is no novelty but their apparition they are alwaies with us but rarely seen that we may awfully respect their messages when they are seen In the mean time our faith may see them though our senses doe not their assumed shapes doe not make them more present but visible There is an order in that heavenly Hierarchie though we know it not This Angel that appeared to Zacharie was not with him in the ordinary course of his attendances but was purposely sent from God with this message Why was an Angel sent and why this Angel It had been easie for him to have raised up the prophetical spirit of some Simeon to this prediction The same Holy Ghost which revealed to that just man that he should not see death ere he had seen the Messias might have as easily revealed unto him the birth of the forerunner of Christ and by him to Zacharie but God would have this voice which should goe before his Son come with a noise He would have it appear to the world that the harbinger of the Messiah should be conceived by the marvellous power of that God whose coming he proclaimed It was fit the first Herald of the Gospel should begin in wonder The same Angel that came to the Blessed Virgin with the news of Christs conception came to Zacharie with the news of John's for the honour of him that was the greatest of them which were born of women and for his better resemblance to him which was the seed of the woman Both had the Gospel for their errand one as the messenger of it the other as the Author both are foretold by the same mouth When could it be more fit for the Angel to appear unto Zacharie then when prayers and incense were offered by him Where could he more fitly appear then in the Temple In what part of the Temple more fitly then at the Altar of Incense and whereabout rather then on the right side of the Altar Those glorious spirits as they are alwaies with us so most in our devotions and as in all places so most of all in Gods house They rejoice to be with us whiles we are with God as contrarily they turn their faces from us when we goe about our sins He that had wont to live and serve in the presence of the master was now astonished at the presence of the servant So much difference there is betwixt our faith and our senses that the apprehension of the presence of the God of spirits by faith goes down sweetly with us whereas the sensible apprehension of an Angel dismayes us Holy Zacharie that had wont to live by faith thought he should dye when his sense began to be set on work It was the weaknesse of him that served at the Altar without horror to be daunted with the face of his fellow-servant In vain doe we look for such Ministers of God as are without infirmities when just Zacharie was troubled in his devotions with that wherewith he should have been comforted It was partly the suddenness and partly the glory of the apparition that affrighted him The good Angel was both apprehensive and compassionate of Zacharie's weakness and presently incourages him with a cheerful excitation Fear not Zacharias The blessed spirits though they doe not often vocally expresse it doe pity our humane frailties and secretly suggest comfort unto us when we perceive it not Good and evil Angels as they are contrary in estate so also in disposition The good desire to take away fear the evil to bring it It is a fruit of that deadly enmity which is betwixt Satan and us that he would if he might kill us with terror whereas the good spirits affecting our relief and happinesse take no pleasure in terrifying us but labour altogether for our tranquillity and chearfulnesse There was not more fear in the face then comfort in the speech Thy prayer is heard No Angel could have told him better newes Our desires are uttered in our praiers What can we wish but to have what we would Many good suits had Zachary made and amongst the rest for a Son Doubtlesse it was now some space of years since he made that request For he was now stricken in age and had ceased to hope yet had God laid it up all the while and when he thinks not of it brings it forth to effect Thus doth the mercy of our God deale with his patient and faithfull suppliants In the fervour of their expectation he many times holds them off and when they least think of it and have forgotten their own suits he graciously condescends Delay of effect may not discourage our faith It may be God hath long granted ere we shall know of his grant Many a father repents him of his fruitfulnesse and hath such sons as he wishes unborn but to have so gracious and happy a son as the Angel foretold could not be lesse comfort then honor to the age of Zacharie The proof of children makes them either the blessings or crosses of their parents To heare what his son should be before he was to heare that he should have such a son a son whose birth should concern the joy of many a son that should be great in the sight of the Lord a son that should be sacred to God filled with God beneficial to man an harbinger to him that was God and man was news enough to prevent the Angel and to take away that tongue with amazement which was after lost with incredulity The speech was so good that it found not a sudden belief This good news surprised Zachary If the intelligence had taken leisure that his thoughts might have had time to debate the matter he had easily apprehended the infinite power of him that had promised the pattern of Abraham and Sara and would soon have concluded the appearance of the Angel more miraculous then his prediction Whereas now like a man masked with the strangenesse of that he saw and heard he misdoubts the message and asks How shall I know Nature was on his side and alledged the impossibility of the event both from age and barrennesse Supernaturall tidings at the first hearing astonish the heart and are entertained with doubts by those which upon further acquaintance give them the best welcome The weak apprehensions of our imperfect faith are not so much to be censured as pittied It is a sure way for the heart to be prevented with the assurance of the omnipotent power of God to whom nothing is impossible so shall the hardest point of faith goe down easily with us If the eye of our minde look upward it shall meet with nothing to avert or interrupt it but if right forward or downward or round about every thing is a block in our way There is a difference betwixt desire of assurance and unbelief We cannot be too carefull to raise up our selves arguments to settle our faith although it should be no faith if it had no feet to stand
upon but discursive In matters of faith if reasons may be brought for the conviction of the gain-sayers it is well if they be helps they cannot be grounds of our belief In the most faithful heart there are some sparks of infidelity so to believe that we should have no doubt at all is scarce incident unto flesh and blood It is a great perfection if we have attained to overcome our doubts What did mislead Zacharie but that which uses to guide others Reason I am old and my wife is of great age As if years and drie loines could be any let to him which is able of very stones to raise up children unto Abraham Faith and reason have their limits where reason ends faith begins and if reason will be encroaching upon the bounds of faith she is straight taken captive by infidelity We are not fit to follow Christ if we have not denied our selves and the chief piece of our selves is our reason We must yield God able to doe that which we cannot comprehend and we must comprehend that by our faith which is disclaimed by reason Hagar must be driven out of doors that Sara may rule alone The authority of the reporter makes way for belief in things which are otherwise hard to passe although in the matters of God we should not so much care who speaks as what is spoken and from whom The Angel tells his name place office unasked that Zacharie might not think any news impossible that was brought him by an heavenly messenger Even where there is no use of language the spirits are distinguished by names and each knows his own appellation and others He that gave leave unto man his Image to give names unto all his visible and inferiour creatures did himself put names unto the spiritual and as their name is so are they mighty and glorious But lest Zacharie should no lesse doubt of the stile of the messenger then of the errand it self he is at once both confirmed and punished with dumbness That tongue which moved the doubt must be tyed up He shall ask no more questions for forty weeks because he asked this one distrustfully Neither did Zacharie lose his tongue for the time but his ears also he was not onely mute but deaf For otherwise when they came to ask his allowance for the name of his Son they needed not to have demanded it by signs but by words God will not passe over slight offences and those which may plead the most colourable pretences in his best children without a sensible check it is not our holy entireness with God that can bear us out in the least sin yea rather the more acquaintance we have with his Majesty the more sure we are of correction when we offend This may procure us more favour in our well-doing not lesse justice in evil Zacharie staied and the people waited whether some longer discourse betwixt the Angel and him then needed to be recorded or whether astonishment at the apparition and news withheld him I inquire not the multitude thought him long yet though they could but see afar off they would not depart till he returned to blesse them Their patient attendance without shames us that are hardly perswaded to attend within whiles both our senses are imploied in our divine services and we are admitted to be co-agents with our Ministers At last Zacharie comes out speechlesse and more amazes them with his presence then with his delay The eyes of the multitude that were not worthy to see his vision yet see the signs of his vision that the world might be put into the exspectation of some extraordinary sequell GOD makes way for his voice by silence His speech could not have said so much as his dumbness Zacharie would fain have spoken and could not with us too many are dumb and need not Negligence Fear Partiality stop the mouthes of many which shall once say Woe to me because I held my peace His hand speaks that which he cannot with his tongue and he makes them by signs to understand that which they might read in his face Those powers we have we must use But though he have ceased to speak yet he ceased not to minister He takes not this dumbness for a dismission but stayes out the eight daies of his course as one that knew the eyes and hands and heart would be accepted of that God which had bereaved him of his tongue We may not straight take occasions of withdrawing our selves from the publick services of our God much lesse under the Gospel The Law which stood much upon bodily perfection dispensed with age for attendance The Gospel which is all for the Soul regards those inward powers which whiles they are vigorous exclude all excuses of our ministration The Annunciation of CHRIST THE Spirit of GOD was never so accurate in any description as that which concerns the Incarnation of GOD. It was fit no circumstance should be omitted in that Story whereon the faith salvation of all the World dependeth We cannot so much as doubt of this truth and be saved no not the number of the moneth not the name of the Angel is concealed Every particle imports not more certainty then excellence The time is the sixth moneth after John's Conception the prime of the Spring Christ was conceived in the Spring born in the Solstice He in whom the World received a new life receives life in the same season wherein the World received his first life from him and he which stretches out the dayes of his Church and lengthens them to Eternitie appeares after all the short and dimme light of the Law and enlightens the World with his glory The Messenger is an Angel A man was too mean to carry the news of the Conception of God Never any businesse was conceived in Heaven that did so much concerne the earth as the Conception of the GOD of Heaven in Womb of earth No lesse then an Arch-Angel was worthy to bear this tydings and never any Angel received a greater honour then of this Embassage It was fit our reparation should answer our fall An evil Angel was the first motioner of the one to Eve a Virgin then espoused to Adam in the Garden of Eden a good Angell is the first reporter of the other to Mary a Virgin espoused to Joseph in that place which as the Garden of Galilee had a name from flourishing No good Angel could be the Author of our restauration as that evil Angel was of our ruine But that which those glorious Spirits could not doe themselves they are glad to report as done by the God of Spirits Good news rejoices the bearer With what joy did this holy Angel bring the news of that Saviour in whom we are redeemed to life himself established in life and glory The first Preacher of the Gospel was an Angel That office must needs be glorious that derives it self from such a Predecessor God appointed his Angel to be the first
