Deum gubernat amoris omne regnum est Love did rule God himself love swayed all things in the world We know and admire the meaning that the love of the Son turn'd the enmity of the Father into peace it turn'd threatnings into forgiveness and death into life Poise every thing in a right scale and mark the heavy weight of our undeservings and the nature of man might stink in Gods nostrils which had so much offended him to believe a Serpent nay to believe the Devil in a Serpent rather then the lively Oracle of his own mouth Yet love took away that distastefulness which the whole Trinity had conceiv'd against sinful flesh and the second Person became flesh for our sakes and was made sin for our sakes by imputation that we might be made sons and righteous before God nay that we might be made the righteousness of God Rom. v. The Athenians were proud of Pompey's love that he would write his name a Citizen of their City for a princely person to accept a freedom in a mean Corporation is no little kindness how much more doth it aggravate the love of Christ to come from heaven and be made a Citizen of this vile earth to be born after a more vile condition than the most abject of the people 2. It is not so proper to say God did love us by Christ for God is love and in himself and for his own goodness sake he could not but love the work of his hands but this is the true and proper understanding of it that notwithstanding his love to his own justice through the merit of our Saviours humility he forgave us our sins therefore his love toward mankind and his love toward his justice went hand in hand and could not be parted He satisfied the vehemency of his love toward sinful man that he gave his Son to be born of a Virgin and to become our Mediator he satisfied the love he hath to his own Justice and the hatred he hath against sin when he did impose this office of a Mediator upon his beloved Son not without shedding of blood Justice cried out it was meet mercy should not rule all Adam and his posterity ought to dye or who will answer for them not an Angel or Spirit and therefore not the Son of God as he is God for God is a Spirit Meet it is every one should bear his own burden the nature that sinned let it bear the curse of its own sin Mans nature had sinned mans nature ought to suffer but that which our nature should bear our nature by a fit adequation of recompence could not bear Our sufferings were not enough to satisfie the wrath of God due to sin The Son of God is a most valuable person but not passible man is passible but not valuable the one nature ought to suffer but could not the other could suffer but ought not That he might be liable to all contempt he was born a Saviour and made a child that he might be able to pay the price he was perfect God as well as perfect man a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. 3. Love and Justice are mightily declared that a Saviour was born and the eternal Wisdom of the Father comes in for her part to be magnified It is beyond our understanding to say nay but that the Father might have made a creature fit to satisfie his Justice to have clearly paid the price of our Redemption and so to have spared his Son yea but wisdom interpos'd it was not fit that man should owe his redemption to any other than to whom he owed his creation for the value of that benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer better than our Creator So Bernard Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio quam creatio Therefore God would not so dispose the mystery of our souls health that occasion should be given to love an Angel or Saint better than himself the King of Glory The Son that sits at his right hand by whom he made the worlds let him restore all things and the blessing of our Creation Redemption and all other good gifts shall meet in one center This is pretii difficilimi decentissima solutio say the Schoolmen a most convenient payment of a most difficult ransom 4. The boundless power and infinite virtue of the Godhead I confidently pronounce it did never appear so much in any other work as when a Saviour was born He that knew no beginning but was from all eternity to begin to be a man he that speaks to the world in thunder to cry in a cradle Verbum infans he that decketh himself with light as with a garment to be wrapt in swadling clouts he that opens his hand and filleth all things with plenteousness to suck for a few drops of milk at a womans breasts we are able to answer nothing to this but with the Angel to cry out Rev. v. 12. Dominion and power to the Lamb and to him that sitteth on the throne for evermore And so far of the second point The next word to be consider'd in the Text is like the flesh-hook which the Priest had to draw a portion of the Sacrifice unto himself To you a Saviour is born says the Angel Vobis natus the good turn shall be yours the blessing yours you ought to be affected with joy at this wonderous work for he is your Saviour Tell the Shepherds that a Saviour is born and they cannot but understand he is de nobis like unto us in nature but tell them unto you a Saviour is born that 's a great deal more than they understand that he is born for their redemption It is honourable to be made like us but advantageous in the highest degree that he was made for us Let us work upon this mine and here we shall find the precious mettal fit to pay the price of our debts to God in our steed when we were bankrupts First we learn from hence he was born to you and not unto himself to your glory to his own abasement and exinanition for his own part he was begotten of God before all times so noble a Nativity that when the Father bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. i. 6. Therefore for himself he needed no other birth to be born at all especially to be thus basely born in the manger of a stable He took a body as it were sown in dishonour that we might reap the harvest and be magnified Likewise he is called a Saviour not in respect of his own person indeed he was his own destroyer and our Saviour when the High Priests servants sought to lay hold of him in the Garden neither doth he go about to escape or to deny himself but whom seek ye I am he No man would put himself into the hands of barbarous enemies that meant to be his own Saviour all the salvation that he
