and Death The eyes are set the breath is gone the limmes are stiffe and cold Who ever died if she do but sleep How easily may our Reason or Sense befool us in Divine matters Those that are competent Judges in natural things are ready to laugh God to scorn when he speaks beyond their compasse and are by him justly laughed to scorn for their unbelief Vain and faithlesse men as if that unlimited power of the Almighty could not make good his own word and turn either Sleep into Death or Death into Sleep at pleasure Ere many minutes they shall be ashamed of their errour and incredulity There were witnesses enough of her death there shall not be many of her restoring Three choice Disciples and the two Parents are only admitted to the view and testimony of this miraculous work The eyes of those incredulous scoffers were not worthy of this honour Our infidelity makes us incapable of the secret favours and the highest counsels of the Almighty What did these scorners think and say when they saw him putting the minstrels and people out of doors Doubtlesse the maid is but asleep the man fears lest the noise shall awake her we must speak and tread softly that we disquiet her not What will he and his Disciples doe the while Is it not to be feared they will startle her out of her rest Those that are shut out from the participation of God's counsels think all his words and projects no better then foolishnesse But art thou O Saviour ever the more discouraged by the derision and censure of these scornfull unbelievers Because fools jear thee dost thou forbear thy work Surely I do not perceive that thou heedest them save for contempt or carest more for their words then their silence It is enough that thine act shall soon honour thee and convince them He took her by the hand and called saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she arose straightway How could that touch that Call be other then effectual He who made that hand touched it and he who shall once say Arise ye dead said now Maid arise Death cannot but obey him who is the Lord of life The Soul is ever equally in his hand who is the God of Spirits it cannot but goe and come at his command When he saies Maid arise the now-dissolved spirit knows his office his place and instantly reassumes that room which by his appointment it had left O Saviour if thou do but bid my Soul to arise from the death of Sin it cannot lie still if thou bid my Body to arise from the grave my Soul cannot but glance down from her Heaven and animate it In vain shall my sin or my grave offer to withhold me from thee The Maid revives not now to languish for a time upon her sick-bed and by some faint degrees to gather an insensible strength but at once she arises from her death and from her couch at once she puts off her fever with her dissolution she findes her life and her feet at once at once she findes her feet and her stomack He commanded to give her meat Omnipotency doth not use to goe the pace of Nature All God's immediate works are like himself perfect He that raised her supernaturally could have so fed her It was never the purpose of his Power to put ordinary
into that dear Sepulcher Holy desires never but speed well There she sees two glorious Angels the one sitting at the head the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain Their shining brightness shew'd them to be no mortal creatures besides that Peter and John had but newly come out of the Sepulcher and both found and left it empty in her sight which was now suddenly filled with those celestial guests That white linen wherewith Joseph had shrouded the Sacred body of Jesus was now shamed with a brighter whiteness Yet do I not find the good Woman ought appalled with that inexspected glory So was her heart taken up with the thought for her Saviour that she seemed not sensible of whatsoever other Objects Those tears which she did let drop into the Sepulcher send up back to her the voice of those Angels Woman why weepest thou God and his Angels take notice of every tear of our Devotion The sudden wonder hath not dried her eyes nor charmed her tongue She freely confesseth the cause of her grief to be the missing of her Saviour They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him Alas good Mary how dost thou lose thy tears of whom dost thou complain but of thy best friend who hath removed thy Lord but himself who but his own Deity hath taken away that humane body out of that region of death Neither is he now laid any more he stands by thee whose removal thou complainest of Thus many a tender and humbled Soul afflicts it self with the want of that Saviour whom it hath and feeleth not Sense may be no judge of the bewailed absence of Christ Do but turn back thine eye O thou Religious Soul and see Jesus standing by thee though thou knewst not that it was Jesus His habit was not his own Sometimes it pleases our Saviour to