that persecuted thine innocence but limbs of this Devil And why are we then amazed to see thee touched and locally transported by the head when we see thee yielding thy self over to be crucified by the members If Satan did the worse and greater mediately by their hands no marvel if he doe the lesse and easier immediately by his own yet neither of them without thy voluntary dispensation He could not have looked at thee without thee And if the Son of God did thus suffer his own holy and precious Body to be carried by Satan what wonder is it if that Enemy have sometimes power given him over the sinful bodies of the adopted sons of God It is not the strength of Faith that can secure us from the outward violences of that Evil one This difference I finde betwixt his spiritual and bodily assaults those are beaten back by the shield of Faith these admit not of such repulse As the best man may be lame blind diseased so through the permission of God he may be bodily vexed by an old Man-slayer Grace was never given us for a Target against externall Afflictions Methinks I see Christ hoised upon the highest battlements of the Temple whose very roof was an hundred and thirty Cubits high and Satan standing by him with this speech in his mouth Well then since in the matter of nourishment thou wilt needs depend upon thy Father's Providence that he can without means sustain thee take now further tryall of that Providence in thy miraculous preservation Cast thy self down from this height Behold thou art here in Jerusalem the famous and holy City of the World here thou art on the top of the pinnacle of that Temple which is dedicated to thy Father and if thou be God to thy self The eyes of all men are now fixt upon thee there cannot be devised a more ready way to spread thy glory and to proclaim thy Deity then by casting thy self headlong to the Earth All the World will say there is more in thee then a man And for danger there can be none What can hurt him that is the Son of God and wherefore serves that glorious Guard of Angels which have by Divine Commission taken upon them the charge of thine Humanity Since therefore in one act thou mayest be both safe and celebrated trust thy Father and those thy serviceable Spirits with thine assured preservation Cast thy self down And why didst thou not O thou malignant spirit endeavour to cast down my Saviour by those same presumptuous hands that brought him up since the descent is more easie then the raising up Was it for that it had not been so great an advantage to thee that he should fall by thy means as by his own Falling into sin was more then to fall from the pinnacle Still thy care and suit is to make us Authors to our selves of evil thou gainest nothing by our bodily hurt if the Soul be safe Or was it rather for that thou couldest not I doubt not but thy Malice could as well have served to have offered this measure to himself as to his holy Apostle soon after But he that bounded thy power tethers thee shorter Thou couldest not thou canst not do what thou wouldst He that would permit thee to carry him up bindes thy hands from casting him down And woe were it for us if thou wert not ever stinted Why did Satan carry up Christ so high but on purpose that his fall might be the more deadly So deals he still with us he exalts us that we may be dangerously abased he puffs them up with swelling thoughts of their own worthinesse that they may be vile in the eyes of God and fall into condemnation It is the manner of God to cast down that he may raise to abase that he may exalt Contrarily Satan raises up that he may throw down and intends nothing but our dejection in our advancement Height of place gives opportunity of Tentation Thus busie is that Wicked one in working against the members of Christ If any of them be in eminence above others those he labours most to ruinate They had need to stand fast that stand high There is both more danger of their falling and more hurt in their fall He that had presumed thus far to tempt the Lord of Life would fain now dare him also to presume upon his Deity If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down There is not a more tried shaft in all his quiver then this a perswasion to men to bear themselves too bold upon the favour of God Thou art the Elect and Redeemed of God sin because Grace hath abounded sin that it may abound Thou art safe enough though thou offend be not too much an adversary to thine own liberty False spirit it is no liberty to sinne but servitude rather there is liberty but in the freedome from sin Every one of us that hath the hope of Sons must purge himself even as he is pure that hath redeemed us We are bought with a price therefore must we glorifie God in our body and spirits for they are God's Our Sonship teaches us awe and obedience and therefore because we are Sons we will not cast our selves down into sin How idlely do Satan and wicked men measure God by the crooked line of their own misconceit Iwis Christ cannot be the Son of God unlesse he cast himself down from the Pinnacle unlesse he come down from the Crosse God is not merciful unlesse he honour them in all their desires not just unlesse he take speedy vengeance where they require it But when they have spent their folly upon these vain imaginations Christ is the Son of God though he stay on the top of the Temple God will be merciful though we miscarry and just though sinners seem lawlesse Neither will he be any other then he is or measured by any rule but himself But what is this I see Satan himself with a Bible under his arm with a Text in his mouth It is written He shall give his Angels charge over thee How still in that Wicked one doth Subtilty strive with Presumption Who could not but over-wonder at this if he did not consider that since the Devil dar'd to touch the sacred Body of Christ with his hand he may well touch the Scriptures of God with his tongue Let no man henceforth marvel to hear Hereticks or Hypocrites quote Scriptures when Satan himself hath not spared to cite them What are they the worse for this more then that holy Body wich is transported Some have been poisoned by their meats and drinks yet either these nourish us or nothing It is not the Letter of the Scripture that can carry it but the Sense if we divide these two we prophane and abuse that Word we alledge And wherefore doth this foul spirit urge a Text but for imitation for prevention and for successe Christ had alledged a Scripture unto him he re-alledges Scripture unto Christ
this Jesus a power to apply his merits and obedience we are no whit the safer no whit the better only we are so much the wiser to understand who shall condemn us This piece of the clause was spoken like a Saint Jesus the Son of the most high God the other piece like a Devil What have I to doe with thee If the disclamation were universall the latter words would impugne the former for whiles he confesses Jesus to be the Son of the most high God he withall confesses his own inevitable subjection Wherefore would he beseech if he were not obnoxious He cannot he dare not say What hast thou to doe with me but What have I to doe with thee Others indeed I have vexed thee I fear In respect then of any violence of any personal provocation What have I to doe with thee And dost thou ask O thou evil spirit what hast thou to doe with Christ whiles thou vexest a servant of Christ Hast thou thy name from knowledge and yet so mistakest him whom thou confessest as if nothing could be done to him but what immediately concerns his own person Hear that great and just Judge sentencing upon his dreadfull Tribunal Inasmuch as thou didst it unto one of these little ones thou didst it unto me It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of the Members from the Head He that had humility enough to kneel to the Son of God hath boldnesse enough to expostulate Art thou come to torment us before our time Whether it were that Satan who useth to enjoy the torment of sinners whose musick it is to hear our shrieks and gnashings held it no small piece of his torment to be restrained in the exercise of his tyranny or whether the very presence of Christ were his rack for the guilty spirit projecteth terrible things and cannot behold the Judge or the executioner without a renovation of horrour or whether that as himself professeth he were now in a fearfull expectation of being commanded down into the deep for a further degree of actual torment which he thus deprecates There are tortures appointed to the very spiritual natures of evil Angels Men that are led by Sense have easily granted the body subject to torment who yet have not so readily conceived this incident to a spiritual substance The Holy Ghost hath not thought it fit to acquaint us with the particular manner of these invisible acts rather willing that we should herein fear then enquire But as all matters of Faith though they cannot be proved by Reason for that they are in a higher sphere yet afford an answer able to stop the mouth of all Reason that dares bark against them since truth cannot be opposite to it self so this of the sufferings of Spirits There is therefore both an intentional torment incident to Spirits and a reall For as in Blessedness the good Spirits finde themselves joyned unto the chief good and hereupon feel a perfect love of God and unspeakable joy in him and rest in themselves so contrarily the evil Spirits perceive themselves eternally excluded from the presence of God and see themselves setled in a wofull darkness and from the sense of this separation arises an horrour not to be expressed not to be conceived How many men have we known to torment themselves with their own thoughts There needs no other gibbet then that which their troubled spirit hath erected in their own heart And if some pains begin at the Body and from thence afflict the Soul in a copartnership of grief yet others arise immediately from the Soul and draw the Body into a participation of misery Why may we not therefore conceive mere and separate Spirits capable of such an inward excruciation Besides which I hear the Judge of men and Angels say Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels I hear the Prophet say Tophet is prepared of old If with fear and without curiosity we may look upon those flames why may we not attribute a spiritual nature to that more then natural fire In the end of the world the Elements shall be dissolved by fire and if the pure quintessential matter of the skie and the element of fire it self shall be dissolved by fire then that last fire shall be of another nature then that which it consumeth What hinders then but that the Omnipotent God hath from eternity created a fire of another nature proportionable even to Spiritual essences Or why may we not distinguish of fire as it is it self a bodily creature and as it is an instrument of Gods justice so working not by any material virtue or power of its own but by a certain height of supernatural efficacy to which it is exalted by the Omnipotence of that supreme and righteous Judge Or lastly why may we not conceive that though Spirits have nothing material in their nature which that fire should work upon yet by the judgement of the Almighty Arbiter of the world justly willing their torment they may be made most sensible of pain and by the obedible submission of their created nature wrought upon immediately by their appointed tortures besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are everlastingly confined For if the incorporeal Spirits of living men may be held in a lothed or painful body and conceive sorrow to be so imprisoned why may we not as easily yield that the evil spirits of Angels or men may be held in those direfull flames and much more abhor therein to continue for ever Tremble rather O my Soul at the thought of this wofull condition of the evil Angels who for one onely act of Apostasie from God are thus perpetually tormented whereas we sinfull wretches multiply many and presumptuous offences against the Majesty of our God And withall admire and magnifie that infinite Mercy to the miserable generation of man which after this holy severity of justice to the revolted Angels so graciously forbears our hainous iniquities and both suffers us to be free for the time from these hellish torments and gives us opportunity of a perfect freedome from them for ever Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thine infirmities who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions There is no time wherein the evil spirits are not tormented there is a time wherein they exspect to be tormented yet more Art thou come to torment us before our time They knew that the last Assises are the prefixed terme of their full execution which they also understood to be not yet come For though they knew not when the Day of Judgement should be a point concealed from the glorious Angels of Heaven yet they knew when it should not be and therefore they say Before the time Even the very evil spirits confesse and fearfully attend a set