to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many Unto us therefore the mercy of God is most frank and liberal a gratuitous blessing a good turn as freely bestowed as ever was any so that we who received it conferr'd nothing unto it but on Christ's part he laid down a ransom of a most just compensation Fourthly As all mankind that is flesh and blood in every man and woman is honoured by his Visitation so all without exceptions are beholding to his Redemption Zachary the Priest with all his innocency who is said to have been blameless and righteous before God yet he blesseth God that he was redeemed Job a man so holy that God bears witness to him so upright that the Devil could not except against him yet glad he was to take notice of a Redeemer that was his anchor upon which he stayed himself I know that my redeemer liveth The blessed Virgin no doubt as holy a creature as ever walked upon the earth yet her Spirit rejoyced chiefly in this that she had a Saviour Great is thy benignity O Lord that thou hast given us a joyful recovery from an oppressing pestilence that thou hast given us all things necessary for life and sustenance greater is thy goodness that thou hast given us grace to repent to call upon thee to direct our heart in thy command and to believe in thy saving health but this is the most superabundant blessing of them all that since we are odious and unprofitable in thy sight with all our imperfect righteousness thou hast repaired us again by giving thy self a redemption for us Thrice happy therefore that we know with Job that our Redeemer liveth and comfort your hearts thus he came to redeem that which was lost therefore he will not let that be lost which he hath redeemed Having thus spoken of the benefits of Visitation and Redemption I should leave my Treatise very imperfect if I should not speak of the Receivers very briefly therefore concerning them upon whom all was conferr'd he hath visited and redeemed his people It is certain that the generations of mankind are meant by this word the Sons and Daughters of Adam and none others The Angels are called his servants his ministring spirits his messengers c. but they are never called his people Godly Bishops and Fathers of the Church have drawn out certain streams from the love of Christ by which the Angels should receive some utility St. Austin says his light did shine before them his example did kindle a desire in them to excel in zeal and obedience Bernard says Qui evexit hominem lapsum dedit Angelis ne laberentur that is he whose redemption prevailed to raise up man after he had fallen it confirmed the Angels in grace that they should never fall He brought us out of captivity he preserved them that they never came into captivity but that which these speak of that should turn to the utility of Angels it came from the power and good will of his God-head not by virtue of his mediatorship being made God and man to reconcile those to his Father who had offended The Schoolmen say though he was not Incarnate for the Angels nor shed his Blood for their sakes yet the fruit of his redemption did in some wise redound to them because it compounded the friendship between Angels and men whereas they were our enemies in Gods quarrel before our peace was procured by our Saviour Well this comes to nothing on the Angels part it is neither dignity nor commodity to them but unto us therefore we are the clear gainers by all the profit that my Text brings in he hath c. In a strict phrase we know who they were that had the happiness to be called his people for many ages his covenant was made with the seed of Abraham and with the children of Jacob but when they ceased to know the Lord and to obey him this Covenant was broken and it is very remarkable how zealously God did manifest it that his love was turned away from that Nation Hosea i. he made the children of that Prophet signs and tokens unto them calling his Daughters lo-ruhamah I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel and he called his Son loammi for says he ye are not my people and I will not be your God ver 9. You see in that place that God hath as it were torn the hand-writing wherein the Covenant was made it is cancell'd and it will not profit them That people lost their share in this redemption because they knew not the true redeemer nor minded the true redemption Light came into the world and they loved darkness more than light they knew not their Redeemer the holy One of Israel In the matter of redemption also they were quite mistaken never drawing their care inward to the use of their soul but gaping for a Champion that should fight for them against the Romans so they were neither delivered from the bondage of the Romans nor from the power of the Devil Where then shall we look for his people beloved not in one angle of the world but among all Nations both Jews and Gentiles God spake once and twice says the