dash against a stone would not suffer a bone of him to be broken or one tittle of his Covenant to fail him sent his Angels too to look after to minister to him a whole host of them to declare him this day to the world Nay 2. came and visited him himself he and his Holy Spirit with him at his Baptism he and Moses and Elias with him in the Mount where he gave testimony he was his Son his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased Nay 3. that which might seem in one sort a diminution was in another an exaltation he made him but a little lower then the Angels was an exalting him when it made even his Body little inferiour to their Spirit and that it did when he could pass through a crowd of people as invisible as an immaterial Spirit S. Luke iv 30. Nay before that when he came into the world without any blemish to his Mothers Virginity as if he had been a Spirit not a Body and after that when he arose out of his Tomb the stone upon it when he entred and the doors were shut when he vanish'd out of sight c. they knew not how he went Paulo minus angelis indeed this is little less then Angels I can tell you But St. Austin tells you more Naturâ humanâ Christi Deum solum majorem That God only is greater then Christs humane nature The Hypostatical union to the Deity has made it so and those infinite graces of his soul are somewhat more then paulo minus above the Angels rarest endowments Yet this is nothing to the Crown that follows for we see Iesus says the Apostle Heb. ii 9. Who was made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Enthymius thinks it may be read without a comma above the Angels with glory and honour hast thou crowned him with a glory beyond theirs Indeed four Crowns he was crowned with a Crown of Flesh with that his Mother crown'd him in his Incarnation Cant. iii. 11. A Crown of Thorns with that the Souldiers crown'd him at his Passion St. Iohn xix 2. A Crown of Precious Stones De lapide pretioso at his Resurrection The four endowments of glorious Bodies Charity Agility Impossibility and Incorruptibility were the Stones of it And a Crown of pure Gold at his Ascension when he shone like the Son in gloria and went up cum corona with a crown or ring of blessed Saints into the highest Heavens With these two last God crowned him these two were his exaltation and the crown or reward of the two other And to make this Crown the more glistering and glorious here 's honour added to it A name given him above every name that at the mention of it every knee is now to bow both of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth Phil. ii 9 10. made better then the Angels Heb. i. 4. so much better that all things even the Angels themselves Authorities and Powers all sorts of Angels are made subject unto him 1 S. Pet. iii. 22. and are therefore bid all to worship him says St. Paul Heb. i. 6. Such honour has Christ after his humiliation and we may expect some after ours If we humble our selves we also shall be exalted and crowned with glory And so it seems we are entitled to it by the sufferings of the Son of man and by his visiting us our glory is much encreased by his Glory our honour higher by his Redemption then in our first Creation so that we may now well take up the words again and pronounce them with greater astonishment still that he should so remember visit and crown his redeemed people as he does For what is man indeed that God should redeem him at so great a price what access can it be to God to raise him out of his ruines might he not more easily have made a new stock of men of better natures than have redeemed Adam's Or 2. if he would have needs so much magnified his love as to have redeem'd him because he had made him would not a restoring of him to his first estate have been well enough but that he must raise him to a higher Without doubt it had but that God in mercy thinks nothing too much for him It appears so by his remembring him Man was a true Enos and that is obliviscens a forgetful piece yet God remembers him and comes down in the evening of his fall a few minutes after it and raises him up with a promise of the seed of the Woman to set all streight again There he did as well visit as remember him And in the pursuance of this singular mercy he still 2. visits him every morning morning and evening too visits by his Angels by his Priests by his Prophets by his Mercies by his Iudgments by his Son by his Holy Spirit by daily motions and inspirations These are the visits he hourly makes us since he visited us by his Son far more plentifully than before more abundant grace more gracious visits for if his Son be once formed in us he will never give over visiting till he crown us Yet 3. by degrees he raises us up to some Angelical purities and perfections before he crown us our nature is much elevated by the Grace of Christ and what the Iew did only to the outward letter we are enabled to do to the Spirit of it to inward purity as well as the outward Thus and thus you heard of old says Christ S. Matth. v. 21. but I say more not a wanton look not a murtherous thought not a reproachful word not the slightest Oath He would refine us fain somewhat near the Angels to be pure as they But 4. we shall not do it gratis he will crown us for it quicken us together with Christ raise us up together and make us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. ii 5 6. Honours us with the name of friends reveals himself unto us fills us with the riches of Christ adopts us to be his Sons makes us members of Christ partakers of his Spirit makes himself one with us and we with him washes us by one Sacrament feeds us by another comforts us by his word compasses with the ministrations of righteousness that exceeds in glory pardons our sins heals our infirmities strengthens our weaknesses replenishes us with graces urges us with favours makes us with open face behold them as in a glass behold the glory of the Lord and changes us at last into the same image from glory to glory Eph. iii. 18. What is man O Lord or the Son of man that thou shouldst do thus unto him And what are we O Lord what are we that we are so insensible of thy mercies what base vile unworthy things are we if we do not now pour out our selves in thanks and wonder in praise and glory for this
rich The next point we are to handle the Christians benefit from Christs Birth the Christians gain by Christs losses the Christians making rich by Christs being made poor II. And need had he to be rich indeed to enrich so many need to be rich whose very poverty can enrich us to speak the very truth his very poverty is our riches It is his rags that clothed our nakedness it is his stable that builds us Palaces it is his hunger that filled our emptiness it is his thirst that takes off our driness it is his necessity that supplies all ours he made himself a slave to make us free a servant to make us sons he came down to lift us up he became as it were nothing to make us all The very poverty of Christ is the riches of the Christian and he that can chearfully put that on after him is rich indeed can want nothing for he that can be content to be poor for Christ who though he has nothing is content he wants not though he has not and if he want not he is rich nay only rich for he that wants but the least though he have never so much never so full coffers never so many possessions nay and Kingdoms too he is not rich with all his riches The poor pious soul that lives contented in his Cell and feeds on nothing but bread and water and joys in it because it is for Christ he is rich and abounds and has all sleeps securer in a Wilderness amongst wild Beasts softer upon Iacobs Pillar warmer under the vast Canopy of Heaven then great Princes in their fortified Castles upon the Doun of Swans with all their Silks and Embroideries about them for neither a mans life nor his riches consist in the abundance of the things that he possesseth St. Luke xii 15. He is rich whom Christs poverty or poverty for Christ enriches with godliness and contentment That 's great gain that is great riches says St. Paul So great that we need not look after the petty fading transitory riches of the world they are but dross and dung compared to the true riches the riches of grace and glory we have by Jesus Christ. For call the rich man whom you will seek all the expressions the Scripture has to call the rich man by He that is rich in the grace of Christ may lay title to them all He that abounds in Gold and Silver is he rich Behold Christ calls to us to buy gold of him tried in the fire that we may be rich Rev. iii. 18. and he sells all without mony Isa. lv 1. 't is then easie coming by it easie being rich nay the very trial of our Faith is more precious then gold 1 St. Pet. i. 7. A Christian in the sorest trials poverty or reproach or death is rich you hear in being so He that has abundance of rich clothes and garments is he rich Christ calls us to buy them too at the same easie rate white rayment the rayment of Princes and great men in the forenamed place of the Revelation and with the long white Robe of Christs Righteousness the faithful Christian is apparelled so none richer in clothes than he He that heaps up Silver like the dust and molten Gold like the clay in the streets is he rich How rich then is he that counts the silver like the dust and the gold like clay who is so rich that he contemns those riches He that has his garners full of Wheat and his presses with new Wine is he rich say ye How rich then is he that lives wholly upon heavenly Manna and drinks the Wine of Angels as the true Christian does He that washes his steps in Butter and has Rivers of Oyl flowing to him out of the Rock is he rich How much richer then is he that is anointed with the heavenly Oyl with the oyl of perpetual joy and gladness in the Spirit as the true believer is He that abounds in Cattel who cannot number his herds and flocks is he rich tell me how mightily far richer is he that possesses God whose are all the Beasts of the Mountains and all the Cattel upon a thousand Hills and him he possesses that possesses Christ that is one of his the poorest of them he that has stately and magnificent houses good store richly deckt and furnisht too is he rich think you if he be how infinitely more rich are they who have Heaven for their house and all the Furniture fit for theirs In a word may he be called rich who is highly born richly seated gloriously attended how rich then is he that is born of God as the true Christian is whom he makes to sit together with him in heavenly places in Christ Iesus Ephes. ii 6. upon whom the Angels continually attend about whom they daily pitch their Tents to whom they are all but ministring Spirits sent forth to wait upon them as upon the heirs of salvation Heb. i. 14. Will not all this serve the turn what then plainer now at last then that he tells us he has made us Kings and Priests Rev. i. 6. Kings they cannot come under a lower notion then rich and though Priests of late are not always so yet a Royal Priesthood as St. Peter calls us 1 St. Pet. ii 9. will be rich So that now after the several stiles of rich men in Scripture you see the Christian may be truly stiled rich if either abundance or increase clothes or furniture houses or attendants may be said to make one rich or if Kings themselves may be called such Yet above all this he is richer still even in poverty he is rich and can make others rich As poor says the Apostle yet making many rich and as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. vi 10. Here 's the prerogative of Christian riches above all others None can rob us of them no poverty can lose them I know how to abound and how to want says St. Paul Phil. iv 12. how to abound in the midst of want They are riches the riches of grace that Thieves cannot steal nor Moths corrupt such as satiate the weary soul such as make us with St. Paul in all estates to be content count all riches all joy even the sorest and bitterest poverty or temptation And when the riches of grace have heaped up our treasuries here with all chearfulness then open they to us the treasuries of glory riches so far beyond what the world call so that all here is but meer beggary and want and misery in comparison not to be nam'd or thought on The Vse of this is to instruct us henceforward to labour only for the true riches to be rich in grace to be plentiful in good works not to squander away our days like children in running after painted Butterflies in heaping up Gold and Silver as St. Iames speaks to lie and rust and cry out against us not to build our dwellings or fix our