appear unto his not like himself his holy disguises are our trials Sometimes he will seem a Stranger sometimes an Enemie sometimes he offers himself to us in the shape of a poor man sometimes of a distressed Captive Happy is he that can discern his Saviour in all forms Mary took him for a Gardener Devout Magdalene thou art not much mistaken As it was the trade of the First Adam to dress the Garden of Eden so was it the trade of the Second to tend the Garden of his Church He diggs up the soil by seasonable Afflictions he sows in it the seeds of Grace he plants it with gracious motions he waters it with his Word yea with his own blood he weeds it by wholsome censures O Blessed Saviour what is it that thou neglectest to doe for this selected inclosure of thy Church As in some respect thou art the true Vine and thy Father the Husbandman so also in some other we are the Vine and thou art the Husbandman Oh be thou such to me as thou appearedst unto Magdalene break up the fallows of my Nature implant me with Grace prune me with meet corrections bedew me with the former and latter rain doe what thou wilt to make me fruitful Still the good Woman weeps and still complains and passionately inquires of thee O Saviour for thy self How apt are we if thou dost never so little vary from our apprehensions to mis-know thee and to wrong our selves by our mis-opinions All this while hast thou concealed thy self from thine affectionate client thou sawest her teares and heardest her importunities and inquiries at last as it was with Joseph that he could no longer contain himself from the notice of his brethren thy compassion causes thee to break forth into a clear expression of thy self by expressing her name unto her self Mary She was used as to the name so to the sound to the accent Thou spakest to her before but in the tone of a stranger now of a friend of a Master Like a good Shepheard thou callest thy sheep by their name and they know thy voice What was thy call of her but a clear pattern of our Vocation As her so thou callest us first familiarly effectually She could not begin with thee otherwise then in the compellation of a stranger it was thy mercy to begin with her That correction of thy Spirit is sweet and useful Now after ye have known God or rather are known of him We do know thee O God but our active knowledge is after our passive first we are known of thee then we know thee that knewest us And as our Knowledge so is our Calling so is our Election thou beginnest to us in all and most justly sayest You have not chosen me but I have chosen you When thou wouldst speak to this Devout client as a stranger thou spakest aloof Woman whom seekest thou now when thou wouldst be known to her thou callest her by her name Mary General invitations and common mercies are for us as men but where thou givest Grace as to thine elect thou comest close to the Soul and winnest us with dear and particular intimations That very name did as much as say Know him of whom thou art known and beloved and turns her about to thy view and acknowledgment She turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is to say Master Before her face was towards the Angels this word fetches her about and turns her face to thee from whom her misprision had averted it We do not rightly apprehend thee O Saviour if any creature in Heaven or earth can keep our eyes and our hearts from thee The Angels were bright and glorious thy appearance was homely thy habit mean yet when she heard thy voice she turns her back upon the Angels and salutes thee with a Rabboni and falls down before thee in a desire of an humble amplexation of those Sacred feet which she now rejoyces to see past the use of her Odours Where there was such familiarity in the mutual compellation what means such strangeness in the charge Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Thou wert not wont O Saviour to make so dainty of being touched It is not long since these very same hands touched thee in thine anointing the Bloody-fluxed woman touched thee the thankful Penitent in Simon 's house touched thee What speak I of these The multitude touch'd thee the Executioners touch'd thee and even after thy Resurrection thou didst not stick to say to thy Disciples Touch me and see and to invite Thomas to put his fingers into thy side neither is it long after this before thou sufferest the three Maries to touch and hold thy feet How then saist thou Touch me not Was it in a mild taxation of her mistaking as if thou hadst said Thou knowest not that I have now an Immortal body but so demeanest thy self towards me as if I were still in my wonted condition know now that the case is altered howsoever indeed I have not yet ascended to my Father yet this body of mine which
