we are lead to place and persons of a little better condition to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night from the shepherds by a manifest ascent to the Apparition of an Angel the Angel of the Lord from one Angel to a multitude which is much better a multitude of the heavenly Host from that noble Army to him who is greater than all the Angels a Saviour which is Christ the Lord And lastly from that Saviour on earth to his most excellent dominion in heaven Gloria in excelsis glory be to God on high And as in our Church Service we do or should shut up every Psalm with that devout Doxology Glory be to the Father c. as if that were it which gave every Psalm his tune and relish so glory be to God on high is a verse which may most fitly be said or sung to every circumstance which belongs to the birth of Christ He was laid in a Manger glory be to God on high for that humility proclaimed by Angels glory be to God on high for their attendance and ministry manifested to Shepherds glory be to God on high for instructing their simplicity finally to comfort our hearts that night and darkness are dispelled a glorious beam of light made the earth glister where they stood and therefore glory be to God on high for the comfort of that heavenly illumination and glory The Text which I have read unto you contains those particulars which are most natural to heaven and most proper to earth things most truly celestial are Angels and Light and glory all these did joyn together to solemnize this great Nativity when tidings came unto the Shepherds and that which properly savours of earth is fear especially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great fear and shepherds not able suddenly to entertain heavenly visions were sore afraid If you will fully know how and in what triumphant manner these tidings were declared from heaven and withal with what astonishment they did possess the earth lend me your attention to these four parts in general 1. Here is Gods Minister imployed to divulge the Incarnation Loe the Angel of the Lord. 2. The pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him the glory of the Lord did shine round about 3. Here are the persons though I have spoke largely of them heretofore I say the persons honoured both with that messenger and that solemnity the Angel came to them the glory shone round about them they were Shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night 4. How this Angel and that shining glory did affect these poor men they were sore afraid And for your parts dearly beloved so prepare your souls so to meditate upon Christs Birth that when you promise your selves after your dissolution the joy of Angels and glory shining round about you remember to temper presumption with the Shepherds fear and reverence and again when weakness and little faith are sore afraid be mindful that Christ was born to bring us to that light which knows no darkness and to everlasting glory So knit them into your heart as they are most divinely woven into my Text And loe the Angel of the Lord came upon them c. And first be ready to hear how Gods Mnister was employed to divulge the Incarnation Loe the Angel of the Lord came upon them touching whose Apparition five interrogatories must be answered Quis what Angel this was of all the heavenly Hierarchy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it should seem one of conspicuous glory the Angel of the Lord. 2. Quando when he came I believe instantly after Mary was delivered Ecce loe he came that note demonstrative expresseth the celerity 3. Quomodo the true substance of an Angel is not visible and apparitive to men he came in some fashion altered from himself ecce it was wonderful loe an Angel 4. Quo situ how he did apply himself to the Shepherd de coelo supervenit says one Translation he stood above them astitit juxta illos says another he stood near unto them we say he came upon them 5. Quare why men were not accepted to do this office to manifest the Birth of Jesus but loe an Angel of the Lord. 1. Quis and who was this Angel of all the heavenly Hierarchy modest ignorance is better than presumptuous knowledge doubtless the Holy Spirit had given him his Name in this place if it had concerned our edification yet he was no novice but St. Cyprian himself that ventured to call him Gabriel Veniunt in Bethlehem quam praedixit Gabriel invenitur Emanuel that is the Shepherds came to Bethlehem as Gabriel had taught them and there they found Emanuel who is God with us Surely so Divine a Father would not bolt out without a mark to aim at and I discern some colour for that conjecture out of a Grammatical Article Zachary was visited by a messenger from heaven as he was doing his office in the Temple Luke 1.11 There appeared unto him an Angel of the Lord but verse 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel Gabriel was sent to the Blessed Virgin in the City of Nazareth and as if he were to be known from that holy Spirit who came to Zachary by this emphatical Article being once named Gabriel from thenceforth he is spoken of according to his office the Angel of the Lord. Surely he was one of the most glorious attendants of heaven one of those principal Seraphins that stand always before the throne of God the business about which he came was of the highest nature that ever was sent from Heaven to Earth and therefore who should undertake it but as great a creature as the Heaven and Earth afforded But the School Doctors say otherwise who build upon the groundless curiosities of their adulterate Dionysius list to their speculation forsooth that Cherubins and Seraphins Thrones Principalities and Dominions are vertues of the highest rank and order always resident in the Orbs of Heaven never giving attendance to the Militant Church beneath But that commonly stiled Archangels and Angels in which degrees they place this Gabriel they have intercourse and messages as God appoints them to the world below A brave president if you mark it for their lazie Cardinal Prelates that the active Angels such as proclaim and preach Christ should be the underlings to the rest and to pretend that there are others of no such troublesome office and employment that are the superiour principalities Well as it is probable with St. Cyprian to say this welcome Messenger was Gabriel so it is more probable to hold against Dionysius his conjectures that this glorious Herauld who came to publish a Saviour to the world was one of the mightiest and chief of the Cherubins loe the Angel of the Lord. 1. The next interrogatory is quando at what time and season the Angel came Ecce venit surely he made no stay but came with great expedition after Christ was born if it were not in the same
David What 's this inclination of the ear we cannot bow or stir that part as we may the hand and the knee Aures hominum sunt immotae ut sit velox ad audiendum says one the ears of man are not to be wagg'd and mov'd like the ears of a beast to the end there may be no impediment in attention but that he may be swift to hear But he is said to incline his ear who hath a submissive heart and listens diligently to that which is spoken If a frivolous tale suppose the feigned pilgrimage of some Errant Knight be told us every syllable shall be markt so heedily that you will be able to repeat it Conticuere omnes intentique ora tenebant But if God do send his servants to narrate his will and pleasure how many disturbances shall they find in their relation of heavenly things Sarah laught at the Angel Pharoah chafed and interrupted Moses the Jews mis-interpreted Christ himself Gallio marks not a word that 's said Eutyches sleeps the Athenians flout at Paul and say what means this babler who will take the pains to tell a message any more to him that will abuse it so neglectfully and if God should take away the preaching of his word from this people let them thank themselves who were so defective in all due and reverent attention But says John the Baptist The Friend of the Bridegroom standeth and heareth him and rejoyceth greatly because of the Bridegrooms voice John iii. 29. And so much for this word behold as it is a note of admiration of demonstration and lastly of attention Behold I bring c. Now the first of seven things which are remarkable in the message is that which hath met us often before in all the Texts upon this Gospel the consideration of the person that the Angel is sent unto us upon a peaceable entreaty Ecce ego Behold I bring you good tidings The children of men have so often provoked God to send Angels with a sword of vengeance to the earth that no doubt Gabriel was pleased to bring a welcome message with him A messenger cannot help it if he come with sorrowful news and yet for the most part men will be displeased at such a one whose tongue doth bode discomfort and infelicity Joab did tender the welfare of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok when he would not let him be the first that should certifie David how Absalom was dead says he Thou shalt bear tidings another day but this day thou shalt bear no tidings because the Kings Son is dead Therefore if you mark it Angels that came to inflict punishment or to threaten some ensuing mischief came single for the most part or never above two at once but to do a good office to men upon earth to protect Elisha from the Aramites to annuntiate that the Messias was come into the world they came by troops and multitudes no less in this chapter then a multitude of the heavenly host There were three with Abraham in his tent to tell him that Isaac the son of promise should be born unto him of Sarah in their old age and we cannot but take notice how one of the three vanisht and was gone when they went into Lot's house to warn him that Sodom should be destroyed with fire and brimstone How far are they from this Angelical benevolence that gird other men with the remembrance of their misfortunes and insult over their miseries as Shimei us'd David in his affliction a curse will fall upon them that love to be instruments to undo men rather than to raise them up that delight in the crosses of their brother rather than in their consolation Miserable comforters as Job said of his Friends that powred vinegar into his wounds to vex them not to heal them But these holy ones that are sent from above delight to be the Embassadors of joy the first of them all that I read of in holy Scripture came to administer help and succor to the distressed and that was the Angel that came to Hagar to chear up her drooping spirits and to put her into the way of safety when she and Ishmael the child were almost ready to perish And now one of them comes in my Text with good news to shew that a perfect friendship was made up between all parties in this verse between Angels and Men for Ego Evangelizo I come to rejoyce with you as a friend I bring you good news 2. A friendship between God and man for a Saviour is born unto you which is Christ the Lord. 3. Friendship and amity between man and man between Kingdom and Kingdom between one Nation and another people at the 14. verse On earth peace and good will towards men Yet when our sins cry out for vengeance this truce is broke of all sides The sword of our enemies shall be unsheath'd and all peace shall be dissolv'd between man and man our Saviour shall become our angry Judge neither shall the blessing descend from God to Man Lastly the Angel shall draw his sword and cause the pestilence to cut down thousands upon thousands as the Mower shears down the grass of the field I am sure the fury of such an angry Angel sticks still in our remembrance Therefore let every man for his part keep fast the bond of his tripartite friendship by sanctification and obedience then the Angels will come unto us not in fury but in mercy saying Ecce ego c. I proceed to the next circumstance Ecce Evangelizo we render it to bring good tidings but it is as if he had said I come to be an Evangelist I am no Law-giver whose voice was terrible I am a messenger of a better Covenant of the Gospel of Grace At this Text beloved the Spirit of God doth enter the word Gospel or Evangel quite to alter the state of the Church from what it had been before For the better understanding hereof I pray you mark it attentively in what manner God did dispence his will and pleasure to his Church from the beginning of the world to the end of all times And for order sake I will reduce it all to three heads to a Law which was given by God to Adam to a Law which was given by Moses to Israel and to these glad tidings to wit the Gospel of the New Testament which was given by Christ to all Nations from one end of the earth to the other 1. Now I buckle to the first of these a Law was given by God to Adam That Law was short and commandatory fac vive do this and live therefore that is rightly called the Law of Works but the Gospel says if thou believest thou shalt be saved therefore that 's called the Law of Faith The same God was the author of both these both were revealed to men and to no other creature both of them according as we perform them promise the same reward both of them have
appointed by the best of Reformed Churches I mean this of England God be glorified for his grace towards us We do not urge them so peremptorily as to say thus it is necessary to be a Christian but thus it becometh us to serve the Lord and that which is decent in Gods house I say again will ever prevail with tractable and godly dispositions You cannot hear or meditate too much upon that of St. Paul Phil. iv 8. Whatsoever things are just or venerable whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report and let me add whatsoever things become us these things do and the God of peace shall be with you Amen THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 15 16. Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water AT these words John Baptist hath changed his mind you may perceive but not his humility It was his perswasion that it could not behove him to minister the Sacrament to his Saviour But since Christ would have his hand to do that duty he puts himself upon the office and performs it Whether did he refuse at first or come on at last with greater humility Nay the further we go in the actions of the Saints of God they will manifest unto us that they are better and better For is it not more lowliness to obey when he was taught a reason for it than to tremble and to start back at the presence of Christ because he was confounded at his coming to Baptism and was not taught a reason Every vertue is so much the better rooted when it knows the true cause of its own rectitude In this John said very well at verse 14. which I have handled lately I have need to be baptized of thee Though he were a most bright vessel of honour yet he did feel a defect in himself how far he wanted the grace of God to open his eyes a little clearer and his desire was secretly fulfilled the spirit of illumination did slide into his heart and made him to understand about what work of ignominy our Saviour came into the world and would begin from hence to do after the custom of a despicable sinner O glorious God that at the same instant did baptize him of whom he was baptized Quomodo creavit Mariam creatus est à Mariâ sic dedit baptismum Johanni baptizatus est à Johanne As he made the Virgin Mary his mother and was made man of the substance of the Virgin even so he baptized John with the Spirit and was baptized of John in water Nothing was ever done in the Church which was eminently noble and eximious but with an opinion that a Spirit from heaven was sent to reveal it So in old Legends they report that the Angels of God did whisper divine Oracles into St. Ambrose that Doves were sent from heaven to infuse holy wisdom into Basil and Gregory that the soul of Paul was sent to gild over the Writings of Chrysostom with Eloquence nil sine numine So the Spirit before he appeared in a bodily shape upon our Saviour entred by his invisible power into the heart of this great Prophet and he that before denied to baptize his Master because he was humble is now ready to baptize him because he is more humble for after Christ had spoken Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized c. That which is here described in the Baptism of our Saviour comprehends three things 1. As the Naturallists call it here is removens prohibens that which did prohibit the effect is removed away John resists no more Then he suffered him 2. Here is the effect it self Jesus was baptized 3. That this beginning was but a preparatory to greater matters which should follow therefore he went up straightway out of the water First I must insist upon this consideration that the obstacle of Johns doubting is taken away then he suffred him The woman of Samaria because she knew not our Saviour gave him no water to drink John Baptist because he knew him to be God immortal gave him no water to be baptized An ignorance very inoffensive was in them both and so they were easily corrected with a word for they that wander for want of knowledge and not for want of obedience are easily brought into the way when they are taught the truth Moses did soon put off his shooes when he knew the place whereon he stood was holy ground Mary Magdalen took our Saviour for the Gardener when he was risen from the dead but she fell presently at his feet and worshipt him when she knew it was the Lord. Peter did demur and hesitate what to do when the sheet was let down before him with all manner of four footed beasts but straightway learnt that nothing was common or polluted which the Lord had cleansed John was loth to take the honour upon him to pour water upon our Saviours head but you see he need not be bidden twice when the Lord commanded he did wisely consider what was injoyned him by the divine authority rather than what did become his own unworthiness and did as he was bidden without any more repugnancy Vera est humilitas quam non deserit comes obedientia So I think St. Austin there dwells an humble mind you may be sure which is associated with tractable obedience Aristotle falling into the praise of that sententious judgment which in some men is very exhortative that weaker capacities should hearken to such mens opinions without any manner of contradiction for their eye is fixt upon a true ground and principle for whatsoever they deliver therefore where age and experience and prudence meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you ought to submit to their bare dictates and sayings no less than if they were the most forcible demonstrations This was most wholsom counsel for the ignorant for they will learn more a thousand times by believing their Teachers than by framing their wit to a captious inquisitive course admitting nothing for good unless their own line can fathom it John Baptist was a right Scholar to make a good proficient whose reason was confounded and knew not what Christ did mean yet because it was his Masters will he was obsequious against the grain of his own reason Then he suffered him The praise which S. Chrysostom gives to this holy man is thus in a negative expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he yielded quickly he was not immoderately contentious for the Holy Spirit makes us mild and apt to consent the adverse Spirit makes us unquiet and vexatious to our neighbours As God describes the refractory Israelites who did ever resist their Prophets Isa xlviii 4. I know that thou art obstinate and thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow is brass This obstinacy you see in the Prophets phrase is a sign of an iron age and I pray God we be not
this lower Region God hath committed the Children to the nurture of the Parents the Woman to the safeguard of her Husband the Subject injured to the justice of the Magistrate the Sick and Impotent to the refection of them that are whole the Poor and Naked to the liberality of the Rich. Every weak and distressed is appointed his Protector by Gods Ordinance that is strong and whole and that Patron that looks not to those poor Clients with whom he stands incharged let him take heed that himself wants not a Patron when he looks for Christ to be his Advocate But when a whole Nation of true Believers nay when a whole world of Christians have been persecuted all at once Who looks to that God And will give them the wages of wicked Servants that should have been nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his precious Portion and yet had their chief hand in the Tragedy against it And because the whole earth sometimes fails of their duty towards the Church therefore the Lord hath his Angels in store as the last and infallible refuge that the less we are beholding to the Earth we may acknowledge our selves the more beholding to Heaven If Davids bowels earned for a rebellious Son and gave all the Captains charge Deal gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalon Verily the Lord will put his Ministers upon that good Office to be a Wall of protection to his obedient Sons Aut eripient periculum aut eripient animam Either they will take your afflictions from you or take you from your afflictions The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and will deliver them And though the Devil meant nothing less than truth in his Sermon since he would needs preach let us lay hold of this for a true ground that the good Angels are very certain to keep their charge as they are commanded they are like the diligent Souldiers under the Centurions authority He says unto one go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh But their charge is set and appointed them it is not in their own free choice to lend their assistance where they please So the Schoolmen draw many questions to this Principle Non sunt liber â potestate praediti sed ministri ad nutum Domini The reason is twofold First All things must be done in order and without direction and appointment whom the Hosts of heaven should guard how far and at what time the Discipline would be altogether confused in that heavenly custody Secondly The knowledge of those blessed Spirits is finite they are not present at all our troubles which we suffer on earth they being far remote in heaven they know not the groanings of the heart it is out of their Sphere to apprehend what succour is needful for Infants that cannot moan themselves that cannot ask it of all these things they must be made acquainted and then their Province is allotted unto them by the especial Commission of God Wherefore as they are given by nature and grace to love Mankind so by a special Mandate and charge they are bound unto it Peter imputes his deliverance out of Prison to the Angels Ministry but principally to the Lords word and authority he doth not say that the Angel pull'd him out of danger of his own motion but now know I that the Lord hath sent his Angel and hath delivered me from the hand of Herod and from the expectation of all the people Acts xii 11. It was a good speech of Jonathans 1 Sam. xiv 6. There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few Had he but added one thing more the speech had been complete and full of faith there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few or by none at all Then to what use serves the Auxiliary custody of Angels when the strength of all protection is in God alone without the subordinate performance of any Creature To dissolve this Question into many Answers First They that say their Creed and understand it that God is the Father Almighty and have the Theorie that his vertue by it self is all-sufficient yet when it comes to the experience and practice they will boggle and be much unconfident of their own security if some powers which are ordained of God and more familiar to us than his infinite Essence be not promised to relieve us in the day of our Visitation Israel had great cause to have strong affiance in him that had brought them out of the Land of Egypt yet a weak Plant had need of a Prop to be bound unto it and therefore their Charter was thus enlarged Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared Exod. xxiii 20. This was ex abundanti somewhat given above that which needed for the rudeness and infirmity of our faith Secondly The Ministry of those blessed Spirits is used here below not for the defect of the supreme power but to shew his Majesty and Dignity as earthly Princes have their Stipatores some bands of Noble Gentlemen to stand about their Person rather for Pomp than necessity Yet it begets obsequiousness and awe unto their Majesty Pavorinus a man of rare skill in Learning whensoever Hadrian the Emperour discoursed with him condescended in all things to let the Emperour overmatch him and when his friends thought it too much obsequiousness Favorinus thus excused himself I will permit him to be more learned that hath thirty Legions of Souldiers under his command So the imployment of that heavenly Host lends no assistance to God but proclaims him that hath so many terrible Ministers to command to be most dreadful and glorious and who is able to stand before his Host Thirdly The Angels and Saints shall make up one Triumphant Church in heaven the whole body of things in heaven and things on earth being gathered under Christ the head therefore they are knit together in these good Offices of defence and guardianship as a taste of that unity which shall be complete hereafter And indeed it is through Christ that these parts are recollected together which were disjoyned before It pleased the Father to reconcile all things unto himself in him whether they were things in heaven or things in earth He is that Ladder upon which Jacob saw Angels ascend and descend and so Christ speaking of that reconciliation which he had wrought told the High Priests Hereafter ye shall see the heavens open and Angels ascending and descending Fourthly Aquinas doth thus excogitate There are two ways wherein man stands in need of help to have grace infused into him and to be guided and assisted in perfecting that which is good Deus immediate hominem inclinat ad bonum infundendo ei gratiam God only and immediately doth infuse supernatural grace into the heart Sed inveniendae sunt
of them that gaze upon Passengers and would quickly reason upon it what make these abroad that they cross the streets so often It was more infamous with them of the East than it is with us for women to gad openly from place to place The married woman is described in Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 treading upon a Tortoise as an emblem that it was good for her to stay at home and to carry her house upon her back But these holy Matrons had a clear conscience in them that it could be no blemish to their honour to lackey up and down in so good an occasion and upon the Errand of an Angel If uncharitable persons censured them God forgive them still they went on Nay whereas undoubtedly all will say that a sober gate without much acceleration doth best become that Sex and especially in publick yet no pace would serve them but a gallop In the verse immediately before my Text they did run to bring his Disciples word The Heathen paint Mercury with wings at his heels The Messenger of good tidings should make haste Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia God loves quick dispatch in his business When we are suspensive and long about that which is good we lose the thanks that he would give us that which is done sincerely is never done slackly Therefore Jesus met the women not as they went but as they ran to tell his Disciples Says the Text moreover as they went to tell his Disciples therefore some had put an Errand into their mouth Even so for it was an Angel that gave them direction what to say to our Saviours Disciples I take not upon me to guess at the reason of the secret Counsels of God but a cause there must be for it and a great one that the Angels of heaven appeared above once this day to the Women and talked with them of Christs Resurrection And they might have told the same news to the Apostles yet they did not but sent the women in their stead What! Would not one Angel visit them in his own person Is it upon dislike Because they fled away from their Master in the Garden Or is it a trial upon their big spirit who frequently contended among themselves which of them should be the greater whether they would not disdain that women should exceed them in Visions and Revelations For many times Superiours cannot disgest it that such as are under them should exceed them in the grace of God But many times he regards the low estate of his Handmaids when the Rich are sent empty away The Pillars of the Church the Apostles are admitted to hear what these women saw at the Sepulchre that adventured boldly abroad But no such glorious Creatures came to them who were shut up for fear at home And for my part I think this was it which did cross the credit of their Message The Women told the Disciples all that hapned it may be confusedly with distemper of fear and joy but they told them the truth And their words seemed to them as tales Luk. xxiv 11. For thus they would collect in all likelihood upon the merit and dignity of their Apostleship It cannot be that the Angels would appear to such as these and baulk us this is but a Tale. Those Messengers of God would come to us in the first place to us the Servants of the beloved Master and not to the Women But God sees not as man sees The Spirits of light came to these humble Handmaids and taught them And afterward by the Orgain of their mouth the Apostles were edified that taught all the World The Gospel is not ashamed of this innocency and simplicity ask us from whom our principal Doctors were first instructed and we answer roundly from a few silly women that the power of salvation may appear to descend not from Learning and humane Wisdom but from the demonstration of the Spirit of God And this was a project to out-reach the providence of Pilate and the wary consultations of all the High Priests The Sepulchre was obstructed with a great stone and as Nicephorus says that a strong Hoop of Iron fastned it to the contiguous stones of the Monument sealed also with the Governours Seal that it might be a capitol crime to burst it open And such crafty heads would not omit to set Spies upon the Apostles that they durst not look abroad as if the business were as safe as they could wish if they were prevented from divulging rumours that Christ was risen from the dead See therefore how their subtilty was out-stript God selected Witnesses whom they scorned and disdein'd certain Women are inspired to go and tell his Disciples St. Paul expresseth this mystery in his own case 2 Tim ii 9. Though I suffer unto bonds yet the word of God is not bound To which word says St. Chrysostom if our warfare were carnal if we were Souldiers that fought for the inheritance and glory of this world our attempts were restrained when our hands were tied with Chains But fighting the battels of Christ a Prison is no impediment our tongue shall declare the glory of God nothing can bind it but fear or infidelity Tie up the hands of the Husbandman and he cannot sow his seed but pinion the Seed-man of the Word of God and his tongue is at liberty Linguâ non manu seritur verbum quod nullis vinculis subjacet The Seed of the Word is sown by the Tongue and not by the Hand Men may be silenced as the Apostles were for a season but truth cannot be silenced In the defect of other Ministers the Women preacht the Resurrection they went to tell his Disciples This part these good Daughters of Jerusalem acted before Christ appeared unto them that I may handle that which concerns them by it self presuppose we that Christ met them and appeared which I will treat of hereafter what did they then Why as reason did require they intermit their motion awhile of running to the Disciples and come unto him To whom else Lord should they go Is there any thing so sweet as thou art to draw near unto it If we come not to thee we wander out of the way and turn aside from our own happiness Whatsoever we are about it is a gain of time to come unto him by the way and we shall arive the sooner at our own ends if they be just and honest And I cannot keep it out of my mind but that after our Saviour was risen from the dead there was some courteous accent in his voice and some sweet invitement in his look more than people were acquainted with before he was crucified He called one woman by name Mary in the Garden he said no more And she was instantly ravished with joy to hear his tongue utter but two syllables So there was such sweetness in the countenance of his immortal body now risen from the Grave that though the women were terribly
especially overtop the Mountains and his voice delighteth to shake the Cedars of Libanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. says Plutarch Among Mariners not one that dies a quiet death among ten but among evil Kings not one among ten thousand As their life is infectious unto many so is their doom dreadful unto many and that is the second reason why he was smitten Thirdly The people were not altogether free from chastisement I am sure not free from terrour in Herods castigation Look now upon him that was your Idol look ye Sidonians upon the empty cloud which you did blow into the air nay above the heavens with the breath of your mouth How is it vanished and come to nothing Imagine Beloved with what astonishment the whole Assembly was dissolved if their Consciences were not as full of Worms as Herod's body Fourthly Says St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To enlarge the Fathers meaning Clemency and Justice when they meet together attend how they may punish few and save many Vt poena ad paucos metus ad omnes perveniret Wherefore judge in your own reason if Herod had been spared and a great Assembly punished they all were sure to perish he perchance might be amended but if Herod suffer the Malediction one man feels the smart and the whole Assembly may repent and be saved Fifthly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the same Father Let the Rabble go home in peace for this time they were not all white for harvest upon that day but behold the end Where is Caesarea now Or who almost knows the Sidonian They have learnt to know by dear experience that Thunder and Judgment is the Voice of God and not an Eloquent Oration The Sum and Doctrine of this Point is thus much First It is dangerous for a Magistrate it is certain Judgment for men whom God hath blessed with honourable and plentiful fortunes to defile themselves with scandalous vices You have Plenty in your Houses What need you to be unjust Your State is able to subsist by it self What need you to flatter You may have Families and Wives and Children Why should you be Adulterers Your Provision is not scanty Why do you eat and drink in excess as if they were things which you had not daily It is not for Princes to drink Wine that is not unto Drunkenness says the Prophesie of Lemuel which his Mother taught him A nullo periculo fortuna principum longiùs abest quà m ab humilitate The worst thing which happens to a magnificent life is that it is not obnoxious unto humility Secondly It is no less dangerous when a whole Kingdom and City or any collected multitude set their face against heaven Judgment may seem to have forgot them as these Sidonians departed safely in my Text but in time the Lord will root out such a Nation Well then when the flattering Assembly had deserved a vengeance Herod only carries it to his grave What shall I say As the Child that threw a stick at the dog which barked at him and hit his Mother-in-law who had long afflicted him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I meant the Dog but it is well as it is says the Child so that Princes may see they have no priviledge to be flattered whatsoever the People deserved Gods judgment fell not amiss upon Herod and he was smitten Tantus periit the second thing follows Tantus à tanto he was smitten by an Angel of the Lord. If these men says Moses concerning Core Dathan and Abiram If these men die the common death of all men if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me Strange Wickednesses procure strange kinds of Death If the Earth will not avenge them the Angel of the Lord will come down and fight Do the Trees of Paradise deserve to have a Cherubin set before them with a flaming Sword And shall not all the Host of heaven stand about the Majesty of the Most High and see the honour of his name preserved But there is a controversie whether this Angel were not one of the evil Spirits now commanded to inflict a disease upon Herods bowels For say they it were as great a torture for the Devil to punish Herod for Pride as for Herod to suffer it because it calls their own sin to remembrance for which they are fettered in chains of darkness And Josephus gave the occasion to this opinion augmenting the story of Herods death with this circumstance that an Owl at this very moment perched upon the silken strings of his Canopy which the King took to be a Presage of his death and was no doubt a tenour substituted by Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Homer says a Bird of fatal Praediction and such a one is said to have affronted Innocent the Third as he was declaring his own Title in the Council of Lateran For my part I am not averse to believe Josephus in this part of the Story because in all other points he doth follow the Evangelist And the sight of some uncouth Creature is able to put an evil Conscience into a perplexity worse than death Every thing is dismal to a guilty mind like Archimedes his Engines dreadful to the Romans if a Timber-log or Cable-rope did but shew it self upon the Walls of Syracusa But though the relation of the Owl be true the Spirit of God would not mention it in holy Scripture lest it should encrease our ignorance who are superstitions to be afraid of the crossings and apparitions of beasts and such other casualties Let it be then that this evil Vision affrighted Herod yet it is more likely that the Angel was one of the blessed which smote him that he died For although the good Angels are sometimes called evil ones ab effectu as the Psalmist says of the Israelites that God sent evil Angels among them yet the unclean Spirits are never stiled by this honourable compellation to be called the Angels of the Lord. And give me leave to please my self a little in this conjecture God would not permit vengeance of death to be executed against a King by any power inferiour to an Angel of light It is the priviledge of their Unction their immediate subjection to God alone which exempts them from the hand of all other authority yea from the fury of infernal Spirits Wherefore the Jesuits own tender conscience which is as soft as Flint dare not say that a King is obnoxious to death till some unnatural Sentence of deposition go before Which resembles methinks the very first passage in Aristophanes You dare not strike me says Charion the Servant having a Crown upon my head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says his Master I will first take your Crown from you so first the Jesuits lay down rules of Arts to depose Princes and then their Devil ships say that you may use them as you will Well though Herod deserved the worst
minute or hour yet it was in a short space after for he tells them in his Message This day is born unto you in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. When God was to destroy a people he thought it fit to make it known unto Abraham shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do Gen. 18.17 much more when he was to save a people he would immediately reveal the thing in hand and loe the Angel of the Lord as who should say shall I hide from these religious careful Shepherds the thing which I have done for their salvation Let us compare in a word Christ manifested to the Shepherds to the Wisemen of the East to Simeon and Anna in the Temple to the Shepherds he was made known the same day that his Mother brought him forth to the Magi of the East as the most ancient do collect twelve days after upon the Feast of the Epiphany to Simeon and Anna forty days after he was born when Mary according to the Law came to the Temple to be Purified The Shepherds were Jews and he was made known incontinently to them prefiguring that the first-fruits of the Gospel should be preacht before them at Jerusalem the bread of life should first be broken to the Children before the dogs had the Crums which fell under the Table Those Easterlings that brought gifts to his Cradle of Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense they were Gentiles and the Apostles were sent to them in a little distance of time after the Feast of Pentecost when it was illustrious that all Tongues and Nations should praise the Lord in their own Language Yet again there shall be another Revelation of the Gospel to the Jews after forty days numerus certus pro incerto when the Gentiles have had their part Simeon and Anna shall enjoy them that is in the fulness of time and in an hour that we do not think of a remnant shall be collected God will gather together the out-casts of Israel and the dispersions of Sion Once it was ecce Angelus Gods Minister stood in the midst of them in this Text pointing the Messias with his finger who then was in the City of David now after much attendance after many an ecce many a long look the glory of Israel shall be revealed unto them So much for the time of this Apparition 3. Loe or behold an Angel soft a while and let us ask in the third circumstance quomodo how we should behold him a Spirit hath not flesh to be seen or bones to be felt in what fashion therefore did he alter himself surely it well deserves Ecce Angelus a note of Admiration for the manner was wonderful Beloved if the Eternal Son of God did not abhor the Virgins Womb those ministring Spirits whom he commands could not abhor the shapes of men they appeared every way in the same form and fashion wherein we walk upon earth Yet thus we distinguish them from our selves our bodies are begotten theirs were created our flesh propagated from the loins of Adam their substance made extraordinarily not according to nature but by the finger of God our soul quickens the flesh which it possesseth and makes it live their bodies which they assum'd had not vivification by the breath of life but only serv'd them for motion and representation our bodies have the instruments of outward senses to convey sensible things to the fancy and so to the understanding they had eyes and ears and other sensible organs non ut sentiant sed ut corpus perfecte representent says the great Schoolman not to exercise those senses but for an ornament and complement sake lest their bodies should seem monstrous and formidable to the beholders Finally their bodies after they had appear'd to discharge their embassage vanisht into elements never to return again into that composition but our bodies shall revive out of that dust into which they were dissolv'd and live for ever in the resurrection of the righteous Some have so commented upon the Apparitions of Angels in holy Scripture as if they had not truly taken humane shapes the better to communicate their business to men but God deluded mens eyes and bred this thought in their fancy as if they had seen that which was not visible I confess there are prophetical Visions in holy Text when the fancy of certain Prophets was perswaded it saw that which it did not see it was a Divine passion which made Ezechiel think he saw beasts with wings and wheels under their feet chap. 1. It was a mere Divine passion which made Daniel suppose he saw the powerful ram push down all other beasts with his horn on the banks of Vlai Dan. 8. These objects were conceived by none but by them single Prophets no other eye could be partaker of it Now on the contrary that 's no prophetical Apparition but a real object which is equally visible to all spectators therefore the Apparition of Angels was not imaginary but substantial for loe the Angel of the Lord was seen of all the Shepherds and the Angels which Lot entertained were conspicuous not to Lot only who was a just man but equally to all the vicious Sodomites And so much for the fashion wherein he did appear not as a spirit but in the shape of a man and therefore Ecce Angelus loe an Angel of the Lord. 4. The next doubtful question is Quo situ after what manner the Angel took his place when he came unto them the Grammarians are at odds what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should mean whether he hover'd above their heads in the air or stood in the same level near unto them Beda prevented this quarrel and accepts of both interpretations Sunt juxta nos per amorem supra nos per authoritatem they stand near unto us by their love and they stand above us by their authority Surely if Christ had not been born to reconcile us to his Father we had not been worth the coming near we had been no company for those holy Seraphins but since he vouchsafed to take flesh and blood the nature of man came into respect and reverence the enemy shall not approach to hurt it but those auxiliary troops of heaven pitch their pavilions round about it supra juxta planting themselves as a fortress for our head and as a buckler for our arm And indeed those are the chief things that need good influence and assistance knowledge and action head and hand Some are secret inventors of mischief plotters and contrivers of disturbance their brain is a mint of oppression where is Angelus superveniens the Angel above Some know their Masters will but they do not do it nay quite contrary fear or favour wrings ill effects from them where is Angelus astans they want a good Angel at their elbow Where is Michael the great Prince Qui stat pro filiis populi tui which standeth for the children of thy people Dan. 12.1 But whether
that heavenly Host who were the first that preacht the Gospel to the Shepherds I take my self off from this discourse in which I might amply proceed lest you say unto me as one said of Hortensius that he advanc'd Eloquence to the skies craftily meaning that himself might be advanc'd as an Eloquent Orator in the commendation If we glory we will glory in our infirmities and in the Cross of Christ not presuming upon that amplification of analogy with Angels I will lay the scene of my reproof beyond the Seas but I would we were quit of the fault at home How many exalted Prelates refuse to do that office to teach Christ especially to poor Shepherds although a Cherubim of Heaven in my Text did willingly submit himself to do the work It troubled the Historiographers among our Adversaries to find out one Pope in almost 100 years that was a pulpit man when he became a Pope that was Pius V and he but rarely I may say of such men as Pliny did of those Emperours who made great suit to be Consuls and then disdain'd to discharge the Function O inscitia verae majestatis concupiscere honorem quem dedigneris dedignari quem concupieris O ignorance of duty to affect that honour which they scorn'd to execute to scorn to execute that honour which they earnestly affected Is an Angel no more than fit to preach Christ and is proud man too good for it 6. The fancies of men have assaye'd to add this for a sixth reason to the former that the noble Hierarchies of Heaven do merit some increase and addition of glory by their care and obsequiousness toward the universal body of the Church of Christ but the matter was better scann'd by Biel who therefore refutes that sentence of Lombard Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus Angelus non habuisset summam suam beatitudinem Then it would follow that the Eternal Felicity of the Thrones of Heaven did depend upon the creation of man for except there had been a Church here below to which they might administer they had wanted occasion to demerit some increase of their glory Indeed it is an opinion that savours of servility and baseness as if they that stand always before the face of God would do nothing but upon gain and advantage Alas they have no other end of their labour but that which every man should have in charity the increase and enlargement of the Triumphant Church in Heaven and therefore our Saviour Luke 12.9 threatens Apostates from the Faith thus He that denieth me before men him will I deny before the Angels of God that is before the greatest friends and well-wishers of our beatitude Lastly It is an observation not to be omitted how St. Austin compares three several ways wherein Christ was manifested to the Shepherds by an Angel to the Wise men by a Star to Simeon and Anna devout people that spent their age in the Temple by the Holy Ghost Simeon and Anna were exceeding faithful such as waited and expected every day the salvation of Israel and therefore the Holy Ghost told them secretly in their hearts as soon as the Babe was brought into the Temple that this was the Lamb of God which should take away the sins of the world The Shepherds I presume were just men but had not so much perfection in the knowledge of the Law to look for and expect a Saviour therefore an extraordinary Nuntio an Angel was sent unto them but the Gentiles utter aliens from the Faith were directed to the Manger by signs and wonders from heaven So says St. Paul 1 Cor. 14.22 Signs are for them that believe not and Prophesies for them that believe And as the axiom is in Philosophy every thing is best collated when it is fitted ad modum recipientis Now the Shepherds were Jews and were taught in the Synagogues concerning the Apparition of Angels the Magi were Astronomers and better knew the course of Stars The book of the Creature was sit to teach the Gentiles but a Divine Spirit was better accommodate to teach a Jew that they might receive the Gospel even as they had received the Law and the Law was delivered says St. Paul by the ministration of Angels And so much for the first general part all the five questions being satisfied which of the Angels this was when he came in what figure and apparition how he did apply himself to the Shepherds and lastly why men were not accepted to do this office but loe an Angel of the Lord. The order which I propounded requires now that I speak of the pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the glory of the Lord shone round about them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the glory of the Lord fitly rendred in this place by the vulgar Latin Claritas Domini a lightsome brightness or splendor which God caus'd to shine in that place making the night unto the Shepherds as clear as if it had been day So when a lightsome pure cloud did appear in the Dedication of Solomons Temple the Text says 1 Kings 8.11 The glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord therefore it was not properly that essential glory of God unto which no man in this life can approach but lux ante gloriam the consolation of a beautiful light which was the shadow and the fore-runner of Glory But it were a great trespass in Art to run into obscurity and confusion when we are to speak of light 1. Therefore I will endeavour to shew how many ways such brightsome apparitions are observable in holy Scripture 2. Why this illustrious Glory did shine round about the Shepherds When God would beautifie and adorn a thing in some excellent manner I find that in a four-fold fashion he scatters and transfuses the beams of light and splendor either upon it or about it 1. Let us reflect our remembrance upon our Saviours Transfiguration his face did shine as the Sun and his rayment was white as the light as white as snow says St. Mark so that no Fuller on earth could make a thing so white Now we know that Christ was not as yet glorified his body had not yet put on incorruption therefore Eluxit splendor à Divinitate it was the pleasure of his Divinity at this instant to alter his countenance and his garment and from the union of his Divine nature this glory did redound upon the outward parts 2. In the Resurrection when our flesh shall become an inhabitant of the heavens not only the face but all the body of man shall look in a triumphant manner like a pillar of light which unspeakable beauty shall result from the soul to the blessing and ornament of the body So I read Dan. 12.3 They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever 3. This claritude and heavenly
no light Light is of the same time and antiquity with the Sun it self which brings it forth 3. Damascen collects truly that the Son of God is inseparable from his Father even as light cannot be taken away or parted from the Sun 4. Another observes how pure a generation that is with which the Father brings forth the Son because light though it be but a creature yet it is a pure and a spiritual quality and comes forth by no contaminated or polluted procreation 5. It extends further to resemble how the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son even as that comfortable warmth which cherisheth Plants and every living thing issues joyntly from the Sun it self and from the light thereof By this it appears how suitably a beam of admirable light did concur in the Angels message to set out the Majesty of the Son of God and I beseech you observe all you that would keep a good Christmas as you ought that the glory of God is the best celebration of his Sons Nativity and all your pastimes and mirth which I disallow not but rather commend in moderate use must so be manag'd without riot without surfeiting without excessive gaming without pride and vain pomp in harmlesness in sobriety as if the glory of the Lord were round about us Christ was born to save them that were lost but frequently you abuse his Nativity with so many vices such disordered outrages so that you make this happy time an occasion for your loss rather than for your salvation Praise him in the congregation of the people praise him in your inward heart praise him with the sanctity of your life praise him in your charity to them that need and are in want This is the glory of God shining round and the most Christian solemnizing of the Birth of Jesus Secondly This lightsome apparition about the Shepherds 't is Typus claritatis Evangelicae a type of the light and perspicuousness which is genuine and proper to the Gospel The Law of Moses was given to the people when the hill of Sinai was full of mists and dark pillars of smoke for there were many things delivered to that Nation of the Jews which were wrapt in darkness and in thick pillars of obscurity Types and Ceremonies were difficile to be understood but the faithfulness of the Gospel is as clear as the light and the righteousness of Gods promise as the noon-day The Law was lucerna pedibus meis a candle unto my feet and so says Solomon the Commandment is a lamp Prov. 6.23 Nay as if it were not a clear burning candle David says it is Lumen in laterna Thy word is a lanthorn unto my feet as if the old Law had been no other then a candle under a bushel as it is in the Parable but the Gospel is a light as great as the Sun in the firmament a candle upon a hill Posita super candelabrum Catholicae Ecclesiae says St. Ambrose and the Catholick Church over all the world is the candlestick to hold it This is not a splendor upon the face only as it befel Moses but it is splendor circumquaque says my Text it shines round about and no corner in all the Church which is Christs Family but it hath been enlightned A candle will suffice to give all men light that are in the room where it shines but it is such a light as doth not warm or cherish you So the Law was a candle whereby he that read might learn and know the will of God but it did not warm or comfort a man nay it left a man quivering and shaking extream chill and cold at the heart for it is written Cursed is he that doth not keep all these sayings and do them therefore the Gospel is a better light it gives light and withal heat and comfort zeal and joy to them that receive it as it is in the next verse Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy How proves he that why there is born unto you a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. It is Bonaventure if I mistake not that says upon my Text Claritas Dei circumfulsit non tantum exterius in corpore sed etiam interius in mente the light shin'd outwardly to the Shepherds and inwardly in their hearts that 's round about in full compass both in soul and body O you all presume that the light of the Gospel hath shin'd upon you as well as upon another you know Christ and his redemption and that 's enough for your share but do you find any comfort in it are you warm at the heart if you be cold in your profession not caring which way Religion stands or falls indifferent whether Christ be worship'd this way or that way then the light doth not shine round about you you have it without but not within Thirdly The dark night was brightned with a shining Cloud at our Saviours Nativity to signifie that he should be Lumen solatii in nocte tenebrarum a light of consolation to them that sate in the dark night of persecution and misery Mary Magdalen came to the Sepulchre early when it was yet dark she wept and afflicted her soul that she found not the body of Christ in the Sepulchre and loe it was very early and yet dark a season to increase sorrow but behold an Angel whose countenance was like lightning and his rayment white as snow did enlighten her heart and chear'd her spirits that Christ was risen from the dead Thus light did arise unto the faithful in the darkness of their heaviness Take another instance of sorrow which was hard at deaths door Peter was kept in chains in prison and one says he had no better room than the lowest dungeon Carcer erat teterrimus obscurissimus ne die quidquam lucis admitteret it was such a dark corner that there was not a chink in it to take in light in the day time yet an Angel came to him anon before the hour when he lookt for death which was long before the morning and a light shined in the prison Acts 12.7 And though no outward beam of light glance miraculously upon the Saints in their chains and captivity yet the comforter even the Holy Spirit will not fail to lighten their darkness within as David said in the midst of my sorrows thy mercies O Lord have refreshed my soul The Fathers of yore who were present at the execution of many Martyrs give us the report what unspeakable gladness was reveal'd unto them from above in their fiery trial the fiery flame which consum'd them was like the light and shining of an Angel to solace them Martyr est velut fracta Gedeonis lagena tunc emicat vincit it is the saying of Hugo Every one of Gideons Souldiers had a pitcher and lamp in it they broke their pitchers their lamps blaz'd and they had the conquest of their enemies so says he our body is an