us when we are sick and heals our sicknesses he visits us in our sadness and dispels our sorrows he visits us in prison and pays our Debts he visits us in our dangers and delivers us out he visits us in our prosperities and rejoyces with us in them he visits us by his Mercies by his Prophets by his Graces by his Spirit yet all these are nothing to this visiting by his Son or little they are without it or else they are all included in it health and joy liberty and deliverance peace and mercy comfort and instruction grace and spirit all in it all in the coming down of Christ to visit us How infinite is thy mercy that thou thus doest visit poor sinful man 3. But thou wert infinitely merciful to him long before when thou first madest him when thou madest him but little lower then the Angels 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some little thing but not much Thou gavest him understanding as thou didst them only theirs is a little clearer and without discourse But they understand and so does man They have wills and so has he They are spirits and he has one They are Gods Ministers and so is man only they do all with more nimbleness and perfection for they have no bodies but to hinder them but man has In that he is somewhat under them yet not much neither since Christ has so exalted our nature as to unite it to the Godhead and made all his Angels worship it And which takes much too from this diminution this minuisti eum it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a second sense for a little while for so 't is possible to be rendred whilst we live here for a few years and days It will not be long e're we be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels we are now below S. Luke xx 36. And yet we are a degree nearer to them now if we expound the words that we render Angels as S. Ierome Pagnin and some others do The word is Elohim one of the names of God and St. Chrysostom found a Translation with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he made us but a little lower then God himself And may well seem so when he sets a Dixi dii estis upon us Psal. lxxxii 6. tells us that he said we were Gods and the Children of the most High 4. But 4. bear it what sense it will what diminution it can it is all but to exalt us by it to crown us thou hast made Christ to crown him only to crown so we read it in the old Translation our very diminutions are sent us to augment our glory So infinitely great is Gods mercy to us that our very lessenings are for our greatning A rare excess of mercy to make us lower so to make us higher 5. And 't is high indeed when it exalts us to a Crown and past doubting too when it comes to a coronasti thou hast done it as 't is here both in the old Latin and the new English certain to hold too not to be one of those corruptible Crowns the Apostle speaks of of Bays or Laurel in the Olympick games 1 Cor. ix If we add the other reading mentioned by St. Chrysostome Coronabis Thou shalt crown him hast already and shalt again shalt continue crowning him Here 's a mercy will hold as well as stretch as everlasting as 't is infinite Two senses there are of Coronasti of this crowning it may signifie either plenty or reward Thou crownest the year with thy goodness Ps. lxv 11. He crowneth thee with loving kindness Psal. ciii 4. In both it signifies an abundance of mercies and blessings But he shall receive a crown St. James i. 12. is the same with a high reward In both senses God crowns man here with the fulness of heaven and earth gives him liberty to feed and clothe himself with what he pleases keeps nothing of all his plenty from him and which is more gives him it as it were a reward for his labour though it be vastly far above all his pains 6. If this reward be glory now 6. as here it is he has put a crown of Gold indeed upon his head as the Psalmist speaks The glory to be made after the very image and likeness of God himself and to be made so at a consultation with so much solemnity that 's the glory here It was a kind of one to be made somewhat near the Angels likeness but to have Gods added to it is glory upon glory What glory like Gods what glory of man like that to be like God Having honour added to this glory that all the creatures should do homage to him the fiercest and stubbornest of them submit their necks under his feet and the very crooked Serpent creeps away as afraid of him none of them dare to lift him up a head or a horn a paw or crest or hiss against him for the Fowls of the Air and Fishes of the Sea all of them to serve to his command and use What is man become now What hast thou made him thus O God Much of this glory I confess is now departed from him or blurred or sullied in him that we can see little of his former purer rays by reason of his own sin and folly yet thus God made him all this he did for him and the glimmerings of all these glories and mercies are still upon him And the mercy peradventure is the greater though the glory be the less in that notwithstanding all mans demerits he yet continues in some degree or other all these mercies to him You will see it still the greater if you now consider who it is all this is done to who it is that God thus remembers visits makes and crowns with glory and worship A worshipful piece God wot a poor thing call'd man stil'd Adam here a piece of clay and dirt ex limo a pure clod a meer walking pitcher brittle and dirty too and the dirtier since his fall Miserable 2. besides Enos is a second word the Psalmist here expresses man withal and that signifies a sad sick calamitous miserable incurable wretch and which adds to it so by descent too and by entail never here to be cut off Filius Enos the Son of man the son of misery he comes crying into the world as if he foresaw it e're he well could see and felt it at his first appearance How innumerable are the troubles how unavoidable the necessities how incredible the mischances how numberless the sicknesses how unsupportable the infirmities that surround him from his first hour infinite need there is that God should be mindful of him that he should have some eye upon him and regard him for he comes in helpless into the world and continues so if God help him not This is that then 3. makes the Prophet come with a quid est Lord what a thing is this what a thing is man a thing so hidden with infirmities so
it of either the one or the other much more of both cannot want strength to die be the death of what kind it will It was a gallant speech of Luther when he was disswaded from appearing before the Council of Wormes I think it was that he would go thither though all the tiles of the houses were so many Devils Had every stone that was cast at the Martyr Stephen been a Devil he would not after this vision have been afraid The Lord is my light and my salvation whom then should I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom then shall I be afraid says David Psal. xxvii 1. and yet he saw nothing like this sight Gods presence is enough whether it be seen by the eye of sense or by the eye of Faith to keep us stedfast to make death hide its head for fear while we stand triumphing over it I conceive it impertinent to make it a business to enquire too solicitously what this glory was and how St. Stephen saw it That it was some glorious sight some high resplendent light or brightness such as God used to appear in as Exod. xxiv 17. Numb xiv 10. 1 Kings viii 10. to Moses and his Prophets there call'd his glory or some apparition of Angels in shining garments winging about a throne of glory visibly appearing to the eye of the Martyr Stephen is the probablest to conceive and the shining of his face as if it had been the face of an Angel chap. vi ver 15. is an evidence it was a visible appearance But no doubt his understanding saw further then his eye into Heaven that lookt and saw a glory there of which the sense though elevated to his height cannot be capable Divinum lumen says St. Gregory Nissen the inaccessible light Spem in re says St. Hilary His hope already Deum Divinitatem says St. Austin God and the Godhead Imo Trinitatem and that facie revelata says he again The blessed Trinity unveiled Futurae vita gaudia says Bede The joys of the other life These all he saw say they and we shall make no scruple to say in Spirit so he did as far as humane nature is capable in this condition But without question Christ he saw in his body standing amidst that glory the words are plain for that and that alone were enough to put courage into the most coward heart To see his Faith confirm'd by sight and Christs Glory with the Father visibly appear to see whom he had trusted and for whom he had laboured and disputed now with his own eyes in glory must needs make him kiss the hands that would now send him so soon to him To see him 2. standing at the right hand of God as if he were risen from his sitting there to behold the sufferings and courage of his Martyr that stood below now made a spectacle to Christ and all his Angels that 's an honour he may well glory in To see him 3. standing amidst his hosts as if he were coming down to help him that adds more spirit still To see him 4. standing at the right hand of God as if he suffered with him and was therefore pleading for him as friends and advocates used to do with the accused party at the Bar. This infuses yet a greater confidence that notwithstanding all his sins or weaknesses he shall now easily prevail To see him 5 standing as a Priest to offer him up a sweet smelling sacrifice to his Father that still increases it To see him lastly standing like a judge of masteries at the end of the race or goal to crown him with a crown of glory cannot but make him think long for the death that shall bring him to it All these ways Christ may be brought in here as standing for us In the Creed we profess him sitting thereby acknowledging his place in Heaven and his right to be our Judge yet when his Saints and Servants have need of him he stands up to see what it is they want how valiantly they behave themselves he stands up to shew them who it is they trust he stands up to help and aid them he stands up to plead and even suffer with them he stands up to present them to his Father he stands up to reward them with the garlands of Glory Sometimes it is oftner it has been when the beginning of Christianity needed it at first that by some visible comforts and discoveries he shews himself to the dying Saint Often it is that the soul ready to depart feels some sensible joys and ravishments to uphold its failing spirits But he is never wanting with inward assistances and refreshments to those who suffer for him We must not look all of us nor Confessors nor Martyrs now adays to see Visions and Revelations with St. Stephen we are set in a fixt way where Reason and Religion so long prov'd and practis'd is able to give us comfort in the saddest distresses God does not usually confirm our reason by our sense in the revelation of himself or what he expects from us It may be because the Devil grown cunning now by so many centuries of years has taken up of late as he is Gods ape a way to fetch off souls by some sensible delusions from the Faith for he can transform himself nay does so says the Apostle into an Angel of light For this it may be God sends us now to the word and to the testimony and leaves us to reason tradition and example of so many ages to expound it However this is sufficient that neither God nor Christ will leave us wholly comfortless but will surely stand by us when we need and supply us as there is Indeed he cannot look for such a profession upon it as we find here from St. Stephen yet to a stedfast profession of our Faith those assistances he still allows us are sufficient We will look a little upon Stephens though And first here is a kind of profession of the Blessed Trinity the Holy Ghost here at the beginning of the first verse of the Text God in the middle and Jesus at the end Here is 2. a profession of Christs manhood whilst he calls him the Son of Man Here is 3. a profession of his Faith in all of them by his so loud proclaiming Here is 4. a profession of Gods ready help Christs ready assistance to his Saints in trouble Here is 5. a profession of Gods owning the Christians cause and gloriously standing up to confirm and maintain Here is 6. a profession of Christs opening Heaven to all Believers that Heaven is always open to us if we could see it that Gods Glory shines upon us to shew us the way thither that Christ stands there to make our way to guide us thither Here lastly is a profession of his confidence and resolution that though his enemies stand pressing now about him and Death before him he will not eat his words will not renounce his faith
11. Prophesie had neither life nor spirit without it and the Name of Iesus is the very Amen to it Rev. iii. 14. All the Promises of God too in him are yea and in him Amen says the Apostle 2 Cor. i. 20. His very name is the Amen Rev. iii. 14. The faithful and true witness in the same verse Absolutely faithful and true Rev. xix 11. Nay This same Name Iesus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to save was rightly given him in this sense first that it saved the honour of God and the credit of his Prophets that their words fell not to the ground but were all accomplished and made good in his blessed Name A good Name the while for us to hold by for our souls to rest on for our hopes to anchor on that is so faithful and true to us will not fail us in a word or tittle II. And indeed it need not for it is 2. a Name of Power A Name 1. at which the Devils roar and tremble Iesu thou Son of God what have we to do with thee A Name 2. that not only scares the Devils but casts them out and unhouses them of their safer dwellings A Name so powerful 3. that pronounced even by some that followed not Christ with the Apostles St. Luke ix 49. that were not of so confident a faith or so near a relation to him it yet cast them out So mighty 4. that in it many of those also cast out devils did many wonderful works St. Mat. xvii 22. to whom he will profess he never knew them who must therefore at last depart down to those Devils they cast out A name it seems that though in a wicked mouth has oft done wonders So powerful 5. that no disease or sickness no ach or aile no infirmity or malady could stand against it His Name says St. Peter hath made this man whole whom ye see and know Acts iii. 16. His name made that man makes all men whole So powerful 6. with God himself that he cannot stand against it cannot deny us any thing that we ask in it If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it says Christ St. Ioh. xiv 14. whatsoever it be verse 13. and my Father will do it too St. Ioh. xv 16. In a word Iesus signiffes a Saviour and a Saviour is a name of power He that saves either himself or others must be no weakling The stronger man in the Gospel at least St. Luke xi 22. mighty to save as the Prophet speaks Isa. lxiii 1. But he that saves us from the powers of darkness must be the strong and mighty God too and so is his name Isa. ix 6. or the devil will be too strong for him O thou God who art mighty to save save thy Servants from him save us from all the evils and mischiefs he plots against us that through thy Name we may tread them under that rise up against us III. So will this Name be glorious too so it was and so it is we are to shew you next a Name of Majesty and glory Take it from the reason the Angel gives of the Imposition St. Luke i. 31 32 33. Thou shalt call his Name Iesus Why Why he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give him the Throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the house of Iudah for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end The whole together nothing but the Angels comment upon the name Iesus