determine that the onely formal cause of our Justification is God's Justice not by which he himself is Just but by which he makes us just wherewith being endowed by him we are renewed in the Spirit of our mindes and are not onely reputed but are made truely just receiving every man his own measure of Justice which the Holy Ghost divides to him according to each mans predisposition of himself and cooperation And withall they denounce a flat Anathema to all those who dare to say that we are formally justified by Christs Righteousness or by the sole imputation of that Righteousness or by the sole remission of our sins and not by our inherent Grace diffused in our hearts by the holy Ghost Which terms they have so craftily laid together as if they would cast an aspersion upon their Adversaries of separating the necessity of Sanctification from the pretended Justification by Faith wherein all our words and writings will abundantly clear us before God and men That there is an inherent Justice in us is no less certain then that it is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost For God doth not justifie the wicked man as such but of wicked makes him good not by mere acceptation but by a real change whiles he Justifies him whom he Sanctifies These two acts of Mercie are inseparable But this Justice being wrought in us by the Holy Spirit according to the modell of our weak receit and not according to the full power of the infinite agent is not so perfect as that it can bear us out before the Tribunal of God It must be onely under the garment of our elder Brother that we dare come in for a Blessing His Righteousness made ours by Faith is that whereby we are justified in the sight of God This Doctrine is that which is blasted with a Tridentine curse Heat now the History of this Doctrine of Justification related by their Andrew Vega de Justif lib. 7. cap. 24. Magnafuit c. Some Ages since saith he there was a great concertation amongst Divines what should be the formal cause of our Justification Some thought it to be no created Justice infused into man but onely the favour and merciful acceptation of God In which opinion the Master of Sentences is thought by some to have been Others whose opinion is more common and probable held it to be some created quality informing the Souls of the Just This Opinion was allowed in the Council of Vienna and the School-Doctors after the Master of Sentences delivered this not as probable onely but as certain Afterwards when some defended the opposite part to be more probable it seemed good to the holy Synod of Trent thus to determine it So as till the late Council of Trent by the confession of Vega himself this Opinion was maintained as probable onely not as of Faith Yea I adde by his leave the contrary was till then most current It is not the Logick of this Point we strive for it is not the Grammar it is the Divinity What is that whereby we stand acquitted before the Righteous Judge whether our inherent Justice or Christs imputed Justice apprehended by Faith The Divines of Trent are for the former all Antiquity with us for the latter A just Volume would scarce contain the pregnant Testimonies of the Fathers to this purpose Saint Chrysostome tels us it is the wonder of Gods Mercy that he who hath sinned confesseth is pardoned secured and suddenly appears Just Just but how The Cross took away the Curse saith he most sweetly Faith brought in Righteousness and Righteousness drew on the Grace of the Spirit Saint Ambrose tels us that our carnal infirmity blemisheth our works but that uprightness of our Faith covers our errours and obtains our pardon And professeth that he will glory not for that he is Righteous but for that he is Redeemed nor for that he is void of sins but for that his sins are forgiven him Saint Jerome tells us then we are just when we confess our selves sinners and that our Righteousness stands not in any Merit of ours but in the mere Mercy of God and that the acknowledgement of our imperfection is the imperfect perfection of the Just Saint Gregory tells us that our Just Advocate shall defend us Righteous in his Judgement because we know and accuse our selves unrighteous and that our confidence must not be in our acts but in our Advocate But the sweet and passionate speeches of Saint Austin and S. Bernard would fill a book alone neither can any Reformed Divine either more disparage our inherent Righteousness or more magnifie and challenge the imputed It shall suffice us to give a taste of both We have all therefore Brethren received of his fulness of the fulness of his Mercy of the abundance of his Goodness have we received What Remission of sins that we might be justified by Faith and what more Grace for Grace that is for this Grace wherein we live by Faith we shall receive another saith that Divinest of the Fathers And soon after All that are from sinful Adam are sinners all that are justified by Christ are just not in themselves but in him for in themselves if ye ask after them they are Adam in