dishonoured nor declining bad occasions nor intending renovation of life this hath not a grudging of true Religion in it it is no more than the trembling of an unregenerate mans conscience who hath not tasted of the heavenly gift But if you say that man hath a servile fear who dares not but do his Masters will lest he be beaten with many stripes be not ashamed of this fear Our Saviour goes it over and over and commends it again and again Luke xii 4. Fear him which hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him The fear of the Lord says the Wiseman is the beginning of wisdom How is it the beginning Why Faith is the first cause of Religion and fear is the first effect as the foundation is the beginning or an house so after true conversion it begins to go on from vertue to vertue and this is the first ground work that it lays Stand in aw and sin not Psal iv It is such a beginning that I will say this it is impossible to come to a true consolation in Christ without it Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal ii 11. Timor Domini est fidei fundamentum firmamentum says St. Cyprian Faith which includes our hope in Christ had no firmness nor sure footing but that it knows in it self it fears the Lord Love fell asleep with her beloved in her arms Cant. iii. i And her beloved was gone in the mean time So if their be not a mixture of fear with our love it falleth asleep it waxeth secure and loseth her Beloved If the comfort of our joy be not allayed with some fear 't is madness and presumption Again if our fear be not intermixt with the comfort of some joy 't is sullenness and desperation As the Earth cannot be without Summer and Winter to make it fruitful the pleasure of the one and the austerity of the other make up the revolution of a good year so Faith is the Parent both of a cloudy fear and a smiling hope Faith begets fear in us in regard of our own weakness and hope in regard of the goodness of God hope ariseth out of the faith of the Gospel and fear out of the faith of the Law These cannot be parted Indeed servile fear is an unpleasing word because it grates our memory with this remembrance that our nature is in bondage and that we are Thralls and Captives to death and punishment and therefore the words of Aquinas are very weighty Timor servilis bonus est sed servilitas ejus est mala That bondage which makes us liable to judgment is naught but the fear which issues from a conscientiousness of that bondage flying to God that it may fly from judgment is holy and good Briefly let them thus be compared together a filial fear which loves God for his own goodness is like a bright day which hath not a cloud to disfigure it A servile fear that dreads God because it dreads the wrath to come is like a day that is overcast with clouds but it is clearer than the fairest moon-shine night It is good to have the spirit of Adoption but it is better to have the spirit of bondage than the spirit of slumber it is good to be in Canaan but it is better to be in the Wilderness than in Egypt it is good to be a Child but it is better to be a servant than a stranger to the Lord. David most sweetly puts them together Psal xxxiii Behold the eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him and that put their trust in his mercy So I conclude this Point that the Angels Nolite timere fear not doth neither cry down filial fear which is the modest bashfulness nor yet servile fear which is the sharp spur of true Religion Hitherto we have spoken of fear quà donum as it is a gift of the holy Spirit Now that I may make my discourse complete I must speak of it quà passio as it is a sensitive passion and so when it is moderate it is tolerable when it exceeds and will not hearken to the governance of reason it is condemnable I will speak but a few words of the first Nature is excusable when it shrinks from those things that would offend it and desires to save it from harm by fair and direct means for in such a case our conscience pleads that there is a reasonable cause and occasion These are Aristotles words upon the Point that a man were stupid or mad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is neither dismay'd at violent tempests on the Sea nor at earthquakes on firm Land like the fool-hardy and confident Celts in Scythia But the day doth admonish me to take my instances from our blessed Saviour and so I can no example so fit for Allegation For why did Christ and his Mother fly into Egypt soon after he was born when Herod was in a fuming chase Why did the Angel admonish Joseph to do so in a dream The Lord could have saved him as he did Elisha the Prophet in the midst of his enemies whose eyes he blinded that they could not see him And again says the Text when he returned out of Egypt he went aside to dwell in the Coasts of Galilee for fear of Archilaus that reigned in Judea in his Father Herod's stead Great caution as might be and yet all this needed not but because our Saviour would allow a circumspect fear in time of persecution to shift for life Moreover you must not think that Christ did fear as we do will nill we upon the compulsion of necessity for he had all passions and humane infirmities under subjection so that he could be cast into no consternation but when his own will did consent and accord unto it yet he chose a fit time to cast himself into a great agony of fear when he sweat drops of bloud in the Garden lest we should think it a sin at all times to be afraid upon just occasion This then is another fear which belongs to our allowance but there is a fear which hath a Nolite set before it an immoderate horror of heart a symptome of desperation or at least of infidelity and diffidence this is that quivering with which God strikes his enemies as a tree is shaken by the wind to unfasten it from the root That mark which he set upon Cain was a continual trembling at the sight of man and beast Pharaoh was never at rest in his mind lest the Children of Israel should grow too fast and multiply so much that they would be too potent for the Tyrant that opprest them He sent darkness to astonish the Egyptians and they were troubled with strange Apparitions Wisd xvii 3. He sent such a Panick fear among the Syrians that they verily believed they heard the noise of an Host and Chariot wheels when there was no such thing so they fled and left to besiege
Deum gubernat amoris omne regnum est Love did rule God himself love swayed all things in the world We know and admire the meaning that the love of the Son turn'd the enmity of the Father into peace it turn'd threatnings into forgiveness and death into life Poise every thing in a right scale and mark the heavy weight of our undeservings and the nature of man might stink in Gods nostrils which had so much offended him to believe a Serpent nay to believe the Devil in a Serpent rather then the lively Oracle of his own mouth Yet love took away that distastefulness which the whole Trinity had conceiv'd against sinful flesh and the second Person became flesh for our sakes and was made sin for our sakes by imputation that we might be made sons and righteous before God nay that we might be made the righteousness of God Rom. v. The Athenians were proud of Pompey's love that he would write his name a Citizen of their City for a princely person to accept a freedom in a mean Corporation is no little kindness how much more doth it aggravate the love of Christ to come from heaven and be made a Citizen of this vile earth to be born after a more vile condition than the most abject of the people 2. It is not so proper to say God did love us by Christ for God is love and in himself and for his own goodness sake he could not but love the work of his hands but this is the true and proper understanding of it that notwithstanding his love to his own justice through the merit of our Saviours humility he forgave us our sins therefore his love toward mankind and his love toward his justice went hand in hand and could not be parted He satisfied the vehemency of his love toward sinful man that he gave his Son to be born of a Virgin and to become our Mediator he satisfied the love he hath to his own Justice and the hatred he hath against sin when he did impose this office of a Mediator upon his beloved Son not without shedding of blood Justice cried out it was meet mercy should not rule all Adam and his posterity ought to dye or who will answer for them not an Angel or Spirit and therefore not the Son of God as he is God for God is a Spirit Meet it is every one should bear his own burden the nature that sinned let it bear the curse of its own sin Mans nature had sinned mans nature ought to suffer but that which our nature should bear our nature by a fit adequation of recompence could not bear Our sufferings were not enough to satisfie the wrath of God due to sin The Son of God is a most valuable person but not passible man is passible but not valuable the one nature ought to suffer but could not the other could suffer but ought not That he might be liable to all contempt he was born a Saviour and made a child that he might be able to pay the price he was perfect God as well as perfect man a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. 3. Love and Justice are mightily declared that a Saviour was born and the eternal Wisdom of the Father comes in for her part to be magnified It is beyond our understanding to say nay but that the Father might have made a creature fit to satisfie his Justice to have clearly paid the price of our Redemption and so to have spared his Son yea but wisdom interpos'd it was not fit that man should owe his redemption to any other than to whom he owed his creation for the value of that benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer better than our Creator So Bernard Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio quam creatio Therefore God would not so dispose the mystery of our souls health that occasion should be given to love an Angel or Saint better than himself the King of Glory The Son that sits at his right hand by whom he made the worlds let him restore all things and the blessing of our Creation Redemption and all other good gifts shall meet in one center This is pretii difficilimi decentissima solutio say the Schoolmen a most convenient payment of a most difficult ransom 4. The boundless power and infinite virtue of the Godhead I confidently pronounce it did never appear so much in any other work as when a Saviour was born He that knew no beginning but was from all eternity to begin to be a man he that speaks to the world in thunder to cry in a cradle Verbum infans he that decketh himself with light as with a garment to be wrapt in swadling clouts he that opens his hand and filleth all things with plenteousness to suck for a few drops of milk at a womans breasts we are able to answer nothing to this but with the Angel to cry out Rev. v. 12. Dominion and power to the Lamb and to him that sitteth on the throne for evermore And so far of the second point The next word to be consider'd in the Text is like the flesh-hook which the Priest had to draw a portion of the Sacrifice unto himself To you a Saviour is born says the Angel Vobis natus the good turn shall be yours the blessing yours you ought to be affected with joy at this wonderous work for he is your Saviour Tell the Shepherds that a Saviour is born and they cannot but understand he is de nobis like unto us in nature but tell them unto you a Saviour is born that 's a great deal more than they understand that he is born for their redemption It is honourable to be made like us but advantageous in the highest degree that he was made for us Let us work upon this mine and here we shall find the precious mettal fit to pay the price of our debts to God in our steed when we were bankrupts First we learn from hence he was born to you and not unto himself to your glory to his own abasement and exinanition for his own part he was begotten of God before all times so noble a Nativity that when the Father bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. i. 6. Therefore for himself he needed no other birth to be born at all especially to be thus basely born in the manger of a stable He took a body as it were sown in dishonour that we might reap the harvest and be magnified Likewise he is called a Saviour not in respect of his own person indeed he was his own destroyer and our Saviour when the High Priests servants sought to lay hold of him in the Garden neither doth he go about to escape or to deny himself but whom seek ye I am he No man would put himself into the hands of barbarous enemies that meant to be his own Saviour all the salvation that he
brought with him lookt another way Titus ii 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Some few persons are culled out here for all that shall be shielded under the buckler of this Saviour unto you a Saviour is born says the Angel speaking only to the Shepherds that 's because no more were in the way But to as many as read these words and mark them the word speaks continually and is never silent the message is as properly brought to you as ever it was to the Shepherds to you a Saviour is born The Prophet Isaiah allows him to all the Sons of Adam that will lay claim unto him unto us a Child it born and unto us a Son is given Isa ix 6. 'T is a kind expression to rejoyce at the good news of another mans prosperity 't is incident to a sweet nature to do so And indeed if Angels were so enlightned with the gladsomness of our benefit that when they had said it over they could not choose but sing it also in the verses after my Text Cum de aliena gratia Angeli exultent quae nostra est stupiditas If the blessed Cherubims exult for the grace that we find in Gods eyes what stupidness is in us if our hearts do not triumph for gladness for the benefit flows unto us and not unto the Angels The Devils fretted and roared out against Christ because he came into the world for mans sake and not for their deliverance Quid nobis tibi What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God we renounce thee Mat. viii 29. The evil spirits rage that he is not theirs the good Spirits of God rejoyce that his Father hath made him all ours being secure of their own glorious estate they triumph that we shall be exalted to the fellowship of their happiness Well then to you he is born not only to the Shepherds but inclusive to all men so you have heard in the former verse his birth was gaudium omni populo joy to all people only they are excluded that exclude themselves by infidelity Facit multorum infidelitas ut non omnibus nasceretur qui omnibus natus est says St. Ambrose the infidelity of many now infidelity is properly imputed to those within the Church who had the means to believe and did not the infidelity of many is a bar that the Incarnation of Christ pertains not to all men although he was born for all men Every man therefore must strive so to love Christ and to keep his Commandements that he may feel the joy of this day particularly enter into his heart and the Spirit testifying to his spirit unto me a Saviour is born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greeks it comes of the possessive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tuus a Saviour restoreth every man to himself for a sinner is lost not only to God and the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven but he is lost to himself and to the comfort of a good conscience until Christ restore him again to joy and peace within his own heart that he may say to himself as Philip did to Nathanael I have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth c. Oportet uti nostro in utilitatem nostram de servatore salutem operari says Bernard Let us make our profit from that which is our own and let every man collect his own salvation from his own Saviour To you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings Mal. iv 2. The Sun enlightens half the world at once yet none discern colours by the light but they that open their eyes and a Saviour is born unto us all which is Christ the Lord but enclasp him in thine heart as old Simeon did in his arms and then thou mayst sing his Nunc Dimittis or Mary's Magnificat My spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour The fourth thing to be consider'd is what early tidings the Shepherds had of our Saviours birth hodie natus I do not tell it to you says the Angel after a month or after a week go to Bethlehem and search and ye shall find this is the first day that his Mother bore him This day is born unto you in the City of David c. Before the blessed seed was promised for a long while ye have had a state in reversion that Christ should come in the flesh to save his people from their sins now the act is accomplished ye have a state in being enter upon your happiness and possess it reckon from henceforth that you have your joy in hand this day the great deliverer hath taken up a poor Palace in the City of David According to a natural computation of days we forget the nights though an Infant be brought forth in the still hours of darkness yet from thenceforth we call it the Birth-day and not the birth-night of such an Infant In such accompts I know not how we speak of nothing but day for that 's the Dialect of the Kingdom of Heaven where there is day for ever and no darkness So the Shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night and after the first hour the morning began as the general conjecture runs our Saviour was born yet since a natural day comprehends darkness as well as light the Angel was pleas'd to say This day he is born This is literal and to the plain meaning yet I refrain not their allusions altogether that say the darkness was remov'd away by that radiant glory which shone round about the Angels and that the night was as clear in those parts as if the Sun had risen upon the earth therefore upon the comfort of that miraculous illumination the messenger says This day is born unto you And David by some men is made to speak to this allusion Psal cxxxviii The night is as clear as the day which was true say they at our Saviours Incarnation Others take their liberty to guess that good tidings make the night be called day and sad tidings make the day be called night Heavy misfortunes indeed have fallen out in the night for the most part Sennacheribi great host slain in the night Thou fool this night thy soul shall be taken from thee a threatning to the rich Epicure yet it holds not always But if Christ be the day-star and his Birth turns night into day it will become us as the Apostle says to walk as children of the light Curiosity hath gone too far in one question touching this part of my Text why this late day was esteemed most expedient in Gods wisdom to send his Son in the flesh four thousand years had almost expir'd since the seed of the Woman was promised to bruise the Serpents head and yet no sooner then hodie say they that will search in to all causes the Angel said to day but why he came punctually on that
requisite additions and put it out of question The Wisemen adored him with costly Gifts after the manner of an earthly Prince The Angels glorifie him with Hymns and Praises after the Majesty of God In every respect this is the greatest testimony of Christ in all the Scripture excepting where God used his own voice immediately from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased These things are but said now I will prove it in the prosecuting of the parts which are these The Messengers the preparation to the Message and the Message it self or the Choristers the preparation to their Musick and then the Anthem The Choristers are 1. Heavenly ones 2. A multitude 3. An Host or an Army of them Their preparation is twofold With much suddenness suddenly there was with the Angel and with much chearfulness for they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 singing praise unto God The Anthem it self hath three rests in it Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host these are the Choristers that sung the Carol and the first thing we note in them is that they were heavenly ones Many things in the former Verses of this Chapter were exceeding mean if I may not say vile and sordid touching our Saviours Nativity but this portion of the story is of another nature and very honourable the more his Divinity had hid it self in Clouts in Flesh in a Manger the more it is illustrated by a glorious testimony The Earth afforded him one of the worst places it had the Heavens afforded him their very best attendance the Angels These heavenly Spirits you see gaze not upon the Work of our Redemption nor upon the Oeconomy of the Church as idle Spectators but they were imployed from the beginning in all the works of the Lord Job xxxviii 7. Who laid the corner stone of the earth when the morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Some Expositors infer from hence that the Angels applauded and praised the Lord for the Creation of the world for the Chaldee Paraphrase instead of the Sons of God reads it Acies Angelorum the Army of Angels And the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the corner stone of the earth was laid all my Angels praised me with a loud voice St. Chrysostome says upon it that the Angels admired to see the beauty of the world beneath they were astonished to behold the degrees of the Elements the multitude of all sorts of Creatures their Order Number and measure And by so much were they transported with the beauty of Gods Excellency more than we and of all his Works by how much they did better perceive that they were wrought with infinite and inexplicable wisdom This apprehension of the Fathers upon those words of Job I think is not to be refused Anastasius Sinaita is cited to go a great deal further that on the fourth day of the Creation the Angels saw the Sun rise in the morning from under the interposition of the Earth and presently they bethought them how Christ Sol justitiae should be born of a pure Virgin and dwell upon the earth and immediately they sung this very Song Gloria in excelsis as a prevention or prediction what should be sang upon this day almost four thousand years before it came to pass But this conjecture supposeth one of these two things scarce to be admitted either that these heavenly ones foresaw the fall of Adam before it came to pass as well as God and that the Son of God should be given in the flesh for a Propitiation to be the remedy or else another scholastic quidlibet must be received that Christ was so the head of the Angels that he should have been Incarnate and the Angels saved by faith in that Incarnation though Adam had never faln which is but harsh in the delivery This is the true Doctrine and the right descant upon the Point these Spirits that dwell in Heaven rejoyced for the Creation of the Earth when the Foundations of it were laid as Job says how much more would they bear a part and triumph for our sakes at the Restauration and the Redemption of the Earth Yet now we are at the truth mistake not the reason of their joy as some have done let me but touch upon a petty error and so proceed to the true causes It is supposed by many that the Angels are ready to attend the Church with all their help and diligence and exceeding glad in our prosperity because they receive an augmentation of their blessedness by their pious Ministry towards the Sons of men Now this savours of a little servility me thinks as if those holy ones did not communicate themselves to be safeguards and watchmen over us without expectation of reward but Biel presseth it further Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus Angelus non habuisset beatitudinem It would follow that Angels had never come to the height of their beatitude unless men had been created nay it will follow further they should come short of their full beatitude unless man had sinned and disobeyed Gods Commandment Let me lay down more sufficient reasons therefore for your further satisfaction First The Angels had always done their best to pitch their Pavilions round about us and to keep us from the tyranny of the Devil but they perceived that their protection was not a saving Medicine it would not cure it would not keep us in life but it bred them great content and joy when Christ did manifest himself in flesh upon the earth to heal our sores and bruises and to overcome that strong man for us and spoil him generally to supply in himself whatsoever was defective in their abilities This is Origens reason and his Simile follows as if many unexpert but well affected Physicians should spend their pains to no profit about a sick person whom they would fain recover and hearing that one of renowned skill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was come into the City who would undoubtedly restore the languishing party all the rest that had attempted it did much congratulate his coming So our heavenly Friends the Angels could not speed us as they desired but as soon as they saw the Prince of Physicians was come into the world first one Angel appeared the Prolocutor of the whole Host and he broke with the Shepherds about good tidings of great joy to all People This day is born c. All this while the rest of his consort hovered in the air and at last became visible and discovered themselves in a Volley Apparuerunt cum illo Angeli says the Syrian Paraphrast exulting and praising God that the Lamb was yeaned that should take away the sins of the World Secondly The fruit of this birth came to us and not to them Nusquam Angelos Christ took not on him the
seed of Angels but the seed of Abraham yet they are as forward in praise and thanksgiving as if the benefit had been their own Let the envy of wicked natures envy at this that God hath such good servants as are possessed with exceeding joy not for their own but for their fellow servants happiness O most Angelical perfection to account of the blessings that fall upon our brethren as if they descended upon our selves This heavenly Host did sing with mirth upon our Holy day but it is the Devils manner to houl and cry at the good of others if Christ came to save a man they rore that he came to torment them before the time Since the deliverance of poor distressed men was the Devils pain let the salvation of all those upon whom the faith of the Gospel doth shine be our rejoycing The foundation of Lycurgus his Commonwealth among the Spartans was Ne scirent privatim vivere that they should not accustom themselves to think of the private but of the publick good and it is the foundation of charity among Christians Nescirent privatim gratias agere that they should not restrain their thankfulness to their own peculiar but to extend it for favours which do befall every member in the Church of Christ Thirdly The Choire of heaven sang praise unto God on this day to set us in whom it concern'd to us a Child is born and to us a Son is given Shall the standers by pour out their Jubilee and will we hold our peace Will we make it no holy day when it only concerns ours and not the Angels redemption Was it not opprobrious to the Scribes and High Priests and Pharisees that a troop of Wisemen should beat out a journey of twelve days perhaps and peradventure more and bring all the precious gifts with them that those Eastern Countries afforded and all this to honour him that was born King of the Jews and yet his own people neither visit upon those reports nor search for him suffer him to fly away into Egypt and never miss him he came unto his own and his own received him not And when Satan stands forth to accuse the Sons of men will he not as much cast it in our teeth the Angels began a pleasant Song for your sakes and you ungrateful whose nature he took upon him did not follow they piped unto you but you did not dance He came unto his own and his own rejoyced not Fourthly Gregory puts in his conjecture among the rest Dum nos conspiciunt recipi suum gaudent numerum impleri Lucifer and his adherents whose rebellion had cast them out of Heaven did break the numbers of the glorious Angels and make them less therefore they break out into singing because the rooms of those collapsed Angels shall be filled in Heaven with those penitent sinners on earth that walk by Faith and newness of life as Peter and the rest no doubt were much comforted after Judas had fall'n away from his place by transgression that Matthias was numbred with the eleven Apostles The Church of Christ hath lost ground in great shares of Europe and Asia but what happy tidings are those and I trust they shall be better and better when we hear that souls are gained as fast in the furthest India and remotest America The Lacedemonians had a choice band of Souldiers which they call'd their immortal Phalanx because the number was always kept full at the instant almost when one of the band died or was slain another was elected into the order So the true flock of Christ is certain and invariable the number cannot be wrong'd many Apostates slide away yet elsewhere many millions are added to the Church This augmentation of them that are lost makes the Angels glad and sing Glory be to God on high Fifthly and lastly since the eternal Son of God did inhabit upon the earth the earth was become an amiable theatre for heavenly creatures to play their parts upon And as the Poet flatter'd Augustus Caesar that the spirits of the Decii and of the Scipio's wisht they had been reserv'd to have lived in his happy Reign so we may say and yet in no flattering phrase that the Angels either wisht themselves incarnate or else to minister to Christ continually upon earth in their incorporeal condition As the Saints arose out of their graves in their bodies and descended out of heaven in their souls and appeared unto many in the holy City of our Saviours Resurrection so the Cherubims came down from the firmament above and made their apparition in a visible form to celebrate the mystery of his Incarnation Not one of the Fathers but have wrote resolutely without doubting that Angels are part of our assembly in these Congregations ever since and most intelligently do so interpret St. Paul 1 Cor. 11.10 The woman ought to have power of her head because of the Angels that is to do nothing immodestly or unchastly because the Angels would be witnesses of their impudency And thus far on that point how the celestial chantors that modulate their tunes continually before the Throne of God these were the organs and well tuned Cymbals that welcomed Christ with a Song of Joy unto the earth But beside their heavenly nature they were a multitude a numberless concourse of them as some think even the whole company of Angels ten thousands of thousands that minister before the Throne of God as the Prophet Daniel speaks the windows of heaven were opened and Seraphins came down as thick as rain It is hard to say whether it would not have been pain and grief for any of those blessed Spirits to have staid behind though it were in Heaven whether they could have quieted their own desires to be absent from this occasion I am sure St. Paul leaves out none of them but cites them altogether Heb. i. 6. When he brings his first-born into the world he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him Another says and that 's Salmeron the fields of Bethlehem could not contain all the Angels supposing as it is truth that they appeared visibly Sed ex omni hierarchia aliqui advenerant sicut in militia sunt multi ordines but some appeared out of every Hierarchy instead of all the rest as sometimes certain choice Souldiers are pickt out of every Squadron in an Army It was a matter of great consequence never any tidings of such weight were brought into the world before and reason good then that divers should come to testifie it and it was matter of great praise as ever shall be sung and reason good then that many should come to celebrate it If you will argue what would barely have sufficed I confess though fewer had preacht Christ in the audience of the Shepherds and though a multitude of this multitude had been spared yet the tidings would effectually have been believed and the whole world have been partakers of them But it is no contradiction
Army which Pharaoh knew not how to withstand or which way to drive them back unless Moses prayed for him But more eminently than all other creatures the constellations of Stars are very frequently in holy Scriptures called the host of heaven as Deut. xvii 3. If there be any found among you which hath worshipped the Sun or Moon or any of the host of heaven bring forth that man or woman and thou shalt stone them with stones that they dye 2 Kings xvii 16. The reason is given why Salmanasar the King of Assyria took away Hoshea the King of Israel and the ten Tribes into captivity because they made them two Calves even molten Images and worshipped all the host of heaven and served Baal There is admirable order indeed in the Stars of the Firmament as in a well-marshall'd Camp the Planets one above another the Sun running his course in the midst as in the main battel nay there is virtue and influence in them to overthrow Gods enemies but the knowledge after what manner they fight against sinners is too excellent for us to attain unto it but Deborah the Prophetess said it that the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera Judg. v. 20. Josephus says upon that story that hail and thunder and winds were raised up by some planetary aspect which did great annoyance against Sisera and the Midianites Like as Livy says that the brightness of the Sun and clouds of dust blown about by the winds fell both together into the eyes of the Romans when they lost their whole Army at Cannae and the heavens above caused those incommodities almost to their utter destruction So Claudian sings of Theodosius the Emperor's Victory that the heavens above did fight of his side against his enemies O nimium dilecte Deo cui militat aether therefore the Stars whether you regard their order or their efficacy are rightly called an heavenly host And if these visible lights which the Lord hath set in the firmament to distinguish day and night are a celestial battel how much more the Angels whom God hath made invisible by nature and as fierce as fire in activity Who maketh his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire So Elisha presented a muster of them to his servant not simply as an host but as a fiery host the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha 2 Kings vi 17. Scarce any Prophet but touches upon it though darkly and mystically that the Angels are a militia ready to war and fight David Psalm xxxiv 7. The Angel of the Lord castrametatur encampeth round about them that fear him Is there any number of his armies meaning there is a multitude of heavenly Spirits assisting before the throne of God continually Job xxv 2. Who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number Isa xl 26. I saw in my vision and behold the four winds of heaven strove upon the great Sea Dan. vii 2. And these says St. Hierom were the four Angelical powers to whom the four principal Monarchies of the world were committed But before any other Prophet of God mention'd that warlikeness which is in Angels Jacob did Gen. xxxii 2. when he was returning with his wife and children into Canaan the Angels of God met him and when Jacob saw them he said This is Gods host and he called the name of the place Mahanaim Mahanain is of the dual number and signifies two several Camps whether he meant the troop of Angels that came to guard him for one and the servants of his own family for another or rather as a learned Author says he saw a band of Angels before him and another behind him The Angels that particularly protect Palestina receiv'd him into that Country and they that were Guardians of Mesopotamia delivered him up and brought him thither You see that the phrase of our Evangelist is confirm'd by all the Prophets in the Old Testament but if it appear that Christ himself hath said as much you will believe the more that the sense is very useful and mystical Why Josh v. 14. when Joshua was about to besiege Jericho he lift up his eyes and saw a man over against him with his Sword drawn in his hand says he Art thou for us or for our adversaries and he said nay but a Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come Many Pontificians had the rather say this was an Angel because Joshua worshipped to help out their bad cause of the Worship of Angels but Andreas Masius proves it learnedly that this was Christ himself who conducted the people of the promise into the Land of Canaan even as he shall bring all his Elect into the Kingdom of Heaven and many times shew'd himself in a visible form as a man unto the Patriarchs to learn them the Faith of his Incarnation in the fulness of time The same Masius cites some words out of one Moses Gerundensis a Jewish Cabalist which I cannot omit says the Jew There is one principal Angel the Prince of all the rest who is the face of God for it is said Exod. xxxiii 14. Behold I will send my presence or my face before thee You know how this agrees with Christ the second Person in Trinity who is called the express image of his Fathers presence Heb. i. 3. The Cabalist goes on The Jews did much desire to see that principal Angel who he was they could not know him by any prophetical vision nor by their Law whereas the face of God can be nothing else but God himself and God promised of him to the people He shall be kind and gentle to thee neither shall he hold thee to the strict and rigid Law but shall deal favourably and mercifully with thee A most manifest description of Christ and his Kingdom but that his Jewish obstinacy would not let him see it This we gain out of it Christ is General of the Angels and they his Army Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth that is of Hosts as we say it and sing it often in our morning Hymn These being under the banner of Christ are the Chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof These did once turn the point of their Sword against us now Christ hath reconciled all things in heaven and in earth and they made this armilustrium this training in warlike ostentation at the birth of Christ to give us knowledge and comfort that they will turn their arms against our enemies That the Kingdom of Satan should be thenceforth brought under and supprest that the strong man should be cast out of his house and spoiled of all his munition Therefore this Canticle of theirs is an Epinicium or Song of triumph for a victory assured or obtained Like the joy of them that divide the spoil says the Prophet Isaiah upon the occasion of the Birth of
Observation of days touching the very labour of the Cattel in the field and what not It was a burden as the Apostles testifie which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear yet there was sweetness in all this because it was done for the Lords sake though the task had been stricter David did well set forth the condition of the Law unto what great bondage it did captivate a man in these words Behold O Lord how that I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid a servant in extremity of thraldom and therefore it was repeated a Servant born for partus sequitur ventrem he must needs be so that was the Son of an handmaid he was born to be circumcised and to be a debtor to the whole Law Such were all they that boasted themselves to be the only freemen in the world because they were the Sons of Abraham Nay Simeon was not only such a Servant as I have hitherto described bridled under the Pedagogy of Moses Law but out of the relative terms of my Text I will shew that he was in greater subjection and aw for how doth he call the Lord here Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Lord that had power of life and death over his Vassal you shall not find it used again in all the four Evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Favorinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Lord of a bondman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a freeman that is an hired servant I have plaid the Critick enough such servants those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were anciently called so not because they were paid for their labour which they did undergo in drudgery but because they were taken by hostility and their lives were forfeited to the Conquerour who had power to slay them yet spared them and resigned them up into their hands that would lay down a ransom for them So Simeon confesseth that God had the power of life and death over him when he might have killed him out of his clemency he spared him Behold a Servant then and such as he was such were all the Jews a man under the yoke of the Law and under the power of death But behold as this day the Deliverer was born and did quite change the copy of our service Christ as God did put the Church under the servitude of the Law but being made man he hath exempted us to the liberty of the Gospel and though we shall all die through that sentence which cannot be repealed yet if we believe that he hath given himself a ransom for us and live unto righteousness we shall not die unto condemnation But that you may know what kind of servants they are that retain to that family whereof God takes the care and administration mind the character of Simeon which the Holy Ghost gives him in the verses preceding my Text for his Calling it is obscurely past over thus there was a man in Jerusalem Galatinus says out of the Rabbins that one Simeon the just was the Master of the great Doctor Gamaliel and that may very well light upon this Simeon Much hath been urged to prove him to be a Priest but to no purpose Salmeron and Tolet alledge that when a child came to be presented to the Lord the Priest took the child out of the arms of his Mother and did not restore him again till he was redeemed for five Shekles of Silver according to the Law Num. xviii but how will they prove that a Child might not light into the arms of some other incidentally as well as into the arms of the Priest Yea but Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary ver 34. that is a Sacerdotal action Nay not always old Jacob blessed Pharaoh and every Prophet is an instrument of Benediction At the last heave says Tolet it is an old tradition of the Church to paint him in a Priestly Vesture an hard refuge when they refer us for a proof to Pictures and not to the Word of God Whether the Priesthood or the Layty may challenge him for theirs I know not one thing I know that he was a just man and waited for the consolation of Israel a pious holy Father a frequenter of the Temple a man uncompounded with the world but this was his righteousness that he lookt for the blessed off-spring God and man whom the Lord would send to redeem his Saints You will say perhaps did not all the Jews expect the Messias What did he more than other men Why herein he did exceed them that they did not look for such benefits from the Messias as Simeon did such spiritual refreshment for the soul and for the spirit Then the common sort of people lookt for Christ afar off he lookt for him just at that time near at hand As Joseph of Arimathea is said to look for the Kingdom of God that is to see Christ incarnate even then in the fulness of time Luke xxiii 51. Again others waited for Christ but carelesly without any earnest affection Simeon even languisht with longing and did passionately desire it St. Austin says that he did continually pray for the coming of Christ and often repeated that of David Psal lxxxv Shew us thy mercy O Lord and grant us thy salvation and then God answered him that he would fulfill his hearts desire Nicephorus tells us a vagrant story that Simeon was reading those words Isa vii Behold a Virgin shall conceive a Son and being sollicitous what that place should mean an Angel appeared and told him he should not die till he had seen that Babe with his eyes of whom Isaiah Prophesied This is certain the Holy Ghost had given him some great assurance of it The Spirit was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 25. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only in him but upon him which signifies extraordinary assistance as when it is said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me Isa lxi You see now with what endowments of heavenly graces Simeon was enricht before he called himself the servant of the Lord. His modesty would give himself no better title yet our Saviour speaks better things of those that believed Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends c. Joh. xv 15. It is not the meaning that we shall ever out-grow the name of servant for even at the day of judgment in the time of our reward it shall be said Well done good and faithful servant But here it is we are all servants by debt and nature the Gospel stiles us friends by Covenant and Composition Before Christ was revealed God dealt with them of the Synagogue as with servants he did not reveal the mysteries of the Trinity of the Incarnation of the coming of the Holy Ghost if he did reveal them to the Prophets it was ex privilegio not ratione status it was by
to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many Unto us therefore the mercy of God is most frank and liberal a gratuitous blessing a good turn as freely bestowed as ever was any so that we who received it conferr'd nothing unto it but on Christ's part he laid down a ransom of a most just compensation Fourthly As all mankind that is flesh and blood in every man and woman is honoured by his Visitation so all without exceptions are beholding to his Redemption Zachary the Priest with all his innocency who is said to have been blameless and righteous before God yet he blesseth God that he was redeemed Job a man so holy that God bears witness to him so upright that the Devil could not except against him yet glad he was to take notice of a Redeemer that was his anchor upon which he stayed himself I know that my redeemer liveth The blessed Virgin no doubt as holy a creature as ever walked upon the earth yet her Spirit rejoyced chiefly in this that she had a Saviour Great is thy benignity O Lord that thou hast given us a joyful recovery from an oppressing pestilence that thou hast given us all things necessary for life and sustenance greater is thy goodness that thou hast given us grace to repent to call upon thee to direct our heart in thy command and to believe in thy saving health but this is the most superabundant blessing of them all that since we are odious and unprofitable in thy sight with all our imperfect righteousness thou hast repaired us again by giving thy self a redemption for us Thrice happy therefore that we know with Job that our Redeemer liveth and comfort your hearts thus he came to redeem that which was lost therefore he will not let that be lost which he hath redeemed Having thus spoken of the benefits of Visitation and Redemption I should leave my Treatise very imperfect if I should not speak of the Receivers very briefly therefore concerning them upon whom all was conferr'd he hath visited and redeemed his people It is certain that the generations of mankind are meant by this word the Sons and Daughters of Adam and none others The Angels are called his servants his ministring spirits his messengers c. but they are never called his people Godly Bishops and Fathers of the Church have drawn out certain streams from the love of Christ by which the Angels should receive some utility St. Austin says his light did shine before them his example did kindle a desire in them to excel in zeal and obedience Bernard says Qui evexit hominem lapsum dedit Angelis ne laberentur that is he whose redemption prevailed to raise up man after he had fallen it confirmed the Angels in grace that they should never fall He brought us out of captivity he preserved them that they never came into captivity but that which these speak of that should turn to the utility of Angels it came from the power and good will of his God-head not by virtue of his mediatorship being made God and man to reconcile those to his Father who had offended The Schoolmen say though he was not Incarnate for the Angels nor shed his Blood for their sakes yet the fruit of his redemption did in some wise redound to them because it compounded the friendship between Angels and men whereas they were our enemies in Gods quarrel before our peace was procured by our Saviour Well this comes to nothing on the Angels part it is neither dignity nor commodity to them but unto us therefore we are the clear gainers by all the profit that my Text brings in he hath c. In a strict phrase we know who they were that had the happiness to be called his people for many ages his covenant was made with the seed of Abraham and with the children of Jacob but when they ceased to know the Lord and to obey him this Covenant was broken and it is very remarkable how zealously God did manifest it that his love was turned away from that Nation Hosea i. he made the children of that Prophet signs and tokens unto them calling his Daughters lo-ruhamah I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel and he called his Son loammi for says he ye are not my people and I will not be your God ver 9. You see in that place that God hath as it were torn the hand-writing wherein the Covenant was made it is cancell'd and it will not profit them That people lost their share in this redemption because they knew not the true redeemer nor minded the true redemption Light came into the world and they loved darkness more than light they knew not their Redeemer the holy One of Israel In the matter of redemption also they were quite mistaken never drawing their care inward to the use of their soul but gaping for a Champion that should fight for them against the Romans so they were neither delivered from the bondage of the Romans nor from the power of the Devil Where then shall we look for his people beloved not in one angle of the world but among all Nations both Jews and Gentiles God spake once and twice says the Psalmist first to the old Church of the Jews than to the new Church of the Gentiles and as many as call upon him faithfully they are his people and he is their King And that you may be sure the Gentiles have their interest in him the first in all the holy Scripture that calls him a Redeemer is Job and Job is a Gentile In every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him says St. Peter Acts x. 35. Nay that which Zachary utters restrictively he hath visited and redeemed his people the Angel as one more indifferent to all parties says I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people So St. John as liberally and largely as the Angel he is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world 1 Epist chap. ii ver 2. says Prosper very well a Father that was very cunning in this point Poculum immortalitatis habet in se ut omnibus prosit sed si non bibitur non medetur The cup of immortality is in his hand to bring all men to eternal life but it will cure none of their sins but those that drink of it To conclude all Christ came especially into the world for his Church sake and more especially in his Church for those that are called according to his purpose he came to purchase unto himself a people zealous of good works They were to be purchased and made his people they were not his people before he came unto them Non veniens suam invenit plebem sed visitando eam fecit if he had not visited them and redeemed them and taught them and given them of his spirit
East to Judea these have many more reasons to eâ—ince that it was no natural Star As first that all other Stars appear unto the world by night this had a most bright complexion as well by day as by night Ignatius says or some in his name that it exceeded the Sun and Moon in splendor And Prudentius says as much for Poets will speak loftily Quâ—e solis rotam vincit splendore ac lumine it went beyond the body of the Sun in light and lustre Secondly It had not the motion of other Stars sometimes rising sometimes setting but guided the Magi in a straight line from Persia or Mesopotamia to Jerusalem Thirdly Other Stars finish their course that is whirle about the Orb in twenty four hours this pass'd but few degrees in many days from the East unto Judea Fourthly This Star disappeared at a moment as soon as ever they were received into Jerusalem and so long as they staid there I believe two or three days till they were just upon departing it shined not again Hoc non agit motus sideris sed virtus plena rationis It must not be the motion of a natural Creature but the vertue of a supernatural finger that was so punctual Yet Gregory Nyssen doth so maintain it to be an usual Star of the highest Orb that he prevents all these objections namely that it came out of the Sphere for a time and hung in the air to do homage to Christ and he that caused the Sun to stand still or go backward for Joshua's or Hezekiah's sake could make a Star to go what motion he pleased for his Sons sake Perhaps such as stick fast to the Peripatetick Philosophy would have the body of the heavens suffer no such violence as a Star to be missing in it for a time And therefore Aquinas against all exceptions concludes it to be a flame of light newly created for this purpose Fuit corpus densum multùm habens de lumine specialiter ad hoc opus ordinatum A solid body fit to receive much light ordained on purpose for this Ministry Whether it was made of some pure celestial matter or earthly concretion that they profess not to know but leave it to him that framed it Nor do they presume to deliver any certainty touching the Figure of it as whether it stream'd like a blazing Star or no yet of all things else they will not permit it to be called a blazing Star for those Meteors so they were wont to call them appear against the Death of Princes not against their Nativities But one Frier among others fell out with his wits that gives us his own fancy for an undeniable truth that this Star was cast out into the Figure of a child bearing a Cross and that it portended his blessed Mother should be called the Star of the Sea Thus he scarce modestly considering the heathen called their Venus the Star of the Sea but I am sure ridiculously What kind of created body it was fitly that 's certain formed for this purpose either we shall know hereafter in the Kingdom of heaven or at least have no curiosity to desire to know it that 's the best resolution Others stray further from the words of the Text and say that the Scripture speaks according to the opinion of the Wise-men who considering the Figure of it and the light it gave call it a Star but indeed it was no Star What then Why the Holy Ghost now appearing in the shape of a Star to manifest to Christ as once in the shape of a Dove when he revealed him at his baptism by Jordan As if nothing were worthy to make this Infant known unto the Gentiles but the Holy Ghost What share the holy Spirit had in this manifestation shall be toucht upon anon Others observing that an Angel told the Shepherds in the field the tidings of the Incarnation do most approve that this light which shew'd as if it were a Star was a very Angel of glory going before the Magi from the East to Jerusalem in a resplendent visible form For Angels are called Stars Rev. i. 20. And again Who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flaming fire Psal civ This opinion hath St. Chrysostom to favour it that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an invisible heavenly vertue taking this shape and figure upon it And Theophylact more clearly in the same key 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine and Angelical vertue appearing in the fashion of a Star And one of our late Writers is more punctual how it should come to pass to be an Angel that when an Angel spake words about the Incarnation of Christ to the Shepherds the glory of the Lord shone round about him and these Wise-men of the East seeing that heavenly and Angelical glory shining afar off apprehended it to be some new Star and withal either by tradition or illumination at the present were taught that it call'd upon them to go and seek the Messias in Judea Yet this last opinion will hardly be made good for when they went out of Jerusalem that light appeared again very near unto them at that time and yet they call it a Star and not an Angel In one word had it been an Angel why should the Evangelist have concealed it that an heavenly Minister conducted the Gentiles to Christ whereas the Scripture tells it without all circumlocution that a multitude of the heavenly Host appeared unto the Shepherds watching over their Flocks by night I incline therefore to the letter that it was a Star or luminous body created for this purpose And marvel not if the Point be so ful of doubts and uncertainties for every circumstance about the calling of the Gentiles is the mighty mystery of God And so much for that Point In the next place we are left as much uncertain about the appearance of the Star as about the substance For the Question is propounded whether it made but one Apparition only to the Wise-men and being seen but once gave them sufficient notice to go into Judea or whether it guided them day by day night by night step by step till they came to Jerusalem The former opinion is not empty of reason the latter likewise stands upon reason and is much more countenanced by Antiquity The Scripture hath left it undecided and so both parts may enjoy their liberty and are fit to be heard They that incline to the first way that the Star at one shining taught the Magi to go into Judea are moved for these causes First because they say we have seen his Star in the East they do not add that it hath conducted us to you in the West and in all likelihood the Evangelist would have spoke of it if the Jews had seen it as well as they And in as great likelihood if such a flaming Meteor had appeared upon that Horizon all the way they went from Persia to Jerusalem the wonder would have been