Psalmist first to the old Church of the Jews than to the new Church of the Gentiles and as many as call upon him faithfully they are his people and he is their King And that you may be sure the Gentiles have their interest in him the first in all the holy Scripture that calls him a Redeemer is Job and Job is a Gentile In every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him says St. Peter Acts x. 35. Nay that which Zachary utters restrictively he hath visited and redeemed his people the Angel as one more indifferent to all parties says I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people So St. John as liberally and largely as the Angel he is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world 1 Epist chap. ii ver 2. says Prosper very well a Father that was very cunning in this point Poculum immortalitatis habet in se ut omnibus prosit sed si non bibitur non medetur The cup of immortality is in his hand to bring all men to eternal life but it will cure none of their sins but those that drink of it To conclude all Christ came especially into the world for his Church sake and more especially in his Church for those that are called according to his purpose he came to purchase unto himself a people zealous of good works They were to be purchased and made his people they were not his people before he came unto them Non veniens suam invenit plebem sed visitando eam fecit if he had not visited them and redeemed them and taught them and given them of his spirit
upon them to make them loiter from their daily necessary labour but it was an high solemnity as fell out in all the year Dies celeberrimus sanctissimus as the Vulgar Latin reads it Lev. xxiii 21. where we read that then they should proclaime and call an holy Convocation So I have summed up the three occasions of this Feast in the Old Law first to give thanks for their deliverance from bondage Secondly to honour the day wherein first they received the Law at Mount Sinah and thirdly to offer up the first fruits of their Harvest will you see now how aptly the gift of the Holy Ghost was distributed at the same time When the day of Pentecost c. First Whereas the Jews did celebrate at the Feast of Pentecost their enfranchisement from the house of bondage so the benefit of liberty was augmented this day much more than ever it was before This Satan knew well enough and therefore the longest thing wherein he held the Church in ignorance was about the sending of the Holy Ghost long after the name of Christ and his power was received whole Cities and Societies confessed they had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost or not Ignorance in those Points which are necessary to salvation is the greatest thraldom and captivity in the world False Prophets says S. Paul do lead captive silly women laden with sins 2 Tim. iii. 6. I spake not only of such as sate in the darkness of death and were lost these were like Samson in fetters having their eies put out but the Disciples the flower of Christs train saw nothing in holy mysteries as they ought to see till the influence of this glorious day cleared there eye-sight their eyes were held their hearts were held they knew not which way their Redemption was brought about and how Israel was restored Our Saviour took out but one Text in all the New Testament it is out of Isaiah and it is to this very purpose that the Spirit of God redeemed us out of the captivity of ignorance the place is extant Luk. iv 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised This comes home to the matter I am sure Yet moreover this is a day of restitution unto liberty because it dissolved the Church from the tye and yoke of Levitical Ceremonies from those multitude of Statutes which overwhelmed the people with observation As Pharaoh was drowned in the red Sea so the tenure of Mosaical Ceremonies was drowned in the bloud of Christ which was shed upon the Cross and on this Feast we received the Seal of the Spirit that we were rid of them all So far I have demonstrated that at this time we shook off the bondage of Ignorance and Ceremonies which makes it a feast of Pentecost to us Christians as well as it was to the Jews Secondly You shall find the other correspondency marvelously kept between the Law and the Gospel Christ at his death was slain not only as the Paschal Lamb but even when the Lamb was slain on the Feast of Passeover Now from the Feast of Passeover or rather from the second day of sweet bread reckoning fifty days the Children of Israel came to Mount Sinah and there received the Law which was kept ever after with a most sacred memorial so fifty days after Christ rose from the dead the Apostles and the Church received the Spirit of Sanctification And I am sure we have much more cause to renown our Pentecost than the Jews had to honour theirs If the Law which was the ministration of death was so thankfully remembred how much more the dedication of the Gospel For this day as the Fathers say very well was the first dedication of Christs Catholick Church upon earth They were made the Sons of the bondwoman by the Law we are made the Sons of the free-woman by the Spirit We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but we have received the spirit of adoption Rom. viii 15. A sinner could have no comfort in the Pentecost of the Jews they had the Law and that condemned them this was miserable comfort We have gladsom tidings this day not from Sinah but out of Sion which bids us live by faith in Christ In no other Feast of the Jews might Leaven be eaten it was an hainous transgression but the two loaves of the first fruits were