nothing but the interpretation of the name where we consider first that 't is a royal name the name of a King not of any King neither but a King by succession not any new upstart King but of a King from the lineage of ancient Kings not of any hereditary or successive King neither but of one from the Kings of Iudah Kings of Gods own making none of Ieroboams lineage or any others of the peoples setting up more glorious than so And yet more of a King whose Kingdom shall have no end that 's a glorious King indeed All other Kings die and leave their Kingdoms and their names behind them half wrapt up at least in dust and rubbish this has an everlasting Kingdom and an everlasting Name he lives ever and that lives so too But of his Kingdom there shall be no end hath another sense too All the ends of the earth shall come in unto him there shall be no particular end or bound of his Dominion Upon his holy hill of Sion indeed it is God sets him Psal. ii 6. But so there that he gives him the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession ver 8. that he may rule them thence He is both an everlasting and an universal King Nay lastly the King of Kings his Name is written so upon his thigh Rev. xix 16. So glorious a Name has he such a superexaltavit there is upon it so highly exalted is this name Iesus Phil. ii 9. So highly that some Commentators and Grammarians would have it the same with the Name Iehovah then surely 't is full of Majesty and Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only say they is added either to make it effable which was before ineffable to make it possible and lawful to be uttered which was before scarce either so infinite was the Majesty of that great Name Or 2. to intimate to us that God now is become man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a man and put into his own Name of Iehovah so making it Iehosuah or Iesuah which is our Iesus and the Name now given us to be saved by Whether this Criticism will hold or no the name Emmanuel which says S. Matthew was fulfilled in this of Iesus so fulfilled that the Evangelist quotes the Prophets words of calling him Emmanuel fulfilled in the calling of him Iesus S. Matih i. 21 22 23. as if both were the same that name I say has Gods Name in it to be sure El is one of his so with us it is there joyn'd enough to render it glorious and the Angel telling us in his interpretation and reason of the Name that he was the Son of the Highest intimates it was a Name of the highest Majesty and Glory And what can we say upon it less than burst out with the Psalmist into a holy exclamation O Lord our Governour O Lord our Iesus how excellent is thy name in all the world It is all cloth'd with Majesty and Honour it is deckt with light it spreads out it self in the Heavens like a curtain it lays the beams of its chamber in the waters it makes the cloud its Chariot it comes riding to us upon the wings of the wind the Holy Spirit breaths it full upon us it makes the Angels its Spirit to convey it it makes the Ministers of it a flaming fire it laid the
in the Christian Dypticks And you see to day we have revived the Custom here 3. But 't is not a meer remembring them for honour but also a real remembring them and them that do them for a blessing all sorts of blessings So that would I commend to my dearest friend a Trade to make him rich and happy it should be doing good to the House of God 'T is an old Jewish saying Decima ut dives fias Pay thy Tyths if thou wilt grow rich Build God a House say I and he will build thee one again Do good to His House say I and he 'll do good to thine and a wicked Son shall not be able to cut off the Entail For 't is worth the notice that when God promised David a House upon this account he tells him that though his Son commit iniquity he would not utterly take his mercy from him I know there are that to be excused talk much of unsetled times This is the way to settle them When God and man shall see we are in earnest for the House of God and the Offices thereof all your Sects will cease to trouble you and vanish Some cry the State must be setled first Why Fundamenta ejus in montibus Sanctis says the Psalm the foundations of Hierusalem are upon the Holy Hills Lay your foundations there and you shall never be removed God of his goodness will make your Hill so strong No better way to fix the House of the Kingdom or your own than to begin with His. Others to get loose tell us of the decay of Trade Why how can it be other says God Hag. i. 9. You looked for much and it came to little and when you brought it home and 't was scarce worth bringing home I did blow upon it blew it into nothing And why was it says the Lord of Hosts Because of my house that lieth waste and ye run every man to his own house You dwell in Cedars and you lap your selves in Silks and Silver and you have all neat and fine about you but the House of God that lies in the dust and rubbish But is it time for you O ye says he for I know not what to call you to dwell in cieled houses and my house lie no better Did God think you make Gold and Silver Silks and Purples Marbles and Cedars for us only and our houses and not for himself also or his own Or do you think to thrive by being sparing to it or holding from it No says God from the day that the Foundation of the Lords Temple was laid consider it from this that day will I bless you Hag. ii 18 19. And prove him so say I for he bids so himself Mat. iii. 10. and see if he will not pour you out a blessing Indeed he has been before us with it He has brought us home and stablisht our Estates and restor'd our Religion done more to us and to our houses than we durst desire or hope and is it not all the reason in the world we should do good to his again Hang up our remembrances upon the Walls pay our acknowledgments upon his Altars and bless all the Offices of his house for so great blessings God will remember you again for what ever it is If you would yet more engage him to you know God loves the Gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Iacob Psal. lxxxvii 2. must needs therefore love these most that most love them And I doubt not but we shall find many here that do so many too that will so express it Yet not according to what a man has not but to what he has says our St. Paul does God accept him We cannot expect that all that love most can express most Yet according to their abilities they will do it A cup of cold water I confess to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall not lose the reward no more shall a single Mite to the house of God as his Every one however may do somewhat towards it They that cannot give much may give a little they that cannot pay may yet pray for it And to wish it well and to rejoyce in the prosperity and welfare of it the repairing and adorning of it are two mites that any one can give and God will accept where there can be no other Only where there is most we must present it with humility as David did 1 Chron. xxix What am I O Lord that I should be able after this sort to offer thus to do it And where there is but little we must present it with a regret that we can do no more Will God remember and accept us remember and pardon us remember and bless us with blessings of the right hand and blessings of the left remember us in all places both at home and abroad in all conditions both in the days of our prosperity and in the time of trouble in our goings out and in our comings in in our Persons and in our Estates in our selves and in our Posterities with them shall remain a good inheritance and their children shall be ever within the Covenant And when all earthly glances shall be forgotten that which we have done to the House of God shall be still remembred when our bodies shall lie down in dust our names shall live in heaven when a cold stone shall chill our ashes our bones shall flourish out of their graves when time shall have eaten out our Epitaphs our righteousness shall not be forgotten God will remember it for ever And though the general conflagration shall at last calcine these glorious structures into ashes we shall dwell safe in buildings not made with hands eternal in the heavens where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb shall be the Temple and we sing the Offices of heaven with Angels and Archangels and all the holy Spirits with joy and gladness for evermore To which glorious House and Office God of his mercy bring us in our several times and orders through c. THE FIRST SERMON On the Day of the PURIFICATION OF THE Blessed Virgin St. LUKE ii 27 28. And when the Parents brought in the Child Iesus to do for him after the custom of the Law Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God AND when That When was as this day When the days of the blessed Virgins Purification according to the Law of Moses were accomplished forty days after Christs Nativity this day just then they brought him to Ierusalem to present him to the Lord ver 22. Then blessed Mary and Ioseph brought then devout Simeon and Anna blessed and if we be either Maries or Anna's Iosephs or Simeons holy men or devout women we too will this day bless God for the blessing of the day For this day also of his presentation as well as those other days of his Birth Circumcision and Manifestation Candlemas-day as well as Christmas-day New-years-day or Epiphany is a day
the Angel the Herauld of it 3. It intimates health as well as peace we were all sick till this day came the best with the Spouse sick of love Cant. v. 8. the worst sick of somewhat else none well till this news came till the next morning after this great Conception rose with healing in his wings Now all hail and whole and well again 4. It signifies a wish of salvation too Ave says one piously though not learnedly a vae all woe now away temporal and eternal Eva spell'd backwards all Eves ill spun web unravel'd undone roul'd backward by the Conception of this blessed Virgin here foretold temporal and eternal woes taken all away nothing but joy and salvation to us if we will hear it with the Blessed Virgin and accept it The second salutation is The Lord is with thee and it may be either an apprecation or wishing that he would be or an Annunciation or affirmation a declaring and affirming that he is or a prediction or foretelling that he will be with her It was an apprecation when Boaz gave it to the Reapers Ruth ii 4. that God would be with them It was an apprecation and an affirmation both when the Angel gave it to Gideon Judg. vi 12. The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valour It is affirmation apprecation and prediction all three here to our Blessed Lady a wish that the Lord would an assurance that he is a prediction that he will be yet more signally and more particularly with her by and by 'T is somewhat to be saluted by an Angel and 't is not common we hear often of their coming with a message seldom with a salutation 't is sign of more then ordinary acquaintance and familiarity with God and of his respect particular unto us when he sends his Angels not only upon errands but how-do-yous to us With such a salutation too as the Lord is with thee The hand of the Lord was with him 't is said of St. Iohn Baptist and that was well his hand and not himself and yet the greatest of them that was born of women was not greater than he St. Matth. xi 11. But here 't is he himself with the greatest among women It is a great favour to have his hand but it is an high one to have himself with us Yet the Angel says to Gideon Judg. vi 12. The Lord be with thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 't is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Article an Emphasis put upon it he is not with her as he is with any else Tecum in mente tecum in ventre as the Fathers gloss it Tecum in spiritu tecum in carne with her he was or would be presently as well in her body as in her soul personally essentially nay bodily with her and take a body from her a way of being with any never heard before or since a being with her beyond any expression or conception whatsoever And the Lord thus being with her all good must needs be with her all the gracious ways of his being with us are comprehended in it so the salutation no way to be exceeded And well may he chuse to be with her even make haste and prevent the Angel as St. Bernard speaks to be with her He is with the pure in heart with the humble spirit and piously retired soul and she is all And though by the Angels words ver 31. we cannot conceive that the Lord was yet conceived in her he speaking in the future yet as sure it was even whilst the Angel was in his salutation as if he were already incarnate in her flesh upon this may well follow the third salutation Blessed art thou or be thou blessed Yet I shall not here say much of this I reserve it to be handled amongst the titles onely tell you it may as well pass for a salutation as the other We still sometimes use it in our salutations use to say God bless you when we salute sometimes so the mowers to Boaz return his salutation of the Lord be with you with The Lord bless thee Ruth ii 4. And Gen. xlvii 7. we read that Iacob blessed Pharaoh when he came before him that is saluted him in a form of blessing All the famous salutations now you see of all former and latter times are here rallied up in this Daniel's Live for ever for life and health and safety the Angels to Gideon The Lord is with thee Boaz his to Ruth Blessed be thou of the Lord my daughter Ruth iii. 10. Tobit's to the Angel Gaudium tibi Tob. v. 11. Ioy be unto thee Christ's to his Disciples Peace be unto you The Apostles grace and peace and salvation to their Churches all in this of the Angel to the Virgin now in treaty about Christs Incarnation To shew us 1. all these are in Christ all now coming to us by his coming to us to be found altogether no where but in him joy and peace and health and salvation and blessedness first rising on us by this days business his Incarnation To teach us 2. good forms of salutation blessing and not cursing though there are some so peevish to say no worse to tell us they had as lieve we should say the Devil take them as God bless them or God be with them It seems they had rather imitate the bad Angel than the good I hope we had not Good words if it be no more are fittest sure for Christian mouths but yet good wishes too for he that forbids to say to some God speed you 2 John x. intimates we should say so to others And though the Disciples are bid to salute no man by the way St. Luke x. 4. that is when it will retard or hinder their holy business they are yet bid when they come into a house say Peace be to it ver 5. And if the Angel do it and Christ bid it and do it too as he does St. Luke xxiv 35. I hope we may and will do too Nay and give good titles too upon the same account the Angel does so to the blessed Virgin and we hasten to them Thou that art highly favoured blessed blessed among women Thou that art highly favoured but why thou without a name why not Mary here as well as after ver 30. Why there he used her name so to dispel her fear as it were by a kind of friendly familiarity here he forbears it in his reverence to her We use not to salute great persons by their Names but by their Titles and the Mother of God is above the greatest we here meet with upon the earth We must not be too familiar with those whom God so highly favours that 's our lesson hence We are not to speak of the Blessed Virgin the Apostles and Saints as if we were speaking to our Servants Paul Peter Mary or the like 'T is a new fashion of Religion neither taken from Saints nor Angels nor any of Heaven or heavenly spirits