goodness were remarkable for the quantity that he had an exceeding portion of the Spirit in which regard he was more than a Prophet for the time that he received it it was from the womb yea and in some signs before the womb had opened to bring him forth in which regard he was more than the child of any Prophet these two the Angel hath put together He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mothers womb This was inundatio spiritus the Spirit abounding in him as a River at high-water fills the banks but in the most probable opinion it was not emundatio spiritus it did not cleanse his soul from corruption in every part but it instructed him with vertue more than ordinary to do great works For God forbid but that a man may be said to be sanctified and to be full of the Holy Ghost although the infectious poyson of original sin do still remain in him Which original contagion raigns in the wicked is much abated and kept under in the Just was lessen'd by Gods especial favour more than usually in John but the malignity thereof is not quite taken away till our mortal have put on immortality The reason is very slender that the sin wherein his mother conceived him was taken away before he was born because he seemed to have a passion of faith before ever he saw the light when he leapt at the presence of our Saviour for that might be a transient passion and no doubt it was no more and nothing lets but sin may abide also where the Spirit of grace doth inhabit and continue That which is alledged to prove him to have some defilement like all the Sons of Adam is far more forcible namely where the Scripture says how all are conceived and born in sin Where it lets us know in another place how God hath concluded all under sin that he might have mercy upon all And St. Austin upholds this cause Nemo dici potest renatus nisi priùs sit natus Christ says Unless a man be born again he cannot be the child of God Surely common sense will lead us to this notion a man must be first born before he can be born again and if carnal birth go before Regeneration then no man can be cleansed from all sin before the birth of the womb Besides out of the same reason that St. Austin brings against the Pelagians to prove that the leprosie of Adams sin is in little Infants by the same I will prove it to be in John because the wages of sin is death Christ only excepted who took our sins upon him and the beheading of John is a remonstrance that the meritorious cause of death was in him I mean iniquity To give full measure to this Point and running over Mat. xi 11. Verely says Christ among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist yet he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he I leave the multipliciousness of Expositions upon that Text and betake me to St. Hieroms Aliud est coronam justitiae possidere aliud in acie pugnare The least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John because he was in his race and did struggle against sin and Satan the least in the kingdom of heaven hath his Crown upon his head and is past the fear of tentation So I have shewn that John had some frailties of flesh and bloud in him wherefore most submissively he flies to the true Altar of mercy for a pardon I have need to be baptized of thee Let the Saints of God have their due honour but let the mercies of Christ and the benefit of his bloud shed upon the Cross be dilated to every one that dies in the Lord which was the reason why I prosecuted the last Point And it is according to the humility of John to set forth his low estate when men would exalt him For the more the Embassadors of the Jews did magnifie him with Art thou the Christ Art thou Elias The more did he abase himself saying There is one among you whose shooes latchet I am not worthy to unloose Displiciat sibi unusquisque in se ut totus in Deo placeat Be displeased every man with himself and God will be pleased with thee This was of all comforts most intimate to the Prophets soul that he saw his own need and knew the right way to call for succour And the less hope he had of himself the more hope he had of God O how his hope quickned and exulted when he saw his Redeemer at Jordan whom he had never seen before He saw such comfort coming down with him as the Angel brought to Peter when he was in hold now the prison doors are opened get thee loose from thy sins But what speak I of Angels They had been sent indeed upon messages of joy there had been Patriarchs there had been Prophets in the world these were like fair diamonds whose light sparkles in the eye but gives no warmth to that which is cold But as the Psalmist says Except the Lord build the house the labourers labour but in vain Except the Son of God had vouchsafed in his own person to build the Church we had never reapt the fruit of eternal life John Baptist was an Israelite yet he trusts not to the Seed of Abraham Born under the Law but he knew it were death to rely upon that killing Letter He was a Prophet sanctified from the womb he cares not for that For what had he which he had not received and could he boast then as if he had not received it Finally He was full of fasting austerity preaching all manner of works yet he relies not upon them for when we have done all we can we are but unprofitable servants These are the strongest stays of humane trust that can be built upon yet he flies from them all and runs to the all-sufficient merits of Christ for succour This was a right aim taken Ac si oculo rubricam dirigat uno this was a straight line drawn bringing his hope just upon the Lord and giver of life I have need to be baptized of thee The time hath stopt me from proceeding to the last part which shall be made the beginning of our business upon the next occasion To God the Father c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 14 15. And comest thou to me And Jesus answering said unto him Suffer it to be so now For thus it becommeth us to fulfil all righteousness IF ever such an Argument could be laid before man wherein it might become his wit to dispute it with God I think verily it fell out in this Story which I continue in that Text that I have read unto you I will not except that instance which is able to amaze any Reader when the Lord spake unto Abraham to take his only Son Isaac and
Saints but would not have them forget Zeal Ne dolum habeas in columba demonstratum est ne simplicitas frigida remaneat in igne demonstratum est Guile and circumvention are to be banisht from Christianity if the Dove sit upon your head it will instill simplicity but simplicity may be chil and faint in a good cause therefore if a Pillar of fire sit upon your head it will infuse fervency There was no fire wanting in Stephen the Martyr when he did asperse the Jews with all manner of disdainful reproaches because they were stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart There was no Dove-like simplicity wanting because he prayed for them that stoned him And so far of the second point how aptly the Spirit came like a Dove upon Christ at his Baptism in cloven tongues and in fire upon the Apostles at the Feast of Whitsontide The conclusion of the Text rests now upon this Point that the figure of the Dove sweetly doth admonish us concerning many properties of the Holy Ghost It sate upon Christs head not to enrich him with any heavenly treasure which he wanted before but to derive the manifold issues of sanctification into our heart Solus injuriis se subdidit Dominus sed solus gratiam non quaesivit says St. Ambrose all manner of ignominies and buffetings all manner of injuries upon the Cross our Lord and Saviour took them to himself alone but the coming down of the Spirit that he took not to himself alone I will pray unto the Father and he will send you another Comforter Open your heart wide therefore and this Dove will fill it A dumb creature ye know and may signifie many things and because I am perswaded the Holy Ghost came down in that shape which had the largest number of significations for the advancement of piety therefore I will hold me to my task to collect all that are profitable and omit none And because it bears a similitude which will increase into many applications I will enter upon that occasion first therefore it is animal foecundum it is a bird of a most teaming fertility and whether any bird that flies doth breed oftner I am not certain I believe not many such fecundity there is always in a lively faith Like the trees of Eden always bearing fruit never without some good work either the tongue is praying or the ear is hearing or the heart is meditating or the eye is weeping or the hand is giving or the soul is thirsting for remission of sins and every pious action is like a Pomgranate in Aarons garment full of kernels to betoken it will seed farther and spread in infinitum This is faiths fertility therefore the Spirit harboured himself in the shape of a Dove Secondly The Gall is the drought of cholerical matter in mans body out of that distemper proceed anger revenge and malice but the Dove hath no gall or if Aristotle hath observed it better than others so small a one that it can scarce be perceived So the Spirit loves to inhabit in a mild and gentle soul without wrath and fury The wrath of man worketh not the will of God for his will is mercy and forgiveness The Dove will intreat for Miriam as Moses did and sheild off the revenge of David from Nabals folly as Abigail did and crave pardon of Philemon for his fugitive servant Onesiphorus as Paul did The bruised reed shall not be broken and the smoaking flax shall not be quenched therefore when James and John called for fire from heaven upon the Samaratans their check was Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of as who should say ye have forgot the coming down of the Dove Thirdly The harmlesness of that bird is notable it hath neither beak nor talons to tyrannize over smaller Creatures Sine armis extra sine felle intus the smallest flies or gnats may hum about it and take no harm for it devours nothing wherein there is life There is not I dare pronounce it a more Saint-like ornament in any Christian than a Dove-like innocency Devour not one another by greedy gaining by racking oppression by strict advantages by extortion by treacherous blind informations He that wrongfully fleeceth his neighbour of all his substance to increase his own store would eat the flesh likewise from his brothers arm like a savage Cannibal if he wanted sustenance The spoyls which you have robb'd from others perhaps they shall be found upon thy back at the dreadful hour of judgment but wil our Saviour say thou didst not learn this thou extortioner from the Dove that sate upon me Fourthly The Dove feeds cleanly not upon Carrion like Vultures Corvi de morte pascuntur Crows peck upon dead carkasses but it picks up grains of corn and the purest fruits of the field Me thinks in this propertie I see the Spirit invite us to the Table of the Lord What corn-food so pure as that which our Saviour brake and gave to his Disciples saying Take eat this is my body Non hoc corpus quod crucifigetur c. not as St. Austin glosseth my very body which shall be crucified and my very bloud which shall be spilt that was the gross understanding of the sapernaits to think our Saviour meant his fleshly body The Dove is no devourer of that fleshly body of Christ which he assumed from the Virgin Mary but it satisfies its spiritual hunger with those pure crums of bread which are the Sacrament of his body Fifthly It is impossible to teach a Dove to sing a chearful tune for nature hath ingrafted in it a solemn mourning Gemitus pro cantu and it is the Spirit that puts compunction into our spirit with groans unutterable Sometime hang up the Harps of mirth and sit down and weep You never read that God will honour your joy in his eternal remembrance you are sure he will not forget your mourning says David Psal lvi 8. Thou tellest my slittings put my tears into thy bottle are not these things noted in thy book Yea not only doth he bear them in mind and keep them in register but if some Interpreters erre not he wears them upon his head Cant. v. 2 My head is filled with dew says Christ and my locks with the drops of the night as if he wore our tears says the Paraphrast like drops of Pearl upon his head Dry eyes and unrelenting hearts are the curse of God Ezek. xxiv 23. Ye shall not mourn nor weep but ye shall pine away for your iniquities Sixthly The Holy Ghost useth the wings of Angels the wings of the wind the wings of the Dove a bird of strong flight for the Spirit is swift in operation what he doth he doth it quickly Nescit tarda molimina Abraham ran forth to meet the Angels that drew to his Tent Sarah made ready quickly three measures of fine meal Abrahams young man ran to the Herd to fetch a Calf tender and good Nemo piger est
since he was tempted of Satan Lord let me not fight alone lest my foes prevail against me Thus tentation begets fear and fear begets prayer and prayer calls for succour and heavenly succour will assist us to be conquerours Gregory incloseth it in his meditation Vnde pertimescit homo enerviter cadere inde accipit fortiter stare that tentation which makes a just man distrust he shall fall affordeth him occasion to set his feet upon a sure place Cast not your selves therefore into tentation Brethren but when you are in them endure them with joy and courage as it is said of the Machabees that they fought with chearfulness the battels of Israel so go on with alacrity against those innumerable evils that take hold upon you The just man triumphs with David against the powers of darkness as if he saw them already made subject unto him they are cast down and faln but we are risen and stand upright Pelopidas being environed with an Ambush alas says his Lieutenant we are faln into the hands of our enemies And why not rather our enemies faln into our hands says Pelopidas So let not the name of Satan and tentation be dreadful unto you he hath more cause to fear he shall be repulsed than you have reason to fear he shall prevail since Christ hath blunted his weapons in this conflict The Fathers call that verse the Saints Jubilee after their trial with the evil one Psal lxvi 12. We went through fire and water but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place And therefore I bequeath St. Pauls exultation to your use Thanks be to God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly Christ was tempted to give us an example how to encounter with the roaring Lion and to win the Mastery As a young Learner will observe diligently every ward and thrust that an experienced Gladiator makes so the Holy Ghost hath set down for our advertisement every passage how Christ did turn and wind the delusions of the Serpent These things had need to be scanned beloved we had need to be cunning at our fence for if the Devil sought our overthrow in Christ how much more will he do it in our selves If these things were done to the green wood what will be done to the dry But mark how the man of Gods right hand chased away the enemy mark how he demeaned himself from first to last and you are fortified with the best president that ever the world afforded Ut cujus munimur auxilio ejus erudiremur exemplo says Leo he looks upon our conflicts from heaven and helps the weaker side both by the presence of his grace and by the president of his example Observe him that we might instance in all his ways retiring into a desart from the contagion of the world observe him fasting observe him drawing his shafts out of the quiver of the holy Scripture to maintain his cause and say this is the true Charm to make the evil Serpent break as Daniel in the Apocryphal story choakt the Dragon with lumps of strong confection Christ himself could not receive increase of the Spirit either by being baptized or by being tempted for he had the fulness not of sufficiency but of abundancy before without measure but it was for the proficiency of his members that were under him And therefore the Schoolmen have a disceptation since Christ was much greater than the Angels and did far excel them in grace why he should be tempted of the Devil For we do not read that any of the Angels confirmed in grace were ever tempted One of them answers Quia Angelus non habet membra sub se quomodo Christus habet Christ is head of a body and hath members under him to give erudition unto by his example and so have not the elect Angels Wherefore if the Children of Israel lookt up by faith upon the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness that they might be healed when they were wounded how much more should we look attentively upon Christs Tentation in the Wilderness that we may not be wounded of the Serpent The Fathers in their piety say it is easier to avoid ten sins that compass us round about and have not yet taken hold of us than to recover our selves sound again from any one sin that we have committed It is the Angelical part of Christianity to take out this Lesson Prevent us O Lord from evil in all our doings There is a great deal of the old man and his ragged lining in the best repentance You may learn repentance from Christs Gospel but not from Christ himself but innocency and clearness of life and to be impregnable against tentations not Verbum Christi but Christus Verbum not the Word of Christ but Christ the eternal Word makes you cunning in that by his own example He that knows not the experience of many tentations doth not well know himself says St. Austin Nescit se homo nisi in tentatione discat se But he that knows not the experience of Christs combate will not know how to deal with tentation Fifthly Says Bonaventure very acutely he began in the ministry of the Gospel first to refute the false Doctors before he taught his Disciples the truth first to beat down the Synagogue of Satan and then to build the City of God First root up the Tares and bind them in bundles and then dress the Wheat A Bishop must be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince gainsayers Tit. i. 9. Conviction of falshood requires the greater care and diligence and the great Bishop of our souls begins with that How soon were all divinity learnt What little pains would go to Preaching and Exhortation if it were not that Heresies and Falshoods beget us a most laborious drudgery to refute them Innumerable errors are disseminated that they are like Augias his Stable so foul that they are never to be cleansed It held our Saviour forty days in the Wilderness to untie all the knots of Satan and thus we must build up Hierusalem like Nehemiahs builders with the Sword in one hand with the Trowel in the other Having the Sword of the Spirit to cut in twain the snares of the wicked one you shall the sooner build up the walls of Sion Sixthly And then I take off my hand from this Point Let no man say I am cast out from the face of the Lord because he is beset with daily tentations God had one Son that was free from sin but he hath no Son that is free from the incumbrances of Satan If there be no more in it than an outward occasion cast before you to try if you will bite which is Exterior pulsatio as a man that comes not into the house but stands without and knocks at door This is your praise in the highest respect that your vertue is impenetrable As the Lord sent a blast upon Sennacharib and made him return to his
licet sometimes Go and do harm upon the earth I will permit thee that thou be a lying Spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets Non merito malitiae ejus sed transgressionis humana data est ei hujusmodi potestas says a Schoolman Not for the good that he hath done but for the much evil that we have done He is made a Prince of the world therefore turn unto the Lord and he will quickly cancel Satans Commission A Tragedian upon the Roman Theater repeating this verse Nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es the Auditors did all apply it immediately to Pompey surnamed the Great thou art grown to the name of great by our baseness and servile flattery So we have made our arch enemy a great tyrant by our rebellion and iniquity Therefore do you but cry out De profundo clamavi out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord and the Lord will bind him that hath bound us in our sins in the bottomless pit I have expatiated thus far upon the condition malice number and efficacy of these spiritual wickednesses in high places Now I restrain my self to meditate how at this time Satan chose out Christ for his object Our Saviour was not touch'd upon by the Tentations of the World or of the Flesh but he was tempted of the Devil And St. Cyprian gives a sweet reason for it Honestiùs cum spiritu quà m cum carne luctamur nemo libidinum morsus evasit illaesus A man may preserve his holiness and integrity and yet encounter the Devil No man is troubled with the concupiscence of the World or of the Flesh but he comes off with some detriment You shall know what all these three tentations are severally and then mark if it be not true First For the tentation of the World that is when some unlawful desire is stirred up in a man to wish inordinately some things in the world The world therefore is said to tempt by casting objects in our way which are occasions to make us stumble and fall as the shadow in the water made the Dog let go his piece of flesh says he in the Fable Secondly For the tentation of the flesh that is sometimes taken for all manner of wrong desire that opposeth reason or faith so Idolatry Witchcrafts Heresies Seditions are called the works of the flesh Gal. v. 20. but properly it is our affection towards some sensual things against reason or the Word of God either in the avoidance of some evils of punishment which should be sustained or in coveting some pleasures which should be avoided According to St. Pauls stimulus in carne whereof I spake before Both these you see leave some mark and impression of evil behind them for sin is sin in the first suggestion and could in no wise be competible to Christ who was a Lamb without blemish in all respects And whereas Satan propounded stones to be made bread and all the glory of the kingdoms of the World Divines do rightly distinguish Christ was not tempted of the world or of the flesh Ad ea tamen quae carnis mundi sunt but he was sollicited by Satan to enjoy the pomp of the world and to embrace those pleasures wherein the flesh lusteth against the Spirit Thirdly It remains alone since he would be an High Priest tempted with like infirmities unto us that he should be tempted of the Devil for that assault might happen with all the might and main that Satan could direct it and yet Christ be blameless and undefiled according to that Text The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Joh. xiv 30. That sin doth not follow as a necessary effect from such a tentation of the Devil I prove it two ways 1. From that common rule Peccatum in actu proprio consistit That which is the act of another cannot be called my sin my sin must be my own proper act Therefore if the suggestion of Satan had no success with me it was his envy but the resistance shall be imputed to me for innocency 2. I prove it from another rule speaking only of actual sins Nemo peccat propter id quod vitare non potest No man is put into such a plunge that sin is inevitable that he could not choose but sin Who can hinder it that Satan shall not so much as offer to seduce me I cannot avoid the attempts of the evil Spirit but through Christ I may avoid to consent unto him It is impossible but scandals and tentations should come but woe unto him by whom they come The difference between us and our High Priest is this Satan creeps into us by invisible insinuations he slides into the inward closet of our breast and there begets polluted imaginations libidinous delights wicked designs and intentions There he gets in says Biel though we perceive not any such guest in the inward room Sicut lumen penetrat in profundum aeris ibidem manet As the light is transfused through the air though the air feel it not A fit similitude for the Angel of darkness But the tempter came to Christ not by an inward induction but in an outward visible appearance And his presence or his speech were no more contagious to Christ than when the Sons of God stood before the Lord Satan also was among them and had leave to speak his mind against that holy patient man Job i. 7. I will conclude this Point and begin that which shall end all Jam. i. 13. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man He cannot be tempted with evil therefore that exteriour pulsation of the Devil was no ensnarement to Christ and Chrysologus makes this use of my Text take heed ye repine not at God for the author of evil and tentation they are the works of Lucifer and his Angels When you hear those Fiends make it their office to tempt an office not imposed by their Maker but assumed by their own malice In Deum hoc non imputent homines astris non imputent naturam non criminentur Revile not God throw not the mischief upon nature pick no quarrels with the Stars You see whose work it is heaven and earth are Gods and sin is the Devils God hath made his good Angels to be our custody and appoints them their Provinces how and whom they shall protect Evil instigations impugnations are from the Spirits of darkness only God appoints the order as he shall see fit for the punishment of rebellious ones that have forsaken him Deus ordinatè novit uti malo Evil tentations are the Devils God whose Providence guideth all things doth sometimes restrain and limit them always methodize and direct them Whom in the end of all we call upon by hearty and zealous Prayer to assoil and defend us from our ghostly enemies AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv
corruption that is in us and to be the Sons of God Because there is mention of a good Spirit immediately before my Text that descended from heaven upon him in the shape of a Dove and all the business after my Text concerns an evil Spirit that assaulted him with many tentations therefore the quaere ariseth which of these did lead him into the Wilderness The Syriack determines it plainly Ductus â spiritu sancto he was led by the Holy Ghost And it is of more moment that certainly the Syriack Paraphrase took it from St. Luke Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that understand Grammer and the original Text do easily discern that the same word in the same sentence implies one and the same thing the latter being an effect of the former for being full of the Holy Spirit he was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness And I will parallel it plainly anon with that of St. Paul Acts xx 22 Behold I go bound in spirit to Jerusalem Moreover the Devil approached not unto him till after he had fasted forty days he began to be an hungry for he had no motive to begin his tentations till he perceiv'd he was in the distress of hunger like a weak man Therfore it was not Satan that carried him into this place where he fasted for then the tentation had begun before he had set foot in the Wilderness The case is clear to say no more of the first Point that the Spirit which led him was the influence and impulsion of the Holy Ghost The second thing to be askt is how the Spirit did lead him This can be conceived but two ways Either by inward instigation or removing him suddenly from one place to another which is called outward translocation Each way may be admitted for both are according to Analogy of Faith and both are favoured out of the Greek Text of sundry Evangelists You shall read in St. Luke Chap. iv 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was led by the Spirit which doth imply that the Holy Ghost did inwardly inspire that resolution into him and did assist continually while he abode in the Wilderness You shall read in St. Mark Chap. i. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness as if he had been transported thither in some wonderful rapture And my Text is read thus in St. Mathew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led up of the Spirit The Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sursum to lead up hath either regard to the situation of the Desart which was by far the higher ground in respect of Jordan where our Saviour was before Or else that he was exalted from the earth and carried away by the Spirit through the air untill he came unto that place where he spent forty days in Prayer Fasting and Meditation I dare not contend out of the Scriptures but that the Spirit wrought both ways upon Christ both carrying his body into the Wilderness and instigating his mind No unusual thing in the first sense for the Spirit to transport a body suddenly through the air without the motion of the feet to a place of far distance And although the whole Trinity God the Father the Son and Holy Ghost concur to that action and produce it or perhaps appoint an Angel to be the instrument yet it goes under the name of the Spirit because that Miracle impresseth a strange vertue into a material body as if it were spiritual How Enoch and Elias were translated on high in their bodies I have declared my mind not long since And surely before Elias his last translation into heaven this did befall him often times Obadiah was jealous of it 1 King xviii 13. It shall come to pass when I am gone from thee the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not What Ezekiel reports of himself I cannot say but it was rather an imaginary than a real rapture but thus he Ezek. viii 3. The hand of God took me by a lock of mine head and the Spirit lift me up between the earth and the heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem This could not be imprinted in his imagination but that it was possible to be done really And Gregory meditates well upon it Every regenerate person during the time of this mortal flesh is so lifted up between heaven and earth Adhuc ad superna plene non pervenit sed tamen ima dereliquit His conversation and his heart are not altogether in heaven but they are higher than the earth What a direct instance is that of the Prophet Habakkuk He was carrying food to the Reapers in the Land of Jury and the Angel of the Lord took him by the crown and bare him by the hair of his head and through the vehemency of the Spirit set him in Babylon Neither need this be rejected for Apocryphal since there is an example to match it Acts viii 39. The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip who was then at Gaza and he was found at Azotus which two are forty miles distance after the best descriptions of the Holy Land A Faith that is but linum fumigans a dusky faith and shines not clearly may easily admit this for if the birds can cut the air with their gross wings naturally who will not be perswaded that God can make the body of man more nimble and fit for such a motion by his supernatural power But I marvel at those Expositors who are squemishly conceited against that opinion that they did not frame this objection God doth not use to work Miracles only to shew tricks as one would say no necessity requiring Then cui bono Why might not Christ have gone into the Wilderness step by step What occasion of moment should urge the Spirit to transport him Beloved it was thus far expedient that Christ should vanish and no man know which way he was departed that he might avoid the honour which the multitude would have done him upon that voice which came from heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So in the sixth of St. John after the miracle of feeding some thousands with a little bread and a few fishes Christ perceived that they would take him by force and make him a King therefore he made a sudden departure none knew whither till his Disciples met him walking upon the Sea in a dark night and a great storm Mat. xiv 23. This is reason then sufficient to decline the people who were astonished at the testimony which was given him from heaven that the Spirit snatcht him away in a rapture into the Wilderness Why this interpretation of the word should not take with you I know not but I am sure the next must take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was led by the Spirit that is the Holy Ghost did inspire this heroical
nature Non agunt sed aguntur So in the act of renovation we are not fellow-workers but are led and carried whither the Spirit will And as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. viii 14. 4. We know divine mysteries best by negative expressions and therefore I go on fourthly that this immission of efficacious grace is no violent compulsion upon the will Compulsion I said was a word of hostility and not of favour When God doth his work in us throughly energetically that it shall not fail by a Catachresis it is called a coaction So it is said in the Parable to them that were sent to bring in the blind and the lame Cogite intrare compel them to come in I say this is a Catachresis so Prosper the great director of this way that I take Hanc abundantiorem gratiam ita credimus potentem ut negemus violentam We believe this eminent abundant grace worketh with great power but not with violent compulsion For because of those previous preparations I spake of which make us know and have some desire of heavenly things God saves no man against his will therefore it is no violent attraction for no man is ordinarily saved that hath positive repugnancy though in the momentary act of conversion he doth add no auxiliary co-operancy Nay so far is this most abundant benediction of the Spirit from offering coaction and force to the will that the will of a regenerate man doth instantly shew its complacency and turn it self to God This efficacious motion is infused from God and in the same moment exercised and put into act by man for to that end it was inspired by God that man should produce the act of believing and adhering to Christ This is an Altitude for faith to look upon Voluntas est subjectum istius volitionis causa suae volitionis in eodem instanti I think verily the not marking of this hath caused much debate that the will of man in the act of conversion is the subject upon which God works faith and it self the cause which doth produce the act of faith in the same instant They have my suffrage that say how these two cannot well be divided in time one from another Gods operation converting a sinner to be his Son and the act of believing in that man converting himself to God no object can be for a moment in the will but it must affect it one way or other but in order of nature Gods inspiration is first to be conceived and then mans embracing and assent Thus it appears the agitation of this divine motion is not by force and compulsion but with a sweet and fatherly attraction and the effect is no way rough and against nature but above it For to limit and determine the indifferency of the will is not the destruction of free will but the perfection witness the Saints and Angels who are confirmed in grace that they cannot sin If the Son make you free then are ye free indeed which is thus expounded by the Apostle Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. Fifthly I annex that the powerfulness of this converting grace is not well expressed when it is entitled but a moral perswasion The hearts of Kings and surely of all other men whose power is less free are in the hand of God and he inclineth them which way he will perswasions may labour upon the affections it is the scope of an Orator but the most flexanimous Rhetorician that ever spake cannot be said to have the hearts of his Auditors in his hands that is a phrase out of humane capacity What moral perswasion was there in this Christ called Peter and Andrew James and John and Mathew from the receit of custom and they left all and followed him Shew me any ground here for moral perswasion that is probable allegation of reason Not a word more spoken than follow me or perhaps I will make you fishers of men few words God knows But a mighty efficacious impression was secretly instilled into the heart there it was it must needs be that celestial irradiation which made them leave all to follow Christ whose outward appearance was most contemptible and his society according to the wisdom of the world most dangerous Perswasion can but propound an end and as every man is affected so he likes the end which is offered We that disperse the Word have the Office to perswade you to the Kingdom of heaven but God forbid he should bring us no further The Devil can suggest and perswade likewise and prevail above his Makers perswasions as it appears Gen. iii. therefore ascribe the honour due unto the Lord that his Spirit is more efficacious to produce good than Satan to produce evil therefore his work consists not in perswading but in governing and inclining the heart Finally To dispatch this Point I said this potent and infallible assistance of converting grace doth well consist with the Promises and Threatnings and Exhortations of holy Scripture There are other matters objected against this but at the last you will find all sticks at this knot For after some wrangling in the end it is confest God can restrain the liberty and indifferency of the will and make it bring forth what act he please and it must be allowed that the taking away that liberty to work either good or evil is not the destruction but the perfection of the will The angry question is Whether the removing away that liberty and indifferency from the will in the act of conversion can consist with this order that a man shall be commanded to convert himself to God upon the condition of eternal life and upon the commination of Hell fire Now I must tell you this was the very thing that Pelagius quarrelled St. Austin for saying Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis Give me to do what thou commandest O Lord and then command what thou pleasest But take all my answers like grapes upon a cluster 1. They that make this objection know we are commanded to have the first grace of illumination and they acknowledge it is freely and merely wrought by God Why then do they stumble at converting grace that conversion should be commanded us and God altogether cause it and yet allow it in preparatory grace 2. Doth not the Scripture frame our tongue to speak thus Make you a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. xviii 31. there is a command I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you Ezek. xxxvi 26. there he doth execute in us what himself commanded It is to be magnified and admired not to be disputed of when God will work that good by his Spirit within us which he might in rigour without that extraordinary help exact of us 3. Whither will Divinity be tost about if this be not certain That our just and omnipotent Lord commands
give him the onset this is no God So Jesus grazing about like a poor sheep that could find nothing but stones for fodder the Wolf grins upon him but he proved to be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Impar congressus Achilli and the wild beast of the Forest was repelled by him that led captivity captive the more infirmity pretended on Christs part the more glorious the victory Fames Domini pia fraus est ne caveat tentare Diabolus says Bonaventure This fast and hunger was a pious fraud or stratagem laid by God to draw on Satan to tempt his Lord and Maker and so prove him guilty of a most foul rebellion St. Austin doth so receive this opinion that he rejects all others it may be said says he that fasting came after Baptism even as a good diet is to be kept after health recovered for fear of a relapse but that is impertinent Illius causa jejunii non Jordanis tinctio sed Diaboli tentatio fuit This fast had no reference to the dipping in Jordan but to cozen Satan and make him rashly adventure upon the ensuing tentation So St. Ambrose likewise and almost all the best Authors of the best antiquity It is a fatal requital upon some busie wits that as they are sharp and sore deceivers so when their own turn comes about they are as sorrily deceived Marcus Crassus was one of the cunningst flatterers that ever was and yet no man so easily and so notoriously gull'd with flattery So Satan is the grand Impostor of mankind and yet this grand Imposture was thrust upon him to enter combate with Christ who is invincible and omnipotent And let cheaters and cunning practisers beware that their own shot rebound not upon themselves God hath a retorsion in store a fallere fallentem which will fall upon them in spight of subtilty and circumspection They think they work closely and no harm shall happen unto them I am sure that David prophesies how certainly they shall be stew'd in their own sawce they are taken in the crafty wiliness that they imagined for others in the same net that they hid privily is their foot taken The ways of a Serpent are slippery and treachery shall be tript up with treachery The Lord hath spoken it and the Lord hath done it I have set these three reasons why Christ fasted in the formost rank because they are warrantable Brentius I think mistook when he interserted this for a reason It is a great anxiety or a great sickness which keeps a man from his meat for a few days so as he thought the tentations of Christ were so violent and horrible that for forty days he eat nothing I suppose when I come to shew at what time the Devil began his work I shall make it appear that no tentation was offered to Christ until the fortieth day Howsoever the Author took his aim amiss for although we read that our Saviour endured a most violent conflict in the garden when he sweat drops of bloud in his Prayer the case is not the same in this conflict with the Devil In the Garden he stood before his Father representing himself not as the beloved Son in whom the Father was well pleased but under the imputation and malediction of all our sins and he struggled with his Fathers justice that he might bear our iniquities in his own body upon the cross This was a wrestling indeed to put all his strength and powers in a heat and all his spirits in an agony But to beat down the suggestions of the evil one it put him to no sollicitousness or anxiety never was victory got so easily None of those poysoned darts could stick in him this was the Lamb without spot that could commit no sin but came to take away the sins of the world This error is easily put off the next opinion is maintained more pertinaciously that this fasting was part of that obedience by which he merited exaltation of his Father and in like manner the pennance of fasting is meritorious to the obedient members of his Church Thus they I will examine this strictly by several pieces First to enter into a tedious disputation how or what Christ did merit by his obedience cannot consist with the time and it doth not piece well with my Text. But take a little knowledge of it by this similitude the Angels of heaven have a double operation one that they stand always before the face of our Father which is in heaven another that they are ministring Spirits and do good offices to the Church upon earth as they do always stand before God so they must needs be completely blessed having the substance of their reward but as they assist and help us so they have some kind of increase or as it is called accidental addition to their reward So Christ in the union of the two natures could not but ever behold the divine glory so that the fruition of that eternal happiness was ever conjoyned to him but inasmuch as the dispensation of our redemption was his continual exercise upon earth so that deserved him some additions to his glory in the glorification of the sensible part of mans nature the speedy resurrection of the body his speedy ascension or exaltation into heaven and as some do add that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow or if so be these things were so intrinsecal to the hypostatical union that they could not be parted from it yet thus it may be well agreed Mereri est de debito facere majus debitum These things accrued to Christ meritoriously because that which was due by the hypostatical union was made more due by his humiliation I add secondly that the great abstinence and sweet temperance of our Saviours life was part of his humiliation but for the forty days wherein he fasted I concur with them that maintain this was no part of his abstinence What abstinence could there be says one in this miraculous act when all that while he had no provocation in his appetite to long for meats no more than the Angels have who taste no corruptible things The faculties of nutrition call'd for no sustenance God repressed the appetite says Cajetan from feeling the provocations of hunger and thirst even as he suppressed the devouring quality of the fire that it should not burn the three constant Saints that were cast into it I make it my third reply though Christs obedience in his humiliation was meritorious yet there is so much disparity between his obedience and ours that men can take no measure of it I do not only mean in this difference which is so well known that he did exactly fulfil all the Law of God and for our part in many things we sin all There is another thing which puts as wide a difference between us Christ obeyed his Father because he would we because we must He obeyed without any terrour pronounced to compel
that can turn stones into bread is it not as easie for him to turn hunger into satiety And had this been a good Angel as he was I believe the worst of the bad should he instruct Christ what to do Sus Minervam Who hath been the Counsellor of the Lord Says the Prophet Quid illi consilium tuum cui sua sufficit virtus What Spirit can teach him wisdom who giveth wisdom to the simple and hides these things from the wise and prudent Now argue if there be any thing but infidelity to ask such a sign for the Devils sake The working of a miracle is ever destinated to win some to the faith that were weak before or upon some other divine reason to promote Gods glory Where the Fathers glory could not be advanced by signs and wonders the Son kept his miracles to himself No sign was wrought before Herod though he did much desire it for his heart was set upon perverseness to withstand the power of God And Christ did not many mighty works in his own country because of their unbelief And so says St. Cyprian it had been against all rule and equity to have wrought a miracle in the Desart Coram inemandibili Diabolo before that Fiend of hell who is incorrigible and uncapable of faith He that can turn water into wine can turn stones into bread but the Devil is so obdurate in malice past all grace and repentance that the very stones in the street shall sooner confess that Jesus is the Christ than he will give glory to the Living God Chrysologus plays his part again upon this Point You that haunt the Wilderness to tempt the Son of God what would you do with a sign from heaven Cui nihil subvenit ad salutem cui totum restat ad paenam cui signa proficiunt ad ruinam Nothing will help thee nothing will resore thee All the good that is done in thy presence shall turn to thy punishment All the miracles that ever were wrought shall make for thine everlasting torment And so I have shewed whether the Tempter called for stones to be made bread for Christs sake or for his own sake every way it was unjust every way it was the note of Infidelity So far I have taught you from the first Point that the scope of this first temptation was the sin of Infidelity and from thence I have illustrated that above all other mischiefs Satan suggests deceitful perswasions that God careth not for us and labours to dissolve the confidence which we have in God Now this is the sum and head of the second general part of the Text that we must strive to take away the Devils I F this spirit of distrust and have affiance in Christ that we are the Sons of God And because this Doctrine comes all to one pass with that which is called certitude of Salvation a Doctrine which in my judgment is abused very often both by them which defend it too rigidly and by them that oppose it totally therefore I will institute a methodical tractate upon it in these five members 1. That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful touching the remission of their sins in this life 2. The Holy Ghost doth beget this assurance in them by causing them to examine what good fruits they have produced already from a lively faith and do resolve to produce thereafter 3. This comfortable assurance is not the formal act of justifying faith but an effect which follows it 4. This assurance is not alike in all that are regenerate nor at all times alike 5. No mortified humble Christian must despair or afflict his heart because scruples arise in his mind so that he cannot attain to a strong confidence or assurance in Christs mercies He that can attain but to a conjectural hope or some beginnings of gracious comfort shall be blessed before God who will not quench the smoaking flax And upon all these I will be very plain because it is a necessary Treatise for the weaker capacities You shall hear the first conclusion again and the proofs upon it That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful that their sins are remitted There are two degrees of justifying faith the one is a lively assent to the general promise of the Gospel that Christ came into the world to save all those that believe The other is the application of it to a mans self that he is thine and my Saviour By the former we are justified before God by the latter we are perswaded in our conscience and in some measure assured of our justification The former degree is the work of the Spirit regenerating us the latter is the Spirit of adoption sealing it to us after we have believed Every man is bound upon pain of damnation to have the first degree of faith to give assent to the Promise of the Gospel And the second degree may be attained unto out of the former and ought to be endeavoured for the great increase of our love and obedience to God and for our own most singular comfort yet it is not commanded to all the faithful upon pain of damnation Many times a true justifying faith but a weak and imperfect faith cannot get so far therefore I said the Holy Ghost did beget this assurance in some measure in many of the faithful I had said false if I had said in all And I called it you must mark an humble assurance for first it hath many quiverings and trepidations many symptomes of fear and trembling no rash and audacious presumption Secondly It grows out of the acknowledgment that for sundry iniquities we deserved the condemnation of the Law For they that feel not their misery will neglect their misery and never care to apply Christ unto themselves But the humble will seek the Lord and rejoyce in his saving health and then they have not only an intellectual but a fiducial assent to the Promises of the Gospel and that fiducia or assent doth arise out of the very nature of true faith yet I do not say that true faith in all that have it doth put forth this act as it ought and as it may but every faithful man hath such a foundation upon which he may build an actual assurance if he will rightly consider his own state to which God hath called him the Lords custody over him and the faithfulness of the divine Promises The efficient cause of this fiducial perswasion I said was the Holy Ghost and I am sure I have it from our Saviour Joh. 14.20 at that day that is after the sending of the Holy Ghost you shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you Can any thing be plainer Indeed general Promises are particularly applied by the Sacraments which seal unto us the bloud of Christ that it was shed for the sins of this and that