to be baked with Leaven which were dedicated to God at this Feast Lev. xxiii 17. Expositors say no more to it but thus Leaven was put into the dough of new corn Vt panes sapidiores essent to make it more savory certainly so vulgar an interpretation is much under the meaning of the Holy Ghost I would rather say it had a mystical construction that Leaven was allowed at this Feast to intimate that the Holy Spirit would bear with the leaven of our nature with our sins of frailty and infirmity And it is observable that this is the number of the Jubilee every fiftieth year was the Jubilee year which was a time with the Jews to restore all men to their Lands which were sold away by ill-husbandry and a general forgiving of all debts So this day was a true Jubilee for remission of Trespasses it was at this time that Peter preach'd remission of sins to all that did repent and believe to all without exception for says he the Promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call So I have shewed that we received the divine Spirit of grace at Sion at the same time that they received the terrible Law at Sinah which makes it a greater Feast of Pentecost to us Christians than it was unto the Jews Thirdly We agree no less with them in the next similitude for keeping this day The Israelites according to the early maturity of corn in that climate began to put their Sickle at this time into Wheat Harvest so the Apostles from this day forward went forth to reap that which the Prophets had sown gathering much fruit unto eternal life and bringing the Wheat of God into his Garner unto the everlasting praise of the glory of his grace Their Barly Harvest such was the condition of their Soil and Husbandry begun at Easter their Wheat was begun to be cut down seven weeks after at Whitsuntide and the latter was called Tempus primitiarum the Time or Festival of First-fruits which were presented to the Lord. So God breathed his spirit into man at the creation of Adam that was the first Harvest which spirit being choked by him and coming to nothing this day there was a second emission of the spirit into man fully to restore and renew him again Now the two Loaves
requisite additions and put it out of question The Wisemen adored him with costly Gifts after the manner of an earthly Prince The Angels glorifie him with Hymns and Praises after the Majesty of God In every respect this is the greatest testimony of Christ in all the Scripture excepting where God used his own voice immediately from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased These things are but said now I will prove it in the prosecuting of the parts which are these The Messengers the preparation to the Message and the Message it self or the Choristers the preparation to their Musick and then the Anthem The Choristers are 1. Heavenly ones 2. A multitude 3. An Host or an Army of them Their preparation is twofold With much suddenness suddenly there was with the Angel and with much chearfulness for they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 singing praise unto God The Anthem it self hath three rests in it Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host these are the Choristers that sung the Carol and the first thing we note in them is that they were heavenly ones Many things in the former Verses of this Chapter were exceeding mean if I may not say vile and sordid touching our Saviours Nativity but this portion of the story is of another nature and very honourable the more his Divinity had hid it self in Clouts in Flesh in a Manger the more it is illustrated by a glorious testimony The Earth afforded him one of the worst places it had the Heavens afforded him their very best attendance the Angels These heavenly Spirits you see gaze not upon the Work of our Redemption nor upon the Oeconomy of the Church as idle Spectators but they were imployed from the beginning in all the works of the Lord Job xxxviii 7. Who laid the corner stone of the earth when the morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Some Expositors infer from hence that the Angels applauded and praised the Lord for the Creation of the world for the Chaldee Paraphrase instead of the Sons of God reads it Acies Angelorum the Army of Angels And the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the corner stone of the earth was laid all my Angels praised me with a loud voice St. Chrysostome says upon it that the Angels admired to see the beauty of the world beneath they were astonished to behold the degrees of the Elements the multitude of all sorts of Creatures their Order Number and measure And by so much were they transported with the beauty of Gods Excellency more than we and of all his Works by how much they did better perceive that they were wrought with infinite and inexplicable wisdom This apprehension of the Fathers upon those words of Job I think is not to be refused Anastasius Sinaita is cited to go a great deal further that on the fourth day of the Creation the Angels saw the Sun rise in the morning from under the interposition of the Earth and presently they bethought them how Christ Sol justitiae should be born of a pure Virgin and dwell upon the earth and immediately they sung this very Song Gloria in excelsis as a prevention or prediction what should be sang upon this day almost four thousand years before it came to pass But this conjecture supposeth one of these two things scarce to be admitted either that these heavenly ones foresaw the fall of Adam before it came to pass as well as God and that the Son of God should be given in the flesh for a Propitiation to be the