all these Titles The first is Grace Gratiâ plena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that always the ground of Gods favour and all our blessedness So she tells us in her Hymn Respexit humilitatem It was the humility of his Hand-maid that God in this high favour of the Incarnation of his Son respected in her Humility the ground of all grace within us all grace without us of Gods grace to us of his graces in us the very grace that graces them all too Humility makes them the most lovely pride disgraces them all be they never so many though indeed they can be truly none that are not founded in and adorned with humility The second ground of blessedness is in the Text too Dominus tecum the Lords being with her From Christs being with her and with us it is that we are blessed From his Incarnation begins the date of all our happiness If God be not with us all the world cannot make us happy much less blessed From this grace of his Incarnation first riseth all our glory So that Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise must she sing as well as we and they do her wrong as well as God that give his glory unto her who will not give his glory to another though to his Mother because she is but his earthly Mother a thing infinitely distant from the heavenly Father Nor would that humble Hand-maid if she should understand the vain and fond and almost idolatrous stiles and honours that are given her some where upon earth be pleased with them she is highly favoured enough that her Lord and Son is with her and she with him she would be no higher sharer You may see it in the last particular the bounds and limitations of her titles and blessedness For first how full soever she be of Grace 't is yet but grace and favour 't is no more Gods meer favour so exalted her respexit only his respect to her his free looking on her no merit or desert 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath highly favoured her indeed but he has done done it in the praeter before she could conceive or imagine it 2. The salutation here except the titles given her by the Angels is not much more than what he gave to Gideon or what Boaz to his Harvesters enough to make the Papists afraid one would think of those extravagant at least if not blasphemous titles they give her of their closing their Books and Studies with Laus Deo Virgini Maria joyning her in partnership with God as if they were as much beholding to her as him I am sure they learn'd not this from the Angel he brings no divine but humane titles and salutations to her And he knew how to give titles though not flattering ones as Elihu speaks in Iob. 3. All her honour and blessedness is from Dominus tecum the Lords being with her He is her Lord as well as ours More indeed he is with her than with us or with Angels either plus tecum quà m mecum as some gloss it but he is her Lord still for all that and she is content so to acknowledge it and leave us a penn'd Hymn in witness of it to give him the sole honour of her magnifying and being magnified Lastly Though it be Benedicta 't is but inter mulieris among women all this is and they are but creatures a creature-blessedness a blessedness competible to the creature All to shew us that when we exceed this way of honour to her or this way of blessing her we are all out in our Aves we know not what we say And 't is well for some that their ignorance excuses them that they understand not what they speak Give we her in Gods name the honour due to her God hath stil'd her blessed by the Angel by Elizabeth commanded all generations to call her so and they hitherto have done it and let us do it too Indeed some of late have over-done it yet let us not therefore under-do it but do it as we hear the Angel and the first Christians did it account of her and speak of her as the most blessed among women one highly favoured most highly too But all the while give Dominus tecum all the glory the whole glory of all to him give her the honour and blessedness of the chief of Saints him only the glory that she is so and that by her conceiving and bringing our Saviour into the world we are made heirs and shall one day be partakers of the blessedness she enjoys when the Lord shall be with us too and we need no Angel at all to tell us so Especially if we now here dispose our selves by chastity humility and devotion as she did to receive him and let him be new-born in us The pure and Virgin Soul the humble Spirit the devout Affection will be also highly favoured the Lord be with them and bless them above others Blessed is the Virgin Soul more blessed than others in St. Paul's opinion 1 Cor. vii blessed the humble spirit above all For God hath exalted the humble and meek the humble Hand-maid better than the proudest Lady Blessed the devout affection that is always watching for her Lord in Prayer and Meditations none so happy so blessed as she the Lord comes to none so soon as such Yet not to such at any time more fully than in the Blessed Sacrament to which we are now a going There he is strangely with us highly favours us exceedingly blesses us there we are all made blessed Maries and become Mothers Sisters and Brothers of our Lord whilst we hear his word and conceive it in us whilst we believe him who is the word and receive him too into us There Angels come to us on heavenly errands and there out Lord indeed is with us and we are blessed and the Angels hovering all about to peep into those holy mysteries think us so call us so There graces pour down in abundance on us there grace is in its fullest plenty there his highest favours are bestowed upon us there we are fill'd with grace unless we hinder it and shall hereafter in the strength of it be exalted into glory there to sit down with this Blessed Virgin and all the Saints and Angels and sing praise and honour and glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever and ever Thus by being full of grace and full of those graces we also become Maries and the Mothers of our Lord so he tells us himself he that so does the will of my Father he is my Mother Let us then strive to be so that the Angels may come with heavenly errands to us our Lord himself come to us and vouchsafe to be again born in us and so bless us fill us with grace receive and set us highly in his favour and fill and exalt us hereafter with his glory and with this Blessed
novv to one Sect novv to another and from Hierusalem most commonly from the City of peace out of the bonds of unity every one by himself vvhich vvay pleases him if Christs body the Church be once removed out of our sight Our best vvay is vvith the Disciples into our Chambers altogether till vve can get a better place vvith all the company vve can make to our Devotions and our Prayers or if vve vvill step out a vvhile to the Sepulchre let it be but to pay a tear upon it to vent out troubled souls to express hovv vve are troubled at our sins that have made us lose our Lord or at our negligence that he is slipt from us vvhilst vve vvere asleep lull'd in soft pleasures or at our slovvness that vve come so late to seek him that he is gone before vve come This is so to seek as to be perplexed thereabout and there is no true seeking him vvithout it But 2. vvith fear too vve are to seek him with reverence and godly fear Heb. xii 28. that the only acceptable service and seeking of him with fear and trembling Phil. ii 2. no hope either of Saviour or Salvation without it Afraid of the two men in shining garments they were here and if Angels habited like men too and in so chearful attire be so terrible vvhat think you is that excellent Majesty if vve cannot see those our fellovv servants as they stile themselves Rev. xxii 9. vvithout fear for vve seldom read of the appearing of an Angel but either coming or going he strikes some terror hovv say some among us that in the approaches to God vve need not be afraid Alas deluded souls they conceive not God or Christ as either of them should be conceived they neither seriously consider the Majesty of God or Christ nor their ovvn unvvorthiness nor hovv hard a thing it is to find Christ that are not afraid either to miss him in the search by their unskilfulness or lose him by their sins He that looks to be comforted by an Angel must not think much to be afraid hovv great a claim soever he conceives he hath in Christ. Perfect love indeed says the Apostle casts out fear but 't is servile fear and no other Mary Magdalen to vvhom Christ bears vvitness that she loved much yet she also is afraid The more for that she loved so much for the more vve love the more vve fear to lose the thing vve love the more vve love the more vve fear to offend the person vvhom vve love nay the more vve fear to miss and the more earnest vve are too seek the more likely are vve to find vvhat or vvhosoever vve set to seek for Seek him vvith filial fear or love and fear that 's the second Yet if vve seek Christ vve must also thirdly seek him vvith our faces bowed down to the ground and that is 1. the fashion of those that seek earnestly and so he must be sought vvith all the earnestness vve can And it is 2. a token of diligence in the search much like that of the poor woman that sought her groat that lighted a candle swept her house rak'd in the dust look'd into every corner peer'd into every chink to find it Do we so in seeking Christ light up the candle of Faith kindled from the flame of love sweep we the houses of our souls with the besom of repentance look vve into our dust consider vvhat vve are made of vvhat poor dusty things vve are ransack every corner of our hearts every crany of our thoughts that so vve may if not find him there yet make all clean for him against he comes and vve shall commonly find he vvill come gliding in vvhen vve think not of it vve shall hear of something rising in our dust after vve have so rais'd it by the breaking and contritions of repentance And it is 3. the posture of humility and of the humble he vvill be found they shall not miss of him vvhoever do to them his grace St. Iames iv 6. to them his vvays Psal. xxv to them his dvvelling The lovver vve bovv dovvn before him the higher vvill he lift us up And lastly the face bowed down to the earth is the look of them that mourn we must seek him as his Father and Mother did seek him sorrowing sorry that we have been so long without him that we so carelesly lost him then after a day or two we shall be sure to find him nay if our sorrow begins as here in the morning of the day if we begin betimes to be exceeding sorrowful the morning shall not pass e're we hear at least some tidings of him nay we shall not stir from the Grave but we shall hear it e're we go some good Angel or other shall bring us some glad message or other from him and tell us where he is So it follows as they were perplexed behold two men stood by them in shining garments and as they were afraid and bow'd down their faces to the earth this news they tell them that He is risen God never faileth them that seek him says the Psalmist never them that seek him as these did with careful and troubled souls such he never does refuse Psal. li. with reverence and godly fear such he never does reject vvith earnestness vvith diligence vvith humility vvith godly sorrow those he visits presently either by himself or by his Angel And which 2. is very observable and as comfortable as they were perplexed and as they were afraid and bowed down says the Text that is even when they began to be so before their perplexities had misled them or their fears undone them or their faces lick'd the earth as they began only to hang their heads and their spirits began to faint and their souls to be troubled two men on a sudden whence they cannot tell and which way they came there they knew not but there they stand to disperse both their sorrows and their fears by what they have to tell them Three grand points we observe in this apparition of the Angels to make up that great success that those who faithfully and devoutly seek Christ may promise themselves upon it 1. They see a Vision of Angels 'T is their good hap ever to meet blessed Spirits who seek the Lord of Spirits to meet them here to be with them ever hereafter to meet one or two of them here at times to meet ten thousand times ten thousands of them hereafter To meet them here even at the Sepulchre in the midst of sorrow even then to receive comfort from them even in the Grave in our greatest afflictions To meet them 2. like young men so says St. Mark sprightly and able to defend us To meet them 3. in shining garments tokens of some exceeding joy and gladness which we may expect and shall find from them To meet them 4. standing by us that is ever ready to comfort and assist us To meet