at once removes that which both they did and might have feared The stone is removed the seal broken the watch fled What a scorn doth the Almighty God make of the impotent designes of men They thought the stone shall make the grave sure the seal shall make the stone sure the guard shall make both sure Now when they think all safe God sends an Angel from Heaven above the earth quakes beneath the stone rolls away the Souldiers stand like carkasses and when they have got heart enough to run away think themselves valiant the Tomb is opened Christ is risen they confounded Oh the vain projects of silly men as if with one shovel-full of mire they would dam up the Sea or with a clout hang'd forth they would keep the Sun from shining Oh these Spiders-webs or houses of Cards which fond children have as they think skilfully framed which the least breath breaks and ruines Who are we sorry worms that we should look in any business to prevail against our Creator What creature is so base that he cannot arm against us to our confusion The Lice and Frogs shall be too strong for Pharaoh the Worms for Herod There is no wisdome nor counsel against the Lord. Oh the marvellous pomp and magnificence of our Saviours Resurrection The earth quakes the Angel appears that it may be plainly seen that this Divine person now rising had the command both of earth and Heaven At the dissolution of thine Humane nature O Saviour was an Earthquake at the re-uniting of it is an Earthquake to tell the world that the God of Nature then suffered and had now conquered Whiles thou laiest still in the earth the earth was still when thou camest to fetch thine own The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob. When thou our true Sampson awakedst and foundst thy self tied with these Philistian cords and rousedst up and brakest those hard and strong twists with a sudden power no marvel if the room shook under thee Good cause had the earth to quake when the God that made it powerfully calls for his own flesh from the usurpation of her bowels Good cause had she to open her graves and yield up her dead in attendance to the Lord of Life whom she had presumed to detain in that cell of her darkness What a seeming impotence was here that thou who art the true Rock of thy Church shouldst lye obscurely shrouded in Joseph's rock thou that art the true corner-stone of thy Church shouldst be shut up with a double stone the one of thy grave the other of thy vault thou by whom we are sealed to the day of our Redemption shouldst be sealed up in a blind cavern of earth But now what a demonstration of power doth both the world and I see in thy glorious Resurrection The rocks tear the graves open the stones roll away the dead rise and appear the Souldiers flee and tremble Saints and Angels attend thy rising O Saviour thou laiest down in weakness thou risest in power and glory thou laiest down like a man thou risest like a God What a lively image hast thou herein given me of the dreadful Majesty of the general Resurrection and thy second appearance Then not the earth onely but the powers of Heaven shall be shaken not some few graves shall be open and some Saints appear but all the bars of death shall be broken and all that sleep in their graves shall awake and stand up from the dead before thee not some one Angel shall descend but thou the great Angel of the Covenant attended with thousand thousands of those mighty Spirits And if these stout Souldiers were so filled with terrour at the feeling of an Earthquake and the sight of an Angel that they had scarce breath left in them for the time to witness them alive where shall thine enemies appear O Lord in the day of thy terrible appearance when the earth shall reel and vanish and the elements shall be on a flame about their ears and the Heavens shall wrap up as a scroll O God thou mightest have removed this stone by the force of thine Earthquake as well as rive other rocks yet thou wouldst rather use the Ministery of an Angel or thou that gavest thy self life and gavest being both to the stone and to the earth couldst more easily have removed the stone then moved the earth but it was thy pleasure to make use of an Angels hand And now he that would ask why thou wouldst doe it rather by an Angel then by thy self may as well ask why thou didst not rather give thy Law by thine own immediate hand then by the ministration of Angels why by an Angel thou struckest the Israelites with plagues the Assyrians with the sword why an Angel appeared to comfort thee after thy Temptation and Agony when thou wert able to comfort thy self why thou usest the influences of Heaven to fruiten the earth why thou imployest Second causes in all events when thou couldst doe all things alone It is good reason thou shouldst serve thy self of thine own neither is there any ground to be required whether of their motion or rest besides thy will Thou didst raise thy self the Angels removed the stone They that could have no hand in thy Resurrection yet shall have an hand in removing outward impediments not because thou needst but because thou wouldst like as thou alone didst raise Lazarus thou badst others let him loose Works of Omnipotency thou reservest to thine own immediate performance ordinary actions thou doest by subordinate means Although this act of the Angels was not merely with respect to thee but partly to those devout Women to ease them of their care to manifest unto them thy Resurrection So officious are those glorious Spirits not onely to thee their Maker but even to the meanest of thy servants especially in the furtherance of all their spiritual designes Let us bring our Odours they will be sure to roll away the stone Why do not we imitate them in our forwardness to promote each others Salvation We pray to doe thy will here as they doe in Heaven if we do not act our wishes we do but mock thee in our Devotions How glorious did this Angel of thine appear The terrified Souldiers saw his face like lightning both they and the Women saw his garments shining bright and white as snow such a presence became his errand It was fit that as in thy Passion the Sun was darkned and all Creatures were clad with heaviness so in thy Resurrection the best of thy Creatures should testifie their joy and exsultation in the brightness of their habit that as we on Festival-dayes put on our best cloaths so thine Angels should celebrate this blessed Festivity with a meet representation of Glory They could not but injoy our joy to see the work of mans Redemption thus fully finished and if there be mirth in Heaven at the conversion of
timbrels how shall we think those Angelical Spirits triumphed in meeting of the great Conqueror of Hell and Death How did they sing Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Surely as he shall come so he went and behold he shall come with thousands of his Holy Ones thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him From all whom methinks I hear that blessed applause Worthy is the Lamb that was killed to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and praise Praise and honour and glory and power be to him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore And why dost not thou O my Soul help to bear thy part with that happy Quire of Heaven Why art not thou rapt out of my bosome with an extasie of joy to see this Humane nature of ours exalted above all the Powers of Heaven adored of Angels Archangels Cherubin Seraphim and all those mighty and glorious Spirits and sitting there crowned with infinite Glory and Majesty Although little would it avail thee that our Nature is thus honoured if the benefit of this Ascension did not reflect upon thee How many are miserable enough in themselves notwithstanding the Glory of their humane nature in Christ None but those that are found in him are the happier by him who but the Members are the better for the glory of the Head O Saviour how should our weakness have ever hoped to climb into Heaven if thou hadst not gone before and made way for us It is for us that thou the Fore-runner art entred in Now thy Church hath her wish Draw me and I shall run after thee Even so O Blessed Jesu how ambitiously should we follow thee with the paces of Love and Faith and aspire towards thy Glory Thou that art the way hast made the way to thy self and us Thou didst humble thy self and becamest obedient to the death even to the death of the Cross Therefore hath God also highly exalted thee and upon the same terms will not fail to advance us we see thy track before us of Humility and Obedience Oh teach me to follow thee in the roughest waies of Obedience in the bloody paths of Death that I may at last overtake thee in those high steps of Immortality Amongst those millions of Angels that attended this triumphant Ascension of thine O Saviour some are appointed to this lower station to comfort thine astonished Disciples in the certain assurance of thy no-less glorious Return Two men stood by them in white apparel They stood by them they were not of them they seemed Men they were Angels Men for their familiarity two for more certainty of testimony in white for the joy of thine Ascension The Angels formerly celebrated thy Nativity with Songs but we do not finde they then appeared in white thou wert then to undergoe much sorrow many conflicts it was the vale of tears into which thou wert come down So soon as thou wert risen the women saw an Angel in the form of a young man cloathed in white and now so soon as thou art ascended Two men cloathed in white stand by thy Disciples thy task was now done thy victory atchieved and nothing remained but a Crown which was now set upon thy head Justly therefore were those blessed Angels suited with the robes of light and joy And why should our garments be of any other colour why should oile be wanting to our heads when the eyes of our Faith see thee thus ascended It is for us O Saviour that thou art gone to prepare a place in those celestial Mansions it is for us that thou sittest at the right hand of Majesty It is a piece of thy Divine Prayer to thy Father that those whom he hath given thee may be with thee To every bleeding Soul thou saiest still as thou didst to Peter Whither I goe thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me hereafter In assured hope of this Glory why do I not rejoyce and beforehand walk in white with thine Angels that at the last I may walk with thee in white Little