remedy or else another scholastic quidlibet must be received that Christ was so the head of the Angels that he should have been Incarnate and the Angels saved by faith in that Incarnation though Adam had never faln which is but harsh in the delivery This is the true Doctrine and the right descant upon the Point these Spirits that dwell in Heaven rejoyced for the Creation of the Earth when the Foundations of it were laid as Job says how much more would they bear a part and triumph for our sakes at the Restauration and the Redemption of the Earth Yet now we are at the truth mistake not the reason of their joy as some have done let me but touch upon a petty error and so proceed to the true causes It is supposed by many that the Angels are ready to attend the Church with all their help and diligence and exceeding glad in our prosperity because they receive an augmentation of their blessedness by their pious Ministry towards the Sons of men Now this savours of a little servility me thinks as if those holy ones did not communicate themselves to be safeguards and watchmen over us without expectation of reward but Biel presseth it further Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus Angelus non habuisset beatitudinem It would follow that Angels had never come to the height of their beatitude unless men had been created nay it will follow further they should come short of their full beatitude unless man had sinned and disobeyed Gods Commandment Let me lay down more sufficient reasons therefore for your further satisfaction First The Angels had always done their best to pitch their Pavilions round about us and to keep us from the tyranny of the Devil but they perceived that their protection was not a saving Medicine it would not cure it would not keep us in life but it bred them great content and joy when Christ did manifest himself in flesh upon the earth to heal our sores and bruises and to overcome that strong man for us and spoil him generally to supply in himself whatsoever was defective in their abilities This is Origens reason and his Simile follows as if many unexpert but well affected Physicians should spend their pains to no profit about a sick person whom they would fain recover and hearing that one of renowned skill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was come into the City who would undoubtedly restore the languishing party all the rest that had attempted it did much congratulate his coming So our heavenly Friends the Angels could not speed us as they desired but as soon as they saw the Prince of Physicians was come into the world first one Angel appeared the Prolocutor of the whole Host and he broke with the Shepherds about good tidings of great joy to all People This day is born c. All this while the rest of his consort hovered in the air and at last became visible and discovered themselves in a Volley Apparuerunt cum illo Angeli says the Syrian Paraphrast exulting and praising God that the Lamb was yeaned that should take away the sins of the World Secondly The fruit of this birth came to us and not to them Nusquam Angelos Christ took not on him the
since he was tempted of Satan Lord let me not fight alone lest my foes prevail against me Thus tentation begets fear and fear begets prayer and prayer calls for succour and heavenly succour will assist us to be conquerours Gregory incloseth it in his meditation Vnde pertimescit homo enerviter cadere inde accipit fortiter stare that tentation which makes a just man distrust he shall fall affordeth him occasion to set his feet upon a sure place Cast not your selves therefore into tentation Brethren but when you are in them endure them with joy and courage as it is said of the Machabees that they fought with chearfulness the battels of Israel so go on with alacrity against those innumerable evils that take hold upon you The just man triumphs with David against the powers of darkness as if he saw them already made subject unto him they are cast down and faln but we are risen and stand upright Pelopidas being environed with an Ambush alas says his Lieutenant we are faln into the hands of our enemies And why not rather our enemies faln into our hands says Pelopidas So let not the name of Satan and tentation be dreadful unto you he hath more cause to fear he shall be repulsed than you have reason to fear he shall prevail since Christ hath blunted his weapons in this conflict The Fathers call that verse the Saints Jubilee after their trial with the evil one Psal lxvi 12. We went through fire and water but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place And therefore I bequeath St. Pauls exultation to your use Thanks be to God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly Christ was tempted to give us an example how to encounter with the roaring Lion and to win the Mastery As a young Learner will observe diligently every ward and thrust that an experienced Gladiator makes so the Holy Ghost hath set down for our advertisement every passage how Christ did turn and wind the delusions of the Serpent These things had need to be scanned beloved we had need to be cunning at our fence for if the Devil sought our overthrow in Christ how much more will he do it in our selves If these things were done to the green wood what will be done to the dry But mark how the man of Gods right hand chased away the enemy mark how he demeaned himself from first to last and you are fortified with the best president that ever the world afforded Ut cujus munimur auxilio ejus erudiremur exemplo says Leo he looks upon our conflicts from heaven and helps the weaker side both