let us all live to see this day again and have the liberty as well as occasion yet to rejoyce in it Upon this comes in David now presently with Thou art my God and I will thank thee Thou art my God and I will praise thee O let us do so too cry out one to another as the Psalm concludes O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious and his mercy endureth for ever Turn all our rejoycings into thanks and praise make it a day of praise that so rejoycing worthily this day we may be thought worthy to rejoyce in that day opening and dilating our hearts and mouths with joy to day in this day of Christs particular Resurrection we may have them fill'd with joy and gladness at the day of the general Resurrection this day of the Lord convey us over happily to that these our imperfect joys be advanced or translated into everlasting ones into a day where there is no night no sorrow but eternal gladness and rejoycing for evermore THE FOURTH SERMON UPON Easter Day St. MAT. xxviii 5 6. And the Angel answered and said unto the women Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus which was crucified He is not here for he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay BVt is He not here What do We then here to day Come see the place where the Lord lay Why 't is not worth the seeing now 'T is but a sad place now He is gone No place worth the seeing or the being in if He who is our being be not there Old Iacob's descendam lugens in internum is all that we can look for we must go down with sorrow to the grave But fear not though Our Lord indeed is gone but risen and gone away himself they have not stoln him away He 's past stealing He 's risen and alive Nor is he gone so neither but we may find him anon again in some better place Had we found him here in the grave to day it had been sad indeed He had been lost and We had been lost and both lost for ever He is risen He is not here are the words that disperse the clouds and clear up the day make it so clear that Videtur mihi hic dies caeteris diebus esse lucidior says St. Augustine Sol mundo clarior illuxisse astra quoque omnia elementa laetari Never any day so bright The Sun the Stars and all the Elements more sprightful and glorious to day than ever they even dance for joy The Angels themselves to day put on their glorious Apparrel bright shining Robes to celebrate this glorious Festival at the grave ver 3. A place where they this day day strive to sit sent thither to dispel our fears and disperse our sorrows and raise our hopes and advance our joys And indeed it was no more then needed when this day first arose no more then what needs still to those who seek Iesus which was crucified who go out with these tender hearts to the grave to weep They need comfort and encouragement direction and other assistance too They lie open to fears and troubles to errors and mistakes often in their seekings They had need of an Angel to guide them and the news and certainty of a Resurrection to support them and by this we find here shall so find it if they truly seek him This is the business both of the Text and of the Day The whole business of the Angel here and of his speech to the women that sought Iesus that was crucified In which when I have shewn you I. The Persons the Angel speaking it and the women to whom it was spoken I shall shew you then II. In the speech Somewhat 1. to disperse the fears Somewhat 2. to approve and encourage the endeavours Somewhat 3. to correct the search Somewhat 4. to inform the judgments Somewhat 5. to confirm the faith of those who here seek or shall at any time hereafter set themselves to seek Iesus which was crucified For 1. Fear not ye says the Angel there our fears are disperst 2. I know you seek Iesus which was crucified there our endeavours are approved of or encouraged 3. He is not here There 's our search corrected 4. He is risen as he said there 's our judgement informed 5. Come see the place where the Lord lay there 's our faith confirm'd All you see plain and orderly in the Text both the Particulars and the Sum of it I shall go on orderly with the Particulars and so shew you first the Persons both the speaker and to whom 't is spoken The Angel is the speaker and stands here first I shall begin with him And an excellent speaker he is The tongues of Angels above all the tongues in the world besides You will say so anon when you have heard his speech examin'd In the mean time a word of Him St. Matthew mentions here but one St. Mark no more St. Luke two St. Matthew's Angel sate upon the stone which was rolled away from the mouth of the Sepulchre ver 2. St. Mark 's sate on the right side of the Sepulchre within Chap. xvi ver 5. St. Luke's Angels stood by the women as they stood perplexed in the Sepulchre St. Luke's xxiv 4. And St. Iohn speaks of two Angels more the one sitting at the head the other at the feet where the body of Iesus had lain St Iohn xx 12. And yet in all these diversities no contradiction The story runs smoothly thus These pious women mention'd here come early to the Sepulchre to embalm their Masters Body whilst they yet stood without for fear this Angel in the Text that sate before the door upon the stone he had rolled away invites them to come in where they were no sooner entred but they saw a second Angel sitting who entertain'd them almost with the same words and is he remembred by St. Mark when they had a while perus'd the bowels of the grave and found nothing there but the desolate linnen in which their Lords body had been wrapt being somewhat perplexed at the business they were comforted by two other Angels which immediately appear'd to resolve their doubts and sent them to the Disciples to tell the news and are those spoken of by St. Luke whereupon away they hast only Mary Magdalen returns again with St. Peter and St. Iohn who having lookt and entred into the grave away they goe but she stands still without and weeps till two other Angels as St. Iohn relates shew forth themselves to stop her tears and divert her moans and shew her her Lord standing at her back Thus we need no Synechdoche's no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no strein'd figures to make things agree But thus you see Angels are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation as the Apostle tells us Heb i. 14. They stand by us when we think not of them They
all taken away and all of you undone for ever But now he is not here you may hope better and dread no longer and I shall quickly put you out of all fear indeed for I shall tell you now He is risen as he said IV. And now indeed O blessed Angel thou saist something Away all my fears He is risen Why then 1. He is above the malice of his enemies and of all that hate him They and the Souldiers that crucified him may be dismaid and look all like dead men for fear but I shall never be dismaid hereafter seeing death has no more dominion over him For 2. if he be risen we shall rise one day too If our head be risen the body ere long will rise also He is the first fruits 1 Cor. xv the whole lump of course will follow after So certain that the Apostle tells us that in him we are all already made alive ver 22. and with indignation asks how some among them durst be so bold to say there was no resurrection of the dead seeing Christ is risen ver 12. But is he not rather raised than risen 3. that they durst say so Was it by his own power or anothers By his own sure for all the Evangelists say unanimously he is risen Indeed 't is said Acts iv 10. that God rais'd him from the dead It was so for he was God himself he and his Father one St. Ioh. x. 30. so God rais'd him and yet he rais'd himself was not rais'd as the Widows Son or Iairus Daughter or his Friend Lazarus but so as none other ever were or shall be rais'd and risen and yet so risen as not rais'd by any but himself that 's a third note upon He is risen And 4. risen so as to die no more All they did but he not He convers'd a while with his Disciples upon earth so by degrees to raise them too but after forty days he ascended into heaven Risen surely to purpose risen above all heavens risen into glory And if thus risen we have good cause 1. to raise our thoughts up after him entertain higher thoughts of him than before though then we knew him after the flesh yet now with the Apostle henceforth to know him so no more Good cause 2. If He be risen to raise up our affections after him set our affections as the Apostle infers it upon things above Col. iii. 1 2. and no longer upon things beneath set them wholly upon him Nay and 3. Raise our selves upon him build all our thoughts and hopes upon him build no longer upon Sand and Earth but upon that Rock that is now risen higher than we in whom we need fear no storms or tempests we cannot miscarry And in the mean time lastly Now he is risen let us rise and meet him rise in hast with Mary yet not to go to the grave to weep as they thought of her but to cast our selves at his feet and cry Lord If thou hadst been here if I had found thee in the grave my brother and I and all my brethren had died indeed been irrecoverably ruin'd and undone And yet for all that Come now and see where the Lord lay Be your own eyes your witnesses that He is risen And 't is but just that in so doubtful a condition of affairs and a change so unheard of you should seek an evidence not to be contradicted Come then and see it The place will shew it and your eyes shall behold it Indeed that he is risen as he said to a tittle to a day assoon as ever it could be imagined day is an argument that not being here he is truly risen Yet 't is fit that we should be certain he is not there For 't is fit that we should be able to give a reason of the faith that is in us says St. Peter We can neither believe unreasonable things our selves nor imagine others should believe them We are not to take our Religion upon trust from an Angel Si Angelus de Coelo says St. Paul Not from an Angel coming from Heaven it self Some Angel it seems thence may speaking to an absolute possibility preach some other doctrine then what we have received but believe him not says the Apostle if he do Gal. i. 8. But suppose an Angel thence can speak no other yet there is an Angel that is from below from the pit of darkness that can transform himself into an Angel of light We had therefore need take heed to our own eyes too as well as to our ears The best way to fix them is to look first into the grave of Iesus that was crucified see what we can find there to make good what the Angel tells us be he who he will Try the spirits says St. Ioh. i. 4 1. Whether they be of God before we trust them See whether things are as they are presented 'T is but dark day yet we may be deceived if we look not narrowly into the business even to the very inmost corners and cranies of the grave Come see then what is there Nothing but the linnen cloths that wrapt him in says S. Ioh. xx 6 7. and two Angels says St. Luke xxiv 4. Well this was enough indeed to prove he was not there But how proves it that he was risen had not some body stoln him thence The grave was clos'd the stone was seal'd the guard was set and who durst come to do it His Disciples why they were stoln away themselves for very fear And it is not probable they would venture for him through a guard of Souldiers when he was dead that ran from him when he was alive The Iews Why they set a watch to keep him there The Souldiers why who should hire them or Why should they take money to deny it if they were hired to it Besides it was against the Iews interests to give so fair a ground to the report of his Resurrection and his Disciples had so little subtilty to maintain so forlorn an interest as theirs that it looks not like a piece of their contrivance and so poor a purse God knows they had that they could not see so largely as to reach it Nay and the linnen cloths left all behind are a kind of witnesses against it 'T is not probable they would have stoln the dead body and left them when they came to steal and the laying them so in order by themselves requires more leisure than a theives hast So being clearly gone and clearly none to own the theft and none to prove it and nothing to evince it 't is plain he must be risen as he said We have now then no more to do then see the place where c. And where he lay we call the grave A good place sometimes to go into the house of mourning better to go into than the house of mirth says Solomon who had tried both best to recal our wandring thoughts to prepare both for a comfortable death