would the presence of these Angels have availed if they had not been heard as well as seen They stand not silent therefore but directing their speech to the amazed beholders say Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven What a question was this Could any of those two hundred and forty eyes have power to turn themselves off to any other Object then that Cloud and that point of Heaven where they left their ascended Saviour Surely every one of them were so fixed that had not the speech of these Angels called them off there they had set up their rest till the darkness of night had interposed Pardon me O ye Blessed Angels had I been there with them I should also have been unwilling to have had mine eyes pull'd off from that dear prospect and diverted unto you Never could they have gazed so happily as now If but some Great man be advanced to Honour over our heads how apt we are to stand at a gaze and to eye him as some strange meteor Let the Sun but shine a little upon these Dials how are they look'd at by all passengers Yet alas what can earthly advancement make us other then we are dust and ashes which the higher it is blown the more it is scattered Oh how worthy is the King of Glory to command our eyes now in the highest pitch of his Heavenly exaltation Lord I can never look enough at the place where thou art but what eye could be satisfied with seeing the way that thou wentest It was not the purpose of these Angels to check the long looks of these faithfull Disciples after their ascended Master it was onely a change of eyes that they intended of Carnal for Spiritual of the eye of Sense for the eye of Faith This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him goe into Heaven Look not after him O ye weak Disciples as so departed that ye shall see him no more if he be gone yet he is not lost those Heavens that received him shall restore him neither can those Blessed Mansions decrease his Glory Ye have seen him ascend upon the Chariot of a bright Cloud and in the clouds of Heaven ye shall see him descend again to his last Judgement He is gone can it trouble you to know you have an Advocate in Heaven Strive not now so much to exercise your bodily eyes in looking after him as the eyes of your Souls in looking for him Ye cannot O ye Blessed Spirits wish other then well to mankind How happy a diversion of eyes and thoughts is this that you advise If it be our sorrow to part with our Saviour yet to part with him into Heaven it is our comfort
Preacher and hath since called his Preachers Angels The message is well suited An Angel comes to a Virgin Gabriel to Mary He that was by signification the strength of God to her that was by signification exalted by God to the conceiving of him that was the God of strength to a Maid but espoused a Maid for the honour of Virginity espoused for the honour of Marriage The marriage was in a sort made not consummate through the instinct of him that meant to make her not an example but a miracle of women In this whole work God would have nothing ordinary It was fit that she should be a married Virgin which should be a Virgin mother He that meant to take mans nature without mans corruption would be the Son of man without mans seed would be the seed of the woman without man and amongst all women of a pure Virgin but amongst Virgins of one espoused that there might be at once a Witness and a Guardian of her fruitful Virginity If the same God had not been the authour of Virginity and Marriage he had never countenanced Virginity by Marriage Whether doth this glorious Angel come to finde the Mother of him that was GOD but to obscure Galilee A part which even the Jewes themselves despised as forsaken of their priviledges Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Behold an Angel comes to that Galilee out of which no Prophet comes and the God of Prophets and Angels descends to be conceived in that Galilee out of which no Prophet ariseth He that filleth all places makes no difference of places It is the person which gives honour and priviledge to the place not the place to the person as the presence of God makes the Heaven the Heaven doth not make the honour glorious No blinde corner of Nazareth can hide the blessed Virgin from the Angel The favours of God will finde out his children wheresoever they are withdrawn It is the fashion of God to seek out the most despised on whom to bestow his honours We cannot run away as from the judgements so not from the mercies of our God The cottages of Galilee are preferred by God to the famous Palaces of Jerusalem he cares not how homely he converse with his own Why should we be transported with the outward glory of places whiles our God regards it not We are not of the Angels diet if we had not rather be with the blessed Virgin at Nazareth then with the proud Dames in the Court of Jerusalem It is a great vanity to respect any thing above goodness and to disesteem goodness for any want The Angel salutes the Virgin he prayes not to her he salutes her as a Saint he prayes not to her as a Goddess For us to salute her as he did were grosse presumption for neither are we as he was neither is she as she was If he that was a Spirit saluted her that was flesh and blood here on earth it is not for us that are flesh and blood to salute her which is a glorious Spirit in Heaven For us to pray to her in the Angels salutation were to abuse the Virgin the Angel the salutation But how gladly doe we second the Angel in the praise of her which was more ours then his How justly doe we blesse her whom the Angel pronounceth blessed How worthily is she honoured of men whom the Angel proclaimeth beloved of God O blessed Mary he cannot blesse thee he cannot honour thee too much that deifies thee not That which the Angel said of thee thou hast prophesied of thy self we believe the Angel and thee All Generations shall call thee blessed by the fruit of whose womb all Generations are blessed If Zachary were amazed with the sight of this Angel much more the Virgin That very Sex had more disadvantage of fear If it had been but a man that had come to her in that secrecie and suddenness she could not but have been troubled how much more when the shining glory of the person doubled the astonishment The troubles of holy mindes end ever in comfort Joy was the errand of the Angel and not terrour Fear as all passions disquiets the heart and makes it for the time unfit to receive the messages of God Soon hath the Angel cleared these troublesome mists of passions and sent out the beams of heavenly consolation in the remotest corner of her soul by the glad news of her Saviour How can joy but enter into her heart out of whose womb shall come salvation What room can fear finde in that breast that is assured of favour Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God Let those fear who know they are in displeasure or know not they are gracious Thine happy estate calls for confidence and that confidence for joy What should what can they fear who are favoured of him at whom the Devils tremble Not the presence of the good Angels but the temptations of the evil strike many terrors into our weaknesse we could not be dismaied with them if we did not forget our condition We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father If that Spirit O God witnesse with our spirits that we are thine how can we fear any of those spirituall wickednesses Give us assurance of thy favour and let the powers of Hell doe their worst It was no ordinary favour that the Virgin found in Heaven No mortall Creature was ever thus graced that he should take part of her nature that was the God of Nature that he which made all things should make his humane body of hers that her womb should yield that flesh which was personally united to the Godhead that she should bear him that upholds the world Loe thou shalt conceive and bear a Son and shalt call his name Jesus It is a question whether there be more wonder in the Conception or in the Fruit the Conception of the Virgin or Jesus conceived Both are marvellous but the former doth not more exceed all other wonders then the latter exceedeth it For the childe of a Virgin is the reimprovement of that power which created the world but that God should be incarnate of a Virgin was an abasement of his Majestie and an exaltation of the creature beyond all example Well was that Child worthy to make the mother blessed Here was a double Conception one in the wombe of her body the other of the soul If that were more miraculous this was more beneficiall that was her priviledge this was her happinesse If that were singular to her this is common to all his chosen There is no renewed heart wherein thou O Saviour art not formed again Blessed be thou that hast herein made us blessed For what womb can conceive thee and not partake of thee Who can partake of thee and not be happy Doubtlesse the Virgin understood the Angel as he meant of a present Conception which made her so much
by contemning worldly glories thou mightest teach us to contemn them that thou mightest sanctifie poverty to them whom thou calledst unto want that since thou which hadst the choice of all earthly conditions wouldst be born poor and despised those which must want out of necessity might not think their poverty grievous Here was neither friend to entertain nor servant to attend nor place wherein to be attended onely the poor beasts gave way to the God of all the world It is the great mysterie of Godlinesse that God was manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels but here which was the top of all wonders the very beasts might see their Maker For those spirits to see God in the flesh it was not so strange as for the brute creatures to see him which was the God of spirits He that would be led into the wildernesse amongst wilde beasts to be tempted would come into the house of beasts to be born that from the height of his divine glory his humiliation might be the greater How can we be abased low enough for thee O Saviour that hast thus neglected thy self for us That the visitation might be answerable to the homelinesse of the place attendants provision who shall come to congratulate his birth but poor shepherds The 〈◊〉 of the earth rest at home and have no summons to attend him by whom they reign God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty In an obscure time the night unto obscure men shepherds doth God manifest the light of his Son by glorious Angels It is not our meannesse O God that can exclude us from the best of thy mercies yea thus far dost thou respect persons that thou hast put down the mighty and exalted them of low degree If these shepherds had been snorting in their beds they had no more seen Angels nor heard news of their Saviour then their neighbours their vigilancy is honoured with this heavenly vision Those which are industrious in any calling are capable of further blessings whereas the idle are fit for nothing but temptation No lesse then a whole Chore of Angels are worthy to sing the hymn of Glory to God for the incarnation of his Son What joy is enough for us whose nature he took and whom he came to restore by his incarnation If we had the tongues of Angels we could not raise this note high enough to the praise of our glorious Redeemer No sooner doe the Shepherds hear the news of a Saviour then they run to Bethleem to seeke him Those that left their beds to tend their flocks leave their flocks to enquire after their Saviour No earthly thing is too dear to be forsaken for Christ If we suffer any worldly occasion to stay us from Bethleem we care more for our sheep then our souls It is not possible that a faithfull heart should heare where Christ is and not labour to the sight to the fruition of him Where art thou O Saviour but at home in thine own house in the assembly of thy Saints where art thou to be found but in thy Word and Sacraments yea there thou seekest for us if there we hast not to seek for thee we are worthy to want thee worthy that our want of thee here should make us want the presence of thy face for ever The Sages and the Star THE Shepherds and the Cratch accorded well yet even they saw nothing which they might not