and one mans cloathing and quite beside your expectation you shall not leave a blessing with this substance but a great curse upon your Posterity A little which the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly Satan's wily Projections were ever fatal to the undertaker but justice and righteousness shall have peace and comfort in this life and eternal glory in the life to come AMEN THE NINTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 4. But he answered and said it is written Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God WHatsoever Satan said before was not worthy of an answer and if our Saviour had held his peace as once he did when he was examined before Herod that wicked motion had deserved it Command that these stones be made bread But an answer is given in these words which are my present Tractate partly to wrack the Tempter with suspicion partly to demonstrate how weak all our objections are when God comes to answer them and partly to make the Church partaker of his wisdom that his sayings may be our Meditations from day to day and from hour to hour when we are met together in these holy Assemblies First The answer left the Tempter most irresolute and without all satisfaction Satan was loath to seem to doubt of Christ and would not ask Art thou the Son of God And yet he laboured with all cunning to discover it Therefore Christ keeps him off that he was never the nearer to find him out by this answer Dominus sic fallit ut vincat sic vincit ut fallat says St. Ambrose the Lord deluded his enemy that he might overcome him and overcomes him by strength of Scripture that he may still delude him He could have cut him off with a word saying As the Father hath life in himself so the Son hath life in himself what need this transmutation then of stones into bread to satisfie my hunger but he would not rejoyn explicitely one way or other either I am the eternal Son of God that want not bread or I am a man of much infirmity but indefinitely thus pick what he could out of it Man shall not live c. Secondly This answer declares how easily Gods wisdom will overmatch the subtilties of men since Satan himself could not maintain his own objections So the Pharisees the Herodians the Sadduces all were put to silence in the Gospel that they durst ask him no more questions and yet many men flatter themselves that although they have been revengeful malicious unjust extortioners yet let them have a fair and a just hearing at Gods Tribunal and they would be able to justifie their own Integrity according to the like which Job said Chap. xxiii 3. O that I might come even to his Seat I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me Beloved let such conceits fall off and vanish God is not mocked his wisdom is not dazled with inventions and excuses entrust your cause with Christ to plead it for you and be sure for your own part you are not able to answer one for a thousand One question and almost one word made him speechless that came to the Marriage not having on a wedding garment Christ answers to the Tempter in this place to instruct us that all his sayings are solid irrefragable and unanswerable Thirdly This answer which confounds Satan confirms the Church with manifold knowledge as namely in these several Points into which I will distribute the Text and they are three Sedes argumenti applicatio argumentum ipsum 1. The seat of the Argument or the place from whence it is taken It is written written in the holy Scripture written in the Law of Moses and particularly written in a certain place of Deuteronomy which entreats of Manna that came down from heaven 2. The Application of it is to Christ our Lord man shall not live by bread and therefore this is appliable to him as touching his humanity 3. The Argument or Text it self hath these four Doctrines three directly the last by inference 1. That man is not necessarily bound to ordinary sustinance man shall not live by bread alone 2. God can nourish man by every word that proceedeth out of his mouth that is every way that it liketh and pleaseth him 3. Nothing can nourish unless God bless it for man liveth by the word that proceedeth out of Gods mouth that is by the will of God 4. There is another life for man to look to beside this life which is sustained with bread so St. Cyprian and others collect upon the words put together Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word c. But he answered and said it is written So his responsion was not the invention of man but the very Oracle of God This was Romphea in ore out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword Rev. i. 16. This is the Sickle which cuts down all the Tares which Satan sows among the good Wheat this is the Ark of God before which all the Idols of the Philistines fall flat to the ground this is the Trumpet of Joshuah whose noise overturneth the Walls of Jerico How can our tongues sufficiently praise the holy Scripture which teacheth us to speak not with the eloquence of man but with the tongues of Angels Take it from us and we may say as Samson did if his Locks were shaved away we shall be weak as other men nay quite unable to open our lips against the Philosophy of the world but give us that weapon of the Spirit in our hand and we shall tread down our foes as the dung under our feet Satan himself cannot stand before this charge Scriptum est it is written Dimittit aures bellua centiceps Such Charms such Musick is able to make the Serpent burst in pieces We are penn'd up into the Scriptures as into our sheepfolds while we contain our selves within them there we are safe the Wolf may howl but he cannot bite us There we are in the Tower of David where we cannot be assaulted but as David acknowledgeth If my delight had not been in thy Law I should utterly have perished in my trouble Wherefore my Beloved make the holy Scriptures some part of every days business read them and as you read pray to God to interpret them read them with humility that when God sends an Interpreter you may not cavil and be wise in your own conceit but understand them read them with continual diligence that one day may teach another and your elder years may be wiser than your younger Finally read them with patience that such things as are obscure may not deter you but hold on and proceed and you shall find somewhat clear that it will dispel the mists of obscurity Consilio spiritus
make us his instruments to defile the holy Temple Gods glory is put to the greatest scandal and reproach And this is brought to pass so many ways that it is plain to see there hath been a most witty complotter in the treachery 1. When any Prelate is so puft up that he thinks himself too great to be a door-keeper in Gods house but will be higher than all the Church and seâ— on the top of the Pinacle who sitting in the Temple of God exalts himself above all that is called God 2. The Temple is defiled by setting up Idols in the Courts of our heavenly King even in the midst of thee O thou Sanctuary of the Lord. 3. By offering up unclean Sacrifice either false Doctrine or impious Prayers or superstitious Worship or corrupted Sacraments 4. When men set their foot within the sacred Tabernacle with carnal thoughts with worldly imaginations with no zeal or attention 5. To bring any prophane work any secular business within those walls which are consecrated to the name of the Lord. This is that Camel which the Jewish Priests did swallow when they strained at a Gnat. For they told our Saviour that he brake the Sabbath he did not keep the Law but they themselves did licence and allow the prophanation of the Temple by bringing Merchandize into it selling of Sheep and Oxen and changing money and you know how Christ revenged it even with anger and indignation I must borrow time to tell you how Christ did bestir himself in the reformation of that abuse more than in any thing else throughout all the Gospel For first he corrected that fault twice over in the second of St. Johns Gospel in the beginning of his Ministry and Mat. xxi toward the end of his life anon before he suffered You see what an obstinate evil it was which would not be redressed for one admonition 2. When he came to Jerusalem there were many other faults flagrant crimes wherewith the place abounded yet the first thing he reformed was the abuse of the Temple 3. He would not tolerate the least prophanation wink at no fault for he would not permit that any should carry so much as a Vessel through the Temple Mar. xi 16. 4. He reformed this trespass not only by preaching and quoating Scripture against it but by a scourge and by violence by word and deed And surely if words will not serve God will bring blows to maintain the reverence of his house that it be not contemned What a dissolute carriage it is to see a man step into a Church and neither veil his head nor bend his knee nor lift up his hands or eyes to heaven Who dwels there I pray you that you are so familiar in the house Could you be more saucy in a Tavern or in a Theater This is no other but the very gate of heaven says Jacob when he had but a vision of God and his Angels Brethren renounce the Devil let him not alienate your reverence from that place which God hath specially appointed for the saving of your soul Holiness becometh thine house for ever O holy blessed and glorious Trinity AMEN THE ELEVENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 6. And saith unto him If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down For it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone IT is altogether unknown to man when a sin comes merely from the suggestion of his own heart and when it comes from the tentation of the Devil But in one case eminently above many others it is most likely that there is some hellish provocation when out of good principles and religious grounds our heart is quite turned out of the way to rebell against the Lord. Ely the High Priest had a tender fatherly affection Who could turn this wholsom water into poyson to make him wink at the vices and dissoluteness of his Sons but Satan David was a thankful Prince and loved to remember how God had multiplied his favours upon him yet upon this stock grew that evil fruit to number the people Why the Text says Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel King Josias was an enemy to the Heathen that knew not God and he that deludes good motions made him so irreconcilable that he would fight against Pharaoh Necho to his own destruction and harkened not to the word which came from the mouth of God Certainly the hand of Joab was in this and in all such fallacies where a good fountain is made to send forth sweet waters and bitter as to sin because grace abounds to neglect publick Prayer because faith comes by hearing to cark and care too much for the world because a man would provide for his Posterity And this master-wit of Hell laid this bait to make our Saviour swallow it in this present tentation For Christ being demanded to make bread of stones he replies that he was confident in his Fathers Promises Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Are you so confident Thinks the Tempter and upon this confidence I will thrust you on Have you appeal'd to Cesar And to Cesaer you shall go It is true that you say God is very gracious and will not destitute you in any want or danger you have answered very well therefore cast your self down from this Pinacle and be confident still God will look to it that you shall be supported This is the very train discovered and made as clear unto you as the light of the Sun In the former tentation he would drive Christ to unlawful means if that take not because he trusts in God then trust in him still and refrain from the use of things lawful so St. Austin distinguisheth that his first fallacy was Deum defuturum ubi promisit that God would not help where he had promised to assist and the second fallacy which now I am to handle is Deum adfuturum ubi non promisit that God would help where he had not promised to assist Where many things are to be found out in one verse they must be divided severally and in this order I take it to be expedient 1. Here is Satans demand Cast thy self down 2. Upon what supposition he demands it Why if thou be the Son of God 3. Upon what authority authority enough for it is written 4. Upon what assistance why the best in the world whether it is the supreme or the instrumental The supremeis God He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and the instrumental are the most glorious powerful and excellent creatures in all the world the whole Host of Angels in their hands they shall bear thee lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone These are such particulars as the wisdom of the Spirit hath left us
Aphorisms briefly upon it As Solomon says The righteous may be bold as a Lion We have such to fence us of whom more may be said than of the valiant Israelites one of them shall chase a thousand and two of them shall put ten thousand to flight Nedum Angeli sed Christus ipse says one if thou think not them enough you are under the tuition as well of Christ as of his Angels Yet secondly mans life must needs be full of enemies that even the Cherubims of heaven are so sollicitous of our safeguard Non tam magna pro nobis in coelo in terrâ sollicitudo gereretur c. Bernard doth often rouze up himself to think that God sees we are in more danger than we our selves can perceive because he provides such an Army to be on our side against all hostility Thirdly Si homines requirant Angelorum auxilium necesse est ut suum officium faciant You must look to your own quarter and the Angels will look to theirs Set your affections upon heaven and your hopes upon Gods protection yet do not separate the wit of the Serpent from the innocency of the Dove It is the best sign that the powers of heaven are watchful over a man when that man is watchful over his own safety But where God is angry with a sinner he makes the good Angels cast him out of their hands to be trodden down of his enemies When the Lord was angry with the Synagogue of the Jews which he calls his Vineyard to which he had been wanting in no grace and favour Go to says he I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof Isa v. 5. Auferam sepem ejus i.e. Angelorum custodiam I will take away the fence of the holy Angels from it and leave it to be trodden down And why hath he committed us to the tutelary help of Angels Not to adore them for Christ says within three verses following Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Nor to pray unto them for there is neither Pattern nor Precept to authorize it but to prevent us from dangers to assoil us from our Ghostly enemies to bear us up in their hands lest at any time we dash our foot against a stone He shall give his Angels charge and they shall bear thee up This Commission granted to a Plurality of Angels doth note that one Angel is not here deputed to a man but all to every man Stapleton and others of that side do rather strive to raile Calvin than to dispute him out of this opinion Set aside the conjectures of many ancient learned Authors there is not one tittle in Scripture to reprove what Calvin says Figmentum de binis cujusque geniis profanum est It is but a prophane excogitation to say that every man as soon as he is born is molested with the impugnation of a bad Angel and is committed to the defence of a Good against the former part that every man hath one evil genius to oppugn him how improbable it is since we read that Legions of evil Spirits have entred into one man And that bad men have their good Angel Guardian where is their evidence to prove it Nothing but because it was an old Platonique rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one good and bad hath his Daemon or his Genius like a Page to wait upon him and then the Schoolmen do thus divine that bad men had need of a good Angel to wait upon them Ne noceant aliis quantùm possint to debar them that they may not do so much hurt as they would But that every good man hath his Angel Guardian I confess is more generally maintained and yet not without this diversity some say he is deputed to every good Christian after he is baptized some say to every Elect one from the first moment of the Nativity and so say all that follow St. Hierom magna est dignitas animarum ut unaquaeque habet ab ortu nativitatis Angelum deputatum Yet again these Opinionists jossle for some quote Austin that an Angelical power is deputed to tender every visible thing in this World In Rev. xiv mention is made of the Angel that had power over the Fire of another Rev. xvi that had power over the Water as if every Element had its Angel Guardian But if every visible Element and every material thing be under the custody of an Angel that reason of Aquinas which all the Schoolmen suck up for the guardiancy of all mens souls must needs fall to nothing But thus he Men are incorruptible not only in the Species but also every one in his particular form Now he infers the divine Providence is conversant chiefly about incorruptible things therefore that Providence doth as much tend one man as an whole Species of Beasts and Plants therefore one Angel is allotted to every one man as to every one whole kind of other things to perish Thus you see there is no agreement but rangling about this Point because it hath no foundation in Scripture therefore Lombard though some of his fellows pinch him for it concluded very wisely that it is to be doubted whether every man hath his particular tutelary Angel In the search of holy Scriptures this Text remits us to believe that the Angels compass us about by troops and multitudes We find Lot his Wife and his two Daughters taken out of Sodom by no more than two that came unto them We read of innumerable Chariots in the Mountains that did appear to succour Elisha and his Servant There is but one Angel set over Greece and one more over Persia Dan. x. they that contend for the opposite either name one verse Mat. xiii which speaks not of one but of many Angels Their Angels do always behold the face of your Father which is in heaven or that other refuge out of a Text many ways expounded Acts xii 15. When the Maid affirmed how Peter knockt at door whom all that were present supposed to be in prison they said it is his Angel Theophilact and Bede say they meant it was his soul he being newly slain by Herod as they feared and suspected Some holy Fathers otherwise of great learning did dream that the souls of good men departed did visit their Friends which when Vigilantius denied St. Hierom very harshly Quare martyres post sanguinis effusionem tenebuntur inclusi Why should the souls of the Martyrs be lockt up and not permitted to wander abroad A question of more anger than reason Well if the words be not to be construed as if it were the soul of Peter but a very Angel yet Cornelius à Lap. dares to call this Angel Michael the great Prince and surely they will not say he was the particular Guardian of St. Peter Strange excursions are made upon it how the Angel Guardian will personate
a man so verily that every man shall take it to be the very man the same Jesuite tells how a Priest being asleep his Angel celebrated Mass for him and that an Angel fought for another Souldier while he was at Mass Among the Miracles of Ignatius Loiola reported at his Canonization this was affirmed that he being at Rome did appear unto one at Cullen and transact business with him but whether he at Cullen that told this were drunk or sober it is not reported A thousand gulleries and fictions have been raised from the conceit of the Angel Guardian and all grounded upon this that the people within said Peters Angel was without Now to end this Point and to cut off all credit from that Text it must needs be most ignorantly and inconsiderately spoken for an Angel doth not use to knock at door and desire to be let in who is a Spirit and could come in though the doors were shut Coronidis vice to cast up the whole account of this Text suffer me to add both the intension of the Angels care over us and the extension and so I will conclude The intension consists in this that they will put their hands between us and harm in their hands they will bear thee up In wnich figure we alass are compared to Infants they to Nurses or Mothers that will keep us in their own arms to save us from falling Surely they will not stick to carry so mean a similitude for our sake for that you may not dread Gods Majesty he compares himself but to a Hen that clucks her Chickens under her wings Mat. xxiii The Chicken which is under the wing though it be very safe yet it is out of sight but that which is held in the hand the eye will be carefully cast upon it therefore this is a phrase of as tender pity and compassion as almost can be devised Were it in this stile they shall admonish you of dangers at hand it were a loving part but we are admonished of dangers every week and yet fall into the snares of Satan Did the consolation run in this form they shall go before you or compass you about they shall look to your going out and coming in it would deserve to have Gods name blessed for that appointment yet though Angels go before us unless they will carry us out of our own ways we shall run into the broad path that leadeth to destruction Well admit it were as God said to Israel I have born thee on Eagles wings and brought thee to my self Exod xix 4. Yet it comes short of this love The Eagle carries her young ones on her back but to lift up a thing upon the shoulders is to make it a burden and not a delight that which is born in the hands is nearer to the bosom ever in remembrance most tenderly provided for therefore out of infinite love Judah was comforted I will grave thee in the palms of my hands Isa xlix This is the intension of their care which is yet amplified by the extension the Angels will support you and hug you in their hands lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone Burno Herbipolensis is more figurative in his Exposition than the very figure of the words Says he the Law was written in Tables of stone but these Guardians will take care that you offend not against the Law He might as well have said and better they will provide that you sin not against Christ who is called a Stone against which who so offends it will grind him to powder but literally we may confide that every part of our body is under the charge of Gods holy Ministers not only our head but our feet yea the very hairs of our head are numbred And this difference is prudently noted between those evils from which all good men shall be awarded First They shall tread the Lion and the Dragon under their feet in which all infestious dangers are understood of malicious persons that devise to hurt the Innocent then it is further promised they shall not hurt their foot against a stone that is no mischances or misadventures shall fall upon them So Job hath connexed them Chap. v. 23. Thou shalt be at peace with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee That is neither meditated mischiefs nor ill luck shall overthrow thee thy life shall be kept charily from thy professed enemies yea thy very foot from all disastrous contingencies This is the Lords doing and his Name be glorified both for his own providence which is always about our paths and about our bed and for the charge and tuition of his holy Angels To God the Father c. THE THIRTEENTH SERMON UPON Our Saviours Tentation MAT. iv 7. Jesus said unto him it is written again Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God THis is the second repulse which was given to the Tempter who had disputed as he thought upon good supposition If thou be the Son of God Upon good authority For it is written Upon good assurance For he shall give his Angels charge concerning thee This was an Argument subtilly compact together and yet it is fully answered Beloved I reduce it to this head of Admonition when the wicked have done all they can and disguised their plots with as much safety as wit can invent yet the Lord will find a flaw in their contrivance and say here I will make a breach here I will enter in As Ahab was admonish'd of his death by the Prophet Micaiah if he went to Battel against Ramoth in Gilead yet he thought to meet with no harm in spight of the Prophesie for he had buckled his Armour about him from head to foot but a certain man drew a Bow at a venture and smote him between the joynts of the Harness that he died The Lord directed the mans Arrow to that place where Ahab lay open to death though he thought he had been impenetrable Goliah came down to fight with any Champion that Saul should send against him with his Shield of Brass his Coat of Male his Greaves of Brass his Helmit of Brass and so impudent he was in defying God that I may say his Forehead was of Brass This Giant that thought himself invulnerable all over David smote with a stone in his brazen forehead that he died I could be luxuriant in Examples I will speak but once more The Jebusites were within the strong hold of Zion and they boasted it could not be taken therefore they derided David but David found a way to send up his men by the Gutter and smote the Jebusites they were surprized at one weak passage which was not fortified and never dreamt of it I lay all this down at the door of their conscience that dare venture upon any conspiracy or injustice if they think their work so strong that it will hold out all detection I tell you when
Such another example is scarce to be found as that of David whose Cup was filled brim-full God magnifies his bounty towards him by the mouth of Nathan I gave thee thy Masters house and the house of Israel and Judah 2 Sam. xii 8. yet these were but the narrow Territories of the Land of Canaan far from this insatiable Possession All these things will I give thee The prodigal Child in the Parable though a most rank consumer yet this evil Spirit had not entred into him for he desired no more of his Father than the portion of goods which fell unto him But the Devil cuts out no portions for his Minions he disciplines every one of them to aim at all that can be gotten to be like a rouling Snow-ball ever gathering and growing bigger and bigger Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari There is no such bridle as shame and modesty in the heart of him that makes haste to be rich I say he wants the bridle of shame I do not recal my word Either cruel Usury or pestilent Couzenage or base Corruption or sordid Penuriousness or unchristian slackness in Charity some of these must concur to raise up a mountain of Wealth from a mean beginning When Sylla that powerful Roman made very witty Apologies for those evil courses he took to oppress the Commonwealth one choak'd him with an unanswerable Objection that he could not be througly good that had scrap'd so great wealth together and was born to nothing God will bless and reward industry with gainful success that is to be presupposed and granted for the encouragement of those that are diligent in an honest Calling but these boundless gatherers that would know no end of getting have their Bank in the Devils Mart for it is he that bids them carry more and more that they shall never have load enough All these things will I give thee St. Austin very truly lays the crime of Covetousness not upon that abundance which a good rich man hath but upon the corruption of his will and upon that which he would have Avaritia est esse velle divitem non jam esse divitem It is no breach of Gods Commandment to be rich but to long and thirst for more They that will be rich says St. Paul fall into temptations and snares and many hurtful desires Dives qui fieri vult citò vult fieri Let fortune come in quickly though the Devil lead it by the hand Beware of these swelling purchasing imaginations that are ever reckoning upon more confine your heart to moderate contentation if you will live in peace Nay St. Chrysostome says the less you desire and want the less you shall live like a mortal man and the more like an immortal Angel Quanto paucioribus indigemus tanto magis Angelis appropinquamus But above all remember that God directs the soul to be contented with a little the evil Spirit would have you ingross the whole earth and perhaps he could suggest devices how a luxurious man might be able to spend all the wealth in the world if he had it but immense Projections for riches come from the motion of the evil one All these things will I give thee In the next place let us declare against these words of Satan that his gift is not more spacious than it is unjust He presents before Christ the whole earth and the fulness thereof and our Saviour look'd upon all those things not with the eye of concupiscence but as a Physician looks upon a disease without any passion of infirmity But Satan would be his very gracious Benefactor and put all into his hands Would he undertake it But what should become of that portion and possession in which every man was estated The poor man that had but one Ewe Lamb should he lose that Naboth that had but one field of his Fathers Inheritance should he be turned out of that Should the very Nervs of all Justice be crackt in sunder Meum and tuum be banish'd out of the world to make up this Donative This is like the condition which Saul required of David he would make David his Son-in-Law if he would give him two hundred fore-skins of the Philistins David must not only provide him that which was none of his own but be the destruction of two hundred men to give Saul a Present So Satan would rob the whole world to make up an excessive liberality A Legerdemain which he devised from the beginning to give that which was none of his own as when he gave Eve the forbidden fruit which God had both planted and reserved And this is the most tyrannical and unconscionable injustice in the world to wring and extort from one and to cast it away as wastefully and profusely upon another This was the familiar sport which the ancient Comaedians made it was sport with them that knew not God for a lustful young man to cozen his own Father and lavish it all upon some sumptuous Harlot This is the most remorseless prodigality of our own times to steal with one hand and to scatter it away most excessively with the other How many ungodly borrowers take up upon credit that which they can never restore and leave the Lender in the lurch to his utter undoing and this wicked shift is made not through necessity to satisfie nature but to be bountiful to such Ravens as pick from him upon his Creditors cost An incloser of Commons that draws out his sin the longer by depopulating the whole Village turns forth a swarm of poor People to the mercy of the wide world by whose ruins he advanceth his own Posterity Aristotle says that a Prodigal that gives away nothing but his own and draws himself dry by such neglectful spending is rather a fool than a vicious person but that Prodigal abounds as much with viciousness as the other doth with folly that cares not from whom he takes that he may be giving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is vicious indeed for 't is the Devils vein of giving saies my Text he considers not this mans right or that mans in his goods and chattels or what belongs to the Widow or Orphan absolutely all these things will I give thee Ina and Offa and some other Saxon Kings that reigned in this Island but they especially were the greatest Patrons to this Church of England that ever it enjoyed either before or since their dayes perhaps it would pose any Histories in the world to shew the like Yet I must tell you that the Bishop of Rome hath been a great giver to Religious Maintenances in this Kingdom and which is very strange it cost him nothing he was never the poorer For he gave away the greatest part of the Tythes in the Kingdom from the Parsonages and preaching Ministry to maintain contemplative men as they call'd them in Abbeys and Monasteries This was the first spawn of Impropriations now this is giving
were shewn and used in several Kingdoms of the World Enough of this wherein I have laid down my mind briefly for the satisfaction of understanding Auditors upon occasion that Christ cited these words not barely as in the Hebrew but with an addition yet a clear and a natural addition as it is in the Greek Translation Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Now to the positive Doctrine Him only his name can stand with no other name and no other name can stand Collegue or Partner in his worship it is an embasing of gold to joyn any other mettal with it how much more to say this Sacrifice or this Altar this Temple or this sacred Service this Vow or this Prayer shall be divided between the true God and some other supposed Deity Did not He make man Lord only of all the Creatures and him only after his own image and similitude Did He not take mans nature only upon him nusquam Angelos He was not of the nature of Angels but of the Seed of Abraham Did He not redeem us only and not the evil spirits when we were as far lost as they Finally are they not our bodies only which He will raise from incorruption and not the beasts What all this for us and for us only and yet do we halt between him and other Gods as if we had some pious worship for him and some for whom we think good beside We are so free of our Religion forsooth we cannot keep in bounds to him only It would move our laughter to see a weak-brain'd man pay half his debt to his Creditor and the other half to one where he never stood engag'd if this be ridiculous then to pay our devotion to any thing in heaven or earth which we owe all and entire to the God of heaven and earth is both scornful and idolatrous ille mihi non alteri ego illi non alteri well concluded of Bernard He hath made us Christians alone his chosen people therefore He shall be my King to whom alone I will pay worship and honor and adoration The wise men of the East that came a long journy to worship Christ and laid down the offering of their homage at his feet never opened their treasures that we read to give any Present to Herod if you give a religious tribute to any other King but to this alone He disdains your payment All or none like the true Mother of the Child and better give him two mites if two mites be all we have than give him a talent with Ananias and Saphira if a talent be but half our inheritance St. Austin asks why the Romans worshipt all kind of Idol Gods they ever heard of but never worshipped the true God He answers because the false Gods after the good fellowship of the world loved company and would permit any to be partners with them in adoration the true God would be left out if there were any but himself for it is against the nature of him that is infinite almighty incomprehensible to be equall'd or matcht in any thing Religious honour and service is that retribution which a reasonable creature makes for the blessing wherewith it is blessed Who is it that blesseth us with all manner of store is not that easily answered and it is as quickly rejoyn'd then let him only be worshipped If there be any other created power to whom you impart religious veneration let him help you if he can when you stand in need and go to the Gods whom you have chosen to seek for succour Worship him all ye Gods says David Psal xcvii 7. No creature so great that can be greater than the name of a God and whatsoever excellency it hath yea the rather because it is very excellent above its fellows it must kneel and bow to the supreme Majesty Worship him all ye Gods Why then infer he that is to discharge divine honour is not to be prosecuted with divine honour religious worship belongs to him that owes service to none nothing that we can suppose with a sound wit is like genus subalternum fit to worship and fit to be worshipped a thing that doth adore God who is above him and is ador'd of men that are beneath him what perturbation were this in Religion and Religion is as God himself is pure order and not confusion There are some whom I glance at who are not sound in this doctrine yet think themselves as safe as under Ajax his Buckler with this distinction that latria or the principal religious service is proper to God alone but dulia a less principal religious service may be performed in good Christian sort to Angels and Saints to their Reliques or to their Images and they think there is such force in those words that God must take that answer for all it is written him only shalt thou serve I will put some diligence to the examination of this distinction as first how it came in use then if those two words have any proper difference in their signification and then what meaning there can be in it that God should have one kind of religions worship done unto him and the Creatures another The words are both of them Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the first that attempted to distinguish them was St. Austin whose praise is that He was the most rational and intelligent writer for argument of all that lived in that flourishing age but when he medled with the tongues he was out of his Element Erasmus cannot choose but smile at him sometimes in the margent when he will forget himself and tamper with Greek phrases vide ut graecissat Now this distinction must needs have weak hold when a man of no skill was the inventor tractent fabrilia fabri Yet how was St. Austin put to it first to excogitate that way I have searcht it and it was thus Because there is some religious honour certainly due to God which is incommunicable to any creature the good Father laboured for a word which should be proper to this worship and given to nothing else that equivocations and ambiguities might not trouble his Doctrine This was judiciously thought of yet I told you before that all languages are defective in this point no word which stands for religious worship but is also promiscuously applied by good Authors to civil devoir and reverence Finding no help for this in the Latine tongue he borrowed the word latria from the Greek tongue to make it Latin that it might signifie no other worship but that which is due to God as if it could have lost its proper signification in the Greek by becoming Latin Says he Latria est cultus Deo debitus qui in latino uno vocabulo nuncupari non potest Now the use of all good Authors will not permit this as I will shew by and by But by their leave that say they borrow
unless they be equalized with God Then the Platonicks taught good divinity for they worshipped their Daemones or Angels not as the first causes of all things but as Spirits employed by the first Principle of the world If an Angel from heaven teach the same doctrine in his own case which Paul did surely two such Witnesses both in one tale cannot be refused The instance is more beaten than any high way Rev. xix 10. St. John certainly being even beside himself with the excellency of Revelation fell at an Angels feet to worship him who said unto him See thou do it not I leave it to your judgments if this be not a monstrous prevarication of Bellarmines That the Angel might have accepted that dutiful homage if he had pleased and did not make shy of it before Christ was incarnate but in honour of our Lords incarnation who took our nature upon him Angels from thenceforth will not be religiously worshipped by men Therefore we do what becomes us when we fall down to worship Angels and Angels do what becomes them when they refuse it thus He. But I beseech you if learned men may take such leave to interpret Scripture they may turn it to any thing Doth the Angel say any such thing to John that the times were altered human nature was now more precious than before and grown too good for such servile observance No but very plainly in the Text See thou do it not to me I am thy fellow-servant worship God Mark both his reasons first I am thy fellow-servant Fellow servants are to worship one Master together not one to worship the other Yes says the Adversary hereafter we shall worship together in the Church Triumphant and be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why we have the same excellency and beatitude which then shall be revealed in a lively faith and a steadfast hope And if they shall be less honoured of us hereafter than now the Angels should lose honour by our being exalted into heaven Nay rather their glory shall be increased to requite that sedulous care which they had over us here against the tyranny of the world and the devil I will wish no other Author but St. Austin to speak on my side says he Let us believe that the best Angels and most excellent ministring spirits do desire that we may worship one God together with them Honoramus eos charitate non servitute That is we love them for their good will we do not serve them Nec eis templa construimus they would not be so honoured of us for they know none better if we be holy we our selves are the Temples of the Holy Ghost This we have learnt out of the first reason what the Angel meant Fall not down before me I am thy fellow-servant Beside it is added Worship God Can any question be made but St. John would worship God Surely he was not to be taught that No but he was to be rouzed out of an extasie that God only is to be adored with a sanctified fear and no Creature It is easie to cast a scruple in any mans way so the Pontificians give us an objection to pick Josh v. 14. A man stood over against Joshuah with a drawn Sword Joshuah demands Art thou for us or for our Adversaries The supposed man replies Nay but a Captain of the Host of the Lord am I now come Then Joshuah fell on his face to the earth and did worship First the Antagonist presumes without all suspition of denial that Joshuah did worship the Angel But the Text says no more than as soon as he knew God had sent him a Captain from heaven he did worship But if it were Religious Worship it was done not to the Angel but unto Gods upon the coming of the Angel When such things come before us as are signs of Gods presence and grace of his mission and institution not of our own invention ware that it is good pious devotion to fall down and worship God when those things are before us As it is most laudable in us to kneel not to the outward Elements upon the Lords Table but unto God at the receiving of Christ in those Elements So Moses probably fell down at or before the burning bush where God spake When the fire came down from heaven to consume the Sacrafice it was a sign of the Lords special presence and the people fell down and worshipped 2. Chron. vii 3. Thus Joshuah seeing the Captain of Gods Host come to succour him fell down and praised the Lord. This answer I dare build upon yet if it were extorted that either Joshuah worshipped this Angel or Balaam that other Angel who bowed down his head and fell flat on his face Num. xxii 31. It is not or ever will be proved that these were religious Adorations but very great moral reverence done unto them more than to any men on earth according to their Coelestial and Supernatural excellency But Angels are not to be religiously worshipped in heaven why then on earth Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven and that is in this precept Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Yet a few words before I end To adore the Eucharist the Reliques of Saints the Figure of the Cross or Images of Christ and his Servants departed is to commit Idolatry with inanimate things those being all alike in that I will keep that bundle of Tares for another occasion But the superstitious worshipping of Saints is so near of kin to that of Angels against which I concluded before that the same Notions I used before and a little added will clearly condemn it We must not think more divinely of a Creature than a Creature is capable And even in this we have cause to bless God that our Religion is repurged from most strong defilements that our common Prayers have none of those blasphemies which some chant over to the most glorious Virgin the Mother of our Lord. And all this happens that they impute more Divinity unto her then is competent to a Creature So the Heathenish Lycaonians saw that Paul and Barnabas were men but they thought some Divinity did inhabite them such as is in God Certainly so the good Centurion Cornelius was mistaken for he gave unto Peter both civil observance as unto a man But because the Lord did bid him send for Peter for his souls Salvation he thought there was a genious in him above a Creature Otherwise Peter had not corrected the reverence he did him with those words Stand up I my self also am a man Acts x. 26. His cogitation had apprehended some divineness in Peter which made him commit a religious prostration for which he was rebuked And indeed an opinion is bread in the superstitious touching the Saints departed that there is more Divineness in them than they can receive else they would not bow down themselves to the mention of their names and
Saviours triumph I will break the words into these two even parts The Decession of Satan and the succession of the good Angels As there is but one Comma in the Grammatical reading so there is but one part divided from the other Then the Devil leaveth him there is the decession of the evil Spirit And behold Angels came and ministred unto him there is the succession of the good To these somewhat now directly and distinctly Then the Devil leaveth him I will propound four Questions to it and answer them in their order When Satan left Christ Why he left him To what place he went upon the leaving And if ever he returned again after he had left him All these have reference to this Text and to the Antecedents of this tentation as I will declare in their severals The first question When he left him Is answered by St. Luke Chap. iv 13. when the Devil had ended all the temptation He had run out his line and tried all his strength our Saviour stood it out till his Enemy tilted the very dregs of his Gall and drew them out He that undertakes an ill cause cannot except but the hearing of it was very fair if he may plead out his matter till he can say no more so the Tempter cannot say he was cut off before he came to a period he was provided of better Arguments but he was stopt from proceeding he could not make these cavils for shame for his departure was not commanded untill he ended all his tentation Like the Martyrs of old who lived and died in the best times of grace it is recorded in their Diptychs that their patience did weary their very tormentors So the innocency of Christ did weary the malice of the Devil to assault it his constancy to Gods honour did nonplus the Blasphemer that he knew not which way to turn him or upon what occasion to ground another temptation St. Ambrose says that Satan had run over all manner of wickedness in those three motions which go before my Text And that the Scripture would not have said he had ended all his mischief Nisi in his tribus esset omnium materia delictorum unless all naughtiness were couched in the triple mystery of iniquity which preceded And to make this interpretation good out of the mouth of two Witnesses St. Austin concurs in these In Diaboli tribus propositionibus tota iniquitas in Christi tribus responsionibus tota justitia All kind of sin is thrust together in the Devils threefold Propositions and all kind of justice is comprehended in our Saviours threefold answers St. John says that there are three roots which supply matter to all the fruits of impiety the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life I know it may be fetcht about and some wits have tried it that the three former devises of Satan do belong to this division Gluttony or commanding stones to be made bread is that which is otherwise called the lust of the flesh Ambition or vaulting from the Pinacle of the Temple to be gazed upon stands for the pride of life Covetousness which would be owner and possessor of all things in the world is ascribed to the third general sin which is the lust of the eye thus some of the Fathers have fitted these three particulars of tentations and the three seed plots of sin in St. John one to one I will not say how properly a searching wit may compass in any thing But all the three ways of Tentation are exactly to be observed from hence from no part of Scripture more exactly and so he may be said to have ended all his tentation For some are tempted through infirmity some through ignorance some are emboldned in open and prophane malice to defie the Lord. When it was motioned that he should make stones of bread he laid siege as he thought to his hunger and infirmity which could not well withstand it when he incited our Lord to fall down from a Pinacle of the Temple it was to make him destroy himself through ignorance expecting in vain that Angels should come between him and harm to succour him Lastly when he urged Christ to fall down and worship him he required a sin of most obstinate malice and flat Idolatry By Infirmity by Ignorance by Malice these are all the ways that the Tempter works therefore having run through all these it may pass for current that he had ended all his temptation I infer but one thing from hence that those Spirits are become merely diabolical and poysoned all over with hell that spare no kind of sin that they can commit but defie the Lord as far as the Devil can thrust them on such as swear all kind of Oathes in their wrath commit all kind of extorsions in their Covetousness defile themselves with all kind of lust and drunkenness in their intemperance Herods cruelty had no stint he slew omnes infantes all the Infants of two years old in Bethlem Israel went a whoring after strange Gods till they had committed all kind of Idolatry and made them high places upon every Mountain says the Prophet Thou hast spoken all manner of lies that may do hurt O thou false tongue says David Though the Character which I shall give was Neroes it agrees to all them who sin as much as life and strength and means and opportunity will suffer them He grew by degrees so infinitely wicked that nothing can be fathered so horrible upon him which his sutable manners would not render credible Nothing can be pleaded for such but that they deserve an infinite punishment who would sin in infinitum if they could When they have ended all the sins they can commit they shall be commanded to their own place of eternal woe as Satan was when he had ended all his temptation The question why he left Christ is the next in order to which I will answer many ways First quia jussus he was bidden depart and therefore there was no staying for him Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him fly before him The Lord hath set every thing in its place and order and what is there which he cannot root up and displant again If he say unto this Mountain be thou cast into the Sea it shall be carried away with the breath of his mouth Or unto Adam get thee hence out of Paradise or unto any Nation be thou carried away into a strange Land or unto the whole heaven and earth pass away and be gone they shall pass away and be rouled up as a garment And to come to the likeness of this very case in my Text when Christ threw out sundry evil Spirits with a word the Jews were amazed and spake among themselves saying What a word is this For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean Spirits and they come out The Magicians and Sorcerers can cast out Devils
him whose dominion is in the Sea and his right hand in the Flouds From him therefore Satan could not go from the light of his countenance from the comfort of his face he might go Nemo loco sed iniquitate à Deo elongatur No distance of place is remote from him who is with every thing and about all things and in all things He is as much in that place which every Creature takes up as the Creature it self yet without any impediment to the locality of it but our iniquities separate between God and us and where there is the most sin there is the greatest separation But to come to the plainest and most textual answer Christs Manhood is not receptive of Omnipresency so the Devil left his Humane Nature for a season and was not near it he went away to seek out those with whom he might more probably skirmish to get a victory If I should say the Tempter went not far from thence but hovered somewhere about Judaea the conjecture were not altogether without a foundation reason leads me to think he was very inquisitive about our Saviours ways and watchful to espy what miracles he wrought what he said how he might stir up enemies and unbelievers against him and some worse than Parricide to betray him St. Luke says He left him but for a season after these temptations as if he were ever in harms-way to offend him But above all I perceive by another of the Evangelists that the brood of Hell frequented the Land of Jurie in the days of our Saviour more than all other places in the earth a Legion of them in one man many Regiments of them in others that were possessed There was their Theater to play their wicked part where the Gospel might be most offended rather than in all the world beside Therefore St. Mark says one of the Devils which he cast out besought him that he would not send him out of that Country Mar. v. 10. They should want work in unfrequented places Idolatrous Cities though most populous were their own already their quickest trade lay in Judaea at this time here grew the unwillingness to leave that Country But now it is time to leave that question to what place Satan shifted when he was commanded to leave our Saviour Give ear to the next question Whether ever he returned again It is St. Lukes meaning that we should take notice he returned again and infested our Saviour after this bout for he says his departure was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a season and no more It was but for a short truce indeed till he had cast about to rise up against Christ in another fashion not by tempting him to sin but by exercising his patience under rebukes and misery and finally to work his death by treachery He knew him by this time to be his own Lord against whom he had rebelled in whom it was impossible to imprint any blot or blemish of iniquity But because that Humane Nature which Christ had assumed into his Person was of the Seed of Abraham and therefore obnoxious to death the Devil plotted his destruction from time to time and wrought his purpose at last by putting it into the heart of Judas to betray him being not advised out of the Scripture as he might have been by reason if God had not blinded him that our Saviour by death would overcome death and pull down the mighty one from his seat by triumphing on the Cross An ordinary curse ever since upon malicious persons the ruine of those against whom they are bent falls upon their own head and crusheth them to pieces But this was the service for which Satan returned again to vex his body after a season because his soul was spotless to oppose his prosperity because he could not hurt his vertue Thus Bonaventure comprizeth it Tentavit emollire per blanditias sed modicum tempus tentabit frangere per miserias Now he tried our Saviour with fair offers after a while he will thrust at him with foul calamities Now his own hand is in the work but then his Instruments The use of it shall come home to our selves thus The Lord sometimes takes off our foe from us and gives us breathing time after temptations it is but for a season not to flatter our selves with quietness and security but to repair our ruines to keep out the batteries that will ensue It is but a refreshing after the fit of an Ague the sick day is coming again Like a calm upon the Sea while a sweet gale blows what sensible man will not have all things ready for a tempest Remember the Parable Luke xi And what the unclean Spirit said I will return into my house from whence I came Like the Assyrian Souldiers when they had once found the way into the Land of Judaea they could never be dealt withal to forget it Hezekiah or whosoever might hire them to go home again for one year but the next Summer following they were sure to make a new invasion And do not stand too much upon affiance I have conquered these and these tentations often I dare trust my self now upon the brink of these sins and shall never be thrust in to make such security more doubtful and suspicious Cassianus hath a fit similitude says he A Fox will stretch himself for dead that Poultry may come into his reach and never fear him yet if they do stalk towards him they shall find to their cost he is not past doing mischief So the Tempter will give back as if he were fled for ever but he departs only for a more seasonable opportunity and will return again with seven spirits worse than himself when you are worst prepared The holiest Fathers of the Church had flesh and frailty in them and can speak in this point as well by Experience as by Art and Meditation and this is their common verdict Quo valentius vincitur eò ardentius ad insidias instigatur If he be vanquish'd by him that is strong in faith it sharpens his edge the more to make his part good again by Art and subtilty And so much for this last Point upon the first general part Satan departed from Christ but for a season But now he is gone though like a Wolf regardant looking back upon the Flock from which he was beaten And Christ had such company in exchange that my Text bids us mark and see the succession that followed and behold Angels came and ministred unto him This Particle of wonder Behold is a Dial or Index to three things First To note a moral alteration a lewd one is dismiss'd to receive an holy train in his room here was an accursed Spirit parlying with Christ instead of him here is a volly of Angels Whosoever he be that hath taken delight in the company of wicked men and sorted himself with those that have not the fear of God before their eyes let him cast them