our own spirits within or be put into us by other spirits by the ministery of Angels from without but inspired truths from this Spirit alone Angels indeed are sometimes the messengers of it but never called the spirits of it they bring it they do not breath it When they have brought it and done their message be it never so true never so comfortable it will not comfort but amaze us it will not sink into us but ly only at our doors till this Spirit breath and work it in He alone Spiritus Veritatis the Inspirer of truth Hence it is that this Spirit of of all Spirits is only call'd the Comforter for that he only lets in the comfort to the heart whatever Spirit is the Messenger Be it the Angels those Spirits and Messengers of heaven or be it the Ministers those Messengers upon earth with all the life and spirit they can give their words no comfort from either unless this Spirit of truth blow open the doors inspire and breath in with them Truth it self cannot work upon our spirits but by the spiration of this Spirit of truth 'T is but a dead Letter a vanishing voice a meer piece of articulate air the best the greatest the soundest truth no other it has no spirit it has no life but from this Spirit of truth To conclude this Point It is not when the Spirit of truth is come or when He that is the Comforter is come though both be but one he shall guide you neither title single but He the Spirit of truth both together to teach us first That the truth which this Spirit brings is full of comfort always comfortable Startle us it may a little at the first but then presently Fear not comes presently to comfort us trouble us it may a little at the first nay and bring some tribulation with it as times may be but ere the verse be out ere the words be out almost Be of good chear says Christ 't is but in the world and I have overcome the world and in me ye shall have peace St. Iohn xvi 33. that came before so that tribulation is encompassed with comfort Ye shall be sorrowful indeed but your sorrow shall be turned into joy ver 20. the first is no sooner mentioned but the other follows as fast as the Comma will let it Christs truth and this Spirits truth is the Comforters truth as well as the Spirits and have not only spirit to act and do but comfort also in the doing and after it to be sure Nay Joyn'd so 2. He the Spirit of truth to teach us again that nothing can comfort us but the truth no Spirit hold up our Spirits but the Spirit of truth Lies and falshoods may uphold us for a time and keep up our Spirits but long they will not hold a few days will discover them and then we are sadder than at first To be deluded adds shame to our grief 't is this Spirit only that is the Spirit of our life that keeps us breathing and alive t is only truth that truly comforts us which even then when it appears most troublesome and at the worst has this comfort with it that we see it that we see the worst need fear no more whilst the joys that rise from false apprehensions or lying vanities indeed from any thing below this Spirit of truth and heaven bring so much fear of a change or close or too sudden an end that I may well say they have no comfort with them They flow not from this Comforter they come not from this Spirit that 's the reason they have no Comfort no Spirit in them It may well occasion us as soon as we can to look after this He the Spirit of truth and for our own sakes enquire where he is watch his motion what and whence and whither it is 2. To understand the motion and coming of the Spirit what it means we can take no better way than to peruse the Phrases of the holy Book under what terms it elsewhere does deliver it The first time we hear of it we read it moving Gen. i. 3. The next time striving with man Gen. vi 3. Then filling him Exod. xxxi 3. Then resting upon him Num. xi 25. Sometimes he is said to come Iudg. iii. 10. Sometimes to enter into us Ezek. ii 2. Sometimes to fall upon us Ezek. xi 5. Sometimes to be put upon us Num. xi 29. Sometimes to be put into us Ezek. xxxvi 27. Sometimes to breath sometimes to blow upon us Isa. xl 7. All these ways is he said to come whether he move us to good or strive with us against evil or fill us with sundry gifts and graces or rest upon us in their continuance whether he comes upon us in the power of his Administrations or whether he enter as it were and possess us wholly as his own whether he appear in us or without us whether he come upon us so suddenly and unusually that he seems even to fall upon us or be put upon us by ordinary ways and means whether by imposition on or breathing in whether by a softer breath or a stronger blast whether he come in the feathers of a Dove or on the wings of the wind whether in Fire or in Tongues whether in a visible shape or in an invisible power and grace they are his comings all sometimes one way sometimes another his comings they are all Yet but some not all of his comings for all his ways are past finding out and teach us a Lesson against curiosity in searching his out-goings And yet this word Come sounds somewhat hard for all this still Did we not say he was God And can God be said to come any whither who is every where Nay of this very Spirit expresly says the Psalmist Psal. cxxxix 7. Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit And if I cannot go from him what needs his coming Coming here is a word of grace and favour and certainly be we never so much under his eye we need that need his grace need his favour Nay so much the more because he is so near us that so we may do nothing unworthy of his presence But He speaks to us after the manner of men who if they be persons of quality and come to visit us we count it both a favour and honour So by inversion when God bestows either favours or honours on us when this holy Spirit bestows a grace or a gift or a truth upon us that we had not before then is he said to Come to us I need not now trouble my self much to find out whence he comes Every good and perfect gift comes from above says St. Iames Iam. i. 17. From heaven it is he comes from the Father he sends him St. Iohn xiv 26. From the Son he sends him too in this very Chapter ver 7. And this is not only the place whence he comes but here are the persons too whence he proceeds
ready and willing to guide us into all truth yet and 2. to shew us how he will do it that we may learn how to be guided by him This the sum And the Vse of all will be that we submit our selves to him and to his guidance to be taught and led and guided by him to his guiding and to his truth and to all of it without exception To guide and to be guided are relatives infer one another If we will have him guide us he will have us be guided by him and give up our selves to his way of guiding Oh that we would that there were but a heart in us to do so we should not then have so many spirits but more truth one Spirit would be all and all truth would be one this one single Spirit would be sufficient to guide us into all truth He would guide us into all truth But I must from my wishes to my words where we see first we have a guide that though Christ be ascended from us into Heaven yet we are not without a guide upon the Earth I. I will not leave you comfortless said he when he was going hence St. Ioh. xiv 18. Had he left us without a guide he had so comfortless indeed in a vast and howling wilderness this earth is little else But a Comforter he sends ver 7. such a one as shall teach us all things St. Iohn xiv 26. that 's a comfort indeed none like it to have one to guide us in a dangerous and uncertain way to teach us that our ignorance requires to do all the offices of a guide unto us to teach us our way to lead us if need be in it to protect and defend us through it to answer for us if we be questioned about it and to cheer us up encourage and sustain us all the way II. Such a guide as this is 2. this He we are next to speak of He the Spirit of Truth so 't is interpreted but immediately before He shall teach you teach you the way reveal Christ to you for unless he do you cannot know him teach you how to pray Rom. viii 26. teach you what to say how to answer by the way if you be called to question in it St. Luke xii give you a mouth and wisdom too St. Luke xxi 15. teach you not only to speak but to speak to purpose He 2. shall lead you too deducet lead you on be a prop and stay and help to you in your journey He 3. shall protect and defend you in it as a guide free you from danger set you at full liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. be a cover to you by day and a shelter to you in the night the breath of the Holy Spirit will both refresh us and blow away all our enemies like the dust He 4 if we be charged with any thing will answer for us like a guide and governor 'T is not you says Christ but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you St. Matth. x. 20. He lastly it is that quicken our spirit with his Spirit that encourages and upholds us like a guide and leader for without him our spirits are but soft air and vanish at the least pressure He guides our feet and guides our heads and guides our tongues and guides our hands and guides our hearts and guides our spirits we have neither spirit nor motion nor action nor life without him III. But here particularly he comes to guides us into the Truth And God knows we need it for surely men of low degree are vanity says the Psalmist and men of high degree are a lie Psal. lxii 9. not lyars only but a very lye as far from truth as a lie it self things so distant from that conformity with God which is truth for truth is nothing else that no lie is further off it Nor soul nor body nor heart nor mind nor upper nor lower powers conformed to him neither our understandings to his understanding nor our wills to his will nor any thâ—ng of us really to him our actions and words and thoughts all lye to him to his face we think too low we speak too mean we deal too falsly with him pretend all his yet give most of it to our lusts and to our selves and we are so used to it we can do no other we are all either verbal or real lies need we had of one to guide us into the truth God is Truth to guide us to him Christ is the Truth St. Iohn xiv 6. to guide us to him His Word is Truth to guide us into that into the true understanding and practise of it His Promises are Truth very Yea and Amen to guide us to them to rest and hold upon them His way is the way of Truth to guide us into that into a Religion pure holy and undefiled that only is the true one Into none of these can any guide but this guide here He sheweth us of the Father He reveals to us the Son He interprets the Word and writes it in our hearts He leads and upholds us by his Promises seals them unto us seals us again to the day of Redemption the day of truth the day when all things shall appear truly as they are He sets our Religion right he only leads us into that Man cannot he can speak but to the ear there his words dye and end Angels cannot they are but ministring spirits at the best to this Spirit Nature cannot these truths are all above it are supernatural and no other truth is worth the knowing Nay into any truth this Spirit only can we only flatter and keep ado about this truth and that truth and the other but into them we cannot get make nothing of any truth without him unless he sanctifie it better else we had not known it Knowledge puffeth up all knowledge that comes not from this Spirit so the very truth of any truth that which truly confirms it to the divine will and understanding that makes truth the same with goodness is from this Spirit from his guiding and directing his breathing it or breathing into it or upon it IV. Thus we are faln upon the fourth particular that he will guide us into all truth Gods mercies and Christs are ever perfect and of the largest size and the conducts of the Spirit are so too into all goodness Gal. v. 9. into all fulness Ephes. iii. 19. into all truth here into all things That we are not full is from our selves that we are not led into all truth is for that all truth does not please us and we are loth to believe it such if it make not for us he for his part is as ready to guide us into all as into one For take we truth either for speculative or practical either for the substance against types and shadows or the discerning the substance through those shadows or take we it in opposition to obscurity and doubting understand we it
the Spirit appears but why the Spirit appears now now first and not before now first visibly to the world is worth enquiry And 't is to shew the preheminence of the Gospel above the Law That stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances says the Apostle Heb. ix 10. was but the Law of a carnal Commandment Heb. vii 16. The Gospel is a Law of spirit and life the Law of Moses a dead a killing Letter but the Gospel of Christ a quickning Spirit 2 Cor. iii. 6. the Law a course of shadows the Gospel only the true light It will appear so by the next Particular we are to handle the manner of his appearing In tongues in cloven tongues in tongues as it were of fire I shall invert the order for the fire it is that gives light unto the tongues to make them for to appear of the fire then first to shew them the better For the Spirit to appear as wind or breath is nothing strange It carries them in its name Spiritus à spirando every one can tell you But that this breath should not only blow up a fire but be it self also blown into it the Spirit here appear as fire that 's somewhat hard at first perhaps to understand Yet you shall see many good reasons for it Four great ones I shall give you which comprehend more under them 1. To shew the Analogy and correspondence of Gods dealings and dispensations how they agree both with themselves and with one another 2. To insinuate to us the nature and condition of the holy Spirit 3. To signifie the several gifts and graces of it 4. To declare its operations also and effects 1. The Holy Ghost here appear'd like fire that we might see it is the same God that gave both Law and Gospel the same Spirit in both Testaments The Law was promulgated by fire Exod. xix 18. the Lord descended on Mount Sinai then in fire The Gospel also here is first divulged by tongues as it were of fire in Mount Sion The difference only is that there were here no lightnings thunders clouds or smoke as there were there nothing terrible nothing dark or gloomy here all light and peace and glory 2. Under the Old Testament the Prophets oft were Commissionated by fire to their Offices the Angel takes a live coal from off the Altar and lays it upon Isaiah's mouth Isa. vi 7. Elijah the Prophet stood up as fire Ecclus. xlviii 1. Ezekiels first Vision was of appearances of fire Ezek. i. 4 13. The Commissions therefore of the Apostles were drawn here also as it were with pens of fire that they might the more lively answer and the better express the Spirit of the Prophets 3. That the nature of the Law they were to preach might be exprest too It was the Law of love and the holy fire of Charity was it they were sent to kindle in the World 4. It was to teach them what they were to expect in the World themselves fire and faggot affliction and tribulation the lot and portion both of them and of their followers ever since 5. It was to teach them what they were to be burning and shining lights to lead others into heaven Lastly That so all righteousness Law and Prophets might be fulfilled the types of the one and the promises of the other from the first of them to the last to St. Iohn Baptists that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire that the fire that Christ came to send into the earth and was then already kindled might now burn out into the World And all this to shew the Almighty Wisdom who thus agreeably orders all his doings from the first unto the last that we might with the greater confidence embrace the Doctrine of the Gospel which so evenly consented with the Law and was added