contemn neither was there any of those shepherds that seemed not more like a King then that King whom they came to see But oh the Divine Majesty that shined in this baseness There lies the Babe in the stable crying in the manger whom the Angels came down from heaven to proclaim whom the Sages come from the East to adore whom an heavenly Star notifies to the world that now men might see that Heaven and earth serves him that neglected himself Those lights that hang low are not far seen but those which are high placed are equally seen in the remotest distances Thy light O Saviour was no lesse then heavenly The East saw that which Bethleem might have seen oft-times those which are neerest in place are farthest off in affection Large objects when they are too close to the eye doe so overfill the sense that they are not discerned What a shame is this to Bethleem the Sages came out of the East to worship him whom that village refused The Bethleemites were Jews the wise-men Gentiles This first entertainment of Christ was a presage of the sequel The Gentiles shall come from far to adore Christ whiles the Jews reject him Those Easterlings were great searchers of the depths of Nature professed Philosophers them hath God singled out to the honour of the manifestation of Christ Humane Learning well improved makes us capable of Divine There is no Knowledge whereof God is not the Authour he would never have bestowed any gift that should lead us away from himself It is an ignorant conceit that inquiry into Nature should make men Atheous No man is so apt to see the Star of Christ as a diligent disciple of Philosophy Doubtless this light was visible 〈…〉 onely they followed it which knew it had more then Nature he 〈…〉 that is wise for his own soul If these wise men had been acquainted with all the other stars of heaven and had not seen the Star of Christ they had had but light enough to lead them into utter darkness Philosophy without this Star is but the wisp of Errour These Sages were in a mean between the Angels and the Shepherds God would in all the ranks of intelligent Creatures have some to be witnesses of his Son The Angels direct the Shepherds the Star guides the Sages The duller capacity hath the more clear and powerful helps the wisdome of our good God proportions the means unto the disposition of the persons Their Astronomy had taught them this Star was not ordinary whether in sight or in brightness or in motion The eyes of Nature might well see that some strange news was portended to the world by it but that this Star designed the birth of the Messias there needed yet another light If the Star had not besides had the commentary of a revelation from God it could have led the wise-men onely into a fruitless wonder Give them to be the offspring of Balaam yet the true prediction of that false Prophet was not enough warrant If he told them the Messias should arise as a Star out of Jacob he did not tell them that a Star should arise far from the posterity of Jacob at the birth of the Messias He that did put that Prophesie into the mouth of Balaam did also put this illumination into the heart of the Sages The Spirit of God is free to breathe where he listeth Many shall come from the East and the West to seek Christ when the Children of the Kingdome shall be shut out Even then God did not
At leastwise he will counterfeit an imitation of the Son of God Neither is it in this alone what one act ever passed the hand of God which Satan did not apishly attempt to second If we follow Christ in the outward action with contrary intentions we follow Satan in following Christ Or perhaps Satan meant to make Christ hereby weary of this weapon As we see fashions when they are taken up of the unworthy are cast off by the Great It was doubtlesse one cause why Christ afterward forbad the Devil even to confesse the Truth because his mouth was a stander But chiefly doth he this for a better colour of his Tentation He gilds over this false metall with Scripture that it may passe current Even now is Satan transformed into an Angel of Light and will seem godly for a mischief If Hypocrites make a fair shew to deceive with a glorious lustre of Holinesse we see whence they borrowed it How many thousand souls are betraied by the abuse of that Word whose use is soveraign and saving No Devil is so dangerous as the religious Devil If good meat turn to the nourishment not of Nature but of the Disease we may not forbear to feed but endeavour to purge the body of those evil humours which cause the stomach to work against it self O God thou that hast given us light give us clear and sound eyes that we may take comfort of that Light thou hast given us Thy Word is holy make our hearts so and then shall they finde that Word not more true then cordial Let not this Divine Table of thine be made a snare to our souls What can be a better act then to speak Scripture It were a wonder if Satan should do a good thing well He cites Scripture then but with mutilation and distortion it comes not out of his mouth but maimed and perverted One piece is left all misapplied Those that wrest or mangle Scripture for their own turn it is easie to see from what School they come Let us take the Word from the Author not from the Usurper David would not doubt to eat that sheep which he pulled out of the mouth of the Bear or Lion He shall give his Angels charge over thee Oh comfortable assurance of our protection God's children never goe unattended Like unto great Princes we walk ever in the midst of our guard though invisible yet true careful powerful What creatures are so glorious as the Angels of Heaven yet their Maker hath set them to serve us Our Adoption makes us at once great and safe We may be contemptible and ignominious in the eyes of the world but the Angels of God observe us the while and scorn not to wait upon us in our homeliest occasions The Sun or the Light may we keep out of our houses the Aire we cannot much lesse these Spirits that are more simple and immaterial No walls no bolts can sever them from our sides they accompany us in dungeons they goe with us into our exile How can we either fear danger or complain of solitarinesse whiles we have so unseparable so glorious Companions Is our Saviour distasted with Scripture because Satan mis-laies it in his dish Doth he not rather snatch this sword out of that impure hand beat Satan with the weapon which he abuseth It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God The Scripture is one as that God whose it is Where it carries an appearance of difficulty or inconvenience it needs no light to clear it but that which it hath in it self All doubts that may arise from it are fully answered by collation It is true that God hath taken this care and given this charge of his own he will have them kept not in their sins they may trust him they may not tempt him he meant to incourage their Faith not their Presumption To cast our selves upon any immediate Providence when means fail not is to disobey in stead of believing God We may challenge God on his Word we may not strain him beyond it we may make account of what he promised we may not subject his Promises to unjust examinations and where no need is make triall of his Power Justice Mercy by devices of our own All the Devils in Hell could not elude the force of this Divine answer and now Satan sees how vainly he tempteth Christ to tempt God Yet again for all this do I see him setting upon the Son of God Satan is not foiled when he is resisted Neither diffidence nor presumption can fasten upon Christ he shall be tried with Honour As some expert Fencer that challenges at all weapons so doth his great Enemy In vain shall we plead our skill in some if we fail in any It must be our wisedome to be prepared for all kinde of assaults as those that hold Towns and Forts do not only defend themselves from incursions but from the Cannon and the Pionier Still doth that subtil Serpent traverse his ground for an advantage The Temple is not high enough for his next Tentation he therefore carries up Christ to the top of an exceeding high Mountain All enemies in pitcht fields strive for the benefit of the Hill or River or Wind or Sun That which his servant Balac did by his instigation himself doth now immediately change places in hope of prevailing If the obscure country will not move us he tries what the Court can do if not our home the Tavern if not the field our closer As no place is left free by his malice so no place must be made prejudicial by our carelesnesse and as we should alwaies watch over our selves so then most when the opportunity carries cause of suspicion Wherefore is Christ carried up so high but for prospect If the Kingdomes of the earth and their glory were only to be presented to his imagination the Valley would have served if to the outward sense no Hill could suffice Circular bodies though small cannot be seen at once This shew was made to both divers Kingdomes lying round about Judea were represented to the eye the glory of them to the imagination Satan meant the eye could tempt the fancy no less then the fancie could tempt the will How many thousand souls have died of the wound of the eye If we do not let in sin at the window of the eye or the door of the eare it cannot enter into our hearts If there be any pomp majestie pleasure bravery in the world where should it be but in the Courts of Princes whom God hath made his Images his Deputies on earth There is soft rayment sumptuous feasts rich jewels honourable attendance glorious triumphs royal state these Satan laies out to the fairest shew But oh the craft of that old Serpent Many a care attends Greatnesse No Crown is without thorns High seats are never but uneasie All those infinite discontentments which are the shadow of earthly Soveraigntie he hides out of the way nothing may
victory Else it matters not what they were what I was O God thou whose title is I am regardest the present He befriends and honours us that saies Such ye were but ye are washed The place addes to the hainousness of the sin In the City The more publick the fact is the greater is the scandall Sin is sin though in a desart Others eyes do not make the act more vile in it self but the offence is multiplied by the number of beholders I hear no Name of either the City or the Woman she was too well known in her time How much better is it to be obscure then infamous Herein I doubt not God meant to spare the reputation of a penitent Convert He who hates not the person but the sin cares only to mention the sin not the person It is justice to prosecute the Vice it is mercy to spare the Offender How injurious a presumption is it for any man to name her whom God would have concealed and to cast this aspersion on those whom God hath noted for holiness The worst of this woman is past She was a sinner the best is to come She sought out Jesus where In the house of a Pharisee It was the most inconvenient place in the world for a noted sinner to seek Christ in No men stood so much upon the terms of their own Righteousness no men so scornfully disdained an infamous person The touch of an ordinary though honest Jew was their pollution how much more the presence of a Strumpet What a sight was a known sinner to him to whom his holiest neighbour was a sinner How doth he though a better Pharisee look awrie to see such a piece in his house whiles he dares think If this man were a Prophet he would surely know what manner of woman this is Neither could she fore-imagine lesse when she ventured to presse over the threshold of a Pharisee Yet not the known austerity of the man and her mis-welcome to the place could affright her from seeking her Saviour even there No disadvantage can defer the Penitent Soul from a speedy recourse to Christ She saies not If Jesus were in the street or in the field or in the house of some humble Publican or any where save with a Pharisee I would come to him now I will rather defer my accesse then seek him where I shall finde scorn and censure but as not fearing the frowns of that overlie Host she thrusts her self into Simon 's house to finde Jesus It is not for the distressed to be bashfull it is not for a believer to