off and abandon their Society and he shall find heavenly comforters in his soul as if Angels ministred unto him Qui expellit à se Satanam allicit ad se Angelos Bid Satan get him hence and the Angels take it for an invitation that they should pitch their Pavilions round about you Lot lived like a stranger in his own City and conversed not with the men of Sodom they called him a stranger he shut himself up and barr'd his doors against those filthy people What could he do more to keep the ungodly from his very sight as David said Thus estranging himself from the conversation of pernicious sinners he made himself sit to give hospitality to Angels A good Lesson for these times wherein ribbald roaring company is rather sought for than declined A strange thing that a Christian who feels some comfort in Christ and desires salvation in his bloud should with so much affection and longing thrust himself among them whose desperate behaviour is easily perceived if repentance help not to tend to utter damnation St. Paul was weary of his own body called it a body of death and groaned to be delivered from it because the Flesh rebelled against the Spirit Did he loath himself that he might love Christ the more And will you invite those into your friendship and fellowship that blaspheme Christ Shake off this dust from your feet all prophane intemperate lascivious persons from your familiarity if either you expect that God should give his Angels charge of you in this life or make you partakers of their fellowship of heavenly glory in the life to come The next thing towards which we turn our eyes at this word behold is the alteration of rest and quietness before there were assaults and troubles and molestations all this is changed in a moment into peace and tranquillity which shall be the certain issue of all those that fight a good fight with patience Semper asperiora laetiorum vicissitudine mitigantur Rough beginnings have joyful events by the temperature and vicissitude of Gods gracious mercy Such as were called prosperous among the heathen most usually the best share of their fortune was in the forepart of their life and their end was lamentable the seven first years in Pharaohs dream did betoken plenty but the seven last years famine and scarcity the head of Nebuchadonosors Image was of Gold and the toes of Clay the rich man had a great time of gathering more than he knew where to bestow it but in one night lost his soul and all This is an unkind and an unnatural method to taste the sweetest at the top of the Cup and after a little sipping to have our teeth set on edge with Aloes Doth it not taste better when the gracious providence turns the lot thus First a Deluge and then a Rainbow First a Captivity and then a joyful return First a Dioclesian and then a Constantine First the impugnation of the Devil and then the Congratulation of Angels Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour untill the evening says the Psalmist There is a time to give the body a cessation from toil and do you think the Lord doth not measure out when he will give the soul and spirit relaxation from misery As a stranger is received at night and bids God b'you in the morning so indignation and the severity of chastisement are stangers unto the Lords clemency he calls vengeance Peregrinum opus his strange work Isa xxviii Therefore it shall be dismissed from him like a stranger after it hath staid a while Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psal xxx 6. Tentations have their bout and the storms of hell their period but the good Angels know their qu when to enter and to turn the scene Behold the Angels came and ministred unto him And once more this note of admiration Behold bids us regard to what alteration of dignity the truly humble are called Recusavit dominatum in homines habet imperium in Angelos Our Saviour turn'd away from that ambitious suggestion All this power will I give thee and the glory of them He desired not to have a Kingdom in this world or to have the pre-eminence of men and loe the pre-eminence over Angels is given unto him And it is more dignity to have two Angels minister unto him than to have ten thousand Kingdoms Every part of Christs humility was inlaid with honour to recompence it To be laid in a Manger was not so vile as it was most magnificent to be adored of the Wisemen of the East to be visited by Shepherds was not so contemptible as it was most glorious to be proclaimed of Angels To ride upon an Ass was not of such debasement but the cry of the children made amends Hosanna blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. It savoured not so much of infirmity to be tempted of the Devil but it is supplied as much with Majesty to be attended by the Cherubins No part of his humility went without a reward from the first to the last nay the last part had amends made for all He humbled himself unto the death even unto the death of the Cross propter quod wherefore God hath highly exalted him c. Humility was his direct way to glory but we think we are out of the way to promotion unless we shift and shuffle for the highest place and the chiefest room in the Synagogues The first shall be last and the last shall be first This is a riddle to them that love to set their feet upon a rising ground Yet David hath laid a curse upon preposterous ambition that it shall decline That which should have been for their wealth says he let it be unto them an occasion of falling The holy Father Basil lost no honour in this life by shunning the dignity which was intended him and flying away into obscurity when he was called to be a Bishop The Apostle Bartholomew is reported in some histories to have been of the bloud royal of the Kings of Egypt Was it any diminution to him to have left all to be a poor Disciple Is there any Christian King that doth not wish he had rather born his Office of Apostleship than have swayed a Scepter When Princes die their honour shall not follow after them but those twelve humble ones of our Saviours train shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel If spiritual thoughts will lift a man up to heaven an humble man is mounted above the earth all the while he seeks those things which are above Themislius an holy man put this Lesson in so pure a verse as it is beyond translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his heart sunk down when ambition puft him up but he felt his feet upon the Angels Ladder going up when humility cast him down Our Saviour despised all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory
of them and behold Angels came and ministred unto him From this note or preface of attention I pass on to their person that came to minister unto Christ and they are Angels As the Philistins stood on a Mountain on the one side and Israel on a Mountain on the other side and there was a Valley between them from whence both the Armies might behold their two Champions David and Goliah fight it out So I dispute not against their conjecture that say the good Angels stood gazing from one prospect and the bad Angels from another to mark which way the Victory of this Duel would incline between Christ and Satan On the good Angels part this is certain we are put to no trial by our enemies visible or invisible but they come gladly to the speed of it and look upon us both with compassion and admiration We are made a spectacle unto the world and to Angels and to men says St. Paul As the Heathen did flock in multitudes to the Theaters to see the Christians cast unto wild beasts to be eaten which was no little part of their persecution that their enemies fed their eyes in sport with their misery So the blessed powers of heaven came to behold the same spectacle to compassionate that cruelty and to fortifie the sufferance of the Saints And if they can be content to be present at the skirmishes of the Scholars can it be supposed they would be away at this time when the Master of the fence was to play his Prize Beloved to put this further sometimes the Angels gave attendance to Moses Law and the Law it self was delivered by a Mediator in the hands of Angels But their study and delight was such in the Gospel of Christ that they gave all diligence to learn and understand it in all the mysteries St. Paul says that he was a Minister to preach the grace of God and to teach the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ says he To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. iii. 10. A most observable Text of Scripture that the Angels of heaven are the learneder for noting those passages which are taught touching the Mysteries of our salvation in this Church on earth And St. Chrysostom the loudest Trumpet of that Apostles glory among all the Fathers cries out See if Paul be not an Evangelist as well unto Angels as unto men This is marvellous and not to be admitted as if the good Angels knew not the Incarnation of Christ before and the calling of the Gentiles For how could they be ignorant of those divine Lessons which were so obvious and common in all the Prophets Admitting then that the whole substance of that Doctrine was known unto them long before yet many circumstances were revealed unto them by the actions and passions of the Church in after-time What then Was Paul or are we able to explain any thing for the better capacity of Angels No certainly Non addiscunt per Ecclesiam docentem sed per ea quae geruntur in Ecclesiâ Those principal intellectual spirits do not profit by the preaching of our Ministry but by things managed experimentally in the Church which were not so clear in Prophesie or speculation as when time revealed them They knew that Christ should bruise the Serpents head but when they saw it actually performed in repelling the three antecedent temptations then the mystery of God was made known unto them experimentally by the Church Those significations of the Gospel which the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven even those things the Angels desire to look into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stoop down and look into as Peter and John stoopt to look into the Sepulchre that is bowed down in humility to look into the great mystery of the Resurrection They are not inanes speculatores fond and curious gazers but most observant and most humble learners they will stoop unto the knowledge of the wisdom of God And that the Angels did note and pry into all things which our Saviour did in the dispensation of his Mediatorship the posture of the Cherubins upon the Ark is no unsignificant Figure Says God The faces of the Cherubins shall be toward the mercy seat Exod. xxv 20. As if the Angels did never cast their eye off from Christ our Propitiator from the Mercy Seat but did continually desire him in the fulness of time to have mercy upon Sion So I have made it known that such diligent attendants who listned faithfully to all the occurrencies of the Gospel must needs be at hand when Christ had ended his combate vvith the Devil And so ready at hand that it is noted these Angels are not said to descend from heaven as if they had been far off in another world but to come and minister which betokens a near attendance They came and ministred unto him And now Satan sees more by the event by this officious service of the Angels than he could extort by all his temptations Homo est quem ipse tentat Deus cui ab Angelis ministratur He must be a man that suffered such temptations but he must be a God that had such Ministers Christ came not to be ministred unto but to minister Mat. xx 28. That is in St. Pauls words He took upon him the form of a servant Phil. ii 7. For the very form of a man is the form of a servant Yet this servant thinks it no robbery to be equal with that God to whom all the powers in heaven and in earth do bow and obey But wherefore came the Angels now Do they come to bring assistance when the Devil was vanquished and had left our Saviour This were as the Adagie goes Post bellum auxilium Choraebus brought succours to the Siege of Troy when the fray was ended They miss of the right intention that think the Angels came for this end It was not to strengthen him against his enemy that was beaten and vanquished but to minister and stand before him for these reasons First possibly to spread a Table for him in the Wilderness and bring him meat because he had now fasted forty days and forty nights without intermission Not as if he could not be supplied without their provision but it was his pleasure they should attend upon his diet to let his enemy see there was another way to feed his body than to make stones of bread And this was it it may be that plurally many Angels came to minister unto him Had they been required barely to provide him necessaries one Angel could have brought enough of sustenance to give one man a meal but because this was intended not for any necessary relief towards his person but to shew his excellency above those heavenly hosts Behold a multitude stood round about him and Angels came and ministred unto him Secondly they might come to comfort him after
these many Agonies he had with the powers of darkness Ad solatium refero so Calvin on my Text. When he prayed earnestly in the Garden to have the Cup pass from him there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven strengthening him Luke xxii 43. This was their promptness to do all dutious offices to the Son of God Non ex necessitate sed ex officio not for necessity as if he wanted such as they but out of bounden obsequiousness Toward us their care and charity is truly necessary and their friendship to succour us in our conflicts is the mercy of God as the Angels took up Lazarus to heaven after much want and poverty into Abrahams bosom Thirdly they ministred unto him may be well interpreted they worshipped and adored him For when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. i. ult that is their Ministry is for the praise and glory of God whether it be that they sing Alleluja to him in heaven or help his Saints upon earth all is one the one work or the other are both of them their Liturgies For they minister only to Christ or for their sakes that shall be heirs of the Promise as St. Paul said He sustained all things for the Elâ—ct 2 Tim. ii Therefore it is an over-curious yea and false distinction to put degrees between Angels that some laud the Lord continually before his Throne some minister to his Church and nothing for the foundation of it but this Prophetical place Dan. vii 10. Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him There they stood indeed only to be sent away of the Lords Errand when he should dispatch them For what Scripture can be clearer than the foresaid place Are they not all ministring Spirits Let the Sectaries of Thomas limit it and distinguish upon it an hundred ways but the Context of the Chapter will never bear it For first the manner of the Apostles bringing it out nonne omnes Are they not all so An Interrogation as if that were a common notion and never doubted Secondly in the precedents it cannot be shifted but that he speaks of them all excepts none To whom of the Angels did God say thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Thirdly if he did compare Christ but with one part and not with all the Angels the Hebrâ—ws would have excepted against the main scope of his Epistle that Christ was not more excellent than all creatures above all comparison Let it be grounded then for the conclusion of all against the fancies of the Pseudo-Dionysius all are ministring Spirits In ministerium Christi propter homines lent unto us out of pitty and charity but attending Christ out of homage and duty His they are so we call them now by faith and such we shall perceive them to be by Vision at the last day Mat. xvi 27. The Son of man shall come in the glory of the Father with his Angels AMEN VII SERMONS UPON The Transfiguration OF OUR SAVIOUR THE FIRST SERMON UPON The Transfiguration LUKE ix 28 29. And it came to pass about an eight dayes after these sayings he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering BECAUSE St. Luke doth more completely narrate all the circumstances of our Saviours Transfiguration than the other Evangelists therefore I have chosen to entreat out of his words upon that glorious miracle I confess he that reacheth this mysterie must ascend with Peter and James and John he must climb up to an exceeding high mountain of speculation which toucheth the very heavens But why should that confuse you Dearly beloved when there is so much pure glittering and illumination upon the mountain our Saviour's face shined with glory for his Gospel is perspicuous Moses ane Elias the Law and Prophets were clear and lightsom and the cloud which overshadowed the place I mean the virtue of the Holy Ghost will embrighten all obscurity There is hope then out of the explication of this story that you shall all be transfigured from darkness into light and from ignorance perhaps in some part into the knowledge of the truth And whereas I have purposely destined this work apart for this time of the year I think I have begun it in the ripest opportunity I find among antient Liturgies that the miracle of the Transfiguration was the Gospel appointed for the second Sunday in Lent the reasons were two partly to exhort all Christians in strictest times of penitence to be transformed into new men partly because it is certain this strange accident fell out in the beginning of the Spring not long before our Saviour's Passion for Moses and Elias came to tell him a short while before his death what he should suffer at Jerusalem Yet again I find in the old Latin Calender that some Churches kept a Feast in memory of the Transfiguration upon the sixt day of August But this was done upon a fancy they call it a Tradition that when Christ bad his Disciples not to tell as yet of those things they saw upon the mountain till a more convenient time they obeyed and revealed it not in five months following till the sixt of August and upon the publication of these things at that season they did consent to honour the memorial of the day with the celebration of a Feast Without prejudice to those ancient customs be it spoken I have a surer ground to stand upon that this is the proper time to preach upon it soon after the great Feast of our Saviour's Resurrection is accomplished My authority is Matth. 17.9 As the three disciples came down from the mountain Christ charged them saying Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead And beside it shall appear in due order that the principal scope of the Transfiguration was to learn us what the excellency and glorification of a body shall be that is raised from the dead But because it is fit to work in the Lord's Vineyard at any hour of the day and to dress this Tree of Life the holy Scripture in every bough and branch at any instant and occasion of time therefore cutting off that Preface I will mark out those things which are fit to be handled severally in the words now read unto you and they be four quando quibuscum quâ humilitate quâ gloriâ at what time Christ was transfigured what associates he took with him with what humility he prepared himself with what glory he was dignified The Time is noted by three circumstances dicta dies iter 1. After some sayings he had uttered 2. About an eight dayes after those sayings 3. When he had gon up to a mountain In
pass away undiscern'd But all might not behold in Mount Tabor what manner of splendour a glorified body should have What was the reason of the impediment Damascen thinks the greater part did stay behind that Judas might not see the beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven who was reserv'd for chains of endless darkness This answer is personal the next is very plain and literal Vt mysterium secretius ageretur many witnesses are not fit to keep a secret and Christ call'd out a paucity to stand by at this Solemnization because he would have it conceal'd till he was risen from the dead He bad them tell no man in those days what they had seen for what reasons it seemed fit unto him to have it carried so privily for a while I promise to unfold when I come to treat of the 36. verse of this chapter The third reason is very pat though it be figurative though there were very good men left below the Mountain yet this partition of three in one consort that did see his glory nine in another knot who were left out doth betoken multi vocati pauci electi that many are called and few be chosen Moses took up no more than Aaron and Hur when he went up to Mount Horeb to talk with God Christ took no more than the fourth part of the Apostles when He went up to Mount Tabor that God the Father might talk to him Major pars remanet terrae adhaerens the more numerous part of men cleave to the earth below Elias sits alone upon Mount Carmel like a Sparrow sitting alone upon the house-top The valleys are too full of them that mind earthly things Two men went up into the Temple to pray vel duo vel nemo when there is a throng abroad without the Temple O curvae in terris animae so much heaven to receive us for it is of an incomprehensible capacity so little earth to possess for it is but a drop of water and a crumb of dust in respect of the world above yet we strive to enlarge our possessions upon earth which will not hold many rich inheritors at once and neglect Heaven which would contain us all and afford every one a Kingdom to reign with God So far I have collected what I knew fit to be observ'd upon the three Disciples who did associate our Saviour It followeth in the third part of the Text Christ prepar'd himself for his Glorification with great humility facta est inter precandum species ejus vultus altera c. as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered Christ need not pray to his Father as if He that was God and Man in one person could not bring all things to pass without a prayer That was Martha's error the Sister of Lazarus Joh. 11. I know now whatsoever thou askest of God He will give it thee but Christ doth intimate in the same chapter that without asking the Father did always hear him yet through the whole course of his being abased upon earth He did make requests unto God upon all occasions that the Head might fulfil all that righteousness which his Members should perform The matter of his prayer who is able to recite it what it was since either He prayed in spirit and did not lift up his voice or else prayed a part that the Disciples did not hear Or if they did hear yet they have not imparted the relation of it in the Gospel This I may safely say there is a Prayer which would make a very convenient Collect at such a time Joh. xvii 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Surely it sounds well to reason that he prayed for that which He obtained before He stir'd from that place namely that his Divinity might cast a splendour through his body in a most amiable and visible form and that a type of the glory of the life to come might be revealed to these three Apostles even so the same thing must be continually in our supplications that the glory of Christ may be spread far and wide from Nation to Nation which is the large of that Petition which himself taught us Thy Kingdom come And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered O the wise God that would have the glory of transfiguration fall upon himself at no other time but in the fervor of prayer Miserable men are those that desire not to be transfigured and to cast off the old man but more miserable that think to be transfigured without continual prayer An Hypocrite would seem to be a transform'd man Satan would appear to have transform'd himself into an Angel of light Hypocrites and Devils all love to make a shew of transfiguration but they did never pray to God to change their inside which is nothing but filthiness and to be renewed in the spirit of their mind or if Hypocrites do pray it is with such a faint desire as if they had rather be denied than speed they are not instant with God they are not constant or if you will have a good thing impressed in a rough word they are not pertinacious tamdiu orandum quamdiu transformemur in viros alios hold on and cease not to pray till you be changed into new men As a Distiller keeps his extractions at the Furnace till he see them flower and colour as he could wish so as long as we feel the reliques of the old Adam remaining especially while we feel them reign and get the dominion over us we must ply our Saviour day and night with a restless devotion and a flagrant importunity and I am sure while we pray not the fashion of our countenance but the fashion of our heart shall be altered What a molesting Suitor would Gorgonia the Sister of Nazianzen have been to any Prince upon earth She was not troublesome to God yet says Nazienzen she should protest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she would make him asham'd to deny her and never rise up from her knees till the light of his countenance shin'd upon her S. Hierom loved his Nebridius of whose perseverance in Prayer he testifies certè sic semper erat orans Deum ut illi quod optimum esset eveniret he was an uncessant Petitioner to God so that nothing befel him but that which was fittest for him I opened my mouth and drew in my breath for my delight was in thy Commandments says David Psal cxix 131. in which verse is to be understood that Prayer is the very breath of the spirit without which the spiritual man can no more live than the natural man can live without the breath of air The lungs must be always cooled with the Element of air and faith must always be enflamed with the breath of supplication Will you hear the ample commendation of a true Prayer comprized in two words In
is at an end we shall reign for evermore And because Christ did appear in Mount Tabor no otherwise than as he means to come to Judgment therefore he did qualify the light of his face to be no greater than the light of the Sun his body which is strange to consider shall have more resplendency than that mighty Lamp of Heaven but it is not for the Wicked to behold them they shall see him shine upon his Throne but with as little comfort as sore eyes gaze upon the Sun or with as little joy as we see flashes of lightning in a terrible thunder non dat lucem videntibus sed pavorem which is not sent to illuminate us in darkness but to agast us with the apparition Of this more at large hereafter But this is the second motive of this Miracle he transformed himself into that Majesty wherein He will judge the World Thirdly He did represent himself as the Argument and Idaea of that beautiful Reward which the bodies of the Just shall have in the General Resurrection The Pharisees required a Sign and Christ told them they should have no sign but the sign of the Prophet Jonas that a body being swallowed up in death should come to life again but these few Disciples over and above the Sign of the Prophet Jonas had the Sign of Transfiguration which is the dainty and delicate part of the Resurrection Say no more but that God will be the Redeemer of his Elect yet it would amuse a man to think what should become of this vile body every member whereof hath been a thousand times an instrument of iniquity well even this very naughty flesh shall have a beam of Divine mercy shine upon it it is impossible to make it ought in this life but a sink of corruption no Fuller upon earth can make it so white as God can In these days the Soul is full of bad concupiscence and the Body is made miserable Hereafter the Soul will be full of grace and the Body shall be made delectable And mark it that the Disciples had their item not to talk of these things till Christ were risen from the dead because the Transfiguration was intended to make up the complement of our joy touching the resurrection of the Body And to sink it deeper in our hearts that this brightsom alteration did not concern the Spirit but the Body his raiment was white and glistering which is no more than the shrowd of the Body In a word God did never reveal that He could take away the essential properties of a true Body and yet keep it a true Body they that believe so much believe beside the Book but in this Miracle appeared that God can add a celestial and beauteous form unto a Body so that the Sun in all his brightness shall not come near it This is the seed of that faith which St. Paul preacheth It is sown in dishonour it is raised in honour Praise the Lord therefore in Body and Soul since both shall be invested with a Royal Dignity to make them both fit for the society of Angels But herein we exceed the happiness of Angels they are glorious Spirits we shall be glorified both in body and spirit So the Prophet Isa lxi 7. They shall possess the double in their land everlasting joy shall be with them Duplicia possidebunt their Soul filled with the vision of God their Body transfigured in glory Fourthly this wants not a granes weight of a principal cause the Son of God in the dayes of his exinanition lookt like a person for this once of divine authority ut crucis scandalum tolleret that their minds might not be cast down with despair to see the misery of his Cross who had seen his glory upon Mount Tabor Now he lookt more Angelical than a Cherubin then he lookt more ruthful than the poorest Lazarus now the greatest in heaven did speak graciously unto him then the scum of the earth reviled him he than was glorified at one time could not be compelled to shame and ignominy but from his own patience and yielding would be crucified at another Sicut luctatores corpus inclinant sayes a Father Christ wrestled with Satan and though that old supplanter the Serpent did bruise his heel yet he could not get the Mastery Christ stooped low like a Lion couching for his prey and when he might seem to be cast down this was his feat to overturn his adversary Fifthly The fifth and last Reason hath a Moral Use There is an old man with his corruptions to be metamorphosed in us all sicut Pelias recoctus as the Fable goes that Medaea bathed the body of Pelias with certain magical drugs and from a decrepit old man transmuted him into a vigorous youth This is a figment for no man spent his young years so well to deserve at Gods hands in this world to be young again but there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a renovation in the spirit of our mind God will not know us in our own form and filthiness unless we put on the Image of Christ As Jacob obtained his Fathers blessing not in his own shape but in the Garments of Esau so we must sue our blessing having put on the righteousness of Christ then the Lord will receive his servant and say unto thee as Jacob did unto Esau I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God You have heard the final cause more wayes than one why this Miracle was wrought I may speak somewhat of the efficient cause how this splendor was derived and further than so I must not proceed now because of the time Many obscure points will come to light by asking this question Whether this lightsom beauty like the Sun did appear in our Saviour's face from the beatification of his humane Soul or from the union of his Divine nature First you must understand that the great School-man Aquinas took the best end of the cause into his hand when he answered to neither of those two members but rather to the purpose of the question in this wise fuit haec qualitas gloriae sed non corporis gloriosi quia nondum erat immortalis this Transfiguration was a quality of glory but not of a glorified body because He was not yet passed death and raised up to be immortal and impassible In this distinction is covertly included that it was not such a brightness as the Soul shall communicate to the Body when it is reunited in a joyful resurrection but was created at this time by the Divine power to foretel and shadow what would come to pass with much increase in the Kingdom of God Praelibatio regui Dei fuit haec transfiguration says Cajetan this was but the Landskip or Pattern of the true happiness which shall be in the Kingdom of Heaven It was a far more excellent splendour than that of Moses or Stephen upon earth but not so perfect or proper
were returning again to their own place What eye could be satisfied with looking upon such men who did live upon earth rather like the Sons of God than the Sons of men Go not yet is the phrase of civility to any Friend whose presence is welcom as you know the Father of the Levites Concubine urged the Levite to stay from night to night Be content and tary this night also I pray thee and let thine heart be merry Judg. xix 6. Then who could do less than interpose when such strangers as these did begin to turn their backs Moses and Elias that they should never depart Nae illiusmodi jam nobis magna civium penuria est There is ever such a scarcity of excellent personages in the world that we may do well to seek all means to keep them when we have them Sure we must attribute it to a sympathy and I know not what instinct to call it in Abraham to the love of rare persons that when he knew not the Angels to be Angels but mortal passengers yet upon the first sight of them he entreated and bowed himself down to the ground that they would turn into his Tent and rest under his Roof This is my opinion also of Cleophas and the other Disciple who knew nothing by our Saviour but that he was a wayfaring man as themselves were yet they could not let him go but they constrained him to stay with them at Emmaus and to go no further But this importunity of Peter was more like to Elisha's affection who was even fond of the company of his Master Elias When the Sons of the Prophets had said unto him Knowest thou not that the Lord will take thy Master from thy head this day He hung upon Elias wheresoever he went and when he would have shaken him off twice or thrice he swears two Oaths as deep as could be taken As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee There is a Darius in Herodotus that protested if he were to choose he had rather have ten faithful Subjects such as his faithful servant Megabyzus was than be possessor of the whole Monarchy of Greece as if one excellent Spirit were as valuable as a Kingdom And there is a Darius in holy Scripture to whom Daniel was as dear as ever was Megabyzus to the other he did justly deem that Daniels life was the fortune and felicity of his Empire against whom when the Grandees of Persia had conspired to cast him into the Den of Lions the King laboured until the going down of the Sun to deliver him Happy times should those be if two such Heroes at once should be upon the face of the earth as Moses and Elias Si duo praeterea tales Idaea tulisset terra viros says he Then was the Church a Coronet stuck thick with Jewels when it had twelve Apostles at once But when the Sun had passed through those twelve Signs and they were taken from among us such an age did never succceed them but Emulations and Heresies rose up a poison which was rank ever since in the Church unto these days Though the worth of St. Ambrose alone might seem to be enough to hold up virtue and goodness in any one part of the world yet O how he deplores the decease of Paulinus as if half the happiness of that Country round about were buried in his Grave Beloved pray to God every day to raise up a good Generation in our times and when you have them magnifie God and desire his mercy to continue them If Moses and Elias be departing speak as Peter did that you may be heard When such are taken away I will leave you Davids Song to sing a sad ditty God knows Psa xii 1. Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth for the faithful fail from among the children of men Neither was Peter more instant to retain these two Prophets upon earth than the good Christians in a little while were instant with God to retain Peter when his life was at the last extremity for when Herod had imprisoned him and the Angel set him free at the time of midnight Peter found his friends at prayer for his deliverance Act. xii 5. Yet I enforce not this as if Peters zeal in the instance of my Text did not miss the mark the spirits of the Blessed are purified from this contagion of the world below and are at rest from their labours and therefore their residence is not to be required upon earth neither shall incorruption be obtruded hither to inherit corruption The wise Poet had learnt that the happy Ghosts of his Elysium were no company for mortals no not Anchyses to be embraced by his own â—on Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago Only the formality of his desire is laudable and as right as can be to be imitated that we are to labour by intercessions and supplications that such excellent Worthies as God sends among us may not be taken away for whensoever they go it may be timely to them it must be untimely to us But for the materiality of this desire to retain those persons Moses and Elias the mistake shall be discover'd in due order but this shall suffice for the occasion which made this Apostle speak It came to pass as they departed from him c. I have somewhat to say in the second part but very briefly that although Peter being scarce awake took upon him now to teach yet he confesseth that by true authority Christ was his teacher for he said unto Jesus Master or if he had forgot it the voice from Heaven in two verses following would have put him in mind This is my beloved Son audite eum hear him he hath the words of eternal life his own acknowledge it Full of grace are his lips the Prophets foretold Never man spake like this man those Whelps the Pharisees sent abroad to suck his blood confessed it This is the Master that cannot lie that cannot lead us into error hear him You see it is fit to defer the issue of this point what obedience we owe to his Master-ship to hear him till I come to speak of the voice which was heard from Heaven Only I must tell you the word which St. Peter useth is of good observation and must not be neglected St. Matthew and St. Mark are full of Hebraisms and they keep the word Rabbi St. Luke speaks more usually in the flowers of the Greek Language and Rabbi or Master with him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The force of it implies superiority and regiment qui rei cuipiam sit praefectus who is set over another to appoint him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle that is a Common-wealth hath need of many sorts of Governors so the Church hath need of many Rulers to see that all things be done decently and in order but there
emulation may go out for want of combustible matter and in this case not he that violates the peace by stickling much but he that obeys and holds his peace deserves the greater reward This power our Saviour exercised over his Apostles to tie their tongues for a time that they should not publish the glory of his Transfiguration till men were fit to receive it He charged them they should tell no man of the things which they had seen I would but so much humility might be marked from hence as would repress insolence and vain boasting Christ laid his command upon this matter rather than upon any other and imposed silence upon all the three Witnesses that they should not blab the Vision of his Excellency abroad How much unlike is this to them who had rather lose an ounce of their blood nay the sweet odour of virtue than an hour of fame and popularity And so much good as is done and not openly known and divulged is soon repented Where shall we find such a modest temper as that of St. Paul so much admired by Theophylact after fourteen years he tells the Corinthians of the Revelation which God granted him and of his Rapture into Paradise and in all that space he did never impart that celestial honour which was done him either to friend or stranger and then he was ashamed that he was put to it says he I am become a fool in glorying ye have compelled me but what fools are they then that will make such proud boasting without compulsion Jospeph being but a child he did as a child and having the inspiration of two several Dreams he could not hold but made all his Brethren acquainted with them to his own affliction He dreamt a dream and told it to his brethren and they hated him the more Therefore in his riper years though God had given him the spirit of Prophesy he would not divulge himself that he had the interpretation of Dreams He bad Pharaoh's Butler remember him when he was in place And according to the old Saw qui bene latuit bene vixit he conteined himself from manifesting the Gift of God which was in him till the Butler could not choose but call him to mind to put Pharaoh's heart in peace Elizabeth hid her self five months after the Lord had made her conceive a Child miraculously to the astonishment of all the World that great Prophet John the Baptist The Blessed Virgin was saluted by an Angel from Heaven conceived by the Holy Ghost visited by the Wisemen from the East she encountred every day many strange celestial Tokens and yet made no noise of these things to the World but kept all these sayings in her heart Luke ii 51. The mighty power of God will shine and shew it self at last be not ambitious to have it displayed for your own ostentation Christ refrained to have the Vision of the Transfiguration presently notified He charged them c. Generally the Fathers consider the Apostles but as Novices in sacred matters who were yet but in training up and as deficient in those abilities which were requisite to handle such a mysterie Sacred things saies the Greek Proverb must not be toucht 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with unwashen hands This made the ancient Fathers of the Church as fearful to come into a Pulpit as our raw Scholars now adays are forward You need not charge these hasty Predicants as our Saviour did his Disciples not to speak of that for a certain time which they know I would they could be admonished not to be so bold to speak of that which they know not I am not certain for the greater part of such that they have seal but I will bear them record with St. Paul it is not according to knowledg But will you know the spring head from whence this abuse ariseth How can they preach unless they be sent And why was Authority so overseen to send them licentiâ sumus omnes deteriores it is the licence which enables for those things wherein they have no ability Yet again another Text of St. Paul rubs my memory multa licent quae non expediunt there are too many such licences granted which are not expedient If men would let knowledg ripen in them before they speak and not blurt out any thing with extemporary barbarism the Word of God preached would not come so much in contempt for a Parable is an undecent thing in the mouth of a fool Prov. xxvi 9. Our Saviour destined a large space of time to have the cogitation of his great Works mellow in the thoughts of Peter James and John before they testified them to the World which is another reason why they must not speak of that which they had seen till the Son of man was risen from the dead Another reason shall stand in the last place of this point it is fit that they and none but they should preach of Christs Glory who are affrighted with nothing The Apostles were very timerous and would desert a good Cause if they were strongly opposed you know the infirmity of Peter that could not answer the challenge of a silly Damosel but denied his Master This was in diebus illis when the Holy Ghost had not yet come down upon him in the shape of a fire afterward he durst speak the truth though he had been in the midst of fire nay he could not repress the Gospel his will was overcom and could not revolt if the literal sense of the Text be right as sure it is We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Act. iv 20. Grace was as it were turned into nature in them now as in the Angels confirmed in grace says the ordinary Gloss Vino coelesti ebrit se continere non poterant says Lyra the Scoffers of Jerusalem said they were full of new wine it was indeed by a figure a celestial wine with which their spirit was inebriated and as a drunken mans tongue will not ly quiet so in this resemblance they were such that could not but speak the Gospel of Jesus Christ they were these times of courage which Christ had destin'd that in them his Transfiguration should be revealed openly Moses found not constancy in himself and therefore would have balked Gods Message says he Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh So the eleven Disciples were so fearful after out Saviours death that they shut the doors upon themselves where they were assembled for fear of the Jews and after the Resurrection we read that Christ did many times erect their courage which was dejected with these words Be not afraid and therefore he said unto them Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem until ye be indued with power from on high Luke xxiv 49. When that power had possessed them with spirit and resolution they had leave to unfold this mysterie and not before he charged them saying Tell the Vision to no man till the Son
like an Angel of light One most perspicuous instance is Mar. i. 24. The unclean spirit exclaims against Christ Jesus of Nazareth what have we to do with thee No Not with God that created them that was a lie of malice Art thou come to torment us There was a touch of Prophesie I know thou art the holy one of God that was as true as Gospel You shall have just these three parts now in Pilates Apology Mendacium de seipso verum testimonium de Christo Prophetiam de populo 1. I am innocent of this bloud that was false 2. He confesseth Christ to be a just person that was true 3. He threatens the people that if that just person died the vengeance should light upon their head vos videbitis that was a Prophesie Every man is his own flatterer else Pilate had not thought himself an innocent God will be cleared by every mans conscience else Pilate had not preached for our Saviours righteousness But how easie a thing it is to discern and protest against other mens faults Else Pilate had not Prophesied We take account of our own imperfections as it were at midnight when there is no light to discover us then we run into error and plead that we are innocent We see God in his works as by a dim candle and confession of truth will be extorted from us that He is a just person But we behold the crimes of those men that walk about us as at noon day and in the clear Sun-shine and then we Prophesie vos videbitis you that are sinners shall be punished Here is as very a Riddle as the old Sphinx made of three divers forms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the fore-part a Lyar in the next a true one in the third a Prophet and all these three in my Text I am innocent of the bloud c. I begin with Pilate in the first member of his speech the untruth which he tells in his own behalf I am innocent A vice which had been fitter for the meanest of the people than for the Ruler of Jury the supreme Deputy for the Roman Empire For truth as Synesius doth define it it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as who should say that a word truly spoken is a Gentleman born falshood and lying are but beggarly begotten But this is the wisdom of the World whatsoever we can coin for our own reputation it is not falshood but the strein of an Orator And as the Optiques do determine that in the composition of all colours there is lucidum and opacum one part which shines and makes a lustre to the eye another part dark and gross which casts a shadow so there is such an ingredient of two qualities in the actions of men lucidum and opacum some black deformity which is concealed somewhat that glisters and shews fair to the outward appearance Alas that is it which puts us into a good opinion of our selves that is it which prompted Pilates tongue to say before the people I am innocent Every disease says Hippocrates is the more dangerous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when our face is so much changed that our friends cannot know us But who is in so bad a case as that man who is so desperately diseased that he doth not know himself St. Austin hath mark'd out two examples especially for this purpose First the young man in the Gospel that talk'd of keeping all the Commandments was bad to follow Christ and did not Matthaeus peccator sequutus est vocantem Matthew the Publican that sold and bought sin and could not deny that it was a trade of iniquity he left all to attend our Saviour when he was called Secondly He doth compare St. Peter with himself there was a Peter that thought his fellows might be faint hearted and run away but for his own part he knew his courage was stronger than all tentation but there is another Peter or the same Peter of another mind who was ashamed to shew his face and went out and wept bitterly and of the twain he was the true Apostle Salubrius sibi displicuit Petrus quando flevit quà m sibi placuit quando praesumsit Wretched was that Peter who did presume upon himself happy was that Peter who did dislike and bewail his own infirmities Are you well advised upon how many nice Points innocency doth stand that dare advouch your own integrity First I am guilty of all the sins which I do not hate in another The Church of Pergamos did not deny the faith but God took up this quarrel against them That they did not hate the Doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitans Again I am guilty of all those sins which I do not rebuke in another Qui tacet consentire videtur the judgment hereof fell upon Eli and his house for ever Again I am guilty of every sin wherein I gave way to the lewdness of another and did not restrain it The Kings of Judah when they did not cut down the Groves and demolish the Images which they themselves did not worship yet their memory is Taxed that their heart was not perfect before the Lord because they were not zealous to cut off iniquity Now put all these together these nice observations of an upright heart and then let Pilate tell me who was innocent Leucatius a Roman well reputed of would needs stand in defence against the City that all his actions had been unblameable in every circumstance But I will never sit Judge in this cause says Fimbria whom he chose for the Umpire Quia justitia innumerabilibus officiis continetur For justice contains so many duties that it is hard to number them but to observe them all impossible Indeed the Heathen were so modest in this Point that in all the Language of Greece that rich and copious Tongue there is not one word which is proper for Innocency To say truth says Tertullian what should they do with the word in their mouth and want the matter in their heart which it signifies Quid si nos solum innocentes sumus Innocency such as the world can afford it is among Christians or no where Who is the man then that would put on the white Robe of a Saint and cast it over his crimson sins Let him first as it useth to be draw out his life with o Pencil in black colours and confess his iniquities What soul is that which like a chaste Virgin would become the Spouse of Christ Nec magis alba velit quà m det natura videri as the Poet speaks Let her lay no complement to that beauty or deformity which God hath afforded her And he that thinks himself less than the greatest sinner shall not be so great as the least Saint in the Kingdom of heaven But let no man deceive himself as if a confession of course would serve the turn such as we say by rote perchance at the beginning of our Morning and Evening Service There is not such an
knew not what to say but in admiration of his mercy lift up his eyes to heaven as if these thoughts did rise up in Abrahams fancy Sarah the Mother of my Son did muse how a Child could be born unto her in her old age but she did ill to laugh because the Lord had spoke it then give me leave to ponder how this Child can live any more when the mouth of God hath spoken that he must be sacrificed for a burnt offering Nay O Lord Non unum redimis sed unitatem In this act thou dost not so much redeem this one from death as the unity of all the faithful in this one all those Nations that shall be blessed in my name wilt thou spare them all as thou sparest Isaac What are our merits What justice is in us What is man that thou wilt not visit him with indignation Thus the soul of Abraham was in an extasie to consider the mercy of God wonder had possessed him we see it in this cast of his eye that he looked up to heaven When the Lord turned the Captivity of Sion then we were like unto them that dream says the Prophet The deliverance was so fortunate so much it did out-strip their hope that they did receive it at first not as that which was done indeed but as a delightful dream As Livie relating how the Graecians were strangly strucken with sudden joy upon the day when the Romans sent them unexpected liberty says he Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur they thought it was a pleasing vision in their sleep and not the happiness of them that were broad awake So when God did really make good that Promise which the Devil pretended that he would bring about Non moriemini You shall not die The faithful Patriarch knew not how to apprehend it at the first but his eye did testifie that his soul was ravished with the mercies of the Lord. The wicked shall not end half his days the seed of the ungodly shall be rooted out eternal fire is prepared hereafter for them that shall be turned over to the Devil and his Angels there shall be much wrath and vengeance every where among the dwelling places of the unrighteous but as for Isaac and they that are born according to the Spirit Noli tangere says the Angel the hand of violence shall not come near them as the Poet in his Eclogue brings in Melibaeus wondring at the clemency of Cesar to his fellow-shepherd when all the neighbour-Cottages were burnt and wasted Vndique totis usque adeò turbatur agris So when God shall work so much destruction in the world redemption is an admirable thing where it lights John Baptist as we read it in the vulgar Latine blazeth out with two notes of astonishment one upon another Ecce Agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi Behold the Lamb of God I and again Behold him that taketh away the sins of the world In two respects it is to be wondred at without any prejudice to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fulness of our faith as I will shew by the examples of two memorable women in holy Scripture Whence is it that the mother of my Lord comes unto me says Elizabeth Why did she marvel at it Quia non sui meriti sed divini fatetur esse muneris says Beda because it was a favour of mere grace and not a recompence of merit And again the blessed mother of our Saviour astonished at the Angels message that she should conceive and bear a Son Quomodo says she How shall these things come to pass Tanquam certa de facto querit de modo fiendi as it is the common answer She was sure it should be so she marvelled how it should be so and that was a blameless admiration Both these passions did Abraham suffer he knew there was no worth in man that God should release him from condemnation he knew not the manner what should be paid for his ransom his eye did fix it self upon the throne of God to find the mystery out and so you see it was Gestus admirantis the expression of wonder and astonishment that Abraham lifted up his eyes Thirdly It is Gestus inquirentis besides that he lifted up his eyes he look'd about him from the tops of Moriah it is the demeanour of him that did seek out for a Sacrifice to be offered up unto the Lord. Reges Parthes non potest quisquam salutare sine munere says he No man was admitted to salute the Parthian Kings unless he brought some Present in his hands so because Abraham came to this Mountain to worship before the Angel of the Lord he look'd and enquired for some Oblation that he might not turn back until he had laid a gift upon the Altar Many will lift up their eyes but they list not to seek an Offering for the Lord. Such are best pleased with devotion when it comes off with as little cost as may be Nay says David when Araunah would have born his charges I will not sacrifice to God of that which shall cost me nothing An Objection is framed in the School that the Piety of the Jews was more acceptable to God than the piety of Christians because they in their daily Service were at great expense to provide beasts for the Altar we are at no such charge in our Spiritual Worship it is enough if we offer up a broken heart in mortification a thankful heart in Praise and a devout heart in Prayer But this puts not our Purse to any trial like the Oblations of the Jews To cancel and wipe out this opposition it is answered that we supply that charge of the Sacrifice of beasts In Sacrificio Eleemosynarum in the Sacrifice of Alms to the poor The hand must look about it where to give as well as the eye look upward where to be thankful A distribution to the wants of the needy it is Pro sacrificio and prae sacrificio in place of sacrifice and to be preferred before all sacrifices Mercy is a better Oblation than a Beast that is slain this day you know how much was paid for the price of your redemption but not the price of corruptible things as Silver and Gold Spare O spare some portion of that which you spend profusely in the consumption of vanity at this solemn time of redemption to redeem the distressed in Prisons that are fast bound in misery and iron Look about you as Abraham did and you shall find I assure you Arietes prehensos in Vepribus Rams shall I say Nay they have scarce any fleece upon their back but they are catch'd fast poor Souls by the horns in the Thicket thence they cannot stir unlâ—ss Abraham will take them and offer them up for an Oblation to the Lord. Above all other casts of the eye this same Gestus inquirentis pleaseth me best to look about that we may present some gift upon the Altar