him they are Christs And elsewhere Rejoice in the Lord and be glad O ye Righteous O wicked O proud men that rejoice in your selves now believing in him who justifieth the wicked your Faith is imputed to you for Righteousness Rejoice in the Lord why Because now ye are just And whence are ye just Not by your own Merits but by his Grace Whence are ye just Because ye are justified Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods Elect It sufficeth me for all Righteousness that I have that God propitious to me against whom onely I have sinned All that he hath decreed not to impute unto me is as if it had not been Not to sin is Gods Justice mans Justice is Gods indulgence saith devout Bernard How pregnant is that famous Profession of his And if the mercies of the Lord be from everlasting and to everlasting I will also sing the mercies of the Lord everlastingly What shall I sing of mine own righteousness No Lord I will remember thy Righteousness alone for that is mine too Thou art made unto me of God Righteousness should I fear that it will not serve us both It is no short Cloak that it should not cover twain Thy Righteousness is Righteousness for ever and what is longer then Eternity Behold thy large and everlasting mercy will largely cover both thee and me at once in me it covers a multitude of sins in thee Lord what can it cover but the treasures of Pitie the riches of Bountie Thus he What should I need to draw down this Truth through the times of Anselme Lombard Bonaventure Gerson The Manual of Christian Religion set forth in the
Penance and Absolution The antient course as Cassander and Lindanus truly witness was that Absolution and Reconciliation and right to the Communion of the Church was not given by imposition of hands unto the Penitent till he had given due satisfaction by performing of such penal acts as were enjoined by the discreet Penitentiarie yea those works of Penance saith he when they were done out of Faith and an heart truly sorrowfull and by the motion of the Holy Spirit preventing the minde of man with the help of his Divine Grace were thought not a little available to obtain remission of the sin and to pacifie the displeasure of God for sin Not that they could merit it by any dignity of theirs but that thereby the minde of man is in a sort fitted to the receit of God's Grace But now immediatly upon the Confession made the hand is laid upon the Penitent and he is received to his right of Communion and after his Absolution certain works of piety are enjoined him for the chastisement of the flesh and expurgation of the remainders of sin Thus Cassander In common apprehension this new order can be no other then preposterous and as our learned Bishop of Carlisle like Easter before Lent But for this Ipsi viderint it shall not trouble us how they nurture their own childe CHAP. XIV The Newness of the Romish Invocation of Saints OF all those Errours which we reject in the Church of Rome there is none that can plead so much shew of Antiquity as this of Invocation of Saints which yet as it hath been practised and defended in the later times should in vain seek either example or patronage amongst the Antient. However there might be some grounds of this Devotion secretly muttered and at last expressed in Panegyrick forms yet untill almost 500 years after Christ it was not in any sort admitted into the publick service It will be easily granted that the Blessed Virgin is the prime of all Saints neither could it be other then injurious that any other of that Heavenly Society should have the precedency of her Now the first that brought her name into the publick Devotions of the Greek Church is noted by Nicephorus to be Petrus Gnapheus or Fullo a Presbyter of Bithynia afterwards the Usurper of the See of Antioch much about 470 years after Christ who though a branded Heretick found out four things saith he very usefull and beneficial to the Catholick Church whereof the last was Ut in omni precatione c. That in every Prayer the Mother of God should be named and her Divine name called upon The phrase is very remarkable wherein this rising Superstition is expressed And as for the Latine Church we hear no news of this Invocation in the publick Letanies till Gregorie's time about some 130 years after the former And in the mean time some Fathers speak of it fearfully and doubtfully How could it be otherwise when the common opinion of the Antients even below Saint Austin's age did put up all the Souls of the Faithfull except Martyrs in some blinde receptacles whether in the Center of the earth or elsewhere where they might in candida exspectare diem Judicii as Tertullian hath it four severall times And Stapleton himself sticks not to name divers of them thus fouly mistaken Others of the Fathers have let fall speeches directly bent against this Invocation Non opus est patronis c. There is no need of any Advocates to