be timorous O Saviour if thy Spouse misse thee she will seek thee through the streets the blows of the watch shall not daunt her If thou be on the other side of the water a Peter will leap into the Sea and swim to thee if on the other side of the fire thy blessed Martyrs will run through those flames to thee We are not worthy of the comfort of thy presence if wheresoever we know thou art whether in prison or in exile or at the stake we do not hasten thither to injoy thee The Place was not more unfit then the Time a Pharisees house was not more unproper for a sinner then a Feast was for humiliation Tears at a Banquet are as Jigs at a Funeral There is a season for all things Musick had been more apt for a Feast then mourning The heart that hath once felt the sting of sin and the sweetness of remission hath no power to delay the expressions of what it feels and cannot be confined to terms of circumstance Whence then was this zeal of her accesse Doubtlesse she had heard from the mouth of Christ in those heavenly Sermons of his many gracious invitations of all troubled and labouring souls she had observed how he vouchsafed to come under the roofs of despised Publicans of professed enemies she had noted all the passages of his power and mercy and now deep remorse wrought upon her heart for her former viciousness The pool of her Conscience was troubled by the descending Angel and now she steps in for a cure The arrow stuck fast in her Soul which she could not shake out and now she comes to this soveraign Dittanie to expell it Had not the Spirit of God wrought upon her ere she came and wrought her to come she had never either sought or found Christ Now she comes in and findes that Saviour whom she sought she comes in but not empty-handed though debauched she was a Jewesse She could not but have heard that she ought not to appear before the Lord empty What then brings she It was not possible she could bring to Christ a better present then her own Penitent Soul yet to testifie that she brings another delicate both for the vessel and the contents A box of Alabaster a solid hard pure clear marble fit for the receit of so precious an ointment the ointment pleasant and costly a composition of many fragrant Odors not for medicine but delight The Soul that is truly touched with the sense of its own sin can think nothing too good too dear for Christ The remorsed sinner begins first with the tender of burnt-offerings and calves of a year old thence he ascends to Hecatombs thousands of rams and above that yet to ten thousand rivers of oyle and yet higher could be content to give the first-fruit of his body to expiate the sin of his Soul Any thing every thing is too small a price for peace O Saviour since we have tasted how sweet thou art lo we bring thee the daintiest and costliest perfumes of our humble Obediences yea if so much of our blood as this woman brought ointment may be usefull or pleasing to thy Name we do most chearfully consecrate it unto thee If we would not have thee think Heaven too good for us why should we stick at any earthly retribution to thee in lieu of thy great mercies Yet here I see more then the price This odoriferous persume was that wherewith she had wont to make her self pleasing to her wanton Lovers and now she comes purposely to offer it up to her Saviour As her love was turned another way from sensual to Divine so shall her Ointment also be altered in the use that which was abused to Luxury shall now be consecrated to Devotion There is no other effect in whatsoever true Conversion As we have given our members servants to iniquity to commit iniquity so shall we now give our members servants unto righteousnesse in holinesse If the dames of Israel that thought nothing more worth looking on then their own faces have spent too much time in their glasses now they shall cast in those metalls to make a Laver for the washing off their uncleannesses If I have spent the prime of my strength the strength of my wit upon my self and vanity I have bestowed my Alabaster-box amisse Oh now teach me my God and Saviour to
supplied by a rich joynture it is some allay to the grief that the hand is left full though the bed be empty This woman was not more desolate then needy Yet this poor widow gives And what gives she An offering like her self two mites or in our language two half-farthing-tokens Alas good woman who was poorer then thy self wherefore was that Corban but for the relief of such as thou who should receive if such give Thy mites were something to thee nothing to the Treasury How ill is that gift bestowed which dis-furnisheth thee and addes nothing to the common stock Some thrifty neighbour might perhaps have suggested this probable discouragement Jesus publishes and applauds her bounty He called his Disciples and said unto them Verily I say unto you this woman hath cast in more then they all Whiles the rich put in their offering I see no Disciples called it was enough that Christ noted their gifts alone but when the Widow comes with her two mites now the domesticks of Christ are summoned to assemble and taught to admire this munificence a solemn preface makes way to her praise and her Mites are made more precious then the others Talents She gave more then they all More not only in respect of the Minde of the giver but of the proportion of the gift as hers A mite to her was more then pounds to them Pounds were little to them two mites were all to her They gave out of their abundance she out of her necessity That which they gave left the heap lesse yet an heap still she gives all at once and leaves her self nothing So as she gave not more then any but more then they all God doth not so much regard what is taken out as what is left O Father of mercies thou lookest at once into the bottome of her heart and the bottome of her purse and esteemest her gift according to both As thou seest not as man so thou valuest not as man Man judgeth by the worth of the gift thou judgest by the minde of the giver and the proportion of the remainder It were wide with us if thou shouldst goe by quantities Alas what have we but mites and those of thine own lending It is the comfort of our meannesse that our affections are valued and not our presents neither hast thou said God loves a liberal giver but a chearfull If I had more O God thou shouldst have it had I lesse thou wouldst not despise it who acceptest the gift according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not Yea Lord what have I but two mites a Soul and a Body mere mites yea not so much to thine Infiniteness Oh that I could perfectly offer them up unto thee according to thine own right in them and not according to mine How graciously wouldst thou be sure to accept them how happy shall I be in thine acceptation The ambition of the two Sons of Zebedee HE who had his own time and ours in his hand foreknew and foretold the approach of his dissolution When men are near their end and ready to make their Will then is it seasonable to sue for Legacies Thus did the Mother of the two Zebedees therein well approving both her Wisedome and her Faith Wisedome in the fit choice of her opportunity Faith in taking such an opportunity The suit is half obtained that is seasonably made To have made this motion at the entry into their attendance had been absurd and had justly seemed to challenge a denial It was at the parting of the Angel that Jacob would be blessed The double spirit of Elijah is not sued for till his ascending But oh the admirable Faith of this good woman When she heard the discourse of Christs Sufferings and Death she talks of his Glory when she hears of his Crosse she speaks of his Crown If she had seen Herod come and tender his Scepter unto Christ or the Elders of the Jews come upon their knees with a submissive profer of their allegeance she might have had some reason to entertain the thoughts of a Kingdome but now whiles the sound of betraying suffering dying was in her eare to make account of and suit for a room in his Kingdome it argues a belief able to triumph over all discouragements It was nothing for the Disciples when they saw him after his conquest of death and rising from the grave to ask him Master wilt thou now restore the kingdome unto Israel but for a silly woman to look through his future Death and Passion at his Resurrection and Glory it is no lesse worthy of wonder then praise To hear a man in his best health and vigor to talk of his confidence in God and assurance of Divine favour cannot be much worth but if in extremities we can believe above hope against hope our Faith is so much more noble as our difficulties are greater Never sweeter persume arose from any altar then that which ascended from Job's dung-hill I know that my Redeemer liveth What a strange style is this that is given to this woman It had been as easie to have said the wife of Zebedee or the sister of Mary or of Joseph or as her name was plain Salome but now by an unusuall description she is styled The mother of Zebedee's children Zebedee was an obscure man she as his wife was no better the greatest honour she ever had or could have was to have two such sons as James and John these give a title to both their Parents Honour ascends as well as descends Holy Children dignifie the loyns and womb from whence they proceed no lesse then their Parents traduce honour unto them Salome might be a good wife a good huswife a good woman a good neighbour all these cannot ennoble her so much as the mother of Zebedee's children What a world of pain toyl care cost there is in the birth and education of children Their good proof requites all with advantage Next to happiness in our selves is to be happy in a gracious Issue The suit was the sons but by the mouth of their mother it was their best policy to speak by her lips Even these Fishermen had already learned craftily to fish for promotion Ambition was not so bold in them as to shew her own face the envy of the suit shall thus be avoided which could not but follow upon their personall request If it were granted they had what they would if not it was but the repulse of a womans motion which must needs be so much more pardonable because it was of a mother for her sons It is not discommendable in parents to seek the preferment of their children Why may not Abraham sue for an Ismael So it be by lawfull means in a moderate measure in due order this endeavour cannot be amisse It is the neglect of circumstances that makes these desires sinfull Oh the madnesse of those Parents that care not which way they raise an house that