of the Fathers I do confess speak ambiguously as if his soul had retired ad inferos which is no other than Hell it self although they speak of no dolor or calamity going with it Some place of darkness there may be say they which expound them where pain is not heard of And to little purpose is that fancy of Poetry cited out of Prudentius Sunt spiritibus saepe nocentibus Paenarum celebres sub Styge feriae Exultatque sui carceris otio Vmbrarum populus liber ab ignibus where there is no desperation nor worm of conscience there is no Hell those are worse than fire and brimstone Desperation and an evil conscience were far from this man and therefore no unknown dark corner of Hell could be a retiring place for the soul of Lazarus Now as the servants of Elisha would needs go look for Elias whether he were faln upon the Mountains or the Valleys all this while Elias was ascended up into heaven So to seek out the Spirit of Lazarus either with Enoch or in Limbo or in Purgatory or in Hell it is but lost labour for the Spirit of one whom Jesus loved so dearly why was it not all this while as well as the soul of the repentant thief in the joys of Paradise Nay but say the Adversaries of this opinion once a comprehender of the joys of heaven is a comprehender for ever and never more turned out to be a weary Pilgrim in the state of misery When the soul is once ravished with that unspeakable joy of the Beatifical Vision it is impossible to draw it back from that object Angeli non sic foras exeunt ut visione Dei priventur The Angels when they came upon messages to the Sons of men were at the same instant possessed of the Vision of the divine glory in heaven at the same instant that they did officiate upon earth So that the Spirit of Lazarus if it were once in Paradise it would never yield to return to mortal flesh but to a glorified body which stands always before the face of God I answer The eternal Godhead of the holy Trinity which makes the beholders so happy it is not speculum naturale but voluntarium man doth not see into it what he would see in the vehemency of his own desire but what it pleaseth God to reveal and so far forth as he doth enflame the heart of man to desire it Why might not God lay his hand upon him as he did upon Moses and cover his face deferring the felicity of the highest degree until the more full times of refreshment were accomplished O but you will say had he been but in the Cliff of the Rock with Moses and suffered there to see nothing but the hinder parts of God yet who would not rather still abide in the Cliff of the Rock than be translated into the throne of a Monarch Grant him but a door-keepers place the worst share in heaven grant him but a good passage out of this vexatious world and what benefit can it be to return again Were he no higher than the Orbe of the Moon yet he were better there than in Canaan a Land flowing with milk and honey Quis non exhorreat mori eligat si rursus ei proponatur aut mors perpetienda aut rursus infantâ—a Who would not rather choose to die says St. Austin than live again but the age of infancy wherein we remember not any evil we received But when Lazarus was passed the danger of Tentations quit from storms put safe into the Haven was it not an injury to be brought back again to try the danger of the Seas When Monicha was drawing to her end What should I stay for here any longer my Son says she There was one thing that made me desirous to live to see you a Catholick Christian this I have seen now I desire to be dissolved So might Lazarus say I desired mine eyes might see my Redeemer and I have seen him to be beloved by my Lord and he hath called me friend to see him entertained in our poor Cottage and my Sisters have received him it is but loss to me to stay Yea shortly my Saviour is to be crucified shortly to ascend into heaven and should I return to earth to lose him Nay what good to be done in such a place where there will be nothing but the envy of the Pharisees and the blasphemy of the High Priests against my Saviour Dearly Beloved I can quickly dispatch an answer to this and shew that the soul of Lazarus was happy to recoile again from heaven into the body There are degrees in the habitations of heaven one above another and one Star differs from another in glory put case that the righteous Abel was the first Saint dying in Gods favour But John Baptist was the greatest that was born of a woman and the Blessed Virgin the Mother of our Lord was a most glorified Vessel which all generations shall call blessed These living and dying four thousand years after Abel came later into the Kingdom of heaven yet as late as they came both being crowned with a more excellent Crown than Abel was which of them obtained the more desirable felicity Without question the Blessed Virgins Lot was the better for what are four thousand years reckoned in the time before to such an increase of joy for ever and ever Here is Lazarus his case Few days had he seen three years were the most that he had resorted to our Saviour perchance he had suffered not so much as ignominy for the name of Christ to bloud I am sure he had not ventred or resisted yet his eyes being closed according to the measure of his faith he is received into Abrahams bosom Let him there abide you will say if Christ love him truly let him return no more to mortality Nay not so Lazarus come forth see the days of thy Saviours Passion and be not offended confess his name and be scourged take your possessions once more into your hands and spend them upon the poor preach the Gospel as if the Angels had sent you back to bring more souls to bear them company die not in your bed the second time but upon the Cross as your Redeemer did then return the way which you know so well to the fellowship of Saints and bless the mouth which said Lazarus come forth for the second life I may well assure my self hath gained joy of a thousand fold increase in the life everlasting The first voyage was short and safe but not of the greatest profit the last was long and dangerous but as if you went for Gold to India Thus I have shewed that Lazarus was verily dead the soul quite flitted from the body that no other place but heaven did receive it that it was no miserable fortune to assume flesh again upon earth but an occasion to promote him to a far abundant exceeding weight of glory Now a
word of the power of Christ which coupled again those parts divorced the soul and body not by breathing a new life into the body but by breathing out a loud voice Lazarus come forth Such as had been but banished their Country in the days of Caesar the Dictator and were restored again by the grace of Augustus and Antony were called Charonitae as if they had been wasted back again into this world when they were quite extinguished Those Roman Potentates would be esteemed Gods of another world that could unlock a man from the fetters of banishment needs then must he be greater than the Kings of the earth whose authority can break the bars of death and bring the Prisoners forth from the captivity of corruption The Scythians says Lucian swear by these two Idols as the Gods of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Wind and by the Sword Hic spirandi est autor ille mortis The one gives breath to live the other takes life away Now that which gives life and that which takes away life can be no less than a God say the very Scythians These heathen knew no more of Gods power than to give life and to take away life Had they known what it was to restore life again that would have been the chief power of divinity even in their estimation Majus est restituere quà m dare quantò miserius est perdidisse quà m omnino non accepisse It is more admirable to restore the soul again than to create it at the first because it is more miserable for the body to have lost a soul than never to have received it The great Clerks the Athenians could not tell what to make of the infinite power of the Resurrection It is pretty that St. Chrysostome observes upon them Acts xvii when Paul preached unto them and mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Resurrection of the dead they thought this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been a God the unknown God at whose Altar they did worship Evil men can abuse that which is good God can make good employment of that which is evil Death upon the first sin was named to be a punishment It is Meritoria in Martyribus and I may say Gloriosa in resurgentibus it is made an instrument of great reward unto the Martyrs and the passage to an Article of faith to believe in the Resurrection We call them that are dead in the Lord Abraham and Isaac and Jacob alas there are no such now Abraham dissolved into dust is no longer Abraham the soul cannot be called Abraham only the whole man both soul and body but so sted fastly do we trust the dead shall rise again Quod defunctorum animas nominibus suppositi appellamus says Thomas We speak of the dead as if they were now alive because they shall live again even as Christ spake to the corps of Lazarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as to a Corps but as to one living not as to one that was dead but as to ears that could hear Lazarus come forth And it is well says the Father that among all the Corpses in the dust Christ pickt him out by name as who should say now I will have none but Lazarus to come forth others shall appear in their time otherwise all the Legions of the dead had come to light and stood thick upon the earth from the East unto the West Indeed the souls under the Altar cry our Quousque Domine fain would they stand before him like Enoch and Elias so eager they are and vehement instantly to have tongues to speak and hands to hold up and knees and heads to bow as if they were not contented that their days to come for those things were days of eternity We shall meet together all in the same Livery cloathed with bodies of youth according to the measure of our Saviours Age Eph. iv Alexander out of a surly Magnificence Soli Antipatro Phocioni salutem scripsit in Epistolis never wrote in the top of his Letters I wish you long life and prosperity but only to Phocion and Antipater But God will direct his voice to every member of his Church one summon shall call forth Abraham and Isaac and all the world which at this time begins for a relish of faith but with this person alone Lazarus come forth And thus much for the first thing wherein the power of his Divinity appeared Mortuus excitatur a dead Man was raised Now that Lazarus after four days was raised that he which was bound came forth of the Grave is discourse for some other time Thus much only in a word upon the present occasion The next thing that you shall read concerning Lazarus after he was raised is this he sate at Supper with our Saviour in the second verse of the next Chapter Why behold the Supper of the Lord there is the next place where you are to meet with Christ after you are risen from your sins and the preparation of this Table to replenish your hungry souls with grace is as great a testimony of our Saviours Divinity as to raise up Lazarus Tu das epulis accumbere Divum it is the highest power of God which he confers to his Church upon earth to give them leave to meet together before the food of Angels As Manna melted away with the Sun-rising and new store fell upon earth the next morning which is a kind of Resurrection so you that have quenched Gods Spirit that have melted away his grace and let it putrifie for want of good employment this is the Morning this is the Season to gather a new Omer full that you may cherish and increase your faith Which that you may do c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN xi 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with Grave-cloaths and his face was bound about with a Napkin THis is an Easterday Text notwithstanding that the party intreated of is Lazarus for as John Baptist was born a little before the birth of Christ and John was the Forerunner of his Nativity so Lazarus rose from death but a little before Christ rose and was the Forerunner of his Resurrection The Jews Passover was nigh at hand so you shall read in the 55. verse of this Chapter certainly it was not long before Christ the true Paschal Lamb was offered upon the Cross that this Miracle was done Feriâ sextâ ante Dominicam de Passione says one the Friday before Passion Sunday which is nine days past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostom he put them into admiration with this work before this great day of admiration came Nor have we a Praeludium only how our Saviour should conquer death in this Chapter but you shall resent and perceive some resurrection wrought upon every person that had interest in this story First the news of Lazarus death was brought unto Christ beyond
bond can you deny that Is not this Lazarus See but what infirmity Christ pretended in the beginning of this work and how powerfully it ended Jesus wept in the 35 verse as if it were a pitiful case indeed but he could not help it He asked where they had laid him Lord dost thou ask for the grave which was hard by and yet knowst thine own self no man told thee being two days journey from Bethany that Lazarus was dead Then he ask'd for help to take away the stone Debile initium miraculi a weak beginning God knows how should we expect that he should open the gates of Hell that with a word doth not command the Sepulchers to open Doth this offend you What and if you see not only a dead man after four days raised to life but also to walk before you when his feet and hands were bound As if he moved like an Angel rather by the will of his own Spirit than by bodily instruments This was the conclusion of the Miracle and whatsoever the beginning was the end was admirable As Samson went away with the Pin and the Web Judg. xvi 14. which were tied to his hair whatsoever Delilah bound him with still he walked So Lazarus went away with his bonds as if he had triumphed over death and carried the Ensigns away that is the grave-cloaths with him Peters Chains fell off from his hands and so he avoided the imprisonment of Herod Peter thought so strangely of this to walk when his fetters were off that a great while he wist not it was true that was done but thought he saw a vision What did Peter think of Lazarus then For he was one that stood by His eyes were blindfold that he could not see his way the hands are the blind mans Candle and serve to feel out the way and they had Manicles The feet had Shackles that should tread the way Yet as if he had flown out of the Grave rather than walked Lazarus came forth he was in the Sepulchre shortly to be brought forth as if he had been hatching in his mothers womb rather than in a Cave of interred men He was says St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a babe new born wrapt in swadling clouts rather than like one in a winding sheet But when he walk'd without the use of feet or hands he was like Paul wrapt up into the third heavens whether in the body or out of the body he knew not It is a great comfort unto us says Irenaeus that Lazarus came forth cap-a-pe the same man that he was laid in the Grave nothing altered about him Igitur eâdem animâ eodem corpore sumus resurrecturi it shall be our own body it shall be our own soul in the Resurrection no substances newly created Lazarus could best speak for the soul that it must be his own because his former fancy and remembrance still remained And his Sisters could speak for the body they knew what they had foulded up and what they found when they had unfoulded it And therefore some think that it was unto Martha and Mary that Christ spake in the end of this verse Loose him and let him go When Elias raised up the Son of the Widow of Sarepta to life he gave him to his Mother when Elisha restored the Shunamites Child to life he gave him to his Mother when Christ raised up Lazarus from the Grave he puts him into the hands of his Sisters that they may unty what they had bound before nay when he rose from death himself he appeared first to Mary Magdalen What is the reason that at every turn the women had the Resurrection first declared unto them Because they did first occasion death therefore to shew that by faith they were excusable of the fault they had the first news of the life of them that rose again Lord says Martha if thou hadst been here my brother had not died She put all the fault upon the absence of Christ Nay woman says Chrysologus Nisi tu fuisses in paradiso If thou hadst not been in Paradise thy brother had not died But Lazarus is bound that you may unty him and give him breath who first did stop his breath by eating the forbidden fruit Exiit ligatus he came forth bound Lazarus was not glorified in body by this Miracle as the Saints shall be yet here you shall see one of the properties of a glorified body and they are reckoned up to be four by the Schoolmen Claritas incorruptibilitas spiritualitas motus agilitas 1. There shall be an exceeding brightness in those bodies as our Saviours body shined so white at the Transfiguration that no Fuller could make a thing so white 2. They shall be incorruptible Summer and Winter Fire and Sword could do them no violence as Christ said unto Mary Touch me not 3. They shall not be gross like our bodies and sustained with meat It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body 4. It shall be nimble in motion like an Angel flying as Philip did from Gaza in the Desart to Azotus suddenly gliding upon the wings of the wind not depending upon feet as we do and to prefigure this property in a glorified body hereafter Lazarus came forth bound The vulgar Translation puts in a word to make the Miracle more strange Statim exiit that Lazarus came instantly forth without delay though his feet and hands were bound and his face with a Napkin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nonnus he came not out like one that was shackled and halted because of his impediments he ran swiftly before them all For Christ useth not to do his work lamely and by halves St. Chrysostome makes this comparison As a horse and his Rider listen at the Race when the word shall be given and take it at the first syllable to be gone So says he as soon as Christ had but said Lazarus come forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he started out like the horse at his game and came on with speed and chearfulness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like one that watch'd the Sepulcher rather than the Corps Chrysologus brings in the Devil who is the Jaylor of death wonderfully amazed that our Saviour called for a dead Corps and makes him to speak thus Let him have the man he calls for let him have him bound hand and foot if he will let us not stay so long as to unty the knots make no delay Ne dum tardius unum referimus omnes cogeremur afferre lest while we prolong the time to restore one dead man he should call unto the Graves to restore them all As Luther called upon the Pope at first to have but one error amended concerning indulgences and while he trifled and hung off to do that Luther cried so loud that he caused divers Churches most happily to mend twenty more So death hastned away Lazarus being bound lest if he staid more would follow him As the
Hell and to all Judaea that the Son of God about that instant as I do verily believe did break the gates of Brass and smite the bars of death in sunder It was heard to heaven and the Angel came down at his qu as soon as ever that triumphal sign was given wherein I have given you my opinion and not mine alone but of sundry others that the coming of the Angel was not a cause but a consequent of the Earthquake Tremuit terra non quia Angelus descendit de coelo sed quia ab inferis dominator ascendit The ground trembled not because the Angel descended from above but because the Conquerour ascended from beneath And I know not a prettier diversion in all the Scripture to put off that which might be expected than this is Who would not look that the story should run thus Behold there was a great Earthquake for Christ arose from the dead But the Holy Ghost to keep that Circumstance out of our knowledge at what time he arose did divert it in this manner Behold there was a great Earthquake for the Angel even at that instant and occasion came down from heaven And as heaven did partake of this noise when the earth was moved so I doubt not but the horror of it went down to Hell and troubled the Spirits that abide in chains of darkness for ever In all likelihood this great body of the world did quake from the Superficies to the Center of the Earth And Luther was possessed with this pious credulity that in this Earthquake the ground was parted with a large Hiatus from the Sepulcher to Hell and in the moment of that concussion of the ground our Saviour arose to life descended visibly to Hell made shew of his Resurrection there that Satan and Death were under his feet and presently came out of the Pit which could not shut its mouth against him As Luther may enjoy his own conjecture so thus far we may concur that the terrour of the Earthquake did penetrate to the Kingdom of the Devil And how far the Inhabitants of Judaea were affrighted at it it appears in the most couragious in the band of Souldiers who were tumbled to the ground at the noise like the stone which was rouled from the mouth of the Sepulcher and no marvel for St. Hierom either by his own perswasion or by tradition delivers that the rumbling of the earth was so great Vt cuncta concuteret eversionem terrae funditus minaretur That it josselled every thing together and threatned the subversion of this Universe To what end have I amplified it thus far but to make you conceive it fell out immediately through the wonderful hand of the Almighty Philastrius in his 54 Heresie enrolls it for an Heresie Si quis terram moveri putet naturaliter If any man shall say that an Earthquake comes to pass by naturall causes there he went beyond the Line for it appears evidently in Philosophical inquisitions that exhalations and hot air may be instrangled within the bowels of the earth and seeking a way for a larger room or else to get forth it breaks out with a terrible violence and removes some parts of this heavy Element To deny this were to put out the eye of reason Yet in this Earthquake that pertains to my Text I assent that there was no preparation of natural causes to produce it For just when our Saviours soul went out of the body at his Passion and just I think at the moment when his soul returned again into the body at the Resurrection the earth was smitten in a wonderful manner that the world might take notice that the like was never heard or seen And as I do resolutely conclude This motion of the Earth was supernatural so I hold off from the usual opinion that the Angel was made Gods instrument of the execution the manner the consequence of it so great that I am perswaded it was immediately the work of Christ himself Leo cubile in quo habitat tremere fecit says Chrysologus rationally and elegantly The Lion rouzed himself up from sleep the Lion of the Tribe of Judah roared and made his own den to quake Inferiour operations are committed to the Creatures the chief abide in God When Lazarus was raised from the dead says Christ to the Disciples Take ye away the stone and afterward being come forth of the Cave Do ye loose him and let him go So the Angel was an actor in the noble work of this day to roul away the grave-stone to dismay the Souldiers to comfort Mary Magdalen and the other women to preach the mystery to all But it was Christ himself that shook the ground from the Superficies to the Center this Ecce this Behold me seems bids us behold how it came from God and not from his Minister the Angel and behold there was a great Earthquake I remove forward to that which is more useful to be taught from the efficient to the final cause for what purpose was this great trembling and concussion of the earth at the Resurrection of our Saviour I will set forth six reasons First it makes us conceit that there was a great strugling and a combate between Christ and Death Death was brought unto the Bar impleaded before Almighty God divested by just judgment from all power found guilty because the guiltless and innocent was slain It was permitted to seize upon us Prisoners But it spared not the Judge himself which is Christ We that are slaves and servants were put under the dominion of it and Death presumed to offer violence to our Lord it was suffered to rage against men and it was bold to assault God Death according to the great Doom was the wages of sin how justly is the yoke of its tyranny broken when it became the murtherer of righteousness But how hardly would it lay down the authority which it had so long usurped over all mortal flesh So many Patriarchs so many Prophets Quo Tullus Dives Ancus so many Princes and Kings whose bodies crumbled into dust and their ashes were never made whole again and when this Law which had so long continued was to be broken what could be expected but that the earth would groan and struggle against the Resurrection When I speak of Death you know that I mean the Devil who had the power of death he had deluded himself with this fallacy Cruce vivus non descendit quomodo sepulchro mortuus ascendet Christ came not down from the Cross when he was alive how will he be able to come out of the Grave when he is dead He that had so much cunning was best able to deceive himself but with what resistance and murmuring the Prey was taken out of his mouth it is best set down thus briefly instead of a large description Behold there was a great Earthquake Secondly It betokens what noise and tumult there shall be in
of Christ the other at his Resurrection Terra quae in passione concussa fuerat horrore jam prae gaudio exilire videtur The whole Land of Judaea did quake with horror when he hung upon the Cross but it danced for joy when he rose out of the Grave so I have rendred the fifth reason The Sixth is Allegorical and thus in brief that our hearts must be shaken and inwardly troubled with compunction and repentance before we believe stedfastly in the Resurrection of Jesus Peter preacht and they that heard him were prickt in heart and said to him and to the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do There was an heart-quake before they believed Paul and Silas prayed and sung praises to God and suddenly there was a great Earthquake then the Jaylor came in trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and said Sirs what must I do to be saved Here was an heart rent and torn a commotion in his conscience greater than an Earthquake and then he believed When Eve took and eat the forbidden fruit says an eloquent Father there was no Earthquake no horror to affright her O that the Palsie had possess'd her fingers O that her teeth had chattered that she might not have eaten but vitiis semper serviunt blandimenta All was hush and still nothing but fair allurements do minister to our vices But at Christs Resurrection the sound of an hideous noise was fierce and terrible to the ear Virtutibus austera fortia sunt amica Harsh and austere occurrencies are best agreeable to vertue Roul the thoughts of your heart up and down like a tempestuous Sea if you mean to make a fair voyage to heaven the commotion of a troubled spirit will breed eternal peace As Paul was smitten down before he believed so faith must be beaten into us with violence and therefore behold there was a great Earthquake at the Resurrection of Jesus Unto the motion of the Earth I conjoyn the next circumstance of my Text which I called the motion of the heaven it were like Copernicus his fancy in Astronomy to think that the Earth did only move and the Heavens stand still at the operation of this Miracle No the everlasting doors were set open and the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven Here is one Keeper more than the Jews look'd for about our Saviours Sepulchre one more than Pilate appointed One mighty Prince of that supernal Host whose countenance was able to daunt a Legion of the best Roman Souldiers perhaps there was a multitude with him to celebrate the Resurrection as there was a multitude that appeared in the fields of Bethlem to rejoyce at his Nativity But this Angel I may say determinately was one of the most royal Spirits that stand before the face of God for ever To make short I will not defer to give my reasons presently how sweetly the eternal Wisdom did dispose to let an Angel shew himself openly both at this place of the Grave and upon the celebration of this great day First Those ministring Spirits had been attendants upon all the parts of our Saviours humility and reason good they should be occupied upon all occasions of his exaltation and glory Since we read of Angels that gave all diligent attendance at his birth the holy Spirit of God knew that men would look for their company at the Resurrection I mean that we who know him now by faith would expect their mention upon this occasion in the Book of God Besides his Resurrection is a birth not called so because of a resemblance how man is brought to life out of the womb of his mother in natural Generation but properly in it self according to the phrase of Scripture Acts xiii 33. For Paul preaching at Antioch that God had fulfilled his Promise in raising up Jesus again says he As it is written in the second Psalm thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee So that these Phrases it seems are equivalent this day have I raised thee up from the dead and this day have I begotten thee And surely as a Father of our own Church says very well the news of his birth if God had so pleased might well have been brought by a mortal man it was but the entrance into a mortal life But the news of his Resurrection do become the mouth of an immortal Messenger because it was an entrance into life immortal Secondly The women came out of doors to embalm Christs body with a great deal of confidence they never thought how many difficulties were in their way and such difficulties as could never have been mastered if the Angel had not been sent to facilitate all things for them They mind not how the High Priests would excommunicate all those that professed to believe or do good to our Lord and Saviour they came to touch a dead body which was pollution by the Law they stand not upon that The Sepulcher was guarded with Souldiers who would permit none to come near it they would try that The Grave was sealed with Pilates perhaps with Caesars Seal which none must cancel on pain of death they would venture that The Grave-stone was exceeding heavy as much as twenty men could move says Nicephorus and barred strongly with Iron and they were out of doors and far on their way before they thought of that then they ask Quis removebit Who will roul us away this stone As who should say God will send us some assistance in so good an enterprise we will put on and hope for that and the Lord to make their Pilgrimage prosperous sent an Angel from heaven to remove away the stone Scipio Africanus besieged a City in Spain well fortified every way and wanted nothing and no hope did appear to take it In the mean time Scipio heard many causes pleaded before him and put off one before it was ended to be heard three days after and being asked by his Officers where he would keep his next Court he pointed to the chief Cittadel of the besieged City and told them he would hear the Cause there in that space he became Master of the Town and did as he had appointed He was not more confident to enter into a City rampar'd against him by his valour than these women were to enter into a Sepulcher by faith sealed and shut up but the Lord is present with couragious attempts and he sent his Angel to assist them Thirdly This shewed says St. Chrysostome that he who had been buried there was God as well as man Cum ad sepulchrum tanquam in coelo ubi Deus habitat assisterent for Angels were as officious at the Sepulcher as they use to be in heaven which is the throne of God If men be laid in their Tomb the worms attend them corruption goes to corruption But the body of Christ even when the soul had left it was still united in one person with the Godhead
not pity them that may foresee this and yet will be other mens instruments to facilitate their damnable projects I do not pity these Souldiers that would attend the High Priests service against the Lord and against his Christ and now are weary of their service they shook for fear and became as dead men Lastly to end all the wicked have fair warnings these fears and quiverings are good Tutors and admonitions when the house gives a crack before it falls the Inhabitants may shift for their lives and he that will not mend by terror and minacy let his end be misery A standing water that is never troubled hath no commotion in it must needs corrupt so an even fortune that is not acquainted with frowns and afrightments is most incommodious for a Christian but he that will make good use of fear though he shake and cannot stand he shall fall into the arms of mercy But these impious Watchmen were no longer mortified than the Angel lookt upon them There was no serious affection of sorrow in them Sicut mente alienati expavescunt ad momentum simul tamen obliviscuntur se timuisse As a phrentique is awed for a while with his Keeper but flies out into wild fits as soon as he turns his back so this Roman Garrison who may represent the whole condition of Reprobates a little terrified but never amended they had a qualm of guiltiness came over them but they did not search into the true cause and original and as soon as ever they had communicated with the High-Priests and Elders their impudence was encouraged their hands bribed and their tongues bought at a price to publish abroad the most wrongful the most sinful the most senseless forgery that ever was invented therefore since they were no better for that terror which a good Angel struck into them it is to be much presum'd that the Lord did turn them over to evil Angels to be tormented for ever Dearly beloved that which stands before us this day is not an Angel of the ordinary Hierarchy but the Angel of the Covenant Christ our Lord in the Sacrament of his blessed Body not cloathed gorgeously but in the poor Elements of Bread and Wine And let us come to these with joy and not with terror not as dead men unless it be unto sin and living unto God and yet bring store of fear and reverence with you The Greek Fathers call this Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mysteries of dreadfulness lest we should not receive them in a clean vessel and with all due preparation O I beseech you remember you come to receive Christ who is risen and sitteth at the right hand of God wherefore come out of the Grave of your sins from your long accustomed crimes wherein you have been buried not four days with Lazarus but many years and then we shall encompass Christ in his glory with Troops of Angels for evermore AMEN THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MARK xvi 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the Week he appeared first to Mary Magdalen out of whom he had cast seven Devils ALL that concerns this most Christian Festival may be referred to two words Christus resurrexit apparuit that Christ rose from the dead and that he appeared after he was risen That he rose from the dead on this day there were good tokens of it the earth trembled the Stone was rolled away the Monument was opened the Souldiers that kept watch upon the place were dismayed and fled away the body was not to be found in the Sepulcher and Angels of light heavenly Spirits that would consent to no fraud or sin ministred in the Grave where the body had lain Who were the Witnesses that could testifie to all this that it was very true A Catalogue of people some of one condition some of another The whole Corps du Guard of the Souldiers though they were corrupted to tell a lie the Women that brought sweet Odours and Spices to embalm him and lastly two of his own Disciples Peter and John who saw what God had done and returned from the Monument with some little faith but with great extasies of wonder and joy indeed with a concurrence of all these passions that no man can well tell what to call it See my Beloved here was the grand Article of Faith come now to the birth yet all this that was passed was not able to bring it forth It put Christ therefore I will not say to the trouble but to the exercise of five several Apparitions upon this day 1. He was seen of Mary Magdalen 2. Of Peter although we meet not with the manner how Peter saw him but the Apostle Paul says he was seen of Cephas then of the Twelve it was his happiness by himself alone to behold him alive again upon this day Luk. xxiv 34. The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared unto Simon 3. He manifested himself to the cluster of those Women that came to anoint his body 4. He discovered himself to those two that were going to Emmaus 5. He came in the presence of all the Disciples at Evening when the doors were shut These were the Cinque Ports I may say of his sweet manifestation at this season And it falls out very well to my purpose that my Text says the first that saw him after his victory over death was Mary Magdalen For this will make even with Eve upon whose disobedience I have preach'd so often I have shewed unto you divers times how by a Woman came the first vengeance of death now I shall shew you if God please how by a woman came the first notice of the Resurrection from the dead and both hapned in a Garden In a Garden life was forfeited unto death And in a Garden life was recovered from death But death was threatned to Eve towards the darkness of the Evening he that conquered death made shew of his victory openly to this holy Woman early in the Morning And this is Davids Song accomplished Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the Morning The Text offers much to be spoken of I cannot reach at all but I will select so much only as will serve for the continuance of an hour First here are circumstances of time which shew a coherence between the Resurrection and Apparition of our Lord. The Apparition as well as the Resurrection was upon the same day On the first day of the Week and much about the same time of the day very early in the Morning Secondly The Apparition it self was made to Mary Magdalen who is described that she had the first fruits of Christs love for the present he appeared first c. And 2. she that was the object of his great mercy for the time past for it was she out of whom Christ had cast seven devils Unto these particulars are required your Attentiveness and my labour To begin then These great marvels hapned on
And with a little motion with a turning about he was just behind her and now first she got the sight of him She got the sight of him but loe here is another degree of his appearance before he was clearly revealed he was presented to her in such a fashion that as yet she knew not that her blessedness was so near her She mistook him it is hard to say how for the Gardener that dress'd those grounds But how came this ignorance upon her I do not believe that Christ carried a rake and spade in his hand like a Gardener as vulgar Pictures make bold to set him out He might offer himself in a poor habit and without any upper Garment like one that was not far from home and being so early in the ground these circumstances would suit so well to no man as to the Gardener Very well this conceit might have taken her if our Lord had been a stranger to her knowledge But this is marvellous she sought none but him she knew no mans person in the world so well as him and yet the first glimpse he is any body but himself he is a Gardener How comes this I have it for you I think out of two Texts of the Gospel In the 12. verse of this chapter it is said that after Mary had seen him he appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in another form to two of them by the way Yet concerning the same parties we read Luke xxiv 16. Their eyes were holden that they should not know him We may collect thus much out of both these put together that in those forty days wherein Christ walked upon the earth after he was risen he seemed by his Divine power to wear many sorts of Garments but he wore none for a glorified body needs not the coverture of Apparel and the eyes of those that saw him had not the power to perceive who he was until such time as he saw fit to disclose himself And take it for very truth that I say their outward senses had no power to judg of their object but when he pleased for as I will shew in good time by and by Mary talkt with him and did not know his voice till he opened her ears When he thought it due time and not before her eyes and ears recovered their faculties But I confess the question doth yet depend upon a little more resolution why Christ would let her continue a while deluded that she knew not who he was I answer she deserved not to partake of more favour she loved much indeed but we cannot say that she believed much She believed no more than the High-Priest would have all the world believe that his body was stoln out of the Sepulcher Since therefore she was more zealous in her love towards Christ than all others he appeared unto her but because she would not believe in his resurrection no not for the testimony of the holy Angels therefore for a little space he hid himself from her contriving that in his body now which he doth continually in the sending of his Holy Spirit a little love shall have some reward but he will come and dwell with them and be known of them that believe without wavering As yet he passeth with this woman for a Gardener and that was no unhappy error it was he that did sow the seeds of faith in her heart and planted repentance in her soul that it might grow up and prosper to amendment of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she supposed him to be a Gardener it is true in the allegory but not in the letter Take heed that our carnal affections do not impress Christ into our thoughts otherwise than he is When we are full of earthy low flat cogitations we frame a God of a strange fashion to our selves As Mary Magdalen giving no trust to the Angels that he was risen from the dead took him for no better than the Gardener But to strike up this point to the head whatsoever Christ seemed to her he was himself without all transformation he had now a glorified body he did not change the form and lineaments of his body it was the poison which the Manichaeans suckt out of this Text says St. Hierom that forasmuch as the Lord seemed to this woman diverse from himself he was diverse from himself and had a phantastique body not made of flesh and bone of the seed of the woman ridiculous he contiued very God and very man in the unity of one person the same man Jesus Christ that was born of the Virgin But his wisdom did contrive it so as to reveal himself to this party by degrees First by his Proxies the Angels Secondly by the shape of a Gardener now thirdly he threw the Veil aside and shewed himself clearly as he was unto her and she that desired but to find him dead found him living for ever The manner the manner of it I say is that which is well worthy of a godly eare to mark it for which I still refer you to the 20. of St. John Our Saviour when he came in presence gave her occasion of discourse on this sort woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou Good expressions both of a most passionate love weeping and seeking Yet to seek did befit her diligence but to weep was out of date at this time and convinced her of a reproveable weakness It was no day to spend tears upon which offered occasion of eternal joy and shall so continue a day of gladness every week while the world endures But says St. Austin she that wept for her Brother Lazarus and obteined his resurrection with tears she makes assay if by weeping she could obtein the resurrection of Christ But whatsoever may be thought her infirmity in weeping it was gracious in Gods eyes when it was joyned with seeking Doubtless says St. Paul God is not far from every one of us Act. xvii 27. yea but he is always near at hand to those that seek him not far from any but thou Lord never failest them that seek thee Psal ix 10. Mary had done as much as diligence could express she had wept as much as grief could express now Joseph could not choose but make himself known to his Brethren now Jesus would hold the woman in suspence no longer but he chang'd the accent of his voice and spake so tunably that she knew him at the first word he said no more but Mary as God said unto Moses Thee have I known by name and then she turned and said Rabboni as who should say I know the voice of my Master and I am thine Handmaid It sounded well in her mouth to call him Rabboni or Master now he was alive for she continued to call him Lord when she took him for lost and that he was no better than one of the dead When all ignominy had been cast upon him when none would own him for a Lord yet she reserves his title to him they
upon them to make them loiter from their daily necessary labour but it was an high solemnity as fell out in all the year Dies celeberrimus sanctissimus as the Vulgar Latin reads it Lev. xxiii 21. where we read that then they should proclaime and call an holy Convocation So I have summed up the three occasions of this Feast in the Old Law first to give thanks for their deliverance from bondage Secondly to honour the day wherein first they received the Law at Mount Sinah and thirdly to offer up the first fruits of their Harvest will you see now how aptly the gift of the Holy Ghost was distributed at the same time When the day of Pentecost c. First Whereas the Jews did celebrate at the Feast of Pentecost their enfranchisement from the house of bondage so the benefit of liberty was augmented this day much more than ever it was before This Satan knew well enough and therefore the longest thing wherein he held the Church in ignorance was about the sending of the Holy Ghost long after the name of Christ and his power was received whole Cities and Societies confessed they had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost or not Ignorance in those Points which are necessary to salvation is the greatest thraldom and captivity in the world False Prophets says S. Paul do lead captive silly women laden with sins 2 Tim. iii. 6. I spake not only of such as sate in the darkness of death and were lost these were like Samson in fetters having their eies put out but the Disciples the flower of Christs train saw nothing in holy mysteries as they ought to see till the influence of this glorious day cleared there eye-sight their eyes were held their hearts were held they knew not which way their Redemption was brought about and how Israel was restored Our Saviour took out but one Text in all the New Testament it is out of Isaiah and it is to this very purpose that the Spirit of God redeemed us out of the captivity of ignorance the place is extant Luk. iv 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised This comes home to the matter I am sure Yet moreover this is a day of restitution unto liberty because it dissolved the Church from the tye and yoke of Levitical Ceremonies from those multitude of Statutes which overwhelmed the people with observation As Pharaoh was drowned in the red Sea so the tenure of Mosaical Ceremonies was drowned in the bloud of Christ which was shed upon the Cross and on this Feast we received the Seal of the Spirit that we were rid of them all So far I have demonstrated that at this time we shook off the bondage of Ignorance and Ceremonies which makes it a feast of Pentecost to us Christians as well as it was to the Jews Secondly You shall find the other correspondency marvelously kept between the Law and the Gospel Christ at his death was slain not only as the Paschal Lamb but even when the Lamb was slain on the Feast of Passeover Now from the Feast of Passeover or rather from the second day of sweet bread reckoning fifty days the Children of Israel came to Mount Sinah and there received the Law which was kept ever after with a most sacred memorial so fifty days after Christ rose from the dead the Apostles and the Church received the Spirit of Sanctification And I am sure we have much more cause to renown our Pentecost than the Jews had to honour theirs If the Law which was the ministration of death was so thankfully remembred how much more the dedication of the Gospel For this day as the Fathers say very well was the first dedication of Christs Catholick Church upon earth They were made the Sons of the bondwoman by the Law we are made the Sons of the free-woman by the Spirit We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but we have received the spirit of adoption Rom. viii 15. A sinner could have no comfort in the Pentecost of the Jews they had the Law and that condemned them this was miserable comfort We have gladsom tidings this day not from Sinah but out of Sion which bids us live by faith in Christ In no other Feast of the Jews might Leaven be eaten it was an hainous transgression but the two loaves of the first fruits were to be baked with Leaven which were dedicated to God at this Feast Lev. xxiii 17. Expositors say no more to it but thus Leaven was put into the dough of new corn Vt panes sapidiores essent to make it more savory certainly so vulgar an interpretation is much under the meaning of the Holy Ghost I would rather say it had a mystical construction that Leaven was allowed at this Feast to intimate that the Holy Spirit would bear with the leaven of our nature with our sins of frailty and infirmity And it is observable that this is the number of the Jubilee every fiftieth year was the Jubilee year which was a time with the Jews to restore all men to their Lands which were sold away by ill-husbandry and a general forgiving of all debts So this day was a true Jubilee for remission of Trespasses it was at this time that Peter preach'd remission of sins to all that did repent and believe to all without exception for says he the Promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call So I have shewed that we received the divine Spirit of grace at Sion at the same time that they received the terrible Law at Sinah which makes it a greater Feast of Pentecost to us Christians than it was unto the Jews Thirdly We agree no less with them in the next similitude for keeping this day The Israelites according to the early maturity of corn in that climate began to put their Sickle at this time into Wheat Harvest so the Apostles from this day forward went forth to reap that which the Prophets had sown gathering much fruit unto eternal life and bringing the Wheat of God into his Garner unto the everlasting praise of the glory of his grace Their Barly Harvest such was the condition of their Soil and Husbandry begun at Easter their Wheat was begun to be cut down seven weeks after at Whitsuntide and the latter was called Tempus primitiarum the Time or Festival of First-fruits which were presented to the Lord. So God breathed his spirit into man at the creation of Adam that was the first Harvest which spirit being choked by him and coming to nothing this day there was a second emission of the spirit into man fully to restore and renew him again Now the two Loaves
of Trinity disclosed his glory and power openly two wayes to their ear and to their eye by a sound unto the ear by a lightsom brightness to the eye to the ear as to the sense of faith and suddenly there came a sound from heaven c. to the eye as to the sense of love and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire c. Whereupon I will enlarge my self unto you at this time in these particulars 1. That the Holy Ghost presented himself to the Primitive Church in a visible object 2. For the principal substance of the apparition it was a Tongue 3. Lingua dispertita vel sectilis it was a Cloven Tongue 4. Quasi ignis it was a firy Tongue 5. It was lingua or ignis or spiritus insidens this Tongue or this Fire or this Spirit take which you will it is all one but it rested or sat upon each of them We begin with an Apparition representing not some Angel or other glorious creature putting on a sensible shape but the third Person of Trinity the Eternal Spirit consubstantial with the Father and the Son He offered himself as this day in a visible Figure to the Apostles and divers other believers that were gathered together in Jerusalem St. Austin in his third Book of the Trinity maintains that all the Persons of Trinity did appear in visible shapes to the Patriarchs of the Old Testament one or two upon one occasion and a third upon another occasion Tertullian and Epiphanius are stout in their opinion that none but God the Son called the Angel of the New Covenant did lay aside his invisible glory in the old times and appeared to men I will not engage my self in that quarrel but for one thing I am at certainty that when the Law was delivered at Mount Sinai the Godhead did not condescend to any apparition at all the people were forbidden so much as to imagin they saw any resemblance of the Most High says Moses Ye saw no similitude only ye heard a voice Deut. iv 12. But the Lord grew more friendly and familiar with us that profess the Gospel We have seen we have heard our hands have handled the word of life this day the new Law began at Mount Sion and we did not only hear a voice as it is in the former verse but according to my Text they saw a similitude that which was wrapt up in dark Parables to the Fathers we see that truth as clearly as it were the Sun at noon day They had the Veil before their eyes says the Apostle we behold the fair beauty of God and the Veil taken away and rent asunder they did dishonur God by worshipping visible things instead of the Invisible Creator and therefore they might not see any resemblance of him for fear of transgressions and if we worship vain things that are not Gods in this world we shall utterly be deprived of seeing his glory and lose our reward hereafter But the special intent of this apparition was to comfort the Apostles for all the tribulations that they were to sustain for as their faith was corroborated with some vision of God here so it assured them that the same faith should be rewarded with a perfect vision hereafter in the life to come He that believeth doth as it were shut his eyes and takes all upon trust that he believes yet upon such trust as cannot deceive him the trust of Divine Revelation so that he sees God as I may say though he do not see him as it is Hebr. xi 27. By faith Moses endured the wrath of Pharaoh as seeing him who is invisible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see him that is invisible is contrary to reason but reconciled by Divinity but if at any time the most renowned Servants of God had some glimpse of his Majesty in an apparition as it was at this time then it seals that promise unto them which they have made Matth. v. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God they shall I say for all their consolation is de futuro in hope but not in act whether this Vision of the Holy Ghost or any other before it they saw nothing to speak of in comparison of that which shall be revealed Says Epiphanius he that looks through the funnel of a Chimney may truly say that he sees the Heaven but what doth he see neither the heighth nor the breadth nor the vastness of it so he that sees some resemblance of the Holy Trinity sees somewhat of God darkly as in a Glass but he sees not so much of the immensity of his glory as he that sees the Heavens above but through the eye of a Needle To close this point what doth the Lord require from hence but that our eyes should be chast and pure and sanctified to his service because He let the benediction of his Spirit shine upon them and that amends might be made chiefly in that bodily instrument through which we have dishonoured him with wantonness and concupiscence What is created more wicked than an eye says the Son of Sirach and therefore it weepeth upon every occasion Ecclus. xxxi 13. God hath placed our eyes in the uppermost part of man to be Centenels in our Watch-Tower and to give us warning of those things that may hurt us but quis custodiet ipsos custodes unless we set a Watch upon this Watch we shall be betrayed to the sins of the flesh We live like Labans Sheep every man conceives folly as his eye beholds vain things and party coloured Seleucus King of Locrine enacted a Law to have the unchaste eyes of Adulterers pull'd out to punish the trespass in the fountain of the sin and Democritus the Philosopher pull'd out his to prevent the danger We have had an evil eye Matth. x. eyes full of adultery and then as Salâ—ucus said or rather as our Saviour said oculus eruendus an eye good for nothing but pull it out and cast it from you but as the whole man shall be made a new lump through the reformation of inward grace so that the same work may be wonderful also in our eyes the Holy Ghost cast his beams upon them at this Feast of Whitsuntide and there appeared unto them c. Hitherto I have made a general survey of the Text that it conteins an Apparition sent from Heaven in making access to particulars the first thing notorious in the Apparition is that the matter and as it were the substance of it is a tongue The whole world was mad against the truth crying out distractedly like those of Ephesus Acts xix Then there was need of the voice of a charmer to make them still and attentive with some heavenly incantation The Church was going forth in a militant order to fight the Lords Battels therefore the Lord gave a Trumpet to his Ministers to utter forth a certain sound that they might prepare themselves for the skirmish 1 Cor.