only to bring it to perfection to raise up the fire of devotion and charity to the height 2. But not only to manifest the wisdom of the Father and perform the promise of the Son but secondly to intimate the nature of the holy Spirit Fire is the purest Element The holy Spirit is pure and incorruptible thine incorruptible Spirit says the Wise man Wisd. xii 1. No evill can dwell with it It will not mingle with humane interests By this you may know it from all other Spirits They intermix with private humours and self-respects and great ones fancies The holy Spirit is a fire and will not mix it must dwell alone has not a tongue now for this and then for that to please men and ease it self but is always pure and incorrupt Fire 2. is the subtilest Element it pierces into every part And whither can I go then from thy Spirit says holy David Psal. cxxxix 6. If I climb up into heaven thou art there If I go down to hell thou art there also If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there also will it find me out Darkness cannot cover me thick darkness cannot hide me night it self cannot conceal me from thee O thou divine Spirit O keep me therefore that I may do nothing that may make me ashamed and hide my self seeing thy eyes will quickly pierce into me 3. Fire is an active nature always stirring always moving Nothing can be found better to express the nature of the holy Spirit It mov'd from the beginning actuated the first matter into all the shapes we see breath'd an active principle into them all renew'd again the face of the Earth when the waters had defaced it blows and the waters flow blows again and dries them up guides the Patriarchs inspires the Prophets rests upon the Governours of the People from Moses to the seventy Elders gives spirit and courage to the Martyrs Non permanebit spiritus meus in vagina says God Gen. vi My Spirit will not endure to be always as in a rusty sheath it will be lightning the understanding it will be warming the affections it will be stirring of the passions it will be working in the heart it will be acting in the hand it will be moving in the feet it will be quickning all the powers to the service of the Almighty nothing so busie as this holy fire nothing so active as this Spirit Though the nature and essence of it cannot be full exprest it is thus very powerfully resembled 3. The gifts of it more easily by this fire Seven there are numbred of them out of Isa. xi 2. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding the Spirit of counsel and ghostly strength the Spirit of knowledge and true godliness and the Spirit of holy fear all very naturally represented to us by so many properties I shall observe to you of the fire Fire it ascends it penetrates it tries it hardens it enlightens it warms it melts You have all these again in the seven gifts of the Spirit For 1. the holy Spirit
our pleasures and vagaries our mirths and vanities our successes and prosperities to steal away the time we are to spend in giving God thanks and glory for them Nor 2. to permit our selves so much time to the reflection upon our griefs and troubles as to omit the praising God that they are no worse and that he thus fatherly chastises us to our bettering and amendment does all to us for the best Yet not to cease praising him day and night seems still to have some difficulty to understand it The Angels perhaps that neither eat nor drink nor sleep nor labour they may do it but how shall poor man compass it Why first Imprint in thy soul a fixt and solid resolution to direct all thy words and actions to his glory Renew it 2. every day thou risest and every night thou liest down Renounce 3 all by-ends and purposes that shall at any time creep in upon thee to take the praise and honour to thy self Design 4. thy actions as often as thou canst particularly to Gods service with some short offering them up to Gods will and pleasure either to cross or prosper them and when they be done say Gods Name be praised for them And lastly omit not the times of Prayer and Praise either in publick or in private but use thy best diligence to observe them to be constant and attentive at them Thus with the Spouse in the Canticles when we sleep our hearts awake and whether we eat or drink or walk or talk or whatsoever we do we do all to the glory of God and may be said to praise him day and night and not cease saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And so I come to the second General The form here set us to praise him in In which first we have to consider the glory it self that is expresly given him Holy Holy Holy To speak right indeed the whole sentence is nothing else yet this evidently referring to that of Isai. vi 3. where the Seraphims use this first part in their Hymn of praise I conceive this the chief and most remarkable part of of it which may therefore bear the name before the rest Now this saying Holy Holy Holy is attributing all purity perfection and glory to God as to the subject of it himself and the original of it to others thereby acknowledging him only to be worship'd and ador'd So that saying thus we say all good of him and all good from him to our selves Thrice 't is repeated which according to the Hebrew custom is so done to imprint it the deeper in our thoughts and may serve us as a threefold cord which is not easily broken to draw us to it But another reason the Fathers give And it is 1. they say to teach us the knowledge of the holy and blessed Trinity Indeed why else thrice and no less or more Why follows Lord God Almighty three more words why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three yet again and yet but three who was who is who is to come Why do the Seraphims in Isaiah say no more yet say so too Why have we in the following verses Glory and Honour and Thanks ver 9. and Glory and Honour and Power so punctually thrice and thrice only offered to them How came it to be so universally celebrated throughout the World and put into all the Catholik Liturgies every where words fall not from Angels and Angelical Spirits by chance or casually The holy Penmen write not words hap hazard Nor is it easie to conceive so hard a doctrine so uneasie to reason should be so generally and humbly entertain'd but by some powerful working of Gods Spirit This may be enough to satisfie us that the blessed Trinity is more then obscurely pointed out to us here And 2. to be sure the Fountain of all Holiness is here pointed to us that we may learn to whom to go for grace that we may see we our selves are but unholy things that nothing is in it self pure or holy none but God And 3. it points us out what we should be Be ye holy as I am holy says God No way otherwise to come near him no way else to come so near him as to give him thanks for out of polluted lips he will not take them For in the second place the Lord God Almighty it is we are to give this glory to The three Persons here me thinks are evident however God the Father the Lord the Son and the Almighty Spirit that made all things that does but blow and the waters flow that does but breath and man lives that with the least blast does what he will Yet these three it seems are still but one one Lord and one God and one Spirit Ephes. iv 4 5 6. all singulars here nounes verbs articles and participles all in the singular number here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we might see though a Trinity there be to be believed yet 't is in unity though three Personalities but one Nature though three Persons but one God All the scruple here can but arise from the setting Lord the Son before God the Father but that 's quickly answered when they tell you there is none here afore or after other none greater and lesser than another and therefore no matter at all for the order here where all is one and one is all Lord God Almighty Yet now to encourage us the better to our Praises and Thanksgivings see we in the last place the benefits they here praise him for and they are intimated to us in the close of all Who was and is and is to come In the first we understand the benefit of our creation God it was that created us In the second we read the benefit of our Redemption the Lord it is that redeems us daily pardons and delivers us In the third we have the benefit of our Glorification still to come the Holy Spirit here sealing us and hereafter enstating us in glory In them all together we may in brief see as in a Prospect that all the benefits we have received heretofore he was the Author of them that all the mercies we enjoy he is the Fountain of them that all the joys or good we hope for he is the donour of them he was he is he must be the bestower of them all without him nothing he was and is and will be to us all in all And now sure though I have not the time to specifie all the mercies we enjoy from this blessed Lord God Almighty and indeed had I all time I could not and all tongues Si mihi sint linguae centum sint oraque centum I could not yet we cannot but in gross at least take up a Song of Praise for altogether say somewhat towards it Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty holy in our Creation Holy in our Redemption holy in our Sanctification Holy in Heaven holy in Earth holy under the Earth
which good and evil move on their courses I begin to examine St. Peters desire under a threefold consideration Of a man of a sinful of an humble man For all these St. Peter at this time was capable of and in which of these he speaks most feelingly will be perhaps anon the quere and how far they may pertain to us be used or not used by us will be the business we are to speak of If we take all we are sure to be right Then first of the desire as it is that of man or humane nature considered simply in its own imperfection unable to bear the presence of a supernatural honour Nature sometimes desires God to depart from it It loves not to be forced out of its course to be screw'd up beyond it self Miracles are burthens to Nature and however it be ready to serve the will of the Supreme Mover yet when it is diverted from its own way and strain'd to a service or quickness with which its innate slowness is unacquainted it does even by its hasting back to its old wont in a manner desire to be freed from the present command of its great Controuler 'T is so with man who being of a corruptible make cannot endure the presence of an incorruptible Essence Angels and Spirits bring affrightment to it when they come we are terrified at the presence of an Angel though he bring us nothing but tidings of the greatest joy Nay if we do but think we see a Spirit as the Disciples did when it was was no other than their beloved Master we are wholly frighted and amazed There is so great a distance between our corrupt Mortality and their immortal conditions that we desire not to see them Yea the body it self is so little delighted with the presence of its own best companion the incorruptible soul though it enjoy all its beauty and vigour by it that by continual reluctances against it and perpetually throwing off the commands of it and so daily withdrawing its imaginations from the thoughts of or converse with that nobler part it seems to wish it gone rather than to be bound to that observance which the presence of that divine parcel requires at our hands And if it fare no better with these natures of Angels and our own Spirits which are nearer mortality and imperfection and have more affinity to us and full natural engagements upon us because their excellencies breed either a kind of envy or terrour to us that we in a manner say to those that we cannot sunder from us our very souls go away trouble us not with these spiritual businesses how is it otherwise likely than that we should be ready to avoid the presence of that eternal Purity in whose sight our best purities cannot stand at all We love not to see our own imperfections that makes us unwilling to endure the presence of any thing that shews us them Now the divine excellencies above all the rest being that which by its exactness discovers the most insensible blemishes we labour with you cannot wonder that a creature so much in love with it self should desire the removal of that whose neerness of much debases it Nor is this all there is terrour besides at the approach of the Almighty When God drew near to his People upon the Mount and the People saw the thundrings and lightnings and the noise of the Trumpet and the mountain smoaking conceiving him to be at hand whose voice is terrible as the thunder at whose presence the mountains smoke they removed and stood afar off Exod. xx 18. And ver 19. they said unto Moses speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die Thus at least entreating God to withdraw somewhat farther from them even lest they should die for fear if he should come nearer them We cannot always say such desires are orderly and good yet such there are we may say in the best created nature Indeed we commonly desire what is worst for us as if we knew not our own good or did not study it Certainly Gods company can do us no harm In his presence is life says the Psalmist yet say we we die if we see him In him we live and move and have our being says the Apostle Acts xvii 28. yet say we if He come to nigh us or depart not from us we shall be no more Thus our thoughts and desires run counter to him Nay there is a Generation that the Prophet complains of that say plainly unto the Lord depart from us Isa. xxx 11. We will have none of thy Laws we desire not thy Precepts thy Word is a burthen to us thy solemn Worship we cannot away with we are weary of thy Sacraments we are sick of thy Truth thy Priests are a trouble to us thy Holy Days take too much time from us thy Holy Service and thy Holy Things they are too chargeable for us take them away and depart from us we will have none of them any longer This is more than the voice of Natures imperfection 't is the voice of sin and rebellion added to it but take we heed lest while we thus thrust God from us he go indeed and come no more go away and leave us in perpetual sin darkness and discomfort It may please God peradventure to construe what we have done hitherto as the rash hasty words only of affrighted or disturbed Nature not knowing which way to turn it self upon a sudden being amazed at the things that we know not how are come to pass in these days but if we shall persist to desire him to depart which of all sins has most unthankfulness and impiety I may add Atheism also in it he will go and he will not return then shall we seek him early but we shall not find him We shall seek him sighing and weeping and mourning as we go but we shall not find him we shall eat of the fruit of our own way and be filled with our own devices but we shall see him no more for ever then shall we beg for what we have rejected but he will not hear us he is departed from us and will not come again Thus it was not St. Peters desire He was not tired with Christs company nor glutted with it as the Israelites with their despised Manna only Christ by shewing a Miracle had so amazed his wits that he knew not how on a sudden to recollect his Spirits to entertain so great and holy a Guest does therefore not well considering what to say desire him to divert a little some whither else where he might be more honourably entertain'd or to stand off a while and give him breath that he might recover his Spirits and be able more worthily to entertain him But there was somewhat else which made St. Peter so express himself He was not only sensible of his mortal lot but of his sinful condition tion too Thus we are 2. to