place to thy love and obedience How should we have known these evils so formidable if thou hadst not in half a thought inclined to deprecate them How could we have avoided so formidable and deadly evils if thou hadst not willingly undergone them We acknowledge thine holy fear we adore thy Divine fortitude Whiles thy Minde was in this fearfull agitation it is no marvell if thy Feet were not fixed Thy place is more changed then thy thoughts One while thou walkest to thy drouzy Attendants and stirrest up their needfull vigilancy then thou returnest to thy passionate Devotions thou fallest again upon thy face If thy body be humbled down to the earth thy Soul is yet lower thy prayers are so much more vehement as thy pangs are And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground O my Saviour what an agonie am I in whiles I think of thine What pain what fear what strife what horrour was in thy Sacred breast How didst thou struggle under the weight of our sins that thou thus sweatest that thou thus bleedest All was peace with thee thou wert one with thy coeternal and coessential Father all the Angels worshipped thee all the powers of Heaven and earth awfully acknowledged thine Infiniteness It was our person that feoffed thee in this misery and torment in that thou sustainedst thy Father's wrath and our curse If eternal death be unsufferable if every sin deserve eternal death what O what was it for thy Soul in this short time of thy bitter Passion to answer those millions of eternal deaths which all the sins of all mankinde had deserved from the just hand of thy Godhead I marvell not if thou bleedest a sweat if thou sweatest blood If the moisture of that Sweat be from the Body the tincture of it is from the Soul As there never was such another Sweat so neither can there be ever such a Suffering It is no wonder if the Sweat were more then natural when the Suffering was more then humane O Saviour so willing was that precious blood of thine to be let forth for us that it was ready to prevent thy Persecutors and issued forth in those pores before thy wounds were opened by thy Tormentors O that my heart could bleed unto thee with true inward compunction for those sins of mine which are guilty of this thine Agonie and have drawn blood of thee both in the Garden and on the Cross Woe is me I had been in Hell if thou hadst not been in thine Agonie I had scorched if thou hadst not sweat Oh let me abhor my own wickednesse and admire and blesse thy Mercy But O ye blessed Spirits which came to comfort my conflicted Saviour how did ye look upon the Son of God when ye saw him labouring for life under these violent temptations with what astonishment did ye behold him bleeding whom ye adored In the Wilderness after his Duell with Satan ye came and ministred unto him and now in the Garden whiles he is in an harder combat ye appear to strengthen him O the wise and marvellous dispensation of the Almighty Whom God will afflict an Angel shall relieve the Son shall suffer the Servant shall comfort him the God of Angels droupeth the Angel of God strengthens him Blessed Jesu if as Man thou wouldst be made a little lower then the Angels how can it disparage thee to be attended and cheared up by an Angel Thine Humiliation would not disdain comfort from meaner hands How free was it for thy Father to convey seasonable consolations to thine humbled Soul by whatsoever means Behold though thy Cup shall not passe yet it shall be sweetned What if thou see not for the time thy Fathers face yet thou shalt feel his hand What could that Spirit have done without the God of Spirits O Father of Mercies thou maiest bring thine into Agonies but thou wilt never leave them there In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts shall refresh my Soul Whatsoever be the means of my supportation I know and adore the Author Peter and Malchus or Christ Apprehended WHerefore O Saviour didst thou take those three choice Disciples with thee from their fellows but that thou expectedst some comfort from their presence A seasonable word may sometimes fall from the meanest attendant and the very society of those we trust carries in it some kinde of contentment Alas what broken reeds are men Whiles thou art sweating in thine Agonie they are snorting securely Admonitions threats intreaties cannot keep their eyes open Thou tellest them of danger they will needs dream of ease and though twice rouzed as if they had purposed this neglect they carelesly sleep out thy sorrow and their own peril What help hast thou of such Followers In the mount of thy Transfiguration they slept and besides fell on their faces when they should behold thy glory and were not themselves for fear in the garden of thine Agonie they fell upon the ground for drouzinesse when they should compassionate thy sorrow and lost themselves in a stupid sleepinesse Doubtlesse even this disregard made thy prayers so much more fervent The lesse comfort we finde on earth the more we seek above Neither soughtst thou more then thou foundest Lo thou wert heard in that which thou fearedst An Angel supplies men that Spirit was vigilant whiles thy Disciples were heavy The exchange was happy No sooner is this good Angel vanished then that domestick Devil appears Judas comes up and shews himself in the head of those miscreant troups He whose too much honour it had been to be a Follower of so Blessed a Master affects now to be the leader of this wicked rabble The Sheeps fleece is now cast off the Wolf appears in his own likenesse He that would be false to his Master would be true to his Chapmen Even evil spirits keep touch with themselves The bold Traitor dare yet still mix Hypocrisie with Villany his very salutations and kisses murder O Saviour this is no news to thee All those who under a shew of Godlinesse practise impiety do still betray thee thus Thou who hadst said One of you is a Devil didst not now say Avoid Satan but Friend wherefore art thou come As yet Judas it was not too late Had there been any the least spark of Grace yet remaining in that perfidious bosome this word had fetcht thee upon thy knees All this Sunshine cannot thaw an obdurate heart The sign is given Jesus is taken Wretched Traitor why wouldst thou for this purpose be thus attended and ye foolish Priests and Elders why sent you such a band and so armed for this apprehension One messenger had been enough for a voluntary prisoner Had my Saviour been unwilling to be taken all your forces with all the Legions of Hell to help them had been too little since he was willing to be attached two were too many When he did but
God In vain shall the vassals of appetite challenge to be the servants of God Were it that the Kingdome of God did consist in eating and drinking in pampering and surfeits in chambering and wantonnesse in pranking and vanity in talk and ostentation O God how rich shouldst thou be of subjects of Saints But if it require abstinence humiliation contrition of heart subjugation of our flesh renunciation of our wills serious impositions of laboursome devotions O Lord what is become of true Christianity where shall we seek for a crucified man Look to our Tables there ye shall finde excesse and riot look to our Backs there ye shall finde proud disguises look to our Conversations there ye shall finde scurril and obscene jollity This liberty yea this licentiousnesse is that which opens the mouths of our adversaries to the censure of our reall impiety That slander which Julian could cast upon Constantine that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 led him to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delicacie to intemperance the very same do they cast upon us They tell us of their strict Lents frequent Fastings Canonical hours sharp Penances their bashfull shrists their painfull scourgings their solitary Cells their woolward and barefoot walks their hard and tedious pilgrimages whiles we they say deny nothing to back or belly fare full lie soft sit warm and make a wanton of the flesh whiles we professe to tend the spirit Brethren hear a little the words of exhortation The brags of their penal will-worship shall no whit move us All this is blown away with a Baal's Priests did more then they yet were never the holier But for our selves in the fear of God see that we do not justifie their crimination Whiles they are in one extreme placing all Religion in the out-side in Touch not taste not handle not let us not be in the other not regarding the external acts of due Humiliation It is true that it is more ease to afflict the body then to humble the Soul a dram of remorse is more then an ounce of pain O God if whippings and hair-cloaths and watchings would satisfie thy displeasure who would not sacrifice the blood of this vassall his Body to expiate the sin of his Soul who would not scrub his skin to ease his Conscience who would not freez upon an hurdle that he might not frie in hell who would not hold his eyes open to avoid an eternall unrest and torment But such sacrifices and oblations O God thou desirest not The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Yet it is as true that it is more easie to counterfeit mortification of spirit then humiliation of body there is pain in the one none in the other He that cares not therefore to pull down his body will much lesse care to humble his Soul and he that spares not to act meet and due penalties upon the Flesh gives more colour of the Souls humiliation Dear Christians it is not for us to stand upon niggardly terms with our Maker he will have both he that made both will have us crucified in both The old man doth not lie in a lim or faculty but is diffused through the whole extent of Body and Soul and must be crucified in all that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the chosen vessel I beat down my body my body as well as my spirit Give me leave ye Courtiers and Citizens Lent is wont to be a penitential time If ye have soundly and effectually thriven your selves to your God let me enjoyn you an wholsome and saving Penance for the whole year for your whole life Ye must curb your appetites ye must fast ye must stint your selves to your painfull Devotions ye must give peremptory denials to your own wills ye must put your knife to your throat in Solomon's sense Think not that ye can climb up to Heaven with full panches reaking ever of Indian smoak and the surfeits of your gluttonous crammings and quaffings Oh easie and pleasant way to Glory from our bed to our glasse from our glasse to our boord from our dinner to our pipe from our pipe to a visit from a visit to a supper from a supper to a play from a play to a banquet from a banquet to our bed Oh remember the quarrel against damned Dives He fared sumptuously every day he made neither Lents nor Embers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said every day was gaudie and festival in rich sutes in dainty morsels and full draughts Intus mulso foris oleo Wine within oyle without as he said now all the world for a drop and it is too little Vae saturis woc to the full saith our Saviour but even Nature it self could abominate bis de die saturum one that is full twice a day One of the sins of our Sodom is fulnesse of bread What is the remedy It is an old word that Hunger cures the diseases of Gluttony Oh that my words could prevail so far with you Honourable and beloved Christians as to bring austere abstinence and sober moderation into fashion The Court and City have led the way to excesse your example shall prescribe yea administer the remedy The Heathen man could say He is not worthy of the name of a man that would be a whole day in pleasure what and we alwaies In fasting often saith S. Paul what and we never I fast twice a week saith the Pharisee and we Christians when I speak not of Popish mock-fasts in change not in forbearance in change of courser cates of the land for the curious dainties of the water of the flesh of beasts for the flesh of fish of untoothsome morsels for sorbitiunculoe delicatoe as Hierome calls them Let me never feast if this be fasting I speak of a true and serious maceration of our bodies by an absolute and totall refraining from sustenance which howsoever in it self it be not an act pleasing unto God for well may I invert Saint Paul neither if we eat not are we the better neither if we eat are we the worse 1 Cor. 8. 8. yet in the effect it is singulare Sanctitatis aratrum as that Father terms it The plow bears no Corn but it makes way for it it opens the soil it tears up the briers and turns up the furrows Thus doth holy Abstinence it chastises the flesh it lightens the spirit it disheartens our vitious dispositions it quickens our Devotion Away with all factious Combinations Every man is master of his own maw Fast at home and spare not leave publick exercises of this kinde to the command of Soveraign powers Blow the trumpet in Zion sanctifie a Fast saith Joel 2. 15. Surely this trumpet is for none but Royal breath And now that what I meant for a suit may be turned to a just gratulation how do we blesse the God of Heaven that hath put it into the heart of his Anointed to set this