God saith S. Chrysostome and most plainly elsewhere Homines si quando c. If we have any suit to men saith he we must fee the porters and treat with jesters and parasites and goe many times a long way about In God there is no such matter he is exorable without any of our Mediators without money without cost he grants our petitions It is enough for thee to crie with thine heart alone to powre out thy tears and presently thou hast won him to mercy Thus he And those of the Antients that seem to speak for it lay grounds that overthrow it Howsoever it be all holy Antiquity would have both blushed and spit at those forms of Invocation which the late Clients of Rome have broached to the world If perhaps they speak to the Saints tanquam deprecatores vel potius comprecatores as Spalatensis yields moving them to be competitioners with us to the throne of Grace not properly but improperly as Altissiodore construes it how would they have digested that blasphemous Psalter of our Lady imputed to Bonaventure and those styles of mere Deification which are given to her and the division of all offices of Piety to mankinde betwixt the Mother and the Son How had their eares glowed to hear Christus oravit Franciscus exoravit Christ prayed Francis prevailed How would they have brooked that which Ludovicus Vives freely confesses Multi Christiani c. Many Christians worship divâ—s divasque the Saints of both sexes no otherwise then God himself Or that which Spalatensis professes to have observed that the ignorant multitude are tarried with more entire religious affection to the Blessed Virgin or some other Saint then to Christ their Saviour These foul Superstitions are not more hainous then new and such as wherein we have justly abhorred to take part with the practicers of them Sect. 2. Invocation of Saints against Scripture AS for the better side of this mis-opinion even thus much colour of Antiquity were cause enough to suspend our censures according to that wise moderate resolution of learned Zanchius were it not that the Scriptures are so flatly opposite unto it as that we may justly wonder at that wisdome which hath provided Antidotes for a disease that of many hundred years after should have no being in the World The ground of this Invocation of Saints is their notice of our earthly condition and speciall Devotions And behold thou prevailest ever against man and he passeth thou changest his countenance and sendest him away His sons come to honour and he knows it not and they are brought low and he perceiveth it not saith Job The dead know nothing at all saith wise Solomon Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the Sun No portion in any thing therefore not in our miseries nor in our allocutions If we have a portion in them for their love and Prayers in common for the Church they have no portion in our particularities whether of want or complaint Abraham our Father is ignorant of us saith Esay and Israel acknowledges us not Loe the Father of the Faithfull above knows not his own children till they come into his bosome and he that gives them their names is to them as a stranger Wherefore should good Josiah be gathered to his Fathers
they there is no cause why his greater gift should make me mutinous and malecontent I will thank my God for what I am for what I have and never quarrell with him for what I want CII Upon the sight of a fantasticall Zelot IT is not the intent of Grace to mould our Bodies anew but to make use of them as it findes us The Disposition of men much follows the temper of their bodily Humors This mixture of Humors wrought upon by Grace causeth that strange variety which we see in professions pretendedly Religious When Grace lights upon a sad Melancholick Spirit nothing is affected but Sullennesse and extreme Mortification and dislike even of lawfull Freedome nothing but Positions and Practices of severe Austerity when contrarily upon the Chearefull and lively all draws towards Liberty and Joy those thoughts do now please best which enlarge the heart to Mirth and contentation It is the greatest improvement of Christian wisdome to distinguish in all professions betwixt Grace and Humour to give God his own Glory and men their own Infirmities CIII Upon the sight of a Scavenger working in the Canell THE wise Providence of God hath fitted men with spirits answerable to their condition If mean men should bear the minds of great Lords no servile works would be done all would be Commanders and none could live If contrarily Great persons had the low spirits of drudges there could be no order no obedience because there should be none to command Now out of this discord of dispositions God hath contrived an excellent harmony of Government and Peace since the use which each sort must needs have of other bindes them to maintain the quality of their own ranks and to doe those offices which are requisite for the