by the presence of his grace and by the president of his example Observe him that we might instance in all his ways retiring into a desart from the contagion of the world observe him fasting observe him drawing his shafts out of the quiver of the holy Scripture to maintain his cause and say this is the true Charm to make the evil Serpent break as Daniel in the Apocryphal story choakt the Dragon with lumps of strong confection Christ himself could not receive increase of the Spirit either by being baptized or by being tempted for he had the fulness not of sufficiency but of abundancy before without measure but it was for the proficiency of his members that were under him And therefore the Schoolmen have a disceptation since Christ was much greater than the Angels and did far excel them in grace why he should be tempted of the Devil For we do not read that any of the Angels confirmed in grace were ever tempted One of them answers Quia Angelus non habet membra sub se quomodo Christus habet Christ is head of a body and hath members under him to give erudition unto by his example and so have not the elect Angels Wherefore if the Children of Israel lookt up by faith upon the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness that they might be healed when they were wounded how much more should we look attentively upon Christs Tentation in the Wilderness that we may not be wounded of the Serpent The Fathers in their piety say it is easier to avoid ten sins that compass us round about and have not yet taken hold of us than to recover our selves sound again from any one sin that we have committed It is the Angelical part of Christianity to take out this Lesson Prevent us O Lord from evil in all our doings There is a great deal of the old man and his ragged lining in the best repentance You may learn repentance from Christs Gospel but not from Christ himself but innocency and clearness of life and to be impregnable against tentations not Verbum Christi but Christus Verbum not the Word of Christ but Christ the eternal Word makes you cunning in that by his own example He that knows not the experience of many tentations doth not well know himself says St. Austin Nescit se homo nisi in tentatione discat se But he that knows not the experience of Christs combate will not know how to deal with tentation Fifthly Says Bonaventure very acutely he began in the ministry of the Gospel first to refute the false Doctors before he taught his Disciples the truth first to beat down the Synagogue of Satan and then to build the City of God First root up the Tares and bind them in bundles and then dress the Wheat A Bishop must be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince gainsayers Tit. i. 9. Conviction of falshood requires the greater care and diligence and the great Bishop of our souls begins with that How soon were all divinity learnt What little pains would go to Preaching and Exhortation if it were not that Heresies and Falshoods beget us a most laborious drudgery to refute them Innumerable errors are disseminated that they are like Augias his Stable so foul that they are never to be cleansed It held our Saviour forty days in the Wilderness to untie all the knots of Satan and thus we must build up Hierusalem like Nehemiahs builders with the Sword in one hand with the Trowel in the other Having the Sword of the Spirit to cut in twain the snares of the wicked one you shall the sooner build up the walls of Sion Sixthly And then I take off my hand from this Point Let no man say I am cast out from the face of the Lord because he is beset with daily tentations God had one Son that was free from sin but he hath no Son that is free from the incumbrances of Satan If there be no more in it than an outward occasion cast before you to try if you will bite which is Exterior pulsatio as a man that comes not into the house but stands without and knocks at door This is your praise in the highest respect that your vertue is impenetrable As the Lord sent a blast upon Sennacharib and made him return to his
Elias fled into the Wilderness or took up a private Mansion in Sarepta and such secret places rather than abide in the face of Israel where the filthy worship of Baal was professed And though he had shewn himself to Obadiah yet he would not go down with Ahab to Jezreel till the whole Fry of the Priests of Baal was destroyed And which is more remarkable in Gods Judgements against that capitol sin for three years and a half no Rain had faln upon the earth in all that Land but as soon as ever those that sacrificed to Baal were slain in the very next verse says Elias to Ahab Get thee up eat and drink for there is a sound of abundance of rain You see that the Heavens did deny sustenance to the earth even untill the very hour that Idolatry was abandoned I ground my Doctrine but very seldom upon Prophesies which are not fulfilled or whose interpretation is not very evident yet for once I will be bold to cite another mans judicious conjecture that the Spirit of God in the Revelation Chap. vii doth so bury Idolatry in oblivion that he would not have it named in that Catalogue where the true servants of God are rehearsed For those holy ones who had the Seal of the living God are reckoned in the Apostolical number because they lived and died in the Faith of the Apostolical Doctrine twelve thousand out of each of twelve Tribes and the Tribes are named from the Kindreds of Israel even the Sons of Jacob yet none are said to be sealed of the Tribe of Dan and though Manasses be mentioned yet his brother Ephraim is not spoken of but Joseph the Father of them both in