but dead in sin Colos 2. 13. yea with Lazarus quatriduani and ill-senting yea if that will adde any thing as St. Jude's trees or as they say of acute Scotus twice dead Would ye arise It is only Godliness that can doe it Ye are risen up through the faith in the operation of God Col. 2. 12. This only can call us out of the grave of our sins Arise thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and christ shall give thee life Christ is the Author Godliness is the means All ye that hear me this day either ye are alive or would be Life is sweet every one challenges it Do ye live willingly in your sins Let me tell you ye are dead in your sins This life is a death If you wish to live comfortably here and gloriously hereafter it is Godliness that must mortifie this life in sin that must quicken you from this death in sin Flatter your selves how you please ye great Gallants of both Sexes ye think your selves goodly pieces without Godliness ye are the worst kinde of carkasses for as death or not-being is the worst condition that can befall a creature so death in sin is so much the worst kind of death by how much Grace is better then Nature A living Dog or Toad is better then a thus-dead sinner Would ye rise out of this loathsome and woful plight it is Godliness that must breath Grace into your dead lims and that must give you the motions of holy Obedience Is it not a wonder to cast out Devils I tell you the corporal possession of ill spirits is not so rare as the spiritual is rise No natural man is free One hath the spirit of errour 1 Tim. 4. 1. another the spirit of fornications Ose 4. 12. another the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. another the spirit of slumber another the spirit of giddiness another the spirit of pride all have spiritum mundi the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2. 12. Our story in Guliel Neubrigensis tells us of a Countryman of ours one Kettle of Farnham in King Henry the Second's time that had the faculty to see spirits by the same token that he saw the Devils spitting over the Drunkards shoulders into their pots the same faculty is recorded of Antony the Eremite and Sulpitius reports the same of Saint Martin Surely there need none of these eyes to discern every natural mans Soul haunted with these evil Angels Let me assure you all ye that have not yet felt the power of Godliness ye are as truely though spiritually carried by evil spirits into the deeps of your known wickedness as ever the Gadarene hogs were carried by them down the precipice into the Sea Would you be free from this hellish tyranny only the power of Godliness can doe it 2 Tim. 2. 26 27. Is peradventure God will give them repentance that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the Devil and Repentance is you know a main part of Godliness If ever therefore ye be dispossessed of that Evil one it is the power of Godliness that must doe it What speak I of power I had like to have ascribed to it the acts of Omnipotencie And if I had done so it had not been much amiss for what is Godliness but one of those rayes that beams forth from that Almighty Deity what but that same Dextra Excelsi whereby he works mightily upon the Soul Now when I say the man is strong is it any derogation to say his arme is strong Faith and Prayer are no small pieces of Godliness and what is it that God can doe which Prayer and Faith cannot doe Will ye see some instances of the further acts of Godliness Is it not an act of Omnipotence to change Nature Jannes and Jambres the Aegyptian Sorcerers may juggle away the Staffe and bring a Serpent into the room of it none but a Divine power which Moses wrought by could change the Rod into a Serpent or the Serpent into a Rod. Nothing is above Nature but the God of Nature nothing can change Nature but that which is above it for Nature is regular in her proceedings and will not be crost by a finite power since all finite Agents are within her command Is it not a manifest change of the nature of the Wolf to dwell quietly with the Lamb of the Leopard to dwell with the Kid of the Lion to eat straw with the Oxe of the Aspe to play with the child How shall this be It is an idle conceit of the Hebrews that savage beasts shall forgo their hurtful natures under the Messias No but rational beasts shall alter their dispositions The ravenous Oppressor is the Wolf the tyrannical Persecutor is the Leopard the venemous Heretick is the Aspe these shall turn innocent and useful by the power of Godliness for then the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord Esay 11. 6 c. Is it not a manifest change of nature for the Ethiopian to turn white for the Leopard to turn spotless This is done when those doe good which are accustomed to evil Jer. 13. 23. And this Godliness can doe Is it not a manifest change of nature for the Camel to pass through a needles eye this is done when through the power of Godliness ye Great and rich men get to Heaven Lastly it is an easie thing to turn men into beasts a cup too much can doe it but to turn beasts into men men into Saints Devils into Angels it is no less then a work of Omnipotencie And this Godliness can doe But to rise higher then a change Is it not an act of Omnipotencie to create Nature can go on in her track whether of continuing what she actually finds to be or of producing what she finds to be potentially in pre-existing Causes but to make new matter transcends her power This Godliness can doe here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. There is in Nature no predisposition to Grace the man must be no less new then when he was made first of the dust of the earth and that earth of nothing Novus homo Eph. 4. 24. How is this done by Creation and how is he created in righteousness and holiness Holiness to God Righteousness to men both make up Godliness A Regeneration is here a Creation Progenuit is expressed by Creavit Jam. 1. 18. and this by the word of truth Old things are passed saith the Apostle all must be new If we will have ought to doe with God our bodies must be renewed by a glorious Resurrection ere they can enjoy Heaven our Souls must be renewed by Grace ere we can enjoy God on earth Are there any of us pained with our heart of stone We may be well enough the stone of the reines or bladder is a woful pain but the stone of the heart is more deadly He can by this power take it out and give us an
make us to appear in the sight of God The Toad or the Serpent are lovely objects to us in comparison of these disguises to the pure eyes of the Almighty yea so perfectly doth God hate them that he professes those hate him that like them Whosoever will be a friend to the world is an enemy to God Jam. 4. 4. Oh then if we love our Souls let us hate those fashions that may draw us into the detestation of the Almighty for our God is a consuming fire Besides misbeseeming it is a just plea against any Fashion that it is painfull For though there be some Pain allowed in all Pride yet too much we indure not and behold these Fashions shall pinch and torture us to death to an everlasting death of body and Soul The ill guest in the Parable was thus clad Mat. 22. 12. the King abhorres his suit and after expostulation gives the sentence Binde him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Oh fear and tremble at the exspectation of this dreadfull doom all ye that will needs be in the fashion of the world If ye be so foolish as to flatter your selves here in the conceit of your Liberty there shall be binding in the conceit of a lightsome and resplendent Magnificence there shall be darknesse in the conceit of Pleasure and Contentment there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Lastly commonnesse and age are the usuall disparagements of Fashions The best may not goe like every body where a Fashion is taken up of the basest it is disdained of the eminent Behold these are the fashions if not of all I am sure of the worst the very scum of the world is thus habited Let us that are Christians in an holy pride scorn to be suited like them As common so old fashions are in disgrace That man would be shouted at that should come forth in his great-grandfires suit though not rent not discoloured Behold these are the overworn and misshapen rags of the old man Away with them to the frippery of darknesse yea to the brokery of Hell Let us be for a change Old things are passed all things are become new As we look to have these bodies once changed from vile to glorious so let us now change the fashions of our bodies and Souls from corrupt and worldly to spirituall and heavenly and loathing all these misbelieving painfull common old fashions of the world let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ that being clad with the robes of his Righteousnesse here we may be cloathed upon with the robes of his Glory in the highest Heavens Amen THE ESTATE OF A CHRISTIAN Laid forth In a SERMON preached at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By Jos. HALL Rom. 12. 2. But be ye changed or transformed by the renewing of your minds c. THE true method of Christian practice is first destructive then astructive according to the Prophet Cease to doe evil learn to doe good This our Apostle observes who first unteacheth us ill fashions and then teacheth good We have done with the negative duty of a Christian what he must not doe hear now the affirmative what he must doe wherein our speech treading in the steps of the blessed Apostle shall passe through these four heads First that here must be a change secondly that this change must be by transformation thirdly that this transformation must be by renewing fourthly that this renewing must be of the minde But be ye changed or transformed by the renewing of your minds All of them points of high and singular importance and such as do therefore call for your best and carefullest attention Nothing is more changing then the fashion of the world Mundus transit The world passeth away saith S. John Yet here that we may not fashion our selves to the world we must be changed we must be changed from these changeable fashions of the world to a constant estate of Regeneration As there must be once a perfect change of this mortall to immortality so must there be onwards of this sinfull to gracious and as holy Job resolves to wait all the daies of his appointed time for that changing so this change contrarily waits for us and may not be put off one day What creature is there wherein God will not have a change They needed not as he made them nothing could fall from him but good we marr'd them and therefore they both are changed and must be Even of the very Heavens themselves it is said As a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed how much more these sublunary bodies that are never themselves We know the Elements are in a perpetual transmutation so are those bodies that are compounded of them as he said of the River we cannot step down twice into the same stream And every seven years as Philosophy hath observed our bodies are quite changed from what they were And as there is a natural change in our favours colour complexion temper so there is no lesse voluntary change in our diets in our dispositions in our delights With what scorn do we now look upon the Top which our Childhood was fond on how do we either smile or blush in our mature age to think of the humours and actions of our youth How much more must the depravedness of our spiritual condition call for a change It is a rule in Policy Not to alter a well-setled evil I am sure it holds not in the Oeconomy of the Soul wherein length of prescription pleads rather for a speedy removal no time can prejudice the King of Heaven In some cases indeed change is a sign of a weak unsetledness It is not for a wise man like Shel-fish to rise or fall with the Moon rather like unto the Heaven he must learn to move and be constant It was a good word of Basil to the Governour Utinam sempiterna sit hoec mea desipientia Let me dote thus alw aies It was not for nothing that Socrates had the reputation of Wisdome that famous Shrew of his Xantippe could say she never but saw him return with the countenance that he went out with Give me a man that in the changes of all conditions can frame himself to be like an Auditors counter and can stand either for a thousand or an hundred or if need be for one this man comes nearest to him in whom there is no shadow of turning But in case of present ill there can be no safety but in change I cannot blame the Angels and Saints in Heaven that they would not change I blesse them that they cannot because they are not capable of better and every motion is out of a kind of need I cannot wonder at the damned spirits that they would be any thing but what they are We that are naturally in the way to that damnation have reason to desire a change worse we cannot be upon