Eve were first placed in Paradice he may have a Society of holy Servants without the Word taught and proclamed by the organ of a Tongue as the Angels are illuminated to know his will by immediate inspiration but with reverence let me speak it I cannot see which way the Lord can have a Church without the Gift of the Holy Spirit God may be known by his wonderful works and effects without his special grace but can he be present in the soul of man and make it blessed by knowing his Divine will to please him without his special grace Praesens est in quantum praesentem facit beatitudinem if he make all his good to pass before us it must be by these means I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious Exod. xxxiii 19. Those creatures that seek no higher perfection nor greater good than a temporal being and that which is found within the compass of their own nature they may attein thereunto by the strength of nature without any other help but Men and Angels that seek an infinite and Divine good that is everlasting happiness which consisteth in the vision of God they cannot attain their wished end which is so much removed from them and so far above them unless they be lifted up unto it by a supernatural force of grace Eternal felicity is the Haven to which they sail and it is no ordinary wind but the stiff gale of the Holy Spirit that must bring them to the Port of endless glory that is they cannot ascend of themselves they may be lifted up to the Vision of God especially Man since his woful fall they are the words of the tenth Article of our Church can have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing him that he may have a good will and without the same grace working with him when he hath a good will Natural habilities and inclinations at the best reach no further than to dispose all things well for the honor and preservation of the natural being but when we are put to it and become content yea and rejoyce to lay down our life for Christs sake which is the abolition of the natural being this vigor and strength must come from a supernatural influence that is from the fire of the Spirit which is predominant above the breath of nature This hath given you satisfaction I suppose that it did more import the Church to receive the Spirit than any other benefit I draw forward to a more distinct inspection of it and the first scruple about which I find a difference is this Whether the very Person of the Holy Ghost be meant in this place or only certain impressions of his Gifts and Graces I will streighten my self to a short answer both the Person of the Holy Ghost was here and the virtue of the Holy Ghost that which sat upon the head of each of them in cloven tongues as it were was the infinite Majesty of the third Person of Trinity in that apt and visible similitude but that which filled them was not the very essence but the operation of the Spirit Implet non seipso formaliter sed dono quod producit say the Schoolmen he that filleth all things with his presence cannot be said formally to fill one thing more than another but he that blows where he listeth with his inspiration is said to fill those whom he sanctifies not with his essence but with that inspiration The Founder of School Divinity is noted for one error above the rest that he makes the Grace of God to be no effect of the Holy Spirit but the essence of the very Spirit to purifie the thoughts and mind He stuck too litterally to St. Austin and so wandred from the right way For thus that Father preaching upon my Text Christ was present with his faithful Servants this day not by his Visiting Grace but by his Personal Majesty atque in vasa non jam odor balsami sed ipsa suba sacri defluxit unguenti their vessels were not only perfumed with the odour of the sweet Ointment but that fragrant Balsam the very Unction it self did flow abundantly into them To this it is most proper to rejoyn that St. Austin meant it of the extraordinary Apparition of the Holy Ghost upon this day not of his ordinary inspiration For in the same Sermon he says that the immortal Spirit is vicarius successor redemptoris the Deputy to succeed our Saviour in the Church now he is gone away on high But how is he Christs Deputy not as if by his personal communication he wrought his gifts in us but thus quod Salvator inchoavit peculiari virtute Spiritus Sanctus consummat the faith which Christ did begin in his Apostles by teaching them daily the Holy Ghost did perfect by the special virtue of sanctification No Text doth more evidently convince that the infinite and increated essence of the Spirit is to be distinguisht from the finite and created qualities which he infuseth then those words Jo. vii 39. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those are all the words in the Text for the Holy Ghost was not yet we make it up for the Holy Ghost was not yet given But stand we to the words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost was not yet This will never hold without differencing the third Person of Trinity from his sanctifying effects the Person was before and had no beginning but nondum erat manifesti muneris efficacitate says Theophylact as yet he was not revealed in his plentiful efficacity The close of the Point is thus the very Person of the Holy Ghost came down into the place where they were gathered in an external visible form and his effects or efficacy was breathed into them in wonderful gifts But concerning those gifts wherewith they were filled there 's another scruple whether they were saving graces such as are collated upon them that are the Elect of God or whether they were only miraculous assistances as Prophecies Gifts of Tongues Gifts of Healing and the like which are impressions indeed of the Holy Ghost not that they sanctifie him which hath them but they are given to men for the confirmation of the holy Faith That which brings this into doubt is a Tradition that hath no good founder that some Apostates and Revolters as Nicolas the Deacon from whom the Nicolaitans are derived were some of this Assembly that are said to be filled with the Holy Ghost and it is not to be contradicted but that gratiae gratis datae habilities to work miracles may be in those that make shipwrack of a good conscience Yet that Exception though it may hold in others yet it is not to be applied to
is a great tyranny to teach that they immediately bind the conscience whereas they bind only mediately as coming from the lawful Magistrate they bind for good order sake and to avoid scandal and no otherwise If they bound immediately why are some ancient Feasts quite put down as solemnizing the 50 days between Easter and Whitsuntide Lastly To thrust many abuses together our Adversaries please themselves in bodily rest and going gaudily in opere operato without faith and repentance Let there be holiness within or it is a folly to keep holy-day without they think God gives more grace at such times than other that their prayers are sooner heard at such times that the Devil flies from them at those seasons which must proceed from this Tenet harsh in the very words that there is a sanctity inherent in this day whereas the Church cannot make a day holy in it self but per metonymiam adjuncti in regard of those duties which we are to perform to God Holiness becometh Gods House holiness becometh his People And God grant we may so order our days here that we may sing with the Angels Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is and shall be for evermore AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE CORONATION 1 SAM ii 30. Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed THis solemn Festival which you keep this day Right Honourable Right Worshipful c. shall give you I trust among other good works that plentiful reward which is in the first part of my Text God will honour you because you honour the Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ Our Saviour was contented to take three Disciples into Mount Tabor and no more that they might view the glory of his Transfiguration but behold a greater Mystery than that Christ is risen from the dead and therefore all your Tribes and Companies are gathered together not for once and no more but three days in their order for the more solemn consummation of that great Feast which indeed is the chief Pillar and the strength of our Faith Beloved since this day as you all know is but one of the followers of the principal Feast what could I choose to speak of more fitly than that which shall instantly follow upon the grand Resurrection when all that are dead shall arise out of their Graves and appear in Judgment and that is no other than this Sentence pronounced from the mouth of Gods Messenger Them that honour me c. For as Empedocles said that two things made this world at the first Lis amicitia that is to say Union and Separation So when we shall all appear before the face of the terrible Judge Union and Separation shall make two great parts of the next world some set on the right hand some cast off unto the left them that honour me I will honour there is the union of the blessed with Christ as he reigns in glory And they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed there is the separation of the Chaff from the Wheat they shall be made a scorn and a reproach and the Lord shall have them in derision You see then and every ordinary capacity may discern that I must not cast my Text into one mould as Moses made two Trumpets of Silver of one whole piece Num. x. For in this portion of Scripture as sometimes in the womb of Rebekah Jacob and Esau two Nations are divided and the one people shall be mightier than the other Of them therefore that honour God and shall be honoured let us speak distinctly by themselves and in the first place their pre-eminence deserves it and two things will fall naturally into that discourse which chiefly augment the celebrity of this day 1. The happy Inauguration of a most illustrious and a gracious King 2. These Penons and Triumphs of your charity which are placed before mine eyes God maintain the Kings honour and give him the necks of his Enemies under his feet God maintain the prosperity of your famous City under his just and careful Government and God comfort the Widow the Diseased and the Fatherless under the refreshing of your charity Salus Regis Salus Populi as we truly say that the safety of the King is the safety of the People So I may as truly say Salus Civitatis Salus Pauperum the safety this City is the comfort and refuge of the poor and needy To knit all these together Salvation to the King the Kings blessed Government to the State the charity of the State to the afflicted and those that are in want I say to bind all these fast in one I have chosen this Text to compass them about Honorantes Honorabo Them c. Which words that they were spoken to Eli the High Priest a person of quality and esteem is not to be doubted and that the Message was sent from God is as clear and never controverted but by whom the Message was brought I do not read in the Text and therefore it was never resolved Yet among many reasonable conjectures I am not against theirs that think an Angel was sent on purpose to give the charge for Angels let us speak after the manner of men are Faeciales Coeli the Heralds of Heaven and can best skill of dignities and promotions in heavenly places The blessed Virgin Mary her self was to learn of them that she was highly favoured of God and therefore Honorantes Honorabo deserves to be an Angels Message Besides Eli the High Priest was the first and chief Master in Israel Then God might pick out such an Instrument why not Who was above Eli in wisdom and might be able to teach all the Priests in the world and that was an Angel But it skills not who did utter it since the Spirit of God did endite it not for Eli alone no Scripture was written for one mans sake it serves the turn most fitly to all them that are mighty in Dignity or mighty in Substance And as Pyrrhus spake of the Senate of Rome that it was Senatus regum every man in it looked like a Prince and a Commander and as Zeba and Zalmunna said of the Sons of Gideon that every one look'd like the Son of a King So there is an Excellency nay some divine Majesty in every of these words and so I will divide them First Here is Honor in Deo an Honour residing in God Secondly Honorabo I will Honour that is Honor à Deo Honour communicated and diffused from God Thirdly Honor propter Deum Honour for Honour a Covenant established to the advancement of our glory if we glorifie God To begin with these parts in order and least we should strain courtesie and expect at Gods hands whether He should honour us first or we do Honour unto Him Let Honor in Deo the Honour due unto God have the first place and before all other in this discourse If we were enjoyned to magnifie and
St. Austin Did you think to burn like chaff and thorns to be out with a blaze The Scripture never meant it Your torments shall belike a firy Oven Psal xxi where heat is furious without the blessing of light You shall be like the burning of Lime Isa xii where the fire encreaseth when you think to extinguish it Nay you shall be as Wax before the fire Mic. i. melted and heated but not consumed Aetna was never cold yet as if it were the stomach of the world Montes uruntur durant quid improbi hostes Domini says Tertullian Yea says the Atheist Hills are but dirt and dross without life they may last and burn Then say we the Salamander hath life and yet is not consumed in the fire So shall it be with the wicked True says the Atheist such Creatures may play in the flames because it is their nature and delight but can the wicked abide in pains unsufferable and not be consumed St. Austin in this point hath outgone their Logick says he Mirabile est dolere in ignibus tamen vivere sed mirabilius vivere in ignibus nec dolere That is the miracle above the other for the little beast to live unscorched without any pain among the burning coals rather then as the damned to continue so in torment Do you believe a vain story for the one then believe the Scriptures for the other But I leave those and many more the like Problems for the Schoolmen whose subtil heads have extracted such questions by distillation from Hell Furnace as if they did not dispute but conjure And I pass from this Song of deliverance how mischief lighted upon the Viper to Canticum Canticorum the Song of Songs even Deborahs song in this happy preservation He shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm This was not a brand snatcht out of the fire half saved half consumed Not like your bloudy Victories wherein the Conquerours may sit down and count their losses as well as the Conquered As Pyrrhus said very well when twice he vanquished the Romans but lost the flower of his own Army in the Victories Si tertio vicerimus if we overcome the third time we are undone for ever But it is Dalmaticus triumphus sine sudore sanguine The Viper left not so much smart behind it as the prick of a thorn or thistle He felt no harm How would a Stoick interpret this now Forsooth to be an obstinate contempt of grief I will not call it patience as if Paul were toucht to the quick but would not feel it So Taurus the Philosopher in Gellius excused a sick person of his Sect that seemed to groan in his disease Non est gemitus alicujus victi à dolore sed anhelitus viri enitentis vincere That is pain and disease did not make him groan as if it troubled him but he fetcht his wind short to over-master his sickness this is robusta stultitia madness not manhood and Philosophy to affect such stubborness Nature cannot but love it self and retire from pain and Reason will follow Nature And this is enough to satisfie the most curious that trouble their heads why our Saviour cast out those strong ejaculations of grief against the bitter cup Mat. xxvi Cum natura cogit etiam ratio data à naturâ cogitur As I said before Reason will follow Nature Wherefore to say that Paul felt no harm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not suffer any He had been in the third heavens and in this one act God gave his body incorruption upon earth For so says Aquinas that many worthy Saints have had a taste of heaven upon earth not only by grace in their soul but by some other excellent quality shining in these vile bodies The properties of a glorified body are thus reckoned up by the same Author first that the Just shall shine like the Sun in the Firmament that is Claritas in corpore So the face of Stephen standing before the Council was bright as the face of an Angel The second ornament is agilitas in motu to be able to fly upon the wings of the wind thus Philip was carried by the Spirit from Gaza in the Desart to Azotus suddenly Thirdly our corruption shall put on incorruption as in this one act Paul suffered on his hand and felt no harm for the last attribute of a glorified body which is called spiritualitas I do not recknon it for according to the Schoolmens interpretation it doth quite destroy the nature of a body But let us remember to keep our bodies pure and undefiled since God hath given us a taste in this life that hereafter they shall be refined in greater glory O we doubt it not but we should all prove as holy as Paul himself if we were so dear to God as to feel no harm Our luxurious Courtiers would sing Songs unto the Lord with Shadrach Mesech and Abednego if the Son of God would walk with them in the firy Furnace and in the shadow of death that they might fear none ill Our wanton Ladies yea and their Handmaids also would play upon Timbrels unto God as well as Miriam if they might tread as safe upon the ground as she did and all Israel to fear none evil in the midst of the Sea No but if our danger did not come to be felt to tangit angit I fear we would be impudent and say there was no danger Like ignorant people who presume when beasts are tamed by discipline that they have no teeth because they bite not Jonah must be wakened to see the Tempest lest he sleep it out and deny it And if Saul miss nothing else yet he must lose his pot of water that he might acknowledge his own preservation and Davids fidelity As the Shepherd in Virgil was bitten by a Gnat to espy the hissing of a Serpent and we our selves try the edge of a Razor upon the nail of our finger and so come to know that if it should miscarry it would cut our throat And this is one cause why Paul did feel no harm because we are chastened with some feeling for they that be evil and feel no harm would be too too evil and feel no benefit But let my second reason be the answer and with your patience the conclusion for this time Such Miracles and such deliverances were required in the days of St. Paul the Apostle which are not now to be expected in these our days I call it a Miracle and so it is and in the nature of the greatest Miracles Small ones are but such as either seldom be seen and so come by their name so our Saviour wondred at the Centurions faith Or those which it is no news to see nor very hard to bring about but only it is above our reason perchance to know the cause as the turning of the point of the Loadstone to the North. But this is a more noble work and therefore
our charity though above the definition of our judgment And thus I would rise up into pious credulity of their salvation for our Church hath a pious credulity at their burial As the longer proportion of afflictions usually falls upon them that can more patiently suffer them and God lays his burden upon them that can best bear it so let our charity infer that he makes the bed of their sickness be long and tedious that had need of large repentance and takes them away suddenly that are best prepared St. Austin fills up this very doctrine with the instance of Lots Wife Magis est hoc exemplum eruditio nobis quà m condemnatio ipsius this Pillar of salt stood there rather for our instruction than for our condemnation And God doth often chastise his own in the flesh as well with sudden as with lingring correction to save the soul from the wrath to come Filii Aaronis castigati sunt non damnati says Gregory Nadab and Abihu were chastised and suddenly slain for offering strange fire but not damned So the old Prophet that was rent by the Lion for his disobedience lived and died an holy man in all the reputation of Israel Luther pleads thus for Lots Wife that in the general course of her life she was faithful and holy left Vr of the Chaldaeans to come away with Abraham from that sink of Idolatry and with Lot her Husband Gen. xii 5. and she stuck close to her Husband in this Exile out of Sodom Therefore it is to be credited that her former faith did not leave her though her soul had but a short moment to call for mercy I wonder the Jesuits should extenuate her sin to be but venial and yet make her a castaway For Lorinus says he would grant she was saved but that all their Authors were against him Lenior placet sententia quamvis Patronum non reperiam Nay I think the best of her in charity not by lessening her sin but by extolling Gods mercy Some of the Rabbies make a toy of it that she became a Pillar of Salt because she would not set Salt before the Angels whom she had received the night before in hospitality The Hebrews will write sometimes as if they were wiser than men sometimes scribble as if they were foolisher than children The fault was a vast one she cast away that which the Lord would have saved in regard of her self desperately of the Angel contumeliously of her Husband and Daughters scandalously of God and his favours unthankfully yet her last gasp might be illuminated by the Spirit to commend her soul into the hands of her gracious Father To which Father and the Holy Spirit together with Jesus Christ be all glory and honour AMEN A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL NUMB. xxi 7. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us I Preach of a People that travelled fourty years in a Wilderness wherein there was neither pleasure nor plenty that came in the end to the Land of rest I preach to a People that are willing according to the boundaries of our Church to number fourty days of Abstinence to be spent without plenty or pleasure to keep them in breath for true repentance that they may find rest for their Souls The People of whom I preach when they were in one of their last journeys at Salmonah I am sure in the last year of their travail were stopt by firy Serpents before they got into the Land of Promise And you to whom I preach are brought into the Land of the Living by the conduct of Joshuah the Servant of the Lord. And though we are come out of a Wilderness and are within the borders of our Canaan God be praised yet we cannot be quiet for Serpents Which puts this word into my mouth to day to avert the malice of the ungodly Pray c. The way wherein I mean to handle the Text is in two parts a Punishment for sin and a Repentance for sin The sin of the Nation must be considered in both and before both And that was murmuring as you may read it in two verses before Indeed it hath that name and another 1 Cor. x. 9 1◠Let us not tempt Christ as some of them tempted and were destroyed of Serpents neither murmur as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Yet the stubbornness and the very back-bone of their sin is murmuring That was their guilt and the same is ours and the worse in us because we offend under the grace of a better Covenant The punishment of the sin of the murmuring Israelites was annoyance by true and real Serpents strictly and in the letter they were no other On our part nothing toucheth us of that nature but we are plagued with Serpents that are far worse as will appear in their ranks and conditions hereafter to be unfolded The repentance for their sin is seen two ways First that they fly to the remedy of Prayer For the Soul which God did breath into Man cannot shake off this principle that all succour comes from above for which it must breath out it self to God Secondly that they fly to that Prayer which comes out of the mouth of Moses That Moses with whom their whole Host was just before offended he is so generally in their good opinion thank the Serpents for it that he must now be their rescue and Advocate and none but he make their peace with God Thou Moses pray unto the Lord that he take away the Serpents from us Now you see what you are to look for out of the Text and in what order and that before I come to the Punishment I must look out a sin for affliction riseth not out of the dust neither doth trouble come out of the ground Job vi 5. Gods hand sends them and Mans sin brings them And this was brought on by repining at Gods mercy and quarreling at Moses his Minister Their tongues run as if they had drunk deep of Viper wine so the Lord sent Serpents among them They that serve God for temporal things and are too eager to get them cannot choose but fall into the tentation of murmuring Such was this People not one Tribe better than another that grumbled upon the lightest thing that crossed them that it was not God that brought them out of Egypt but a trick of Moses to be a King over them But being now more impatient than ever they insist upon two things as ver 4. that the soul of the People was much discouraged because of the way And why so they were not turned aside from the Land of Promise the Journey had been long but the fourtieth year was even spent the worst was past and six moneths would give them possession They could not complain of weariness their feet never swelled Deut. viii 4. Only they were foundred in their patience and would not stay a little while till the time was come which God had
neither thrive abroad nor at home Pyrrho haec Samnitibus I can wish our Enemies no greater harm than such corrupted minds That Pyrrhus it is in Plutarch was a rambling Warriour and cared not whom he oppressed Says Cyneas to him his best Counsellor Shall we live thus always No says Pyrrhus when we have vanquished the Romans Compotabimus in otio vivemus We will drink stoutly and live merrily His Horse would have said as much if he could have spoken that when his service was done he would stand in the Stable and eat his Provender But the end of War is Peace and the end of Peace is to die unto Sin and to live unto Righteousness These are the last words I have to say now In the justness of our Cause confidence of Faith fervour of Prayer amendment of our Lives United Hearts and in our Religious and Noble ends we commend our most serene and excellent Admiral the whole Royal and gallant Expedition which he manageth to God In whom alone is our help For there is none that fights for us powerfully and irresistably but only thou O God To which God c. A SERMON UPON PROV iii. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee THE Children of Israel were exhorted from their Prophet Moses to write the Law upon the Posts of their doors and to have Copies of it in the Fringes of their Garments as if the whole Land of Jury had been bound into one Sacred Volume to make a Bible for them This was Mandatum latissimum as David said a Commandment exceeding broad but a Proverb being by the very interpretation of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quaint speech used in every street of the City and every high way of the field it is more vulgar and common than the Law it self that thou maist be unexcusable O man when his words are gone forth into the ends of the world Now in this brief essay which I have read unto you as the Heathen were wont to set up the Image of Mercury in the turnings of high-ways to direct Passengers their journey which was called Mercurialis acervus so King Solomon in these words hath reared up a Pillar in the broad way to instruct our ignorance which is ready to turn aside and wander like the lost sheep that whithersoever we set our face we keep this Via Regia the Kings high way Let not c. Mercy and truth so excellent a workmanship that I reverse what I said before it is not like a Pillar set up for an heathen Idol but rather Solomon hath made a new Cherubin for a new Temple a Cherubin with two wings stretched out upon our soul The wings are Mercy and Truth which either bear up the body to heaven as David says My soul flieth unto the Lord before the morning watch I say before the morning watch Or if it grow laden with sin that so great a burden cannot be supported these wings can fly away alone these vertues will be gone like Elias in his firy Chariot for a wounded Conscience who can bear it But if it be true that Tertullian says Omnis spiritus ales est Every Spirit is winged to fly much more let the Spirit of every regenerate man be this Avis Paradisi that our soul may say as David the Sparrow hath found her a nest and the Swallow a place to lay her young ones even thine Altar O Lord of Hosts and being thus fledg'd Mercy and Truth shall not forsake us Out of which words I collect these parts in order The first wing of a Christian soul is Mercy He shall protect me under his wings and I shall be safe under his feathers so God was merciful unto David and mercy is a Wing Secondly The next that answers unto it is Truth For the word of the Lord is that flying roul which Ezekiel saw and the Word of the Lord is the truth it self so that Truth is a wing Thirdly Note their conjunction Mercy and Truth they are coupled together Mercy and Truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other they met long ago in Christ the head and we must not part them in his members Fourthly You must know that we may be so careless in our holy Profession that we may be stript of all the good endowments which we had Mercy and Truth may forsake us and then say we had them Lastly If we look to our part the gifts of God are without repentance ne deserant let them not depart there is a careful way whereby we may imp these wings from flying that they shall not forsake us else ne deserant were sounding brass and no true doctrine these are the five Lamps it remains I put oyl into them I begin at Mercy the fairest Omen that ever the World had in it The unmerciful brethren of Joseph consulted to put the blame of their cruelty upon the beasts we will say a cruel beast hath devoured him It is very well that they durst not profess themselves to be men who were so barbarous But neither is â—t in every beast of the field to be stony hearted The fouls of the air are gentle in their kind witness the Ravens that fed Elias and for the Cattel upon the hills the Ass forsook not his old Master the Prophet that was rent by the Lion The meanest of Creatures then have mercy by instinct of nature yea and the most glorious also dread not the Angels though they be called flaming spirits but rather consider what pity they have shewn in their Function towards the Sons of men To execute Gods wrath few do always come down as loath to be Ministers of indignation One destroying Angel appeared to punish Jerusalem one alone brought weeping news to Bochim Jud. ii Three appeared unto Abraham to bring him the joyful Message of a Son but their company grew less by one and but two of them brought tidings to Lot of the vengeance of Sodom But Elishas Servant saw Chariots and Horsemen and thousands in the Mountain to protect them To publish peace and joy heaven it self as I may so speak it was empty and there appeared a multitude of the heavenly Host to the Shepherds and sang praises unto God surely then one of their wings is Mercy But we must fetch our example further than the Angels let us go boldly to the throne of grace and fetch it from the third heavens Be you merciful with a sicut says our Saviour as your heavenly Father is merciful And if we cast our eye upon that pattern it blossoms like the rod of Aaron into these two buds condonationem and donationem First To forgive and remit sins Secondly To give liberally as God hath enabled us In the first I will thus proceed First that it is Gods nature and property to forgive secondly that man should rather forgive than God It did well deserve record
language Vt ex politica dignitate auctior illustrior que fieret Ecclesiastica that the Ecclesiastical Dignity may become more ample and illustrious in the right of the Political Well to end all Antioch had once the day renowned for Orthodox Believers for constant Martyrs for innumerous Disciples she conteined 366 Parish Churches says Volateranus now her material buildings are for the most part eraced down her spiruual building quite vanished and her streets are possessed with Mahumetans You see that the Church is a removing Tabernacle rolling about from Sea to Sea from Land to Land That Truth which shall never fail upon Earth may fail in any particular Kingdom The Antiochians that were the first Christians are become the last God knows how the mystery of his vocation will work that the last shall be first Be not high-minded but fear that fearing we may work with diligence and believe with stedfastness and suffer with patience that we may be partakers of the first Resurrection in newness of life and of the second Resurrection in the glorification of Soul and Body AMEN A Commencement Sermon AT CAMBRIDGE ACTS xii 23. And immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory and he was eaten of worms and gave up the Ghost IF the Caesarea was so attentive to hear King Herods Eloquence and how he did exalt himself above God What is your alacrity may I presume Dearly Beloved to give ear to this story and to Gods vengeance how he did exalt himself above Herod It might be suspected that Caesarea the Region which was called by the name of Caesar would be chiefly for the honour of the King but now we are in the house of the Lord and in his Temple doth every man speak of his honour says the Prophet David St. Luke hath occasioned the mention of two Angels in this Chapter and they are both strikers The first Angel is in the seventh verse that smote St. Peter on the side and rouzed him up from sleep I wish that a good Spirit sent from God may now stir up your attentions The second Angel is in my Text that smote King Herod in the inward bowels and believe it such as was the sin of Herod a presumptuous speaker such is the sin of every carless and unprofitable hearer that serves the vanity of his own imaginations in this holy place and gives not God the glory Is the Lord asleep think you because ye are drowzie Are not his Angels heedful of their charge because your thoughts are wandring Are you sure to come often to Church hereafter if you leave your affections at home to day Nay but though the present business be confined to an hour so is not the vengeance of the Lord for immediately the Angel smote him because he gave not God the glory Every religious exercise should be too long by a Preface I come therefore to set the Text in order that I may proceed to the explication of the parts and they are two First That Herod would not glorifie God indeed that is the bitter root out of which grew all these worms he gave not God the glory Secondly That God was glorified in Herod he was smitten of an Angel eaten of Vermine and gave up the Ghost Herod says St. Chrysostom gave not God the glory two ways 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his mouth spake proud things before the people 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he suffered the people to speak proud things as if he were equal with God and did not rebuke them Wherefore God was glorified in Herod four ways 1. That tantus periit the Ruler the Prince of the people he was smitten 2. A tanto periit no less than a mighty Angel smote him 3. Tantus tam repentè immediately he was smitten 4. Tantus tam luctuosè he was eaten of worms and gave up the Ghost Did not the Lord shew great glory in plucking down the mighty He was smitten Is not his arm exalted when the Angels are his Ministers An Angel smote him Shall not his wrath be terrible when it consumes in the twinkling of an eye Immediately he was smitten Lastly How weak is man in his sight even as a bulrush in the field All the beasts are his Army and the vilest creatures if he send them forth are strong as Lions the Worms did eat up this Galilaean and he gave up the Ghost As the man said in the Gospel Mat. xvii That his child fell often into the water and often into the fire two merciless Elements and very dangerous So Herod in the first part of the Text fell in aquas tumoris into the swelling waters of pride and in the second part in ignem terroris into the fire of vengeance and castigation The offence is to be offered to the first consideration he gave not God the glory There is a satiety of all things and to exceed a just proportion even in that which is good it is blameful and vicious too much justice is rigour too much temperance is diseaseful too much love is troublesome But to give God the glory it is a duty unto which we are bound with an infinite devotion if it were possible even as He is infinite so that we cannot fill up the measure much less are we able to exceed it Wherefore if God gave Children by seventies as he did to Ahab he asked but the first born who was consecrated to his service every hour of time that we live is his benevolence yet the Law is our remembrancer only to keep the Sabbath day the Earth is the Lords and all that therein is and yet his portion is but the tenth of the field but of his glory he hath parted no stakes to the Sons of men it is his own entirely non dabo never ask him for a share he will not part with it As his Ark did never thrive at Ashdod nor at Ekron but only when it was returned to Israel so let not the strength of the mighty nor the wisdom of the prudent be magnified glory will never thrive but when it is returned to the God of Israel and Dagon shall fall down before the Ark of his Majesty Themistocles demanding Tribute of the men of Andria told them that he had brought two powerful Advocates to plead his cause Suadam Vim Perswasion if they pleased Violence if they refused The self-same two Apparitors go before the glory of the most high Exhortation and Confusion Doth it like you to bless his name So God is glorified by the devotion of his Creature Doth it like you to exalt your self with Ero similis altissimo Then you shall be brought down and he will be honoured in your confusion He that swells to the greatest in this world shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven Et fortasse ideo non erit in regno coelorum ubi nisi magni esse non possunt says St Austin
though they came of Bond-women Bildah and Zilpah Non illis obfuerunt natales ancillarum sed praevaluit semen paternum says St. Austin it did predominate in the advancement of their fortune that such a Father did beget them though their Mothers were Servants So it prevails in the holy things of the Gospel that the Father of Grace is above that blesseth them though they be delivered to you immediately by him that is a bond-man to iniquity the impediments that are under foot here be no impediments because our Jerusalem is from above Fourthly This holy City of God is above because it pursues not the things beneath but it seeks those things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God it is above in its affections The delights of the Synagogue were victory over their Enemies length of days a Land of Wine and Olives and flowing with Milk and Honey poor accessories of a transitory happiness This was tolerated unto them when the first Rudiments of the fear of God were taught but grandescenti puerilia excutiuntur these are too childish for us to look after In as much as long continuance of time hath taught us to choose the better part Jerusalem facit amor Dei Babyloniam facit amor seculi says St. Austin he refers all the World to belong to two Cities which he calls Jerusalem for the sound part Babylon for the wicked The whorish Babylon is built up with the love of transitory things the Virgin the Daughter of Sion is built upon the love of God Our Predecessors that lived near to the Apostles days did give such reputation to the Christian Name in the holiness of their conversation that all that they did or desir'd savour'd even in the nostrils of their Enemies of that which was above ask them what they would have The Kingdom of Glory And why they spent the day and night in fasting and weeping For the Kingdom of Glory And why they exposed their lives to ovethrow the Idols of the Heathen To get the Kingdom of Glory What need we more witnesses said the Judges that examin'd them their heads are forfeit for by their own confession they seek the Kingdom Alas poor souls trained up by Fishermen who had learn'd that one lesson from the mouth of their Teacher Behold we have left all No delights under the sky which they forsook not that they might not be forsaken of God took no more but bare necessaries for life out of all the store which the Earth afforded but fill'd up the wide chinks of their heart with the contemplation of that which is above In the antientest Irish Synod held under St. Petricius there is a polite passage for those Times and that Climate Use these outward things moderately non sumit lucerna nisi quo alitur all is superfluous in a candle but that which the snuff sucks up to maintain the light Some came after these that were renowned for the contempt of transitory things and the sweet elevation of their spirit among whom was Gregory the Great says our Bede praising him for our sakes animo illius labentia cuncta subter esse as water runs under a Bridg so all the fluxive things of fortune flowed beneath his mind But all latter Ages have justly deplored the decay of sanctity of manners as the vertues of Miracles were withdrawn so that admirable sanctity in the Church which bred both envy and amazement in the Heathen came to a much meaner perfection I know not how the baits of honours and voluptuousness are grown to be stronger tentations now than in those days when our Progenitors were squeaz'd between persecution and poverty for where is he that doth his duty now-a-dayes and looks not for some part of his payment in hand and to reap a crop out of these transitory possessions As Manna desisted to fall when the people eat of the fruits of the land so the sweetness of heavenly joy is not perceived any longer when our appetite rageth for these vile things for a dividend of dust and clay Recall your Soul and lure it higher when it stoops to this bait below when it extends its desires to things that are worse than its own substance so is every thing that we behold with our bodily eye it must needs return home less unto it self and be justly despised of God whom we talk to in our Prayer as if we were perswaded he was in Heaven and yet so busie we are in action beneath as if we sought our God upon Earth In a word by penetrating so far into these corruptible objects you have excommunicated your own Soul from the Church of Saints for that Jerusalem is above Fifthly The Church Evangelical is Jerusalem above in respect of the Jewish Hagar propter sublime pactum the Covenant that is made with us is sublime and magnificent not the dreadful Law of Works but the mild and gentle Covenant of Faith in the bloud of Christ Now this is nothing else but the very next point in effect the freedom or eternal redemption of Jerusalem which requiring a more spacious part of time to handle it I conclude all that hath been spoken for the present in the name of the Lord. AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON GAL. iv 26. Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all ST Paul in his Apology which he made against those that did detract from him at Corinth confessed that he was rude in speech And St. Hierom says Paulum nequaquam de humilitate sed de conscientiae veritate dixisse That is he wrote it in the earnestness of truth and not in the submission of humility St. Austin says he did but grant his obtrectators their own false opinion in that saying for he had the genius of a most perswasive Oratour and spake with the tongue of an Angel These passages may be reconciled For verily he did for the most part go the beaten way of the Spirit of God and handled heavenly things in a plain stile For the Gentiles sought after wisdom but since by wisdom they knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe Yet St. Austin had his eyes open that he did espy very elegant and most graceful amplifications here and there in his Epistles as occasion did demand that he should dip his Quill in Eloquence We are at home for an instance in this Text. An Allegory of all other Tropes in Rhetorick is no little Bud but the fairest flower and most blown in their Garden This Figure the Apostle makes use of as he professeth vers 24. and runs upon it very copiously to set the Synagogue and the Christian Church the Old and New Testament in comparison one against another He carries it before him from the situation of two Mountains Sinah in the Desart of Arabia Sion in the Holy Land which two Hills became very famous by accident Sinah for the Law Sion for the