his place I approve that Interpreters way that says the names of Ephraim and Dan are not in this List because they were the first that let in Idolatry into the Church of God after Moses died The certainty of that is to be found in xvii and xviii Chap. of Judges Micah a man of Mount Ephraim was the first we read of that had an house of Gods and a molten and a graven Image he kept these in honour of the true God you may see that in the Chapter as clearly as your hand at noon-day that is no excuse in Chap. xviii The Daâ—tes rob this man of his Gods and the children of Dan set up Micahs graven Image which he made all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh for these Idolatries the names of Dan and Ephraim are not in the blessing of that book of life Then what agreement can be made with them or what unity in the outward profession of the faith who will worship God in Pictures and Statues and give religious honour to Creatures Moses incited Levi that such should not live Elias would not converse with men till the whole ging of those that served Baal was destroyed the Angel of God omits the names of Dan and Ephraim in the recitation of the Faithful our Saviour forbore to send the Devil packing for the two former Tentations but utterly casts him off and as one says upon my Text excommunicates him from his blessed company as soon as ever his mouth formed Idolatry Then the Devil leaveth him We use to send Spials after our enemies in battel to mark where they take up their lodging whether they march fairly from us or whether they are put to flight After the rule of this policy it may concern us you see to note whither the Adversary betook himself when he departed from Christ So that the next question is not unnecessary to be answered to what place he went upon the leaving our Saviour Some do so interpret it as if this mighty Fury before these temptations were cast out of heaven into the earth but from that time that Christ rebuked him and bad him avant further he went away from the earth to the lowest darkness And that Beelzebub was bound he should hurt the earth no more in his own person but only by his Instruments Binding is metaphorically taken to be bridled from doing mischief if not altogether yet at least in some restraint So our Lord speaks in a Parable Mat. xii 29. that in casting out Devils he entred into the strong mans house and bound that strong man and spoyled his house Bound him from tormenting those whom Christ would spare But as yet he was not bound in chains of eternal darkness No less than three of the Fathers Irenaeus Hilary and Hierom expound that in the xii of St. Matth. by this place of my Text that the strong man was bound when Christ retorted all his temptations As yet he is loose to do hurt and shall be loose for the trial of the Elect and for the punishment of ungodly doers till Christ have gathered all his Saints about him in the Kingdom of heaven The evil Angels are reserved unto judgment it is St. Peters phrase they shall find the worst at last and that they know well enough for when our Saviour dealt roughly with them and even afflicted them with some pain as it is supposed when he cast them out of men possessed they expostulate it as an injury Art thou come to torment us before the time As who should say What Tormented before the day of Judgment I like it not therefore to have it so expounded that the Tempter went from Christ to take up his lodging in Hell for ever Surely against the Passion of our Lord the Prince of darkness and all his Litter had their free exercise to stir up enemies against him more than ever Says he This is your hour and the power of darkness Luke xxii 53. And if that were done in the green tree what shall be done in the dry If they might use the Master so what exemption can the Servants expect They may rove about and hurt the world till the day of Judgment They thought they asked but their due when a Legion of them petitioned not to be sent in Abyssum into the bottomless pit of Hell at that time and not to be committed to that woe sooner than the last and dreadful day of the Lord. He had his license then when he went from Christ to go to and fro in any place of the earth and to walk up and down in it as he once answered God in the history of Job Quocunque eunt sua secum supplicia circum ferunt Wheresoever they go they carry torments about with them Envy Desperation the terrour of endless Wrath to come and unspeakable vexedness to be deprived of the vision of Gods glory These are the Plagues that cleave unto them who depart from Christ But how is it intelligible that this banished Spirit could leave our Saviour Adam when he was new faln was no wiser than a new-born babe that hid himself from God And as Adam had lost the spirit of Innocency so Jonas had lost the spirit of Prophesie when he fled away by shipping from