rebuke exhort with all long suffering and patience though we should speak with the tongue of Men and Angels words of life and spirit though we should every day preach with St. Paul even to midnight and call out to you to hear and obey till we were hoarse with speaking and can speak no more yea though we should speak with that passion as if our own souls were melted into it and were distilling with our words and so continue from day to day till our day were over-clouded in everlasting night yet it might be with all this pains we might catch nothing 'T is what I need not stand to prove Moses and Eliah and Ieremiah and all the Prophets are sufficient witnesses some time or other of vast labours spent in vain And the times our own eyes have seen and do yet behold are too unhappy an evidence of many mens whole lives and ministeries thus spent in vain where Christ pleases to withdraw himself either from the Minister or from the People And indeed this is the least wonder of all the rest the gaining of souls being Gods proper business and therefore never like to be done without him We fish but in the night as if we knew not what we did nor saw how to cast our nets to any advantage without him At his Word only the net is rightly spread at his Word only the waters flow and bring in apace he calls and the fishes come amain and till he himself either calls or come we catch nothing 4. Nay to come to the fourth Particular though we omit no pains but even toil and labour what we can nor slip no time but even break our sleep and take in the nights nor fail of any opportunity but take every hour of the night ready all the night long upon the least occasion nor neglect any policy or art to help us but make it our whole labour and business every way to gain our intentions though we be never so great or good so wise or subtle so many or so powerful we shall gain nothing but labour and sorrow by the hand unless God be with us 1. Toil it self and labour catches nothing We have toiled all night and caught nothing all our labour is but as the running round of a mill or the turning of a door upon the hinges never the further for all its motion Consider your ways says the Prophet you have sown much and bring in little he that earneth wages earns it to put into a bag with holes Hagg. i. 6. he gains somewhat as he thinks and lays it up but when he looks again for it it is come to nothing He that gave his mind to seek out the nature and profit of every labour under the Sun returns home empty only with this experimental saying in his mouth Eccles. ii 22. What has a man of all his labour and of the vexation of his heart wherein he hath laboured under the Sun for all his days are sorrows and his travel grief a goodly catch for all his pains 2. All the attendance upon times and seasons will effect no more if you separate from Gods special benediction We have toil'd all night and yet caught nothing Let a man serve seven years for a fortune or preferment as Iacob did for Rachel and in the morning his fair and long'd for Rachel will prove but bleer-eyed Leah at the best Whatever it is he gets 't will be but misery to him or a false happiness Or let him lie waiting with the bed-rid man at the Pool of Bethesda eight and thirty years for the moving of the waters he will always be prevented be never able to get in till Christ come to him yea let him wait out all his years and draw out his days in perpetual expectations and attendances for some happy Planet some propitious hour he will never see it unless God speak the word and command it to him These fishers in the Text had even chose their time and spent it out to the last minute the best time to fish when the eye of the sporting fish could not see the net that was spread to entangle them nor perceive the hand or shaddow of him who subtilly laid wait to take them the time of night and they pursued their labour till the day came on all the night says the Text yet nothing they could catch they lost their labour and their hope Just thus it is when men having as they think diligently made use of the opportunity and expected it out having never thought of God all the while find themselves at last no neerer the end of their desires then they were at the beginning Your own eyes see it by many daily experiences that is thus oft falls out 3. Policy comes ever and anon as short of its aims where God is set aside Though men be oft so cunning in all the arts of thriving that nothing seems to escape their reach though the net seem full with fish their fields stand thick with corn and their garners full and plenteous with all manner of store yet draw up the net when the night is gone when the clear day appears to shew all things as they are and behold in all these they have taken nothing their souls the best fish are lost and gone by their unjust and wicked gains the true fish is slipt away and there is nothing but the scales and slime a little glittering earth or slimy pleasure left behind Thus meer policy I mean such as God is not remembred in proves ever at the last But it is oft-times seen that such policies even deceive them of their own intentions too and they fall commonly by what they had determin'd as steps to rise by Laban thinking to enrich himself by his covetous bargain changes Iacob's wages ten times but still changes for the worst If Laban says to Iacob the speckled shall be thy wages then all the Cattel bare speckled if he say the ring-straked shall be thy hire then all the Cattel bear ring-straked Gen. xxxi 1. because God was with Iacob and not with Laban These men here cunning sure enough at their Trade in which they were bred up having pickt out their time and cast on every side of the Ship tried all their Art all their tricks and sleights for we cannot but think that being so often disappointed they used all their skill yet for all that they caught nothing for Christ was not there Thy wisdom and thy knowledge saith the Prophet it hath perverted thee Isa. xlvii 10. And thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels ver 13. These are of no power if once God leave us Nay they serve all to nothing but to pervert us if Christ be not in them all our wisdom and counsels but ignorance and folly without the presence of this eternal Wisdom this great Counsellor 4. We be we never so great never so good never so many never so wise may toil and trouble our selves
it 3. Witnesses should be men of rank and quality their worth has plac'd them above the clouds 4. They are authentical habentes circumpositam the Spirit has set them round about us to that intent and he is the Spirit of Truth So far now from doubting of our guide that we wave Nubem and pass to habentes the second relation they have to us not only to direct us but to bear us company And indeed what is Nubem and Nubem tantam and Nubem Martyrum and Nubem testium to us without Habentes except it be ours yea and habentes nobis if we have it not along with us What are the glorious Angels themselves to us but flames and two-edged Swords without this Habentes if we have them not for ministring Spirits What are the Triumphant Saints to us however dazled with their own glories without Habentes if they be none of ours if they be not members of the same Church of the same Religion with us Cast off your Religion quite if you can claim no portion in the Saints if you have no Martyrs What is it then that some so often ask what have we to do with Saints 'T is well besides the Habentes that we have an Impositam from the Vulgar Latine that it is imposed upon us some necessity of it sure and that we have a Circumpositam from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that not only we have this Cloud but that we have it put about us not of our own putting on Habentes it might be we might have it of our own chusing or fancying we know who have so Clouds of their own making Saints of their own canonizing but impositam or circumpositam it cannot be except some body put it on us and who is it that makes the clouds a garment for this earth but he that makes the Clouds his Chariot Who can dispose of the Saints but the King of Saints So then a sufficient excuse we have for Habentes God it is that compasses us with this Cloud of Witnesses And if they compass us they will be near about us by and by that they may behold our doing to be spectators of our course and Witnesses to that too to rejoyce at our speed to congratulate our success to receive us with the triumphs of glory And yet methinks the Apostle mentions Saints that are gone before how come they now to be round about us Angels indeed are ministring Spirits perhaps some of them may pitcht about us Angelus Domini in circuitu timentium Psal. xxxiv 8. The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him but how can the Saints be said to compass us about May it not be a Metaphor to shew their multitude because there are so many that we cannot turn our eyes any where about us but we see them The Phrase is Davids in another case The sorrows of death compassed me Psal. xviii 4. at every hand on every side at every turn I cannot avoid them Or is it that they guard us round with their Quousque Domine quousque their earnest prayers for their afflicted Brethren Or is it that being there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth St. Luk. xv and they with the Angels make up the Choir and heaven it self encompass us they therefore are said to compass us Or is it that their Graves and Sepulchres are round about us and we as it were still encompassed with their bodies and they as it were did still encompass us in their bodies The word may seem on purpose as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is jaceo and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is circumjacentem lying round about us The Sepulchres of the Saints do so this day As if St. Paul had meant that from the sight and nearness of the resting places of their sacred ashes we should every day be put in mind with thankfulness to acknowledge the riches of Gods goodness in our deceased brethren and learn those vertues whereby their bones now flourish out of their Graves and their memorials live for evermore Least as Abels bloud from the earth so their dust from their silent dormitories should cry out against us Not Suppositam now no supposed cloud 't is true 't is real if it encompass us Such Saints there are without a supposition they die not all when they go hence something there is still to make the God of Abraham the God of the living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is and circumpositam it should be not sub nor super not superpositam not set over us they as Lords and Masters of our faith to make what Articles they lift but circum about us as fellow Witnesses and Companions One more not Praepositam not set before us to run to either for mediation or intercession He that regards the clouds thus shall not reap no thanks I am sure The Prayer of the humble pierceth the clouds Ecclus. xxxv 17. flies higher 'T is the Prayer of the self conceited however it seem a voluntary dejection and humility that is stifled in the middle Region and if you mark it there 's no Aspicientes here no looking of up to them habentes is all that 's here aspicientes is kept till the next verse for IESVM For if this cloud dim our eye sight and we instead of being compassed about with them compass them about by Pilgrimages Adoration or Invocation our best way is to the next words Deponentes pondus to cast off that heavy mist that sits upon our eye lids or to the next verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turn our eyes from them and look to IESVS the Author and finisher of our faith I hope by this time we know what to do with Nubem what use to make of this Cloud of Martyrs for habentes it is and we have it not for nothing Are they Clouds why habentes first Let 's have them in account for such for something more than earth Habentes in honore let us think and speak reverently of those happy spirits have their vertues in remembrance their remembrances in honour them in our thanksgivings their monuments and ashes in so much respect to keep them from the prophane scattering hand to put us in mind of their exemplary Piety and a Resurrection Habentes nobis next to have them to our selves to apply them home for imitation to ascend up in our thoughts like clouds to heaven in our affections to inhabite there to live and move there in all our actions that Christ may be seen in all our doings To learn from habentes nubem good company from Nubem something heavenly from Nubem in the Singular peace and unity to learn the degree from Tantam from Testium the open profession of our faith and from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 courage and constancy To do all this habentes circumpositam is the way to place them