being of our nature and yet I will tell you a vitious filthy sinner doth so ill become the name of a man that there is far more congruity between him and a Beast he is more Swine or Tyger or Fox or locust than man he is not four-footed but he is bruitish hearted in his inward parts he hath put off humanity But if repentance shall restore him out of this bestial conversation if God shall set good men at his right hand that by strength of reason force of perswasion timeliness of admonition yea or by sharpness of correction shall make him feel and know the beauty of an honest life he is redintegrated in the powers and faculties of a man which he had quite lost So that our being in the austerity of Philosophy is connexed with our well-being No good man and by consequent no not a man till he be governed by the Principality of reason civil Education and the conditement of Vertue is such a Parent as reposeth a vile person a transformed Monster into the proper line of his own Praedicament it makes him Man Not to flutter in the air as it were any longer with Paradoxes impious Catives I confess shall stand for men for they shall suffer the curses and punishment of men in Hell-fire What is it therefore which Jerusalem adds unto us that she is called our Mother why the renovation of the mind or the new man created after God in righteousness and true holiness And as the Birthright which Jacob obteined from Esau was instead of another birth unto Jacob so when such as were vessels of wrath became Heirs of the Promise by Baptism and the Ministry of the Church is not this a Mother that gives them a better life than they had before The Love of God is our life Faith conceives us Hope brings us forth Charity feeds us with her breasts Obedience wraps us in swadling bands and knowledg brings us up God doth inhabit our mind and understanding as the Soul doth inspire the Body As Abram was turned into Abraham and Simon into Peter when they pleased the Lord so take any one that is regenerate and chang'd from his vain conversation though his shape and substance continue as it was before yet the Angels that rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner behold him with their celestial eyes not as the same but as another Creature And no wonder if he become another object in the sight of Heaven the reasonable Soul is that which constitutes the natural man but Faith being superadded a better spirit possesseth him and Christ is the form of a Christian It is St. Paul's Phrase ver 19. of this Chapter My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you As Ananias travel'd and earned for a Child till Christ was formed in Paul so Paul travel'd and had the sorrows of a Mother when â—he brings forth in the anxiousness of his heart till Christ was formed in the Galatians First the Church brought him forth then he laboured abundantly and assisted the Church to bring forth others The true solution of the old Riddle Mater me genuit eadem mox gignitur ex me the Son of Grace is begotten of this Mother and afterward filling up a place in the Communion of Saints he is reckoned into the collective Body which is called Jerusalem our Mother But a late Writer puts in his judgment very well I think how far the Motherhood of the Church intends to make us Children of Adoption it travels in birth that by her work Christ may be formed in us The Members of our fleshly body are formed in our Mothers Womb by her natural faculties she can go further for the absolution of the work that is the inhabitation of the Soul is the act of God so the Church doth the part of a Mother it propounds repentance discloseth the mysteries of faith perswades us with the expectation of a great reward in Heaven offers us the use of both the salutiferous Sacraments thus a new fashion a new Creature even the form of Christ doth creep upon us but the life by which we live it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it comes from without from above from the inspiration of the spirit of Christ But without that efformation or effigeation in the Womb of the Mother never expect the vivification or information of the Holy Ghost a Doctrin best known in those trivial words of St. Austin he cannot have God for his Father that will not have the Church for his Mother Ascribe the top of the blessing to him from whom every good gift especially those which are supernatural descends Of his own good will He begat us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 His good will moved him to pity us his vertue and power went out from him to beget us and his truth which shined in our hearts was the instrumental cause to convert us Carry it along with you therefore that the invisible Father that is in Heaven works by the visible Mother the Church that is on Earth As Eve was the Mother of all living so she is the Mother of all believing Crescite multiplicamini is spoken to one as well as to the other both were ordeined in their several sorts for that blessing increase and multiply Therefore St. James hath conjoyned the Word of Truth to the Will of God both are mixed together to regenerate a pious people And although some have been too nice in expounding the Phrase Of his own will he begat us with the word of truth not with the words of truth in the plural as if our salvation were effected by pronouncing one word as when first we were made Members of Christ by saying I baptize thee and when we have sinned and return again to the Lord by saying I absolve thee yet be it briefly or largely it is the word spoken and preached by the Church which gives us this heavenly feature to be the holy ones of God Briefly the Mother that doth beget us is the Church Militant but the Mother to whose filiation and inheritance we aspire is the Church Triumphant It is true that in relation to Christ the Church is his Body and all we are his Members and in that reference it doth not make the Elect Servants of God but rather it is compounded of those Servants for properly the Body is not the Mother of the Members the Members are not the effect of the Body but they constitute the Body as integral parts And so Solomon hath more aptly given it honour in those delicious Metaphors of a Bundle of Myrrh a Cluster of Grapes and a Pomegranat which I think is the best resemblance a Pomgranat contains many kernels under one Coat so many thousands of Disciples are under the covering of Christ 2. As many kernels are in the small Pomegranat as in the great so the Graces of Christ are in the little Churches as in the more spacious 3. As
the old Greek Proverb goes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in every Pomgranat there are some corrupt kernels so there are some wicked ones in every Church 4. As the seeds of the Pomegranat are of a bloudy colour so the Robes of the Apostles and others the best kernels of the Church were red in the bloud of Martyrdom but made white in the bloud of the Lamb. The sum is in the whole Pomgranat in the lump we are the Body of Christ but take us one by one and consider us as sometimes we were darkness and now light in the Lord and that this fire was kindled in us all from the Altar of Christ Jesus and by them that minister at it so Jerusalem which is above is the Mother of us all For the most proper work of a Mother is to bring forth Children and the most proper work of a good Mother is to bring them up And because of these two Solomon in the same Canticle hath used this appellation which my Text doth I will bring thee into the House of my Mother that is the Church And though he were the greatest King one of them that ever the Earth saw yet it is no disparagement to him to call that his Mother which God calls his Spouse I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and faithfulness Hos ii 19. The Bridegroom hath taken this Bride unto him and their Offspring are multiplied and happy are those and none but they who are the legitimate Children of this sacred Marriage The Font of Baptism is the Womb of the Church the Spirit that moves upon the waters to sanctify them is the Father and from these two are brought forth the Sons of the Most High that shall dwell in glory for evermore And because of this indissoluble connexion between the Holy Ghost and this Spouse who is always present with it St. Austin notes that she must not only be a fruitful Mother in abundance of issue but also a pure Virgin because she knows none other Husband Ecclesia virgo est parit Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit the Church is both a Virgin and a Mother like the Mother of our Lord although a Mother yet of unquestioned virginity St. Ambrose runs more division upon the same string on this sort Sancta Ecclesia immaculata coit◠foecunda part◠virgo est castitate mater prole the holy Catholick Church keeps her Bed immaculate and yet her Offspring is innumerous a Mother by perpetual propagation and yet a Virgin by perpetual chastity Parit nos non dolore membrorum sed gaudio Angelorum nutrit nos non corporis lacte sed Apostolorum she is delivered of us with no pain or sorrow but with the joy of the Angels in Heaven she feeds us not with the breasts of a woman but the Milk of the Apostles which is better than Nectar to the Soul and the Manna that comes down from Heaven It is yet more admirable what God hath wrought upon this Jerusalem by demonstration of the Spirit and of power We are the dispersions of the Gentiles that are now the People of the Lord we were as a Strumpet that went a whoring after Idols and God hath betrothed this Church unto him and made it an unpolluted Virgin I deny not but lament it that there are some Christian stations affected towards Idolatry which renews the infamy of our ancient whoredoms But whatsoever our Mother is now our Grandmother was chaste and pure in Hegesippus dayes Take it in that sincerity of practice and Doctrin and then you may see the mighty works of Christ to turn an Harlot into a Virgin and a Virgin into a Mother Magna est sponsae singularis dignitas meretricem invenit virginem fecit says St. Austin this is the great and singular dignity of the Bride which hath prepared her self to meet the Bridegroom that comes from Heaven he hath changed her whoredom into virginity and multiplied her virginity into foecundity that she is the Mother of us all You see the Mother through whose Ministery every Christian is born again of water and of the Holy Spirt neque parcit unigenito pro sic genito the Father did not spare his only begotten Son that we might be thus begotten But is there no more that belongs to a Mother than to bring forth yes says Clemens Alexandrinus and I quote him because he speaks of the Church every thing that brings forth is obliged by nature to supply nourishment unto that which it brings forth I am not so rigid but I will grant that in cases of weakness and divers accidental indispositions that which nature doth ordinarily urge and provide for may be dispensed but this rule is born with every Female that which is so fruitful as to be a Mother should be so careful as to be a Nurse And so is the Church Not only Moses the Law-giver carried the People of Promise as a nursing Father carrieth his Child Num. xi 12. by tenderness by ordering their steps by breeding them in good Precepts and Laws but the Apostles were much more laborious to feed the Christian Proselytes with the Word of life that they might grow up from grace to grace unto the stature of perfect righteousness I have fed you with Milk says St. Paul to the newly converted Corinthians 1 Cor. iii. 2. and he suppeditated stronger meat to them that could digest it And for all manner of sweetness and forbearance he behaved himself gently among the Thessalonians as a Nurse cherisheth her Children 1 Thes ii 7. Every Rule and Doctrin which is delivered sincerely and in truth is Milk to those that thirst to drink of the Well of salvation Honey and Milk are under thy tongue says Solomon speaking of this Mother and Nurse Cant. iv xi Milk is a pleasant food so is the Gospel to them that have a spiritual taste there is no Aloes or bitterness in it but to them that have a carnal palat It is Antalcidas his answer in Plutarch to one that asked how he might speak that which might be accepted says he Si loquaris jucundissima praestes utilissima if you will deliver that which is most pleasant and season it with that which is most profitable so that which is sucked from the Breasts of this Parent arrides the taste with sweetness and it is as profitable as sweet and called Milk because it is a most growing nourishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Naturalists as they were accounted plain and innocent above all other People so they did excel for health and magnitude of body Be admonished therefore that such Christians as wax not better and better take some other thing for their nourishment than the Milk of the Church which doth not prosper in them If you do not grow and add virtue to virtue you have chosen a Nurse with dry breasts and whose complexion is diverse
of darkness Invidiâ coelum tundimus non solùm voluit orari verùm etiam pulsari says Tertullian God would not only be called upon but bids us beat at door knock and cease not till we overcome him with importunity Make this Collection moreover from the Point none so good but by continual assault Satan thinks he may pervert them so none so bad but by continual instruction we may reclaim them The Conversion of the very Mahumetans is to be hoped for for if your Doctrine fall drop by drop upon their stony hearts why may not those Flints be worn in pieces Even the Calling of the Jews is to be laboured for though they be dry sticks cut off from the tree from the natural Olive yet being perpetually watered with instruction they may live again Preach the Word be instant in season out of season so Paul wrote to his Timothy Which Text is an Hyperbole for as Gregory says the Word would hurt it self Si habere importunitas opportunitatem nescit If that which is preached out of season were not fitted to be seasonable if importunity did not watch an opportunity But the Greek Fathers do generally follow St. Chrysostomes qualification Opportunum est libenter audienti importunum invito The Word is ever in season to him that is willing to learn but always out of season to him that hateth to be reformed Yet he that thinks Reformation an untunable Song may be brought about with continual instancing and inculcation Shall the good Shepherds be weary to seek that which is lost and gone astray When the Devil will have no nay but tumbles out tentation upon tentation to destroy souls And so far upon his importunity again he taketh him up c. His variety of shifts is the next thing considerable that he removed from a Pinacle of the Temple to an exceeding high Mountain Hereupon some have taken needless pains to commit a great errour I mean those that have search'd out Geographically for the highest hill upon earth as if the Devil had taken up Christ to that Altitude from whence he might behold the furthest prospect Some conceiting the Mountains of Ararat to be the nearest to the Firmament because the Ark rested upon them when the waters were asswaged Some contending for the Mountains of Teneriffa to exceed them for they are higher says Aristotle than all that part of the air which hath either clouds or winds or vapours or any disturbance in it Others pleading for the Riphaean hills whose Promontory to the Basis casts a shadow of thirty miles and more which exceeds all other parts of the earth in height by that measure and proportion But if these were ten times higher than they are they should no whit necessarily concern my Text for they are all of a vast distance from Jerusalem and are quite out of the Land of Canaan but we have no warrant to say that Christ in his bodily presence did remove farther upon earth than the Land of Judea but when his mother fled with him into Egypt Neither was it the advantage of the hill altogether whereby Satan shewed all the Kingdoms of the world unto our Saviour as I will explain by and by Not to insist much upon Topography but thus in brief Jerusalem it self was environ'd with many delicate hills Her foundations are upon the holy hills says David some of those excelled in bigness some of a lower scantling Sion and Hermon were but little Libanus did over-peer these two and so did Basan Even an high hill as the hill of Basan Psal lxviii 15. It is not evident which of those higher Satan made his choice but without contradiction it was an high hill as the hill of Basan A spire or Pinacle of the Temple was a lofty eminence what did drive him to leave it for the top of a Mountain Why is it not so with all Projectors to shift inventions and try new conclusions as fast as the old couzenages are detected and there is a superstition in some weakly grounded God knows to change the place which hath not been lucky unto them Balaac the King of Moab was a great practiser in this kind when Balaam had rather blessed Israel than cursed them upon the high places of Baal says Balaac Num. xxiii 13. Come I pray thee with me unto another place and curse me them from thence and when Balaam had no power to speak evil against Israel there but said there was no inchantment against Jacob nor divination against Israel Balaac chang'd again ver 27. I will bring thee to another place to the top of Peor peradventure it will please God that thou mayst curse me them from thence But it is not the shifting to this place or that place that breeds contrary affections in a good man Coelum non Animum mutant Where there is an inward principle of goodness firm and sure under every cope of heaven the mind is unalterable Such as are like Ruben unstable as water and therefore should not excel as his dying Father told him such let them but cross the Seas and change air and they change their Religion For such ungrounded resolutions the best counsel is to keep quiet at home where they may serve God with an upright heart and not be carried away with Satan from the true Temple of Christ to those high Mountains or cities of seaven hills where they shall be tempted to Idolatry Now what if this mountain which Satan took up like the throne whereon he would reign what if it had been devoted to most gross Idolatry before Would it not be thought the fitter place for such wicked service now For that black hellish motion which follows All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Nay further what if the wisest and one of the most illuminate Servants of God did miscarry upon that Mountain Had not Satan some hopes then to pervert Christ Whom he took to be a Son of God not the eternal and only begotten Son I dare propound my conjecture I call it no more that Solomon did commit Idolatry upon this very Mountain 1 Kings xi 7. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem and for Molech the abomination of the Children of Ammon assent unto this as you like it I will only add to this Point that the place was chosen to raise a great expectation upon that which should be propounded Parturiunt montes if it were divine doctrine a Mountain was thought a fit place to deliver it to call up the attention of the Auditors So that excellent Sermon was delivered to the Apostles on the Mount Mat. v. Docturus Apostolos culmen perfectionis montem conscendit says St. Austin Christ taught them from on high because he exhorted them to the top of perfection Or if they were Prophetical Visions so God did use one of the Angels carried John in the
Spirit to a great and an high Mountain and shewed him the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God Rev. xxi 10. So the hand of the Lord brought Ezekiel and set him upon a very high Mountain to see the new City and the new Temple Ezek. xl 2. Yet these were but raptures or illuminations of the fancy after a divine manner and no more But if Satan plaid the Mimick to imitate God specially in this action there is much likeness in a case which I have not yet remembred But thus The Lord spake unto Moses Deut. xxxiv to go up to the top of Mount Nebo before he died and from thence he shewed him all the goodly Land of Promise from Dan even to the Land of Jericho which the Children of Israel should possess whom he had brought out of Egypt This is it certainly which the Tempter imitated and like a presumptuous fiend placeth not Moses a servant of the Family but Christ more excellent by far than Moses not upon Mount Nebo without the Land of Canaan but upon an hill near unto Jerusalem not to see one Territory and there to die and not enjoy it but to see all the Kingdoms of the world and to take them in possession A man may see with half an eye this was to vilifie Gods Miracles and Promises and to extol his own But that must be more copiously touch'd in the sequel Enough of the second Point the third is to this purpose by what gate or passage the Devil would bring in his Tentation and that is by the eye Ostendit illi He shews him all the Kingdoms of the World There is nothing so soon enticed and led away as the eye We are almost all like Labans Sheep every mans heart conceives as the delight of his eye doth impress upon his fancy O these fair Orbs which the Workman made to be the casements of light but they open to let in death into the soul There it began to shew it self to be an Instrument that had lost all purity when Adam and his Wife were called and hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the Trees of the Garden Whereupon says St. Austin when Adam had a pure conscience he had a single eye and loved to stand before the Lord Postquam peccato sauciatus est oculus caepit lucem formidare divinam But when his eye grew sin-sore his guiltiness would not let him look upon the divine splendour Refugit in tenebras veritatem fugiens umbras appetens Now it had rather seek out secret places and dark empty shadows than the eternal truth Here the eye began to fall from its primitive honour and ever since it became pernicious Says the Son of Sirach What is created more wicked than an eye wherefore it weepeth upon every occasion Eccles xxxi 3. St. John reduceth the whole brood of sin to these three Seed-plots all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life First there is Achans eye that lusteth after Silver and Gold and costly Babylonish Garments such eyes commit thievery upon all costly things that they behold Some would have all as far as they can look Hell and destruction are never full so the eyes of man are never satisfied says Solomon Prov. xvii But this is not all there is Shechems eye that lusteth after the beauty of Dinah Nay less than the lively Person a very Picture is able to strike the eye and dead colours can inflame it with lasciviousness Ask Ezekiel if it be not thus Cha. xxiii 16. Aholibah saw men pourtrayed upon the Wall the Images of the Chaldaeans as soon as she saw them she doated upon them and sent Messengers unto them into Chaldaea And not unusually this malignity hath extended to spiritual fornication for it is often alledged that the workmans cunning and beauty of the Image hath bewitch'd the eye and drawn the vain beholders to commit Idolatrie and these fair lights thus degenerating to be the brokers of wanton sins are called by Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Panders and Bawds to corrupt the Soul And yet there is another capitol mischief imputed to the eye by St. Austin Ad concupiscentiam oculorum pertinet nugacitas spectaculorum Gazing after all manner of vanities and spectacles of bravery filling the mind with rank effeminateness and idleness casting away most unthriftily the good hours of our life to see and to be seen The Theaters are not large enough now adays to receive our loose Gallants Male and Female but whole Fields and Parks are thronged with their concourse where they make a muster of their gay cloaths acd that day is counted the luckiest of the Week not wherein they have done God most faithful service but wherein they have glutted their eyes abroad with gaudy Gallantry Did Solomon mean such as these can you tell when he said The eyes of a fool are in every corner of the earth But I am sure they are of a condition much better than these whom Christ meant Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. v. 8. Such as are not of a very strict conscience to look to their integrity think they may easiy defend themselves against this charge for is not every thing which is visible made to be seen And more fit to be seen if it be a comly piece of Art or Nature St. Bernard brings in Eve excusing her self for looking upon the forbidden fruit Oculos tendo non manum non est interdictum ne videam sed ne comedam That is May I not cast mine eye toward the Tree I do not reach out my hand to it The Tree is pleasant to the eye and though I am forbidden to eat yet I am not denied to look at it The Father takes upon him to answer as if he had been by to talk with her Hoc etsi culpa non est culpae tamen indicium est The darting of the eye formally is not the transgression of the Commandment but it begets the transgression of the Commandment Behold the heaven and the earth and all the works of the Lord which he hath made in such manifold wisdom the invisible things may be understood by things which are seen and the well-governed eye shall teach the heart to glorifie God Wherefore mark the consequent what passions your eyes beget in your soul examine your own frailties prove your strength and your weakness keep your innocency and look your fill but turn away your eyes when you perceive that the devil shews the Object Job said his heart should not walk after his eye that his eye should not stray from reason But what if the heart chance to wander after the eye What remedy then Christ never gave a more angry Precept in all the Gospel than upon this occosion If thy right eye offend thee pull it out and cast it from thee 'T is an Hyperbole so all
relation to civil use commit great Idolatry in this first conclusion for Jews and Turks those I mean worship not the true God but a Figment of their own mind I avouch it what they adore is a mere Figment of their own it is not a Creature that they deny and very truly neither is it the Creator and Lord of all things for they do not worship Three Persons in Trinity and one God in Vnity This is the most subtil and pernicious kind of Idolatry of all others the more pernicious because so hardly discerned But thus I have made good by Paradox They that hate all Images are the greatest Idolaters I proceed to the second Tribe of them whom I endited of Idolatry even those that know the true God and serve him but yet allow a modification of Religious Worship to some of his Creatures In the censure of this Crime I will begin with that sin which is most to be detested Satan had an eye upon Idolaters that some worshipped the Elements and built Temples to the Fire to the Water and Earth and made themselves Priests for those abuses Some kneeled unto the Sun and Moon the Children gathered sticks the Fathers made the fire and the Women made Cakes to the Queen of heaven that is to the Sun which was a Feminine Idol and is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Paul Nay Satan had traced out that Angels were adored by some superstitious therefore being puft that he was a most excellent Creature in his Essence and none of the least Angels he demands worship of our Saviour All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me This Idolatry which he would have is so rank above all other that it smels of the very fire and brimstone of Hell Because St. Paul says what the Gentiles sacrifice to Idols they sacrifice to Devils some of the Fathers expound it that the Devils lurkt invisibly in Idols that were worshipped so they themselves at the second hand were worshipped in Idols He may lurch homage by those slights but I do almost doubt whether it be possible for any man to be so intoxicated and seduced as directly to honour the Devil For my part I give no credit to such stories as are written of the Indians in Calicut They that write Cosmography or Navigations leaze up such reports from Seamen and Mariners and may be fit to be read in a sleepy day but never to be believed Those Indians they write of are a most ingenuous witty people in all Manufacture that comes from them and I cannot think them of such a dark capacity in Religion to worship that odious Fiend of Hell Mary if there be such among them as are Witches and Sorcerers though Satan croucheth to such and is commanded by them yet they be Idolaters in a most high delinquency because they compact with the Devil yea and are sealed to him by certain Characters For the Children of God are received into Covenant with God first by Circumcision then by Baptism therefore obliquely they take the Devil for a God who enter Covenant with him by marks in the flesh or any other sign as it were in imitation of a Sacrament And it makes it worship according to the true properties of Worship when they take his promises for some benefits to be received and reciprocally return him promises of obedience This is to attribute verity to Satan that he will do what he says and power that he can bring extraordinary effects to pass and so they worship him both by faith and confederation These are they against whom Moses speaks so often in the Law that they must not be suffred to live if they be detected he had been brought up in all the learning of the Egyptians and knew the ways of their most accursed Sorcerers And because every one baptized unto Christ doth detest this sin from the bottom of his heart to give honour to the Devil therefore look to it that you do not touch the skirts of it before you are aware by Ignorance Perversness or Curiosity It is idolizing of the Devil to consult with those for any satisfaction whom we suspect to have confederacy with the Devil whether they have or no. There shall not be found among you a Consulter with familiar Spirits or with a Wizard or a Necromancer Deut. xviii 11. It is Idolizing of him to use divinations by dreams by calling on the dead by the tunes of birds by Lots and generally by all such means as are not directly natural or appointed by God to find out the truth Many things are Diabolical where there hath not passed any Diabolical communication And in such things where you offer no service to Satan yet you busie your self before you take heed with the Art and Spirit of Satan You would think it were rigid Divinity to say that it was in some wise an Idolizing of the Devil to expel Aches and Diseases by Charms and strange words which you understood not What do you know but that Satan may be secretly called upon in those words when you think you do nothing less than call upon him That great Divine Zanchius confesseth of himself that he rid himself of the Tooth-ach by muttering certain strange Lines which he was taught in Italy But he repented him for the fact because for ought he knew it was the Devils receipt for God and Nature never appointed such remedies to cure diseases And so much be spoken against the idolizing the worst of all Gods Creatures the Devil Nor are the best of his Creatures to be honoured with Religious Worship no not good Angels nor Saints living or departed I must not spare any that wander from my Text for God himself is the complete and entire Object of all Religious Worship Him only shalt thou serve Shew me where the Church is bidden to adore Angels with divine Adoration What so much writing and zeal to maintain that so much fury to bid Anathema to them that dislike it and yet no exhortation in all the Bible to commend it Was ever any punish'd by God for default that way Any one so much as check'd or quarrel'd for it The Letter of the Scripture presseth upon all things else to the least scruple if they be forgotten If Gods House be not honoured if his Tithes be not paid if his Prophets be evil intreated yet for the religious reverencing of Angels not one word of expostulation to advance it in the Law or Gospel Nay St. Paul says they that teach the worshipping of Angels do but beguile you with voluntary humility Col. ii 18. O say the Rhemists if any should attribute such pious culture to the Angels as Simon Magus did making them equal with God then he is within the reprehension of that Text. A frothy evasion for who regards what Simon Magus did The Apostle gives us a general caution That we be not beguiled by worshipping of Angels Is there no trespass
inward man must exceed all natural similitudes lavabis me dealbabor supra nivem thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter than the snow We come into the world odious and defiled therefore we wash in the Sacrament of Baptism that we may be cleansed yet again we grow obscene and wallow in the mire of this world therefore we do often crave the bloud of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to cleanse and purifie our conscience and after all this he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled he that useth this world shall be contaminated therefore repentance which sometimes I hope brings tears with it must stand us often in stead to purge out the spots of uncleanness and this is our pureness before God that we sorrow for our impurity But remember I beseech you to keep your vessel chaste and undefiled for as this Angel appeared white as snow when Christ rose from the dead so let us go to our Graves as white as Doves in innocency and simplicity of heart that 's the colour of hope and purity belongs to all those that have hope of a glorious resurrection Secondly this snowy resplendent Vesture in the Angel is the Ensign of great joy for joy had never so good reason to break out heartily and redundantly as that Christ was risen from the dead The Sun and Moon in the Firmament do set every day and rise again no great joy to see those bright Lamps again because we certainly expect them but all that retein'd upon Christ thought when he was crucified such was their little faith that he was lost for ever and therefore when he came unto them and shewed them his feet and hands they believed not for joy and wondred Luke xxiv 41. and afterward being throughly perswaded of it they returned to Jerusalem with great joy v. 52. O Lord who is able to express what triumphs there were in Heaven when the Souls of the Saints perceived that Death was overcome that Hell had lost the victory and that they should be cloathed with their bodies for ever on Good Friday the Heaven and the Earth mourned the Eclipse put all in black on Easter day the colour is changed Heaven and Angels are all in white From this great Festival to the end of the next Lords day they that were baptized went all in white for the ancient Church took a delight to be ceremonious in these things and therefore the next day called Low Sunday by us the Low Sunday in respect of this the highest day in all the year with them was known by this name Dominica in albis the Sunday for wearing of white Garments and this colour was so constantly observ'd for the figurative signification of exceeding joy When Israel came out of Egypt and the House of Jacob from a strange language the Mountains skipped like Rams and the little Hills like young Sheep Psal cxiv And why is that one of the proper Psalms appointed to be read on this day because if the joy could not be expressed but by such strange Hyperboles when the People of God came out of the Bondage of Egypt then what unutterable gladness it is that the Son of God broke the bondage of death asunder and by his own victory brought us all out of the captivity of the Grave for ever It was a Proverb in their Heathen Entertainments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a sign of good welcom when the Porter which lets you in is chearful the Cherubins are the Porters of Paradise in former times holding an Instrument of minacy in their hands to keep us back now they appear gladsom and will conduct us with joy to Christ I told you before that in all the other Evangelists the pious women that came with spices to the Sepulcher to embalm Christs Body did not see the afrightful rutilancy in the Angels face but only this fair gladsome Robe he lookt like a Priest to preach Christs Resurrection pur âque in veste Sacerdos a good decorum in the Heathen Poets verse although some are so foolish now-a-days that they had as live see lightning as a white Garment upon his back that supplies the place of the Angel But the Angel himself were not able to satisfie all such quarrelsom consciences therefore I let it pass The use of his coming was to stir us up to joy to rejoyce in God In the world we shall have tribulation but this is a blessing of which neither fire nor water nor any tyranny can prevent us we shall have a joyful resurrection And as the Jews had the Law written in the Fringe of their Garments so we may read this observation likewise in the long Robe of the Angel which was white as snow that it was idaea gloriae the Idaea of that triumphant glory which shall be in the bodies of the Elect when they are raised up in immortality Indeed if no such reason should be assigned it would be hard to answer this objection Quid facit indumentum ubi tegendi necessitas non habitat What should a Garment do where there is no need of covering neither heat nor cold Summer nor Winter Whether they that rise from the dead shall be naked in their bodies is a captious question to be propounded Nakedness had no shame in it I am sure in the days of innocency before Adam fell and then indubitably it will have less cause to blush in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the opinion of the Greek Fathers and therefore the white Robe of this Celestial Messenger was rather figurative of the brightness of our glory than a description of our Vestiments And the Scripture is constant to that phrase to make us constant in our expectation Those few names in Sarda which had not defiled their Garments shall walk with me in white Revel iii. 4. and the President of all Patterns our blessed Saviour at his Transfiguration in which he shewed what manner of Citizens we should be in the Heavenly Jerusalem the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering The Pharisees required a sign and Christ told them they should have no sign but that of the Prophet Jonas for Jonas rose as it were out of the Whales belly to preach destruction against Nineveh so all that the Souldiers knew by Christs rising should be lightning to burn them up but the godly women that saw this Angel over and above the sign of the Prophet Jonas saw this glorious Apparel to betoken the dainty and delicate part of the resurrection In these our evil days our Soul is full of rebellious concupiscence and therefore our Body is made miserable hereafter the Soul will be enlightned with all kind of grace and the Body shall be changed to be incorruptible Equal or like to the Angels the Elect shall be Christ hath so promised and in a mutual assurance these Angels that came in white were made like to us Like to us I say but
not the same For howsoever they took upon them this glorious appearance yet it was nothing to them they are glorious spirits we shall be glorified both in body and in spirit they shall possess the double in their Land Everlasting joy shall be with them Isa lxi 7. Duplicia possidebunt this is their double portion their soul shall be filled with the vision of God and their body shall be bright like this Angels Garment yea fairer than earthly resemblance can decipher And so much for Gods Watchman upon the first verse and for those occurrent meditations which fell out upon it His countenance c. Against these the next verse opposeth Pilates Watchmen Watchmen indeed out of suspicions and infidelity not out of devotion and reverence Souldiers they were and no worse than of a Roman Garison but Souldiers in a piece of Arras would have serv'd as well Are these Romani rerum Domini Roman spirits whose brave resolution is a Proverb throughout all the world miserable Keepers that were set to daunt others and yet themselves shake for fear and became as dead men The Doctrin of this point will make up several Propositions to be considered First That the stoutest of wicked men have their great fears for their own heart tells them that there is one against them against whom it is impossible to stand The Philistins are mistrustful Who is able to withstand these mighty Gods The Aramites are quell'd if they do but think they hear a noise All the Money-changers of the Temple run away from a little scourge if Christ take it into his hand The High Priests Servants arm'd with swords and staves fall flat to the ground if He say no more unto them but whom seek ye I am He. Non potest stare quem conscientia destituit quem impellit reatus He that hath plummets of sin upon his conscience must sink to the ground it is impossible his legs should bear him And do not think this doctrine is less to be credited because there appears most resolute courage in many blasphemous Ruffians that are scarce half Christians that neither fear roaring Seas nor Earthquakes as the barbarous Celts were wont to say of themselvs for howsoever they are prodigal of their bloud and had rather die than seem to quail yet if you could see into their brest it must be that you should find a natural damp there because the Soul will be inquisitive what shall betide it hereafter and it is impossible it should speak comfort unto it self A Wolf is a most adventurous Beast yet he cannot run a furlong to seek his prey but he looks about to watch who follows him because he knows he is hated so the stoutest of the ungodly is bridled by the terror of an evil conscience in all his pride and glory I confess that some portion of fear is a passion incident to the righteous and best disposed Many things may intimidate a good man or woman for want of instruction what the Divine assistance can bring to pass out of a soft complexion out of a remorse for sin more acute in some than in others and out of too much love to themselves and those things upon earth which are most dear unto their love for such imperfections are in the best but it is not such a confus'd malignant fear as the enemies of Christ feel which makes Judas burst in twain which makes Arius fall in pieces which makes Cain surmise every one that sees him will kill him which makes Tyrants they dare not trust their nearest Servants nor their dearest Children which makes the Keepers of the Sepulcher shake for fear and become as dead men Secondly attend how terror falls upon them that think to terrifie Christs Saints they that were set to afright the Disciples are more afrighted themselves 'T is true that the zealous women which came with Odors and sweet Spices to the Sepulcher were much amazed yet the Angel spake mild and gentle words unto them and bid them be not afraid but the Souldiers were overwhelmed with perturbation and never comforted Let Pilate set another Guard upon his Guard for these are daunted upon whom both He and the Jews relied to maintain their fact which they had done against God and Man But the terrible men are requited with terror Pharaoh did never threaten Moses so sharply but before he saw him again he was in a worse perplexity than Moses for some grievous plague that was faln upon him David fled from Saul and yet Saul was more dejected in his heart than David Eusebius says upon the resolution of the Martyrs that their Persecutors were more afraid to see them suffer their torments than they were to endure it And some Heathen Historians testifie to this that Julian the Emperor had a device to trouble the Christian Church above measure by allowing and furthering the Jews to build up the Temple at Jerusalem again but the Workmen and their Taskmasters were let from proceeding by thunder and eruptions of fire and many such impediments which came from Heaven Satan was sent to buffet Paul but Paul did buffet Satan by mortiâ—ying his body by praying to the Lord that the rebellion of concupiscence might be taken from him The poor man in the Gospel possessed with Devils who fomed and gnasht with his teeth and was even torn with violence this man was not so much tormented as the Devils were to be cast forth and sent headlong to the Sea Of all stories methinks those are the pleasantest to read to see a malicious man stewed in his own sawce burnt in the same fire which he kindled for his neighbour An invading Enemy driven back with a mighty overthrow a litigious person cast in Law to his undoing A merciless man in the Gospel changing places with him whom he cast in prison Matth. xviii Hamans plot against Mordecai executed upon himself the Lions that were kept hungry to eat up Daniel devouring those that accused him the Souldiers set to scare all the well-willers of Christ that came to the Sepulcher and themselves scared out of their wits that their heart was dead within them The Dogs are sometimes gor'd and pauncht by the Beast which they hunted and they that meant destruction to the Saints are first destroyed O Lord let the malice of them that are ill affected to Christ and his Flock be ever so requiâ—ed Thirdly let it be attended that the fear of death is exceedingly in the hearts of them that do not believe in the Resurrection Alas they that set all their stake upon this life and are perswaded when this puff of breath is stopt that they shall sleep in an eternal night and never be wakened more can you wonder if they be infinitely agast upon the summons of death The Stag when he is at bay and ready to be pluckt down and torn sheds tears naturally and drops of sorrow trickle down from him because he shall part with his life for ever