preservation of themselves and the publick As Inferiours then must blesse God for the Graces and Authority of their betters so must Superiours no lesse blesse him for the Humility and Serviceablenesse of the meaner and those which are of the mid rank must blesse him for both CIV Upon a pair of Spectacles I Look upon these not as Objects but as Helps as not meaning that my Sight should rest in them but passe through them and by their aide discern some other things which I desire to see Many such glasses my Soul hath and useth I look through the glasse of the Creatures at the power and wisdome of their Maker I look through the glasse of the Scriptures at the great Mystery of Redemption and the glory of an Heavenly inheritance I look through Gods Favours at his infinite Mercy through his Judgements at his incomprehensible Justice But as these Spectacles of mine presuppose a faculty in the Eye and cannot give me Sight when I want it but only clear that sight which I have no more can these glasses of the Creatures of Scriptures of Favours and Judgements inable me to apprehend those blessed Objects except I have an eye of Faith whereto they may be presented These helps to an unbelieving man are but as Spectacles to the blinde As the Natural Eyes so the Spirituall have their degrees of dimnesse But I have ill improved my Age if as my Naturall eyes decay my Spirituall eye be not cleared and confirmed but at my best I shall never but need Spectacles till I come to see as I am seen CV Upon Moats in the Sun HOW these little Moats move up and down in the Sun and never rest whereas the great Mountains stand ever still and move not but with an Earthquake Even so light and busie spirits are in continuall agitation to little purpose whiles great deep wits sit still and stir not but upon extreme occasions Were the motion of these little Atomes as usefull as it is restlesse I had rather be a Moat then a Mountain CVI. Upon the sight of a Bladder EVery thing must be taken in his meet time let this Bladder alone till it be dry and all the winde in the world cannot raise it up whereas now it is new and moist the least breath fills and enlarges it It is no otherwise in Ages and Dispositions inform the Childe in Precepts of Learning and Vertue whiles years make him capable how pliably he yieldeth how happily is he replenished with Knowledge and Goodnesse let him alone till time and ill example have hardned him till he be setled in an Habit of Evil and contracted and clung together with Sensuall delights now he becomes utterly indocible Sooner may that Bladder be broken then distended CVII Upon a man Sleeping I Do not more wonder at any mans Art then at his who professes to think of nothing to doe nothing And I do not a little marvell at that man who sayes he can sleep without a Dream for the Mind of man is a restlesse thing and though it give the Body leave to repose it self as knowing it is a mortal and earthly piece yet it self being a Spirit and therefore active and indefatigable is ever in motion Give me a Sea that moves not a Sun that shines not an open Eye that sees not and I shall yield there may be a Reasonable Soul that works not It is possible that through a naturall or accidentall stupidity a man may not perceive his owne Thoughts as sometimes the Eye or Eare may be distracted not to discern his own Objects but in the mean time he thinks that whereof he cannot give an account like as we many times dream when we cannot report our fancy I should more easily put my self to school unto that man who undertakes the profession of thinking many things at once Instantany motions are more proper for a Spirit then a dull rest Since my Minde will needs be ever working it shall be my care that it may alwaies be well imploy'd CVIII Upon the sight of a Deaths-head I Wonder at the practice of the ancient both Greeks and Romans whose use was to bring up a Deaths-head in the mids of their Feasts on purpose to stir up their Guests to drink harder and to frolick more the sight whereof one would think should have rather abated their courage and have tempered their jollity But however it was with them who believed there was nothing after death that the consideration of the short time of their pleasures and being spurred them on to a free and full fruition of that mirth and excesse which they should not long live to enjoy yet to us that are Christians and therefore know that this short life doth but make way for an eternity of Joy or Torment afterwards and that after the Feast we must account of a Reckoning there cannot be a greater cooler for the heat of our intemperate desires and rage of our Appetites then the meditation of the Shortness of Life and the Certainty of Death Who would over-pamper a body for the worms Who would be so mad as to let himself loose to that momentany pleasure of Sin which ere long must cost him everlasting pain and misery