it 2. It makes us leave to thirst after vain delights by little and little 3. He that satiates his spirit with it in this life shall be discharged from all manner of thirst hereafter when he changeth this life to live with God for ever The first of these Propositions begets this lesson where sanctification hath moistned the inward man to the bottom and to the root there the heart is restless till it obtain a larger abundance of the spirit After this manner a good Proficient gains upon Gods blessing step by step Thou hast given me to know thee O Lord but confirm my faith also to believe in thee nay give me not onely to believe but to suffer for thy Names sake so shalt thou try and examine if there be any way of wickedness in me or if thou hast not reserv'd me for the Cup of afflictions yet prove me throughly by obedience grant that my works may please thee that I may do thy will on earth as it is in heaven Make thy Laws sweet unto my mouth sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb Such a one is Marcianus the Anchorite chronicled by Theodoret One of his ancient acquaintance being in chase after his Game found him alone in a Desart What make you so far from your friends says the Huntsman and what make you so far in the Woods says Marcianus I am hunting for a Beast says he and I will not leave till I have taken it and I am hunting for my God says Marcianus and I will not leave till I have found him Such a one by Procopius his description was Justinian the Emperor and such an Example was worth a thousand nulla honorandi Dei satietas cum cepit he was never cloyed to do God honor he never thought his duty was enough in Religious service The more we bend our affection to heavenly things we shall be enflamed with more devotion as devotion encreaseth the more help shall be added the more help the more diligence and the more diligence the more glory Nemo primo statim die ad satietatem potatur says one of the Moderns No man is made Christian enough in a day to go to the Kingdom of Heaven unless it be in such a rare example as that was of the penitent Thief It is a false spirit that says unto any mortal man it is well if you can keep at this stay and prove no worse Yet I know the greatest part of indifferent Christians are so affected to the love of the World that if it were possible to measure out to a dram what quantity of righteousness would serve them to attain to salvation they would reach so far if the Grace of God would assist them but they would seek no further I say if they knew the trick how to make just a Saint and no more they would spare a labour for seeking beyond that point and for the rest sacrifice to carnal security Certainly there can be no living water already where there is no thirsting for more Whatsoever you know or hear of that any Saint living or departed hath done for Gods sake it is a shame for you if you do not covet to do as much or more than that at least if you be not sorry that your frailties make you come short of the best Speak thus to your own heart Should any of thy Servants love thee better than I should any of thy Disciples be more obedient than I for none of thine Elect is so much indebted to thy Passion as I am because none had so many sins to be forgiven Thus your Soul must thirst to be the nearest that shall stand before the presence of the Lord and count your self extreme lag in perfection until you desire to come equal with the principal Saints Lord let me love thee as Peter did Lord let me love thee more than these Some cried Hosanna and shouted for ioy when our Saviour went to Jerusalem some cut down branches of Palms that was a more real expression of his welcome some spared their Garments from their back and laid them in his way These were the formost in affection and what a becoming thing it was to be the best of all those that ran forth to meet our Saviour but as if one should wish always to be a Child and never come to manly growth so is a lumpish Christian who perswades himself that a moderate competency of righteousness is best let others if they will strive to be those green Olive trees that flourish in the House of the Lord. The learned among the Heathen love to talk of strange Creatures and Plutarch tells of a Fish of which to eat a little is hurtful to eat it up all is medicinal True or false be the Story it comes fit to be applied Christ promiseth no blessing to him that doth but wet his lips with this living water a little spattering holiness will turn to hypocrisy the vertue of it abides with those that drink deep for the preserving and cherishing of a spiritual life and the thirsty Soul the more it drinks up the more it will cry out give me ever of this water to drink The second Experiment is this the water which Christ gives turns the edg of the appetite quite from this world and makes us leave to thirst after all other delights he that drinketh of this water though concupiscence cannot quite be rooted out yet he shall never long greedily after carnal lusts He that doth not hate his own Soul cannot be my Disciple is not this a Paradox for what shall it profit me to love all things else if I hate it well love it as it is Christs Soul altogether ravished with the love of him hate it as it was thine own Soul altogether ravished with the love of the world Tunc animam nostram benè odimus cum ejus carnalibus desideriis non acquiescimus says Gregory as a man seems to be ill affected to another if he deny him that he sues for so such heavenly resolutions by a Catachresis are called the hate of the Soul when we deny it satisfaction in foolish and earthly inclinations He that hath called promotion to honour or the fatness of riches or luxury or any such thing the darling of his heart it was for want of this water in my Text to cool the inflammation of his fever but if ever he receive a dose of it the new Wine is put in a new Bottle and both shall be preserved The grace of God doth supply the place of a Cherubin that stood with a flaming sword to keep Adam out of Paradise so the Holy Spirit will give the watch-word and cry out in the time of tentation turn aside and enter not into the paths of these pleasures these are not the Paradise into which you should come if you do there is a Sword that will cut you in twain and give you your portion with Hypocrites St. Austin observs upon the
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